Who is your favorite romance candidate and why? (possible spoilers)

A Junimo

Planter
Trifecta for Penny. My current save is with Abigail but if I'm honest, it was a bit of a chore chasing her around (not as bad as Leah though). And I initially liked Emily but I quickly identified her as one of Matt Groening's Elves to be Avoided, namely "Excessively Happy." (unfortunately this comic is impossible to find online)

And while chasing Abigail, I still ended up interacting with Penny more.

So: Penny best to chase.

But Abigail is still Best Wife.
Fair.
 

A Junimo

Planter
Honestly between the bachelors (excluding Shane, who I *hate*,) I can't decide. They're all both good and bad in their own special ways. That's what humanizes them.
IRL I am a girl and I usually play as one as well, but sometimes I fiddle around with a save where my character is a boy, in which I marry either Maru, Abigail or Penny, because I find them the most relatable.
However, in the end, NO GIRL can beat EMILY. She's a little..... eccentric, and perhaps not the best wife-BUT STILL. Look at that love of life, that blue-tiful (haha,) hair and those dancing skills! The sUpErNaTuRaL mind! Ommmmmm............
And, most importantly; SHE HAS A PARROT.
Look up Cult of the Party Parrot. NOW. Please and thank you.
PARTY. OR. DIE!!!

Anyways, as I said, I can't pick a favorite among the bachelors. It's times like these I'm wondering which guy I should marry. None of them are my ideal husband.
I'm just hoping Witchbrook gives us more options ;).
(Did I mention I am CRAZY excited for Witchbrook? Like, AAAAAAAAAAAA-Jumping-in-my-seat-pulling-my eyes-out-excited?
...
Maybe that was a little gory. And I do like my eyeballs.
But yeah.
 
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Odin

Moderator
Staff member
@A Junimo Just a quick reminder that it's best to keep responses sent at the same time to a single message where possible. You can reply to more than one person in a single message by clicking the reply button on each message you want to respond to :)
 

Ululation

Cowpoke
Maru has become my favorite bachelorette. At first I thought she was kind of bland, and I still think her lack of flaws makes her the least interesting candidate, but I don't know, I just like her personality, and her heart events were very cute to me. Leah probably has the most interesting story, but she and Elliott just feel so disconnected from everyone else in the game that I almost never romance her. My favorites after Maru would probably have to be Penny, because she's interesting and not a hermit, then Leah then Abigail. Emily and Haley are tied for least wife-able.
As for the guys, the only one I've done is Sebastian so I don't really have any thoughts haha
 

Sigrah

Farmer
My List:

#1) Penny: She's the classic sweetheart type of girl, she's traditional in things like helping old people, looking after and educating children, likes skirts over pants, and she's a redhead on top of everything else. I guess I just like old-fashioned, and I really loved her 10 and 14 heart events. Sure her mom is the town drunk, but that's ok, you gotta take the bitter with the sweet sometimes. Plus, I love how Penny and Robin both react when Penny finds out you're the one who paid to have a house built for her mom when she's your wife.

#2) Maru: Although she's kind of a tom-boy type, I love that she's wicked smart and into building things. She's the kind of girl that when you come home to her, you don't know what to expect. She might have dinner ready for you, she might have an interesting story or theory she just came up with, or she might have built something new and awesome to show off. Plus, I *do* love looking at her in her nurse's outfit and how she reacts when you enter the clinic after marrying her.

#3) Abigail: She's a very distant 3rd, and I have to be in the right mood to pursue her. I'm no fan of anything involving the occult, but I love that she's a nerd girl at heart with purple hair, and seeks to be a real life adventurer type. Although she seems to fail at this in her 10 heart event, she does seem to conquer her fears and build confidence when you see her in the mines on rainy days after that event. She also manages to take out a monster when it ambushes you in her 14 heart event, and I like that she ends up becoming a decent fighter. Still, like I said, I can't stand the heavy occult interest she has, and I'd have her tied with Maru for 2nd if not for that.

For Emily, Haley, and Leah, I'm just not into them. Emily is way into New Age stuff, which is just another form of the occult to me, and she's also a hippie type, which I've never been into. Haley turned me off when she behaved like a spoiled brat when we first met, and I really can't stand that crap in real life. True she becomes kinder as you get to know her, but there's just not enough about her to interest me after the spoiled brat routine. And Leah, I'm just not into artsy types at all, especially vegetarian ones. I love to eat chicken and steak, and there's no way we'd see eye-to-eye on that to make it work.

As for the male ones, I'm not into men in real life, so I have no interest in romancing any of them. I wish CA would allow an alternate path for all the marriage candidates where we could just pursue a friendship path at the 6 or 8 heart events, male and female both.
 

Anhaga

Rancher
I'm in the minority, but I like Shane. This is probably because I get Shane, being someone who's dealt with unmedicated depression and being married to someone with anxiety (now mostly controlled by meds). Shane's also in a kind of crap place, having to do the cruddy 9-5 job to finance his real interest of chicken-breeding (this is a legit thing, seriously). And Shane's not at all pretentious or idealistic or naive. That makes him much easier to deal with for me than pretty much any of the other male candidates. I honestly haven't thought much about the female singles, since I don't lean that way IRL.
 

