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They don't necessarily think they're morally superior ''because'' they don't kill each other. They just think they're ''[[Cultural Posturing|better]]'', and the fact that they don't kill each other is indirect proof of that. If they do start killing each other, don't expect them to suddenly realize they're no better (except perhaps for the [[Defector From Decadence]]). They've probably got tons more reasons why they're better, all of them as irrational as that one.
This sometimes appears as a [[Broken Aesop]] where the Aesop is [[Humans Are
This is something of a [[Truth in Television]] as well, since many of the so-called "barbaric" cultures were only so to the outsiders. Also compare the opening paragraph with humanity's prohibitions on human-abuse vs animal-abuse.
Usually part of [[Cultural Posturing]]; also a subtrope of [[Moral Myopia]]. See also [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]], [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]], [[Even Evil Has Standards]]. Contrast [[In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves]] and [[Hunter of His Own Kind]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
▲== Anime ==
* This becomes a problem in the ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' anime with Sara, a mermaid villain that appears late in the first season. When the princesses try to use their [[Magic Music]] on her, it has absolutely no effect, since it's apparently [[Magic A Is Magic A|hard-wired into their powers]] that they can't hurt other mermaids. This, however, doesn't prevent ''Sara'' from sending them into fits of agony with her own [[Villain Song]] {{spoiler|once it's revealed that she too is a princess.}} The rule doesn't seem to exist in the manga, and the only reason they can't hurt her is because [[My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours|she's just that strong]].
* ''[[Appleseed]]'' the movie: "Bioroids don't kill other bioroids!" This time they ''are'' morally superior to humans, because that's what they were designed to be from the beginning. As a downside they can't feel positive emotions as strongly as humans, either.
* At one point in ''[[After War Gundam X]]'', [[Mysterious Waif|Tiffa]] has a psychic chat with some Newtype dolphins, and explains human cruelty to them, since "Dolphins never attack one another". This is utter bollocks, since dolphins are actually well-known in scientific circles for their habit of killing one another for absolutely no reason other than "For the Lulz." Then again,
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Tellos]],'' Hawke at one point manages to get out of trouble by invoking this trope when caught cheating at a betting game. Since it's forbidden for two members of the <s>elven</s> ''Ulfen'' race to raise arms against each other, he pretends to want a fight and then ''happens'' to remember that this is forbidden.
== Film ==
* ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'': The [[Trope Namer]], specifically ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes''. As the Real Life section shows, this is far from fact among actual primates.
* ''[[Alien
** In the fourth movie, several Aliens tear apart another to acidically burn though the ship. However, it apparently did this ''voluntarily'', sacrificing itself to allow the others to escape. Even if it wasn't, it wasn't petty "murder" but a necessary step to allow their race to survive. That, and these particular aliens had been splices with human DNA, so they weren't like normal Xenomorphs...
*** Whether it's more human or alien, the Newborn at the end viciously averts this. It's first act after being born is ''matricide''. Its second act is to crush a human soldier's head. The only person it doesn't try to hurt is Ripley.
* Sebastian Shaw in ''[[X Men First Class]]'' lightly scolded Emma Frost after she knocks Erik off the ship, stating "we don't hurt our own kind". {{spoiler|He later kills Darwin.}}
== Literature ==
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* ''[[Sector General]]'': Justified with the Cinrusskins: as a race of [[The Empath|empaths]], no sane Cinrusskin has ever killed another as the pain of death is shared with both the victim and the murderer.
* ''Chains of Violence'': In this ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel, there are the Tseesk, bird-like creatures who enslaved a human colony. They repeatedly talk about how their society cares for each of them, and how humans in the colony they found were nothing like this - and this somehow gives them the right to make humans into slaves and when humans revolt, the Tseesk declare that humans are too much of a threat to be allowed to exist free, and want to exterminate them. Then it turns out that {{spoiler|once Tseesk occupied 14 planets, but then they started a [[Civil War]] which rendered 10 planets uninhabitable, one planet was inhabitable but all Tseesk there died (this was a planet humans had their colony on), another turned into ice world where surviving Tseesk degenerated into primitive tribes, and only one planet survived mostly intact, thoug they '''still''' have to rely on tech from before the war which they now cannot replicate.}} Not really friendly to each other, either.
* ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' concludes with Gulliver visiting the land of the Houyhnhnms, (a race of intelligent horses) who keep the Yahoos (a race of unintelligent humans) as pack animals, somewhat analogous to how people treat horses. The Houyhnhnms, however, insist that they're better than humans because of how humanely and reasonably they treat each other, whereas we're constantly making wars. They don't treat Yahoos
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'' features an odd sort of inversion when a major difference between the Formics and Humanity is discovered. {{spoiler|The Formics are an insect-like hive species with millions of drones controlled by singular Hive Queens. They assumed humans functioned like that in their first encounters and simply disposed of what they presumed to be mere drones. The Formics didn't conceptually understand that anything could be "sentient" that wasn't part of a hive-mind. When they realized that each individual human was a single sentient creature, their guilt over the number of lives they had taken was enough that they essentially accepted their own near-extinction in retaliation.}}
== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Star Trek:
** The Ferengi follow this to a lesser extent: while murder of individuals and the like happens, Quark has a big speech to Sisko in which he points out that while Humans look down on the Ferengi for being greedy capitalists, the Ferengi themselves look down on the Humans and think they're "better". Ferengi never engaged in genocide, slavery, or atomic warfare, which Human history is full of. Indeed, the Ferengi have never even fought a large-scale interstellar war, instead peacefully resolving disputes by (ruthlessly) applying economic pressure and subjugating their own women.
▲* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', it's "no Changeling has ever harmed another" (until {{spoiler|Odo does it}} - and they ain't too happy about that, as you might imagine). {{spoiler|However, as the founders and leaders of the Dominion, a classic example of [[The Empire]], they've harmed pretty much everyone else.}}
*
▲** The Ferengi follow this to a lesser extent: while murder of individuals and the like happens, Quark has a big speech to Sisko in which he points out that while Humans look down on the Ferengi for being greedy capitalists, the Ferengi themselves look down on the Humans and think they're "better". Ferengi never engaged in genocide, slavery, or atomic warfare, which Human history is full of. Indeed, the Ferengi have never even fought a large-scale interstellar war, instead peacefully resolving disputes by (ruthlessly) applying economic pressure and subjugating their own women.
▲* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'': "Humans don't respect life the way we do," from D'Anna after the Cylons have exterminated billions of humans. Caprica-Six clubbing this self-same D'Anna over the head with a rock is later denounced as "the first act of Cylon-on-Cylon violence in our history" (though it's really not) during a discussion on executing human detainees. Hypocritically, a Five shoots Caprica-Six for speaking out against the executions.
** They've more recently resorted to {{spoiler|simply blowing each other to bits with their Basestars.}}
** Moreover, Three's comment is incorrect, as {{spoiler|Cavil-One killed all maturing copies of Daniel-Seven and then contaminated the genetic code out of jealousy.}}
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== Music ==
* Glassjaw alludes to this trope with their song "''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqWvkCTyCe0 Ape Dos Mil]''"
{{quote|
''I cannot forget this season
''Or the lesson how '''an ape shall not kill ape''' }}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In a sidebar titled "Ape Shall Not Kill Ape" in the ''[[Feng Shui]]'' supplement "Seal of the Wheel," it is noted that the Ascended do not look kindly upon members of the Lodge offing each other because they aren't precisely numerous and the loss of even one of their number is a weighty matter, and thus do not suffer those who make a habit of this to live. Only the Unspoken Name, the leader of the Ascended, can issue a sanction order to kill another Ascended.
