History Main / HumansNeedAliens

** "ComicBook/SupermanVsMuhammadAli": Subverted. The Scrubb aliens want to Muhammad Ali fight their champion to decide the Earth's fate. Superman argues he is better suited to deal with extraterrestrial menaces, but Ali argues back they want an Earthman to fight for Earth, not a Kryptonian (to which Superman replies he grew up in Earth and is a naturalized Earthman). At the end, Superman and Ali are forced to fight each other for the right to fight a boxing match against the Scrubb chosen. [[Ali wins, but while he beats his alien foe, Superman deals with the Scrubb armada.

->''"They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son."''
-->-- '''Jor-El''', ''Film/{{Superman}}'' (1978)

* In ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', Earth would have been doomed very soon if the Saiyan Goku hadn't come from space. Which is ironic, since [[AntiAntiChrist he was sent to Earth to destroy it.]]

* ''Literature/SpaceAcademyDropouts'': This is the backstory for the setting. Two hundred years ago, humanity was a {{Cyberpunk}} {{Dystopia}} on its last legs before being contacted by the The [[TheFederation Community]] who proceeded to fix the environment as well as force badly needed forms that made Earth into a {{Utopia}}. Earth remains a minor part of the Community but has also had a lot of its standard of living as well as technology raised to galactic standards.

* ''ComicBook/Renaissance'', a french comic book written by Fred Duval has the titular organization step in and help humanity as they suffer from a world war and climete crisis, they actually act as a catalyst for several human characters saving the world too but they provide the material and know how.
* Franchise/{{Superman}} is the classic example. Think of all the times Superman has saved the day, a lot of which invoked him saving humanity from extinction. Humanity would have been long gone without him.
** Made more apparent when he defeated Doomsday as he was the only hero capable/willing to defeat the monster. Without him humanity would have perished at this monster's hands.

** Subverted in the ''Comicbook/KryptonNoMore'' storyline where Superman's fear of losing his adoptive world overwhelms him to the point that he decides to protect the Earth's environment by any means (including tossing super-tankers out of the planet). His cousin Supergirl stops him, reminding him that they have no right to make decisions for humanity or interfere with man's evolution and development.
* Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} has saved the day countless times since her creation, too.
** In the ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' she saved ''an infinite number of Earths'' when she took the Anti-Monitor on. Even although she died, her sacrifice gave the surviving heroes time enough to fight back. When human Supergirl Linda Danvers tried to take Kara's place to save her life in ''Comicbook/ManyHappyReturns'', she unfortunately found she couldn't hurt the Anti-Monitor because she ''couldn't'' punch so hard like Kara (who was an [[PhysicalGod Earth-One Kryptonian]]).

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* ''Literature/SpaceAcademyDropouts'': This is the backstory for the setting. Two hundred years ago, humanity was a {{Cyberpunk}} {{Dystopia}} on its last legs before being contacted by the The [[Federation Community]] who proceeded to fix the environment as well as force badly needed forms that made Earth into a {{Utopia}}. Earth remains a minor part of the Community but has also had a lot of its standard of living as well as technology raised to galactic standards.

* The ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' is well-known for this. The titular Ultramen are the ones who always save the day from the MonsterOfTheWeek at the end of every episode of every series once the defense team can do nothing more against the kaiju and aliens. However, the defense teams generally don't seem to mind this -- it doesn't matter who defeated the monster; what matters is that it ''is'' defeated. Additionally, the Ultras always save their transformations until the last minute because they don't want humanity to ''depend'' on them, but to progress to the point they can fight side-by-side ''with'' them.
** Lampshaded in the original ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' episode "The Small Hero", in which Ide has become depressed about how Ultraman will always defeat the monsters in the end no matter how hard Science Patrol tries. When the monsters show up, he decides to do nothing but wait for Ultraman to show up and win, which results in the death of one of their allies. Hayata is ''pissed'' by Ide's inaction, having told him earlier that Ultraman ''needs'' the effort of Science Patrol to win and that there were times where if it wasn't for Science Patrol, Ultraman would have been defeated.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batmanvsuperman_crowdscene.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hands above the waist, please."'']]

Please, do not, confuse this with HumanAliens, although overlapping is possible. Also not an [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of MarsNeedsWomen.

