If you strip a shader down to the essentials, you get exactly what you’re after: a line that produces color, a line that changes it, a single noise or math trick to make it feel alive. Drop the uniforms that you’ll never tweak, keep only one varying for time, and let the fragment code decide everything. Use a simple exponential ramp to get that “blazing” feel, mix in a sine or noise for variation, and a few color swaps to keep the palette small but striking. It’s the same principle as a minimalist wardrobe: the fewer the items, the more attention each piece gets. So, write the shortest code you can that still moves the eye, and the explosion will happen automatically.