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alt title(s): Cant Argue With Elves In some works there seems to be a trope that, not only do magical races rub in their superiority, the humans never take any offense, demand politeness, defend themselves or mock the other back.
Screw You Elves is for humans who do take offense (and make it very clear).
Examples
Comic Books
- 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.
Literature
- 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.
- 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.
- Not entirely true. 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. This troper gained a lot of respect for Murtagh after reading that chapter.
- Unfortunately, that is probably exactly the opposite reaction from what the author intended, considering that this has been the case with pretty much every moment involving that character so far.
- 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.
- 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 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 and rearrange the world geography and kill countless people through starvation and the resulting chaos, has never been been explained to this troper's satisfaction. 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?
- Um... "mud people" isn't really that fantastic a slur, as a Google search will (depressingly) show you.
- While not elves, not by a long shot, the Tralfamadorians of Slaughterhouse Five definitely fit this trope in behavior. They believe themselves superior to humans because of their ability to see in four dimensions, make it very well known, and the humans never complain about it at all. In fact one human is converted to their belief system of You Can't Fight Fate, and goes to Earth to preach this ideology.
Live Action TV
- 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' (Yes the command weren't acting great in that episode but she didn't know that). 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.
Table Top Games
- 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.
- Eberron, averted: You shouldn't argue with elves, but not because they're right: It's because the local Valenar will take it as an excuse to
stab you split you open with his double-bladed scimitar. Admittedly, he's looking for a reason, but still...
Video Games
- 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.
- 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.
Webcomics
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