I've been lying awake at night, pondering in my bed the nature of sterotypes and their affect on gaming. I was wondering if the any character was ever, truly original. It came to a head when I asked myself 'What would Yoda do?'.

Let's look at Yoda. A nine hundred year old master of the force, small green and crazy as a muskrat. Now, I think it would be safe to say that Yoda is not the only creature of his species. Surely, somewhere out there, an entire planet of little Yoda critters exists. Now, imagine if you were playing a character from that species. How would you gauge your actions? How would you decide what was the right thing to do?

You'd ask yourself what would Yoda do.

The biggest characters of any race, class or denomination inevitably end up being our basis for the entirety of the race. Let me give you an example; How often do you encounter a dwarf without a beard?
It's uncommon, but every so often it occurs. Now here is an even better question. How often do you encounter an elf with a beard?
Anyone?
Ever?

Realistically there is no reason why an elf should not have facial hair. But all the stereotypes we see of elf's (or elves, whatever) suggest prenatural beauty which, for whatever reason, does not include a curly mustache. It only gets worse when people right sourcebooks, as the entirety of their conclusions is inevitably based on the limited character stereotypes we all know about anyway. A handful of popular characters always forms the basis of all later work.

Thieves, knights, soldiers, engineers, workers, drug dealers, super heroes. Think of them and you think of a stereotype, and from that you work out how to make your own character. You look at your character and ask yourself how they would react, the answer being a mixture of the stereotype and your own modifications. So if you did happen to be playing a 300 year old, slightly less green great-great-grand cousin of a certain master of the force, your actions would always be tainted by the popular image.

Which leads us back to the question, what would Yoda do?

Yoda would say you are thinking too much on things irrelevant and should focus on the matter at hand.

pretty sure yoda would sit there and go "we messed up big time"

Probably something like that. Except, replace "adventure" and "excitement" with "deep socio-political questions on a comic strip board."

lolz

Yoda would say:"Seek the Force in you,and it will tell you what to do" *thinking*leave me alone n00b!*/thinking*

The reason elves have no facial hair is a actually a little bit racist.

When artists first started creating images of the fantasic creatures that had populated legend for millenia, they were right at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the end of the Renaissance. There was a growing dissatisfaction with the trend to urbanization. Thus, all the artists sought to make their beautiful creatures seem more natural and earthy.

Remember, at the time, the American continents had only recently been discovered. The natives on these continents appeared to the Europeans to be less civilized. The artists took this idea and ran with it, creating the conception that the Native Americans (they're not Indian, dammit!) were more in harmony with nature. Thus, a large number of the fantasy portraits, specifically the ethereal elves and pixies, incorporated racial features of the Americans.

One of those features? No or little facial hair. That, combined with the desire to make the creatures look young and whimsical, is what started that particular movement. It's continued through to this day more for the latter reason than the former, but that's how the whole shebang got started.

I've read about an elf with facial hair. Well, half-elf technically, but still.
Cael Ironstaff from the book "The Thieves' Guild" written by Jeff Crook. It was part of Crossroads #2 of the Dragonlance books. It was actually the first book that I read of the Dragonlance collections.
At the end of the book he had some facial hair.

Glad to see I've inspired some interesting talk.

You've acheived a goal I always fail at.

You'll have your chance, Felix. Even the smallest topic can partly be inspired by you.

Actually, if you read Weis and Hickman's novels that initiated the Dragonlance line, beginning with Dragons of Autumn Twilight I believe, the primary character is a half-elf with facial hair, and that's the entire point. As a half-elf, they age quicker than elves, but slower than humans, and they have features from both races. In this case, usually the slightly pointed ears of an elf combined with the beard of a human.

the half-elf is tanis

Yoda is just God Incarnate, leave him be in his mystical ear hair.....(magic fingers)..... (and toes)

I have brought inspiration, and now comes the madness.

he would just start talking all wierd and cut you up with a midget lightsaber

And then he would bring out his walking stick of crippling.

and then we can only hope he goes off to the soon to be torched old folks home

Would Yoda smell like Old Tobacco, Kerosene and Bingo?

mm... now i wonder... why yoda didnt have any facial hear?... maybe he is half elf? xDDDDD

all his facial hair migrated to his ears and back

mmm... yummy

nothing tastier than burnt back hair

Or burnt bunny hair. Mmm, it's all game-y, tastin'.

yea, that reminds me, who wants to come to my next bbq?

