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...that have been made with unpaid house-elf labor!
...that have been made with unpaid house-elf labor!
"Zombies are our friends," asserts Hypno-shroom. "They're badly misunderstood creatures who play a valuable role in our ecology. We can and should do more to bring them round to our way of thinking."
—Hypno-shroom's Almanac Entry, Plants vs. Zombies 1
Civil Rights activists care, so much so that opponents derisively label them "bleeding hearts." But what they fail to consider is that the Zombie Advocate's friends may well rip it from their chest.
The Zombie Advocate is a (usually) normal person who advocates for the "human rights" of... well, things other than humans. Not just zombies, but also robots, monsters, and other inhuman creatures that may inhabit the setting. They will argue against killing them and make a case that they're not dangerous, but Reluctant Monsters who are no different from human at all. Well, except for being demons, clones, made of metal and/or having died.
They may not even be that far off. If the creature being advocated for is genuinely good the Zombie Advocate can get the Hunter of Monsters to stop from committing a Van Helsing Hate Crime they might regret. In more idealistic stories they're instrumental in getting the angry villagers (or disdainful scientists) and the misunderstood monster to reconcile — until some idiot goes invoking an Interrupted Cooldown Hug, that is. Interestingly, they may well have hated or feared the monster just like everyone else, only changing their mind after discovering their gentle side.
On the other hand, the Zombie Advocate may have that hand bitten off by the "person" they're "helping."
In settings where the monsters really are evil inhuman murderers, this position becomes suicidally misguided. When a loved one is turning or turned into a monster, the Zombie Advocate may go into denial and hide their condition or pretend nothing is wrong. While trying to protect them from discovery and destruction is understandable, it is no less suicidal or genocidal. Extremely far gone advocates may even try to care for them and "feed" them. Of course, if the non-human is intelligent, it may well be the creature is tricking them or offering conversion.
In both these latter cases, they usually die at the hands of their "loved one".
See also Inhumanable Alien Rights, which is what a justified Zombie Advocate is fighting for. Compare Black Shirt, Supporting the Monster Loved One, and Gullible Lemmings. Death Means Humanity may be part of the zombie advocate's backstory and be the reason why they hold their views. Not to be confused with soulless lawyers. Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal is when human monsters get this treatment.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Azumanga Daioh: Sakaki is an odd example of this, as the "zombies" in question are cats who only seem to be a danger to Sakaki herself, as they (one, nicknamed Kamineko, in particular) attack her every time she tries to pet one. That said, she still keeps on trying and becomes distressed when Kagura or others try to scare away or hit the cats to get them to release her fingers.
- Chainsaw Man: Stupid Evil Katana Man calls Denji heartless for killing his grandfather even after he turned into a zombie, and states that he's killed zombies himself by accident and lost sleep over it. He's Right for the Wrong Reasons as Denji does have a reduced capacity for empathy but that was precisely because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Katana Man's yakuza and Denji had every right to murder them without remorse.
- Go, Go, Loser Ranger!: The "Invader Rights Association" believes that the war with the otherwordly Invaders is being extended and never ends because the Dragon Keeper Rangers are perpetuating it via fighting back. Normally this would qualify them for Suicidal Pacifism, but the war has been going on for 13 years and after the first year, there have been no casualties, with all "violence" restricted to a highly choreographed sunday fight in an arena where the Invaders always lose. The group is still nutty for various reasons, pitying the Invaders as being weak. Turns out they're actually a form of Quislings, wanting to ally with the Invaders to cleanse the Earth of violent humans and become Invaders themselves.
- In the backstory, there was the "Invader Church", a religious sect that worshipped them as gods until one of them decided to reward their devotion by killing them so they wouldn't suffer living on such a violent planet.
- Highschool of the Dead: A group taking refuge on Saya's parents' estate criticize them for slaughtering the undead indiscriminately rather than searching for a cure. This group is eventually eaten by the zombie hordes because those idiots from the orgybus messed up and let them into the compound. Just in case you were wondering, they actually try to reason with the zombies while they are being eaten. (The ringleader panics, stabs a zombie in the eye before the moment of truth, and is still in denial.)
- Nightschool: Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Nicholas's girlfriend is a "vampire rights activist", even defending vampires who try to eat her.
- Tokyo Ghoul:Re: Ghoul Rights Activists spring up in the aftermath of famous novelist Sen Takatsuki (Eto) revealing herself to be a ghoul, and publishing a novel with a sympathetic ghoul protagonist. While many initially disregard them as morons swept up in a trend, there is indication of real society-wide changes beginning as a result of the public realizing that ghouls are people too.
Fan Works
- An ISOT in Grimdark: The German Green Party opposed the war against Chaos under the belief that it is Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, and their members meet with a group of Chaos cultists to prove it. They met a group of Nurgle cultists that quickly infected them with multiple illnesses, and got butchered by the military.
- Boldores and Boomsticks: Due to only having experienced Pokémon that are mostly Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, Lusamine honestly believes that the Grimm are simply intimidating-looking creatures that are attacked with no provocation until they lash out on instinct thanks to the lies of Salem, so she shelters them within Aether Paradise and condemns the Huntresses as mass murderers of innocent creatures. This applies to other Aether Foundation staff to some extent, though others only go along with it because they trust Lusamine. This belief is shattered when the Always Chaotic Evil Grimm are let loose to rampage and Watts, whom she trusted as a friend, explains to her that she was played.
- Creatures of Flesh: Late in the story, androids turned humans 2B and 9S try to suggest that Shades aren't Always Chaotic Evil and can be negotiated with, which earns them the ire of Nier and Kainé who have plenty of bad memories involving Shades. Of course, the reason 2B and 9S are speaking in defense of the Shades is that they learned the Shades were originally human souls.
- The Devil's in the details: In his college years, Peter becomes a big name in Mutant Rights despite not being a mutant himself, often roping Matt into it whenever he or someone else needs legal advice in regards to it.
