Line #75 Main/HumansAreInsects


1	->'''Last Castoff:''' Help me destroy the creatures that dwell here!\
2	'''Inifere:''' Better two ants make war on the seasons, brother.
3	-->-- ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera''
4
5	Why are so many animal and plant species extinct now? Did humans seek to eradicate them, hunting them to the ends of the Earth until none were left? No. Humans just hunted for meat or furs, or destroyed the forest the creatures lived in to create farmland, or polluted a river as a side effect of making plastics...
6
7	This is humans getting a taste of their own medicine. This villain has no love, respect, hate, or even scorn for human feelings. Well, maybe scorn, but only if he has to. Often he's so godlike that to him, humans are nothing more than animals to be exterminated, manipulated, kept as pets or experimented on. In such cases, it's common to [[PitifulWorms compare humans to insects or worms]], because humans usually don't pay these things even the scant attention that they do to mammals and birds.
8
9	{{Eldritch Abomination}}s often have this attitude, which may even be their defining trait. Likewise the nastier sort of JerkassGods.
10
11	Basically LackOfEmpathy meets PunyEarthlings. Contrast HumansAreCthulhu. May be a side-effect of BlueAndOrangeMorality.
12	----
13	!!Examples:
14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
17	* While demons in the ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' want to KillAllHumans, [[spoiler:[[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks God]]]] has a complete disregard for them. He [[spoiler:wipes out all life on Earth, [[EternalRecurrence repeatedly]]]], just to punish [[spoiler:Satan for rebelling]].
18	* The villains of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' tends to be of this variety, treating everyone who doesn't have a power level of a god like insects. The biggest example is probably Frieza, who has spent decades and possibly centuries tormenting the entire galaxy, wiping out planets on a whim, exterminating countless species, or sometimes not even bothering to get his hands dirty and sending his sadistic henchmen to do it for him. Cell and the Androids are much the same, but Cell isn't around for long, and the Androids only get around to this in the BadFuture.
19	* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
20	** Acnologia is a dragon who doesn't bother talking with humans when attacking in the same fashion that humans don't talk to lower animals when dealing with them. [[spoiler:This is especially poignant when it's revealed that Acnologia WasOnceAMan [[BoomerangBigot himself]].]]
21	** The [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] of the dark guild [[TheLegionsOfHell Tartaros]] see themselves as a whole to be superior to humans to varying degrees between each member, with [[DragonInChief Mard Geer]] considering them lower than insects, and going so far as to [[DisproportionateRetribution brutally punish]] one of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Nine Demon Gates]], Kyoka, for [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] Erza, not because it wasn't necessary or even because it didn't work, but because it implies to him that she ''likes'' humans, even if only as playthings.
22	* BigBad [[SatanicArchetype Father]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has this view, exemplified here:
23	-->"Do you look at insects and worms on the ground and think them foolish? No. Your position is so far above theirs that you cannot feel one way or the other about them, right? ''That'' is how I see humankind."
24	** In the Swedish translation the same statement is even more to the point:
25	--->"Laugh at you? Certainly not. Do you laugh at worms crawling in the dirt next to the sidewalk? Of course not. They're too small, too insignificant. You don't even notice them. That is precisely how I see humanity."
26	* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'', the Pillar Men are vampiric superhumans who hold themselves far above humans. Shortly after waking up, one of them bumped into Caesar's friend Mark, [[BodyHorror absorbing half of his body in the process]]. The Pillar Men didn't even notice what happened. Speedwagon compares this to humans not noticing when they step on ants.
27	* Discussed in a PlayedForLaughs manner in ''Manga/KaijuGirlCaramelise''. Manatsu Tomosato is a rich, eccentric high school girl who has a crush on the {{Kaiju}} Harugon, unaware that "he" is actually her [[SamusIsAGirl female]] classmate Kuroe Akaishi periodically undergoing InvoluntaryShapeshifting. Kuroe makes the case that Harugon probably views humans like her as little more than insects, hoping to get Manatsu to tamp down on her MadLove. Manatsu gets a very different impression from this; she regularly dresses up in an outfit resembling Film/{{Mothra}} whenever trying to get Harugon's attention, and she finds Kuroe's insect comparison ''encouraging''.
28	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' has this in [[spoiler:the true BigBad Ribbons Almark. Ribbons believes humans are inferior to him, though he doesn't really have any genuine care for his allies.]]
