Humans Are Special - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Homo sapiens! What an inventive, invincible species. It's only a few million years since they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk... Puny, defenseless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine and plague; they've survived cosmic wars and holocausts. And now here they are, out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life. Ready to outsit eternity... They're indomitable. Indomitable."
The Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Ark In Space"

Much Speculative Fiction presents Puny Earthlings, physically, mentally, culturally, morally, and in most other ways inferior to all other aliens. (Or to put it differently, many Fantasy and Science Fiction authors are fond of a kind of masochistic reverse racism in that their elves/aliens/whatever are always better: technologically and culturally advanced, or physically stronger, faster, tougher with fangs and claws and superior senses blablabla, while humans are invariably weak, slow, uncoordinated, cowardly, and so on.) To balance this, and to explain why we still manage to stick around, it is also made clear that there is something special, something unique about the human character: mankind seems to have a certain adaptability, or resilience, or determination, or curiosity, or independent spirit, or zest for life -- basically Western, humanistic values in a nutshell -- that somehow allows us to transcend our weaknesses and earn the admiration and/or fear of other, more advanced civilizations. Apparently everyone else is stuck in a rut, possibly as a result of being a Planet Of Hats.

In extreme cases, fantasy writers have depicted humans as (morally) superior to the gods. This is easily accomplished by having the gods acting like two-year-olds, and badly brought up two-year-olds at that (then again, given actual mythology, this might not be too much of a stretch, but the technique is often used in so Anvilicious a manner as to reveal the Writer On Board).

If humans know they are special, they will make it clear to the aliens in a Patrick Stewart Speech. Alternately, it might be the aliens themselves who tell mankind that they have the potential to achieve greatness beyond imagination.

May be used as a justification for Earth Is The Center Of The Universe.

Contrast with Humans Are Bastards, Humanity Is Superior. See also Humanity On Trial.

Examples:

Live Action TV

This conceit has been the defining philosophy of every incarnation of Star Trek.
In Doctor Who, humanity's ability to survive and adapt is what draws the Daleks to repeatedly try to conquer Earth.
- The Doctor expresses contempt for Puny Earthlings ("stupid apes") during his darker moments. He does have a point, since Time Lords are superior in nearly every way. However, he has a certain degree of admiration for humans that inspires him to help them over and over again. They're just so special!
Suggested in Babylon 5 a couple times. Once as the ability to build communities out of disparate elements wherever we go, where other races might make military bases or choose to live apart from themselves and others. Londo Mollari also gives a rather tear jerking speech about how much he admires the humans, especially since they were the only species to put up a fight during the Human-Minbari War.
In Red Dwarf, humans (the few that remain) are not only special among other races, but the forefathers of literally every other race in the universe.
In the V franchise, this was the explanation of why the Visitors didn't use their conversion process on all of humanity to make them compliant. According to Diana, Humans are unusually strong willed compared to other species which makes mass conversion impractical for at least the time being.
Prime example: Stargate SG 1. Human life began on earth. The humans are the only ones who carry the gene of the Ancients in themselves and every other race they meet is either extremely arrogant, Always Chaotic Evil, has questionable morals or are otherwise 'inferior' to humans. Probably the only exception are the Asgard, who also owe their their lifes to the humans multiple times, despite being Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. Even the Ancients themselves, the show's legendary race and 'gods' who ascended to a higher plane of existence are labeled being wrong in their morals. Compare Rousseau Was Right.

Western Animation

Used as the explanation for why the Drej blew up Earth in Titan AE. Sorta-kinda a Self Fulfilling Prophecy, in that the Drej wouldn't have had to worry about us if we hadn't been pissed off over them blowing up our planet.
- "Humanity is special because they are murderous, tenacious bastards and if you fuck with them they will rain down fury upon you that your race literally cannot conceive of" is a rather popular, if cynical, subset of the genre. Titan AE is as good an example as any.
  - In Ender's Game, the hive-minded insect-like aliens encounter humanity, and not realizing the individuality of each of us, disassembled the contactees to see how they worked. Humanity reacted by annihilating their entire species and homeworld. (Except for one larval queen which was revived thousands upon thousands of years later by the same person that ordered the species's destruction.)
  - A similar plot was used earlier in Joe Haldeman's Forever War. The war started because the aliens had no idea how to communicate with a race of individuals.
Averted in South Park, when it turns out that Earth is a galactic reality show. Humans are only special in that they're the laughing stock of a universe full of creatures which are simply vastly superior in every way.

