In Defense of Orcs

joeysharku:

@losttinmymind asked if I’d ever explained what it is I love so much about orcs, and so I thought I’d make a masterpost for POSTerity (sorry). 
So, we have to define the (head)canon we’re working with first. Orcs are corrupted elves and their progeny, and thus Eruhíni, and thus possess free will and all the potential for damnation or redemption that the rest of us do (they also reproduce like us). If you prefer slime monsters, good on you but those are just not the orcs I’m talking about (that’s my hc origin for trolls though which are just little degenerate hick Melkors). In light of this status, I can’t help but regard orcs with the same empathy owed all of the Eruhíni, if not more.
Orcs provoke the pity in me Gollum did in Bilbo. They are born slaves, in irreversible ruin, and are in constant agony. Never did their god love them and when he’s “slain” by his usurping kin, they are utterly abandoned in a world that literally never accepts them, wanted only by enslaving devils. Despite this and every other disadvantage you can think of, they consistently excel. They are described as incredibly clever, indicating an undaunted creative spirit that is the surest sign of their divine heritage (their relative lack of technological sophistication can be understood as having no cultural tradition of recording previous discoveries or diagrams). They are strong and hearty and despite their individual cowardice, will throw themselves in waves at godblessed foes nearly twice their height (thus in any combat, *they’re* the underdogs except perhaps at Helm’s Deep). Their general cruelty and cavalier attitude towards death should not be seen as an individual failing but rather reflective of the status quo when God breeds you like chattel to suffer and die. And though we see no good orcs within the Legendarium, this is no mystery – it is sourced entirely from the Red Book of Westmarch, a compilation of histories and translations from elvish lore by hobbits. Orc individuals surely ran the entire D&D spectrum, from the rare Lawful Good to the incredibly common Chaotic Evil, and perhaps some tribes even fought against their masters.
To be a bit more philosophical, let’s remember that the races of the Legendarium (as indeed nearly all fantasy races) are just weird humans. We *are* orcs when we find ourselves trapped in institutions that dehumanize, merchandise, weaponize, and finally, cannibalize us. If Melkor is read as a demiurgical figure (that adjective taken directly from Tolkien), orcs are just humans caught in the violent phantasms of this mortal existence, preyed upon for the petty agendas of archonic slavers. Who says that isn’t the world we really find ourselves in…? 
To be less textually-reliant or philosophical, I like orcs because of hearing this song at 12 or so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdXQJS3Yv0Y. It made clear to me orcs were just as much victims of Sauron’s agenda as anyone else. It’s a immense tragedy that King Elessar literally genocides them, but it’s historically realistic and understandable (I don’t hate Aragorn for it). I comfort myself with hc’s giving them happy endings. To conclude, I’ll list some:

– hobbits are descended from goblins who escaped from their balrog master in the Misty Mountains in the Second Age, explaining their height and elvish features when they’re clearly trending more towards mannish stock. This allows orcs to have a strain that is counted among the Free Peoples, and far more gratifying, means Frodo’s (relative) success in destroying the One Ring is a huge cosmic irony.
– some orc tribes lived in Rhûn and Khand, and due to their regular mutual interests with Mordor, found common ground with the Men there. Despite the obviously problematic of Tolkien’s “least-lovely Mongol types” comparison, I imagine these orcs indeed mingled and mixed with the steppe peoples until there was little difference between them. If anyone takes offense, please believe me when I say, in light of all the obvious fondness I hold for orcs, this is meant as no insult.
– in my D&D campaign, which is set in the Second Age, orcs that fled on the sea during the War of Wrath were found and accepted by Ossë. These orcs, called gorgons, worship Ulmo whom they call the Deep Daddy. They trend chaotic good and for his part, Ulmo truly loves them and will not let the sea drown them but hides their existence from the rest of the Valar. 

I’m re-reading LOTR at the moment and one thing that surprised me was how intelligent and clever the orc characters were in the Two Towers. They weren’t dumb brutes like in a lot of LOTR-derivative work (and the movies to some extent).