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{{trope}}
▲[[File:rsz_soul-eater-moon-925584_849.jpg|link=Soul Eater (Manga)|right]]
{{quote|''All right, this is just getting ridiculous. Is the Moon just '''larger''' in Japan?''|'''[[Unskippable]]''', on ''[[Onimusha]] 3''}}
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Depictions of the moon in fiction vary, and it can behave rather ... oddly.
* The moon is shown much, ''much'' larger than it appears to the naked eye in [[Real Life]]
* The crescent moon is often depicted in a stylized, unrealistic manner with the horns of the crescent extending an average of three-quarters of a circle. (In [[Real Life]], they always end at opposite ends of a diameter). Likewise, the inner (dark) part of the crescent is often circular in shape (which in [[Real Life]] only occurs if something [
▲==== Size and shape ====
▲* The moon is shown much, ''much'' larger than it appears to the naked eye in [[Real Life]] -- often filling half the sky, with such detail where you can identify individual craters and canyons. In [[Real Life]] the moon is about the size or your little fingernail at arm's length (even when it [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion appears larger at the horizon]); while it ''can'' be argued that certain [[Science Fiction]] or Fantasy settings may indeed have larger moons than Earth's, "huge moon" shots are usually the result of special effects, such as using a high-powered telephoto lens to shoot the scene from a large distance, making the moon appear comparatively larger to the subject due to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion_<!-- 28photography29 perspective distortion]]. -->
▲* The crescent moon is often depicted in a stylized, unrealistic manner with the horns of the crescent extending an average of three-quarters of a circle. (In [[Real Life]], they always end at opposite ends of a diameter). Likewise, the inner (dark) part of the crescent is often circular in shape (which in [[Real Life]] only occurs if something [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse eclipses the moon]).
** The crescent can sometimes point incorrectly for the hemisphere it's observed from, i.e. contrary to the position of the sun.
* There can be objects (such as stars) visible inside the crescent; in [[Real Life]] this can only occur if there's something on the moon's surface emitting light, or if something else is between the moon and viewer.
** If the characters actually realize this, it usually becomes an important plot point.
* The moon's lunar phases always seem to coincide with important plot moments. For example, when [[The Hero]] and heroine have won the day, expect a full moon that night so they can sit back and enjoy the romantic mood lighting it casts upon them. The same goes for the [[Melancholy Moon]] upon which characters sit and wistfully ruminate upon.
* The moon is never shown during its "gibbous" (more than half-full) phase, and rarely shown in its "half"
* A "full moon" can last for three or four nights on the
* Moonrise and moonset always coincide with sunset and sunrise, where in [[Real Life]], moonrise and moonset vary by phase: a "first quarter" moon is easily visible when it rises ''at midday'', while the "new moon" isn't visible because it rises at roughly the same time as the sun. Even a full moon is often visible entering the horizon even as the sun is still leaving it.
* Solar eclipses can occur during any phase of the moon and are [[Total Eclipse of the Plot|always total eclipses]], never partial. In [[Real Life]] a solar eclipse can only occur during a new moon, when the moon and sun are in relatively close proximity in the sky. During the actual eclipse, the moon will slowly move to obscure the sun, then slow its orbit and block out the sun for however long the plot requires (sometimes ''entire days'') before moving on.
** Its opposite, the lunar eclipse, either does not exist or is an explicit sign of evil forces at work.
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For more on eclipses, see [[Total Eclipse of the Plot]].
When the moon is weird or behaves oddly ''in-universe'', usually to signify something evil going on, it's a case of [[Bad Moon Rising]] (or possibly [[That's No Moon]]). If the moon has actually been physically altered to change its appearance, it's [[Deface of the Moon]]. See also [[Weird Sun]]. This is related to [[The Man in the Moon]].
There used to be a subtrope of Weird Moon, titled Artsy Moon. That trope was quite similar to this one, except it specifies that the moon must be depicted in an artistic way. However, Weird Moon is also quite "artsy". Our community agreed there isn't much of a difference between the tropes, so the Artsy Moon examples were moved here.
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The Moon from ''[[
** And one can apparently walk about on it without being affected by gravity changes or the need for any protective/breathing gear whatsoever.
* In ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'', the moon has a visible splatter of blood on it (perhaps a [[Shout
** The moon is huge in the original ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' show too. In Episode 6, for example, it is shown much bigger than Rei's body.
** In ''End of Evangelion'' it also seems to be unnaturally close to Earth in the scenes where giant Rei looms over the planet with the Moon right above her. Though considering the measurements given slightly earlier, it seems that the animators overestimated Earth's relative size as far larger than it actually is, rather than the distance between the two bodies.
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Kubo Tite seems to like drawing crescent moons by the tried and true method of drawing a dark circle touching a bigger white circle from the inside. And it is always crescent moons in ''[[Bleach]]''.
** Also, in Hueco Mundo, the moon seems to be flipped. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100725170545/http://www.onemanga.com/Bleach/237/19/ See] for [https://web.archive.org/web/20100726182644/http://www.onemanga.com/Bleach/241/13/ yourself]. It's always night there, and the moon is always a crescent.