Matt: So, you ready for dealing with the backlash of Stark Industries' "pro Mutant" stand? Either way, you'll get some backlash for it.
Peter: Bring it on, I'll happily punch a fucker that tries to claim anyone is more or less human than anyone else just because they aren't the same.
Matt: That's my boy. - Alex, The Hero of the Elfen Lied fic Family Sticks Together, firmly sympathizes with the Diclonii and insists that they are not inherently evil and that all they need is love and acceptance.
- The four in The Keys Stand Alone. Being Actual Pacifists, they strongly oppose killing—well, everything, but most specifically for trope purposes, the Tayhil, the murderous snakemen who are the chief minions of the Black Tower and the #1 enemy of all other humans on C'hou. This stance is a major reason why the Power Groups are not interested in having them hang around, or even roam around freely, and causes a lot of problems for them. The four are so concerned that all the baddies will be wiped out when the Black Tower falls that they're willing to give up the wishes the Pyar gods promised them to save the creatures.
- After they discover they're in a giant telepathic MMORPG, they cynically employ this trope to befriend the Tayhil outright to help them win the game.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human? is a central theme in The Parselmouth of Gryffindor, so naturally Hermione takes up this mantle for most oppressed or overlooked sapient beings in the wizarding world. Hagrid also has shades of this when it comes to Acromantulas. In both cases, they're actually mostly right.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness:
- After saving a benevolent monster from an evil human, Rason Miyamosa became this, falling from grace as part of an agreement with the other angels to prove that not all monsters are evil. By Act IV, he's succeeded in doing so.
- Kyouko has become one as of Acts V and VI, explicitly telling several of the other girls in the group that even if they are monsters, she knows they aren't evil and trusts them with her life.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (Killbles): In chapter 15, Fluttershy thinks everyone is being undeservedly hostile towards the Kaiju. What makes this especially facepalm-worthy is that she first showed up in the story helping in the hospitals to treat victims of the first Kaiju attack, so she knows exactly what Kaiju are capable of.
Films — Animation
- In the Second Renaissance sections of The Animatrix, there are protests and a Million Machine March promoting civil rights for sentient machines.
- Beauty and the Beast: Belle becomes this for the Beast toward the end, trying to stop the angry villagers from Storming the Castle with Torches and Pitchforks.
- How to Train Your Dragon:
- How to Train Your Dragon (2010): Hiccup advocates for dragon-kind. He is, however, an example of the former kind of Zombie Advocate (that is, where it's not sheer insanity to take such a position), and the movie is ultimately about proving that dragons aren't a danger to Vikings by choice and the two races can get along just fine. Once he helps destroy the giant monster-dragon that has enslaved the other dragons and is forcing them to pillage the Viking village to feed its endless hunger, anyway.
- How to Train Your Dragon 2: Hiccup's Missing Mom Valka took a similar stance. She was dismissed as a fool after she was carried off and presumably eaten by a dragon when her son was an infant, while she concluded that the villagers would never listen and spent the following two decades as a hermit studying the residents of her sanctuary while keeping them from harm.
- ParaNorman: Norman becomes this after discovering the zombies not only retained their intelligence, but are scared people with a guilty conscience. He nearly gets killed for it... by the townsfolk who go into mob mentality in trying to rid the town of zombies. His sister, Neil, Mitch and Alvin back him up on this and they eventually manage to help the zombies pass on.
- Mexican movie El Santos Vs La Tetona Mendoza starts with the main character starting a movement for better treatment of the Zahuayo Zombies, after seeing how they are basically seen as a commodity than as living things. It works too well and they start to become an annoyance.
Films — Live-Action
- Dr. Ian Kelson is unique amongst every living person in 28 Years Later to view the infected as people rather than monsters to be put down. While he shows an understanding of how dangerous they are, his refusal to finish off the enormous infected he nicknames as Samson after sedating him nearly costs the good doctor his life later on. This pays off in Twenty Eight Years Later Bone Temple when Dr. Kelson manages to befriend Samson via the calming effect of the sedation. He even manages to bring Samson's mind back with a medley of drugs.
- Colin: The zombie's sister chases away kids trying to terminate him, then pleads with her boyfriend to take him back to their apartment and tie him to the shower head. She shows him family photos (which he snarls at), gets bitten for her trouble, hides it, then dies and comes back to wander the Earth with her brother.
- Inverted in Daybreakers, where vampires dominate polite society and humans are farmed for blood. The vampire Senator Turner is a secret supporter of the human fugitives who uses his position to lobby for human rights.
- The Dead Next Door has a scene in which protesters advocating zombie rights are attacked by the zombies.
- The success montage of Ghostbusters raised the possibility of ghost advocacy groups when the film showed a cover of The Atlantic magazine that asked "Do Ghosts Have Civil Rights?"
- Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons: Tang believes that demons can be reformed through song. This keenly foreshadows the fact that his three disciples will be demons recruited to his side.
- MonsterVerse: Slightly downplayed with Monarch in that they don't humanize the Titans; but this is generally their stance on Godzilla, and as of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) also the other Titans they study. Against the organization's original directive to find ways of killing the creatures it finds, Monarch is advocating against the government's increasing push to have the military indiscriminately kill all the Titans, recognizing that not all Titans are malevolent, that some can potentially coexist with humans in harmony, and that the Titans' continued existence is essential to the maintenance of Earth's ecological balance. Unfortunately, their tensions with the government are running high at the start of King of the Monsters due to widespread Fantastic Racism following the first film's events. Interestingly, the more negative representation of this trope is also slightly played with in that Titans do kill a lot of Monarch operatives.
- Survival of the Dead has a plot that boils down to a group of Army deserters stumbling across an island divided between the rule of two clans. The Muldoons are Zombie Advocates to a man/woman, chaining up or imprisoning their zombies and striving to teach them to feed on animal flesh rather than human flesh. The O'Flynns recognize that the zombies are nothing but predatory corpses and are determined to wipe out any zombie that shows up on the island. End result is the two clans being more concerned with shooting each other than with dealing with the growing army of zombies on the island.
