Orc
How did the confrontation between Sam and the Orc at Cirith Ungol go?
(talking about the animated film)
Well, first of all, Sam has encounters with two Orcs in Cirith Ungol.
The first one is as he's ascending the "backwards" stairs to the top tier. An Orc, descending the stair, spots Sam and rushes him. Sam unsheathes Sting and clutches the Ring hanging around his neck, saying "Can't let him have the Ring...". As soon as he does that, the Ring basically gives Sam a sort-of Battle Aura, which completely cows the Orc, who freaks and turns tail.
Sam pursues the Orc and and asks about what happened in the tower, about why all of the Orcs are dead. The conversation:
Orc: "Our Captains made battle, and ordered us to fight also."
Sam: "What was in contest?"
Orc: "The hobbit's pretty coat, when he reveals his hiding place..."
Sam: "You killed each other for that blasted cloak?! Well I have it, not Frodo!"
Orc: "You?! You're just a hobbit! Give me the coat!"
Sam: "Get back!"
With that, Sam pulls out Sting and grabs the Ring again. The Aura appears, and Orc screams, and stumbles off the staircase, plummeting into the darkness.
Sam then finishes ascending to the very top of the tower, opening a trapdoor to the cell that Frodo is in. With him is another Orc with a whip. The Orc turns and comes at Sam, who ducks out of the way. The Orc falls through the trapdoor opening to his death.
Why did the Orc stumble on the steps?
It was a clumsy orc
shareNot just a clumsy orc, but a clumsy orc under the power of the Ring. The hobbits wanted to escape the orcs, and didn't like orcs, and under the power of the Ring, one way they might get out of the way of the hobbits' escape would be to kill each other, fall in deadly accidents, and so forth. The Ring may act in ways that appear to be accident (consider the slip from Isildur's finger, for example), but they're not accidents. While it is pure evil, it doesn't betray someone using it if it can instead corrupt the person -- so while it betrayed Isildur, it did so only after corrupting him, while in the case of the hobbits it followed their wishes, since there was still more to be accomplished toward corrupting them.
shareIt was pretty sweet. Sam sounded like he was doing a newspaper interview.
I caught myself smiling for no reason again today and realized I was thinking about you.
I~O