Are Elves better than Men?

[heyheysg]

This is kinda a rhetorical question, or at least a stepping stone here, I'm referring to the Tolkienesque elves, they are taller, "fairer", stronger, live forever (basically they reincarnate when they die), have super eyesight, super hearing and are stealthy.

So this isn't a thread about racism, it's about speciesim, one that humans act on a daily basis, we are better than animals, therefore we can cage them, eat them, kill them etc.

The question is, if we encountered an Alien race, either at the extreme ends of benevolence or malevolence, technologically, culturally ahead of us.

Are they better than us? What if the Aliens have marginally more skills than us, what if they are light years ahead of us in everything

 

[orc33]

elf's are like overlord 2.
aliens are to far away, anyhow
plasma based aliens, please bring them here

 

[Snork Maiden]

Elves can't be paladins (at least not in the rules I'm familiar with).

That said, who wants to be a paladin?

 

[Krythe]

Tolkien-esque elves were also dying out due to population depletion. Humans, on the other hand, were flourishing.

And getting impaled with a spear would kill an elf as well as a human. However, humans can take the loss as a species when an elf can't.

Humans are more r-selected while elves are more k-selected. This is ecological terminology: the R-K Continuum. Look it up for yourself if you really want to know, but I'm done here since I haven't had my coffee yet and I'm cranky.

 

[Pimppeter2]

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHA

Wait.... You're serious?

 

[7moreDead_v1legacy]

Clearly - Pointy ears.

 

[Puzzles]

Being alive forever would be terribly boring. It's surprising they didn't turn to drunken orgies or something.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

Everything has a pecking order and for now we are high up on that list. Should we encounter a new species that are better adapted than us, then yes, we no longer would be the alpha species.
However, we would still need to define the parameters around which "better than us" is used. Aliens could be more advanced technology than us but if they have no basic means of communication or applications for a given technology, then they are pretty useless.

It'll be like those "prawns" from District 9. You have a species of aliens, who for all intents and purposes have better equipment and technology than us but somehow managed to get subjugated by humans. Which again brings me to the question, how do we judge who is better?.

 

[Adanos]

Having pointy ears have it's advantages. Like...having pointy ears. And live longer. Of course they are better. Humans are squishy.

 

[Socius]

By Elves I hope you mean the elven kin og Tolkien.
those truly were better than men, yet they had other weaknesses than us.
anyways elves are ALWAYS far moer arrogant than humans if nothing else.
much of the time they are stronger, smarter, faster, hotter and everything else better than men. yet somtimes, like in dragonage the elves are kinda sucky.

 

[DracoSuave]

Screw that. I'm clearly better than any elf, that's why they have to live in the alienage and do my menial work.

Perhaps if they weren't so weak and pathetic, they might have accomplished something with their so-called superior culture. They had two homelands and lost them twice.

Screw them. They deserve their squallor. And them Dalish too.

Now I'm going to go find my elven servant girl and remind her of her place in life.

 

[Clyde]

Random, miscellaneous tidbits

We eat animals because we are hungry, not because we are greater than them.

In this environment, we are most likely better adapted than an alien, although technology may be able to overcome this.

And even if an animal is better, pack tactics; e.c.t. may be able to overcome it.

 

[DemonicVixen]

This is kinda a rhetorical question, or at least a stepping stone here, I'm referring to the Tolkienesque elves, they are taller, "fairer", stronger, live forever (basically they reincarnate when they die), have super eyesight, super hearing and are stealthy.

So this isn't a thread about racism, it's about speciesim, one that humans act on a daily basis, we are better than animals, therefore we can cage them, eat them, kill them etc.

The question is, if we encountered an Alien race, either at the extreme ends of benevolence or malevolence, technologically, culturally ahead of us.

Are they better than us? What if the Aliens have marginally more skills than us, what if they are light years ahead of us in everything

Upon looking at this post i would have to agree that they are better but maybe they have some flaws...

 

[GloatingSwine]

By and large with fantasy, either the author thinks that Elves are better [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurElvesAreBetter], or the Elves themselves do. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitleukqnnj0yvqci?from=Main.CantArgueWithElves]

 

[Valiance]

They can't be monks either, as far as I know.