29	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': The [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Five Elders]] (the highest-ranking [[AristocratsAreEvil World Nobles]] and heads of the [[UnitedNationsIsASuperpower World Government]]) collectively seem to view every other human as inferior creatures.
30	** [[spoiler:Saint Jaygarcia Saturn repeatedly compares not just humans, but pretty much every other living being to insects. As such, [[LackOfEmpathy he doesn't much care for their lives or their feelings]] (seeming to show ''offense'' at the very notion), sees their being concerned with his own welfare as an annoyance at best and will readily sacrifice thousands if not millions of lives [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans if that is the price for maintaining the World Government's hold on the planet]].]]
31	--->"Humans are no different than insects... ''[[WeHaveReserves Even if they lose their numbers, they will reproduce again.]]''"
32	** [[spoiler:Saint Marcus Mars responds with slight indifference when [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Lucci begs him to spare Kaku's life]], as he is injured and resting in the building Mars is headed to. To Mars, it is difficult to spare a single insect in the middle of an extermination.]]
33	--->"One does not attempt to step on insects, it simply happens!"
34	* In ''Literature/Overlord2012'', it would be faster to list the inhabitants of Nazarick who ''don't'' fit this trope. Humanity in the New World is one of the weakest races of all, and they've nearly gone extinct twice in the past 600 years. Many kinds of demihumans, who are oftentimes predators, see humans the same way humans see livestock.
35	* This is one of the key views held by {{Mayor\|Pain}} [[BigBad Takeshi Hirokawa]] in ''Manga/{{Parasyte}}'', as best shown by his MotiveRant right before he is killed in Chapter 55 / Episode 21. [[spoiler:Despite being a human himself.]] Mayor Hirokawa's fundamental belief in the wastefulness of humanity and their lack of care on how this impacts the Earth, causes him to see the Parasites as the solution to preserve the Earth - reducing the human population via preying on them. Thus, he argues humans to be the true parasites infesting the planet Earth, as opposed to the Parasites themselves. His speech provides the page quote above.
36	* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' when Madoka asks the BigBad if they care at all about the Magical Girls who suffered as part of their plan to [[spoiler:[[SavingTheWorld save the universe]]]], they respond by asking, "Do you feel any guilt to remorse for the livestock you consume? Have you ever thought about how those animals become the food you eat?"
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Galactus doesn't think about the people he kills when he [[PlanetEater eats a planet]]. He's just hungry. Mind you, he's not ''happy'' about it; Galactus himself [[WasOnceAMan was once a humanoid alien named Galen]]. He's a slightly more sympathetic version of this trope than normal as well, as Galactus is actually a SentientCosmicForce used to keep the {{anthropomorphic personification}} of Entropy imprisoned.
41	* Mr Mxyzptlk, a trickster-villain from the ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' comics, belongs to a society of reality-warping imps from the Fifth Dimension who view all species from our dimensions this way. Notably however, they do so in a semi-benevolent way, and have laws against torturing or mistreating us, not because they value our lives but because they believe it's beneath their species' dignity to sink to such base cruelties. As such, Mxyzptlk is considered a criminal by them as well.
42	* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': Nemesis views humans as ''lower'' than insects--at least they'll still be around when humans are gone! He likens his war against [[AbsoluteXenophobe Torquemada]] as stirring up a termite's nest to see if one of them will bite back. Nemesis is a godlike alien who's simply bored without a formidable enemy to fight.
43	* In ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'', God is an actual physical entity that views humanity (and indeed, all life on Earth) as a pest infestation in His summer cabin, and thus tries to carry out an extermination.
44	* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', [[spoiler:Dr. Manhattan derides Ozymandias' attempt to outwit him, telling him that from his nearly-godlike perspective, Ozymandias is no closer to outwitting Manhattan than the world's smartest termite.]]
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Fan Works]]
48	* In ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'', a Yeerk with a little girl for a host gives Tom a speech about how humans are nothing more than micro-organisms destined to be [[TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies enslaved by an infinitely superior species]].
49	* ''Fanfic/ItsAlwaysTheQuietOnes'': The second Luna's prayer to the Great Old Ones begins, everyone instinctively feels "something running cold fingers through their soul, for want of a better description, something to which humanity was a mere aberration, irrelevant in the grand scheme of the universe."
