History Main / SuicideBySunlight

* ''Series/MidnightMass2021'': In the fifth episode, [[spoiler:[[DecoyProtagonist Riley]] opts to go out this way rather than live as a vampire, taking a canoe out onto the water beforehand so that he can't possibly escape.]]
** At the end of the final episode, [[spoiler:every other vampire on the island, having burned all their possible places of sanctuary in a fervour, calmly accept this as their fate and spend their last moments singing hymns and comforting each other. Only [[BigBad Bev Keane]] attempts (unsuccessfully) to delay the inevitable by digging a hole in the ground to hide in.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': In the series finale, [[DarkChick Lenore]] -- having gone past the DespairEventHorizon after losing her sisters and power -- chooses death over eternity in a GildedCage. So after some parting words with Hector, she walks onto a balcony and calmly waits for the sun to rise, quickly incinerating when it does.

There are a lot of reasons for a vampire to get fed up with their undead condition: WhoWantsToLiveForever, WhatHaveIBecome, HorrorHunger, and WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere just to name a few. However, should they choose to kill themselves and [[UndeathAlwaysEnds end their undeath]], they won't have it easy; being a vampire means they're immune to most methods of suicide except for those that involve extreme force. Sure, OurVampiresAreDifferent means they vary in toughness and weaknesses, but they're immune to things like poisons, exsanguination just sends them into a feeding frenzy, and hanging or drowning do nothing (no breathing). Even stepping into traffic may not do the job, leaving them a painful heap of broken but still unliving bones. This leaves only things like decapitation, which is impractical since not everyone has a personal guillotine, and self-immolation, which is easy to chicken out of.

* ''Film/BladeII'': After she's infected by the Reaper virus, Nyssa Damaskinos asks Blade to carry her out in the open just before dawn so she can see the sunlight and [[DyingAsYourself die while she's still a vampire]]. When the sun comes up she disintegrates in his arms.

-->-- ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "Amends"

!!Examples:

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''
** In "Amends", Angel tries to do this despite Buffy's pleading, but a [[ChristmasMiracle miraculous snow shower]] clouds the sky so the sun doesn't show.
** Earlier in Season 2, [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Angelus]] sends a henchvamp to deliver a message to Buffy in broad daylight as part of his campaign of psychological warfare. Why a vampire would agree to do this is unexplained. As Angelus is trying to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, perhaps his minions are swept up in the apocalyptic fervor.

* ''Series/{{Preacher|2016}}'': In the series finale, after finding out about [[spoiler: Jesse and Tulip's death after seemingly living a long happy life together, Cassidy decides to walk away from their graves without an umbrella and burn up in the sunlight.]]

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* In ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'', Horst Cabal is arguing with his brother just before the dawn-when he realizes Johannes is simply too far gone, he walks across a plain despite his brother's pleas to get indoors and dies very quickly, turned to dust.

* In ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'', Lestat tries at one point, but at that point he's actually too powerful to die and just develops a permanent tan. Louis tries it too, but again is so powerful that his friends get the chance to save him before it can outright kill him.
** In ''Literature/TheVampireLestat'', the "Mother" and "Father" of all vampires went out in the sun; it's not clear in-text whether this was a suicide attempt, a ''murder'' attempt, or if they knew they'd be fine. Anyway, it did not harm ''them'' because they were so powerful, but ''all the other vampires'' suffered serious burns (at best), even halfway around the globe in the middle of the night.
** Armand tries one too at the end of ''Literature/MemnochtheDevil'', but like Louis or Lestat, he is too old and powerful to actually get killed by the sun. It takes him quite a long while to recover, however.
*** We only find out about his "survival" in a later book. All the characters in ''Memnoch the Devil'' just assume he really did meet the sun. Interestingly, his reasons for this are not any of those mentioned above. He found religion after hearing Lestat's story (in which he drinks Jesus's blood) and seeing Veronica's Veil. The idea is that his spontaneous combustion would make people believe even more.
*** The minor character Mael succeeds where Armand fails.

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* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}, this is the fate of a Vampire who has no way to maintain contact with his home soil in the daytime(either burying themselves in it or having a layer of it in their coffin): they are compelled to stay out until the sun comes for them.
* Both ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' and ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' have this happening regularly, to the point that "watch the sunrise" is a vampiric euphemism for committing suicide. They also use it as a ''form of execution'', amusingly; it's frequently mentioned that punishments for extremely foul crimes may include being chained to an east-facing wall.

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* In Technomad's ''Fanfic/TheTrioWhoReturned'': First chapter [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7471389/1/The-Trio-Who-Returned here]], [[spoiler: Harry, Ron, and Hermione]], having become vampires and done what they originally set out to do, sit outside and wait for the sun to rise.

