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Humans Are the Real Monsters: Difference between revisions
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[[Humans Are the Real Monsters]] is a [[Speculative Fiction]] trope where humanity’s [[Planet of Hats|Hat]] is defined by, or viewed by extra-terrestrial races (or other [[Five Races|Fantasy races]]) as humanity’s most violent characteristics and most nefarious motivations. "The Age of Imperialism [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]] with humanity as the [[Evil Empire]]." if you prefer.
In a distinct contrast to humans, alien races which humans impose themselves onto are either [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|sufficiently advanced]] enough that anything they could ever want or need is immediately made available to them (thus making greed and violence sound redundant to them) or have achieved a state of equilibrium with their surrounding environment which leaves them perfectly content. Either way, this generally gives an alien race a more empathic or more peaceful outlook and worldview than what humans understand and seek to attain. If these alien races ever attack humans, it will likely be either a reactionary measure to a previous transgression on the humans' part against them or a preemptive strike out of fear that humans will cause them harm at the first opportunity they get. In the event that enough of the galaxy is in a panic over humanity, they may even form an [[Anti-Human Alliance]] and possibly put [[Humanity
This trope generally comes in two distinct varieties, but the basic point is the same.
* Humanity in the future is an [[Evil Empire]] characterized by a vast military complex with goals typically involving colonizing planets where other sentient alien races are already residing with plans to subjugate and/or exterminate those who already call the place home and extract any minerals and resources present for all their worth, or…
* Sentient aliens [[We Come in Peace, Shoot
In all cases, humanity will definitely show characteristics of the [[Absolute Xenophobe]] to one degree or another; no matter how sincerely an alien race may state its intentions to do good or seek peace, human authority will treat the aliens as an enemy that is [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|not worth our attention as being viewed as equals]].
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Any human characters who sympathize with the aliens and take their side are usually people who have been mistreated by or subjected to the abuses of humanity’s status quo in the past ([[Mutants]] are very a popular choice for this), or normal people who have been thrust into an un-ordinary situation that causes them to view things from a different perspective and challenge their originally held notions about the actions of their human comrades and superiors.
Do note that any humans who are monsters are humans who commit evil willingly and ''knowingly''. When humans are heavily blamed for doing bad things but are not aware of the full consequences of their actions, this is something that can be attributed to ''thoughtlessness'', rather than maliciousness, and for that, see [[Hanlon's
When aliens come to Earth and view humanity’s history of violence against one another as a matter of uncivilized, primal savagery, that’s [[Humans Are Morons]].
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* ''[[Spirited Away]]'' features a bath house that serves supernatural beings whose view of humans ranges from worthless to bastards to interesting to ''[[To Serve Man|delicious]]''. That the bath house's workers need to take human form in order to serve their customers can be seen as punishment, irony, or subversion. It also goes both ways - a few spirits are greedy or decadent.
* [[Ponyo On a Cliff By The Sea|Ponyo's]] dad makes it very clear that he thinks humans are bastards, and has been storing up potions to teach humanity a lesson (or something); ironically, his wife, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of the ocean is a lot more easy-going. In the end he reveals he doesn't really want to harm humans too badly {{spoiler|because he allows his daughter to choose to become one.}}
* ''[[Blue Gender]]'' serves this up with a side of [[Broken Aesop]]: Man is ruining the planet due to technological excess and overpopulation, [[Gaia's Vengeance|and so nature sends]] [[Big Creepy
* The manga series ''[[Parasyte]]'' seems to believe in this Trope so much that the only way that the horrible damage humans wreak on the environment can be lessened is for nature to introduce a new apex predator to the biosphere to keep humanity in check.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', while slavery affects all species/races, [[Fish People|fishmen]] and [[Our Mermaids Are Different|merfolk]] are the prime target and face [[Fantastic Racism|very heavy discrimination]]. Up to 200 years ago, they were seen as just another type of fish.
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. While this is somewhat seen in the Dark Tournament ({{spoiler|Thanks Sakyo, and your unholy plan to change the ecosystem!}}), the Chapter Black expands upon this to a new level. Sensui, the latest villain, {{spoiler|was actually a Spirit Detective who fought for mankind and held Humans and Demons in views of [[Black and White Morality|black and white]], until he crashed a gruesome party that had Humans themselves slaughtering Demons and bathing in their blood [[For the Evulz|for the hell of it]]. Because of this, his view became gray, [[Brown Note|until he saw the Chapter Black videotape]]- a divine recording of nearly every atrocity humanity had ever committed; you name it, it's got it, which then had him harboring a plan to go to the Demon World and repent for his killings, conveniently covered up with the [[Split Personality]] disorder he [[Go Mad From the Revelation|got as an aftereffect of the party and the tape]] to orchestrate a slow, painful genocide for all of humanity to experience.}} This is evidenced by a mere creepy mind-reading with him chanting about how much he'd love to have them all as dead meat.
** Subverted: Koenma points out {{spoiler|there is a Chapter White which has every act of human kindness, the two are about the same length and should only be seen together to ascertain a balanced view of humanity. Since Chapter Black is "just a one-sided argument"}}
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Soul Taker (
* This is what [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire]] [[Rosario to Vampire|Moka Akashiya]] first thought of humans before she met her human [[Love Interest]]. After seeing how she was teased and bullied because of her [[Bullying a Dragon|vampire origins]] when she was a kid, [[Kids Are Cruel|who could blame her]]? Ruby and her adoptive mother thought this as well.
** In fact, this seems to be a rather widespread sentiment among [[Youkai]], though most of it stems from good ol' [[Fantastic Racism]]; many of the more sympathetic ones question their views after being confronted with a positive example of humanity, and the most rabid anti-human faction practice their [[Kick the Dog|puppy-punting skills]] on their fellow nonhumans so much that they come off as blatant [[Hypocrite|hypocrites]].
* [[Ubermensch|Rau Le]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Creuset]] from ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' believes that humans are selfish greedy bastards who will do anything to get ahead even if it means slowly wiping themselves out in the process, and justifies this viewpoint with both Kira's existence and his own existence as both were born through genetic manipulation and cloning respectively; this belief is also what drives him to want to wipe out humanity entirely taking the "I'm [[Taking You
** The scary part? ''The show universe itself is so chock full of bigots and assholes he's doesn't really look all that incorrect!'' In fact, considering all the racism and blind hatred fueling the wars (which both sides are aware of and DEFEND as virtuous, especially at their highest levels of authority), he really has a very good claim for arguing his point is pretty valid, and {{spoiler|this is what motivates the antagonist from the sequel to enact a plan to prevent such things from happening again, because he agreed humans became bastards as a result of said hatreds.}}
*** This is probably the entire point of the Universal Century Gundam series, where there are more selfish and cruel people in the world than kind, noble and selfless ones, and [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] are incredibly common as leaders. It is also used by [[Chars Counterattack|Char Aznable]] as an excuse to [[Colony Drop|drop Axis on Earth]]. [[It Gets Worse]] right after [[Evil Power Vacuum|the disappearance of Zeon]].
* The protagonist of ''[[Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]'' thinks humans are bastards or at least [[Humans Are Flawed|incredibly petty]]; it doesn't help that he's a certified [[Doom Magnet]] and he's surrounded by the most horrific [[Delinquents]] at school. Subverted when he acknowledges that his narrow view of humans makes him just as bad.
* A main theme point in ''Inugami'', where inugami (wolves with amazing [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v01/c000/84.html abilities]) are sent by a mysterious voice in their heads that says "gaze upon man". An inugami named 23 makes friends with a kind human named Fumiki, and his subsequent encounters with humans influences him into seeing humans as friends. The other inugami, Zero, sees humans as an example of this trope, since most of his encounters with them have involved being shot by hunters for [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v02/c000/8.html fun], being subdued by police officers without [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v02/c000/44.html provocation], and destroying Earth's [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v06/c028/4.html environment]. 23 also beings to feel doubt for [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v04/c000/61.html humans] when he fights and kills a mutated dog driven insane by animal [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v04/c000/52.html experimentation]. This momentary thought, combined with [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v06/c028/8.html Zeros], summons a horrifying [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v05/c024/27.html creature] [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/inugami/v05/c022/ that appears killing anyone it encounters.]
