Screw You, Elves/Headscratchers
What with this trope becoming more and more popular, it makes me feel almost like Humans (or the ones delivering the verbal beatdown) are the actual arrogant ones.
- It's cyclical, really. When you go back to a lot of older folklore and stories (though it's cycled a few times, now), you're more likely to find humans cast as the virtuous/superior species, basically serving the role of 'elves' to wicked/barbaric races. Most 'superior' elves came about as subversions pointing out human arrogance, displaying the 'elf' species as having an ideal civilization while humans were petty, warlike, cruel, etc. It's gotten to the point where, nowadays, it's more common to find elves or faeries or aliens who exemplify whatever traits their creator admires in abundance, and eschew humanity's common vices... which in turn leads to the occasional annoying Author Tract, and subsequent subversions of the perfect elf-people. And now humans are starting to seem more like the self-aggrandizing species, and so Can't Argue with Elves is making a come-back of its own.
- Back to Screw You, Elves