What is Cerseis Elephants?

A set of jokes and image macros based on Cersei Lannister's line 'I wanted those elephants' from the Game of Thrones season eight premiere.

Where did Cerseis Elephants come from?

The line was delivered by Lena Headey's Cersei in the episode 'Winterfell,' which aired on HBO on April 14, 2019.

What does Cerseis Elephants mean?

It captures Cersei's petty frustration that the Golden Company mercenaries showed up without the war elephants she had specifically requested from Essos.

How do you use Cerseis Elephants?

Fans typically make Drakeposting edits or post Cersei screenshots paired with elephant-themed punchlines about missing details.

Is Cerseis Elephants still popular?

The meme peaked in April 2019 in the days right after the premiere aired and is mostly referenced now as a Game of Thrones callback.

Cerseis Elephants

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Published August 16, 2026

Cerseis Elephants is a Game of Thrones meme built around Cersei Lannister's flat delivery of 'I wanted those elephants' in the show's season eight premiere on April 14, 2019. Fans turned the moment into Drakeposting edits and screenshot jokes on Reddit within hours of the episode airing.

game of thrones memes catchphrase memes reaction memes dialogue edit memes 2019 memes

Overview

Cerseis Elephants is a cluster of jokes and image macros built around a single line delivered by Cersei Lannister in the Game of Thrones season eight premiere1. Told that Euron Greyjoy brought back the Golden Company mercenaries from Essos but skipped the war elephants she had asked for, Cersei flatly says 'I wanted those elephants,' a moment of petty royal disappointment3.

The format lives mostly in Reddit screenshots and Drakeposting edits featuring Cersei's stone face paired with elephant-themed punchlines2. The line itself works as a caption for any outsized frustration about a small missing detail, and it stuck partly because the CGI elephants had been talked up for two seasons before the show quietly dropped them1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

HBO (source line) / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2019

The line comes from 'Winterfell,' the season eight premiere of Game of Thrones, which aired on HBO on April 14, 20191. Lena Headey's Cersei delivers it after Euron Greyjoy announces the Golden Company's arrival without the elephants she had specifically named in her season seven pitch for '20,000 men, horses, elephants'3. Her deadpan reaction, rather than any plot beat, was the whole payoff.

How It Spread

Within hours of the episode ending, Reddit's r/gameofthrones filled with screenshot posts and edits about the missing elephants2. One screenshot titled 'When you wanted those elephants' pulled more than 15,000 upvotes in a single day, and a screaming-Cersei image captioned 'Where are my elephants?!?' cleared 8,100 upvotes soon after3.

That same day, a Drakeposting edit swapping in the CGI Dumbo from the 2019 Disney remake climbed past 17,000 upvotes on Reddit2. Harper's Bazaar rounded up the reaction the same week, framing the elephant complaint as the standout beat of an otherwise slow premiere1. Newsweek and Vanity Fair followed with their own writeups3.

How to Use This Meme

Common uses include Drakeposting edits that contrast an expected version of something with a disappointing actual version, screenshots of Cersei's blank face captioned with an elephant-themed punchline, and the phrase itself typed as a reply whenever something arrives without a specific detail someone wanted2.