Problematic Orcs refers to a viral debate over whether the fictional humanoid orcs from the game Dungeons and Dragons could be viewed as problematic representations of racial bigotry.
Origin
On April 25th, 2020, Twitter user @MonkipiQuinn[6] tweeted a picture of a description of "Roleplaying an Orc" in Dungeons and Dragons with the message "Cw blatant racism" (shown below). The account was subsequently placed on private.
"Most orcs have been indoctrinated into a life of destruction and slaughter. But unlike creatures who by their very Nature are evil, such as gnolls, it’s possible that an orc, if raised outside its culture, could develop a limited capacity for empathy, love, and compassion.
No matter how domesticated an orc might seem, its blood lust flows just beneath the surface. With its instinctive love of battle and its desire to prove its Strength, an orc trying to live within the confines of civilization is faced with a difficult task."
Precursor
Orcs have been read and debated as a racist trope for decades, particularly in regards to J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings book series. For example, some argue that descriptions given by characters in The Lord of the Rings for the creation of Orcs could amount to fear of race mixing and eugenics. In Lord of the Rings the character Treebeard says, "It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and Men? That would be a black evil!" In the article, "From the Shire to Charlottesville: How Hobbits Helped Rebuild the Dark Tower for Scientific Racism," writer Andrew Stewart says":[7][8]
In each of these selections, we find clear manifestations of mid-twentieth century scientific racism. The final, which alarmingly spells out the notion of ‘race mixing’ as a great sin, would easily be at home in the mouth of a Klansman were ‘Orcs’ and ‘Men’ turned to ‘Blacks’ and ‘whites.’
In private letters, Lord of the Rings-author J.R.R. Tolkein wrote, "squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types."
The debate continued through Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Some accused Jackson's depiciton of the Orcs as being similar to "the worst depictions of the Japanese drawn by American and British illustrators during World War II."
However, because of the era that the character were created, some do not see this as an allegation of racism or bigotry toward Tolkein but rather a product of the era in which he lived. Still, others have pushed back against these arguments. In another letter, Tolkien wrote:
Yes, I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic' fiction … only in real life they are on both sides, of course. For 'romance' has grown out of 'allegory', and its wars are still derived from the 'inner war' of allegory in which good is on one side and various modes of badness on the other. In real (exterior) life men are on both sides: which means a motley alliance of orcs, beasts, demons, plain naturally honest men, and angels.
On April 26th, 2020, Twitter[5] user @videodante tweeted "the ideology of 'this group of sentient beings is unable to overcome the inherent animal nature of their bloodline' is the same as irl racism" (shown below).
Meanwhile, Redditor RecoveringH20Addict posted a Lord of the Rings meme about the debate, in which Gandalf is shown saying "Be silent. Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth," in reaction to Twitter users accusing Tolkien of racism. Within 24 hours, the post gathered upwards of 29,800 points (98% upvoted) on /r/HistoryMemes.[2]
That day, Carl Benjamin, a member of the right-wing UK Independence Party, uploaded a video about the controversy to the Akkad Daily YouTube channel titled "'Orcs' Trends on Twitter" (shown below, left). Also on April 26th, YouTuber Hero Hei uploaded a video titled "'Orcs are trending, because woke Twitter is calling them 'racist'" (shown below, right).
Twitter user @ammourazz published a list of resources for explaining this criticism of orcs. They wrote, "Hey so if you’re stumbling into the D&D orc discourse and are one of the handful of people here with an open-mind and a genuine desire to understand what’s going on, welcome! This thread is gonna be for you; a master list of resources that explain the problem if you’re willing." The post received more than 7,200 likes and 2,700 retweets in less than three days (shown below).
On April 27th, the news site ComicBook.com[1] published an article titled "Why Orcs Are Problematic in Dungeons & Dragons." That day, journalist Gita Jackson tweeted[4] a thread about her exhaustion with the debate, saying "we have been talking about this for a hundred years tho and I don't care anymore."
It’s called Tusks and it’s got me wondering: why has it taken so long for someone to make a video game about Gay Orcs? It all seems so obvious now…
It’s the work of Mitch Alexander, a Scottish Games Journalist and game designer. It started life as a NaNoRenO project (a challenge to create a visual novel in 31 days) and is now being worked on for an upcoming release.
In Tusks players travel through what is described as an “anachronistic, semi-mythical Scotland” and meet, become friends with, and sometimes date a variety of different Orcs.
