Playing with Fire

Go ahead. Call her a "hot babe". See how that works out for you.

"Look into those flames, supplicant! Raise your head, look! Is that what you wish to hold, supplicant? Is the shaping of flames what stirs your heart? Know that flames can burn, and if you would learn their power, you must suffer their touch."

— Ignus's teacher, Planescape: Torment

Fire is one of the basic classical elements and usually the starter element from the Fire, Ice, Lightning trinity that console role-playing games love so much. It's a very popular power to use, mainly because it comes from the prettiest of explosions. This seems to work best when used on the undead, arrows, swords, and, against all common sense, even people. It even works when rolled up into a tangible ball and thrown!

A notable and possible technical term for this kind of elemental power is "pyrokinesis."

People who are literally packing heat also tend to be fireproof and have a very high heat tolerance, as Required Secondary Powers. But sometimes, they aren't and are, in fact, just as vulnerable to their own flames as everybody else. Similarly, such characters may be Glass Cannons physically or emotionally owing to their element's reputation for extreme destruction and fragility.

A person with fire power often possesses — get this — a fiery personality. You could say that they are Hot-Blooded, choleric, or that the flame of passion burns within them. And who knows, maybe their burning anger powers their burning hands; it's certainly possible for it to make them literally burn from anger. They also tend to be redheads (or dye their hair). They may even give you due warning by being Fiery Redheads. If they're also a Pyromaniac, heaven help you. In JRPGs, this person is likely to be a Black Magician Girl. The fires they generate or control may be completely mundane, or in some way magical. If you're really unfortunate, they'll wield Hellfire.

Contrast with the natural foil, An Ice Person, Making a Splash (with which it combines for boiling or steam), and Shock and Awe (which can be perceived as this trope plus Blow You Away). When it appears alongside Making a Splash and Blow You Away, that's Fire, Water, Wind. Compare Kill It with Fire, and Having a Blast. This may overlap with Magma Man, which is often perceived either as a subset of this trope or as a combination of it and Dishing Out Dirt). If you're caught in a literal firefight with these people, you should probably Kill It with Water. Frequently shown (off) via Finger-Snap Lighter and Blasting Time. Expect them to sneer at anyone using a Faux Flame. See Fiery Stoic for a Power Stereotype Flip and Sacred Flames for another twist.

Though "playing with fire" is often a term used for Tempting Fate or Bullying a Dragon this is not that trope.

Now available in the Trope Co. catalog.

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Example Subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Literature
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Other Examples:

Arts

• Seven Virtues: There's a flame coming out of the "Charity's" fingers on her right hand. This is a symbol of the warmth and enlightenment she provides to others.

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, the Guling Supermen each represent different elemental powers, with Oversensitive S. representing fire and being able to produce fireballs as an attack.
• In Infinity Nado, Dawn's Infinity Nado has a fire motif and releases a Spirit that can use fire-based attacks. This fits his birth constellation, Leo, which is one of the Western Zodiac's fire symbols.

