Are orcs actually evil?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I don't want to delve into this topic, because it is really complex. My basic answer is: this cannot be really answered because Morm's question number 1 - whether Orcs have a will of their own - is a huge problem by itself. Personally, I believe they DO have a free will of their own (look at Gorbag and Shagrat, for instance), the point is, whether it is also a "freedom to do good" or just "freedom to do evil", so to say.

Originally Posted by blantyr

I would think the answer to the first question depends a great deal on whether the One Ring and Sauron have been destroyed. In the battle before the Black Gate just before the ring was destroyed, the orcs and many other similar species were intensely determined to kill. When Frodo put on the ring and Sauron bent his will on getting the Nazgul to Mount Doom ASAP, Sauron's other servants were as marionettes with their strings cut.

One might propose that Morgoth created them as marionettes, as being subject to his will. Sauron later used them in the same way. Thus, a policy by any of the free peoples to kill on sight in self defense could be considered quite reasonable during the First, Second and Third ages. With the destruction of the Ring, you almost have to sit down and ask the first question all over again.

Anyway, THIS is something I definitely have to object to. First, the One Ring did not rule ALL the Orcs. Never. The most simple proof - there were many Orcs in Middle-Earth who didn't serve Sauron (like those in the Misty Mountains). The fact that after the destruction of the One the armies of Mordor were helpless was simply based on the fact that the power which was sort of guiding them suddenly disappeared. But it is not like they could not exist without it, but also not even that the power would lead them exactly like puppets. Yes, they were sort of "nudged", I would call it, but it wasn't a 100% remote control. It's more like the situation of a commando of soldiers from some cool action-movie where they are in the middle of some enemy base and some clever guy on the radio is giving them instructions "okay, now turn left, go down the stairs, then you should - beeeeep..." "What's that? We lost contact! Oh no! What are we going to do? And what happened to him, anyway? Heelp!"

Also, Morgoth had not created the Orcs, let's please use proper terms. He made them out of some original "material" which was there, and was only later corrupted by him. But anyway, as I said above, there were many Orcs who did not follow Morgoth or Sauron. It was only the matter of the "empire", and anyway, there have been large periods (like after the end of the First Age, i.e. after Morgoth's defeat, but before Sauron's making of the Ring, and also at the end of the Second Age, after Sauron's fall and before his rise in Mirkwood, some 1000 years when he had been totally powerless) when the Orcs were totally free from any big evil masters. So what you said above does not really hold here.

I would suggest that Orcs under the sway of Morgoth and Sauron effectively lacked free will and might reasonably be treated as sentient vermin. During the Fourth Age Aragorn was able to negotiate borders with them and peacefully coexist. While not a lot was written about the Fourth Age, it would seem improper to treat them as sentient vermin after the destruction of the Ring.

And once again: No. And this time definitely not. There is no word about having peace with Orcs. Aragorn negotiated with Easterlings and Southrons, that is, humans. That was absolutely normal, and peace used to exist between Gondor and Harad also in some ages past, and so on. But there was nothing like that about Orcs, and also,