Azog (also known as the Pale Orc and the Defiler) (Late Third Age—TA 2941) was a criminal Orc warlord and Thorin Oakenshield's archenemy. After the Battle of Moria, he swore revenge on Oakenshield by hunting him down. Ultimately, his actions led to the Battle of Five Armies, where he ended Thorin's life, who killed him in return, ending the Defiler's reign of Terror.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Azog began the elimination of the Durin bloodline with decapitating Thror
After cutting off Thrain's Ring of Power, Azog fought against Thorin
Azog loses his arm against Thorin in their duel
Azog held a grudge against the Dwarves of Durin's folk and vowed until the last of the Durin Dwarves were destroyed completely. Around the time of 2799, Azog started his elimination of the Durin line by beheading the Dwarves' king, Thror. Azog then threw the head and Thorin grew angry. Thrain would not allow Thorin's life be ended and charged the Orc in an attempt to get his revenge for his father's death. Azog overpowered Thrain and cut off the finger holding the ring. Therefore, Thorin charged Azog himself. During their duel, Azog ruined Thorin's Dwarven shield and Thorin picked up a broken branch, earning the name Oakenshield. Thorin cut off Azog's arm, causing the feeling to be more of vengeance. Azog was assumed to have been mortally wounded by Thorin, but he was later spending the next few years recovering.
An Unexpected Journey[]
After surviving their duel, Azog sent Orc packs after Thorin to hunt him down
After Azog hears of Yazneg's failure, he fed him to the Wargs in Weathertop
After recovering from his wounds, Azog hunts down Thorin Oakenshield and the last of Durin's line by sending out a pack of Wargs and Orcs to hunt down Thorin and his friends. However, every time they do, the Orcs fail. His company meets at Weathertop, an orc captain, Yazneg, reports his failure to kill the Dwarves back to Azog, and is thrown to the Wargs by him.
Azog personally hunts Thorin and Company on a White Warg
Azog finally catches up to Thorin and Company
Azog now hunts Thorin and Company, having taken an oath to break the line of Durin. He leads a band of hunter orcs and rides a huge white Warg. He is also shown wearing a prosthetic hand and forearm in place of his missing left arm. In a climactic scene of the film, Azog and his band of Warg riders finally catch up with Thorin and Company, who are forced to climb trees to escape the Wargs. However the Wargs bring down the trees, leaving the company on a tree hanging over a cliff. Thorin cannot hold back his anger and charges at Azog, who easily fells Thorin with his mace. Azog then orders one of his orc followers to bring him Thorin's head, but the wounded dwarf lord is saved by Bilbo Baggins. Azog goes after Bilbo while Thorin and Company are rescued by Great Eagles. Most of the Orcs and Wargs are killed by the eagles, but Azog, his white Warg, and a few of the Orc riders are left alive.
Azog continues pursuing Thorin and the Dwarves
Azog is ordered to stay in Dol Guldur to prepare his legions for war
Azog continues his vengeance against Thorin, tracking the Dwarves to Beorn's house. However, he is unable to attack them due to Beorn patrolling the area in his bear form. Bolg arrives and tells his father 'the Master' summons him, to which he reluctantly agrees. Azog arrives at Dol Guldur where it is revealed that he is in league with the Dark Lord Sauron, who was in disguise as the Necromancer. Given command of his army, Azog demands the promise of Thorin's head, to which Sauron tells him all will die anyway. Frustrated, he gives his son Bolg the task of hunting the Dwarves.
Azog takes down Gandalf after his intrusion into Dol Guldur
When Gandalf investigates Dol Guldur later in the film, he discovers the ruins are actually from a concealment spell placed by the Necromancer. As he removes the spell Azog leaps out and knocks him down in a surprise attack and taunts the wizard of his late interference, revealing the mass legions he has gathered. He prepares to kill him, but Gandalf uses his staff to keep the Defiler at bay, who still makes several attempts to strike. Gandalf escapes before the Dark Lord subdues him. Azog leads the army out towards the Lonely Mountain, determined to fulfill his oath in the upcoming battle against Middle-earth.
