Headscratchers / Stardew Valley

Parental Favoritism

• How bad is the Parental Favoritism in the Robin/Demetrius household? From what we get to see, Sebastian is almost totally ignored: Demetrius will sing Maru's praises all day long, but is completely silent on Sebastian. Maru can't be that much younger than her brother so you would think Demetrius would have something to comment on, even if it was negative. Meanwhile, Robin is regularly out on the town with her husband, but most of her dialogue is about her work — she doesn't say much about either of her children beyond a heads up on their likes/dislikes. Very few of the villagers comment on anyone outside their immediate circle (for example, Alex and Haley largely ignore Sebastian, Sam and Abigail), so the lack of info on Sebastian's background stands out.
  • It's not entirely clear what their relationship is like. Sebastian mentions that Demetrius ignores him and once told him to tear down his snowgoon, but there is a book on step-parenting in Demetrius and Robin's room that suggests that Demetrius is trying (or had previously tried) to establish a relationship with his stepson. If Demetrius's relationship with Sebastian is really that bad he might not feel it appropriate to talk to someone outside the family about it, but on the other hand, there's a theory that Demetrius has a limited ability to empathize and simply doesn't know how to approach Sebastian, especially when he leans towards favoring cold hard logic while Sebastian is comparatively more emotional. On the other hand, it might be mostly in Sebastian's head, because he also lacks the ability to connect with his father and sister due to their vastly different interests and thus sees himself as an outsider to the family.

Pam's drinking

• Is no-one slightly concerned that the town's bus driver is an alcoholic? Pam doesn't seem to have given up drinking heavily just because she's employed again...
  • People don't seem to use the bus very much anyway, given Sandy's reaction to your visits. Part of it is probably the small-town mindset, but it could also be that they just don't want to put their lives in the hands of a lush.

Lewis and his relationship

• Why is Lewis trying so hard to hide his relationship with Marnie? Why would the mayor having a girlfriend or even a wife undermine his authority? Keeping it a secret and having it accidentally be revealed to everyone seems more likely to cause a scandal than just flat out saying "Marnie and I are dating now." Why would a politician having a relationship be such a big deal? Also, what with all his concern about secrecy, why does he bring in a third party to "discreetly" find his lucky shorts when it would've been much more efficient to just ask Marnie?
  • Probably because of his Married to the Job tendencies and being (self-described) "old-fashioned". As a public figure, he presumably thinks that an affair with a simple farmer would make people start questioning his reliability as a mayor. If no one else, Morris could potentially call him out and accuse him of bias or some other politically damning rhetoric, just to try and sink Joja Corp's claws a little deeper into the town in the event that Lewis is actually forced to resign.
  • One interpretation is that he gets you to do his dirty work for him because he just wants to keep the relationship physical, hiding behind less selfish sounding excuses while he knows poor Marnie wants more.
  • I don’t think he knows his shorts are at Marnie’s. He just knows he misplaced them and wants someone to bring them to him discreetly because publicly handing someone their underwear is embarrassing.
  • Perhaps he thinks that the town's top public official being in a relationship with a prominent local business owner could be seen as a conflict of interest.

Joja's Motivations

• Why is the Joja Corporation even here, in this small town with few people and fewer businesses?
  • You, the player, should be able to answer this question yourself in 2-3 years when you look at the sheer amount of money you make from farming, ranching, mining, and fishing. Joja doesn't give a flip about the town, they want the resources. They can't just take over because the Governor is fond of the town, so they're trying to sneak in the back-door by using Joja Mart to bankrupt Pierre and buying the Community Center from Lewis so that the town becomes dependent on them.
  • Joja smells profit in redeveloping the town. Consider how much money it costs to fill out the entire form - if they can suck that kind of money out of the townsfolk, that's worth sending Morris in to oversee reconstruction. Stealing Pierre's business is just gravy.
  • Joja does not merely have a supermarket there, but they also attempted to re-establish mining (and failed) an established Internet service to the town.

The Community Center Bundles

• What on earth do the Juminos want with all that money that's been given?
  • The money bundles are located where the vault is. What is a vault used for? Storing money. A vault would not be very efficient if it was an empty safe, after all.
  • Boring, and slightly amusing answer: The Juminos actually bought all the "rewards" from Joja Corp.
  • Power comes in many forms, and not all spells are cast equal. Some spells are Cast from Money in order to satisfy the law of Equivalent Exchange.

