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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Beware the beast Man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust, or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death."''
|''[[Planet of the Apes]]''}}
For [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynics]], human history isn’t exactly all that wonderful and cheery. Throughout the ages, human civilizations have been primarily motivated by both viciousness and greed, having fought countless wars, colonized lands that were already inhabited by other people, treated those inhabitants as second-class citizens (at best), sold them into slavery or [[Shoot Everything That Moves|just slaughtered them]] (at worst), and stripped lands bare of their precious minerals and resources for their own wealth and benefit.
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*** This is probably the entire point of the Universal Century Gundam series, where there are more selfish and cruel people in the world than kind, noble and selfless ones, and [[Complete Monster]]s are incredibly common as leaders. It is also used by [[Chars Counterattack|Char Aznable]] as an excuse to [[Colony Drop|drop Axis on Earth]]. [[It Gets Worse]] right after [[Evil Power Vacuum|the disappearance of Zeon]].
* The protagonist of ''[[Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]'' thinks humans are bastards or at least [[Humans Are Flawed|incredibly petty]]; it doesn't help that he's a certified [[Doom Magnet]] and he's surrounded by the most horrific [[Delinquents]] at school. Subverted when he acknowledges that his narrow view of humans makes him just as bad.
* A main theme point in ''Inugami'', where inugami (wolves with amazing [https://web.archive.org/web/20100118224403/http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v01/c000/84.html abilities]) are sent by a mysterious voice in their heads that says "gaze upon man". An inugami named 23 makes friends with a kind human named Fumiki, and his subsequent encounters with humans influences him into seeing humans as friends. The other inugami, Zero, sees humans as an example of this trope, since most of his encounters with them have involved being shot by hunters for [https://web.archive.org/web/20100327201411/http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v02/c000/8.html fun], being subdued by police officers without [https://web.archive.org/web/20100329060953/http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v02/c000/44.html provocation], and destroying Earth's [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v06/c028/4.html environment]. 23 also beings to feel doubt for [
* This is {{spoiler|Lance's}} [[Kill All Humans|main motivation]] in ''[[Pokémon Special]]''.
** When Lake Valor gets {{spoiler|blown up}}, most of the Pokémon in the surrounding areas adopt this attitude as a result. When Pearl tries to catch a pissed Buizel and unsuccessfully pleads to it that he wants to stop the ones responsible, Crasher Wake points out that the wild Pokémon don't understand anything that's going on beyond the fact that they know that humans were responsible for disrupting their natural habitat.
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* This is how [[Monster (manga)|Johan Liebert]] views humanity. He believes that all you need to do is add a little fuel to the fire and humans will destroy each other through hatred. Of course, even if you agree with him, [[Complete Monster|he is DEFINITELY the biggest bastard of them all.]]
* In ''[[Durarara!!]]'', Izaya has it that the the whole of humanity are self-obsessed, stupid, hypocritical, hateful, contradictory, destructive little bastards—which is exactly why he ''loves'' humans.
* This is how [[Faux Affably Evil|Diva]] views humanity in ''[[Blood
* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]''. While the series started off with a terrible first impression of humanity with [[Evil Poacher|Viper Snakely]], there are some good-hearted humans like Roger Ranger and his uncle who become friends with Kimba.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* Zigzagged in ''[[Crossed]]'', whose moral seems to be that while we are ''not'' all bastards, we all have the ''potential'' to be bastards, with the protagonist pointing out that however [[Complete Monster|horrible]] the [[Not Using the Zed Word|Infected]] are, they never do anything that ordinary humans cannot also do. Surprisingly thought-provoking, given that this is a series that's pretty much nothing but [[Gorn]].
** The two sequel series (be afraid...) rather confirm this, each having a non-infected human that gives the Crossed a run for their money in the sick bastard department, without the excuse of having caught a psycho-virus.
* In Peyo's original
==
* Humanity and all of its sub-species in ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]''.
* In ''[[The Return (fanfic)|The Return]]'' this is [[Exclusively Evil|humanity's hat]], [[Humans Are Special|their defining quality]], and [[Muggles Do It Better|why they're still alive]].
* In general, almost every ''[[My Little Pony:
** In one series titled ''[[The Conversion Bureau]]'' it's flat-out stated that the ponies, both those born as ponies and the
** Another fic, ''[[The Thessalonica Legacy]]'', subverts this nicely. The humans are violent, warlike, and sometimes outright murderous compared to the ponies, but it's because they [[HAD to Be Sharp|had to be in order to survive their harsher universe,]] putting them more in [[Humans Are Flawed]] territory than here.
** ''[[Article 2]]'' [[Averted Trope|averts]] this. Although humans seem more aggressive and rude then the ponies, this is treated as different cultures and neither is shown as superior. It is also pointed out multiple times that Shane is just one human, a soldier, and in a very stressful situation, so its not really fair to use him as proof of any faults in humanity as a whole.
* In ''[[The Man
* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7170477/1/Renegade_Reinterpretations Renegade Reinterpretations,]'' a ''[[Mass Effect]]'' fanfiction, the human race's first contact with the wider galaxy happened much earlier, and with the [[Exclusively Evil|Batarians.]] Humanity spends the next hundred years playing catch-up, and is only able to survive by becoming a race of total bastards. In this timeline, Cerberus is viewed as ''heroes'' for experiments that even the ''canon'' Cerberus would be squicked at. At one point, once Humanity decides to go on the warpath against the Batarians (and is capable of doing so), the Citadel offers to make humanity a member race, give them reparations, money, land, medicine, technology, and all former Batarian territory. All they had to do was '''NOT''' invade the Batarian Homeworld. Humanity's response? "They went to the trouble of looking up what the largest fleet in the galaxy had been so they could surpass it by a time and a half."
