Beth messed up our elves!

[vertex23]

There are no Drow in TES, there's Dark Elves, who look quite similar, but they do not live underground...

 

I wasn't complaining about the shape of the elf faces; mostly just the "extras" they tacked on for no reason, namely the Klingon ridges and wrinkles. That's just too much.

 

So I googled what a Klingon was. Where do you see that? The only place I see anything remotely similar is on the Dunmer (which are TES version of a Dark Elf, which are the off cousins to Drow - the true "Dark Elves") and that's because they have high and defined brow lines because they're suppose to?

Unless you just mean high foreheads? In which case that's because Elves have long faces because...they're Elves?

[Ghil]

I really like the new elves. It's a departure from the classic elves, which is needed because there is just so many bloody Tolkien elves everwhere. They are a little strange, but I like them.

[macole]

One of my biggest objections to the new elves and the other races in general is the look of their skin. Their skin looks pocked and pitted like a peice of granite that some one beat on with an ice pick. Plus why are they so dirty. Don't people bath in Skyrim? They all look like they just walked in from rolling in pig slop. These are elves or should I say Mer, not Neanderthals Edited November 23, 2011 by macole

[Bloodinfested]

Just my 2 cents but I like the elves I think it’s a absolutely huge improvement over the older games Edited November 23, 2011 by Bloodinfested

[FastBlackCat]

I still fail to see this Klingon thing... Klingons have brow ridges, caused by bony plates which develop over their brow and forehead. This results in a protruding, often jagged growth on the forhead and causes a deeper expression of the eyesockets and a heavier look to the brows.

 

TES Elves have vertically drawn brows, where the musculature connects to the skull around the ridge of the crown rather just above the ears. This results in a more vertically drawn expression, slanting the eyes and eyebrows and often giving the illusion of a longer skull and face.

 

They are two completely different features... If anything, they look like Romulans. I mean, seriously, if you're going to draw comparisons to other fictional species, at least know what your talking about...

 

I beg your pardon? In the original Star Trek episodes Klingons looked like this:

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.startrek.com/legacy_media/images/200306/tos-027-the-klingon-kor/320x240.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.startrek.com/database_article/kor&h=240&w=320&sz=19&tbnid=dABpLF_UyMGLOM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&zoom=1&docid=fahtYWi23FKlLM&sa=X&ei=cmzMTsnnC8WoiQLQnfD0Cw&ved=0CDkQ9QEwAQ&dur=2125

 

See any brow ridges?

Edited November 23, 2011 by FastBlackCat

[zenix13]

I love the way Dunmer and Altmer look. They are great. Not a fan of the Bosmer as much but still okay. In the TES universe they actually look different and I like it now. They also looked weird in Morrowind and I enjoyed that too. I hated how all the races looked in Oblivion, colour change and a few minor features changed your character. One thing I do miss is the great voices the Dunmer had in Morrowind. The Ashlanders had great gravely voices and I loved that and miss it.

[peteed1985]

Totally agree, this is why I don't touch elves at all in these games lol. I play with meh kitty :)

[Overmind267]

I rather like the elves in Skyrim. They're my favorite races, actually.

 

They don't look like the cheap plastic aliens you see in bad sci-fi movies.

 

Bethesda's actually one of the few groups I see who don't make male elves look like a bunch of femboys with discrete sexual undertones, and elven women comprised entirely for the purpose of T&A.

 

Of course, discrete sexual undertones and T&A can easily be achieved through mods, I would imagine. Besides, humans are supposed to be the ones you turn to for that kind of stuff. In Oblivion, the only difference between elves and humans was a more annoying voice, bigger floppy ears, and an oddly shaped head. Now they have an interesting, magical look about them.

 

Magical look =/= T&A.

 

Turn to mods for sexy fembelves and better bouncing ears. Bethesda's all about the lore and originality, not the sex appeal.

Edited November 23, 2011 by Overmind267

[ginnyfizz]

I rather like the elves in Skyrim. They're my favorite races, actually.

 

They don't look like the cheap plastic aliens you see in bad sci-fi movies.

 

Bethesda's actually one of the few groups I see who don't make male elves look like a bunch of femboys with discrete sexual undertones, and elven women comprised entirely for the purpose of T&A.

 

Of course, discrete sexual undertones and T&A can easily be achieved through mods, I would imagine. Besides, humans are supposed to be the ones you turn to for that kind of stuff. In Oblivion, the only difference between elves and humans was a more annoying voice, bigger floppy ears, and an oddly shaped head. Now they have an interesting, magical look about them.

 

Magical look =/= T&A.

