"You are sunlight and I moon
Joined by the gods of fortune
Midnight and high noon
Sharing the sky..."
Joined by the gods of fortune
Midnight and high noon
Sharing the sky..."
— Miss Saigon, "Sun and Moon"
The elemental forces of day and night have always been considered polar opposites. The day, ruled by the sun, is bright and inviting. The night, ruled by the moon, is dark and often considered mysterious. It's no surprise that when two characters have abilities or traits based on these forces, they form a duo of Foils.
Despite their inherent differences, these characters usually form a team rather than fight in opposition. After all, keeping the balance is necessary in works that believe in The Sacred Darkness and Dark Is Not Evil. As such, this duo typically works together, even if it's just an Enemy Mine.
However, any pairing of a sun character and moon character can fit this trope, so long as both characters have abilities and/or traits centered around their element. If the characters have powers, you can expect certain patterns.
Day-themed characters typically have fire or light-based powers and may be associated with holiness, purity, or mental discipline, such as:
- The Power of the Sun
- Shock and Awe, due to the electrical currents that move through the Sun's plasma
- Light 'em Up
- Playing with Fire, especially if the night/moon character has ice powers
- Holy Hand Grenade, holy or radiant damage, the power of "good"
- Healing Hands, whether healing wounds or purifying the body, mind, or spirit
Night characters will instead have powers based on darkness, cold, or their connection with the moon, controlling water and the tides:
- Lunacy
- Casting a Shadow, or in exaggerated cases, The Power of the Void
- Making a Splash
- An Ice Person, especially if their day person controls fire
- Dream Walker or Dream Weaver powers, due to sleep being associated with night
In fantastic or mythological settings, it's especially common for this dynamic to be embodied by a God of Light and God of the Moon.
Both may exhibit Psychic Powers, particularly a shared Psychic Link. By All Your Powers Combined, they may be capable of deploying a Yin-Yang Bomb, possibly via a Fusion Dance.
Of course, a duo without powers may still apply. In addition, a pairing that merely has some of these powers isn't enough; they must be powers based on their association to day and night, rather than being incidental. A Red Oni, Blue Oni situation will generally have the red oni as day and the blue oni as night.
Sub-Trope of Solar and Lunar and Light/Darkness Juxtaposition. Compare Angel/Devil Shipping, Fire/Ice Duo, and Male Sun, Female Moon, which may both overlap with this trope. See also Cosmic Motifs and Elemental Motifs. Yellow/Purple Contrast is not an uncommon Color Motif for them.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bleach:
- Ichigo's parents have a similar dynamic to this. Masaki is described as the family's sun, who is the center of the Kurosaki family and is surrounded by her children and husband. Isshin's Zanpakuto is called Engetsu ("Scathing Moon"), and his true nature typically comes out during the night. Ichigo inherited both, the sun and moon motifs from them.
- Orihime is described as the sun by both, Ulquiorra and Aizen, and she has a very positive personality who shows compassion even to her tormentors, and is connected to all of her friends with her heart. The almost emotionless Ulquiorra, who was born in the dayless world of Hueco Mundo where the only natural light that shines there is the crescent moon, has difficulty to understand the concept of the human heart due to being a Hollow, and his ideology clashes with Orihime's. It's only in the end that Ulquiorra starts to understand the human heart.
- In Boruto, Mitsuki and his older "brother" often refer to himself as a moon, meant to be illuminated by the light of his sun, Boruto.
- Cardcaptor Sakura:
- The Clow Cards fall under either 'sun' or 'moon' domains, and are "led" by Sakura's two magical companions: the fire-breathing lion Kerberos (sun) and the mysteriously beautiful humanoid Yue (moon). Their designs reflect this as well, with Kerberos being golden and Yue having a white and blue color scheme.
- In particular, there are the "Light" and "Dark" cards. Light wears a white dress with a sun tattoo, and Dark wears a black dress with a moon-and-stars motif. Light has curly hair and the prongs on her crown face outward, and Dark has straight hair, and the prongs on her crown face inward. Oh, and the two of them must be kept together, and request to be sealed together, while holding hands.
