'Game of Thrones' season 8 shows Cersei's interest in elephants, but what plans could she have for them?
This article contains spoilers for 'Game of Thrones' season 8, episode 1.
The 'Game of Thrones' season 8 premiere had a lot of easter eggs that some keen observers were able to spot. The one thing that the internet - specifically social media - hasn't been able to overlook is how determined the ever so ruthless Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) was when it came to receiving the elephants that her most recent alliance, The Golden Company, had promised her. But while the entire world is busy making memes on Cersei and her love for the mega-sized mammal, there's no denying that there must be some greater significance to these war animals. Why else would Cersei end up stating how disappointed she is upon not receiving them, twice in the span of the same episode? There has to be more than just meme potential to this very crucial development.
In the words of comedian Kumail Nanjiani, Cersei 'hearts elephants.' But the burning question here is, why so? What's so special about these two dozen elephants that The Golden Company possess? Well, technically, these aren't your ordinary elephants stampeding over the enemy's army in a battle. Of course, they could go maniacal and rage to the point of stampeding over people during the battle, but they are war elephants. Meaning they have been through ample training, conditioning, and most importantly, strategizing - making them one of the most useful animals if the war situation arises.
But the fact that Cersei is fixated, and even annoyed at not getting a single elephant - something she points out to Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) right after sleeping with him - is what leads us to believe that there would be some bigger significance to the massive beasts. Plus, the animals have been incorporated into the war strategy of The Golden Company - a trained group of elite mercenaries - with about 20,000 men making up the private army. So there has to be more to them than the regular elephants Cersei is used to seeing.
Cersei's eagerness in acquiring those elephants as a part of her army is so big that the mad queen is simply oblivious towards logic and rationale. The Golden Company are a group of private mercenaries, so obviously, they wouldn't be as equipped for sea travel as regular seamen. Even the fleet that delivered the thousands of men was a hastily built one, by Euron, so to expect it to be capable of transporting dozens of elephants would not only be wrong, but just stupid. Yet none of that logic makes any sense to Cersei, as she repeatedly points out that the promise that was made to her, wasn't delivered.
It is primarily Cersei's agitation over not receiving the elephants that leads us to believe that maybe they finally arrive at a later point in the season. Maybe they are Cersei's way of matching up to Daenerys Targaryen's colossal dragons? Or maybe the presence of elephants will give the mad queen some false sense of ego boost, were she to go into battle with the North, or worse - the White Walkers. Right now we don't know what exactly is so special about the elephants Cersei wanted, but the biggest Easter egg we can swoop from the first episode is that these elephants are important and most likely going to appear if Cersei Lannister has her way.