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"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"
The only thing you've been granted is power, but you haven't been given hearts! As long as you are heartless, you cannot surpass humans! — Diver, Transformers Super God Masterforce
Much Speculative Fiction presents a galaxy filled with many aliens that are far more advanced than Puny Earthlings. This is not particularly improbable; after all, assuming they're not the very first race to make the leap, ever, any race that just got space travel recently (which is usually the timeframe Speculative Fiction focuses on, since it's easier for us to relate to) is going to initially be the 'new boys' on the galactic scene, encountering tons of other races that have had far longer to get their things together. Even if other aliens aren't super-advanced, if you have lots of different spacefaring races in your setting, you still end up with humanity just being one non-notable race among thousands. But the problem is, these things are actually being written by humans, for humans, and that usually means people want to see humans in an important, overarching role. To accomplish this, it is 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 humanity that they have the potential to achieve greatness beyond imagination.
May be used as a justification for Earth Is The Center Of The Universe. Frequently, it's because aliens suffer Creative Sterility.
Contrast with Humans Are Bastards, Humanity Is Superior. See also Humanity On Trial, What Measure Is A Non Human, The Eternal Churchill.
Examples
Anime
- In Transformers Super God Masterforce humanity's compassion is what inspired the Autobot Pretenders to take on human form and live on Earth.
- In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann the humanoid form is best able to access Spiral Energy, justifying the heroes' specialness and use of Humongous Mecha at a stroke.
- In Hellsing, Alucard rather admires humanity to a point, though he generally makes a distinction between "human dogs", "humans who become monsters" and "real humans."
- He doesn't admire humans, he envy's their ability to die.
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.
- Note that was the opinion of the original Guardians. The new Guardians of the Universe think that, while Earth has has some imagination and great will, humans are stupid savages (like other races who hear about Earth), despite most of the reality bending stuff being related to them. The two Guardians who disagree with this opinion are Ganthlet (who the last original Guardian) and Sayd (who is his lover and seen how good humans can be firsthand), but are now exiled from the rest. The reason being that they "coddle humans too much" and for thinking that being emotionally detached from everything is bad (which has been shown to be true).
- 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 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.
- Played for laughs a second time when aliens challenge earth's greatest heroes (The West Coast Avengers) to battle with their robot to test their strength. After all of the Avengers kill the self repairing robot one after another, we find that the aliens assume that all 6 billion humans are a composite of the 6 members of the WCA, with all their powers combined, and instantly rethink their invasion plan.
- This is based on a number of older Stan Lee Stories where a superhero fights off an alien invasion, and the aliens flee, thinking that all humans are like this, or in Iron Man's case that the humans have an army of 'robots'.
- And played straight when the Ultimate Marvel Galactus is defeated, and Nick Fury says it makes him feel like he can challenge God.
- Another Marvel example: Uatu, a member of the ancient Watcher race, is convinced that humanity is innately noble, to the point he broke his non-interference vow to help save them from Galactus, the Planet Eater. After being put in trial for this, he has pretended to not care about humans anymore... but always manages to *indirectly* aid when needed, such as the time he tricked another Cosmic Entity (The Stranger) into not killing a group of superheroes, simply by showing up to "observe" the event, which led The Stranger to conclude Uatu would not have bothered unless the humans were going to win anyway.
- Another Marvel short story had an alien marvel (pun not intended) at the attention such a fragmented backwater like Earth could be the only world in the known galaxies that produces the delicacy "ice cream". (the alien in question is a trader who buys the stuff by the tanker-ful)
- Ultimate Marvel has this with Ultimate Captain Mahr Vell in the Ultimate Secret arc. He defects to the humans partly because of their enjoyable (American) culture, including Krispy Kreme donuts.
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 them.
- Subverted in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, where humanity is infamously summed up as Mostly Harmless.
- 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 resilience and 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".
- 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).
- Another fact of our biology that apperently sets us apart from all other known races in this continuity are our hemispheric brains and, by extension, our dialectic minds, conveyed memorably in 'Visser':
This mind could argue with itself. This mind could see the same event in different ways. It was insanity! A democratic brain, arguing within itself, with no sure, certain control, only a sort of uneasy compromise. A consensus of disputatious elements.
