Prime VideoThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a show about big swings. Its second season might have taken the biggest of all in its attempt to humanize the Orcs, the much-derided horde that occupied Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. In The Rings of Power, they’re beings in search of their autonomy: for the first time, we see them forging friendships, even starting families. The Orc army’s choice to align with the very-evil Sauron (Charlie Vickers) instead of their longtime leader, Adar (Sam Hazeldine), is framed as a last resort. It’s hard not to sympathize with their motives, even if they’re obviously making things much harder for our heroes. As The Rings of Power jumps forward in time in its third season, it will also take its sympathetic portrayal of the Orcs one step further. According to co-showrunner Patrick McKay, that’s mostly personified in the addition of a new character, Marnûkh (Adam Young). At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, McKay teased the Orc’s role in the battle against Sauron, making him a secret weapon, of sorts, in the mounting battle for the army of the Elves.The Rings of Power Season 3 features a “frenemy story” between two Elves and an Orc. | Prime Video“We’ve never had a character like this in the show,” McKay says of Marnûkh. “It’s a very fresh new element.” The writer couldn’t reveal much about the character’s role in the story to come, but we do know which of The Rings of Power’s myriad storylines he’ll play a part in. In the years that have passed between Seasons 2 and 3, the warrior Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) has become the head of the Elven army. The Silvan Elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) has graduated from his post as a “watcher” of the world of Men and become her “right-hand man.” It’s safe to assume that this duo encounters Marnûkh as they battle the various pockets of Sauron’s Uruk forces: he might either already be a traitor to the Orcs, or a prisoner of the Elves who agrees to help Galadriel hunt Sauron down. Either way, we do see this unlikely trio pair up in the first trailer for The Rings of Power Season 3, and McKay teases a “buddy-frenemy story” between Galadriel, Arondir, and Marnûkh. In any other story, that’d signal the arrival of some comic relief, but this series seems to be playing that dynamic totally straight, and it’s sure to be the better for it. The humanization of the Orcs might have been a controversial change in The Rings of Power Season 2, but it’s great to see the writers doubling down on an idea that only makes Middle-earth feel that much more lived-in.The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns to Prime Video on November 11.