* The moon in ''[[Ef a Tale of Memories|ef: A Tale Of Memories]]'' is huge. It also has the points of the crescent meet at one end, which is
** You could get a similar view (points of the crescent meeting) by viewing the earth from the moon during a solar eclipse, though...
* In ''[[Gankutsuou]]'', the surface of the moon resembles a huge and ominous skull. Strangely enough, no-one ever wonders about it (though seeing the wealth and weird tastes of the upper classes, it's entirely possible that the moon was deliberately modified to look like this from the Earth). Somewhat justified by the fact that it is colonized, thus having its surface altered.
** More curiously, it looks the same no matter what angle it's being viewed from; the same skull appears in scenes that feature Earth and the moon together, even though what we see ought to be the dark side.
* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' is really bad with this. Essentially, the moon is always full, except when the plot calls for a new moon (which causes the title character to lose his demonic powers).
* In ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]'', the full moon looks awfully huge behind the flying silhouettes of Kurau {{spoiler|and later Christmas}}, although it makes for lovely E.T.-like scenery, emphasizing the lonely mood. Of course, the moon looks weird anyway since it has been [[
* The last scene of ''[[Madlax]]'' has two moons, one red and one blue, overlapping each other; this is [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|symbolic]] of either Margaret and Madlax, Madlax and Limelda, or Limelda and Vanessa (the finale is...complicated).
** Throughout the series, the moon is either red or blue, and in one case two characters simultaneously see it as different colours. In the Sanctuary, there are always two moons (one red, one blue).
* The Moon was full throughout the entire season of ''[[
* For examples of the over-extended crescent, look no further than ''[[Sailor Moon]]''.
* The god Hades in ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' summons the ''Final Eclipse'', which magically aligns all planets and all moons to cover Earth in perpetual darkness. If he had had his way, it would have lasted all eternity.
* In ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', there's a three-week period when the moon is about to crash into the Earth. For the entire time, the moon was always visible and full in the sky. Justified in that {{spoiler|it turns out that the moon is a huge battleship/mecha called "Cathedral Terra". The real moon was apparently hidden away in another dimension, and was pulled out of said dimension by the protagonists after the [[Colony Drop]] had been averted}}.
** Also, most of the population of the world (and thus the view point) is in a relatively small area.
* In ''[[
* In the anime version of ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' the Moon ''and'' the Earth, cast in the role of the "Mystic Moon," display this trope, despite technically not being true moons. There's even a total solar eclipse in one episode, with the Earth conveniently having the same apparent diameter as the sun when seen from Gaea. The Moon is perfectly centered on the Earth during the event...yet can still be seen in complete shadow.
* In Miyazaki's ''[[Ponyo
** In ''[[Spirited Away]]'' the moon changes a lot faster than normal {{spoiler|which makes sense when it's revealed a lot of time has passed since Chihiro's family got trapped in the other world}}.
* The [[Hellsing]] OVAs show a moon that, in one scene, is so big that the bottom 15% or so half fills a row of windows about ten meters across. To get that kind of size with a real camera, you'd need a lens with a focal length measured in meters, and you'd have to photograph the (indoor) scene from a couple kilometers away. Not only that, there is almost always a blood moon when there is a plot point, such as the night Seras Victoria was transformed into a vampire or when Walter informed Alucard that he would be heading to Brazil. Also, it is always a full moon; it appears to have no other phases.
* Animation studio [[Bee Train]] has a particular affinity for weird moons. As mentioned above in Madlax they have used the moon many more times in different series.
** ''[[.hack
** ''[[Avenger]]'': The abnormally large red Moon that can be seen from Mars is actually the same Moon that once normally existed exclusively as planet Earth's only natural satellite. After the natural catastrophe that took place on Earth, the Moon's orbital trajectory was deeply affected due too an excessive approximation between Earth and Mars. Consequently, the Moon now plays an important role in the gravitational field between both planets. The drastic approximation between the Moon and planet Mars often originates Lunar Storms, a phenomenon created by a large fluctuation affecting the surface of Mars, which is one of the main reasons why life outside Dome Cities is considered very harsh to a normal human being. The Moon is especially red in color probably due to the excessive proximity to Mars' atmosphere, therefore reflecting the dominant tonality on the planet's surface.
** Continuing with the red weirdness trend their anime adaptation of ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' the moon turns red during the Ashura Country Arc which is where an other clan's base is also stationed. Taking place in an alternate universe also acceptable break from reality
** ''[[Murder Princess]]'' also features a red moon in the opening titles. The moon is also lush and full a great majority of the time.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Hohenheim tries to counter Father's Nationwide Transmutation Circle by drawing his own transmutation circle on the shadow of the moon. In real life, however, the moon during an eclipse doesn't leave such a nice defined shadow, such as seen [http://www.opencourse.info/astronomy/introduction/04.motion_moon/eclipse99_mir_big.jpg here].}}
* In ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* A recent chapter of ''[[Naruto]]'', in what's probably an art error rather than deliberate liberty, had a moon that appeared to have part of a cloud ''behind'' it.
** It was also said in legend that the Rikudo Sage created the Moon by catching the Juubi's corpse inside an [[Incredibly Lame Pun|astronomically]] large Chibaku Tensei before ''tossing the earthen ball to the sky''.
