Firefly Scene - TV Tropes

"One by one, more strange insects lit up and started to fill the air. There must have been hundreds of them. With only the little light their bodies gave off, they completely illuminated the dark field."

• Bonobono: in Episode 20 of the Original Series. Racoon and Chipmunk invite Bonobono to a Firefly Hunt in the Dark Woods, Racoon gets one but Bonobono is greedy and wants one, while running he trips on a rock and bumps into Racoon who drops the firefly he was holding, everyone runs to get it, Bonobono Falls into a Pit (and later Racoon too) get stuck, a swarm of fireflies enchants him, Racoon and Chipmunk Found Bonobono in The Pit Because the Fireflies Forming a sort of Bonobono's sweat. in the end when Racoon's dad rescue them both and they watch the sparkling light of the fireflies that cover the entire woods at night.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Played with in the anime. During an episode during summer, Sakura, Tomoyo and her friends enjoy a beautiful evening with greenish fireflies dotting the scenario like little stars. After Tomoyo and the others leave, Sakura uses her staff to capture the one responsible for the lights: The Glow Card.
• Grave of the Fireflies: Many scenes in the movie show its characters enjoying watching the fireflies. These often serve as a way to show that the film's main characters are still children who can find wonder in simple things.
• Pokémon Adventures: In the Ruby & Sapphire Arc, Ruby and Wally watch a group of Volbeat, The Firefly Pokémon, dance with wild Illumise, while they are traveling through the Petalburg Woods. As they watch the beautiful night sky lit up with Volbeat and Illumise, Ruby recommends some Pokémon to catch to Wally, who's never caught any before.
• Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire: A group of 5 Volbeat led by the Firefly Pokemon Illumise make their debut in the episode "Love At First Flight", where they put on a show for the May Festival. The May Festival is a local festival over a lake with legends stating that those who witness it will be blessed with good looks. During the festival, Ash and his friends assist the One-Shot Character Romeo in gaining his confidence and confess his love for his performance partner Juliet.
• Saber Marionette J To X: In the ending credits, as the song "Lively Motion" plays, in one sequence Robot Girl Lime and human woman Lorelai are watching some fireflies near a pond or lake.

• Batman and Robin (2011): In issue #4, Damian has a row with his father Bruce Wayne and goes to confide in his grandparents' graves during a night illuminated by fireflies. The little bugs emit a light green-yellow glow and Damian crushes one in his hand.
• Runaways (Rainbow Rowell): Issue #12 sees Victor and Gert going on a time-traveling date in order to see an extinct species of bio-luminescent butterflies.

• Crabgrass: In the July 31, 2022 strip, Miles and Kevin are watching fireflies at night, with Kevin claiming he loves firefly season. That is until Miles tells Kevin the reason why fireflies glow, which ruins the fun for Kevin.

• Differences Between Us: The first chapter shows Anne and the Plantars meeting with the rest of the town to watch a firefly migration. Because it's cold and Anne is warm-blooded, the Plantars end up using her as a personal seat warmer as they watch the fireflies. It serves as a moment to show that Anne has been fully integrated into the frog family.
• The Morrigan: Book 1 shows a flashback to Sophie suggesting Norea add fireflies to her drawing. Norea is sad that they're extinct, but Sophie assures her that they're still alive in offworld nature preserves, which just angers Norea since it's yet another thing the Spacians have taken from them. When the two finally reunite at the end of book 2, it's in a garden at Langlands, surrounded by fireflies.
• Optimus on Earth: In Transform and Roll Out, Bumblebee sees fireflies for the first time and marvels at their beauty. It's the first time in the fic that a Cybertronian (other than Optimus) learns that there is beauty in life on Earth.
• Family Loading... Please Wait: After Knuckles is finally legally adopted, despite G.U.N. trying to make everything harder, the Wachowskis celebrate by sitting on the back porch and watching the fireflies.

