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Humans Are Special: Difference between revisions
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If humans know they are special, they will make it clear to the aliens in a [[Patrick Stewart Speech]]. Alternately, it might be the aliens themselves who tell humanity that they have the potential to achieve greatness beyond imagination.
May be used as a justification for [[Earth Is the Center of
This trope lies somewhere in the middle of the continuum are [[Humans Are Warriors]] and [[Humans Are Diplomats]]. [[Humans Are Leaders]] and [[Humanity Is Insane]] are specific variants.
Compare [[Humans Are Good]]. Contrast with [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]], [[Humans Are Morons]], [[Humans Are Flawed]], [[Humanity Is Infectious]] and [[Humans Are Cthulhu]]. Compare ''and'' contrast [[Humanity Is Superior]]. See also [[Humanity
{{examples}}
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* In ''[[Hellsing]]'', Alucard rather admires humanity to a point, though he generally makes a distinction between "human dogs", "humans who become monsters" and "real humans."
** Alucard has pointed out (at least in the manga) that only a human can kill a monster (referring to himself). So humans are, if nothing else, significant.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' Envy {{spoiler|hears a [[Patrick Stewart Speech]] from Ed about his jealousy over humanity's incredible resilience and ability to put aside their differences. Ed is so incisive and accurate that Envy decides to [[Talking the Monster
* A chapter of the manga ''[[Ah!
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' invokes a variation upon this, explicated in the extra materials from the [[
* ''[[Heroic Age]]'': Humanity was the last species to respond to the Golden Tribe's call to leave our homeworld for the greater galaxy, but we were the only ones who did it entirely under our own power (the Silver, Bronze, and Heroic Tribes all had a bit of assistance from the Golden). Even among the four who responded, we're the only ones who consider our past to be important, rather than focusing exclusively on the future... a trait that the Golden Tribe also possessed. We were also the only species besides the Silver Tribe to be assigned a Nodos in the Golden Tribe's [[Batman Gambit]] to stabilize the galaxy.
* In ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'', only humans can hear the sound made by the [[Plot Coupon|Plot Coupons]]' power. This was an addition made to the dub to fully justify the continued presence of the human companions after their initial usefulness as native guides largely ended. With this worked in, the Autobots had a legitimate need for the whole trio of Coby, Bud, and Lori to stay on and accompany them on search missions. They don't seek assistance from other humans because that would risk completely blowing [[The Masquerade]] and causing mass panic. Optimus Prime is perfectly aware that most humans would tend freak out about the presence of thousands of Super Robot refugees. So contact was initially limited to the three who had already found out (and had assisted an injured Autobot).
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Parodied in the ''[[Buck Godot]]'' comic book series, where the one thing that makes Earth unique in a galaxy crowded with advanced species is that it was the only planet ever to invent the popsicle. Nonetheless, they still get the greatness-beyond-imagination speech {{spoiler|from the Winslow}} at the end of one story.
* In the ''[[Green Lantern]]'' comics, the Guardians of the Universe pick out humanity as one of the next few species to [[Ascend to
** Justified in a canon DCU story where it is revealed that life on Earth was originally meant to evolve a godlike, superpowered race, which ultimately ended up as [[Puny Earthlings|humans]] because of genetic experiments performed by aliens in its early history. Nevertheless many humans retain the genetic potential to awaken superpowers, which is why Earth has so many superheroes.
** Played straight in the Elseworlds story ''Superman: Red Son'', where it is revealed that {{spoiler|Earth is actually Krypton in its distant past and that humans ultimately evolve into one of the most technologically advanced races in the universe.}}
** Note that was the opinion of the original Guardians. The ''new'' Guardians of the Universe think that, while Earth has has some imagination and great will, humans are stupid savages (like other races who hear about Earth), despite most of the reality bending stuff being related to them. The two Guardians who disagree with this opinion are Ganthlet (who is the last original Guardian) and Sayd (who is his lover and seen how good humans can be firsthand), but are now exiled from the rest. The reason being that they "coddle humans too much" and for thinking that being emotionally detached from everything is bad (which has been shown to be true).
*** Blackest Night #7 reveals {{spoiler|they're lying. The Guardians know damn well Earth and humans are special, they just don't want anyone ''else'' to know.}}
** Guardians be damned, this trope is still in full effect as [[Grant Morrison]]'s work on ''[[Justice League]]'' and ''[[Final Crisis]]'' explains that humanity {{spoiler|are to become the Fifth World of gods and [[End of an Age|replace Darkseid, Apokolips, New Genesis and such.]] Darkseid's initial motivation in ''Final Crisis'' was to usurp this [[Ascend to
** Prior to ''[[Final Crisis]]'' [[Darkseid]] was interested in humanity because humans were one of the few species that possessed the Anti-Life Equation in their collective consciousness. He was especially interested in finding the few rare humans who possessed the entire Equation in their minds.
* This trope is played with in the [[Marvel Universe]].
