So looking at Veeky Forums, it would appear that no race, beside some sort of divine or draconic beings...

It's a natural consequence of their lifespan - they are able to draw conclusions most people reach at old age and new generations have to relearn every time.

Same with acquiring skills related to art.

>elves are portrayed as morally superior to humans
I second this, elves should be better than humans in just about every way, but this is inherently one of the ways in which they arent

elves may have a more advanced civilization, with more modern ideals and whatnot, but the greater the high the lower the low's - which is what dark elves are

>b-but but they're short, hairy and would like to drink with us !

yes but what conclusions did they reach?

as soon as you say [race] has a more moral society than humans then you are claiming that the way their society operates is better than the alternatives, meaning your political views can't help but influence it

Not to mention the artist seems to be a bit of a jerk.

That depends on the setting, but most logically would probably be something along the lines of "I suffered through this and don't wish it upon anyone else".

Live 500 years and you'll probably live through enough hunger, wars, revolutions and so on to reach some conclusions and work on your society not repeating them.

We don't have goblins to be trolled with human-shit-posters.

Elf-hate and dwarf-love are just memes canned from better settings and dropped into your own shit setting without the interesting background or even rules that support them. Most settings elves are nothing like the Tolkien ubermensch, but retards still parade them around like you just did.

>Live 500 years and you'll probably live through enough hunger, wars, revolutions and so on to reach some conclusions and work on your society not repeating them.
yes but how does the society manage not to have hunger, wars, oppression, or poverty? without handwaving an explanation of 'it just works' you have to make a political statement to answer that question

The answer is magic. Don't think we have politicized magic already.

true, you can get around any political opinions by just going 'elven society just works better because elf magic' but then that circles right back to elves being better for no particular reason other than 'just because' which is the reason people dislike that trope so it's not really addresses the problem

It can be "just because", but magic can also be a narrative tool, and the elves can have their own history about obtaining this magic in the first place. Magic can be the stand-in for technological progress and the elves worked hard for centuries to progress so far in this art that they can gather the harvest of their long work and benefit from it. All the other races are now invading because they want some gibs me dat muhgic and I finaly politicized throwing fireballs around as well, so fuck me please.

also, the idea that technological progress inherently leads to better standards of living is a political statement, not exactly a controversial one, but still

Again, experience. Obviously it won't stop stuff that's beyond your control but more experienced leaders and population that went through a problem 2-3 times due to their age will usually know how to best solve it.

that logic only works if you assume all problems are the result of external forces and how you deal with them, experience can explain why elves don't suffer as much from a natural disasters or wars but not how they solve issues of social inequality or unrest

Bingo.

Elves are politically angled a certain way in most depictions, and people on the other side of things don't really like seeing those ways associated with superior beings.

That still doesn't answer the question, user.

What solutions to the problems of hunger, war, oppression, and poverty does their experience lead them to take?

Your answer to this will be political as all fuck.

I'm human. Bias is to be expected.

Death to nonhumans.

Also, death to humans I don't approve of.

Elves do have wars, though.

not according to the user I was responding to

>"I suffered through this and don't wish it upon anyone else"
"I survived this and got stronger, the rest of you don't even get to try, fuck you all".
Elves are cancer.

Yes, but he's a fag.

>>stronger
No.
>smarter
No.

Longer lived races should probably have an education advantage, but they aren't actually smarter than us, and depending on the nature of their culture and their brains, they will probably be less flexible and slower to react to change.

Have leaders and population that better manage your resources, better diplomats, don't oppress and have a self respecting community with safety nets ? Are you asking me to go into some human political system instead of considering that a population that lives say 500 years wouldn't come up with a good system rather than tripping over each other to get as much as they can in the 50-90 years of their live and perhaps something set aside for their kids ?

...

Or maybe leaders that care mostly about stability, safeguarding their power and having some very long-term feuds, and care about preserving the status quo above everything else and have gotten very good at it?
Also, it's a staple of elves that they don't breed very much.

>Some races are "better," some races are "worse."

No. That's stupid.

>Races are different, and value different things. Each one considers their own way of life superior.

There ya go.

You point ?

A long-lived race can go any way with their experience. Doesn't mean they'll be automatically good.