This brain contained its own traitor!
And, as I began to sift the memories I saw, again and again, the internal argument. The “Should I? Should I not?” debates. The paralysis of internal disagreement.
But I also saw decisions improved as a result of uncertainty. Hesitation and internal discord leading to decisions that were wiser, more useful, than quicker decisions would have been.
And yet that seemed a small compensation for the internal treason and confusion and conflict.
No wonder they kill each other, I thought. They very nearly kill themselves!
It was madness. Humans, as a species, were mad.
- Ax also expresses amazement and disbelief when he realizes that humanity went from atmospheric flight to being able to send a ship to the moon in less than seventy years. When he reads Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death!" quote, he wonders if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into. Visser One points out that humans have fought much more wars than the Yeerks, and Elfangor is surprised when Loren and Chapman tell him a war recently ended — since we don't have space travel, who could we possibly have to fight with?
- Also also, the fact that we are bastards. The Andalites are appalled that we still fight wars with each other, and the Yeerks figure that due to our predatory nature, we're not really much better than they are. After all, a parasite's host at least is still alive.
- 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 old age, 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.
- In this case it's not that humans are innately special, but that the human race matured naturally without being "uplifted" by another race, something that hasn't happened since the Precursors. We had to make our own mistakes and learn our own lessons, and everything we know how to do, we know because we worked it out from first principles through experimentation. Most other races learn about electricity and gravity and everything else by rote out of a huge encyclopedia, and while they are more advanced than humanity, they are effectively in technological stasis. If the Library doesn't say it can be done, it can't be done. Humans tend not to trust the Library as the ultimate repository of all knowledge; after all, they've done without it for this long!
- This is the entire premise behind the Arthur C Clarke short "Rescue Party
 ".
- And the novel Childhood's End.
- 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.
- The Gordon R. Dickson short story Danger - Human featured aliens who have captured a human for study. During previous eons, humans have been found to be responsible for the destruction of galactic civilization, multiple times, and the aliens wanted to find out what trait or stimulus caused this change, in order to prevent it. Multiple security precautions are used including a sealed chamber, constant surveillance, and a single exit guarded by a 20-foot-high force field that only turns off for a short period of time during certain parts of the day. In the end, the human character, who has been repeatedly vivisected, psychoanalyzed, and generally given a rough time, snaps. He manages to escape his chamber, evade all surveillance, and somehow pass through or above the force field, completely unaffected by it. He then hijacks a nearby interstellar cargo vessel and heads back to Earth. The aliens are all suddenly feeling an existential dread as they realize that they have just provided humanity with the reason and the means to destroy galactic civilization once again.
- I suppose "We are really, really sorry about that" won't cut it, huh?
- 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 Humanx 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 at 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 to telepathy.
- It should be noted, however, that the remarkable thing about human resistance to mind control is our extremly violent reaction to such attempts.
- This trope gets played in a minor key in Robert A Heinlein's juvenile novel "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" (See Humanity On Trial for a description of the denouement)
- In Robert A Heinlein's Starship Troopers it is the fact we don't leave people 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 those humans capture).
- Similarly to the Foster version above, Tanya Huff's Confederation novels have humans as one of the few species in the galaxy with the mindset capable of withstanding the rigors of combat. Only a partial example since while we may have been the first there are three other species just as capable as us, the Taykan, the Krai and in the first book the recently contact Ssilsvis. Though according to the H'san our discovery of cheese is just as noteworthy.
- In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Mowgli has to learn more than the wolves.
the big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse—"Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs, and sharp white teeth, all these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui the Jackal and the Hyaena whom we hate." But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this.
- 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 Niven's books humanity's special traits are luck and intelligent females (as opposed to the Kzin who have domesticated their females and the Puppeteers 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.
- It helped that the Puppeteers were manipulating events so humans would win (including their gaining FTL technology), as part of a Xanatos Gambit to curb Kzinti aggression. A Kzinti who finds out about this in Ringworld gets very pissed off.
- It also helped that Humanity gave up war and suppressed it's knowledge because we were too good at it. Only about 10% of people pass the psych test to learn history.
