Misuse: Potholed in examples talking about nonhumans: Im A Humanitarian

I'm a Humanitarian is about cannibalism. To be this trope the eater and the eaten have to be the same species. Yet it is being potholed in examples talking about nonhumans who eat humans. (Do we have a trope for that?}

On There Will Be Brawl:

• Dead Little Sister: It's stated in Episode 7 that Daisy used to be Luigi's girlfriend, but was killed by Kirby.

• Even Evil Has Standards: Kirby may be a murderer and cannibal, but he won't stand for another inmate attacking Peach when she visits the prison.

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Kirby is quite a cocky Jerkass in Kirby's Avalanche (even though the game is not technically canon).
  • More famously: Kirby is notable for being a much less straightforward hero then most of them, notably eating definitely sentient beings alive, releasing eldritch abominations on a daily basis, and sometimes, going on quests and slaughtering people for rather... ambiguous reasons (in Squeak Squad: CAKE.) This led to many alternative interpretations of Kirby.
    • Brawl In The Family plays with this, for instance with what Meta Knight says to Dedede: "Like it or not, you and Kirby aren't that different, but where he has childlike optimism, you have untempered malice."
    • There Will Be Brawl plays with it too, and how.

• Stargate Atlantis had a variation where Todd hosted a meeting with the team about negotiating an alliance behind the backs of the other Wraith. Upon entering the room, Sheppard imemdiately commented on the fruit bowl Todd added to the table in order to make the talks more comfortable for the humans (since the Wraith digestion system goes dormant after puberty). Todd responds that he hopes they prove to be as delicious as the farmers who grew them. Cue everyone looking away in disgust.

• I Am a Humanitarian: Several Youkai feeds on humans/humans innards, but Tokajin the sennin takes the cake. Seriously toned down in the anime.

• Done in the Torchwood episode "Countrycide", where the team thinks that some aliens are responsible for disappearances and attacks. Turns out, it's a bunch of humanitarians, although one could argue their humanity, especially with their ominous talks of "The Harvest."

• Al-mir'aj, a harmless-looking gold bunny with a unicorn horn... that kills and eats cattle. And cowherds.

• Pretty damn bad in Ben10. So many other species have outright superpowers, and humanity's only one appears to be the ability to breed with these aliens so their kids can have the alien superpowers. It gets pretty bad when the idea of a human having magical powers is treated as ridiculous while having similarly-themed energy-based superpowers inherited from the alien grandparent isn't.
  • Although, those are mostly just the aliens that the Omnitrix happens to use. A fair few one-off and civilian aliens are generally on par with humanity.
    • We're apparently also known in the galaxy for our flavor...

Edit: Looking at the article itself, there appears to be misuse there as well:

• Something that may or may not count as an example: In the game Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth, some trolls have the ability to pick up and eat a nearby orc (from their own side) to heal their own wounds.
• The mountain trolls in Elf Quest are strongly implied to be elf-eaters, and their Go-Back elf enemies are likewise implied (albeit less strongly) to eat troll meat.
  • The latter was outright stated—albeit as "I thought we gave that up"—in the Hidden Years graphic novel.
• The trolls goblins in Troll 2, who eat humans, but only after turning them into "half-human, half-plant" creatures, because they're vegetarians.

edited 14th Dec '10 3:10:42 PM by fawn

I can actually think of a handful of examples from stories about aliens coming to Earth with "strict humanitarian interests at heart" only for it to turn out that "humanitarian" referred to the aliens' dieting habits so I can understand where some of this misuse might be coming from; I know that I've potholed this trope for such reasons in the past.

To Serve Man is likely the trope that many of these examples are supposed to belong under.

edited 14th Dec '10 3:14:19 PM by SeanMurrayI

In Speculative Fiction, cannibalism is generally extended to include all sapient or humanoid creatures, even if they aren't technically human. Any species that includes humans (or other humanoids) in its diet is usually portrayed as villainous. Likewise, humans treating other sapient species as food are rarely treated sympathetically (unless What Measure Is a Non-Human? is in effect).

Please read the descriptions more carefully. Close topic.

Oh sorry. I guess this can be locked then.