* In ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' a third of the Moon has blown up into a giant [[Asteroid Thicket]] ring around the Earth, essentially leaving it as physically crescent.
* In ''[[Shuna's Journey]]'', the moon is flat, looking more like an alien spaceship than a moon. It sets to the west, where instead of going beneath the horizon, it lands and deposits resources in an ominous [[Eldritch Abomination]].
* In ''[[The Tale of the Princess Kaguya]]'', The "artsy" part of "Artsy Moon" comes from size. In some shots of the film, notably the last one before the credits, the Moon takes up over half of the screen. The shot is made more weird by the lack of saturation when compared to the rest of the film, and the moon feels more "artsy" due to the film's rough and simplistic art style.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The '70s Marvel comic ''Werewolf By Night'' explicitly stated that its protagonist transformed "on the three nights of the full moon". "Looks full to me" is good enough for a werewolf
* Earth inexplicably picked up an extra moon during the cataclysm in ''[[Xenozoic Tales]]''.
* Comes up, in a way, in ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Darklighter]]'', the four-issue series about [[Mauve Shirt|Biggs Darklighter]]. When Biggs graduates from the Imperial pilot's academy, his class gets a speech from Grand Moff Tarkin. Tarkin drops intensely unsubtle hints about the Empire being close to possessing great power - ''world-shattering'' power, you could say! "Never again will a citizen of this galaxy watch a moonrise in quite the same way. He will stare at that moon - if such it is - and remember that the Empire is truly in control."
** The new pilots lounge around trying to make sense of that, and [http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3103/blz13.jpg one of them] tells a story about a man who had tunnels mined out on his world's moon, and they formed a drawing of his face. Then Biggs [http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1527/blz14.jpg speculates] that "world-shattering" was literal, but something that could do that would have to be moon-sized itself... Then [http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4632/blz15.jpg Hobbie] Klivian walks in, [[
* ''[[Elf Quest]]'' takes place on the World of Two Moons, aka Abode. Creator-artist Wendy Pini always draws the moons in their correct relative phases (being married to an amateur astronomer probably helps). When other artists attempt it they sometimes get it wrong, for instance drawing the two moons in different phases even when they are right next to each other in the sky. In another particularly egregious example both moons were seen to the left of a cave in one panel, and to the ''right'' of the same cave on the next page. And no, they hadn't had time to move that far between panels.
* The moon is full rather more often than not in [[Batman]] comics.
* During [[DC Comics]]' ''[[Final Night]]'' event, the sun temporarily went out. Many artists working on the event put a visible moon in the sky. The moon doesn't glow on its own, it reflects sunlight.
* In ''[[Zot]]'', "Ring in the New", issue 27, the characters go outside just before midnight on New Year's Eve to see the "Big Clock". "Up there." "Oh, I see it ... Hey! That's the Moon!!" "Yeah. Zot say it's all done with lasers here on Earth." It is a couple of days past new (a thin crescent) and has a lit clockface. [[This Is Wrong
== [[Film]] ==
* For the "huge" thing, see the bit in ''[[
* Subverted in the film ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'', where Bruce "pulls" the moon with a [[God for
* ''[[From Dusk
* ''[[
* The ''[[Evil Dead]]'' movies often feature an unnaturally large image of the full moon during their shots of the cabin in the woods. The second movie in particularly has a moon so huge that it looks like Ash should be worrying less about demons and more about the [[Earthshattering Kaboom|impending collision]].
* In the Beethoven's Sixth Symphony portion of ''[[
** Justified in that the setting is mythological.
** The final section of Stravinsky's ''Rite of Spring'' segment is sandwiched between the formation of a total solar eclipse.
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** It's never explicitly stated in [[Pitch Black]] how long the eclipse will last. None of the characters have any idea, but agree that it will probably last too long to try and wait it out.
* The 2002 remake of ''[[The Time Machine]]'' features a sub-plot about colonizing the moon in the 2030's which goes horribly wrong and ends up with the moon being blown to pieces. When the time traveller later emerges in 802701, the smaller chunks of the moon have been pulled apart and stretched into a mini asteroid belt.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in Disney's ''[[
** [[That's No Moon]]...
* Justified in ''[[
* ''[[Van Helsing]]'' uses "full for several nights", along with "the stroke of midnight" lasting ''well'' over two minutes. It's probably a tribute to the kind of films Lon Chaney made, though.
* ''[[Watchmen (
* ''[[Werewolf (
* For the "full for several nights" thing, watch Lon Chaney Jr. in ''[[The
* The moon in the end of [[Despicable Me]] is large enough to occupy good part of the screen.Justified since {{spoiler|after getting stolen by Vector, it didn't have the time to reach its former orbit before going back to its original size}}.
* The [[
* In ''[[Titan
* ''[[The Little White Horse|The Secret of Moonacre]]'' has a continuously-full moon that gets larger and larger as the movie goes on. It's an actual plot point, as the moon will destroy the earth unless Maria gives back the moon jewels.
* In ''[[Coraline (
* In ''[[Daredevil (
* The moon appearing in the "A Whole New World" number from ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' for some reason actually changes from a full moon to a crescent moon ''all in the same night!''
