Goddamn Orks - Television Tropes & Idioms

Sulu: Captain, Klingons off the starboard bow.
Kirk: Again with the Klingons...

—Star Trek parody in The Simpsons episode "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie"

(Goblins and Orcs) have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practised than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. (...) We might instead think of such goblins as a fantasy counterpart of the apocryphal northerner: Clannish, rough spoken, given to the imbibing of strong but peculiar liquor, keeping analogues of whippets and pidgeons, prone to mob violence at away fixtures and perhaps too easily influenced by the radical politicians of other races.

- Hordes Of The Things

Related to Always Chaotic Evil, Scary Dogmatic Aliens, Villain By Default Aliens And Monsters, and The Heartless. May even be the over-trope into which they all fit. Goddamn Orks are similar to Goddamned Bats, but while Goddamned Bats is a gameplay trope, Goddamn Orks is a narrative one. Goddamned Bats may annoy the hell out of you when you play a game, but Goddamn Orks are what annoy the hell out of your characters in the universe.

Goddamn Orks refers to the ubiquitous Always Chaotic Evil creatures that are always messing everything up for everyone in a setting, and the hatred towards said creatures held by the good forces who are always having to fight them off. Naturally, this varies by setting. So in 40K, it's "Goddamn Orks." Or "Goddamn Necrons." Or "Goddamn Chaos Space Marines". Etc. In Stargate Atlantis, it's "Goddamn Wraiths". In Firefly/Serenity, it's "Gorramn Reavers". In Lord of the Rings it's "Goddamn Orcs". And so on and so forth.

The trope namer is a comment made by this guy who did a You Tube video walk-through of the game Dawn of War II at about 2:45 in this video.

Not to be confused with Our Orcs Are Different or Goddamned Bats.

Examples

Tabletop Games

Warhammer 40000's Orks are the trope namer. But also....
- Boy howdy...Goddamn Chaos Space Marines, Goddamn Dark Eldar, Goddamn Necrons, Goddamn Tyranids...
  - Goddamn everything that isn't you. Including subgroups of your own faction.
World Of Darkness: Goddamn humans!
- Goddamn Spectres, Goddamn Banes, Goddamn True Fey, Goddamn Hobgoblins, Goddamn Pandorans, Goddamn Shartha, Goddamn ghosts, Goddamn Earthbound...
- Goddamn everything!
Exalted: Take your pick: Goddamn Deathlords, Goddamn Yozis, Goddamn Fair Folk, Goddamn Dragon-Blooded...
- Goddamn Solar Exalted...

Literature

Trollocs from the Wheel Of Time books.
Orcs from Lord Of The Rings (among others).
House Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire.
This trope's definition is subverted in Dream Park, where "typical orks" is a term used by players to refer to Mook opponents, Evil or otherwise, that pose little or no challenge.
The Vogons in the Hitchhiker's Guide series.

Comic Books

The "stupid stupid rat creatures" from Jeff Smith's Bone.
Goddamn Sentinels.
I really, really hate clones.

Video Games

The Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. In the sequel, it's Goddamn Heartless and Goddamn Nobodies.
Koopa Troopas and Goombas in the Super Mario Bros games.
The Goddamn Combine from Half Life 2.
The Burning Legion and Undead count as this in World Of Warcraft. And in the first Warcraft games it is those Goddamn Orcs that are screwing everything up.
- In The Burning Crusade it was Goddamn Blood Elves, Nagas, and demons.
- During Wrath of the Lich King it has been overwhelmingly Goddamn Undead.
- And throughout the entire course of the game, some people feel like it has been Goddamn Trolls (the original game and every expansion have each featured at least one troll-themed dungeon).
In Final Fantasy X it's the Fiends that are created when someone dies without being Sent.
- The Unsent aren`t always chaotic evil, Auron is an "good" example
Legend Of Zelda: Goddamn Moblins and their kin (Miniblins, Bokoblins, and Bulblins).
While it can be applied to Beastmen as a whole, it's generally Quadav, Orcs, and Yagudo for Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst respectively.
- Meanwhile, Aht Urhgan is almost constantly Besieged by Goddamn Mamool Ja, Goddamn Trolls, Goddamn Lamiae and their Goddamn Undead Mooks. Yeah, those folks have a real talent for PR.
Goddamn vampires. Except Arcueid.
- Mainly because all the vampires shown except Arc are completely fucking insane and very deadly. Arc, on the other hand, is a cheerful, huggable Cloudcuckoolander.
- Unless you're Ciel or have any connection with her at all.
"I'm not gonna let these Goddamn vampires beat me!" - "They're zombies, Francis."
"...Goddamn Sploicers!"
Goddamn geth.
- Centuries ago, it was Goddamn Krogan.
- And Goddamn Rachni. And waaay before that it was Goddamn Eldritch Abomination Reapers. Or how about in-game, there's Goddamn Humans/Goddamn Turians to the other race. And Goddamn Batarians to everyone.
- Mass Effect 2 has the Goddamn Vorcha and the Goddamn Collectors.
Goddamn Super Mutants, Enclave, Deathclaws and Raiders
Goddamn laser indians
Goddamn von Karma family.
Goddamned people in general.
Goddamn Darkspawn.
"...Kharak is burning." Goddamn Taiidan.
Goddamn apples!
- They're more like cherries....
Goddamn Skags and Bandits.

Live Action TV

The Goddamn Wraith from Stargate Atlantis.
The Goddamn Goa'uld from Stargate SG 1.
- And nobody from either series has any love for the Goddamn Replicators!
The Reavers from Firefly/Serenity, though they are less annoying and more pants-browningly terrifying.
The Peacekeepers from Farscape.
- Goddamn frelling Scarrans...
The Borg from Star Trek. Also Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, and multiple other races of Rubber Forehead Aliens that seem to have more evil members running around than good.
- Don't forget the Goddamn Cardassians in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and the Goddamn Kazon in the first few seasons of Star Trek Voyager.
Goddamn Wolfram & Hart (until Season Five)
Goddamn Daleks.
"Magog suck".