Puny Earthlings: Difference between revisions

* Inverted in the [[Alan Dean Foster]] ''The Damned'' trilogy, where humans are among the toughest sons of bitches in the galaxy, and are [[Humans Are Warriors|better at war than any other species]]. We also have natural immunity to [[Mind Control]], and when we're rewired to remove that ability, and then unwired, can demonstrate said mind control [[You Fail Biology Forever|(and then pass it on to our children)]].

** Averted with the thranx in Foster's [[Humanx Commonwealth]] novels, as these insectoids have as many physical disadvantages (easily drowned, bad climbers, limbless juveniles) as advantages (extra legs, good senses, tough exoskeleton) over humans.

** Humans can gain these abilities too, so it's more of a training thing.

* The Oankali from Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis'' series all have interesting powers.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Inverted in the [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] [[Tabletop Games]] ''[[Gamma World]]''. Humans that survived the nuclear apocalypse unaltered are assumed to be of incredibly hardy genetic material. They are much more resilient than other races (though they lack the super-powers and [[Rule of Cool|cool mutations]] of others).

** A later ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' article insisted that the "pure strain humans" were actually products of a few centuries of genetic engineering, a la ''[[Star Trek]]'' Augments. Humans who hadn't received such gene therapy (i.e. us) were total wimps by contrast, and were the ancestors of the game's human mutants, lacking the mislabeled "pure strain's" resistance to radioactive mutagens.

* In [[Mortasheen]], humans are not very high on the food chain, usually ending up as either food, experimental subjects or sometimes pets, which is why the human civilization of Wreathe is so genocidal towards all the setting's monsters and mutants. Though, actual native Mortasheen humans are rather blase about this whole state of affairs, sometimes even volunteering for experiments to try and become something less vulnerable.

** Humanity also has the advantage of variety and a good deal of psychic potential - less so than the Eldar, but there's more eligible human psykers than there are Eldar, period ([[Blessed with Suck|although only a handful of those even survive...]]).

** It has to be noted that humans, while weak, aren't the weakest sapients in the setting - that honour goes to the Tau (okay maybe the gretchin), who are, on average weaker, shorter-lived, less skilled in melee and have even worse eyesight, needing advanced targeting equipment to hit as well as humans. They make up for it by having some of the best-equipped armies in the setting, and only getting better.

{{quote|'''Wrex:''' Now, Shepard. What brings you here? How's the Normandy?

'''Shepard:''' Destroyed in a Collector surprise attack. I ended up spaced.

'''Wrex:''' Oh. It must have been painful, then. }}

** Notably, a few alien races live significantly shorter lifespans than humans. Salarians only live to be about forty, and Vorcha only have twenty. They do compensate by the salarians having an advanced metabolism that allows them to get by with only an hour of sleep a day and leads to an overclocked nervous system, and the Vorcha can adapt to almost any environment, and can regenerate. Still, that's a lifespan of only a fraction of the average human.

== Web Comics ==

* The Nemesite Empire in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has legally owned Earth for eons. They consider humans part of the local wildlife (because we don't have interstellar space travel yet) and have designated Earth as a nature preserve.

** [[Butt Monkey|Neeg]] also got the crap beaten out of him by an Old lady.

* Aylee and her species in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' are not only capable of assuming different forms to suit their environment, but their collected arsenal of genetic tricks from unknown eons of consuming planets (which acts to [[Justified Trope|justify this]]) allows those forms to have just about any useful attribute, though not all at once. Thus, Aylee apparently never needs to sleep or breathe (nor, possibly, go to the potty), and often has vastly superior physical abilities compared to humans as well as a powerful [[Healing Factor]]. Things like flight, breathing fire and emitting EMPs are also possible adaptations. She's also very talented at web design. On the other hand, she's socially awkward on Earth and dreadful in handling money, and sometimes leaves slime all over the place or [[I Am a Humanitarian|eats unnacceptable things]].

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' Mira's race has this attitude toward other races due to the natural power of [[Intangible Man|Intangibility]] and their secondary [[Psychic Powers]] as a result of it. The Chlorm have an ''extreme'' version of this acting as if all sentient races are just [[Talking Animal]]s. This results in putting them in [[People Zoo|their zoos]], using them for [[Animal Testing|product testing]] and having them do dumb tricks.

* Parodied by ''[[Invader Zim]]''. Humans are pretty dumb, and Irkens have all kinds of superior technology...but for the most part, the Irkens are pretty dumb too. According to [[Word of God]], the show's whole concept was founded on the [[Rule of Funny|inherent ridiculousness]] of a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] too stupid to use his power correctly.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cosmic Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Earth]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]