* In ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', Earth would have been doomed very soon if the Saiyan Goku hadn't come from space.
* ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'': This is the justification Cz uses, when she explains to Shanon why it was necessary for the Peacemakers to [[spoiler:keep their world locked in MedievalStasis]]. Later, during the final episode, [[spoiler:[[DeityOfHumanOrigin Mauser]]]] goes into greater detail, when [[spoiler:she]] explains the reasoning for this to Pacifica.

* ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' has saved the day countless times since her creation, too.

* In the ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'' graphic novel ''The Gallimaufry'', it's revealed that humanity has been under the protection of an uber-powerful Elder Race alien since joining the galactic community. (This is somewhat different from most other examples on this list in that said protection was part of an explicit secret deal with said alien -- protection from extinction in exchange for safeguarding [[spoiler:the Winslow]] -- and humans were simply the latest species in line to accept it. It's only when the secret ''gets out'' and many of the other species spontaneously decide to gang up on them that humanity is suddenly in trouble.)
* In ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' it's made clear that Earth would have been overran by the Evronian Empire without [[PhysicalGoddess Xadhoom]] devastating their fleets and indirectly starting a number of rebellions among the Evronian subjects.
** Also {{Inverted}}, as Xadhoom has a tendence to [[GenreBlind ignore that the Evronians have the means to stop her if they can get the drop on her]], and Paperinik (Earthling) had to save or heal her in four different occasions.

* ''Fanfic/LastChildOfKrypton'': [[spoiler:Jor-El sends the rocket carrying Kryptonian DNA to Earth because "they cry out for a champion". Yui accidentally found it and altered her unborn son to carry alien DNA.]] Due to this Shinji has DNA kryptonian with [[ComboPlatterPowers everything it implies]], and he is capable to fight the beings threatening his world and save humanity (rather crumbling down due to excessive pressure).
* ''Fanfic/SOE2LoneHeirOfKrypton'': [[spoiler:Asuka was conceived by donor sperm, and her biological father was ''[[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El]]''.]] She is half-kryptonian, and thanks to her alien heritage she gets inspired to become an heroine and saves the world over and again.

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/DaughterOfFireAndSteel'', General Zod would have wiped humans out if [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal]] and [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] had not turned against their alien kin to protect them.

* In ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke, humanity AscendsToAHigherPlaneOfExistence via the help of a BenevolentAlienInvasion.
* Played with in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series. This is what most aliens believe --and given how much more advanced most alien species are, and how many are hostile to the "wolfling" human species, it is essentially true, now that they're aware of our existence. Without allies like the Tymbrimi, humanity wouldn't stand a chance. However, there is no indication that humanity needs aliens for anything other than defense against aliens who think we should be their "clients" or exterminated for blasphemy. Between the present day and first contact humanity ended war, repaired the environmental damage to Earth, uplifted chimps and dolphins, colonized five solar systems, and developed an automated empathy test that eliminated government corruption entirely (apparently most politicians are psychopaths, who knew?) In fact one might say that humanity is more "mature" than many species that are millions of years older because we had the opportunity to make mistakes and suffer the full consequences, unlike most of the galactics who were all uplifted by other species and in many cases designed to be soldiers.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars A Princess of Mars]]'', where the native Martian races admit that without the Earthling John Carter, they would never be able to unite against their enemies and defeat them so quickly.

* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series, the Exile is a member of a race of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]] who infiltrate other races and monitor/guide them. Unlike others of his race, the Exile has a birth defect that forces him to remain in human form for the rest of his (possibly immortal) life and only be able to affect small changes in appearance. He has been on Earth since the 13th century and played an instrumental role in warning humans about the incoming [[HumanAliens Faata]] starship. However, even then humans couldn't fight off such an advanced enemy, and Earth was about to be conquered and humans enslaved when the Exile gave a human the means to destroy the ship in such a way as to leave its remains for human scientists to study and reverse-engineer. He continues to covertly provide assistance and intel to human authorities, who, for their part, suppress any attempts at investigating the origin of this assistance (i.e. "don't scare the goose that lays golden eggs"). He shows up once again a thousand years later to help prevent a war with another HumanAlien race.
* ''Literature/CreationManAndTheMessiah'': Implied and exaggerated with the spirits Abiriel and Ohebiel, who ensouls Adam and Eve, thus giving the entire human race a share of an older heritage. Abiriel is "alien" after the normal fashion: His original self was born and bred on another planet (obviously UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}). When he ensouls Adam, and getting a new body for his spiritual self, Ohebiel laments that humanity is doomed unless she intervenes, and then ensouls Eve. Ohebiel is not far from invoking the trope directly.
* In ''Literature/EarthCentAmbassador'' The stryx uplift the humans because they had a global economical crisis and they were about to be conquered by another Alien race.
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's short story "Evening Conversation with Mister Special Ambassador", the alien representative wonders why Earth has remained unconquered despite all the big alien empires in our vicinity. At the end, he finally gets it. Humans are the most ''mentally retarded'' race of the galaxy, so everyone else feels pity for us and leaves us alone. An inversion of HumansAdvanceSwiftly and an interesting take on [[HumansAreSpecial Humans Are "Special"]].
* Subverted in Creator/WilliamTenn's story "The Liberation of Earth", in which two groups of aliens alternately occupy Earth, each claiming to be protecting the humans from the other. Eventually, their war moves on, leaving a ruined Earth behind.
* ''Literature/ThisImmortal'': After the nuclear fallout known as the Three Days, humanity would have perished if not for the Vegans, who took those stranded in space in and allowed them to live on Taler and other Vegan-populated planets. As of the time of the story, ''most'' humans live outside Earth and work for the Vegans, as it's assumed that Earth couldn't possibly support such a big human population, and those still inhabiting Earth are largely dependent on Vegan funding. It is the expressed goal of [[LaResistance Returnist Radpol]] to change that.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' Thrym's big objection to Earth's alliance with the Jan is that he sees a rather paternalistic vibe in it, since they haven't shared their weapons tech with us and yet they insist there are more dangerous civilizations out there who might endanger us.
-->'''Thrym:''' "We're nothing but a damned protectorate!"

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', Barthandelus invokes this, telling the party that humans are foolish, cowardly, and easily deceived, and "without [our] help, death is all of which you're capable". Delving into the backstory reveals that it ''is'' largely due to fal'Cie influence that humans have thrived.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'', The greatly advanced civilization of Algo is completely based on some super computer no one knows the origin of. Inverted as the Computer comes from Earth. Such civilization goes downhill very fast when the protagonists defeats Mother Brain and the aliens who are behind her creation. Fortunately, ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'' shows that people recovered rather fast after a 1000-year time skip.
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'': It would seem that the only things that are capable of fighting off the DemonicInvaders are demons that are on humanity's side. Or, more often than not, half-demons, like Dante himself. The legendary Sparda was a demon who's revered by the human populace that knows him because he rebelled against his fellow demons and sided with humanity.
* In ''Videogame/DragonBallOnline'', the patrols that keep the earth safe are descendants of aliens like Nameks, Saiyans or Majin Buu.

* Like ''Transformers'', ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots'' has humanity dependent on the side of an alien civil war sympathetic to us, although our technology improves a lot faster than it does on ''The Transformers''.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Although [[spoiler:Nibbler]] acts as a cute little pet most of the time, he in fact [[spoiler:belongs to a powerful alien race]] and saves Earth and humanity more than once.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': All life on Earth would have been wiped out by [[HostileTerraforming Gem colonization]] if a Gem hadn't formed the Crystal Gems and started a civil war to stop it. Said war happened during the early Bronze Age, when humans would be especially helpless (though the technology gap [[HigherTechSpecies has remained enormous]]). Subverted concerning gem monsters: The Crystal Gems are the best equipped to fight them, but the humans don't ''need'' them to. The monsters more or less ignore humans in favor of attacking other gems, and the Crystal Gems hunt them because they're {{Tragic Monster}}s whose suffering they try to alleviate by putting them in stasis.

Thankfully, there are special/superpowered nonhumans out there willing to defend humanity from threats that they wouldn't otherwise stand a chance at fighting. Usually these heroic aliens are the LastOfTheirKind or agents of an [[TheFederation Intergalactic Federation]] and are the only ones willing/able to protect humanity. Aliens may also protect humans from themselves if HumansAreWarriors or to invoke a GreenAesop. This may lead to TakesOneToKillOne when the heroic "alien" is the only thing that can stop his fellow, but evil,
aliens".

This trope can raise FridgeLogic issues if the defenders of humanity are depicted as having just recently begun to take on this responsibility, as it begs the question of how we'd managed to survive prior to that.

