Beauty Equals Goodness: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', the distinction between in-group (elves) and out-group (humans and trolls) has been striking from the get-go. Elves are the embodiment of otherworldly beauty, while [[Humans Are Ugly]] and idiosyncratic and trolls are bulbous and warty. While a few humans and the occasional troll are easy on the eyes, they are nothing compared to the elves—even evil elves, even genocidal elves, they're never ugly. See, [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]] the enemy and trolls are untrustworthy, but "[[Our Elves Are Better|All elves are one]]". You can kill humans and trolls in self-defense, but [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape|Elves Don't Kill Elves]] no matter the provocation. Recent years have seen these principles change. More and more humans have been joining the list of allies, so the in-group/out-group distinction is weakening significantly. The "Elves Don't Kill Elves" prohibition has been broken on a few occasions and no longer elicits the [[Heroic BSOD|agonizing guilt]] that Strongbow felt over Kureel (the first such killing). Now that Wendy Pini isn't [always] doing the art herself, certain artists draw humans all but indistinguishable from elves (which means as beautiful as elves). They look so similar that a human wearing ceremonial elf ears leaves you wondering, not about the ears, but if his ''thumb and four fingers'' are a mistake—a confusion that would never have been possible in the early books. The whole thing is at least mildly justified, anyway: elves are a different ''species'' from both humans and trolls, usually have access to healing magic that the latter don't, and their ancestors deliberately took forms that would appeal to humans in preparation for making contact (they just didn't count on getting thrown thousands of years backwards in time and losing most of their magic in the process). [[Word of God]] has it that the Wolfriders, the tribe who had to fight humans most often, even went out of their way to deliberately prevent or eliminate ''scars'' whenever possible in order to present a more formidable face to their enemies, who'd just have been encouraged by the notion that their weapons could actually leave marks on the 'forest spirits'.