That’s one of the problems with classic fantasy archetypes, I think. Everyone expects different things from them.
That’s why I’ve grown fond of fantasy settings that just reject the traditional races and use entirely their own — Guild Wars, for example. Nobody can agree what elves “should” be like, but everyone can agree what a typical asura or sylvari is like.
Okay so there are q few breeds of “elder races” but three are takes on elves I suppose. I’m on my phone so I’ll keep it quite pertinent;
Tiste Andii, a slant on your typical dark elf. Immortal and a pretty broken people. “Disinterest, stoicism, and quiet, empty despair” are pretty much their tropes due to their history with their mother God, feeling abandoned by her. They pretty much follower their leader and struggle to find passion in life. A lot of them don’t bother to have children or simply suicide by battle even if they outskill their foe as a way to die.
Tiste Edur, a slant on wood elves. They’re not as advanced as elves in most settings. They hunt seals, work wood and live in small villages. They have a warrior society and their faith is largely a lie, though the women are actually aware of their true history.
Tiste Liosan, a slant of high elves. They have a very religious, warrior-priest society and dwell in their own realm. They’re pretty damn belligerent to the tiste Andii due to their goddess being Mother Dark and the Liosan god Father Light. They regard the Edur as okay but beneath them because they are born from both.
That’s as simple as I can do it it without diving into warrens/realms, demi gods, gods, specific characters and the like. 
There are some well pretty bunny boys in FF
I say platonically because I’m not interested in men in that way before somebody jumps on me with the “hurrdurr FF14 players are horny”
EDIT: but seriously, he has winged eyeliner and I was just like; “damn boy”
In GW2, the elves are funny enough are in mind both the Sylvari - And the Humans.
Think about it it? The Sylvari are frankly ageless and as far as we know - no one of them has died yet of age. Only through combat, poison or other madness.
While the humans, while not long-lived (At least the majority. Livia however… ) in GW1’s prologue practically ruled most of Tyria. Only to lose practically almost every single kingdom to some form of action, be it war, self-made calamity or isolate themselves to only consist of Kryta as the last human bastion in Tyria.
Ascalon - Smashed to pieces in the Searing to just a few holdouts and then conquered by the Charr AND then turned into ghosts by the Mad King’s spell. (With only Ebonhawke standing)
Orr - Sunk to the bottom of the sea when their Vizir cast a spell that caused the peninsula to sink beneath the waves and killed both themselves and the invading Charr army.
Elona - Conquered by Palawa Joko.
Cantha - Isolated themselves from the rest of the world.
Kryta - Were on the defense most of their history after taking back control from the White Mantle Organization, only turning the tide later through a ceasefire with the Charr…when the threat of the Elder Dragons were realised to be the greater threat. (And even then there were the conflict with the Centaurs, the machinations of the Ministry, the scheming of the White Mantle resurgency, Renegades etc etc.)
I think humans in GW2 absolutely fill the fantasy niche of elves better than sylvari do. Sylvari have little in common with the elf archetype besides living in a forest and being close to nature. Humans, on the other hand, are a proud ancient race has seen better days, heirs to ancient knowledge who are now fading and leaving the room for newer races to take over their former holdings.
And then ArenaNet killed any interest in the Sylvari by:
In fact, that’s a general problem with the GW2 story. They’ve wrapped up so many different parts of the story with such finality at this point, that I can’t imagine the setting getting further content after End of Dragons, unless they invent something brand new that bursts out of nowhere. Tyria’s a very interesting world, but ArenaNet has never been very good at writing stories in that world - not even in GW1.
Two huge cases of ugh.
Every expansion or living story season has a signature “ugh” character in that game. It’s just a requirement, for some reason. People complain about WoW’s NPCs hogging the protagonist spotlight but GW2 does it worse.
Still angry that Malyck’s plot hook was dropped and we never saw his tree.
That said, as a former sylvari roleplayer, I don’t think resolving the mystery of their origins makes the race inherently less interesting. I saw the events of Heart of Thorns as a trove of potential RP hooks for my character; too bad that, with the RP scene dwindling, I lost interest in the game very soon after it was released.
Speaking of GW2, I find it a damn shame. I’m still nostalgic for it. Looking at screenshots now, I still find it appealing aesthetically; I think it strikes a nice middle ground between WoW’s cartoonish look and FFXIV’s pseudo-realism. It’s a good game, and I find it a shame that it’s “merely” good; there are issues that stop it from being truly great.
Oh no, it’s not what I meant! Just that it wasn’t WoW stuff either, I like DA elves a lot too, they deserve better. (That one was meant to be a minor Boss fight thing, but… I’m not sure I can bring myself to kill her. She could have been the protagonist, and it’s her great tragedy.)
Wanna see the party?
Bunnyboys have special powers. I think I am driving my FC crazy with all the thirstposting.
(Not to worry, I have a permit. Here, it says ‘technically still ace’)
Solas wants to know your location.
It’s weapon and combat system I find the most enjoyable among the traditional tab-target mmos. I’m still itching to install it again, if only for a day, but I can never find time between irl stuff, ffxiv and recently warframe.
As an aside, did they change how leveling works? I remember it used to be that you had your msq, but you’d need to do side stuff to level up between msqs.
My roulettes on DRK today have been a ride™
I expected Keeper for my 50/60 roulette, nope, Grans Cosmos with a sprout healer and 2 returnees.
My Alliance roulette aka Crystal Tower? Sike! Nier raid for me!
A “Mum come pick me up on scared” moment.
I just got rejected from porting into Limsa. “Area is congested please try again later”.
Go ERP in your houses ya tosspots, I’ve got arcanist quests to do.
Well… RDR2 hit the inevitable point where Arthur died and I’m in part one of the Epilogue.
Taking away my good boy and high honor Arthur through TB and that sham of a fight hurts 
.
For some reason I always enjoyed that they are ageless only because the oldest Sylvari are not even 40 yet.
I began my RP Career truly in GW2. I have some of both my greatest RP memories from there and some of my worst, with both the highlights of my Norn Jorund and Charr Furios are some of greatest RP moments I had - Amongst them carrying a dwarven sarcophagus through a glacial ravine and the latter having an artillery battle against Branded or Flame Legion…
At times I lament how bad it went for the GW2 RP Community and the direction the game went…because I really loved that game and some of the people I met there.
Doesn’t mean everything was perfect, but that’s irrelevant for thist post.
3 sets of Neo-Ishgardian left to get!
need; Striking, Scouting and Aiming.
For me its not even thirstposting, I’m just admiring how pretty some of them can be.
Sort of I guess in the same way how straight women can admire other women?
Like yeah, they are pretty but i’m not horny for them.