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Zig-zagged. The first time Atlantean fireflies appear, they set the team's camp on fire. However, the next time they appear is during a romantic moment between Milo and Kida, where the latter reveals that she believes Milo can help save the Atlanteans' way of life.
• Curious George (2006): In one scene, Ted and George are in the park when fireflies begin to come out. George is transfixed and tries to catch them as Ted explains what fireflies are. It shows how Ted is truly starting to care for George, even if the monkey causes trouble at times.
• In the Pixar short film Day & Night, Night shows Day a swarm of fireflies. He finds them beautiful (even saying "Wow.") This is the first time the two willingly show each other something from their respective time, and kicks off their Odd Friendship.
• The Good Dinosaur: Early in the film, Arlo's father takes him to a field and shows him fireflies for the first time, teaching him that despite its dangers, nature can be shockingly beautiful. Arlo later uses the trick his father used to show Spot fireflies.
• Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure features a scene where Scamp and his love interest Angel frolic among fireflies (including grabbing them in their mouths!).
• The Princess and the Frog: During the song "Goin' Down the Bayou", Ray (a firefly himself) gets his entire family to light the way for Tiana, Naveen, and Louis as they cross the bayou. The three of them marvel at how beautiful firefly light is, and it serves as the point when Tiana and Naveen first start becoming friends.
• While spending time with Winnie the Pooh at the beginning of The Search for Christopher Robin, the titular boy uses fireflies as a metaphor to teach Pooh that he's braver than he believes, stronger than he seems, and stronger than he thinks.

• The Lookout: Chris drove fast with the lights off on an unlit farm road to impress his crush with the beautiful firefly display. Unfortunately, he crashed into a broken-down combine in the middle of the road, maiming his crush, killing his friends, and causing his brain damage.
• Mufasa: The Lion King: The cave where Rafiki tells Kiara, Timon, and Pumbaa Mufasa's story is filled with fireflies. In young Rafiki's introduction, he's surrounded by fireflies. This demonstrates his spirituality and how he differs from the other mandrills.
• A variation in The New Mutants when Dani and Rahne share a romantic moment watching the rain hitting the forcefield dome at night, causing it to sparkle in red.
• Nutty Professor II: The Klumps: Sherman proposes to his girlfriend Denise by taking her out for an evening walk, then using a pheromone spray to make a nearby swarm of fireflies spell out "MARRY ME" in the darkness.
• Tuck Everlasting: The film's antagonist attempts to endear himself to Winnie by helping her catch fireflies. She's going after them the way a child would (trying to grab them without hurting them) while he's far more predatory in his approach. This serves as Foreshadowing as to how the two have different approaches to interacting with the Tuck family.

• The kid's book It's a Firefly Night focuses on a little girl and her father bonding over watching the fireflies, which they do every time the dad declares it a "firefly night".
• In The Sharing Knife, Fawn remarks that it's a shame that she and Dag can't have light to make love by while camping at night. Dag shows off a Lakewalker trick and summons a swarm of fireflies into the tree that he and Fawn are camping under (as well as briefly into her hair), illuminating their night together with the light of several hundred (slightly bewildered) fireflies.

• The Orville: In the episode "Midnight Blue", Kelly, Bortus, and Bortus' daughter Topa go to Heveena's sanctuary. During their visit, they attend a celebration acknowledging the swarming of the luminites (alien fireflies). Topa has fun chasing them, and even follows a rare blue one, showing that Topa is truly happy despite having recently been through tragedy^note . This happy moment is cut short when she's abducted and taken to a Moclan black site to be interrogated.

• The song "Fireflies" by Owl City uses the titular insects as a metaphor for the singer's dreams:

  You would not believe your eyes

  If ten million fireflies

  Lit up the world as I fell asleep.

• Played With in the Shadowrun supplement Bug City. A person in Chicago writes that they enjoy watching the beautiful light show put on by firefly insect spirits at night. Although the rest of the insect spirits infesting Chicago spend their time either turning human beings into more insect spirits or just killing and eating them, the firefly spirits mainly leave human beings alone.

