Skyrim elves look AWFUL :(

[Matthew Geskey]

And besides. They're not really elves. They're mer. People just call them elves.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

This is hyperbole, but if Bethesda made elves three feet tall, with 7 arms, red skin, and horns, then they can call them elves all they want, but they're not elves.

Ironically enough, this would be CLOSER to classic elves. They were tiny devilish troublemakers before the likes of Tolkien came in and rewrote them.

Sure, but here's the deal. TES is a classic, high fantasy game. Tolkien's elves have been the accepted norm for elves for about 60 years now. Now if you wanna make some deviation from the high fantasy Genre, fine, but when we're talking about TES, there are some expectations I think, and what they've put out don't meet those expectations in my opinion.

Tolkien WON. Elves LOOK like human beings. They may not have to look like supermodels, but they're general appearance should be human. Especially in a game series that bleeds as much Tolkien and D&D as TES.

Skyrim might be closer to High Fantasy, but TES as a whole? Hell no. Have you played Morrowind? The game had gigantic insect tour busses!

 

[redspud]

I think they look good. it better than them looking like humans with a skin condition and pointy ears

 

[lacktheknack]

Well... They look more like morrowind elves IMO so I like em.

The elder scrolls elves reflect "dnd" elves while reflecting the environment they're in in a sense.

DND elves, which is what most people think of, are fair high-cheekbone critters, not as tall as humans, and generally nimble/quick. They also hunt, and eat enough to stay plump enough for their cheekbones to look nice.

This is SKYRIM one of the hardest places to get FOOD if you live in a hold because you rely on the local farmers, possibly cold-water river fish, and possibly some livestock to feed a whole town. The elves of SKYRIM are probably in constant HARDSHIP and so they naturally reflect such with their appearance. If you look closely, its rather obvious that if it wasn't for their sunken-in features that are common among poverty and places where food isn't common to find, they would look a lot like regular elves, and personally I think its an improvement from the fat-faced slobs of Cyrodil which rightfully were like that due to having constant sources of food.

IMO, the elves don't need to look pretty, and in a land such as Skyrim, the only people who should be pretty are maybe the Jarls and other high-ups.

I think they look perfectly fine the way they are. >.>

I'm sorry if you can't get food in Skyrim you're an abject failure as a human being (or elf I I guess). I mean, for starters, in every town there is a huge castle with an ungarded and unattended kitchen full of food for you to steal. Second, if you go into ANY home, all you have to do is place a basket on someone's head and take everything they own. Third, the world is populated by deer that stand still while you douse them with flames and then only once you've killed it, do it's friends even think about running away.

Wow. I've never seen a point missed so hard. He wasn't referring to the player getting food... at all. Reread the guy's post properly.

 

[Elamdri]

It takes balls of Daedric Steel to live in Skyrim,especially now.

What? No it doesn't. I watched 2 guards a FARMER kill a dragon while playing the game yesterday. I only did about 1/10th of the damage! Come talk to me when the people of skyrim have to deal with Bandits wearing Daedric Plate or fight Dremora lords while traversing the wilderness and then we can talk about how rough the people of Skyrim have it.


(Although those giants are pretty rough).

 

[Elamdri]

Well... They look more like morrowind elves IMO so I like em.

The elder scrolls elves reflect "dnd" elves while reflecting the environment they're in in a sense.

DND elves, which is what most people think of, are fair high-cheekbone critters, not as tall as humans, and generally nimble/quick. They also hunt, and eat enough to stay plump enough for their cheekbones to look nice.

This is SKYRIM one of the hardest places to get FOOD if you live in a hold because you rely on the local farmers, possibly cold-water river fish, and possibly some livestock to feed a whole town. The elves of SKYRIM are probably in constant HARDSHIP and so they naturally reflect such with their appearance. If you look closely, its rather obvious that if it wasn't for their sunken-in features that are common among poverty and places where food isn't common to find, they would look a lot like regular elves, and personally I think its an improvement from the fat-faced slobs of Cyrodil which rightfully were like that due to having constant sources of food.

IMO, the elves don't need to look pretty, and in a land such as Skyrim, the only people who should be pretty are maybe the Jarls and other high-ups.

I think they look perfectly fine the way they are. >.>

I'm sorry if you can't get food in Skyrim you're an abject failure as a human being (or elf I I guess). I mean, for starters, in every town there is a huge castle with an ungarded and unattended kitchen full of food for you to steal. Second, if you go into ANY home, all you have to do is place a basket on someone's head and take everything they own. Third, the world is populated by deer that stand still while you douse them with flames and then only once you've killed it, do it's friends even think about running away.

Wow. I've never seen a point missed so hard. He wasn't referring to the player getting food... at all. Reread the guy's post properly.

...Dude, I got it. I was making fun of his posts by alluding to how ridiculously easy it is for the player to get food in Skyrim and extrapolating that to the rest of the population.

 

[lacktheknack]

It takes balls of Daedric Steel to live in Skyrim,especially now.

What? No it doesn't. I watched 2 guards a FARMER kill a dragon while playing the game yesterday. I only did about 1/10th of the damage! Come talk to me when the people of skyrim have to deal with Bandits wearing Daedric Plate or fight Dremora lords while traversing the wilderness and then we can talk about how rough the people of Skyrim have it.


(Although those giants are pretty rough).

...And you're complaining about how immersion-breaking the Elvish appearance is? I'm reading some pretty weird brain patterns here.

