Are Orcs That Bad?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

It seems that Orcs were indeed cannon fodder for Tolkien to handily pile before the bright swords of the righteous, and they are indeed not up to snuff as far as bravery and skill in comparison to their elf, dwarf and mannish enemies; in fact, when Barad-dur collapses the Orcs retreat in chaos, whereas there remain bold groups of Easterlings who bravely fight on to the last man against Aragorn's army. It was perhaps a strategic mistake on the part of both Sauron and Morgoth to rely on Orcs to fill the bulk of their legions.

That's what I feel. Orcs are just meat for the killing. Obviously there must be some enemy to be slaughtered in a fantasy novel (or must there? Hmmm...), but the Orcs are just too anonymous, too weak and almost pathetic. Again comparing them with Daleks (it was the frightening superiority of Daleks over humans that brought this into my mind - sorry if you don't know what they are......yet ), Orcs also seem a little bit thick. And this all stacks up to a bit of an unsatisfying enemy.

I have to note though, that the Orcs we see in LotR are very different to those in the Hobbit and again very different to those in the Sil/UT etc. There's very little to show us how 'evil' these Orcs actually are in LotR. On the contrary, they don't seem all that bad, really, talking of retirement and not just killing Merry and Pippin.

Originally Posted by Eonwe

And orcs are brought up to kill and torture for fun, in the same way as people nowadays are brought up to play sports/other games for fun. This is just another sport for them. And some people say that sport is just the body's natural instinct to make people feel superior to others (the ones they beat) and to keep the body fit and ready to fight/kill. And what better way to establish your superiority than to kill someone.

My reservation here is that would it be actually possible to have a functioning society, one with a breeding population, women/females and Orc babies if there was a culture where slaughtering one another proved 'worth'?

Must run, as Shrek 3 has just started and I've been dying to see it!