Fan Works

• Alien/Species Crossover: Return to LV-426: The story uses an unused concept from Species, that Sil would glow with red heat in her hybrid form, growing brighter and hotter the more threatened she felt. Lise possesses this ability, and uses it to good effect against the Xenomorphs.
• Antipodes: Incendia possesses extremely powerful fire magic, allowing her to create devastating firestorms, absorb fires into herself, and cook without needing to use a stove.
• The Big Four Cjupsher Series: Various people are shown possessing pyrokinetic abilities.
• Cave Dancers Pretty Cure: Cure Crimson's main power is fire, which she shoots from her hands. She primarily uses it to keep the caves warm.
• Child of the Storm
  • Most magical people are capable of doing this, but few are particularly good at it — the jack of all trades thing being in play.
    • Loki is very skilled, but it's not his go-to ability (unsurprising, considering his vast range and preference for illusions and shapeshifting).
    • Harry Dresden is a prodigy and his proclivity for leaving lots of things in his wake on fire is mentioned repeatedly — a Death Curse powered fire blast from him ends up launching Gravemoss from under Paris all the way to the North Sea. He's more than capable with other elements, when necessary, particularly air magic.
    • Harry Thorson is also a prodigy, if not even more so than Dresden — by the age of 14, he's wielding the kind of laser-like beams of energy and high-end temperature manipulation that Dresden didn't master until he was in his mid thirties. It's implied that he gets this from his mother, and that both relate to their connection to the Phoenix Force, which his mother eventually merged with. As the sequel demonstrates, he can use other elements when he has to, and he's a skilled air mage and a very powerful telekinetic, but he leans quite heavily on his more intuitive fire magic — which, as is occasionally noted, risks making him predictable. As is also noted, however, he's so ridiculously powerful and good with it that it generally doesn't matter. It also comes as a very big surprise to his enemies when he suddenly stops using fire.
  • Phoenix Hosts get cosmic scale pyrokinesis as part of the bargain, with flames that tend to ignore little things like the laws of physics, used for both offence and healing. This is part of the reason why Phoenix Hosts tend to be very temporary - the flames are fuelled by emotions, and fuel emotions in turn, risking a vicious cycle that results in a Dark Phoenix. As Surtur demonstrated, this can be a galactic scale problem. Also, the more powerful they are, the quicker they burn through a host and, indeed, reality around them.
• Children of an Elder God: Asuka possesses fire powers.
  She sat upright, face contorted into an angry scowl, her fists suddenly ablaze with flame.
• Destiny Intertwined: In addition to the basic fire breath, which becomes increasingly far-reaching and powerful with experience, Fire is associated with a variety of powers. Trained Fire dragons can produce explosive fireballs, shield themselves with flame, and superheat their claws, fangs, spines and horns. Very experienced dragons can also control, extinguish, increase or sustain natural fires.
• Guys Being Dudes: Arlo's Charizard gets ready to power up a Blast Burn when he turns to attack the Shaymin for nearly getting him killed by knocking over the Abandoned Playground and getting Spark injured saving him. The Charizard is also shown to boost his powers by dropping wood shavings from the playground into the flame on his tail.
• Hard Being Pure: Haeten is a pyrokinetic. Astrex also uses a weak flame spell.
• The New Adventures of Invader Zim:
  • Norlock's favorite magical attack is to launch blasts of black fire.
  • In Episode 11, Viera gains an amulet called the Eye of Fire, which shoots fire on command.
• The Night Unfurls:
  • If mages are present within armies, 99.9% of the time they will be using fire spells, either to burn their enemies or to get rid of surrounding objects. They can also control how the fire spreads to avoid burning themselves.
  • Fire manipulation is Olga's speciality. Throughout both versions of the story, she is shown to use her flames via a variety of attacks, like fireballs, flaming enclosures, airstrikes, or literally making her appearance known with a blaze of glory.
• The Price of Flight is set in the Discworld as envisioned by A.A. Pessimal. The Ankh-Morpork City Air Watch is made up of City witches — who for most of the time are policewomen who give Sam Vimes an aerial dimension. The rest of the time, if necessary, they are a combat Air Force. Their principal weapon in air fighting is the directed fireball. Air witches receive a thorough training in generating fireballs and in accurately aiming them as air-to-air missiles — fireballs can also be employed for strafing surface targets, with a devastating result.
• Gerland in The Tainted Grimoire is a master of fire-based spells.
• The wizard Emeth from Warriors of the World specialises in fire spells.
• Aurora Borealis has this as her special talent in Whispers.
• Celestia gets some aspects of this ability in the Triptych Continuum, which seems to be a unique side effect stemming from her link to Sun. However, she hasn't been shown to generate direct flame. Instead, she seems to create pure heat, apparently from nowhere. (This is in contrast to pegasi who know the heat-shifting technique: hot spots can be created — by lowering the temperature somewhere else.) She can channel this on a very small and subtle scale: in particular, she can literally burn out infections. However, when she gets upset, the temperature in her vicinity tends to spike… A Mark Of Appeal shows her having a nightmare in which the ability goes out of control, sending Equestria into literal meltdown.
• In The Witch of the Everfree, while Sunset has a wide variety of spells at her disposal, she has a particular affinity for fire magic, and has a set of enchantments on her to make herself fireproof.
• In Thousand Shinji, a blink-and-you-will-miss-it moment hints that Asuka has pyrokinesis. During a scene where she's pissed, a small leaf spontaneously combusted near from her, and Shinji attributed it to Asuka.
• At the end of A Warm Blizzard, a Frozen fanfic, Prince Hans is revealed to be a pyrokinetic as a counterbalance to Elsa's frost. A binding was put in place so he won't be able to use his magic, but a magical scissor unlocks his powers.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: One of the Nightmare's powers; it is shown throwing a fireball during the final battle. Xvital also gains this when she gains magic; in the days after, it's noted that she has trouble with accidentally creating fire in her sleep.
• A Prize for Three Empires has Jean Grey and Carol Danvers, both of which are able to produce and manipulate cosmic fire.
  Jean turned into Phoenix, and still stood between her and the car.
  Carol set her suitcase down, and, in a burst of flame, became Binary.
• Ruby Stars: As she's part Ruby, Sadie has the ability to summon fire, which she unfortunately finds out by accidentally setting a wooden support beam on fire and causing the warehouse they were in to go up in flames.
• DNMC features D'Arg Forrest who, after getting Dust infused into his blood, can shoot fire and set his swords on fire. However, while he's immune to external fire (Ex.: Clu held a lighter to his face to no avail), he's not immune to his own fire (Ex.: A fireball he shot from a nick on his cheek cauterized it shut afterwards.)
• Scoob and Shag: Daphne's Ballyhoo power, "Burn-In", lets her hit her opponents with projectiles that cause them to start burning up. The main flaw is that this can be staved off if the target keeps moving. However, Fred's Freeze Frame does nothing but immobilize targets, meaning they make an excellent combination.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Chloe Cerise is granted a cloak from Olmec — The Cloak of Marchosias and Wepwawet — with one half of its powers granting her the ability to cast fire. She can breathe Flamethrower, hurl fireballs or sets her donut holer on fire. She can even expands flames from other sources.
• Infinity Train: Boiling Point: Bosha Urodela is well versed in casting fire and she's not afraid to use it in a variety of ways from Fireballs, fiery punches and even transforming herself into a fiery lion.
• A Moon and World Apart: It's established early on that Sunset has a natural talent with fire-based magic, to the point where she was able to invent a spell that could boil the alcohol right out of a target's body and sober them up in an instant without hurting said target in the process. It's later revealed this same talent is what let her hatch Spike's egg; dragons' eggs need a great deal of external heat to hatch, and she was able to generate that heat all on her own.
• Tales of Blaze and Artemis: Allen holds the Fire Miraculous, inhabited by Fenixx, which lets him transform into the fire hero Blaze and grants him the power of Heal Flame.
• Vow of Nudity: The Fire Genasi all have latent fire powers. Haara also knows their signature spell, produce flame, thanks to growing up as their empire's slave.
• In Dedicated Hearts made Fullmetal, Armin Arlert learns from Alphonse Elric how to do Roy Mustang's flame alchemy, though the latter only knows the theory and warns the former that it can be dangerous to himself and others. Eventually, Armin is able to get the hang of it, putting it to good use during both the uprising against the MP's sent to kill him, and the battle for Shiganshina against both the Colossal and Cart Titans.
• Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: Whilst the first of the Elemental Superpowers that Ranma Saotome unlocks is ice Ki Manipulation, he quickly deduces that fire manipulation is the logical counterpart.
  • Despite being the first on the crew to figure it out, Ranma initially struggles to actually use it, as his efforts produce such a layer of heat that he ends up burning himself before he conjures usable flames. He does eventually produce a fiery Kame Hame Hadoken in the form of the Red Sun technique.
  • Ukyo actually leapfrogs ahead of Ranma in using fire ki by channeling the spiritual heat through her metal battle spatula, allowing her to do everything from launching streams of fire by swinging the weapon to simply making it red hot for extra damage.

