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  1. #31
    Prince of Duckness Beadle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    For my money, it's equally likely humanity's 'edge' over another race would be 'we breed faster'. Or 'we're willing to sacrifice our poor as throw-away soldiers in conflicts'. Or 'our leaders don't care who suffers as long as they get their way, and the masses continue to support them.' Etc.
    This is more or less the advantage that D&D ascribes to humans. Well, humans and orcs.

    Basically, it’s a ‘horny little buggers will shag anything and will shag it often’ kind of thing, hence half-orcs, half-elves, half-ogres (shudder), half-dragons and Dragonborn, Aasimar, Tieflings, Genasi etc.

    It’s best we don’t think too much about centaurs and minotaurs.

  2. #32
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beadle View Post
    This is more or less the advantage that D&D ascribes to humans. Well, humans and orcs.

    Basically, it’s a ‘horny little buggers will shag anything and will shag it often’ kind of thing, hence half-orcs, half-elves, half-ogres (shudder), half-dragons and Dragonborn, Aasimar, Tieflings, Genasi etc.

    It’s best we don’t think too much about centaurs and minotaurs.
    D&D, doing it right. Of course, D&D also goes with the 'Humans are the most versatile!' trope. Which, I guess, could be worse? Gotta give SOME reason to play a human, I suppose.

    Anima is pretty much the same, if not moreso, erasing every single advantage from humans outside of 'loads of kids' and 'we learn a little more quickly from our experiences because we don't live as long as any of the other races.' <-- this part, at least, is sensible.
    Last edited by Sharpandpointies; 05-11-2021 at 04:51 AM.
    Why are we here?

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    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  3. #33
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh View Post
    I feel like it's more like "short of a human's ability to kill everything especially themselves, they don't have much going for them compared to the rest of the universe... so we have to give them something".

    And even then, not all that good at killing.
    I have this reoccurring thought that aliens HAVE already visited our solar system, and the reason we don't see them - at all - is because they set up a picket around our solar system with a whole bunch of stuff broadcasting, like giant neon warning signs.

    'This area under quarantine due to dangerous instability in one of the species.'
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  4. #34
    Rumbles Limbo Champion big_adventure's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post

    'This area under quarantine due to dangerous instability in one of the species.'
    Ooh, ooh, ooh, let me guess:

    The puppies?
    "But... But I want to be a big karate cyborg... ;_;" - Nik Hasta
    "Get off my lawn! ...on this forum, that just makes people think of Cyclops." - Sharpandpointies
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  5. #35
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by big_adventure View Post
    Ooh, ooh, ooh, let me guess:

    The puppies?
    ...we can go with that, sure.

    But given the species the guess is coming from, that's just further proof. *scribbles notes*
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  6. #36
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Biiiiig thread drift.

    <_<

    >_>

    I blame Captain Morgan!
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  7. #37
    Prince of Duckness Beadle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    I have this reoccurring thought that aliens HAVE already visited our solar system, and the reason we don't see them - at all - is because they set up a picket around our solar system with a whole bunch of stuff broadcasting, like giant neon warning signs.

    'This area under quarantine due to dangerous instability in one of the species.'
    Or just go the Douglas Adams route and demolish Earth entirely to build an intergalactic highway.

  8. #38
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beadle View Post
    Or just go the Douglas Adams route and demolish Earth entirely to build an intergalactic highway.
    ^_^

    I like to think that the aliens would care more about us.

    .....

    Or at least, all of the other life on earth.
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  9. #39
    Prince of Duckness Beadle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    ^_^

    I like to think that the aliens would care more about us.

    .....

    Or at least, all of the other life on earth.
    They’d possibly monitor the lifeforms on the planet by number and assume that bacteria or krill are the dominant species.

  10. #40
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beadle View Post
    They’d possibly monitor the lifeforms on the planet by number and assume that bacteria or krill are the dominant species.
    ...which, you know, good a method as any to choose a 'particular' subset.
    Why are we here?

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    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  11. #41
    Extraordinary Member Cody's Avatar
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    They likely would just be older versions of us that look different.

    Mass Effect and Star Wars kinda go back and forth on the "humans are awesome" thing. The former had a bit of it but seemed to have dropped it entirely by ME3, and now all races seem to have their own thing over the other.

    Stat Wars has humans as the dominant race that is also the almost as desired, sexually, as Twileks and Zeltrons. At the same time they are second, only to Tusken Raiders(and Rakatans in the EU) as the most racist and cruel race of the franchise.
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  12. #42
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cody View Post
    They likely would just be older versions of us that look different.

    Mass Effect and Star Wars kinda go back and forth on the "humans are awesome" thing. The former had a bit of it but seemed to have dropped it entirely by ME3, and now all races seem to have their own thing over the other.
    Mass Effect DID kind of go back and forth on that, but I am glad that it was evened out. ^_^

    I mean, all of these things are written (unsurprisingly) by humans, so it's not surprising that the trope shows up. It's just...after a point, the whole 'Humanity, Rah-Rah!' gets a little tired. And false. And moves blatantly into 'human superiority' writing.

    Gimme the stuff where 'everyone is different, and by different, we don't mean aliens are basically humans with funny cosmetic changes'.
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  13. #43
    Astonishing Member Captain Morgan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    It's all written from a human point of view. Sci-Fi loves to give humananity these 'intangible' advantages over higher-tech alien races that allow us to 'win by dint of what we are, rather than technology'. Ie, we're better. It's rather arrogant.

    There have been so many different versions of this over the years, 'why humans are special'. We have 'imagination', we know 'love', we 'build communities' when other races don't* (which, honestly, is ridiculous looking at how humankind is so damn tribal). Even 'we try harder'. In military fiction, it tends to boil down to 'we have more grit', or 'we are more inspired', or 'we have more ingenuity'.

    It really becomes tiresome.

    For my money, it's equally likely humanity's 'edge' over another race would be 'we breed faster'**. Or 'we're willing to sacrifice our poor as throw-away soldiers in conflicts'. Or 'our leaders don't care who suffers as long as they get their way, and the masses continue to support them.' Or 'thanks to capacity for hatred and tribalism, we do **** to our enemies that other races wouldn't even consider.' Etc.

    But no, in fiction it's always some bright, inspirational reason that comes down to 'Cause Humans Are Intrinsically Better™.

    I vastly prefer CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series, which has humanity and another race...different, not better.

    * Yes, even the otherwise excellent Babylon 5 falls victim to this.

    ** Anima RPG, I just realized.
    That's like top 5 uncomfortable truth posts of this board. Up there with Pen's "NYC vs Batman villains why we suck" post.

  14. #44
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Morgan View Post
    That's like top 5 uncomfortable truth posts of this board. Up there with Pen's "NYC vs Batman villains why we suck" post.
    I need to find the other three, then. ^_^
    Why are we here?

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    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  15. #45
    She/Her Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    I have this reoccurring thought that aliens HAVE already visited our solar system, and the reason we don't see them - at all - is because they set up a picket around our solar system with a whole bunch of stuff broadcasting, like giant neon warning signs.

    'This area under quarantine due to dangerous instability in one of the species.'
    I'd believe this.

    Frankly, while I'm a bit more optimistic than Agent Smith, his breakdown and subsequent explanation that humans are some kind of parasite or disease, is kinda accurate?

    "A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host."

    In this case, Earth being the host.

    Or at the very least the human capacity for being selfish and rather self-absorbed has given us parasitic characteristics?

    ... picket fence was a good idea.
    Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran

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