I know that many of you grew up loving LotR and DnD, and I loved these things too.
However, I don't feel we should be branding the Orcs as evil just because they're green-skinned and cranky.
I guess my opinion has been influenced by the Warcraft series. (Not WoW, I didn't include that as it's too far removed from the old, story-driven Warcraft I've known and loved). For those few of you that haven't played these RTS classics, the Orcs have a culture rooted in holistic, shamanistic lore.
I see the Lego Orcs as driven from their homeland by some unknown horror. Battered and weary, beset on all sides by conflict, when at last they found a land their people could settle into and cultivate, they also found it already inhabited. They sent a peace offering to the local sentients, only to find their treasures sullied and their ambassadors imprisoned or put to death by the 'holier-than-thou' Crownies.
What is your take on the Orcs? Crazed berserkers or merely misunderstood?