Fire produces light but in fiction, the two concepts couldn't possibly be farther apart. Fire is seen as essentially chaotic, either through its destructive nature or through its association with the warmth and dynamism of life and emotions. Light by contrast is orderly, for better or for worse. Fire is emotion, light is reason. When demons or mutants or dragons need something to breathe, what do they get? Fire. When angels, paladins, and dragons need to cast holy spells, what do they use? Light. Art is fire, art's censorship is the blank whiteness associated with light. Even the positives are at odds: light is the happiness of childhood, fire is the passion of romantic love.
This dichotomy is ultimately rooted in Abrahamic theology, with God being associated with heavenly light while demons are with hellfire. Most modern media being Western or West-influenced, this set of values stuck, well into the more secular era. Other cultures and religions by contrast see little difference between light and fire; Neoplatonist musings describe fire as intellectual and orderly, East Asian religions see fire and light as essentially the same thing in the concept of yang and Zoroastrianism, speculated to have ultimately influenced the moral dichotomy of Abrahamic religions, still sees fire as an agent of good and prayers to it are as valid as prayers in sunlight.
Sometimes, fire is used as a replacement for darkness, since both share demonic imagery. However, fire can just as easily be independent of darkness as it is from light; in this case, fire usually gets the chaotic side of things while darkness gets the void, death, and undeath.
Sub-Trope of Elemental Rivalry and Emotions vs. Stoicism. Compare Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition. Can lead to Light Is Good and Evil Is Burning Hot, but inversions are also common, particularly if fire is treated as more rebellious and free in comparison to an oppressive light.
Examples:
Anime
- Digimon:
- Downplayed in the Digimon Adventure continuity. Those related to the Crest of Courage are leaders who tend to have fire-powered Digimon partners (Tai, Davis/Daisuke), while the Crest of Light and Digimon with light-related powers are separate. Most notably, Courage-wielder Tai and Light-wielder Kari/Hikari are siblings, and their crest designs look remarkably similar.
- Digimon Frontier: The Digimon Spirits of fire and light are wielded by Takuya and Koji respectively. Takuya is Hot-Blooded, impulsive, and approachable while Koji is aloof, reserved, and prefers solitude.
Films — Animated
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): both Quasimodo (the titular Hunchback) and Judge Frollo, each in their own ways, begin to develop an attraction towards Romani dancer Esmeralda:
- Quasimodo's solo, "Heaven's Light", occurs on a moonlit/starlit patio. He compares Esmeralda to an angel who brought "Heaven's light" to the dark bell towers of Notre Dame, where he has lived all his life, and uses words like "glow" and "bright".
- Meanwhile, in Frollo's song, "Hellfire", he is caught between his firm religious stance and his (physical) desire for Esmeralda, which he compares to a "hellfire" and describes his attraction with fire metaphors: "smoldering", "scorch", "burning", "sear", "blazing" in him - all the while seeing visions of her dancing amidst the flames of his fireplace.
Films — Live-Action
- Godzilla's signature Breath Weapon and his city-obliterating Burning Mode and other special abilities are very much fire-based, whereas Mothra's Beta-Wave Bioluminescence abilities in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) are firmly light-based. Whilst both Godzilla and Mothra are committed to maintaining the Earth's natural balance against invasive Titans, and whilst this is one of the more heroic iterations of Godzilla to date; Godzilla can be a bit of a Blood Knight in battle and he crosses into ruthless measures when stressed and irate in Godzilla Vs Kong, whereas Mothra is never shown going to such extremes and Mothra's affinity for humans is more explicitly confirmed than Godzilla's implicit favoritism.
Literature
- Tolkien's Legendarium: Light is strictly divine, and it's associated with elves, Maiar, and forces of good. Fire, however, can be used by both good and evil forces and is more heavily associated with the latter: Morgoth, Sauron, dragons, and Balrogs all utilize fire.
- Old Kingdom has an Order Versus Chaos dichotomy in the rules-based Background Magic Field of the Charter and primordial, corruptive Free Magic. Charter Magic appears as Instant Runes made of light, whereas Free Magic spells and entities usually manifest with harsh white fire that nauseates everyone nearby.
- In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-wan and Anakin are frequently given Elemental Motifs of this nature; Dooku visualizes Obi-wan's aura in the force as a sunlit meadow and he is considered a shining example of the Jedi ideals, while Anakin Hot-Blooded nature is compared to a blaster-furnace even by himself and he eventually gets burned alive on the lava shores of Mustafar. Anakin's fire motifs also get contrasted with his wife Padme, who is associated with water.
