History WhatMeasureIsANonHuman / Webcomics

* The [[Mon]]s featured in ButImACatPerson have personalities that change from owner to owner, limited free will, and compulsive obedience. Different characters may argue they should be given the same rights as humans, the limited protections of animals, or no more regulation than very sophisticated computers.

** In an earlier scene Sam is surprised to learn that robots are taking an interest in religious texts. "What do they want with those?" he wonders. "Robots do not have souls. Or do they?" To which the bible salesman answers with a wry smile: "I think that is what they are trying to find out."

* Aversion: In ''ItsWalky'', when Joyce kills her EvilTwin (who has only existed for hours), her friends in SEMME are forced to [[strike:immediately]] eventually arrest her for murder. She eventually gets off of it, but not because of the value of the clone's life.

* ''[[Webcomic/VampireCheerleaders Paranormal Mystery Squad]]'' opens with the team hampered by "new regulations" against "cryptoslaughter"; even after this, Steph keeps killing cryptids willy-nilly for a little while, and the only consequence is a series of steep fines. This despite the fact that most cryptids are clearly sapient, and for most of the standalone series, there are two on the four-person team.

** Dr. [=McNinja=] also plows mercilessly through mooks and zombies - and [[WhatTheHellHero gets chewed out]] by a relative of one of them.

* Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}: Dirk has an auto-responder program that's effectively a duplicate of his brain at age 13, and a lot of conversations about him revolve around the ethics of what one does when they have what is essentially a robotic clone of themselves. Dirk encourages AR to be as active as possible, as he considers stifling something that is very much alive to be AndIMustScream. Jake initially disrespects AR, believing it to not have feelings, but AR gets significantly offended by that, claiming that it is mentally as human as Jake is, and a later scene shows that AR might have genuine romantic feelings (though he admits that they might be fake just to fuck with Dirk).

** This serves to make [[WrenchWench Ventura's]] views on robots all the more disturbing.

* ''GirlGenius'' with its variety of artificial lifeforms.

* Despite featuring a wide array of non-human creatures and plenty of violence, ''SluggyFreelance'' usually avoids this issue by treating ''all'' life, human and non-, with varying degrees of respect and irreverance [[MoodWhiplash depending on the tone of the story]]. It ''is'' parodied in [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=010717 these]] [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=971012 strips]], however, and gets played straight in the "Aylee" chapter, where, even though most ghouls seem only semi-sentient and attack humans on sight, Aylee still feels uncomfortable with the [[ComedicSociopathy lethal practical jokes]] she and Torg play on them. [[spoiler:This is made worse for her when she discovers that the "ghouls" are actually aliens of her own species.]]

** This serves to make [[WrenchWench Ventura]]'s views on robots all the more disturbing.

* The ''OrderOfTheStick'' prequel book, "Start of Darkness" [[spoiler: reveals that the gods really did create humanoid races such as goblins and kobolds purely as a source of XP for the 'proper' races. Understandably, they're pretty pissed about this, and the antagonist Redcloak's plan involves holding the gods to ransom to try and get a better deal for all 'savage' races.]]

** This serves to make [[WrenchWench Ventura's]] views on robots all the more disturbing.

* Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}: Dirk has an auto-responder program that's effectively a duplicate of his brain at age 13, and a lot of conversations about him revolve around the ethics of what one does when they have what is essentially a robotic clone of themselves. Dirk encourages AR to be as active as possible, as he considers stifling something that is very much alive to be {{And I Must Scream}}. Jake initially disrespects AR, believing it to not have feelings, but AR gets significantly offended by that, claiming that it is mentally as human as Jake is, and a later scene shows that AR might have genuine romantic feelings (though he admits that they might be fake just to fuck with Dirk).

** Another Redcloak example: Redcloak is a goblin, eventually leading a hobgoblin army (the "hob" bit makes a big difference when you're a (hob/)goblin), and he's willing (and even eager) to throw away their lives since they're just hobgoblins. Then one of them sacrifices himself to save Redcloak, and he realizes the insanity of throwing away their lives, since they're goblins just like him. (So not "What measure is a non human?", but "What measure is a hob goblin?")

