• drolex
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      11 months ago

      Please don’t use the E word, thanks. The preferred nomenclature is ‘Firstborn of Iluvatar’. DEFINITELY NOT ‘pointy ears’

      • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Don’t elves have a visceral hatred for orcs, what with them being originally elves brutally deformed and beaten into submission by Morgoth and all that ? If anything, most elves would like you a bit more for being racist towards orcs.

            • NewAgeOldPerson@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Treebeard bows deeply to the Lord and Lady of Lothlorian. Ents were taught to speak (trees in the old woods) by elves. So superiority exists.

              Counterpoint. The first born are said to be envious of the gift the one gave the second born (men). Death. Before Melkor corrupted the truth and Sauron convinced the Numemoreans that death was evil.

    • ursakhiin@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      Are you suggesting that just because their ancestors were tortured beyond recognition that they are no longer worthy of basic rights?

      That’s definitely a hot take if I’ve ever seen one.

      • neo@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        I absolutely agree with you. However you could make the point, and of course I am not making that point, but one could argue that there was also some genetic engineering involved, that allegedly might have led to some qualityies that some might call a teeny tiny bit murderous.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      11 months ago

      They absolutely are people. They clearly show intelligence and sapience. They may be people with morals that are opposed to the other species and they may be at war with them, but dehumanization (depersonization?) isn’t the answer.

      • CylustheVirus@beehaw.org
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        11 months ago

        Their entire species was created as a magical weapon. The funny thing they’re really supposed to represent the cruelties of industrialization. Tolkien was not a fan of what England did with technology.

        • Neato@ttrpg.network
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          11 months ago

          Sure, but that’s irrelevant. The only questions are: are they sapient? And do they have free will? If yes to both, i.e. they can choose their own way, especially once Sauron’s magical control is gone, then they are people.

          Saying they aren’t people because someone created/bred them for a specific purpose kinda feels like the people who argue certain dog breeds were bred for X or Y and therefore they should be culled/banned/etc. It simplifies the living creature too far and doesn’t allow them to branch out from what they originally did. It’s essentially genocide on the orc front.

          • CylustheVirus@beehaw.org
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            11 months ago

            They don’t have a meaningful level of free will from what I understand. That’s part of the process of creating them. They only act within certain boundaries or else resort to raiding and eating… everything. And everyone. Occasionally each other.

          • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
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            11 months ago

            You’re imposing an enlightened modern viewpoint onto a universe with explicitly different rules. In Middle-earth, there actually IS such a thing as absolute evil, unredeemable and not possessing what we would call a soul, and the orcs are plwced firmly in this class of being. Their sapience is not relevant to the morality of killing them when they are evil.

            I understand that this doesn’t map onto the real world very well, but the real world also doesn’t contain immortal beings who are within a few degrees of separation from the creator Eru Ilúvatar himself, who have literally spoken with either him or his greatest servants the Valar. It’s hard to deny the rules of good and evil when you have them firsthand from the creator of the universe.

            My point is simply that you have to define the frame you’re arguing within. If your frame is the real world, then you are correct and orcs should be treated the same as any other living being. But if your frame is the subcreation of J.R.R. Tolkien, you must acknowledge the stated realities of that world.

      • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
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        11 months ago

        They are constructs, imitations of life, animated by the evil will of Morgoth and his foul apprentice Sauron. They’re no more people than ChatGPT is people.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      11 months ago

      Yeah and honestly that doesn’t do much to silence the idea of racist origins funny enough.

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    Remember watching Fellowship as a teenager in 2001 (if you’re a millennial) and thinking that Cate Blanchett was probably in her 50s? Yeah she was 31.

    • neptune@dmv.social
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      11 months ago

      I can see why on the surface you might think it’s a conservative meme, but it’s not. It’s poking fun at how rigid and yes potentially racist fantasy settings can be.

      • OnlyTakesLs@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Racism is a fantastic way of introducing conflict without having to come up with a particular reason. And stories without conflict are often really boring. Comes with the bonus points of being realistic.

        • soviettaters@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Unironically, the elves aren’t racist against orcs. Orcs were elves that got corrupted.

          • OnlyTakesLs@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            Arent there worlds where theyre made of clay? Or other origins?

            Pretty much the only consitent thing about orks are that they big, dumb, and muscle bound.

              • pimento64
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                11 months ago

                In my canon orcs are just the mature form of juggalos

            • soviettaters@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Uruk hai were created from clay or something like that. They’re the ones you see come out of the pit in the LOTR movies.

              • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                They must be something else though. As even Melkor was not able to create, only twist and distort. I doubt his lesser could do that which he could not. I don’t think even Saruman could create life.

                • Shawdow194@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  I dont think there is a canon to the Uruk hai origin other than they are “…cross between orcs and men…”. The depiction of them coming from the ground is just how Tolkien described “…worm their way out of the ground like maggots…”

                  In reality its likely slaves of Sauron and orcs making Uruk hai in a not so pleasant way

          • OnlyTakesLs@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            Like in what way? Ideally, every bit of world building would be justified, but thats not always realistic.

            • Zozano@lemy.lol
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              11 months ago

              I think justifiable racism might just be unrealistic enough to be exclusive to the fantasy genre in the first place lol.

      • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You’re just trying too hard to justify the meme, OP’s title is about cancellation, probably just copied wherever OP found the meme, and the meme itself is phrased to push the point that “woke” ruins even fantasy literature, this is a Right wing meme post.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      There’s no such thing as being cancelled, mature people just call it “consequences for actions”.

      So there is such a thing but you’d prefer people use different word for it?