History PlayingWith / AbsentAliens

** Every now and then, people allege to have seen [=UFOs=] or even alien beings, but they have no solid evidence of those claims.

* '''Deconstructed''': Humans go into a deep state of ennui upon discovering they are alone in the universe.
* '''Reconstructed''': The fact that aliens don't exist just means humans are more important and special, and that they must work at their own civilization.

%%* '''Deconstructed''': ???
%%* '''Reconstructed''': ???

* '''Played For Laughs''': A CloudCuckooLander ConspiracyTheorist desperately tries to find proof of alien life, making very wild (and laughable) claims that [[DeadpanSnarker his skeptical peers mercilessly mock him for it]].

* '''Zig Zagged''': The starship ''Lazarus'' searches 1000 earth-like planets for intelligent life. Some of them offer false leads, but all of them are uninhabited. That is until the [[LastPlaceYouLook last planet they look]] actually does support an alien species, but it is non-sapient. However they find out the intelligent aliens were posing as non-sapient [[SecretTestOfCharacter to see how the humans would treat them]]. Then it turns out that they are actually highly evolved humans, and the starship's crew had experienced 50 million years worth of TimeDilation.

* '''Exaggerated''': They can't even find the most primitive single-celled organisms, despite sending orbital probes and scientific rovers to every habitable planet. All of life itself has only evolved on one planet - Earth.

* '''Played For Drama''': The fact that the universe is empty of non-human life is viewed as highly disturbing -- especially when human explorers start finding the ruins of [[{{Precursors}} extinct alien races]], [[PrecursorKillers implying something wiped them out]]...

* '''Played For Drama''': The fact that the universe is empty of non-human life is viewed as highly disturbing -- especially when human explorers start finding the ruins of [[{{Precursors}} extinct alien races]], [[FridgeHorror implying something wiped them out]]...

* '''Played For Drama''': The fact that the universe is empty of non-human life is viewed as highly disturbing -- especially when human explorers start finding the ruins of [[{{Precursors}} extinct alien races]], implying something wiped them out...

%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

** Humans wanted a universe without aliens, so we [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters killed them all]].

* '''Subverted''': Humans finally discover an alien civilization, and quickly make FirstContact.
* '''Double Subverted''': The 'alien civilization' was actually a long lost human colony.

* '''Exaggerated''': They can't even find even the most primitive single-celled organisms, despite sending orbital probes and scientific rovers to every habitable planet. All of life itself has only evolved on one planet - Earth.

** Repeated radio signals of "Hello, we come in peace." from a specific point in the sky turn out to be random noise. The cosmic background radiation just happened to make that pattern.

* '''Played For Drama''': The fact that the universe is empty of non-human life is viewed as highly disturbing- especially when human explorers start finding the ruins of extinct alien races, implying something wiped them out...

** The aliens are obviously present and even attempt to communicate with the humans, but the humans are too stupid or attached to their preconceptions to recognize the aliens' presence.
** Or alternatively, the aliens are so completely grossed out by the humans that they [[Literature/TheyreMadeOutofMeat hide and pretend not to be there]].

** Every now and then, people allege to have seen UFOs or even alien beings, but they have no solid evidence of those claims.

'''Basic Trope''': Humans are the only intelligent form of life.

** Alien life has evolved to the level of [[AlienAnimals animals]] at most, but is non-sapient.
** There are some alleged UFO sightings every now and then, but otherwise no definite evidence of alien life.

** There was a large, multi-species empire that was wiped out [[ApocalypseHow somehow]].

%%* '''Implied''': ???

%%* '''Played For Drama''': ???

* '''Straight''': In a SpaceOpera setting, humans have explored far into the galaxy and discovered no intelligent life.
* '''Exaggerated''': They can't even find single-celled organisms, despite sending probes to every habitable planet. Life itself only ever evolved on one planet, Earth.

** Or alternatively, the aliens are so completely grossed out by the humans that they [[TheyreMadeOutofMeat hide and pretend not to be there]].

* '''Downplayed''': Alien life has evolved to the level of [[AlienAnimals animals]] at most, but is non-sapient.

** Aliens do exist, it just humans quickly believe they don't exist when they read "We don't exist" on the aliens.

* '''Parodied''': Repeated radio signals of "Hello, we come in peace." from a specific point in the sky turn out to be random noise. The cosmic background radiation just happened to make that pattern.

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** There was a large, multi-species empire that was wiped out [[ApopcalypseHow somehow]].

* '''Defied''': A scientist, bored of his own species, creates alien life in the lab.

* '''Downplayed''': Alien life has evolved to the level of animals at most, but is non-sapient.

** Humans wanted a universe without aliens, so we [[HumansAreBastards killed them all]].

* '''Justified''': Human space travel is in its infancy, and we haven't had time to find them yet.

* '''Invoked''': Humans wanted a universe without aliens, so we [[HumansAreBastards killed them all]].

* '''Parodied''': Repeated radio signals of "Hello, we come in peace." from a specific point in the sky turn out to be random noise. [[BeyondTheImpossible The cosmic background radiation just happened to make that pattern.]]