Spoilers for all works set before the end of Fairy Tail are unmarked. Examples pertaining to 100 Years Quest can be spoiler tagged if deemed necessary.
Natsu Dragneel
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara, Mako Sakurai [young] (Japanese); Todd Haberkorn, Luci Christian [young] (English)note
Portrayed by: Shuuto Miyazaki (stage)
"I'm all fired up!"'
The main protagonist of the seriesnote , Natsu Dragneel is a male wizard of Fairy Tail who's also known as "Salamander". He is generally regarded as the guild's problem child who breaks more property than the master can handle, but no one is more loyal to his friends than he is. He was raised from a young age by the dragon Igneel, who mysteriously disappeared on July 7, X777. Ever since then, Natsu has been on a personal journey to find the dragon and learn what happened.
Igneel trained Natsu to become the Fire Dragon Slayer, a wizard who has the ability eat, breathe, and strike with fire, and is immune to practically any flame. He is also able to activate Dragon Force, which exponentially increases his strength, speed, and magic. After eating Laxus Dreyar's lightning magic during his battle with Hades on Sirius Island, Natsu becomes the Lightning-Flame Dragon, able to combine his flame attacks with electricity. However, his awesome magic comes with crippling motion sickness, which prevents him from riding on virtually anything that moves without keeling over.
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- Adaptation Dye-Job: His hair is reddish in the manga, but more pink in the anime
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: As part of his ongoing Ship Tease with Lucy, he's prone to doing this as his way of giving her comfort.
- All-Loving Hero: Downplayed. His solution to problems often involve violence, but even when disrespected or faced with obvious hostility, Natsu rarely ever reciprocates the feelings, and often forgoes grudge-holding. He did, however, for a short time, hold a grudge against Jellal Fernandes, but eventually forgave him and considered him an ally. He occasionally shows compassion for his enemies, such as when Cobra was betrayed by Brain. In fact, Natsu even shows Acnologia sympathy, despite Acnologia murdering Igneel in front of him, when he sees Acnologia for the broken man he was.
- Almighty Janitor: He's almost always the one to beat the arc's Arc Villain, and even though Erza outranks him, she's admitted a few times that he's at least her equal, if not stronger. Justified in that S-Class requires more than just fighting ability; Natsu is very impulsive and frequently gets in over his head. He is given the chance to escape this during the S-Class promotion exam, though that chance is ruined after the exam is interrupted and ultimately canceled thanks to Grimoire Heart.
- Amnesiac Hero: He can't remember much of his life before being trained by Igneel. This is because he was killed by a dragon and resurrected as a demon by Zeref, who turns out to be his brother. Getting sent through Eclipse to the present era also created several gaps in his memory.
- Anti-Magic: Natsu can incinerate magic when he reaches a sufficient point of power. Even when Zeref obtains Fairy Heart, which grants him infinite magic power, Natsu manages to beat him simply by burning his magic away until he can land a crippling blow.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: He will always move to beat up an enemy without considering whether or not that enemy is out of his league. Gildarts eventually calls him out on this during the Sirius Island arc, after which he has an easier time noticing when he can't win a fight.
- Badass in Distress: During the Edolas arc, Natsu and Wendy are captured by the king of Edolas and drained of their magic; also having been unable to use their powers in Edolas, they have to be rescued by Lucy, Erza, and Gray.
- Balloon Belly: Mostly due to his voracious appetite. He tends to swell up when inhaling fire.
- Battle Aura: When Natsu's emotions are at their peak in the midst of battle, his enemy can see the image of Igneel overlapping him. More normally, his flames can give him the appearance of this as well.
- The Battle Didn't Count: Said towards Laxus as he had to use outside help (Gajeel) to beat him. Laxus, by this point having mellowed out, agrees.
- The Berserker: Natsu lives and breathes this trope. He's an incredibly reckless fighter, throwing himself into battles and destroying everything in his path. Also tends to be exploited; as Makarov puts it, Natsu's primary driving force is his righteous fury, so making him mad is a good way to have the bad guys be wrecked.
- Berserker Tears: Sheds these during the Grand Magic Games Arc, when Future Rogue killed Future Lucy.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's an affable and goofy guy when you get to know him. Heaven forbid anyone gets on his bad side.
- Big Brother Instinct: He's fiercely protective of his younger companions, particularly Happy, Wendy, and Romeo.
- Big Brother Mentor: He serves as one for Romeo and Wendy since Fairy Tail sees its members as one big family. Romeo ends up modeling his post-Time Skip appearance after him, while Wendy mimics many of his attacks and eventually learns Dragon Force the same way he did.
- Big Eater: He's occasionally found shoving platefuls of food down his face. He also often combines this with his immunity to fire to eat his enemies' attacks.
- Blood Knight: Downplayed. As he explains to Lucy, he loves a good brawl and savors pitting his skills against those stronger than him, but when a fight has actual stakes, his priority changes from proving himself to stopping the enemy at all costs.
- Book Dumb: Natsu is of about average everyday intelligence and a noted genius when it comes to combat, but his knowledge of things like math and science is sorely lacking. This is driven home in 100 Years Quest during his fight with Suzaku in the Great Labyrinth of Dogra, where, after Natsu explains the clever way he figured out how to keep pace with Suzaku's Iaijutsu Practitioner fighting style, Suzaku suddenly demands Natsu tell him what is 12 minus 5. After several seconds of confusion and frustration, he finally says "10," causing Suzaku to mentally confirm that he is indeed a dunce outside of combat.
- Breast Attack: Unknowingly performs an indirect version on Lucy. When he loses control of Dragon Force after fighting the Water Dragon God, Lucy rushes to his aid and hugs his back to calm him down. Later on she reveals that his skin was actually so hot it burned her breasts while she was hugging him, and since she held on for so long she needed Wendy to heal her afterwards.
- Breath Weapon: The ever-classic fire breath, also called the Fire Dragon's Roar.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Pretty much every time he uses Dragon Force or Lightning-Flame Dragon Mode, it's to beat the tar out of an Arc Villain but he usually ends up out of commission for a week with a nasty case of food poisoning. In fact, he ran out of magic power before he could actually beat Mard Geer, leaving Gray to finish the job.
