History Main / FirstTimeInTheSun

* ''Creator/HPLovecraft'': Played straight and then horrifically subverted in ''The Outsider''. The unnamed narrator has lived his entire life alone in an ancient, desolate castle and has never even seen the sun or the moon because the dense, dark forest outside blocks the sky, and he only knows about the outside world from the books that line the walls. Finally, he can't take his miserable existance anymore, and makes a dangerous climb up the half-ruined tower that stretches above the treeline, and finally reaches a strange room. There, a gate allows passage to the outside, and he sees the moonlit night sky for the first time in his life, and it's just as magnificent as he had always imagined... [[spoiler: except the gate doesn't open up into empty air as he expects, but ground-level to another world. Namely, a cemetary. At this point, the reader has probably already guessed the twist, but it takes the narrator some more exploration to realize it, and from that point on, the sky just functions as a reminder of what he is and how he can never rejoin the living world, consigned forever to the shadows with other shambling half-lives like himself.]]

* In Creator/TheBBC series ''Earthsearch'', the Angel computers attempt to dissuade their human crew (who have spent their entire lives on a SleeperStarship) from settling on Paradise by claiming the seas are poisonous and the Northern Lights are a sign of high radiation levels.

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* In the pilot episode of ''Series/TerraNova'', just before the characters walk out into the purer world of 85 million years ago, the PA system can be heard warning them that their eyes may not be used to unfiltered sunlight.

-->'''Toscat:''' You defied the Caretaker by going to the surface, Kes. Learn from the experience. Follow the path he has set for us.
-->'''Kes:''' I've learned very well, Toscat. ''I saw the sunlight!'' I can't believe that our Caretaker would forbid us to open our eyes and see the sky.

* In TheBBC series ''Earthsearch'', the Angel computers attempt to dissuade their human crew (who have spent their entire lives on a SleeperStarship) from settling on Paradise by claiming the seas are poisonous and the Northern Lights are a sign of high radiation levels.

* Asimov's classic short story, "Literature/{{Nightfall}}", both inverts this (it's built around a civilization on a world that orbits two binaries seeing the stars for the first time when all the suns briefly set) and subverts it (instead of being awed, as the Emerson quote that inspired the story suggests, [[ApocalypseAnarchy a civilization-ending panic and insanity outbreak ensues]]).
* Averted in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Robot Trilogy'': most people from Earth are agoraphobic. The protagonist Elijah Baley describes standing on bare soil as feeling like he is standing on a rotting corpse.

* Happens to Quasimodo at the end of ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' when Phoebus and Esmeralda lead him out of the cathedral after Frollo is dead. While he has been outside before, this time Quasimodo openly reveals himself to the people of Paris. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming They accept him with open arms]].

* Brony Dance Party's PMV for [[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KwW9slmrKXo Awoken]] has this happen to H8_Seed's OC after his escape from the RainbowFactory. Soon after, A Blue Skittle's OC appears, and [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming they share a hug!]]

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* Disney's ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'': Rapunzel has always seen the outdoors through the windows of her tower, but going out in it for the first time fills her with wonder and joy.

* In the finale of ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', the ''Axiom'' finally returns to earth and its passengers disembark. But the awe of the moment is undercut by WALL•E's peril. The image would have been weakened in any case because the film uses TheWorldIsJustAwesome moments from the word go.
* Happens to Quasimodo at the end of ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' when Phoebus and Esmeralda lead him out of the cathedral after Frollo is dead. While he has been outside before, this time Quasimodo openly reveals himself to the people of Paris. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming They accept him with open arms]].

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* In ''Film/LogansRun'', when the protagonists see the sun for the first time, they don't even know what it is.
* At the end of ''Film/{{THX 1138}}'' the protagonist emerges from the underground city to find himself on the surface of the Earth for the first time, just as the sun is setting. We don't see much of what the surface is like, however, nor his reaction to seeing it because he's only seen from behind. (Plus it's getting dark, and who knows what dangers might be lurking in the night...)
* In ''Film/{{Frankenstein 1931}}'', the doctor opens a skylight over the monster, who embraces the sunbeam. He seems rather put out when the skylight is closed.
* ''Film/CityOfEmber'' has the protagonists come out from the underground city... to a wholly dark sky. They start doubting their whole trip, believing that what they were told about the dead world outside is true. Then the dawn comes...
* In the British 1963 sci-fi movie ''These Are The Damned'' (aka ''The Damned''), children resistant to fallout are held in a secret facility, to be released after nuclear war breaks out to ensure the survival of the human race. When they escape for a short time, they stare in amazement at the sun they've never seen, ignoring the soldiers moving in to recapture them.