** And at the end of the film, it's actually revealed to be [[Robin Williams|the Genie]] in disguise!
* In ''Kull The Conqueror'', the awakening of the dark forces of Acheron turns the moon into a gruesome red demonic face.
* In ''[[The Return of Hanuman]]'', the moon is not shaped like a ball, but rather a crescent. Hanuman even pulls one of its edges, using it as a flashlight due to the moon's brightness.
* ''[[Alice in Wonderland (
* Near the end of ''[[Finding Nemo]]'', during the scene where the whale drops off Marlin and Dory at Sydney, Australia, when we see the whale swimming away, if you look very closely, you can easily tell that the Moon is "right-side up." (Tycho, the large crater on the Moon's southern hemisphere, is facing down). In real life, the Moon should appear "upside down" when viewed from the Earth's southern hemisphere (Tycho would be facing up) since the Moon is always right-side up no matter what.
** In another Pixar movie, ''[[Cars]]'', the maria on the Moon are shaped like a car's headlights and grille, and its craters are shaped like tires.
* The [[Older Than Television|1902 film]] ''[[A Trip to
== [[Literature]] ==
* Justified in Nancy Farmer's ''Land of the Silver Apples'', as the elves pretty much ''make'' the moon whatever phase they want it to be, and they always want it to be full.
* The "Affecting Lunatics" thing is prominent in the [[Ian Fleming]]'s [[James Bond]] novel ''[[From Russia
* In Simon Green's ''[[Nightside]]'' novels, the moon over London's Nightside always appears unnaturally large (or maybe unnaturally close). Then again, this is a place where it's always three o'clock in the morning.
* Played straight in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Cycle of the Werewolf]]'', in which the chapters cover successive months of a year in the life of a town in which one man has become a werewolf. King deliberately set the time of the full moon to match major holidays rather than realistically. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that according to the [[Other Wiki]], the project originally began as a set of short stories to accompany a calendar.
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* In N. K. Stouffer's ''The Legend of Rah and the Muggles'', the Moon shines through a cloud of nuclear fallout that's impenetrable to sunlight.
** [[You Fail Astronomy Forever|So direct sunlight isn't bright enough, but reflected sunlight is?]]
* The habit of the moon's phases appearing in the wrong order is neatly averted in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', and other [[
** It's a minor plot point at least once - they remember spending a week or two in Lothlorien, but so much time has gone by outside, the moon passed through an entire phase-cycle. (Tolkien was paying homage to long-standing legends of mortals visiting the realms of [[The Fair Folk]].)
** It's been suggested that we can actually calculate the exact historical dates on which Tolkien set his tales from the moon's phases. http://www.angelfire.com/rings/three/chrono.htm eg. ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' takes place in 3105-3104 BC.
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* In the world of ''Goblin Moon'', the moon's highly-elliptical orbit brings it alarmingly close to the planet when it's full, causing monthly cycles of ground tremors and extreme tides. The novel's title is a reference to an old myth which personified the moon as a shapechanging female deity, who became harsh and ugly when full.
* [[The Wheel of Time]] uses a (roughly) consistent lunar phase similar to Tolkien's, except that references of weeks in the early books can confuse the reader as for how much time passed, since Jordan couldn't initially make up his mind for a 7-day or a 10-day week.
* The [[Gor]] series takes place on a [[Counter
* In [[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]], Samuel Taylor Coleridge refers to "the hornèd moon with one bright star within the nether tip."
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* On the Playhouse Disney children's series ''[[Bear in
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' did the "full for several nights" thing, but clarified it by saying "the night before and the night after" - in other words, they admitted the moon wasn't ''really'' full, but the full moon had that big an effect on werewolves.
** The episode "What's My Line" features a vampiric ritual that needs to be performed on the night of a new moon. Spike gets ready to start the ritual when "the moon is rising"
*** The script writer goofed and forgot what they'd said earlier. Spike and Dru say that the ritual has to take place during the full moon.
* During one episode of ''Chef!'', a wedding is set to occur on a full moon. Savannah predicts that the romantic atmosphere will [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends|clean up all the romantic loose ends]]. Ironically, everyone but her gets their wish.
* The ''[[
* A recent episode of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' had an eclipse lasting for most of the episode (probably a few hours in-story) and it still wasn't over by the end of the episode, when sunlight moves across and revives Claire ''after'' the moon's shadow is seen leaving the edge of the sun's disc.
** Additionally, this is the second total solar eclipse visible in (all of) North America in ''how'' many years?
** Not to mention how the last eclipse was seen around the entire world.
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* ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' features the Moon as a character who provides monologues to break up the segments of the show. It's fond of astronomical jokes; it's implied there that there are several moons, with him being the full one.
** Of course, whether or not that's true is debatable, given that the Moon is the biggest [[Cloudcuckoolander]] in the series (in more ways than just size).
{{quote|
* ''[[American Gothic]]'': It's always a full moon in Trinity.
* The 2007 premiere of ''[[Smallville]]'' showed a half moon with the lit part on the top in the nighttime, as well as having the moon be seen by people in Kansas and China at the same time in the same position in the sky, thus getting it wrong in two ways at once.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' did the "full for several nights" thing. Many werewolf stories do this, if for no other reason than ease of
** ''Supernatural'' is also guilty of presenting the "unbelievably enormous" version of the moon; in real life, the moon looks about the size of a pea held at an arm's length... not a ''baseball''.
