Humans are quite common in real life. Chances are, you know one or two of them. And, chances are, not every experience you've had with them was good. Thus we know, humans are not an innately good race. They have flaws, to the point where some can be called evil. You can call it a trope, but it comes from authors 'writing what they know'. You know this; I've read your story.
However, again, this comes with another piece of external baggage. Most readers know that
not all humans are evil. Even when most of the prominent human characters
are exaggeratedly evil, there's an expectation that the ones offscreen are just normal people.
To defeat either or both of these expectations, an author will have to exaggerate. I've never seen it done successfully, because even in stories like Avatar where a possible takeaway is 'humans suck' (as my mom put it),
the protagonist is still a former human. The viewer is still human. It's too difficult to convince the audience that humans are irredeemably evil or good. We
know better.
People might be willing to suspend disbelief for the duration of the story, but they don't kill themselves afterwards. They don't believe.
Humans are the baseline; because that's what readers are familiar with. If you want to make a race whose defining trait is wisdom, but they're no wiser than humans, then it would be strange. So they have to be at least wiser than humans, probably significantly more so. But then, maybe you want to make another race known for being strong? Eventually you end up with the baseline humans being the 'weakest' race, even though they aren't actually any weaker than in real life.
Though that's not always true either. I know a race that has the defining trait of being the weakest. It's the Goblin, not the Human. Nobody argues when a goblin is the villain, though? They're the underdog, but they're so damn evil that nobody cares. A type of evil that just can't be believed if it came from humans- but these aren't humans.
I've definitely seen cases where they
aren't the weakest, but that's a subversion of the base trope. Just like humans having +1 to every stat in DnD 5e (and thus being 'the strongest'), it's not the norm.
TBH, this is your weakest point. Humans are sympathetic because they're 'like you', not because they're innately weak. There's no pity for the grass, for the trees, for the pigs and the birds, and certainly not for the goblin. Only for the human? No, I understand that isn't true. That's a different point for later. It's not that you don't sympathize with others, it's that you sympathize too much for humans. That's just an innate bias that comes from being human. That's not a personal flaw, but it
is something you can overcome if you try. Perhaps you should get a cat?
I've honestly never seen beastkin portrayed as innately 'nice'. The closest it ever gets is either making them 'pets' like cat and dog people, or invoking the
noble savages trope- which isn't 'nice' at all, just 'noble'. Either way is somewhat... patronizing, in my mind.
If it is done though, it's just another
hat. You can call it lazy writing and be done with it.
Agreed. Sort of. Hypothetically, if a race
was born better, if they
could exist without mistakes, suffering or struggle, I would say that was good.
I resent my flaws, and the flaws of the flawed humans that inhabit this flawed world. I would be extremely jealous of someone who didn't have to experience that. And I would love them the same way I love excellent drawings, or a good game. I don't enjoy those things for all of the hardship that went into making them. I enjoy the final product. I can admire the strength and dedication it took to push through the struggle of making them. I can even overlook flaws in the final product. But I don't resent the good parts. Those are the reason I choose to exist.
I would like it very much if humans could be elevated to that level of art. (But not turned into literal 'art', please.
I'm not fond of taxidermy.)
I hate that too. I've never actually read a story like that, but I know of at least one prominent set of stories like that from the results. Stupid thing.
Though... Don't look at bad writing and think that good writing is bad. It's good that the humans are getting called out for doing bad things. It would be
better if everyone got called out for it.
And don't confuse a story where genocide or slavery happen as a story where they're justified. You need a straw man to show the thing is bad, after all.
Or it's just more 'write what you know'...
Nature is the one thing that's overwhelmingly more powerful than humans. It's
the only thing that can punish humanity for its crimes. Just like a dragon that can destroy without consequence, humanity can take and take and nothing will change, because nothing can stop it. Nothing except nature.
So nature becomes the tool of an author that wants humanity to learn from its mistakes instead of keep making them. Flood, fire, storm, quake. It's karma in action- except it's obviously not, because nature itself doesn't
intend to punish. That's a bit of artistic liberty.
On the other hand, humans know that nature can destroy humanity. It's natural to fear something that's stronger than you, and more so to try to become stronger and secure your survival. In that sense, it's a vicious cycle. Humans fear nature, humans try to destroy nature, nature destroys humans, (the surviving) humans fear nature.
The 'moral' is that humans should just love nature, but how can you love something that keeps knocking your house down?
That I have to disagree with. I've seen too many cases where humans didn't have to work for anything and still had everything they ever wanted. You can look at that and think, 'They should have it all taken away and be forced to
earn a living'. But I'd rather just elevate everyone to the same position. Isn't it better if everyone gets what they want, instead of no one?
Though it's not exactly what I want, I rather like the concept of Superman, reaching down to help the little people.
Obviously, I don't see a problem with learning or growing stronger through effort. I'm just... so tired... All the time...
Take your time. One comment at a time. Slice it up into sentences or paragraphs, analyze, assume the writer has the best intentions, and then respond. There's no time limit.
View attachment 20894Ignore (with a capital I) the trolls and haters.
For the rest, I still suggest finding a therapist. You'll feel so much better if you can talk to a real person who's willing to hear you out and offer comfort. You'll never be able to feel the kindness in a person's writing as long as you aren't looking for it, but a living person can make themselves known to you.
