【Atlantic】Game of Thrones: Dragons Are the Nuclear Option

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The creatures are the most powerful weapon in Westeros, but “The Spoils of War” showed the horrific cost of using them. It’s no secret that dragons have a deeper meaning on Game of Thrones . George R.R. Martin has specifically referred to them as “the nuclear deterrent.” Timothy Westmyer, a former research and program assistant at George Washington University, has argued in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that dragons are “living, fire-breathing metaphors for nuclear weapons,” and that the series is deliberate in using dragons as a warning about the “inherent dangers” and the responsibility that comes with possessing and wielding such power. But in the most recent episode of the HBO show, “The Spoils of War,” Game of Thrones offered its most explicit portrayal yet of the carnage dragons can cause. In the episode’s climactic final sequence ………………………………