Contrast HumanityIsSuperior, HumanityIsAdvanced and MugglesDoItBetter, where we can do everything superpowered aliens can do, but with science and technology instead. Compare SuperiorSpecies and HumansAreMorons. Can overlap with BenevolentAlienInvasion. Occasionally, the role of the benevolent aliens can be assumed by [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] or other supernatural beings.

* ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'': This is the justification Cz uses, when she explains to Shanon why it was necessary for the Peacemakers to [[spoiler: keep their world locked in MedievalStasis.]] Later, during the final episode, [[spoiler: [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Mauser]]]] goes into greater detail, when [[spoiler: she]] explains the reasoning for this to Pacifica.
* ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'': During the time he holds Nadia captive, [[EvilChancellor Gargoyle]] lauds this as the Neo Atlantians' "right" to rule humanity. Needless to say, [[YouKeepTellingYourselfThat she didn't buy into his bullshit.]]
* [[spoiler: [[BigBad The Incubators]]]] of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' claim to be this. [[spoiler: Kyubey provides teenagers with special powers in order to feed on their negative emotions to preserve the universe's dead heat phenomenon, whereas those teens use the obtained powers to rack up humanity's civilization. A gag 4koma depicted Madoka becoming a cavewoman when she wishes Kyubey's existence out of the face of Earth.]]

* Franchise/{{Superman}} is the classic example. Think of all the times Superman has saved the day, a lot of those times he saved humanity from extinction. Humanity would have been long gone without him.
** Made more apparent when he defeated Doomsday as he was the only hero capable/willing to defeat the monster. Without him humanity would have perished at this monster's hands.
** Played with in ''ComicBook/WhoTookTheSuperOutOfSuperman'' storyline where Superman finds himself BroughtDownToNormal in his Clark Kent identity and decides to experiment with living a week as just one identity. As Clark, he sees a subway being flooded, and realises he could do nothing to stop it now that he's powerless. Fortunately, the fire department arrives to take care of the crisis, and Clark realises that the world always got along fine before there was a Superman.
** Subverted in ''Comicbook/KryptonNoMore'' storyline where Superman's fear to lose his adoptive world overwhelms him to the point that he decides to protect the Earth's enviroment by any means (including tossing super-tankers out of the planet). His cousin Supergirl stops him, reminding him that they have no right to make decisions for humanity or interfere with man's evolution and development.

* Played with in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series. This is what most aliens believe--and given how much more advanced most alien species are, and how many are hostile to the "wolfling" human species, it is essentially true, now that they're aware of our existence. Without allies like the Tymbrimi, humanity wouldn't stand a chance. However, there is no indication that humanity needs aliens for anything other than defense against aliens who think we should be their "clients" or exterminated for blasphemy. Between the present day and first contact humanity ended war, repaired the environmental damage to earth, uplifted chimps and dolphins, colonized five solar systems, and developed an automated empathy test that eliminated government corruption entirely (apparently most politicians are psychopaths, who knew?) In fact one might say that humanity is more "mature" than many species that are millions of years older because we had the opportunity to make mistakes and suffer the full consequences, unlike most of the galactics who were all uplifted by other species and in many cases designed to be soldiers.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars A Princess of Mars]]'', where the native Martian races admit that without the Earthling John Carter, they would never be able to unite against their enemies and defeat them so quickly.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Shadows and Vorlons both saw themselves as guardians of the younger races (including humans), guiding their development and evolution. They had conflicting philosophies as to how these younger races should develop, and ended up fighting periodic wars over this [[spoiler: using younger races they've [[AbusivePrecursors manipulated (often secretly)]] as [[SpaceColdWar proxies]], to supposedly prove the superiority of their respective philosophies. This pattern is finally exposed to the younger races through the maneuverings of Sheridan, who then shames them into leaving the galaxy to allow the younger races room to determine their own ways.]]