Azog is marching with his orc army (consisting mainly of Moria Orcs, Warg riders and many deformed trolls and ogres) on the Lonely Mountain when Bolg arrives and informs him that Legolas and Tauriel attacked him. Azog asks Bolg if he killed the elves but Bolg replies that he didn't, much to his father's dismay. Azog then tells Bolg to go to Gundabad and bring another orc army to the battle.
During the battle, Azog commands his army by using signal flags which tell a legion when to attack. He first uses were-worms to dig his army a route to the mountain to move unseen. After the army's first ranks come out, they are quickly intercepted by Dáin II Ironfoot and his Dwarves, who are severely outnumbered. As the orcs charge, the dwarves form a shield wall, standing like a spiked wall against the wave of charging orcs. Suddenly, Elven swordsmen jump from behind the dwarven shield wall into the first line of orcs, who wield mostly swords and axes. The combined elf-dwarf attack is lethal and the orcs are halted. Thranduil commands his archers to rain arrows onto the orcs while Bard and the Lake-men stay behind, ready to attack when needed. Azog notices this, and sends the other half of his army, consisting mainly of pike men, to attack the city. Bard and his forces retreat to Dale. The orcs pull out several trebuchets, carried by trolls and manned by goblins, and weaken the city walls. Then, they send a sapper troll to break through the wall, and orcs, battle trolls, and half-trolls start pouring into the city, massacring anyone in the way. Bard charges with his army, and temporarily halts Azog's force, but not for long. Thranduil, Gandalf, and most of the Elven army also head for the city, but many are killed on the way and Thranduil himself is dismounted and surrounded by enemies. Beneath the mountain, Dain's steed is also killed and many Dwarves start retreating to the mountain.
Azog's now immense army nearly takes Dale and corners the dwarves, but Azog commands his force to halt so that his battle trolls could come forward. Then he commands his army to annihilate the sons of Durin. Suddenly, Thorin and Company burst out of the mountain and charge the orcs. At some point by now, Bolg, his wargs, bats, and some goblin mercenaries come ahead of the main Gundabad force. The bats swoop down on both Dwarves and men, killing dozens. Thranduil attempts to retreat, but is halted by Legolas and Tauriel.
Thorin, Dwalin, Fili, and Kili go after Azog in Ravenhill on mountain goats but, when they reach there, Azog snatches Fili and impales the Dwarf through the torso with his blade arm. An enraged Thorin then pursues the orc, but Azog takes him by surprise and, screaming furiously, duels Thorin with his amputated blade-arm and mace against Thorin's sword. During a climactic fight between the dwarf and the Pale Orc, Thorin recovers quickly and gets the upper hand by throwing the orc down a hill. Azog sends orc soldiers to kill Thorin, but Thorin overpowers them. He then returns, now armed with a large flail and his blade arm. Meanwhile, the eagles, led by Radagast and accompanied by Beorn, arrive and swoop down on the arriving orc force, destroying it completely. The Eagles then swoop down on the bats and kill them. As the duel progresses, Thorin throws Azog's own flail in his arms, causing the shattered ice to capsize beneath the orc's feet, seemingly drowning the Defiler. As Azog's body drifts away, Thorin follows it and falls for the orc's trap. Using his arm blade, Azog stabs Thorin's foot and breaks through the ice, stabbing Thorin in the abdomen. However, Thorin, while being pinned down, stabs the Defiler in the heart with Orcrist. He then flips him over and impales him again, but this time pushes Orcrist even deeper into the Defiler's torso, forcing Orcrist to penetrate straight through the icy surface, pinning Azog to the ice. A few seconds later the Defiler dies, while looking into the eyes of his greatest foe.