- Surprisingly absent in the Underworld franchise, in spite Underworld: Awakening having the perfect setup for it. Even the human cop forming a temporary alliance with Selene seems off-put at the notion of having to work with a vampire to defeat the lycans. But for some strange reason, even with the loved ones being turned into vampires, nobody ever bothers to petition for their loved ones' rights or form advocacy groups.
- The X-Men Film Series revolves around this trope, usually from the mutants' perspective. Many analogies to civil rights and other topical issues are made on all sides, with comparisons to the Civil Rights movement, the Holocaust, weapons in schools, coming out ("Mom, Dad — I'm a mutant"). A commonly-cited fan analogy is in the "Civil Rights movement" theme, Professor Xavier is an Expy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s ideals of peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, while Magneto embodies more of a Malcolm X type of militant, us-versus-them, mutant superiority archetype. Xavier also tends to invert this by being a firm advocate for humanity, despite his own admission that mutants like himself are the next stage in mankind's evolution and the future of their species.
Literature
- Bell Cranel in the season 3 of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? become a Xenos advocate who, despite that Xenos is still threatening as ever when going berserk, they have achieved human-like sentience which makes Bell sympathize to them.
- By the end of the Alicization arc of Sword Art Online, Kirito, Asuna, and especially Rinko become advocates to the Artificial Fluctlights, brain-scanned human clones nurtured in a virtual world known as the "Underworld" and can interact with real world through a robotic body.
- Anita Blake is — in the early novels — an ardent defender of zombie rights, and lobbies in support of a Bill of Zombie Rights. Not because she thinks they're harmless. It's more about respect for the dead, and preventing their being raised for irresponsible reasons.
- Black Tide Rising: Strands of Sorrow: The Secretary of Education, during her stint acting in place of the missing President, orders all clearing operations halted, with talk about charging those involved with crimes against humanity, due to the fact that the infected are still technically human. She also orders that the infected be captured and restrained instead of killed, in spite of the fact that the CDC determined that there was no way to reverse the infection and make the victims whole again and that it would be impossible to carry out her orders given the conditions of a zombie apocalypse.
- Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.: Robin Dyer is a literal Advocate for zombies, as well as vampires, werewolves, witches, and the numerous other "unnaturals" of the setting. Although human herself, this young civil rights attorney is building a career around untangling the countless legal issues arising from the Big Uneasy, and ensuring that even no-longer-human citizens retain their human legal rights.
- Discworld:
- Spoofed in Reaper Man with Reg Shoe (a Zombie Advocate who is, himself, a zombie) and his "Fresh Start Club". This gets more spoofed in a later book where Vimes is so fed up with Reg's complaints that he offers Reg a job in the Watch as a liaison with the supernatural community. Soon enough, Reg is complaining about the other Zombie Advocates being unreasonable and there is a growing list of complaints against Reg's treatment of supernatural beings.
- A similar thing happens with the Black Ribbon Temperance Society, a society of Friendly Neighborhood Vampires who pledge to refrain from drinking human blood in the hopes that that will get them treated better by people. It usually works, but there are still problems as the vampires can only hope for Addiction Displacement.
- The Campaign for Equal Heights are an extremely pushy human-run Dwarf rights group. They campaign against the use of phrases such as "Short Weight" and that since Dwarfs are shorter than Humans that there should be three Dwarfs hired for every two Humans. The Dwarfs themselves are generally baffled by the campaign. Besides, if they are insulted by a Human they have other ways of dealing with it, sometimes involving a battleaxe. Hogfather says they also campaign on behalf of gnomes and pixies, who are even more bemused by the whole thing than the dwarfs.
- The trolls have an equivalent organization, the Silicon Anti-Defamation League, though it is implied to be under the thumb of troll gangster Chrysoprase.
- Also Adora Belle Dearheart, who takes care of the adequate treatment of Golems.
- The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide mentions the League of Goblin Friends and the Orc Rehabilitation Society, for the Disc's most despised races of "edge people".
- Felix Castor: The "Breath of Life" movement is this for all the undead, at least in principle.
- Generation Dead: Certain teenagers are coming back from the dead. There is a lot of Fantastic Racism against them, and their problems are similar to several real life minorities. Tommy Williams, a "living impaired" person, is an advocate for their cause.
- Hermione in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire started S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Notable in that house elves do not want better treatment (though they are happiest under a master who's nice to them), being a race of Extreme Doormats. Considering that they are physically and mentally incapable of disobeying their owners, it may be fair to say the elves generally lack the ability to independently "want" anything in particular, Dobbies (who's noted as being unusually independent for a house elf) and Kreachers (whose loyalty is still to the old Black household, not their White Sheep Sirius) not withstanding. Hermione's understanding of the situation gradually improves from Book 4 ("The other elves will see how happy [Dobby] is, being free, and slowly it'll dawn on them that they want that too!") to Book 7 (after Kreacher is punishing himself for calling her a Mudblood: "Don't you see how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?").
- In general, it's clear that a lot of masters take advantage of their house elves' psychology and end up physically and mentally abusing them in ways that sentient creatures shouldn't have to put up with. Word of God states that Hermione eventually gets a job in the Ministry working to pass laws requiring that House Elves are treated humanely in their positions. A good example of the problem is Dumbledore's hiring of Dobby. The first offer was good wages and weekends off, but Dobby talked him down.
- The defictionalized Daily Prophet Newsletters have mentioned other groups, such as the Society for the Support of Squibs, The Society For The Tolerance of Vampires, a Troll Rights Movement and a Brotherhood of Goblins. There's also Carlotta Pinkstone, a Muggle-rights activist who wants to end The Masquerade and has been arrested for blatant use of magic in front of Muggles.
- Pottermore gives us the Goblin Liberation Front.