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
53	* Harry Lime reveals his thoughts on humanity to Holly from atop the Vienna Ferris wheel while looking down upon the park visitors in ''Film/TheThirdMan'': "Look down there. Would you really feel any pity if one of those...dots...stopped living forever?" Seems Harry's got a touch of Nazi genocide fever. Class A ChaoticEvil--a calculating and intelligent villain with a wistful smile that marks the musings of a psychopath.
54	* The Decepticons in the ''[[Film/TransformersFilmSeries Transformers]]'' film series refer to humans as insects. Even Frenzy, who's smaller than the humans, refers to them as "stupid insects".
55	* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', Agent Smith tells Morpheus that in his opinion, human beings are a virus that need to be wiped out.
56	* Discussed in ''Film/TheMothmanProphecies'', where the strange (and ironically, insectlike) beings do deliberately interact with humans, but their purposes are never clear.
57	-->'''John''': Clearly these beings are [[EvolutionaryLevels a lot more advanced]] than we are. Why don't they come right out and say what's on their minds?
58	-->'''Leek''': You're more advanced than a cockroach. Have you ever tried explaining yourself to one of them?
59	* Discussed in ''Film/TheAvengers2012''.
60	-->'''ComicBook/NickFury:''' We have no quarrel with your people.\
61	'''Loki:''' An ant has no quarrel with a boot.
62	* The Stone Giants in Creator/PeterJackson's film version of ''Film/TheHobbit''. They are occupied with fighting each other, pretty much ignoring the dwarves who are in deadly danger thanks to them.
63	* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'':
64	** Averted with Godzilla. He takes notice of humans and is careful to avoid killing them when possible, like an elephant does with mice.
65	** The MUTO are mostly indifferent to humans, although they will brush them away if they start stinging them with gunfire [[spoiler: or roast a nest full of MUTO eggs.]]
66	* The Witch Queen in ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'' considers humans vermin, believing they should be eradicated to make place for witches.
67	-->'''Witch Queen''': You breed like ''rats''. You put stone on top of stone and then live in your own filth! You are trespassers on ''our'' world. This is why I created the plague...[[KillAllHumans it's why every one of you must perish]]!
68	* At the end of ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', [[LemonyNarrator The Criminologist]] says "And crawling on the planet's face, some insects called the human race, lost in time, and lost in space, and meaning." as his closing monologue.
69	* In ''Film/MenInBlack'', the villain - a giant alien cockroach - tends to refer to humans along these lines, in what Agent K refers to as a "massive inferiority complex". A good example is when the Bug, disguised as a human farmer, finds an exterminator spraying for (regular) cockroaches in the farmer's barn.
70	-->'''Exterminator''': I'm taking care of your pest problem.\
71	'''Bug''': "Pest problem"!? ''"Pest"''?!\
72	'''Exterminator''': Yeah, you've got a hell of an infestation.\
73	'''Bug''': You know, I've noticed an infestation here! Everyone I look, in fact, nothing but an undeveloped, unevolved, barely-conscious pond scum, totally convinced of their own superiority as they scurry about their short, pointless lives.\
74	'''Exterminator''': Well... yeah. Uh... don't you wanna get rid of them?\
75	'''Bug''': Oh, in the worst way. ''(murders the exterminator)''
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Literature]]
79	* ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'': Most of the entities these stories revolve around are basically uninterested in humans as a matter of scale: They exist at least as far above us in the cosmos as we do above ants. Humanity's primary defense against them is being completely beneath notice. Nyarlathotep, however, has plans for which humans happen to be ideal. Or he just likes having sentient beings to torment for his own amusement, it's difficult to tell with him. Yog-Sothoth is kind of back and forth with; he couldn't care less about human life, but he does have uses for us, mainly to create HalfHumanHybrid offspring, which are footholds into our physical universe for him. Cthulhu themselves only happens to be imprisoned on earth (not because ''Earth'' is special, there are just enough Cthulhus out there that statistifcally speaking most planets have at least one), and humanity are the current dominant species here so they are the ideal cultists.
80	** ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' makes it abundantly clear that the mighty, advanced civilization of the [[FishPeople Deep Ones]] - which are sort of Lovecraft's [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent take on mermaids]] - could exterminate all life on the planet's surface without much difficulty, [[IfIWantedYouDead if they could be bothered]], but so far they seem to think it's not worth the hassle. They are, however, quite eager to [[MarsNeedsWomen have sex with us.]]
