Basic Trope: Humanity's hat is war and conquest.
- Straight: Humans as a whole fight more than other races and usually wins.
- Exaggerated:
- Every human gets into a brawl at the slightest provocation no matter who they're facing.
- Every human is a Super-Soldier.
- The humans we see are from a tribe that starts training at war when they are five, regularly prays to a War God to bring them Plunder, wears necklaces made of the body parts of their victims, regularly attends rites of ritual cannibalism of slain enemies and sacrifice of captured virgins. All other humans despise them for their pacifism.
- Downplayed:
- Every species fights, but humans are better at it.
- Humans aren't the greatest warriors in the galaxy, but they're the most militaristic culture in The Federation. All the more war-like cultures have made themselves galactic pariahs, which makes humans the Federation's de facto "bad cop".
- Humans are the Martial Pacifists of the galaxy; they consider war a last resort, but they won't hesitate to remind other species that they are pretty good at it if that's the fastest way to keep peace.
- Justified:
- Humans have been killing each other for thousands if not millions of years.
- Humans are the only race that came up with the idea of making a science out of war.
- Inverted: Humans Are Diplomats
- Subverted:
- Humans are fighting a war against an alien race, but try to establish peace talks.
- Despite all their talk about "thousands of years of war", humans are outmatched by The Empire militarily.
- Double Subverted:
- ...Only to unleash a surprise attack on the unsuspecting enemy.
- Humans seem outmatched by The Empire... at first. The Empire expected humanity to fold after a short, harsh blitzkrieg; we don't, and are better able to keep fighting the long, brutal war that follows.
- Parodied:
- A group of aliens are making a reality show, and in order to ensure a proper amount of conflict, turn to the most violent species they know... humans.
- Only the the humans all turn on the guards, wipe them out, exterminate the crowd, then proceed to a bloody Gladiator Revolt and found an Empire of their own. All six of them. When they start inviting more humans from Earth to share in their good fortune all the aliens are so frightened that they have a heart attack.
- Zig Zagged:
- At first, it seems that all humans do is fight with other races. But then, we see that those humans are actually a band of outcasts; the rest of humanity are pacifists. Unfortunately, the entirety of the pacifists are killed off, meaning that the warring humans are the only humans left.
- Humans are considered cyclic between this and Humans Are Diplomats. They are violent when they feel threatened but tend to burn themselves out on long-term conflicts or it will lead to certain and complete destruction.
- Averted: Humans are not particularly violent.
- Enforced: "How can we make humans Badasses?" "Let's make them always want to kick ass!!!"
- Lampshaded: "Now, as ambassador of the Klingon-I mean, Human Federation..."
- Invoked: Aliens show up on Earth and teach humans how to fight interstellar wars.
- Exploited:
- An alien species has monitored humanity's broadcasts and suspects them to be warlike, so they enlist the humans in fighting a war for them.
- A politician from a conquered alien race cunningly convinces The Emperor to add to his glory by attacking a newly-discovered race called...humans.
- The Perfect Pacifist People can't fight themselves so they recruit humans as mercenaries.
- Defied: "Not all humans want to fight."
- Discussed: "Our next target for conquest shall be Earth." "Something tells me that might be easier said than done..."
- Conversed: "You know, for a "peaceful mission of exploration," our heroes sure get into a lot of fights, don't they?"
- Deconstructed:
- Humans' violent tendencies make other races avoid them, refusing all trade agreements with humans. Humanity's economy collapses.
- The Humans realize this trope and pretty soon they start a war of conquest through the universe, leaving much death and destruction behind them.
- Just because humans are very good at war doesn't mean that they enjoy it. While humans are the best overall from smart tacticians, disciplined soldiers, and being eminently practical and willing to do whatever it takes to win doing so comes with a steep psychological cost. PTSD and Survivor Guilt abound among victorious humans. Obligate carnivore descended aliens don't have that problem, giving them one major advantage over humans.
- Reconstructed: The other races have respect for humans' resolve and battle prowess and know that it's much better to have humanity as a friend than an enemy.
- Played For Laughs:
- Although belligerent, human technology is so laughable that they come across as overeager kids rather than bloodthirsty warriors.
- An alien invasion lands near a school and tries to Take Over the World. The chess-club geeks go over and brutally slaughter thousands of them in one hour. The jocks stand aside to let the geeks enjoy themselves. Then the geeks politely get out of the way and the jocks have their turn. The cheerleaders in the meantime, swarm around the aliens' flanks, grabbing a number of them and strangling them with their pom-poms. Someone suggests calling the police, but everyone agrees that this would be unsporting and the whole school was enjoying the slaughter way too much to end it. Then the teacher decides that he has had enough of the aliens interrupting his class, so he goes up to the alien army kills every one of the aliens personally and says to his students, "Ok, you've had your fun, now get back to work. We have a test tomorrow."
- Played For Drama:
- The humans' war-mongering ways cause the other races to gang up against humanity, attempting to wipe all humans out once and for all.
- Humanity's war-mongering ways cause all the other races to gang up against humanity, and humanity wins out through genocide.
- Humans are known and respected by other races for their skill-at-arms and are prized as mercenaries.
- Humans are the hatchet men for an alien Empire. Planet Terra is given favorable treatment in return for humans to keep the rest of The Empire in line.
- Humans Take Over the World in the face of other ferocious races, enslave other races and hold rule over the world by force...Oh, wait.
- Humans, lead by a charismatic leader, swarm into space on a fanatical quest to fulfill their glorious destiny. They form an empire which holds the galaxy in subjection. The Empire grows soft and decadent but soldiers from Planet Terra are still feared by all others for their skill-at-arms, ruthlessness , and relentlessness. Then a Terran soldier, having seen the tyranny of The Empire first hand, convinces his fellows to join him in a war of liberation against the oppression of The Empire.
- A ruthless alien empire threatens to conquer the galaxy, and the imperiled species call upon humanity to fight and save them. The ruthless aliens in question see Earth as nothing but an Insignificant Little Blue Planet full of backwater goofballs, but soon learn that they've sorely underestimated humanity.
Back to Humans Are Warriors