If you have ribs, I'm there.

how did we end talking about bbq??... i mean... maybe yoda was vegetarian... if im correct, in episode V The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke comes seeking Great Jedi Master Yoda in Dagobah Yoda itself (himself or itself?... again, my english isnt THAT good xD) offers him a soup of roots... and if this thread is about What Would Yoda Do, then Yoda would make a wonderful roots soup...

Sorry, nothing about elves, but I also have thought about true originality. My thought has run like this: What we create is based on what we have seen, admired, hated, or just plain experienced. So can anything be original? I think there are times for firsts in the public, but privately I'm not sure there is such a thing as unique and original. I think many people before and after and even at the same time as we think very similar things.

I love how my contagious madness is spreading. All on Yoda's back.

yoda was originally a whill which was supposed to be an immortal race who narrated the star wars trilogy.

and on the topic of originality and how it doesnt exist, there are actually 3 original languages.

Even those languages had to be based off of some form of "master language" that was created before any known history and was so far diluted over time that it seems as though it had originated as 3 separate ones

but then there still would be one origininal language making sure that there is such a thing as originality... it's just uncommon.

That's a given, but I believe that people used up all originality a long time ago.

Hmmm, Yoda versus Gandalf in a celebrity deathmatch...predictions anyone?

Yoda, within 30 seconds.

probably right.

Just so you all know, Kermit the Frog came very close to getting Yoda's role in star wars. Fortunetly Mr. Hansen was mind controlled by a dwarf troll and changed his mind.

Things You'll Never Hear Yoda Say


What expect you from someone 900 years old? English perfect???

Size matters not...hey, what are you laughing at?

Lift THAT ship?! You must be out of your mind

I cannot teach him. IQ of 30 has he. Hangs upside down in ice caves.

Duct Tape...the Force it is like. Both a light side and a dark side it has. Binds the universe together it does!

Remember all that stuff Obi-Wan taught you? Forget it.

Yeah, well oneness with the universe doesn't put food on the plate, junior.

No...there is another. Let's hope as stupid, she is not.

Never underestimate the powers of the dark side. Or is that Regis Philbin?

I cannot teach him. Land an X-wing, he cannot even.

Never underestimate the power of the dark side... or duct tape.

Yeah yeah. Force this!

Anger, fear, merchandising...the Dark Side are they!

I didn't want this job! I wanted Marlon Brando's role in 'Apocalypse Now!'

No Force? Take this, impudent nonbeliever! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So how did you like the funhouse in the cave, Luke?

Quite frankly, Mr. Skywalker, if Obi-Wan wasn't dead, I'd have him expelled.

Oh, yes, well if you're going could you take this robe to the cleaners for me? I've been wearing it for over 800 years on this stinkhole and it doesn't... Oh, judge me on my smell, will you?

Well it may be spooky, but it saves cost on burial plots and it beats cremation.

Luke, don't ask what the Force can do for you.. But what you can do for the Force.

Gandalf could kick Yoda's ass any day of the week, all he has to do is just start yellin' "You shall not pass!" and Yoda's little midget self would get flung over a bridge.

Except Yoda can fly, and has a lightsaber. Gandalf has a stick.

But its a magic glowy stick with a shiny rock on the end!

Gandalf has immortality too, Yoda may have lived for a long time but he eventually died.

Stick with a magic glowy stone
vs.
A damn lightsaber!
It could cut Gandalf's bling in half.

Gandalf isn't immortal, he just has two lives. The Grey and The White.

Data would sneak up on them, stun them both with a phaser, and give them a stern talking to. Then, everyone would go to the pub.


Otherwise, yeah, Yoda would win. The cool aspect of the stick doesn't negate the fact that light sabers burn through just about anything, and the stick, by its very nature I'm afraid, is still just made of wood. I gotta tell you though, it'd be really funny looking if Gandalf got a good golf swing in at Yoda before he went. I bet he'd get some great distance.

Celebrity DeathMatch: Yoda vs. Gandalf

Gandalf: "FORE!!"
*Yoda flies through the rafters, and is eventually stopped by a concrete wall*
*commence Yoda screwing the Jedi code and going apeshit in an indescribably awesome manner*

He is actually some sort of demi god sent from the west to keep the humans from dying off. Says in a few books if I remember right.

K, If Yoda did by some remote chance kill Gandalf, how would he fare against Tom Bombadil?

Well first Tom would get elven hottie to flash Yoda and while he is distracted Tom throws Yoda into old man Willow.

And the Samuel Mutha-Effin' Jackson comes in with a the only purple lightsaber ever and that shark that ate him in Deep Blue Sea.