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alt title(s): Cant Argue With Elves; ptitlemwt9k3jwf61n Elves are better than you. They are taller, thinner, prettier, more graceful, better-read, more environmentally-conscious ("live in harmony with Nature" is the usual phrasing), more socially progressive, less aggressive or confrontational (while still being fearsome warriors), and better craftspeople, too.
Oh, and they're magic.
In fact, the only quality elves seem to be lacking is humility. Even when an author tries to specify that these elves are perfect, wonderful, etc., and humble, the elves still can't resist lecturing humans on their errant ways. Sometimes the elf will try a Socratic approach—asking, for example, why humans will kill each other, because of course elves abhor violence—but they don't need to. Pretty much any excuse is good to put the silly little humans in their place.
Strangely, the humans are not allowed to take offense, demand politeness, defend themselves or—heaven forbid—mock the elves right back. If anyone tries, the elf will sniff disdainfully and utterly destroy the human's argument, proving—lest anyone doubt it—that Elves Are Just Better.
Screw You Elves is for humans who do take offense (and make it very clear).
Humans are the only fantastic species not allowed to argue with elves. Dwarves are not only allowed but expected to argue with them.
Examples
- Outlaw Star: Aisha of the C'Tarl C'Tarl constantly brags about her species' superiority, and no one calls her out on it. Then again, Aisha's the local Butt Monkey and is obviously immature, this is mostly likely a case of 'let the baby have the bottle.'
- The evil and stupid humans of Elf Quest are prone to hunt elves for no apparent reason. The "good" humans though, worship the elves of their own accord and/or calmly agree when the elves factually point out in which way they are superior to humans. Which is in every way.
- Yeah, only it's shown in the comics that the humans vs elves enmity is based to a great deal on misunderstandings, "eye for an eye" vendettas spiralling out of control, and partly instigated by elves with bad temper. Also, the elves that encourage humans to worship them as gods are written as villains, while the good elves try to tell humans that they're not so different. That said, the elves most stories revolve around are shown to be flat-out morally superior to most humans, particularly in relatively recent stories that wear their Aesops on their sleeves.
- Somewhat justified in Steven Brust's Dragaera series; while Dragaerans see themselves as superior to humans, humans who challenge this tend to have dramatically reduced life expectancies. Vlad Taltos has a bad habit of pushing the envelope as far as it will go (and murdering Dragaerans who annoy him too much, when it comes to that).
- The Forgotten Realms, both the game setting and novelizations. Generally any fantasy work or author heavily influenced by Ed Greenwood will follow this trope frequently. Though straight uses coexist with subversions or aversions.
- The Elves of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle are made out of this trope. And none of the characters ever call them out on it. Eragon, who lives with them for quite a while, doesn't seem to notice.
- This is especially jarring when Eragon encounters Vanir, who makes no secret of the fact that his hatred of Eragon is based entirely on the fact that Eragon is human. Later on, Eragon is "gifted" with the physical appearance and abilities of an elf and suddenly Vanir's dislike of him goes away. Sadly, that makes this outright racism that none of the characters seem to care about.
- There is one character who badmouths the elves and makes no apologies about it- Murtagh, the Empire's champion. Towards the end of the second book, he calls them cowards and fools who "can only sit in their forest and wait to be conquered", acts very condescendingly towards Eragon's elf-like appearance, and then makes a speech about how the elves and the Dragon Riders were "old, fat, and corrupt" scumbags who oppressed humanity.
- It can also be noted that when Oromis reveals that the elves don't have a god, he stresses that it's just their worldview and they would gladly change it given evidence to the contrary. Naturally, Eragon angsts for half a chapter about how cruel the world seems and how strange it is that every other culture is wrong and now he has to reconcile his beliefs. Or, y'know, the elves are wrong? Note that even in Brisingr he has a divine encounter, but conveniently doesn't bother to address this contradiction to the elves' beliefs.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld uses this not with elves that are better but with The Fair Folk, whose glamour produces a crushing inferiority complex in others. Readily averted by the cat, the birds, and any character that thinks like a witch.
- While not elves per se, this is the attitude wizards have towards regular humans in JK Rowling's Harry Potter.
- To be fair, only some wizards are outright insulting towards Muggles, the Pure Bloods. Hermione's parents are both Muggles, and Harry's mother's parents are Muggles and Harry has been raised by Muggles. In fact, this trope is subverted in that the Dursleys are terrible people. Ron's father is very interested in Muggles as a whole. We don't see a whole lot of wizard/Muggle interaction.
- Even Mr. Weasley's attitude is more of a paternalistic affection than actual respect. And then look at how the Muggles at the World Cup are treated— the authorities see nothing wrong with hitting them with memory spells, and do so with such alarming frequency that one wonders if they'll ever be quite right in the head afterwards. Especially since it's canon that the Memory Charm can cause other damage.
- It is shown that wizard society is more arrogant than truly superior. They refuse to gain anything more than the shallowest understanding of non-magical technology or combat and don't bother to really advance (i.e. they think of guns as imitation wands). As no wizard is ever shown fighting an armed muggle that actually knew about them, it's likely they really don't understand that they could be outclassed by a non-wizard.