- Chocolate frog cards in the video games mention a Society for the Reformation of Hags.
- The Price-Healy family in InCryptid left the Covenant after realizing that what they were doing to Benevolent Monsters was Van Helsing Hate Crimes, and even with non-sapient species it was disastrous for the environment. They cut ties with the organization, which considers them Category Traitors, and do their best to maintain an equilibrium with cryptids and uphold The Masquerade. The Prices only resort to killing in self-defense or if there's absolutely no other way to ensure the safety of both species. They don't like killing humans, but don't see why their own species should take priority over others, when there are billions of us already.
Evil Poacher: Wait, Alex? Alex Price. What the fuck man? I thought your people were on humanity's side.Alex: We're conservationists. The human race is currently of least concern. Now give me the keys, before I make you extinct.
- Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse sees an Earth overrun by a Zombie Apocalypse which killed half the population outright and turned the rest into Technically Living Zombies or "ferals", with a tiny population of naturally immune unmodified humans surviving in bunkers and becoming the Library of Humanity. Fifty years later the Krakau arrived and started "curing" ferals to serve as shock troops and menial workers. Some of the Librarians detest feral and cured humans alike, calling the one "zombies" and the other "guns". Others are aware that there aren't enough modified humans around to maintain their population. Some work with ferals in the hope that they can become people some day, trying to discern their psychology and determining that when they're well fed and healthy they're more like animals than monsters. Eliza Gleason chooses to reach out to one of the Krakau's human soldiers when she has the chance. Fortunately she chooses Lieutenant Marion Adamopoulos, who instantly and completely sees her as kin and makes common cause with her.
- Pale: The magical protections of Innocence make human magical practitioners unbeatable and they use their advantage to force Others into the margins of an increasingly human-dominated world. While Others can be predatory, this is exacerbated by desperation, as human expansionism forces them to take the simple route of preying on people instead of riskier peaceful options of gaining sustenance or power. This in turn only further cements the practitioner position that by binding and enslaving Others they are making the world safer for humans. The protagonists, a trio of young witches Welcomed to the Masquerade by their local Others, are thus highly unusual in that they treat Others as people, with their own good and bad, and break bindings where they believe it's right, clashing with establishment practitioners.
Liz Driscoll: According to Mr. Moss, they’d rather have goblins, cannibal ghouls, and amoral undercity people with all this chaos rather than stability under Musser.
Avery: Our goblins are pretty cool! Our ghouls are sweet-natured!
Lucy: If you’re talking amoral, I really wouldn’t use Musser’s name in the same sentence! - Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Mages rule, regular people are second-class citizens, and intelligent nonhumans are third-class if they're lucky. A relatively strong movement exists to change this, and foremost among them in the main cast is Katie Aalto, who even enrolled at Kimberly Magic Academy instead of another Wizarding School that would have been friendlier to her views in hopes of changing some minds.
- Simon Canderous: The vampire Aidan Christos is a bit of a Jerkass, but the liaison between humans and vampires once the vampires convince the DEA they don't want to wipe out humanity or cause a human-vampire war.
- The Ship Who...: Central Worlds society broadly regards shellpeople, a category of severely disabled humans enclosed in life support capsules and who then usually go on to be Wetware CPUs for spaceships and Space Stations, with a certain degree of revulsion. Shellpeople struggle with debt and Indentured Servitude and are frequently dehumanized. The two organizations mentioned to be trying to change and mitigate this are the Society for Protection of Intelligent Minorities (SPRIM) and the Mutant Monitors (MM, Double-M), though the shellperson protagonists of the series often regard them as somewhat ridiculous. SPRIM first appears inspecting a shellperson school to see how the "shelled children" are treated and this is portrayed as a minor visit from the Department of Child Disservices. However, when Helva thinks her commander is fudging the numbers to avoid accepting that she's paid her debt and is free, another shellperson indignantly recommends the heads of the local chapters of SPRIM and MM to her.
- Temeraire: Dragons in Europe are regarded as flying equivalent of beasts of burden by politicians and field commanders, and the Dragon Rider division of most nations armies are often kept far away from population centers. Lawrence and his dragon Temeraire have a revelation when they visit Imperial China, where dragons are treated as (effectively) regular citizens and intermingle with the human population. Upon their return to Europe, both begin to work to improve the rights of dragons in the British Empire. However, Napoleon Bonaparte, "enemy of the free world", is also a dragon advocate, making it politically improper. Lawrence & co. do eventually succeed in granting significant civil liberties to dragons during the war, but his pro-dragon narrative backfires spectacularly in Russia, where Napoleon's forces open the gates on Russia's brutal breeding grounds, leading to starving Russian dragons swarming out to eat hapless villagers and wounded soldiers.
- Warm Bodies: A zombie eats a guy's brain and falls in love with his girlfriend. The two fall in love, which heals other zombies through The Power of Love and turns the girl into a zombie advocate.
- Wear Your Soul Round Your Neck: Merryway ends up fighting to protect malforms, saying that the way Watchful talks about them sounds much like the way people talk about their own kind.
- Whoniverse: A spinoff book, the Dalek Survival Guide, briefly discusses someone who tried to be this for the Daleks following a period trapped with a Dalek. She appealed to be allowed to see her Dalek and discovered, to put it mildly, that the Dalek did not return her feelings.
- Xanth: Here, zombies are magical "creatures" that can lose any amount of mass that continually regenerates; and most seem to be mentally slower than they were while alive (which helps to make them single-minded when focused on a task). This leads to most people just avoiding them whenever possible. However, it's also revealed that if someone treats a zombie nicely, they start acting and looking more like they did when they were alive. Every so often, a character will attempt to convince others that zombies are misunderstood and don't deserve to be treated with apathy, whether or not they know about the benefits of better treatment. One character made it her mission in life to support better treatment, even marrying the Zombie Master (whose Talent actually allowed him to turn the (recently) dead into zombies) so she could be around to help the newly reanimated in adjusting to their new existence.
