History Main / SuperiorSpecies

** Mists of Pandaria's portrayal of the previously well liked Pandaren have also been accused of this. They have virtually no evil individuals, everyone that opposes them is portrayed as AlwaysChaoticEvil, and their morals are always depicted as correct. It didn't help that entire races such as the Orcs were demonized to help facilitate their aesops. Though it should be noted that the lack of evil individuals can be attributed to aspects of Pandaria itself; negative emotions can literally come to life and try to kill you there, so being morally upright and self-disciplined is effectively a survival trait.

* Reversed in Christopher Anvil's "Pandora's Planet" - The aliens are actually less intelligent than humans on average, but have had a long time to build their empire. They only conquer Earth through overwhelming military force. [[spoiler: The book ends on the reveal that a species have been discovered that is to humans as humans were to the aliens that conquered Earth.]]

* ''TabletopGame/AT43'': The Therians are a race of cybernetic hyper lifeforms, they boast that even if they lose a few times, they will outlast and outlive their enemies in millions of years. And the twist is, [[spoiler: the Therains are the original humanity.]]

** This all leads back to the asari's true [[PlanetOfHats hat]]: every organic race thinks they're hot. That's their sole contribution to galactic society: they're [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe a race of]] [[DiscountLesbians bisexual]] {{fanservice}}. But hey, At least they use it for the constructive purpose of acting as diplomats and mediators for the rest of the galaxy. This gets deconstructed in ''Videogame/MassEffect3'': Their technological progress? [[spoiler: They keep secret that they have the last intact Prothean beacon]]. Their inherent virtues and biotic abilities? [[spoiler: Product of extensive genetic engineering by the Protheans]] Their diplomatic abilities? [[spoiler: The result of more uplift efforts by the Protheans]]. And if Javik is in the party, he will reveal that [[spoiler:this trope was actually ''invoked'' by the Protheans, who intended asari to lead the next cycle's races to defend against the Reapers, should the Protheans themselves fail. A chance that the asari merrily squandered away on playing high and mighty]]. Though he might have been lying to make Liara feel better.

** The ''Yahg'' are also close to this; from the perspective of the ''next'' cycle, should Shepard fail, they'd probably be in charge: they're larger than Krogan and probably stronger, as smart as the Salarians but live significantly longer, they fall in with the most competent leaders even if they're from a different tribe (and are thus potentially as organized as the Turians), their tribal culture bred into them a very keen sense of perception (they're nearly impossible to lie to) so they're probably as good with politics as the Asari, and since ''one'' of them was able to infiltrate, take over and manage the single largest intelligence organization in the known Galaxy for decades without anyone even knowing what ''species'' he is, it would be safe to say they're as adaptable as humans. They'd be pretty much a MarySue species if not for their rampant savagery and comparably primitive technology. That said, the intelligence and adaptability may not necessarily be a species-wide trait but rather something specific to the Shadow-Broker, as Mordin mentions outliers and we never encounter another yahg in a context where such qualities come into play. It is also mentioned in the Shadow Broker dossiers that they had to kill several before finding one who wanted to leave, giving the outliers theory credence.

->''"I'd just like to say that if I were a member of an alien race -- which I'm '''not''' -- I'd have to take this opportunity to say -- Filthy Earth creatures! It is clear who the superior species is! Isn't it? '''Isn't it?!''' You stink!"''

See also ThisLoserIsYou, {{Ultraterrestrials}} and CantArgueWithElves, for the race most often portrayed as... better. Contrast HumansAreFlawed, where humans not being perfect is a ''good'' thing. Compare BornWinner, where an ''individual'' is innately better than everyone else; DesignerBabies, a common method of artificially developing one of these; and HumansNeedAliens, for when the alien race decides to help humans. Not to be confused with EldritchAbomination, which a species is conceived superior due to their incomprehensible nature. For a species that only ''thinks'' they're this, and want to force everybody else to think it too, see MasterRace. If it's the humans themselves at the top of the ladder, you might be looking for HumanityIsSuperior instead.

