Fire Is Masculine

Doubting his masculinity is a fruitless Endeavor.

Fire is an element associated with passion, anger, aggression, drive, destruction, determination and strength — all traits attributed more often to men.

Whether through male/masculine characters wielding fire, visually representing passion and determination with a burning flame or the number of times an explosion goes off in a testosterone action movie, there is clearly a long tradition of associating fire with maleness or masculinity. This need not be limited to (masculine) male characters either; a female character with a more masculine personality can also fit this trope.

A Sub-Trope of Elemental Personalities and can overlap with Four-Temperament Ensemble (specifically choleric). A Fiery Stoic can overlap if the pyromancer is a gentlemanly and keeps-his-head-cool type. Can also overlap with Solar and Lunar motifs with Male Sun, Female Moon, and Fire/Water Juxtaposition with maleness/masculinity represented by fire while femaleness/femininity is represented by water. Sub-Trope of Men Are Tough. Contrast Water Is Womanly. Combine with Real Men Eat Meat and you get Real Men Can Cook, since that trope is usually about grilling meat over fire. Compare Red Hot Masculinity.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Air Gear: Almost every single rider of the Flame Road is male, with the sole exception of Aeon Clock's maid Taeko, however it should be noted that she rides the sub-branch of the Flame Road that focuses on time based and altering attacks. Those who ride the pure Flame Road, focused on generating actual flames, are all men.
• Bleach:
  • Shunko is a technique which can be used to enhance oneself with elemental magic. Yoruichi and Soi Fon are both female and their versions of the technique use lightning and wind respectively. Yoruichi's brother Yushiro can also use the technique and his version grants him the power of fire.
  • With the exception of Tobiume, all of the characters in the manga with fire powers are male. Captain Yamamoto being the premier Cool Old Guy example in that he wields the oldest and most powerful fire-type Zanpakutō in the series while also being prone to pummeling enemies with his bare hands.
• Digimon: If a character has a Digimon partner with fire-based attacks, they are mostly likely to be male or a Tomboy.
  • Digimon Adventure: Tai, Matt and Sora have Digimon with fire-based attacks. Matt and Tai are boys while Sora is a tomboyish girl.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Davis possesses the Digi-Egg of Courage which grants his Digimon Veemon fire powers. Davis is also the most stereotypically masculine of the four male Digidestined, being Hot-Blooded, loud and impulsive.
  • Digimon Tamers:
    • Takato and Rika are downplayed examples of this. Takato is a boy and his partner has fire-based attacks in all forms. However, Takato is a lot more sensitive and vulnerable than other Digimon team leaders. Rika is a tomboy and her Digimon does have fire-based attacks but only in rookie and champion form.
    • Zhuqiaomon is one of the Four Digimon Sovereigns and is based on Vermillion Bird of the South. He has fire-based attacks, and is extremely proud and stubborn. He is also the only Digimon seen fighting the D-Reaper in the Digital World after the Tamers have returned to the human world.
  • Digimon Frontier: Takuya wields the spirits of fire and is the most hotheaded and passionate of the male characters.
  • Digimon Data Squad: Marcus is a hot-headed teen with a love of street fighting and a preference for punching first, asking questions later. His Digimon partner is Agumon who uses fire attacks in all of his forms.
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?:
  • Bell is a skittish, easily-embarrassed, and insecure young man with an enormous crush on the girl who rescued him from otherwise certain death. But his magic, Firebolt, was inspired by his vision of what magic is: a weapon to overcome his inner weakness, a red-hot flame unsuited for someone like him, and fast as lightning itself. Combined with his desire to become like the storybook heroes he grew up reading about, it's a super rare no-chant magic capable of immense feats of destruction when combined with his Argonaut skill. He associates fire with masculinity and heroism so strongly that he sometimes daydreams about being clad in red armor and having the alias, "Burning Burning Fighter".
  • In Memoria Freese, Zald, the last-living executive of the Zeus Familia during Orario's darkest days, was a towering, burly man who wields a BFS and the strongest adventurer alive at the time. His magic, Rea Ambrosia, produces an enormous stream of fire that can sweep across an entire battlefield.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency: Esidisi uses his own body to utilize a technique called the Flame Mode, which allows him to heat his blood up to unleash fiery Combat Tentacles.
  • Stardust Crusaders: Muhammad Avdol's Stand, Magician's Red, takes the form of masculine humanoid bird that can blast out fire.
• Magic Knight Rayearth: Hikaru controls fire and is the boisterous Tomboy of the trio.
• One Piece:
  • Ace is a Walking Shirtless Scene and a Hunk who is one of the leading members of the Whitebeard Pirates. Having eaten the Flame-Flame Fruit, he is able to transform into and produce enormous amounts of fire.
  • Former Fleet Admiral Akainu is the most muscular of the former admirals and has a stern, dead-serious disposition as well as a ruthless streak. He can also transform into and control magma.
• Pokémon Origins: Invoked. Red says he was given his name by his father who hoped that Red would have the "passion and energy of a red hot fire".
• The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World: The eponymous Red is a Stock Shōnen Hero brimming with Hot-Blooded passion. He's tall, muscular, and is able to make nearly anything explode by punching or kicking it.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Escanor is the Lion's Sin of Pride. At night, he is skittish, submissive and unfailingly polite. However, when he uses his Power of the Sun, he transforms into a muscular behemoth with no small amount of machismo.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Kamina wears a red cape with an orange flame pattern. He is a boisterous, well-built young man who prides himself on being "manly and tough".
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters: Joey Wheeler is loud, brash, arrogant and quick-tempered (the English dub even gives him a Brooklyn accent). Two of his most famous monsters are associated with fire; the Flame Swordsman a fire-attribute, warrior-type monster and Red Eyes Black Dragon, a fire-breathing dragon-type monster.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Axel Brodie is a hardened mercenary who fears nothing and no one until he meets the Supreme King. He uses a pyro monster deck and his Duel Disk is modeled after a gun.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Jack Atlas is a Hot-Blooded, prideful duelist in contrast to the more sensitive, humble and even-tempered Yusei. His Red Dragon Archfiend is the only Signer Dragon with a fire-based move and several of its alternate forms and support cards have fire and heat themed names ("Hot Red Dragon Archfiend", "Crimson Fire", "Red Nova"). Jack later gains access to a power called "Burning Soul" which allows him to take on the powers of the Crimson Dragon itself to create Crimson Nova Dragon.

