Link Tank: Why Kit Harrington Is Happy With Jon Snow’s Fate
Kit Harrington on Jon Snow's fate, why George Lucas changed Luke Skywalker's name, and more in today's Link Tank!
Kit Harrington is reportedly happy with Jon Snow’s ending on HBO’s Game of Thrones.
“It’s been a little over a year since the last episode of Game of Thrones aired, giving us a lot of time to reflect on whether or not we were satisfied with how things ended up. This is true for the actors who brought those characters to life, too. And for Kit Harrington, at least, it turned out okay.”
George Lucas decided to change Luke Skywalker’s name from something else because of Charles Manson.
“It isn’t new knowledge that Luke Skywalker’s name was originally Luke Starkiller, but what is fascinating (and new to me) is that the name change came because of … the Manson murders? Released in 1977, Star Wars: A New Hope was apparently close enough in time to the killing of Sharon Tate that George Lucas decided that maybe it wasn’t the smartest move to have your hero literally named ‘star killer.'”
Here’s how Hanzo Main from Overwatch went from a simple video game character to a political insult.
“A billboard went up in Orlando, Florida featuring a cartoon image of Donald Trump wearing a gaming headset and shouting into his computer monitor. The accompanying text accused the presidential candidate of “maining Hanzo.” Most of the people who saw it scratched their heads. Maybe a few searched Google and turned up images of an arrow-slinging video game character with a goatee and a man bun.”
Twitter and Reddit are opposing the Trump administration’s mandate that Visa applicants disclose their social media information.
“Twitter and Reddit are supporting a lawsuit that seeks to stop the Trump administration from forcing visa applicants to disclose their social media handles to the US government. ‘The Registration Requirement and its accompanying retention and dissemination policies unquestionably chill a vast quantity of speech,’ the two companies wrote in an amicus curiae brief on Thursday supporting the lawsuit.”
These fifteen books need to be on your summer reading list in 2020.
“What does a summer reading list look like with no beaches to read them on? Frankly, not that different than any other year (for a better, more nuanced, and comedic take on living in extraordinary times, try Jenny Offill’s Weather). The operative word here is “fun,” whatever that means for different kinds of genres and authors, whether it’s a new Stephen King collection of spooky novellas, a must-read take on a Western from a powerful new voice, or a bizarre alt-sci-fi universe where cannibalism is chill.”
Two comedians break down how their comedy acts are reshaped by the coronavirus lockdown.
“Life is funny, even when it isn’t. It’s a conundrum that confronts comedians every day. Except right now, the challenge is a bit more complicated: A public health crisis. An economic crisis. And no live shows. For bilingual comedians Joanna Hausmann and Joe Wong, there’s another challenge: Their audiences aren’t just in the United States. They are two bilingual performers whose comedy is being reshaped by the events of this year.”
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