History Main / HumansAreWarriors

* Downplayed in ''Fanfic/CrossAngeTheKnightOfHilda''. When Rio tells Hilda about the true history of the world and how Embryo replaced humanity with his version, he admits that human history can be defined by chaos and conflict. However, that same innate chaos was what enabled Rio and the rest of the renegade Mana users to question and ultimately reject Embryo's control and side with the oppressed Norma subrace. Humans may have an innate propensity for violence, but they also can choose why they fight and what they're fighting for.

* In many RecursiveFanfiction stories based on [[DeconstructionFic deconstructing]] ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'', this is very much the case (as well as HumansAreSurvivors) when humans and ponies go to war.
** In ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauNotAlone'', humanity declares war against Celestia's AssimilationPlot and [[CurbStompBattle wins easily on a global scale]], forcing Equestria to retreat. It's even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d as Celestia laments that the ground troops that were fighting to reclaim South Africa and defeated the elite Royal Guards were poorly trained rookies that were fighting way out of their element and with outdated equipment, but also that it takes ''years'' to get a pony trained to be an elite Royal Guard whereas humans only need a few weeks of training to become reasonably decent frontline soldiers that can kill those guards, and that's before getting to the simple fact that humanity has [[WeHaveReserves sheer numerical superiority]] on their side as well.
** ''Fanfic/TheNegotiationsverse'' takes place in the aftermath of the Conversion Wars where humanity won the war against Equestria's invasion and AssimilationPlot. The humans put up a fierce enough resistance in the first four years of the war to make it a stalemate in terms of general combat despite losing almost a third of their population and civilization, attempts to demoralize them only made them fight harder, and once they figured out a way around the ponies' magical advantages and got through the barrier, the ponies were thoroughly defeated in a series of {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s. Specifically, it took about ''one year'' after the AntiMagic Thalmann Generators were deployed for humanity to decisively win the war. In the third story in the series, ''Useless'', Rainbow Dash (one of the few remaining ponies still loyal to Celestia's cause) admits that she just can't understand how [[OutsideContextProblem the humans could defeat them when they'd previously fought other beings that were nearly godlike by comparison]].

** The [[HornyVikings Nords]] are a ProudWarriorRace hailing from the [[GrimUpNorth frozen northern territory]] of Skyrim. It took [[BadassArmy an army of a mere 500]] of their [[{{Precursors}} ancestors]] (the Atmorans) to bring down the entire Falmer (Snow Elf) civilization, nearly driving them to extinction. Culturally, they have numerous BloodKnight, BoisterousBruiser, and HonorBeforeReason tendencies while hoping to die in glorious battle so that they can enter the WarriorHeaven of Sovngarde. Modern Nords have a [[DoesNotLikeMagic strong dislike for magic]], as they associate it with the [[FantasticRacism hated elves]], leading to them being largely a group of {{Badass Normal}}s. (They do make an exception for Healers, however.) However, in the past, they would become [[EmpoweredBadassNormal Empowered]] using the [[MakeMeWannaShout Thu'um]], the Draconic LanguageOfMagic which allows for small scale [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]].