- The Houyhnhnms of Swift's Gullivers Travels are about as bad as it gets. They aren't a magical race, but they fill this trope quite well. Then again, considering that Gulliver is an unreliable narrator who worships any backward race he encounters, there's much literary debate over whether the reader is actually expected to have such an averse reaction to the Houyhnhnms and their hypocrisy.
- The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn books by Tad Williams. The Sithi can't help coming up with subtle put downs, condescending behavior and reproaches about old injustices done to them by ancestors who have been dead for centuries and their highbred human allies never pay back in their coin.
- In C.L. Wilson's Tairen Soul books, the Fey are so self-righteous and brash that the "evil/stupid" humans are on the verge of cancelling their alliance. The strange thing is that the author is completely with the Fey on that. They are a race of Mary Sues and the author seems to think it is their natural right to be arrogant. The "good" humans are the ones who don't take offense at being treated with condescension.
- The Star Wars Expanded Universe rarely relies on this trope, but the Caamasi might count. They're basically a martyred race of pacifists who will fight if they must and are tirelessly moral. Still, they don't feature all that heavily, and most of them don't spend their page time lording it over other cultures.
- Actually, only important characters listen to them. The galaxy at large, however, ignored the Caamasi during the Caamas document crisis, which was (supposedly) about the destruction of their homeworld. And they are generally right, to the point of bordering on Mary Sue status.
- Mandalorians, when Karen Traviss writes them, use this trope to painful extremes. Yes, we get it, it's awesome to wear armor and love violence and somehow be better than Jedi because of this, you've made your point and can stop hammering it into the ground.
- And of course the jedi. Though most of them believe in equality and argue their points so it doesn't seem like they rule, in Outbound Flight & the Heir to the Empire trilogy Jedi Master Jorus C'Baoth finds it ridiculous that nobody basks in his presence as a wielder of phenomenal cosmic power.
- The galaxy as a whole doesn't seem to have a problem with saying Screw You, Jedi, to the point that they regularly get wiped out every few thousand years.
- The Good gods of the Dragonlance novels never once call the elves out on their poor behavior, towards each other or other races. And the elves are supposed to be the "always lawful good" race of the setting. All the other mortal races see them as dicks, though.
- The Good Gods in Dragonlance are just plain nuts. The gods as a whole caused a Cataclysm because the chief priest of the top Good god was going to unbalance the world or some shit and wouldn't listen when the Gods went all Biblical and sent plagues and omens and the like. Except Paladine, the head Good god, has it entirely within his power and personality to personally come down from on high, whap people upside the head, and tell them to knock it off. Exactly why he didn't take that approach this time rather than drop a giant-ass meteor on the country is a puzzle. It's a case of Can't Argue With The Gods.
- This was later on explained as preparing the people to the return of the Dark Queen, the head of the Evil pantheon, by a handy demonstration of strife and war. Still serious Jerk Ass behaviour, but this seems to be granted whenever gods have a significant place in a fantasy story.
- The Elves do get called out on their bad behaviour as early as Dragons of Winter Night - Fizban ( the god Paladine) basically calls Solostaran a Jerkass to his face. In the same book Laurana tells the other elves that should take a serious look in the mirror before condeming the rest of the races.
- Sort of lampshaded in that trilogy with Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. The first human protagonist, Kellen, does quickly come to admire elves and elven culture, and these elves are fairly varied and polite and, well, human, as elves go. He does take minor offense when an older elf telling him some ancient history implies that humans did something or other because it's a natural human failing. A later human protagonist on the same side flatly dislikes elves for their formality and their absolute perfectionist attitude, though since they're all fighting a war he tries to keep it under wraps. It's actually a saying in that 'verse that you can't win an argument with elves, since they'll just change the subject.
- The People in Artemis Fowl call humans 'Mud People', and the few human characters they interact with never really call them out on it. Possibly because said humans (especially Artemis) tend to notice that the People are the ones hiding from the humans, what are they so proud of?
- There's a rather interesting twist on this trope in Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole books, in which all the main characters are owls. The owls consider themselves superior to other birds because most other birds don't regurgitate pellets. They even make up crude jokes about those other birds and the other birds don't take offense, even when the jokes are said right to them! "Wet poopers" indeed (never mind that owls actually do that too, and the pellets only contain the hardest parts of their meals, like bones)! Oh, yeah, they also call seagulls dumb. There's too much glossing-over of actual owl biology in an attempt to make the owls look better; ironic, considering the book's original purpose was as an alternative to a nonfiction one about owls.
