"But
surely the whole long history of human endeavor has been to find
monsters. Because surely it justifies our existence to know that a
monster considered our face worthwhile enough to peel from our skull.
But we didn't find any monsters in the forests, or the oceans, or the
skies. The moon was kind of a last hope, wasn't it? I'm not saying we wanted to see Niel Armstrong get blindsided by a hairy, giant moon
spider while he was fiddling with the flag. It's just, you know, some of
us would have gotten some sense of fulfillment from it."
I honestly can't think of a single fantasy or science fiction universe that lacks man-eating beasts. Even if those universes have a lot of deep thought behind their civilizations and politics (like Mass Effect), there's still something out there that attacks humans on sight. Sometimes it's a concession to gameplay, so that the player has something to put bullets into without feeling remorse, or something to slay so the player can gain XP before moving on to the next challenge. But thematically, monsters are usually just there to give the protagonist an opportunity to demonstrate his skills, no matter what role he plays.
I honestly can't think of a single fantasy or science fiction universe that lacks man-eating beasts. Even if those universes have a lot of deep thought behind their civilizations and politics (like Mass Effect), there's still something out there that attacks humans on sight. Sometimes it's a concession to gameplay, so that the player has something to put bullets into without feeling remorse, or something to slay so the player can gain XP before moving on to the next challenge. But thematically, monsters are usually just there to give the protagonist an opportunity to demonstrate his skills, no matter what role he plays.
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