‘Game of Thrones’: Why Cersei Trusts the Golden Company (But Wanted Elephants!)

Donna Dickens
TV Game of Thrones
TV Game of Thrones Fantasy HBO

Game of Thrones is back for its final season, but that doesn’t mean there’s no time to introduce new factions. The premiere episode, “Winterfell,” focused mostly on the political jockeying in the North. However, the handful of moments spent in King’s Landing brought with them a new player on the board who’d previously been mentioned but never seen: the Golden Company.

With her position tenuous, Cersei Lannister will need help to keep her Throne. Using the funds from her recently acquired holdings in the Reach (RIP House Tyrell), Cersei purchased herself the best sellsword army money can buy. But just who are they?

The Company You Keep

The Golden Company consists of over 20,000 men, horses, and elephants. It was founded by exiled Westerosi nobility, lords who had chosen their side poorly in the Blackfyre Rebellion. For the last hundred years, the Golden Company has kept the same rigorous training practices from the Seven Kingdoms. It has also retained the honorable reputation of nobility. Unlike any other mercenary army, the Golden Company has never once broken a contract.

Building a reputation over several generations of House Strickland, — it’s Harry Strickland who leads the soldiers who have arrived in King’s Landing — the Golden Company has become the most renowned mercenary army in the Free Cities. Styling themselves as a “free brotherhood of exiles” rather than typical sellswords, the Golden Company portray an air of temporarily inconvenienced nobility. Ser Jorah Mormont once numbered among their soldiers.

The Military You Know

To Cersei, the veneer of noble blood feeds into her ego. She destroyed the noble houses that refused to heed her and now replaces them with prodigal Westerosi son who are bought and paid to carry out her every whim. Strong in her nationalistic view that the Seven Kingdoms have the finest armies in the known world, Cersei sees herself now in the position of strength. To her, no Dothraki horde or emaciated corpses can stand up to a well-trained army like The Golden Company.

But is she right?

We asked the Fandom Game of Thrones community for their thoughts on whether Cersei is right to trust in the Golden Company.

“She thinks that Golden Company is the answer to her problems because she no longer has any loyal supporters on her side. The gold she got from Highgarden only bought her the trust of the Golden Company, which we can assume to be the only backbone of her army as all Euron gave her was a powerful naval support and not a disciplined armed force.

Talking about the results, I believe that her plan will be doomed to failure. Jaime can reveal all her plans to Daenerys so that she can take appropriate actions accordingly, plus Cersei knows how vulnerable she has become with both her brothers on Dany’s side, and I can safely assume that Bronn is not going to kill anyone of them. Moreover Euron seems to be more interested in f***ng Cersei rather than supporting her loyally. All this adds up to a catastrophic failure to her plan.” – PHRYTE

“I think that Cersei wants to implement the Mad King’s former plan of destroying King’s Landing with Wildfire for when the Army of the Dead arrive. She has absolutely no qualms with killing innocent people, as evidenced by her blowing up the Great Sept of Baelor, and she believes the White Walkers will take Dany and Jon’s forces so she will only need the Golden Company for the ‘stragglers’ after she destroys the Night King in the explosion.

I also think that the Second Sons still have a part to play in this. They probably came over with the Golden Company but I can’t decide whether Daario Naharis will betray Cersei for Dany or will be another betrayal for Dany.” – Christina Smith-Ziegler37

Amazing Pachyderms

Cersei has the Golden Company working for her now, but she made it clear that she really wanted those elephants that usually accompany them as well. But why would Cersei want elephants? After all, one enemy has dragons and the other is full of an undead horde. In order to understand, one must look at the concept of elephants through the eyes of a Westerosi. To the Seven Kingdoms, an elephant is nearly as rare as a dragon. They are not native to the land — save for massive mammoths rumored to be North of the Wall. Even if Cersei, much like her novel counterpart, once saw a captive elephant as a child, the creature would be larger than life in her memory.

So how would a military group for hire utilize elephants? George R.R. Martin has made it clear that elephants are weapons of mass destruction in his universe. At one point in A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys sees one tear apart a pack of wolves with ease in the fighting pits. This is several chapters after she learns the legions of New Ghis travel with elephants that are armored and “towered.” Those towers are capable of carrying at least a dozen humans inside of them, as Jorah sees one with a dozen slave women upon it. It’s easy to extrapolate the elephants could carry siege towers or catapults as well. Add it all up, and elephants appear near mythical, a trait a queen may cling to when faced with supernatural opponents.

What Cersei doesn’t know is what she’s truly up against, despite seeing one Wight for herself now. When the moment of reckoning comes, will the Golden Company maintain their flawless record? Or will they break contract for the first time ever if they have to face the Night King’s seemingly unending forces?

Donna Dickens
Donna has been covering genre entertainment for nearly a decade. She is a mom, a wife, a Slytherin, a Magical Girl, a Rebel, and a fan of House Tyrell.