* This is {{spoiler|Lance's}} [[Kill All Humans|main motivation]] in ''[[
** When Lake Valor gets {{spoiler|blown up}}, most of the Pokémon in the surrounding areas adopt this attitude as a result. When Pearl tries to catch a pissed Buizel and unsuccessfully pleads to it that he wants to stop the ones responsible, Crasher Wake points out that the wild Pokémon don't understand anything that's going on beyond the fact that they know that humans were responsible for disrupting their natural habitat.
** Episode 19 of ''[[Pokémon (
* ''[[Slayers]]'' usually don't mess with it, but in ''Slayers Premium'' people scream at their kin affected by that curse while ''knowing'' what's going on, and later...
{{quote| Lina: Aren't the octopi getting the short end of the stick here?}}
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* Lampshaded heartwrenchingly at the end of the [[Kikaider|Kikaider 01 OVA]] where the android Kikaider "takes the final step to humanity" by becoming capable of performing evil acts despite his conscience. The fact that the story also supposedly parallels [[Pinocchio]] also gives it a sick twist.
* ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' has the revelation that {{spoiler|humans discovered a race of aliens who share a [[Hive Mind]] unaffected by time and distance...and decided to hack them up without anesthetic (because nothing they had worked on the aliens) in order to use their brains for instant interstellar communications. And their [[Hive Mind]] meant they ''all'' felt it. Discovering this is what makes Ralph Werec undergo his [[Face Heel Turn]]; when his sister Sara and her allies learn the same, they're horrified but don't share Ralph's [[Kill All Humans]] attitude.}}
* This is how [[Monster (
* In ''[[Durarara]]'', Izaya has it that the the whole of humanity are self-obsessed, stupid, hypocritical, hateful, contradictory, destructive little bastards -- which is exactly why he ''loves'' humans.
* This is how [[Faux Affably Evil|Diva]] views humanity in ''[[Blood Plus]].'' [[Freudian Excuse|Well, you would think the same thing if you were used as a lab rat]].
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** Interestingly enough, the creators of ''[[Elf Quest]]'' first got together when Richard Pini replied to a letter by Wendy Fletcher in ''[[Silver Surfer]],'' in which she complained about that comic's supposed use of this trope. The two of them corresponded for a while before finally meeting and marrying, and the rest is history.
* Given that the [[This Loser Is You|average human]] in the [[Marvel Universe]] seems to look at (and treat) [[X-Men|mutants]] with the same level of [[Bullying a Dragon|rationality and compassion]] that the white Southerners of the 1930's treated blacks, or, as Magneto often lampshades, like how the Nazi Party in Germany treated Jews in 1938, it's no wonder why mutants continue to flock to [[Magneto]]'s camp, even after the man has been depowered.
* Handled...interestingly in [[Archie Comics]]' ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
** Though it should be noted that ever since the ''[[
* In the comic book adaptation of the ''[[
* A major theme of ''Wandering Star.'' The future Earth of the series is a [[Crapsack World]] with a reputation for violence. The [[The Federation|Galactic Alliance]] needed Earth to help fight the Bono Kiro because of that unique reputation. Throughout the story, Cassie, the protagonist, encounters prejudice from aliens who see her and all humans as an uncivilized, backward, warlike species.
* [[Transmetropolitan|Spider Jerusalem's]] motto, heck even those characters who can be classified as non-human tend to be assholes.
** On the other hand...
{{quote| '''Spider Jerusalem:''' Being a bastard works.}}
* The reason Larfleeze hasn't left Earth after ''[[Blackest Night]]'' is because [[Lex Luthor]] told him that humans are greedier bastards than he could ever hope to match, and that life on Earth is all about owning things. After spending more time on Earth, Larfleeze has come to agree with Luthor...[[Your Approval Fills Me
* In [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'', it's revealed that [[The Fair Folk|the cruel and vicious Sheeda]], who decimated the [[Utopia|utopian]] civilization of Camelot millions of years in the past and who are the [[Big Bad]] of the series, {{spoiler|are evolved humans from the far, ''far'' future when the sun has turned into a red giant. To sustain their own dying society, they plunder past civilizations.}}
* Zigzagged in ''[[
** The two sequel series (be afraid...) rather confirm this, each having a non-infected human that gives the Crossed a run for their money in the sick bastard department, without the excuse of having caught a psycho-virus.
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== Fanfiction ==
* Humanity and all of its sub-species in [[Aeon Natum Engel (Fanfic)|Aeon Natum Engel]].
* In [[The Return (
* In general, almost every ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** In one series titled [[
** Another fic, ''[[
** [[
* In ''[[The Man
* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7170477/1/Renegade_Reinterpretations Renegade Reinterpretations,]'' a [[Mass Effect]] fanfiction, the human race's first contact with the wider galaxy happened much earlier, and with the [[Always Chaotic Evil|Batarians.]] Humanity spends the next hundred years playing catch-up, and is only able to survive by becoming a race of total bastards. In this timeline, Cerberus is viewed as ''heroes'' for experiments that even the ''canon'' Cerberus would be squicked at. At one point, once Humanity decides to go on the warpath against the Batarians (and is capable of doing so), the Citadel offers to make humanity a member race, give them reparations, money, land, medicine, technology, and all former Batarian territory. All they had to do was '''NOT''' invade the Batarian Homeworld. Humanity's response? "They went to the trouble of looking up what the largest fleet in the galaxy had been so they could surpass it by a time and a half."
== Film - Animation ==
* ''[[Beauty and
* ''[[
** 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 ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Happy Feet]]'' has a doubly- [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]. The penguins think humans are bastards. Fair enough; as stated above, this is typical for sea creatures. Well, then the hero learns later on that humans really '''are''' bastards. Once again, although this is a bit [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|warped]], we've seen it before. The double-warping comes in the ending, with its giant dance-off. It heavily implies that the ''only'' reason the humans are even ''considering'' preserving the Antarctic ecosystem is because of its '''entertainment value'''.
** On the other hand, it seemed a lot of the people in the ensuing montage were using it as political ammunition to put conservation laws in effect they'd already wanted.
* [[The Movie]] version of ''[[Over the Hedge (
** [[Over the Hedge (
* The rats of ''[[Ratatouille]]'' believe this, exemplified in Remy's father. {{spoiler|Subverted in that Remy thinks his opinion is rubbish and that the [[Humans Are Morons|humans are just ignorant]], since rats have traditionally been pests, and quite a few of the humans aren't bastards.}}
* ''[[The Secret of NIMH|The Secret of N.I.M.H.]]'' is pretty harsh in its depictions of humans performing animal experimentation on rodents. Of course, the rodents seem to benefit from it, but then the humans try to track down the now-intelligent rats in order to eliminate them.
** Which, let's be honest, is what we would ''do''. The last thing, we'd say, that we need out there are even ''smarter'' vermin than the ones we already have to deal with as is...
* ''[[Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron]]'' depicts a white man owning a wild horse as equivalent to slavery. Seriously. The Native Americans of the same film are shown in a more sympathetic light, but the titular stallion still doesn't like being trained.
* Unusually for a [[Western Animation]], ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' takes the misguided point of view. The dentist believes that he has rescued the lame Nemo from the dangers of the reef rather than separating him from his father, and the main antagonist is a slightly hyperactive little girl who simply doesn't realize that if she shakes the bag too hard she'll kill the little fish inside. [[Hanlon's Razor|It's clearly ignorance rather than malice]].
* Some have accused ''[[WALL-E]]'' of depicting this trope, it's actually partly subverted: Yes, humanity wrecked Earth by turning it into a huge garbage dump, {{spoiler|but at the end, humanity (with a little help from the robots) decides to rebuild, and the end credits hint that they succeeded.}} In fact, {{spoiler|the only human who shows even the slightest signs of being a bastard is the Buy 'n Large CEO, and he just didn't know that Earth would be safe to live on again in 700 years. And let's not forget that ''[[AI Is a Crapshoot|the antagonist himself is a friggin' robot]]''.}}
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* The [[Alien]] series, it's usually the humans' attempts to exploit the aliens for profit that set the plot in motion. {{spoiler|In the first film, the [[Mega Corp]] expects a crew member to be impregnated. In the second film, Burke tries to impregnate Ripley with an alien. The third film follows as a result of the second, but Company members arrive and try to cash in on the aliens. In the fourth film, it's the military that is tinkering with alien genes to create weapons.}}
{{quote| '''Ripley''': "I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."}}
* [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[Avatar (
** This may be a case of humans seeing themselves as the good guys. But when they see the effects of their policies, realize they're [[Heel Realization|not as benign as they thought.]]
