Originally Posted by Tahapenes
*snip*
Did you read my post that you are quoting? I pointed out that the 'canonical' look for drow didn't always line up with the art depictions. You are talking about the art direction and canonical skin color as if they were one and the same. They were not*. Much like the canonical elven body proportions and facial features, which haven't always been terribly faithfully followed by artists working for WoTC/TSR (less so than drow skin color, but other posters have been keen to point out instances where elves were just 'pointy-eared humans').

The distinction is that afaik, there is absolutely no controversy with elven facial features like there is with drow skin color, and afaik no directive from WOTC to make the elves pointy-eared humans, it arguably hurts the game much more, since-as has been pointed out-it's very hard to tell elves and half-elves apart in this game. Where if you don't like the skin color of drow in this game you have the ability to change it, no such luck with elven body/facial proportions/shape. Plus, Larian's elves in DOS2 were positively alien, so it seems like a weird art direction pivot to make them so mundane in BGII. There just doesn't seem to really be a reason for elves looking as they are in-game.

* Here's what 3rd edition says about drow skin color: "All drow have black skin. This is not the dark hue common to some humans, but true black, the color of onyx or pure darkness. Skin tone varies only slightly from individual to individual, perhaps appearing a shade lighter on one, or faintly violet-tinged on another when viewed under very bright light; in any case, these distinctions are both subtle and rare. " Drow of the Underdark -It didn't change in 3rd edition, the art direction was just inconsistent, same as with 2nd and 1st. That very same book has a blue-skinned drow on the cover. Hell, 4th was the same, going so far as to depict the same family of drow- the Baenre's as grey skinned, pointy-eared humans in one illustration, and with the canonical ebony skin and elven proportions in another...in the same book. Drow having a standardized art direction only really took route halfway through 5th edition.