* In the 90's ''[[The Tonight Show]] With Jay Leno'' had skits with Jay playing characters like Beyondo, Iron Jay, Billy Tuttle and Mr Brain- one of the characters was Evil Jay- Jay's evil twin who appeared at every full moon.
* Back in the 90's, the comic relief soap operas played by Globo had a [[Running Gag]] in which the moon would always be at it's full phase and be several times bigger than normal. In one, there was even a mystic event day in which there would be two giant moons in the sky!
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Sesame Street]]'': In "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon", Ernie is shown sitting on a small crescent-shaped moon.
== [[Music]] ==
* From [[
{{quote|
The sky is burned and black! }}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The ''[[Magic:
** On Mirrodin, the terms "Moon" and "Sun" are used pretty much interchangeably, and with good reason. Though they orbit around the planet like moons, they are made of flaming balls of magic and supply the primary light source like suns. Oh, and the "stars" in
** The game itself also includes the cards [
▲** On Mirrodin, the terms "Moon" and "Sun" are used pretty much interchangeably, and with good reason. Though they orbit around the planet like moons, they are made of flaming balls of magic and supply the primary light source like suns. Oh, and the "stars" in Mirrodins sky are actually insects. That make rain. Mirrodin is not so much an example of a [[Weird Moon]] and more a Weird Cosmos that happens to ''contain'' moons.
▲** The game itself also includes the cards [http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=blood%20moon Blood Moon], [http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=pale%20moon Pale Moon], [http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=chaos%20moon Chaos Moon], and [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=108818 Bad Moon].
** Dominaria, the primary setting, used to have two moons: the Mist Moon, which has an atmosphere (hence the mist) and Griffins (among other things) living on it, and the Null Moon, also known as the Glimmer Moon, which [[That's No Moon|is a space station]] and was destroyed in the Apocalypse.
* The ''[[Eberron]]'' campaign setting for D&D has twelve
** On the plus side, this made life easier for DMs whose players try and seek out were-creatures to get infected. One Will save a month to avoid the alignment change is easy. One every two days is a much better deterrent.
** Also, in the ''Elder Evils'' expansion for ''[[Dungeons
* Some domains in the [[Ravenloft]] setting provide examples of this trope, such as Sithicus, where a moon similar to Krynn's Nuitari (see above, under Literature) is the only one in the sky. Nova Vaasa was once stated to have five moons, a detail that fans have argued about.
* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has Selûne<ref>shares its name with the Faerûnian goddess of moon, navigation and some other things</ref>, the moon of the planet Toril, trailed by a Trojan cluster of small asteroids commonly called Selûne's Tears. Also, it looks like a dusty stone much like Earth's Moon, but it's a permanent false image created by Leira<ref>the goddess of illusion and deception in general</ref>. [[Spelljammer|Spelljamming]] community knows Selûne is an inhabited and even civilized world, the only problem is that the locals are paranoid about their "enemies" from Toril. The latter quirk may or may not have something to do with Selûne's Tears being fragments blasted out of the moon's surface long ago by a glancing hit from magical superweapon on Toril's surface (some dragons built it to destroy the comet that triggers magic periodically driving them insane, but miscalculated something).
* In the fantasy ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' world, there are multiple moons. One of these is made up of warpstone, this setting's form of [[Green Rocks|glowy green rock]]. Warpstone is solidified magic from the Realm of Chaos and can mutate anything it touches, generally in a bad way. This moon affects the flows of magic, occasionally sends down warpstone meteorites, and has a (seemingly) randomly changing orbital period (and hence the length of each month as judge by that moon varies massively). On one night each year,<ref>the date varies, obviously, but it's presumably usually within a couple of months of the Summer Solstice, as the occurrence is known as Geheimnisnacht/Geheimnistag (the Night/Day of Mysteries), and the two months after the solstice are Vorgeheim (Before Mystery) and Nachgeheim (After Mystery)</ref>
* The moon in ''[[Exalted]]'' is actually dedicated to making things ''less'' weird; it's a gigantic reality engine controlled by Luna, Incarna of the Moon, and dedicated to keeping the chaotic influence of [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|the Wyld]] out of Creation.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the ''[[Marathon
* In ''[[Animal Crossing]]: Wild World'' for the DS, the moon looks normal enough, but unlike the real thing, it rises and sets at the exact same time each day (with moonrise being early in the evening and moonset being after midnight (this is related to the confusion of moonrise and sunset mentioned near the top of the page)). Solar and lunar eclipses are unheard of in the game (the former because the sun is never visible on the game). This does not apply to the original ''[[Animal Crossing]]'', because the sky wasn't visible in that game (it featured a top-down view like that of a 2D [[RPG]]). This does, however, apply to ''[[Animal Crossing]]: City Folk'' for the Wii.
* The Moon seen in the background of ''[[Blinx the Time Sweeper]]'' is missing a huge chunk, making it a literal crescent shape.
* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' has an absolutely massive full moon hovering over Arkham Island. It doesn't actually do anything, it's just for atmosphere.