*** They may be horrified, but the sequels mean the humans will be back. The [[Unobtainium]] is too valuable for them to just give up.
* ''[[District 9]]'': A ship full of aliens gets stuck on Earth after it breaks down over Johannesburg. [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Humanity pens them into an apartheid-style concentration camp while the nations bicker over who has to take care of them]]. Eventually, a [[Mega Corp]] is entrusted with the aliens' welfare, and takes control of their ship away from them, arbitrarily restricts their reproductive rights, denies them the use of alien names and exploits the technology on the ship for their own use. Let us list the ways [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]] aside from the aforementioned squalid concentration camp and tech stealing:
** Whenever they find an alien nest in D9, they [[Kill It
** They set up a firing range and they shock the {{spoiler|main character (who is the only human who can use alien tech)}} to get him to pull the trigger on the gun they strap him to. They then bring in a new alien gun and repeat the process many, many times in order to test the effects of each weapon. Cries of "I'll pull it! I'll pull it!" are ignored, and they ''never once'' see if he'll keep his word and pull it without the shocks.
** The [[Mega Corp|MNU]] literally uses the aliens as target practice. They test weapons against living aliens to judge their effectiveness.
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** Gangs from Nigeria move into D9 to get the alien weapons, for which they trade food to the starving aliens at exorbitant prices, unless they decide to simply take the tech, kill the alien, and then sell the alien's organs as a sort of "herbal remedy" that they claim cures all illnesses. The leader of the human gangs seems to believe that eating the aliens will one day allow him to use their technology, though he also seems to [[Complete Monster|just plain enjoy it]] too.
** When the human main character {{spoiler|starts turning into an alien after a concentrated dose of [[Applied Phlebotinum]]}}, his fellow humans plan to dissect him ''while alive and conscious'' in order to learn how to give all humans {{spoiler|the ability to use the alien tech (which only activates for the alien's biology, including the main character's hybrid form).}}
* In the French-Canadian cult TV show ''Dans une galaxie près de chez vous'' (In a Galaxy near you), it was already established that earthlings (read: Humans) were [[Jerkass]] morons who wrecked their own planet. In the two movies, we see: Plot Device anglophones [[Ass Pull|coming from nowhere]] threatening to exterminate a tiny civilization of cave-dwellers already terrorized because of the ''sounds'' of an underground waterfall, Aliens vomiting at the simple mention of the word "earthling" and a failed [[Write Back to
* This is a major aspect of the film ''[[Godzilla]]''. Let's see here, humans made the atomic bomb. Humans used the atomic bomb for purposes of war. Humans test more powerful versions of the bomb. [[Too Dumb to Live|Guess who ends up mutating and waking up a VERY pissed-off radioactive dinosaur?]]
* The major theme of the movie ''[[King Kong]]'' is that man is the monster.
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** To be fair, it's mostly because the humans are afraid and paranoid (doesn't help that a yellow radio is adding fuel to that fire), and most are good people who just let that fear control them. This is about the [[Cold War]] after all.
** Both the original and the remake try to paint human actions as [[Hanlon's Razor|irresponsible, rather than outright evil]]. See also: [[Humans Are Morons]].
* The aliens in ''[[It Came
* ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'': Beware the beast Man, for he is the devil's pawn. [[Did Not Do the Research|Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust, or greed.]] Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.
** Luckily the later movies even this out, the apes are using [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]] as an excuse to do as bad to humans (if not worse than) what the humans did to them, and later prove they're just as bad as the humans.
*** Lampshaded when one ape crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]], and others find out about it. A human observes that they "just joined the human race."
* [[Ed Wood (Creator)|Ed Wood]] naturally [[Narm|overdid it]] in ''[[Plan 9
** That would be [[Humans Are Morons]]. The [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]], too, but that's because they opt to fight and kill the aliens who are only trying to warn them about the dangers of creating the "solarbonite bomb."
*** [[Too Dumb to Live|Then again]] the aliens' plan of warning was a [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
* This is the basic premise of the movie ''[[
* ''[[Return of the Living Dead]] 3'' has the humans torturing the zombies so cruelly that it almost has the viewer rooting for the zombies.
* ''[[The Happening]]'', aside from the whole "plants are pissed at us" thing, has a very subtle passing reference to the trope. Right after the unfortunate scene with the lawnmover, the protagonists run past a billboard advertising homes. Set on top of the billboard is a smaller line: "You ''deserve'' this!"
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** ''[[Diary of the Dead]]'': Awkwardly shoehorns it in as the final comment from a surviving main character.
** ''[[Survival of the Dead]]'': The most subtle of them all, and could almost be argued as being free from it, except for the fact we once again see a cluster of survivors wiped out because they're too busy squabbling even in the face of a [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
* The humans in the film version of [[Starship Troopers (
** Note that the only one of those things that isn't in the book is the fascist dystopia, and [[Robert A. Heinlein]] considered [[Guilt-Free Extermination War|genocidal expansionism]] a necessity.
* In ''[[Battle for Terra]]'', the first thing the humans do when they find Terra is start kidnapping Terrans, and later try to terraform the planet by replacing the air with oxygen, which would have almost definitely killed off every living thing on Terra eventually.
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* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by [[The Muppets|Kermit]] in ''The Muppet Musicians of Bremen'' after he intruduces the four protagonists, the titular animal musicians, and the antgonists, their abusive owners.
{{quote| '''Kermit:''' (to the viewers) "You may have noticed that the heroes in our story are all animals, and the villains are all people. I hope none of you takes that personally."}}
* In [[
== Literature ==
* According to [[L. Frank Baum]]'s . . . odd elaboration of the [[Santa Claus]] legend, ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'', this was drilled into young Claus' head by his [[The Obi-Wan|mentor]], the Great Ak.
* A ''lot'' of early American sci-fi has this theme. Any number of [[Ray Bradbury]] stories qualify (including, of course, [[The Martian Chronicles]]).
* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Homecoming'' series is built on this trope: Humanity were such bastards that [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|the Keeper of Earth]] more or less chased us off to the stars, and genetically altered the populations to receive signals from The Oversoul (super-computers designed to steer mankind's development away from weapons of mass destruction and other planet raping tech). Harmony's Oversoul outright states that he meant to last for a millennia or so before preparing for a trip back to Earth. Humans had been on Harmony for around 50,000,000 years and were no better than when they first arrived.
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** This theme also appears in his ''[[Ender's Game|Ender]]'' novels. The moment humanity thinks an alien species ''might'' be a threat, the first instinct is to kill it. This was why Ender {{spoiler|stopped all transmission from the Ansible on the Piggys' home planet, when they discovered that the virus infecting them could wipe out whole ecosystems}}.
*** To be fair, humanity never initiates the bloodbath in either case. {{spoiler|The buggers killed hundreds of thousands of people in an orbital bombardment and the piggies brutally murdered two of the humans that were assigned to interact with them, while their homeworld contains a virus capable of destroying planets with no known cure}}. We do, however, attempt to end each conflict via xenocide.
* Mentioned in [[Eoin Colfer]]'s ''[[
* [[
** We're so bad Bruce had to introduce {{spoiler|the pain and minor brain damage implied in cut-off telepathy}} to explain why we are as we are.
** We're also apparently the only species to do things like have homeless people, while most of the other aliens can't even understand the concept. It basically stops just short of actually having the aliens scratching their heads at this whole "capitalism" thing.
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* In [[Philip Jose Farmer]]'s ''Venus on the Half-Shell'' every alien race points out that humans smell awful. So humans create a huge industry of special deodorants. Wondering why humans smell so bad to other races, some of whom smell like a sewer, it is pointed out that human morals stink, so that makes our smell stink. Yes, it's a strange book.
