Re: They tend to be self-involved, arrogant, annoyingly perfect, insufferably smug, and so holier-than-thou...
Good god. Who on earth writes these perfect elves? That's really ridiculous, and a failing on the author's part. I think the thing with elves is that they have to be perfect in the sense of their physical appearance, and they have to feel remote enough so that people know "Heck yeah, they're a different species," but then upon a closer look, one realizes that they are, in fact, not perfect. And if caring about personal hygiene is being girly instead of having common sense, I'll just turn homosexual right now.
Maybe people have issues with Tolkien's elves, or else just made very erroneous assumptions. So they are wise and beautiful beyond the measure of man. So they only take one mate until the mate dies (dwarves & albatrosses do the same). So they don't sleep around. The latter makes perfect sense--they're immortals. They lose the drive after a while, and there wouldn't be any biological need to rut and reproduce constantly like humans. Yes, for the elves there is something beyond sex. But does that mean they have no flaws? Does they mean they don't lust after certain things? Hardly. Genocide existed in the early part of their history, lusts and deceits and all that other stuff everyone's always giving them so much bunk for not having. You want petty? They were killing each other over 3 pieces of rock. Yes, three beautiful, enchanting pieces of rock that made you happy when you looked at them (the Silmarils), but they were still 3 pieces of rock. The only difference is, a bunch of elves lived through those, and continued living, until by the time LotR came around, they are exhausted and sad, and yes, a helluva lot wiser, because as immortals they don't forget the horror. Galadriel probably still remembers the day her uncle led the massacre of their kin because the latter wouldn't lend them ships. So why does everyone have problems with her learning from her bloody mistakes? (These people would also do well to remember that the LotR story is told from the hobbits' perspective. The hobbits don't see that many freakin' elves, and when they do, it is in the elves' last & most powerful strongholds, where only the more powerful and more responsible, & wisest have remained. Of course they only see the "good" side. And of course they're in awe. Heck if I met an elf of LotR, I'd probably start crying, because beauty moves me to tears.) I'd like to remind everyone that most of the "OMG ELVES" lines come directly out of Sam's mouth, and Sam's been worshipping the idea of elves since he was tiny. Honestly, you think he's going to worry about being objective? The other, non-hobbit races have nothing but suspicion, and certainly to them, elves are not all perfect and flowy and yadda yadda yadda. This is a damned long parenthetical aside.)
There are authors who say to themselves, "Well, I'M not going to write perfect elves," so they just make them these shallow, arrogant, "OMG humans ALL suck" types, and then the poor neglected humans have to make one elf realize, "OMG NO! Actually humans are So Bloody Wonderful in our imperfection!" Then they rile on elves for being, *gasp*, not being human enough. Incapable of understanding humans because they are so "caught up in themselves." Well, I never! As if we humans cared TWO WHITS about species outside our own. And maybe it hasn't occurred to these humans or the author that, whoa, elves AREN'T humans! Why do the humans in these stories think they understand the elves so well, anyway? Oh yes, I'm sorry, because the elves are just arrogance embodied, of course.
Making them one big cesspool of flaws beneath a thin veneer of remarkable beauty and age, I'd like to point out, doesn't make them more interesting characters. It just makes everyone else in the story, as well as the readers, hate the elves' guts. Which I guess is the author's original intent anyway, since he or she could never stand them.
Ok, I have to rant here (it's not directed at you, honest)
Good god. Who on earth writes these perfect elves? That's really ridiculous, and a failing on the author's part. I think the thing with elves is that they have to be perfect in the sense of their physical appearance, and they have to feel remote enough so that people know "Heck yeah, they're a different species," but then upon a closer look, one realizes that they are, in fact, not perfect. And if caring about personal hygiene is being girly instead of having common sense, I'll just turn homosexual right now.
Maybe people have issues with Tolkien's elves, or else just made very erroneous assumptions. So they are wise and beautiful beyond the measure of man. So they only take one mate until the mate dies (dwarves & albatrosses do the same). So they don't sleep around. The latter makes perfect sense--they're immortals. They lose the drive after a while, and there wouldn't be any biological need to rut and reproduce constantly like humans. Yes, for the elves there is something beyond sex. But does that mean they have no flaws? Does they mean they don't lust after certain things? Hardly. Genocide existed in the early part of their history, lusts and deceits and all that other stuff everyone's always giving them so much bunk for not having. You want petty? They were killing each other over 3 pieces of rock. Yes, three beautiful, enchanting pieces of rock that made you happy when you looked at them (the Silmarils), but they were still 3 pieces of rock. The only difference is, a bunch of elves lived through those, and continued living, until by the time LotR came around, they are exhausted and sad, and yes, a helluva lot wiser, because as immortals they don't forget the horror. Galadriel probably still remembers the day her uncle led the massacre of their kin because the latter wouldn't lend them ships. So why does everyone have problems with her learning from her bloody mistakes? (These people would also do well to remember that the LotR story is told from the hobbits' perspective. The hobbits don't see that many freakin' elves, and when they do, it is in the elves' last & most powerful strongholds, where only the more powerful and more responsible, & wisest have remained. Of course they only see the "good" side. And of course they're in awe. Heck if I met an elf of LotR, I'd probably start crying, because beauty moves me to tears.) I'd like to remind everyone that most of the "OMG ELVES" lines come directly out of Sam's mouth, and Sam's been worshipping the idea of elves since he was tiny. Honestly, you think he's going to worry about being objective? The other, non-hobbit races have nothing but suspicion, and certainly to them, elves are not all perfect and flowy and yadda yadda yadda. This is a damned long parenthetical aside.)
There are authors who say to themselves, "Well, I'M not going to write perfect elves," so they just make them these shallow, arrogant, "OMG humans ALL suck" types, and then the poor neglected humans have to make one elf realize, "OMG NO! Actually humans are So Bloody Wonderful in our imperfection!" Then they rile on elves for being, *gasp*, not being human enough. Incapable of understanding humans because they are so "caught up in themselves." Well, I never! As if we humans cared TWO WHITS about species outside our own. And maybe it hasn't occurred to these humans or the author that, whoa, elves AREN'T humans! Why do the humans in these stories think they understand the elves so well, anyway? Oh yes, I'm sorry, because the elves are just arrogance embodied, of course.
Making them one big cesspool of flaws beneath a thin veneer of remarkable beauty and age, I'd like to point out, doesn't make them more interesting characters. It just makes everyone else in the story, as well as the readers, hate the elves' guts. Which I guess is the author's original intent anyway, since he or she could never stand them.