Here's #50. I can't quite believe I've done 50 of these... There may be a short break after this one since I don't have any more saved up; depends on if I get chance to do some over the weekend.
I remember when Mark Watches/Reads went through Lord of the Rings, there was a lot of controversy over the idea of an entire race - the Orcs - being inherently evil. It was interesting to discover, on reading HoME, that Tolkien himself agonised over the same question - though in his case, more from a Catholic perspective that nobody should be inherently beyond redemption and God's grace, rather than a modern 'social justice' point of view. The version of the story I've gone with here is the one that makes most sense to me personally - possibly because it's conceptually similar to why Buffyverse vampires are inherently evil. There's a tiny sliver of Melkor's Ultimate Evil in each of them, constantly overriding any instinct they might have towards Good, and compelling them always to be Evil. Of course, the idea that buried somewhere deep inside each Orc is the original Elven soul, aware of what's been done to it and what it's become but powerless to fight it, makes this concept particularly horrible.
It's possible Sauron got the idea for the One Ring from helping Melkor make the Orcs.
Part 50: Say hello to my little friends
Next time: Part 51: ?
Chibis by tektek.org