- Burning with Anger: His Flames of Emotion, which grow larger and more destructive the angrier he gets.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to Zeref's Cain. While Natsu was clueless of his relation to Zeref up until the Alvarez Empire arc, he is definitely a force for good who treasures family links and companionship, while Zeref is hell-bent on eradicating mankind.
- Can't Live Without You: Natsu is an Etherious tied to a Book of Zeref which is powered by Zeref's magic, meaning Natsu will die if Zeref does. Fortunately for Natsu, Lucy manages to edit the part of the book dictating this, allowing Natsu to survive after Mavis kills Zeref.
- Character Catchphrase:
- "I'm all fired up!" (Moete kita zo!)—which he says in basically every fight he's in.
- In the anime, especially in the first episode, he frequently finishes a power meal with, "Now that I've eaten, I feel re-energized!", translated in the dub as, "Now I've got some fire in my belly!"
- Challenge Seeker: Natsu frequently goes after the more difficult and treacherous quests posted for Fairy Tail because he wants to really test his mettle and cut loose, which eventually leads Natsu into taking the 100 Years Quest, the hardest quest of them all. On top of that, if a trivial fight breaks out, instead of intervening, he's very likely to join in because he gets really excited to trade blows with a promising opponent. In cases where a fight is serious and malicious, Natsu starts using his head more than his muscles, looking for crafty ways to trump his opponent's skills. There's also his drive to one day best Gildarts, the strongest member of Fairy Tail, and possibly surpass Makarov to become an S-Class mage.
- Character Development:
- During his battle with Sting and Rogue, he shows that he has learned to strategize during his fights after the timeskip instead of charging in recklessly. As he figures out their fighting styles and the direction of their attacks. This is also shown during the Alvarez Arc when he restrains himself to save power for future enemies.
- He learns to forgive his enemies as shown when he co-operates with Jellal and Cobra contrary to the beginning of series when he originally held a strong grudge against his enemies.
- After his battle with Gildarts. He takes Gildarts' advice into future prospect and learns to accept help from his allies, something originally out of character for Natsu for example during the Mard Geer fight. When he accepts help from Gray and when he encourages his teammates during the Hades fight. Another lesson he took from Gildarts is that it takes wisdom and strength to sheathe his sword when its out. Natsu has never been on to give up a battle at the start but when he sees Brandish he realizes he is outmatched and is willing to give up & retreat to fight another day. He won't risk his comrades' lives on reckless charge.
- He is willing to negotiate with August instead of jumping straight to violence to try avoid the war and save lives. He even tries to talk and sympathise with Zeref. Someone he previously wouldn't have given the time of day and just attacked. He is even willing to try talk and sympathize with Acnologia. Someone who killed his father in all but blood.
- Characterization Marches On:
- In the very beginning, he was depicted as a bit of a rogue to Fairy Tail, not really caring for any customs or ideologies that Makarov wanted Fairy Tail to follow, seemingly just doing his own thing while searching for Igneel. However, since the third or fourth arc, he has been depicted as a fanatic believer in Fairy Tail's ideology and will give an earful of it to anyone who he thinks needs it, his whole life seemingly revolves around Fairy Tail.
- Similarly in the beginning, he was much looser about his jobs, often joking around during them and not showing a lot of urgency to get them done, but after the first few arcs, he became much more of a Consummate Professional about them, often being shown as not very interested when given extra details since he wouldn't need them to finish his job, although his overall personality concerning other things is still fairly loose.
- Chaste Hero: Subverted. Most of the time, he remains oblivious to the embarrassment of seeing naked women or them seeing him naked, but there are exceptions such as when he tries to peep at the girls in the hot springs or when he gets a little embarrassed at seeing Gildarts's Porn Stash. Also, he does sometimes blush upon seeing Lucy and the other girls naked, and it's hinted that other times he may not be oblivious as so much as he's Seen It All given how many times the girls end up naked as comedy, leaving him unfazed.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Apparently had this with Lisanna in the anime before she was killed some time before the series began. Later she's revealed in the Edolas arc to be alive after all, and she gives no shortage of affection to him once they are reunited for real. However, this appears to have been abandoned as they haven't interacted much at all since their reunion.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He can get pretty out there so many times, it'd be a chore to list more than one example. For example, when asked to destroy the moon to lift a curse, he thinks it's impossible not because he has no means of getting there (he figures Happy can fly him there), but because it'd take him too many punches.
- Covert Pervert: He isn't as oblivious to sexual attraction as he seems to be most of the time. In chapter 74 of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, during Natsu's battle with a transformed snake Youkai Lucy, he vocally admits to enjoying being pressed against the latter's breasts.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He doesn't seem very intelligent all the time, but he is a genius in a fight, constantly improvising new ways to beat tougher opponents.
- Curse Escape Clause: His motion sickness kicks in whenever he's riding pretty much any form of transportation you can think of. When he's being transported by anyone he considers to be a friend (e.g., Happy), he's perfectly fine.
- Deadly Upgrade: Eating multiple kinds of magic besides fire, such as Etherion, activates "Dragon Force", making him far more powerful, but with severe after-effects. Activating it more naturally gets rid of the after-effects.
- Deadpan Snarker: In the earliest chapters of the manga, he has a few funny snark moments with Lucy, who he treats more like an annoying newcomer. Once Lucy becomes more acclimatized to Fairy Tail, Natsu and Lucy's roles are switched. He has more moments of snark in Funimation's dub, though.
- Despair Event Horizon: Looking down upon an unconscious Lucy that he could not wake, thinking that she died, sent him right over it and awoke his Superpowered Evil Side. Note that this happened after Igneel's death. His father figure's death didn't drive him to wake his Superpowered Evil Side.
- Determinator: While a typical Fairy Tail trait, Natsu takes this to some rather extreme levels. Eventually, Gildarts calls him out on this because it will get Natsu killed if he keeps it up.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: After the second time-skip, Natsu returns so massively powerful that he has the destructive capabilities of obliterating a Kaiju-sized god with a single punch. Indeed, he also ends up defeating both Zeref and Acnologia in much the same way.
- Dragon Rider: He rides on Atlas Flame's back in the battle against Future Rogue.
