Stardew Valley title screen
Last week, the creator of Stardew Valley, Eric Barone (better known as ConcernedApe) celebrated the game's 10th anniversary with a retrospective video. Near the end, Barone revealed who the two newest marriage candidates were. This article will contain multiple spoilers for discussing who these new marriage candidates are, as well as in-game spoilers for our current selection of candidates, so read at your own discretion.
In the original release of Stardew Valley, there were 10 marriage candidates: five men and five women. In 1.1, two more candidates were added. Each marriage candidate has their positives and negatives depending on what you like about them and based on their heart events. When you first meet the townspeople, they all seem pretty one-dimensional. For example, Sebastian seems like the stereotypical emo loner type and Alex is just the jock and Haley is the blonde popular girl. As you go through their stories, it becomes clear that these characters have more to them than typically meets the eye.
In Barone’s video for 1.7, the newest marriage candidates were revealed to be Clint and Sandy. Obviously, some fans were disappointed, but I wasn’t that surprised since Clint is the only person in Pelican Town. Pelican Town did not have romanceable options within the young adult category. Sandy is from the Desert, which was also void of young adult love interests. You need to unlock the bus station to be able to visit and interact with her. I find it nice that you need to work to unlock the ability to romance her since she is not in Pelican Town.
Many people were happy to learn that Sandy would be the new female marriage candidate. In the poll for version 1.1 where Emily and Shane were added as candidates, Sandy acquired about one fifth of the votes, meaning her addition was inevitable. At the same time, people were giving mixed reviews about Clint. Some were simple comments about preferring other candidates. Others pointed out that maybe if they married Clint he’d lay off Emily, noting how while the player is married to Emily, Clint will still yearn for her. For anyone unfamiliar with the game, other villagers do have preestablished relationships, and the game hints that some of them would become couples if the player did not move in and marry a particular townsperson. Clint’s personality is a big factor as to why many people dislike him; however, I hope that I can play devil’s advocate for not just Clint, but other candidates who’ve been misunderstood.
As mentioned previously, Clint still yearning for Emily even after she’s married has been dubbed "creepy." Now, Clint is not the only singular marriage candidate who has had issues. People have problems with Elliot’s ten heart event because he takes you on a boat ride and kisses you, and you are given a dialogue option to either reject or reciprocate the feelings. People had issues with the idea of Elliot taking you on a trip to secluded waters and kissing you, but Sebastian’s ten heart event is very similar. Sebastian takes you on his motorcycle into the mountains and confesses his feelings, leading to him kissing you, but with no dialogue option to reject. Harvey’s event is also very similar in nature.
I understand that Sebastian is a fan favorite character. He was the first one I ever went after, but the circumstances are very similar except for the difference in popularity between the characters.
Do the circumstances matter? I don’t think so, since Elliot has shown himself to be a certified lover boy and Harvey is on the older side of the bachelors, so they are different from Sebastian’s young loner personality. Personally, I think anything is better than being confronted by Leah’s ex or having Demetrius be vaguely threatening and overprotective of his daughter when you are just trying to be friendly. But, I digress. It's not about them; it's about Clint.
I will admit, I don’t like Clint. I get that he’s a socially awkward guy who’s very self-deprecating, and his interactions with Emily show unrequited feelings. She majorly friendzones, him but I am looking forward to seeing him be redeemed. Will I go and try to marry him? Maybe later, but I need to see what Barone does to Clint. Unlike other townspeople, he’s getting a redemption. He seems like he was forced into becoming a blacksmith, and while he’s very helpful, maybe there’s more to him and his hobbies. He could be a misunderstood guy, or maybe he really is horrible, but I think Barone wants to remake Clint into someone that people could genuinely see as a suitable marriage candidate (until we get Gus, Merlin or even the Wizard, or the ability to break up Robin and Demetrius). Not everyone will be happy with the game decisions, but I am looking forward to seeing a new side of Clint and for him to become more developed, as I hope with Sandy. I think these two deserve greater characterization instead of Barone creating new marriage candidates for us. The best part is, it’s completely optional, so it doesn’t really matter in the long run.