Basic Trope: Humans portrayed as otherworldly and/or terrifying from the perspective of non-human characters.
- Straight: In a show from the animals' point of view, humans are seen as terrifying beasts.
- Exaggerated: Humans portrayed in such a way that they scare even aliens that would outclass them.
- Downplayed: To the alien primitives humans are seen more along the lines of The Fair Folk or The Greys. Humans are too well groomed to be possible by "normal" means, engage in seemingly crazy actions that prove very effective and they wear clothing and wield tools with craftmanship beyond their greatest masters with materials beyond their recognition.
- Justified:
- Humans are so new and advanced to them that they are an Outside-Context Problem.
- Humans have become godlike beings via technology. The non-humans that encounter them are a much younger species.
- Inverted:
- In a show from the animals' point of view, humans are seen as benevolent gods.
- The protagonist species are seen as eldritch and terrifying to humans.
- Humans Are Insects
- Subverted: Robby the Rabbit has this view towards humans. Everyone else thinks he is a loon.
- The animals talk in a horrified way about a creature that initially sounds like a human, but it turns out they're talking about an actual Eldritch Abomination which happens to share some resemblances with us.
- Double Subverted: Until events make the others take his view as standard.
- Said Eldritch Abomination turns out to be somehow man-made.
- Parodied:
- What frightens them is bizarre and a major case of Skewed Priorities - it isn't their radically different appearance, destructive technology beyond their understanding, or even their inexplicable social structures and emotions. Instead, it is that they eat frozen desserts.
- An Eldritch Abomination travels to Earth on its spaceship. It comes down, sees a human, screams in terror, then scrambles back to its spaceship and takes off as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the human looks over and wonders what's going on.
- A human starts scaring away the animals while wearing a Cthulhu mask and going "OOGA-BOOGA-BOOGA!".
- Zig Zagged: The animals view a large number of humans as otherworldly beings, but humans they are familiar with are viewed as benevolent and friends, but even they are viewed as gods that are above nature, but not to the extend of being capable of Mind Screw.
- Averted: The animals or aliens just view humans as they view each other: just another species.
- Enforced: The writers need a reason for the animal characters to avoid asking humans to solve their problems, so they establish that the animals greatly fear humans.
- Lampshaded: "Man, these humans are freaky!"
- Invoked:
- Humans are attacked or provoked into unleashing their otherworldly nature, often resulting in the non-humans suffering a Curb-Stomp Battle... or even total annihilation.
- An isolationist alien government puts out propaganda exaggerating how scary humans are as a means of discouraging their citizens from interacting with outsiders.
- Exploited: Humans use the fear other species have of them to start a cult dedicated towards them. The other species become a Slave Race.
- Defied:
- Puny Earthlings.
- Ronny the Raccoon is far more familiar with humans than most of the forest animals, and smart enough to figure out that they're just particularly clever, dangerous, and somewhat deranged animals.
- Discussed: A human character remarks on how strange and horrifying his actions might seem from the point of view of an animal or alien.
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: All non human species are visibly disturbed when near one.
- Deconstructed:
- Fear of humans prevents humanity from ever forming bonds with other species, causing humanity to become isolated.
- Although their cities and technologies are genuinely otherworldly, when a human walks into a forest and has no protection from either, he is easy meat. Even when a human uses a gun, the animals are quick to recognize that they are, at a few points, not unlike them.
- Reconstructed:
- Humans use their otherworldly traits for good by playing themselves as gods to encourage peace and good deeds from other species.
- The creatures of the forest, after observing a stranded human for a while, realize that humans aren't so much greater than them... until the human remembers or rediscovers how their kind makes fire.
- Played For Laughs: "Gasp! Two arms! Two Legs! Clothes! They're Hideous!"
- Played For Drama: All is going fine and dandy for the aliens/animals, until advanced humans and give the aliens/animals a Mind Screw with how otherworldly they are.
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