* Inverted in the Bill Peet children's book, ''The Wump World''. If you read the part in the opener for this trope about mankind's chance to be such bastards on other planets via interstellar travel, the blue-skinned aliens in the book have us beat.
** Then, again, Dr. Seuss described how Once-ler's factories messed things up in ''[[
* [[David Gemmell]] makes this point at least once per novel. In ''Stormrider'' he has one character, explain that a human witch has the ability to cultivate and grow and spread the magic in the world, but that the sum total of her ENTIRE LIFETIME of work and toil can be consumed by a single day of war.
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] sometimes used this in his stories, although he tends to view it as a virtue:
** ''[[Have Space Suit - Will Travel]]''. The Three Galaxies federation puts [[Humanity
** ''[[Starship Troopers (
** [[Author Avatar|His most popular hero]] Lazarus Long is described as a mild bastard. But one that should be respected and admired. Quite a bit of [[Moral Dissonance]] is seen when he commits crimes that we are told to admire him for, but Long would kill anyone else who did them.
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Cell]]'' one character described humans thusly "At the bottom, you see, we are not Homo sapiens at all. Our core is madness. The prime directive is murder. What [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] was too polite to say, my friends, is that we came to rule the earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle."
* Not really avoided in [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book (
* A recurring theme in the works of [[Stanislaw Lem]].
* [[
** Moderated somewhat by the fact that {{spoiler|redemption happened too}}. ''Perelandra'' implies this had [[Human Aliens|other effects]] as well.
** Bonus feature: Both pro and con of this are extrapolated fairly strictly (i.e., [[Recycled in Space|Once More, With Aliens]]) from [[The Bible]].
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* 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]].
* [[Terry Pratchett]] plays with this in his ''[[Discworld]]'' novels. Sure, a lot of human characters are bastards, but instead of just leaving it at that, he often probes the question of ''why'' humans act that way, especially in his later, more philosophical books. Furthermore, there are more than a few non-human characters who are just as much bastards as humans can be; in the novel ''[[Discworld
** 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]].
** Played closest to straight in ''[[Discworld
{{quote| '''Ratcatcher''': This is inhuman!<br />
'''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.<br />
Even here, rats are perplexed by the idea that you shouldn't eat a dead rat. Well, except for the green wobbly bit; [[Comically Missing the Point|obviously you shouldn't eat that]]. }}
* In ''[[
** 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]].
* The ''[[Old Mans War]]'' series explores the concept. In ''The Ghost Brigades'', a scientist who defected to an alien race angrily pronounces humans as arrogant, elitist bastards who are deliberately refusing to sign a universal peace accord for no reason but superiority issues. However, the end of the book makes it clear that the scientist was only giving half the issue - the aliens are asking for some truly jawdropping accommodations for their "peace", and several other species are against it. ''The Lost Colony'' further reveals that the aliens behind the accords are real pricks, and that humanity (while pretty arrogant) isn't all that bad in the end. The overall balance of the series shows humanity as flawed, but not monstrous.
* In ''[[
* 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...}}
** This is all the more jarring considering that the author, natural historian Dougal Dixon, never before addressed this issue so [[Anvilicious|anviliciously]]. His previous illustrated novels mostly avoided it by taking place in alternate timelines where there were no humans at all (there are hints of [[Gaia's Vengeance]] as the setup for ''After Man'' -look at the title- but that's as far as it goes).
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* Many of S.L. Viehl's s-f novels fall into this category. The vast majority of "Terrans" are rabid xenophobes: Extraterrestrial sentients are only allowed on Earth under very limited circumstances, certainly aren't allowed to ''live'' there, and will generally find it [[Fantastic Racism|an unpleasant place]]. And if you're discovered to be a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] {{spoiler|(or a clone)}}...''heaven help you''.
** They will also send a fleet to sterilize your world if they find out you're harboring a {{spoiler|human clone}}. Somehow, the humans seem even more monstrous than the [[Lizard Folk|Hskt-skt]].
* A constant theme running throughout [[
* [[Terry Goodkind]] has created a world in the [[Sword of Truth]] books in which every human is either an insane hyper-fascist, an insane hyper-communist, a doormat who is brought around to agree with the hyper-fascists, or dead. And [[Author Tract|he wants readers to agree with said hyper-fascists]].
* Author [[Tad Williams]] seems to be fond of this trope with the ''[[Memory,
* Robert Zubrin's ''The Holy Land''. Earthlings and non-Earthlings disagree on who are the 'humans', but this trope applies to either and both of them regardless.
* In ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'', the heroes are promised to be treated as diplomats should be. Except since the nations on Mantith have not had contact for centuries with the Stationery worlds, there are no embassies. So the nations' leaders have no sense of obligation to regard Stato, Britophondus, and Verinthia as legitimate nations. The Voyagers are left to their own devices often to avoid being kidnapped, arrested, or outright murdered by politically-polarized mobs.
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** It's worth expanding, the Bolos with the Human Mental fusion end up going on a generations long genocidal war against a larger alien empire. Thousands of worlds, Trillions of humans and aliens, and only a few million survive on a few very backward planets.
* In ''The King of Beasts'' by [[Philip Jose Farmer]], an alien scientist shows a visitor how he's cloning several now-extinct animals. At the end, he shows one he had to "get special permission to raise." The visitor is shocked, and begins to ask-and is confirmed-that it's a man. Then again, the scientist seems to pity the growing human, since it'll be "all alone."
* In the ''[[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
* In ''[[
* [[Subverted Trope]] (the Qu), played straight (the Gravital) and everything in between in Nemo Ramjet's ''All Tomorrows''.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** This does qualify [[Aliens Are Bastards|the aliens as bastards]], though (if we're the same as them, they're obviously the same as us).
* In ''Run to the Stars'', by Michael Scott Rohan, we get the following exchange, after Kirsty and Ryly discover that the world government has sent a missile to wipe out a just-discovered alien species:
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* In Stross's ''Saturn's Children'', the humans can't create artificial intelligence on their own, so they build machine analogues to human brains, then raise them as children and teach them what they need to know to fulfill their eventual robotic function, then record and duplicate a snapshot once they've learned enough. ''But wait!'' That produces people, who might resent slavery, so on top of that they hardwire a version of Asimov's Laws, to make them good little obedient slaves. ''But wait!'' That still leaves the inner person able to figure out loopholes, and isn't nearly bastardly enough, so to ensure that they cringe away from any thoughts of rebelling, they resurrect good old-fashioned slave-breaking techniques, and make rape and abuse of the adolescent robots the next level of conditioning.
* Done in a harshly [[Anvilicious]] fashion in a [[Neil Gaiman]] short story where humanity suddenly realizes that it has made most of the various animal species extinct, and bemoans the fact that now we have nothing to perform medical tests on, no meat to eat, no source for products like leather and such. But, the text says, humanity is clever, and we figured a way out of that, by using the least productive members of society to replace all that: babies. The end of the story notes that now the babies seem to be gone, but humanity is clever. We'll figure a way out of this...g
* One of the themes in [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s [[Science Fiction]] novel ''[[The Host (
* The Dark Ones in ''[[Night Watch]]'' take this as a basic tenet, though the Light Ones disagree. Case in point: the Light created Communism to try and improve humanity. They claim it was subverted by the Dark, but the Dark maintains they didn't do anything, and humans simply went on a destructive path as a result of their own natures.
** Update: the experiment with Communism was indeed sabotaged, by none other than [[Big Good|Gessar the Brightest]], head of the Moscow Night Watch. He revealed later that he had foreseen that the experiment would've been successful and indeed propelled the technological level of humanity but eventually would've lead to a [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]-esque world division into three constantly warring blocks and, most importantly, exposure of the Others and their subsequent extermination. So yes, basically it's implied that even given a perfect world, we'd screw it up.
* This is pretty much the entire point of ''[[Notes From Underground]]'' where the main character in particular embodies this, but with the sole exception of the [[Hooker
* Subverted in the ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' series: Despite managing to turn the most horrific war in galactic history into the boring and hard-to-understand game of Cricket, using the incredibly profane word [[Pardon My Klingon|"Belgium"]] as the name of a country, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|housing the worst poet in the galaxy,]] humanity is just implied to be primitive, although the rest of the Galaxy ''has'' shunned Earth for Cricket.