* Played with in {{Literature/Silverwing}}: The whole plot of the first book is set in motion when Shade dares to stay up long enough to see the sun (which, as a bat, he is not allowed to do). When the owls burn down his home as punishment, he decides to give the sun back to all bats. Later he and his friend Marina fly in bright daylight and they are amazed about how different the world looks and how warm the sun is. However, they do have [[DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes some problems]]. Also, the [[DarkIsNotEvil darkness is not shown as something horrible]] and Shade is described as a creature of the night and he is happy with it. Other bats even question the necessity of seeing the sun and the young ones are afraid the sun will blind them or turn them into dust.

* In her climactic fight against a dozen [[TheDreaded Steel Inquisitors]] at the end of [[Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy the Mistborn trilogy]], Vin engages a Steelpush so powerful it rockets her into the atmosphere, above the everpresent mist, to become the first person to see the naked stars in at least a thousand years. Shortly after, she AscendsToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.

* Played with in ''Literature/{{Thumbelina}}''. The titular tiny woman laments how winter has killed everything and it's all dark. But when the fairy prince comes for her, and spring returns, it's all like she's seeing it for the first time.
* Averted in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Robot Trilogy'': most people from Earth are agoraphobic. The protagonist Elijah Baley describes standing on bare soil as feeling like he is standing on a rotting corpse.

* Inverted in ''Literature/TheSilverChair'' with Prince Rilian. When he sees the Deep Lands for the first time, he longs to go and explore the pits of lava and mine the living gems, becoming the first person to reach the bottom of the world. Eustace and Jill stop him, however.
** Likewise, deep enough under ground the expedition meets natives who have only heard that if you go high enough eventually there are no more ceilings, "just a horrid emptiness called Sky"
** Played straight when the protagonists see Rilian tied to the chair, as the brainwashing spell wears off of him. Before he notices other people in the room with him, he sadly remembers the surface world, before he'd been kidnapped.
* In ''Literature/TheGiver'', among the memories Jonas gets from the Receiver is one of the sun, suggesting it's somehow filtered out.
* Invoked by Creator/{{Plato}}'s famous "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave#Release_from_the_cave Allegory of the Cave]]," which uses the likely negative reaction of the lifelong cave dweller to being forcibly taken out of the cave and into the sun as a metaphor for the resistance to the truth.
* Most of the characters in Creator/RayBradbury's classic short story "All Summer in A Day." They 're children who live on a perpetually wet, cloudy Venus (before [[ScienceMarchesOn it was realized that the planet was inhospitable to life]]) where the sun only comes out for one hour every seven years.
* In Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/TheCityAndTheStars'', it's implied that the sun is somewhat filtered from [[CityInABottle the city]], therefore only outside, where only Alvin goes, can it truly be seen.
* Deconstructed in the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}''. Zealous cave-dweller Relg, commanded by his god to go with the party onto the surface, has to keep his eyes bound so that the sunlight does not hurt him, is terrified by the prospect of leaving his homeland, and immediately develops agoraphobia after seeing the sky.

* Played with in ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt''. He first sees the sun not at the end, but at the middle of ''Homeland''. It's noteworthy that the other drow with him flinch back away from the light, and he stays in it until he's told the demonstration of the awfulness of the sun is done.
* Averted in Creator/GeorgeMacDonald's fairy tale ''The Day-Boy and the Night-Girl''. When [[MeaningfulName Nycteris]], who has lived all her life in a cave, ventures outside and sees the Sun for the first time, she is [[DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes temporarily blinded]] and thinks she and the entire world are burning alive. She hates the Sun for years.
** As you might have guessed from the title, inverted by Photogen.
* This happens in Geraldine [=MacDonald=] Wallis' now-forgotten classic fantasy ''Legend of Lost Earth'' -- exactly as described in the intro, except the people had a few hours on Earth at night, letting them gradually get used to it.

* In ''[[Literature/HumanxCommonwealth Midworld]]'', Born's people are descendants of a lost human space colony, who've adapted to life in the third ecological level of an ''incredibly'' deadly [[SingleBiomePlanet Jungle World]] with miles-high vegetation. Born is considered an impressively brave and agile, but also foolhardy, explorer of the forest, because he's climbed to the even deadlier "upper Hell" of the canopy-top and seen the sun ''three times'' in his life. In the sequel, ''Mid-Flinx'', a foraging party is enthralled to discover a gap in the forest where a gargantuan tree has fallen from old age, that allows them to see the open sky for the first time in the children's lives.

** In the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock "Gridlock"]], after spending their lives on an underground motorway, the inhabitants of New New New (etc.) York are enthralled when the Doctor fixes the transport system so that they can fly up into the sky and city for the first time.
** Also the Dalek in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]]. There is something so pitiful about it opening its tank and reaching a tentacle into the sunlight.