- Eriol created Spinel Sun (a stoic, dark-colored cat) and Ruby Moon (a cheery, excitable humanoid) as foils and counterparts to Kerberos and Yue.
- Destiny of the Shrine Maiden: Chikane is associated with the Moon, Himeko with the Sun. The symbolism is further explored when Himeko, who believes herself to be an utterly ordinary girl, wonders what the star student and school idol Chikane sees in her. Chikane then proceeds that, just like the Moon only shines with the reflected light of the Sun, so is Chikane inspired and motivated to "shine" in all things by her relationship with Himeko.
- Digimon:
- Digimon Adventure: Taichi and Agumon have a sun motif while Yamato and Gabumon have a moon motif. Taichi's Crest of Courage depicts a sun, Agumon first evolved into Greymon during the day, and WarGreymon has the sun appearing in his evolution sequence. Yamato's Crest of Friendship is a combination of a full moon and two crescent moons, Gabumon first evolved into Garurumon during the night, and WereGarurumon and MetalGarurumon have the moon appear in their evolution sequences. Taichi is the hot-blooded leader type, while Yamato is the more stoic, rather antisocial lancer type.
- Digimon Data Squad: Agumon and Gaomon have a sun and moon motif, respectively. Agumon's evolutions all invoke the sun in either their names, their attacks or forms, while for Gaomon's evolutions it's the moon, albeit it's mostly apparent in his later forms. Agumon has close ties to Masaru and his family and is treated as family member, while Gaomon always acts like a loyal servant to Thoma. Masaru and Agumon focus more on power and brute force, spontaneous actions and strong emotions, while Thoma and Gaomon focus more on speed and techniques, analytical combat and a cool head.
- Haikyuu!!: This motif is present in the contrast between Karasuno's two freshman middle blockers, Hinata,note written with the kanji for "sun" who is friendly, vibrant, and warm, and Tsukishima,note written with the kanji for "moon" who is cold, aloof, and distant. It's even acknowledged in-series.
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has Itsuki and Yuri, Cure Sunshine and Cure Moonlight respectively. Especially telling as their personalities contrast one another (Itsuki's more friendly and outgoing while Yuri's more quiet and reserved).
- In Kitsune no Yomeiri, Kyouka's relatives Hinata the Golden Fox and her brother Yoichi the Silver Fox are literally as different as night and day. Hinata is a hyperactive loli Kitsune who gains power from the sun and can manipulate emotions. Yoichi meanwhile is a spacy guy with no energy who becomes a ladies man at night when he draws power from the moon and can paralyze people by pinning their shadow.
- My Bride is a Mermaid: Sun and Lunar tend to be associated with the sun and the moon for obvious reasons. Sun is an honorable woman and kind to everyone she meets while Lunar has a bit of a rotten side and is Sun's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis.
- Downplayed in My Hero Academia. The bright, perky, powerful Mirio is likened by his childhood friend Tamaki to a sun, since he's strong and inspiring. By contrast, Tamaki sees himself as weak and uninspiring, which is why he gives himself the hero name of "Suneater", evoking the moon. They look very different as well; Mirio is blond, buff, and has a bright yellow costume; Tamaki is slender, dark-haired, and incorporates a hood in his purple costume.
- One Piece: Master Cat Viper and Duke Dogstorm are this on Zou, serving as the island's King of Night and Ruler of Day, respectively. When fighting invaders on Zou, they use that to their advantage in that they and their forces (the Guardians and the Musketeers) tag each other out during dusk and dawn, which allows them to wear out their enemies while they themselves can rest during the day/night. Their personalities are rather the opposite of what you would expect. The King of the Night is very hammy, wears his emotions on his sleeves and is quite cute and comical, whereas the Ruler of the Day is more serious and reserved.
- The Zababa duo in Symphogear has this as one of their more prominent duality motifs. Kirika Akatsuki is an energetic girl with a last name that means "dawn," blonde hair, and a very physical fighting style involving various polearms; Shirabe Tsukiyomi is dark-haired, stoic, takes her last name from the Shinto moon god and uses a highly mechanized gear that can do most of her fighting automatically. To drive the point home, their respective battle songs in season four are titled "Dangerous Sunshine" and "Melodious Moonlight."
