So I've been looking at a lot of these "humans are space orcs" posts, very creative, very fun. And I've specifically come across a niche within these posts of most aliens being herbivorous species and humans being unique because we're predators (omnivores but still) again, very fun, very creative. But in reading some of the posts within this niche Its made me think of some questions, as well as some critiques.
ok not everyone is like this which is fine but for me when it comes to writing like this I prefer it to be based in realism. And a lot of these posts (at least the ones I've read) aren't, at least not to the level I'd personally prefer (which is fine, not everything has to be tailored to me). If most intelligent alien species were herbivores, or even all of them (which realistically would be impossible) the consumption of meat still wouldn't be unheard of, just extremely uncommon and mostly only done in critical situations where there is no other option. So the best way to approach this issue in MY opinion would be for intelligent carnivorous and omnivorous species to be UNCOMMON but not unfounded.
Also in this scenario what would be interesting about humans wouldn't be that we are more prone to violence or that we're even particularly better at it. If you look at most herbivorous species In the wild they are of the "fuck around and find out" mentality and if you fuck around you WILL find out, most carnivores aren't like that, at least not to the extent that herbivores are. Generally carnivores are a lot more careful cause an injury could mean they can't hunt and if they can't hunt they DIE. This is what would make humans and other carnivorous species unique, our carefulness, our strategical thinking that herbivorous aliens would HAVE, but would never be able to compare to ours cause for us it's not just thought it's INSTINCT.
Most of all what would make humans and other OMNIVOROUS species special in this scenario is our ADAPTABILITY and CREATIVITY. If an herbivore doesn't have any plants to chew on it might resort to eating meat but It'll get sick if it keeps doing that, same for carnivores just inverse. Omnivores like us are MADE FOR CHANGE, no plants? Just eat meat, no meat? Eat plants. Omnivores are also often (at least in my opinion) the most diverse of the three groups, humans would be gawked at cause we're unlike ANY OTHER SPECIES, even other omnivores. Omnivores also often operate as both predator AND prey, humans are no acception as even though we don't have any natural predators ANY MORE, during the early stages of our development we had to contend with not only HUGE FUCKING BEARS AND SABERTOOTH CATS AND SHIT, but our PREY was also WAY bigger than us often times. And based on studies our instincts and biology reflect that. That would make us even MORE unique, especially if you go the route of intelligence among omnivores being EVEN MORE RARE than it is in carnivores.
In this scenario what IS the exact percentage of carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores? Obviously the whole point would be that herbivores are the most common but what about the other two? Are carnivores more common than omnivores? Or the other way around? Are carnivorous leaning omnivores more common than herbivorous leaning ones? I feel like it would be the inverse but what do YALL think.
How important are ones instincts to most aliens compared to humans in this scenario? If most species still heavily rely upon their instincts then humans could be unique in that we don't rely upon them as much. Or it could be the COMPLETE INVERSE.
Reading these posts has been really fun and I'm exited to hopefully see more!