Comic Books

Parodied in the Buck Godot comic book series, where the one thing that makes Earth unique in a galaxy crowded with advanced species is that it was the only planet ever to invent the popsicle. Nonetheless, they still get the greatness-beyond-imagination speech from the Winslow at the end of one story.
In the Green Lantern comics, the Guardians of the Universe pick out humanity as one of the next few species to Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence, and note that humans make wonderful Green Lanterns. In a bit of subversion, one of the other races picked out as having potential is a species of intelligent space chipmunks, and humanity by and large doesn't seem to change much for 1000 years when the Legion of Super Heroes comics take place.
This trope is played for laughs at least once in the Marvel Universe when an alien conquerer sets his sights on conquering Earth. En route, he learns a stunning fact, the humans on that planet repelled the supposedly unstoppable attacks of Galactus, the feared god-like Omnicidal Maniac devourer of worlds not once, but multiple consecutive times. He quickly u-turns his ships and flees fearing a species capable of that kind of defense.
- And played straight when the Ultimate Marvel Galactus is defeated, and Nick Fury says it makes him feel like he can challenge God.

Literature

Kid Lit example: Aliens put Humanity On Trial in the My Teacher is An Alien books, and many of the aliens want to save them because they are special, having the biggest brains in the universe while only using ten percent of their brains.
Isaac Asimov once said that almost every story edited by John W. Campbell had a Humans Are Special theme. He usually averted the trope by setting most of his stories in universes with no intelligent alien life. One of his short stories, "Hostess" was a deliberate subversion -- humanity was "special" because it was the only species that died of cancer, because we were the "hosts" of psychic parasites that were decimating the unprepared alien races in the story.
Used in David Brin's Uplift series where the humans -- young, inexperienced newcomers to a very old galactic political scene -- manage to fight, win, and show the superiority of their culture (or at least their capacity for unconventional military tactics) against several Alien races.
Somewhat similarly to the WoD example, humanity's special place in Ea as compared with elves/dwarves/maia/etc in spite of our short lifespan and inability for magic is defined by our "freedom from destiny".
- Tolkien's elves are still much more special than the humans of Middle Earth, though.
Used in the fourth Wiz Biz novel by Rick Cook: the protagonist is told by a dragon to save a village of humans from dragons, before realizing that his job was to save dragons from humanity in general, since we may be puny compared to a dragon, but there are a lot of us, and we learn very fast.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld, humanity's capacity for boredom, hallucination, and irrationality makes them "special". These traits are not quite unique, being shared with dwarfs and trolls, but are lacking in the more powerful entities like the Auditors and multi-tentacled creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions and such. Pratchett treats human behaviour as fairly infectious too, for better or worse.
In John Ringo's book "A Hymn Before Battle" the thing that makes humanity special is its capacity for violence (and democracy. No, I'm not kidding). This shows up in other books like "Star Strike" or "The Last Starfighter" (movie, but I read the book). There is almost always a speech about how humans are vicious and psychotic... followed by a request for aid. The exception is Star Strike where the aliens don't practice war, but are psychotic so the humans turn on them and help their intended target.
- Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers also has the capacity for violence as Earth Descended humanity's most useful trait.
In Niven's books humanity's special traits are luck and intelligent females (as opposed to the Kzin who have domesticated their females and the Puppeters who... just don't ask- it's gross).
- Humanity also seems to be really, really good at war -- at first contact, despite humanity being (at the time) very pacifist and taken almost completely by surprise, it fended off the ridiculously superior technology (and laughably bad tactics) of the kzin invaders until managing to acquire their own advanced tech (FTL) brought a quick and decisive victory for the humans.
- If you won't tell them, I will. Pierson's Puppeteers have three "sexes" and breed akin to parasitic wasps. The two sentient sexes will put their eggs and sperm into a non-sentient "female", which is actually of a different species. Puppeteers don't like talking about sex, so this isn't elaborated on much (Though, as they're herd herbovores, one imagines the newborn puppeteer doesn't eat the host. Whether it comes out chestburster style or the other species has developed to survive birthing the puppeteer hasn't been brought up).
The Strugatsky Brothers (ok, one of the Strugatsky Brothers) novel "Expedition Into Perdition" play this straight Humans are special for a lot of reasons, almost to the degree of being superior, but their ability to be OneManArmys despite appearing to be TechnicalPacifists really separates them from the pack. As The Two-Headed Yule phrases it: Do not bother a lion when he's eating, do not wake a sleeping elephant and NEVER, EVER, mess with humans.
In Starship Troopers it is the fact we don't leave men behind. Ironically the bugs' special trait (aside from hive mind) is the fact that their prisoners don't die in captivity (unlike what happens to the ones humans capture).
- Huh?
Parodied and inverted in W.R. Thompson's story "Lost In Translation," in which an alien science fiction writer has his token human stand around and think admiringly about how special the alien race is. (He's also named "Climber Pinkskin." The human translator tactfully suggests a little editing on that one.)
