Puny Earthlings: Difference between revisions

** This trope is indeed justified and explored quite a bit. The other naturally-evolved species have little or no physical advantage over humans, or if they do, it's minor, roughly [[Competitive Balance|balanced]], and treated realistically (i.e. a four-armed alien who can only see in one direction ain't gonna aim weapons everywhich way at once). With very few exceptions, like the Vhorwed (huge gorilla-like aliens with arms the size of a big man — like Elizabeth and that bouncer) or [[Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism|female]] Gzeaul (pretty much a horse-sized T-Rex who can wield weapons, or just use appropriately formidable claws). Humans without combat boosts are somewhat less tough than Uniocs, too. Then again, the scale extends the other way, so an Oafa (they are living hydrogen baloons) met a mention of humans being "fragile" with incredulous amusement.

** Most of the stronger and more powerful species are at least partially artificial. The only reason for Shlock's unusual abilities is that Carbosilicate Amorphs are descended from memory storage units and are mostly dough of specialized [[Nanomachines]] and super-strong carbon strands; also, they don't have their own eyes and have to obtain them as a symbiont. The Esspererin have almost as many cool features, but that's unsurprising for <s>[[Mechanical Evolution|late-phase output from somebody's iterative mechanical replication experiment]]</s> ''"solar powered robo-fairies"''. The Ot-Skadak evolved naturally, though (like most critters on Eina-afa, apparently) in symbiosis with runaway industrial-grade nanobots. The various noon-human Terran species (apes, bears and elephants), as [[Uplifted Animal]]s, were engineered the way they are on purpose. F'Sherl-Ganni are long-living, have many prehensile limbs, generally hardy and can survive in vacuum for a while, but they are said to have "directed their own evolution for 100,000 years" and may include nanobots as essential components too (their long-term memory system is unusual, for one).

** [[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]].