* In Sergey Volnov's ''Army Of The Sun'', humanity has conquered and enslaved any alien race they happened to come by, imposing their culture and customs on them (apparently, some aliens didn't look too kindly on the introduction on the concept of [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|love]] to their emotionless mating practices). The novels describe the galaxy after the empire-wide [[Turned Against Their Masters|rebellion]], which resulted in an alien-dominated galaxy, where humans are treated as second-class citizens. Interestingly, the novels make the reader feel more for the humans, even though it is clearly stated that humans were anything but kind to their alien slaves. In fact, the only races that they treated more or less fairly were [[Human Aliens]], as they happened to look almost exactly like blacks, whites, and Asians. Then again, the aliens don't exactly treat humans kindly either, still remembering the days of [[The Empire]]. On the other hand, hardly anyone ever mentions the positive aspects of the [[The Empire|Earthstella Empire]], such as technological uplifting, introduction of FTL travel (only one other race managed to develop it on their own), unified language, interstellar economy, and turning a bunch of isolated species into a galactic community.
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* A rather nasty science fiction novel by Charles Pellegrino, ''Flying to Valhalla'' is built around the theory that a species looks out for itself only, destroying all competitors. This includes humans, which they go on to prove, whether they want to or not.
* Lampshaded in [[S.M. Stirling]]'s [[The Draka|Draka]] series. The Draka ''admit'' that they're bastards, and frequently upbraid the Alliance for its hypocrisy in not owning up to the bastard deeds of their own history: "We couldn't exterminate our aborigines, the way the Yankees did."
* [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s novella ''The Word for World is Forest'' features humans descending upon the forested planet of Athshe, harvesting the valuable lumber and terrorizing and enslaving the native inhabitants.
* Tarrou, of ''[[The Plague (
{{quote| ''I know positively–-yes, Rieux, I can say I know the world inside out, as you may see-–that each of us has the plague within him; no one, no one on earth is free from it. And I know, too, that we must keep endless watch on ourselves lest in a careless moment we breathe in somebody’s face and fasten the infection on him. What’s natural is the microbe. All the rest-–health, integrity, purity (if you like)-–is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter. The good man, the man who infects hardly anyone, is the man who has the fewest lapses of attention.''}}
* In ''[[
* A rare occasion when this trope is played in positive (kind of) light occurs in a short sci-fi story "Cage" by B. Chandler. A group of astronauts are marooned on a distant planet and then captured by aliens. Humans are treated well but are not recognised as sentient beings. The obvious solutions, like making right triangles out of twigs, fail to impress the aliens. However, later humans discover some small vermin scurrying around their cage and decide to capture it and keep it as a pet. The succeed, and right afterwards the aliens let them go with apologies. What can better serve as an evidence of intelligence than an ability and readiness to put other beings in cages?
* The galactic empire of ''[[
* [[
* Invoked several times in ''[[
** In the Andalite Chronicles Elfangor is surprised to learn that humans fight wars with one another. However the Andalites are not much better given that they {{spoiler|attempt to wipe out the human race in order to get the Yeerks}} twice.
* AM, [[Big Bad]] and [[AI Is a Crapshoot|sadistic AI]] of the short story ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'' definitely believes this. The story's protagonist ends up proving him wrong by [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|murdering all of his companions.]] It's better than it sounds-- they were [[Mercy Kill|Mercy Kills.]]
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* As a whole, ''[[Star Trek]]'' - especially ''[[Star Trek:
** Even so, in one episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Quark the Ferengi lectures Commander Sisko about how ''his'' species never practiced slavery or genocide (particularly [[Anvilicious]] as it's already established that Ferengi not only did keep slaves but ''still do'' (sort of) - anyone who goes into debt they can't repay is legally enslaved to their debtor. This also ignores the extreme sexism his race continues to practice). He also tells Nog in "The Siege of AR-558":
{{quote| "Let me tell you something about Humans, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts... deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers... put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time... and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces, look at their eyes..."}}
** The Vulcans are a more extreme example of former bastards. They often act condescending to other species, but the subtext is often that they realize that since they were bastards, other species can benefit from logic as well, and often get shirty when they don't. A young Tuvok from Voyager was once shown complaining about humanity always expecting other species to be like them, apparently not recognizing a classic ''Vulcan'' move when he sees one.
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{{spoiler|Jacob}}: It only ends once. Everything that happens before that...is just progress. }}
* Subverted in an episode of the 80's ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' revival, when aliens arrive on Earth and announce that they seeded the planet with humans ages ago, but now {{spoiler|they are destroying us because they were attempting to breed warriors, and we aren't ''big enough'' bastards}}.
** The original ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' is rife with this trope. In ''The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street'' as well as in ''The Shelter'' a suburban town tears itself apart after a perceived invasion/attack. ''The Eye Of The Beholder'' and ''Number 12 Looks Just Like You'' highlight our superficial views on aesthetics (''[[True Beauty Is
*** [[Rod Serling]]'s other series ''[[Night Gallery]]'' had an episode where a professor is teaching the students to hurt one another. {{spoiler|The class are robots. There was a global war and the world needs to be repopulated. The robots aren't being taught to be assholes, they were being taught to be human}}.
* Shown a couple times in ''[[
** {{spoiler|Somewhat justified in the season 4 episodes dealing with several of the humans' reactions and the crew's interactions when they actually do reach Earth.}}
** Subverted/inverts another trope at the same time. {{spoiler|Sebacians aren't [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]. They're genetically engineered humans}}.
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** When humans {{spoiler|dig up a Shadow [[Battle Crab]] on Mars, they look at its horrible blackness that induces internal screaming}}, and immediately think "Hmm...how can we make this work for us?"
** To be fair, {{spoiler|Shadows are even more misguided then humans, but are not inherently evil (though they may look it).}} Humans on the other hand just have an affinity for power, even if it wasn't earned.
* On ''[[
* In ''[[Sir Arthur Conan
* Semi-subversion in [[Mongrels]], the [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|animal characters are as bad if not worse]] than the humans, with the possible exception of Nelson.
** In episode 5 Kali decides that the human race needs to be wiped out after her date is shot in a pigeon culling. Her plan involves breeding a master race of "pigeox" {{spoiler|and when it turns out to be a normal pigeon with red feathers she tells [[The Sociopath|Vince]] to eat it}}.
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'''SILENCE! DESTROY HIM!''' }}
** [[Disproportionate Retribution|"After time we grew strong, they gave us cognitive powers/ They made us work far too long at unreasonable hours!"]]
* One of the major themes of [[
* Ayreon does this to great effect in ''Unnatural Selection'' from ''01011001''.
{{quote| ''We gave them feelings, what did they sense?''<br />
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''Will you take care of this for me?'' }}
* [[Arch Enemy]]'s "Beast Of Man" uses the page quote in its lyrics.
* Pick a [[
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== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[
{{quote| '''[[Cloudcuckoolander|Thorax]]''': When you say you're going to rethink your creation of humanity, in what respect are you going to do so?<br />
'''Monty''': Only in the respects that command their waking thoughts and actions. Their [[Seven Deadly Sins|covetousness and lust]]; their [[Race Tropes|intolerance]], [[Dirty Coward|cowardice]], [[Cold-Blooded Torture|hatred]] and [[For the Evulz|cruelty]]; their [[Corrupt Church|sanctimony]], [[Truth and Lies|mendacity]] and [[Criminals|thievery]]; and [[Reality TV|their intense, feckless voyeuristic love of mediocrity]].... At least for starters.<br />
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'''Thorax:''' So... Are you pretty much resolved to efface humankind from the face of the planet?<br />
'''Monty:''' Only to the extent that they are [[Atomic Hate|resolved to do it to each other.]]<br />
'''Thorax:''' Perhaps, on the whole, you should adopt a different standard for [[The End of the World
'''Monty:''' Good point. [[Help Help This Index Is Being Repressed|It's difficult to live up to (humanity's) level of ferocity.]] }}
** This storyline could also be interpreted as [[God Is Evil]], especially since Monty plans his first human-to-cockroach transformation with the unborn baby of [[Kick the Dog|the nicest characters]] {{spoiler|who also happens to be an ex-nun and whose baby-daddy is an ex-priest}}. It's made especially creepy by the fact that Monty is discussing wiping out/mutating humanity ''[[Stepford Smiler|with the calm demeanor you'd use to pick groceries]]''. {{spoiler|Monty is later called out by a bunch of the characters for both his plan and the fact that he can't use H/his powers to find some missing clothes (Thorax: "Monty, you and I are quits.") Monty eventually reveals to the mom-to-be that he wasn't really going to do it, and the whole thing probably a [[Secret Test of Character]] for the other, um, characters.}}
* ''[[Pogo (
* 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]].
