Master Race: Difference between revisions

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We HEIL! ([[Blowing a Raspberry|raspberry]]) HEIL! (raspberry) Right in Der Fuehrer's face|"[[Der Fuehrer's Face]]"}}
 
Rather than just feeling [[Fantastic Racism]] towards a particular group, these people look down on ''everyone'' who isn't them. They'll likely be [[The Empire]] or [[The Horde]] (generally led by an [[Evil Overlord]] or a charismatic [[President Evil]]), and might possibly be [[Always Chaotic Evil]], though it's also possible most of them are simply fed on propaganda rather than seriously believing this. In any case, they'll hold to an ideology based around the idea that they and they alone deserve to rule the world/universe, and everyone else needs to fall into line or be exterminated. In extreme cases, they may simply want to exterminate ''everyone'' else without bothering to dominate them.
 
See also [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]], and there will likely be in- or out-of universe comparisons made to [[Those Wacky Nazis]]. If said comparisons are explicitly in-universe, they'll likely be [[Putting on the Reich]]. May show up as a central teaching of the [[Religion of Evil]] or [[Path of Inspiration]]. Contrast [[Superior Species]], where the work itself presents a race as inherently better. They're almost always bad guys (as you can't play them as heroes without getting into a motherlode of [[Unfortunate Implications]], though individual members can be sympathetic, especially if [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]] is in force) and they'll often show up as villains in works that are preaching [[An Aesop]] against racism.
 
Note- does not apply to races or cultures who think they're superior but have no interest in conquering the outside world. The Master Race wants to ''master'' the rest of the world, not be apart from it. They may already be served by a [[Slave Race]], [[Servant Race]], or [[Henchmen Race]], though some extreme examples are too xenophobic even for that. Compare and contrast the [[Absolute Xenophobe]], who skips the "mastering" part and goes straight for extermination.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Deconstructed with the Dunedain in the backstory for ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' (adapted from the Atlantis myth)- in many ways they ''are'' superior to other races of men, which leads them to ultimately turn themselves into [[The Empire]], as well as arrogant and corrupt. Then their king makes [[Big Bad|Sauron]] his [[Evil Chancellor|chief advisor]], and he plays on these factors to lead the Dunedain to ruin. By the time of ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' there are very few pureblood Dunedain left, and their culture exists in an [[After the End]] of their own making.
** Yet for some reason nobody has a problem with putting another one of them on the throne with no fear that the same pattern might repeat itself after a few generations...
** Considering there are so few of them ''left'', and the survivors give no indication of still buying into the whole [[Master Race]] thing, this seems unlikely, though Tolkien's unfinished sequel to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' ''does'' indicate that in a few generations all won't be well in Gondor...
*** A key part of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]], that it really happened about fourteen thousand years ago in Europe. Historically, most of those peoples were wiped out by an invasion out of the East by the Indo-Europeans, something a linguist like Tolkein would have been familiar with given that much of this historical knowledge was ascertained via lingual studies. Given the in-story comparative military bases of the Easterlings and the Dunedain remnants, its pretty clear that Gondor screwed up royally, probably with corruption and alienation of surrounding powers, to be able to be so completely overthrown by the Men out of the East. Pretty much all that remains of the Dunedain "master race" is the Basque peoples from France and Spain.
* Many pureblood families of wizards from ''[[Harry Potter]]'' view themselves this way; Voldemort, whose reasons for hating muggles are much more personal in nature, plays on this to attract followers.
* [[The Draka]], who [[Ubermensch|talk the talk]] and [[Take Over the World|walk the walk]], [[Made a Slave|enslaving]] the rest of [[Slave Race|humanity]]. Things only get worse once they [[Evilutionary Biologist|map the human genome]].
* The Cyrgai in [[David Eddings]]'s Tamuli. For a fun question, how do you ''really'', '''really''' piss off a [[Master Race]]? You seal them in an area so that anyone who tries to cross a line in the sand dies, no saves.
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* The very aptly named Masters from ''[[The Stone Dance of the Chameleon]]''. Even within their own ranks, the weight of their votes is decided by blood purity.
* [[Dracula|Dracula's]] obsession with blood goes a lot deeper than just wanting to drink it. He tells Jonathan Harker at length about the history of Transylvania, explaining that the Szekelys are descended from both [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Vikings]] and [[Blood Knight|Huns]] and thus his race is stronger and purer than the other noble dynasties of Europe. The second that technology provides him the ability to leave his provincial domain, he sets into motion his plan for world domination. So he's not only a [[Complete Monster]], he's also a racist.
* From [[John Carter of Mars]], the Holy Therns (white Martians) and the First Born (Black Martians) both see themselves as being the Master Race (the First Born take this to the extreme of considering it beneath them to do any kind of work but fighting- ''lesser'' beings work, and the First Born take what they need from them). Needless to say, the two races hate each other's guts, though in the third book the Thern [[Priest King]] and a First Born nobleman pull a (very tense) [[Villain Team-Up]] against the eponymous hero.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The elves in ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]''. Of course, they're actually every bit as stupid as everyone else.
* Aylee's species from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. They see it as their goal to literally devour every living thing in the universe that isn't one of them (though Leon makes a possible exception for flowers).
 