** When an alien conqueror sets his sights on conquering Earth. En route, he learns a stunning fact: the humans on that planet repelled the supposedly unstoppable attacks of Galactus, the feared god-like [[Planet Eater|devourer of worlds]] not once, but ''multiple consecutive times''. He quickly u-turns his ships and flees fearing a species capable of that kind of defense.
** This happened a second time, in an ''[[X
** Played for laughs a second time when aliens challenge earth's greatest heroes (The West Coast Avengers) to battle with their robot to test their strength. After all of the Avengers kill the self repairing robot one after another, we find that the aliens assume that all 6 billion humans are a composite of the 6 members of the WCA, with all their powers combined, and instantly rethink their invasion plan.
*** This is based on a number of older Stan Lee Stories where a superhero fights off an alien invasion, and the aliens flee, thinking that all humans are like this, or in Iron Man's case that the humans have an army of 'robots'.
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** ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]'' has this with Ultimate Captain Mahr Vell in the Ultimate Secret arc. He defects to the humans partly because of their enjoyable (American) culture, including Krispy Kreme donuts.
** This was the aim of [[Kurt Busiek]]'s multi-year ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' tenure. Essentially, if humans were allowed to reach and colonize space, they would quickly conquer it. Thus, everything from Thor's ability to open portals getting stolen to killing the Supreme Intelligence to [[Dork Age|The Crossing]] was an effort by Immortus to keep humans on Earth.
* ''[[Watchmen (
* In ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' two fallen angels quickly discover that life on Earth is a lot more fun than anything Heaven has to offer. One of them tells his friend that he wishes he had been kicked out sooner.
== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[The Return (
* In the ''[[Poke Wars]]'' series, some of the Legendaries believe humans will earn their place in the post dampener removal [[Death World]]. [[Expanded Universe]] stories confirm this.
* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]''/''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Heavily averted in the writings of [[
** To be fair, Lovecraft saw everything like this (with the possible exception of the Great Race of Yith who learnt to evade death). In "The Shadow Out of Time" we learn that even Cthulhu itself {{spoiler|dies cold and alone beneath the Earth.}} It's not just humans that are insignificant on the cosmic scale, it's pretty much all life.
* Kid Lit example: Aliens put [[Humanity
* Subverted in ''The [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', where humanity is infamously summed up as ''mostly harmless''.
** And yet humans still managed to beat Krikkit and stymie Hactar's plot to destroy the universe. Slartibartfast was the leader of that effort, but it was Trillian and Arthur who did the heavy lifting.
** ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' reveals that Ford Prefect actually wrote a lot about Earth, which someone else then edited down to "mostly harmless". In fact, his sole contribution had been the "mostly." Later the ''Guide'' received an update and suddenly all of Ford's extensive notes were there. Since he knew the planet had been destroyed some years earlier, this told him something weird was happening -- which, Ford being Ford, he wanted to witness ''immediately''.
* This theme is brought up repeatedly, in different ways, in the ''[[
** It's mentioned throughout the series that humans are much more resilient and adaptive than other sentient species. An example of this is the concept itself of turning into animals to fight the Yeerks. Elfangor expected the kids to use their powers to disguise themselves and, unnoticed, sabotage Yeerk operations. He had no idea - nor had it ever occurred to any Andalite - that the power could be weaponized and used for combat and guerrilla warfare.
** Humans are the only sentient species in the series to walk on two legs without a tail for balance, so apparently we have the greatest sense of balance in the known universe.
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[[Humanity Is Insane|It was madness. Humans, as a species, were mad]]. }}
** We apparently also advance technologically much faster than other species. Ax expresses amazement and disbelief when he realizes that humanity went from atmospheric flight to being able to send a ship to the moon in less than seventy years. Ax makes a prediction early in the series that, given humanity's rate of technological progress, humans would have achieved FTL travel in 50 years. It turns out he was ''underestimating'' humanity: the core concept of FTL travel (an alternate dimension called Z-Space) is discovered not even two years after he said this, to his considerable shock. {{spoiler|In the last book (basically an extra-long epilogue), humanity's first Zero-space ship is under construction.}}
* [[Isaac Asimov]] once said that almost every story edited by [[John W. Campbell]] had a [[Humans Are Special]] theme. He usually averted the trope by setting most of his stories in universes with [[Absent Aliens|no intelligent alien life]]. One of his short stories, "Hostess" was a deliberate subversion -- humanity was "special" because it was the only species that died of old age, {{spoiler|because we were the "hosts" of psychic parasites that were decimating the unprepared alien races in the story.}}
** Asimov's primary reason for wanting to avert this trope was that Campbell ''himself'' seemed to hold the view that humans were (or should be) automatically superior in some way to any other species they encountered, and Asimov didn't want to be constantly coming into conflict with Campbell about it because he considered John a friend as well as his editor.
