History Main / PunyEarthlings

* Pretty much any alien in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1''. Despite being in a completely unfamiliar environment the Nihilanth's forces were slaughtering the human military, with its ''weakest'' members capable of [[ShockAndAwe hurling electricity]] (and as evidenced in ''Episode Two'' have the potential for so much more) while the Nihilanth itself possessed enough psychic might to keep open a dimensional rift by itself. Afterwards, the non-sapient Xen beasts overran the planet, killing almost everything and forcing humans to barricade themselves in the few surviving cities. The Combine, though no indication of physical superiority, are technologically advanced enough to conquer the planet within hours and their leaders are psychically almost as powerful as the Nihilanth. And the [=GMan=], whatever he is, is basically [[Creator/HPLovecraft Nyarlathotep]]. The only thing humans have going for them is superior teleportation technology, a few {{Badass Normal}}s and the [[OneManArmy walking superweapon]] that is Gordon Freeman.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is a particularly strong example, where an unaugmented human is among the weakest, most pathetic things on the battlefield. Orks are stronger, more resourceful and ridiculously hard to both kill individually and wipe out as a whole. Eldar are faster, longer-lived, more intelligent ([[CantArgueWithElves or act it]]), universally psychic and with ludicrously advanced technology. Humans have three things going for them: the [[SuperSoldier comprehensively superhuman]] Space Marines, above and beyond most other races' footsoldiers, the best [[TankGoodness Tanks]] in the setting, and sheer numbers; the one resource the Imperium is never, ''ever'' short of is manpower. (Of course, this tends to lead to... [[WeHaveReserves wastefulness]].)

** If you look at the power levels achieved by the few humans who did become strong, you realize that humans have the ability to increase their power much more (by many orders of magnitude) than most aliens of whom it is explicitly stated in the Freiza arc that, with the exception of a few mutants, mostly do not have the capacity to increase their baseline power by very much. It of course helps that humans baseline power is ''so'' low. But couple this potential for growth with the Saiyans strong baseline power and ability to grow stronger after severe injury, and the strength of the hybrids is not so surprising.

* Pretty much any alien in ''{{Half-Life}}''. Despite being in a completely unfamiliar environment the Nihilanth's forces were slaughtering the human military, with its ''weakest'' members capable of [[ShockAndAwe hurling electricity]] (and as evidenced in ''Episode Two'' have the potential for so much more) while the Nihilanth itself possessed enough psychic might to keep open a dimensional rift by itself. Afterwards, the non-sapient Xen beasts overran the planet, killing almost everything and forcing humans to barricade themselves in the few surviving cities. The Combine, though no indication of physical superiority, are technologically advanced enough to conquer the planet within hours and their leaders are psychically almost as powerful as the Nihilanth. And the [=GMan=], whatever he is, is basically [[Creator/HPLovecraft Nyarlathotep]]. The only thing humans have going for them is superior teleportation technology, a few {{Badass Normal}}s and the [[OneManArmy walking superweapon]] that is Gordon Freeman.

* Discussed in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Xenophilia}}''. Lero keeps finding himself at the receiving end of such thinking (made worse by the inverted social norms resulting from sex disproportion in pony society - the mares keep trying to protect him). He finally snaps when threatened by an unicorn mare: he lectures her in how while he may be weak in pony standards, he's not helpless, and he shows it by [[NeckLift holding her up on her hind legs by her neck]] while speaking [[TranquilFury in a scarily sweet tone of voice]]. Rainbow Dash takes note on how he's taking care not to hurt her while he does so, and how easily he could do it.

* Discussed in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Xenophilia}}''. Lero keeps finding himself at the receiving end of such thinking (made worse by the inverted social norms resulting from sex disproportion in pony society - the mares keep trying to protect him). He finally snaps when threatened by an unicorn mare, lecturing her on how such attitude pisses him off while holding her by the throat (she may be a unicorn but she was a SquishyWizard and careless enough to threaten him face to face).

** Ironically, it was by all appearances the exact opposite: the Earth of ''Dragon Ball'' was portrayed as a DeathWorld [[WorldOfBadass of Badass]] where you couldn't take two steps without running into monsters, magic, demons, dinosaurs, or humans that could match any of the above with CharlesAtlasSuperpower, SupernaturalMartialArts, or super-science like mecha and robots.\\

** "Crackers Don't Matter" is made of this trope. Thanks to a light-based HatePlague inflicted by the VillainOfTheWeek, Moya's crew start losing their minds and get rather snippy with each other. Amusingly, the terrible eyesight that Humans have compared to the other species that they had previously mocked Crichton for, ends up saving their lives, since Crichton proves must more resistant than everyone else to the HatePlague's effects. As a result, he [[TropeNamer mockingly declares]] that this is proof that "HumanityIsSuperior!"

