Are Orcs That Bad?

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Originally Posted by Lalwende

..if you are going to have an enemy which is slaughtered on a massive scale (because if you don't then they will slaughter you on a massive scale) then this brings in doubts as to whether it is right to kill them. And it does make them less frightening.

It actually brings me back around to davem's Fantasy thread, because I start to question if it was morally right that Tolkien should show Orcs, who are not 'pure evil', being slaughtered in such a light fashion. I'm starting to think that gives a slightly dodgy impression (kind of along the lines of "these guys have souls too and are like us, but it's alright if we put them to the sword because they aren't on our side") and that davem may be right in stating Tolkien ought to have shown us more of the grim realities of war, especially if he was going to frame his enemy as being more like a real world enemy than like the traditional fantasy/sci-fi ruthless enemy.

This you can certainly debate. I for one find some episodes in JRRTs work rather distasteful, such as Gimli and Legolas' lighthearted killing contest in Helm's Deep and the brutal slaughter of Orcs in the Silmarillion ("to the last and least" - was that really nessesary?).

Then again, one of the main things I enjoy about Tolkien is his ability to create an illusion that this once happened, that his myths are a part of out own history here on earth, not just something he made up about Elves and Dragons. Completely righteous good guys fighting amoral irredeemable enemies is to me more unrealistic than magic, Elves and Dragons and therefore I have no real problem with the slaughter of Orcs (after all, as you said, it's them or you really).
And they are real nasty critters too, torturing for sport like Boro88said.

The good guys are no saints either. Just consider the Rohirrim's treatment of the Pukelmen and the Dunlendings, The Elves hunting of the Petty-Dwarves or the Numenorians chasing away and killing the Dark Men in Tal-Elmar (sp?).

Originally Posted by Boro88 quoting JRRT

The Orcs were beasts of humanized shape (to mock Men and Elves) deliberately perverted / converted into a more close resemblance to Men. Their ‘talking’ was really reeling off ‘records’ set in them by Melkor. Even their rebellion critical words - he knew about them.”~Morgoth’s Ring; Myths Transformed

This, as I remember at least, is a failed attemt from JRRT to morally justifiy the slaughter of Orcs and it is my opinion that he realised it himself, going back to the twisted Men and/or Elves-theory.