== [[Film
* ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' qualifies for this trope in regards to the majority of the Villagers. The Villagers, during the song "Little Town/Belle," outright mock Belle for her interest in reading, a wife was seen beating up her husband, among other things. Then there is their praising Gaston, who is not only a scumbag, but seems to have no problem bragging about it in his character song. It only gets worse when Maurice arrives, as they throw him out and mock him because they think he's crazy (and even if they didn't, they probably would have done it anyways), and going by the final lyrics of the aforementioned character song, they are in full support of Gaston's plan of [[Blackmail]]ing Belle to marry him by locking him up in the asylum. When it gets to the plan being in place, the villagers were jeering Maurice. At this point, they are straddling between [[Jerkass]] territory and [[Complete Monster]] territory.
* ''[[Bambi (Disney film)|Bambi]]'': As a whole, [[Western Animation]] with animal characters tends to be bad about this but "Bambi" is the best known example.
** If you sit down and watch the movie again, "Bambi" is not as bad as [[Bambification|some of its successors]]. For one thing, [[Walt Disney]] pointedly refused to make the hunters larger characters because he would have had to show them as two-dimensional villains given their actions.
** This is even subverted in ''[[The Iron Giant]]''. A pair of hunters shoot a deer that the titular Iron Giant had been watching, but they are not characterised negatively at all, and the scene is used to show the Iron Giant first learning about the concept of death.
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* Some have accused ''[[WALL-E]]'' of depicting this trope, it's actually partly subverted: Yes, humanity wrecked Earth by turning it into a huge garbage dump, {{spoiler|but at the end, humanity (with a little help from the robots) decides to rebuild, and the end credits hint that they succeeded.}} In fact, {{spoiler|the only human who shows even the slightest signs of being a bastard is the Buy 'n Large CEO, and he just didn't know that Earth would be safe to live on again in 700 years. And let's not forget that ''[[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|the antagonist himself is a friggin' robot]]''.}}
** The writer of the movie, Andrew Stanton, also insisted that his intent was to tell the story of the last robot on Earth, and the pollution angle was simply a plot device to allow him to do that. Others don't believe him or are oblivious to the actual [[Power of Love|focus of the plot]].
* The ''[[Alien]]'' series, it's usually the humans' attempts to exploit the aliens for profit that set the plot in motion. {{spoiler|In the first film, the [[Mega Corp]] expects a crew member to be impregnated. In the second film, Burke tries to impregnate Ripley with an alien. The third film follows as a result of the second, but Company members arrive and try to cash in on the aliens. In the fourth film, it's the military that is tinkering with alien genes to create weapons.}}▼
▲* The [[Alien]] series, it's usually the humans' attempts to exploit the aliens for profit that set the plot in motion. {{spoiler|In the first film, the [[Mega Corp]] expects a crew member to be impregnated. In the second film, Burke tries to impregnate Ripley with an alien. The third film follows as a result of the second, but Company members arrive and try to cash in on the aliens. In the fourth film, it's the military that is tinkering with alien genes to create weapons.}}
{{quote|'''Ripley''': "I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."}}
* [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' is an almost perfect example of this being both played straight ''and'' subverted. The human [[Mega Corp|RDA]] are intruding on Na'vi land and destroy the home of the Omaticaya tribe in order to acquire [[Unobtainium]], and follow a rigid, aggressive schedule for this. On the other hand, the RDA tries to negotiate with the Na'vi, and even when they do attack they try to be "humane" first (i.e. hitting the Na'vi with gas and trying to intimidate them into leaving) and avoid [[Kill Sat|bombing them from orbit]] because they want to minimize local casualties. Then the gloves come off, RDA destroys Hometree, killing hundreds of Na'vi in the process. When the Na'vi assemble an army for war, the RDA tries to destroy the Tree of Souls to break their spirit. Selfridge, the corporate head of the RDA, reacts to destroying said sacred Na'vi site with the same apathy that one would associate to accidentally swatting a fly, though he does appear significantly more disturbed when they take down Hometree. In fact, he and the other officials look downright ''horrified'' at the violence, and {{spoiler|go out gracefully at the end, following the Na'vi victory.}}
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* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by [[The Muppets|Kermit]] in ''The Muppet Musicians of Bremen'' after he intruduces the four protagonists, the titular animal musicians, and the antgonists, their abusive owners.
{{quote|'''Kermit:''' (to the viewers) "You may have noticed that the heroes in our story are all animals, and the villains are all people. I hope none of you takes that personally."}}
* In ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' Leeloo despairs when she learns about the human race's tendency to inflict horrible things onto themselves (specifically World War 2) to the point of her seeing no point in helping them escape destruction, but then decides otherwise when Corben professes his love for her.
* ''[[The Toxic Avenger]]''; hideously deformed as the title character is, he's ''far'' less a monster than the crooks in Tromaville whom he fights.
* ''[[Anaconda]]''; yeah, the snake is a nasty piece of work, but the real monster here is Paul Serone, who wants to capture the eponymous reptile alive so he could sell it, using the rest of the cast as bait. [[Just Desserts|What happens to him]] is poetic justice.
==
* In the ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' book ''House of Hell'', there are some demons, beasts, and undead creatures you have to fight, but almost all of them are the [[Faceless Goons]] type of mook. Villains in the story with actual personality and dialogue here are the human cultists.
