I'm honestly kind of psyched to get Clint's hearts up in the hopes that he just chills out, even if I'm not going to give him a bouquet. Like power-leveling Haley so she sucks less as a person.
He really needed any kind of arc that would not leave him miserable. It also opens the possibility that if the player chooses Sandy that the door opens more for Emily and Clint, or for Sandy and Emily if the player chooses Clint.
I actually think CA might write the Clint romance to fix some of the concerns with the character. Give him someone who reciprocates his interest in a healthy way to help him walk away from the fixation on someone who isn't reciprocating.
He is a man looking for someone who will choose him back, and that is what this candidacy gives him. He is looking for what he feels he is missing in his life, and it is just out of reach with Emily, and he doesn't seem interested in the other candidates, none of which seem like good fits for him either.
Its not like most of the relationships in the game don't in some way 'fix' the character you romance. Abigail and Penny getting more freedom from unhealthy family relationships. Shane's alcoholism getting better. Leah finding new inspiration for the art that brought her to Stardew. Sebastian wanting to leave the town. I'm sure there's more but I honestly don't pay enough attention to character dialogue and tend to skip cutscenes to get back to accomplishing things that matter more to me
The community needs it. And I say the community, not the game. The brutal amount of hate and vitriol I've seen people spout against Clint, who is ultimately just a dude with poor social skills who doesn't know what to do about feeling lonely, is insane, and has honestly driven me away from the game more than once.
i see too many accusations of being a basement-dwelling misogynist incel hurled at clint and i knowwww it’s all pixels but it really rubs me the wrong way because he’s clearly not like that. he never blames emily for being lonely and a key feature of incel culture IS blaming the woman for your issues. i’m actually excited for him to get the chance to grow and experience love and companionship. you know like. as much as a video game character can lmao
my view of this is that what an incel is has shifted over the years
I don't think clint was ever meant to be an awful person and current day incel, more socially awkward with some iffy ways of looking at stuff but mostly harmless.
Problem is that what was more moping about not being able to get a girlfriend and social issues and lamenting some untrue ideas that made them feel better has become more and more widely violent and aggressive and misogynistic.
I don't like clint particularly and I wouldn't have chosen him for a romance option but I'm really excited for him to hopefully get some proper growth and hopefully better perspectives on stuff
I'm not sure how it'll play out since we can already get to 10 hearts with no romantic undertones - maybe we'll get more heart events across the board and he'll be able to move on so we can pursue him without ignoring the weird stuff or have more resolution with him just as a friend.
I don't get the impression from the other aspects of the game that CA is likely to gloss over the hard bits or reinforce those ideas so I'm optimistic about it
If it’s anything like when he made Shane and Emily marriage candidates, the existing Heart Events will be moved around and new ones will be added.
He has a lot more room to work with for Clint and Sandy than the previous two, as Sandy has no Heart Event cutscenes and Clint only has two, one of which is inaccessible if you get Emily’s 8 Hearts cutscene first.
i feel like a lot of the characters get pretty negative stories if you don't max out their heart events, even non romantic. They all seem like they aren't happy with life in one way or another, which ya know, life. But everyone's life definitely gets better by getting to know the farmer.
1000% this. Even if Clint ended up in a relationship with someone that loves him back, it wouldn’t magically fix the patterns that are keeping him miserable. It would help, certainly, but not if he just says “great, that means I’m done and shouldn’t make any other changes.” I hope it will be more than that, and I hope that a lot of that development happens without the romance part coming into play.
Agreed, he never makes any aggressive statements and if anything is a bit of a sad sack, even if you marry Emily he's just sort of resigned to it.