* [[OurElvesAreBetter The Elves]] of the Literature/InheritanceCycle are a race of vegetarian super-humans who can decide how they want to look and beat any other entity in war, because they have a stronger connection to magic than any other species. Still, they were driven close to extinction by [[EvilOverlord a human]].

** The [[OurElvesAreBetter Eldar]] and [[{{Precursors}} Old Ones]] filling this role, and the Tau like to think they're in the role, too. Humanity has been engaged in a xenocidal war with the Eldar for about ten thousand years and counting, and for around five hundred years or so with the Tau, whilst the Old Ones have been MIA since the Enslaver Plague nearly wiped out all life in the galaxy several million years ago.

** Each [[OurElvesAreBetter race of Mer (Elves)]] in Tamriel believes this about themselves, but the Altmer (High Elves) really play it up. They see themselves as the closest in blood and culture to the Aldmer, {{Precursors}} to all of the races of Mer and supposed direct descendants of the Aedra/Ehlnofey, the divine "original spirits" who created and first populated the mortal world. The Altmer believe that the other races of Mer are a result of "degeneration" over the ages (and don't even get them ''started'' on [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence the races of Men...]]), while the Altmer actively try to breed themselves back to their ancestral ideal (which includes killing off any undesirable offspring). Come the 4th Era reformation of the [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]] under the leadership of the [[UpToEleven extremist]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]], the Altmer have kicked this belief into overdrive, subjugating the Bosmer (Wood Elves) and [[CatFolk Khajiit]] while waging war against the remnants of the Septim Empire.

See also ThisLoserIsYou, {{Ultraterrestrials}} and OurElvesAreBetter, for the race most often portrayed as... better. Contrast HumansAreFlawed, where humans not being perfect is a ''good'' thing. Compare BornWinner, where an ''individual'' is innately better than everyone else; DesignerBabies, a common method of artificially developing one of these; and HumansNeedAliens, for when the alien race decides to help humans. Not to be confused with EldritchAbomination, which a species is conceived superior due to their incomprehensible nature. For a species that only ''thinks'' they're this, and want to force everybody else to think it too, see MasterRace. If it's the humans themselves at the top of the ladder, you might be looking for HumanityIsSuperior instead.

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*** Their distant cousins, the Daxamites take this Post-Crisis characterization UpToEleven, being not just xenophobic but outright genocidal toward other sentient species.

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* The drow races of ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' view the extremely short lived, technologically inferior and non-mana bearing races in their worlds as inferior to them, lumping all races like humans and orcs together in one term, "goblins". They view these races at best as [[RedShirt cannon fodder]] and at worst, [[ImAHumanitarian a food source]]. They also view their fellow elven species, the Dark and Light elves from which their race is descended as inferior and almost all members of these species that live within their cities do so as slaves and are just as subjected to being [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty invited for dinner in times of famine]].
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* If J'onn J'onzz (aka the ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'') is any indication, the Green Martians are this, although J'onn admits his people had their faults and Humanity is better at certain things. The White Martians shown are a race of warmongering dicks.

** In the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', King Piccolo firmly believes that he and his sons are this compared to humans and outright states as such.

* The ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' universe is filled with demons and Gods leagues above human ability; and each one outright boastful about it in the midst of battle. Yet the entire plot point is for the one human swordsman Guts to put them in their place. There is also a human witch Flora who out lived them by the hundreds of years (whom did not become immortal since she was indeed dying of old age).

It seems they're not above arrogance, though -- they usually feel the need to rub [[CulturalPosturing their superiority]] in our faces. Take solace that some of these arrogant prick species went through bloody periods in their history, [[NotSoDifferent showing they were at some point no better]]. All too many others, though, [[ApeShallNeverKillApe didn't and don't hesitate to point out why this also makes them better than humanity]].