- The Kzin are also uplifted. They were a Bronze/early Iron age race who got enough technology to build an interstellar empire with out any of the wisdom development requires. The non-sentient females are the result of genetic engineering along the lines of a male's ideal in the early bronze age, specifically always willing to mate and unable to talk back. Males were similarly altered to be larger, smarter and more aggressive.
- 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 herbivores, 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 Penn & Teller book Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends included a bonus short story involving a group of aliens who put humanity on trial, feeling that a Class-A inhabitable planet like Earth shouldn't be wasted on a Class-ZZ redundant species like humanity. The main character is challenged to come up with a single unique property of humanity, not present in any other species, that deserves to be preserved. What finally convinces the aliens? Predictably, magic tricks.
- 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 first book of the Posleen War Series, 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.
- Humanity in the Posleen verse is also the only race that doesn't have a master plan to conquer the galaxy using the other and transforming their nature. The Darhel want us broken and scattered to be used as tools when needed and kept locked up the rest of the time. The Furry bear like race is working with several others to make us more like them. (including weening us off animal products) and the Frog's plans are so secret the only know them.
- Humanity is the only race to invent mass production and replaceable parts, with other races opposed on cultural grounds...
- What makes humanity special is the fact that we weren't messed with genetically by the Aldenata, unlike every other race in the known galaxy, and thus are physiologically capable of things like violence on a massive scale. The only other race capable of this, prior to Eye of the Storm is the Posleen, and we're smarter than them.
- The Strugatsky Brothers (ok, one of the Strugatsky Brothers) novel Expedition Into Perdition plays this straight. Humans are special for a lot of reasons, almost to the degree of being superior, but their ability to be One Man Armies 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 an elephant when he's sleeping, and never, ever, mess with humans.
- 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 Tolkien's Lengendarium, God endows humanity with "strange gifts." Mortals have more freedom to choose their own destiny, and also can leave the world — i.e., die. The latter is described as something that, eventually, the Elves and Powers That Be will come to envy.
- In Harry Turtledove's World War and Colonization series, like in "Rescue Party" above, humans are also extremely fast at cultural and technological development, compared to the three other known species.
- "The Road Not Taken", 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 pretty much any technology later than the steam age. It is mentioned that as soon as a race develops FTL travel, their technological advancements stop, since the FTL makes no sense in any known science, causing science to break down.
- In its sequel, Herbig-Haro, humanity encountered a race even more advanced than they were, and were conquered themselves.
- In The Host, humans not only have more senses than any other species the Souls use as hosts (point one in our favor) but also much more intense emotions. Meyer goes so far as to have Wanderer basically decide that although Souls give love somewhat unconditionally, humanity's tendency to be emotionally intense, confusing, irrational and even a tad fickle makes human love a lot more precious, precisely because it's rarer, harder to achieve and much more inexplicable (point two in our favor). Humans are also apparently the only species that's ever been remotely capable of retaining part of their original personalities when possessed by a Soul (point three in our favor). In contrast, the Souls, while very technologically advanced, very successful at taking over other planets, and naturally, unusually altruistic and kind... are dumb as rocks.
- In Ben Counter's Warhammer 40000 Grey Knights novel Hammer of Daemons, when Alaric has confronted the mandrake and explained how he knew it was The Mole — and accused it of betraying a previous Gladiator Revolt, thereby causing the death of another captive Grey Knight in celebratory games — it defends itself on the grounds that it had to survive. Alaric says that for humans, to survive is not enough.
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!
- However, this theme is horribly subverted in the Tenth Doctor episode Midnight.
- 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 for their seemingly futile yet terribly noble struggle to survive in the Earth-Minbari War.
- A particularly annoying example in one of the earlier episodes of season one has every species on the station inviting the others to take part in celebrations of their dominant religious faiths. While the Rubber Forehead Aliens all follow a single religion, the humans, at the end, bring out an almost goofily long line of representatives from every conceivable Earthly religion. One assumes this was meant to be heartwarming, but it's so heavy-handed it comes across as smug and self-congratulatory.
- 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. The humans are the only ones who carry the gene of the Ancients, 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 lives to the humans multiple times, despite being Sufficiently Advanced Aliens; and they commit species-scale suicide at the end anyway. Even the Ancients themselves (also humans, of a "previous evolution", who actually bootstrapped the evolution of humans on Earth), while being the show's legendary race and "gods" who ascended to a higher plane of existence, are labeled as wrong in their morals. Compare Rousseau Was Right.
