Early Christmas List Thoughts

 

1.)    Hyrule Warriors; Age of Calamity for the Nintendo Switch-Originally, this spot was going to the WWE Fighting game, but I’ve been soured on the organization since Vince McMahon doesn’t want the athletes to have YouTube accounts and Xavier Woods’ UpUpDownDown videos with Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Bayley, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch was the first time I laughed in November 2016, it was the medicine I needed at that time.  Raw Women’s Champion Asuka also has a YouTube channel where she assembled a Capcom collection arcade machine and made her own strawberry jam, and losing these doesn’t make me want to give the organization money at the moment.  Plus, this game covers the war 100 years before the Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild game, aka the Zelda game where Zelda wears pants.  Characters such as Urbosa the Gerudo, Mipha the Zora and Daruk the Goron have also been popular among fans and even appeared as Spirit Battles in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Zero Suit Samus playing Urbosa, the pink Inkling playing Mipha and Donkey Kong with an Ore Club playing Daruk while Link and Zelda played themselves.  (Yes, I know there’s a Rito character named I believe Raphtali and he was played by Falco)  Hopefully, in this game, you will not be the only competent soldier in a mission, thus requiring you to be in multiple areas at once, like in Hyrule Warriors Legends for the 3DS.

2.)    Black Stone Cherry-The Human Condition CD: Black Stone Cherry is one of the best Southern Rock Bands in existence today, and I’m not just saying that because Billy Ray Cyrus endorses them and appeared in their music video for “The Rambler.”  With catchy hooks like “Cheaper To Drink Alone,” guests like Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and a mix of redneck partying and respect for all people, regardless of skin color or background, Black Stone Cherry carries the flag Lynyrd Skynyrd started.  They’ve toured with acts as varied as Skynyrd and Halestorm and even covered Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” in tribute to Lemmy.  This new album looks to take on our current divisiveness and political problems the way non-racist Southerners should from its first single.

3.)    Bon Jovi-2020 CD: If there’s a rock band saying what I’m thinking this year, it’s Bon Jovi.  It’s amazing how the New Jersey veterans of the 80s can put into words through their singles the feelings I find hard to put down.  Two of their better songs for this album, “Unbroken” and “American Reckoning” cover two sides of the American coin, the soldiers sent to war in the Middle East, coming back wounded, hearing of their buddies committing suicide, and yet, they outright state the experience of gaining these comrades, these brothers, was worth more than the pain and trials afterwards.  American Reckoning tackles the murder of George Floyd, asking us what we as Americans are to do when confronted with a truth we have been to comfortable ignoring.  “I see a shirt on a 12-year-old who hasn’t lived life yet/’Am I next?’/’Am I next?’”  Hopefully, the combined efforts of men and women nationwide can dismantle systemic racism and end police brutality.  As Dee Strange-Gordon says, “We’re human, man, we just want to be equal, we don’t want to be better.”

4.)    USB CD Drive: There are several CDs I have I want to partially burn onto my laptop into iTunes.  Most of these had no digital source, so it’s impossible to get the MP3s onto my phone and I actually lost my iPod some time ago, so this would be the only way to listen to these songs on the go.  I’d also need to prioritize some of these CDs and songs if I get this.

5.)    RWBY Vol. 7 DVD: Thus far, the pre-order only lists Blu-Ray and I’m hoping that changes.  RWBY Vol. 7 is important to me as it is the volume where Yang and Blake are fully out of the closet and enjoying a lesbian relationship.  They remind me of friends of mine from my Church.  This volume also covers political commentary, but it shows that behind the awful decisions that hurt so many in this series lies fear, the opposite of love.  The ending asks who you will become when you’re afraid, challenging that we do not become the very monsters we fight out of fear of them.  I don’t quote Nietzsche often, but he was right when he said, “whoever fights monsters must take care that in the process, he does not become a monster.”