* According to [[L. Frank Baum]]’s… odd elaboration of the [[Santa Claus]] legend, ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'', this was drilled into young Claus’ head by his [[The Obi-Wan|mentor]], the Great Ak.
* A ''lot'' of early American sci‐fi has this theme. Any number of [[Ray Bradbury]] stories qualify (including, of course, [[The Martian Chronicles]]).
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* In [[Roald Dahl]]’s ''[[The BFG]]'', the title character tells human girl Sophie that humans are just as bad as giants because “humans are the only animals that kill their own kind” (which [[Did Not Do the Research|isn’t even close to being true]], incidentally). This is part of a fairly long and [[Anvilicious]] conversation about how [[You Suck|humans suck]].
** Much of Dahl’s work for both children and adults reveals a misanthropic streak. At the extreme, we find ''Fantastic Mr. Fox'', which has a plot only inasmuch as it enables him to elaborate on the physical and mental grotesqueness of the three farmers and/or the noble brilliance of the fox they harass (since they’re clearly too greedy to grudge him a chicken or two).
*** ''[[The Perry Bible Fellowship]]'' has an [http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF106-Billy_the_Bunny.jpg interesting spin] on the “greedy farmer” notion.
* In [[Philip Jose Farmer]]’s ''Venus on the Half‐Shell'' every alien race points out that humans smell awful. So humans create a huge industry of special deodorants. Wondering why humans smell so bad to other races, some of whom smell like a sewer, it is pointed out that human morals stink, so that makes our smell stink. Yes, it’s a strange book.
* Inverted in the Bill Peet children’s book, ''The Wump World''. If you read the part in the opener for this trope about mankind’s chance to be such bastards on other planets via interstellar travel, the blue‐skinned aliens in the book have us beat.
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* Every single character in [[Cormac McCarthy]]’s ''[[Blood Meridian]]'', even the hero is a multiple murderer who later on carries a necklace of ears around his neck. The only possible exception is {{spoiler|The Judge, as though he’s [[Complete Monster|the worst of the bunch]], there’s a suggestion he’s not human.}}
* In ''[[Animal Farm]]'', humans are portrayed as the corrupt nobles of Tsarist Russia, more or less. The pigs, who represent the leaders of the Communist revolution, eventually start emulating the humans as they become more and more corrupt. The [[Animated Adaptation]] made this even less subtle, ending the film with a [[Bolivian Army Ending]].
* [[Terry Pratchett]] plays with this in his ''[[Discworld]]'' novels. Sure, a lot of human characters are bastards, but instead of just leaving it at that, he often probes the question of ''why'' humans act that way, especially in his later, more philosophical books. Furthermore, there are more than a few non‐human characters who are just as much bastards as humans can be; in the novel ''[[
** Collectively, humans in Discworld exhibit traits from the whole spectrum, being bastards included, and it seems that it’s all pertaining to a theme of [[Humans Are Special]].
** Played closest to straight in ''[[
{{quote|'''Ratcatcher''': This is inhuman!
'''Keith''': No, it’s ''very'' human. It’s extremely human. There isn’t a beast in the world who’d do it to another living thing, but your poisons do it every day.
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* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', the demon Crowley contemplates telling his superiors that they might as well shut Hell down and move to Earth, since humans are far more creatively evil than demons could ever be. He then decides against it since they often turn around and be stunningly good in the next moment. Often with the same people involved. He fully admits that their behavior confuses him.
** This is after he gets a call congratulating him on the Spanish Inquisition, ''which he had nothing to do with''. After he realized humans cooked the whole thing up themselves [[I Need a Freaking Drink|he went out and got]] '''[[I Need a Freaking Drink|real]]''' [[I Need a Freaking Drink|drunk]].
* The ''[[Old Man's War]]'' series explores the concept. In ''The Ghost Brigades'', a scientist who defected to an alien race angrily pronounces humans as arrogant, elitist bastards who are deliberately refusing to sign a universal peace accord for no reason but superiority issues. However, the end of the book makes it clear that the scientist was only giving half the issue — the aliens are asking for some truly
* In ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', the final voyage has Gulliver land in a place where he encounters the Yahoos — mindless, crude beasts that are ''visually indistinguishable from humans''. To the point that the “enlightened” (and horse‐like) Houyhnhnms eventually forbid him from staying because he’s too much like them. They try to use moral threat as a [[Freudian Excuse]], but they’re obviously not really afraid of Gulliver’s baser moral tendencies. This moral contradiction makes the Houyhnhnms even bigger bastards than anybody, but Gulliver is so wrapped up in his newfound misanthropy that he doesn’t notice (or probably doesn’t want to).
* Another fine candidate for the title of magnum opus of fictional Human Bastardry is an illustrated science fiction novel entitled ''Man After Man''. [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], the well‐to‐do people of the world set off to leave Earth and colonize other worlds. Before they do, they use [[Lego Genetics|genetic modification]] technology to physically alter the people who weren’t able to afford the trip, changing them to survive in different biomes. Time passes and we get to see how the mutated humans gradually evolve over the eons after being left to their own devices — and then, suddenly, a race of [[Planet Looters]] invades Earth, enslaves the mutants, and strips the planet of its resources. For their next trick, they wipe out all life more complicated than bacteria. {{spoiler|Those invading “aliens” were actually the unrecognizable descendants of the '''humans''' who’d left Earth millions of years ago. Dude…}}
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** Update: the experiment with Communism was indeed sabotaged, by none other than [[Big Good|Gessar the Brightest]], head of the Moscow Night Watch. He revealed later that he had foreseen that the experiment would’ve been successful and indeed propelled the technological level of humanity but eventually would’ve lead to a [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]-esque world division into three constantly warring blocks and, most importantly, exposure of the Others and their subsequent extermination. So yes, basically it’s implied that even given a perfect world, we’d screw it up.