Arts
- Michelangelo Buonarroti's sculpted Anthropomorphic Personifications of Day and Night to adorn the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici. On the left, Night is shown, alongside its owl and sleep mask, holding its head up as her eyes close from exhaustion. On the right, Day is seen with his back towards the audience as he peaks his head over his muscular body to stare at the viewer.
Comic Books
- The Authority has founding members Apollo and Midnighter, a married couple. Apollo is a Superman Substitute whose Flying Brick/energy manipulation powers are fueled by solar energy, while Midnighter is a cybernetic cowled vigilante with Awesome by Analysis powers. Yes, basically Superman and Batman if they were married. One alternate universe reversed this dualism: Apollo's counterpart was the darkness-powered Pluto, and Midnighter's was the white-clad Daylighter.
- Moon Knight has this dynamic with Sun King. Both are avatars used by the Gods of the Moon and Sun, Khonshu and Ra, who get their power respectively from the moon or sun. The two have been at war with each other for centuries, and to make it even better Ra is Khonshu's father.
- The "World's Finest", the duo of Superman and Batman, as Superman gets his powers from the sun and Batman mostly works at night.
Fan Works
- In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, since their mentors are the Solar and Lunar Princesses themselves, Nova Shine and Twilight Sparkle have this dynamic. It even extends to their personalities; Nova is colder and tries to stick to logic rather than let emotion in, where Twilight is much warmer and more readily embraces her emotions.
- Present in the two major locations of We Make Our Own Light. Irithyll is a moonlit city in the Boreal Valley, has a color scheme of silver and black, and flourished when the First Flame was extinguished. Leyndell is a sunlit city near the now-fiery Erdtree, has a color scheme of red and gold, and flourished when the Erdtree was burned. The parallels even extend to their respective gods: Gwyndolin wields sorceries drawn from the night sky, has silver hair, and was born under a darkmoon, while Miquella wields fire and light, has golden hair, and is a healer.
Films — Animation
- Day & Night stars the Anthropomorphic Personifications of day and night, respectively, as humanoid figures who have daytime and nighttime versions of the same scenes visible through their bodies. At first, they are at odds with each other, but then they find common ground and become friends, and in the end, they switch places as the sun sets on one and rises on the other.
- The Emperor's New Groove has Yzma and Kuzco, who seem to represent a sun/moon relationship. During the production stage of the film, it went by the working title Emperor of the Sun with Kuzco being the titular emperor, who wears colors like red and yellow, bright and warm colors, while Yzma, the dark sorceress, wears mostly black and purple, dark and cold colors.
- Mune: Guardian of the Moon takes place in a world where the sun and moon are carried by titans, who are guided by guardians. The society itself is divided between Children of the Day and Children of the Night, however both sides are at peace. More specifically, the protagonist Mune is chosen as the guardian of the moon, and he ends up having to ally with Sohone, guardian of the sun, to save the world from eternal night.
Films — Live-Action
- Ladyhawke contains a literal example. Lovers Navarre and Isabeau were cursed so that Navarre is human during the day and a wolf at night while Isabeau is human at night and a hawk during the day.
- T*Witches, and its sequel T*Witches Too, has main characters Alex and Cameryn, twin rulers of the fantasy world Coventry. Alex, the misfortunate Deadpan Snarker of the pair, is associated with the night, being active when the moon is up and owning a moon-shaped charm. Bubbly and lucky Cameryn, meanwhile, is represented by the sun. Their birth names are Artemis and Apolla, respectively.
- Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 4: Dawn of the Vampires: Victor represents Night because he is a Vampire and Nova Bright represents Day because she is a Daywalker.
Literature
- Baboon legend in Bravelands tells of Sunrise Crownleaf and Moonlight Deeproot, two baboons that fell in love despite their huge rank difference. Sunrise was The Leader of the tribe and she fell for one of the lowest-ranking members. Their romance led to a civil war that ended in both dead. Ever since, inter-rank romances are strictly banned amongst baboons.
