I have read only a few posts but not all of them, so much of what I say may have been ninja'd by a previous comment. TL;DR at the bottom.
I hate elves primarily because they are the Mary Sues of Tolkien-esque fantasy. In the strictly Tolkien sense, they are the strongest, fastest, smartest, prettiest, and wisest race above all beyond competition. They are great warriors, deep and insightful masters of poetry and philosophy, master craftsmen, and are all "One with the Earth" in that they know almost all of nature and history's secrets. Oh, and they have fantastically long life spans, if not immortal in some cases. And almost always white.
They are the ideal "Sue" character for white supremacists. I hate Mary Sues and I hate white supremacists. Therefore, I hate elves.
I also hate them for being so god damn prevalent; there is always some kind of elf or elf-like race in EVERY fantasy (Or heck, even in some Sci-fi) themed universes.
Take the whole race-supremacy-thing and the fact that they are over-used and you have a god damned Mary Sue race for every god damned IP considered "fantasy".
For weeaboos, the elves are asian and nearly perfect.
For the uncreative, they are practically the same except that they may be a slightly different color (*COUGHCOUGH"darkelves"COUGHCOUGH*).
For uncreative Sci-Fi writers, they are just elves in space re-labeled as "Aliens".
While I hated almost everything else about Dragon Age, the one thing I did like was how they portrayed elves as disparate and impoverished - not immortal, not the uber-powerful noble warrior/poet/scholar/rogue/archer nerd wish-fulfillment trope they are usually cast as; they are only the Master Race in their own heads and through their own retrospect of their past. Unfortunately, Dragon Age sucked balls IMHO.
Part of it is a deep personal hate for flawless characters. No, being 'Incredibly haughty and elitist to the point of working against them" is NOT a real flaw. Not when it is kept in context of actually being as uber-skilled/strong/smart as is said about them. It's bad writing in general and is indicative of pathetic and desperate wish-fulfillment. The flaws of a character are sometimes the best part of the character if written and implemented properly, so the flawless elf trope annoys me, and the prevalence of every downtrodden fantasy writer amplifies that until I start to get sick.
Of course, it should be no surprise that my interest in character flaw is why my personal favorite in terms of original Tolkien races are the Orcs. Ugly, misshapen, and with varying intelligence, when one of them gets a personality through character development they are almost always more interesting as characters.
TL;DR: I hate flawless "Mary Sues" and their obscene prevalence and over-use in the fantasy genre. I think character flaw is what makes characters interesting and thus why I dislike most elf characters (More like deep and personal hate in a RAAAAGE-rant).
All of this was just to explain my opinion. Why I certainly think my opinions have at least a kernel of truth to them, my intention was not to present them as such.
I hate elves primarily because they are the Mary Sues of Tolkien-esque fantasy. In the strictly Tolkien sense, they are the strongest, fastest, smartest, prettiest, and wisest race above all beyond competition. They are great warriors, deep and insightful masters of poetry and philosophy, master craftsmen, and are all "One with the Earth" in that they know almost all of nature and history's secrets. Oh, and they have fantastically long life spans, if not immortal in some cases. And almost always white.
They are the ideal "Sue" character for white supremacists. I hate Mary Sues and I hate white supremacists. Therefore, I hate elves.
I also hate them for being so god damn prevalent; there is always some kind of elf or elf-like race in EVERY fantasy (Or heck, even in some Sci-fi) themed universes.
Take the whole race-supremacy-thing and the fact that they are over-used and you have a god damned Mary Sue race for every god damned IP considered "fantasy".
For weeaboos, the elves are asian and nearly perfect.
For the uncreative, they are practically the same except that they may be a slightly different color (*COUGHCOUGH"darkelves"COUGHCOUGH*).
For uncreative Sci-Fi writers, they are just elves in space re-labeled as "Aliens".
While I hated almost everything else about Dragon Age, the one thing I did like was how they portrayed elves as disparate and impoverished - not immortal, not the uber-powerful noble warrior/poet/scholar/rogue/archer nerd wish-fulfillment trope they are usually cast as; they are only the Master Race in their own heads and through their own retrospect of their past. Unfortunately, Dragon Age sucked balls IMHO.
Part of it is a deep personal hate for flawless characters. No, being 'Incredibly haughty and elitist to the point of working against them" is NOT a real flaw. Not when it is kept in context of actually being as uber-skilled/strong/smart as is said about them. It's bad writing in general and is indicative of pathetic and desperate wish-fulfillment. The flaws of a character are sometimes the best part of the character if written and implemented properly, so the flawless elf trope annoys me, and the prevalence of every downtrodden fantasy writer amplifies that until I start to get sick.
Of course, it should be no surprise that my interest in character flaw is why my personal favorite in terms of original Tolkien races are the Orcs. Ugly, misshapen, and with varying intelligence, when one of them gets a personality through character development they are almost always more interesting as characters.
TL;DR: I hate flawless "Mary Sues" and their obscene prevalence and over-use in the fantasy genre. I think character flaw is what makes characters interesting and thus why I dislike most elf characters (More like deep and personal hate in a RAAAAGE-rant).
All of this was just to explain my opinion. Why I certainly think my opinions have at least a kernel of truth to them, my intention was not to present them as such.
