The poor orcs’ time as slaves of the World’s Rebellion didn’t get a lot of attention in the story, for one very good reason: we didn’t want all the World’s Rebellion’s legitimate grievances and sympathetic characters to be overshadowed by this one gigantic nonhuman-rights violation. But it wouldn’t have felt right to make their shared culture sinless, either.

I suppose someone out there probably thought we were refighting the American Civil War (factories and more industry on one side, slavery and more romantic fervor on the other). Not our intent, and not a reading I’d enjoy. But I do think it’s important at times to suspend condemnation long enough to get inside the head of a character, even for the sort of beliefs you’d rightly banish from your social feed.

Which is to say, we’re asking you to look the other way about some of Goblaurence’s beliefs even as we hope you’ll like him for others. It would’ve been out of character for virtually any goblin at this point to be speaking out against slavery because orcs deserve freedom, and Goblaurence isn’t taking that stand. He’s not even arguing for merciful, kind slavemastering because basic decency should be a thing even in an unequal society. It’s the waste of resources that gets to him.