81	* ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'' speaks of how humans have acquired a newfound empathy for wild animals in the wake of the Martian attacks, having learned what it's like to be exterminated as vermin by a vastly more powerful species. One character also rejects characterizing the events of the novel as a war, arguing that "It never was a war, any more than there’s war between men and ants." In his analogy, the Martians are the men and the humans are the ants. He also says humans shouldn't judge the Martians too harshly, as they've done the same thing through wiping out animal species before, and even other human groups too.
82	* ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'': The title is a reference to exactly this kind of thoughtless evil: the bizarre, frequently lethal anomalies within [[EldritchLocation the Zone]] are compared to how forest animals might view the trash left by thoughtless people after a roadside picnic.
83	* The Magus Bayaz in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' is human, but has magical powers, is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld very long lived]], and [[AGodAmI has delusions of godhood]], and reveals his belief in this trope when he [[EvilAllAlong shows his true colors]]:
84	** When being called out for using a MagicNuke which killed scores of people and desolated a city, Bayaz gives this as his justification:
85	--->"Every man seems a child to me. When you reach my age you see that history moves in circles. So many times I have guided this nation back from the brink of destruction, and on to ever greater glory. And what do I ask in return? A few little sacrifices? If you only understood the sacrifices that I have made on behalf of you cattle!"
86	** Shortly afterward, Bayaz threatens to kill Jezal (the one calling him out) if Jezal doesn't act as his totally subservient puppet:
87	--->"But if you insist on being difficult… there are other options... [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident Thrown by a horse. Choked on an olive-pit. Long falls to the hard, hard cobblestones. Or simply found dead in the morning]]. Life is always short for you insects. But it can be very short for those who are not useful..."
88	* The True Knot from ''Literature/DoctorSleep'' CLAIMS this is why they're justified in their lifestyle of torturing psychic children to death to rejuvenate themselves, but it's implied they still get a sadistic thrill out of it.
89	* Played with in ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem''. At the end of the first book, the [[AliensAreBastards Trisolarians']] last message to humanity [[spoiler:is a snide "You are bugs!"]] In the epilogue, [[spoiler:the human characters note that humanity has spent its entire history at war with the bugs that infest its crops, [[RayOfHopeEnding and yet those bugs are still around]].]]
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
93	* In ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', a number of the witches and warlocks think of humans in this way, usually ending up with something being done to Darrin or the people around him and necessitating Samantha explaining just exactly why what they are doing is wrong. The most common reaction to her explanation being confusion as to why it matters.
94	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': When they get some sense of just how old the Doctor is, and the vastness of his experience of time and space, companions have assumed that the Doctor must think this way about humanity. [[HumanityIsSpecial He denies it]], though it's also made clear that the reason he takes on companions in the first place is so he won't end up thinking like this.
95	* In ''Series/{{Haven}}'', Mara and William are two villainous members of a race who resemble humans but are TheAgeless and have powers. They have absolute contempt for humanity and think nothing of killing and toying with them. When an imprisoned Mara is confronted about her atrocities, she claims what she does is no different from a person pulling the wings off a dragonfly or setting a cat on fire just because she can and she boasts to the heroes, "You're less than insects to me." Other members of their race like [[spoiler:Mara's mother Charlotte]] are more sympathetic to humans and consider Mara and William to be criminals.
96	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
97	** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E2TheEnsignsOfCommand The Ensigns of Command]]", an alien civilization plans to exterminate a human colony of 15,000 from a planet they regard as their property. The aliens are courteous enough to warn the humans three days in advance, but since they do not regard humans as anything of value, after the deadline arrives, they plan to simply destroy the colony and any remaining colonists who haven't been evacuated.
98	** Q certainly has this attitude towards humans. While he holds some respect towards a few of them, and he feels they have potential to someday transcend beyond their current limitations, his primary view of them is that they are lesser beings for him to toy with for his amusement. Captain Picard even once compared Q's actions towards humanity to those of a bored child playing with a bunch of ants.
99	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Death has this opinion on humanity. As a timeless force of nature he simply operates on such a different level from the protagonists and the enemies they fight (including The Devil, who forced Death into his service) that he honestly doesn't care if the world gets incinerated, and views humans as microbes - barely noticeable and utterly insignificant. Although the "annoying protozoa" do manage to inconvenience him eventually, and he has to give them repeated lectures not to mess with cosmic principles. He does admit to at least being proud of Sam, though.