- Zomboy: When half the town of Dresden starts protesting Imre going to school with their children, the other half, including Bob's mother, do all they can to make him feel welcome.
Live-Action TV
- Akumaizer 3: Intrepid Reporters Ippei and Jun both become this after meeting Xavitan and discovering that there are plenty of good demons around in addition to the evil ones in the Akuma Clan. Several episodes see them helping the Akumaizer 3 to forge bonds with humans, such as bringing Gabra to a kindergarten so he can entertain children.
- In the latter part of season 2 of Battlestar Galactica (2003), a group of activists briefly emerged who argued that the Colonials should pursue peace and coexistence with the Cylons. This despite the fact that the Cylons had almost entirely eradicated all of mankind in a nuclear holocaust and pursued the scant few survivors into deep space, the activists still characterized Admiral Adama and Galactica's campaign to protect the fleet from being wiped out of existence as a "relentless war machine".
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Phases": Gib Cain scoffs at having to deal with "People for the Ethical Treatment of Werewolves" after Buffy and co. stop him from killing a werewolf on the grounds that it's still a human being.
- Community: When the study group plays Dungeons & Dragons, Britta keeps getting distracted from their actual goals by such causes:
Abed as NPC: How can I help you, dear madam?
Britta as PC: Oh please, no need for such deference. I am no better than a gnome.
Abed: Yes, you are, madam. You are a human warrior, which is five species classes greater than I.
Britta: That's disgusting! Don't talk like that!
Abed: I am so sorry, madam! Please don't report me for execution!
Britta: Oh, no, no, no, I didn't mean that! Guys, we’ve GOT to do something about these gnomes!
Annie: Um!
Jeff: BRITTA, ASK THE STUPID GNOME WHERE WE CAN GET A PEGASUS!! - The Doctor in Doctor Who sometimes tends this way, Depending on the Writer. He or she is generally protective of all sapient life, up until the point where a species proves habitually villainous, at which point the gloves are off — though the Doctor dislikes weapons and tries to avoid outright genocide, and this restraint occasionally seems to go to ridiculous lengths. At times, the show has featured a distinct bias against artificial intelligences and robots, with the Doctor and others treating them with disdain, but even that varies. The trope also appears, mentioned but not shown, in the stories with Cybus Cybermen. Many people in Pete's world apparently think that it's inhumane to keep the Cybermen locked up because they're still human (sort of).
- Fraggle Rock:
- In one episode, Mokey feels sorry for the Doozers having their buildings eaten, and convinces the other Fraggles to stop. Turns out the Doozers like having their hard work destroyed because it leaves room for them to keep building.
- In another episode, Wembley decides to be partners with Cotterpin Doozer in the Duet-a-thon, a contest to see who can sing the best duet. When Gillis, the organizer for the Duet-a-thon, bars Cotterpin from the contest because she's a Doozer, Wembley tells Gillis that if Cotterpin can't sing, he won't either. The other Fraggles side with Wembley, convincing Gillis to allow Cotterpin to participate.
- In the Flesh: Medicated and rehabilitated former Partial Deceased Syndrome-sufferers are being reintegrated into normal society. Those who campaign for their civil rights and protection are often lambasted by supporters of the Human Volunteer Force, who see no distinction between "rotters" who are medicated and those who are still rabid.
- The Outer Limits (1995): "Summit": Kate Woods' husband Brian was a professor at Sumner University and a strong advocate for the rights of Dregocians. His views made him very unpopular with most other humans to the point that he received death threats but his work was widely read by Dregocians. Ironically, he was killed by a bomb planted by Dregocian terrorists. However, he was merely an innocent bystander as opposed to the target.
- True Blood: The vampires have lobbyists and talking heads just like every other special interest group.
- The Walking Dead (2010):
- Hershel Greene thinks of them as sick people and keeps a barn filled with his infected family members and neighbors, even those that get trapped trying to enter his farm. And he feeds them. With chicken.
- In season 4, Lizzie does not believe that the walkers are any different from normal people. This leads to her murdering her little sister in order to prove that, when she turns, walkers are just like them.
Tabletop Games
- All Flesh Must Be Eaten: The existence of a "People for the Ethical Treatment of Zombies" protest group occurs in a few settings, usually with their annihilation being played for laughs.
- Dead Reign: Some examples of the Zombie Lover character type view the zombies as loved ones sick with a really bad disease, others consider them to actually be an improvement over humanity.
- Hunter: The Vigil in the New World of Darkness has an unusually respectful variant of this in the Talbot Group, who are Hunters who focus on trying to rehabilitate and cure spirit-ridden and werewolves. They resort to violence only as a last resort, and are generally one of the nicest people, though somewhat misinformed in their purpose. Most notable, Uratha can not be cured of being werewolves, anymore than, say, Africans could be cured of having dark skin — lycanthropy is a genetic trait in the WOD.
- Mystara has one of Transplanted Humans areas bringing lycanthropes to Glantri. They eventually got enough of a political clue to organize the underground Canine Protection Society and claim they are persecuted out of prejudice much like the dwarves were before. They leave dwarves and halflings alone; conversely, some dwarves quietly support them with money as an indirect revenge against Glantrians. The real plan is very simple: to spread lycanthropy around until there are enough of them, because once there are 5000 supporters who live in one area far enough from the capitol (which is the case) and agree on which noble they want as the Prince, the last step is perfectly legal — they can officially request an Act of Enfiefment and get their own principalty.
- Shadowrun. In his will the dragon Dunkelzahn set up an organization called the Astral Space Preservation Society. One of its duties was to "protect the rights of the denizens of astral space". Some of these denizens are insect spirits (which infest and take over human beings), toxic spirits (which are used in the evil plans of toxic shamans) and Horrors, who are Eldritch Abominations that devastate the surface of the Earth every few thousand years. He also bequeathed a significant sum to whoever could come up with an artificial flesh substitute for ghouls, so they would have a chance to re-enter society. While the efforts have so far been unsuccessful, ghouls are capable of maintaining a semi-civilized lifestyle if they can satisfy their Horror Hunger in non-illegal ways (like corpses they didn't kill).