* The Eldar in ''[[Warhammer
** During the Horus Heresy series it is made pretty clear that prior to the Isstvan V Massacre it was considered taboo for Astartes to kill another Astartes, verging on the unthinkable. It is worth noting, however, the original purpose of the Space Wolves, besides taking part in the Great Crusade, was to be the "Emperor's Executioners". As in; killing other space marines. Although the issue has been deliberately kept nebulous, it seems, given the hints in the literature, they may have performed this specific duty at least once before the Burning of Prospero.
* ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'': Not only does [[The Commandments|the Oath of the Moon]] say "The [[Our Werewolves Are Different|People]] Shall Not Murder the People," but it's a sin against [[Karma Meter|Harmony]] to kill another werewolf. Which is tricky, as the titular Forsaken are at war with their fanatical cousins, the Pure, who a) outnumber them and b) don't give two shits about that little provision.
* The shadow fey of the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting have the Law of Arak, which absolutely forbids them from killing one another. This, of course, doesn't stop them from ''harming'' one another in non-fatal ways, or from killing and abusing as many non-fey as they want.
* The giff are a race of mercenaries who originated in the ''[[Spelljammer]]'' campaign but occasionally appear in other ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' settings. For the right price, they'll work for nearly ''anyone'' as soldiers, enforcers, bodyguards, thugs, legbreakers, or basically anything that a [[Dumb Muscle]] type can do, but they will ''not'' accept a job that involves fighting other giff. Period.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Nathrezim (Dreadlords) in ''[[Warcraft]]'', who, out of all the [[
** This is both played straight and inverted for the player characters in [[World of Warcraft]]. It is played straight in that it is impossible to kill another player who is in the same faction as you (which obviously includes all player characters of the same race as your own character), though you can engage in friendly duels which automatically end when the loser's health gets low enough that the next hit would kill them. It is inverted by numerous cases where the player is not only able but encouraged to kill NPCs of their character's own race who are members of various factions that are not allied with the player's own faction.
* The Protoss of ''[[
** Similarly, in his inauguration speech, Emperor Arcturus Mengsk of the Terran Dominion says "From this day forward, let no human make war on any other human." That doesn't end up happening, mainly because the United Earth Directorate sent a taskforce to conquer the sector.
*** The video ironically subverts Mengst's speech, perhaps intentionally. Even as he declares that no human should make war on any other human, we see one battle-cruiser destroy another, presumably Mengsk's forces spreading his reach in the sector.
* Averted in ''[[Mass Effect]]''
** Some party members (including Garrus) will ask why Wrex is willing to fight other krogan. There's a little more justification here, as the krogan are on the verge of being a [[Dying Race]] at that point. Wrex brushes it off.
{{quote|
* Averted in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'', where it is revealed that Hiver clans routinely fight inter-clan wars that cause enough deaths to exterminate the human race several times over, and that the Tarka have turned political backstabbing and civil war nearly into an art form by being so accustomed to it. The Liir play this straighter but [[Actual Pacifist|actually practice what they preach against other species as well]] (provided they don't cause trouble; getting a Liir angry at you is ''not'' a good thing), while the Morrigi really don't care what lesser species do as long as they're willing to trade and don't defile old Morrigi colony sites.
* Inverted in the fourth ''[[Arc the Lad]]'' game. The Deimos are treated by humans as monsters, but one character says that they're so monstrous that "they even kill their own kind"
* ''[[Fallout]]'': Although the Death Claws, America's genetically-engineered leftovers from the all-destructive [[Great War]], are extremely aggressive creatures little better than animals that attack humans on sight, it's implied (from the modified talking Death Claws in the second series) that their basic pack-based society has a rigidly hierarchical, peaceful, ethical pack-based basic society. They were extremely loyal to the pack as a whole, treating it as a family unit rather than having individual families. Fights within a pack are unheard of, and the pack's leader controls many aspects of life, such as choosing and matching female and male deathclaws for reproduction.