** "Crackers Don't Matter" is made of this trope. Thanks to a HatePlague inflicted by the VillainOfTheWeek, Moya's crew get quite...''snippy'' with each other. This results in everyone pointing out that John has terrible eyesight (comparatively) and Pilot giving John quite the [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Reason Your Species Sucks Speech]].

--> '''[[spoiler: Leviathan]]''': None have possessed the strength in [[YouCantFightFate previous Cycles]]. Your own species could be destroyed with a single thought. But ''[[TheChosenOne you]]'' are different. I have witnessed your actions in this Cycle: the [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu destruction of Sovereign]]; the [[AllYourBaseAreBelongTOUs fall of the Collectors]]. The Reapers perceive [[WorthyOpponent you]] as [[TheDreaded a threat]]. And I ''must'' understand '''[[WhatTheHellAreYou why?!]]'''

* Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath loved this and used it extensively in their series of ''StarTrek'' fan novels, both amateur and professionally published. To them, Vulcans including Spock were much stronger physically and capable of greater telepathic abilities than in canon, and Spock had been holding back and playing down his superness to co-exist alongside his PunyEarthling human crewmates. When legendary Vulcan explorer Savaj came on board in ''The Promethean Design'', he talked Spock into [[WorldOfCardboardSpeech revealing his true nature]] and Spock ended up going into something called "Vulcan command mode", literally at one point leaping a tall building (well, a wall anyway) in a single bound.

** And freakin' {{Superman}}...
** But {{Batman}} has the greatest superpower of all: [[TheDeterminator he never gives up]].

* Notably averted in ''MassEffect''. While aliens like the [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Asari]] are naturally powerful psychics and can live for centuries and the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Krogans]] are exceptionally strong and durable and potentially live for centuries, all races are shown to have enough strengths and weaknesses to put them on relatively even ground with humanity. In fact, [[HumansAreSpecial humanity's determination and ingenuity]] quietly ''scare the crap'' out of everyone else.

*** In a purely physical sense, humans ''are'' puny. The Turians, Vorcha, and Quarians are all tougher and stronger, the Krogan even moreso. Even the Asari, with their natural biotics, could be considered tougher since they can shield themselves. But in the MassEffect world (much like in RealLife), guns are an excellent equalizer, and [[{{HumansAreWarriors}} humans]] are decidedly ''not'' puny when it comes to strategy, tactics and reflexes.

* Inverted in the AlanDeanFoster ''The Damned'' trilogy, where humans are among the toughest sons of bitches in the galaxy, and are [[HumansAreWarriors better at war than any other species]]. We also have natural immunity to MindControl, and when we're rewired to remove that ability, and then unwired, can demonstrate said mind control [[YouFailBiologyForever (and then pass it on to our children)]].

*** Also they apparently can only have a single child, once. [[YouFailBiologyForever Um...]], without a high rate of multiple births, that would mean the population halves every generation.

* Averted quite hard in the StargateVerse. Humans have been able to grievously upset a power balance that has stood for thousands of years and kick the collective butts of many an advanced species.

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* Parodied by ''InvaderZIM''. Humans are pretty dumb, and Irkens have all kinds of superior technology...but for the most part, the Irkens are pretty dumb too. According to WordOfGod, the show's whole concept was founded on the [[RuleOfFunny inherent ridiculousness]] of a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien too stupid to use his power correctly.

* Hawkgirl and all other Thanagarians, as portrayed in ''JusticeLeague'', have super-strength and wings.

* The humans (and inexplicable {{Funny Animal}}s) of ''Manga/DragonBall'' and its offspring are completely, pitifully underpowered. Case in point: the term "power level" was used liberally in the first season of ''Dragon Ball Z''; the higher someone's "power level," the stronger they were. An average human's power level is 5. The ''first'' villain we encounter in the series has a power level of ''1,200.'' Add the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil into the mix and you've got yourself a race that has apparently survived its entire existence on little more than a wing and a prayer. (That, or the fact that their savior's power level is '''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ili6jo597FU OVER 9000!]]'''. Naturally, he's not human.)

** Not really, as the units the Scrin employ are techno-organic constructs designed specifically for combat, not actual scrin lifeforms. In fact, Tiberium Wars inverts the trope: the Scrins themselves are truly surprised of how humans responded so aggressively to their incursion, to the point they kept fighting between themselves while at the same time managed to fend off the Scrin.