What if Willpower is Literally Humanity's Special Trait?

So, you guys know how whenever there's a fantastical setting with Dragons, Elves, and whatnot, and each species/race has a special trait that only they have? Dragons typically have immortality and immense magic, Elves typically have a deep and spiritual connection to nature, Dwarves are known for being barbaric blacksmiths, and so on and so forth. And how in each of these settings, humanity's special trait is that they have the perseverance and willpower to stand among their contemporaries despite having little to no magical talent, all in an attempt to peddle a message about never giving up in the face of endless adversity?

Well, here's a thought for you guys: what if Willpower was literally humanity's special trait?

And by that, I mean what if the thing that separates humanity from the others is that they're literally known for their frankly bonkers willpower. Like, even hybrids between humans and other creatures are born with a natural hotheadedness and unbelievable willpower that pushes them to be the best they can be. I get that this is sounding eerily similar to what I've just described, so the closest thing I can liken it to is the various Lantern Corps from DC Comics. How Anger, Willpower, Hope, Compassion, and so and and so forth power the respective Lantern Corps. A little something like that, the only thing is the unnatural willpower is literally engrained into every human's soul, to the point where even the depressed ones can't help but push forward because of it.

Just something I thought of a couple of weeks ago and decided to get it out here where I'm(partially) confident it'll get some engagement... likely.

I know that my page is a ghost town, all things considered, and I'm well aware how much of a dick move that is, especially considering I keep promising to stay on task. That's not to say I've been totally inactive, the last story I posted was two month's ago on Eka's Portal, and I've been getting to stories every now and then on Google Docs. I'm not going to make any promises, I'll try my best to get back on track, but I won't hold my breath if I was you. Hopefully, I can get things back on track.

Comments

[Moon Quil]

I believe humanity drew the short stick compared to other beings but we have determination and will power to do things we can only dream of including the determination to make those come true. And if something wants to fight or try and hurt us we have the will power to bring a heck of a fight lol

[RovanDovan]

I'd say one of the best ways to look at this is from a literary standpoint. Because the people who are writing these stories are us. Humans. And the perception that we have of ourselves and the lessons that we want to portray in our stories are a big part of how we portray our own species. If a deer or crab or some other animal were to write a story about us they'd probably talk about our intelligence and our ability to pretty much change that world to our will. That's just the perception that they'd have. But we view ourselves very differently because we see vast differences between each individual. And we take these differences to the extreme and then apply them to fictional races and essentially say, "what if this extreme was the norm and came naturally?" Take the trait of intelligence for example. Being human we see vast differences in the intelligence of individuals of our species but then in some sci-fi or fantasy story there will be a race where their whole gimmick is just being intelligent. It's not to say that humans couldn't ever reach that, because we can, but it's more fun from a story telling point of view to have them be this extreme. One of the main reasons that you'll often see the "special trait" of absurd willpower in humans is simply because it's heroic. And typically story tellers want their protagonist to appear heroic. There's a reason why I called this willpower absurd and that's because it just is. It's very rare among individuals today to be able to be beaten down over and over again and still have the ability to stand back up and face adversity. And it's pretty necessary in story telling. One would be hard pressed to find a story out there where the protagonist just gives up and doesn't ever come back. You'll see times where protagonists will hit lows for sure, and maybe even temporarily give up, but you'll rarely if ever see a protagonist properly give up and stay given up. So the willpower isn't really a "special trait" of humanity as much as it is a trait of protagonists. A better special trait for humanity, at least in my opinion, would probably be our adaptability. This a trait that can't quite be linked directly to protagonists but does quite often show up when stories talk about the human race as a whole. Like world maps where the dwarven kingdom is in the mountains, the elven kingdom is in some grand forest, and humans are basically just everywhere else. Heck you can even see this in the real world. We've got humans living literally everywhere. As a species we've conquered each continent and even have people just living in space. We've got people trying to figure out how to build sustainable habitats and mars for Pete's sake. Just because we can. I suppose you could attribute this to willpower if you really wanted to. Humans being too stubborn to take mother nature saying "you probably shouldn't live here" as a challenge and then living there anywhere does suggest some level of hard headedness and perseverance so maybe I just proved your point. Take it as you will.
On an ending note because I don't know how to end this, have a great rest of your day.