Restored My Faith in Humanity

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Bob long ago learned the painful lesson that Humans Are the Real Monsters. They kill each other over the most trivial of reasons and treat anyone who is different as an outcast. And so Bob has given up on them, perhaps to the point of becoming the villain or even the Big Bad.

And then along comes Alice, a shining example of why humans aren't that bad after all. She'll listen to Bob's rhetoric about how humans are unworthy to live, smile, and retort with an impassioned speech about everything good about humanity or she'll just show him how wrong he is through her actions.

Bob will come to see that maybe he was wrong about humanity all along (it's very rare for Bob to accept simply that Alice in particular isn't so bad, or, if he does, he's missing the whole point), perhaps performing a Heel Face Turn or sacrificing himself to save humanity.

See The Messiah and Purity Sue for two character types Alice is likely to fall under.

Examples of Restored My Faith in Humanity include:


Anime and Manga

  • Aoyama Masaya in Tokyo Mew Mew acts like the nicest person on the planet as a defense mechanism, and secretly hates humans while being unaware that he himself isn't human at all. He starts to see Ichigo as "different" when she steps out of her comfort zone to understand him more -- something she really doesn't want to do at first -- and, by the end of the series, he sacrifices himself (and gets better) to save the entire world.
  • In Gankutsuou, when it seems to Albert that everyone is lying and good people are helpless to do anything, a letter from his dead friend Franz restores his faith in humanity, and he in turn restores The Count's humanity.

Comic Books

  • Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen, though for him it's Humans Are Boring, not Humans Are the Real Monsters.
    • Ironically, he comes to the conclusion that humans are too damn interesting in the end.
  • The High Evolutionary's plans to wipe out humanity were once waylaid by the Hulk's determination to survive in spite of everything.
  • In Grimm Fairy Tales, the Wicked Witch Belinda shows her friend Sela around a beach and explains that Humans Are the Real Monsters by pointing out Jerk Jocks who bully others, a shallow girl who Really Gets Around, etc. When a building collapses, everyone Belinda pointed out immediately rushes over to help. The jocks use their strength to clear rubble and pull people to safety, and the shallow girl turns out to be a highly qualified doctor. Belinda gets disgusted and leaves, but Sela is amazed and is so touched that she decides to help too.

Film

Literature

  • Jean Valjean, in Les Misérables, after being put in prison for almost twenty years for a minor infraction, is wandering the streets of a small town looking for somewhere to spend the night after a day in which nobody will pay him full wages or rent a room to him because he is a convict. Nobody will let him even stay on their stoop, but one person points out the door of the local bishop. He is given pride of place at the bishop's table, a room for the night, and respect as a fellow human being. However, this trope doesn't take effect until he steals the bishop's silver and makes a run for it, and instead of denouncing him to the police, the bishop actually gives him the rest of the silver as a gift. Cue Heel Realization, My God, What Have I Done?, and redemption. Valjean goes on to become one of the most benevolent and just characters in fiction.
  • Bartimaeus, the demon of The Bartimaeus Trilogy is given faith in humanity when he meets Ptolemy, the only human who ever treats him with respect, turning him into both The Woobie and a Noble Demon.

Live Action TV

  • Brutally inverted and then subverted in House. House has a deep faith in the negative attributes of humanity. His favorite phrases are "everybody lies" and "people don't change." Cameron, and later Thirteen, try to prove him wrong whenever possible. However, just about every patient House has lied to him and usually also the patient's family.
  • The Doctor is an...interesting case. He'll occasionally go on a very vehement Humans Are the Real Monsters phase, calling them violent, selfish and stupid, and then, something will happen (usually sparked by his companion) that restores his faith in them. After all, there's got to be a reason he hangs out on Earth so much.

Newspaper Comics

  • One Bloom County strip had Opus wallowing in gloom, thinking he's lost the Christmas spirit forever. Portney appears and gives him a gift which turns out to be plastic dog-vomit. Opus hugs him, saying in total sincerity: "Thank you. You've pulled me back from the brink. I'll cherish it forever." Cue Portney wallowing in gloom.

