'One ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.' In the conclusion of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, as armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied only by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.
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It's a subtle one, but a few of Jon Snow's companions at the Night's Watch share names with Frodo's closest friends from The Lord of the Rings. It's the kind of overlap that feels like a deliberate nod between two of fantasy's biggest sagas rather than a coincidence.
Senior animator Mike Laygo, who'd previously worked on Lord of the Rings games, has said Aatrox's movement was directly inspired by Balrog and Sauron. It shows too, that same hulking, wing-dragging menace you get from the Balrog in the mines of Moria is baked right into the way Aatrox carries himself.
