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Basic Trope: A vampire or other creature weak to sunlight commits suicide by moving into sunlight.

  • Straight: Alice, a vampire, decides to end her unlife and steps into the sunlight to burn herself to death.
  • Exaggerated: Alice decides to end her unlife by stepping into the sunlight. The way vampirism works in her universe is that vampires die when their sire does, so all of her fledglings and their fledglings all die with her.
  • Downplayed: Alice tires of being a vampire, so she steps into the sunlight. But the way vampirism works in her universe is that sunlight actually turns vampires back into humans.
  • Justified: Vampires are notoriously hard to kill, even by their own hand, but sunlight is a very reliable way to kill one.
  • Inverted:
    • Alice is a creature that solely relies on photosynthesis, so she deliberately shuns sunlight to commit suicide.
    • Bob the Vampire Hunter kills Alice by forcing her into the light, thus homicide by sunlight.
  • Subverted: Alice tries to kill herself by stepping into the sunlight, but an unexpected eclipse occurs and she starts to rethink killing herself...
  • Double Subverted: ...but then comes to the conclusion that she wants to die and waits out the eclipse.
  • Parodied: Alice goes to a tanning salon to kill herself. After she does the deed, the proprietor finds her ashes and says "Great, we've got another Claudia Special."
  • Zig-Zagged: A number of vampires wrestle with the decision to end their existences. Alice tries to kill herself by walking into sunlight and succeeds. Charlie tries to do the same, but an unexpected eclipse occurs and he changes his mind. David can't wait for sunrise, so he drives a stake through his own heart. And Eric tries to kill himself with sunlight, only to discover he's immune.
  • Averted:
    • Alice is a Daywalking Vampire, so this method wouldn't work.
    • Alice isn't a vampire.
    • Alice doesn't want to kill herself.
  • Enforced: "We spent all this money developing a realistic looking shot of someone burning to death in sunlight and doggone it, we're gonna use it!"
  • Lampshaded: "Where's Alice?" "She's a vampire. She's depressed. It's sunny out. Do the math."
  • Invoked: Bob, unable to kill Alice through normal means, tries psychoanalyzing her and convinces her to kill herself, suggesting sunlight since that would kill a vampire.
  • Exploited: Bob realizes that Alice plans to kill herself through sun exposure and gives her a document he wants destroyed.
  • Defied: When Alice steps into the sunlight, Bob holds a beach umbrella over her and tries to talk her out of killing herself.
  • Discussed: "We're battling a vampire in the daytime? Maybe we could convince her to kill herself by stepping outside."
  • Conversed: "What if a vampire wants to commit suicide? There aren't that many ways to kill one that can be self-inflicted. Well, sunlight exposure could work."
  • Implied: Alice, looking morose and depressed, walks outside while the others are having a discussion. Shortly afterwards, something can be seen burning through the window.
  • Played for Laughs: Alice's loved ones try to demand legislation to ban her suicide method. When it comes out that she burned herself with sunlight, her loved ones withdraw their demands because they're unsure how to proceed.
  • Played for Drama: Bob finds Alice sitting outside at dawn eagerly looking at the horizon and singing "Black Hole Sun". He tries to talk her out of killing herself and they have a lengthy discussion about whether she should go through with it.
  • Played for Horror: The last time we saw Alice, she was human. Bob, who's unaware of her transformation, tries to ask her what's going on as she tries to go outside. When she gets through the door, she bursts into flames and Bob can see her fangs as she screams in pain.

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