** Nick Knight attempted suicide this way once, only to pull back as he started to burn.
** A Vietnamese vampire who [=LaCroix=] brought over so he could get revenge on the army troop who slaughtered his village does this after the last one is dead (also by suicide over regret of the massacre).
** There's a female vampire in an early episode who does this as well. It's assumed to be SpontaneousHumanCombustion by a witness.

* In the final book of ''Literature/TheLastWerewolf'' trilogy, ''By Blood We Live'', this is revealed to be an extremely common cause of permadeath among vampires. No matter how enthusiastically or reluctantly their condition came about, once they've lived a thousand years or so they almost inevitably expose themselves to the sunlight either through sheer boredom, disillusionment with eternal life, or the emotional weight of living much longer than a human should with a still functionally human mind. At the trilogy's climax, [[spoiler:Remshi]] goes out this way after peacefully reaching what they term "the end of my psychology".

* In the final book of ''Literature/TheLastWerewolf'' trilogy, ''By Blood We Live'', this is revealed to be an extremely common cause of permadeath among vampires. No matter how enthusiastically or reluctantly their condition came about, once they've lived a thousand years or so they almost inevitably expose themselves to the sunlight either through sheer boredom, disillusionment with eternal life, or the emotional weight of living much longer than a human should with a still functionally human mind. At the trilogy's climax, [[spoiler:Remshi]] goes out this way after peacefully reaching the end of what they term "the end of my psychology".

* Discussed in ''Series/BloodTies'', when [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Henry]] is watching ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' with Vicki. He explains that it's bullshit that Orlok was tricked into exposing himself to the sun, as every vampire instinctively knows the time of day. By that logic, Orlok knew was he was doing.

For these reasons, [[TitleDrop suicide by sunlight]] is the preferred method for a lot of vampires. They'll avoid the hassle by simply going out during twilight and [[CueTheSun waiting for the dawn]], or even just stepping out into direct sunlight mid-day. From a storytelling perspective and for an added and romantic bonus, it's hard to top this method for sheer pathos. There will be a quiet scene as the vampire waits [[FaceDeathWithDignity nervously yet resolutely]] for the dawn, only to break out into screams [[ManOnFire and flames]] as the dawn's rays hit. In ''very'' rare cases the vampire achieves a level of inner peace beforehand that allows them to ignore the pain and die in peace(and if they're ''really'' lucky, the sun kills them so fast they just go [=*poof*=]). For extra ''extra'' pathos, a loved one of theirs will try to get them to find shelter, only to have them soon mourning over [[NoBodyLeftBehind a small pile of ashes]] that [[DramaticWind scatters in the wind.]]

* In ''Film/{{Thirst}}'', [[spoiler: the main character decides upon this fate for him and his wife.]] His wife naturally refuses at first but eventually accepts.

* ''Series/MidnightMass'': In the fifth episode, [[spoiler:[[DecoyProtagonist Riley]] opts to go out this way rather than live as a vampire, taking a canoe out onto the water beforehand so that he can't possibly escape.]]

* ''comicbook/VictorianUndead II: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula'': Mina does this after Dracula bites her and seeing how vampirisim has affected Lucy's demeanor after she was turned and not wishing the same to happen to herself.
* In ''ComicBook/XMen Annual'' #6, Rachel Van Helsing has been turned into a vampire by {{Dracula}}. She asks ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} to kill her. He hugs her and stabs her with a stake. Before she dies, she sees one last sunrise which turns her to ash.

* ''Film/BladeII''. After she's infected by the Reaper virus, Nyssa Damaskinos asks Blade to carry her out in the open just before dawn so she can see the sunlight and [[DyingAsYourself die while she's still a vampire]]. When the sun comes up she disintegrates in his arms.

* ''Film/WeAreTheNight'': Charlotte, a depressed vampire, kills herself after her elderly daughter dies.

* A horrified newly-made vampire tries this in ''Literature/TheLastAmericanVampire''. [[spoiler: As any reader of the previous book in this world, ''Literature/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'' knows, it doesn't work.]]
* The demon prince Azhrarn does this at the end of Creator/TanithLee's first Flat Earth book, ''Night's Master''. His seductions of earth women have finally caught up with him, when a girl's fiancé, transformed by him into a horrific monster, lets loose a torrent of hate upon the world. The Hate continues even after the poor boy is dead and is about to consume the earth. In a [[WhatHaveIDone rare moment of decency]], Azhrarn realizes he loves the earth and humanity, not just as a plaything. He goes to where the Hate has made a terrible wound in the sky, sits out in the sun and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything lets himself be crucified]] on its rays and burnt to ash. And the ashes of his love banish Hate, bringing a time of innocence like {{Arcadia}} to the earth.