100	* ''Series/UltraSeven'' has Alien Cool, who boasts that their race views humans like humans view insects. It's especially ironic and hypocritical since Cool himself is an InsectoidAlien.
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
104	* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' the Eldrazi Titans are barely aware that lesser creatures exist, even when they do manage to inconvenience them. They devour entire worlds and their legions of drones are simply extensions of themselves - they simply don't operate on the level where an individual can register as significant.
105	--> [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193534 Have you ever killed insects nibbling at your crops? I think that's what the Eldrazi believe they're doing to us.]]
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
109	* In the queue video for ''Ride/TransformersTheRide'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, Megatron begins his transmission by outright referring to all humans as "insects".
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Video Games]]
113	* [[AIIsACrapshoot SHODAN]], the antagonist of the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' series considers all humans to be weak, worthless creatures and even refers to the main character, a human by the way, as an insect. Multiple times.
114	* Played with in ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward''. [[BigBad Zero]] compares humans to termites at one point, but the comparison ''isn't'' negative. Zero sees termites as natural architects that create intricate and beautiful things, however they are too dumb to realize it and only a more intelligent species such as humans can truly appreciate the beauty of the things they create. He then theorizes that humans might be similar, creating beautiful things without realizing it, that only higher beings more intelligent than us can comprehend and appreciate. [[spoiler:It's implied to be a metaphor for the nature of the morphogenetic field; a normal human cannot see multiple timelines in physical space but a higher being that could surpass three dimensional space might.]]
115	* In ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'', [[spoiler:the godlike [=OMNIs=] are completely indifferent to their human creators, viewing them as "insignificant as a single grain of sand in a billion beaches". When Idaho makes contact with the [=OMNIs=] and begs them to save mankind from its impending extinction, they refuse, telling him that mankind must solve its own problems (though if nothing else, they at least offer him some suggestions for how he might save humanity)]].
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Webcomics]]
119	* ''Webcomic/{{Kubera}}'': Maruna holds this attitude, though he [[HalfHumanHybrid considers halves and quarters]] to be sura, and treats them accordingly.
120	* ''Webcomic/ARedtailsDream'': Moose explains that from Puppy-fox's perspective, human (and doggy) lives are like that of a fly in length so he doesn't understand what the fuss is if they die a little early.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Western Animation]]
124	* Most Homeworld Gems from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' see humans and most organic life in general as curiosities at best and pests to be eradicated at worst. The civil war with the Crystal Gems in the backstory was essentially what happened when several Gems decided that HumansAreSpecial and fought to keep the Earth from being harvested for resources. Though it should be noted many of them [[NotInThisForYourRevolution were in it for]] [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal their own mistreatment rather than humanity]], and even to the present day they still have a bit of condescension to the humans they swore to protect. Even [[TheParagon Rose Quartz]] saw humans for most of her life as more like amusing animals than people to be respected as equals until she met and fell in love with Greg Universe.
125	%%* Very much the case in ''Animation/FantasticPlanet''.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Real Life]]
129	* "Unfriendly AI" is a subject often discussed by [[TheSingularity singularitarians]]. Actually, there are many ways for AI to be unfriendly, and this isn't the worst one, but it's one of the simplest and most straightforward (outside of destruction). A [[{{Transhuman}} transhuman]] robot could be programmed to make [[http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer paperclips]] or whatever - and it would proceed to make as many as possible, not caring that some of the iron it needs is inside human blood.
130	-->'''Creator/EliezerYudkowsky''': The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else.
131	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb Nathan Leopold]] said this about him and and his friend [[WouldHurtAChild murdering a teenage neighbor]] to try and commit ThePerfectCrime.
132	-->"The killing was an experiment. It is just as easy to justify such a death as it is to justify an entomologist killing a beetle on a pin."
133	* The Universe itself, in an unknowing manner. It's a 46 billion light year [[note]] To compare, the height of an average tree is to a ''single light year'' as much as a nucleus is to a metre[[/note]] wide space (as a minimum distance, maximum is speculated to be infinity itself), that is comprised of all sorts of stuff enough to sterilize the solar system 1000 times over, ''and then some''. Supernovas, asteroids, gamma ray bursts, rogue planets, you name it. It's not that the universe actively wants us dead, but it has its own manner of marching forwards, and we are luckily out of the way by immense distances for even a single event (except [[ColonyDrop asteroids]]) to occur. InsignificantLittleBluePlanet has never felt ''scarier''.
134	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HumansAreInsects