Poll: Why I don't like Elves

[RagnorakTres]

The elves of the Discworld books, for one, are awesome. As villains, I mean. They're not exactly role-models.

Damn straight, though I prefer the Nac Mac Feegle. I love the Tiffany Aching subset, but Lords and Ladies has to be one of Pratchett's finest works. (The best, in my opinion, is The Truth. After that, Going Postal and Making Money. Then the City Watch...Fuck it, I just love all his works, though I definitely have ones that I reread on a regular basis.)

 

[Aj.Nobs]

I personally like elves, mostly because they fit my personality well. I try to be chivalrous at all times, and admire their society. I learned about elves most from Warhammer and they are just bad ass in that game. But i do see where you are coming from. Also i always wished i could be as graceful in combat, or just the prowess with a bow would be nice.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

Maybe you dislike Elves because of Will Ferrell?

Spoiler

 

[NeutralDrow]

Ever read the Silmarillion?

Unfortunately, no.
I tried to get into it once, but couldn't really get past all the mythology near the start.
I only read LOTR and The Hobbit.

Currently, I'm working my way through the Dune series. Afterwards, I might give it another try. Is it worth it?

EDIT:

Don't do it. It's like reading an Indian phonebook.

Guess that answers my question. Heh.

It is a difficult read. Took me three tries to finish it, and my one attempt since then has failed.

The point I was driving towards is that with just The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, of course Tolkien's elves seem generic. With the exception of Legolas, they don't do anything in those books.

In Middle Earth mythology, by the time the Third Age is coming to an end, basically the entire lot of them are packing their bags and heading off to Valinor. There's nothing in LotR about the first creation, nothing about the first mass migration to Valinor and the Valar (and about the Moriquendi who fall by the wayside...though there's not really a whole lot about them anyway). There's nothing about the Kinslaying, nothing of the resultant split between the Noldor and the Vanyar, nothing about Finwe's final stand against Melkor and his son Feanor's revenge (and his becoming unhinged), nothing about Eol the Dark Elf (the asshole), and nothing about their mixings with humans. Hell, even their making of the rings is barely skimmed over in LotR (all you really find out is that they made them, and who has the Elven rings).

In other words, there probably are "generic" elves, but they're not Tolkien's.

 

[stormcaller]

Except for the Blood Elves from TFT. They kick ass.
But then again, they were forced into progress.
And I suppose that's my point.

Buh!? They're the worst of the lot.

Well to be fair it only got bad when they joined the Horde in WoW "Waaaah, waaah our Sunwell is broken!" "No it's been fixed for a while now so shut it please".

But I get what you mean, the elves are always the reclusvie,powerful 'guardians of the world'.

I chose I'm an Orc and I like them for their blood on the poll, LOK'NAROSH!

 

[randommaster]

Am I the only one, who thinks Elfs are kinda like gays and Dwarfs are kinda like Jews?
It would make sense because Tolkien admitted that Nazis were a big inspiration for orcs, who wanted to exterminate them.

My play group started discussing what ethnicities the various races were during one session. As far as we have determined, dragons are jewish and elves are japanese.

 

[Khazoth]

Depends on the elves. I rather like Tolkien's elves, Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms' Drow, the Night and Blood Elves of WoW, the Elves and Eladrin of D&D 4e, and probably a couple of others I'm forgetting.

Okay, this is primarily a rant, but you're invited to comment or post your own point of view on Elves or any other fictional race. Note that my knowledge of Elves stems primarily from LOTR (both the books and the movies) as well as some other literature and several different games. Anyway, here goes.

Ever read the Silmarillion?

The Silmarillion

My teacher once described it as "The Bible, only less stimulating and more wordy"

I prefer the orcs, or at least the Warcraft representation of them. Noble Savage.

 

[Boxpopper]

As a fan of the Elder Scrolls, I've developed a hatred for Elves.
Mostly wood elves.
All the worst characters are elves. Fucking Fargoth was an elf.

In reality, I just find them boring and generic, And most things elves are in glorify them too much. Elder Scrolls modding community fucking related. Finding Nordic themed mods is fucking impossible. Finding Elvish themed mods produces more pages than I care to scroll through.

I don't exactly know why, but I love Wood Elves in TEC. I don't know why, but I always roll as them. I would like to see more Nordic mods though.

 

[Skeleon]

*big snip*

Well, this does sound like a lot more development than what I'm used to with Elves. Guess I'll give it another try, after all. But Dune is first on my list. Heh.

Well to be fair it only got bad when they joined the Horde in WoW "Waaaah, waaah our Sunwell is broken!" "No it's been fixed for a while now so shut it please".

Huh. I know them from TFT and only TFT and I thought they were very well characterized there. I could really identify with them and their plight.
Never played WoW, though, guess that's another thing I'm lucky I missed.

 

[Boxpopper]

The elves of the Discworld books, for one, are awesome. As villains, I mean. They're not exactly role-models.

What, was it all that baby-eating that got to you? Doesn't it just make them adorable?

"As the old stories say, elves are beautiful. Elves are wise. Elves are strong. They are enchanted. They are the Fair Folk. But nowhere do the stories say that the elves are nice...."

I still love Pratchett for writing that...

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't misinterpreted. The internet is good for that. And high five, fellow Pratchett fan.

Seconded. I haven't even begun to delve into the books (I've read the first two and Thud!) but I absolutely love them. It's gonna be a fucking doozy to get them all, but its worth it.