- More to the point there's very few other species than humans. The only major ones are Wraith, Goa'uld, Nox, Asgard, and Furlings. A few others exist, but 95% of everyone is a human of some sort in the 3 known galaxies. Earth Humanity is special because we have the ATA Gene, and the only reason we have that is because we're the most crowded planet in the three galaxies. Human settlements of a few hundred to thousand is the norm and the ATA gene is recessive...
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).
- The new World Of Darkness has a certain opposing view between the mages of the libertarian Free Council and the autoritarian Silver Ladder. The Free Council mages believe Humans Are Special, with human works and endeavors containing arcane knowledge. The Silver Ladder mages believe humans aren't special, but that they should be, and being denied the arcane power they deserve is the ultimate crime.
- 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?
- It seems humanity is the only species to actually invent popular culture/entertainment at all. Hence, we have the best music, movies, clothes, soft drinks, etc. and any alien species will either import what humans invented in this line, or copy it. One of the sample characters is a Rubber Forehead Alien Parker Lewis Ferris Bueller who explains that she can get the best tech from her homeworld simply by sending Earth music or fashion to them in trade.
- In Warhammer 40000, humanity's special trait? The fact that they're more efficient bastards than everyone else. Traits other settings associate with humans - dynamic society, adapting technology, and optimism - are actually given to the alien Tau. Human civilization has been in decline for the past ten thousand years, a Machine Cult of Techno Wizards quashes innovation and doesn't fully understand what technology still works, and humanity has dubbed the current era "The Time of Ending." The only things mankind has going for it are numbers and a willingness to do whatever it takes to survive, no matter how many worlds get snuffed out in the process.
- In Dungeons And Dragons, humans are treated as foolish and immature due to their abbreviated lifespans. Yet, they're truly capable of anything, as the rapid pace of their lives leads them to be quickly adaptable as a race, and driven to professional excellence as individuals.
- In 1st and 2nd edition, they had no special abilities whatsoever, but could run the full range of ability scores, could belong to any class, and had no limit to what level they could gain in their class. Other races could belong to two classes at once in predetermined combinations, but only humans could change their classes after creation (although it was a pretty grueling process, requiring you to start from scratch until you regained the level you switched at).
- In 3rd edition, humans again have no special racial powers, but instead gain a bonus feat of their choosing and can develop an extra skill, allowing them to excel right from the start. While other races have specific favored classes that don't count against multiclassing penalties, a human's favored class is whatever class he has the most levels in, making multiclassing a bit easier.
- In 4th edition, other races get bonuses to two predetermined ability scores, small bonuses to two predetermined skills, 2-4 passive abilities, and a bonus activated power. Humans get a bonus to one ability score of their choosing, full training in any skill of their choosing, a bonus feat of their choosing, and an extra class-based attack power... yes, of their choosing. See the theme there?
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.
- The early Warcraft games used this especially Warcraft I where everything else on Azeroth was Always Chaotic Evil. Even in Warcraft II the humans were the most heroic of the races of the Alliance. Later games went on to show some humans could be pretty villainous and orcs could be heroic.
- 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.
- One of two surviving humans then proceeds to open a can o' whup-ass on the genocidal aliens with the above-mentioned demi-god powers.
- 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 ascendancy and destruction by Eldritch Abominations, so of course the actions of human protagonist Commander Shepherd may have now curtailed this for the first time, ever.
- Except that the entire reason that they're able to do that is because the Protheans set things up to allow any species that followed suit afterwards to stop the Reapers. Anyone could have done that, not just humans.
- However, Mass Effect also subverts this trope in a rather clever fashion. Not only does Kaidan lampshade it when he mentions that other races are just as varied - "They're like us." - but it's implied that Earth is itself in the early stages of becoming a Planet Of Hats (the hat is tenacity) as a result of its tentative acceptance into a larger galactic community. (Captain Anderson is in fact British, according to the first novel, but Earth is monocultural enough that this is not readily apparent.)
