History Main / BeforeTheDarkTimes

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' we learn that the DarkWorld used to be the the Golden Realm, a holy, more or less perfect realm where the [[AncientArtifact Triforce]] resides, before Ganon got imprisoned there and took it over.

* ''Film/TheMatrix''

** An example involving ''a'' DarkWorld, but not ''the'' Dark World, is present in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]''. Princess Hilda says that "Lorule was just like Hyrule. So very beautiful. So very...promising." This was before all the events that let [[BigBad Yuga]] make it a haven for monsters. Hilda even tells Zelda that she has to borrow Link to save her kingdom because all of Lorule's native heroes are long gone. It turns out the kingdom's decay started well before any of this: [[spoiler:Lorule had its own upside-down Triforce that was just as much an object of greed as its Hyrulean counterpart. The key point where they diverged from Hyrule is that, in order to keep it out of the hands of evil people, they ''destroyed'' their Triforce rather than seal it away. They found out the hard way that this was pretty much the equivalent of tearing the glue out of a wooden model, and Lorule started crumbling apart as a result. The whole EvilPlan seen in ''A Link Between Worlds'' was actually formulated by ''Hilda'' as a way of taking Hyrule's Triforce to replace their own.]]

* The events of '' Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' takes place in the Second Age. For the Elves, High Men of Numenor and Dwarves this era is their Golden Age. Numenor is the greatest and most advanced civilization in the world; Lindon and Eregion are flourishing Elvish Kingdoms with the implications they are extending; Khazad-dum is the most prosperious Dwarf Kingdom, expecting to become even richer now with the discovery of the mythril. But , despite all the creative freedoms the show took, they will still have same fate, with the seeds of destruction already being planted from the first season. By the of the Second Age, Numenor will be sinked under the sea, and the Elves and the Dwarves will become extinct with their great kingdoms being compleyely distroyed.

* Some people feel this way about the pre-[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic pandemic]] times

* Some people feel this way about the pre-pandemic times

* When ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' starts, King Viserys inherited a realm of Westeros that had been peaceful and prosperous for decades from his grandfather Jaehaerys I. Things go downhill once he dies -- a SuccessionCrisis and CivilWar turning Westeros into a CrapsackWorld, then it goes FromBadToWorse over a hundred years and a half, culminating with the bloody conflicts in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', not even counting the ZombieApocalypse brought by the White Walkers.

* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'' takes place a thousand years before [[Film/TheDarkCrystal the original 1982 movie]]. Obviously, it shows the kindly Gelfing before they were wiped out and how the world of Thra was once a vibrant and life-filled world. Also, while twisted, the Skekis haven't descended into the open cruelty and pure evil of their later generations. The series makes the film even darker by showing how good things were before they got truly horrible.

What separates this trope from AndManGrewProud is that this "better" time is still well remembered, and not relegated to myths and legends.

** ''{{TabletopGame/Exalted}}'': The First Age, when the Exalts actually were building a world that catered to humankind's needs. Then the Usurpation happened. Then the Great Contagion happened.

->''"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. [[TropeNamers Before the Dark Times]]. Before the Empire."''

->''"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the Dark Times. Before the Empire."''