 

[Kollega]

When it comes to elves,especially Tolkien - inspired elves,i don't particulary like them. Probably for the reasons OP stated - elves' societies are mostly stagnant,and i'm a big fan of creation and progress.

Anyways,if someone dislikes elves,he should probably go and play Overlord,which is a satire on fantasy,mostly LOTR. In first game,elves are mostly lazy and emo. In second,they're portrayed as hippies.

 

[The_Prophet]

I like the LOTR elves but hate every other. Escpecially blood elves from WoW.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Depends on the elves. I rather like Tolkien's elves, Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms' Drow, the Night and Blood Elves of WoW, the Elves and Eladrin of D&D 4e, and probably a couple of others I'm forgetting.

Okay, this is primarily a rant, but you're invited to comment or post your own point of view on Elves or any other fictional race. Note that my knowledge of Elves stems primarily from LOTR (both the books and the movies) as well as some other literature and several different games. Anyway, here goes.

Ever read the Silmarillion?

The Silmarillion

My teacher once described it as "The Bible, only less stimulating and more wordy"

...if I contest the "stimulating" thing, I'm gonna start a religious debate, aren't I?

*big snip*

Well, this does sound like a lot more development than what I'm used to with Elves. Guess I'll give it another try, after all. But Dune is first on my list. Heh.

Alwa. Alassë ar mára tecië.

Kukul was exaggerating, but not much (the Silmarillion is at least in English, but so is Shakespeare). Luckily, Dune is a lot easier to understand, and is pretty damn good to boot, so that's cool too.

 

[Scrittore]

I also hate Tolkien depiction of elves, however a lot of his mythology is taken from Nordic mythologies, and I don't quite recall there being pretty boys for elves, but I may be wrong.

Nordic mythology is short on pretty boys generally. Tolkien's elves were inspired by Irish folklore, specifically Finn McCool (Irish scholars please don't be offended by the spelling) and his Fianna. If you search Google I'm sure there'll be enough information to give you the gist.

It's also true that The Silmarillion presents a much more interesting and flawed elven society. The elvish characters in LOTR were wise and noble etcetera, but their wisdom was born from thousands of years of mistakes and sufferring.

*Edit: Whoopsie-dasie, I've lied to you. The elves are based on a much earlier Irish tradition, the Tuatha de Danann, who're effectively wood elves.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

Well, I don't think it's the pointy ears. After all, Vulcans have pointy ears and I like them just fine.

Vulcans are elves in space. They're emotionless, self-important, long lived, and they have better technology they keep from humans.

 

[latenightapplepie]

I just don't like them. I can't identify with them.

This could be a big swing-and-miss, but I always thought you weren't really meant to identify with elves. I think we're meant to empathise with them because they are doomed to endure a drawn-out, depressing slide into extinction. I always thought they were relegated to supporting character status to aid the human hero to overcome the bad guys. Who wants to play as the doomed hero?

They present numerous themes and ideas that are truly interesting to think about. It may be difficult to like them as characters, but it is more difficult not to pity them.

The problem is simple. At the beginning of your post you mention Lord of the Rings elves, but you finish by commenting on the Warcraft elves. I don't know much of the latter's lore (or really the former's) - but I think they're really two very different kinds of elves. After Tolkien's adaptation of Norse mythology's elves (again, I don't know enough), writers have increasingly altered the idea of what an elf is. Not that this necessarily a bad thing, it just confuses people when their image of what an elf is becomes muddied and blurry.

 

[sgtshock]

I could care less about elves. What I never understood was why almost every single medieval fantasy world rips races straight from Lord of the Rings. Why does everyone have to have elves, orcs, dwarves, etc? You don't see every sci-fi movie with klingons, do you?

 

[randommaster]

Am I the only one, who thinks Elfs are kinda like gays and Dwarfs are kinda like Jews?
It would make sense because Tolkien admitted that Nazis were a big inspiration for orcs, who wanted to exterminate them.

My play group started discussing what ethnicities the various races were during one session. As far as we have determined, dragons are jewish and elves are japanese.

Spoiler

Jews can't be dragons.

but how did you came to such conclusion?

Prepare for massive racism!

Dragons are able to "smell" gold and jewels through a sixth sense. If there is money somewhere, they can find it. Also, They don't use their treasure for anything, they just hoard it because they can. Additionally, you can only be a dragon, or part dragon, if one of your parents was a dragon.

 

[TSED]

Why do I hate elves?


Because they are represent everything that I loath about modern society.


1) They are effeminate. Now, there's nothing wrong with being effeminate, but you can basically describe EVERY ELF EVER MADE with the lines "slim, beautiful, pointy ears." This is terrible. I am a big fan of testosterone and in backlash to the waves of emos and idiots around me, I have begun to associate manliness as better.

Elves are not manly. Elves are whiny emos. Most of the time they are all about the poets, even. Seriously, the elves are one MySpace away from being being beaten to extinction by a massive tidal wave of firey trolls.


2) They represent objectification of women. Amusingly enough, see all that "testosterone is good rawr" talk I just gave? I'm not even a total hypocrite, because I believe firmly that a strong woman is just automatically flat-out better. I'm not meaning physically, either.

But think about it, when you see pictures of elves they are wearing less than anything. The men are women and the women have dimensions similar to 10 foot poles. This facepalming sexism makes me shake my head and build more elf drowning chambers in Dwarf Fortress.