{{quote|I sometimes got the uncomfortable notion however, that this attitude reflected Campbell’s feelings on the smaller, Earth scale. He seemed to me to accept the natural superiority of Americans over non-Americans, and he seemed automatically to assume the picture of an American as one who was of northwest European origin.|'''Isaac Asimov''', in the afterword to ''Homo Sol'' in ''The Early Asimov'', explaining why he was uncomfortable with Campbell's [[Humans Are Special]] attitude. <ref> In this afterword he also mentions his future attempts to avoid conflict with Campbell by the aforementioned method of removing aliens from the picture, bringing up the ''Foundation'' series as an example.</ref>}}
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* Used in David Brin's ''[[Uplift]]'' series where the humans -- young, inexperienced newcomers to a very old galactic political scene -- manage to fight, win, and show the superiority of their culture (or at least their capacity for unconventional military tactics) against several alien races.
** In this case it's not that humans are innately special, but that the human race matured naturally without being "uplifted" by another race, something that hasn't happened since the [[Precursors]]. We had to make our own mistakes and learn our own lessons, and everything we know how to do, we know because we worked it out from first principles through experimentation. Most other races learn about electricity and gravity and everything else by rote out of a huge encyclopedia, and while they are more advanced than humanity, they are effectively in technological stasis. If the Library doesn't say it can be done, it can't be done. Humans tend not to trust the Library as the ultimate repository of all knowledge; after all, they've done without it for this long!
* This is the entire premise behind the [[Arthur C. Clarke
* In the fourth book of Rick Cook's [[Wiz Biz]] series, the protagonist is told by a dragon to save a village of humans from dragons, before realizing that his job was to save dragons from humanity in general, since we may be puny compared to a dragon, but there are a ''lot'' of us, and we learn ''very'' fast.
* The [[Gordon R. Dickson]] short story ''[http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743471741/0743471741___1.htm Danger - Human]'' featured aliens who have captured a human for study. During previous eons, humans have been found to be responsible for the destruction of galactic civilization, multiple times, and the aliens wanted to find out what trait or stimulus caused this change, in order to prevent it. Multiple security precautions are used including a sealed chamber, constant surveillance, and a single exit guarded by a 20-foot-high force field that only turns off for a short period of time during certain parts of the day. In the end, the human character, who has been repeatedly vivisected, psychoanalyzed, and generally given a rough time, snaps. He manages to escape his chamber, evade all surveillance, and somehow pass through or above the force field, completely unaffected by it. He then hijacks a nearby interstellar cargo vessel and heads back to Earth. The aliens are all suddenly feeling an existential dread as they realize that they have just provided humanity with the reason and the means to destroy galactic civilization once again.
** Suppose "We are really, ''really'' sorry about that" won't cut it, huh?
** The same author released a book, ''The Human Edge'', containing a collection of short stories where humans have [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|some]] [[Guile Hero|special]] [[The Unfettered|ability]] not completely understood by other aliens. One story in that book has one species of alien intend to start a [[Curb Stomp Battle]], {{spoiler|but the [[The Quiet One|even-stronger aliens]] will intervene}}.
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*** As later books in the series show, it's not as much violence as warfare that is considered "uncivilized" by other races. Several of the "civilized" races are shown as being perfectly capable of violence, murder and even species-wide [[Omnicidal Maniac|omnicidal mania]], just not the types that are very useful in fighting wars.
*** Foster also used [[Humans Are Warriors|a version of this]] in his novelization of ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'' to explain why the Star League is so hard up for fighter pilots as to be recruiting them from pre-contact worlds. Most Starfighters are, by the League's standards, homicidal maniacs.
* This trope gets played in a minor key in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s juvenile novel ''[[Have Space Suit - Will Travel]]'' {{spoiler|(See [[Humanity
* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Starship Troopers (
* Similarly to the Foster version above, [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Confederation of Valor]]'' novels have humans as one of the few species in the galaxy with the mindset capable of withstanding the rigors of combat. Only a partial example since while we may have been the first there are three other species just as capable as us, the Taykan, the Krai and in the first book the recently contact Ssilsvis. Though according to the H'san our discovery of ''cheese'' is just as noteworthy.
* In [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book (
{{quote| ''the big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse--"Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs, and sharp white teeth, all these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui the Jackal and the Hyaena whom we hate." But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this.''}}
* In the ''[[
* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' books humanity's special traits are luck and intelligent females (as opposed to the Kzin who have domesticated their females and the Puppeteers who... [[Bizarre Alien Biology|just don't ask- it's gross]]).
** It bears mentioning that the "luck" of humans is partly natural, partly the result of {{spoiler|a centuries long breeding program involving population control with breeding lotteries, instituted by the Puppeteers long before first contact with humanity. The goal of the program was to prove the existence of luck as a psychic power and allow them to breed invulnerable Puppeteers. The experiment succeeds in proving the existence of the psychic power, but hyper-lucky individuals turn out to be walking hazard zones for everything around them. Of course, they only discover this after crash landing on the Ringworld because their lucky crewmate needs to explore the surface and have adventures.}}
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* The [[Penn & Teller]] book ''Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends'' included a bonus short story involving a group of aliens who put humanity on trial, feeling that a Class-A inhabitable planet like Earth shouldn't be wasted on a Class-ZZ redundant species like humanity. The main character is challenged to come up with a single unique property of humanity, not present in any other species, that deserves to be preserved. What finally convinces the aliens? {{spoiler|Predictably, magic tricks}}. The story was made into a 45 minute short called "Invisible Thread".
