Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[TheRay]

I prefer the WWE do their own thing rather than try to listen to what the fans want.

[OopsIdiditagain]

Elves are the worst fictional race ever. They're so bland and boring but people put them everywhere. Their designs are always boring and their plotlines always involve eugenics/racial superiority. Why are elves so snobby? What do they have to be proud of? Pointy ears?

I wish elves were the default evil race instead of orcs and trolls. Orcs are cool.

[babyblob]

Elves are the worst fictional race ever. They're so bland and boring but people put them everywhere. Their designs are always boring and their plotlines always involve eugenics/racial superiority. Why are elves so snobby? What do they have to be proud of? Pointy ears?

I wish elves were the default evil race instead of orcs and trolls. Orcs are cool.

Elves are pretty boring. But I will take a goblin any day

[OopsIdiditagain]

Elves are pretty boring. But I will take a goblin any day

Goblins are cool, I would read a book with a goblin MC.

[babyblob]

Goblins are cool, I would read a book with a goblin MC.

I write fantasy stories. I created this whole fantasy world. One of my elf characters has a goblin side kick. And I have another story with a Goblin MC.

And my favorite character in Talisman is the Goblin Shaman!

[PwrdOn]

Medieval fantasy stories are nothing more than a vehicle through which neckbeards can launder their racism. A world in which all the different races, invariably based on real life cultures, are actually biological different and are engaged in a perpetual war of extermination against each other, gee I wonder who that might appeal to. Not to mention that the writing is often just intolerably juvenile, sexist, long-winded, and just plain boring most of the time.

[babyblob]

Medieval fantasy stories are nothing more than a vehicle through which neckbeards can launder their racism. A world in which all the different races, invariably based on real life cultures, are actually biological different and are engaged in a perpetual war of extermination against each other, gee I wonder who that might appeal to. Not to mention that the writing is often just intolerably juvenile, sexist, long-winded, and just plain boring most of the time.

I dont dig into the deeper layers. I enjoy some fun stories with Orcs killing loads of humans. That is all that matters to me.

[PwrdOn]

I dont dig into the deeper layers. I enjoy some fun stories with Orcs killing loads of humans. That is all that matters to me.

Well, to paraphrase RedLetterMedia, you don't notice the racism, but your brain did.

[anyajenkins]

I don’t read a lot of ‘medieval fantasy’, but the one I have read never involved the different races fighting to extinction. It was usually an evil, big bad that the ‘races’ would join together to fight.

I'd imagine the use of immigrants as cheap labor was promoted back in the day by those on the left to appeal to the pocket books of some on the right, as a way to get their foot in the door. The preferred plan would be an easier legal path to citizenship with full rights and at least the minimum wage. And it's worked so well that it's become one of those unspoken divides between the average Republican voter and those in control of the Party.

So using using immigrants as cheap labor was a ploy to get more immigrants in, who work as cheap labor? Mission accomplished, I guess

[Adam Allen]

Medieval fantasy stories are nothing more than a vehicle through which neckbeards can launder their racism. A world in which all the different races, invariably based on real life cultures, are actually biological different and are engaged in a perpetual war of extermination against each other, gee I wonder who that might appeal to. Not to mention that the writing is often just intolerably juvenile, sexist, long-winded, and just plain boring most of the time.

Gotta say, the part where they're literally making orcs out of mud in LoTR did seem a little on the nose...

[babyblob]

Well, to paraphrase RedLetterMedia, you don't notice the racism, but your brain did.

To be honest I dont think it did. because I never thought about racism once in the real world when reading these stories. When I see an elf talking down to the dwarf I dont think man this is just like white people and blacks. I think man I want that dwarf to bury his axe in that tall dudes skull. Most of what I read deals with Chaos vs order and the big bad killing people any way.

[godisawesome]

The uncomfortable undertones of “classic high fantasy” have been known about long enough to get pointed out, parodied, and skewered by guys like Terry Pratchett going back to the 80s, and for stuff like Warcraft or Bright to lean into it as well.

The central issue is that fantasy “races” are *actual* things, whereas real world “races” are simply social constructs; elves, orcs, hobbits, dwarfs and giants are all distinctly different species that generally manage to crossbreed, but have different lifespans and immutable differences between them, while in real life, a human is a human, regardless of where they come form, what language they speak, or what cultural identity they have.

Heck, in Middle Earth there’s even a defined difference between Numenorean-descended humans and other humans like the Rohan.

I’ve given some speculative brainstorming to how I would handle “races” in a fantasy world of my own design to reflect the more complex yet also simpler real world... and the closest idea I could come up with was to make “magical races” starts as base-line humans that have to complete explicitly magical rites of passage to transform, and can be stripped of it as well, with their being trade offs to the advantages you gain.

[PwrdOn]

Gotta say, the part where they're literally making orcs out of mud in LoTR did seem a little on the nose...

I mean the mud spawning scene was just creative license on the part of Peter Jackson, in the books orcs are bred like any other species and orc women do exist, they just don't ever appear and aren't referenced in any way. Which actually is another thing that grinds my gears, why is it that in all of these settings only the human-looking races ever seem to have any women?

[DrNewGod]

Elves are the worst fictional race ever. They're so bland and boring but people put them everywhere. Their designs are always boring and their plotlines always involve eugenics/racial superiority. Why are elves so snobby? What do they have to be proud of? Pointy ears?

I wish elves were the default evil race instead of orcs and trolls. Orcs are cool.

Try the Drow. Forgotten Realms has a story about one that might do it for you.

[DrNewGod]

Medieval fantasy stories are nothing more than a vehicle through which neckbeards can launder their racism. A world in which all the different races, invariably based on real life cultures, are actually biological different and are engaged in a perpetual war of extermination against each other, gee I wonder who that might appeal to. Not to mention that the writing is often just intolerably juvenile, sexist, long-winded, and just plain boring most of the time.

Yes, it can be seen that way. And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes, it may just depend on what you're looking to be pissed off about. Sometimes, it may be that you're not dialed into the issue.