** Vulcans, or at least they think they are. Vulcans do have a rather serious drawback in the form of powerful and dangerous emotions they need to suppress in order to remain sane, which is sort a bummer for them. In Star Trek, it'd probably be easier to count the number of alien races who don't ''consider'' themselves superior to humans, but having races that consider themselves superior to others isn't SuperiorSpecies but CulturalPosturing, and quite believable in context.

** While not species, as such ''[[SpaceMarine Adeptus]] [[SuperSoldier Astartes]]'' are physically, mentally and spiritually superior to everyone else to the point it would over takes a hundred men to match a single marine. They are however ''dicks'' about it.
** The best example of them are the Marines Malevolence, who not only consider ordinary humans as canon fodder, but they consider themselves to be more important than other Space Marines.
** The Imperium propagates a dogmatic belief that ''[[HumanityIsSuperior humans]]'' are a SuperiorSpecies. They're wrong. ''[[PunyEarthlings Dead]] [[MedievalStasis wrong]]''.

* ''Creator/MarvelComics'' has plenty of them, the Skrulls, the Kree, the Shiar. Yet for all their superiority, they can't do a damn thing against [[ComicBook/{{Galactus}} Galactus]]. For added irony, the "inferior" humans have managed to keep Earth out of The Big G's menu more than once.

** One of the major changes ComicBook/PostCrisis (partially based on the [[Film/{{Superman}} 1978 movie]]) was to massively [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstruct]] the "rightful heir of a superior species" aspect of Superman by taking the FridgeLogic inherent in Krypton's destruction to its logical end (''why'' exactly didn't they figure out their planet was dying, and why didn't they have the means to escape if they had the means to send Kal-El to Earth?) The result was reasoning that Kryptonians were so elitist and arrogant that they were extreme xenophobes who never did any serious space travel because they considered all other life inferior to them, and (with the exception of [[IgnoredExpert Jor- El]]) were too vain to consider the possibility that their planet might be falling apart. The result is that instead of being miserable and lonely on earth, Superman had a very low opinion of Kryptonians for many years, (not helped by the fact that both a hologram of his father and a sentient Kryptonian computer program tried to MindRape him to purge him of his acquired humanity) and still secretly considers himself lucky to have grown up on earth instead of Krypton.
%%** Their distant cousins, the Daxamites are far worse. (Define worse.)

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' introduces [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angels]], celestial beings who represent each universe in the multiverse. They're older, smarter, stronger, and better than every species ever, mortal and divine alike.

** During the silver age, Krypton is a straight CrystalSpiresAndTogas. T

* The Pillar Men from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', who are light years beyond humans in both physical and intellectual ability and don't hesitate to flaunt that fact. However, [[WeaksauceWeakness sunlight turns them to stone.]] In addition, they're the ''villains'', so it's rather fun to see supposedly inferior humans beat them. (And, in fact, humanity developed a martial art specifically designed to do so.)

* ''Manga/DragonBall'': King Piccolo firmly believes that he and his sons are this compared to humans and outright states as such.

* ''Manga/DragonBall'':

** Mists of Pandaria's portrayal of the previously well liked Pandaren have also been accused of this. They have virtually no evil individuals, everyone that opposes them is portrayed as AlwaysChaoticEvil, and their morals are always depicted as correct. It didn't help that entire races such as the Orcs were demonized to help facilitate their aesops. Though it should be noted that the lack of evil individuals can be attributed to aspects of Pandaria itself; negative emotions can sometimes literally come to life and try to kill you there.

* Literature/TheDraka eventually become genetically-engineered superbeings. They are often accused of being a race of {{Villain Sue}}s (and their empire of being a [[MarySuetopia Villain Suetopia]]). And they will gladly tell you how much better they are on the environment than OTL humans. Just don't mind that most people at this point have been [[EvilutionaryBiologist genetically modified]] [[HappinessInSlavery to crave slavery]]. Though it is said that ''Homo draknesis'' are not perfect due deleting their [[CreativeSterility creativity]], the Draka have managed to take over a good chunk of the world because the Alliance are [[IdiotBall failed to use their technological edge at critical points.]]