Orcs of New York, a glimpse into the lives of Sauron’s servants

Being a massive Lord of the Rings scrub is one of my defining characteristics. That and being able to monologue about the lore in Guild Wars 2 for hours on end. I also, like every other social media user, avidly follow the popular “Humans of New York” blog, reading up on all the posts and stories from people halfway across the world. The internet, being the internet, has of course spat out the love child of both HONY and LOTR.

“Orcs of New York” regularly posts pictures of orcs strolling through the streets of the Big Apple, with of course heart breaking and thoughtful captions.

The page was created near the beginning of September and has already garnered a large following of fifty-five thousand followers on Facebook, with that number growing rapidly. You can see why the page is increasing in popularity as you read through some of the stories by the bow-legged orcs, their smaller cousins the goblins or the fearsome Uruks. The touching stories resound deeply with even the most stone hearted of dwarves.

The mastermind behind the parody is Harry Aspinwall, a Brooklyn-based actor and filmmaker. He told Huffington Post that the idea came to him fairly spontaneously. He thought it would be interesting to show an unexpected, softer side to the LOTR characters who typically get a big bad rap (for the obvious reasons of pillaging and murdering the innocent)

As to how he created the somewhat realistic looking photos, Aspinwall had this to say to Huffington Post: “Obviously I’m not going to say they’re all made up and Photoshopped,” he said. “Because they’re — naturally, as we all know — very real.”