- Should be noted that most of these colonies are in fact small towns will about 500 people at best, and often victims of raider attacks (the EA just puts up token defenses since only 3% of the human population is in the military, much lower then other races which is a good 10% or more) as a result of rushing to colonize as many planets as they can, often missing much better planets (which is way a major side quest is to survey planets)
- 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.
- But they're so damn charming. (Humans get diplomatic bonuses in the MOO series.)
- Played straight on the 3 campaigns of Guild Wars since the Player Character can only be human, the lore mentions that when humans appeared they had no thick hides, sharp claws or fangs to defend themselves from monsters, but they worshipped the gods who created Tyria and in turn those gods gave them the gift of magic to defend themselves, thanks to this, humans were able to dominate the 3 continents, it is also mentioned that the humans's comings and goings are of great interest to said gods althought they no longer directly intervene. It is also human heroes the ones who defeat the fallen god Abaddon and it is the human Kormir the one who consumes his power and ascends to goddess.
- From Eye of the North onward this is been steadily subverted with the introduction of several races like the Asura, Norn and Sylvari, the Charr had already been introduced on the first campaign, Prophecies, Guild Wars 2 is confirmed to have all of those as playable races, details on the story show that humans have been pushed back because of the emergence of ancient dragons allowing other races to gain foothold on previously human-controlled territories, as it is mentioned "all races are now on equal footing".
- Mega Man Zero explores this. The Big Bad of the first game, Copy-X, although technically a Reploid himself, favors the survival of humans over his own kind, leading to the main conflict in the series. However, freedom fighter Zero, who directly opposes Copy-X, holds this view as well, thinking that, as a machine designed solely to wage war, he cannot change the world, but instead believes in the humans who can.
- Lucasarts' The Dig uses this trope. The aliens who Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence as immortal Energy Beings eventually find that they are doomed to be mere observers for all time without physical bodies. They want to come back home, but can't find the way, and the only surviving alien is certain that if the humans open the gateway, they too will find themselves unable to tear themselves away from the beauty of Spacetime Six and ultimately be trapped as surely as the aliens were. Fortunately, Humans Are Special and have Heroic Willpower (or sheer bloody-minded stubbornness) that allows them to resist the siren's song and hold the gate open for the aliens' return.
WebComics
- Subverted in Killroy and Tina where Earth is considered the pornography capital of the universe by aliens and considered useless for everything else.
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.
- 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.
- Which is true, given that the humans referenced are those of South Park, and we are the showrunners.
- Parodied in a Simpsons Halloween Special where humans are renowned simply for their "t-shirt producing" properties.
- Earth is lauded by the Nibblonians in Futurama as the "Home of the Pizza Bagel,".
- Though Nibbler does describe Earth and humans as, "A mud ball inhabited by psycotic apes."
- David X. Cohen stated on the DVD commentary that "Other planets have pizza or bagels but only Earth came up with the pizza bagel"
- Subverted in Lilo And Stitch. In the backstory, Earth is saved from a previous encounter with the Galactic Council by becoming a wildlife refugee for "endangered" mosquitoes, which either means that humans aren't worth anything or that we exist on other planets.
RealLife
- Apparently, as well as our large brains, That Other Wiki somewhat implies that our most defining trait is our breeding habits - unlike most other complex animals we can breed as much as, and whenever we can, AND we find the act of procreation pleasurable. Only dolphins and bonobos unambiguously share that last trait, although ambiguous evidence for human-style orgasm has been found in a few other mammals.
- Basically human females are always in heat, marked by such characteristics as swollen and sensitive breasts and releasing pheromones that make them sexually attractive to males.
- Humans also have, compared to most other species, superior eyesight and stamina for cross-country running. Which is why a favoured hunting technique in certain aboriginal peoples (and suspected to be the original human hunting method) has been finding an animal and then chasing it across the midday African savannah until it collapsed.
- The method is called "persistence hunting".
- In fact, having great endurance is the reason wolves were the first domesticated animal. They're one of very few species that can keep up with a human. (Horses and oxen can too, if they're only asked to maintain a walk and provided with proper feed at night.)
- And, of course, there's that whole "sapience" thing.
- We also have upper limbs that are very helpful for creating and using tools. Combined with our sapience, they enable us to alter the environment more than any other species.
- There is also Stapp's Law (or Stapp's Ironical Paradox) which states that "The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle."
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