well, thats one way to add insult to injury, nice job!

Fighting a land war in mordor was never going to be a winning idea on its own, good thing the eye is doubly distracted from frodo's antics

hopefully the uruks can better themselves once this is all over with, I wonder what the likes of gandalf will make of that?

stuff like this is also why I'd say the black company is more lawful neutral than evil, they take care of their own.

the annals are a big part of what separates the black company from any other generic mook squad. they might not be a particularly honorable outfit: but they have history.

yea, being messed around by the gods is a real downside of living in a fantasy world

hopefully they survive mount doom going boom

I wonder how this coup will work alongside frodo's mission?

funny how working for the bad guys can be a very bad idea...

interesting to see those awesome moments from the other side

yea, this battle was never going to end well for the company

props to the chronicler for doing a bit of good amid this whole mess

it's always cool to see a black company story, I wonder what the "good guys" make of them?

Would like to see revolution by blue wizard for Easterlings and Haradrim

consider that Tolkien thought Samwise was the real hero of the story, and he was the son of a gardener

The Easterlings and Haradrim allied with Sauron. In a world in which the sides of good and evil are very obvious, and in which evil's ultimate goal is blatantly to enslave the entire world, and in which Sauron has shown himself over the course of many, many centuries to be treacherous and only out for his own power, what country made up of free-willed people chooses to fight for Mordor? It's not like even Sauron's human allies would benefit in the event of his victory, and unless they were all completely idiotic it's not like that fact wouldn't be very, very obvious from the start.
We the readers, and the protagonists know of Sauron's treachery and malice because the characters in question are the descendants of elf-friends, having learned Truth and bearing the knowledge of Númenor and the elder races. Not all men are so fortunate to have such teachers. Men who are not descended of the Edain, living far from the northwestern coast, have only their own experiences to go by. They were seduced into the service of Morgoth in the first age, and if they ever received any instruction from the Ainur after the War of Wrath, it was forgotten to the years. Sauron is the greatest Power they know of, and has likely lied to them to convince them that he is the only great Power that exists, and as their God-King, they have no choice but to obey him. Sam himself wonders at one point what lies they had been told to take them so far from their homes to die in battle — so even the characters know that the "evil" men are merely being deceived on a national scale.
Every temptation in the book is stronger to the characters than it would be to real people. Without being able to feel the supernatural forces behind them, the allure of the One Ring seems easy to ignore, and the voice of Saruman as he tries to convince Théoden to switch sides again just sounds silly.
Also, note that at least some of the human allies of Sauron had really big trouble with the "good" nations, especially Númenóreans and their descendants, due to the colonialist arrogance of the latter. Remember for example Dunlendings that were driven off their lands by the Rohirrim. So, in the opinion of the Haradrim, joining evil Sauron was the least evil — think Finland in WWII or the numerous volunteers from Ukraine who fought alongside Nazis even though they knew that the Nazis considered Slavic peoples as inferior to Aryans.
The Men of the East in particular have an excellent excuse to side with Sauron: Númenorian treachery during its height, as it is said men of Númenor sacrificed Easterlings in great number in the sacred name of Morgoth. No wonder they're still pissed.
There's also the point that Sauron is the greatest Power still active in Middle-Earth, even without the Ring in his possession, and the East in particular is his territory, with nothing that can even challenge him. Even if the Men of the East knew Sauron for what he was, they might well have decided it was better to live as Sauron's slaves than die (and condemn their families to death) by defying him.
"It's not like even Sauron's human allies would benefit in the event of his victory." Actually, they probably would. Sauron doesn't want to destroy the world, he wants to rule it. And he can't be everywhere at once. He's going to need lieutenants, kings and lords and princes under him to rule over his various territories, and they would probably enjoy a decent level of power and a fairly good standard of living.

Although it's fairly subtle, there's a good case for to be made that the text encourages diversity, internationalism, and openness to others while rejecting isolationism and xenophobia.
The Fellowship itself is in essence a Multinational Team with representatives from numerous races and places, all of whom have different specialties, points of view, etc. They are also helped by still other people who are not present in the Fellowship, (elves from Lorien, ents, Tom Bombadil, men from Rohan and Ghan-buri-Ghan's tribesmen, etc.) without whose help the quest would have certainly failed.
Every time someone from the "good guy races" acts in a xenophobic manner or follows isolationist orders against outsiders, it gets called out as stupid, counterproductive, and helping only Sauron.

