Yeay for Godwin. You'll need to find someone else to discuss social darwinism and racialism with, though.The 13 Wise Buttlords wrote:I intentionally Godwinized to point out how we should be fucking thankful that social darwinism and racialism have no basis in reality whatsoever. Otherwise it justifies their actions and makes us all sad pandas.
So it's alarming to see this pop up so often in heroic fiction. D&D attempts to make up for it by telling you 'so bugbears fight better than humans. Then gain some levels you punk-ass bitch and show them who's boss', but for the Mega Happy Ending we should just do away with this idiotic trope entirely.
From a biological standpoint, species don't tend to survive very long if they are out-competed by another species. So the fact that both bugbears and humans still exist, and have existed for ages, implies that both are successful in their own way. So, whatever combat bonuses bugbears have, humans must have something else that compensates.
From a literary standpoint, I agree that fantasy races have been a stand-in for different nationalities and ethnicities. Another parallel is to different species of animals. Gnolls are more vicious than Kobolds because hyenas are more vicious than puppies.
I'm not clear why the Mega Happy Ending would be to have all these races somehow go away. Firstly, I don't see how this would be achieved without genocide. Secondly, I don't see that the loss of useful biodiversity would be in the interests of sentient creatures in the setting. This is all dependent on the campaign and setting, of course.