Random Question

[herewiss13]

Anyone who's seen both "Serenity" and "Lord of the Rings" will recognize why the former occasionally brought to mind the phrase "Orcs In Space".

...but where does that phrase come from? I know _I_ didn't make it up. It just floated into my brain from somewhere else. I'm not even sure what it initially referred to.

And on that note: why _does_ evil have to be so into self-disfigurement? You can't be immoral and symmetrical at the same time? What does that say about Picasso?

Comments

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

It's more of a literary distinction, though that certainly ties into societal values. There _are_ some beautiful-but-evil tropes, ala Femme Fatale, and the first evil himself "fair Lucifer, the morning star." But generic evil that's pretty (as opposed to a charismatic villian) is extremely rare on the ground. You never see attractive henchmen.

_And_ you never see "good guys" with a tenth the amount of self-mutilation you see in the orcs of Peter Jackson's film and the Reavers of Joss Whedon's, which (one assumes) are two totally unrelated groups.