At first glance the Shire seems like it's being held up as a paragon of Arcadia, but there's also a fair bit of criticism of the Shire: the Hobbits living there are quite small minded, ignorant, and provincial, which makes them easy marks for Saruman when he chooses to set up a tin pot dictatorship there. (With the most small minded, ignorant and provincial hobbits generally being the ones most likely to turn into Saruman's lackeys, ala Ted Sandyman.) When the Shire needs to be saved from Saruman, it's not the good old hobbits who are uncorrupted by foreign influences and the outside world who do the saving (or at least lead the charge) it's the ones who have experience in the outside world and have forever been changed by its influences and their experiences in it. When the Shire needs to be rebuilt after Saruman is defeated, it isn't made more beautiful and wonderful than it was before by going back to the way it was, (or by trying to reject outside influence and become more Shirish or properly hobbitish) but because Sam uses the gift of Lady Galadriel to introduce new trees and plants that had never been present in the Shire before. The story even goes so far as to have Gildor, an elf noble, rebuke the isolationism of the Hobbits, pointing out that however much hobbits try to isolate themselves in the Shire they are still part of a larger world that affects them regardless of how much they try to ignore it or remain separate from it. In the divided and increasingly xenophobic and isolationist days of the early 21st century, there is certainly some food for thought and resonance there. Frodo: I knew that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can't a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?
Gildor: But it is not your own Shire. Others dwelt here before hobbits were, and others shall dwell here when hobbits are no more. The wide world is about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

Masculinity isn't defined solely through raw strength. Plenty of conventionally manly characters are shown crying, displaying physical affection with each other and can appreciate both nature and the arts when they're not fighting for noble causes.

The Orcs, helped by the fact that Tolkien was worried about the implications of the Always Chaotic Evil trope (that he detested) and apparently intended for them to be Proud Warrior Race Guys serving Sauron only because of his power over them. He had actually planned to have Frodo meet some helpful Orcs but hadn't figured out where to work their scene in. He would have introduced this part of them and expanded their role in future editions too but passed away before

Melkor's fall was not based on his desire to create life, but his desire to control the life he created. Compare his experience with that of Aule, who also sought to create life, but since he did it without selfish intent, he was forgiven and his creations, the Dwarves, were give true life of their own. Evil intent is defined by the attempt to bend life to your own individual will.

Note that both Sauron and Saruman were originally servants of Aule before they turned to evil. They were both craftsmen, skilled at making things. The temptation to enslave others, to take a creature with a will of its own and bend it into a mere thing to be controlled, is particularly strong in those who are builders. Aule himself is able to resist this temptation, because as a pure Artist he takes joy in the act of creation, and has no desire to impose his will over anything or anyone. It's not evil to create, even to create life

Mordor has large fertile areas offstage where food is grown, thus explaining how Sauron's armies survive in the volcanic hellscape around Barad-dûr. The Ring is also more than just a convenient MacGuffin — its effects matter too much for that. This is largely due to the immensely elaborated Back Story and Tolkien's life-defining experiences in The Great War.

There were, though, some tropes J. R. R. Tolkien couldn't justify to his satisfaction, not helped by the fact that he updated his mythos constantly over a period of decades, creating a minor Continuity Snarl at times but never quite reaching the Shrug of God. He spent years trying to decide how orcs could be Always Chaotic Evil without being born evil or soulless — since Eru would not give creatures inherently evil souls, on moral grounds, Morgoth was unable to create souls, and Tolkien believed anything without a soul would be a mere animal — but he never found any answer he liked. It was philosophical niggles like this that stopped him from publishing The Silmarillion in his lifetime. His son Christopher did it posthumously, to the delight of all Tolkien scholars, and most of his readers

"However, I was too lazy to look up the exact circumstances of the battle, so I went by memory. Send in a comment if you know the battle I was thinking of."

It's actually about the Last Alliance, in "Of the Rings of Power" at the end of the Silmarillion.

"From Imladris they crossed the Misty Mountains by many passes and marched down the River Anduin, and so came at last upon the host of Sauron on Dagorlad, the Battle Plain, which lies before the gate of the Black Land. All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the Elves only. They alone were undivided and followed Gil-galad. Of the Dwarves few fought upon either side; but the kindred of Durin of Moria fought against Sauron."

And yes, this has sparked fan speculation about Allied orcs or trolls or Enemy Ents and Eagles. OTOH I think the author, probably some Fourth Age Gondorian, was being more poetic than accurate.

Morgoth did have elven thralls, but I don't think they're ever mentioned as fighting, vs. mining and crafting as slaves.