Thu Sep 26 15:00:54 UTC 2024: ## “Rings of Power” Season 2 Battle Scene Almost Featured Graphic Gore, But Producers Decided Against It

**Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” just delivered one of the most epic battle scenes in television history with the Siege of Eregion in Season 2, Episode 7.** Prosthetics designers Barrie and Sarah Gower, who worked on both “Game of Thrones” and “Rings of Power,” described the episode as “the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” exceeding even the largest battles from the HBO fantasy series.

However, the episode almost featured a much more graphic and disturbing death scene. **Second unit director Vic Armstrong revealed that the original plan for the death of Mirdania, Celebrimbor’s student, involved the orc brutally killing her and then drinking her blood.**

“We did a really gory thing where she gets thrown off the castle wall and the orcs kill her,” Armstrong explained. “And Charlotte [Brändström], my director friend who directed the episode… said, ‘Give me some really gruesome bits!’ So I had her thrown off the roof, you see her go down and hit the ground, there’s a really good shot, and you see this orc chop her. And then he holds up her whole shoulder and arm and starts drinking the blood.”

While Armstrong found the scene “really good,” **showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, along with director Charlotte Brändström, ultimately decided against airing the graphic scene.**

“All of those sort of things get in there, and then they get taken out,” Armstrong stated. “But that’s the mindset you’ve got when you’re in there … If [people] were sitting at the next table in a cafe [hearing] about what I was suggesting — ‘Yeah, have her fall off the wall and then hack her, have the whole shoulder come off, complete with the dress on her sleeve, and the blood’s coming out’ — people would think you’re completely bonkers.”

The producers ultimately decided that the gruesome detail was “a step too far” for the show, which aims to focus on the grand themes of light versus darkness, rather than gratuitous violence. The episode still delivers a powerful and impactful battle scene, but it’s clear that the producers made the right call in avoiding excessive gore.

“The Rings of Power” is streaming on Prime Video, with the Season 2 finale scheduled for next week.

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