Times where you Can't Argue with Elves in Live-Action TV series.
- Babylon 5:
- Subverted by Lennier, who is a humble, soft-spoken servant, and happy to be so. The humans he knows are more upfront about their badassery while he simply keeps it hidden. Usually...
- Delenn is more complicated. Her ladylike demeanor and noblesse oblige can be mistaken for this. However she is not unthinkingly arrogant or self-righteous, and she calls out many of her own people as self-righteous pricks for being so.
- Played straight by a number of other Minbari, although it's not universal. The warrior caste Minbari in particular seem to be more oafish than being examples of this trope.
- The Vorlons, on the other hand, play this trope alarmingly straight. They're better than everyone else (even the Minbari look up to them) and there is literally no arguing with them because a) they're always right and b) it's rather hard to argue with someone who talks in cryptic koans all the time and c) they're vastly more powerful than you. They've also manipulated most of the other races to see them as angelic beings. Sheridan finally snaps in spectacular style in "Interludes and Examinations". Subverted by Kosh, who was often convinced to help and listen in various ways, including taking an action he knew would lead to his death. Sheridan mistook his attitude for this trope and didn't realize what Kosh actually meant until it was too late
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- The Humanoid Cylons in Battlestar Galactica (2003) have shades of this. The war between Humans and Cylons basically boils down to this:Cylon: Humans are violent monsters! We will destroy you all!
Human: You attacked us! We will retaliate!
Cylon: See! I told you so! - In the Dinotopia miniseries, Karl and David are completely unable to convince the Dinotopians that people living anywhere else have it better than they do. Cars, airplanes, and television simply can't hold a candle to their intellectual, pacifistic self-satisfaction, and any argument the brothers can offer is instantaneously deflected. Did I mention they're vegetarians and In Harmony With Nature? (except for the animals they kill to feed the T-Rexes). The books have some elements of this but are less explicit about it.
- Doctor Who:
- The Silurians. While the Doctor usually tries for a peaceful solution with most foes, he turns this tendency up every time he meets the Silurians, completely ignoring the fact that they're always armed to the teeth and just itching to cleanse their home planet of the ugly monkeys that have taken up residence in the past two million or so years. (There's often a Silurian faction — or maybe just one Silurian — who wants peace, but the others never listen to them.) When the inevitable bloodshed occurs each episode, it's always the humans to blame.
- Subverted with the Time Lords. Insufferable arrogance seems to be their greatest defining trait, what with being the first race to develop time travel and the self-appointed preservers of the timeline, they have a habit of looking down on everyone else. Even the Doctor occasionally slips into old habits, and one of the main functions of his companions is to call him out. However, this is repeatedly pointed out and discussed — for the most part, the Time Lords are depicted as varying between insufferably arrogant and out of touch, and having delusions of godhood that aren't necessarily total delusions, what with how they're absurdly powerful, but can and should still be argued with.
- This is Joel's relationship with the locals in Northern Exposure. He's always in the wrong, even when he's right.
- Stargate SG-1:
- The Nox are also bad about this. They are devout pacifists in tune with nature and look down upon humans as immature and violent, and seem to forget that their own pacifist lifestyle is only possible because they can cloak whole cities and perform feats of healing up to and including reviving the recently killed.
- Deconstructed with the Tollans, who, like the Nox, were introduced in the first season as a "perfect" peace-loving civilization which talked down to the main characters. By their final appearance in the fifth season, it's revealed that the Tollan leadership simply becomes The Quisling when it's their civilization which is threatened.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series: The alien races that qualify for this trope (such as the Organians) are always pacifists speaking out against some conflict or other.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: The first couple seasons (while Gene Roddenberry was still alive and overseeing the show) managed to turn humans into the elves, with the Federation portrayed as an insufferably pacifist and socialist Utopia. The season one finale is even devoted largely to a trio of Human Popsicle 20th century strawmen who are repeatedly lectured about how much they suck for being from the 20th century. Hell, the very concept of the Patrick Stewart Speech is this trope made manifest.
- Ultimately subverted in that episode, since the flawed 20th-century Jerkass businessman is the only one able to tell that the Romulan captain is just as clueless as they are and is willing to call him out on it, defusing a potentially hostile standoff that could have resulted in war. He's able to do this precisely because he still has an "outdated" mindset.note
- Star Trek: Picard: Although Elnor is a Nice Guy who doesn't look down on humans like most Romulans and Vulcans note , he's still arrogant about his battle prowess (e.g. "Fight a Qowat Milat and the outcome is not in doubt"). He warns his adversaries to "choose to live" because he will cut them down with his sword if they don't withdraw. And time and again, he proves that his self-confidence is justified.