- The Dreaded: Played for Laughs. When a shrunken DiMaria sees Natsu again, she starts panicking and yelling at him not to come any closer.
- Elemental Hair Colors: He's a fire mage with salmon pink hair.
- Elemental Motifs: A Fire Dragon Slayer, and Hot-Blooded fight maniac able to burn his foes to a crisp. However he is much gentler and encouraging with his friends, reflecting the nature of a warming fireside.
- Elemental Personalities: As expected of a fire mage, Natsu is brash and hot-tempered.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Natsu is always looking for a good fight, regardless of the age or gender of his opponent. That doesn't mean he enjoys senseless murder and slaughter. He likes the chance to test his skills and to see which is the bigger badass.
- While willing to fight and treat female enemies just as hard as male opponents, as soon as he remembers Levy is pregnant, he quickly stops his attack, clearly horrified at the idea of making her miscarry her unborn child, despite his tense relationship with Gajeel.
- Played for Laughs with his Big Eater tendencies in the Celestial Spirit world when Cancer and Aries reveal that they are feeding him crab and lamb. Despite the two spirits seeing nothing wrong with it, he apologizes profusely and is unable to bring himself to eat anything else for the rest of the party.
- Expy: Take Haru Glory, swap the sword for fire powers, turn Boisterous Bruiser up a notch until it becomes Hot-Blooded, and replace "I need to find my dad" with "I need to find the dragon who is more or less my dad". Basically speaking, it's turning Spring into Summer.
- Expy Coexistence: Ironically, Natsu and Haru Glory - the character that Natsu's an expy of - would both appear in a crossover where they team up together.
- Extreme Omnivore: While it's supposedly natural for him to try to eat fire, he has eaten a burning piece of paper, lightning, and Etherion. The latter two have side effects that show that actually being an Extreme Omnivore is a bad idea for Natsu.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: His default Post-Time Skip outfit only has one sleeve.
- Fearless Fool: Always rushes into a fight without thinking of the consequences. However, thanks to his fight with Gildarts, Gildarts teaches him a much-needed lesson on feeling fear, which he takes to heart.
- Feed It with Fire: Regains stamina from eating any flames he did not generate himself.
- Fiery Redhead: His hair is more rose-colored (pink in the anime), but he fits the bill perfectly with his hotheaded personality.
- Fiery Salamander: Obviously, his Animal Motifs. Hell, his moniker is "Salamander".
- Fireballs: Two of his techniques, specifically Fire Dragon's Roar and (in the anime) Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame make use of this.
- Fire/Ice Duo: The hot-blooded fire user to Gray's ice.
- Fire Is Red: His flames typically have a red colour.
- Flaming Sword: Twice Natsu has used such a sword under varying circumstances.
- The first time was in Edolas before he got the X-Balls from Mystogan to use magic properly again and had to rely on a magic sword that in theory could be used up to 100 times by drawing upon the stored magical energy to form a flame blade. Unfortunately, due to both his usual recklessness and lack of skill he used up all the stored magic energy in a single attack that blasted fire everywhere.
- The second time was in the Tartaros Arc where Silver threw one to him and Lisanna to escape their magic-hampering cuffs. Unlike the Edolas sword, this one had a proper blade but when touched would rapidly heat up until it caught fire. He actually got some more use out of this one by taking out a bunch of Tartaros Mooks with it after getting free, but he ended up breaking in two when he attacked Zeref with it to no effect on the Black Wizard.
- Fling a Light into the Future: Natsu was originally born over 400 years before before the start of the main storyline as Zeref's younger brother. After getting killed as a small child and resurrected as an Etherious by Zeref, he was raised by Igneel until Zeref could build an Eclipse gate that would send them to an era with plentiful magic for him to develop his Dragon Slayer skills more quickly, all so he could eventually kill Acnologia.
- Force and Finesse: The Force to Wendy's Finesse, as he can be easy to rile up, and often overwhelms his opponents with sheer power and ferocity.
- Forgotten First Meeting: He was raised alongside Gajeel, Wendy, Sting, and Rogue by their dragons, and tutored by Anna Heartfilia, Lucy's ancestor. However, getting sent through Eclipse at such a young age wound up affecting his memory so that he only remembered Igneel, and they were all unwittingly separated from each other during the time travel, meaning they wouldn't meet until years later.
- Friend to All Children: He has a warm, brotherly relationship with Wendy and Romeo, and intentionally throws a play match with Asuka so he can pacify her as her servant for a day in an omake, even deliberately making her think she took down a bandit by herself.
- Future Me Scares Me: Used in practically the most literal sense possible in the third OVA. He claims to have met some kind of maniac and ended up getting a scar on his neck was he was a kid, which has forever traumatized him. Said maniac was actually his present self who was sent back in time and disguised beyond recognition, and was actually beating his past self up because he lost to Gray in a fight. Past!Natsu ended up scratching his own neck in the process.
- The Gadfly: A lot of his moments of ignorance tend to annoy everyone around him. There is some indication he does this on purpose.
- Gag Penis: Omake chapter 489.5 Stone Age reveals that Natsu has a rather large dick with Stone Age Erza calling it a mammoth.
- The Gloves Come Off: Though he generally chooses not to, Natsu can hold back if the circumstances require it (such as in friendly fights). However, when he's pushed far enough, Natsu can and will start fighting back hard.
- After yokai-Lucy's Wounded Gazelle Gambit leads to Natsu getting hit hard, Natsu (who had been viewing this as another Fairy Tail brawl up until this point) gets angry, and he activates Lightning Flame Dragon Mode, intent on fighting Lucy for real. Fortunately for her, before he can actually do anything, Aquarius intervenes, noting such a mode would likely seriously hurt Lucy.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Whenever he is pissed, his faced becomes shadowed while his eyes glow red.
- Goal in Life: His goal throughout the series is to find Igneel, who vanished seven years ago when he was just a kid. This finally comes true after 14 years (seven from his perspective, since Natsu was in suspended animation all that time), right before Acnologia kills Igneel. After this, Natsu's new goal becomes killing Acnologia and avenging Igneel.
- Good Is Not Soft: Any villain who crosses the line or pisses him off will feel his fiery, violent wrath.
- Grin of Audacity: He sports one whenever he gets fired up.