Comic Books

• Justice League of America: Many fire-wielding members and allies of the Justice League are men. These include Firestorm, Etrigan and John Constantine.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Both the first and second Human Torches are male. The second one is a member of the Fantastic Four and is well known for being impulsive, arrogant and a womanizer.
  • Ghost Rider: All Ghost Riders have Flaming Skulls for heads when transformed. Most of the Ghost Riders that have been shown are male and the original character was a motorcycle stuntman named Johnny Blaze.
  • X-Men:
    • The original Pyro was a male mutant with the power to manipulate (but not create) fire. His successor is also male and has the ability to both generate and control fire.
    • Sunfire and Sunspot are both male mutants whose powers revolve around solar energy. Both are also notorious for being brash, impulsive and arrogant.

Film — Live-Action

• Mortal Kombat: Annihilation: The Elder God of Fire is male and speaks with a deep, booming voice.
• Paint Your Wagon: The movie has a song called "They Call the Wind Maria", the lyrics of which gives names to the rain, fire and wind. The wind is named Maria, the rain is named Jack and fire is named Joe, one of the most common male names to ever exist.
• Sky High (2005): Warren Peace is a pyrokinetic and an archetypal teen movie "bad boy" with a Hidden Heart of Gold.

Literature

• Firestarter: Inverted: The pyrokinetic Charlie is a precocious little girl (played by a young Drew Barrymore in The Film of the Book) who's terrified of her powers. Her father Andy, who's far more willing to use his powers to kill or otherwise torment people to keep his daughter safe, has the less showy power of Mind Manipulation.
• The Wheel of Time: Men who can use the One Power are more likely to be stronger in channeling Fire and Earth, giving their Military Mages an advantage in powerful destructive magic. By contrast, women tend to have greater strength in Water and Air. Strength in Spirit is gender-neutral.
• Young Wizards: Among human wizards, males have an affinity for fire and earth while females have an affinity for water and air.

