I'm another one that can't stand the way the elves look, and it's mainly because there isn't a lot I can do to tweak how they look. I loved how they looked in Morrowind, and that wasn't Tolken at all, but still had some type of character to them. I like the wild look, but there was a lot of variation in Morrowind. It's hard to change how they look in Skyrim.

LOL.... My first character was a high elf. I tried and tried to make him look "good", but alas.... Thankfully I don't have to look at him. I agree that elves should possess a grace and beauty above that of human races.

Unless your one of the cursed elves al la Orcs and Dunmer.

I'm fairly convinced - (and this is not intended as an insult or the opening shot of a depressing flame war) - that many people's idea of what an Elf "should" look like is derived in large part from Tolkien, and from the pervasive idea that "Faerie Folk" in some way possess a nobility of purpose and an otherworldly grace anyway.

It's all supposition I guess until someone actually finds an Elf but traditional - i.e. predating Tolkien - representations on elfkind and indeed faerie - (or fey) folk in general depicted them as much less noble and beautiful, what you saw was a glamour produced to sweeten the pill of interacting with creatures who were at best "interesting" to look at and at worst pretty much what you see on Domestos adverts.
The creatures of both the Seely and the Unseely courts projected themselves in a fashion which was attractive to humans - for whatever purpose that was for, but it was/is never what they actually look like.
Elves traditionally are not tall creatures possessed of ethereal beauty and otherworldly nobility.

Fair play therefore to Bethesda for NOT succumbing to the standard stereotypes of Elves and their relatives.
It always amuses me that people - (including myself) - are enamoured by Tolkien's Elves because that in fact is precisely why The Fey chose to put on a shape for us mere humans.
Though it pains me to say it Dobby the House Elf is probably - ("probably") - closer to a traditional representation of an Elf...

DAMMIT. I tried for a good while (although maybe not as hard as I could have) to make a good looking dunmer, and failed. High elf wasn't too hard but I just couldn't get the right look for the dark elves.

My dark elf has the eye wrinkles and she looks pretty young actually, like 25.
I find it look harsh and beautiful at the same time, which is what I expected from a dark elf. So i don't really complain about that.
The chin is not that much of a problem for me either, it gave the head a pretty youthfull shape.
Well, this is my opinion on the females atleast.

i love how the mer races now look...

in all fairness all the races look great but the mer look so unique.

i agree with what over people say tho wish there was more difference betweeb breton &imperial. i can never tell the 2 apart...

I use a mod to make characters look younger, I got it specifically to get rid of the wrinkles lol.
Taken me months to achieve that face, where as Roze was 10-15mins lol.

I can understand Beth wanting to add a little flavor to the mer, but the thing is, other than the orcs, I don't see any flavor, I just see ugly. They don't look very menacing, or mysterious, or exotic, they just look like ugly, mishapen humans. I look upon a mer and the first thing that comes to mind, once I get over the blood pouring out of my eyeballs, is how impossibly repulsive they are. What was the reason for giving them freakishly large chins for starters?

Take the orcs for instance. They are not attractive by any stretch of the imagination, but they look rugged and menacing, and wildly different from humans, hence I don't consider them ugly.

I think it's very much in the eye of the beholder.
Niamh is a Bosmer, and I think she looks just fine.

I think the Elves look amazing. Especially the Bosmer.

I love the new look that Bethesda gave to the Mer. If anything, they fit much more in line with the Mer from TES Lore.

I play Dunmer (90% of all my characters, Khajiit for the other 10%), and my Assassins and Mages have never looked better! For those detractors against Skyrim's Mer, let's not forget that these aren't the Elves of Tolkien or the Forgotten Realms. If you keep your mind trapped in one style from the Fantasy genre, then you're going to miss out on some of the best visual content of the game. Don't be biased towards one style of Elf/Mer.

I love the looks of the Mer in Skyrim, and I really hope that Bethesda keeps this trend going in their future iterations of this most beloved of series.

The big problem for some people is that they play elves because what they really want is a person, just superhumanly graceful and beautiful. It's that they confuse 'elf' with 'super human'. In TES elves are another race, on par with humanity and sharing just as much ancestry with Daedra in their way as they do with humans. You want to play a stunningly beautiful and graceful human? You can make some dead sixy women of any of the human races and it's not that hard. Graceful is hard since in Skyrim every single man and woman of every race, age and aptitude is EXACTLY THE SAME.

Elves in Skyrim look amazing in my opinion. Dunmer look cursed and tied to the Daedra their ancestors sided with. Bosmer look like cannibal hunters, as much animal as mer. Altmer look like they've been breeding for self-righteous arrogance for the last 500 years. I'd agree that making the Bretons more angular and less rounded would have been good but otherwise spot on.

Why do some people say they "love" what Beth has done with the elves, and then admit to using mods to make them look better?

I was very happy with the direction Bethesda took in regards to the *mer races (as well as the "human" and beast races). Pretty unique across the board and a healthy amount of distiction between them.

Because there is always room for improvement. Always.

The female dark elves could have been a little more attractive imo.

I like the Altmer though, and Bosmer aren't bad.

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