Basic Trope: Humanity might be far from perfect, but it is in their struggle to overcome their shortcomings that mankind truly shines.
- Straight: Humanity's hats are flawed in any matter.
- Exaggerated:
- Humanity are always flawed to the point that they are all Chew Toys.
- Humanity is so flawed, that even the most accepting of aliens, robots, devils, deities, and literal monsters decided to forcefully improve them, wipe them out of existence, or convert their race into their kind.
- Downplayed: Humanity isn't perfect, but is slightly better than other races.
- Justified:
- Humanity is still developing, and has not begun to perfect itself yet.
- True perfection is impossible.
- Inverted:
- Humanity's hat is full of unarguably, genuinely
perfect people. Any and all of humanity's flaws are completely insignificant and nonexistent, and literally no one can be naturally become insane, jealous, frustated or bored from this, since they are unnecessary flaws. - Humanity is not only unconditionally perfect, but any "flaws", "shortcomings", "downsides", "errors", or "problems" they are claimed to have by others who aren't of a humanoid or human population will always turn out to be completely and unquestionably speculative, fictitious, as well as unrealistic information.
- Humanity are the strongest species and are so superior, everyone else who isn't humanoid, human, or even anthropomorphic are completely insignificant, unremarkable, and never worth talking about.
- Humanity's hat is full of unarguably, genuinely
- Subverted: Humans seem flawed, but they have done things that make a normal alien seem flawed.
- Double Subverted: Until humans pretty much screw things up, and aliens feel superior again.
- Parodied: All humans are flawed in mundane tasks such as cooking, or walking.
- Zig Zagged: Humans and aliens take turns in screwing up.
- Averted: Nothing is said about humanity being flawed or perfect.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Aliens who studied us for some time, have noted our flaws, often to their superiors."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Humans haven't solved most of their major issues... which means they're the only race that has any experience handling those issues when their alien allies suddenly have to deal with them.
- Defied: "Just because we're not perfect doesn't give us an excuse to sit there and not better ourselves."
- "Just because humans are flawed does NOT mean we should celebrate our flaws and weaknesses nor do they make us human! If anything, our flaws make us less than human, and what makes us human, if not more than human, is our potential for good. Let's better ourselves through science instead, both as individuals and as a whole!"
- Discussed: "Man, why are even trying to seem better than those aliens? We can't even begin to compare."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Because humans see flaws as inherently natural, they see they must be good, and if improving the flawed human condition through science and technology is "unnatural", then by their logic, scientifically/technologically improving humanity is evil and must be stopped. The result: humanity suffers from scientific and technological stagnation, people suffer even more than before, and humans as a whole become even more barbaric and idiotic. Unless someone is smart and morally decent to fix the human condition, humanity will doom itself for embracing its flawed nature rather than changing it for the better.
- While humans are far from perfect and are still improving, not everyone is that accepting of this fact. Aliens and the other superhuman species decided that since they are not perfect in superhuman standards, they decided to alter their DNA, exterminate them, or investigate that there are still nearly perfect humans. They also know well that just because humans say that they can get better doesn't mean they can't do unforgivable, indefensible things, unless they are literally made incapable of doing so, which is what the humanoid species go doing. Because of this, humans are now permanently and literally unable to argue, unable to rape, and other things unless the plot of their masters literally demands them to be flawed.
- After witnessing thousands and thousands of human errors in the entire timelime and on Earth, the aliens and other species aren't convinced of the claims of improvements made by humans anymore, so they permanently shut them up by deliberately limiting their vocabulary with advanced technology and powers, so they can't say whatever they want or having the need to say something. The superhuman species are happy that it's the final time they could say they'll get better. Humans are forced to wordlessly improve from their own mistakes, and by the mandatory biological and mental modifications made by their superhuman masters, are unable to do and say these meaningfully flawed things ever again.