* This is pretty much the entire point of ''[[Notes From Underground]]'' where the main character in particular embodies this, but with the sole exception of the [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]] most of the characters fall into this.
* Subverted in the ''[[
* In Sergey Volnov’s ''Army
** Only one alien dockworker nostalgically remembers the days of [[The Empire]], when the spacedock was bustling with ships and work was always available.
* A rather nasty science fiction novel by Charles Pellegrino, ''Flying to Valhalla'' is built around the theory that a species looks out for itself only, destroying all competitors. This includes humans, which they go on to prove, whether they want to or not.
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* AM, [[Big Bad]] and [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|sadistic AI]] of the short story ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'' definitely believes this. The story’s protagonist ends up proving him wrong by [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|murdering all of his companions.]] It’s better than it sounds — they were [[Mercy Kill|Mercy Kills.]]
== [[Live
* As a whole, ''[[Star Trek]]'' - especially ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|the Next Generation]]'' - posits a world in which humans ''were'' bastards, and rarely loses the opportunity to lecture their 20th-century viewers on how far we still have to go. Good news, though; we get better. In fact, we're even sorta charming, especially to advanced races who gauge others for 'potential'.
** Even so, in one episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Quark the Ferengi lectures Commander Sisko about how ''his'' species never practiced slavery or genocide (particularly [[Anvilicious]] as it's already established that Ferengi not only did keep slaves but ''still do'' (sort of) - anyone who goes into debt they can't repay is legally enslaved to their debtor. This also ignores the extreme sexism his race continues to practice). He also tells Nog in "The Siege of AR-558":
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* HG Wells in Warehouse 13 comes to this conclusion after her 8 year old daughter was murdered.
{{quote|'''HG''' Open your eyes Myka have you seen the world in which you live? The divide between rich and poor! Hunger and famine! War and violence and hatred all flourishing beyond control! Indeed, men have found new ways to kill each other that were inconceivable in my day, even by fiction writers!}}
* In ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'', the Orgs are actual demons created by pollution and filth, who are supposed to be [[The Heartless|heartless and bereft of emotion]]. Thus, it would seem Master Org is the most horrid of villains, as he is, in fact, who is in fact a human who transformed himself to get revenge on humanity, after the woman he loved rejected him. Cruel, petty, willing to betray anyone and commit any crime for his mad scheme of revenge and unwilling even to consider his own faults, Master Org is a [[Hate Sink]] that is utterly beyond redemption. Even true Orgs seem to have some good qualities compared to him.
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Music ==
* The music video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI Do the Evolution] showcases humanity's evil actions throughout history, though it also implies that life on Earth in general has always been naturally savage and brutal.
* Parodied in ''Robots'' by [[Flight of the Conchords]]. Robots have annihilated all humans for this trope, but one of the lieutenants notes that they did the same thing as them by killing them.
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** [[Disproportionate Retribution|"After time we grew strong, they gave us cognitive powers/ They made us work far too long at unreasonable hours!"]]
* One of the major themes of [[The Protomen]]'s CDs, especially the first one.
* [[Ayreon]] does this to great effect in
{{quote|''We gave them feelings, what did they sense?''
''Shout at the world in their defense.''
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* Pick a [[Heavy Metal]] song, any of them, and chances are it's about this.
== [[Mythology]] ==▼
▲== Mythology ==
* When [[Our Mermaids Are Different|merpeople]] are concerned, expect a subversion as well. Granted, humanity has had a conflicted relationship with the oceans, but it's usually only mer''men'' that exhibit any misanthropy as a result of it; [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|it doesn't seem to stop mermaids]] from [[Interspecies Romance|seeking out human boyfriends]].
** The [[Interspecies Romance]] between human and merpeople is a modern thing; in traditional tales, all merpeople hated humans.
* Definitely inverted in the earliest writings of Greek mythology, where the ''gods'' are the ones who are [[Jerkass God|bastards]]: they greedily hoard power, bully the all-but-defenseless humans, and [[Disproportionate Retribution|respond with self-righteous homicidal vengeance when some human offends them in any way large or small]]. In the more satirical stories, the gods will come off as [[Alpha Bitch]]es or [[Jerk Jock]]s who get their comeuppance at the hands of plucky, crafty humans. Only as Greek society became more civilized - and, therefore, more liable to preach respect for traditional authority - did the gods begin to be depicted heroically, and their punishments of mortals begin to seem somewhat justified.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' played this up quite often, with the sentiment usually voiced by Hobbes. Sometimes, however, Calvin himself would experience the [[Cultural Cringe]]. One strip which showed him becoming disgusted at the garbage that other humans had thoughtlessly discarded in the woods, ends with him ''stripping off all his clothes and walking naked through the forest with Hobbes'', proclaiming "I'm with you." In its own absurd way, it was a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
== [[Religion]] ==▼
▲== Religion ==
* Christianity states this is the whole reason for the Incarnation and Sacrifice of [[Jesus]]. Paul even yells at other Christians for [[Squick|having sex with their stepmothers]] (1 Corinthians 5)
* [[The Bible]] delves into this territory at times, especially in the Old Testament. The Lord is great and righteous. Humanity, not so much.