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]], humanity's capacity for boredom, hallucination, and irrationality makes them "special". These traits are not quite unique, being shared with dwarfs and trolls, but are lacking in the more powerful entities like the Auditors and multi-tentacled creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions and such. Pratchett treats human behaviour as fairly infectious too, for better or worse.
** This theme is echoed in ''[[
* In [[John Ringo]]'s book ''A Hymn Before Battle'', the first book of the [[Posleen War Series]], the thing that makes humanity special is its capacity for violence (and democracy. No, I'm not kidding). This shows up in other books like ''Star Strike'' or ''The Last Starfighter''. There is almost always a speech about how humans are vicious and psychotic... followed by a request for aid. The exception is Star Strike where the aliens don't practice war, but are psychotic so the humans turn on them and help their intended target.
** [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''Berserkers'' also has the capacity for violence as Earth Descended humanity's most useful trait.
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* The [[Strugatsky Brothers]] (ok, one of the Strugatsky Brothers) novel ''The Expedition into Inferno'' plays this straight. Humans are special for a lot of reasons, almost to the degree of being superior, but their ability to be [[One-Man Army|One Man Armies]] despite appearing to be [[Technical Pacifist|Technical Pacifists]] really separates them from the pack. As [[The Atoner|The Two-Headed Yule]] phrases it: Do not bother a lion when he's eating, do not wake an elephant when he's sleeping, and ''never, ever,'' mess with humans."
* Parodied and inverted in W.R. Thompson's story "Lost In Translation," in which an alien science fiction writer has his [[Token Minority|token human]] stand around and think admiringly about how special the alien race is. (He's also named "[[Captain Ethnic|Climber Pinkskin]]." The human translator tactfully suggests a little editing on that one.)
* In [[
* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Worldwar
** Actually somewhat subverted. Characters in the books argue that humanity's speed with technology development is more because of [[wikipedia:Guns, Germs, and Steel|Jared Diamond-esque]] environmental reasons (Earth's oceans prevented a single empire from taking over, ending competition between countries, and making society become very conservative) then humans themselves being smarter or better then other species.
*** There are also biological reasons. Humans are the only primates of the four known races. The rest are all [[Lizard Folk]]. Additionally, the Race, the Hallessi, and the Rabotevs all have a mating season, which is the only time of the year the males try to outperform their peers in order to catch a female's attention. Contrast this with humans, who are horny year-round (this is not to say that men are the only reason society advances; this is merely an example).
** In [[wikipedia:The Road Not Taken (short story)|"The Road Not Taken"]], another of Turtledove's short stories, humans were the only species who did not develop faster than light travel in the normal course of technological progression, despite it being actually a lot simpler than our physicists have determined. However, unlike every other civilization, they are the only ones who ''did'' develop pretty much any technology later than the steam age. It is mentioned that as soon as a race develops FTL travel, their technological advancements stop, since the FTL makes no sense in any known science, causing science to break down.
** In its sequel, Herbig-Haro, humanity encountered a race even more advanced than they were, and were conquered themselves.
* In ''[[The Host (
* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[
* In [[The Bible]], humanity is special because they are the only creatures who bear the image of God (one Psalm specifically states that we're just "a little lower than angels"). [[Word of Dante]] says that the other reason for our specialness is "free will".
* The out-of-print novel ''Earth Ship & Star Song'' uses this trope to suggest that humanity is destined to eventually take over the galaxy because we're the only race that ''doesn't'' breed ourselves for ever-stronger psionic capabilities of one kind of another. Apparently, no matter what planet you evolved on, psychic talents and fertility are mutually exclusive at a genetic level, and since [[Planet of Hats|every other race in the galaxy]] has evolved a society which drives them to breed towards ever-increasing psionic talent even as their race's fertility rate goes through the floor, they'll all go extinct in a few generations and we'll just move in. Um... yeah, OK, whatever.