Jas and Shane

• If Shane is Jas' legal guardian and godfather (a rare piece of dialogue from Jas confirms it outright), shouldn't she also move in with you if you marry him?
  • Jas decided to stay at Marnie's ranch, both due to living arrangements (she has her room there, all her stuff is there, etc) and emotional attachment (she's lived there for a long time and may not 100% be keen on moving to a new house). Or, as another possibility, Shane and Marnie are letting Jas live with Marnie until such a time as Shane has really gotten his life together (kicked his drinking, gotten his depression well under control, and found a stable job to support Jas and himself)
  • Maybe it's Shane and Marnie who are their guardians. And if you marry Shane, part of the arrangement(s) being made is about whether or not Jas will move in with Shane or stay with Marnie.

Penny's House

• Where on earth does Pam sleep? Does she just pass out drunk wherever she is?
  • Most trailers of the size of Penny and Pam's will have one master bed (which is occupied by Penny), and one or two pull-out beds from the trailer's kitchen table or couch. Failing that, well, aforementioned couch.

Shane's 6 Heart and Loved Gifts

• At the end of Shane's 6 heart event, Shane says that he's seeing a councilor to help him with his drinking problem. It is logical to assume that said councilor will want him to attend some form of support group. A standard requirement for these kinds of groups is that you abstain totally from your substance of abuse. Why doesn't Shane's Loved gifts change to make Beer, Pale Ale and Wine hated gifts?
  • Not all support groups require you to entirely abstain, and in fact studies have shown that partaking in moderation is usually more effective at treating substance abuse (and particularly alcoholism) than going cold turkey.
  • It's possible that his drinking was mainly a symptom of his depression, and once he found some effective counseling he feels better in general and is able to have a drink or two without losing control. In his 7 heart event at Marnie's he says he's cut back on his drinking as he has been feeling happier.

Shane's Job

• If you complete the Community Center and drive Joja out of town, Shane will talk about how he now lost his job and has no means to financially support Marnie and Jas. Why doesn't he go work for Pierre? Or do anything else, given the abundance of ways the player can find ways to make money? Even if Pierre is out as an employer, the latter part of Shane's arc reveals that he's started raising chickens. Why can't he start selling eggs?
  • Well... it's Shane. His colossal lack of motivation is his constant undoing, and everyone in town knows he's a strung out alcoholic. Pierre might not need the help; even if everyone in town shops at his store, that's not very many people to keep him busy, and as for the eggs, again there's probably not enough people in town to support both Marnie and Shane selling them.
  • Shane gets a Saturday job at Pierre’s, but presumably Pierre just can’t offer him more hours.

The Farmer and Grandpa

• Grandpa seemed to see a kindred spirit in you, and even went so far as to leave them the deed to his treasured farm. So far, so good. However, nobody in Pelican Town has ever met you before, so it seems unlikely, if not impossible, that they ever visited it before moving there. Given how many families in real life send their kids to spend time with their grandparents elsewhere, why not?
  • It might just be the case that Grandpa preferred to visit you and their parents rather than have them come to him. This could be for a number of reasons, one perhaps being that your parents weren't very well-off and didn't have enough time and/or money to visit. Also, considering how dilapidated the farm looks at the start of the game, Grandpa may have moved away from Stardew Valley decades ago (possibly even before the Farmer was born) and never returned, and was living with your parents at the time of his death, perhaps due to declining health.
  • It is established in Before the Farmer that the player did visit Grandpa's farm at least once in their childhood and seemed to enjoy it. However,we only see the player exploring the woods and farm, so it may be that the player preferred traipsing through the outskirts over meeting people.

Linus and his love of nature.

• Linus professes to love nature, but I really find his actions somewhat contradict that. While he does live off the land, he also spends time rooting through the towns trash cans looking for food. In winter, in order to stay warm, he stays in the sauna. For someone who claims to disdain town living, he relys a lot on it. The guy has access to fishing and forage for food, and he has a firepit to keep warm. Why isn't he making use of that?
  • There are hints that Linus is in denial about disliking his living situation, and puts on a defiant act to avoid pity. At the same time, he doesn't want to appear weak, and stubbornly sticks to his pride even when he has access to better options, such as living in a tent in the backwoods rather than the three, at the beginning of the game, abandoned buildings in the valley. (The farm, the community centre or the abandoned house in the forest)
  • Ultimately jossed when he meets up with Leo, speaking parrot. Linus isn't in denial, but has adapted too much to nature to go back to big city life. It is the same for some people who spent so long in and adapted too well to the military, that they suffer health problems when they leave.

Joja's Seed Prices

• So all of the seeds in Joja Mart are more expensive than at Pierre's store... except for sunflower seeds (which cost 125g at Joja compared to 200g at Pierre's). Why, exactly?
  • Raw sunflower seeds can be bought as typical groceries, so they're probably part of their normal stock. Every other seed has to be special-ordered because a supermarket isn't gonna carry crop seeds normally.

Shane, Marnie, and Jas's family tree

• How does Marnie, Shane, and Jas's family tree work? Is Marnie perhaps Shane's aunt, and Jas's great aunt?