Are Orcs That Bad?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Gordis

Without the Ring, Sauron would have been reduced to impotence and doomed to remain forever as a powerless spirit already after he died in the Downfall. No Third Age Sauron...

Yes, I suppose you're right. Never mind.

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

There is such a thing as good and evil, although some people try to brush that concept off with their relative point of thinking. As far as I'm concerned Orcs are evil and always will be.

But good and evil are relative terms, and what is considered good or evil changes, sometimes drastically, from one age to the next. If not, then the earth would still be flat and the sun would still revolve around it, every scientist since Galileo would either be forced to recant or be burned at the stake, and we would not be having this discussion because the internet would not have been invented. Or perhaps you are saying that would be a good thing?

In regards to Orcs, I believe Tolkien said that no thing in Middle-earth was inherently evil; therefore, after being removed from the coercive powers of Morgoth and Sauron, there would not be the continual compulsion to do evil, and in order to survive amongst their enemies, Orcs may have had to adopt tactics for survival that tended towards goodness (or at least non-malignance), or face eradication.