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* In "The Interlopers" by Roger Dee (1954), "A hundred thousand nations from rim to rim of the galaxy--the least of them, as far as Clowdis had seen, older and wiser and infinitely stronger than his own upstart culture--suspended opinion when the T'sai spoke." When humans try to colonize an uninhabited world, a T'sai challenges them: "You think yourselves worthy of claiming our empty worlds. Prove it." {{spoiler|The humans continue with the colonization attempt, refusing to be scared off, and the T'sai concedes the proof is sufficient. Humans are the only species other than themselves the T'sai have found with both intelligence and initiative ... and they've been watching us for millennia in the hope, now confirmed, that we'd be worthy ''to take over running the galaxy''.}}
* In ''The Secret Visitors'' by James White, Earth is the only planet in the entire galaxy with axial tilt, changing seasons, and interestingly varied scenery. Human art and music is renowned and envied for its variety and emotional resonance. Also, when the human characters start visiting other planets, it turns out that {{spoiler|humans are remarkable for their fortitude in the face of physical danger, and a human ordoctor is considered a miracle worker -- galactic society has long been geared toward ''prevention'' of illness and injury, so most people find the mere prospect of injury horrifying, and in the rare cases of actual injury occuring nobody has any idea what to do}}.
* ''[[
* Heavily subverted in [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s short story ''Evening Conference with Mister Special Envoy'' where a [[Lizard Folk]] alien, whose [[Ominous Floating Spaceship|Ominous Floating Spaceships]] are suspended above Moscow, Washington, and Beijing, is wondering why humans haven't been conquered in centuries past, despite evidence of powerful alien races in the sector. He finally realizes why, after revealing several disturbing facts, like how ''every other race'' advances at warp speed compared to us. According to the envoy, his grandfather invented the wheel. Apparently, humanity has been left alone because we're so ''dumb''. They even leave their starships for humans to study after departing, as they're already obsolete by their standards (it's been only a few months).
* Played with in the [[Star Wars]] EU, humans are nothing particularly special biologically, but they are far and away the most numerous species in the galaxy (populations of trillions, as compared to billions, or even millions for some other species).
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* This conceit has been the defining philosophy of every incarnation of ''[[Star Trek]]''.
** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|DS9]]'', as befitting its [[Darker and Edgier]] premise, lapsed into [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]] on occasion, however.
** In ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' [[Patrick Stewart Speech|Captain Archer reveals]] that while humans may not always be special they are, however, NOT gazelles.
** Deliciously deconstructed in the final season of ''Enterprise'', with [[Fantastic Racism|Human Supremacism]] being the driving ideology of both the Terran Empire in the [[Mirror Universe]] and the fascist "Terra Prime" organization.
*** It's never satisfactorily explained how the Federation reconciles its multiculturalism with its humanism. For a race so assured of their own superiority, the humans sure put up with a lot of barbarism.
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{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' Indomitable! That's the word! Indomitable!}}
** The Doctor expresses contempt for [[Puny Earthlings]] ("stupid apes") during his darker moments. He does have a point, since Time Lords are superior in nearly every way. However, he has a certain degree of admiration for humans that inspires him to help them over and over again. They're just so ''special''!
** However, this theme is ''horribly'' subverted in the Tenth Doctor episode ''[[Locked in
** And we invented edible ball-bearings! No other species in the galaxy ever thought of that.
** Towards the end of the Tenth Doctor's run, human Wilfred marvels at the Doctor's long life and many adventures. He says "We must look like ants to you." The Doctor responds "I think you look like giants."
** The irony being that the entire premise of the show is that the Doctor, an alien, is having to almost constantly save humanity from extinction. It has even been lampshaded somewhat in the new series and in ''[[
{{quote| '''Gwen Cooper''': There's one thing I always wanted to ask Jack. Back in the old days. I wanted to know about that Doctor of his. The man who appears out of nowhere and saves the world; except sometimes he doesn't. All those times in history where there was no sign of him.. I wanted to know why not. But I don't need to ask anymore. I know the answer now: Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|turn away in shame]].}}
* Suggested in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' a couple times. Once as the ability to build communities out of disparate elements wherever we go, where other races might make military bases or choose to live apart from themselves and others. Londo Mollari also gives a rather [[Tear Jerker|tear jerking]] speech about how much he admires the humans for their seemingly futile yet terribly noble struggle to survive in the Earth-Minbari War.
** A particularly annoying example in one of the earlier episodes of season one has every species on the station inviting the others to take part in celebrations of their dominant religious faiths. While the [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] [[Planet of Hats|all follow a single religion]], the humans, at the end, bring out an almost goofily long line of representatives from every conceivable Earthly religion. One assumes this was meant to be heartwarming, but it's so heavy-handed it comes across as smug and self-congratulatory.
** The Vorlons tell Delenn that the humans would be important in the upcoming shadow war. Unfortunately that is not demonstrated convincingly; individual humans are important, and B4 and B5 are important. But humans in general seem to stay out of things.
* In ''[[
* In the ''[[V]]'' franchise, this was the explanation of why the Visitors didn't use their conversion process on all of humanity to make them compliant. According to Diana, humans are unusually strong-willed compared to other species, which makes mass conversion impractical -- at least for the time being.
** In the [[V-2009|2009 reimagining]], Anna desperately tries to figure out why her Bliss won't work on humans. She barely manages to Bliss a single human, although she is bleeding from the effort. She then tries to do the same to ''all 6 billion of us''. It takes {{spoiler|a [[Half-Human Hybrid]]}} to successfully do that.