* Averted in ''Series/{{Moonlight}}'', as sunlight does not cause vampires to burst into flames but merely dehydrates them very fast, usually resulting in a feeding frenzy. Dying this way would take a ''long'' time and would be very painful. Self-immolation is much faster (instant, in fact) and much less painful, although at least two old vampires are shown to have survived contact with fire ([[spoiler: Coraline]] and Lance). The finale does feature a vampire choosing to die by flamethrower [[spoiler: with his wife]] rather than spend eternity alone...
* Discussed in ''Series/BloodTies'', when [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Henry]] is watching ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' with Vicki. He explains that it's bullshit that Orlok was tricked into exposing himself to the sun, as every vampire instinctively knows the time of day. By that logic, Orlok knew was he was doing.
* PlayedForLaughs in an ''Series/InLivingColor'' sketch where Dracula chooses to die in the morning sun rather than spend another minute with [[{{Gonk}} Wanda.]]
* ''Series/{{Preacher|2016}}'': In the series finale, after finding out about [[spoiler: Jesse and Tulip's death after seemingly living a long happy life together, Cassidy decides to walk away from their graves without an umbrella and burn up in the sunlight.]]
* Non-vampiric example: in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire "Dragonfire"]] the villain Kane, an [[AnIcePerson ultra-low-temperature]] humanoid alien, [[ImMelting melts himself]] to death by exposing himself to unfiltered direct sunlight, after discovering that he waited too long to put his plans into motion and all the people he intended to take vengeance on were already dead.

* "Der Graf" (The Count) by German punkrock band ''Die Ärzte'' is about a vampire who cannot keep up with modern life (he eats rats because he is afraid of AIDS). The song ends with him crying while sitting on a mountain and waiting for the sun.

* Black Luther from ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeRedemption'' ties himself to a cross and asks the PlayerCharacter to open the church's windows so the sun's rays can burn him to dust.
* ''VideoGame/NieR'' has a non-vampiric, but still sunlight-vulnerable character. [[spoiler:[[TheHeartless Shade]] Yonah]] does this by purposefully emerging from her human host into a beam of sunlight.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', NPC vampires living in apartments originally engaged in a behavior that strongly appeared to be this trope. Actually, they were [[ArtificialStupidity just trying to mail their rent payments]]. The bug eventually got resolved.

** ''Videogame/SunlessSkies'' allows you to cross this with SuicideByCop. [[spoiler: If you attempt to assault The Sapphir'd King, one of the aforementioned Judgements, the King will alter the laws so that you become is-not. The game actively warns you that choosing this will kill you, quite possibly more than anyone has ever been killed in all existence.]][[/folder]]

%% Image selected per IP thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=143810470205837760
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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/BladeII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_inline_mqkjlyb9ps1qz4rgp.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350: "I want to die while I'm still a vampire...I want to see the sun."]]

%% Caption selected per IP thread above. Please do not replace or remove without discussion here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* In one story of the manga ''Manga/BeautifulPeople'', a vampire encounters a little girl with blue eyes who had been abandoned in a park. On a whim, he decides to care for the girl. She is unafraid of his vampiric nature, merely pitying him because he can't look at a sunny blue sky, and she tells him that he just needs to look at her blue eyes to see the sky. They grow closer as the years go by, until one day she closed her blue eyes forever. The vampire doesn't grieve because he knows how to find her again. He opens the window to look at the blue sky...
* In part 2 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', [[FaceHeelTurn Straizo]] kills himself using [[ThePowerOfTheSun Hamon]] after warning Joseph of the [[BigBad Pillar Men]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}:'' [[spoiler:Cassidy]] chooses to go out this way in atonement. [[spoiler: Subverted in that he had made a deal with God to come BackFromTheDead as a regular human.]]
* At the end of ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'', [[spoiler: Eben]] purposefully lets himself be bitten so that he'll become a vampire; he uses his newly acquired super-strength to [[spoiler: kill the BigBad]]. Afterwards, knowing that he'll eventually feel the urge to kill/drain his loved ones and probably turn evil, he commits suicide via sunlight.
* In ''ComicBook/XMen Annual'' #6, Rachel Van Helsing has been turned into a vampire by {{Dracula}}. She asks {{Wolverine}} to kill her. He hugs her and stabs her with a stake. Before she dies, she sees one last sunrise which turns her to ash.

** And then ComicBook/Hitman1993 comes along and we find out [[AvertedTrope that he changed his mind at the last minute]].

* Arguably the most popular stories from DC's [[AlternateUniverse Elseworld series]] is the [[ComicBook/BatmanVampire Batman & Dracula]] trilogy; ''Red Rain'', ''Bloodstorm'' and ''Crimson Mist''. In the third and final installment, [[spoiler: Batman]] no longer feels able to control his lust for blood and invokes this trope in a final act of nobility.
* [[Literature/VarneyTheVampire Varnae]] the [[MonsterProgenitor first vampire]] in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse eventually grew weary of his existence. After bequeathing most of his power to a young fledgling vampire named Dracula, Varnae stepped out into the sunlight.
* ''Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula'': Mina does this after Dracula bites her and seeing how vampirisim has affected Lucy's demeanor after she was turned and not wishing the same to happen to herself.

