Why does Bethesda hate elves?

[kvnchrist]

I've been playing The Elder Scrolls for as long as I can remember and Elves, especially Wood Elves have always been some of the ugliest characters in the franchise. I love the game system and highly promote it to everyone who asks but Elves looking less fair than Humans and well on the way to looking like tuskless orcs has always irritated me.

[Tidus44]

I don't think Bethesda hates elves specifically. Its just a matter of what one believes elves to be.

 

Tolkien was probably instrumental in making elves beautiful human-like creatures with pointed ears. However, I for one have always thought of elves as ugly little creatures who stole children and made life miserable for humans. I guess it just depends on your culture and traditions on what you believe.

 

As for the elves in TES games, it would be nice if some elves were exceedingly beautiful while others were stupendously ugly so one had a choice on looks.

[Ghogiel]

Bosmer are short, carnivorous, treehugging, zenophobes. What would you expect? They are kinda scary to me.

 

 

I'm sure if you were a mer you would find man kinda weird looking.

[AurianaValoria1]

I don't think Bethesda hates elves specifically. Its just a matter of what one believes elves to be.

 

Precisely.

 

They likely didn't want to be Tolkien copy-cats.

[Pyrosocial]

I've been playing The Elder Scrolls for as long as I can remember and Elves, especially Wood Elves have always been some of the ugliest characters in the franchise. I love the game system and highly promote it to everyone who asks but Elves looking less fair than Humans and well on the way to looking like tuskless orcs has always irritated me.

 

i agree, however, there is a mod i believe that makes them look like the awesome blood/high elfs from warcraft called the cute elf mod.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Pyrosocial

[sukeban]

Bethesda definitely doesn't hate elves, they just aren't--for better or worse--drinking the Tolkien/Peter Jackson Kool-Aid when it comes to making them replicas of Orlando Bloom and Kate Blanchett. I admire Bethesda for wanting to make the generic concept of elves "their own thing" rather than deferring to other people's visions (much as I do enjoy LoTR). It would be pretty creatively lazy to have just made elves the boilerplate (which I'd agree with Tidus, is revisionist history regarding the historical "fairy tale" conception of elves as scary and dangerous) ethereal bombshells with pointy ears. Yeah, that is what people have come to expect due to LoTR, and especially the movies, but that is only one conception of what an elf is or isn't.

 

You can have the same debate over Orcs, except that they were (to the best of my knowledge) created by Tolkien. Bethesda made them far more "human" than Tolkien did and, even though they aren't meant to be "pretty," they are also far less horrific than the Tolkien/Peter Jackson vision of them. Other games handle them differently (like Baldur's Gate where they're just like malformed cavemen saying essentially "Me eat you, me smash!") to Blizzard where they're similar to TES, being kind of "noble savages" of highly tribal and traditional green, tusked dudes.

 

Nobody holds the monopoly on what it means to be an "Elf" or an "Orc," simply different visions for what these generic terms mean. IMO, having diversity in presentation is something to be desired, rather than converging upon one hegemonous definition for each type. And, as Pyrosocial mentions below, the beauty of Bethesda games is that you can replace their vision with whatever other vision you desire, so you can have Legolas cake and eat it, too.

Edited February 3, 2013 by sukeban

[ginnyfizz]

To be honest Tolkien did not invent the concept of elves as fairer than mortal man - he drew his inspiration from a variety of Northern European mythology, which I also identify with. So my cultural background makes me think of elves/fairies as fairer than mortal man - boggarts, spriggans, knockers and brownies on the other hand tend to be a lot uglier and mainly seen when you have had far too many flagons of mead, ale or scrumpy. :tongue:

 

Bethesda can do what they like but I don't have to enjoy my elves looking like wrinkly old prunes and reserve the right to mod the fuglies out. Although it always seemed odd that in earlier games Barenziah and Morgiah were total knockouts in the eyes of humans too, yet the way the elves have been done in Skyrim, they'd look ugly.

 

Hehe...Bosmer are short, cannibalistic tree hugging xenophobes which is why I invariably give them vampire fangs...

[kvnchrist]

Is there a mod specifically for Wood Elves to make them easier on the eyes? I use the UNPB body and already use the Life mod as well as others which makes all the characters far better looking. I know there is one specifically for the Dark Elf but I've seen absolutely nothing specific for Bosmers. By the way I play Skyrim.

[Illiad86]

There's something called "Less Harsh Elves". It takes out a lot of the ridges and makes them much better to look at. It changes them rather well but not drastically.

 

But yeah, they don't hate elves, they just have their own view of them. I personally like it that they are a bit different and more "alien" looking than other styles of elf. Which is why I like the mod said above. It takes out most of the "ugliness" of them but still keeps Bethesda's style.

[Vagrant0]

You might as well be asking why Bethsoft hates vampires and werewolves since they didn't make the kind that are in Twilight. Afterall, most people, when wanting eye-candy would prefer younger, emo-ridden vampires that sparkle in the sunlight to grotesque misshapen creatures that burst into flames when exposed to sunlight.

 

Or Werewolves with perpetually gleaming abs that walk around shirtless for no apparent reason. And there isn't even a "Shirtless Arnbjorn" mod yet... For shame.

 

 

Just be glad that Twilight doesn't have as much of an effect on lore as Tolkien.