>YFW you realize every race in fiction can be summed up as

>>89581467
Don't be so silly!
Stop it!

>>89581500
>Wanderer is a tiny orange Elf
>Lord Hater an Orc
>Dominator is an Elf/Orc hybrid

>>89581467
That's really fucking retarded anon. Advanced and barbaric are not the only two states a civilization can be.

>elves orcs and dwarves are archetypes that stand in for various races from a western european perspective
Why haven't the asians got assorted hordes for the rest of the planet, or africans? All they got is mutant demons and feral giant dick creatures.

>>89581727
it can be both at once, you're right. what'd we do without you.

>>89581727
High elves are Elves.
forest elves are Orcs.
Moon Elves are Orcs.
Sun Elves are Elves.
Keebler Elves are Orcs.
Gnomes are Orcs

AaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHH!

>>89581467
But the Irken Empire is shown to be a lot more advanced than anything else in the universe.

>>89581467
That's just "advanced and detatched" vs. "warlike and barberic".

>>89581467

>implying owls are birds

>>89581467
>Invader Zim Irken's are basically tiny Orcs
How? The only thing they really have in common is being green. They're not physically powerful, low-tech brutes.

Every race fiction can be summed up as humans.

Orcs are green humans.
Elves are pointy eared humans.

>>89581467
What about...Dwarves?

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>>89581467
So what are these guys?

>>89581467
Read better fiction.

>>89581467
Orcs are just a kind of elf.

>>89583540
It's almost as if shitty humans are writing them and are unable to come up with a culture too different than their own.

>>89583568
>Orcs are green humans.
>Elves are pointy eared humans.

Dwarves are tiny stocky humans.

>>89581467
>tiny Orcs
You mean goblins?

Man, fuck role-playing games. They ruined fantasy

>>89581467
I think you mean that every fictional race can be summed up as "Better than us" or "Worse than us"

Of course it's a dichotomy when you think of it that way

>>89581467
>if you generalize everything then its all black and white

>>89581727
Name some that don't fit then.

>>89583764
hobbits

>>89584164
What about the Candy People in Adventure time?

>>89583568
Short elves.
They're just cthonic instead of sylvan.

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>>89581467
/tg/ grappled with this very issue years ago. The basic fantasy archetypes are already pretty well cornered already. Limited not by imagination but by how far you can remove something from the norm and still have it be identifiable and thus interesting. Labeling everything as a different version of elf, orc, beast race, undead, lich, vampire, or whatever is an oversimplification, but it's hard to unsee.

You get used to it. Then learn to love the differences again. It also makes seeing something more unique all the more enjoyable once you realize the effort that went in to making it.

>>89584103
Literally all of this stems from Lord of the Rings

>>89581467
>YFW you realize every race in fiction can be summed up as "Real" or "not real"
>Crystal Gems are not real
>Invader Zim Irken's are basically not real
>Mewnina's are not real
>EVERY. RACE. Real or not real.
AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

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>Space druids

>>89584388
It stems from basement-dwelling nerds who, in adapting the genre from literature to tabletop gaming, transformed it into a vessel for their childish power-fantasies

>>89581467

where does the op image come from ?

>>89584388
Don't talk shit. LotR versions have incredible depth you can find in various materials Tolkien wrote. Granted most people don't have the sheer autism to go through it all.

What you should be angry at is D&D specifically. Early editions are what distilled the more complex meanings in to bite size one sentence blurbs about the races which got set in stone as standard.

>>89584458
You should /tv/ get autistic about dragons

Gygax really did a number on fantasy

>>89584458
>>89584481
Older versions of D&D. 3.5e is where I came in at and they're pretty stickling about races.

>>89584481
Gygax did nothing wrong. It's collective cultural autism over D&D itself that went sour.

>>89584542
3.5 is where most people came in at D&D, and that's a fucking travesty. Fucking ivory tower design bullshit.

>>89584455
elves

>>89584586
honestly 5e > 3.5 > a bunch of other shit that I haven't played but D&D isn't that great of a system anyway

>>89581467
humans are half elf-half orc

>>89581873
they're uplifted orcs
you don't think such a petty and capricious race could actually build all that cool shit do you

>>89583764
friendly, small orcs. their first reaction was to send tribal warrior types, but once they weren't scared anymore they were very hospitable, if stupid.

>>89584188
dumb sugar orcs. all of them are suicidally stupid, except for their immortal queen who is the exception.

humans are just short lived elves with stubby ears
orcs are just buff green elves
everything is elves

>>89581467
Crystal Gems are brutal conquering warlords with a strict social heirarchy. Their not very elfy

>>89581467
If this is true, what about Zergs? What about The Flood? Green Lanterns?

>>89586142
>Green lanterns
>Alien race
>The Flood
>Alien race

And the Zerg are the Hivemind variation of orcs.

>>89584458

Don't forget shit like trying to combine guns, sci-fi, the wild-west and fantasy all together, because Game-masters in the 70s and 80s just threw up their hands and decided everything goes, so we're stuck with lame shit like Psionics, 80s holdovers that refuse to die.

>>89581467
>Irkens are Orcs
Thats retarded Irkens are hyper intellligent.

