Azog

"Do you smell it? The scent of fear? I remember your father reeked of it. Thorin, son of Thrain."

- Azog to Thorin Oakenshield. Azog the Defiler is a powerful orc leader and a villain from The Hobbit. He appears as one of the three main antagonists in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit prequel trilogy.

He is portrayed by Manu Bennett.

Book
Azog and his orcs took over the mines of Moria, having possibly been sent there by Sauron, and he became one of the most influential orcs in the northern lands. When the dwarf lord, Thror, visited Moria in the hopes of possibly rebuilding it, he was captured and brought to Azog. Declaring Thror a thief, the goblin had him tortured for two days, killing and beheading him upong hearing of more dwarves outside Moria. The orc proceeded to call out to the dwarf, Nar, from over the gates, that those who tried to steal from him would meet the same fate and that he was the king of Moria. Azog even refused to let Nar take Thror’s head back, throwing a sack of coins at him to scorn him, and ordered his goblins to hack up Thror’s body and feed it to ravens. This action would generate incredible hatred for Azog amongst the dwarves and Thrain, Thror’s son, would mass an army of dwarves in war against the goblins. After nine years, Azog’s forces in Moria met the dwarves in battle and he was finally killed in the fight by Dain Ironfoot, after killing his father, Nain.



In Peter Jackson's films

Past
At some point, Azog and his orcs took over the mines of Moria. When Thror led his people to try and take over Moria, the Pale Orc engaged them and slaughtered many of them. Azog himself engaged Thror, having become determined to wipe out Durin’s descendents. He succeeded in killing Thror, driving his son, Thrain, mad with grief and causing the dwarves to retreat. Azog then engaged Thorin Oakenshield, who struggled against the Pale Orc and was soon forced to replace his shield with an oak branch to defend himself against the orc's attacks. However Thorin refused to fall, and finally succeded in hacking off Azog’s arm. Azog was dragged back into Moria by his orcs while the dwarves rallied and defeating what was left of his forces, though they were almost utterly wiped out. Thorin believed Azog dead, but he lived on and swore revenge on the dwarf, but would not be able to track him down for 60 years. When Azog and his forces came down from the North, they began fighting with the skin-changers. Eventually Azog turned this into a sport, capturing skin-changes to torture for his amusement, and managed to drive them into near extinction, leaving only Beorn.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eventually, Azog’s forces learned of Thorin’s expedition to reclaim Erebor and a group of them managed to corner the company, only to be driven off by the elves. The survivors, Yazneg and Fimbul, returned to Azog, who was angered by thier failure and threw Yazneg to some of his Wargs to be devoured. He then ordered his forces to find the dwarves, offering a bounty to anyone who brought Thorin to him. Azog managed to track Thorin’s Company to the Misty Mountains after being informed that the Great Goblin had captured them. He came across them after they had just escaped from the mountains and managed to corner the group on a cliff, forcing them to climb into some trees. Azog ordered his wargs to kill them all except Thorin and they eventually forced the company into one tree, hanging precariously over the cliff. Thorin came out to fight Azog, but he was unable to match the Pale Orc, who struck him repeatedly, sending him to the ground. He ordered one of his minions to take Thorin’s head for him, but Bilbo and the other dwarves suddenly leapt to his defense. Before Azog’s forces could overwhelm them, the Great Eagles suddenly came to the company’s aid, carrying them to safety and killing the orcs and wargs, but Azog survived, though he was enraged that his prey had escaped them. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Azog continued to pursue the dwarves with his pack of orcs coming close to catching them. However the dwarves managed to take shelter in the home of Beorn and Azog found himself unable to attack, due to Beorn guarding the house. Azog planned to attack them on the road again, but Bolg arrived, informing him he had been summoning to Dol Guldur at the behest of the Necromancer. Azog went to the fortress, where an army of orcs was being assembled and spoke to his master. The Necromancer told him their time would soon come and Azog would lead his armies forth. The Pale Orc asked about Thorin, reminding his master that he'd been promised the dwarve's head. The Necromancer simply replied that soon all would be slain, before withdrawing. Unwilling to give up the hunt, Azog sent Bolg to hunt Throin and his company instead. Much later, when Gandalf arrived at Dol Guldur to investigate, removing the concelament spells the Necromancer had placed, Azog waited with his troops, before ambushing Gandalf and managing to disarm him. However Gandalf used his magic to escape Azog, fleeing into the fortress, and the orc sent his forces after him. But the Necromancer managed to subdue Gandalf personally. Afterwards, Azog led his master's army out of Dol Guldur, heading towards the Lonely Mountain.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Coming soon!

In Lego
Azog also appeared in the 2014 video game Lego The Hobbit and has officially been released as a lego minifigure in Lego Hobbit set 79014.

Abilities
Azog is much stronger and more aggressive than a human, which makes him a fearsome opponent. He primarily wields a mace and has a metal arm forced into his arm where his hand was severed. Azog also rides a huge white Warg.





Trivia

 * In the films, Azog and his minions speak only in the orcs’ natural language, as opposed to the orcs in the other movies who speak English. This indicates that Azog is older and more proud of his heritage and has had less exposure to man’s world.
 * Azog appears in The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king.