What form do those "better diplomats" and "leaders...that better manage your resources" take? What form does that safety net take? (Nevermind that you already lost and veered into politics, your answer to that cements it.)

In short-- I am asking you to describe the form that their usage of power takes. The actual shape of the thing. Not comparative bullshit that relies on same vague notion of "better than we currently do." Cement that notion, please.

Because whatever that population that lives 500 years comes up with, that you think is better than the current system, that provides for their children-- That will speak volumes about your politics.

Never said it does, but it can - it's the fact that they usually are portrayed as better that makes them disliked among parts of Veeky Forums.

Chill your autism. For example: if I lived through say three wars I would want to avoid another one and be prepared if it happened nevertheless. That would mean that I wouldn't be gun-ho with threats to other races, kept a well maintained military that can repel enemy, promote friendship with various neighbors, crack down on any Saurons rising, etc.

So wait, your elves are literally setting up WW1, and I'm the autistic one for pointing out that describing the behavior of superhumans is inherently going to lead to talking about politics?

...The fuck?

You're autistic for typing shit like:
>Nevermind that you already lost and veered into politics, your answer to that cements it.
> Cement that notion, please.
>That will speak volumes about your politics.
In a thread about elves. Like, relax man we can talk about them without treating this like some contest.

They're not my elves, they're not preparing for WW1 and so on. Relax, it's just a theory what experience could teach you and the perspective it would give you on things. And even then we went off topic from the OP.

>maintaining an army means you are preparing for Sommes - fantasy edition
No user, you are the autist.

Nigga, I remember when Veeky Forums liked discussing things in depth and letting said discussions drift. I remember when it was weird NOT to see a thread summary with three posts talking about three different topics. Has this place fallen so goddamn low?

Keeping well-maintained peacetime militaries and setting up vast treaty/defense networks while setting up interventionist policies in lesser states is pretty much assured to lead to a nightmare unless they're the regional hegemon by a wide margin, though.

And not maintaining an army and not setting up defenses and not maintaining diplomatic relationships leads to wars as well, with the difference that you are less likely to win these kinds of wars you are getting for being an easy target. I don't think there is anything to win in this discussion.

>Has this place fallen so goddamn low?
Don't type stupid shit like this and ask why you're called an autist. Sometimes people like to discuss it, sometimes they can't be bothered - nobody here is to met some imaginary criteria of yours.

>Defending these boring ass bitches for being boring ass bitches

Hey, you're right, y'all free to be some boring ass bitches all day long if you really want.

Whereas you can maintain the small core of an army, the capacity to rapidly train/mobilize more, and have diplomatic relations be far less formalized than treaties require, thus avoiding the problems of both extremes.

It's almost like I'm describing a fairly narrow range of political behavior that was pretty typical of the times and places that standard western fantasy tends to draw from.

And it's almost like elves do tend to deviate from that in pretty specific ways that reflect their creator's sensibilities. Ways which are boring and predictable.

>it's not the way I like it so it's boring
ok

>It's almost like I'm describing a fairly narrow range of political behavior that was pretty typical of the times and places that standard western fantasy tends to draw from
The first World War? But in all seriousness, you seem to have figured it all out and now how to run every nation. Whatever the writers would give you, even if it's internally consistent or follows a specific narrative, it would be wrong, because you know how to run an elven nation in an 1914 europe setting.

>elves
are my favorites, but they really aren't superior to us, it's just insecure people who think so

Can you honestly say that illithids, could/storm giants, dragons, etc aren't better than us?

So why are you still responding if you're not gonna read the post? Just that butt-flustered?

They don't look human enough to trigger buttfrustration in autists. It's literally just about the looks. If dwarves were replaced by another race of great artisans and warriors with preference for subterranean dwellings, and fondness for generational grudges and keeping track of clans and bloodlines, while being extremely handsome to human eyes and 6+ feet tall the same folks would start crying.

maybe shoes are holding us back, and only by growing shoes on the inside can we ascend beyond our bestial natures?

...

TIS, OR SOME SAY TISM

DO YOU HEAR OUR PRAYERS?

>>But we never hear about how goblins are actually the heroes, the more creative ones or just more special

Goblins: life through their eyes
Order of the stick also has a pretty good spin on it.