** It's also backwards.
* Most ''[[Castlevania]]'' games content themselves with an inexplicably gigantic moon, but ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Symphony of the Night]]'' takes the cake. ''SotN's'' moon appears crescent when viewed from the clock tower, full when viewed from the outer wall and Olrox's quarters, and full with a blood red tint when viewed from the castle keep. In all but Olrox's quarters, the moon is also terrifyingly HUGE. And yet, all of these locations are a short walk from each other, with the outer wall, clock tower, and castle keep all being ''right next door''.
** Technically though, the castle in which the game takes place is written [[Chaos Architecture|not to really adhere to real-world laws of nature]].
** In the intro for ''Castlevania Judgment'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfzDiCxDyA the moon is portrayed in such a size it would actually be BIGGER than the Earth itself], unless the satellite has broken orbit and is on a collision course for Eastern Europe.
** And in ''Aria of Sorrow'', the full moon is clearly visible... from a castle sealed inside of the moon during a lunar eclipse.
*** [[Mind Screw|It's sealed in the eclipse itself, not the moon.]]
* The moon in ''[[
* In ''[[Fable|Fable II]]'', the moon is always full. No wonder Westcliff has a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|Balverine]] problem.
* In ''[[
** The moon in ''[[
** There are two moons in ''[[
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' plays with this: there's an Easter egg where, if you shoot the moon with a sniper rifle, it grows larger and larger until, after 5-6 shots, it reverts to its normal size.
* In ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'', the moon falls on you ''multiple times''.
** And signals the arrival of a witch about to crash into you, and is one of [[Castlevania|Dracula's]] attacks. The moon is never a good sign in this game.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' has a heart-shaped moon on its cover, though this was originally just a stylistic effect; it didn't appear in the actual game until [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|the final]] [[Eldritch Location|level]] of ''[[
* The world of ''[[
* The main plot of ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* The moon in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* The Moon that Never Sets in the ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' is the body of the [[
* In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3: Corruption'', there are moons that are literally ''chained'' to the planet Bryyo's surface. With actual chains. Granted, the moons may actually be pieces of the planet that is starting to break apart. In Bryyo's defense, the Reptilicus are/were capable of using magic, which would explain a number of oddities seen on the planet... Also, Metroid in general seems to have magic. Go figure.
* In ''[[Okami]]'', the Day of Darkness consists of a solar eclipse. Considering that the main character and whom the player controls is an avatar of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, this is a problem. The full eclipse itself starts {{spoiler|with the rise of the Emperor of Eternal Darkness, Yami, and ends when Ammy redraws the Sun in the sky, so it can be anywhere from a few minutes to an hour}}, but the initial phase of umbra lasts for several ''hours''. When the characters go through a [[Portal to
* The moon in ''[[Paper Mario:
* The moon of the Space Zone in ''[[Super Mario Land 2:
* In ''[[
** In ''[[
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', the Lunar Phases effect your ability to communicate with demons. The moon shuffles through each of the sixteen different stages of the cycle in the matter of ''a few seconds.''
** In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne|Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne]]'', the "moon" is called Kagutsuchi, and it functions as the Sun of the [[Hollow World|Vortex World]], but it still has waxing and waning phases and can send demons berserk when full.
** In ''[[Persona 3]]'', the Moon is {{spoiler|transmogrifies during the Dark Hour into the physical shell of [[Eldritch Abomination|Nyx]], personification of Death and the Bringer of [[The End of the World
** ''[[Strange Journey]]'' lets you hook up a Sub App called "Lunatic", making it possible to communicate with demons during a Full Moon (otherwise impossible). The catch? They're still drunk on moonlight, so talking to them is kind of a crapshoot.
* ''[[
** As an added bonus, the moons supply Arcadia with [[Green Rocks|Moon Stones]], which are the foundation of pretty much all magic and [[Magitek|technology]] on the planet - each moon provides magic governing a different [[Elemental Powers]], so of course they're [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]].
** {{spoiler|There are even hints of a 7th moon. The evidence is inside the Dark Rift: a large number of black moonstones.}}
* The moon in ''[[
* In ''Wiz 'n Liz'', the moon has a face. Usually it just looks like it's asleep, but every now and then it will yawn, and even come out with an incredibly creepy grimace.
* ''[[Sonic Adventure Series|Sonic Adventure 2]]'': Eggman elects to show the world (well, <s>America</s> the [[Eagle Land|United Federation)]] how badass his new [[Kill Sat]] is by aiming it at the moon. It blows off part of the moon, revealing a molten core and apparently having no influence on the planet's oceans. The following game, it's been repaired.
** [[Negative Continuity|And then it's broken again when the plot for the game after that]], ''Shadow The Hedgehog'', needs to continue dealing with said [[Kill Sat]].
* ''[[The Dig]]'': The planet Cocytus has 2 moons (actually the smaller one is a satellite of the larger). In one puzzle, the protagonist discovers a planetarium-orrery with models of the planet and its moons, and by moving the models he makes the ''real'' moons move to create an eclipse. This is never explained but then again, we are talking about [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien
* ''[[
* During the Halloween event in ''[[Guild Wars]]'', the moon appears as [http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Droknars_Forge_Halloween_2008.jpg huge with a creepy face] in certain cities.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' makes this a point in the back story. The moons are not sub-planetoids but in fact the decaying remains of a long dead god. This decay is why you can see the stars through the dark side, it has quite literally rotted away. Admittedly though, this is one of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100602062049/http://www.imperial-library.info/astro/ easier astronomical concepts to explain].
