Game Of Thrones Season 8: 7 Ups And 3 Downs From 'The Bells'

Downs...

3. The Golden Company

Game of Thrones Golden Company
HBO

So, The Golden Company are great, right? The best sellswords in the business?

The arrival of The Golden Company has been well-hyped: it's not just Cersei hiring them in Season 7, but even going back to mentions of them between Stannis and Davos and, for book readers, their broader history and the role they're set to play in the coming novels. Needless to say everyone, not least of all Cersei, expected a lot from them.

What we get instead is an army that gets completely obliterated the moment they step onto the battlefield. A subversion? Sure. But it also makes the build-up of them completely pointless. They were hired, came to King's Landing, weren't featured, and then did nothing as they were wiped out. Even with the liklihood of them being defeated, it's underwhelming.

Maybe it all would've been different if they'd had elephants.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.