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- Heroes Fight Barehanded: Natsu, contrasting rivals Gajeel and Gray, who all use weaponry of some sort.
- Heroic BSoD: Natsu has a huge one after Lucy's future self dies shielding her present self in the Grand Magic Games arc and he attacks Rogue's future self in response.
- Heroic RRoD:
- Natsu normally eats fire to keep his strength up in battle. When pushed to the physical and emotional limit in the Tower of Heaven arc fighting Jellal; however, Natsu takes a gamble and devours some of the Etherion crystals, which contain elements other than fire, in a desperate power-up attempt. To both Erza and Jellal's surprise, this doesn't kill him but allows him to activate his first usage of Dragon Force, but he's only able to maintain for a short time before he goes unconscious and suffers from sickness that lasts several days. Noticeably, this doesn't happen again when he achieves Dragon Force through outside means once more (as it was a pure magical flame) or when he obtains it naturally.
- Something similar happens in the Sirius Island arc when Natsu devours Laxus' Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic to gain his "Lightning-Flame Dragon Mode", which while incredibly powerful rapidly drains his reserves of magic with just a few attacks and often leaves him on the verge of collapse. Once he achieves Second Origin, however, he now has a sufficiently large enough supply of magic power to maintain and use it consecutively without worry.
- In the Alvarez Empire arc, he's initially believed to have developed a malignant Anti-Magic tumor as a result of over-exerting his magic against Zeref, which would have killed him had Brandish not performed the surgery necessary to save him. However, it turns out to be something much worse: a "Demon Seed" that begins triggering his destructive Etherious instincts when it grows large enough.
- Heroic Safe Mode: He's left in utter despair after watching Acnologia kill Igneel right in front of him, and so soon after their long-awaited reunion. With a little help from Igneel's voice uttering his final words, Natsu replaces that despair with iron-clad determination to grow stronger, destroy Acnologia, and above all, protect his friends.
- Hot-Blooded: He literally eats fire for crying out loud! You can't get any more hot-blooded than that.
- Hot for Teacher: Freely admits that he had a crush on Anna, who was teaching him and the other dragon slayers to read before they were sent into the future, and stated that he was so comfortable around Lucy because both of them smell the same.
- Human Pincushion: In 100 Years Quest, he suffers this fate courtesy of God Seed Aldoron's Thicket of Arms spell, being impaled all over his body by sharp wooden stakes, including in his head. Aldoron assumes Natsu's dead and begins to walk away, only for Natsu to get up while burning the stakes away thanks to his Dragon Force.
- Hypocrite:
- He repeatedly gets angry at other guild members for going off and doing their own things after Fairy Tail disbands, despite the fact that he did pretty much the exact same without any warning thing right before the guild disbanded, which Lucy calls him out on numerous times.
- He stops Gray from sacrificing himself using Iced Shell against Deliora during the Galuna Island arc and Zeref in the Alvarez arc. Earlier in the latter arc, however, he did not stop trying to attack Zeref even after learning that he's a demon of Zeref's books who will die if Zeref dies, and was forcibly removed from the fight by Happy.
- Idiot Hero: Played with. Though he oftentimes fits this trope to a T, this is mainly due to a combination of being Hot-Blooded, raised by a dragon in the wilderness, and spending most of his time in a guild full of Cloudcuckoolanders. He's quite capable of making intelligent decisions in battle, and is often the first to notice if something's off due to his perceptive senses.
- The Illegible: Lucy comments that his handwriting in his goodbye letter is pretty horrible.
- Immune to Fire: He uses fire-based Full-Contact Magic as his primary weapon. As a result, he's completely immune to fire as a Required Secondary Power. The only times he's ever been injured by flames are against the Flame God Slayer Zancrow, whose divine flames had the unique property of countering Natsu's, and against Wizard King August, who basically dropped a Fantastic Nuke of Fire Dragon Slayer Magic since he copied Natsu's magic. Even then, in both these cases Natsu still has incredible resistance against their attacks that would have incinerated just about anyone else.
- Incendiary Exponent: His spice of choice for his food is fire itself. On top of being a tasty snack, it's a convenient way of recharging his magic.
- Infernal Retaliation: Any time anyone tries to shoot fire at him, he always sucks it up and lunges right back at him.
- Internal Reveal: The Alvarez Empire arc is when Natsu learns he is E.N.D. and Zeref's younger brother, the former having been revealed to the audience at the end of the Tartaros arc and the latter revealed to the audience at the end of the Fairy Tail Revival arc.
- It Was with You All Along: After spending the better portion of the series searching for Igneel after his disappearance, it's finally revealed in the climax of the Tartaros arc that Igneel never left; he was sealed inside his body all along.
- It's All About Me: In the Galuna Island arc, Natsu stole the S-Class job of said island just to show everyone that he's worthy enough of being an S-Class Wizard, which is completely against the rules. Also in the tag battle between Sting and Rogue with Gajeel, he deliberately gets rid of Gajeel so he can hog the glory.
- It's Personal: It always becomes personal when the enemy harms one of his friends. This eventually becomes his main motivation in the series after Acnologia kills Igneel.
- It's Personal with the Dragon: In the Phantom Lord arc, while Natsu is raring to go to take on Phantom Lord for starting the guild war, his ire is particularly directed not at Phantom Lord's guild master Jose Porla, who instigated the war to obtain Lucy for a job, but Gajeel Redfox, Jose's strongest fighter who trashed the Fairy Tail guild hall, beat up Team Shadow Gear and crucified them in the park to force Fairy Tail's hand, hurt Lucy after she's recaptured, and is a fellow Dragon Slayer. To drive it home, Gajeel is Natsu's final opponent for the arc while Makarov deals with Jose.
- I Will Find You: His goal in life is to find Igneel after he disappeared seven years ago. He also made this promise to Lisanna in the anime if she ever went missing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Natsu is a fiercely loyal and protective friend and he is willing to go down fighting for his friends, regardless of how futile it might seem, but he also very short-tempered due to his Hot-Blooded attitude and somewhat insensitive to other's feelings at times.