• "Maybe Happy Ending" reaches the culmination of the characters' journey to Jeju Island with Oliver and Claire seeing all of the fireflies come out at night. In the Broadway production, the background of the set opens to reveal the orchestra for the one and only time in the play, surrounded by fireflies, with the conductors baton as a firefly. It's gorgeous.

• The opening cutscene of Dark Souls 2 has the protagonist approach a tree thronging with fireflies, representing the small, fragile lives of mortals. They are soon devoured by a maelstrom of the Undead Curse, and the protagonist willingly jumps after them.
• Honkai: Star Rail: Firefly is a walking Firefly Scene that is themed after fireflies, from her appearance to her attacks. Firefly is a child soldier genetically engineered to live a short life while fighting for the Glamoth Empire. After she killed its queen in revenge for this fate, the last thing she remembered before blacking out was watching fireflies dance before the sky.

  Firefly: Disappear amidst the sea of fireflies!

• Ghost of Tsushima: When bowing at some spots, Jin will be surrounded by a swarm of fireflies that quickly dissipates.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • In Breath of the Wild, Lasli, a citizen of Kakariko Village, loves Sunset Fireflies, but cannot go to collect them because of the recent uptick in monsters attacking travelers. Link can gather them for her and release them into the house to complete a quest.
  • Tears of the Kingdom continues the Sunset Firefly trend with another quest. Pyper, a musician in the Stable Trotters, hopes to make a child named Haite happy by showing her a glowing tree. Unfortunately, his own attempt to make one involved setting said tree on fire and making a mess. Link instead collects a bunch of Sunset Fireflies for Pyper and releases them around the branches, much to Haite's delight.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers: The Wigglytuff Guild's expedition to Fogbound Lake reveals the lake is the site of a brilliant light show formed from natural geysers lit from beneath by a Time Gear, with swarms of firefly Pokémon Volbeat and Illumise accompanying the display. Despite coming away with no treasure to show for their expedition (as leaving the Time Gear in place is important for maintaining the normal flow of time), the Guild members are quite happy to return home simply having shared the experience.
• Suikoden II: Invoked in a non-romantic way. A box with fireflies is set up as a Schmuck Bait to alert nearby archers of the villain's position.

• One sketch in RWBY Chibi has Penny revealing to Ruby that she's befriended a swarm of fireflies, with the two then playing amongst them.

• Amphibia:
  • In Ivy's introductory episode, she and Sprig ditch a dance their parents wanted them to attend and instead go to watch fireflies. During this moment, Sprig realizes that he likes Ivy as more than a friend.
  • In "Wally and Anne", Anne finds the Moss Man among a swarm of fireflies, which makes him appear all the more mystical.
• Craig of the Creek: In "Summer Wish", the Creek Kids go to the meadow on the first evening of summer to catch fireflies, wish on them, then let them go. Craig decides not to release his firefly and save his wish for later. The next day, however, it starts raining, and doesn't stop for days; eventually, Craig comes to believe that not releasing his firefly has upset the balance of summer, and must Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Gravity Falls: At the end of the episode "Into the Bunker", Dipper and Wendy have a talk about Dipper's Precocious Crush on her. Wendy turns him down gently, citing the fact that she's too old for Dipper (which he understands). The scene ends with Dipper surrounded by fireflies as Wendy bikes away, symbolizing that their conversation was a good thing in the long run, even if Dipper is hurting at the moment.
• Hilda: In "Chapter 2: The Fairy Mound", during a camping trip, Hilda and Johanna spend a moment watching fireflies, as they discuss Johanna's childhood in Tofoten and why she never returned there after Hilda was born.
• My Friends Tigger & Pooh: One entire episode of the series is dedicated to the characters catching fireflies, telling the viewer what they are and how catching them can be a lot of fun (with Pooh showing that the best way to catch them is to not chase them, but let them come to you).
• In The Simpsons episode Wild Barts Can't Be Broken, Bart and Lisa watch fireflies from their lounge window while lamenting being stuck indoors due to curfew.
• Star Wars Rebels: During his trial in the Jedi temple, Ezra is at one point led by a swarm of fireflies. The fireflies represent the Force showing Ezra where he needs to go.