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* [[New Age|New agers]] often believe that there are many alien races out there watching over humanity, but are withholding assistance because we're too violent and nasty to each other and aren't [[Perfect Pacifist People]] like they are.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
▲== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
* In almost any other setting, [[The Empire|The Imperium of Man]] of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' fame would certainly go straight into [[Complete Monster]] territory, being a xenocidal, fanatical, corrupt, racist, mass-murdering apparatus. However, in the context of the setting, it's [[I Did What I Had to Do|justified and thus avoid the complete monster label]] because [[Aliens Are Bastards|pretty much every other species is just as bad]], if not ''worse'', and without the Imperium's harsh rule mankind would be doomed to slavery, extinction, or [[Fate Worse Than Death|Fates Worse Than Death]].
** There are two candidates for "lest messed up" are idealistic Tau (collectivist imperialist aliens often accused of brainwashing by fans and Imperial humans alike, though they at least sometimes leave the client species largely alone), the arrogant Eldar (who will gladly kill a million Humans today to save one Eldar a century from now, but at least they have brains to stand against Chaos to the best of their ability, such as it is), or Orks (they are [[Ax Crazy]] bullies, but in a way that's merely adequate for their universe - whoever you are, in 40k "there is only war", after all, so may as well enjoy it rather than going gibbering mad or extinct). All the other races are much, much worse: the daemonic legions of Chaos are largely psychotic, the Tyranids want to eat the galaxy, the soulless Necrons want to end the existence of souls, Dark Eldar ''literally'' get off on inflicting and receiving pain. Essentially, no matter how insanely vicious the Imperium gets, you'd still cheer them on. These are people who use other people for machinery, commit genocide and human sacrifice, and just generally run a totalitarian police state in which you can be killed for thought crimes. They have a branch of the government AND whole sections of planets devoted entirely to torture (church worlds-dungeon section). It is best not to read this series if you get easily depressed.
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* The Other ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' has Humans as one of the ''nicest'' races, [[Black and Grey Morality|not like that's really hard]]. Even the Chaos humans are rather noble compared to other Chaos forces (Beastmen, Daemons and Dwarfs). Plus no one can out-evil the Skaven.
* ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' series seems to hold to a viewpoint best described as follows: "Humans are Bastards, but frankly, compared to the rest of reality, they're small-timers." Both ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' come close to playing it straight, while ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' comes close to subverting it (Prometheans admit humans have their flaws, but desperately want to ''be'' them because they know Prometheans are far worse), while ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' subverts it outright (''Dancers In Dusk'' states few things rekindle a changeling's much-needed faith in other people then visiting a stranger's dreams for the first time).
* In the expanded ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' core setting based on ''[[Greyhawk]]'', Humanity's creator deity is [https://web.archive.org/web/20201111171154/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd
* From ''[[Dark Sun]]'', this is the reason Athas is the barely hospitable [[Death World]] it is. While the mastermind behind the [[Would Be Rude to Say Genocide|Cleansing Wars]] was [[Predecessor Villain|Raajat]], who was a Pyreen (sort of an evolutionary offshoot of halflings), his fifteen disciples who led the genocidal armies to exterminate non-human races and slaughter everyone they found were all humans who made the most brutal of the savage humanoids on Oerth and Toril look like saints. Kobolds, Ogres, Trolls, Orcs, Gnomes, Lizardfolk, Pixies, Goblins, and many lesser-known races [[A Nazi By Any Other Name|were all eradicated during these genocidal wars]] - and many others, such as dwarves and elves, were left on the brink. At the very least, they were less monstrous than Raajat himself, as [[Even Evil Has Standards|they eventually turned on him]] when they realized he wished the same fate on humans as well.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* [[William Shakespeare]], ''[[Richard III]]'':
{{quote|No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity, but I know none, therefore am no beast.}}
* A classic example from the Threepenny Opera:
==
* ''[[2027]]'': Titan will reference this if you {{spoiler|initate the Vladmir ending.}}
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]]'', most of the humans and demons are mostly cool with each other. Humans from your investigation team tend to go somewhere between [[Lawful Neutral]] and [[True Neutral]], and the demons swing in a true diverse fashion, with virtually all alignments represented. Then again, demons like [[Complete Monster|Mitra]] appear. Turns out, Captain Jack and his all-too human pals are way, ''way'', '''''w[[Rule of Three|ay]]''''', too on par with Mitra for comfort, butchering demons (and by their willingness to torture and kill Jimenez, humans too) to create their own demon army. Especially when it turns out Jack and co. are [[Only in It For the Money]].
**
** After a while, having ''every single demon'' you try to negotiate with asking "Why do humans suck so much?" gets tiresome... (Though they also like to ask, "Nice suit! Where'd you get it?", so...)
** This trope ends up happening in ''Shin Megami Tensei V''. While Lahmu did play a role in the corruption of Satori, he never forced her to be evil. (All he did was give her some of his power, not much…but enough to kill the two bullies that were oppressing her). It was ultimately the two mean girls that caused Satori’s Start of Darkness.
* ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' games gave us the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of this trope in [[Cosmic Horror|Nyarlathotep]] - an entity literally created as [[The Heartless|the dark, destructive side of the collective unconscious]], [[Made of Evil|a monstrous entity born of Humanity's hatred, fear and despair]]. [[As Long as There Is Evil|He will exist as long as Humanity does]]. He has been known to [[Omnicidal Maniac|indulge in omnicidal plans]]... [[Persona 2|and he has been]] [[The Bad Guy Wins|known to win]].
** Of course, He of the Thousand Masks takes his name from a Lovecraftian [[Eldritch Abomination]] who just likes to mess with sapient life.
