Playing With / Burn the Undead

Basic Trope: Fire is effective at destroying undead.

• Straight: Zombies burn easily.
• Exaggerated: A zombie that withstood several SMG clips goes up like a firecracker when Alice throws a lit cigarette at it.
• Downplayed:
  • It does work, but it takes a lot of heat to the point where killing them with kinetic weapons is sometimes more efficient.
  • Ice and acid are also effective against zombies, but fire's easier to deploy and aim.
• Justified:
  • The zombies were embalmed before burial. As a mixture of formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol, and several other chemicals, embalming fluid is highly flammable.
    • Embalming zombies is essentially a requirement if they are to be useful long-term as they rot too quickly otherwise.
  • Undead tissue has to be destroyed on the cellular level to prevent it being repurposed.
  • Necromancy is symbolically associated with darkness and cold. Fire, as the exact opposite, counteracts the magic that animates the undead.
• Inverted:
  • Fire makes undead stronger.
  • The most reliable way to keep a skeleton from Pulling Themselves Together is to freeze and shatter them.
• Subverted: Bob takes a flamethrower to a vampire, expecting it to burn rapidly. The vamp sarcastically says, "Ow, that really hurts."
• Double Subverted: But when Alice gets out a gun loaded with incendiary rounds, the vamp catches fire rapidly. Turns out they're only invulnerable to fire on the outside.
• Parodied:
  • A vampire is stalking Bob. By pure coincidence Bob chooses that moment to light up a bong and the vampire runs away screaming and crying.
  • A vampire drops dead after a particularly savage insult making fun of his fashion sense.
  • A vampire dies after losing his job.
• Zig Zagged: Skeletons and mummies are vulnerable to fire, but not ghouls or vampires. The lich is vulnerable to fire, but sometimes casts "Resist Flame" on himself in combat.
• Averted: Fire is no more effective at destroying undead than anything else, or is completely ineffective.
• Enforced: The network wants more action, less cerebral character drama. Using this trope is an excuse to give Bob a flamethrower.
• Lampshaded: "Did you just slay a vampire with a cigarette lighter? I thought you had to stake them."
• Invoked: The necromancers who created the zombies needed a way out if they were Turned Against Their Masters, so they made the zombies weak to fire and prepared fire spells.
• Exploited: Alice loads her shotgun with incendiary shells, knowing that zombies burn well.
• Defied: A necromancer enchants his zombies with heat resistance spells.
• Discussed:
  Bob: Alice, why are you pouring lamp oil on the zombies?
  Alice: I'm gonna light them on fire.
• Conversed: "You know, they missed an opportunity to have Alice and Bob use that gas stove as an impromptu zombie barbecue."
• Deconstructed: While it technically kills The Virus it also spreads it everywhere meaning burning the undead is a very good way to infect everyone around them if they aren't wearing proper protection.

---

Back to Burn the Undead.

---