- The Julia Donaldson picture book Day Monkey, Night Monkey is about two monkeys, one diurnal and one nocturnal, who become friends even though they're baffled by how different the jungle looks when they're usually asleep.
- The Fairy Oak books have twin protagonists Vanilla and Lavender, who have light and dark magic respectively. Vanilla is friendly, polite and patient; Lavender is moody, a bit aggressive and impatient. The latter was born at exactly midnight while the former was born twelve hours later. Also, Vanilla's powers only work during the day, and Lavender's only work at night.
- Gods and Warriors: Hylas and Pirra, the protagonists, have this dynamic built between them, and it's lampshaded in-universe in the penultimate book, The Crocodile Tomb. Hylas is a yellow-haired and tawny-eyed Outsider from Lykonia's mountains, while Pirra is a black-haired and dark-eyed daughter of Keftiu's High Priestess with a crescent scar on her cheek. Hylas' main animal companion is Havoc, a lioness from Thalakrea's volcano island, and lions are sacred creatures of the Lady of Fire and Sekhmet, the lion-headed solar deity from Egypt. Pirra's main animal companion is Echo, a falcon from Keftiu (a country that worships the Sea), and falcons are sacred creatures of Heru, the falcon-headed Egyptian god whose domain includes the Moon.
- Masquerade features Anthropomorphic Personifications of the Sun and the Moon. The Moon sends her servant Jack Hare to tell the Sun she loves him, which is where the plot starts.
- Invoked in The Obernewtyn Chronicles, where Elspeth's prophesized guardians are Gahltha the Daywatcher and Maruman the Moonwatcher. They are complementary in both appearance and ability: night-colored Gahltha is physically imposing and guards Elspeth during the day, while "daylight-eyed" Maruman is old and frail but spiritually very powerful and protects Elspeth during her nightly dream-wanderings.
- Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: The third book has the paladin of a religion based around the sun, travelling with a priestess of a religion based around the moon. Both had powers that could only be used during the day or the night, respectively.
- The Silmarillion: After the Two Trees of Valinor are destroyed by Melkor and Ungoliant, their last remnants are placed in vessels which become the sun and moon. Two Maiar (essentially minor angels) are chosen to guide their paths through the sky; the female Arien guides the sun, while the male Tilion guides the moon. This is also referenced lightheartedly in The Lord of the Rings, where the poem about The Man in the Moon has a female Sun come out in the final stanza.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: The Dothraki believe that the sun and moon are married gods, with the sun being masculine and the moon being feminine. This is reflected in how Daenerys refers to Khal Drogo as "[her] sun and stars", while he refers to her as "moon of my life".
- Tailchaser's Song has bit characters Dayhunter and Nightcatcher. They're identical twin brothers with contrasting personalities. Dayhunter is very chatty and extroverted, while his mute brother Nightcatcher is more aloof and serious.
- T*Witches: The protagonists are twins, with Alex (birth name: Artemis) born as the moon was setting and Cam (birth name: Apolla) born as the sun was rising; they likewise have magical necklaces depicting the moon and sun, respectively. Naturally Alex tends to be more reserved and brooding compared to the more outgoing and popular Cam, and some of their powers (like cold vs. heat) tend to match, too.
Live-Action TV
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Masks" features artifacts from a civilization that has two major deities: Masaka representing the sun and Korgano representing the moon. Only one can be in control at a time. Their powers are unknown, being embodied in Data and Picard respectively, but it appears that the mythology is based on them being balancing forces for each other.
Music
- HoneyWorks' "Little Lion" features two magical entities referred to as "The Sun" and "The Moon", who both bless the song's protagonist with a human body on the condition that he never tells a soul that he was originally a cat.
- Mitski: Played with in "Your Best American Girl". The narrator compares her ex-lover to the sun, but then says "I'm not the moon", but still associates herself with the night.
