Game Of Thrones: How Daenerys Became The Mad Queen (And Why The Hate Is Wrong)
2. It's An Anti-War Story
A Song of Ice and Fire (and Game of Thrones), for all the epic battles, depictions of warfare, heroic moments, and tragic deaths, is inherently an anti-war tale. This is not supposed to be read or watched as a glamourisation of war, no matter how jaw-dropping the spectacle may look on your TV. George R.R. Martin himself was a conscientious objector to Vietnam, and his hatred of war (in a broad sense) is something depicted in his books. It's especially prevalent in A Feast for Crows which, despite suffering a lot from missing so many characters, is thematically VERY strong, including on this issue.
Robert's Rebellion is about as close an analogue as we get to World War II, which is a war at least partially fought for just reasons, but the cost is still made clear. War is hell, basically, and no episode of Game of Thrones shows that like The Bells, which puts us on the ground with the smallfolk and allows us to witness the full horrors of war that the powerful unleash on each other with no regard for the poor.
It's difficult, then, to write a commentary on war without taking into account the nuclear threat that hangs over the world. Westeros doesn't have nuclear weapons. But it does have dragons, and that's a pretty close thing in terms of how much damage they can cause so quickly. In an interview with Vulture back in 2011, Martin commented:
"Dragons are the nuclear deterrent, and only Dany has them, which in some ways makes her the most powerful person in the world. But is that sufficient? These are the kind of issues I’m trying to explore... Power is more subtle than that. You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn’t give you the power to reform, or improve, or build."
Martin has always been fascinated by power politics and what makes a good ruler. Combined with his anti-war message, or at least desire to explore the horrors of war, it would be a surprise if he introduced a nuclear weapon without actually seeing what happened to the world when things do indeed go nuclear. That's what we've seen with Dany in The Bells. She uses her nuclear weapon. She presses that big red button. She destroys. But can she reform, improve, or build? Almost certainly not, because her actions in The Bells are likely to cost her her life. It's a brutal act with equally brutal consequences. But it's important to see that war has these consequences. Nuclear weapons won't improve the world, they'll only make it worse. So too will dragons.
[James]