I don't know what's triggered it but I keep thinking about what I internally term "the yaasification of Orcs" and what it has to say about people. Ill frontload my caveats up here and just say 1. I realize I'm not the first to remark on any of this and 2. I'm really not trying to imply that your opinions or lack thereof on fantasy art is of deep ethical concern. First off, what I mean by this is how, especially in recent years, depictions of Orcs in a lot of media has become less monstrous and much more 'just a buff person with green skin and tusks'. Compare the DnD art for playable Orcs from their inclusion in the Volo's Guide to Monsters expansion (2016) to their next appearance as a core playable race in the 5.5e Players Handbook (2024):
I could talk at length on dissecting these images and other popular depictions, but in the interest of brevity and staying on message Ill just summarize. In 2016 Orcs are monstrous humans, in 2024 they are buff elves. Ill admit that part of m dislike of the change is just a departure from things I liked growing up. Warcraft II was a big part of my childhood and introduction to Orcs, and Ill always love them that way best. But there is more to it than that. I understand that a lot of this change comes from a place of reimagining Orcs beyond simple evil archetypes, to avoid the potential for unfortunate racial or xenophobic undertones, and so on. I think that's a good and noble thing. Fantasy tropes are modern myths, we can and should shape them and build upon them. But I don't feel like this really does that. What does it say that to make the Orcs less 'problematic' that they need to become elves? Why can't they keep their bestial jaws, their somehow both ape and swine-like features? I remember once, on this very website, seeing someone repost a bunch of art of very elven looking Orcs with a comment to the effect of "Who says Orcs have to be big and buff?" and framed itself as somehow, frankly, woke for the depictions. As though saying "I have made the thing slender and elegant and now its beautiful" was somehow deviant, and not the most mainstream of takes. There also comes with it a kind of strange erasure, a kind of white-washing of Orc lore. I think its because if we want to imagine Orcs in the frame work of modern conceptions of race they definitely aren't "fantasy white" so they must be "fantasy POC" and therefore anything wicked is a big no-no. They can't be demon-blooded marauders, they need to be misunderstood. Ironically, I feel we just reinvent the Noble Savage but green.
I think better depictions of Orcs include works like Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon for those who didnt read it before the official translation and must be resigned to sounding like a pretentious weeb) or even just Warcraft III. In Dungeon Meshi the Orcs are explicitly porcine in appearance and absolutely do raid and kill. The story touches on this as a conflict of cultures, economic conditions and more. In Warcraft III, coming after a game where the Orcs were heavy metal dag-blasted evil, the story focuses on Orcs living in the aftermath of a failed invasion, abandoned by their demonic overlords and oppressed by the human victors. The story manages surprising depth on the subject of their culpability in the evil they wrought upon the land as well as the injustices they face now. Both takes are, I think, more interesting, more honest, and more, well, intellectually valuable takes on the topic. I don't hate the Orcs from 5.5e, and generally don't like to harp on people depicting things how they like. And there's still plenty of good monstrous Orcs out there. But something always gnaws at me about it when I see "green elves". Some kind of stolen valor for monster-fuckers I suppose. "Yeah, I love the monstrous" says someone talking about an generally attractive woman with muscles. I could really do a deeper dive on this, but that would perhaps just be indulgent. Im going to cut myself off here. Zug Zug.