- Tears for Fears:
- On The Seeds of Love cover art,👁 Image
◊ Roland Orzabal's blue suit represents the nighttime and Curt Smith's gold suit represents the daytime. It's a visual metaphor that the two band members are as different as night and day, and that they act as Foils to each other. This mirrors their astrological signs (Orzabal is an avid follower of the Western Zodiac) because sun-ruled Leos (Orzabal) and moon-ruled Cancerians (Smith) have opposite personalities. note For instance, when it comes to arguments, Orzabal has stated that he's a shouter (a "lion's roar" is naturally a Leonine trait, as Leos draw strength from the sun's power) whereas Smith admits that he's a sulker (which is to be expected from moody Cancerians, whose emotions vary with the ever-shifting lunar phases). In theory, the duo's astrological association with night and day is supposed to reflect that their contrasting natures complement and balance each other musically, but in reality, they often fought during the recording process because Orzabal had near-total control over the group at this time, and as a result, Smith's involvement on the album was rather minimal. Their creative differences eventually tore their musical partnership apart because Smith split from the band two years later. - The duo's astrological link to night and day is revisited in the "Closest Thing to Heaven👁 Image
" music video (it's the first one which starred both Smith and Orzabal since they revived their musical partnership) which features nighttime and daytime scenes in a play. The two band members perform in the orchestra pit and they provide the soundtrack to the story unfolding on stage, the significance being that a Cancerian (Smith) and a Leo (Orzabal) have finally found a more harmonious way to create music together while still maintaining their disparate personalities.
- On The Seeds of Love cover art,👁 Image
Myths & Religion
- Classical Mythology:
- Artemis and Apollo are the twins who rule over night and day. Artemis is further associated with femininity and nature, while Apollo is masculine and associated with cultured pursuits like art and medicine.
- Before them came another set of twins, Helios and Selene, Titans of the sun and moon. They were believed to control the movement of the sun and moon with their chariots. Their Roman equivalents were Sol and Luna, and they had a third sibling, being Eos, the dawn.
- There is another set of contrasting gods before even Helios and Selene: Nyx and Hemera, who are literally personification of the concepts of night and day, respectively. It's said that they take turns presiding over the mortal world and The Underworld and meet only during sunrise and sunset. Unlike Artemis/Apollo and Helios/Selene, Nyx and Hemera are mother and daughter. Nyx and Hemera also have husbands who personify things related to them: Nyx is married to Erebus (darkness), while Hemera is married to Aether (light).
- In Filipino Mythology, the Tagalog god and goddess of the sun and moon — Apolaki and Mayari — are a brother/sister pair noted for their glowing eyes. After the death of their father Bathala, the siblings quarreled over who would rule. Apolaki wounded Mayari in the eye before their fight ended and they agreed to share duties, which is why the light of the moon is less bright than that of the sun.
- Older Than Dirt: Hindu Mythology has the sisters Usha, goddess of the dawn, and Ratri, goddess of the stars and night, who share duties of protecting man from demons.
- Japanese Mythology: The siblings Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi are the solar and lunar deities, respectively. One legend goes that, after Tsukuyomi killed the goddess of food, Amaterasu was so offended by his violent act she demanded she never see him again. Thus, the sun and the moon now rise separately.
- In the Korean myth of the Sister Sun and Brother Moon👁 Image
, the sun and moon used to be two human kids who lose their mother to a tiger and pleaded with heaven to save them. The brother and sister ends up being assigned as watchers of mankind, but the sister, being scared of the dark, request to be the sun instead. Her wish is granted, but as she couldn't stop beaming proudly upon mankind admiring her, her smiles eventually become so bright that no human can look at her with the naked eye ever again. - Norse Mythology: Sol (the sun goddess) and her brother Mani (the moon god) form a pair. Both of them emerged at the creation of the universe and ride across the sky on horse-drawn chariots in order to tell the days for man.
Tabletop Games
- Exalted: Many of the Solar and Lunar Exalted are bound to each other across reincarnations via the Solar-Lunar bond, making it so that they always care about each other, whether as enemies or as allies or anything in between.