* Prime example: ''[[Stargate SG
** Earth Humans specifically, commonly referred to as the Tau'ri, are particularly special. In the Milky Way galaxy, almost every planet is hindered in advancement by the Goa'uld except for Earth and few others, which got a chance to develop freely. Other unhindered worlds are often beyond Earth standards technologically, but the Tau'ri are notable for their determination. The situation with the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy is similar, where their feeding on humans limits the population growth of most societies. So, in the end it's not so much "humans are special" but "earthlings are special".
** More to the point, there's very few other species than humans. The only major ones are Wraith, Goa'uld, and Asgard. A few others exist, but 95% of everyone is a human or a related species in the three known galaxies. Earth Humanity is special because we have the ATA Gene, and the main reason for that is because we're the most crowded planet in the three galaxies. Human settlements of a few hundred to thousand is the norm, and the ATA gene is recessive.
* ''[[
** Not to mention the episode where Crichton gets to save the day because his inferior human vision makes him less susceptible to a particular effect caused by a special kind of light.
{{quote| '''Chrichton (as a battle cry)''': Humans! Are! Superiooor!}}
* In [[Power Rangers]] first few seasons, earth-born humans are special mostly because we're one of one only three or four planets in ''the universe'' to not be conquered by the [[Big Bad]] [[Dimension Lord]]. Also hinted that something about Earth is really special given that we have more than a dozen Ranger teams, whereas most other planets are lucky if they have a full team rather than a single ranger.
* In ''[[Kamen Rider Blade]]'', several Undead enjoy assuming human form because humans (and the Human Undead they're decended from) are unique due to the fact they have emotions that most Undead lack in their natural state.
* In [[3rd Rock
== Tabletop Games ==
* Baseline humanity in ''[[
** ''[[
** A big one is that only a human has the capacity to become a mortal Demiurge. The supernatural races can't create a Promethean because they lack human passion, or have powers that would tend to shortcut the drive and obsession necessary to pull it off.
* In the pen-and-paper roleplaying game ''[[Teenagers From Outer Space]]'', the aliens all have superpowers, but Earthlings have a few special abilities of their own, and to top it all off, Earth is universally acclaimed as the single coolest planet in the ''entire galaxy''. (Which is why the aliens go there.)
** Humans also have the ability to "fake out", i.e. convince an alien of just about anything, like draping carpets over your head makes for impressive evening wear, or that kissing is a perfectly socially acceptable way of greeting anyone. After all, humans are the coolest species in the universe, so they should ''know'', right?
** It seems humanity is the only species to actually invent popular culture/entertainment at all. Hence, we have the best music, movies, clothes, soft drinks, etc. and any alien species will either import what humans invented in this line, or copy it. One of the sample characters is a [[Rubber Forehead Alien]] [[High School Hustler]] who explains that she can get the best tech from her homeworld simply by sending Earth music or fashion to them in trade.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
** In 1st and 2nd edition, they had no special abilities whatsoever, but could run the full range of ability scores, could belong to any class, and had no limit to what level they could gain in their class. Other races could belong to two classes at once in predetermined combinations, but only humans could change their classes after creation (although it was a pretty grueling process, requiring you to start from scratch until you regained the level you switched at).
** In 3rd edition, humans again have no special racial powers, but instead gain a bonus feat of their choosing and can develop an extra skill, allowing them to excel right from the start. While other races have specific favored classes that don't count against multiclassing penalties, a human's favored class is whatever class he has the most levels in, making multiclassing a bit easier.
** In 4th edition, other races get bonuses to two predetermined ability scores and two predetermined skills, 2-4 passive abilities, and a bonus activated power (normally an 'encounter' power). Humans get a bonus to only one ability score, none as such to skills, and only a small bonus to all non-armor defenses as a true 'racial' ability...but by being able to assign that ability score bonus to whichever ability they choose and start out with training in an extra class skill, a bonus feat, and an extra first-level at-will attack power from their class list (which is a pretty big deal as for most classes this means going from having two such convenient always-ready attack modes available ''ever'' to having three), they can be easily competent in any class of their liking whereas other races' perks tend to encourage them to stick to the niches they're 'naturally' best suited for. They also get feats that are useful for anyone such as "human perserverence" and "stubbon servior". Humans are special in fourth and maybe third!
*** As of Essentials humans now have a true racial ability "Heroic Effort". With it if you miss with an attack or fail a saving throw you can add a +4 bonus to the roll but you must give up the bonus at-will to get it. A good power, but if it is better then the bonus at-will or not is up to you.
** [[
** All these examples ignore an additional trait humans have; they have no particular enemies or hatreds. If the [[Game Master]] is the hacky-slashy kind that doesn't take into account role playing motivations, it's useless, but if (s)he does, then every PC who isn't human is going to run into [[Fantastic Racism]] which makes certain NPC or Monster creatures hostile right off the bat. If the GM really pays attention, it can even be a combat advantage.