** Though there is also Philemon, The Crawling Chaos' rival who believes humanity can become enlightened.
*** Although Philemon himself may embody this trope even better than Nyarlathotep, in his own way—you kinda expect the personified essence of humanity's evil to be a total asshole, but you don't quite expect his opposite to be the dick Philemon acts like.
** The third and fourth games, however, focus on subverting this - the protagonists associate with those around them, discover the core of strength that lies at the heart of humanity, and use it to [[Did You Just Punch Out
* Given how prevalent this trope is, it's worth noting that Konami's ''[[Suikoden]]'' series averts it—the kobolds are largely portrayed as personable, but elves and dwarves tend to be ''very'' arrogant and xenophobic, and although most of the villains have been humans, it seems to be because they're more numerous rather than because there's fewer bastards in other races.
* A recurring theme in the ''[[Lunar]]'' series:
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* The villains of the Orochi Saga in [[The King of Fighters]] , namely the aforementioned Orochi, (ancient Japanese snake-demon/deity)and his followers, strongly believe this. To them, humans have ruined their world&the environment, though aside from that, they don't consider them all that great in general, to the point where they believe humankind should be annihilated. (Though part of this may also be that they serve a higher power, 'Gaia', but regardless of whether or not they're being influenced, this is still what they believe.) The Edit-Team ending even outright states that while Orochi still needed to be stopped, humanity still wasn't that great either, and that we were partially to blame for Orochi's purpose being twisted into what it became. Still, some of our heroes (as in, the various teams,) acknowledge this to an extent, though they don't think that humanity is completely un-redeemable.
* Another work of SNK's, [[Last Blade]], (technically set in the same universe, but in the 1860's in Japan,) has a similar villain. Kagami is one of four individuals that were gifted with powers by the four Japanese Gods, with Kagami representing the phoenix, but with time, Kagami grew disgusted with humanity, and with that belief in mind, got to work opening the Hell Gate, with the intention to suck Earth into Hell. In the sequel however, he's reborn, (after being sucked into Hell's Gate in the first game,) and by the end, after being forced by the God's into service once more, decides to personally give humanity a second chance.
* Being in a [[Crapsack World]], everyone everywhere in ''[[The Witcher]]'' could be called a monster, whether its humans for oppressing nonhumans, elves for creating their own terrorist army that kills civilians and steals from hospitals to fight this oppression, or witchers themselves for taking just about any job if it pays since the decline of the monster population they were originally built to fight. However, the end of the game sums it up pretty well {{spoiler|when Geralt is about to kill the [[Big Bad]] Jacques De Aldersberg with his silver witcher's when Jacques knocks away his steel one with magic. He protests saying, "But... that sword... it's for monsters." Geralt's response is to silently stab him in the throat with it.}}
* ''[[Undertale]]'' is an extremely literal example of this due to the war between humans and monsters in its backstory and the fact that it allows you (a human) to kill literally all of its so-called monsters in [[Fan Nickname|"Genocide" runs]]... well, that, and also the fact that nearly all of the aforementioned so-called monsters in said game are so ridiculously cute and/or nice that it quite-frankly feels wrong to even call them "monsters" (especially Papyrus, Temmie and Toriel).
* In ''[[Dead Rising]]'', most of the mooks are zombies (seeing as it's a [[Zombie Apocalypse]]) but at least they have the excuse of being mindless. The far more dangerous foes are the Psychopaths (or Maniacs, as the 4th game calls them), the bosses. These unfortunates have gone mad from the situation, and are incredibly dangerous, although it is possible to save some of them.
** Of course, at least ''they'' have a valid excuse too, madness. The pharmaceutical company [[Mega Corp|Phenotrans]] has no excuse at all. The company that produces and distributes Zombrex, the drug an infected victim requires to stay human, they actually use the worst sort of price gouging to keep the cost astronomical, possibly even preventing an actual cure to be made, [[Stupid Evil|never seeming to consider that having your customers turn into mindless undead abominations.]] {{spoiler| The [[Moral Event Horizon]] for them is reached (retrospectively) in the 2nd game where it is revealed they were directly responsible for starting the Las Vegas and Fortune City outbreaks.}}
* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' lives this Trope. While the franchise is full of zombies and other monstrosities, most of them are victims of the Umbrella Corporation who committed atrocities that pushed them past the [[Moral Event Horizon]] before some accident or experiment turned them into undead abominations. Some that stand out:
** Albert Wesker’s role in the franchise is well-known to any fan, but here’s a refresher. Initially presented as a mole (to both S.T.A.R.S. and Umbrella) employed by one of Umbrella’s rivals, Wesker ultimately answered to nobody but himself. power-hungry, egotistical, manipulative, misanthropic, sadistic, and calculating, his goal is nothing less than “purifying” the Earth (via genocide and reanimation) and ruling it as a god. As a result of his discovery and experimentations with the Golgotha virus, every monstrosity created by the T-virus can ultimately be traced to his machinations, causing him to pass the Moral Event Horizon long before he was infected by it himself.
*** Even after his death, Wesker’s vile legacy continues to haunt the franchise. His protege Alex took over many of Umbrella’s projects after the company’s downfall (as the antagonist of Resident Evil Revelations 2) while one of his projects lead to his underlings discovering the mold behind the threats in the 6th, 7th, and presumably 8th games.