- Magic: The Gathering: The Mirage set has several cards which reference the Love Song of the Night and Day👁 Image
. - Pathfinder: Two of the primary deities of the Tian pantheon are Shizuru, the empress of heaven and goddess of the sun, and Tsukiyo, the god of the moon. The two are lovers and greatly devoted to one another, but can never physically meet except during solar eclipses.
- Planescape: The gate city of Ecstasy, where the Outlands meet Elysium, is ruled by the Sun Master and the Dark Hunter.
Video Games
- Ace Attorney:
- Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit: One of Paul Halique's sculptures has his father as the moon and his mother as the sun.
- The Great Ace Attorney: John Garrideb has a moon motif, as his hair and beard make his face look like a crescent moon when viewed from the side and his wedding ring has a moon design. Joan, his maid, or rather, his wife, has a sun motif, as her round face and maid headgear looks like the sun sending out rays and she also has a wedding ring that looks like the sun.
- Digimon World Dawn/Dusk:
- The two mascot Digimon Coronamon and Lunamon whose respective Ultimate-leve forms, Apollomon and Dianamon, are the Digimon representatives of the Roman Gods of the sun and moon.
- The two protagonist/rival characters Koh and Sayo also embody this, since the rival is always on the opposite team. The Koh and Sayo from Light Fang are depicted with happy expressions, have a warm color palette, and are partnered with Coronamon, whereas the Sayo and Koh from Night Claw are depicted with stoic expressions, have a cold color palette, and are partnered with Lunamon.
- Dragon Quest: Dragon Quest VIII onwards introduces the Spitnik and its Dark Star and Solaris relatives, which represent the Sun with a little satellite monster orbiting them. They would later reappear in Dragon Quest X from Version 4.1 onwards, while its Solaris comrade reappeared in 4.4 and the Dark Star reappeared in 6.2. The same game also introduces the Blue Moon, which represent the Moon, and its Dark Planet relative from Version 2 onwards, while the Mars Face debuts from 2.1 onwards and the Mortcury and Golden Disco debut from 3.2 onwards. According to the Spitnik's bestiary entry, both monsters are aware of each other's existence, but they can't meet face to face due to lunar differences.
- Ensemble Stars!: The units of fine and Akatsuki have this dynamic - fine is associated with white, gold, and light blue, and deliberately invoke an angelic Light Is Good aesthetic. (Though in reality, they are actually the closest the story has to antagonists.) Akatsuki literally means 'scarlet moon' and have a much darker, more intimidating image. These parallels are explicitly drawn in Quarrel Fest when Keito (whose dark green hair and permanent scowl contrast fine leader Eichi's blonde hair and constant smile) states that Akatsuki was created solely to spotlight fine, just as the moon reflects the light of the sun. However, in this story the two units finally separate for good, as Akatsuki challenges fine for real and Keito declares that Akatsuki will bring about a new dawn (which in Japanese is written as, naturally, 'akatuski').
- Final Fantasy X: Done symbolically with Tidus and Yuna. Both their names are derived from the Okinawan language, with Tidus coming from the word for "Sun" and Yuna is the word for "Night". Tidus is very tanned, has bleached blonde hair, and wears very bright clothing, Yuna is quite pale, has dark hair and wears a dark skirt with a pattern of stars on it. Furthermore to get Tidus' ultimate weapon you need to collect the Sun Crest and Sigil, while Yuna needs the Moon Crest and Sigil. Their powers and abilities don't really follow the theme, although their personalities do. (Tidus is brash and outgoing, Yuna is reserved, quiet, and demure.)
- Hellsinker has Sol and Luna. In the context of the game mechanics, Sol is collected over time or by picking up yellow chips, and is used to fire your Smart Bomb, while Luna is collected with purple chips and used to make your main weapon's shots more dense, decreasing the more you fire your main weapon.
- The King of Fighters: the protagonist Kyo has the image of the sun on the back of his jacket, and his rival Iori has the image of the moon on the back of his coat. Kyo is lively, confident, full of himself and has fire powers, while Iori is brooding, moody and has power of dark purplish fire. While they occasionally team up against bigger threats, more often than not they meet in the tournaments as opponents.
