Gorgug means a lot to me as a mixed kid with a racist parent.
I once saw someone on here refer to Gorgug and his parents as an allegory for transracial adoption and I've never forgotten that. It felt so true to me the second I read it. Gorgug growing up being physically different than his family but also perceived differently. Digby and Wilma had to cut off their family to protect Gorgug from their racism. How does that feel for him? Being seen as dangerous and big and scary? It rings so close to being a black man in a white family. Being scared of embracing being a barbarian, talking more white, slouching. Convincing other people you aren't like other orcs, that you aren't like them. Gorgug doesn't rage, he worries. He sings a song when he's mad. And yes that's mostly because Gorgug just isn't an angry person. I believe that. But do you think there's a part of him that doesn't hit back or yell because he knows there will be severe consequences? Do you think he knows that people will look at him, hulking, at seven feet tall and punish him first? And do you think that maybe his parents knew that too, that that's part of why they taught him the song?
The op I'm referencing also pointed out that while Wilma and Digby clearly love Gorgug, they fail him in some ways. And that hits just as hard. These well meaning white people defended their son, they took him in and they love him so much. But they never told him why all of his things break. They never got a bigger house or changed his room. They didn't sit down with Gorgug and talk him through his fear of anger. Of being too big and too scary, of hurting people. They didn't know to. Because they aren't orcs. They'll never understand that part of him, no matter how much they love him. So maybe they just ignored it, maybe they thought the problem would go away.
Something sticks in my chest when I think about Gorgug and his relationship to being an orc. When I think about this giant green kid, in a tiny home with tiny gnome parents. This kid who asks everyone he can find if they're his dad. Because something is missing, even with these parents he loves more than anything . Who love him more than anything. This young person who wants so badly to be an artificer because his gnome parents may not be in his genes but they are a part of him. And he is told that he can't be, that he's too angry and too big and too strong. He won't be able to think in battle. He needs to choose. He needs to decide between his innate rage and his passion for tinkering. But he doesn't decide, because he wants to do both. And he knows he can. He's done it his whole life.
