What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Playing With

Basic Trope: Human life is treated as more important than non-human life.

Straight: A hero who espouses Thou Shalt Not Kill has no problem destroying robots, zombies, aliens, and animals.
Exaggerated: Humanity wages an all out extermination of nonhumans without a word of protest.
Justified:
- The non-humans are shown as being irredeemably evil.
- Humans are species-ist bastards.
- The particular non-humans in question (e.g. robots, zombies) cannot suffer, so the hero has no problem killing them.
- Even though the aliens may be sentient, the humans don't know that, and think they're nothing more than animals.
- Non-humans are mindless,soulless animals.
- "You hear them howling, right? Back when all this started, we used to think it was their Mendulla Oblongatta hadn't shut down, making them mindlessly vocalize. It ain't that. It's horror at what they've become, the pain of rotting flesh. The final memories of being torn apart stored in the brains they eat. They won't kill each other; they can't kill themselves. That's where we come in. Welcome to the Undertakers."
Inverted: Human lives are casually thrown away, but killing a robot is considered murder.
Subverted:
- Non-humans aren't killed, but are instead taken to a place where they can live together free of human oppression.
- The hero has no problem crushing a robot's head... But that's because the only thing the head contains is sensory apparatus, which, while necessary in combat, isn't vital to the robot's overall survival and can easily be replaced.
Double Subverted:
- ...But that turns out to be a front for turning them into slave labor or Soylent Green.
- As the robot fumbles around, blind, deaf, and terrified, it falls off a cliff. The hero doesn't care.
Parodied: There's an elaborate system of value attached to creatures based on how human they are, which is consulted by the characters when deciding whom to kill.
Deconstructed: The non-humans rebel against their human oppressors.
Reconstructed:
- ...And then they start treating humans the same way they were treated.
- The non-humans are beaten and the uprising used as the justification for a fresh round of oppression.
Zig Zagged: Some humans firmly believe that non-human life is just as valuable as human life, other humans believe non-human life is inferior, and still others flip-flop on the issue.
Averted: All (sentient) life is treated as equally valuable.
Necessary Weasel: Childrens' programming is not allowed to show people being killed, so there has to be something for the heroes to shoot at.
Lampshaded: "Would you still have killed him if he had been a human?"
Invoked: "Look, nobody cares about those robots. We can kill them all we want."
Exploited: Emperor Evulz keeps all the robots or undead back at the base doing menial things, and commands only humans to attack heroes, in hopes of exploiting the higher value they put on human life.
Defied:
- A human character refuses to kill non-humans on the grounds that they are just as good as everyone else.
- "I don't see what makes a Human more of a person than Greys or Kitts. Or 'even' Returners or Metalfolk. We are the good guys, and we will act like it. Now Set. For. Stun."
Discussed: "Of course we can kill him! He's Not Even Human!"
Conversed: "All the slaughter in this show is fairly gruesome, but I guess they get away with it because they're not killing humans."
Plotted A Good Waste:
- The hero has been killing what they think are aliens... but turn out to be humans modified by the hero's own government to provide a convenient enemy.
- The hero is called out on this bit of Moral Dissonance by somebody later on... and he has no answer beyond "but they're aliens!"

This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.