Who Is Your Favorite 🧌Orc?

[Sword&Sorcery]

Grishnákh

"What about their legs? They don't need those."

 

[Saint the Mother of Orcs]

Grishnákh

"What about their legs? They don't need those."

He had better lines in the books, not going to lie.

‘Well, my little ones!’ said Grishnakh in a soft whisper. ‘Enjoying your nice rest? Or not? A little awkwardly placed perhaps: swords and whips on one side, and nasty spears on the other! Little people should not meddle in affairs that are too big for them.’

The hobbits felt Grishnákh’s fingers twitch. ‘O ho!’ hissed the goblin softly. ‘That’s what he means, is it? O ho! Very ve-ry dangerous, my little ones.’

"Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob bubhosh skai!" aka "Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!" or "Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!"

Not a fan of his cowardice personally, but I noticed I have a "grudge" against characters who are too similar to me; like him or Saruman.

 

[Sword&Sorcery]

He had better lines in the books…

As always.. I was just adding to the seething love for Grishnákh we have in this thread.

 

[Deimos]

He had better lines in the books, not going to lie.

‘...

Fer shure, fer shure.
However (there's that 'however', again 😄) it's a pretty good makeup job.
I read the books before seeing the movies; but now when I read the book I see that fellow's ugly mug when I get to that part, and that works OK for me.

 

[Sword&Sorcery]

People need to stop comparing the books to films. They do not serve the same purpose. We always get this comparative analysis between them, usually with the books winning. But the films were peoples childhood, nostalgic memories, the music, wardrobe, makeup and effects to this day are amazing. Most of all they were for a lot of people a gateway into the universe of Tolkien. My mind smashes the two together on a regular basis, can’t read without seeing PJ’s aesthetics and can’t watch without remembering the words that are omitted or changed. A beautiful conundrum to find yourself in if you ask me.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

the films were peoples childhood,

Some people's childhood. 😉

 

[Deimos]

Some people's childhood. 😉

Zactly....both the books and the films were my "adulthood".
Thankfully I [intentionally] read the books prior to seeing the movies.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

When I read the books, there were no movies! 😄

 

[Saint the Mother of Orcs]

People need to stop comparing the books to films. They do not serve the same purpose. We always get this comparative analysis between them, usually with the books winning. But the films were peoples childhood, nostalgic memories, the music, wardrobe, makeup and effects to this day are amazing. Most of all they were for a lot of people a gateway into the universe of Tolkien. My mind smashes the two together on a regular basis, can’t read without seeing PJ’s aesthetics and can’t watch without remembering the words that are omitted or changed. A beautiful conundrum to find yourself in if you ask me.

Why should people stop comparing the books to the films? Isn't this that gives us a better insight of Tolkien's world (canon), while we enjoy the movies the way they represent the director's understanding and portrayal of the work? PJ had to make the book cinema-ready, so he had to focus on the visuals a lot too, discarding a lot of details that weren't important enough to the plot; which is iconic and a significant part of many of our childhood―including mine. No need to assume that comparisons has a negative/critical approach of PJ's work.
I mean I literally said that Grishnákh's character is phenomenal in the books. 🤭 And you seemingly took it as an offense.

I'm very maximalist anyway, and I prefer to know what should I consider canon or not. That's how my brain works, and I'm glad it does not harm anyone. It'd be fairly tragic, because this is a passion of mine; learning the slightest details of the target of my "obsessions", or "passions". Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit is clearly one of these.

However, I'm hyperfixated on the personalities of the characters―perhaps you are not― and the books are simply much more fleshed out. Why? Because for me, picking a favourite character also embraces their personality, nature, world view etc. and the books allows me to bond with them in this way.

Does that mean that the movie version of these characters are less entertaining or memorable? Of course not. Uglúk is my favourite character from both the movies and the books, and his iconic line "Looks like meat is back on the menu boys!" is something I also associate him, in spite it is not a canon line.
I also said, just here, that I love this orc's appearance in the movies, so much I consider him a second favourite―while he is basically just one of the many orcs in the movies, a certain representiation of the Moria orcs by PJ.

Just relax and enjoy what Tolkien brought us, and thanks to him, PJ visualized.

 

[Deimos]

When I read the books, there were no movies! 😄

Man, you must be really old....movies came about in the early 20th C. if not prior to that.
Oh, wait... you mean the LOTR movies.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Guess I should have specified. 😄

 

[Sword&Sorcery]

I'm very maximalist anyway, and I prefer …

 

[Deimos]

Guess I should have specified. 😄

Yep...around here, one employs careless terminology at one's peril 😈

 

[Saint the Mother of Orcs]

Found an another cutie patootie. However, I can't seem to remember if he ever appeared in the movies. I re-watched the scene, but I can't find him
Perhaps in the Presentation Reel (Cannes Film Festival version) ... 🤔

​

I think after the almighty Uruk-hai, the Moria orcs are my second favourite orc kind.

