Can't Argue with Elves/Playing With
Basic Trope: Elves or a similar 'superior' entity are depicted as being superior to humans in every way (culturally, morally, technologically, etc) and frequently vocalise this fact. The humans are consistently unable or unwilling to object to this.
- Straight: Among the party of adventurers who form the protagonists is an elf warrior, Avaril. Avaril is much superior in combat and physical ability to his human allies, and frequently raises the fact that elves have a more 'evolved' social system and cultural mores than humans. Kate and George, Avaril's allies, never call him on this.
- Exaggerated: Literally every single communication between elves and humans consists of the elves delivering a lengthy monologue on how elves are infinitely superior in every way to humans, while the humans just stand there and meekly listen.
- Justified:
- Avaril has a point; Humans are or have been bastards in this situation and are to blame for the current crisis, while elf society devotes itself to peace.
- Avaril is clearly presented as a bigoted, incompetent fool—however, he has very powerful connections and can make things very difficult for Kate and George, meaning that they must hold their tongues during his self-righteous lectures even as they're constantly proving his limited viewpoint wrong.
- Elves are The Fair Folk, and project a magical glamour that makes arguing against their ways literally unthinkable for all entranced by it.
- Inverted:
- Avaril is a weak fighter, generally inferior to his human colleagues, and Kate and George spend most of their time telling him how useless he is. Avaril rarely responds.
- Humanity Is Superior
- Subverted: After another of Avaril's lectures, Kate essentially says "Screw You, Elves," calls him out on his arrogance and defeats him in combat, demonstrating that humans are superior in some ways to elves.
- Double Subverted: Kate attempts to call out Avaril, but Avaril easily rebuts her points, disarms her in combat and, to add insult to injury, delivers a pointed lecture about how humanity's base impulses towards responding to challenges with violence is so less effective than the way of peace the elves have developed.
- Parodied:
- Avaril, like most elves, is vain, self-obsessed and believes in a highly exaggerated (and inaccurate) belief in the abilities and superiority of he and his fellow elves. He (and by extension his fellow elves) are actually very incompetent and flawed, but Kate and George refuse to comment more out of an awkward desire to avoid puncturing his fragile ego and starting a fight rather than sharing his beliefs.
- George and Avaril debate the recent healthcare legislation.
- Deconstructed: Elf society is hated and feared among 'lesser' races for its arrogance, self-righteousness and elitist viewpoints, but because of their tremendous powers and abilities the other races tend to prefer to live in quiet resentment rather than calling the elves out and risking retribution. However, when the elves do face a threat that they are unable to face alone, their habit of burning bridges due to this self-righteousness comes back to bite them when none of their 'allies' are particularly willing to come to their aid because of it: "If you're so superior, you can take care of this yourselves."
- Reconstructed: For all the obnoxious self-righteousness of Avaril, Avaril is genuinely concerned about the plight of the other races, knowing that his own race did not become supremely awesome overnight. He's trying to impart wisdom brought from hard won experience, and elven society has a kind of bluntness such that he would talk in the exact same manner to a member of his own kind if they were acting out of line. His allies may be aggravated with his delivery, but he brings up enough good points that they know he means well, even if it comes across as a You Are a Credit to Your Race style of patronizing.
- Zig Zagged
- Avaril is self-righteous and elitist; however, after he is called out on this by Kate, he is humbled and makes a genuine effort to reshape his view of the world. However, his years of conditioning are hard to break through, meaning that he will often move between a more humble approach and retaining his arrogant view of the world.
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Avaril: "That was a Thunderbolt. See how useless you humans are, without magi... OWW!!!" |
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- Averted: Avaril and his fellow elves are more or less equal to the other races in the world and act as such.
- Enforced: Avaril and the elf society is being constructed as a Mary Suetopia reflecting the author's beliefs and ideal view of the world; as such, the author has the other character bow down to the elf viewpoint because it is the viewpoint that the author believes everyone should possess.
- Lampshaded: "Ah, so we've reached the part of the evening where Avaril's going to lecture us about how worthless we are compared to him and the other elves."
- Invoked: Avaril is explicitly included in the party to act as its moral yardstick by the elf high council.
- Defied: Screw You, Elves.
- Discussed: "Wait... elves exist? I hope they don't think we're inferior or something."
- Conversed: "Okay, so in every fantasy novel there's always a self-righteous elf lecturing the other characters about how elves are so much better than they are; elves are usually self-righteous, I get that, but you'd think the other characters would at least tell him to shut up every once in a while."
- Played For Laughs: Avaril's self-righteous lectures are clearly transposed against clear demonstrations of his ineptitude and moral fallibility for Hypocritical Humor value.
- Played For Drama: The humans do not argue with the elves because the elves act as an oppressive analogue to a fascist society, and have bombarded the humans with both so much propaganda about elf superiority and harsh punishments for those who speak up and resist that human society is fearful and lacking self-worth.
Well, human, if you still don't understand why we are so much better than you, you had best learn why you Can't Argue with Elves.