{{quote| Dwarf: "Why are the orcs all after ''me''?"}}
* ''[[Earthdawn]]'' is unique in that humans are mysterious nomads, of which the other races are wary of. Their racial powers are nearly nonexistent, save for their ability to crib abilities from other classes.
* Subverted in ''[[SLA Industries]]'' where humans are even less special than the sewer-dwelling mutants, have no homeworld and seem to be kept around for the novelty value. (and for a cheap workforce)
* Played with in ''[[
** Also, Graceful Wicked Masques implies that humans have a much greater capacity for imagination and creativity than anything else in the setting...but these qualities [[Blessed
* The human creature type in ''[[Magic:
** Even after our adition to the game lore, the human race plays a mostly insignificant role in most settings (the ocational legendary human in a given set might as well be replaced by any other creature), interestingly enough, most Planeswalkers (both in-game and lore-exclusive) are humans despite there being no mention at all about humans being special in any given way (other than the [[Author Avatar|writers being human themselves]]).
* The small press RPG ''[[JAGS Wonderland]]'' plays this for horror. Originally, [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|Wonderland]] was expelled from the universe as we know it for being based on imagination and whimsy rather than physics and logic. [[Eldritch Abomination|The Caretakers]] were perfectly fine with this, as they didn't wish to dirty their hands with that logic malarkey. And then humanity came along -- creatures of logic that ''could'' imagine and dream -- and the Caretakers decided, "Well, we can't have ''that''..."
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Terrans (Earth & Sol system humans) in the ''[[X (
* Explored in several of the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games, most prominently the ''Alpha'' and ''Original Generation'' series. In addition to the more run-of-the-mill conceit that humans are supposedly an aggressive and warlike species (given our history), the aliens often [[Hangs a Lampshade|hang a lampshade]] on the fact that Earth is home to a suspiciously large number of WMD-class [[Humongous Mecha]] (because the games are a crossover between different mecha anime series). This may lead them to believe that [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]], which usually doesn't end well.
* The early ''[[
** Humans can use arcane magic (and even demonic magic in some cases) freely, without becoming truly addicted or falling into a blood rage, as the various elven races, orcs, or draenei do. Humans are also some of the strongest wielders of holy magic, with only the Naaru (who are the physical embodiment of the Light) and the Draenei (who spent millenia being specifically trained by the Naaru to wield holy magic) rivalling them in their power. On the other end of the spectrum, corrupted humans are capable of far greater terrors than orcs or even the demonic Eredar are capable of, as shown by Arthas.
* In ''[[Advent Rising]]'' the human race is presented as being the closest to perfection; a race of latent demigods. This leads to humanity being the center of attention of many alien races and near-extermination. One of two surviving humans then proceeds to open a can o' whup-ass on the genocidal aliens with the above-mentioned demi-god powers.
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* ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' explores this. The [[Big Bad]] of the first game, Copy-X, although technically a [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|Reploid]] himself, favors the survival of humans over his own kind, leading to the main conflict in the series. However, [[La Résistance|freedom fighter]] Zero, who directly opposes Copy-X, holds this view as well, thinking that, as a machine designed solely to wage war, he cannot change the world, but instead believes in the humans who can.
** Though, humans have not that much competition with only Reploids being a rival 'race.' And some as Copy-X are programmed to serve/support humans so it's not their choice to do so.
* Lucasarts' ''[[The Dig]]'' uses this trope. The aliens who [[Ascend to
* [[Big Bad]] [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Allied Mastercomputer]] from the videogame adaptation of ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'' deeply envies humans because they can experience life in a way that AM, despite all its power and knowledge, can never hope to know. AM can't really see, taste, smell, move, or touch anything, and is a prisoner of the miles of circuitry that make up its physical form. Ironically, in the Bad Endings of the game, just like in the original story, AM inflicts a similar fate on the sole surviving human by turning them into an [[And I Must Scream|immortal blob]].
* In [[Conquest Frontier Wars]] manual on of the Celareon (energy beings) gives a long speech about humans and their virtues ending with "They may not look it, but they are a formidable enemy from the rest of the galaxy"
* ''[[Halo]]'' also contains this in that, as recently revealed, Humans are almost genetically identical to the Forerunner, the ''Precursor'' civilization that was god-like technologically and is actually worshiped as gods by the genocidal Covenant. While not direct descendants, the fact Humanity is almost an exact genetic match, plus the fact that they are the only species which can operate Forerunner technology, AND the fact that the last act of the Forerunner known as Librarian was to save Humanity from certain death, they definitely qualify for this trope.
** [[The Forerunner Saga]] novels take it even further: {{spoiler|humanity was a major space-faring power back when the Forerunners were at their prime, and a combined Human-San'Shyuum (Prophet) alliance was able to ''defeat the Flood'', and drive it back away from the galaxy. Humanity was also on the verge of understanding Precursor tech (the Precursors were... well, [[Precursors]] to the Forerunners), which had stumped the Forerunners for millenia. The only reason humanity isn't a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Species]] is that the Forerunners attacked the Human-San'Shyuum Empire, won (because the Empire was busy driving the Flood away), and de-evolved humanity while quarantining them on their homeworld, essentially "resetting" the species' development.}} Holy... crap.