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** Psykers have always been a grey area, however. No matter how much they may be detested daemon magnets, the fact remains that the Imperium simply could not function - even with the Emperor at full strength - without them, as they're utterly vital for both communication and navigation. Same goes for the three-eyed Navigator corps. Not to mention that the Emperor is himself a psyker, the most powerful to have ever lived.
* The Other ''[[Warhammer]]'' has Humans as one of the ''nicest'' races, [[Black and Grey Morality|not like that's really hard]]. Even the Chaos humans are rather noble compared to other Chaos forces (Beastmen, Daemons and Dwarfs). Plus no one can out-evil the Skaven.
* ''[[
* In the expanded ''[[
== Theatre ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[
* In ''[[Strange Journey]]'', most of the humans and demons are mostly cool with each other. Humans from your investigation team tend to go somewhere between [[Lawful Neutral]] and [[True Neutral]], and the demons swing in a true diverse fashion, with virtually all alignments represented. Then again, demons like [[Complete Monster|Mitra]] appear. Turns out, Captain Jack and his all-too human pals are way, ''way'', '''''w[[Rule of Three|ay]]''''', too on par with Mitra for comfort, butchering demons (and by their willingness to torture and kill Jimenez, humans too) to create their own demon army. Especially when it turns out Jack and co. are [[Only in It For
** ALL of the demons (or near all of them) are very quick to point out that while the Schwartzwelt is essentially a [[Hell Gate|hell on earth]], all of it is modeled on humanity's being a race of bastards with the innate instinct and talent for killing (Especially killing other humans). The more wild/bloodthirsty demons clearly state how awed they are by that aspect of humanity with a grudging respect/obvious distaste.
** After a while, having ''every single demon'' you try to negotiate with asking "Why do humans suck so much?" gets tiresome... (Though they also like to ask, "Nice suit! Where'd you get it?", so...)
* ''[[Persona (
** Of course, He of the Thousand Masks takes his name from a Lovecraftian [[Eldritch Abomination]] who just likes to mess with sapient life.
** Though there is also Philemon, The Crawling Chaos' rival who believes humanity can become enlightened.
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* 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:
** In ''[[Lunar:
** In ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue]]'', Zophar, [[God of Evil|the god of destruction]], also believes in this. [[Mysterious Waif|Lucia]] doesn't directly fall under this trope, but being an [[Emotionless Girl]] who is a servant ([[Epileptic Trees|or something]]) to Althena that is required to sleep on the abandoned Blue Star for thousands of years gives her the impression that Althena alone is the only one capable of keeping Lunar at peace and in line. [[Character Development]] ensues as she adventures with [[The Hero|Hiro]] and the others, and she, too, begins believing in [[Humans Are Special|the opposite trope.]] {{spoiler|Even ''Ghaleon'', the former [[Big Bad]], returns realizing that the human strength that Alex had and that Hiro has are special.}}
* Subverted in the ''[[Unreal]]'' series. Humans are bastards, sure, they run [[Unreal Tournament
* While it doesn't have a Humans Are Bastards theme ''per se'', the [[All There in the Manual|racial backstory]] in ''[[Dungeon Siege]] II'' doesn't exactly put humans in a positive light. It says that the human race has a dual nature, but it only mentions the negative, not the positive; it says that humans are [[Blood Knight|extremely violent]].
** To be fair, there's the Dryads. You'd think that a race of attractive plant girls who have an innate connection to nature would be some of the nicest people around, right? Guess again. Most Dryads are quite militaristic (more so in ''Broken World''), and are unusually suspicious of other races, especially the Half-Giants (though the Elf Amren seems to be on good terms with them). Plus there's that Ring of Submission they have, which senses your intentions before you've even thought of them and then [[All Crimes Are Equal|does painful or even fatal stuff to you accordingly]]. For a race that doesn't like government, that's a pretty fascistic way to treat your prisoners.
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* This happens a lot in ''[[Starcraft]]''. For example, Arcturus Mengsk is a [[Magnificent Bastard]] at best and a Machiavellian despot at worst. Kerrigan is at first horrified when she's left behind, but when she gets turned into a Zerg, she actually ''[[Evil Feels Good|enjoys it]]''. Plus a lot of Terran missions revolve around [[Civil Warcraft]]. By the end of the ''[[Starcraft]]'' storyline, there's only one good Terran left among the notable ones: Jim Raynor. Thing is, there are only two other races and they are pretty much the same, give or take.
** Or to be exact, the Zerg overmind desires to kill/infest the human colonists... and the Protoss attempt to stop this by burning the worlds... while the people are still on it. The Protoss burn them not because it's the only way or even the best way, but because they found humans distasteful but didn't have an excuse to remove them until the Zerg came along.
** ''Starcraft II'' does a much better job of showing Terrans as a mostly good race, it highlights Acturus Mengsk's [[Villain
*** The books that introduced Arcturus's son Valerian show him as a pretty decent guy with a passion for history, while his father only focuses on the practical. About the only thing the father and son can talk about is Valerian's collection of antique swords, which Valerian sees as art and Arcturus sees as weapons. This is likely because he was mostly raised by his mother, while Arcturus was busy defeating the Confederacy and setting up his empire.
* ''[[
** Of course, the addition of grayer and more evil humans is added [[Character Development]] for the third game and beyond. Before, the humans (and other Alliance races) were clearly the good guys, and the orcs were [[Always Chaotic Evil]]. This went away when they got that Burning Legion cleared up, but they still largely refuse to own up to their past sins.
*** They only refuse to own up to the rather distorted view of their sins that the Humans placed on them. Internally, many orcs from that era feel conflicted over the utter destruction they caused. While Thrall still led the Horde, he did everything he could to keep hostilities to a minimum, while humanity was more or less the [[Jerkass]] in such situations (Varian was the one to declare war on the Horde, not the other way around). The Horde under Garrosh, however, is a completely different story.
* In ''[[Breath of Fire 4]]'', this is the reason why Fou-Lu, the antagonist, turns into an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] and decides to [[Kill'Em All|destroy humanity]]. {{spoiler|Having your girlfriend tortured into insanity so her body, mind and soul can serve as consumable fuel for a [[Fantastic Nuke]] aimed (and actually fired) at you can do that to a guy.}}
* [[The Fair Folk|The fairies]] in the world of ''[[Drakengard]]'' subscribe to this viewpoint. The protagonist only ever meets two fairies, one of which is the king of fairies, and both of them, besides being [[Small Annoying Creature|annoying]], feel this way towards humans to the point of being racist. Humans are big, dumb, ugly, smelly, stinky idiots to the fairies who can never get anything right and always destroy the forests to feed their infernal greed. Caim's dragon is also of this prejudice, but then again, dragons being arrogant and looking down on humans has pretty much [[Dead Horse Trope|been done to death.]]
* ''[[
** At least in this case the problem didn't seem to be blamed on humanity being evil, but that humans were heavily influenced and manipulated by [[Eldritch Abomination|Lavos]], who uplifted mankind to the top of the ecosystem for its own purposes (To eat said ecosystem). So we're not world-wrecking monsters, we're just minions of a world-eating monster. That's a bit better... ish...
** They are also called out by the Dwarves who kill the faeries because humans accidentally poisoned their home. Clearly accidentally poisoning someone's living place is worse than actual genocide. Really the only people who has any right to call out humanity are the demihumans of Marbule as they never tried to kill anyone else.
