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| - Somewhere between Humans Are the Real Monsters, Humans Are Special and Humanity Is Superior lies this trope, the polar opposite of Humans Are Diplomats. Compared to the other races of the galaxy, or at least the other 'good' races, humans are violent, warlike savages who revel in chaos and destruction. This is not, however, a bad thing; at worst, the more 'civilized' races may look down on us, but they acknowledge that we're not a plague to be wiped out. Or at least they acknowledge that it might be somewhat inadvisable to try. The trope takes one of two forms: Compare Heroic Spirit.
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| abstract
| - Somewhere between Humans Are the Real Monsters, Humans Are Special and Humanity Is Superior lies this trope, the polar opposite of Humans Are Diplomats. Compared to the other races of the galaxy, or at least the other 'good' races, humans are violent, warlike savages who revel in chaos and destruction. This is not, however, a bad thing; at worst, the more 'civilized' races may look down on us, but they acknowledge that we're not a plague to be wiped out. Or at least they acknowledge that it might be somewhat inadvisable to try. The trope takes one of two forms:
* In the first form, humans are helping themselves with their savagery; the technologically, physically, and/or mentally superior aliens would wipe us out or enslave us if not for our courage, tenacity, and willingness to pull crazy stunts in battle and the experience of thousands of years of conflict. Look for humanity to attempt to capture and reverse-engineer as much of the aliens' superior technology as possible, while aliens either keep the pressure on through sheer resource advantage or begin to learn some of our own tricks to turn against us. Other aliens, inspired by our example, may rise against their keepers or speak out on our behalf in the Galactic Senate, so we can eventually come to have claim to our space that we don't have to constantly fight to protect. This version is frequently related to Earth Is a Battlefield.
* The second form of this trope makes humans useful to other aliens. Maybe the 'good' aliens have been fighting a losing war against the 'evil' aliens due to psychological limitations, numbers, or lack of training in the art of war. Maybe they are evenly matched or even winning against the enemy but want someone else to get shot at for a change. By working together with humans, they can actually put their advanced technology to use effectively; in turn, humans gain the peacetime benefits of the aliens' advanced technology. Other aliens may be less scrupulous about the relationship, considering us less 'valuable partners' and more 'Battle Thralls'. So long as they are able to enforce the relationship through their technology, this trope remains in the second form... but expect us to keep an eye out for a chance to break free of our insect overlords, no matter how benevolent they seem. A variation on this trope might be called "Humans Are Soldiers." In this case, far from being pacifists, the aliens are a Proud Warrior Race- to the max. Problem is, they're so focused on honor duels and personal-scale violence, they can't bring together armies and fleets, or are simply ineffectual when they do because they won't or can't cooperate and establish a chain of command. Thus despite actually being less skilled at raw violence, humanity ends up being the ones able to band together and fight wars, and fulfill this trope. Compare Heroic Spirit. Examples of the first form of this trope include:
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)