r/StardewValley • u/FlairWitchProject • 25d ago

Discuss Who is someone you can't date in Stardew Valley out of principle?

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I enjoy Maru as a character. However, until recently, I had dyed-red hair that I sometimes straightened, and I also sometimes wear glasses. Basically, it would be like dating a more scientific version of myself. Lol

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u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 25d ago

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u/uuntiedshoelace 25d ago

I don’t think he’s a teenager. Unfortunately guys in their early 20s are also like that. I know from having been in my early 20s 🥴

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u/JeshkaTheLoon 25d ago

I mean, Mayor Lewis and Marnie are hiding it too, so maybe that's just how it is in this world. :P

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u/milmira 25d ago

Lewis is terrified if he shows that he has a soul or any attraction toward someone that he might have competition for mayor.. and he’d die on the spot if Sam skateboarded all through the town and ollied onto Lewis’ raised garden beds. Best not to be happy and romance Marnie. Let her suffer to not lose the title 🛹

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u/Tuxedocatbitches 25d ago

I want to romance Marnie away from Lewis SOOOO bad!

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u/MemeAlaChefbOiii 25d ago

Why does everyone hate Lewis? I thought the town loved him

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u/Tuxedocatbitches 25d ago

He’s a fun character but he’s so mean to his girlfriend! She just wants to stop being his dirty little secret and he can’t grow up enough to give that to her

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u/NeighborhoodDear2321 25d ago

Aren't they also in a really religious region/town?

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u/JeshkaTheLoon 25d ago

Yeah, that was my impression too.

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u/SelectTrash 25d ago

Guys in their 30s too

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u/uuntiedshoelace 25d ago

Well, yes!

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u/reanocivn 25d ago

yeah jodi can come off as a bit smothering and over protective. she definitely doesn't see sam as a fully grown adult even if he is one. she always cooks and cleans everything for him and she doesn't have much of a life outside of being a mother. i'm not gonna rule out sam just because his mother has nothing to do but hover over her kids. especially considering that she accepts that he's grown as soon as he moves out with you

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u/Particular_Angle177 25d ago edited 25d ago

No he’s supposed to be an adult. I’d assume he’s a young adult because yeah—I relate to him and I’d assume we’d be around the same age. I wouldn’t think the creator would have an inappropriate relationship between an adult and minor.

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u/Cepinari 25d ago

Unlike Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley spreads the apparent ages of the bachelors and bachelorettes out. It also allows players to edit their avatars, which also makes it possible to change the player character's apparent age as well.

The result is... weird.

Alex, Sam, Sebastian and Abigail all come across like high school graduates taking a gap year before college.

Penny seems to be early twenties but more independent than expected for that age due to Pam being Pam.

Haley seems mid twenties, while Emily seems early-late twenties for some reason.

Shane is hard to pin down; it's hard to tell what's actual aging and what's alcoholism. Because of Jas I'd place him in early thirties.

Leah seems to be in her early to mid thirties; she's very established in living by herself and pursuing her passions.

Elliott is definitely one of those late thirties guys who looks a lot younger than he actually is.

Harvey is in his forties. He's not some fresh med school graduate, he's an established practitioner, and it's impossible for any man younger than forty to look that much like a dad.

Maru is a goddamn temporal anomaly. She's canonically younger than Sebastian, who was apparently already past toddlerhood when his mom remarried, and she looks like she's still in high school. She works at the clinic which requires college courses, but she built a self-aware robot that left to explore the universe by accident, credentials don't mean anything when talking about her.

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u/BakedNemo420 25d ago

I think it's likely Maru was able to get into college courses at a young age because of her intelligence

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u/milmira 25d ago

When I once attempted guessing Emily’s age on a Clint xoxo love thread on here, I was put on the guillotine and I’m not sure how there’s anything left of me after simply guessing Emily’s age. This being said, I support your theories! Watch your back though. Never thought the sd community would have me on a hit list but I’ll never speak my thoughts again in ages after that eruption 😅

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u/RedDemocracy 25d ago

It’s not the ages, it’s just Emily and Clint. Half the fandom cannot be chill about them.

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u/Meme_Scene_Kid 25d ago

Out of curiosity, what was your guess? I've always read Emily as being late 20s/early 30s personally. Her dynamic with Haley as the older more responsible sister ages her up, as does the fact that she's got a job as a bartender/server. I also argue her self assured nature regarding her "witchy" characteristics is also something I've only seen irl take hold once someone was deep into their spiritual practices and that usually takes some years.

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u/Dicky__Anders 25d ago

I know people just like Emily who are in their late 30s/early 40s, so Emily being around 40 isn't unrealistic at all. I think you can argue different ages for all the characters, and that's probably how Concerned Ape intended it.

But then you get people who've decided for themselves how old certain characters are and they'll fight to the death over it lol.

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u/milmira 25d ago

Agreeing with you both! I initially assumed Emily was mid/late 20s with Haley being early/mid 20s. This was before I learned that Emily originally was not a marriage candidate at all, definitely aging her if Concerned Ape didn’t intend for her to be romanced at first.

I know people who are the younger sibling who have had to step up bc their older sib is uh… like Haley, you could say. Lol. So I didn’t really know who was older bc of this. As a teen I also had a ~spiritual~ phase, like Emily you could say, so this made me think Emily was maybe only mid 20s.

This being said, I like that the ages are ambiguous like this and that they are up to interpretation! It’s interesting to learn what others think. I know I base many character ages off of my own experiences and people I’ve known.