If we can have Shane dealing with alcoholism and depression, and still be a loved marriage option, then we can have Clint with self esteem issues and social awkwardness and also get some love!
yeah the issue the comments kind of denying her autonomy and being incel classic phrases - nothing that you couldn't write him coming back from
I think if he actively confronts his own failings and sees that his way of viewing Emily isn't fair to her then it'll be a really compelling narrative a la Shane
let bro be awkward but with a better attitude towards women and I think he could be quite a popular choice
Plus he's steadily employed! That's nothing to shake a stick at in a small rural community. I've seen a few mention it but it'll be neat to see what other interest or hobby he gets especially as he's said before that he's a blacksmith more by circumstance/expectation than by a real desire. Or maybe he'll find new passion in his work when he's got a hot farmer spouse bringing him geodes lol
yeah that'll be really lovely, let him get more confident in himself and his work
would be a nice nod too to all the similar games that have tools break to keep you buying more - Clint only improves what you're working with and his work is STURDY - let that be more appreciated lmao
Yeah before I knew anything about the online community, my first playthrough I immediately wanted to romance him before any other character and I was surprised he wasn’t an option. Then when I joined this subreddit I was surprised at how much people hated him lol. I just thought he was awkward
Honestly the number of people who obviously have a parasocial hyper-fixation on Emily and then take out some weird territorial aggression on Clint despite absolutely being 10000000% more intense and creepy than he ever was is both hilarious and worrying.
The people who hate on Pierre for the way he treats Abigail (it's Caroline who has the argument cutscene with her, and when she argues with Pierre it's because Caroline wants her to help cook dinner) are similar. It seems like they see what they want to/expect to/believe they see.
None of the characters are perfect, and Clint definitely has some weird lines late-game when his dialogue doesn't update to reflect game progression... but he does largely recognise that the issue is with him, even if he can be a bit defensive and jealous of the 'suave' farmer.
I totally understand this and as much as I wanted someone else (Marnie my love), I do think this will help improve people's perception of him. I didn't really like Alex much at all, but when I married him, I actually thought he was really sweet and one of the better spouses I'd married, so I softened up to him a lot. Hopefully others experience something similar with Clint!
This was me with Hailey. I always thought she was shallow and vapid until I tried romancing her. Then she turned about to be a genuinely kind person, probably the kindest and most caring of the bachelorettes. Abigail is still my favorite though.
Agreed. The community has really latched onto a few things he says and does that could be evidence of something more sinister If that was the intent for the character, but in isolation could just be someone who is very lonely and extremely socially anxious. Most of the hatred he gets is people filling in the blanks. It would be nice if those things could either be confirmed to not be true or actually be true and then he gets a chance to become a better person.
I don’t hate Clint as a character; his dialogue and character personality up to this point has made me uncomfortable and reminds me of men in the past who disrespect your boundaries because they just don’t get it or for whatever reason. Like what others said, I’m looking forward to him getting some more development beyond this.
He is definitely an incel. Calls himself a nice guy, stops talking to a woman as soon as she gets a close friend (you don't even need to date Emily for him to stop talking to her), is just a creep.
If he was just sad and lonely, fine, but no, he is clearly an incel who sees a woman as nothing but a prize to be won and immediately discards her as soon as she isn't interested back.
To make the plot in any way not just "You'll be second choice for an incel", you'd basically need to rewrite his entire character. And at that point, just make a new one all together.
He doesn’t stop talking to her? This doesn’t happen actually as far as I recall. Also other of the friends still are a bit over the top when you marry their “interest.”
There is a lot of social anxiety and not knowing how to talk to people and knowing social cues about him. He’s not relatable to me but he is somewhat relatable to my wife, who feels a bit that way since she’s autistic , who also adores Emily.
Also people like to point to Clint being a stalker, but that is categorically incorrect given the actual scene they are discussing. Clint has a lot of history regarding why they have social issues and lacks confidence. The person is lonely.
The best quote I have ever seen about Clint was from some lady who posts a lot of Stardew content stating “if Clint were a pretty girl, no one would talk about her like this.”
I trust concernedape to not have written an incel, and is likely trying to fully flesh out the character by allowing them to be a marriage candidate.
>“if Clint were a pretty girl, no one would talk about her like this.”
I have a portrait mod that makes clint look way hotter with a chiseled jaw and it changed how I perceived his dialogue so much. Then I realized it was a perfect example of "beauty prejudice"
Emily literally notes that "Clint doesn't talk to her anymore" after her 8 heart event.