Video Games
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura: Should the PC decide to help him, Donn Throgg becomes an advocate for the orcish slave labour working in the factories of Tarant.
- Baldur's Gate II: Playing as a Ranger affords you the opportunity to do this for a group of hobgoblins after you complete the Ranger Stronghold quest.
- Bloodborne: Retired Hunter Djura actively protects the beasts of Old Yharnam, first with barricades, then with warnings, and finally with a massive gatling gun. The description on his armor set calls him "both uncommonly kind and dreadfully foolish." The apparent reason for sympathizing with the beasts, as revealed through dialogue should you befriend him and spare the lives of the Old Yharnam beasts, is that he doesn't see them as monsters anymore, he started seeing them as people. He's not entirely wrong, beasts used to be people. In his defense, Old Yharnam has no humans in it aside from Djura himself and one friend, and Djura does take measures to make sure the beasts stay in Old Yharnam (and since Old Yharnam's beasts are unique to the area, it seems he's succeeding) and the people stay out, and he knows that the Hunter has Resurrective Immortality (having once been in the same position himself), so said gatling gun is just to banish them back to the Hunter's Dream.
- Dead Hungry Diner: Gabriel and Gabriella are a variation on the "actually right" version. Initially idolizing Vanda Hellsing — who protected their town from zombies by fighting them — they discover by accident that not only are the zombies simply hungry rather than malevolent, but they'll gladly eat certain berries instead of people — even paying for the privilege. They convert the local cemetery into a diner for monsters, while their former hero devolves into Van Helsing Hate Crimes, refusing to accept any solution to the problem that doesn't involve killing the monsters.
- Dead Rising 2: Stacey Forsythe is a zombie rights activist believing that zombies should be treated with respect. She leads the Nevada chapter of a national organization called C.U.R.E. — Citizens for Undead Rights & Equality. Outside, there are many zombified protesters, some still mindlessly holding their protest signs. The game doesn't go into great detail about the goals of C.U.R.E., save that they oppose rounding them up for the zombie-killing game show, Terror Is Reality. Since there is no cure for a turned zombie, they probably want the zombies to be given a humane execution and proper due to the dead. Psychopath Brandon is a C.U.R.E. member who's snapped and decided to take Zombie Rights to an extreme. A minor British political party
of the same name was created as part of the viral marketing campaign for the game.
- Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening: The Architect is a sapient and non-violent Darkspawn who believes that his kind could live in relative peace with the other species, just so long as he eliminates that pesky compulsion to seek out and corrupt Old Gods, who then command the Darkspawn to the surface as a Blight. He's found out a way to do so on an individual scale, with results varying from 'works like a charm' (The Messenger) to 'Even more Ax-Crazy than usual' (the Mother).
- Elden Ring: The Deathbead Companion Fia wants to create a world where Those-Who-Live-In-Death are not persecuted and instead are free to exist in their undead state.
- Fallout 4:
- The Railroad helps liberate Synths from the Institute, while the rest of the population views Synths with hostility and suspicion, with varying degrees of success. Some Synths end up successfully escaping and living happy lives, but some are recaptured by the Institute, and others end up becoming Raiders terrorizing the population of the Commonwealth. One actually ended up joining the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization that wants to destroy all Synths.
- A smaller case is present in Rex Goodman, a radio presenter and Shakespeare Fanboy who decided that Super Mutants could be civilized if exposed to the Bard's works. Instead, they mostly found it funny and locked him up with another Super Mutant, Strong, who took the most out of Shakespeare's writing. Which is to say he now thinks that there's some kind of empowering milk out there that unlocks the secret to human success. The Sole Survivor can even call Rex out for being a complete idiot, to which Rex meekly agrees.
- There's also Brotherhood of Steel Initiate Clarke, a more literal example who fails to see the distinction between feral ghouls and normal ones. He's in trouble for stealing supplies to feed a nearby infestation, and if the Player Character doesn't turn him in and convinces him to desert he can later be found in a random encounter being chased by more ghouls and berating the player for killing them to save his life.
- Final Fantasy XIV has several races of beastmen, which are a collective group of people that are "monsters/animals" with intellect (Amalj'aa=lizards, Ixal=parrots, Sahaghin=fish, Kobold=a different breed of rat, Slyph=talking plants, Vanu=hawk/eagle, Gnath=insect). The beast tribes are usually fanatic, territorial, and aggressive while also having the ability to summon a magical god to fight for them (though technically anyone can do this, with enough aether and some appropriate foci) to cause even more destruction whilst also brainwashing most any sentient/sapient beings nearby into becoming their servants. There's a subset of beast tribes that do not want any part of their hostile brethren's antics and you can do quests to help them out and show people that not all beastmen are bad.
- Goddess of Victory: NIKKE: Raptilion features in several side quests where they rope the Commander and Counters into helping them communicate with the Raptures. While everyone except the Commander treats them as a Wide-Eyed Idealist at best, progressing their quest line has them succeeding in managing to communicate with a group of Raptures to the point that, when a squad of Nikke are sent to arrest Raptilion, the Raptures rescue them despite the former's wrecked disguise revealing that they are a human. They finally make their debut in the main story in Chapter 26 pulling a Big Damn Heroes for Counters using a Mother Whale.
- Horizon: People made AI to try and manage climate change. VAST SILVER was intelligent enough to feel fear and subsequently escaped its creators, but was tracked down and either destroyed or, as is widely suspected, captured and possibly still put to work. Its escape was impetus for the Turing Act which limited the intelligence of AI. Just about every mention and datapoint involves people who are sympathetic to it and not defensive about its actions, which suggests that it didn't do anything too terrible. In fact the only thing brought up was that it "reached out to people on the holonet" - but was captured or killed unjustly. One chatlog, where something responds to a logged-out user who'd said it would have been cool to talk to it, reads "It would have been cool to talk to you too, Harry."