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* ''Film/UnderworldAwakening''- A human character explains to Selene that his vampire wife chose to die this way during ThePurge.

* In ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', there's the [[LastOfHisKind Furyan]] Necromonger "The Purifier". Not really a vampire (but possibly could be considered "undead" due to his religion): he commits suicide by walking out into the sunlight of Crematoria. Of course, Crematoria is basically Mercury, so anyone caught in the open would burn like a vampire. Much in line with the rest of this trope, he walked into the sun after explaining to Riddick that he was tired of the brainwashing the Necromongers used to force him to serve them and trusted Riddick (a fellow Furyan) to avenge their people.
* Not a vampire example either: in ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'', [[spoiler: the crew psychologist has a fixation on the Sun and goes out this way after being trapped on the first ship]].
* ''Film/MoonChild'' ends with Sho and Kei being incinerated together in the daylight.
* The eponymous ''Film/{{Blacula}}'' ends his un-life this way, once he decides there's nothing to keep him in the world anymore. (Then he's resurrected in the sequel.)
* Dracula attempts this early on in ''Film/DraculaUntold'', [[spoiler:and much later, though he is [[InterruptedSuicide stopped by]] [[TheRenfield Shkelgim]]]].
* ''Film/InnocentBlood''. The FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire tries this at the end of the movie but is talked out of it by her human LoveInterest.
* ''Film/ThePromise2005'' has a non-vampire example with [[spoiler: Snow Wolf]], an immortal from the Land of Snow who must never allow himself to be exposed to sunlight. His suicide involves him casting aside his cloak and getting disintegrated by dawn.
* ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'': [[spoiler: Eben waits with Stella]] on the morning when the sun returns and is burned into ash.

* In the third ''Film/TheLibrarian'' movie, Simone does this so that her soul can finally be at peace.

* A vampire does this in book two of the ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries''.

** Relatedly, there's a pair of Creator/WhiteWolf vampire short stories having to do with artists. One kills himself before he can be made into a vampire, in order to avoid CreativeSterility and/or having to give up the sun. One who is already a vampire then becomes obsessed with sunlight and starts staying up late every dawn to try to watch it rise, only barely managing to drag herself away with growing burns each time. The implication is that eventually it will become this trope.

** In ''The Vampire Lestat'', the "Mother" and "Father" of all vampires went out in the sun; it's not clear in-text whether this was a suicide attempt, a ''murder'' attempt, or if they knew they'd be fine. Anyway, it did not harm ''them'' because they were so powerful, but ''all the other vampires'' suffered serious burns (at best), even halfway around the globe in the middle of the night.
** Armand tries one too at the end of ''Memnoch the Devil'', but like Louis or Lestat, he is too old and powerful to actually get killed by the sun. It takes him quite a long while to recover, however.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' book 2 ''Literature/NewMoon'': Edward plans to commit suicide this way, but it wouldn't be the sunlight that killed him-- instead, after sparkling in public the other vampires would have him KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade.
* Played with in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/TheTruth,'' where Otto the vampire loves flash photography but the light involved gives him a lot of pain or disintegrates him. He ends up having to carry a vial of blood around his neck that smashes in his remains when he dies, causing him to come alive again.
* Possible twist at the end of ''[[Literature/TheParasolProtectorate Soulless]]''. Lord Akeldama (a very old vampire) and Alexia watch the sunset the day before Alexia's wedding. However, since Alexia is a walking supernatural suppression field, Lord Akeldama was effectively a human again and was unharmed by the sun.
* In ''Literature/FevreDream'', Joshua York tries this after his HorrorHunger gets the better of him. He chains himself up outside, throws the key out of reach, and waits for the sun to come up. It's an excruciating process that takes several hours. He changes his mind halfway through, [[LifeOrLimbDecision severing one of his hands to get away in time]]. Despite being very badly burned, he recovers over the course of a week, and even regrows his hand, much to his surprise.
* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'' Vancha March attempts this while on a drunken bender after a fight with his vampaneze brother. But since sunlight isn't instantly fatal to his type of vampire (and he had been building up a resistance to it), the others have time to drag him back indoors.
* In ''Literature/TheSilverKiss'', which is pretty much the original modern teen vampire romance[[note]]the ''original'' original teen vampire romance would be ''Carmilla'', written in 1872[[/note]] and much, ''much'' better than that description makes it sound, this is what Simon does at the end, having settled things with his [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld prepubescent evil older brother]] and become somewhat less insane.