Human Aliens: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|'''Amy:''' But you look human.
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In 1950's movies, this also could be used as an actual part of the theme of the story, as the idea that these sorts of aliens could pass completely for humans made a rather handy [[Red Scare|metaphor for Communism]].
The bottom rung of the [[Alien Tropes|Alien ladder]], below [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] and [[Intelligent Gerbil
Technically there could be another rung below this one on the [[Alien Tropes|Alien ladder]]: [[Humans Are White|Caucasian Aliens]]. There are many fictional planets where the aliens not only look human, they are all Caucasian-looking. This is rife with [[Unfortunate Implications]]. The opposite situation, where the alien race is genuinely alien, but they are all African-looking, or Asian-looking, etc., is vanishingly rare (and would probably carry a ''different'' batch of [[Unfortunate Implications]]).
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* Barring their monkey-esque tails (which can be permanently removed), Saiyans from ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'' look exactly like humans, and can even [[Half-Human Hybrid|interbreed with them with ease]]. Of course, the "Earth" of ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' is also inhabited by five foot tall talking foxes, dogs, cats, pigs, sea turtles... and [[Weirdness Censor|nobody ever thinks any of it is strange]].
** Also, [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Ginyu Force]] member Recoom, who looks almost exactly like a human, unlike the rest of his team. A filler arc also had some that were fleeing from a world attacked by Frieza.
** Some of Freeza's [[
* Similar to the Saiyans above, Lala's race from ''[[To Love Ru]]'' are indistinguishable from humans apart from their [[Fantastic Arousal|tails]]. In a similar vein, there is Ren/Run, whose only difference from humans is his [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|uncontrolled]] [[Gender Bender|Gender Bending]]. There are other examples of Human Aliens, but it is shown that there also exist [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] and [[Plant Aliens]], so at least the universe has some variety.
* The S and Stars seasons of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' brought '''so''' many Human Aliens (or at least aliens that were ''originally'' human in appearance) from across the galaxy [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe|to Tokyo]] that one could wonder if non-humanoid intelligent lifeforms really existed at all! Even the [[Talking Animal|talking cats]] Luna and Artemis, who were aliens from the planet Mau in the manga, could assume human forms. (Rei's crows Phobos and Deimos were also revealed to be aliens who could take human form in the manga.) The filler arc villains Eiru and An from the start of the second season were also aliens who could assume human form, though the villains from the first season and the rest of the second season were originally from Earth.
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* Mizuho Kazami and her family from ''[[Please Teacher]]'' look like humans with weird [[Hair Colors]]. She is herself a [[Half-Human Hybrid]], but her [[Hot Mom]] isn't.
** Not surprisingly, the same trope is in effect for Ichika Takatsuki in the "remake," ''[[Ano Natsu de Matteru]]''.
* The Yato from ''[[Gintama]]'' appear very human, although they do have super strength and are weak to the sun. Even their coloring isn't
* The aliens of [[Please Save My Earth]] are only the size of a human thumb, but look exactly like humans.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Robert Rankin]] shamelessly [[
* In one [[Discworld]] book (though it was referring to gods, the spirit's the same), it's mentioned that if you ask someone to come up with an alien-looking being, it would basically be a man in an animal mask.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] did this all over the place starting back in [[Older Than Radio|1912]] with ''[[wikipedia:A Princess of Mars|A Princess of Mars]]''. Everybody on Mars except the Green men looked human, but [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|hotter]]. The earth born hero [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]] and his Martian Princess wife have two kids, despite massive [[Bizarre Alien Biology|biological differences]] including Martians being oviparous. This doesn't even begin to cover some of the [[Bizarre Alien Biology|wild biology]] that shows up in the Land that Time Forgot stories.
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*** The beavers in ''The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe'' claim she was descended from Lilith, which just raises further questions. Of course, they aren't exactly experts on Jewish apocrypha.
*** Specifically, she is claimed to be descended from the Djinn on one side of her family, and the Giants on the other, and to have no human blood at all. One of the themes in the books is that being that look like humans but aren't are, invariably, wrong in ways that make them inimical to humans.
* The [[Noon Universe]] novels of the [[Strugatsky Brothers]] feature a lot of [[Planet of Hats]] Human Aliens civilizations, though their cultural, technological and historical development is rarely 100
** Then there are the Leoniders, who are essentially a whole race of [[Space Amish]].
** The Noon-verse is also a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]], since it features several [[Intelligent Gerbil]] (e.g. Tagorians, Golovans) and [[Starfish Alien]] races (e.g. [[Precursors|Wanderers]], Ark Megaforms).
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* ''[[Odyssey 5]]'' had Synthetics, which were human bodies created by artificial intelligences. At one stage the team consult a sci-fi writer, pretending they're looking for help with a sci-fi novel. The writer complains how cliched the idea of Synthetics is: [[Conversational Troping|"It's just a cheap tool TV shows use to save on special effects!"]]
* A nice [[Hand Wave]] comes from the TV show ''[[Something Is Out There]]''. "God created human beings in his image, right? How many images do you think he has?"
* Pax and Crona from ''[[Vintergatan|At The End Of The Milky Way]]'' both look human, but with three
* The aliens in ''[[The Event]]'' are distinguished from humans only by their longer lifespans and certain undescribed "skeletal and serological abnormalities". The latter are pronounced enough that a blood test will reveal them, and one plants himself with a tube of human blood to avoid arousing suspicions during a blood test. A DNA test will also reveal them, and [[Evil-Detecting Dog|dogs sometimes bark at them]].
* So you're watching ''[[Blake's 7]]'' and you find yourself wondering whether the very-human looking primitive tribe on this episode's guest planet are alien humanoids or descendants of a lost human colony? Don't bother thinking about it that hard. The series itself even lampshaded this in the 4th season:
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' had a strange inversion. The Vorlons are so alien looking that for the first two seasons we don't know how much of them is clothing and how much is their real body. Their true form appears to some kind of energy being, but every species perceives a Vorlon to look like their species version of an
** It is also suggested that they have to telepathically maintain this illusion. This explains why Kosh claimed he had to rest after being see by so many the first time we see a Vorlon as an 'angel'. And why we eventually see their true forms, when the two Vorlons present are too occupied to care about the witnesses around them.
*** And, when we finally do see the (apparently) true form of Vorlons, it looks like {{spoiler|a snake with feathered wings}} more than anything else, neatly covering a large swath of cultures that don't have anything resembling angels in their mythologies.
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* ''[[El Goonish Shive]].'' Aliens and magical beings get around by wearing T-shirts that say "Human" or some such. (''One'' person notices that his coworker is an alien. Her denying it is enough to convince the others, and she and this coworker wind up sending silly notes back and forth to each other about it.) Of course, Uryuoms being natural shapeshifters ''and'' the creators of [[Transformation Ray]] technology, they could hide by simply becoming human. Of course, [[Rule of Funny|that wouldn't be funny.]]
** Two of them hire Ted (seen in a flashback) to design human forms for them, and provide the technology for it - apparently there are legal/political/religious reasons why they can't do it themselves, rather than an inability to do it themselves. Also, once they've been raygunned into humans, they can (implied) shift back and forth freely.
** It gets better. Uryuoms don't consider themselves actual
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]].'' Except for the cameo crossovers with ''[[Melonpool]], [[Zortic]],'' and ''Zeera the Space Pirate,'' all aliens depicted have been [[Starfish Aliens|nonhumanoid]] in their true
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[[Category:Not Quite Human]]
[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]
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