* ''[[Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar]]'': The [[Everything's Better
* Despite getting its ass kicked pretty hard in ''[[Universe At War]]'', the Masari attest to the potential humanity possesses. Now all it has to do is restore that [[Endofthe World As We Know It|90% of its lost population.]]
* Indicated in ''[[Sid
* In ''[[Nexus The Jupiter]]'' incident, humans are set up by the remains of the [[Precursors]] to enable the destruction of the [[Cosmic Horror|Cosmic Horrors]] they have created. Slightly subverted in that the majority of humanity is out of commission, and it falls to a [[Lost Colony]] to aid the protagonist. Humans are far from being the strongest race here. The Noah colony is much more advanced than Earth simply because they were given this technology by the [[Technical Pacifist|Vardrags]] to fight the [[Lizard Folk|Gorgs]]. The Vardrags consider humans useful because [[Humans Are Warriors]].
* In the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'', it was the humans who have managed to develop a hyperdrive, thus allowing them to travel anywhere in the galaxy, as opposed to the [[Portal Network]] used by every other race. Then some idiot decided to [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|transmit the findings to everyone else]].
** The [[Word of God]] states another reason why humanity is unique - in their adaptiveness, they can splendidly get along with the good races, but if pushed, they can be as cruel and ruthless as the [[Complete Monster|Drengin]].
* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', the [[Humans
** Later [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]] by the fact that because of their developing psychic abilities, they are attacked by the Zerg, who wish to [[Lego Genetics|assimilate]] them so they can eliminate the Protoss and overrun the galaxy.
* Both played straight and averted in ''[[Master of Orion]]'' series. Humans managed to dominate the Orion Sector twice and claim to be the direct descendants of the [[Precursors]]. However, their backstory states that they actually were created by another ancient race as a specialized bioweapon. Moreover, their creators were disappointed with the result, so the first humans were sent away into some backwards corner of the galaxy and quickly forgotten.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Subverted in ''Killroy and Tina'' where Earth's only cosmic significance is as the most awesome red-light district in the universe.
* In ''[[
* Lampooned [http://spacetrawler.com/2011/02/01/spacetrawler-116/ here] in ''[[Spacetrawler]]''. We're not special, just pathetic.
* According to Dr. Tomorrow in ''[[The Mercury Men]]'', humans are unique and special among all the races in the galaxy. They are the only race that has discovered space flight.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Used as the explanation for why the Drej blew up Earth in ''[[Titan
* Parodied in a ''[[The Simpsons|Simpsons Halloween Special]]'' where humans are renowned simply for their "t-shirt producing" properties.
* Earth is lauded by the Nibblonians in ''[[Futurama]]'' as the "Home of the Pizza Bagel."
** Though Nibbler does describe Earth and humans as, "a mud ball inhabited by psychotic apes."
** David X. Cohen stated on the DVD commentary that "other planets have pizza or bagels but only Earth came up with the pizza bagel."
* In ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
== [[Real Life]] ==
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*** Precisely - it's not just the thumbs, apes and monkeys have thumbs, but they can't really *throw* something like a spear (or a football), just sort of "fling", because their shoulders are linked to their necks much more strongly by various tendons. The de-coupling of the shoulders and neck not only lets us rotate the shoulder and throw, but helps in running, so we can keep a steady head while the rest of our body rotates. And Now You Know.
* In the cases where we can't escape from a predator using the environment or chase it off with thrown projectiles, our agility and range of motion can serve us very well in a fight. Very few animals can spin, bend, and twist their bodies in as many directions or as quickly as we can. We don't tend to think of humans as being particularly capable fighters compared to most animals, but bear in mind that modern humans are rarely in peak physical condition. In the wild, we might very well come off as [[Weak but Skilled]].
** [[Reality Is Unrealistic|Humans actually have some of the densest muscles of any land mammal.]] We just tend not to think of ourselves as being big scary predators because we don't have the claws, fangs, and thick fur. Case in point: an average sized man weighs 168-183 lbs which just happens to be very close to the weight of a [[Everything's Worse
** The difference in ''arm'' strength between a man and a great ape is misleading since most of the human muscle mass is in the back and legs. Great apes may have enough strength to rip an opponent's arms, yet they are poor walkers, unable to run on ground, unable to ''punch'' (their arms are evolved for gripping and tearing) and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|barely able to swim]].
* We have unusually sharp senses on the whole. We have incredibly good eyesight for mammals (though not as good as many birds), above-average hearing, and a decent sense of smell (though we tend not to rely on it much compared to sight and sound). One of the reasons we tend not to consider this is that dogs -- one of the species we interact most closely with -- have better hearing ''and'' smell.
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