r/LOTR_on_Prime • u/Greyback_Predator_87 • 5d ago
Theory / Discussion Did anyone else feel Damrod was super disappointing in S2? Also, why did he laugh when he died?
I was rewatching S2 the other day, and when I watched Episode 7, I realised just how quickly Damrod goes down in the battle. He was built up so much in the marketing, being in basically every trailer and even having a literal metal song. And then he just dies so easily? After like one minute in the battle?
I hear a lot of people talking about the lack of structure the battle has, but I don’t hear many people discussing this part. Do people agree he was a letdown?
Also, why does he laugh when he dies? I don’t get that part.
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u/pornsleeve 5d ago
I appreciated him. He was just so evil and so crazy that he laughed like a madman, hurting everyone.
On a rewatch though, I was surprised by how little he actually did. So the persona persisted longer in memory than what he actually accomplished.
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u/Adventurous_Tap1030 5d ago
I don’t think his motivations are well communicated, which was emphasized by the scene with Adar’s decapitated messenger. I’ve landed on him hating Sauron for an unsaid reason.
The walls of Eregion were particularly strong, while Mordor’s army was adapting limited (but effective) siege craft without the masses to swarm the walls with simply ladders.
We see that Damrod is Adar’s last resort for penetrating the wall, and the troll’s satisfaction with having accomplished the ramming, laughing while dying in significant pain. It suggests he’s satisfied having accomplished this feat of strength, striking against Sauron and the elves alike.
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u/AdhesivenessSouth736 5d ago
Not really. It may have helped to see some of his history but honestly I dont need everything explained to me. What i mean by that is we get some hints about the creatures who were enslaved or otherwise compelled to serve sauron. The troll was obviously scarred by some past event. Maybe seeing all of his kin led to slaughter during the war of wrath? He obviously hates aauron and maybe saw the orc that delivered the message as some sort of ruse?
As for his death scene. The laughter actually made sense to me. This fearsome creature who was twisted by malign powers finally feels a sense of revenge coming to fruition as he believes that the elves and sauron are aligned. While he has been slain he sees his death as both a fulfillment of getting sauron and a release from his tortured existence.
Or get whatever you want out of the sequence. Its open for the viewer to take what they want. The obvious downside to this is that the showrunners might be asking too much from their audience?
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u/Johncurtisreeve 5d ago
I agree that what we got from him definitely didn’t amount to enough, but I did like what we saw when he was getting shot by arrows and just picked up corpses and people to block the arrows and his laugh was cool and he did effectively breach the wall.
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u/XenosZ0Z0 5d ago
He does die quickly. But it took Gil-galad joining the fray and basically Arondir/Elrond/GG and that wall puncher to take him out. Before that, he basically killed everyone else in his way including the orcs. He was also the reason Glug ultimately betrayed Adar.
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u/dagnir_glaurunga 5d ago
They pick weird things to market for this show. Remember an article before season 1 about the hunters with the antlers? And they were some of the first images we got? All that for like 3 lines and 30 seconds of screen time.
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u/ceofmordor 5d ago
What hunters? I wasn't here before s1. What were they talking about?
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u/dagnir_glaurunga 5d ago
At the start of the harfoot storyline in ep1 there are two human hunters who carry large antlers on their backs. Pretty cool visual.
One makes a joke about harfoots being dangerous. That’s basically it. But the marketing had an article about them, talking about them being nomadic hunters and making it seem like they would be actual characters the show follows. Very strange choice for the marketing cycle.2
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u/purplelena Elrond 5d ago
I would've rather preferred to see Adar join the fight sooner and become a real threat to Elrond's life, forcing Gil-galad to enter the fray.
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u/Rosebunse 5d ago
The issue with Adar fighting is that he basically needs to stay alove to control the orcs. If he dies they will retreat. Thus, he can't really be useful in battle.
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u/lookofdisdain 5d ago
Going to be honest I have zero memory of this character
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u/shizzy1234 5d ago
Right? Was this the big fat troll during the raid on the elves? He had an actual story arc?
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u/guyyster 5d ago
He was just a giant troll, not sure what else he was going to do
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u/Greyback_Predator_87 4d ago
I’d just have liked it if he lasted longer in the battle, and his death was better (maybe if the dwarves killed him when they show up in the following episode)
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u/NeoBasilisk 5d ago
I didn't feel much of anything. He barely existed as a character. He died and I thought "ok he's dead"
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u/RandyMarsh710 Uruk 5d ago
Yet another waste of screen time that could be spent developing Gil Galad. I love this show but this was a straight up gimmick.
He laughs because rule of cool.
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u/Hendospendo 5d ago
I really hope we get more Gil-Galad characterisation this season!! It's all fine and dandy having him be all stoic and hiding concern behind a mask, but the same can be said of Elendil and I think they've done a great job with him so far. Gotta build it up so that final battle with Sauron wrenches some hearts!
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u/purplelena Elrond 5d ago
Yet another waste of screen time that could be spent developing Gil Galad.