- Kirby: The Dual Boss Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright, who first appeared in Kirby's Adventure and have since become a mainstay Legacy Boss Battle. They take turns battling Kirby on the ground while the other floats in the sky — changing movesets and switching their boss stage between day and night whenever they swap. Mr. Shine is a Waddling Head in the shape of a crescent moon who pelts the ground with shooting stars, throws crescent-shaped boomerangs, and has a Rolling Attack; Mr. Bright is a floating ball Wreathed in Flames with disembodied hands who projects a heat beam at the ground, throws fireballs, and has a flaming charge attack.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel: Rean and Crow are such a pairing as both do have the same primary Time element yet have opposing secondary elements (with Rean having Fire and Crow having Water). They also end up working well together until Crow betrays Class VII. They still end up working together however during the finale of the main story of II where they have the only Combination Attack in the entire Erebonia arc while taking on the Vermillion Apocalypse.
- Mario Party 6: Brighton and Twila, your hosts, have a clear sun and moon motif, respectively. Brighton has a sun head and Twila a moon head, and they turn the board to either day or night, respectively, after three turns each time. They also get into an argument over which of them is more brilliant.
- Need for Speed Heat has the Rivera siblings; Lucas, a former street racer enjoys more during the daytime, where he provides missions for that setting. His younger sister Ana is The Night Owl and loves to be in the illicit street racing of the night, where she provides mission for that setting.
- Path of Exile has the warring sun and moon goddesses Solaris and Lunaris, whose temples appear in act 3 before they themselves appear in act 8 as the main antagonists, where the player and their allies are caught between their forces. Both the goddesses and their minions have colour and elemental motifs: Solaris is red and gold with fire powers, while Lunaris is blue and silver with ice attacks. At the end of the act, they team up to fight the player in a tag team battle, with the battlefield switching between day and night depending on which goddess is active.
- Pokémon:
- Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced Espeon and Umbreon to show off the new day/night feature. Both evolve from an Eevee that has high happiness, but Espeon evolves during the day and Umbreon during the night. For further contrast, Espeon is a Psychic-Type, and Umbreon a Dark-Type.
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Lunatone and Solrock are, as their name implies, living stones based on the sun and the moon. They are believed to be meteorites, though this is unproven. Solrock is said to absorb energy from the sun while Lunatone is most powerful during the full moon. Finally, they are version counterparts, with Solrock being in Ruby and Lunatone in Sapphire.
- Pokémon Diamond and Pearl has this in the names of the Big Bad and the heroic Champion. The former's name is "Cyrus", whose name relates to "sun", while the latter's name is "Cynthia", a name that relates to Artemis, Greek goddess of the moon.
- Fittingly for the games Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, their main legendaries are based on the sun and the moon. Both evolve from a nebula Pokemon called Cosmoem, with their final form based on the game. Sun/Ultra Sun has Solgaleo, a white sun-lion, while Moon/Ultra Moon has blue moon-bat Lunala.
- Romancing SaGa 2 has this in the form of the Final Emperor and Empress, with the twist that the never meet due to being alternate versions of the same person and thus mutually exclusive. The Final Emperor wears sun-themed jewelry on his armor and wields the Dayblade by default, giving him access to Sunray if you somehow don't have it already. The Final Empress wears moon-themed jewelry and wields the sword Moonlite by default, giving her access to Lunar Blade technique. The closest you ever get to playing both is playing as one and crafting the other's weapon for them to wield.
- Sengoku Basara 3: A theme. Ieyasu represents the sun while Mitsunari represents the moon. The final battle in Sekigahara is represented by a solar eclipse.
- Super Robot Wars: Nine times out of ten, if an installment has Daitarn 3, the robot that uses The Power of the Sun, then its moon-based counterpart, Zambot 3 is more than likely to be right beside it. Especially telling is when their ultimate combination attack, the Combination Crash, starts out with them using their finishers, respectively the Sun Attack and Moon Attack.
