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| “ | I wish to speak to you now. Where is the Eye of the Serpent? Rexor says that you gave it to a girl; probably for a mere night's pleasure, hmm? What a loss. People have no grasp of what they do. You broke into my house, stole my property, murdered my servants, and my PETS! And that is what grieves me the most! You killed my snake. Thorgrim is beside himself with grief! He raised that snake from the time it was born. | „ |
| ~ Thulsa Doom |
| “ | My child, you have come to me my son. For who now is your father if it is not me? Who gave you the will to live? I am the well spring, from which you flow. When I am gone, you will have never been. What would your world be, without me? My son. | „ |
| ~ Thulsa Doom to Conan, before the latter kills him. |
Thulsa Doom is the main antagonist of the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian. He is an evil sorcerer who is the leader and master of the Children of Doom and Conan's arch-nemesis.
In the 1982 film adaptation, he was portrayed by the late James Earl Jones, who also voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, Ommadon in The Flight of Dragons, Lavan in My Little Pony'n Friends, the Emperor of the Night in Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, and the Levram Wizard in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series.
Biography[]
This Thulsa Doom is considerably different from the literary one, who is described as having a skull-like face. Pre-production drawings showed this version of Thulsa Doom with the skull-like face, but as film, he is essentially the classic Conan villain Thoth Amon, servant of the serpent-god Set. As such, he appears as an ordinary human in the film, though one said to have lived for a thousand years and with the power to transform into an enormous snake.
This Thulsa Doom/Thoth-Amon hybrid appears to have been re-imagined as a cult leader in the manner of the real-life demagogues that had popped up in the decade previous to the film's release like Charles Manson or Reverend Jim Jones. In the movie, he is shown to have an extraordinary command of his followers. For example, in one scene, after Thulsa Doom commands one of his female followers on a high ledge to come to him, she jumps off the ledge to her death. In this, he resembled Hassan-i Sabbah, the Nizari leader, who according to Arab sources had one of his followers leap to his death to demonstrate his power to visiting dignitaries. Additionally, Sabbah's hashassans would leave daggers on the pillows of dignitaries to intimidate them as did the cult in the Conan film.
He appeared when he and his legions invade the lands of Cimmerians for the first time, leading to a massacre of the people there including the young Conan's parents (the father was killed by Doom's dogs while the mother was decapitated by Doom with the father's sword). As the young Conan became a gladiator after years of slavery, Conan swore to avenge his people's tragedy by killing Doom.
Upon getting a mission from the old king Osric (whose daughter was kidnapped by Doom), Conan disguises himself as a priest to infiltrate into Doom's Temple of Set atop the Mountain of Power attended by the massive "Children of Doom", the very cult whose soldiers slaughtered the Cimmerians, but he was caught, tortured, and later crucified on the Tree of Woe by the cult members. Fortunately for Conan, he was rescued by a female brigand named Valeria and an archer named Subotai, who all agree to help Conan rescue the princess.
Upon infiltrating the temple again, Conan and his trio manage to rescue the princess and deliver her out from the temple, but Doom kills Valeria by using a stiffened snake as an arrow to fatally strike her in the waist. The next day, Doom sends his men to go after Conan, but Conan, along with the help from the thief Subotai and the good wizard Akiro, manages to defeat Doom's forces, forcing Doom to flee back to his temple.
At the night following his men's death, Doom starts to address his cult disciples at the Mountain of Power, but he was interrupted by the arrival of Conan himself. Rather than killing him, Doom instead tries to mesmerize him, but Conan resists and instead uses his father's lost sword to finally behead Doom, thus avenging the deaths of Valeria, Conan's parents, and the Cimmerians. Following Doom's death, all of the followers are free from Doom's control and they return to their homes, right before Conan burns the temple. Then, he returns the princess back to King Osric afterward before heading to his next adventure with his new friends.
Gallery[]
.png "Doom's death (Conan).png (292 KB)")
.png "Thulsa Doom (Conan the Barbarian).png (184 KB)")