- Keet: He's small and fairly scrawny in comparison to rivals Gray, Gajeel, and Laxus, hyperactive and impulsive, and most definitely loud.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Surprisingly enough for a Shōnen anime protagonist, he does have limits to his "never give up" attitude. When Natsu glimpsed the full power of Gildarts during a sparring match, rather than go balls to the wall trying to win, Natsu just got on his knees and conceded defeat.
- Kung-Fu Wizard: Natsu excels in physical combat since most of his fire attacks (apart from his Fire Dragon's Roar) involve punching and kicking.
- Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: He's a double case of this. Zeref resurrected him as an Etherious hoping to be killed by him, and Igneel raised him so that he could one day defeat Acnologia.
- Leeroy Jenkins: He's incredibly impatient and overly-enthusiastic, so he likes to chase off the enemies on his own.
- Lightning Bruiser: The Vanish Brothers acknowledge Natsu for his nimbleness in battle. They make the mistake of thinking this means he can't pack a punch.
- Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: After gaining Lightning-Flame Dragon Mode, his body becomes wreathed in flame and lightning, and all his attacks carry the secondary lightning element for extra damage.
- Magic Pants: Most of his outfit, actually. Natsu's scarf is made of Igneel's scales and thus immune to fire, but no explanation is ever provided for why the rest of his clothes don't burn up whenever he uses his magic.
- Manchild: He's a teenage boy who is around Lucy's age, though you wouldn't know it from how he acts.
- Manly Tears: He has proven that even the most Hot-Blooded badasses of Fairy Tail isn't afraid to cry:
- He's on the verge of tears when Erza attempts to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save him from the collapsing Tower of Heaven.
- After Gildarts teaches him fear during their examination and then passes him, he breaks into tears of gratitude and humility.
- When Future Lucy is killed by Future Rogue, he is driven to fight with Berserker Tears in full effect, and later silently weeps over her dead body.
- He cries after seeing Igneel return, and even harder after seeing Acnologia kill Igneel right in front of him.
- Martial Pacifist: Lampshaded by Natsu himself. When the war with Alvarez begins, Lucy expects him to utter his famous "I'm fired up" Character Catchphrase. He doesn't, explaining that even though he loves a good fight, he only does so when it's a contest of strength and skill. He absolutely loathes war, or in his own words, a battle where the slightest mistake means death.
- Meaningful Name: "Natsu" is the Japanese word for "summer", hence his element.
- Mr. Fanservice: His usual attire consists of a waistcoat that always exposes his toned and muscular body, not to mention how many times he gets rid of it and evolves into a Shirtless Scene.
- Mythical Motifs: Dragons, being the most in line with the classic fire breathing western dragon similar to his adoptive father Igneel. He is even given the title of Salamander like the fire lizard.
- Never Gets Fat: He is only seen getting a big belly in a short time after eating a lot with Happy. After that, he gets his muscles and abs back.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The In-Between (Hot-Blooded, destructive, reckless, and occasionally insensitive) of Fairy Tail's first-generation Dragon Slayers.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: After the second Time Skip, his fire magic becomes so intensely powerful that it can burn through virtually any spell or weapon that gets used on him. For instance, he survives gets slapped in an iron maiden just by melting it from the inside.
- No Ontological Inertia: His life force is connected to Zeref and the Book of E.N.D., so if Natsu successfully kills Zeref, Natsu dies with him.
- No-Sell:
- Most fire has absolutely no effect on him, be it magical or natural. Totomaru is so far the only one to figure out how to turn the tables on him, when he shoots fire that smells (and tastes) like burning garbage. Zancrow's God Slayer flames also give Natsu trouble due to their advancement over Dragon Slayer fire, to which Natsu comments he can't remember the last time fire actually felt hot to him.
- By the time of 100 Years Quest, Natsu's control over fire and especially heat has grown to the point he can passively generate enough heat close to his body to melt most metal weapons on physical contact, which then dribbles to the ground without harming him at all.
- Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Takes many deadly attacks from enemies, only to overpower them with sheer tenacity. This ranges from getting shot point-blank in the mouth, to getting hit with an attack that was meant to wipe him from existence. Twice!
- The Nose Knows: Like all Dragon Slayers, he has a very keen sense of smell. His is touted even above the others.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: He admits he is so used to seeing the guild's girls naked that he's immune to it, now. This is actually weaponized, when Jacob of the Spriggan 12 makes Lucy's clothing invisible (except her underwear), thinking it will be "torture" for Natsu. Natsu is completely unfazed.
- No Shirt, Long Jacket: His trademark vest doesn't cover much, though he actually does wear shirts and jackets from time to time. Justified in that he doesn't get cold due to his magic.
- Numerological Motif: Has a strong association with the number seven.
- It is how many years ago Igneel disappeared at the start of the series, on July (the seventh month) of the year X777.
- The first Time Skip lasts seven years.
- In the final battle with Acnologia, he combines the might of seven dragon slayers to strike the final blow.
- Older Than He Looks: Subverted. During the Battle of Fairy Tail, Natsu gets trapped in a Justu-Shiki barrier meant to keep people over the age of 80 inside, suggesting he is much older than he appears to be. However, Mashima dashed this in the Q&A section of Volume 15 by confirming the scene to be a Red Herring. Between the reveal that there was a presumably centuries-old dragon sealed inside him all along, and that he was displaced 400 years from the past in a time travel gambit, the actual explanation is up in the air depending on who you ask.
- One-Man Army: When he and Happy go to confront Zeref, he tears through the Alvarez Empire army like hot butter and annihilates just under one thousand soldiers with a Fire Dragon King's Roar.
- Only I Can Kill Him: Zeref believes Natsu to be the only one capable of killing him. This is because Natsu is an Etherious, a demon created for this specific purpose. In the end, however, Natsu loses the one ability that could potentially kill him after their first battle together, and he leaves Zeref's death in the hands of Mavis, who finishes him off instead.
- The Paragon: You can expect him to drop at least one Rousing Speech along the lines of "Let's kick ass!" per arc, and it never fails to inspire his allies and onlookers to push onwards with the fight.
