So are Orcs and Goblins the same in Tolkien's universe? Because I'm used to thinking of them as pretty different.
They're different in Tolkien's Universe
@ThatDamnCat Different how? The Wiki I'm looking at says they aren't differentiated. It's been a long time since I read The Hobbit though and I never read any of the other books, so I don't remember.
I suppose I'm thinking about more modern interpretations.
I read all the books and they're the same there because he changed the language, so there was no orc/goblin difference (never see them in the same room together trope) but in modern adaptations they are differentiated.
@ThatDamnCat Yeah that makes sense.
I just ask because I got bored and decided to watch the second Hobbit movie (newish one, not animated) tonight. I saw the first one in theaters and never got around to seeing the other two.
Anyway, the orcs in *this adaptation* are flanked by smaller, more variant-looking creatures and I wondered if they were goblins so looked it up.
Knowing me, I'm going to spend the rest of the night reading up on lore.
@Sparrow @ThatDamnCat In Tolkien's Universe, "goblins" in The Hobbit = "orcs" LoTR.
There's a key line in Jackson's LoRT where someone (Gandalf?) says that Saruman bred "Orcs w/ Goblins" to make his Uruk Hai. However, in the books, the line is "Orcs & Men." So Jackson seems to have decided that in his universe these are different creatures.
Still, in Tolkien's LoTR, Orcs vary widely in size & shape, because they are sub-species bred for different purposes (tunneling, war, labor, for example).
Oh awesome, thank you for the clarification!
Yeah, the more I get into D&D, the more I want to go into the lore that inspired it-- aka Tolkien (among others, I'm sure). As always, I have a lot of reading to do.
@Sparrow @ThatDamnCat D&D is such a wonderful rabbit hole to fall into!
The podcast "The Short Game" (about short video games) recently took a special episode to talk about veteran players' strategies for keeping D&D sessions fast-paced and less prone to drag on at points. It was interesting and I learned a lot. Here's a URL if you like:
http://www.theshortgame.net/118-dungeons-dragons/
