Why Did Dany Destroy King’s Landing? Some Theories From History
The worst acts of destruction in history have often been defended in moral terms. The taboo against killing innocent people proves violable enough when the cause is carrying out eye-for-an-eye justice (Alexander the Great sacking Persepolis in supposed revenge for Xerxes’s burning of the Acropolis) or forcing a swift peace (the United States’ atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The chilling logic that has been used to portray the razing of entire cities as enlightenment can sound a lot like what Daenerys Targaryen said on Sunday’s Game of Thrones: that “our mercy” is “toward future generations who will never again be held hostage by a tyrant.”
To viewers, Daenerys’s decision to obliterate the Westerosi capital of King’s Landing, a seaside city of 1 million people, would seem to After her army’s successful breaching of the city walls with the help of her dragon, the defending Lannister forces surrendered. Yet Khaleesi continued raining fire on men, women, and children indiscriminately. These are cruel acts, and they may have a purpose: Lords who would otherwise be unlikely to support a foreign invader, especially when news has spread of Jon Snow’s hereditary claim to the