>>89584458
>have incredible depth

>we're short, fat, and eat a lot
>we're short, fat, and dig a lot

brillant

>>89581727
shut up you fucking Orc

>>89586626

Orcs are the smartest race in middle-earth, no other race has a war-economy like theirs.

>>89584458
I still don't know what kobolds are thanks to D&D

>>89586626
He meant in the way they conquer other planets, I assume. And they're greeeeem.

>>89586626
spess orcs

40k orcs are psychic, and their weapons only work because they believe they do.

>>89581467
what are humans

This has less to do with orcs and elves and is more about the idea of universal themes and the jungian archetypes.

>>89587438
a miserable pile of secrets

>>89587188
So basically any time a species contradicts the idea of an orc, you add another subcategory to the ever expanding list of orc sub categories to continue justifying the original claim.

>>89581467
Yeah ever race in fiction can be summed up as something if you don't bother for it to make sense.

Elves? Nature Triangles
Dwarves? Earth Squares
Orcs? Rock Squares
Crystal gems? Space Diamonds ... wait

>>89581467
>implying elves aren't great
>implying elfen ways arent the ways humans should strive to live
Nigga I am a vegan and hold love in my heart for every living person and animal that I meet. The only decoration in my home is innumerable plants I have raised by hand. I listen exclusively to Elvenking. This is the lifestyle human society is advancing toward.

>>89587678
well they both are stupid, but in different ways.

you cant have space planet conquerors that dont have the means for space conquest in a space setting. then regular orcs wouldnt be a threat, so 40k orc has a pseudo hive mind.

while the Irkens are bred for war, have tech strapped to their backs at birth and a idiot proof UI when you need to go manual. most stuff is automated for the invaders, tech, robots, ships are all assigned. hell they have computer brains to do the hard thinking, their backpacks auto resuscitate and are a backup brain.

come to think of it, IZ did have some neat lore.

>>89586408
>The Flood
Is a very miniature race of microbes that hijack other races' bodies.
Although yeah, Green Lanterns are a trick question.

>>89588231
>very miniature orc microbes that hijack other races' bodies.

>>89588287
But then what are Nurglite Spawn?
There's a saying in /tg/, there's a reason why you don't always use the standard fantasy races.
It ends up like OP.

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>>89581467
>Invader Zim Irken's are basically tiny Orcs

except that's completely untrue

>>89588192
You do know know that the backpacks are the real Irkens right? The flesh bodies are just puppets to walk around in. Also Irkens stole most or their tech from the Vorts with the exception of Zim who was originally assigned to be a military scientist.

>>89583488
Actually, Irkens are strong as fuck. Zim alone has shown to overpower adult humans and that one time he lifted Gaz over his head.

>>89588794
Yikes, sorry for the misspellings. I'm phoneposting.

>>89588794
nah they have real brains, in the time traveling piggy incident zim replaced his brain with a piggy note. Its the computers that are basically ikrens bred to be brains in a bucket, which is why their computers can guesstimate and cough.

>>89588918
That's a bit weird considering a future episode was going to have Dib slowly turn into Zim's personality when he accidentally gets the Pak stuck on him and Zim's body waste away and die because he lost his Pak. Perhaps there are certain parts of the body that the Pak needs to properly function.

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>sometimes Elves are an advanced race more intune with magic, sometimes their civilization being in ruins, sometimes it's not
>sometimes Elves are woodland hippies
>sometimes Elves are capable of living centuries, sometimes they're not
>sometimes Elves work in workshops
>sometimes they're just slaves
>sometimes Elves are a hoard of ghost huntsmen
why can't they just decide what they want with these guys?
Orcs and Dwarves have specific roles in mythology that are consistent, but Elves are always different, why is that?

>>89590497
also a lot of traits of elves can be just transferred to humans

>>89590497
Elves are the designated "ascended or mystical beings that aren't human because their ears are a different shape."

>>89590497
Because elves in mythology/folklore are super varied and is more just a category of fairy rather than a specific race. Of course early fantasy writers took inspiration from all sorts of folklore so we get a pretty wide variety of elves, and later fantasy writers just copied everything Tolkien did.

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>>89581467
Are eldritch abominations orcs or elves?

>>89581467
>ctrl+f apollo
>ctrl+f dionys
Nope. What a pleb board.

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>>89581467
>Invader Zim Irken's are basically tiny Orcs

Capeshit:
Kryptonians
Daxamite
Kree
Asgardians
Martians (DC)

Halo:
Sangheili (elites)
Legkolo (hunters)

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>>89591174
>hunters equivalent to elves or orcs

How does it feel to be literally retarded?

>>89585716
They're advanced and look down upon other races as extermination potential and are only interested in a world's raw resources. That's elfy.

>>89581873
orcs get a bonus to blacksmithing

>>89581467
what are races that are utterly alien in their way of thinking that it is pretty much impossible for humans to comprehend?

>>89581467
Are you sure what about starro?
Or the space chicken from green lantern?

>>89591012
Not one clearly defined category and not a race retard
Actually try reading a Lovecraft story sometime. goddamn casuals everywhere

>>89581467
What is Mogo?

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>>89581467

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>>89581467
>Invader Zim Irken's are basically tiny Orcs
The fact that you haven't drowned on your own spit is nothing short of a miracle.