Skyrim elves look AWFUL :(
- Thread starter Elamdri
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Attractive is really the wrong word, I should never have said that to be honest, because it doesn't exactly convey what I mean. I dislike the particular aesthetic approach they took. I wish the eyes were smaller, I wish their brows were not so pronounced, I wish that their faces didn't look so elongated. It's just something feels "wrong" when I'm playing the game and I run into an elf.mandaforever said:
I can't believe the aestetics of "elfness" has provoked a 10-page pile-up.
While it's true that elves are a fictitious race, there are defining characteristics that make an elf an elf. Pointed ears, long faces, magical, etc. Using Artistic License, you get the various elves we see in LOTR, Will Farrell movies and even the Rice Krispie elves.
So Skyrim's elves ARE elves, by definition. They may be ugly, but they follow the archetype for an elf, with liberal doses of Artistic License (arguable as that may be).
While it's true that elves are a fictitious race, there are defining characteristics that make an elf an elf. Pointed ears, long faces, magical, etc. Using Artistic License, you get the various elves we see in LOTR, Will Farrell movies and even the Rice Krispie elves.
So Skyrim's elves ARE elves, by definition. They may be ugly, but they follow the archetype for an elf, with liberal doses of Artistic License (arguable as that may be).
[HEADING=1]This just in, Elves are magical creatures with no definite features in the real world.[/HEADING]
Any comments made about how all elves ought look is pointless and shallow.I read this in a wonderful combination of Cave Johnson's and Saxton Hale's voices. Just wanted to say that.OldRat said:
Personally, I love the new elves. Huge improvement from Oblivion, and now they actually look distinctly like their own race, instead of looking like an Imperial with pointier ears.
And this is where you made a fatal mistake. Who ever said that the Skyrim elves are like the elves you already know? No one has claimed that elves MUST be like this and that, following some narrow schematic of race characteristics.Elamdri said:All I'm saying is that I've killed enough Drow in my time to know that THIS:
is not a dark elf.
Skyrim elves are different from elves in other games, I'd wager. Yes, the high elves have a natural magical affinity and the wood elves are quite talented archers, while the dark elves are a... Well, dark and scheming race that are often shunned for the simple reason that, hey, they're dark elves!
But these are all very broad and unspecific things, very standard in regards of a fantasy RPG.
Proponent of the Skyrim elves chiming in. I actually am quite endeared to the non-human look of the elves in this game which actually harkens back to Morrowind in some respects. Until then due to the limitations of the hateful graphics engine they were using when they built Arena and Daggerfall, all races looked the same with only minor aesthetic changes.
Then Morrowind came along and god damn we actually had distinguishable races which weren't particularly attractive by human standards but didn't have to because, y'know, they weren't human.
Then we took a step back with Oblivion where everyone had zero distinguishing features, just oddly shaped humans with very blotchy faces. In Skyrim I actually feel if I met an elf I would be somewhat unsettled by their alien appearance which is what seeing a different race for the first time should invoke.
Then Morrowind came along and god damn we actually had distinguishable races which weren't particularly attractive by human standards but didn't have to because, y'know, they weren't human.
Then we took a step back with Oblivion where everyone had zero distinguishing features, just oddly shaped humans with very blotchy faces. In Skyrim I actually feel if I met an elf I would be somewhat unsettled by their alien appearance which is what seeing a different race for the first time should invoke.
So... this topic started because they are the Elves are not what you think elves should look like? Seriously? How long have you been playing Elder Scrolls?
Frankly I think it boils down to this:
Frankly I think it boils down to this:
I think they look pretty good.
They're certainly not any worse than they were in Oblivion.
Everyone was so incredibly ugly in Oblivion that there were videos on youtube detailing how one would go about making a character look even halfway attractive. And the elves got the worst of it.
They're certainly not any worse than they were in Oblivion.
Everyone was so incredibly ugly in Oblivion that there were videos on youtube detailing how one would go about making a character look even halfway attractive. And the elves got the worst of it.
Elves. Aren't. Real. You can do whatever you like with their appearance. Okay, so maybe trying to make an elf look like something out of Silent Hill might be a bit of a stretch, but big eyes and a pronounced brow? That's perfectly legitimate. It's not as though you need to find them aesthetically pleasing, they're a different species from you. I imagine an elf probably finds humans equally repulsive.
If we stick completely to the stereotypes of what elves and dwarves and so forth should look like, it just becomes a cliché, which is just bizarre if you consider it (see Yahtzee's review of Dragon Age Origins for the rest of that rant). The fantasy genre as a whole would be a lot more interesting if people didn't stick to the same templates all the time. I mean, look at the trolls in Skyrim. They're quite different from the traditional image (in fact, the giants in that game look more like how most people would probably imagine a troll), yet it's refreshing, and a great deal better than 'large dirty ugly guy dragging club.'
If we stick completely to the stereotypes of what elves and dwarves and so forth should look like, it just becomes a cliché, which is just bizarre if you consider it (see Yahtzee's review of Dragon Age Origins for the rest of that rant). The fantasy genre as a whole would be a lot more interesting if people didn't stick to the same templates all the time. I mean, look at the trolls in Skyrim. They're quite different from the traditional image (in fact, the giants in that game look more like how most people would probably imagine a troll), yet it's refreshing, and a great deal better than 'large dirty ugly guy dragging club.'
They made a design choice for elves that make them look a little less identifiable, and a little bit more capable of sinister deeds.
'But high elves are good'--shut up! If you know enough and played enough of the game to have met a high elf, you know for an objective fact that the Altmer in Tamriel, at the time of Skyrim, are NOT the good guys. It doesn't take a long time before whispers of the White-Gold Concordant reaches your ears... of the political schism that it caused that happens to have formed the entire political backdrop of the world you're in.
So it makes sense for a race that is being openly blamed for the current non-dragon problems of Skyrim to not look pretty, and look as gritty and as rough as every other race in Skyrim. No one doesn't look weathered in Skyrim, and that's a good thing. It's a consistant design choice, and it makes the elves less of a faerie race (which they aren't) and closer to the notion of the alfar of norse myth.
Which, if you'll care to notice, is where the word 'elf' comes from.
'But high elves are good'--shut up! If you know enough and played enough of the game to have met a high elf, you know for an objective fact that the Altmer in Tamriel, at the time of Skyrim, are NOT the good guys. It doesn't take a long time before whispers of the White-Gold Concordant reaches your ears... of the political schism that it caused that happens to have formed the entire political backdrop of the world you're in.
So it makes sense for a race that is being openly blamed for the current non-dragon problems of Skyrim to not look pretty, and look as gritty and as rough as every other race in Skyrim. No one doesn't look weathered in Skyrim, and that's a good thing. It's a consistant design choice, and it makes the elves less of a faerie race (which they aren't) and closer to the notion of the alfar of norse myth.
Which, if you'll care to notice, is where the word 'elf' comes from.
I'm playing the game on the lowest resolution and lowest settings. EVERYONE in the game looks hideous.
Or maybe elves can't handle the cold weather.
Or maybe elves can't handle the cold weather.
Yeah, Elves don't need to be some sparkly, busty, half nude women with elf ears. There is no correct way to design a elf, it's up to the designers.lacktheknack said:
Personally I love the look of the 'not-so mainstream' elves in Skyrim.
There are many types of elves throughout all types of folk lore