* The ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' has humans and the Autobots playing out this trope. Humans have technology just advanced enough to hurt the Transformers, numbers, and the fact that they're fighting on our home turf, and often for continued survival as a ''species''. Of course, the Transformers are far from pacifists, having been locked in a civil war for millions of years, (according to the [[Website/TFWikiDotNet Transformers Wiki]], they consider one upside of our [[WeAreAsMayflies short lifespans]] being that our wars are mercifully short).
* ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' has aliens with no concept of fiction abducting actors from a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' style [=TV=] to help defeating the GalacticConquerer that destroyed their planet.
* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' has an agent of TheFederation leave space shooter arcade games on Earth and recruiting the best player as a pilot. It's implied that he used ExcaliburInTheStone to test people before.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' could well be the {{Trope Maker|s}}. It is played oh so straight with Edain. Heck, the Men ''fight themselves all the way'' through the minions of Morgoth to reach Beleriand and the Elves. And without the Edain, the Noldor would have been exterminated for good. And ''Akalabeth'' exaggerates it. The ''dûnedain'' of Númenor vanquish Sauron himself. Heck, the mightiest angelic being in the whole Middle-Earth, Ar-Pharazôn the Golden realizes finally he has bitten too big a chunk ''when he attempts to conquer the realm of the Archangels''- Valinor. Do said Archangels, seeing the invasion fleet, rally their elven troops to fight? No. They're so intimidated that they lay down their weapons and appeal to ''God''. Who does easily vanquishes the Númenorian Fleet, but only by [[spoiler:''changing the world from flat to round'', thus removing Valinor from it.]]
** It's generally a variation because humans are not better warriors than elves individually (mostly - Túrin is a notable example of a man "stronger than an elf"), but they do breed quicker which made them welcome allies to the elves who had their [[WeHaveReserves reserves]] depleted by centuries of war against Morgoth. Elves have the advantage of experience, superior senses and endurance, and usually magic. However if you skim through to the deaths of notable human warriors, they usually go out in face-meltingly awesome {{last stand}}s and rearguard actions, or fighting guerrilla wars deep behind enemy lines. The Noldor were Morgoth's primary enemies, but it was humans who gave him the most headaches.

* ''Literature/TheCourseOfEmpire'' and ''Literature/TheCrucibleOfEmpire''. The Jao admit that the humans gave them the hardest fight of all the races they conquered (and they only conquered the humans by being willing to throw asteroids at Earth, while humans weren't willing to use nuclear weapons; a thing Jao don't admit). Because of the humans skill at arms the Jao give them favored status in their empire

* ''Fanfic/TarkinsFist'': The Empire is accustomed to conquering planets of a similar technological level to their own. And so, upon learning that Earth possesses a less advanced technological base, they assume that the Earth's people will be easily subjugated. Their assumption is quickly proven wrong. What Earth lacks in laser weapons and spaceships it more than makes up for with strategic planning, intelligence, and sheer bloody minded ruthlessness.

* ''Death or Glory'' by Creator/VladimirVasilyev: Humans are one of the weakest, technologically-backward races in the galaxy. While we have finally figured out FTL travel, it's extremely slow and costly. The major worlds (including Earth) are suffering from pollution and overpopulation. The outer colonies are, basically, Wild West [[RecycledInSpace In Space]]. The alien races, for the most part, avoid humanity, as they consider intelligent primates to be an evolutionary mistake (our bodies are too complex for our own good), and only pay a visit when they want to demand some resource or other. A chance discovery results in humans getting their hands on an extremely-powerful warship, capable of obliterating entire worlds and fleets. When the aliens arrive to the human colony, they send troops to capture all colonists... who promptly get their asses handed to them by the angry prospectors and the local garrison. Then the colonists capture the ship, blow up their colony, and leave. The aliens catch up to them and offer full membership in TheAlliance, calling humanity a "latent" race. In books 3 and 4 of the series, a former slave race of one of the Alliance members [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters rebels]] and proceeds to wipe the floor with most of the Alliance races with their massive armada, which no one somehow caught them building. Guess who's the only race to successfully resist the new empire? The other races are smart enough to realize this and try to work in tandem with humans.
** In the third book, an enemy armada blockades a [[SingleBiomePlanet jungle world]] that contains a safari. The enemy sends in troops to capture any planetside humans. They get beaten by a bunch of tourists, (admittedly, their guide is pretty good, and one of them is actually a spy on vacation).

** ''Literature/BattleGround'' is a great demonstration of this. After Ethniu's attack leaves Chicago in pure chaos, with the police and emergency services stretched thin trying to deal with everything, the Fomor army attacks, slaughtering everyone they encounter. The Chicagoans, without any direction, modern devices or ''any'' idea of what the hell is going on, arm and rally themselves in improptu militias that take the fight back at the invaders - and start taking down so many of them that the [[HumanoidAbomination Huntsmen of Annuvin]] decide to avoid them like the plague.

* In ''Literature/OutOfTheDark'' practically every fight between the invading Shongairi and human insurgents is a CurbStompBattle, the invaders only conquering earth in the first place through orbital bombardment. [[spoiler:Then when the Shongairi start developing a bioweapon, the vampires show up.]]

