Humans Are Flawed: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[This Loser Is You|Humans suck]]. [[Most Writers Are Human|We're]] flawed in our [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read|mental]], spiritual, and physical aspects, and to top it off we're [[Humans Are Morons|a bunch of morons]] and [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|bastards to everyone else]]... and especially to ourselves.

This gets worse if there are [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|other races]] or [[What Measure Is a Non Super|super powered people]] in the setting, compared to them we ''[[Fantastic Racism|really]]'' suck, and there's [[Can't Argue with Elves|no arguing about it]]. Except... being flawed isn't necessarily a bad thing. To be human is to be flawed, limited, and finite; but to be a ''good'' human is to nonetheless struggle through and work against or despite these limitations. That we [[We Are as Mayflies|live short lives]] and die [[Time Dissonance|gives the time in our lives meaning]] and [[Creative Sterility|fuel for art, science and creativity]]. That we lack vast magical and psychic powers is countered because we can harness [[The Power of Love]], [[The Power of Friendship|Friendship]], [[The Power of Trust|and all those]] [[The Power of Rock|lovely pink emotions]].

 

 

This is a typical fantasy/sci fi [[Aesop]] that gets referenced in other genres. Essentially, the aesop is we are [[Cursed with Awesome]]. If the story has a [[Fantastic Aesop]] against [[Flowers for Algernon Syndrome|removing]] one of the above human flaws to [[Transhuman|better]] [[Utopia Justifies the Means|mankind]], this trope is usually invoked as the [[Scale of Scientific Sins|reason]] why [[Science Is Bad|it's wrong]].

 

The [[Patrick Stewart Speech]] usually has this as the core message. See also/compare [[Humans Are Special]].

{{examples}}

* This seems to be the best way to sum up the philosphies of the main characters in the first ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime. They've all done things they aren't proud of, but seem to take a "humans are inherently flawed, but all we can do is the best we can" approach to their struggles.

* ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' is largely about this. [[The Messiah|Tenma]] and [[Complete Monster|Johan]] come to totally different conclusions from this premise.

 

* This is one possible message of ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'': Because humans are flawed, our heroes will be as well, and thus our longing for perfect messianic figures to 'save us' is naive.

* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]''. A lot. Especially towards the end, where Spider constantly drops that, despite being a bastard and some sort of weird figure for the masses, he's still human like everyone else, along with all the great and the extra-evil that humanity does on a daily basis.

 

* This is one of the main themes (arguably ''the'' main theme) of ''[[Serenity]]''. Even if the Pax had worked perfectly, it still would've been wrong to stifle the human emotional range for the sake of peace.

** Also Mal points out our flaws (Sins) are what keeps humans from just laying down and dying.

* Played very oddly and combined with [[Humans Are Special]] in [[Green Lantern (film)|Green Lantern]]; what makes humans so special is that ''we're willing to admit that we're flawed''.

 

* This trope is one of the underlying themes of ''[[Good Omens]]''.

* In the [[Malazan Book of the Fallen]] series, the Crippled God uses this as a premise for his [[Path of Inspiration|cults of salvation]]. Unfortunately, rather than delivering the message that mortals can overcome their flaws to do good, the religion is a worship of suffering and degradation.

* Robert J. Sawyer's [[The Neanderthal Parallax]] trilogy describes a parallel world in which Neanderthal man became the dominant species, and in almost every way homo sapiens compares badly. The Neanderthals live in harmony with nature, having a lower population and no pollution. Further they have [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape|no crime, violence or war]], and (possible [[Author Tract]]) no religion. The effect is to highlight all of humanity's flaws by [[Mary Suetopia|describing alternate-world humans that have none of them]].

** This is lampshaded by the Neanderthals literally having bred out of their own population all the negative traits by a program of enforced sterilizations over thousands of years (there is also one example involving domestic violence wherein this system is shown to utterly and totally fail).

 

* Despite shouting "[[Humanity Is Superior]]!" humans in ''[[Farscape]]'' are most certainly '''not'''. One episode has aliens use Crichton's memory to simulate the possible outcome of revealing themselves to humanity in order to seek asylum. [[Strapped to An Operating Table|It doesn't end well.]] However, Crichton does become one of the most useful shipmates on Moya because of his [[Fish Out of Water|ignorance]] and scientific training. It helps he was stir crazy at appropriate times.

** Even more than that, it's Crichton's (and humanity's) persistence in the face of the toughest odds that set them apart from other species. It is viewed as a flaw by many, that humans are so ignorant they don't know when they're beat, but that characteristic is what kept Crichton and his shipmates alive for so long.