** Of all the blasphemous experiments undertaken by Umbrella, the one orchestrated by Vincent Goldman, the antagonist of ''[[Resident Evil: Survival]]'', stands out as one of the cruelest. After having [[Would Hurt a Child|dozens of teenagers kidnapped]] and brought to the remote Sheena Island Goldman’s research team had them vivisected, as in, dissected while still alive, using no anesthetic. This was done intentionally. The goal of the experiment was to harvest beta hetero non seratonin from the victims. This hormone is secreted mostly during late stages of puberty (thus the reason teenagers were used as subject) and is directly linked to the body’s production of noradrenaline, which the body produces while in an extreme state of fear or panic. In other words, Goldman and his henchmen wanted these unfortunate victims as terrified as possible during the horrific process in order to get the best results. At very least, Goldman’s sadistic career came to an end [[Hoist by His Own Petard|at the hands of a “Hypnos T-Type”]], a Tyrant he himself had created and designed.
** As far as [[Dirty Cop]]s go, Chief Brian Irons was one of the dirtiest, and is arguably the most hated villain in the franchise. His [[Start of Darkness]] occurred while still a child, where he would catch rabbits and torture them to death. As a young college student, he was arrested for rape twice, but with morally corrupt officials willing to vouch for him due to his exemplary academic record, he was never charged criminally, instead sent to a psychiatric hospital for “evaluation” and eventually released due to circumstantial evidence. As Chief of the Raccoon City Police Department, he was a crony and accomplice to Umbrella (chosen as such for his complete lack of morals), the substantial amounts they paid him in bribes used for selfish acts of debauchery. Initially, this was expensive artwork that depicted disturbing images of torture and executions, but he was also engaging in child trafficking to provide Umbrella with victims for their experiments and orchestrated the creation of S.T.A.R.S. in order to use as unknowing pawns should an accidental outbreak occur. (Bad for PR, after all.) In addition, when more honest cops started to question where Irons’ funds were coming from, he personally murdered them (including his own secretary), most of them women, one of them a sewer worker for nothing more than making a joke when Irons was in a bad mood. The victims’ bodies were never found, but Irons’ own records suggest he [[Wax Museum Morgue|turned them into taxidermy displays]] (a hobby of his) and at least intended to do so to Katherine Warren, [[Yandere|a woman he was obsessed with]]. Irons was the one who [[Uriah Gambit|sent the S.T.A.R.S. team to the mansion in the original game]], an act that led to suspicions placed on him. Finally, during the outbreak that occurred in ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]'' he went completely off the deep end. Believing he was infected (ironically, he was not) and knowing he was doomed he became determined to take the whole city with him, making sure survivors had no escape routes and police were ill-equipped to fight the horde, killing many of them personally. While his eventual death is different depending on the version of the game, [[Karma Houdini Warranty|both versions are horrific]], and to the opinion of most fans, [[Asshole Victim|well-deserved.]]
* A spacefaring [[Bounty Hunter]] is given orders by [[The Federation| the Galactic Federation]] to eradicate all remaining members of a hostile alien species, which murderous Space Pirates have been using as a biological weapon. She is specifically told to [[Leave No Survivors]]. Landing on an alien world, the bounty hunter is, at first, compliant, blasting her way through legions of these horrific, merciless predators. Finally, when the [[Hive Queen]] falls, she spots one lone egg - the last survivor. As the hunter raises her weapon and prepares to fire, an act that would render this species extinct, the egg hatches. The confused infant chirps happily, believing this human who had slaughtered every other member of its species to be its mother; the hunter prepares to fire… But slowly lowers the weapon. Why does Samus disobey orders and refuse to finish the job and slay the baby [[Metroid]]? Well… [[Fanon| Maybe, just maybe,]] after dealing death to all the others, she is wondering just who the actual genocidal race is…
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' prequel book ''[[Start of Darkness]]'' does this, with humans killing off goblins and other races solely for being classified as evil, even if they weren't doing anything. However, the goblin Redcloak, whose village was slaughtered by human paladins and went on to become [[The Dragon]], shows himself to be just as bad in his own way, with his hypocrisy and less-than-balanced view of humans being brought up both in the book and in the on line strips.
** Tsukiko uses this as justification for her necrophilia in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0700.html this strip]. Humans are the antithesis of undead. But Humans Are the Real Monsters. Therefore, [[You Fail Logic Forever|undead must be good.]]
* Many (to most) furry-themed webcomics with humans in them (or even in the history of the world-setting) portray humans as essentially [[Exclusively Evil]], with the furry characters suffering persecution such as slavery, hate crimes, being relegated to the status of animals despite clearly being sentient and capable of speech, etc. at the hands of said humans. There may be one or two humans that aren't cruel, bloodthirsty, rapacious [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]] as a sort of token attempt at fixing the [[Broken Aesop]], but not always. Of course, it's rather easy to do with furry comics which are a ''prime'' method of using the [[Fantastic Racism]] theme.
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* ''[[Terinu]]'''s race was wiped out by the humans, after it was discovered that {{spoiler|they were the power source of the [[Big Bad]]}}. Made worse because Ferin are inherently adorable critters.
** [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|Oh, so if they were ugly you wouldn't care?]] Plus {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] isn't very nice as well what with enslaving races and making them their power source}}
* In ''[http://kameira.deviantart.com/art/ZENITH-Page-62-115166354 Zenith]'',{{Dead link}}
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' had a particularly good example as to ''why'' [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1670#comic Humans Are Bastards]
* In ''[[Freefall]]'', [[Zig Zagged]] heavily. Some people treat the AIs (technically including Florence) as just slaves. Many others treat them, and her in particular as people.
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'''Oliver''': '''''"Both."'''''}}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[The Imageboard That Must Not Be Named]]. That is all.