Now. Give me a couple of hundred years and I'll turn into a similar creature like them.
Sitting in my light-free room, awake during nights as the vile gamer I am. 🙄

 

[Deimos]

Found an another cutie patootie. However, I can't seem to remember if he ever appeared in the movies. I re-watched the scene, but I can't find him

Was it in the Moria scene when the Nine were surrounded in the Great Hall before the Balrog showed up?

 

[Saint the Mother of Orcs]

Was it in the Moria scene when the Nine were surrounded in the Great Hall before the Balrog showed up?

Yes, it was this epic scene.

I checked again and I can't find that particular Moria orc in this scene.

I love how they are steaming down from the ceiling so swiftly, down on the pillars. Their agility and appearance is so fascinating. Amazingly executed scene and beautifully approached visuals of these orcs, living in the dark.

I really love how their armour design is somewhat resembling to the Balrog. If it wasn't the intelligence, discipline and strength of the Uruk-hai, Moria orcs would be by far my favourites.

 

[Radaghast]

When I read the books, there were no movies! 😄

Crazy to think that more time has passed since the movies were released than the time between my first reading of the book and the release of the first movie 😬

 

[Saint the Mother of Orcs]

- Just some "love-rant" over the Goblins of Moria, ignore me if you will, but this is the perfect place to do so -

Okay, so, I think I officially in love with PJ's adaptation of the Moria Orcs and their Balrog-esque armour design they have!

I mean, we pretty much have some deleted scenes of the Moria orcs and two of them (?) are very famous shots that are originates from these discarded moments, but even in the remaining Mine encounter, we've got some close look at their appearance and the design of armours and weapons.

Most sincerely, the spikey dark iron, the chain mail or the red "clothes" they used underneath their rough armour is just superb. It highlighted the whole visage and made it much more threatening but also, stylish. The bones, trinkets they've took from the slaughtered enemies as well! Then let's not talk about their black long hair they generally have, which they often wore according their own "taste", at least some of them.

Got some pretty cool shots that gives us some good insight -I have more but I feel like the amount of images I provided is already crossing a line, lol-:

- Also, since the colors won't load properly, you can see these images colored here, in this Imgur album -​

It may be easy to ignore them next to other, clearly larger breed of orcs because of their 4-5ft tall stature, PJ perfectly represented their reliance on agility, slyness, familiarity with their dark, labyrinth-like environment they spend most of their time and first and foremost the numbers.
Plus, props to them, they were willing to leave their mines even during daylight at some point just to avange one of their slaughtered chieftains -which is not really in the movies but we WOULD have been able to seen them fight during daylight too if the scenes of that skirmish is not freakin' deleted- so; they are pretty tough guys.

Yes, size does matter. Them being small would only mean one thing...
I could give hug to more of them at once! 🤭
- Heck, I always wanted a proper death. I think I found it -

 

[Sword&Sorcery]

In light of costume design you cant reference Peter Jackson and neglect to mention the people in production who were responsible for bringing these concepts to life. It was their talents and abilities that created what we saw on screen.

Weta Workshop were a major authority on the films final look. Richard Taylor lead this team through their design of armour, weapons prosthetics etc. of which the great John Howe supervised. Grant Major and Alan Lees work on the architecture was essential to the films aesthetic also with the support of their art department and location scouts. My most obvious credit for all the visuals of middle earth would hands down go to Alan Lee and John Howe for their original artwork loyal to the books as a reference point for the films visuals. If you haven’t ventured into the realm of these artists I could not suggest it more eagerly.

Fun fact: the crew actually spent a very long time making the chain mail suits, which were plastic and painstakingly linked by hand.

Here’s a video if your interested:

Ironically, he is making a Moria Orc suit here. Each one taking all of three days to make for the little guys.


Enjoy.

 

[Saint the Mother of Orcs]

Yes, the effort, time and energy they've put into these armours is tremendous! It makes me feel even more bad for these scenes being cut out. Even if the shots of few of these moments are very iconic and often used in certain trailers, games and what not. This one, especially:

- But the details are... phenomenal and oi be real! What a nice hairdo! 😎 -​

Weta Workshop has amazing treasures to buy, and I laid my eye upon a couple of statues too! One is a Lurtz one by the way that is currently on a huge Black Friday Discount! They also had statues/sculptures of Moria Orcs, and while I can't find any right now, if they may ever pop, I'd definitely buy them.

​

They are very pricey but the quality makes up for it, besides, I'm very grateful for their hard work and creativity to bring these little guys alive even more vividly (and not only them), so at some point I will definitely get some of these! I kinda did order some magazines and figures recently, but haven't gotten into ordering from Weta just now. Shipping may be terrible if even possible to my country. At least I often bump into similar issues when I try to order from certain sites.

These ones more precisely:

At this point they are number two on my "favourite" list if not above. They should definitely get some more love.