Poll: Why do you hate elves?

[Sansha]

I'm going to list different races of Elves and what I dislike about them:

Kaldorei:
The Night Elves of Azeroth have always preached of peace and love like the hippies they are, but won't hesitate to murder the hell out of anybody different than them. Also their banning of magic was completely stupid, despite the reason why.

Sin'Dorei:
The effeminate males and overtly luxurious lifestyle, combined with the unspeakable things they've done in the past, irritates me. It's really the men I don't like because of their self-obsessed nature, and while the women are mostly the same, they come off as much stronger and focused.

Aldmeri Dominion:
Self-worshipping, arrogant, genocidal bastards who either kill or conquer anybody different than themselves, thinking themselves superior, doing unspeakable things to get what they want and continuing to do so through fear, oppression and self-importance. There's nothing good about these people.
Hunting them is the most fun I've had in Skyrim, especially when I see a group walking along and I can hide and shoot all three before they see me.
Meanwhile in Tamriel, I don't have a problem at all with Wood or Dark elves.
But, the Snow Elves in Skyrim - I hate the Falmer. I hunt them like animals - they kidnap people and feed them to their giant bug monsters. Genocidal hate, kill 'em all.

 

[TheVioletBandit]

I love elves, I just think games are doing them wrong. Why do they have to be pompous? Elves could be puckish and cool.

Ugh that's even worse.

Make elves the pathetic bastards they are like in Overlord. That would be the correct way to do them. or make them very short like Santa's elves so we can stomp them.

What's wrong with puckish, rouge-like elves that are the equivalent of Han Solo with pointy ears?

they would not end up like han solo.
they would be annoying like jar jar.

If done the way I envision it being done they would be nothing like jar jar. More like the motley crew of the serenity.

 

[FriedRicer]

Because they outlaw the worship of Talos.

Red Guard please!

OT:Overall,they are quite snobby.And arrogant....and condescending,and....

 

[Zakarath]

I like elves. But then, I actually am an intelligent hippy environmentalist with maybe just a little arrogance. So I can relate to them (the tropey version of them at least, elder scrolls not so much) better than I can relate to dwarves.

 

[Rainforce]

Oh yeah, now that I think of it a little longer....each and every bosmer you ever talk to in the elder scrolls games before skyrim. (and high elves in skyrim)

 

[Vuliev]

I don't really hate elves, but I suppose that's because I haven't had much interaction with their trope outside of Lord of the Rings and Warcraft III/Frozen Throne, both of which have neutral to good characterization of the species and their conflicts/culture/whatever.

 

[Durgiun]

Because ten thousand elves couldn't hold up one candle to a Slayer like Gotrek.

 

[PurePareidolia]

1) The fact that they're better than everyone else
Elves are the most Mary Sue race - they're pretty, immortal humans with pointy ears and they're all unimaginably pure and wise and stuff, and agile, and superhuman with no interesting downsides. Oh and of course they're the best archers and when they fall in love with a human it's not creepy, it's tragic because the Elf lives so much longer and will be all sad because the human doesn't live very long.


2) The fact that they ACT like they're better than everyone else
If there's one thing I hate more than a Mary Sue race it's one that won't shut up about it. It's always "we're the wisest", "you short lived foolish humans couldn't possibly understand how much better we are at everything" and "your sinful nature is driving us out of middle Earth because I guess you ruin everything". might be more tolerable if writers ever allowed them to be wrong for once.

3) Their love of nature
This isn't such a big deal, it's more that they're always "in tune" with nature and have a "special connection" to it nobody else does. Other than that a bunch of tree people are kind of cool as a concept.

4) Their effeminacy
It's a stylistic thing, I don't begrudge it. The fact they look so human is worse. I mean, at the very least it's a slight, insignificant downside to being an elf, which is needed.

5) Their attractiveness (to girls, usually)
Yeah, the fact Elves always look like much prettier versions of humans bugs me, because it gets back to the "Mary Sue race" thing. You never see old or fat or bearded elves nor do they ever have scars - it's more than a little implausible.

