Editing Aliens (section)

==Common archetypes for alien species==

===The Greys===
One of the most famous alien archetypes, originating from real world "alien sightings" and conspiracy theories. [[Grey#Grey_Aliens|The Greys]] are short humanoids with grey skin and large, black eyes. Usually go around in flying saucers abducting humans for experiments and creating crop circles. They tend to only appear in either parodies or in works that are inspired by UFO lore.

===Human Aliens===
Aliens that are visually identical to humans. Nowadays a kind of discredited cliche; examples in the modern day mainly still exist because of old franchises where they've been used for years.

*Kryptonians ([[Superman]])
*Saiyans ([[Approved Anime#Action|Dragon Ball]])
*[[Doctor Who#Villains and Big Players|Time Lords]] ([[Doctor Who]])
*Vulcans ([[Star Trek]])

===Babeliens===
Beautiful alien women, often existing to be a love interest for the human protagonist. Unlike Human Aliens, the Babeliens tend to have enough visual differences to make them appear more exotic while still being humanoid enough to fap to.

*Red Martians (Barsoom)
*[[Twi'lek]] ([[Star Wars]])
*Asari ([[Video Games#Role-Playing Games|Mass Effect]])
*Trills ([[Star Trek]])

===Swarm Aliens===
Aliens loosely based off eusocial organisms from our own Earth. Usually insectoid, and tend to have little independent thought to the point of often being depicted as a "hive mind". Tend to be antagonists most of the time.

*[[Starship_Troopers#The_Xenos|Bugs]] ([[Starship Troopers]])
*[[Tyranid|Tyranids]] ([[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40k]])
*[[StarCraft#The_Zerg|Zerg]] ([[StarCraft]])

===Lovecraftian Aliens===
Aliens inspired by [[Cthulhu Mythos|HP Lovecraft's work]]. Tend to have very abstract and non-humanoid designs, with tentacles being a common recurring trait. Mostly portrayed as villainous, and if they aren't then they are neutral entities who don't care about humans for the same reason we don't really care about beetles.

* [[Mi-Go]], [[Elder Thing|Elder Things]], [[Yith|Great Race of Yith]] ([[Cthulhu Mythos]])

===Alien Animals===
Although most depictions of aliens in science fiction are intelligent creatures, realistically they would be far outnumbered by non-sapient aliens with the intelligence of animals. Indeed, seeing as it took billions of years for Earth to evolve intelligent life, it is likely that most planets with life in the universe wouldn't have any sapient organisms to create civilization. Still, seeing as this is kind of a boring truth, most science-fiction stories with "alien animals" in them have them exist mainly to be the native wildlife of an actually intelligent alien's home planet. 

*Sandworms ([[Dune]])
*Tribbles ([[Star Trek]])