Margaret Atwood: Prince Harry would be murdered on Game of Thrones

The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood is currently doing press to promote her new book of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood. Atwood is a great writer so that’s probably worth checking out, although she’s currently in the news cycle for an off-hand comment she made about Game of Thrones, royalty and Prince Harry, who’s spent the last year and change extricating himself from the British royal family.

Speaking to The Times, Atwood said that she’s “an admirer” of Game of Thrones, showing herself to be an author of grace and taste. Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, which itself draws on real-world European history.

Continuing with that thread, Atwood speculated that had Prince Harry been alive back during the times that inspired Game of Thrones, when English monarchs had absolute power and regularly waged war against rivals from within and without of their own families, he “probably would have been murdered by somebody lower down in the food chain to get him out the way.”

Apparently there was some backlash to Atwood’s comment among Prince Harry stans, but it doesn’t seem like she meant any harm by it. She’s probably right, but it doesn’t matter because Prince Harry was born during a time when the royal family is a lot more boring than it used to be. He has a new book out that’s making him a ton of money, Atwood has a new book out that’s probably pretty good, everyone’s fine and I think we can leave it there.

Alan Moore couldn’t get into Game of Thrones

Speaking of authors giving their opinions on Game of Thrones, comics legend Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) talked about the HBO show to ScreenRant. He’s not as big a fan as Atwood, but mostly just because the story doesn’t comport with what he wants out of a “fantasy”:

"I want to be almost lifted into a different neurology by a fantasy story. I want something that actually rewires my view of reality while I’m immersed in that book, that allows me all sorts of different possibilities that I hadn’t considered. That’s what I tend to want from fantasy … having seen only a few episodes of Game of Thrones, and this is not a condemnation of it, I’ve not seen more than that, but it did seem to me to be The Sopranos set in Fifth-Century Dorset. That was my impression; that it was a family saga with bloody betrayals and all of the rest of it, but it was in Fifth-Century Dorset rather than in New York State or whatever."

I mean, he’s not wrong about the vibe of Game of Thrones; I think I just enjoy that scenario more than he does.

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