Nyoka wrote...
Faerunner,
- Elves are people first and foremost in DA2.
- Their past culture and traditions don't automatically define their fundamental personalities or appearances any more than they do humans or dwarves.
- They are not innately born with these values, and they don't embody them in every facet of their lives regardless of their upbringing.
I'm not sure why you need to make stuff up in order to make a point. None of the above statements are true.
I made it up that Velanna and Sigrun had those hilarious party banters about elves being only figuratively closer to nature and dwarves being only figuratively from to the stone? I made it up that the devs gave DA2 elves more animalistic features ("fawn-like") to make them literally closer to nature and to divide them further from humans? I made it up that the devs explained that the whole reason elves are shoeless is
to be closer to nature? I made it up that just about all elves from all walks of life are shown to be shoeless even if neither their cultural upbringings nor their individual personalities would suggest that they would be interested in being closer to nature? (*cough*FENRIS*cough*)
Wow, I must have a really active imagination.
Nyoka wrote...
Physical features being inherited traits of a more forestry origin is a perfectly valid reason for the concept I posted earlier. Those inherited traits, a contingent outcome of your evolutionary history, explain a lot of your physical features. There are a lot of ape-like stuff about you if you stop to think about it. From your canines even though you don't need them at all to your leg hair (what use does that have?) to the nails on your fingers and toes to wisdom teeth to incipient baldness if you're a guy, etc. Likewise, a people with a fawn-like ancestry should have features conveying that.
How long did their ancestors actually live in nature? How thoroughly did they immerse themselves in their respective enviornments? Did they simply live in harmony with nature (the way farming humans have lived in "harmony" with agricultural seasons or fishing humans live in "harmony" with the fishing seasons) or were they literally part of it like the birds, deer and rabbits? (Considering they had an advanced society, I rather doubt it.)
I've studied Physical Anthropology, so I'm very well aware of the evolutionary reasons that humans look and function the way we do. Are you trying to suggest that Thedas elves evolved from deer the way the humans evolved from apes? Because so far, I have yet to see evidence of it within the games, or any concrete explanation for why a race of people who, for all intents and purposes, only
culturally lived more in harmony with nature would physically look and behave more like animals than other sentient races within the same universe.
What's more, living Dalish strive to collect as many artifacts and lore from their ancestors as they can, and as much like how their ancestors lived as possible. The Dalish are shown to be skilled warriors, archers, hunters, and scouts. They continually discover and create weapons, daggers and bows that their ancestors used. These are the traits of predators/omnivors, not prey animals. Deer are prey animals; they are passive, vegetarian, avoid conflicts, don't go to war, attack others, or hunt in packs. Making a hunter-gathers like elves look more like innocent little fawna is a poor choice in my opinion. Elves went from being tough, intelligent, respectable predators to weak, frightened, easily led prey animals. Neither accurate nor good.
Nyoka wrote...
I think they can be people even though their facial features are different from yours. Don't you?
Would you want to play as an elf as they are now if the opportunity presented itself to you?
I personally think the new elves are hideous, but that's not why I take offense to the new appearance. The whole reason they were changed was to essentially dehumanize them; to make them look and feel less human and to look and feel more "different" and "exotic" like flashy animals on a tour guide. The first game had elves look, feel, act as regular people. The player got to walk in their shoes (no pun intended), explore their culture, live their lives, feel what they feel, share their stories.
DA2 took away the option to be an elf, distanced their involvement with the main plot and just turned them into living decorations to stand around and "look different and exotic" for human protagonists. Some players complained that the elves didn't look "fantastic" enough, so BioWare made them look like more of a so-called "fantasy race" to give Thedas more of a "High Fantasy" feel. They dressed them up like animals to make the viewers feel more like they're in a zoo, and it ticks me off.
Modifié par Faerunner, 15 juin 2012 - 05:55 .
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