*** This gets especially jarring when the human heroes are misblamed by the fairies they just saved from the genocidal dwarves. Dwarves blaming humanity for their need to wipe out the fairies to settle on a pretty large island is already [[Insane Troll Logic]] (especially if you consider that their [[Green Aesop]] is completely broken by the fact that they use smoking ''[[Steampunk]] tanks''). The fairies pulling the [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]] card in front of their saviors, completely blaming the dwarven invasion on them instead of, you know, the dwarves however is completely mind-boggling.
*** In ''[[
* And that is not the only example to be found when it comes to the [[Tales
** Lessee...Duke did have this view in ''[[
** ''[[
** In ''[[
*** Then you fast forward to [[To S]]: Dawn of the New World, where racism still lives on, though its just toward half-elves, but after the worlds we fused in the last game, the Tethe'allans and Sylvaranti are bastards to eachother...then you realize that the Symphonia games are prequels to Tales of Phantasia...yeah.
* Humans in the PC game series ''[[Age of Wonders]]'' almost always have leaders whose favorite pastimes include leveling elven forests, siding with demons and orcs for more power, and enslaving lesser races. This is despite the fact that they technically have a "Neutral" alignment.
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* Dracula from ''[[Castlevania]]'' likes to toss out this accusation to whatever Belmont he's fighting, usually starting by mentioning that the only reason he's up and about is that some human woke him again. But the Belmonts are generally full of righteous fury and in no mood for discussing the idea, so not much comes of it.
{{quote| ''What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!''}}
** In some games it's explicitly stated that Dracula's continuous resurrections are not just because of individual Dracula-cultists resurrecting him, but that human malice and greed in itself allows him to continuously come back even when it isn't his will to do so. This may be more [[As Long
** He is also guilty of stimulating the trope. Consider the purpose of the titular ''Dracula's Curse''/''Curse of Darkness''. Death's backstory in ''Judgment'' outright states that he is "sowing wickedness" in human hearts to help bring Dracula back.
* ''[[
** And then the humans (with help from a talking dog and an animatronic cat) [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|defeat]] [[Bonus Boss|the WEAPONs]]. [[Screw You, Elves|That's what you get for judging us, you stupid Planet.]]
* In ''[[
** Also used with a Viera after the battle with one of the Judges in the frozen mountainside. Most of the people are injured or dead and some of the humans are begging a Viera to help them, but she refuses because she sees the humans as nothing but power hungry maniacs who kill everyone, including their own. It isn't until a few sidequests later that she sees the true good in humanity and decides to help the survivors.
** The game either tries to mitigate this or is hopelessly hypocritical in that at least half of the other races (besides Viera) are not just criminals, but scum sort of criminals like slavers. And the Viera themselves are basically just a reskin of ''Enterprise'' era Vulcans in their manner.
* Shows up again in ''[[
* ''Lineage II'' also has this to an extent. While the other races are pure and beautiful children of the elements, humans [http://www.lineage2.com/background/legends02.html were made from the corrupted remains of each], and upon their creation, were immediately recognised as scum by everyone save their twisted creator.
** This is quickly subverted in that the humans were enslaved by the other species and treated like trash for being second best at everything. Which won them the war in the end. ""So. Is it not ironic that the lowest creatures of all, the humans, ultimately attained ownership of the land? But that is the result of human will. Even the gods did not imagine that humans would ever become rulers of the earth."
* At the end of ''[[Phantasy Star]] II'', all the disasters turn out to be caused by {{spoiler|earthlings, who, having stripped Earth of all its resources, have arrived to purge all life from Algo and take it for themselves. The [[Bolivian Army Ending]] doesn't leave much hope they can be stopped, either.}}
** Except that {{spoiler|[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|the fourth game implies that they lost. Very thoroughly. They didn't try again after Mother Brain's annihilation]].}}
* The entire point of B.B Hood in ''[[
* In the ''[[Star Control]]'' universe humans are hardly one of the evil races, but they have had their... poor moments. They designed a race of super-intelligent clones, the Androsynth, then declared them inferior and put them into manual labor. This backfired rather spectacularly when the Androsynth, being more intelligent than your average Joe, still invented hyperspace travel before the humans, escaped, and eventually joined the Ur-Quan Hierarchy, hoping for some sweet revenge.
** Oh, and humanity also managed to collectively alienate the VUX by insulting their appearance in the first contact - ironically, humans look just as attractive to the VUX as the other way around (VUX is sometimes treated as an acronym for "Very Ugly Xenoform"). This would lead to a massive political crisis and, indirectly, to the VUX joining the Ur-Quan as well as, isolated, they could not match the Hierarchy. So out of 7 races in the original Hierarchy, humankind is responsible for two. Unsurprisingly, the Alliance (which humans were members of) eventually lost the first war.
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* Most of the sentient races in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' are pretty bastard-y. Humans are the worst objectively, but that's mostly because they're the most numerous
** The Charr are probably the worst. They turned Ascalon into a blighted wasteland, they eat humans (and like referring to humans as "meat". Even the ''friendly'' ones do this!). Their leaders pretty much sent the female Charr back to the kitchen (this backfires on them massively a few generations after Eye of the North), and so on
*** The Charr information is subverted by Guild Wars 2 lore as it's revealed that Ascalon is a massive [[Propaganda Machine
** And then there's the Asura this is part of their official description, by the way: "Inventors, scientists, and spellcasters of every stripe, the Asura consider many other races beneath them and are not afraid to tell them so at every opportunity."
* In the ''[[Toejam and Earl]]'' series, where humans and other earthly life aren't wantonly malicious and "unfunky", they're still ''weird.'' Friendly ones in the series include the [[Exactly What It Says
* The human deathknight Charna in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 4'' is described as being capable of evil that 'even the demons balk at'.
* A major plot point in ''[[Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'', where humans have triggered an industrial revolution with dwarven technology acquired by Arcanum's richest businessman [[Meaningful Name|Gilbert Bates]]. As a result, the Forest of Morbihan has been transformed into the Morbihan Plain over a few short years, and the most industrialized city, Tarant, is also one of the most polluted. Members of other races such as [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves]] and [[Our Elves Are Better|elves]] theorize that because humans have relatively short livespans, every action they take is motivated by the fear of their impending deaths, and they do not live long enough to see the consequences of their actions.
* Revealed in one dialogue during ''[[
** Dr. Weil also implies in Zero 3 that Humans innately feel that ruling all the eye can see and making others work for them is the ultimate joy for them, and believes that no Reploid could ever understand this joy, although Zero [[Shut UP, Hannibal|counters]] this by stating that he doubts any decent human would understand Weil's viewpoint, either.
* [[Prototype (
** In the [[Prototype 2
* Casually tossed here and there in ''[[Kid Icarus|Kid Icarus Uprising]]''. Palutena notes, when talking about Magnus, that humans are fundamentally driven by desire, using the mercenary as an example. {{spoiler|Hades gets humans to war with themselves to an insane degree by spreading the rumor of the Wish Seed. This draws the ire of the nature goddess Viridi, who begins attempting to annihilate humankind for their greed, violence, and wastefulness. Dark Pit seems to be the only one willing to tell the gods that they're just as bad, if not worse}}.
* How humans in the [[Mass Effect]] universe may be seen by the other races. Within 30 years, humanity has rapidly expanded and forced our way to the top of the galactic government which has existed since we were in our bronze age.
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* The villains of the Orochi Saga in [[The King of Fighters]] , namely the aforementioned Orochi, (ancient Japanese snake-demon/deity)and his followers, strongly believe this. To them, humans have ruined their world&the environment, though aside from that, they don't consider them all that great in general, to the point where they believe humankind should be annihilated. (Though part of this may also be that they serve a higher power, 'Gaia', but regardless of whether or not they're being influenced, this is still what they believe.) The Edit-Team ending even outright states that while Orochi still needed to be stopped, humanity still wasn't that great either, and that we were partially to blame for Orochi's purpose being twisted into what it became. Still, some of our heroes (as in, the various teams,) acknowledge this to an extent, though they don't think that humanity is completely un-redeemable.