Film — Animation

• Lumiere, the ever-burning candlestick from Beauty and the Beast frequently lights and expands his flames, typically for emphasis. He also burns Cogsworth’s hand and sets a pie “en flambé” with them.
• La Muerte from The Book of Life, gives little sparks that are red like fire. And she literally, blew her top when she found out that Xibalba cheated again. At the end, when she and Xibalba have The Big Damn Kiss, the candles on her hat become fireworks.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer is hot-headed (although not quite hot-blooded), very short on patience, and distinctly associated with fire. Her demonic, phoenix, and angelic forms all have fire motifs, and her demonic form (or demonic persona; Sunset wasn't exactly in control) throws fireballs. And in her normal human form, her long, complex red-and-gold hair looks almost fire-like, especially when billowing up above her.
• In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Peach touches a Fire Flower and turns into Fire Peach and tosses a Fireball in her hand. Donkey Kong, for the first time in the Mario Franchise, is also seen turning into Fire DK.
• In an earlier version of Turning Red, Mei was going to possess fire powers in her red panda form that activated the angrier she got.

Film — Live-Action

• Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva: Shiva eventually gains control over fire through the Agnyastra.
• Fantastic Four Duology: Like his comic counterpart, Johnny Storm gain the ability to create and control fire, as well as cover himself in flames. This did lead to a problem where he would burn off his clothes until his fire proof outfit is made.
• The titular character of Fire Dragon, who, contrary to her name, isn't a literal dragon but a Ming Dynasty swordswoman and assassin raised from birth to control fire using her chi alone, and as an adult can ignite anything she touches. A few of her onscreen kills becomes a Man on Fire. Incidentally, Fire Dragon has an adopted sister, Snow, and yes she's An Ice Person.
• In the film Firestarter, little Charlie McGee slowly comes into her powers until her pyrokinesis lets her take down an entire hardsite full of armed agents.
• The ghost that is haunting Sid in The Gravedancers is a child Pyromaniac who now possesses pyrokinetic powers.
• Liz Sherman in the first and second Hellboy movies has pyrokinesis, but is unhappy with it and has difficulty controlling it (she burned down an entire city block and killed her family as an eight-year-old). Ultimately, she is able to embrace it and, in the second film, has greater control and is in a relationship with the luckily fireproof Hellboy. Oddly, Hellboy has the fiery, impulsive, and chaotic personality, while Liz is comparatively stable and reserved.
• Krull: At the end of the film Colwyn gains fire abilities with the help of Lyssa which he uses to kill The Beast.
• In the film The Last Airbender, Firebending is handled differently than in the show; no firebender can create their element, so they all have to carry around tiny lanterns. Only the most powerful can generate flames from nothing.
• Legend (1985)
  • The alicorn (unicorn horn) allows its holder to start fires and throw fire.
  • In the climactic fight with Jack, Darkness repeatedly fires fire out of his hands and weapons he's holding and causes fire to blaze up at a distance.
• Sky High (2005): Warren Peace has pyrokinesis as his superpower. This, plus his loner nature initially make him seem like a potential antagonist before it becomes clear that he's really a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold.
• Space Jam: A New Legacy has a Goon Squad player called Wet-Fire (a parody of Klay Thompson), whose powers are a mix of fire and water.
• Due to a failed anti-radiation vaccine, the main character of Spontaneous Combustion is born with an ability to set people on fire when he's pissed off enough.
• Supersonic Saucer: Meba is capable of starting fires thanks to his alien powers.
• The Czech fairytale "Die Prinzessin und der fliegende Schuster" features the Sun herself ^note she's really a hot girl, due to German grammatic gender and all girls in Czech fairytale films being this by default — to top it off, the actress' first is Venuse. She's ruined her shoes and now calls for a fireproof cobbler to repair them. Our hero gets out the blacksmith gear and even lends a hand during the try-on. (Don't Try This at Home, it's a fairytale.)
• Chi is the least stoic and solemn of the Warriors of Virtue. Though he also represents Wisdom, he's still eager and impulsive: "Patience is not my virtue."
• Wilder and Wallace in Wilder Napalm are two brothers with pyrokinetic abilities. Things start heating up between them when they start querreling over a woman.
• In The Witch Files, Jules develops the power to throw fireballs from her hands.
• The Wizard of Oz: One of the spells The Wicked Witch of the West can cast is to shoot out fireballs, which she uses after Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Man.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • Pyro can't generate fire, but is immune to it and can direct and grow any nearby fire. As such, he uses a lighter to create it when he needs to in the first two movies, and he gets a wrist-mounted flamethrower in the third.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: Sunspot's mutant ability consists of converting the sun's energy into bursts of flame that he can aim at his enemies.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: The Ancient Egyptian Famine's mutant power is pyrokinesis. It's very much like Pyro's in that she only seems capable of manipulating already existent fire instead of being able to create it.
• In Yamato Takeru, the ability to conjure fire is the signature power of the priestesses of Amaterasu. Oto Tachibana in particular has fireball-throwing as her signature spell and combines it with martial prowess to be a Kung-Fu Wizard.