6) The fact that they're little more than humans with pointy ears
So much. Of all the races you can have in fantasy, the standard is "normal human", "short human" and "pretty human". It's stupidly boring and as a concept makes no sense - why are their ears pointy? why are they so human? Why did they get all the good genetics if they're so obviously related to our species?

Which is why I picked 7) All of the above

 

[9thRequiem]

Would be helpful to have "Which setting(s) is this post based on?", because while there's a core set of traits copy-pasted from LotR, they apply in different levels to different settings. For instance, I'm assuming none of us are talking about Santa's Christmas toy-making elves?

For me, it's not that I hate them - I'll typically make one if given the choice in a game like DA:O, but they're a little overdone, just like Dwarves/Dwarfs.

Because no one has done elves right since Terry Pratchett in Lords and Ladies and The Wee Free Men. Elves are evil, vicious, cunning, and cruel. Anything so "superior" cannot and will not treat lesser creatures with compassion. They will play with them, manipulate them, and possibly eat them. All other elves are fake.

This. Lords and Ladies made the elves incredibly terrifying, all the while explaining why humans idolize them.

 

[TWEWYFan]

The same reason I don't like the Na'vi or any other "superior" race. It's not exactly the fact that they're usually "better" than most other races(e.g. wise, long-lived, always fair, in tune with nature, etc.), that can make for interesting story-telling when used well. What bothers me is when that race is put on a pedestal and we're essentially told "This is perfection. Everything associated with this race is good while everything not this is at best flawed, if not downright evil."

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Because they're holier than thou stuck up pretentious, arrogant, stuck up, effeminate little bastards. They're all, "Oh, look how superior we are, you stupid other races."

I always like dwarves, the antithesis of an elf.

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

I just find them kinda tacky, to be honest. At least Dwarves are stout and tend to be party-animals. Elves in most mythos seem so...stuck up. And they're major hippies.

 

[Soods]

I don't hate them, I love them. Mainly because they're better than humans.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

snip

I know they can play around with the tropes, and even subvert our understanding of them. But I'm saying I want something that feels new. I always like to point out Mass Effect in this regard. All the races were new and unfamiliar. I had no baggage, no baseline understanding. Every conversation with a member of a different race brought this sense of discovery that I haven't experienced in fantasy in...I can't even remember. It was wonderful.

I think it's funny, because a lot of people consider asari (and quarians to a lesser extent) to be "space elves."

 

[Chemical Alia]

I don't like elves for the same reason I don't like "high fantasy" in general. They're just boring and look stupid.

Santa's elves are okay, though. Or at least they were, until I realized my job was like the modern equivalent of them.

 

[ToxicPiranah]

I've always been a Dwarves fan personally, if a book I'm reading has elves in it and something unexplainable is happening I will always blame the elves. Damn pointy ears are always up to something.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Because they're boring fantasy tropes and don't make much sense in their own contexts, largely.

Also, what's wrong with them being effeminate? Also... how exactly ARE they effeminate?

 

[Chimichanga]

For the uncreative, they are practically the same except that they may be a slightly different color (*COUGHCOUGH"darkelves"COUGHCOUGH*).

Why the hate against Dark Elves? What are you, a white supremacist?

Dark elves (and regular elves for that matter) were both a part of classic Norse mythology. Dwarves too, though that was obvious.

Huh - well the more you know. I always assumed they just started with Tolkien since that's what most elf archetypes seem to be based on.

And the latter parts of your post, I agree with - I'd also like to see more african/indian/middle eastern mythology thrown into the fantasy mix since some of their stuff really is kind of cool and "out there". Shame no one seems to want to implement any of it.

 

[Matt Dellar]

I hate traditional elves and dwarves because everyone seems to copy and paste them from either Dungeons&Dragons or Lord of the Rings. Elves are nature-loving, holier-than-thou, and just boring. Dwarves need to get out of their mines and do something else for a change. And elves need to get out of the forest and make computers or something.