In the series The Rings of Power, the Orcs are much more terrifying than in the saga of Peter Jackson. Which does much better justice to Tolkien’s lore.
This article contains spoilers for The Rings of Power series.
The showrunner JD Payne assures it: the series Rings of Power would have been approved by Tolkien himself. An assertion that we can obviously dispute since certain scriptwriting aspects contradict the source work. One thinks in particular of the origin of mithril or of invented characters such as Arondir and Halbrand. But if there is one point that everyone agrees on, it’s the way the Orcs are portrayed.
Tolkien described the creatures as terrifying, violent, and cruel, not hesitating to torture their enemies with sadism. Their firepower in combat was also praised by the British writer. Characteristics that are difficult to find in Peter Jackson’s trilogy where they are often used for comic purposes. As in the scene of Two towers where Merry and Pippin manage to flee during a ridiculous argument between Orcs of Mordor and Uruk-hai.
Orcs more terrifying than in The Lord of the Rings
In The Lord of the Rings, the Orcs of Mordor appear mostly as cannon fodder to the heroes who skewer them by the hundreds without much trouble. They suffer in particular from the comparison with the Uruk-hai, much more impressive on the battlefield. And so also with the Orcs of the series Rings of Power.
The latter are indeed much more intimidating. For an ordinary human, it is damn complicated to overcome it as shown by a horrific sequence from episode 1 in which Bronwyn is thrown into the air. Even the Elf Arondir struggles to fight them. Their extreme cruelty is also illustrated in episode 3 when one of them offers water to a captured Elf… before slitting his throat.
We can only salute this bias, far from the comic aspect developed by Jackson. Note that episode 6 of Rings of Power should feature a battle between the Men of the South and the Orcs which promises to be as terrifying as it is bloody.