* ''[[Touhou Project]]'' offers a subversion: a Lunar civilization of long-lived Earth humans living completely unknown to humans on the Earth (supposedly; the backstory is fuzzy around the time of the Apollo moon landings). To conceal themselves, the Lunarians erected a great (dimensional) Border around the moon, much like the Border surrounding Gensokyo. The internal region hidden by this Border provides oxygen, plant life, and oceans for what is dubbed the Lunar Capital; to us: the moon we see at night.
** Travel to and from the moon only works consistently on nights of the full moon, which allows for a perfect connection. In ''Imperishable Night'', the Lunar refugees in Eientei have interrupted the full moon with the image of a gibbous moon to make it impossible for emissaries from the moon to come to Earth after them.
* The map Doublecross on ''[[
* The Blue Moon in ''[[
* In ''[[
** In ''[[Super Smash Bros Brawl|Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', the [http://www.ssbwiki.com/File:Luigi%27s_Mansion.jpg moon in the background] of the stage [[Luigis Mansionis]] very, ''very'' large.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the real-world time of day on the Realm's server drives whether it's day or night in the game. At night, the moon is ''always'' full, and it's ''huuuuuge''.
** There used to be a second, smaller (and blue) moon, but it vanished from the sky when the first expansion came out. It still appears in fiction, but not in-game.
* In ''[[Loco Roco]]'', the Moon is very much alive.
* In ''[[Mabinogi (
* ''[[Sengoku Basara]] 3'' has several instances of this. Firstly, if the Moon appears at all it is always full. In the Winter Osaka Siege it is absolutely enormous, taking up about half the sky (it's probably symbolic, as Mitsunari is represented by the Moon and more than a little insane). When Kanbe takes the castle it turns yellow but doesn't decrease in size. At the Kanegasaki Siege it's much smaller, but still unrealistic, and coloured blood red with a strange aura, impending Nobunaga's resurrection.
* The Moon in ''[[Minecraft]]'' always comes up when the Sun goes down. It's also square-shaped and rather large.
** It now has phases, which show ''round'' sections of shadow moving across it. The one exception is the new moon, where only the outermost edge is visible - and about half as bright as on a full moon. It was round for a short time (during a pre-release update), but then the people who asked for it [[Unpleasable Fanbase|decided they liked the square one better]]. Despite having phases, it still is always at the opposite side of the Sun.
* The moon in ''The Lost Crown: A Ghosthunting Adventure'' is perpetually full, and unnaturally large. It can even be seen to ''grow'' at one point, looming larger behind bare tree branches.
* The moon in ''[[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle]]'' is big enough to block out a huge percentage of the sky, as seen in the battle against the appropriately named Margaret Moonlight.
* Lycanthropic horror game ''[[Bloodborne]]'' has a moon that sits ''in front of'' the clouds in the night sky.
* In ''[[Earth Eternal]]'', Earth's moon has had chunks blown out if it, with a [[Sickly Green Glow]] coming from between the pieces.
== [[Web Comic]] ==
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** You don't learn just drawing at art school. You can major in graphic design, screen writing, interior design, exterior design, basically anything that is 'artistic'. Which is a lot more than drawing/painting.
* ''[[Soul Symphony]]'': The moon in Olivia's Soul World, where it is always night time, is the source of all energy and life. Supplies strange powers and mutations for Olivia's sidekick. Not only that, but it appears to be permanently crescent because a majority of it actually ''exploded.''
* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' discussed suspicious parameters of [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/165.html certain Endor's moon] in ''[[Star Wars]]''.
* ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'': The moon has a face. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the fact that it's actually a moon ''goddess''.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* One of the [[Running Gag
{{quote|
** Again in ''[[Devil May Cry]]''.
{{quote|
* A few variations in ''[[
* In ''[[
* The moon in the [[Alien Sky|sky]] of Remnant in ''[[RWBY]]'' is shattered into a dozen or more pieces. {{spoiler|In volume 6 we learn that it was broken by one of the two gods who had created Remnant while making a Dramatic Exit after nuking the entire planet in response to Salem raising a human rebellion against them.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Many cartoons show visible stars within a crescent moon.
** One classic modification is in George Herriman's ''[[Krazy Kat]]''. Often, the moon would be not just shown as a crescent, but as a slice of
*** The landscape in ''Krazy Kat'' is so surreal anyway that this just blends in.
** On a more serious note, this may be excused if circumstances have caused a huge chunk to have been taken out of the moon anyway. The problems this would cause for tides or the integrity of the remaining bits of the moon seem to rarely be addressed.
* [[Bruce Timm]] commented how whenever the moon is shown in any [[DCAU]] show that it is full. He tried to get it shown as a crescent to indicate change in time, but it never quite came to pass.
* There was not a ''[[
** There's a brief shot of a crescent moon in "Eye of the Storm", and several in "Hunter's Moon".
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', when the Moon Spirit is threatened, the moon turns red, and when the Moon Spirit dies, it is no longer visible.