Live-Action TV

• The 4400:
  • In "Graduation Day", Jorge Molina, who disappeared in 1975, can create fire with his mind.
  • In "Try the Pie", Paul Weir develops the ability to create fire from his hands after taking promicin.
• Chan Ho Yin/Scorch on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., in the episode "Girl in the Flower Dress". Notably, in his episode, the Centipede Group performs experiments on him that remove his Required Secondary Powers and leaves him vulnerable to his own fire powers.
• In The Amazing Extraordinary Friends, Blaze was a superheroine with fire-based powers. However, being turned into a Human Popsicle resulted in a Face–Heel Turn and her becoming An Ice Person called Ice. Flashbacks occasionally show her in action as Blaze.
• Dani in Believe, perhaps a physical manifestation of her anger as she has very powerful Psychic Powers.
• Most demons in Charmed throw fireballs. Phoebe also had this power in her past life.
• Bloom from Fate: The Winx Saga is a Fire Fairy and has the power to create and control fire. As the episodes pass, she learns to use her powers even to heat up liquids to boil and to partially heal minor injuries. In "A Fanatic Heart", Rosalind reveals that Bloom is not an ordinary Fire Fairy but the keeper of a power as ancient as the Burned Ones themselves, namely the Dragon's Flame.
• A couple of Cortexiphan guinea pigs on Fringe develop pyrokinesis.
• Game of Thrones: All of the dragons breathe fire.
• Gladiators (2024): Played with in the opening credits and Gladiator profile screens, which present Fire as if she has superpowers, throwing a small fireball from her hands. Like the other titular Gladiators, she's a very competent athlete — but she does not, in fact, have superpowers.
• Heroes:
  • Claire's biological mother, Meredith, and her brother Flint (whose flames are blue, and thus more powerful. Meredith's burn red; however, she has more control. Flint is as thick as two short planks fixed together with stupid glue).
  • Mrs. Comey lives at the Sullivan Bros. Carnival. She has the power to generate intense heat from her hands, which she uses to make waffles without plugging in a waffle iron. The Carnival also employs the Bowmans, a family of three people (father, mother, and daughter) that can all breathe fire.
• Ice Fantasy: The members of the Fire Tribe have fire-based powers.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022):
  • In "Is My Very Nature That of a Devil", after Daniel Molloy drops the 1973 cassette tapes of the first interview into a trash can, Louis de Pointe du Lac lights them on fire with his vampire abilities.
  • A Season 2 clip shown at the 2024 AMC Upfront event affirms that Armand possesses the fire gift because he can generate flames from the palm of his hand.
• Kamen Rider also has some examples. Notably, Kuuga's Mighty Form (and all its offshoots), Agito's Flame Form and Burning Form, Ryuki, Garren, Hibiki, Kiva's Garulu Form, Double's Heat Forms, OOO's TaJaDor Combo, Fourze's Fire States, Wizard's Flame Style, Drive's Max Flare powerup, Ghost's Toucon Boost Damashii, Zero-One Flaming Tiger, and Saber himself.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • The Dweller is a sorcerer who has an affinity for fire magic, and is able to hold flame in her hands before blowing it in devastating blasts.
  • The Stranger is a wizard who can use fire magic too, but still has to learn how to master it.
• The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg: Rohan's weapon ("fire within me!").
• Nowhere Boys: Felix and Heath.
• Riverdale: Cheryl becomes pyrokinetic in the sixth season. She can turn up the heat in a person's body and start fire just by thinking about it. The Crisis Crossover with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reveals that Cheryl's pyrokinesis is actually part of the true ancestrial lineage as a Phoenix.
• Cassie in The Secret Circle uses dark magic to set Luke on fire.
• There are a number of examples from Super Sentai and Power Rangers, with GingaRed, MagiRed/the Red Mystic Ranger, and ShinkenRed/the Red Samurai Ranger leading the list. Whenever Elemental Powers come into play, you can bet whoever's got the red suit knows how to turn up the heat! (Except Ninja Storm, where red presents air. Even then, the Hawk Zord has a fire attack, and Color-Coded for Your Convenience means his weapon's blast's look pretty fiery.)
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In "It's a Good Life", it is mentioned that Anthony set Teddy Reynolds on fire for thinking mean thoughts about him.
• The Twilight Zone (1985):
  • In "Gramma", it is mentioned that the title character used her powers to burn down several of her neighbors' houses.
  • In "Dead Run", the demons who guard the condemned in Hell can light cigarettes by pressing them into the palms of their hands.
  • A variation in "The Toys of Caliban". Toby Ross is shown a picture of fire by his father Ernest and is able to start one with his mind as a result of his ability to manifest something after seeing a picture of it. As Ernest intended, the fire burns their house down and kills them both.
• Ultra Series:
  • Ultraman Mebius' Burning Brave Mode possesses fire powers, primarily the ability to create a burst of flames used to incinerate monsters as a Finishing Move. In the same series, GUYS upgrades its Maquette Kaiju Windam with the fire powers of Zetton, Pandon, and End to create Fire Windam, giving it an Arm Cannon that shoots fireballs.
  • Ultraman R/B: Ultraman Rosso's default form uses fire powers, in contrast to his brother's water powers, but the two are able to switch powers around if needed.
  • Ultraman Orb's Burnmite form, which is created from a combination of Mebius' powers and those of Ultraman Taro.
    • Similarly, Ultraman Geed has Solid Burning, a combination of Ultraseven and Ultraman Leo.
  • One of Ultraman Zero's pals is Glen-Fire, an expy of an earlier Tsuburaya Productions hero named Fireman.
  • Lots of kaiju. Pandon, Birdon, Golza, Litra, Zambolar, Gorah, Femigon, Grangon, Demaaga, Giralen, Sodom, Enzan, Firemons, Geel, Fire-Draco, etc.
• The Wheel of Time (2021):
  • Logain burns down the bars of his cage to escape after the Aes Sedai guarding him are distracted as his followers attack, releasing him from their hold so he can touch the One Power again.
  • Egwene is learning. In Episode 3 she starts a campfire, but her flame is barely stronger than sparks from flint and steel. In Episode 5 she manages to burn ropes to set Perrin free.
  • Egwene later learns how to cast fireballs when the Seanchan enslave her, and it's apparent the damane (slave channelers) use this often.
  • Ishamael casts fiery missiles rapidly at Egwene later.
  • Moiraine sends sheets of flame to strike and burn the Seanchan ships anchored off Falme.
• Xena: Warrior Princess: Callisto (she was a god) is a perfect◊ example◊ of this trope in both supernatural power and firey temper.