 

[Matthew Geskey]

I think he's just making fun.

 

[Peteron]

What the hell was Bethesda thinking? The elves in Skyrim look absolutely HIDEOUS. I mean, they look like something you'd see out of Aliens. I feel like the Khajit and the Argonians feel more human than the elves do! It's become very off-putting.

I can't figure out what's worse. That someone designed them in the first place thinking that they would be aesthetically pleasing, or that someone didn't tell the person who created them that they're an absolute failure and put them in the final release.

Elves have always looked ugly in the Elder Scrolls Series. Believe it or not, not all elves look like pretty boys. Sorry their rendition dissapointed you? I guess you haven't seen them in the other games as well? If you don't like it, don't play it. In fact, I like their version of elves. Almost Goblin-like.

 

[Hal10k]

Sure, but here's the deal. TES is a classic, high fantasy game. Tolkien's elves have been the accepted norm for elves for about 60 years now. Now if you wanna make some deviation from the high fantasy Genre, fine, but when we're talking about TES, there are some expectations I think, and what they've put out don't meet those expectations in my opinion.

Tolkien WON. Elves LOOK like human beings. They may not have to look like supermodels, but they're general appearance should be human. Especially in a game series that bleeds as much Tolkien and D&D as TES.

So because everybody followed Tolkien's model at first, it's become law that everybody must follow them? There's a reason that people complain about the "standard fantasy setting". When we start imposing rules on fantasy- elves must be pretty, dwarves must have beards- you wind up with a whole, diverse group of works that all operate in the same way. Stagnation. Playing with existing tropes is what keeps genres out of this trap.

Tolkien played with the idea of "trickster elves" to give us ones that operated as a proud, but dying culture. Isaac Asimov played with the idea of robots turnng against their masters, and gave us the Three Laws of Robotics, along with the first popular depiction of robots that weren't evil. George Lucas played with the standard tropes of westerns, samurai movies, and pulp sci-fi, and he gave us Star Wars. And you're complaining because Bethesda's elves look slightly different?

 

[Flailing Escapist]

I think you may be a racist. Just saying

 

[Infernai]

All I'm saying is that I've killed enough Drow in my time to know that THIS:

is not a dark elf.

...Maybe he's an albino? Ever think of that? xD

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

I don't know what you are talking about, my Dark Elf looks sweet.

 

[Riddle78]

It takes balls of Daedric Steel to live in Skyrim,especially now.

What? No it doesn't. I watched 2 guards a FARMER kill a dragon while playing the game yesterday. I only did about 1/10th of the damage! Come talk to me when the people of skyrim have to deal with Bandits wearing Daedric Plate or fight Dremora lords while traversing the wilderness and then we can talk about how rough the people of Skyrim have it.


(Although those giants are pretty rough).

Good job conveniently ignoring the rest of my argument there. So you inanely comment on the weakest piece of justification I have to the rest of the "Elves don't look ugly" argument? Son,you need to get your head checked.

Protip: Reading the entire argument,and thinking about it,and not replying is more acceptable than what you just pulled. You insulted me with that response. You responded to a well thought-out argument with...Mindless blather!

 

[Sylveria]

They're certainly not as pretty as I expect my elves to be, but I don't see any glaring flaw with them.

Again, I have to laugh. Last week Skyrim was going to descend in a golden chariot as the first truly pure and perfect game. A game so perfect that no more games needed to be made. This week, there's a thousand and one threads of someone bitching about the most inane stuff.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I find the Elder Scrolls in general suffers from poor aesthetics. It's been a major hurdle to my enjoyment ever since Morrowind.

You'll either have to get used to it or wait until mods come out.

 

[Elamdri]

It takes balls of Daedric Steel to live in Skyrim,especially now.

What? No it doesn't. I watched 2 guards a FARMER kill a dragon while playing the game yesterday. I only did about 1/10th of the damage! Come talk to me when the people of skyrim have to deal with Bandits wearing Daedric Plate or fight Dremora lords while traversing the wilderness and then we can talk about how rough the people of Skyrim have it.


(Although those giants are pretty rough).

...And you're complaining about how immersion-breaking the Elvish appearance is? I'm reading some pretty weird brain patterns here.

Alright, look let's handle one thing at a time ok? There's a LOT of mis-steps here and I can only tackle so much in one night. Why it's easier to kill a dragon than a giant, why the deer have no problem with you hacking away at them half the time, why the giants can send you flying 5000 feet into the air, why my killing one chicken is enough for a whole TOWN to murder me, why no one will take the baskets I place on their heads off, why a viking asked me after purchasing my home if I wanted to see the viking home decorating guide, why vikings have a home decorating guide, I mean, I could go on.

The reality is that the look of the elves were the first things that really stood out to me, it was just such a surprise at character creation (And if you think I'm bad, my roommate refuses to play the game because of it). It's by no means the worse thing in the game, but it's just kinda been my albatross for a while.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The only reason that Tolkien's form has been accepted as the norm is because the vast majority of writers were ripping him off, and doing a bad job of it most of the time. Tolkien's elves were rather nuanced; they could get drunk, I swear they could grow beards, and the wood elves in particular weren't quite as pompous and more joyous like they acted in The Hobbit.

It is the distilled version of this that has become the norm, long living, holier-than-thou assholes who have become the standard for fantasy elves.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

OP, just be grateful for what you got, it could have turned out a lot worse.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Not all elves have to look like JC Penny cover models. I'll keep my woodelf assassin thanks

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