* In a variant, the first time Vincent from ''Series/{{Beauty and the Beast|1987}}'' remembers going above ground, he saw the ''moon'' and found it beautiful.
* In a deleted scene from ''Series/{{Kings}}'', Andrew Cross' first act as [[spoiler:the King's new favorite after Jonathan's disgrace]] is to set free Silas' deposed predecessor, Vesper Abaddon, from indefinite solitary confinement (as he himself spent ten years there). Being free to walk out of his prison and be not only [[DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes dazzled by the sudden sunlight]] but by the open air and his natural surroundings almost reduces even [[RetiredMonster Abaddon]] to tears.

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* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "Mirror". The clan had been turned into humans earlier in the episode, but are back in their true forms by the end. As the sun starts to rise Hudson laments he would have liked to have seen the sun, just once.
** And then played straight. The episode ends with Demona seeing/feeling the sun for the first time and rejoicing in how good it feels...before she realizes that she's now ''human'' (in the day at least).
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheFlashpointParadox'': alt. baby Clark's capsule crashed in Metropolis, and he's been kept there under red light every since. That's until he's rescued by Flash and co.

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* Happens to Quasimodo at the end of ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' when Phoebus and Esmeralda tell him to come out of the cathedral now that Frollo is dead and no one will make fun of him anymore.

* The British 1963 sci-fi movie ''These Are The Damned'' (aka ''The Damned''). Children resistant to fallout are held in a secret facility, to be released after nuclear war breaks out, to ensure the survival of the race. When they escape for a short time, they stare in amazement at the sun they've never seen, regardless of the soldiers moving in to capture them.

* In ''Earthsearch'', the Angels attempt to dissuade their human crew (who have spent their entire lives on a SleeperStarship) from settling on Paradise by claiming the seas are poisonous and the Northern Lights are a sign of high radiation levels.

* In ''[[Literature/HumanxCommonwealth Midworld]]'', Born's people are descendants of a lost human space colony, who've adapted to life in the third ecological level of an ''incredibly'' deadly [[SingleBiomePlanet Jungle World]] with miles-high vegetation. Born is considered an impressively brave and agile, but also foolhardy, explorer of the forest, because he's climbed to the even deadlier "upper Hell" of the canopy-top and seen the sun ''three times'' in his life.

* In ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers Of Victory'', Klarion Bleak, who's spent his whole life in a small, dark, and perpetually rainy town beneath the earth, is forced to flee to the surface, and finds himself in modern-day Manhattan, in the daylight. He's awed.

* This happens to much of Tokyo in the Neutral Ending of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV''. To protect the city from an incoming ICBM, local deity Masakado formed a layer of bedrock with his body, which became known as the Firmament. [[spoiler:He stayed there for twenty five years to the people inside, while more than ''fifteen centuries'' passed outside]]. It is removed once both Lucifer and Merkabah have been defeated, finally raising the barrier and flooding the long-darkened streets of Tokyo with sunlight as the citizens and even the demons can only watch in awe.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFtJeKojFfI This video]] of former research lab Beagles encountering sun and grass for the first time.

* The BigBad of ''MightyMax'' has been trapped underground in the center of the earth for thousands of years. He will often speak of how nice it would be to see the sun again. When he finally does escape he has a genuine moment of happiness at seeing the sun again. Then he summons a dragon and begins trying to TakeOverTheWorld.

->''"The myths of the Daystar were true!"''
-->-- '''[[MemeticMutation Internet meme]]'''

* This trope is downplayed for drama in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', in which [[spoiler:the Divine Powers' [[TheDragon Dragon]] (figuratively ''and'' literally) Shesha pierces through the bedrock to make its introduction.]] People stare in awe at Tokyo's first exposure to sunlight in 25 years[[note]]''Apocalypse'' being an AlternateContinuity in which Flynn's mission to save Tokyo is interrupted[[/note]], though the joy doesn't last long since [[spoiler:the forces of Merkabah and Lucifer are still at large and Shesha is capable of striking anywhere it pleases.]]

* This trope is downplayed for drama in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', in which [[spoiler:the Divine Powers' [[TheDragon Dragon]] (figuratively ''and'' literally) Shesha pierces through the bedrock to make its introduction. People stare in awe at Tokyo's first exposure to sunlight in 25 years[[note]]''Apocalypse'' being an AlternateContinuity in which Flynn's mission to save Tokyo is interrupted[[/note]], though the joy doesn't last long since the forces of Merkabah and Lucifer are still at large and Shesha is capable of striking anywhere it pleases.]]