* Gets deconstructed all the way in ''[[Arcanum]]'', whose elves claim that they do not kill another elves because if an elf dies "unprepared", his\her soul will never be able to [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]. (Tarant's elven thugs aren't so polite, though.) Naturally, when Wrath, a dweller of [[Hidden Elf Village]] is killed by poison, the first and only suspect is his ''dwarven'' apprentice (who also was stupid enough to sign a ''life-long'' contract with the elf). It's up to you to prove that Wrath was killed by an elf Sharpe for a woman they almost fought for and whom Sharpe now lives with as husband and wife (almost a perversion in "free-love" elven society) - or dig it even further and discover that "perverted" family idea actually came from Wrath, that Sharpe actually never killed him and that the bastard has''committed suicide'' solely to frame Sharpe.
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', the Kytinn - as in, D'Vora's race - have this policy. Much like the colonial insects they evolved from, they never fight among each other. This is one reason D'Vora has such contempt for humanoid races, as they refer to her kind as "vermin" despite committing violence against their own kind. Of course, D'Vora is more than willing to war against, kill, torture, and at times, eat humanoid races if it benefits the Kytinn.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Aylee comes up with [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/070725 this argument] in the midst of a loyalty tug-of-war between her friends and her race. Thankfully she came to her senses after seeing how readily her race will sacrifice each other for a meal.
* In ''[[Dreamwalk Journal]]'' killing non-sentient species is justified as long as it's in self-defence. When it comes to sentients, you can rob, cheat and fuck them blind, but causing injury or death is unthinkable.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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** When birds sing, it has two purposes: to attract mates, and to warn same-gendered birds that a given location is claimed territory. If a male bird infringes on another one's territory and doesn't leave quickly, they will fight to the death.
** Plenty of species of snakes will kill and eat members of the same species of them. Sometimes they'll only do it if they're starving, or competing for a limited resource. Other times, [[For the Evulz|they just do]].
** And, of course, plenty of human administrations, both religious and secular, have committed all kinds of atrocities against others, based on whatever criteria. Nazis didn't even treat each other all that well. [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] was practically written into the ideology from the get-go.
** The Snapping Turtle is a really creepy aversion. Its biting power (twice that of a Great White) really isn't necessary for trapping and eating the small fish it usually eats. It is however very useful for eating other hard shelled
* Eugenics and other schools of thought that place one part of humanity above another give rise to the idea that "lower humans" aren't really humans at all. It follows that since they are not your kind you are free to treat them like animals. [[Those Wacky Nazis]] didn't invent that kind of philosophy; indeed, they probably did more than anyone to make it unpopular (or even unthinkable) through their example. But it's [[Older Than Dirt]]; in order to be enslaved a human has to be less of a man than his master, downgraded from a person to a piece of property like a horse or a dog, and slavery is as old as the first civilizations.
** Not that the majority of slavery hasn't been essentially incidental, without any particularly heavy ideology behind
** More recently, this is also what the ''Duro v. Reina'' decision opened up.
* Inverted with the Betta fish. They're incredibly aggressive to their own kind, at times attacking their own reflection. However, for the most part, they leave other species of fish alone. Many otherwise peaceful saltwater aquarium fish cannot be kept with members of their own species due to intra-species aggression. Many other fish, especially aggressive schoolers, play this trope straight. Cichlids also will usually kill most non-cichlid fish as well, but can be kept with other cichlids, not because cichlids won't kill one other but they will (usually) reach a standstill.
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** Keep in mind it's more of a spectrum (similar to the graph the [[Uncanny Valley]] is placed on) the less relatable,the more justified. Dogs are a no kill,cows are justified for food,and insects are killed casually-by the thousands.
*** This has also led to cute-er species being saved from extinction verses others.
*** This is also subject to [[Values Dissonance]]
** Basically, this's trope's existence could be chalked up to [[Most Writers Are Human]], and humans are the only creatures known thus far who can kill their own kind and actually ''feel bad about it''.
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[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Hypocrite]]
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