Humans Are the Real Monsters: Difference between revisions

== [[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.

** 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.

* 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.

 

== [[Gamebook]] ==

* 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]].

** 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]].

{{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.

* 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]].

* 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…}}

* 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!}}

 

== [[Music]] ==

* [[Arch Enemy]]'s "Beast Of Man" uses the page quote in its lyrics.

* Pick a [[Heavy Metal]] song, any of them, and chances are it's about this.

 

== [[Mythology]] ==

** 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]] ==

* An alien on ''[[Prickly City]]'' has decided to call off his invasion because he doesn't want to catch whatever we have.

* ''[[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]] ==

* [[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.

 

* 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.

** 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.

* 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:

** 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.]]

 

* 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.]]

* ''[[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}}

* ''[[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.

''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]] ==

* 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Tropes of Hats]]