Music

• Lindsey Stirling's "Elements" features a lot of fire that she dances around, based in a frame quickly constructed from Home Depot materials.
• Rammstein. Shows include flamethrowers, fire-shooting masks, massive fireballs errupting from the stage, instruments shooting sparks or bursting into flames... One of their most famous gags involves singer Till Lindemann rising from stage engulfed in fire. And they would use that in their opening number.
• DJ the S' "Disciple of the Fire" is a compilation remix of Fire-based themes from video games.

Myths & Religion

• Hephaestus from Greek Mythology is the god of fire, as well as the god of the forge. Sometimes, the three solar dieties (Hyperion, Helios, and Apollo) also are associated with Fire, if not with Light. Also, a well-known myth tells of the Titan Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods to give to mankind.
• Surtr, Lord of the Fire Giants from Norse Mythology. Also, sometimes, Loki.
• Pele. No, not the soccer player. The fire/volcano goddess of Pacific Mythology.
• The traditional dragon of myth and legend is a creature who can breathe fire.
• Elijah from The Bible was notable to use a few fire-related thaumaturgy. Some of em also counts as Kill It with Fire.
• Dietrich Von Bern, a legendary Germanic king based on the real-life Theodoric the Great, was said to have the ability to breathe fire when angry. He uses this ability against Sigfried in Du Rosengarten zu Worms.

Pinballs

• Done in Bally's classic Fireball, where you challenge the Fire Gods in pinball using fireballs.
• In Gottlieb's Street Fighter II pinball, shooting a ball into Dhalsim's saucer rewards a Flame bonus.
• The bosses Tower and The Magician from The Pinball of the Dead throw fireballs.

Podcasts

• Chell/Summer from Sequinox can control heat and has a flaming sword. The stars Antares and Scorpio also have fire powers.

Pro Wrestling

• Throwing "fireballs" (actually just flash paper) at an opponent was an occasional heel trick in the 70s and 80s, perhaps most notably used by Jerry Lawler. Often there is no Kayfabe explanation for it. The first territory to use fire as a hazard during matches was Puerto Rico, specifically CSP.
• The infamous 1992 FMW Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto vs Sabu & Original Sheik no rope barbed wire death match, often held up as an argument against Garbage Wrestling (or at least the horrific extremes of overdoing it), where the Sheik tried to burn his opponents with a flaming stick and ended up setting the ring on fire. The men then tried to wrestle but not a minute into the match the ring started to melt, causing them to all panic and dive out under the flames...except for the Sheik himself, who caught on fire and chastised Sabu for using water to reduce his burns because it prevented him from throwing fire balls at what he thought was the perfect time.
• In his wilder and younger days, Mick Foley was known to do some fire-based stunts, including what he himself calls the incredibly stupid innovation of the Fire Chair — a metal folding chair wrapped in a flaming, gas-soaked rag, and used as a club. He swore off this gimmick after nearly killing Terry Funk with it, but has played with fire from time to time since, most notably in his WrestleMania match with Edge.
• WWE's Kane has a great love of fire, though whether he's a pyrokinetic or just a pyromaniac tends to vary based on how realistic he's being played at the moment.
• WWE/F tried to create a fire-based gimmick match, the Inferno. While this looked cool, it made the match a bore, since the wrestlers were effectively trapped in the ring, and were taking too-obvious care to avoid the open flames.