Live-Action TV

• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: The Enforcers are two women dispatched by Hera to destroy Hercules. While both are muscular, superpowered women who are laser-focused on their goal, the Water Enforcer has longer hair and a number of Pet the Dog moments that make her seem gentler and more feminine. The Fire Enforcer has close-cropped hair and is far more violent and willing to harm bystanders. The Fire Enforcer also kills the Water Enforcer for saving Alcmene, Hercules's mother.
• Power Rangers/Super Sentai:
  • Most Red Rangers are male. They are also very often associated with the element of fire, even when the team doesn't have an elemental motif.
    • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Leo can use fire attacks^note He's the only Ranger who uses elemental attacks as a holdover from Seijuu Sentai Gingaman and his Transformation Sequence has flames in the background. He is also the most likely to leap first, ask questions later among the Rangers.
    • Power Rangers Time Force: This season actually has two Red Rangers, Wes and Eric. Wes's Super Mode is called the Battle Fire and grants him a Flaming Sword. Eric's Finishing Move has a visual effect which displays red flames and his sentai counterpart has the Ranger designation "TimeFire".
    • Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Shane and Hunter are notable aversions. They are both Red Rangers with the typical alpha male personality; cocky, overcompetitive and quick to action. However, their respective elements are wind and lightning.
    • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Conner starts out as a Jerk Jock but shows a softer side from time to time. He unlocks his Super Mode by using his own passion as a source of power. The Transformation Sequence has him surrounded by flames although he doesn't actually use fire attacks in battle.
    • Power Rangers Mystic Force: Nick is the Red Ranger and team leader. He has fire magic and the Hot-Blooded personality to match. His father Leanbow has the roll call, "Burning Heart of Fire-Wolf Warrior, Defender of Truth!". Daggeron, the male Sixth Ranger, has The Power of the Sun.
  • Dengeki Sentai Changeman: Mai is the Tomboy to Sayaka's Girly Girl, sporting Boyish Short Hair and possessing a love for motorcycles. She uses fire-based attacks in contrast to the more feminine Sayaka who uses water-based attacks. Mai is also an aversion of Pink Means Feminine.

Mythology & Religion

• In Egyptian Mythology, Ra is god of the sun, sky, and kings, and is also considered a fire deity because of this. He is depicted as a man with an falcon head.
• Taoism: Yin and yang are used to represent the concept of duality and can be interpreted as meaning "bright and black" or "positive and negative"; many things considered to be a dichotomy or opposing have been grafted onto this. Broadly, yang energy is active and is associated with the masculine, fire, the sun, the sky, and daytime.
• In several Wiccan traditions, fire is considered masculine energy that is connected to the Horned God.
• In the Western Zodiac, the 12 signs are also grouped together by the four elements of water, earth, fire, and air. This gives the grouped together signs Elemental Motifs based on whichever element they are categorized as. Fire and air signs are considered to be masculine and are associated with the qualities of being dominant, brash, youthful, aggressive or confrontational, and extroverted (the former element much more so than the latter).

