Editing Elf (section)

=So why are these guys popular again?=
By this point we likely have you scratching your heads wondering how in the hell Elves ever caught on as a concept outside of Tolkien's writings. But for all <s>those damn Dwarves and their grudges</s> <s>salty haters</s> certain concernced parties complain about them, the fact is that Fantasy Elves are indeed popular, and there are reasons why (though these do also vary somewhat depending on the specific source):
* '''Like Humans, but better''': This is really the big one. Part of human nature is that we often more easily and readily identify with people who look like or otherwise remind us of ourselves. Well, since Elves usually look the same as humans except for a few physical differences, most audiences will more likely connect to them than, say, [[Orks|big muscular green soccer hooligans with fangs that are constantly violent]], [[Tau|Alien Stalinists]], [[Necrons|murderous robots]], [[Tyranids|giant alien-dinosaur-bug things]], [[Daemons of Chaos|or literal demonspawn.]] But because they ''aren't'' humans, there's still (sort of), the novelty of seeing an experience through the eyes of another intelligent species. So it's sort of the best of both worlds. 
* '''Drenched in Fantasy''': Closely related to the above. In your typical fantasy series, the humans generally live rather mundane pseudo-medieval lives for the most part with the odd dash of magic. Elves on the other hand typically have magic permeate everything they do and make, from their arms to their architecture and even such minor things as illumination, cooking and cleaning. So Elves generally offer a less mundane option than humans, and yield opportunities for interesting small scale world-building.
* '''They're all pretty''': It's an open secret that most people like their characters to be at least OK looking in appearance, but usually more than OK. Well, Elves are pretty much always slender, graceful, and beautiful. Nerd fetish for hot Elf females is well known, and it basically boils down to the fact that (again), they're all hot and physically idealized, though it goes in the other direction too.
* '''They're long-lived''': Growing old can be a real bitch. But Elves don't have to worry about it as much (or at all, depending on the setting). So whenever one is reminded of life's brevity and feeling down about it, Elves with their centuries-long lifespans or more offer a nice fantasy of a character who can live much longer than any of us will. 
* '''They're the cool precursor race''': A common theme in High Fantasy works is that there was a super-OP faction from the good old days who were running things more or less unopposed until some cataclysm brought them down. Audiences seem to really dig these "rise and fall" type narratives as part of a setting's worldbuilding and lore. Elves are often the ones given this role to some extent, so this adds to their popularity. 
* '''They're the best mages and/or archers''': Magic is cool, and so is pretending you're Legolas/Hawkeye/Green Arrow/Katniss Everdeen/too many other characters to list. Elves are frequently shown to excel in either or both of these, leading to some of the most spectacular displays of magic or marksmanship in a story. And since Elves are a fictional race that are usually superhuman to some extent, writers can get away with crazy feats of power/aiming that audiences might find a little harder to swallow if it was a human doing it.
* '''Cool armor''': Whenever Fantasy Elves are given lots of plate armor to wear (instead of, say, leather or hide), its often made to be some of the shiniest, fanciest, and most powerful armor in the setting, and often very aesthetically pleasing. So that brings in the armor buffs.
* '''Dragons, son''': While not all Fantasy settings do this one, it is still the case that Elves and Dragons are tied together in many Fantasy settings (Warhammer Fantasy being the big one). Since Dragons are universally considered Awesome, a race that regularly tames, rides, and has them is going to have some of that coolness rub off on them.
* '''Hybrid Friendly''': Apart from the obvious of Half-Elves, Elves seem to lend themselves naturally to other cool combinations, such as a Vampire Elf, a Tiefling Elf, and so on. While other races can also be combined, Elves are just one of the more popular choices for doing it, probably in part because there are usually so many varieties of them to begin with, so there's a bigger pool of combinations. On that note...
* '''Sub-types, sub-types, sub-types''': As the earlier parts of this page should have made clear by now, Elves often come in more flavors than other Fantasy races like Dwarves (who by contrast are often depicted much more monolithically). So if one type of Elf isn't your style, there will probably be some other type that is. Over the years, writers have done everything from the standard High/Wood/Dark to Sun/Moon, to Fire and Sea, to practically anything else the writers can think to have as a prefix to the word "Elf". 

And all of the above ultimately leads to probably the biggest one of all:

* '''They're who you most want to be''': Much as Batman and Iron Man are popular superheroes because, let's face it, we all want to be that rich, handsome, irresistible to women, and stuffed to the brim with cool armor and gadgets, so too are Elves a popular Fantasy race because they're who most people if they were dropped in a Fantasy world and asked to pick a new species would pick. You get to be beautiful, long-lived or immortal, and no one can ever gainsay your magic skills or inhuman marksmanship. And, depending, you might also get a dragon and/or a shiny suit of armor made from the setting's resident super-metal. Viewed that way, who would really say no? Especially if the alternative is [[Orcs|a near-mindless brute who everyone hates]] and who is [[Kobolds|probably destined to be sword-fodder for a team of adventurers]].