User blog comment:PerhapsTheOtherOne/Speculative Spitballing: Goliath/@comment-9464517-20150612173646/@comment-9464517-20150613101013

@Anon

Of course elephants are dangerous, but because of how they are depicted in popular culture, they are more readily associated with comedy.

@Maki

That isn't easy to do. I've been watching films like The Jungle Book since I was a little kid. Removing a perception from one's own subconscious is far from easy to do.

@Shadow

So the spikes (and small osteoderms) are the only aspects of its design that are dissimilar to real-life elephants. The core design still bears strong resemblances to real-life elephants, which, as I mentioned, are generally treated in fiction as joke characters.

Incidentally, I've never seen Lord of the Rings, but my friends all have, and the fact that they still associate elephants with comedy after viewing the films demonstrates that their opinion on elephants in fiction is certainly deeply embedded within their minds.

@Chishio

Barn owls are not generally seen as terrifying figures, but I like the suggestion of the multiple faces and screaming. That could be very cool.