In the second Megamorphs book of the Animorphs series, we learn that what sets humans apart from all the other races - many of whom are smarter and much more physically capable than we are - is our unparalleled ability to adapt.
- Perhaps as a parody of the concept, another of humanity's special traits and the reason the Yeerks are so determined to conquer Earth is that there are so damn many of us. When the Yeerk leaders are told that the human population is six billion, their reaction is somewhere along the lines of "surely you mean six million".
  - "No, six billion. And don't call me Shirley."
  - ""I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you."
- Also, humans apparently have the best sense of balance in the entire galaxy as we are able to run around on two legs without even a tail to help.
  - Also our culinary arts, which, at least from Ax's perspective, are unparalleled the universe over, since apparently we are one of the relatively few sentient species with a strong sense of taste (being descended from foraging omnivores rather than grazing herbivores).
In the Alan Dean Foster novel, Design for Great-Day, human loquaciousness is described as being their special talent. Other races can speak conversationally and use metaphors and everything else we associate with speech, but humans in particular are known for their ability to "talk the legs off an alligator and cast serious doubts on its parentage in the process". The implication is that while other races can use speech this way (it is, after all, an alien saying this of humans), humans are inherently better at it.
- In Foster's Homanx Commonwealth universe, mankind is not inherently better or worse than the alien races they meet; but humans are very enthusiastic for fighting, even those who aren't trained warriors. And they are very adaptive. The insectoid thranx may be better at logic and thrive in tropical climates, and the reptilian Aan are aggressive and can survive in deserts, but humans can alternate between logic and viciousness and survive everywhere with remarkable ease.
- Foster picks up the theme of humans as the most adaptive and non-specialized species (which is arguably truth in fiction, as any biologist can tell you) in his trilogy The Damned (A Call to Arms; The False Mirror; The Spoils of War). Because while other species may be better than the average human at one physical feat due to their anatomy or physiology (i.e. swimming, climbing, hearing, flying, carrying heavier loads, having faster reaction time) and some are culturally more sensitive and born diplomats, and one race is actually telepathic, their specialization comes at a price. But when aliens discover Earth during a galactic war, they find out that humans are just the kind of mercenaries they're desperately looking for. Because humans (especially physically fit ones) are good a everything; they can swim and hold their breath under water and climb and crawl through narrow spaces and carry heavy loads and run fast and control their emotions, and discuss philosophy in polite society and then pick up a rifle and throw themselves into combat the next moment and enjoy it. So eminently suited are humans for warfare that the aliens are shocked and horrified at first: Prior to the war, galactic society had progressed to a pacifist state and they had assumed that no species could be warlike and civilized at the same time, but humans are. One alien scientist puts forth the hypothesis that mankind's inherent schizophrenia is caused by their evolution on Earth, which compared to their home worlds is a rather dangerous planet, filled with many different environments and natural disasters. In fact, the fragile birdlike "born diplomats" species is so pacifist that its members go into catatonic shock when witnessing acts of violence. Even the "aggressors" who started the war, the telepathic race of jellyfish-like coldly logical Diabolical Masterminds, are physically incapable of fighting themselves and force mind-controlled servant races to fight for them. When the telepathic aliens find out that humans are also very difficult to control telepathically to the point of being immune, they enact a Xanatos Gambit by unconditionally surrendering to the galactic alliance that includes the humans, having calculated that without the war to occupy the humans, restless mankind will soon become a problem for its allies. The other races armed humans with advanced weaponry and medical technology. They won't stand a chance if mankind decides to conquer them.
Of course intellectually humans are downright pitiful. They can't be peaceful, suck at medicine, and are pretty much dedicated combatants. Everybody else is better at something, except for combat. Of course, that lasts right up until humans develop psionic abilities. Which is later somewhat subverted, as it turns out that the Lepar, a stupid, plodding race is resistant.
This is the entire premise behind the Arthur C Clarke short "Rescue Party".
In the Galactic Milieu trilogy by Julian May, this trope is arguably overused, as within 70 years of being contacted by galactic society, humans are already beyond them in technology, besides having the most powerful psychic powers in the universe. This is balanced by... take a guess.
In Harry Turtledove's World War and Colonization series, like in the Rescue Party above, humans are also extremely fast at cultural and technological development, compared to the three other known species.
- In another of Turtledove's short stories, Humans were the only species who did not develop faster than light travel in the normal course of technological progression, despite it being actually a lot simpler than our physicists have determined. However, unlike every other civilization, they are the only ones who did develop electricity, radio and nuclear physics.