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* The Fire Nation from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.
* The Highbreed in ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]''.
* The ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' episode "Operation: Rebirth" has this with discussion on the super soldier experiment used on [[Captain America (comics)]].
{{quote|'''Logan:''' "The idea was to create super soldiers for [[World War Two]]."
'''Xavier:''' "[[Invoked Trope|A master race]]?"<br />
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'''Xavier:''' "Yes, they never do. At first." }}
* Fanon usually takes this approach towards the [[Invader Zim|Irken Empire]] - that they're not just taking over the universe [[For the Evulz]], but because they view themselves as the superior race.
* In ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' the [[Catfolk]] of [[The Empire]] of Thundera are a [[Proud Warrior Race]] who are [[Cats Are Superior|genuinely excellent]] fighters, have an [[The Order|order]] of [[Kung Fu Wizard]]/[[Magic Knight|Magic Knights]] and possess powerful [[Ancient Artifact|Ancient Artifacts]]. As a result, they do much [[Cultural Posturing]] around believing their own press, that they were and are the great civilizers of their planet, who "brought law and order to a [[World of Funny Animals|world of warring animals]]," convieniently justifying [[Animal Jingoism|jingoistic]] [[Fantastic Racism]] against other [[Petting Zoo People|Animals]]. They place minorities like [[Dogfaces|Dogs]] in a [[Fantastic Ghetto]] to be victimized by "Alley Cats," while in their war with enemy the [[Lizard Folk|Lizards]], the Cats [[Made a Slave|enslave]] the hungry Lizards they catch raiding crops (due to the Cats' monopolization of arable land) even [[Vigilante Execution|lynching]] them, if they feel like it. A [[Fantastic Caste System]] is also in effect, with tailed Cats confined to a life of poverty in the slums, while tailless [[Blue Blood]] live lives of privilege, and only Lions have [[King of Beasts|right-to-rule]].
 
== Multiple media ==
* [[New Jedi Order|The Yuuzhan Vong]] see all other species as scum to be forcibly converted to [[Religion of Evil|the Great Doctrine]] or exterminated.
** One of the underlying philosophies of [[The Empire]] in the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies was that of High Human Culture- basically, the idea that ''humans'' were the superior species. It's unclear how much Palpatine really bought into this, and how much of it was to entice the ambitions of his subordinates.
*** This seems to be a bit of a running theme in [[Star Wars]], the Rakata's Infinite Empire, first mentioned in [[Knights of the Old Republic|KOTOR]] seemed to feel like this (It's hard to tell since their Empire collapsed long before the time period of that game, even), as they conquered many planets with their extensive technology and used the natives they found on many worlds as slaves.
* Elves in many settings have a habit of [[Our Elves Are Better|seeing themselves as superior]], but most would rather [[Hidden Elf Village|hide from the world]] rather than conquer it. There are exceptions, however, including most flavors of [[Always Chaotic Evil|Dark Elf]] and ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'''s [[The Empire|Tribus Elves]].
** And the elves of [[Magic: The Gathering|Lorwyn]].
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Most infamously, this was the whole basis of Nazi ([[Trope Namer]]) and white supremacist ideology, and racial supremacist ideology in general.
** They believed that Nordic Europeans were superior to everyone else...and then claimed Ancient Greece and Rome as "Nordic".
*** The Nazis actually believed the World Ice Theory because 1) it rejects Einstein's Relativity (rejecting the Jews is good enough), 2) its originator was an Austrian, and 3) the ice could explain Aryan supremacy. Atlantis, the [[Hollow Earth]], Lemuria, Mu...If there's a fringe idea, the Nazis hijacked it. Of course, the World Ice Theory [[Rocks Fall Everybody Dies|ends with the Earth crashing into the sun]], so what's the point?
*** Nazis, while the [[Trope Namer]], did have a few peoples we don't consider "white" who they considered Aryans. These included the Iranians and Indian brahmins (natch), the Japanese (to explain the alliance), Tibetans (according to Theosophy, the Aryan homeland), and the Sioux (due to Hitler's love of Karl May novels). Only the Sioux were really hostile to the "Aryan" label, because it challenged ''their'' mythic phylogeny. A better example would be the label of "Caucasian", almost universal to imperial powers in the 19th century; oddly, that trope namer, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, was not really a racist, at least by 18th-century standards
*** The Japanese did ''not'' count as Aryan in the Nazi ideology. They were called "honorary Aryans" for the sake of their alliance, but intermarriage between the Japanese and Germans was just as strictly forbidden as marriage between Africans and Germans, and privately Hitler held the opinion that Japan could only prosper under German influence, and would fall back to feudal infighting if left to their own devices.
** Also, the word "Aryan" existed only in Iranian and Hindu literature before the recent history. To the academia, Aryan means the languages spoken by Iranians, Kurds and North Indians. In the Vedas, "Aryan" means moral and noble. The name "Iran" is also cognate with "Aryan". Nothing to do with anything west/north of Iraq.