Thursday, February 21, 2008

A Conversation at Helm’s Deep: Part 3

And our heroes, errr, villains, orcs that is, arrive at Helm’s Deep.

Now, I know Tolkien was neither an architect nor an expert in castle construction, but putting a big hole in the curtain wall that allows the enemy to get beneath it is just poor design. I realize it was there so Saruman could plant a big bomb under the wall, but regardless, the nerd in me rebels at the thought. Moving on.

The Uruk-Hai were probably not scholars, given that they had been alive maybe a month and were most likely ignorant of the written word, but even so, when they looked up at Helm’s Deep, their first thought was probably ‘Damn, that’s a big wall.”

Their second thought was probably “And I’m on the wrong side of it.”

Their third thought was probably a toss-up between “How do I get to the back or the army?” and “I need to change my armor.”

And yet, they surged forward anyway. Maybe it was an innate bloodlust that drove them, maybe it was fear of Saruman. Maybe, just maybe, they had been told that the prom was being held inside.

Cheers,
-Jason

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Actually, these orcs are not normal orcs. they are genius-type orcs. as you said in your last blog, they learned how to talk and walk in mere weeks, something that takes a normal human atleast a year.
That shows us that these orcs are a lot smarter than the average human in Tolkien's books. The humans didn't think about that hole as a possible breachable pot, while the orcs saw it immediately.

Jason Janicki said...

I concur that the Uruk-Hai were 'super-orcs,' but Saruman did plan the attack and built the bombs specifically to take advantage of that weakness.

I never really thought about it when I read the books, but when I watched the movie, I kept thinking 'Why didn't they just dig a moat when they built the place? They had a ready supply of water?'

But that's just me :)