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** Well, the moon is a living, thinking entity in the Avatar-verse. It's quite possible {{spoiler|Yue}} can be in whatever phase she wants to be. Particularly if it's dramatically appropriate.
*** And, of course, there's no reason to assume that Avatar takes place on planet Earth. The "moon" in the Avatar world's sky is some other celestial object, associated with ''that'' planet.
** However, the moon's behavior in the solar eclipse was actually fairly
*** The moon also taught people [[Supernatural Martial Arts|martial arts]]. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].
* ''[[
** It's how they figure out that something on this planet is ''seriously'' messed up, as the second moon has far too little mass for a satellite of its size.
** It also hid the fact that the planet they were on was {{spoiler|Earth}}. When season 2 starts and only the actual moon remains, Dinobot is the first to realize that Megatron had led them to the correct planet after all.
** Um, no, Waspinator is the first to figure it out, Dinobot suspects it, but Waspinator confirms it.
* In the ''[[Ni Hao, Kai
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]''. In the episode "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", Lisa and guest character Luke are looking at the night sky and comment on how big the moon seems. The camera then pans back to show the landscape they're on - with the moon taking up half the screen.
** "You should see it when it's full!"
* In ''[[Thundarr the Barbarian]]'', a runaway planet passes between the Earth and the Moon, and its gravitational field cracks the latter in half, like a walnut. This doesn't affect its orbit in the slightest, but it does end human civilization.
* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' had a normal moon..then had CHA lasered into it...then explosives filled the C in...then it got a bite taken out of it.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Futurama]]'' "''Kif gets Knocked Up a Notch''", when Kif Kroker constructs a romantic [[Hard Light|HoloShed]] night scene for Amy complete with impossibly large moon. "And I would pluck the moon from the sky, just to see you smile," and then he ''does''. Later it even saves them during the [[Holodeck Malfunction]] when it plugs a hole in the hull.
* ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]''. For the most blatant example, in "Fanboy in the Plastic Bubble" the titular bubble is popped by the crescent moon.
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* The moon from ''[[Ruby Gloom]]'' appears to be alive. It has eyes, a mouth, and is even seen reacting to what the characters are doing sometimes. Oh, and it sings the theme song.
* [[Ren and Stimpy]] are stranded on a remote planet in one of the space episodes. Ren goes to bed but Stimpy implores him to go outside and look at the moon. Ren goes back outside grumbling about what's so special about it and ''cracks his head on it''. It's about two yards above the surface and [[World of Chaos|things just get weirder from there]].
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** The moon also used to have visible craters forming the shape of a unicorn's head: the "Mare in the Moon". This disappeared when Nightmare Moon was freed from her exile there.
* ''[[Tiny Toons]]'' did a parody with the Amblin Logo having Elliot crashing into the moon and falling off his bike.
* One ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]'' cartoon has Casper decide to visit the Man in the Moon. Being a ghost, he has no trouble flying to the Moon, but as he gets closer, the smiling cartoon face on the moon slowly fades into just being a bleak pattern of craters, and he arrives bitterly disappointed. Fortunately, the place turns out to be inhabited by little [[Lilliputians|Lilliputian]] guys, so he makes some friends after all.
== Other ==
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* [
* The moon is actually moving away from the Earth at a very slow
** "We can see that a hundred million years ago, the moon was twelve meters above the earth. This might have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs - the tallest ones, anyway."
** The moon's rate of recession has been measured at 38
** Some astronomers have suggested that 5 billion years in the future, [
* By sheer astronomical fluke, Earth's Moon appears to be virtually the same size as the Sun, when viewed from the planet's surface. This makes solar eclipses extra-spectacular here, as a corona of light rims the Moon's shadow: something which could make the Earth a popular tourist attraction during eclipse years, should sightseeing aliens ever learn about this weird coincidence.
** ''Every'' year is an eclipse year. [
*** And any (opaque) object near a source of light casts a shadow all the time. Spacefaring aliens could just set up shop within the shadow of any celestial body and have their very own "eclipse". The attractive of the Earth would be that it happens naturally; it would only be a touristic attraction when there's an eclipse going through a populated center, to provide basic touristic services.
* A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon's orbit carries it into the Earth's shadow. This results in the moon turning red.
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** Also, if it were far enough and large and/or reflective enough to be visible from the surface, it wouldn't even appear to move.
** Flares from Iridium satellites (up to magnitude -8; many times brighter than Venus and visible in broad daylight) are plenty bright enough to create this effect. Satellites move plenty fast enough to be distinguished from stars, however.
* Recently, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140826235741/http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091115-236337/Thrilling-discovery-Lots-of-water-on-moon scientists have discovered water]'' underneath the moon's surface, [[Wild Mass Guessing|which raises a lot of questions...]]
* Small as it appears, seeing something framed in the moon as in the trope image is easily possible: they just need to be far enough away that they appear smaller than the moon. Presumably, the image of Elliot and ET was taken from some miles distant with a telephoto lens.
* Many accurate maps of the Moon that were created more than 50 years ago depict it upside-down and flipped left to right, as early techniques to capture its image inverted the Moon's light as it passed through a telescope. More recent maps use digital image-reversal to flip the image again, so it once again matches what's visible to the naked eye from Earth.
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