- Parental Abandonment: His biological parents were killed when he was too young to remember them, and Igneel, the dragon who basically became his foster father, in eventually disappeared on him...except Igneel didn't really "leave", per se.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Destroys a town in his very first appearance, and everything around him in general. All Fairy Tail wizards do this, but he is by far the worst. By the time of 100 Years Quest, he's definitely this for being able to unleash an attack powerful enough to tear clean through and erupt out of the body of the Wood Dragon God Aldoron, who is the size of a mountain range, in a shot that visually resembles a volcanic eruption. During another scene in 100 Years Quest, a single Sneeze of Doom from Natsu produces an explosion large enough to be seen across the town of Filan, obliterates a whole block, and completely defeats his would-be kidnappers from Gagarock.
- Playing with Fire: As a Fire Dragon Slayer, he is regarded far and wide to be one of the most powerful fire wizards alive. Whereas most other fire wizards simply conjure up fire with a flick of the wrist, Natsu's abilities include a fiery Breath Weapon, becoming Wreathed in Flames, dissolving heat around himself, and most notably of all, eat any sort of flame or hot substance besides his own to recharge.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Although he came Back from the Dead, he died alongside his parents in a dragon attack when he was a young child 400 years prior to the current storyline. In return, his older brother Zeref studied forbidden magic in a desperate and relentless search for a way to revive him, and would become the strongest and most evil wizard in history in the process. Thus, almost every single event in the storyline stems from Natsu's death.
- Power Perversion Potential: An unintended side effect given his Chaste Hero status, but his fire attacks end up managing to burn off the clothes of anyone who gets too close to him.
- Power Tattoo: He gains a dragon-shaped insignia on his right arm after his year of training unlocks a hidden wealth of magic power Igneel left behind. This being his "secret weapon", Natsu keeps his arm wrapped in bandages to hide it until it's time to put it to use. Once it's used up, the tattoo vanishes.
- Precocious Crush: In the final issue, he freely admits that he had one on Anna as a kid. He guesses that's one of the reasons he's so at ease around Lucy (Anna's descendant).
- Raised by the Supernatural: He is rather ignorant of how the real world works sometimes, mostly in the "girls" department, due to his upbringing in the wilderness by Igneel, a dragon.
- Rapidfire Fisticuffs: His Dragon Slayer Secret Art, Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist, is a relentless flurry of flaming punches.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In the "Key to the Starry Skies" arc, he calls Midnight out on sacrificing a "possible" future to gain power, claiming that someone who sacrificed something that doesn't even exist yet didn't give up much of anything to begin with unlike his fellow Oracion Seis.
- Red Baron: He's well known across Fiore as "Salamander", although his enemies are more likely to call him that.
- Red Is Heroic: Has red flames and a red guildmark, and is The Hero of the story.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He is the red to Lucy’s blue (which includes their signature colours).
- Relative Button: In 100 Years Quest, God Seed Aldoron makes the mistake of calling Igneel a fool for wanting to co-exist with humans after Natsu tells him he was one of the dragons willing to do so. That gets Natsu's fury going and goes into Super Mode.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: While slipping into his E.N.D. form, he was clearly set on doing one to Zeref and the rest of the Alvarez Empire when he thought DiMaria had killed Lucy and damn anyone that got in his way. Erza is able to snap him out of it before he and Gray could kill each other.
- Rocket Punch: His Fire Dragon's Elbow forms a jet booster at said elbow, driving the fist forward with extreme force. Notable for being just about the only non-mechanical example in existence.
- Running Gag:
- His severe motion sickness. Turns into Foreshadowing when it turns out that all other Dragon Slayers have this too; Sting thinks it's a mark of a true Dragon Slayer.
- He tends to show up in Lucy's home uninvited along with Happy once per practically every story arc. While his friends aren't strangers to this practice, he's done it the most by far.
S-Z
- Scarf Of Ass Kicking: One of his trademark is a muffler he received it from Igneel, which he is very attached to and hardly ever seen without. It was made from Igneel's scales, which lost their color as they were shed, and it protects him from Zeref's random bursts of death magic, briefly turning black. It also turns out Anna Heartfilia was the one who knitted the scarf for him.
- Scars Are Forever: Has one on his neck which, according to the third OVA, he got when accidentally scratched himself as a child while trying to fend off his future (i.e. present) self. He later gets another one on his cheek during his fight with Zeref, which sticks with him for the rest of the final battle, but has healed or been magicked away at the end of the original series and going into 100 Years Quest. It was previously stated that Gray could elect to remove his own scars but chose to keep them as reminders of his battles, so it's possible Natsu decided to rid himself of the one marring his face, or Lucy fixed it via editing his book, END.
- Screaming Warrior: Frequently charges into battle screaming, usually after the opposing side riles him up.
- Screw Destiny: After Rogue states that he has to kill Lucy because she will somehow prevent the gates to the Eclipse Cannon to use it against the dragons that threaten to ravage the kingdom, Natsu declares that he will burn that fate away and protect Lucy. He reiterates the same line when told he will die if he kills Zeref.
- Secret Weapon: Spending an entire year of rigorous training allows him to unlock a secret reservoir of magic Igneel left behind before his death called Fire Dragon King Mode. He keeps this power under wraps until he decides to use it against Zeref, which comes closer to killing him than anything before.
- Shameless Fanservice Guy: Whenever the situation calls for him to get naked, he's very unconcerned by any women he may be around.
- Ship Tease: Primarily with Lucy throughout the main series (usually with the two of them ending up in compromising positions for one reason or another), and formerly with Lisanna before the latter was transported to Edolas.
- Shock and Awe: After Laxus transfers his magic power to Natsu during their battle against Hades. From that point onward, Natsu is able to activate "Lightning-Flame Dragon Mode", which lets him combine electrical attacks with his fire attacks for even more destructive power. When his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic is stolen via Whiteout by Duke to power up Athena II in 100 Years Quest, Natsu demonstrates he can actually use the Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic alone if he has to, but until that point he just never had a reason to not always use his more comfortable fire magic instead or combined them for maximum power.
- Shonen Hair: He has the trademark spiky, messy hair of a Stock Shōnen Hero. Unlike other shonen heroes, Natsu's hair doesn't always stay the same during battle, as his fringe often goes down after being beaten up a lot by the enemy. He's even once seen styling it back during one battle by using heat.
- Signature Move: Fire Dragon's Iron Fist is stated to be this, according to Mashima.