* ''Literature/TechnicHistory'' by Creator/PoulAnderson: "That race still bears the chromosomes of conquerors. There are still brave men in the Empire, devoted men, shrewd men ... with the experience of a history longer than ours to guide them. If they see doom before them, they'll fight like demons." -- Brechdan Ironrede of Merseia
* ''Literature/TheTripods'': When The Masters come they decide that humans have so much [[MoreDakka dakka]] and so much fondness for using it that the only way to conquer humans is mind manipulation. That is a race capable of interstellar travel is afraid to fight humans face to face. However once that technique is used, Earth turns out to be fairly easily conquered, at first. Several generations later when the second wave of Masters arrives they find every Tripod city destroyed and the humans ready and waiting.

* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series by Creator/HarryTurtledove: While this involves an AlienInvasion, the aliens ("the Race") have been at peace on three unified worlds for thousands of years and have assembled their conquest force based on ancient plans: the recruitment of soldiers is a one-off event known as a "Soldiers' Time". They are horrified by humanity's dozens of countries and factions and the fact that, even though they are technologically more backward, they're also far better at fighting. The fact that they invaded [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in 1942]] also helped -the Terrans. The Race spotted Earth during the crusades, and invaded 800 years later. To them, those centuries would have meant nothing. However, to humans it was different story. Not only did they advance their technology as a whole, humans also changed tactics and adapted faster. Terran audacity also shocked the Race, such as [[spoiler: an SS operative managing to steal a main battle tank right from under their noses and drive it into a German outpost so it could be delivered for study.]] (Their fleet commander was a little bit miffed at that.) One of the prevailing theories the Lizards came up with to explain Terrans technological and social adaptability is that they're always beating the shit out of each other and always trying to find a bigger stick, while the Race are pretty peaceful and don't really have a reason to push their technology and society so quickly. In addition, things like poison gas, mutiny and torture are completely unknown to them because of this long-lasting peace.
* ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'' by Creator/StephenBaxter: Has this in spades, at least once the [[NonindicativeName Interim Coalition of Governance]] takes over. The titular alien Xeelee outclass them in pretty much every sphere of technology, but the FantasticRacism of mankind's "Third Expansion" doesn't let a little thing like that stand in the way of galactic conquest. A line in ''Exultant'' expresses humanity's fighting strategy; something like: "''To the Xeelee, we were little more than rats - so that's what we became. Tenacious, relentless, swarming; fighting an interstellar war with teeth and nails.''"

* The open narration of ''Film/PacificRim'' explains that one day, a [[{{Kaiju}} gigantic alien creature]] came out of a rift in the ocean and slaughtered a coastal city, followed by repeated attacks by similar creatures. Humanity swept aside all international problems and quickly created the Jaeger program: Giant co-piloted mecha that could go toe-to-toe with the Kaiju. Humanity then proceeds to wipe the floor with them.
-->'''Pentecost:''' I've never believed in the End Times. We are mankind. Our footprints are on the moon. When the last trumpet sounds and the Beast rises from the pit--we will '''kill''' it.

** Continued in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. Thanos's Chitauri, the same ones that failed utterly against a small force of humans, are shown to be able to conquer other planets fairly easily. Thanos's second set of mooks, the Outriders + Black Order, are all exterminated over the course of the film by Earth's defenders- against, mostly [[BadassNormal Badass Normals,]] and a [[SuspiciouslySmallArmy very small number of them at that.]] Additionally, space-born gunslinger Rocket Raccoon is quite impressed by Earth weaponry, and offers to buy Bucky's [=M249=] SAW from him.

** Finally revealed in Enterprise as the reason Vulcans attempted to slow human development. Late in Season 4 the Vulcan ambassador explained to Admiral Forrest that Vulcans were scared of Humans. Their civilization collapsed and it took them a thousand years to rebuild it. Humans suffered the same, and we got back on our feet in less than a hundred, inventing warp drive in the process. He also stated that for all that we might be compared to Andorians or Tellarites, we remind them most of ''themselves'', before they started repressing emotion. Alas, it came too late to save the series. PLUS: Humans united the various galactic races TWICE: once in "our" reality as the Federation, to combat the Romulans, and again in the "Mirror Universe" as the Terran Empire, who ended up uniting everyone else against them.

