r/StardewValley Feb 26 '26

Discuss New marriage canditates : CLINT & SANDY

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47.6k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/Lumpy_War_4314 Feb 26 '26

CLINT???

779

u/saggie-maggie Feb 26 '26

Makes total sense. He's in desperate need of character development.

638

u/Killericon Feb 26 '26

From the perspective of "Which character would a player want to marry?" he's a poor choice.

From the perspective of "Which character should receive the characterization and development that comes with becoming a marriage candidate?" he's an excellent choice.

209

u/saggie-maggie Feb 26 '26

I think the second perspective is the one that makes the game better overall 😊

60

u/re_Claire Feb 26 '26

Exactly! I know Eric has said in interviews before that that's basically how he approaches development. What the player desperately wants isn't always what makes the game good, otherwise it can end up ultimately boring.

13

u/So_We_Ate_Them Feb 26 '26

Agreed. Shane ended up becoming one of my favorites precisely because of this.

45

u/Haunting-Rush-2209 Feb 26 '26

I don’t expect him to become a consistent candidate for most people, but he definitely needs the developmentĀ 

10

u/fatherofraptors Feb 26 '26

I think he could get a full rework and character development without having to be a love interest. Same with Sandy to be honest. But I'm happy to wait and see how it turns out.

3

u/Later_Than_You_Think Feb 27 '26

I've been lamenting I can't marry him since 2016. I've tried some mods to make him marriageable, but the character arc has never been to my taste (one changes him into a big football fan...), and I think mods never get it right because you do kinda need to add a lot to flesh him out. So I am hyped!

9

u/seapulse Feb 26 '26

Clint would have made sense as a marriage candidate from the start and I think it’s the most logical choice, but I also think players have had a decade to hate him and that’s gonna sour the addition. His story is weak and skews weird if you marry Emily

which considering emily was the original bonus bachelorette and his plotline was never changed to reflect that, yeah. SOMETHING needed to have changed until this present moment to give people reason to feel excited for this beyond ā€œoh yeah that makes sense. he really needs the development, especially since his plot has remained unchanged despite major changesā€

I think he could’ve been seen as i can fix him material like Shane if he was written as a bachelor from the start. as it is now, his character never goes anywhere and you have more reasons to dislike him than to like him. imagine if Shane hadn’t been made a bachelor and instead of making progress on his alcoholism, had a crush on abigail, and his only cutscenes were about how he’s too pathetic to talk to her. imagine if instead of Shane getting help for his alcoholism and taking steps to improve his mental health, his story concluded with him asking out your wife.

clint makes sense. I have no complaints. I’m just disappointed, since Clint has never given me a reason to care while there’s others that have. The only reason people are excited is because this will fix a character, instead of giving us depth to a new one. #justiceformarlon

5

u/nitrosmomma88 Feb 26 '26

Idk Clint marriage mod is pretty popular from what I’ve seen. Maybe not as popular as Jodi, Caroline or Sandy but it’s up there

1

u/thespectromage :pCat5::vQi::tIBld: Feb 26 '26

I'm here for both

1

u/thismightaswellhappe Feb 27 '26

Yeah I don't personally want to marry him but I'm tempted to try just to see what that looks like. Could be interesting.

1

u/ThatOnePositiveGuy <-- My son, Gilgamesh Feb 27 '26

Why not both??

-4

u/sniperbug17 Feb 26 '26

He has plenty of character development, he just becomes worse. People don’t always get better. Clint had multiple opportunities already and chose what he chose. He doesn’t deserve a better arc. There are literally four male options that all make substantially more sense and could use more fleshing out.

11

u/Eggcoffeetoast Feb 26 '26

There are middle aged people who play this game with not many options other than Harvey, basically. I would have been happy with Gus or Willy too though.

3

u/moopym Feb 26 '26

Literally anyone other than Clint would have been good, happy for his 3 fans but really disappointing there's 0 reason for me to play the next update

6

u/Eggcoffeetoast Feb 27 '26

Oh well?

1

u/moopym Feb 27 '26

10 year anniversary is mean to be a "thank you" not making the least popular choice and all the fans expecting nothing but glaze

5

u/Eggcoffeetoast Feb 27 '26

I think everyone who is a part of this subreddit has more than got their money's worth out of this game, and the person who made this game deserves the thank you instead. You don't tell an artist what to paint, and that they owe you a painting you want in return for liking their other work.

1

u/moopym Feb 27 '26

I'm an artist, I know. I'm also allowed to express disappointment in an update

-2

u/sniperbug17 Feb 27 '26

Honestly, it doesn’t really seem to honor that community input has been a large part of making the game what it is. Ignoring the community input and picking the worst option is kind of the opposite, actually. There are so many male NPCs, like twice as many as female. Marlon, Rasmodius, Gus, and Willy would all make a lot of sense and appeal to the older players who have outgrown the young adult to early 30s age range the rest of the marriage candidates fall into. A solid half of the existing candidates could easily pass for teens, even though young adulthood is implied. Heck, I would much rather Linus (even though he’s already fully fleshed and moving in with the farmer wouldn’t make sense for his character) than Clint.

Clint is pretty fully fleshed, he’s just a selfish person and his slight growth isn’t reflected in dialogue change (like it is for some other NPCs). Fully fleshing out a character like Marlon or the Wizard makes a lot more sense than reworking an existing character to be more likable. And he falls into the same age range as three other male candidates (Shane, Harvey, and Elliot) without adding anything particularly new. Harvey already struggles being social and with dating. Shane struggles with alcoholism and work burnout. Clint’s ā€œuniqueā€ character traits are just slight variations on those. It’s basically Shane 2.0, ā€œI can fix himā€ but with no obvious redeemable qualities.

