The Hobbit Trilogy: 5 Changes That Worked And 5 That Didn't
2. Azog The Defiler
Azog never appears in the Hobbit novel, but he is certainly a character that was created by Tolkien. In the original back-story for Thorin Oakenshield, it was his father who had fought with the Pale Orc and not himself, having decapitated Azog as revenge for the orc's prior murder of Thorin's grandfather. In Jackson's films, Azog wants revenge on Thorin for slicing off his arm in the War Of The Dwarves and Orcs that took place many years prior to the events of The Hobbit. It's one of the biggest changes Jackson made to the back-story for the Hobbit films, but it was one that was necessary. Azog being present creates an essential sense of urgency for Bilbo and the dwarves that would otherwise have been absent had he not been. Azog's son, Bolg (the relation isn't mentioned in the films), could arguably have filled the revenge role in the films, but that would have required completely re-writing Bolg's background entirely.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