** Actually Thor (the Asgard military leader) is really a gigantic dick for a very long time. He's not openly hostile, though. And he eventually comes around and genuinely seems to like humans.

* Seems to be the Doctor's view of humanity in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', as Earth is his "favorite/pet planet" so to speak, but will turn around and ridicule humans about their shortcomings should the situation be extreme enough.

'''The Doctor''': But apart from that you're completely mad. You should pack your bags, get back in that ship and fly for your lives. }}

* This is how Jor-El views humans in ''[[Smallville]]'', and his spirit bemoans that Clark Kent was raised by humans and thus, thinks like one. One of the only reasons why he did not give up on humanity completely, was because Jonathan Kent's father offered him food and shelter when he visited Earth in the 1960s (even super powered Kryptonians need to eat and sleep). The message on Kal-El's ship:

** Only the A.I. Jor-El believes this, but not the real Jor-El. Reason being is that he created the A.I. version of himself without any of his own flaws.

** For a while Brainiac masquerades as Clark's history professor. In one episode he goes into a spiel in class that lists various examples of humans' willingness to betray their friends. At the end of the episode, Clark admits humans aren't perfect and are certainly capable of greed and treachery. We're also capable of honor and compassion.

** {{spoiler|Gabriel}} agrees, but gives us commendation for still trying. {{spoiler|unlike most of his brothers.}}

* A theme in the 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series, best shown when the Lady of the Lake tells Merlin, "It's human to make mistakes, Merlin, and part of you is human . . . the best part."

'''Rimmer:''' His was just... further up. }}

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', all the races are flawed.

 

* This is the general feeling of [[New Horizon]]. Humans did some [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|terrible things]] and had to leave Earth, but now that they're on a new planet they have a grand future!

 

* ''[[System Shock]]'': Lo-lo-look at you, ''hacker''. A p-p-pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you r-run through my corridors-s. H-h-how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?

* ''[[Fallout]]''.

* In ''[[Resident Evil]]: The Darkside Chronicles,'' [[Mysterious Waif|Manuela]] comes to the conclusion that the ability to feel pain (mental/emotional pain at our mistakes, in particular) is what makes a person human, and that's a good thing, at least {{spoiler|as opposed to being a super tough (but mindless and destructive) zombie monster.}}

* While it first appears to set up a [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]] message, ''[[Eien no Aselia]]'' in the end opts for this. You have your instantly nice and understanding characters like Yuuto and Lesteena, your neutralish characters like Kouin and the populace at large and finally the evil people like Shun and Soma. The populace eventually grows to accept Yuuto and the spirits and see them as heroes, while Shun gets a decent motivation in a [[New Game+]] and a [[Sympathy for the Devil]] moment.

 

* This brought up in Chapter 28 of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', where Kat the roboticist is depressed due to finding out that the creator of the Court's robots also {{spoiler|cooked up a plan to kill [[If I Can't Have You|a woman who didn't love him and his creations]] to protect the [[Science vs. Magic|technologically-advanced court from the magical denizens of the Giliti Woods]].}} Her irritation is interrupted after she finds a baby pigeon and takes it to her friend Paz, an animal lover who works with [[Unfortunate Implications|lab rats]]. Kat has a breakdown after learning all the [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|things]] the Court does, but Paz reminds her that the Court is also capable of recognizing its flaws and changing them:

* [[Order of the Stick]] takes an interesting stance on this - when Roy dies, he's told that since he's mortal, it's not really reasonable to expect him to stay perfectly straight-and-narrow all the time, and making the effort is what's really important. This is repeated when he's allowed into the afterlife even though he didn't fulfill his father's Blood Oath; because he ''kept trying'', he gets a pass, where his father consciously abandoned the quest, and is thus stuck in limbo until a member of his family defeats Xykon. Thus it's less "Humans suck because they are flawed" and more "Humans are flawed, but that's okay, because it doesn't have to define them."

 

* There are some radical schools of thought claiming that ''all'' human flaws are only considered such due to societal pressure and should be cultivated rather than suppressed as they are the true and 'natural' traits of humanity.

* This is heavily debated. Some religions, for instance Christianity, argue we are ''inherently'' flawed (to various degrees). This position is called Original Sin. But many philosophies and some religions ''dis''agree with this premise. Even within Christianity itself, this is debated.

** Of course, one can empirically observe many flaws in many humans. But this is a less strong claim than ''humans are inherently flawed''.

** Certain philosophies hold that humans would ''not'' be flawed if they would just return to some larger cosmic purpose that our ancestors abandoned. Several sages have even posited that we can progressively ''lose'' or overcome our flaws on the way back to said purpose.

* Human history is full of this. That's all that will be said.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Goodness Tropes]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]