Video Games

  • Gotoh in Fire Emblem 1, 3 and 11. The third game is the only one to directly explain why he didn't like humanity in the first place. He gave them magic, and they used magic for war.
    • Word of God for the 10th game notes that Nolan (who suffers from the 10th games lack of character expansion) has this as part of his backstory.
      • Ike can restore Sephiran's faith in humanity as well, though the requirements for it are a bit... obscure.
  • Ideon does this in the Normal and Good endings of Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, deeming that humanity has a possible future after talking it over with the loli manifestation of a powerful goddess.
  • In Mega Man Battle Network 4, Duo is a sentient asteroid that intends to wipe out earth because its people are wicked (Yes, he is attempting to commit genocide and we are the wicked ones. There is a reason people don't like 4.). after his fight with Megaman EXE, Duo seems to rethink it.
  • The World Ends With You: The Conductor, Kitaniji, was trying to achieve Instrumentality so that the Composer, Joshua, wouldn't destroy Shibuya. After all, people in Shibuya are self-centered and uncreative. But Neku, former poster child for cutting himself off from society, has learned about The Power of Friendship, so...
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World: Richter's plan, and every evil scheme leading up to it, was to find a way to seal off Niflheim without Ratatosk's help, so he could kill Ratatosk without dooming the world. Because Ratatosk wanted to Kill All Humans (and elves and mixes) because they've been causing problems for mana. But Ratatosk has been posing as Emil the entire time, and he's met Marta and the others, and decided that they're not so bad...
  • In the Sam and Max episode Reality 2.0, the internet has lost faith with all living things as Sam and Max infect the whole net with a computer virus, and the final puzzle in the game involves finding something called "respect for all living things" before the internet erases itself.
  • Mocked, naturally, in No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle when you complete the "Stings So Good" minigame.

"Amazing! You've restored my faith in mankind! Actually, no, I still hate mankind. But at least you're okay."

  • The Silvite Elders in Skies of Arcadia.
  • In the Tokimeki Memorial series, this is the storylines of Kaori Yae (in 2) and Taku Komori (in Girl's Side 2) in a nutshell. Thanks to their relationship with their respective games' protagonist, they get to realize that there are trustworthy people out there, and as a result they gradually open themselves to others. Takafumi Wakaouji in GS2 also claims in his ending that the heroine has restored his faith in humanity, although this seems to be a bit of an exaggeration.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, resurrected Commander Gore has received the power of supernatural insight, or "brilliance," from the Schwarzwelt. Upon briefly returning to the Red Sprite in the Neutral Path, he assures the crew that he has seen into humanity's future, and --despite having been revived and manipulated by the forces behind the Schwarzwelt-- he implies that humanity can improve itself and prevent its self-destruction if given a chance to survive.
    • In Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne's "Resurrection" Ending, Miss Takao, who started the game thinking humanity could no longer advance and needed to be wiped out for the world to advance, has come to realize the foolishness of this line of thinking. Whether humanity continues to stagnate, or whether it actually improves itself after the old world's resurrection, your example has given her faith in the possibility of the latter, and she'll never wish for humanity's destruction again.

Western Animation

  • In Justice League, the Martian Manhunter flies off to what he thought was a secluded area on Earth, since after a telepathic sweep of the city, leaves him (accidentally) accessible to the petty, and selfish thoughts of humanity. However, he soon notices a search party looking for a girl that has gone missing, and hearing their thoughts, as well as the lost girl, learning that humans are decent after all, after finding her returning her back to the camp. He goes another one of this of sorts, in Justice League Unlimited when Wonder Woman notices he doesn't like humans and is "cooped up" in the Watchtower. She then insists he take part in the team's mission, before announcing he's taking leave and descends on Earth to live among humans. When he returns for the Grand Finale, it's later revealed that he not only was capable of living with humans, but he was in a relationship with one.
  • In Gargoyles, human ally Elisa Masa helps to restore Goliath and the Manhattan Clan's faith and trust in humanity after they had been betrayed by humans who destroyed their home and their people.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Restored_My_Faith_in_Humanity?oldid=1646018"