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First Time in the Sun (view source)

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{{trope}}
You have a person or, more likely, a large group of people, who have been raised somewhere bleak and cruel, usually [[Beneath the Earth]], a [[City in Aa Bottle]], or in some overgrown urban or industrial setting in which no beauty remains among the cold architecture and pollution. Striving to escape their hellish lives, these protagonists go through a harrowing adventure in order to find the lush and growing world they know is out there somewhere. Finally finding themselves on the alien surface, they look around, stunned and uncertain, and...
 
[[Cue the Sun]]. Its power and majesty enhanced through unaccustomed eyes, all who behold it find themselves full of wonder and hope. (Even if [[Day Hurts Dark -Adjusted Eyes]], and they find it difficult to endure.)
 
This is a moment in which is the [[The World Is Just Awesome|beauty of nature]] is expressed in order to indicate what the characters have gained from their struggle, as well as to promise that they'll be happy in their new environment, even if [[Fridge Logic]] would imply that [[Inferred Holocaust|they will have trouble surviving in an unfamiliar world]]. Note that though the sun is the most common symbol used in this moment, it is not necessary, and could be replaced by the moon, a sweeping hillside, or any celestial body or grand vista, or even something small and microcosmic.
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A variant happens just before the climax, during the [[Darkest Hour]]: the characters are on the verge of giving up, when this symbol of potential fulfillment appears, reminding them that they have something worth fighting for and giving the strength for a [[Heroic Second Wind]]. The apparition is especially common for one who is dying or about to die, particularly from [[Heroic Sacrifice]], as if to show them that their death is not in vain.
 
[[Sub -Trope]] of [[The World Is Just Awesome]].
 
Compare [[New Eden]].
'''Be Warned. As an [[Ending Trope]], there will be spoilers.'''
{{examples}}▼
 
{{endingtrope}}
 
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The first episode of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''. Kamina, Simon and Yoko emerge from their underground village and soar high into the air, seeing the earth laid out before them and the sun and moon whirling around in an unrealistic but highly symbolic manner.
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== Fan Works ==
* In the ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'' fanfic ''[[Blue Sky (Fanficfanfic)|Blue Sky]]'', Wheatley (a robot who has spent his entire existence indoors)'s first reaction to the sun is "''AAAHHH!'' Aaahh ahgodwhat'sthat it ''burns!''" He then realizes it isn't quite as dangerous as he initially thought.
 
 
== Film ==
* Near the end of ''[[The Matrix]]: Revolutions'', Neo and Trinity, in their scrambling battle to reach the Machine City, manage to break above the omnipresent cloud layer and see the sky, glorious in sunshine and pink clouds, becoming the first humans to do so in centuries. Trinity in particular is impressed, and is killed shortly after.
* Disney's ''[[Tangled (2010 film)|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 ''[[Logan's Run (film)|Logan's Run]]'', when the protagonists see the sun for the first time, they don't even know what it is.
* ''[[The Brave Little Toaster]]'', when the appliances first leave the cabin.
{{quote| '''Radio:''' Look, Lampie. From here you can see the really big lamp.<br />
'''Lampie:''' Wow! I wonder where the switch is? }}
* At the end of ''[[THX 1138 (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 the finale of ''[[WALL-E]]'', 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 [[The World Is Just Awesome]] moments from the word go.
* Happens to Quasimodo at the end of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' when Phoebus and Esmeralda tell him to come out of the cathedral now that [[Complete Monster|Frollo]] is dead and no one will make fun of him anymore.
 
 
== Literature ==
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* Invoked by [[Plato]]'s famous "[[wikipedia: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 [[Ray Bradbury]]'s classic short story "All Summer in A Day." They 're children who live on a perpetually wet, cloudy Venus (before [[Science Marches On|it was realized that the planet was inhospitable to life]]) where the sun only comes out for one hour every seven years.
* In [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s ''The City and the Stars'', it's implied that the sun is somewhat filtered from [[City in Aa Bottle|the city]], therefore only outside, where only Alvin goes, can it truly be seen.
* Deconstructed in the ''[[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.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S3 E3 Gridlock|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.
* One episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'' featured a world in which one caste of people were forced to work underground running huge machines in order to keep their world habitable. While they believed the surface was frozen over, a higher caste lived above in a sparkling city, enjoying the fruits of their labours. At the end of the episode, Jack shoots out a convenient skylight, exposing the truth.
* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' has this in the episode 'In the Dark'. Angel's been a vampire for so long that he's really awed when he puts on the Gem of Amarra and goes out in the sun.
* Frankie Boyle made a joke based on this on ''[[Mock the Week]]'', involving Scottish people going on holiday to the Mediterranean and being astonished by the bright thing in the sky. If anyone has the exact quote that would be helpful!
* In the pilot episode of ''[[Terra Nova]]'', 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.
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== Tabletop RPG ==
* Averted for most player-characters in ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' -- unless—unless he's a Sierra Clubber, the average citizen of Alpha Complex who finds himself Outside will freak out.
* ''[[Forgotten Realms (Tabletop Game)|Daughter of the Drow]]'' had a scene with Liriel seeing her first sunrise. Of course, she's not the most photophobic down here - as the author points out, drow ''wizards'' don't try to read a spellbook by the heat of its own body, to say nothing of lightning bolts.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* The protagonists of the original ''[[Fallout]]'' and of ''[[Fallout 3]]'' have both lived in underground 'vaults' for as long as they can remember. The moment that the character first steps into the sunlight is pivotal in both.
* In ''[[Phantasy Star]] 4 '' [[Artificial Human]] Rika is first taken out of the underground lab she spent her first year of life in, she is amazed at how blue the sky is (which, thanks to the series's comic panel cutscenes, is actually shown despite being a top-down 16 bit jRPG).
* Played with in [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers (Video Game)|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky]]. The future that the story revolves around is literally frozen in time. The characters have seen nature before, but when they first see the sun rise, and feel the wind blow, they are overwhelmed by it's beauty.
** This is also part of the backstory of {{spoiler|Grovyle and Dusknoir}}, as well as part of ''Sky'''s fifth Special Episode.
 
 
== Webcomics ==
* Subverted in ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'': when Ariel's adventuring party reaches the surface, Kyo and Vaelia, who've been above ground before, are all smiles, but [https://web.archive.org/web/20180506052013/http://drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=831 Ariel is consumed by vertigo].
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* One episode of ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' featured the Sewer King, who forced orphans to commit crime and controlled them by conditioning them to fear light, and locking them in a brightly lit room if they misbehaved. At the end, after the Sewer King was captured, the kids were brought up to the surface in time for sunrise, and quickly forget their conditioning to glory in the dawn light.
* The Earth King from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', has never been outside the palace before the Gaang meets him.
 
 
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