- Reconstructed:
- Humans acknowledge their flaws, but instead of embracing them as good or inevitable, use this knowledge to overcome them as much as they can because they also have capacity for goodness. Even if Perfection Is Impossible since people disagree on what it entails (as well as whether forcibly altering people's minds would be unethical hence imperfect in itself), significant improvement in ethics and overall quality of life is an attainable goal.
- Aliens are flawed too, just in different ways, and humans take advantage of this to defend themselves against oppression, remaining free to back up their words by actually improving.
- Played For Drama:
- Because humans are modified by said advanced species after their flaws turned out to be far too much to handle and decided that they are fed up with humans claiming they'll get better over time, it results in extremely complex changes: all abominable human criminals find themselves biologically or physically unable to commit any atrocity they like to do, leaving them vulnerable to other humans who arrest them, while the superhuman species can do so without a problem if they wish. Any form of breaking up, including falling out, and all debates made by humans have to be completely and constantly granted permission by the aliens, deities, literal monsters, and devils, as well as other races of above human standards, and doing so without permission will risk outliving their usefulness and be remorselessly dispatched, with other humans literally unable to miss them. All humans have to unconditionally speak in an indoor voice, or they will lose their voice permanently, since this gives aliens and the like better silence. They have to take special pills to permanently erase their irrational feelings and thoughts, or be permanently gone from life. All complaints from humans are always wrong, and therefore, shouldn't even be taken at face value by said masters. All music are to be within indoors, unless they want other races to teleport to their location and arrest them, with search warrants. All human prisoners are not allowed to have any and all human emotions, or be given the immediate death sentence. All humans are required by law to be grammatically correct, both in real life and in the internet, regardless if it's by accident or on purpose, or be promptly dead. No exceptions. Daily conversations humans made with each other and other species must be short and sweet, as well as concise, or instantly face a disproportionately lethal and constant onslaught of annihilation.
- The other species made certain that all humans are completely unentitled in all ways, even legally, after they made sure these flaws are nonexistent and stopped escalating. Humans literally cannot freely argue with them, even with other humans, or immediately have their world obliterated from the universe, with it being reset and destroyed continuously, to suffer the accumulated agony from the global destruction by the superweapons and great powers of their masters until they are fully satisfied that the humans definitely learned not to pull that stunt ever again. They cannot be overly loud with any species, even to their own, and have to refrain from making any and all racist comments, or they will be consistently undergoing a neverending cycle of getting killed and revived, with the effect of making them biologically unable to say anything that can be taken as racist. Humans also cannot commit suicide, since it's a flaw in itself, because they are recently made irreversibly immortal, and they don't have the ability to ask people to kill them anymore. Their tampered DNA means they are incapable of any form of insanity that would inconvenience the aliens.
- Humanity being flawed frustrated the Sufficiently Advanced Aliens so much that not only did they irreversibly change the humans, but even their Internet and other things because they deemed their errors inexcusable and preventable: all forms of snarkiness, hate mail, and flame wars made and caused by humans are eventually nonexistent and any and all grammar errors made by said humans are constantly corrected by users other than humans. They're not even allowed to make comments on what they like and don't like anymore on everyone and everything, and all superhuman species unconditionally monitor and hear what humans can and will say, including mind reading and will take it to authorities, parents, teachers, bosses, and even their superhuman masters for severe punishment. All topics and comments made by humans have to be completely objective and incontrovertible, as well as being free of all opinion, theories, speculations, and bias, to the point where nobody can disagree or take out of context. They are also not allowed to voice dissent or reluctance, such as "As much as I hate to admit it..." or be banned forever, and everything about them are erased from the whole internet. They are also immediately sent to prison without even being in court first and are forced to take their folder with their mugshots everywhere they go, whether they are free or still in prison. Even worse, all human prisoners are required to keep their prison outfits with them for the rest of their human lives, regardless of location.
- Humanity desperately tries to improve itself, but because of its imperfect nature, all attempts at doing so also turn out flawed and create more problems than they solve. They're forced to accept fundamental modification by aliens who know what they're doing in order to survive.
Back to Humans Are Flawed, but we're getting better.