Family[]
Bolg[]
His son is immensely loyal to his father, since the time of the day he was born. He trusted Bolg with hunting down Thorin and the Company. He called him a fool when the Elves forced them to leave. Bolg does not want to disappoint him and instead said it was the elves, not the Orcs,
Enemies[]
Thorin Oakenshield[]
Thorin and Azog have been at each other's throats since the Battle of Moria. Azog now wanted Thorin dead, and Thorin the same. At first, the prince thought that he was dead, until azog turned out to be alive in the end. He almost killed Thorin by having his warg use The King as a chew toy. Bilbo managed to save Thorin before they were saved by the Eagles and his enemy slipped away. Azog still didn't give up on hios search for the dwarves, wanting Thorin's head, and defied his master to hunt Thorin and his friends down. Eventually, Thorin kills Azo g for killing his father, grandfather and nephew, avenging his own death as well as his family.
Personality and traits[]
Azog was an Orc. He was notably different from the darker ones. He was bald and had white skin. He had many scars and was bald. If you look closely, Azog has pointed ears. His appearance is nothing like his son
Azog was wrathful, psychopathic, iron-fisted, malevolent, bloodthirsty, insidious, cynical, bitter, malicious, arrogant and merciless chieftain of the Orcs of Moria and leader of the warg riders. He is portrayed to be cunning, monomaniacal and very, very ruthless, with a bitter and hateful obsession for vengeance against Thorin Oakenshield for cutting off his arm in battle.
Azog was also shown to have some fascist qualities, judging by his complete intolerance towards failure and his dictatorship over his Orc pack. The one most surprising thing about Azog is even someone as powerful as Azog has a master, the incredibly powerful Necromancer: Sauron He is also shown to be intensely sadistic, gleefully mocking Thorin in their second confrontation by saying that his father "reeked of the smell of fear" (which apparently made Thorin think that Azog killed his father) to goad him into attacking. He also seemed to enjoy watching the wargs attacking the Dwarves.
Despite this, he has a close relationship with his son Bolg, as he expresses great pride in him. Yet Azog holds high expectations for him, and can become very angered if his expectations are not met. He is also more independent compared to most other Orcs as he inspires strong leadership and self-reliance that can only be matched by a hunter or a true-born warrior. Azog is enigmatic and powerful, and a superb ally for Sauron to have at his side.
Azog's monomania is shown by his obsession with wiping out the line of Durin. He made good of his vow by murdering Thrór and also driving Thrain into hiding. However, he was too arrogant to think that Thorin could beat him, even though he managed to completely disarm the latter during their climatic duel at Azanbulbizar. After this, he became hell-bent on revenge, incredibly determined to kill Thorin Oakenshield for cutting off his arm.
This drove Azog not to care what the cost was, so long as it gave him a chance to get his own back on the Dwarf prince. Although it isn't clear why, when he actually manages to disable Thorin during their second brawl, he didn't go and kill Thorin himself. His obsession is also clear in his disappointment that Sauron didn't value Thorin's death as enormously as Azog himself did.
His ruthlessness is displayed when he murders his own allies when they displease him. A vicious psychopath, Azog is easily frustrated, even by his Master and by his own followers. He is extremely fierce-tempered and has a serious impulse-control problem, capable of violent mood swings when he becomes too angry to control himself. He is also highly intelligent, displaying excellent hunting skills and experience in combat.
He is also unfailingly loyal to Sauron, despite his obvious distrust in the Dark Lord. His loyalty to Sauron shows that, instead of leading his army against Thorin and the Dwarves (which could have ended in complete success), Azog stays alongside Sauron to defend him against Gandalf. This almost led to the latter's death, since Azog was almost killed in his brawl with Gandalf. Azog was extremely aggressive, to allies and enemies alike.
Azog was also impatient and repressive: He didn't tolerate Yazneg's mistake during the hunt for Thorin Oakenshield, and killed the orc out of anger. Also, he reacted furiously when the Eagles rescued Thorin and Company. He also didn't respond civilly when Sauron denied him Thorin Oakenshield's head. He is implied to understand English, as he answered a question Gandalf asked him in English hinting that he can speak it, but simply chooses not to. He also seemingly knew a great deal about the line of Durin, as he knew that Fili had a brother, and that they were the heirs to the throne.
Appearances[]
- The Hobbit trilogy