Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24198837-20140421023639

So, I've recently read Gundam Legilis's blog post on this topic, and thought that it would be better served as a thread here on the fourms as opposed to a blog. So, here we are.

Personally, I feel like each species has it's pros and cons. Faunus have night vision and the benefits of whatever animal traits they have. This gives them a clear physical advantage. However, I think it's a little arrogent to leave it at that and call Faunus the superior race.

We have to look at the series as a whole, and what we've been shown. First off, I'd like to point out that the best fighter that we've seen so far is Yang (Or Penny, who was [likely] made by humans; And if she's not a robot, she's a human). She's human. The person who is going to save the world, the hero of the series, is Ruby. She's also human. The big-bad, Cinder, is human. In fact, all acts of pure badassery in the core series have been from humans (Again, we don't know exactly what Penny is). Torchwick beat two Faunus Hunters in-training by himself, and even though he's a trained adult, he's not a hunter. In fact, we've never seen a Faunus beat a human in fair combat; only humans beating Faunus when the odds are in the Faunus's favor. Clearly, their physical advantage is in no way battle-defining.

If we look at what we've been told about Remnant history (In particular, the opening narration), it never even so much as mentions Faunus. There is, instead, repeated refrences to man, man, and man. Man found our how to use dust. Man started civilization. Man is the light. To me, this means one of two things - Either Faunus weren't around during those earliest days or the two species hadn't made contact yet. I tend to believe that the second is true. If my theory is correct, though, this would mean that Man started civilization long before the Faunus. If the Faunus originally had a society as advanced as Humans, we would have been told how "The Faunus fought their struggle as well" or something along those lines. Thing is, we weren't. This then means that man's society was further advanced than the Faunus's at the time of their first contact, and that in turn means that Man is a more civilized and/or smarter race (assuming both races started at the same time). Man created most of, or all new technology, and the Faunus are civilized only because of Human influence. That being said, Faunus are clearly well integrated into society, so Man's mental advantage is clearly not Battle-defining, either.

So, where the Faunus have a clear physical advantage, I'd say that Man has a mental advantage. To me, mental power is far more important that physical strength, so I, personally, think that Man is superior. In the long run, though, both species have differences and I'd say that they even each other out, and who we call superior is more a matter of personal preference than fact.

Your thoughts? 