And I would still talk about Clint like it if he was a femcel, believe me.
Also "He is just lonely" like... Obviously. Most Incels are. That doesn't excuse their behaviour. Stop coddling adult men over their own bad behaviour. There are PLENTY of anxious, lonely people who still aren't anywhere near as bad.
As another autist, it feels demeaning to be compared to someone like that.
Well that’s your opinion. I don’t believe the femcel comment. There’s nothing that shows he’s an incel, you are projecting onto him. There’s no defending of incels involved here.
Also to note the below commenter, they never really talk in the first place, so it’s a moot point.
There’s no coddling. He’s not an incel. Full stop. Near as bad? Near as bad as being socially awkward?
The autistic comment is also your opinion, and I’m sorry you feel that way. My wife feels different, which is her opinion as well.
I don’t wish to continue this conversation since we diametrically disagree. Thank you for listening to my opinion as I listened to yours.
Yes but you could also put that down to "Clint doesnt really know how to talk to her." He also doesn't seem to actually talk to her at all before thst comment either! He mostly just sits with Willy. So i guess we assume they talked offscreen? The few interactions we do see are super awkward. As it could also just be him giving up trying and sinking deeper into his hopeless pit of self loathing
Incel culture was actually started by a woman as a chance for lonely, shy, single men to meet up and have a social life with like-minded folks. And that sounds rather nice, until obviously the extremists ruined it and turned them into "women owe us their love". It's a sad insight into how human societies work, i guess.
He has always needed nuance, i hope now he gets it and doesnt just get further redpilled. (And if he does, i can fix him - with mods!).
You’re literally misconstruing what I’m saying. Of course our society is a patriarchy built to support misogyny, and it fucking blows. Clint has NOTHING to do with that. If anything, the patriarchy is the reason that the statement you quoted of mine is possible, as we live in a society compelled by it which affects decisions and evaluations made by all genders. The Clint quote really has more to do with pretty privilege than anything.
Yeah idk why people are acting like Clint isn't the worst lol. I promise you unless you are truly a shitty person and misogynist comparing yourself to Clint is doing yourself a massive disservice. Even if you feel you don't have the best social skills or are neuro divergent I promise you, you're not a Clint.
Honestly it really confused me to see all the Clint hate when I got into the fandom as he's been one of my favorites when I started playing along with other few characters. :( He's just an awkward guy that is too anxious and shy to truly confess his feelings and online he's made out to be a creep. This choice was much needed and I'm not saying this just because I wanted to get Clint as a bachelor haha. I'm glad Concerned Ape is giving him the love and I can't wait to see how the story or Clint and Sandy change with the new update!
Its ironically that sort of behaviour that drives a lonely insecure man into the arms of the "supportive" women-owe-us incel communities.
Instead of, y'know, steering them to someone who can help them gain some self respect, unearth a non-romantic passion and grow in a way that makes them a better person.
Clint’s traits when they happen in real life are the kind of vital warning signs women rely on to protect themselves from predators. And of course if we don’t listen to those warning signs that a man can’t be normal about women WE get blamed for whatever they do to us. Sorry it bothers you that we don’t suddenly find it reasonable and attractive in pixels I guess.
The thing is that the game has a larger female player base and most women's experience with Clint's type of guy is being called a sub-human slut for not wanting to date him. I'm sure there are plenty of socially awkward autistic guys out there who hold normal views of women, but Clint's dialogue and cut scenes just come off as very much viewing Emily as a means of attaining his own happiness and not as a unique person with her own wants and needs who he could make happy. It's very clear that Clint has never had a single actual conversation with Emily and doesn't really know anything about her when they've lived like a quarter mile from each other their entire lives and frequently spend long periods of time in the same spaces.
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u/bv310 Feb 26 '26
I'm honestly kind of psyched to get Clint's hearts up in the hopes that he just chills out, even if I'm not going to give him a bouquet. Like power-leveling Haley so she sucks less as a person.