Last season it was mentioned that the Golden Company used elephants on the battlefield.
Last episode it was confirmed that the Golden Company does indeed have elephants, but elephants cannot travel great distances by boat, and will therefore be unavailable to Cersei because they can't make the trip to Westeros.
In-universe, this makes sense.
But from a writing perspective, I have to wonder what the point was of mentioning the elephants at all? If they weren't going to be shown, why were they ever mentioned in the first place?
I'd understand if the Golden Company elephants were shown in a previous season or something, and now the show couldn't use them for whatever reason and that needed an explanation.
But when the big fight happens now, it will make no difference whatsoever if the elephants had never even been mentioned.
Were the showrunners previously planning to use elephants and something changed? Or is it just a bit of world-building that ultimately adds nothing to the story?
To mention why the Golden Company can't use elephants in Westeros just seems completely pointless to me when they never needed to bring them up in the first place.
Its for twitter memes pure and simple. I have to say it pisses me off as someone who fucking has to deal with normie scum shit talking about fucking game of thrones all day.
>at work at my desk >normie next to me comes and sit >other normie comes >look at each other >'DID YOU BRING THE ELEPHANTS?' >they both fucking laugh hysterically
>late in day >tired and want to go home >sneeze loudly >one of the normies says >'HEY CERSEI WE BOUGHT AN ELEPHANT' >everyone around laughs >i try to get it back by making my own joke >say 'w-ell at least the Mother of Elephants, my mother, has only been raped once! unlike the dragon mother' >they get ANGRY at me for that
I've had enough of this
Mason Gutierrez
If I were being generous, I'd say it was a way of further demonstrating Cersei's pettiness and shortsightedness. Since they want us to believe she's some kind of military and political mastermind, I'm going with Excellent digits, incidentally.
Michael Scott
The amount of pointless dragon CGI in the first ep is your answer. There was simply no money left for it.
Henry Gomez
>say 'w-ell at least the Mother of Elephants, my mother, has only been raped once! unlike the dragon mother' that sounds pretty retarded.
Tyler Jackson
I don't know why they bothered mentioning them to begin with, seems pretty irrelephant.
Camden Sanders
>say 'w-ell at least the Mother of Elephants, my mother, has only been raped once! unlike the dragon mother' lmao fuck you user
>say 'w-ell at least the Mother of Elephants, my mother, has only been raped once! unlike the dragon mother'
jesus, what a sperg
Jeremiah Robinson
>But from a writing perspective You say that like this show has any writers. Chances are D&D just thought battle elephants are cool and wanted them, but when it actually came down to it they were unable and had to quickly handwave it away.
If you look at how they run the show they pretty much just think of something 'cool' then try to force it in somehow and forget to consider the logistics, budget and time constraints that they have because they're so blinded by the funny pictures in their heads. Look into how they filmed the Battle of the Bastards and suddenly the entire state of the show makes sense.