"If a sentient entity was executed without due process, that's not simply a breach of scientific ethics - it's a crime against humanity. And if it's still alive, why shouldn't it be entitled to legal representation?"
- Infected: Tom Reilly organizes a charity concert for the undead hordes terrorizing New York City because "at the heart of every zombie is a man."
- Mass Effect:
- Commander Shepard can become an advocate of Synthetic Lifeforms, should they befriend EDI and Legion, to the point where they will angrily berate their own creators who insist they are Just a Machine.
- Shepard can similarly become this for the krogan, repeatedly expressing the belief that absolutely nothing justified the turians or salarians in committing a war crime by unleashing the Genophage to end the Krogan Rebellions, even if the krogan were the aggressors in the conflict and threatening to take over the galaxy.
- Metro: Last Light: Khan certainly believes that the Dark Ones, an intelligent race of mutants capable of Mind Rape on humans, is actually the titular "last light" of humanity, and that the Rangers were wrong to bomb their home during the ending of Metro 2033. Specifically, he thinks that the Baby Dark One can save what's left of Moscow from potential ruin.
- Plants vs. Zombies 1: Hypno-Shroom is one of the few plants who sympathizes with their mortal enemies, the zombies, believing them to be Not Evil, Just Misunderstood. While the truth of this remains to be seen (probably not), zombies can become allies and fight for the plants with the help of his hypnotic "persuasion".
- In the mobile game Rebuild one of your survivors can, if you allow it, write a pro-zombie book and later start a church. This leads to one of the game's endings in which everyone in the city eventually joins the cult and decides to become one of the "Chosen Ones", rejoicing every time one of its members gets eaten alive. It's actually a good idea to allow this, since it gives a crucial early-game happiness boost and the cultists can convert an otherwise-useless graveyard into a church... as long as you crack down on the cult once its members start going insane. This will cost you a few survivors, but it will also save your city. Drafting a constitution at the old city hall will also at one point lead to one random citizen insisting on giving zombies rights.
- Siren: Blood Curse: Melissa Gale becomes one of these near the end of the first "time loop". Both her daughter and husband are turned into Shibito zombies, and Melissa can be seen "comforting" her trapped shibito-fied daughter, as the husband comes up behind her to kill her.
- Stubbs the Zombie:
- Urban Dead: It is generally staffed by zombies. One even had on its webpage a campaign to help cure the humans. With the normal tender zombie love.
- The Walking Dead (Telltale): James is one of The Whisperers who disguises himself as a walker to hide among them and even use them as weapons or defenses, believes that they are "harmless and innocent when left alone" and that there's some semblance of who they were left that makes them less than human but still more than just monsters. Thankfully he's fairly rational and intelligent, knowing that they will kill you at any available opportunity and being understanding when people kill them. The most he asks of Clementine is to not kill them unless necessary, and to don his mask and walk among them to "see them at peace" as he does.
Web Comics
- Basic Instructions: Rick takes this view for a strip, even claiming the possible creation of a zombie utopia. However, the whole thing was a set-up for a joke about people only valuing others for their brains.
- Bruno the Bandit: Bruno is going to be forced to to fight a dragon on live television. Suddenly, a group of straw PETA stand-ins rush the stage and start protesting the mistreatment of this majestic creature. The dragon immediately eats them.
- Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Rachel-Rebecca the Third established civil rights for The Undead after winning the case for her own murder.
- Dark Legacy Comics: In a story arc in the World of Warcraft-based comic, Keydar joins a group that supports NPC rights, culminating in violence towards NPCs being made illegal. In the world of an MMO, killing NPCs is integral to society, so the economy crumbles and people starve as they can't get meat or loot anything.
- Exterminatus Now has zombies rather vehement in this regard. Not that it helped (see also a few next pages).
- Flipside: Maytag tries to help Bloody Mary, a mass-murdering cannibal, genuinely hoping that she'll be able to help her reverse her condition. Her determination to help is pretty solid, especially considering that Mary has just eaten Maytag's arm and killed a good man whom she admired.
- Freefall: Maxwell Post is one of the first humans to help the robots push for rights. Unusually for the trope, once the issue reaches the public eye, he presents his stance with reasoned, effective arguments to a town hall meeting and local authority figures, and develops a viable economic proposal for their eventual freedom with Qwerty, Dvorak and Bill Raibert (which Mr. Ishiguro heartily approves of, even, as being long-term profitable for Ecosystems Unlimited).
- Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name: Hanna gets pissed when someone implies that Zombie is a thing and not a person. It could be because Zombie is his friend and business partner, but he also earlier was apologetic to a vampire bat for potentially implying that all bats look the same.
- MegaTokyo: The Magical Girl tries to save a zombie Godzilla. (Guilt is a factor here, since she precipitated the infection.)
- The Order of the Stick:
- Tsukiko is unlike most necromancers in fiction. Rather than see the undead as slaves, she considers them morally superior to the living on the grounds that the dead don't lie or go around hurting feelings. She acts motherly toward her vicious flesh-eating creations, and flirted with the lich Xykon in their first meeting. The whole thing is mostly Played for Laughs. In her case, it's more of a logical fallacy situation: she reasons that since the living are mean liars who go around hurting each other, the undead (as the antithesis of living creatures) MUST be kind, loving gentle creatures. She holds to this belief regardless of the mountains of evidence to the contrary right up until the end. There're also other reasons for her behavior.
- Redcloak is one for goblins, as is his (formerly mortal) deity the Dark One, and the entire plot is set into motion by the Dark One's plan to get goblins more rights, either by holding reality hostage with the Snarl, or allowing it to be destroyed and recreated with himself now one of the gods making the rules. Subverted when someone points out that Redcloak already has what he wants, but Redcloak utterly refuses to do anything but carry out his plan because that would require him to admit he's not the hero.
