"please believe me when I say that it was not out of kindness: that's not even one of Ugluk's faults."
(rather reminds you of Mordred's song "The Seven Deadly Virtues" in
the musical Camelot).
---------------------------------
Tolkien does a rather effective job of making orcs both
very bad guys
who have to be terminated with extreme prejudice, but also bits of
showing them as individuals with their own (however warped) hopes and
dreams, especially in a later chapter with Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern
(Captains Gorbag and Shagrat). Although, of course, Grishnakh is a
deliciously evil orc, with an echo or two of Smaug, the sort of character that
would have made a great bit role in a movie if played differently (say by
Dennis Hopper).