* {{Lampshaded}} in [[http://nonadventures.com/2008/05/31/bad-to-the-clone/ this strip]] of ''TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella''. Of course, Wonderella's a HeroicSociopath, and Dr. Shark is a [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Villain]], so this type of behavior is perfectly normal for them. A clone [[http://nonadventures.com/2008/05/31/bad-to-the-clone/ is fine too]].

* ''The Challenges Of Zona'' has a character page that [[AllThereInTheManual assures the reader]] that the [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent scaly humanoid lizard people]] are AlwaysChaoticEvil and that we shouldn't "waste any sympathy on these guys". Even the {{Half Human Hybrid}}s they can breed with humans (slaves, of course) are ''mostly'' evil.

* Painfully deconstructed in ''AlienDice'' as more of a 'what measure is a sentient being with free will?' The Dice (semi-sentient creatures such as cats who are transformed into self aware creatures), despite sometimes displaying intelligence greater than their owners, are used, recycled, and in some cases destroyed because it's convenient for the owners. Even more atrocious is the dehumanization of the Indentured Players (who are sentient aliens turned into Dice), who ''lose the right to choose mates or claim their offspring'', among other things. Some characters see the Dice as ''sentient'', but others see them little more than objects to be used at will.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20031130.html "Food that talks is not food."]] If it's talking to you, odds are that it's going to get treated as having the exact same rights as everyone else, whether clone, artificial intelligence, or alien. Of course, given the subject matter, those 'rights' include the right to be blown to fine chunks by the HeroicSociopath protagonists or whoever the current baddies are. There's still the question if a goon doesn't get a chance to [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040307.html say anything]] before being eaten.
** Of course, to Schlock himself, food that talks ''can'' be food. Then again, that's just one of his many ways of disposing of his enemies.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' the main restriction aliens and magical creatures deal with is their respective {{Masquerade}}s. Ellen bears the brunt of this trope, having been created by magic. While the main cast readily accepts her as one of their own, the wizard who enchanted the artifact that created her awakens to hunt her down. His reasoning? Anything created by the artifact is unnatural, and therefore must be destroyed. This is despite the fact that Ellen has been treated as a separate person ever since her creation and even developed a distinct personality to separate herself from Elliot. Nanase sums it up pretty well [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-20 here]] and [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-22 here]].

* Lampshaded in KeychainOfCreation, where Misho (a [[FriendToAllLivingThings Compassion 5]] Solar {{Exalted}}) has no problems with killing goblins, and is called out on this. In his own words, [[JustifiedTrope goblins are literally the nightmares of small children given flesh]].

* [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=706 This page]] of ''GunnerkriggCourt'' shows Jack Hyland brutally wrecking a robot security guard, much to Antimony's horror. His response is a callous "So what? It's just a dumb robot." Even though the series has shown that robots are quite clearly sapient and capable of emotion. It also shows his increasingly deteriorating mental state as he was [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=619 far nicer to robots earlier in the comic]].

* In ''ElGoonishShive'' the main restriction aliens and magical creatures deal with is their respective {{Masquerade}}s. Ellen bears the brunt of this trope, having been created by magic. While the main cast readily accepts her as one of their own, the wizard who enchanted the artifact that created her awakens to hunt her down. His reasoning? Anything created by the artifact is unnatural, and therefore must be destroyed. This is despite the fact that Ellen has been treated as a separate person ever since her creation and even developed a distinct personality to separate herself from Elliot. Nanase sums it up pretty well [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-20 here]] and [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2009-10-22 here]].

* The trope shows up repeatedly in ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' with the artificial beings Molly, Galatea, and Roofus. Bob and Jean treat them as fully human, but other characters (especially [[{{MIB}} Agent Ben and Agent Jerry)]] often do not. The trope is also subverted in that the alien Nemesites, who have [[AncientConspiracy legally owned Earth since before the dawn of man,]] consider ''humans'' to be wildlife (because we don't have interstellar spacecraft) and the whole planet to be a nature preserve.

* Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}: Alpha Bro has an auto-responder program, designed to replicate his behavior in any given situation. It's so good that unless somebody is familiar with its VerbalTics, it'd be very difficult to guess that it wasn't human. It's also incredibly insulted when Jake doesn't refer to it with the same respect he has for Alpha Bro, and does not like being told it doesn't have feelings. Alpha Bro seems to respect it anyway, giving it permission to make decisions and act in his place if necessary.

* {{Homestuck}}: Alpha Bro has an auto-responder program, designed to replicate his behavior in any given situation. It's so good that unless somebody is familiar with its VerbalTics, it'd be very difficult to guess that it wasn't human. It's also incredibly insulted when Jake doesn't refer to it with the same respect he has for Alpha Bro, and does not like being told it doesn't have feelings. Alpha Bro seems to respect it anyway, giving it permission to make decisions and act in his place if necessary.

* Aversion: In ''[=~It's Walky!~=]'', when Joyce kills her EvilTwin (who has only existed for hours), her friends in SEMME are forced to [[strike:immediately]] eventually arrest her for murder. She eventually gets off of it, but not because of the value of the clone's life.

** The usage of this trope and the effects such a mindset has is a constant theme in the comic. In the current storyline, [[spoiler:the mother of the black dragon the Order killed in the starmetal arc wants revenge on Vaarsuvius for her son's death. It's revealed she lost his father in the same manner--killed by adventurers for treasure and XP.]]

--> ...[[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness do I not often expound on the one quality, without which, no goblin can be truly Good?]]

* In ''OffWhite'', when a group of sledders became closed in [[spoiler: and ran out of food, the sapient dogs were the [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty first to go]] because of this trope.]] One of the sledders even says "people are always more important."

* In ''SchlockMercenary'': [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20031130.html "Food that talks is not food."]] If it's talking to you, odds are that it's going to get treated as having the exact same rights as everyone else, whether clone, artificial intelligence, or alien. Of course, given the subject matter, those 'rights' include the right to be blown to fine chunks by the HeroicSociopath protagonists or whoever the current baddies are. There's still the question if a goon doesn't get a chance to [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040307.html say anything]] before being eaten.

* {{Newshounds}} has [[http://newshounds.keenspot.com/d/20100607.html Alistair, a cat, trying to get Sam, a dog, equal rights after Sam had a house arrest sentence extended]]

* The trope shows up repeatedly in ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' with the artificial beings Molly, Galatea, and Roofus. Bob and Jean treat them as fully human, but other characters (especially [[MenInBlack Agent Ben and Agent Jerry)]] often do not. The trope is also subverted in that the alien Nemesites, who have [[AncientConspiracy legally owned Earth since before the dawn of man,]] consider ''humans'' to be wildlife (because we don't have interstellar spacecraft) and the whole planet to be a nature preserve.

*** [[spoiler:And then Vaarsuvius uses an attack called [[MoralEventHorizon "Familicide".]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Yeah.]]]]

* DrMcNinja speaks: "And because you're all cold, soulless robots, you won't mind if I snap into your robotic spines like a Slim Jim!" ...Despite the fact that said RidiculouslyHumanRobots are shown having thought balloons and responding to fear.

* The rights of non-humans are an important theme in ''{{Freefall}}'', with a [[StarfishAliens squid-like alien]] protagonist, an anthropomorphic, intelligent, genetically engineered wolf who is technically still ''property'', and a host of apparently sentient robots struggling with or ignoring the three robotics laws. In one story arc, [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1300/fc01277.htm robots have been dismantled against their will]]. As Sam asks: is this a crime or simply overly aggressive recycling? (cue the IronicEcho two strips later)

** Othar himself [[HeroWithAnFInGood isn't nice]] [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080128 with nonhumans]] (see the conclusion on the next page), in-continuity his role in the hanged Jägers incident says the same.
** [[Spoiler:Klaus Wulfenbach]] is a construct too (but not in the same way as Jägers). [[http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/girlgenius/message/1717 Yes]], WordOfGod.