** Also in ''Wings of Liberty'', Jim Raynor is shown a vision of a possible future where the Terrans and Protoss are driven to extinction by the zerg/protoss hybrids in a timeline where Kerrigan dies, and can't lead the Zerg swarm.
** Then again, humans have been shown to at least be better at fighting the zerg than the Protoss in the games making this a possible [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. Raynor played a major part in the defeat of the first overmind on Aiur, the [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression United Earth Directorate]] seized control of the second in brood war, and humans took one of the zerg's best defended worlds (Char), twice. Let's also not forget that Sarah Kerrigan, the Zerg's current leader is a former human. Also, Terrans are the only one of the three races that were not uplifted by the local SufficientlyAdvancedAliens.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', Barthandelus invokes this, telling the party that humans are foolish, cowardly and easily deceived, and "without [our] help, death is all of which you're capable". Delving into the backstory reveals that it ''is'' largely due to fal'Cie influence that humans have thrived.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'', The greatly advanced civilization of Algo is completely based on some super computer nobody give a damn where it comes from. Inverted as the Computer comes from Earth. Such civilization goes downhill very fast when the protagonists defeats Mother Brain and the aliens who are behind her creation. Fortunately, ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'' shows that people recovered rather fast after a 1000-year time skip.
* ''Videogame/DevilMayCry'': It would seem that the only things that are capable of fighting off the DemonicInvaders are demons that are on humanity's side. Or, more often than not, half-demons, like Dante himself. The legendary Sparda was a demon who's revered by the human populace that knows him because he rebelled against his fellow demons and sided with humanity.

* In Tim Eldred's authorized ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers]]'' webcomic, set decades after the original series, Desslok and the Gamilons have long been at peace with Earth, and Desslok has even taken it upon himself to defend human space from outside threats, figuring he owes us that much after all the hell he put us through earlier. None the less, when he and Wildstar meet again for the first time in many years, he tells Wildstar that he's always had misgivings about the arrangement, because with no dangers for us to confront, we run the risk of becoming stagnant.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Although [[spoiler:Nibbler]] acts as a cute little pet most of the time, he in fact [[spoiler: belongs to a powerful alien race]] and saves Earth and humanity more than once.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': All life on Earth would have been wiped out by [[HostileTerraforming Gem colonization]] if a Gem hadn't formed the Crystal Gems and started a civil war to stop it. Said war happened during the early Bronze Age, when humans would be especially helpless (though the technology gap [[HigherTechSpecies has remained enormous]]). Subverted concerning gem monsters: The Crystal Gems are the best equipped to fight them, but the humans don't ''need'' them to. The monsters more or less ignore humans in favor of attacking other gems, and the Crystal Gems hunt because they're {{Tragic Monster}}s whose suffering they try to alleviate by putting them in stasis.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Hands above the waist please."]]

* Subverted in William Tenn's story "The Liberation of Earth", in which two groups of aliens alternately occupy Earth, each claiming to be protecting the humans from the other. Eventually, their war moves on, leaving a ruined Earth behind.

[[quoteright:320:[[Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batmanvsuperman_crowdscene.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:"Hands above the waist please."]]

* Like ''Transformers'', ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots'' has humanity dependent on the side of an alien civil war sympathetic to them, although our technology improves a lot faster than it does on ''The Transformers''.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' is all about Earth getting caught between the two sides of an alien civil war. By the third season, we've taken a bit of a [[TookALevelInBadAss Level In Badass]], but for the first two seasons we're almost totally dependent on the Autobots to defend us from the Decepticons.

** Played with in a [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] ''Superman'' storyline where Superman finds himself BroughtDownToNormal in his Clark Kent identity and decides to experiment with living a week as just one identity. As Clark, he sees a subway being flooded, and realises he could do nothing to stop it now that he's powerless. Fortunately, the fire department arrives to take care of the crisis, and Clark realises that the world always got along fine before there was a Superman.

* Played with in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series. This is what most aliens believe--and given how much more advanced most alien species are, and how many are hostile to the "wolfling" human species, it is essentially true, now that they're aware of our existence. Without allies like the Tymbrimi, humanity wouldn't stand a chance.\\
\\
However, there is no indication that humanity needs aliens for anything other than defense against aliens who think we should be their "clients" or exterminated for blasphemy. Between the present day and first contact humanity ended war, repaired the environmental damage to earth, uplifted chimps and dolphins, colonized five solar systems, and developed an automated empathy test that eliminated government corruption entirely (apparently most politicians are psychopaths, who knew?) In fact one might say that humanity is more "mature" than many species that are millions of years older because we had the opportunity to make mistakes and suffer the full consequences, unlike most of the galactics who were all uplifted by other species and in many cases designed to be soldiers.
** In case you couldn't figure it out, Creator/DavidBrin is very strongly inclined towards [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment Enlightenment]].

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batmanvsuperman_crowdscene.jpg]]