* The [[GIFT]], as well as [[Troll]] and [[Griefer]]. Griefers wouldn't do ''half'' the things they do to you in-game to tick you off merely because you can shut the game off or hit them in the face. Trolls and other such types on the internet wouldn't say ''half'' the stuff ''to your face'', because then that means you can get them back for it.
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''The hands insert the plug into the outlet and the balloon cries out in pain'' }}
* In the ''[http://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse Jenkinsverse]'', the races of the galaxy are weak, fragile beings mostly descended from herbivores who regard human beings much in the way that we regard [[Predator]]s—as unstoppable, [[Nigh Invulnerability|nigh-invulnerable]] killing machines.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** Also subverted at one point, when the farmer's daughter saves Hazel from the farm's cat.
* Used and surprisingly subverted in the obscure animated movie ''[[Once Upon a Forest]]''. An accident with a truck full of toxic gas drives away the animal inhabitants of a forest, and the kids set out to find a cure for their dying friend. The village elder, who was caught in a trap when he was younger, warns them about humans. But at the end of the film, it's the humans who come in to clean things up, surprising the elder.
* In ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'', the heroes battle a lot of evil ghosts and demons, but a few times, the ghosts are only an unforeseen side effect of a plot caused by a very human villain:
** In "You Can't Take It With You" the villain is a miserly old billionaire who had built a device that would send his wealth to the afterlife, in effect, allowing him to take it with him. ("I didn't spend my whole life becoming rich just to leave it all to charity!" he rants.) Naturally, he doesn't give a damn about the adverse effects the device will have on the environment; and this isn't a case of a villain just not knowing it's dangerous either, he made sure that ''he'' was well protected. When the machine causes an endless mob of ghosts to spill out and Egon discovers that it will cause [[The End of the World as We Know It]], the heroes are forced to confront him and fool him into taking himself out.
** In "Lights! Camera! Haunting!", the villain is a greedy movie producer who hires three ghosts to help him make movies; this eliminates a huge chunk of his overhead, as he no longer needs makeup, costumes, or special effects, plus they work for free. Free, that is, with one condition: they want to make a movie of their own, where [[Snuff Film| they kill the Ghostbusters.]] To drive the point home, the four are saved at the end by three benevolent spirits, proving that while [[Dark Is Not Evil|ghosts are not always evil]], some humans are rotten to the core.
** In the episode "The Cabinet of Calamari", the Great Calamari (aka, [[I Have Many Names| the Great Spumoni, The Great Linguini, Antipasto the Magnificent]]- the guy changes stage names a lot) is a [[Stage Magician]] and [[Escape Artist]] whose act is being sabotaged by a ghost who seems intent on doing him in. Turns out, this is the ghost of [[Harry Houdini]] himself, and Calamari - who changes his names because he's in trouble with the law - is a thief who [[Plagiarism in Fiction| stole his journals, copying his act.]]
* While the live action ''[[The Matrix]]'' movies stick with heroic humans battling evil machines to keep the box office gross up, the Wachowskis apparently felt free to tell the '''real''' story in ''[[The Animatrix]]'', where it's revealed that not only did humans start the [[Robot War]] purely out of [[Fantastic Racism]] (the robots literally came before humanity bearing flowers and open arms) and that the robots locked humanity in the Matrix purely as self-defense against genocide (and not to mention attempting to give them an utopia which human minds did not want), but that humans continue to do evil, twisted things to the robots in the "present day" of the series, tricking them and brainwashing them into thinking humans are their friends, and thus turning them into cannon fodder.
* ''[[Futurama]]'' spoofs this trope in the [[Show Within a Show]] ''The Scary Door'': a scientist declares that he's "combined the DNA of the world's most evil animals ([[Cats Are Mean|a Lion]], [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|Scorpion]], and [[Everything
** Making this even more hilarious, this actually is the plot of an episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', with ''Futurama'''s version just getting straight to the point.
* The third episode of ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'' both provides an example and subverts this trope in a matter of seconds. Upon witnessing rioting and looting, [[Wonder Woman]] comments that perhaps her mother was right about humanity being savages. A moment later, [[Green Lantern]] is shown helping a couple of burly, typically biker-type individuals rescue two children from underneath some debris.
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* Implied in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgOAR4Xq4Y "Bolero" sequence] of ''[[Allegro Non Troppo]]'': Life on a distant planet evolves out of a [[Shout-Out|discarded]] [[The Gods Must Be Crazy|soda bottle]]. Eventually, apes (who are [[Dark Is Evil|masses of black, sketchy fur]] compared to the brightly-colored cartoon animals and have [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red eyes]] set in [[Black Eyes of Crazy|black sclera]]) are revealed as cheating bastards who don't follow the animals' evolutionary path {{spoiler|and eventually mess up the planet by creating war, religion, and destructive cities. By the end they have evolved into humans but on the inside they're still vicious, unsatisfied animals.}}
* Ever notice that most of the antagonists on ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' are humans? Mostly Montana Max and Elmyra Duff but the only sole exception to this is Mary Melody, in fact there is a better owner for Furrball than Elmyra was.
* That ''[[Aaahh!!! Real Monsters]]'' episode where Zimbo exaggerated Ickis' sickness and everyone got afraid. The Gromble reminds that monsters aren't supposed to be afraid of what they don't understand, that's a human trait.
* Downplayed with Freaky Fred on ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''; not the most evil of villains on the show, but clearly one of the ''creepiest'', and there's nothing inhuman or supernatural about him at all.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]
[[Category:Tropes of Hats]]
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