Tabletop Games

• 7th Sea: There is the rare sorcery "El Fuego Adentro" of Castille, where a practitioner can create and wield fire. Just don't let the Inquisition find out...
• Atmosfear: Anne de Chantraine is a magical pyromaniac, using her magic to burn others in retaliation for her own unjust execution.
• Bakugan with the Pyrus attribute have fire powers, and often fiery personalities to match.
• BattleTech: The Firestarter Battlemech is dedicated to the role, mounting four fusion-powered flamethrowers.
• Call of Cthulhu. The Great Old One Cthugha and his Fire Vampire servants can perform fire-based attacks.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Fire is one of the most common elemental damage powers, with such favorites as the Wizard's Burning Hands, Fireball, Flaming Sword, and Fire Trap spells, the red dragon's breath weapon, and so on.
  • The pyrokineticist prestige class embodies this trope.
  • The Druid class is prone to this trope, gaining spells like Produce Flame, Flame Sphere, and Flame Blade within their first few spell levels. Additionally, Wild Shape lets druids take the forms of elementals, including, yes, fire elementals. 5th Edition even has the Druid Circle of Wildfire, based on the role of natural fires in a forest ecosystem. Wildfire Druids can give up a use of Wild Shape to summon a fire elemental in the shape of an animal as a companion.
  • Notably, fire is also the most commonly resisted damage type, leading it to being shunned by dedicated powergamers in 3rd edition in favor of sonic damage.
• Exalted: Fire is one of the five basic elements of creation, and beings associated with it — such as fire elementals, Anklok Dragon Kings and Fire Aspect Dragon-Blooded — can manipulate, create and extinguish fire and light. Fire is generally associated with purification and transformation, and beings tied to it sometimes possess powers related to this concept without necessarily manipulating fire directly.
• Fantasy Strike: Jaina Stormborne sets herself on fire in addition to the usual flame attacks. In Yomi, she also sets the arena floor on fire.
• Feng Shui: The Path of the Brilliant Flame fu path essentially gives you fiery kung fu powers. And fire is one of the most common Blast powers that a sorcerer can use.
• Games Workshop:
  • In Warhammer, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar & Warhammer 40,000, the magic conjured by Tzeentch, his daemons and his followers commonly takes the form of dazzling, multi-coloured flames that can burn the very soul of the victim, mutate them beyond all recognition, or anything in between.
  • In Warhammer specifically, one of the basic forms of magic available to the majority of magic uses in the setting is the Lore of Fire that specialises in the use of pyromancy.
  • Warhammer 40,000 specific examples:
    • The 6th Edition of the game added Pyromancy as a universal psychic power pool, as an option for many races that use psychic powers.
    • The purity and psychic abilities of the elite Grey Knight Purifiers typically manifests as a cleansing blue flame capable of incinerating the body and soul of any evil creature caught in the conflagration. This ability is represented in the 8th Edition of the game by the 'Purifying Flame' Ability that increases the damage done by the Purifier's Smite psychic power but reduces its range.
  • Necromunda:
    • One of the four types of Wyrds that gangs could hire in the first two editions of the game was the Pyro Wyrd. Possessing powerful pyrokinetic abilities Pyros were capable of flinging fireballs at their enemies, creating walls of flame or unleashing a blast of heat equivalent to an anti-tank meltagun.
    • One of the powers available to the Witches who accompany Chaos Cult gangs in the 3rd Edition of the game is Scouring. This Psychic Power causes balefire to engulf his enemies, inflicting damage equal to auto or las weaponry.
• In Heavy Gear, the Southern Flammjager gear was not only a specialised incendiary mecha, but its pilots had a (justified) reputation as Pyromaniacs with a tendency to burn everything they encounter. The North tried to improve on the Southern model by creating the larger and tougher Magma Jaguar and subjecting its pilots to more rigorous screening (and they still end up with roughly a 1 in 4 hire rate of pyromaniacs).
• Magic: The Gathering: Fire magic is one of the most common means of offensive magic available to a Red mage, along with Shock and Awe and more rarely Dishing Out Dirt. Classic Magic's most iconic fire mage is Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, best known for providing the flavor text for many fire-related cards. Chandra Nalaar, her disciple of sorts, took over her role in the post-Mending era.
• In Nomine:
  • While Gabriel's boons have more to do with smiting the wicked than manipulating flames, a few of them grant this sort of powers — her Ofanim are Immune to Fire, her Malakim can cover their hands with celestial flames, and any of her servants can gain the ability to raise local ambient temperatures, strengthen, reduce or constrain fires, or create a sphere of flame around themselves.
  • Belial, Gabriel's infernal opposite, is far more focused on Fire's literal meaning than Gabriel is, and his servants grant a number of abilities focusing on creating and controlling flames.
  • The Songs of Fire create literal and metaphorical flames. The Corporeal Song of Fire allows any performer to create fire in a desired area. The Ethereal Song of Fire creates a blaze of inspiration in mortal minds. The Celestial Song of Fire makes existing flames supernaturally entrancing.
• Paranoia: The Pyrokinetic mutant ability. Of course, this being Paranoia, if it's actually helping at any point, the GM will probably cause the pyrokinetic to cook off the grenades he's carrying or otherwise inflict hilarity on the hapless fellow.
• Princess: The Hopeful: The Court of Swords has a strong affinity for the element of fire, tied to their embrace of love and other passions. Many of their Charms create, manipulate, or protect from fire, and their Invocation can be applied for free to affect either fire or anything that's on fire.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Pyro monsters are a monster type representing creatures who control or embody fire. They typically have effects revolving around inflicting damage without doing battle.
  • FIRE is an attribute commonly associated with dragon, machine, dinosaur and, of course, pyro-type monsters.
• The kineticist in pathfinder 2E allows you to channel the elements, and a fire focused one becomes a master of fire. One notable feat option is being able to bypass someone’s fire resistance and immunity, allowing you to burn something to death that literally cannot burn.

Theatre

• In Villains Tonight!, since having Hades' hair and back on fire as in the film would be both dangerous and expensive, he has a staff that shoots fireballs at anyone unfortunate enough to suffer his wrath.

Theme Parks

• Lord Darkenon in Poseidon's Fury at Universal's Islands of Adventure has the ability to create and control fire, which contrasts with Poseidon's ability over water.

Toys

• There's several subspecies with this power in BIONICLE, though some of the more notable characters are Tahu, Vakama, and Jaller. More often than not, they're The Leader of their group, because Fire Is Red and Red Is Heroic.
• The Infernites from Mixels. They habitat the Magma Wastelands and are one of the headliner tribes. They include Flain, Vulk, and Zorch. Wave 4 later introduced a second group of more lava-based members: Burnard, Flamzer, and Meltus.

Visual Novels

• Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane: Fire Bolt is an evocation spell that creates a fire ball that can be aimed towards a target. It's used by Aria in Case 5 when she needs to drain the oxygen from the Common Room so von Sanctus suffocates.