 

Turn to mods for sexy fembelves and better bouncing ears. Bethesda's all about the lore and originality, not the sex appeal.

 

You're missing the point that I for one am making. First of all, I'm female myself, and play as female, so I am not interested in the T&A aspect, and actually wonder why it is that you fanpersons of the new elves have to be so offensive? That post uses offensive and derogatory terms like "fembelves" and "femboys". You like the new elves, some of us don't. My complaint is that they have made it very difficult to make an elf female look different from an elf male. That masculinely long jaw and chin thing is a common denominator about the female faces in many games that makes me cringe, I sometimes wonder if they never have any females in game studios.

 

By the way, if we are going to be lore fixated, the Bethesda lore itself is not above portraying Dunmer women as sexy stunners with a wide appeal to other peoples - Barenziah for example, she certainly got about as a young lass. The books about her exploits are very common in game,and tell that kind of story.

 

@ vertex23, this;-

As for fair skin - no one has fair skin in Skyrim...so better off complaining about every race and not just Mer

 

Struck a chord. Actually I think the complaint was that the Dunmer skins were TOO fair, which I also feel, I would like the Dunmer a little darker. But since you mention it, one thing about Nordic races is indeed that they tend to have fair skins, as do Celts, but in Skyrim the Nords and the Bretons (who I always feel to be somewhat Celtic) look like they all had a whiff of the Fake Bake. BUT, due to the crippled face sliders Beth has given us at Chargen, not a thing we can do about either our pasty Dumner or fake tanned Nords and Bretons. Until the Ck comes out I suppose.

 

Edit: and on the subject of Morrowind, there were a fair few male Dummer portrayed as dashingly handsome rogues and heartbreakers - that dude from Pelagiad who had seduced the Breton girl and stolen her jewels, then another lecher who asks (certainly female player characters) for a kiss (also a Dumner near Pelagiad, they must be putting something in the water there...). Not to mention Master Aryon of the Telvanni, he was relatively young for a Telvanni master and certainly handsome. So there is precedent for the Dunmer being attractive to look at.

[TheSpeaker]

Well, well. This certainly has turned into an interesting topic to watch. I'm going to add my opinions here too, and see what happens.

 

I seem to have a foot in each camp. When I first saw the elves, I was amazed at the unique ways in which Bethesda decided to take the artistic themes for each. I do love that the elves are no longer "humans with pointy ears", as a previous poster mentioned. I do love that alien look they have though, and I'm glad they've gotten rid of the uniform pudding faces that frustrated me so much with Oblivion. Makes them look far more fae-like, which in my opinion elves should always resemble. Key words there, everyone. My opinion, which nobody has to share. However, I'll also admit to having downloaded "minor" tweaks, to make subtle improvements to the Skyrim elves in my game to make them more visually appealing to what I think is best, as no doubt many people have, and that opinion varies. The changes I downloaded pretty much just make the faces less accentuated and harsh, but they still have the elves in most of their glory, as they were intended, purely because that lines up with my personal preferences. I'm just as happy to play one of these elves as I am to the play the Blood Elves in World of Warcraft, or the ones in Lineage. I don't believe all elves have to be the same. They all originate in different imagined universes, so I'm happy for them to be different. In fact, I expect it, and enjoy it.

 

I'm all for everyone having a personal opinion. I will say this though. I do understand where one of the previous posters was going, with regards to the Anime elf comment, that seems to have pissed so many people off. I couldn't go a day while browsing the TES Nexus without seeing some ridiculous parody of elf-kind, with gigantic breasts, huge eyes, and a notably vacant expression. However, that probably conflicts more with my views on feminism than my views of elves. The same thing goes for those ridiculous mods that gave the males gigantic erections and stupidly revealing armor. Personally, that's not my taste, but that's just my opinion, and each of yours will differ from mine, and so on. I prefer the general design of the elves that Bethesda gave us in Skyrim. But that's the beauty of humanity. We're all staggeringly different, and we'll never agree on anything. Nobody is forcing us to download these "fixes", and aesthetic mods, and nobody is forcing us to stay with what Bethesda gave us either.

 

It's true that at the moment, those who don't like the way elves are now, are limited to texture replacers etc. But soon enough, the Creation Kit, or Set, or whatever you want to call it, will be out, and then artistic freedom truly can run around naked in the rain, if you want it to. However, to say that Bethesda is "wrong" in terms of their portrayal of the elves, and that the elves need to be "fixed", is not for any us to say. This is their game, this is their vision. They give us the opportunity to mod their game as a welcome to challenge their vision, and make Skyrim our own. For that, I respect them.