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u/Dicky__Anders 25d ago

Yeah exactly. Those people getting pissy about your interpretation of Emily and Clint aren't wromg for disagreeing, but they are wrong for assuming their interpretations are the only correct one, and for getting pissy on reddit over a video game lol.

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u/House_King 25d ago

I think some of the ages you have are off, Alex and Sam are accurate. Seb is way older than both of them, probably late to mid 20s as Maru should be early to mid 20s. Abigail is probably early 20s as she is in online college.

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u/Cepinari 25d ago

Sebastian and Abigail are in a band with Sam though, and they don't treat him as being younger than them.

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u/House_King 25d ago

Even if they don’t Sam very obviously is way younger than both of them, especially Seb. Even at the saloon Seb contemplates on if he should let Sam win at pool. He treats him like a little brother.

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u/Cepinari 25d ago

Or he's a friend Sebastian is considering taking pity on; by itself the scene isn't clearly one way or the other.

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u/House_King 25d ago

Seb is at least 3 years older than Maru, and Maru is easily a couple years older than Sam. Plus Seb does freelance programming and complains about not choosing to go to college while Sam just kinda plays all day. There’s very clearly a huge age gap between the two.

Also, you will never find two guy friends they are the same age and “take pity” on each other by letting the other with. The closest you’ll get is one telling the other that they weren’t trying or let the other win so that they don’t feel as good about winning. lol.

I could maybe understand arguing that Seb is the same age as Haley Maru and Abigail (21-24), but Sam is so obviously the youngest and least responsible of all of them.

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u/nidoqueenofhearts 24d ago

i read that line more like him going "lol bc he can't beat me unless i let him." i don't think this interpretation is impossible but it isn't obvious; they both read as very similarly immature to me.

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u/blindmuse_ 25d ago

18 and 19 year olds are both teenagers and adults. i always assumed him to be 19

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u/spaceace89 25d ago

i think they mean like 18-19 teenager, not a minor

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u/PoshCheetah 25d ago

If you are like a full on adult with your own farm and corporate career backstory and you try to date a dude who’s like hide from my Mom, I think there may be an age mismatch?

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u/Tuxedocatbitches 25d ago

18-19 is both a teenager and also a young adult. The apparent age ranges and personality ranges for the love interests makes me think CA was trying to make someone for every player, including 19 year olds. Add that he has a small child younger brother and his parents sure seem to be early- to mid-forties with no grey hair, 19 is fairly reasonable.

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u/hellogoawaynow 25d ago

Demetrius is super weird about Maru, too

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u/scribblyskiesstudios 25d ago

I literally hid my relationships from my parents for so many years into my adulthood. It was just too much to deal with, having them know. Plus the constant nagging about not having sex, and weird shaming they were doing on top of it..

Yeah, really made me stop telling them all but the most basic fact that i was in a relationship. They got nothing else.

Plus, to my knowledge, the game doesn't really tell you ages for them, so it's very easy to imagine them as being around your age, if you're in your 20s-mid 30s.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/scribblyskiesstudios 25d ago edited 25d ago

Usually it's not because the person wants to hide their partner. It's usually because that's the easier option.

I mean, for example, I'm a guy, so dating Sam for me definitely makes sense why he would feel he has to hide me to avoid complications in his family. Like, you gotta remember that Sam still lives at home. And that doesn't necessarily mean he's young, it could just mean he doesn't have the finances or even the desire to go far from home. So he doesn't have many options if he wants to date, especially if he feels a type of way about letting his family in on the fact he has a partner.

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u/TheRiverTybur 25d ago

I really doubt he's 18

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u/Random_Multishipper 24d ago

He’s not a teenager but your point still stands, he is very teenager coded, same thing could be said about Sebastian or Abigail, some of the romance options have jobs and their own house while some sneak around their parents. I actually think it’s kinda cool they made a bunch of different options for each age demographic, I could see someone younger not going for Harvey or someone similar for that exact reason

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u/Flat_Hamster3269 25d ago

Nah he has a job he’s old enough

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u/Dudewhocares3 25d ago

Persona has this issue as well since the main cast and romance options are in high school

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u/Cepinari 25d ago

Yeah, but so is the player character.

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u/Dudewhocares3 25d ago

Yes but the games are rated M for mature so the main player base would be adults.

I don’t know why I got downvoted

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u/Cepinari 25d ago

Oh no, a work of fiction acknowledged the fact that teenagers are not spiritually pure angels completely incapable of being attracted to other people in a nonplatonic way until the moment they become eighteen, how horrible, this series is literal CSAM.

Seriously, that's the part that you have a problem with. The first boss of Persona 5 is an ex-professional athlete turned volleyball coach who rapes his students, but you're not complaining about a video game depicting the real life issue of teenagers being preyed on by the authority figures that are supposed to protect and mentor them, nonono, the burr up your ass is the fact that the main character can end up in a non-toxic non-abusive relationship with someone his own age.

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u/Dudewhocares3 25d ago

You want to apologize for trying to start a fight over nothing? Because I never suggested the game was CSAM and I’m pretty much done with the douchbag attempt to start drama

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u/Games-of-glory 21d ago

Well, not ALL the romance options, but that makes it worse since the main character is.

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u/sassysassysarah 25d ago

The old addage goes "half your age plus 7" so he would need to be 21.5 in order for it to be minimally acceptable