Oh, I can sympathize. Like I said, it took me three tries to finish (well...three to get past the first quarter, the stuff about the Valar), and that's only because I was a determined enough Tolkien nerd to even try. I only brought it up to counter the assertion that Tolkien's elves were "generic."Computer-Noob said:OH MY GOD I wanted to shoot myself after the first tenth of that book. I dont care if you think i'm some sort of cultural deliquant, but I swear there was no literary stucture to it. It felt like reading the bible but without a purpose.NeutralDrow said:Ever read the Silmarillion?
Am I the only one who liked that movie? It's not on my top 10 list (or even Top 100), but it was funny and lighthearted and sometimes that's good enough. Although, it might just be because I enjoy watching grown men dance and sing dressed as elves in public.SuperMse said:Maybe you dislike Elves because of Will Ferrell?
"None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!" -FeanorOneirius said:Sadly, not since Tolkien disneyfied them.
Everything is relative. Tolkien's elves are disneyfied compared to the psychopaths from folklore. Of course, his elves were based more on norse mythology's "alfar", so there may not be really any reason to compare.NeutralDrow said:"None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!" -FeanorOneirius said:Sadly, not since Tolkien disneyfied them.
"Tears unnumbered ye shall shed; and the Valar will fence Valinor against you, and shut you out, so that not even the echo of your lamentation shall pass over the mountains. On the House of Feanor the wrath of the Valar lieth from the West unto the uttermost East, and upon all that will follow them it shall be laid also. Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them, and ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue. To evil end shall all things turn that they begin well; and by treason of kin unto kin, and the fear of treason, shall this come to pass. The Dispossessed shall they be for ever..." - the Prophecy of Mandos
Just because Tolkien didn't write the elves as the alien, inscrutable Fair Folk they are in mythology doesn't mean he Disneyfied them.
I didn't see it, so I'm not going to judge you.Calobi said:*snip*
Nah, I think you're right. I generally dislike this scheme of unchanging, I suppose.levelone said:and if anyone knows a flaw in what I said please point it out (it's the only way I'll learn).
Quite right. No surprise that I prefer Werewolves over Vampires then, eh?MNRA said:*snip*
Hm, but as a counter-example I'd like to present the Ents. They are also a dying race, they grow extremely old but somehow they still show character (primarily Treebeard, but also some of the younger Ents are shown to have quite specific personalities). Even though they are, well, slow.Eclectic Dreck said:It's all a matter of perspective I suppose, and as humans we are forced to measure things by our own existance.
This I agree with, fully. It's one of my main gripes with Elves. As for dynamic Elves, well, apart from Legolas I can't really think of any on the spot (from LOTR at least).Worse still, elves are often devloped as "stock characters", and poor writing keeps them from devoping much in the course of the narrative.
Nope. Fae stand for Elves, Ogres, Goblins and all alike. The mythology is that they are all the same. That an Elve could some they decide that being and Ogre will be much more fun and suddenly he is an Ogre and not just his apperience. The Elve purge his mind of any memories of being Elve and create fake memories of being Ogre from the begining. And yes every one of the Fae is quate mad.LimaBravo said:So a total bastardisation of the Fae then Given the fae are capracious and various from Redcap to Elatha the Bueatiful.lordsandro said:I like the most the New World of Darkness version of the elves (part of the fae).
Beautiful, powerful and extreamly cruel. The perfect antagonists.
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling:_The_Lost
all i have to say is: goblins, a la WoW and Harry Potter. they're cunning schemers, control commerce and the banks, and they have giant hook-noses.randommaster said:Well, this isn't really meant to be a serious thing, because hey, it's fantasy. Don't look at it too hard, it's just meant to use the common stereotypes, not be an exact cultural match up.