- While not that explicit, the Nox from Stargate SG 1 seem to display this type of behaviour. A super advanced race of peaceful tree huggers who live in harmony with the environment: absolutely fine in and of itself. But despite their few appearances they display an irritating habit of judging people for perfectly reasonable behaviour. For one thing, having a pacifistic attitude is all very well when you are super advanced and can cure death, but the SGC and Earth are constantly under threat of being wiped out by the Goa'uld. So when something hijacks their gate, disabling all defence measures in the process and bursts in unannounced, having a contingent of soldiers present seems justified. The response of the Nox? "Your race has learned nothing." (However, it should be noted that they were holding the Tollan hostage at the time, and the Tollan may have conveyed as much when the message was sent to the Nox.) While this does irritate the humans a little, they tend to act as if the Nox are almost right to virtually condemn them for having the temerity to want to live and have no choice but to be prepared to fight to do so.
- One episode, however, at least makes a slight effort to portray the Nox as somewhat hypocritical. When the Goa'uld use a trial on Tollana as a farce to knock out all their nifty ion cannons and ransack the place, one of the Nox, having been brought in as a neutral party, hides one of the guns at the request of Teal'c. The end result is the destruction of at least one Ha'tak and all aboard. When Daniel calls her on this, she rationalizes that she was not responsible because she didn't fire the weapon, Teal'c did. Daniel comments that it's a fine line, and she readily agrees.
- The Forgotten Realms, both the game setting and novelizations. Generally any fantasy work or author heavily influenced by Ed Greenwood will follow this trope frequently. Though straight uses coexist with subversions or aversions.
- The Shadowrun game's products address this issue from both sides, with a heavy dose of Lampshading. On the one hand, "elf-wannabees" abound among the humans of the Sixth World, slavishly watching human-bashing shows from Tir Tairngire and saving up for surgery to elf-ify themselves; on the other, actual immortal elves (left over from Earthdawn) are depicted as callous, spoiled Jerk Ass powermongers, who hold non-immortal elves in nearly as much contempt as humans. Ironically, ordinary elves who just want to get on with their lives find the "wannabees" every bit as distasteful as other humans do.
- Subverted in the Fourth edition of the game, as Orkish music (and representations in other media) have developed a strong enough popular appeal that even Elves want to be Orks.
- The Eldar of Warhammer40000 try to invoke this trope, constantly putting down other species as inferior savages who cannot possibly comprehend the grace and majesty of the Eldar, particularly as the Eldar are such an ancient and once-mighty race ("What do humans know of our pain? We have sung songs of lament since before your ancestors crawled on their bellies from the sea"). They also use it as an excuse for their Moral Myopia — the second Dawn Of War game has an Eldar increduously ask why the Blood Ravens are so upset by her machinations, insisting the annihilation by the Tyranids of three human worlds is no price at all to pay if it means the salvation of an Eldar Craftworld. It fails to work, however, because the other races invariably tell them Screw You Elves. With the biggest guns to hand.
- The Viera in Final Fantasy XII consider themselves to be above the Hume race since they don't cause wars or seek absolute power like Humes do. Only the main characters hear this and they never tried to show how Humes are not savages. Only a handful of Viera have a positive view on the Humes.
- Given the circumstances in which said characters most often encounter Hume-hating Viera (In their village/jungle. Surrounded by them.) they're probably smart not to take issue with it, especially when some of the Viera make it clear that they're unwanted as it was.
- It's also worth noting that other vieras are taking issue with this attitude, saying that the viera will be left behind if they don't open up to the hume world. In fact, one of the reasons the main characters are so coldly received is because more and more younger viera are leaving for the wider world and they don't like the 'temptation' in their village. In fact, when the party encounters such viera, their attitudes range from "aloof, but intrigued" to "happily takes to the outside world and is deeply grateful for your encouragement."
- And though the viera in the village claim to want naught to do with your party, that doesn't stop many of them from posting petitions for Hunts later in the game, which you end up handling.
- The Elf Queen of Dragon Quest III is so upset that her daughter Anne eloped with a 'horrible human boy' that she curses his hometown, sending everyone there into eternal, unaging slumber. The only one who escaped that fate is the boy's father... who instead spends years pleading with the Queen to change her mind, to no avail. By the time your heroes arrive, the father's a withered old man, and the Queen still doesn't care. Despite all this, the father is surprisingly civil about having his whole life ripped away from him and all.
- Parodied in Overlord, where the elves are just too full of themselves (and stupid) to notice (or care).
- And unlike so many other examples, you don't have to take it. There are exactly zero elves in the series that can't be killed (including plotline deaths). Once you get Blue Minions, even the whining ghosts in Evernight Forest can be silenced permanently.
- While you can say Screw You Elves as much as you like in Baldurs Gate, there is nothing anyone can do or say to argue with Xan, who is so morbidly depressed that any argument will pretty much lead to him going on about how doomed everyone is.
- Probably because most people think his moroseness is funny, and he's not as nearly as annoying as other Elves.
- Hilariously subverted in Talesof MU. The elves are immortal, wise, good at EVERYTHING and generally peaceful, but also arrogant as all get out and often absolutely batshit insane. They resent the weariness of their too-perfect lives and usually end up killing themselves. The major half-elf character in the story hates her heritage and everything to do with it.
- The transapients of Orions Arm aren't elves, per se, but they better than you and quite aware of it. In fact the only reason you'd ever argue with them would be because they want you to.
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