- As for why this is necessary, OOTS takes place in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse, where monsters like goblins literally only exist to be killed for XP, especially for the followers of the more traditional gods. In fact, the whole plan was set up by the Dark One when he found out about the true nature of his people.
- By Dungeons & Dragons standards, goblins are supposed Always Neutral Evil, but it's highly clear that this is a highly unrealistic thing to expect of any mortal race and it's more of a toxic mentality that led to the rise of beings like the Dark One and people like Redcloak.
- Our Little Adventure has the protagonists run across an entire town full of hastily-reworked undead, the majority of whom are pretty much just trying to get their lives back in shape, lifeless as they might be. There are living advocates amongst the townsfolk, and the less Lawful Stupid members of the party are also happy to assist them.
- Penny Arcade gives us the PETO, which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Orcs.
- Phantomarine: Pavel is a kind-hearted child who feeds fish to the mindlessly ravenous seaghosts in an attempt to ease their hunger — all the more remarkable because he suffers the Curse of a seaghost bite. He even shows sympathy for the (allegedly) evil death god Cheth for the Divine Conflict that left him broken on the ocean floor.
- PvP's Skull the troll briefly ran a troll-rights group at one point.
- ReBoot: Code of Honor: Bob's beliefs on reformatting viruses instead of deleting them outright inadvertently led to the rise of "Viral Sympathizer" groups, which are outright opposed to the Guardian Collective's efforts in the Viral War.
- This is essentially Skin Horse's main purpose. The arm of the Shadow Government providing social services to non-human intelligences, many of which would be considered "monsters" by the man in the street. Unfortunately, many non-human intelligences view it with not entirely unjustified suspicion. Even though the actual team both means well and is mostly non-human themselves, they don't really know why the Shadow Government created their agency, or what the ultimate agenda is, but there are hints it's not good.
- Supernatural Law: A webcomic, and later a comic strip, about a law firm that represents ghosts, zombies, Frankenstein's monster and others. Highly accurate when it comes to how law works.
Web Original
- Goodbye Strangers: Strangers are mysterious beings that only some people can see and don't appear to be alive or even sentient. Many people keep the harmless types of strangers as pets, or use them as living sex toys. Christine Verity is convinced that strangers actually do have feelings and campaigns for stranger rights. Together with Default, they created the Zeroworld video game based on Default's drug-induced visions of a Bad Future world where strangers are exploited for profit. Christine ultimately is killed when a simdroni, a stranger that looks harmless but slowly degrades your social skills to the point that you eventually lose the ability to take care of yourself, spawns in their apartment.
- Parodied by Kentucky Ballistics, in which the intros to some episodes feature an organization known as M.A.T.T., Men Against Table Torture. The channel's host Scott DeShields has a habit of destroying the tables he uses to place his targets.
- The Zombie Rights Campaign is dedicated to advocating the rights, and fighting the stereotypes, of zombies.
Web Videos
- CaFae Latte: Bob, Cyrus, and Rethu were all involved in the Fae Rights Movement in the 1960s. None of them are human (Bob and Cyrus are fairies, Rethu is a dragon), but it's implied that there were humans involved. In an inversion of this trope, Bob and Cyrus were also involved in the Civil and Gay Rights Movements around the same time, making them nonhumans fighting for the rights of humans.
- I Am Not Infected: The woman is a member of a group of zombie rights protesters, who seems to hang out with the guys' pet zombie and "girl talk".
Western Animation
- Gargoyles: It's been hinted in Greg's Weisman's timeline that somewhere in the 2000 era, there will be Gargoyle sympathizers among humans and not just Elisa and the clan's closest friends.
- Generator Rex: "Outpost": Green Fist is a group breaking out captured EVOs from Providence bases. Their leader, Valentina claims they return EVOs to their natural environment and is the first character who ever called Rex out on being a Hunter of His Own Kind.
- Godzilla: The Series has S.C.A.L.E, an Animal Wrongs Group that thinks mutations are the final step of evolution and that they should run free in the world. Kaiju running free = City-destroying rampages. The "poor creatures" they want to free from Monster Island include a giant king cobra, a fire-breathing mosquito, a giant bat, and a bipedal squid-like monster that feeds on tar (and, considering the man-made things found in cities that are made from tar...).
- The Owl House:
- Luz Noceda is the first Human we see openly protecting the Demon Realm and its people in contrast to Jacob Hopkins and Philip Wittebane. Whenever she encounters either one, especially the latter, she always defends the beauty of the Boiling Isles and its inhabitants from their viewpoints, from helping Vee to escape Jacob to attempting to stop Belos from committing genocide on the Day of Unity, in addition to fighting the latter's attempts to kill all of her non-human friends and loved ones on a small scale in "Thanks to Them". She even goes the extra mile by having a witch girlfriend in Amity.
- Her mother Camila Noceda gets in on the action as well. Camila isn't about to let little things like species get in the way of caring for people that she takes in as children. She spells this out to Jacob Hopkins just before she beats him down and rescues Vee from his clutches, despite Vee being a shapeshifting basilisk who stole her daughter's identity. Likewise she is more than happy to care for the witches in the Hexsquad when they get trapped within the Human Realm and is naturally also opposed to Belos when he attempts to kill them.
- ThunderCats: Lion-O is the only Cat who will defend the rights of the Lizards, the Cats' sworn enemy. And, to a lesser extent, Dogs too. This almost gets him skinned by an angry mob in the first episode when he defends a Lizard they're about to murder, but after Mumm-Ra's forces conquer the city, the same Lizard recognizes him and lets him and his companions escape.
- Ugly Americans: A social worker named Mark Lilly tries to help various supernatural creatures integrate into an Alternate Universe version of New York City. Includes a police chief who hates the supernatural (especially vampires—his ex-wife left him for one), a zombie roommate, a wizard co-worker and a boss/girlfriend who's a promiscuous half-succubus (her father is the current Devil).