- Spirited Competitor: Definitely qualifies, seeing how he loves to pick fights with S-Class wizards like Erza, Laxus, and Gildarts. He gets to fight the latter during the S-Class trial in the Sirius Island arc, which makes him ecstatic.
- Staking the Loved One: He nearly resorted to doing this to Lucy following her getting transformed into a soulless snake yokai before Aquarius intervenes in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Natsu's last name, "Dragneel", sounds just like a combination of "Dragon" and "Igneel". Is it any wonder he ended up being raised by that very same dragon? Not to mention, his older brother Zeref Dragneel also knew Igneel.
- Stock Shōnen Hero: He checks most of the boxes, being a Hot-Blooded Determinator who is fixated on becoming the strongest wizard in the world and believes passionately in The Power of Friendship. Bonus points for his hair. Unlike many examples, though, he's not a total Idiot Hero - while he is fairly Book Dumb and occasionally lacks common sense, he's also extremely perceptive, thanks to his heightened senses, and pretty quick-thinking, often coming up with clever strategies to defeat more powerful opponents.
- Strong and Skilled: Has learned the rare and destructive Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, possesses an impressive amount of magic power that increases as the series progresses, and sufficient physical conditioning to make him one of his guilds heavy hitters (which is a high bar to clear). He's also a masterful hand to hand fight who can supplement his skills with his magic, has enough precision with his flames to snipe several distant and fast moving targets in seconds, and shows plenty of creative tactics when that proves insufficient.
- Super Mode:
- Dragon Force, which he achieves by consuming Ether-nano, raw magic energy that combines all magic elements other than fire. Doing so temporarily turns him into a human dragon with scales around his eyes and on his arms, and increases his strength, speed, and magic power exponentially. He later achieves a natural form of Dragon Force, which gives him even more scales and flame "horns" on his head.
- During the second Time Skip, he gains a new form called Fire Dragon King Mode, in which he is able to set the entire land around him on fire, burn any form of magic to a crisp, and actually inflict serious damage to the nearly invincible Zeref. According to him, however, he can only ever use this form to its fullest potential once (as it relies on the lingering magic power of Igneel himself still within his body), and is unable to do so again after he misses his opportunity to kill Zeref (as he can't regenerate it on his own). After this, he can still activate it using his own power as a substitute, but it's not as powerful.
- Super-Strength: He withstands being crushed by a giant dragon robot in the Edolas arc, is implied to have uprooted an entire tree by himself in an omake, and smashes an enemy with a slab of rock as tall as a small house in the Tartaros arc.
- Super-Toughness: Natsu is already Made of Iron, but in 100 Years Quest he reveals he's developed a new technique called Fire Dragon King's Scales, where he manifests and weaponizes dragon scales on his body to massively boost his defenses. These scales prove tough enough that, while he still bleeds from the slashes, he can roll with the power behind Suzaku's sword strikes that had previously downed him in one hit and in fact created solely with this intent in mind.
- Superpowered Evil Side: The tumor he develops in Alvarez Empire arc turns out to be of Etherious origin, complete with embedded order to kill Zeref, and once it becomes active, it transforms him into E.N.D.
- Synchronization: His life is linked to his Book of Zeref. Any damage done to it causes him pain, and any damage he takes is reflected to it. At the same time, any repairs to the Book will also heal him, as proven when Lucy rewrote the letters that went missing after Zeref fatally impaled him, which healed the hole in his chest shortly afterwards.
- Take a Third Option: After nearly turning into E.N.D., he learns that there are two "seeds" in his body—a dragon seed that turns him into a dragon, and a demon seed that turns him into a demon—which can't both exist together, or else he will die. Instead of choosing whether to live as a dragon or a demon, he decides to live as a human, destroying both seeds (but not his powers).
- Technicolor Fire: He uses golden flames after eating Jellal's Flame of Guilt, and black flames after eating Zancrow's Flame God Slayer Magic. When he activates the full power of Fire Dragon King Mode by utilizing Igneel's remaining magic power, the flames turn a dark red/black, and they turn a similar color when he uses Dragon Force thanks to Ignia's temporary Power-Up to fight Mercphobia.
- Temporal Theme Naming: Hiro Mashima's lead always gets a season-based name. His means "Summer", the warmest of the seasons and reflective of his Hot-Blooded nature as well as his magic.
- Throat Light: When he gets excited or angry, there is often a small flame seen in his throat.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Natsu is E.N.D. (Etherious Natsu Dragneel), who was resurrected by his older brother, Zeref, as a demon and sent 400 years from the past in order to gain the strength necessary to kill the Black Wizard and Acnologia.
- Took a Level in Badass: Every time a new arc comes around, Natsu's strength continues to improve and enemies he struggled with previously are easily swept aside when bigger and more serious threats approach. His rivalry with Gildarts plays this trope straight as during his first appearances, Natsu could only move Gildarts a couple of feet back with his most powerful move. Cue a few months of training and he can push him a considerable amount of distance back. After one year, Natsu has shown leaps of improvement as he is capable of one-shotting Blue Note (an enemy whom Gildarts previously had some struggle) and even obliterates a Kaiju-sized war god with a single punch (though Gildarts shows even then he's not losing his touch by trouncing God Serena's Historia with ease when Natsu struggled against him).
- Trash of the Titans: His house is a dump when Lucy first stumbles upon it. However, she finds that he and Happy have taken good care of their treasured keepsakes from their past jobs.
- Trauma Button: When Natsu sees Ignia and Selene fight, it triggers bad memories of when Acnologia fought and killed Igneel.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Whenever he meets an old enemy he's beaten once, or if one of his friends can vouch for them, he's willing to overlook any past slights. The only one exempt from this is Jellal, who made Erza cry by killing their Childhood Friend Simon; it takes a bullet-taking for Natsu to give him his trust and friendship.
- Undying Loyalty: Is this trope personified. Everything he does is for Fairy Tail. Everything he does revolves around Fairy Tail. This even extends to the ideology of Fairy Tail as well, dedicating his life to assisting not just his friends, but anyone remotely friendly to him, and often preaches it to those who shun it.
- Unstoppable Rage: His magic increases in strength with the strength of his emotions and thus getting him entirely pissed off is not the best idea.
- Use Your Head: His Fire Dragon's Sword Edge is a flaming headbutt attack. His Crimson Lotus: Phoenix Blade attack is a super-powered version.