Toys

• BIONICLE: Toa of Fire and Ta-Matoran are exclusively male. Examples include Jaller, Tahu and Vakama.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: Pyrofist, one of the Optional Bosses at Harbor Town's fighting arena, wears a fully muscular-equipped armor to generate the flames emanating from his body to unleash fiery attacks.
• Bayonetta:
  • The all-female Umbra Witches are associated with shadows and the moon. The all-male Lumen Sages are associated with fire, light and the sun.
  • Rodin is a large, intimidating man with a bald head and a deep voice. He can also use fire magic and was even once an angel, tying into the game's association of the heavenly side with fire and light.
• Fate/Grand Order:
  • The second Lostbelt invokes this for its subtitle as it refers to Napoléon Bonaparte as "The Good Fellow of Everlasting Flame". This version of Napoleon is less a version who sticks to historical fidelity and more a creation spawned by human belief and stories as a Servant. As such, he's incredibly Hot-Blooded and passionate, with the narration comparing him to a human inferno in his introduction. This stands in marked contrast to the other male character associated with flame, the fire giant Surtr. His inherently destructive nature compels him to use his flames for only destruction and becomes obsessed with burning down everything for the sake of his love. Both characters wish to romantically court female mage Ophelia, with Napoleon's fire through his cannons inspiring her to stand up for herself after his Heroic Sacrifice while Surtr's fire is overbearing and oppressive, trying to trap her into going along with his whims as he destroys the world.
  • Inverted for Sigurd and Brynhild. Sigurd refuses to use fire runes because of their uncontrollably destructive nature. But Brynhild does as a reflection of her troubled mental state and still burning passions for her lover, whose chest is still on fire from when she killed him in life.
  • Played straight with the Indian demigod Servants. Karna, Arjuna, and Asvatthaman all extensively use fire in their attacks. In addition, Karna and Arjuna both possess Mana Burst (Flames) skill and are blessed by the god of the sun and the god of fire respectively.
• Final Fantasy: Ifrit, a fire-elemental summon who appears frequently in the games, is often characterized as hyper-masculine and aggressive, equal and opposite to the icy Shiva. How demonic he looks may vary, but his masculinity and domain over flames remain consistent traits in every incarnation.
• Fireboy and Watergirl: If you couldn't tell from the title, Fireboy is a boy made of fire.
• God of War: Ares is a War God and possesses the love of violence and bloodshed one would expect such a deity to have. He also has Flaming Hair, pyrokinesis and the ability to conjure flaming weapons.
• Guilty Gear: Sol Badguy uses the element of fire and is masculinity personified. He's buff, has a deep voice and his fighting style involves either grabbing enemies by the neck or headbutting them. Later games depict him as a chain smoker.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Gorons are a One-Gender Race who all refer to themselves with male pronouns and have stereotypically masculine designs and voices. With very few exceptions (such as Yunobo in Breath of the Wild), they are known to be Hot-Blooded and vigorous. They have been shown to be fire-resistant which allows them to thrive in volcanically active environments. The Sage of Fire in Ocarina of Time is the Goron patriarch Darunia.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect 2: The game has Jacob Taylor, a muscular and attractive black man, and Grunt, a tank-bred krogan designed to be the epitome of his species (in other words stronger, tougher, and all around a better Boisterous Bruiser than anyone else). Both use the Incendiary Ammo power, which causes their weapons to deal extra fire damage. There is also Zaeed Masani, a tough, grizzled old mercenary, who uses Inferno Grenades that set all the enemies across a wide area ablaze.
  • Mass Effect 3: James Vega is the largest and most muscular human character in the franchise and a serious exercise fanatic. He has both Incendiary Ammo and the Carnage ability, which deals heavy damage and sets targets that survive on fire for a short time. Meanwhile, the extremely tomboyish Ashley Williams uses Inferno Grenades.
• My Singing Monsters: Zig-Zagged: While none of the monsters are stated to have genders, the Kayna in particular has a distinctly feminine appearance, while the Flowah is distinctly masculine.
• Pokémon:
  • Of the eight Fire-type specialists seen in the games, all but three of them are male. Special mention goes to Kiawe, shirtless, comically serious, Hot-Blooded Fire-type specialist from Pokémon Sun and Moon.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon: The starters' final evolutions are a Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio trio. Water-type Primarina is a mermaid-like singer and Grass-type Decidueye is a hooded archer. The Fire-type Incineroar is a muscular, pro wrestling bipedal cat.
  • Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Volo's final team is almost identical to that of Cynthia (whom he's Ambiguously Related to) with the exception of his Fire/Rock-type Hisuian Arcanine, which takes the place of her Water-type Milotic. The Arcanine itself is female, however.
• Samurai Shodown: Kazuki Kazama is a Hot-Blooded, rambunctious youth with fire powers.
• Super Mario Bros.: Mario is most commonly associated with the element of fire, in both games of the main series and spin-offs like the sports games and Super Smash Bros.. He's also adventurous, courageous, competitive and impulsive, especially compared to his brother Luigi.

Web Video

• The Nostalgia Critic: Devil Boner is an overly violent caricature of masculinity and can create fiery explosions at will. In the Old vs. New: Cinderella episode, he enters the room via explosion and loudly gushes about his girlfriend while surrounded by fire.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko is a Firebender and the most stereotypically masculine of the Gaang's male members, being strict, serious-minded, scar-faced, quick to anger and lacking Aang's gentleness or Sokka's sense of humor. Ironically, his sister Azula is far more anger-prone, destructive and aggressive than he is.
• Adventure Time: Flame Princess is an inversion in the fact she's female.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Wheeler is the Planeteer of fire. He's also the Manly Man of the group. Kwame, while fairly tall and well-muscled, is the geeky sort and Ma-Ti is a slightly-built Sensitive Guy.
• Inverted in Elemental (2023) where the main fire character is a woman named Ember.
• Ninjago: Kai, the elemental master of fire, has many of the same traits as Zuko above.
• Wyldfyre from Ninjago: Dragons Rising is female, but she's a Lad-ette Berserker who mainly relies on brute force in combat.
• Steven Universe: Ruby is one of the more masculine gems in the series; she has Boyish Short Hair, a sporty outfit, and an aggressive temper. She also has the ability to heat up the room and set things on fire, especially when she's angry. Contrast this with her more stoic and feminine partner, Sapphire, who has ice powers.

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