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Is the love story between a human and an elf too worn out?

I've been thinking about the romantic interactions of my protagonist in the story, and of course I thought that the human-elf love story will fit perfectly.
But then it occurred to me that the human-elf love story shows up in a lot of fantasy books (LotR etc...)
so is it a little not-original idea to use?
 
Love itself isn't too worn out a subject. Specific approaches to it may or may not be. Would you please explain your idea in a bit more detail? (In particular, what conflict, if any, threatens the relationship?)
 
The protagonist is a human that belongs to a kingdom that took over the territory of the elves and made the elves an inferior race under the control of the kingdom. The protagonist meets with the female elf on a journey to her tribe, but because the protagonist belongs to the kingdom, she is hostile to him at first.
 
Yeah, that has been used many times which makes it not-original.

Eh, whatever. It's still writeable if you can do something creative with it. (Though I'm not sure why you're using "human and elf" as the distinguishing factors here. Isn't the distinguishing factor "from two opposing sides?" To put it another way, does it even matter that she's an elf, or would it work the same were she human, and merely of a different culture?)
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
One thing I've always wondered about human/elf relationships and the like is why, nine times out of ten, the elf (or equivalent member of a superior culture/race) is female while the human/inferior race guy is male. Take Thingol and Melian (elf/Maia), Beren and Luthien (human/half-elf, half-Maia) or Aragorn and Arwen (human/elf). Two of those three pairings have extensive angsting abut the immortality vs. mortality issue as well.

I myself am guilty of this in one of my RPs, where a human guy falls in love with a Fae woman. Then again, living in Faerie with her for a thousand years has made him practically Fae himself, so there's no angsting involved, and it doesn't exactly count as much as it did when they first fell in love. I've also inverted it with my male Fae/female human pairing in Winter's Queen, but then again, it's not so much a romance as a forced marriage with a bride who hates the groom's guts. Then there's my male vampire/female human couple, which is subverted when the vampire bites his wife in their wedding bed, and she promptly leaves him as soon as she turns into a vampire and wakes up.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
I've always thought that entertainment of any form leans in the direction of the female ideal & the imperfect male.

You see it in novels, movies, TV (Everybody Loves Raymond). It's a very common approach because it's easily identified with.

That being said, it would be interesting to reverse the standard by having a female (imperfect) human in love with a elven (superior) male. Lots of potential for conflict there which moves away from the "But I will die & you will live forever" cliche.
 

Hans

Sage
But then it occurred to me that the human-elf love story shows up in a lot of fantasy books (LotR etc...)
so is it a little not-original idea to use?
Let me ask an other question: Is the love story between two humans, man and woman, too worn out? It has been done lots more time than Human/Elf.
The question that matters is: What do you do with the relationship? Are the characters interesting?
There are lots of possible stories with an Human/Elf relationship. One single aspekt of a story does not create/destroy originality.
 
I've always thought that entertainment of any form leans in the direction of the female ideal & the imperfect male.

You see it in novels, movies, TV (Everybody Loves Raymond). It's a very common approach because it's easily identified with.

In general, the human is whichever gender the majority of readers are. Paranormal romances like Twilight mostly have human females with nonhuman males.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Has it been done? Yes. Is it worn out? No. Nothing is worn out if you write it well. If you want to do some trailblazing, I don't recall there being too man Human/Troll romances, or Human/Orc romances. What about Human/Ent romance? For the sake of taste, I'll draw the line at farm animals. :p
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
Feo Takahari said:
In general, the human is whichever gender the majority of readers are. Paranormal romances like Twilight mostly have human females with nonhuman males.

Although I was being general across all levels of media (not gender focused). Your point, Feo, is a good one and explains the prevalence of human male + elven female well.
 
Has it been done? Yes. Is it worn out? No. Nothing is worn out if you write it well. If you want to do some trailblazing, I don't recall there being too man Human/Troll romances, or Human/Orc romances. What about Human/Ent romance? For the sake of taste, I'll draw the line at farm animals. :p

Phil Foglio has done human/troll, and I've done human/orc. I haven't seen ent, but I've seen dryad a few times. As for farm animals . . . No comment.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
I've heard of an elf/Ent romance in fanfiction... between Galadriel and Treebeard. o_O I've also heard of Boromir/Bill the pony. *shudder*
 

Aravelle

Sage
I like to think pairings -or even writing itself- is a bit like a cooking competition- you can make the same dish as everyone else, but if yours is has a distinctness or unique twist on it, you really can't go wrong. Personally, I'm a total sucker for interspecies relationships, one of my own pairings is a mermaid and a human [at least, I think he is. o_O]. With some shame, I admit that I enjoy a healthy dose of angst. I think that you tread on thin ice when pairing a elf and human together, but it can be done right.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Thinking on this a little, interspecies relationships are just a variation on the old star-crossed lovers story, eg Romeo and Juliet. Many reasons for why they can't or shouldn't be together but only one, love. Cue the tears and dramatic and sad music.
 

Justme

Banned
Love stories can never be worn out, but I think one between historically incompatible races might be more interesting. Maybe a human and an Orc or Goblin.
 
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Aravelle

Sage
Love stories can never be worn out, but I think one between historically uncompilable races might be more interesting. Maybe a human and an Orc or Goblin.

I thoroughly agree that it would be interesting, but is it appealing? I like the idea of it, but think I'd be a bit reluctant to read [of course, there are other factors that would play into that]. I'm not saying all interspecies and/or star crossed lovers have to be aesthetically pleasing, it's just... unusual, if that makes sense.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
One thing I've always wondered about human/elf relationships and the like is why, nine times out of ten, the elf (or equivalent member of a superior culture/race) is female while the human/inferior race guy is male.
I've noticed that too and wonder why that is. I once wrote a very short story featuring an elf man in love with a human woman for a creative writing class, but the pair didn't last long due to the woman's husband finding out about his wife's infidelity. Unfortunately it wasn't my best story, as I really rushed it and had a very tight page limit to work with.
 

Cassia

Dreamer
Just because others have used that you still can too. Just make it have a twist...maybe someone finds out or something...
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Someone needs to do the ultimate star-crossed lovers story between a fire elemental and a dryad.
 
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