Why Orcs? Well, personally I love Mitch Alexander’s explanation so I’ll just post it here:
Monsters are the eternal outsiders – and I think a lot of people who don’t mesh up quite well tend to empathise and relate to the monsters sometimes more than the heroes that tend to take center stage. For example, female artists and creators are exploring monsters through things like mermaid myths and cyborg feminism – comparatively, orcishness in its ugly, crass and troubled depictions holds the same kind of appeal to me. Orcs get cast as the Other to whatever values artists want to uphold, often through real-world tropes, stereotypes and narratives rooted in racism, misogyny, homophobia and more. Instead, I’d like to cast the orcs as the protagonists, and show that most of the things we tend to think about orcs tend to be reflective of the folk writing them.
That’s actually super interesting and actually really well considered in a way.
In Tusks the idea is to focus on diverse, multiple different body types that aren’t usually considered ‘romantic’ in other media: “round, stocky and fat bodies, with stretchmarks, body hair, facial hair, scars and piercings; with visible and invisible disabilities, with varying ages, with differing beliefs, educational backgrounds and attitudes”.
In terms of the game itself, Mitch is also trying to push boundaries, removing the player from the centre of the game, and trying to remove that feeling dating sims have: the idea that you’re just pushing the right buttons to get the right response. Mitch is hoping his characters will act more like actual human beings.
There’s no official release date for Tusks, but there will be public playtests throughout April. You can find out more about the game here.
Comments
I wonder what mayhem you could unleash by modding the nemesis system into a dating sim…
Man. I have loved Orks ever since I first encountered them in Warhammer 40k. They have been my favourites ever since. In almost all of their iterations.
Radical elves seem to be content with disrupting inexorable march of progress towards the Dark Lord's endless reign of darkness while living a glamorous lifestyle in their isolated country estates and spending time on luxurious boat cruises while the continent is ravaged by fires of war.
It's up to the insomniac non orc mortals, goblins and orcs to stop these kind armed mass murderer of orcs. H8 preachers like Gandalf the grey should be captured or killed before they pass the mountains of mirkwood... To achieve this an alliance with goblins would be adequate, togather this disgraced arrow shooter and his companions should be slaughtered and of course cooked immediately
Sent to a boarding school in Michigan, Trevor finds himself in a whole new world. Struggling with the new students he has to live with, he begins sneaking out and exploring the surrounding woods outside of his live-in school. One stormy afternoon though, he is captured by a beast he has never seen before and soon is forced to do things he would have never even dreamed of!
This is a 3,500 word hardcore gay Orc erotic novel, including anal, oral, dub con, rough sex and cream pies.
![Amr Ammourazz @ammourazz · Apr 26 Hey so if you're stumbling into the D&D orc discourse and are one of the handful of people here with an open-mind and a genuine desire to understand what's going on, welcome! This thread is gonna be for you; a master list of resources that explain the problem if you're willing. 149 t7 2.7K 7.2K Amr Ammourazz @ammourazz · Apr 26 Step 1: The historical context. This article explains a lot of the historical roots and issues with Orks. Including the letters in which Tolkien describes them as "least lovely mongol types" amongst other context and issues. Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: A . This is the first installment of a two-article series Beat back the about the racist origins, nature, and ramifications .. with S jamesmendezhodes.com LIBERTY t7 74 1.1K Amr Ammourazz @ammourazz · Apr 26 Step 2: The modern continuation This article bridges the historical basis with the modern issues and contexts and helps explain why it continues to be a problem and grew past its initial route. Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part II: T. This is the complement to my previous article, "Orcs, Britons, and the Martial Race Myth, Part I: . P jamesmendezhodes.com 27 58 987 Amr Ammourazz @ammourazz · Apr 26 Step 3: Language You have to understand that language that minimises the humanity of another is one of the most common tools of bigots who seek to justify their actions by treating the oppressed group as "less than." This is a fact of our racist/ sexist/ homophobic world. 17 51 1K <] Text Font](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/842/761/5cc.png "Hey so if you’re stumbling into the D&D orc discourse and are one of the handful of people here with an open-mind and a genui")
I wonder what mayhem you could unleash by modding the nemesis system into a dating sim…
This….. this needs to happen!
*cough cough*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfZjFRq
Man. I have loved Orks ever since I first encountered them in Warhammer 40k. They have been my favourites ever since. In almost all of their iterations.