- Touhou Project:
- Two of the Three Fairies of Light are the bright and energetic Sunny Milk, who has the power to refract light and is powered up by sunlight, and the clumsy and pessimistic Luna Child, who has the power to silence sounds, and is powered up by moonlight.
- Two of the Prismriver Sisters are eldest sister Lunasa, who wears a hat with a moon decoration, and has the power to produce depressing sound with her violin, and second child Merlin, who wears a hat with a sun decoration, and has the power to produce uplifting sound with her trumpet.
- This also applies to Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou, though more thematically than anything else. Kaguya is a fair Lunarian princess who was exiled after she drank the Hourai Elixir to obtain Complete Immortality, and Mokou is the tomboyish daughter of one of the noblemen that Kaguya humiliated in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter who drank the Hourai Elixir in order to even the playingfield with her sworn nemesis, after which she took up fire magic with motifs based upon The Phoenix. Now, the two of them are locked in an unending Cycle of Revenge, likened to the cycle of the Sun and the Moon that fall and rise as the days come and go.
- Warframe has the Warframe Equinox that can freely switch between its Day Mode and its Night Mode, changing its active skills and physical appearance. You also need to build each individual Mode before you can build it, requiring double the resources and time than other Warframes
Webcomics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: In the Treatise pictures,👁 Image
Annie and Kat are associated with the sun and moon, respectively. The former is obviously a reference to Annie's Playing with Fire powers, the latter might be a more subtle reference to Kat being a Gadgeteer Genius, due to the moon's association with the mind. - Runaway to the Stars: The primary nomadic culture of the centaur homeworld, which tracks and endless circuit around the planet's ring-shaped supercontinent to remain within its temperate "spring" and "autumn" zones and avoid its extreme high seasons, has a religious tradition centered around a rival pair of goddesses, twins born from opposite sides of the same larval cocoon — one, the daytime sister, wanted eternal heat and sunlight, while the other, the nighttime sister, wanted eternal darkness and cold. They now chase each other eternally around the globe, creating its perpetual cycle of scorching heat and freezing darkness. Each of the two main nomad groups believes itself to descend from the god that they follow — the sunchasers, who remain within the autumn, from the daytime goddess, and the nightchasers, who remain within the spring, from the nighttime goddess. The two groups maintain a mostly cohesive belief system through through messages left at shared rest spots visited each year in turn.
Western Animation
- Maya and the Three has Maya and Zatz. Maya for the sun as she is brash, confident, and energetic while Zatz is the moon as he is honorable, stoic, and wise. This goes further when they die and get reincarnated as the sun and moon.
- Mr Moon: The protagonist, Mr Moon, is close friends with his counterpart Sunny.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Princesses Celestia and Luna have domain over day and night, respectively. Celestia is white with a sun cutie-mark, a pastel mane and tail, and in addition to raising the sun, she has massive amounts of magical energy. Princess Luna is dark blue with a moon cutie-mark, a sparkly blue mane and tail, and in addition to raising the moon, she has Dream Walker abilities. This contrast is what led to the conflict in the pilot; Princess Luna, feeling underappreciated because ponies enjoyed the morning but slept through the night, became Nightmare Moon and attempted to take over the world with eternal night. After being banished to the moon for a thousand years and then defeated by the Mane Six, she and Celestia made up and agreed to rule together.
- Ready Jet Go!: The alien pets Sunspot and Moonbeam are associated with the sun and moon through their names and colors. (Sunspot is orange, black, and white; Moonbeam is purplish-blue and white.)
- Ruby Gloom: In "Hair(less): The Musical", Misery and Ruby's Duet of Differences has them calling themselves the dark and the dawn, respectively, representing the former's gloominess and the latter's optimism.
- Tangled: The Series has Rapunzel as the Sun Person and Cassandra, as of the Season 2 finale, as the Moon Person.
- True and the Rainbow Kingdom has the Day Queen and the Night Queen, who raise the sun and moon respectively. However, unlike Celestia and Luna, they are very friendly with each other and rarely fight over whether the sun or moon should be up.