Web Animation

• Animator vs. Animation
  • The Choosen One from breath and shoot fire.
  • Firefox can also breath fire.
• Dreamscape:
  • Melissa has pyrokinesis.
  • Drake can restrain opponents with hands made of fire.
  • The pink fairy of Eleenin's Fire, Ice, Lightning fairy trio has fire powers.
  • Melinda can make it rain purple fireballs.
  • Dylan's Mechelly can shoot flamethrowers from her hands.
• DSBT InsaniT:
  • Killer Monster can spit fireballs and breathe fire. He also has lava powers.
  • ???'s Tyrannomon, fitting with the source material, can also spit fireballs and breathe fire.
  • Screech can breathe fire and spit out fireballs.
  • Averted with Fire Guy. Despite being a fireball, he has no command over it whatsoever.
• Lewis from Mystery Skulls Animated uses his ghostly abilities to light some candles, braziers and his own hair with magenta flames before filling an entire haunted mansion with the stuff. He is also able to wreath his hands in the purple flames in a fight.
• RWBY:
  • Yang is themed on fire and the sun. Her Semblance acts as a Super Mode, powering up her punches and shotgun rounds by absorbing attack energy so that she can redirect it back to the enemy. When her Semblance activates, her hair bursts into flames. As part of this theme, she favours Fire Dust ammunition in her gauntlet guns, producing explosive effects whenever she punches. From Volume 7, she starts incorporating sticky bombs that explode her enemies from a distance.
  • Cinder Fall is a fire-themed character, whose Semblance allows her to super-heat particles into a range of objects, allowing her to transform dust particles into obsidian weapons, evoking volcanic symbolism. After gaining the Fall Maiden powers, Cinder heavily favours fire attacks, ranging from bursts of heat and force, enhancing her Semblance's ability to shape glass weaponry and projectiles, and using fireballs or full streams of fire in battle. Although she can use other elements, she rarely does. By Volume 8, she has learned how to combine wind and fire to produce super-heated, fire-coloured tornados.
  • Among Salem's many abilities is power over fire. She can shoot blasts of it from her hands, most notably using it to kill Ozma's first reincarnation.
  • Amber fights with a staff that contains wind and fire Dust, favouring a wind and fire theme. Although she is willing to use a range of elemental powers when fighting Mercury and Emerald, as soon as Cinder enters the fray and ups the danger level, Amber begins using fire attacks on top of her Dust attacks.
• The Fire-Human, from Water-Human. He literally looks like he's made of fire and might, in fact, be just an Elemental Embodiment. His servants also have fire spells.
• Episode 8 of Super Mario Bros. Z asks the question of what would happen if Sonic the Hedgehog grabbed a Fire Flower, which naturally gives us Fire Sonic. He can throw Fireballs from his hands just like Fire Mario or Luigi, but he also uses a fiery version of his boost ability, as well as running a trail of fire around a group of Koopatrols, before making the trail erupt upwards into a massive pillar of flames.

Webcomics

• In Bob and George, Napalm from the hand-drawn comics has fire powers. It is latter revealed that Bob is Napalm and that he is the grandson of Satan.
• In Champions of Far'aus, fire spirits(which are more like elementals) can shoot fireballs from their hands.
• Butterfly from Collar 6 apparently picked up this ability from Trina. She is a somewhat rare case of a non-Pyromaniac villain to use this trope.
• In Cucumber Quest, Cucumber uses fire magic. The crabs even use the trope name.
• In Dragon Mango, Mango's powers are mostly fire-based.
• In Drowtales, any drow with a fire affinity or a fire foci can use this trope. Elemental Baggage, however, is Averted: fire needs to be present in some form. Therefore, fire-aligned mana users either carry around little burners — "fire pots" — or strike a spark when they require access to flame.
  • Of the Drowtales fire users, Chirinide Val'Kyorl'solenurn stands out the most:
    Chiri: Monstrousities of the body and hollow of soul! You deserve no pity! You shall be purged — IN FLAMES!
• El Goonish Shive has had several villans with fire powers: Damien had the ability set himself on fire without harming himself. The Omega Goo could breath fire. Finally there was an Aberration who could shoot fire from his hands.
• In Gunnerkrigg Court, Antimony soon received a Blinker Stone and quickly learned to use it, mostly for various pyrotechnic effects. You may also count uses of the phrase "fiery Surma" or synonyms. Which is neither quite a metaphor nor a coincidence.
  • Later, it is revealed that she, like her mother, are actually descendants of a Fire Elemental/Human pairing, and thus have a bit of supernatural fire burning inside them. Coyote makes a bit of a point out of the fact that, while she can generally be mistaken for an Emotionless Girl, the right prompting can cause Annie's temper to 'flare' with REMARKABLE speed.
• Celina of Imp conjures green fire as her default attack.
• Embers from IronGate has been this ever since the Fey enchanted/cursed her with fire powers as a child.
• Kyros from Irregular Webcomic!, though he usually winds up causing more harm than good with it due to extreme trigger-happiness.
• Red of the Waddle Dee Bros is seen attacking with fire in "Kirby Card Clash"
• Mage & Demon Queen: Fire magic is Malori's specialty. Due to an incident in her childhood, her skill in it has been jacked way over what it should be.
• In Maliki, Tan can emit and manipulate fire.
• Mob Psycho 100: Miyagawa possesses pyrokinesis. Even after Teru tricks him into immolating himself shows that Pyrokinetics are somewhat flame-retardant for some psychics.
• John Henry Hunter in Next Town Over. Aside from being able to produce flames from things like alcohol or matches, he is also able to mess with guns being fired, making it hard for people to shoot him.
• The titular character from Nosfera can throw fireballs.
• In Pacificators, we have a few people with this power: Cinna, Shiva, Yuma, and Kathy.
  • Pacificators Cinna is a rank B, and Kathy a rank Elite (Elite is the highest possible rank. B is the third highest). Renegades Shiva, who is the only character capable of a second power, is an unknown low type and Yuma is a type 7 (the lowest is 1, the highest is 10). They all have to have fuel of some kind with them; it's impossible for them to generate fire without fuel and oxygen.◊ They also carry bombs with them◊ (only the Elite-ranked Pacificators are allowed to carry liquid fuel with them).
  • Having the power of fire isn't all that awesome, though. They overheat if they get too angry.
• In The Red Star, sorceresses can light cigarettes -- indeed soldiers considered it lucky. It can also be used to more dramatic effect.
• In Sarilho, Pyrokinesis is associated with augurism, and all augurs are apparently able to conjure fire, although it's not clear to which degree.
• Sleepless Domain: Sally Fintan is a Magical Girl with the power to control fire. Her powers are more specialized than those of her teammates; she can't, for instance, use them to sense monsters or fly (though not for lack of trying — she once tried to use her powers as a jetboot, but "never again"). She makes up for this by being one of the strongest of her teammates in battle, second only to Tessa and her control over Aether.
• Cliff and Duster from Slightly Damned have the 'Siara Special'. It's powerful enough to ruin even a high-ranking Angel's afternoon. To a lesser extent, J has a tendency to make anything he touches explode.
• In Tower of God Yeon's powers are fire based. She gives Friendly Fire another meaning, too. There's also Quaetro Blitz and (according to Word of God) Quant.
• Wayward Sons: Hestya's powers are identical to Johnny Storm's, but almost nothing can withstand the heat she gives off while her powers are active. Like her clothes, for instance.
• In When She Was Bad, Gail temporarily gains pyrokinesis as her unstable, constantly-changing secondary superpower.
• In Wonder Weenies, Dee can spout flame from her hands, which noticeably also catch fire without harming her.
• Wychwood: Tiara has the ability to summon fire, which attracts unwanted attention because she can do magic without using a "caster" interface.
• In Yokoka's Quest, Mao's primary use of magic in combat is to throw fireballs, and in chapter 9 he also sets his whip aflame. He also tries to scare Yin away with a fireball as a child.