*** Jägerkin are an artificial race of constructs created and maintained by the Heterodynes. They're modified humans, but never grow old and get severe injuries fixed again and again. In the town of Zumzum, the townspeople hang Jägers just for passing through. They do have fangs and claws and odd skin colors and ''were'' rather bloodthirsty enemy soldiers once, but is that the reason to ''hang'' them now? [[TheManTheyCouldntHang Not that it ''worked'', anyway.]]

* ''GirlGenius'' has the clanks, which for the most part are mindless, sometimes expendable order-following robots. However, even the more sentient ones, like [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20051005 Dingbot Prime]] or [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050928 the Muses]] (who even look human) aren't exempt from being dismantled in the name of study and/or improvement. Another notable instance is in the Sturmhalten arc of the comic when [[spoiler: the Anevka puppet, which had gained its own sentience by the time the person it was built for died, is deactivated by her 'brother']], as seen [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060911 these]] [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060913 strips]]. Possibly an aversion, though, as he admits it was much harder than he thought it would be. To be fair [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040105 Humans are dissected as well]]

** Othar Tryggvassen, GentlemanAdventurer!, should be counted more along the lines of dissecting a construct, considering that he's gone through windows, out of ''airships'', and God knows what else and survived with no scarring to show for it. Agatha's [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071005 cheery volunteering of Wooster to have holes drilled in his head]] would probably fit better with the dissecting humans thing.
*** [[AC:{{Gentleman Adventurer}}!]] himself [[HeroWithAnFInGood isn't quite nice]] [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080128 in such cases]] (see the conclusion on the next page). Given his "Mission" of exterminating Sparks, Klaus already has a good reason to kill him, but is just too pragmatic to do it without learning anything.
** In the town of Zumzum, the townspeople hang J�gers just for passing through. Okay, they do have fangs and claws and odd skin colors and maybe might have killed a few hundred people, but that's no reason to try to ''hang'' them. [[TheManTheyCouldntHang Not that it ''worked'', anyway.]]
*** Jagerkin are constructs, which seem to be an artificial race of people created and maintained by the Heterodynes. They're a lot closer to human than anything else, but they never grow old, they just have mechanical breakdowns. Peasants often view them as organic monstrous humanoids.
** Although most of this is the result of the amorality/madness of most sparks. After all, they're just as happy to vivisect/mutate/experiment on/shoot normal human and other sparks as they are to waste Clanks/Jaggers/Revenants/Monsters/Etc. So, in a way, I see this an a subversion of the trope, since Sparks treat all intelligent beings equally. They just treat them all as expendable materials.
** Lucrezia's hobby of BrainUploading and consequently another Muse's mind running around in a living human-like body (though not enjoying this) blurs the remaining lines further.

** According to [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=663 the student handbook]], it's official Court policy to "Remind the robot that you are a higher order of being, while it is merely an appliance." Annie and Kat are nearly the only people at the Court to consistently view the robots as people.
** Also of note is that, according to [[WordOfGod Word of Tom]], there is no {{psychopomp}} for robots. By contrast, there ''is'' a psychopomp for [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=335 insects]].

*** Or else they are differently sentient; perhaps a soul isn't necessary for mind, or that robots have different kinds of arrangements - [[WildMassGuessing maybe there isn't a robot psychopomp because they've existed for so short time that one hasn't yet been established, and they have to find their own way to the afterlife.]] Nearly all the robots seen so far have been sentient in every way that counts, while confirmed non-robot Jones behaves robotically enough (more so than actual robots!) to cause suspicion.
* Lampshaded in KeychainOfCreation, where Misho (a [[FriendToAllLivingThings Compassion 5]] Solar {{Exalted}}) has no problems with killing goblins, and is called out on this. In his own words, [[JustifiedTrope goblins are literally the nightmares of small children given flesh]].