Live-Action TV
- Fate: The Winx Saga: Bloom and Stella retain their respective fire and light powers. Their relationship is also initially much more antagonistic than in the original show.
- In Stargate SG-1 the Ori faith is symbolized by fire while its opposers the Ancients are associated with white light. The latter introduced the concept of fire being evil to humanity as a means to combat the former.
Music
- Jhariah's The Great Tale of How I Ruined It All uses the sun and fire as symbolism throughout. Fire is used to describe or represent the protagonist's determination or lack thereof ("I burnt out the white-hot flame inside me") and a force of destruction ("set fire to your marches, douse them in gasoline!"). The sun, and how it continually rises and falls, is used by the protagonist to describe his desire to bring about peace and have everything back to normal ("and then we can all go back to sleep when the burning sun begins to fall").
Mythology & Religion
- Curiously, the sun and fire are personified as independent deities in most cultures. The most triumphant example is probably Mapuche Mythology, in which the sun and fire wage war against one another.
- In Graeco-Roman Mythology, Helios/Sol (the Sun god), Éos/Aurora (the dawn goddess), and Hêmera/Dies (the day) are more associated with the celestial realm. On the other hand, Hestia/Vesta, while not a fire goddess per se, is the deity of the fire hearth and related to the domestic space — ergo, a more human reality.
Tabletop Games
- Magic: The Gathering: Red is one of the two enemy colors to White. Red symbolizes chaos, emotions, art and the elements of fire and lightning, while White symbolizes order, morality, the needs of the many over the needs of the few and the elements of light and the sun. Curiously both get earth as an element as well.
- Magic's creators Wizards of the Coast made almost-identical follow-up games of Duel Masters and Kaijudo which also separated light from fire into separate colors, but neither made the animus between the two as much as between Magic's white and red.
- In Exalted the light-wielding solar exalted are contrasted by the green hell princes, which use (green) fire.
Video Games
- Devil May Cry: Dante's rival/twin brother Vergil uses a set of gauntlets and greaves called Beowulf which grant him power over light. Dante himself uses a number of fire-based Elemental Weapons throughout the games such as Ifrit (a pair of fiery gauntlets), Agni (a Flaming Sword) and Balrog (a set of gauntlets and greaves similar to Beowulf).
- Final Fantasy: Fire spells are the archetypal Black Magic, while Light/Holy spells are associated with White Magic.
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft: One of the most iconic cards from the Classic set is Ragnaros the Firelord, a legendary fire elemental that can't be ordered to attack but does 8 damage to a random enemy at the end of its turn. When the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion was released, while many of the cards were Eldritch Abominations with a theme of corruption, Ragnaros gained an uncorrupted form called Ragnaros the Lightlord, which randomly heals an injured friendly character for up to 8 hitpoints instead.
- The King of Fighters: Ash Crimson commands green flames. His rival Elisabeth Blanctorche uses the power of light.
- Kingdom Hearts features Roxas and Axel, both members of Organization XIII, who form a brotherly relationship while Axel keeps Roxas in the dark about his past, and they have powers over Light (Roxas) and Fire (Axel) respectively. Their personalities also contrast one another, as Roxas is brash and naive, compared to the laidback and devious Axel.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Inverted with Pyra and Mythra. Both are unequivocally heroic characters, but the fire-wielding Pyra is the calm and sweet Nice Girl while the light-wielding Mythra is a hot-headed Tsundere.
Web Original
- In The Magnus Archives, one of the forces that's documented by the Magnus Institute is "The Lightless Flame", an entity of some form that delivers excruciating and destructive heat without giving off any light In season 3, it's revealed that this is another name for one of the Dread Powers, Desolation, specifically governing the fear of pain, fire, and disfiguration, among others.
Western Animation
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, there is a clear distinction between the fire and energy the firebenders manipulate and the light of Raava and other spirits, the former being chaotic while the latter is pure order. Curiously, the sun is more associated with the former than the latter.
- Winx Club: Bloom and Stella are the Fairies of the Dragon's Flame and the Shining Sun, respectively. While Stella is a hammy Drama Queen, Bloom is more grounded. Stella can come across as an insensitive jerk sometimes while Bloom is very empathetic. Stella's backstory is that of an initially socially awkward, now popular princess with a broken family. Meanwhile, Bloom's backstory is that of an ordinary, unpopular girl with a loving family who later learns she's a princess. Furthermore, Stella is the crown princess of her planet while Bloom is not.
- Young Justice (2010) represents the lords of order as light associated as in the comics, manifesting in golden radiance. The lords of chaos, however, trade darkness for fire, manifesting in blood-red radiance and mostly using fire attacks.