Tabletop RPGs

Baseline humanity in The World Of Darkness has few things going for it, but a big one is that we're the only species with the divine spark, which lets us shape observed reality to an extent (and what keeps most of the incredibly powerful Cosmic Horrors at bay).
In the pen-and-paper roleplaying game Teenagers From Outer Space, the aliens all have superpowers, but Earthlings have a few special abilities of their own, and to top it all off, Earth is universally acclaimed as the single coolest planet in the entire galaxy. (Which is why the aliens go there.)
- Humans also have the ability to "fake out", i.e. convince an alien of just about anything, like draping carpets over your head makes for impressive evening wear, or that kissing is a perfectly socially acceptable way of greeting anyone. After all, humans are the coolest species in the universe, so they should KNOW, right?
In Warhammer 40000, humanity's special trait? The fact that they're better bastards than everyone else.
In Dungeons And Dragons, humans are pretty puny, but have a greater ability to Multiclass. At least, they did. In some editions. They might not still.

Video Games

Explored in several of the Super Robot Wars games, most prominently the Alpha and Original Generation series. In addition to the more run-of-the-mill conceit that humans are supposedly an aggressive and warlike species (given our history), the aliens often hang a lampshade on the fact that Earth is home to a suspiciously large number of WMD-class Humongous Mecha (because the games are a crossover between different mecha anime series). This may lead them to believe that Humans Are Bastards, which usually doesn't end well.
In Advent Rising the human race is presented as being the closest to perfection; a race of latent demigods. This leads to humanity being the center of attention of many alien races and its near-extermination.
In The Journeyman Project: Legacy of Time, the actions taken by both the series' hero and the series' Anti Villain characters are shown to be the reasonable responses to the still-kind-of-violent races of the Symbiotry of Peaceful Worlds. The actions of the humans, who have gotten over their petty squabbles faster than any other race in the galaxy, grant them the privilege of protecting the Legacy, until the other races can prove themselves worthy of it.
Humanity in Mass Effect have started numerous colonies across the galaxy and have taken a large role in galactic politics in less than thirty years. This has lead to resentment from many aliens, most notably Saren.
- To say nothing of the fact that before humans showed up on the interstellar stage, the galaxy was caught in a million-years-old cycle of ascendency and destruction by Cosmic Horrors. The actions of Commander Shepherd may have curtailed this.
Inverted in Master Of Orion. Humans are indeed special...they were specifically created by a villainous race of Precursors to wipe out the good guy aliens.

WebComics

Subverted in Killroy and Tina where Earth is considered the pornography capital of the universe by aliens and considered useless for everything else.

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