Web Original

• The Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society's Tash uses very powerful fire magic, first with a staff, then with a sword.
• Chronicles of Syntax has Shia, who can manipulate her own thermal energy to create and control fire. Unlike some other examples, she's neither a redhead not hotblooded. In fact, she can be quite the Cloudcuckoolander at times. Unless she's actually trying to kill you, in which case avoiding fireballs becomes a necessary skill.
• Agent Hu from Curveball can become a living pillar of flame (asbestos underwear not included).
• In Dead West, the Porcelain Doctor has this, paired with Healing Hands and a couple of other Psychic Powers. At the time the story begins, this power starts to overflow, making him run a constant fever. This particular gift comes in handy for field operations after clashes with the shamblers.
• Deviant: Alpha and Flare both represent this trope — Alpha is a calokinetic who heats things up enough to set them aflame and is crazy to boot; Flare, meanwhile, can absorb and unleash solar energy as blasts of flame.
• Frollo has command over pyrokinetic magic, as well as a fireplace that doubles as a TV and computer, on The Frollo Show.
• One of the first major villains in MovieBob's The Game Overthinker series is a Fire ninja known as Pyrothinker, who burns down classic game stores and arcades. A few episodes later he is revealed to have an Ice counterpart in the Cryothinker.
• In How to Hero's list of reasons to change your codename, the hero formerly known as The Flaming Dick is mentioned under the reason "The evolution of language has resulted in your codename now having unfortunate implications" he now goes by "The Combustible Detective."
• Oddly enough for a Mon setting, Mortasheen has only two of these: Smoldronand Thermalunk. Presumably because of the fact that most monsters can use these powers via Psychic Powers.
• Nightmare Time: Spitfire is a teenager with fire-based superpowers, using fireballs, flaming kicks, and smoke to beat her opponents in the ring.
• Noob has fire elementalists that include Roxana and Pironess, the Phoenix of fire.
• The Saints: Marcus is the only mage seen using fire so far, wielding it when he rescued the group from a mob of feral ghosts.
• SCP Foundation:
  • SCP-2757 ("Dr. Wondertainment's Projector Fantastico™"). When the SCP-2757 projector is used with the film SCP-2757-1e The Valiant Crusaders, one of the powers gained by the experimental subjects is pyrokinesis.
  • SCP-2814 ("Heretic of the Torch"). When a human being wears the SCP-2814 mask they can (a) manipulate fire as if it were a liquid or solid (b) modify the temperature of fire under their control (c) touch or "hold" their fire without being harmed and (d) take no damage from heat or flame up to 5000 °C.
• The Slender Man Mythos: The Slender Man is often associated with fire, whether causing it or just being attracted to it. There's also TheArsonist of Dreams in Darkness.
• Whateley Universe:
  • Fireball, as well as Sparkler after she gets her power gauntlets in the first Ayla story.
  • In "Christmas Elves", Fey quite literally plays with fire — and then turns it back on the mooks who thought using flamethrowers against the reincarnation of a Sidhe queen on excellent terms with fire elementals back in the day was a good idea.
• Worm has a few, most notably Burnscar, a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, who can create intense fires and teleport between flames. The more fire she uses, however, the more damaged and weakened her emotions get — and she's already pretty unstable, having joined the Nine after escaping from a mental institution.

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Come on baby, light my fire...

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