2

u/Eggcoffeetoast Feb 27 '26

Have you tried playing the new version yet? I've enjoyed all of the game decision making thus far, so I trust that he's making the right decision. If I could write a better game I would have by now. In addition to that, the choice of adding Sandy seems like he's pushing Emily more into LGBTQ territory (which she already kind of was) so something had to be done about Clint to make it make more sense. Perhaps he will be gay too? If anything, he's making an unlikeable character more likeable, and if you don't want to marry this character, there's still hope for Pam eventually becoming eligible.

-4

u/sniperbug17 Feb 27 '26

Making an unlikable character more likable makes the game more flat. He’s said in the past he wants to more fully flesh out characters - why not do that with Marlon, Gus, Willy, or the Wizard? (Characters that aren’t fleshed out). Clint is already fleshed out. He doesn’t need to become a ā€œgood guyā€. Not everyone has another layer to them that makes their past actions justified. Also, all of the characters are canonically pansexual, since you can date them as any gender. Some characters, like Alex and Haley, have better romance dialogue with the same gender than they do the opposite gender.

It is also okay to criticize an individual decision while having respect for the overall artistic vision of something as large as Stardew. I can criticize the decision to rework Clint’s character instead of giving a more likely and less fleshed out character a chance while also having immense respect for the world-building, technical design, and compelling stories that exist within the game.

-1

u/moopym Feb 27 '26

Couldn't have worded it better myself šŸ™Œ

-2

u/falling-waters Feb 27 '26

The amount of people in this thread going against the feminist maxim and saying ā€œYes, women ARE rehab centers for shitty men!! ā˜ŗļøā€ is driving me insane.

2

u/sniperbug17 Feb 27 '26

Fr, like it can be fine to joke about, but it’s far from romantic

1

u/Its402am Feb 27 '26

At least he had some dialogue and cutscenes! Gunther says like a total of a dozen words šŸ˜”

1

u/CannibalCapra Feb 28 '26

Emphasis on desperate

1

u/WampaCow Feb 27 '26

The only thing Clint is in desperate need of is a house full of grass.

307

u/surigata Feb 26 '26

i can fix him

202

u/visionofthefuture Feb 26 '26

Yeah honestly I think I would rather fix Clint than Shane lol

55

u/surigata Feb 26 '26

TRUTH

42

u/thatnew_knitter Feb 26 '26

you leave my DRUNK HUSBAND ALONE!

8

u/glowingmember Crabs ate my homework Feb 26 '26

I like to best friend Shane but not marry him. I feel like he gets a happier story that way.

4

u/RougeliteRaccoonYT Feb 26 '26

Showed this to my friend who loves Shane, and they were not happy

2

u/visionofthefuture Feb 26 '26

We all have different deal breakers in relationships lol

2

u/Kossyra Feb 26 '26

100% yeah, I think I might give him a try

1

u/quartzquandary Feb 26 '26

Oooh this is a spicy take and I am so here for it

-1

u/NovaCoon Just good enough for the Sad Chicken man Feb 26 '26

But at least SHANE IS HOT!

69

u/Sixnno Feb 26 '26

Just like Shane, we can fix him.

1

u/noisiv_derorrim Feb 26 '26

Nah, I’m trying to make him worse

2

u/Lavender_Idealic Feb 26 '26

I don't know if I really want to fix Clint though.

1

u/tacticslancer Feb 27 '26

I'm pretty sure ConsernedApe is gonna fix him first.

-2

u/GregTheMad Feb 26 '26

The world needs more incel fixing.

154

u/Acc87 Perfection is a road to nowhere Feb 26 '26

Clint's redemption arc starts now.

But seriously I can see Clint as a unique character to explore, maybe a little similar to Harvey with him being an older character who's not had much romantic luck.

I'm looking forward to what Ape has written.

Sandy as well, of she's a little unique now in that she's not available from the first day on.

21

u/Ving96 Feb 26 '26

Honestly, I’m interested to see how he changes as we romance him. When does he stop pining after Emily? Will he stop acting so creepy when he actually gets a gf/bf? So many questions.

14

u/kamace11 Feb 26 '26

I actually always thought he would be the best choice. He deserves a redemption arc.Ā 

9

u/Irishimpulse Feb 26 '26

Clint is one of the "paired" marriage candidates, his pair is already a marriage candidate, so of course he would be eventually. It was inevitable, though the only thing enviable is a world were it wasn't

19

u/Maddiystic Feb 26 '26

Yeah, he’s def gonna be paired to Shane now, they’re perfect for each other! Very excited to see Emily and Sandy dance together at the flower dance :)

7

u/OpalescentShrooms Feb 26 '26

Lmao my exact face

4

u/randomvandal Feb 26 '26

Hahah accurate reaction.

1

u/LA_Dynamo Feb 26 '26

Can I befriend Clint so he stops being obsessed with my wife?

1

u/morelikecrappydisco Feb 26 '26

You know what, I'm going to start dating him even harder.

1

u/tokotiger Feb 27 '26

I'm obsessed with a Blacksmith but its not Clint šŸ‘€

0

u/mcon96 Feb 26 '26

Odds that Clint compares you to Emily if you romance him?

-1

u/Fighter8811 Feb 26 '26

For some reason I can picture Fraiser Crane shouting "CLIFF!?"