- Vague Age: He's one of the few members of the guild whose age is left unknown, although he looks to be somewhere within the age range of Lucy (17), Gray (18), and Erza (19). Adding to the confusion is the fact that he was once blocked by Fried's barrier that prevents the passage of anyone over the age of 80, teasing that he is possibly much Older Than He Looks (if not even older), though this was debunked by Mashima.
- Vibrant Orange: Has orange colours in his jacket, his flames flicker between this and red, and is one of the most energetic members of the cast.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His motion sickness, which is a weakness shared by all Dragon Slayers when their magic reaches a certain stage of development and their vestibular senses become too engorged for their bodies to manage. It is sensitive enough to activate if a human being carries him, or if he is on a stationary raft. Only Happy seems to be able to circumvent this, his reason being he considers Happy to be a friend, not transportation. The same later applies to a Legion in Edolas, and his Honorary Uncle, the dragon Atlas Flame.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Erza and Lucy both call him out for picking a fight with Sabertooth at their hotel during the Grand Magic Games arc, noting his recklessness could have gotten Fairy Tail kicked out of the games.
- Lucy isn't happy with his decision to take off for a year with nothing but a brief note left behind after the war with Tartaros, asking what right he has to complain when he finds out Fairy Tail disbanded in that time. However, she cuts him some slack since he was still dealing with Igneel's death at the time, though she's quick to call him out when he starts acting more hypocritical towards Gray doing the same thing he did.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Many of his battles have him trying to figure out how to beat an opponent who can counter his usual style, and he ends up winning by new applications of the same style. Noticeably, he can use other spells, such as transformation magic as shown in an omake chapter; he just chooses not to.
- The Worf Effect: He often struggles/loses against the Arc Villain's underlings and extremely powerful wizards (most notably against Aria, Fukuro, Cobra, Zancrow, and Future Rogue), thus keeping him from becoming an Invincible Hero. Laxus and Erza have also beaten him a few times. This may be because he doesn't fight quite as seriously as he should against these guys, but when much more is on the line, which especially happens against an arc's Big Bad, that's when he gets serious.
- Worf Had the Flu: Several times he's fought opponents who took advantage of his motion sickness to kick his ass or give him a harder fight than he'd otherwise have.
- Fukuro in the Tower of Heaven Arc attached rockets to his body and sent him hurtling around to weaken enough so that he could use his Capture Magic on him.
- Cobra in the Nirvana Arc already had the edge thanks to his Telepathy, but he also took advantage of the fact that Natsu couldn't fall onto the moving Nirvana without getting motion-sickness and took the time to also attack Happy (the only thing keeping him in the air and ready to fight).
- Madmorl in 100 Years Quest, though he was already holding the advantage thanks to his sheer durability, basically handed Natsu his ass the moment he fell onto Diabolos' ship, since Natsu couldn't fight at full strength on the rocking boat while Madmorl had no such issue.
- When he challenged Ignia, he was already worn out after overwhelming Suzaku, who was stronger than Selene in her human form. Natsu is thus thoroughly handled with a single fire wave from the Dragon God and his attack doesn't even scratch him. Although he probably wouldn't be able to defeat Ignia's human form, considering Suzaku himself was also having his own Worf Had the Flu case, one may think he could have at least somewhat harmed Ignia. While Ignia does scathingly remind Natsu that he is still too weak, it's implied from his reaction to Natsu challenging him by condescendingly stating he is only harvesting the "ripe thing" that he did recognize Natsu getting utterly stomped by him was also in part due to his battered state.
- World's Strongest Man:
- Downplayed. Natsu is the only person in the series to successfully defeat a full-powered Zeref and Acnologia, two of the most powerful beings in the world. However, neither was possible without outside help: in the case against Zeref, Lucy was responsible for keeping him alive long enough to last more than a few seconds once Zeref got his hands on Fairy Heart (as well as Zeref's ever-conflicting desires); and with Acnologia, he couldn't even scratch him until he absorbed the power of all seven Dragon Slayers and the fight still might have ended in his defeat had Acnologia not being paralyzed by the actions of the mages fighting his dragon body and been unable to defend himself.
- Indeed, in 100 Years Quest when he goes up against the Water Dragon God Mercphobia, a dragon explicitly stated to possess power on par with Acnologia pre-devouring the Space Between Time's magic, Natsu finds all his attacks easily overpowered or nullified before nearly being killed, requiring the aid of the Dragon God Ignia to get out of nearly-certain death. And then Ignia drops the bombshell that Mercphobia is only using about half of his actual full power. It takes receiving a temporary power up from eating Ignia's flames to defeat the berserk Dragon God. Something similar happens in his fight against God Seed Aldoron, who wields the power the Wood Dragon God Aldoron, and Natsu is utterly overwhelmed without a prayer and it's only due to Aldoron's power weakening thanks to outside interference from the other guild members defeating the other God Seeds and attacking Aldoron's main body that gives Natsu a fighting chance. Even then, it's only when he unleashes Dragon Force and inadvertently draws upon the buried power of every fire dragon's flames he's ever eaten (Igneel, Atlas Flame, and Ignia), that Natsu gains enough power to kill his foe who remains even with him nearly the entire time.
- Worthy Opponent: He views many of the people who give him trouble as this, including Gray, Erza, Laxus, Sting, and Rogue.
- Would Hit a Girl: He has challenged Erza to fight about as many fights as any other of his male rivals in the guild, and even challenges the Battle of Fairy Tail's Damsels in Distress to fight him after they've been freed. However, he has a limit. In 100 Years Quest, he was willing to fight Levy, but held back as he remembered that she is pregnant.
- In his fight with Lucy, who has been transformed into a yokai, Natsu is initially enthusiastic about the opportunity to trade blows with her for the first time; however when Lucy shows a moment of weakness, he hesitates, only for it to turn out to be a fake-out on her part, after which she hits him Aqua Mertia. This serves mostly to enrage Natsu, who decides to take the fight seriously, entering Lighting Flame Dragon Mode.
- Wreathed in Flames: A typical trait of a Fire Dragon Slayer is his ability to cover himself in flames, whether it's a single fist or his whole body.