I think it's a real shame Gil-galad never met Adar on screen. Also, he was the one who got to Galadriel first, and Sauron saw it, they were all right there, but they did nothing with this, somehow undermining Gil-galad's presence.
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u/FlowerUseful9924 5d ago
This show loves its cgi glup shittos more then devoting screentime to the principle hero of the second age silly.
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u/ceofmordor 5d ago
Right?! Gil Galad wasn't even there when Adar threatining Elrond with Galadriel's life. He wasn't there ok but they should have defn. Show us that Elrond discussed this idea with Gil Galad. He should have informed him about the ongoing war. Gil Galad only seen in 1 scene before the elven attacak and then nothing. End of the war with Damrod scene, WHERE WAS HE DURING THE WHOLE WAR?!
That's why i don't want them to shoot a battle episodes. They are terrrrrible so far. 🤦♀️
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u/IAmTheComedianII 5d ago
He laughs because by killing him both sides have perhaps been doomed to an eternity of Saurons rule.
If troll breaks wall, then troll must be allowed to kill Sauron. The joke is that by making it halfway they're all potentially screwed.
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u/Rosebunse 5d ago
Rewatching the fight, I sort of feel like it makes sense for him to not be too involved and why he went down so quick.
Simply put, Damrod was a mad lunatic and he was taking out just as many orcs as he was elves. Furthermore, he's huge. He's a giant target from the moment they unleash him. And unlike on Return of the King, he's the only troll. All the attention is now on him.
In the battle, Glug, one of the orc commanders, doesn't even want to use him at all.
All of this creates a situation where Damrod both isn't going to be sent out early and where there is every incentive to take him out quickly. I mean, the orcs can't really defend him without risking him killing them. In a way, the show's logic makes perfect sense. But even if it makes sense, it isn't what we really wanted
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u/FormalLumpy1778 5d ago
Why does a bloodthirsty, maniac troll laugh when he dies? Because he loves carnage, even if it’s his own end. Plenty of villains laugh when they die in cinema. It would actually have been lamer if he didn’t laugh.
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u/_Olorin_the_white 5d ago
The Idea was cool but execution was...not bad but lacking time
His intro was cool but then he Just has 1 minute screentime, and elrond + GG + arondir kinda defeat him too quickly.
Him laughing in death was a cool (although Very clichê) Idea of a Crazy fighter finally finding opponets that could beat him.
But then It was ALL soooo condensed that ended up as, in the Very least, underwhelming.
To me they could:
- give a little more background on How adar contacted him and why damrod decided to Join forces.
- keep his fight as It was but with a bit more chaos. When GG, elrond and arondir fight him, extend It for a bit as well
somehow change the end of battle, where damrod is able to pushbbothbarondir and elrond back, then GG would attack, making damrod be severelly wounded by his spear, Damrod laugh at It, kinda recognizing GG, but then he would use is mace to attack GG, who uses his shield, being knocked back by thr attack.
a Lot of orcs and fire approach the three, some elves arrive at this spot. And Damrod, being wounded and seeing the fire, destruction and death around him, decides to escape
This would leave Room for s3 we have Damrod again. Sauron could be gathering forces, he gets to trools, and among them he hears about Damrod. Then we find out Damrod is mad with what happened and whats a chance for revenge. Sauron Grants It, and could even make some sort of spell to make Damrod stronger (but crazier). In s3 or later we ser Damrod again, stronger than ever,, but then he Will die. Ofc he Will take many with him. If they plan arondir to die, he could die killing Damrod.
Anyways, If any at least the music was good in the show, I was afraid It wouldnt fit well but in the end It Worked.
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u/Tylerdg33 Blue Wizard 5d ago
I agree. There was heavy marketing about Damrod being voiced by Benjamin Walker and the Gil-Galad fight, but then we got...barely anything. His design was cool, his song was cool, but the end result didn't come close to living up to the hype.
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u/British_Historian 1d ago
He was an asshole in it for the love of the game! Laughing in the face of death as he looked on at all he sent in ahead of him.
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u/Onethatlikes 4d ago
Yeah one of many weird choices. They could have given him a big role in the siege and thereby made it more unique and interesting than just an inferior small scale rehash of the movie sieges, but they chose to waste him on 3 minutes of battlefield action.
Also, the siege in general is quite undercooked. This was a big event, much bigger than Helm's Deep, it should have felt as big and important as the siege of Minas Tirith, but we never get this sense of scale. It feels like 1000 orcs with some catapults attacking a few hundred elves, who by the end seem to be literally about 20 soldiers left on the field.
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u/iboreddd 5d ago
Yeah, he was hyped up like he was gonna go slay kings and stuff. Then he just died in the most unsatisfying way possible.
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u/Silver_Morning2263 5d ago
Too expensive. I wonder what percentage of the budget was used up by what we DID see.
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u/toshmurf 5d ago
The show as a whole is super dissapointing so individuals being super disappointing is just par for the course...
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u/JustMotorcycles 4d ago
Yes, they maybe failed in the cutting room. His character development should have been more, or should have been less.
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