His design would remind you of Thoth-Amon's alternate costume. Thoth-Amon wore ram horns in one of his costumes. Other incarnations would have him wear a Pharaoh-like costume. So where are the similarities? They are both Set's entrusted high servants, they both possess the Black Ring of Set and they lost it. Both seek to get the Black Ring of Set while having some other tricks. Thoth-Amon still was a crafty guy who could survive without it. The same went for his show expy, Ram-Amon.
Wrath-Amon stole the Black Ring of Set from Ram-Amon. For two hundred years (and how he survived was a result of some magic) we have Ram-Amon in the dungeons below his usurper. Yet, you can't underestimate Ram-Amon without the ring as he could still master a few spells to help him or he has a cunning mind. What I also find interesting is that Ram-Amon like Cobra Commander was overthrown by Wrath-Amon, the Serpentor counterpart of the show. Wrath-Amon manages things like Serpentor does. Ram-Amon, like Cobra Commander, wants his old job back.
What would be interesting is that Ram-Amon in the said cartoon is also a coward. The movie version of Thulsa Doom was also a coward. Notice how often that the Movie Thulsa Doom prefers to let his goons and followers do the fighting for him rather than him doing the fighting. Ram-Amon easily calls for his snakemen guards during Conan's time travel misadventure. Wrath-Amon usually has the brute force to deal with Conan. Ram-Amon prefers to use wits over brute strength.
In the Conan comics where Thoth-Amon becomes the main villain, his power is tied to the Black Ring of Set. It was later lost making him somewhat vulnerable. Yet, he was still able to do a few tricks or use his cunning to get the Black Ring. Wrath-Amon is pretty much the anti-thesis of what Thoth-Amon is. While Wrath-Amon is overly dependent on the Black Ring, Thoth-Amon does have a few tricks up his sleeve in order to survive even without it.
I'll admit it took me a while to realise that Ram-Amon was an Expy of Thoth-Amon, my first entry into the Conan Mythos being this Animated Series. But I suspect I remember the Series more fondly than it appears you do.
ReplyDeleteBiggest reasons for my liking it so much were: Even with how much it needed to be watered down to slide into the TV-7 Rating, they did manage to include much of REH's work into it; the very racially diverse cast (kinda rare for the time); It followed a given story arc from it's beginning to conclusion (again, this time I believe it was the first show of its type to do that); Real character development so even with a lot of Status Quo'ing, a lot of things did change as the series progressed; And then there's lines like "Someday you will get your Hands on Me. But on my Terms, not Yours."
And Ram-Amon himself? As you've said, even without the Black Ring, he still posed a serious threat to Conan, which might explain why he escaped as a Sequel Hook. Though the less said about that the better.
And by now you've probably realised just how much I like this series.
I wonder how you'll cover the character of Wrath-Amon? Which I suspect will be quite different to mine.
Here's my take on Wrath-Amon way back then:
ReplyDeletehttps://akizukifantasycritic.blogspot.com/2010/06/wrath-amon-in-conan-adventurer.html