Poll: Why do you hate elves?

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

This is my first poll, so I hope it works.

Okay, picture the average elf. (80% of you just pictured Legolas, didn't you?) If your immediate reaction is one of rage, then this poll is for you!

I've been seeing more and more hate toward elves and anything that might remotely be considered an elf. I'd like to find out why that is.

You'll notice that one option that isn't on the poll is "because they show up everywhere all the time and I'm sick of them." There isn't the same level of hate directed toward dwarves, who are just as ubiquitous. I'd like to know why it's elves, specifically, that make people mad.

Edit: bolded the important part. This poll isn't for people who only dislike them because of how common "elves and dwarves" fantasy has become. This is to figure out why so many people specifically hate elves.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I don't really dislike elves...
Sure they are a little over used, but they are a Fantasy trope like Dwarfs...

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Hey, people voting "other": you're supposed to comment with your answer!

This is super important scientific research I am conducting. :<

 

[Saladfork]

I really hate most elves for a few reasons.

1. They are often used to provide the 'natural' archetypes in a given work (I speak for the trees!), and it has been scientifically proven to be impossible to write environmentalists without being preachy, and I HATE being preached to. This is the same reason why I hate druids.

2. In some works, a certain group (which is, in fantasy, usually elves) is used by the author as an 'ideal society' and uses them as a sort of author insert to present their own views, why they're right, and especially why everybody else is wrong (Paolini's elves are the worst offender of this that comes to mind). This type is apparantly impossible to write as anything but close-minded and arrogant.

There are more, but I can't really articulate them at the moment.

 

[Erana]

I don't think people rage over elves as much as they're raging over the things that feature them. People like to complain about things being generic, and a fictional world that would include elves is "not original enough" for people.

I mean, they can often veer into Sue/Stu territory, but I can't think of anything where people complain only about the elves and not the entire IP as well.

Oh, and elves aren't gritty. People seem to have a thing for grit lately.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I'm just getting bored for their love for nature and thinking they're superior to human or other sentient lifeforms. For once I would love to see an tech obsess elf who use hi tech guns over a bow and arrows.

 

[bobmus]

I don't, they're haughty, superior and intelligent.

Just like myself.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

I don't think people rage over elves as much as they're raging over the things that feature them. People like to complain about things being generic, and a fictional world that would include elves is "not original enough" for people.

I mean, they can often veer into Sue/Stu territory, but I can't think of anything where people complain only about the elves and not the entire IP as well.

Oh, and elves aren't gritty. People seem to have a thing for grit lately.

I've been seeing it a lot with GW2's sylvari. People say they like the game, they just hate the fact that it has "elves" in it. (Even though the only thing sylvari have in common with elves is that they're close to plants, and not in an environmentalist way--they're just made out of them. They have no more or less desire to Save The Rainforest than anyone else.)

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Likely the cannibalism and how they try to force my dorfy brethren to limit their use of vital tree resources (i.e. burning them with lava, because what else would you expect to happen).

Spoiler

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Likely the cannibalism

Well, I...wait. What?

I think I must have missed something.

 

[Axolotl]

Because they symbolise the least original, most derivative type of fantasy.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Because they symbolise the least original, most derivative type of fantasy.

But do you hate dwarves just as much?

 

[latenightapplepie]

I don't...

I like how tragic they are.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Likely the cannibalism

Well, I...wait. What?

I think I must have missed something.

Elves, they eat their slain foes. Those elves are bastardy fucks. Then they get all pissy when their beloved trees are used as the vital resources they are, and they come and sell all kinds of wooden goods to us? Fucking hypocrites.

Spoiler: bastards

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Likely the cannibalism

Well, I...wait. What?

I think I must have missed something.

Elves, they eat their slain foes. Those elves are bastardy fucks. Then they get all pissy when their beloved trees are used as the vital resources they are, and they come and sell all kinds of wooden goods to us? Fucking hypocrites.

Spoiler: bastards

[/spoiler][/quote]
Is this eating their slain foes thing also a reference to this comic, or have I missed out on a weird new elf trope?

 

[Erttheking]

Because they outlaw the worship of Talos.

 

[Leadfinger]

I love Elves! I just can't eat a whole one.

 

[twistedmic]

I don't dislike elves in general, just the Mary Sue type of elves like in Eragon or what tends to pop up in fanfiction.

The elves in Lord of the Rings and in Skyrim (at least) are far from perfect. Though it's been a few years since I've read Lord of the Rings books (or the Hobbit) I do recall that the elves could be childish, flightly, selfish and greedy (in the Hobbit particularly). And in Skyrim they were racist, facist, xenophobic and murders.

The elves in Eragon, however, were always right,vegetarians, atheists, smarter than everyone else, better at magic and generally superior to every other living thing on the planet.

 

[DustyDrB]

I just groan when people go back to the same old same old Dwarves and Elves. Don't people still like to at least try to create new things? Even if the new race is reminiscent in ways to already established ones, we wouldn't be coming in with any baggage associated with them. We'd have that feeling of discovery all over again. I think writers and artists vastly underestimate that feeling.

Something about phrases like "fantasy trope" and "standard fantasy setting" doesn't sit right with me...