* Another work of SNK's, [[Last Blade]], (technically set in the same universe, but in the 1860's in Japan,) has a similar villain. Kagami is one of four individuals that were gifted with powers by the four Japanese Gods, with Kagami representing the phoenix, but with time, Kagami grew disgusted with humanity, and with that belief in mind, got to work opening the Hell Gate, with the intention to suck Earth into Hell. In the sequel however, he's reborn, (after being sucked into Hell's Gate in the first game,) and by the end, after being forced by the God's into service once more, decides to personally give humanity a second chance.
* Being in a [[Crapsack World]], everyone everywhere in [[
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** 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.]]
* Many (to most) furry-themed webcomics with humans in them (or even in the history of the world-setting) portray humans as essentially [[Always Chaotic Evil]], with the furry characters suffering persecution such as slavery, hate crimes, being relegated to the status of animals despite clearly being sentient and capable of speech, etc. at the hands of said humans. There may be one or two humans that aren't cruel, bloodthirsty, rapacious [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]] as a sort of token attempt at fixing the [[Broken Aesop]], but not always. Of course, it's rather easy to do with furry comics which are a ''prime'' method of using the [[Fantastic Racism]] theme.
** In ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', whenever humans show up they're generally portrayed as the equivalent of [[Sealed Evil in
*** Actually, ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' has lately disproven the theory that the mere presence or awareness of humans has an adverse effect on instincts. It's that characters moving between the worlds throw at least one of them off balance. Once the balance is restored, you can pay as much attention to humans as you like and not lose your instincts. In fact, it turns out that [http://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk1017.html the animals are equally destructive to their own environments]. It's promptly subverted in the next strip...
** [[Black Tapestries]] at first shows this, with pretty much the main antagonist thinking that all [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]], even though at a later point, the Kaetif (anthros) are shown to be ''just as'' vengeful as humans are.
** In ''[[Jack (
** ''[[Two Kinds]]'': The only humans ever shown are [[Knight Templar|Templar]] who seem to be [[Always Chaotic Evil]] with plans kill all of one race and {{spoiler|turn the other race's brains into mush and enslaved them}} or perverted ''slave traders'' (the latter is actually a pretty nice guy though). Most fans have a [[Take Our Word for It]] mindset.
** [[Newshounds]] has [[Cerebus Syndrome|gotten really bad]] about this trope.
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* In ''[http://kameira.deviantart.com/art/ZENITH-Page-62-115166354 Zenith]'', Zenith suffers a [[Heroic BSOD]] after getting shot at by humans and his [[Mama Bear]] dying because of them... well, sort of [[My Greatest Failure|Zenith's fault]] for not [[Made of Plasticine|being a man]] and [[Made of Iron|dealing with]] a [[Improbable Aiming Skills|shot at his fin]], but the [[Miniature Senior Citizens|other dolphins of the steel harbor]] tell him [[You Did Everything You Could]].
* ''[[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 ''[[
** A PG-friendly version of the trope is used by Florence, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00072.htm here], when discussing [[wikipedia:Green Run|intentional releases of radioactive iodine by the government]], from the [[wikipedia:Hanford Site|Hanford Site nuclear weapons facility]].
* Played for laughs in ''[[Nedroid|Beartato and Reginald]]'' with [http://nedroid.com/2009/08/nobody-knows-the-troubles-ive-seen-except-beartato-since-i-just-told-him/ Space Reginald's reaction to Earth].
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* In the world of ''[[The Account]]'', a podcast audio drama, one-third of the humans in the Midlands turned into an army of psychopaths and got exiled to Earth. No one quite knows why. Now that they're trickling back in, and apparently sane, they're treated somewhat gingerly by the natives.
* ''[[Cradleland]]'' takes place on a planet populated by [[Transplanted Humans]]. Their ancestors were slaves {{spoiler|who were sold to [[Aliens Are Bastards|aliens]] by humans on Earth during the [[Middle Ages]]}}.
* The eponymous ''[[Dr.
* ''[http://www.rogermwilcox.name/stories/gaea.html Gaea's Rising]'' features cute, lovable, intelligent robots that humanity wants to wipe out, just because the robots don't want to be slaves.
* Whenever [[
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YZtJdaN_l4 If Balloons Could Talk], then apparently humans would do all sorts of things that hurt and terrorize them just for the sick pleasure of hearing them cry out in horror and agony.
{{quote| ''A pair of human hands hooks a balloon up to wires that conduct electricity''<br />
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Fern Gully]]: The Last Rainforest''. On the villainous side, humans built a big-ass tree-cutting machine to clear whole swathes of the forest for the wood. On the stupid side, said tree-cutting machine wound up releasing [[Sealed Evil in
** The three humans present never come across as bastards. They just have no clue how much trouble they've been causing until the locals [[Anvilicious|show them]].
** Batty has this view and [[Fantastic Racism|doesn't trust humans at all]], due to [[Freudian Excuse|being tortured and experimented upon in a laboratory by humans in the past.]]
* ''[[Open Season]]'' depicts open warfare between a band of beleaguered forest animals and a pack of obnoxious redneck hunters.
* ''[[
* Ah, but then there's Hugh Harman's ''[[Peace
** Plus there's the part where the little squirrel kid says "I sure am glad there's no more men around". Most. [[Anvilicious]]. Line. Ever.
* In ''[[
** ''Gargoyles'' overall has a nuanced view of this trope that makes it about as hard to pin down as in real life. After all, the thing that sets off the whole series is basically one of the humans of the castle trying to ''help'' the gargoyles (by forsaking his fellow humans), only for it to backfire in his (and their) face spectacularly; so you could take it either as "humans are good, bad, and everything in between", or "humans are bastards even when they try to be good", depending on how cynical you felt like being that day.
* ''[[
** While both versions of the tale are as depressing as hell, it's interesting to note that the cartoon has an even more of a [[Downer Ending]] than the original book. {{spoiler|In the film, the dogs are heavily implied to have died at the end, whereas they go live with a nice "Master" at the end of the book.}}
* ''[[Watership Down]]'' itself was pretty heavy-handed on that too. In the film, Holly's flashback to the first warren's destruction.
** Also subverted at one point, when the farmer's daughter saves Hazel from the farm's cat.
* Used and surprisingly subverted in the obscure animated movie ''[[
* While the live action ''[[
* ''[[
** Making this even more hilarious, this actually is the plot of an episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', with ''Futurama'''s version just getting straight to the point.
* The third episode of ''[[Justice League (
* In ''[[
* This is one of the main themes in the animated film ''[[Felidae]]''. It's both played straight and subverted in regards to humanity's relationship with animals (particularly cats in this case). On the one hand there's Gustav ("Gus"), Francis's dim-witted yet otherwise good owner. On the other hand there's Pretorius, a scientist who experiments on cats while trying to create a special tissue-bonding glue. Most of the cats die horrible deaths, and Pretorius becomes a rambling alcoholic because of it. The only surviving cat, Claudandus {{spoiler|brutally murders Pretorius and later develops a burning hatred against humanity}}.
** Likewise, one of the cats, Felicity, believes that all humans are good stating that only humans would be kind enough to give a blind cat like her a home. Ironically, it's heavily implied that it was due to humans experimenting on her in the first place that she's blind.
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* The movie ''[[Battle for Terra]]'' plays with this trope. The Earth is destroyed and what's left of the human race is forced to live in a military fleet which invades the peaceful title planet. While they are doing this by force and goal to the kill all the aliens they are portrayed as just desperate {{spoiler|if you want to know why don't they just live together, the humans and terrans don't breath the same air}}.
** Further played with in that the President and his council are [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Reasonable Authority Figures]] who want to explore all options before they go with genocide, but a coup happens with a [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|General]] advocates an "us or them" position.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* The trope name sums up Zim's outlook in ''[[
** With a few exceptions, [[Humans Are Morons|pretty much all humans in the show are too stupid or lazy to be evil]].
* The villains of ''[[Terrahawks]]'' justified their plans of conquest by saying that the humans opposing them had a bloody history full of things a lot worse than what they were doing.
* One ''[[
* [[Played for Laughs]] on ''[[
* Implied in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgOAR4Xq4Y "Bolero" sequence] of ''[[
* Ever notice that most of the antagonists on ''[[
* ''[[
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