* ''ComicBiik/{{Drafted}}'' is about aliens forcibly conscripting humans in an interstellar war.

* ''Drafted'' is about aliens forcibly conscripting humans in an interstellar war.

* Humans are revealed to be this in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' story ''FanFic/MesozoicEffect''. Because of their glacially slow technological advancement and inclination toward pacifism, the dinosaurs (who were sentient, [[MST3KMantra don't think about it]]) were unable to fight the Reapers themselves. So they created a virus that would stimulate aggression and mental development in mammals. Humans were the end result.

->''"Mankind has had ten thousand years experience of warfare and if he must fight he has no excuse for not fighting well."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/TELawrence'''

* ''WebVideo/TheTemplinInstitute'': Discussed. Marc notes that humanity's [[HadToBeSharp millennia-long history of warfare amongst its own species has, for better or worse, given us the tools and knowledge necessary to win battles and wars with ruthless efficiency]], which is why fictional depictions of humans being [[HollywoodTactics incompetent]] at war is his fiction pet peeve. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRoAfD6bCQ4 one controversial video]], [[NoTrueScotsman he goes as far as to claim that fantasy humans are not like real life humans because they are not warlike and ruthless enough]]. The "martial spirit of mankind" is a strong CentralTheme in ''LetsPlay/StellarisInvicta'', especially Season One, where the human race [[spoiler:conquers the galaxy and becomes its undisputed masters.]]

** But while all of that is pretty nifty, the best manifestation of this trope is in the White Council itself. Does the White Council, the strength of humanity to combat the terrors emerging from the night, exist as a bulwark against the Fae? Against the Outsiders? Against literal demons from hell? Against Fallen Angels? Against the many strains of Vampires? Against shape-shifting fear-feeding predators? Against Ghouls? No. The White Council of Wizards exists ''to keep wholly human wizards in check''. Be so very afraid.

This has led to a genre of science fiction politely referred to as "HFY" ([[https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/ "Humanity, Fuck Yeah!"]]), about humanity turning out to be much tougher and stronger than alien species. Often this involves describing the [[ShownTheirWork very real]] [[RealityIsUnrealistic but absurd-sounding]] capabilities of humans compared to other animals.

* '''Humans are ''{{Soldier|VsWarrior}}s''''': In the third variation, far from being pacifists, the aliens are a ProudWarriorRace to the ''max.'' Problem is, they're so focused on honor duels, individual prowess, and/or personal-scale violence, that they can't bring together armies and fleets, or are simply ineffectual when they do because they won't or can't cooperate and establish a chain of command (or if they do, it may be subject to [[KlingonPromotion highly destabilizing procedures]]). Thus despite actually being less skilled at raw violence, humanity ends up being the ones [[ThePowerOfFriendship able to]] [[BadassArmy band]] [[HumansAreLeaders together]] and [[CombatPragmatist fight]] ''[[CombatPragmatist wars]]'', and fulfill this trope. As the experience shows, regardless of any aliens, ''this'' version is definitely TruthInTelevision: by the end of the Napoleonic wars, German theorists proposed the concept of "Total War", in which [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans all the society's resources would be applied to achieve victory]]. This essentially meant that war changed from a tool of dominance into a tool of obliteration. And, indeed, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the wars that humanity fought among itself were waged with an increasingly ''industrial'' approach, centering on ''efficiency'' of slaughter -- until we became [[PostHistoricalTrauma terrified of ourselves]]. This one ''can'' be combined with HumansAreDiplomats, since soldiers also know that peace is the end goal of fighting. This can also cross over with PunyEarthlings, since just because humans are physically weak it doesn't mean they don't know how to wage war or otherwise compensate for their weakness.

** Wizards, especially Harry Dresden, frequently get to introduce big bad magical heavy-hitters to this trope. It. Is. Awesome.

** ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'' provides an interesting exploration of the concept. Individual human armies are well trained and highly disciplined, but the war effort on the shattered plains has undergone complete strategic breakdown due to fighting over wealth and prestige. Their enemies, the Parshendi, lack human tactical discipline and training (and indeed had only been introduced to mass warfare as a concept when the conflict began) but have a solid strategic focus of survival that allows them to hang on.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan "Daleks in Manhattan"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks "Evolution of the Daleks"]]: Dalek Sec, upon merging with a human, outright states that humanity "has such a genius war", and that they are the [[HumansAreSurvivors great survivors]] of the universe. This, by the way, is coming from a ''Dalek'', a species that combines ProudWarriorRaceGuy with OmnicidalManiac, that exists exclusively to make war upon every other species in the universe, and Sec himself is a ''very'' high-ranking veteran of the Last Great Time War, the greatest and most terrible war in ''history'', commander of a sect specifically chosen for their brilliance at "finding new ways of killing." And since humans establish a series of interplanetary empires and are one of three species that still live at the end of the universe, he had a point.

* ''Literature/PandorasLegions'' : A very successful, if slightly dim, race of Outer Space Imperialists conquer the Earth with considerable difficulty, then are quickly and hopelessly subverted by the joys of human civilization; food fads, rock and roll, and planned obsolescence.
** The first couple chapters are about the aliens discovering that humans are better at fighting and the rest describes various campaigns by human mercenaries on behalf of the aliens.

* ''Pandora's Planet'' : A very successful, if slightly dim, race of Outer Space Imperialists conquer the Earth with considerable difficulty, then are quickly and hopelessly subverted by the joys of human civilization; food fads, rock and roll, and planned obsolescence.

* In ''Videogame/RemnantFromTheAshes'' and ''Videogame/RemnantII'', human stubbornness, skill at war, and will to survive are the major reason why there are any humans left on Earth after the [[MultiversalConqueror Root]] [[OmnicidalManiac invaded and slaughtered 97% of the population]]. The last remnants of humanity clawed their way BackFromTheBrink after Earth was subjected to HostileTerraforming, journeyed through multiple worlds of ferocious and violent monsters, and were able to destroy the main core of the Root presence on Earth. Of particular note is that neither game's protagonist is remotely special. They are normal humans who go up against highly-advanced alien robots, gigantic alien monsters, various forms of supernatural beings, and [[TheFairFolk Fae]] warriors and come out on top through grit, skill with arms, and clever use of available resources, such as taking available scrap and parts of alien machines and weapons and converting them into weapon modifications to turn on the enemy. Of note is that most human weapons, which are largely scrap guns put together from old machinery and spare parts, are actually competitive with the majority of nonhuman armaments.

* '''Humans are ''{{Soldier|VsWarrior}}s''''': In the third variation, far from being pacifists, the aliens are a ProudWarriorRace to the ''max.'' Problem is, they're so focused on honor duels, individual prowess, and/or personal-scale violence, that they can't bring together armies and fleets, or are simply ineffectual when they do because they won't or can't cooperate and establish a chain of command (or if they do, it may be subject to [[KlingonPromotion highly destabilizing procedures]]). Thus despite actually being less skilled at raw violence, humanity ends up being the ones [[ThePowerOfFriendship able to]] [[BadassArmy band]] [[HumansAreLeaders together]] and [[CombatPragmatist fight]] ''[[CombatPragmatist wars]]'', and fulfill this trope. As the experience shows, regardless of any aliens, ''this'' version is definitely TruthInTelevision: by the end of the Napoleonic wars, German theorists proposed the concept of "Total War", in which [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans all the society's resources would be applied to achieve victory]]. This essentially meant that war changed from a tool of dominance into a tool of obliteration. And, indeed, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the wars that humanity fought among itself were waged with an increasingly ''industrial'' approach, centering on ''efficiency'' of slaughter -- until we became [[PostHistoricalTrauma terrified of ourselves]]. This one ''can'' be combined with HumansAreDiplomats, since soldiers also know that peace is the end goal of fighting.