Basic Trope: Human life is treated as more important than non-human life.
- Straight: A hero who espouses Thou Shalt Not Kill has no problem destroying robots, zombies, aliens, and animals.
- Exaggerated: Humanity wages all-out extermination of nonhumans without a word of protest but would never consider even a million hours of community service for the human dictators espousing Rape, Pillage, and Burn.
- Downplayed:
- Our heroes are willing to kill both humans and nonhumans, but they are willing to use sneak attacks and other dirty tricks that they would never use against human foes.
- Alternatively: Killing robots is considered murder, but verbal abuse is considered normal towards robots.
- Justified:
- The non-humans are shown as being irredeemably evil.
- Humans are speciesist bastards.
- The particular non-humans in question (e.g. robots, zombies) cannot suffer, so the hero has no problem killing them.
- Even though the aliens may be sapient, the humans don't know that and think they're nothing more than animals.
- Non-humans are emotionless, mindless, soulless animals / automatons.
- "You hear them howling, right? Back when all this started, we used to think it was their Mendulla Oblongatta hadn't shut down, making them mindlessly vocalize. It ain't that. Its horror at what they've become, the pain of rotting flesh. The final memories of being torn apart stored in the brains they eat. They won't kill each other; they can't kill themselves. That's where we come in. Welcome to the Undertakers".
- The non-humans in question being killed are effectively the equivalent of a human bastard. When Bob kills a group of non-humans, Alice objects but Bob quickly rattles off a list of what horrible things they believed in and telling her events that happened as proof of the line of thought. Alice later sees the same species of non-humans working together with humans without conflict, Bob even talking to a few in a friendly manner.
- For the non-humans, Death Is Cheap, which obviously isn't the case with humans.
- Inverted:
- Human lives are casually thrown away, but killing a robot is considered murder.
- Only human enemies are considered morally right to kill. They are all bandits who explicitly murder even people who give them money to Leave No Witnesses or otherwise despicable people. Running away from them is considered craven. Animals are merely hungry so running away or pacifying them with food is preferred but acceptable to kill in self-defense. Killing the undead is highly blasphemous and a terrible idea, given that they were raised by the gods to carry out a role too important to trust to the living. Destroying them will cause major problems in the world.
- Bob is a Misanthrope Supreme who is always willing to viciously murder another human being no matter how stupid it is and wants to put an end to the human race. But he’s an All-Loving Hero to everybody EXCEPT for humans.
- Subverted:
- Non-humans aren't killed but are instead taken to a place where they can live together free of human oppression.
- The hero has no problem crushing a robot's head... But that's because the only thing the head contains is sensory apparatus, which, while necessary in combat, isn't vital to the robot's overall survival and can easily be replaced.
- Double Subverted:
- ...But that turns out to be a front for turning them into slave labor or Soylent Green.
- As the robot fumbles around, blind, deaf, and terrified, it falls off a cliff. The hero doesn't care.
- Parodied: There's an elaborate system of value attached to creatures based on how human they are, which is consulted by the characters when deciding whom to kill.
- Zig Zagged: The value placed on nonhuman life varies greatly with the nonhuman. Mi-Go are killed on sight, Greys are conceded equals, Demons are considered second-class citizens, etc...
- Averted:
- All (sentient) life is treated as equally valuable or equally disposable.
- All of the violence is non-human on non-human.
- Enforced: Childrens' programming is not allowed to show people being killed, so there has to be something for the heroes to shoot at.
- Lampshaded: "Would you still have killed him if he had been a human?"
- Invoked: "Look, nobody cares about those robots. We can kill them all we want".
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz keeps all the robots or undead back at the base doing menial things, and commands only humans to attack heroes, in hopes of exploiting the higher value they put on human life.
- Defied:
- A human character refuses to kill non-humans because they are just as good as everyone else.
- A human character is willing to kill non-humans but makes it clear that they'd also kill humans without hesitation under similar circumstances.
- "I don't see what makes a Human more of a person than Greys or Kitts. Or even Returners or Metalfolk. We are the good guys, and we will act like it. Now. Set. For. Stun."
- Discussed: "Of course we can kill him! He's Not Even Human!"
- Conversed: "All the slaughter in this show is fairly gruesome, but I guess they get away with it because they're not killing humans".
- Implied: The people the hero kills all displayed odd quirks, though their actual nature is never revealed.
- Deconstructed: The non-humans rebel against their human oppressors.
- Reconstructed:
- ...And then they start treating humans the same way they were treated.
- The non-humans are beaten and the uprising is used as the justification for a fresh round of oppression.
- Plotted A Good Waste:
- The hero has been killing what they think are aliens... but turn out to be humans modified by the hero's own government to provide a convenient enemy.
- The hero is called out on this by somebody later on... and he has no answer beyond "but they're aliens!"
Back to What Measure Is a Non-Human?