TheBookDragon

Sodbuster
Shane, he's my favorite character and my favorite person to marry. I, too, suffer depression and sometimes I try to push people away, though not as mean as he is, and I also don't drink. I forget my troubles by reading books or playing games. I transport myself into the world I am reading about or playing. And Shane is such a sweet person when he warms up to you. I can just relate to him

I also really like Sebastian and once or twice thought about marrying him especially when I seen his 14 heart event, but I can't stray away from Shane.
 

Neat Games

Planter
More great reads everyone! So cool how he wrote the characters so well! If I play again I might get to know Haley. First thing she said to me was I was dirty haha. Be cool to see her change!

QUESTION: How does marrying work in multiplayer? Can you marry the other real player? Also, can you each choose to marry another NPC?
 

Odin

Moderator
Staff member
How does marrying work in multiplayer? Can you marry the other real player? Also, can you each choose to marry another NPC?
Each player can marry one player or NPC, so yes to your second two questions. Each NPC can only be married once, so often people will to "call" NPCs early on so people don't end up going for the same one. The process for marrying another player works a bit differently, you have to craft a wedding ring (the traveling merchant has the recipe) and give it to the person you want to marry.
 

Chililover

Planter
I guess I've avoided this thread a bit, a lot because I couldn't think of my fav, and more so be cause I feel a bit guilty lol. I'm completely torn between leah and Abigail, I haven't dated either because I don't want to make the other feel like they were 'pawned' I'm a sympathetic person and I kinda hate it, and for the cherry on top, the fortune teller said that I cant play with there emotions of something. I feel like the Grinch lol! But I guess leahs my fav ( oh btw I've never married in sdv lol!)
 
So, I haven't really written an essay about characters yet on this forum, but in the old Chucklefish forums I got the reputation of being The Sebastian Person. There was a thread titled "Why do people like Sebastian so much?" and I made..... such a huge post about it. I thought it'd be fun to reinvent that post, albeit shorter, since it's on topic. Sebastian is my favorite marriage candidate and here's why.

I reference Sebastian's heart events here, it's not detailed but I'm still spoiling since it's a long post

When I first started playing Stardew Valley, none of the characters stuck out to me. No one really struck my fancy, so I was just going to go for the one I thought was the nicest and most approachable, which was Sam. I first met Sebastian in the rain at the beach, and I thought he was a bit too much of a stereotype for me to go for him. He was moody, didn't like talking much, and whenever he did want to talk, he would say gloomy stuff to the point that it was super cheesy. But slow and steady in the game I became friends with everyone, and I saw Sebastian's 2 heart event.

He was immediately my favorite then. The 2 heart event showed that he had a lot more going on than the hair; he was shy, a bit of an introvert, serious about his work, and a little tired of no one taking him seriously. As I got to know him more, I discovered quite a lot more about him, and he became such a well rounded character to me. He enjoys reading comics, likes animals, and he's a bit of a prankster and likes to mess with the status quo a bit. He's surprisingly sweet to people he knows well, and it's pretty obvious when he has feelings for someone, even more than other bachelor/ettes I'd wager. His negatives I find interesting too; I've always seen him as someone more bitter and angry and he has a bit of a mouth on him. He's someone who can go with the flow, but he will put his foot down when he's had enough of it. He's a bit of a pushover when you don't know him well, but after you've built the bond, he will be a lot more firm. To get along with Sebastian, you have to accept he wants to be on his own sometimes, and that he wants control over the few things he owns in his life.

Robin refers to Sebastian as shy, which I always thought was odd because he's one of the more standoffish and borderline rude marriage candidates at first, but with how he changes in talking to you and how he gets bolder, she was totally right. He is a pretty anxious and shy person at first, but opens up later. I found that kind of character refreshing, and in a lot of ways it was like learning about a real person. I think all the characters are written this way, but I connected with Sebastian first and found him the most interesting in getting to know.

Marrying him was even better honestly. I love his dialogue and how he adjusts to being a father himself. He does some self reflection about his relationship with Maru, and it reflects some family issues that I think are really interesting and plan to write an essay about sometime. His 14 heart event really solidifies that he's a gentle person at his core and how the farmer's kindness really helped him open up without removing his introverted nature. I dunno, I never saw him as an 'emo' type after my first impression. There's so much about him to love and 'emo' doesn't cover even 10% of it.
there u go
YES, THIS. This is such a perfect description of Sebastian! He's always been my favorite as well, probably because I see a lot of myself in him but also a lot of my friends and family.

He's also a total nerd, which I LOVE (that D&D event is phenomenal), and I've just always found him to be a kind and gentle person. Being married to him was wonderful for me as well, since it felt like a pretty natural progression of initially pushing the farmer away, slowly opening up to the farmer, becoming close friends with the farmer and/or dating them, marrying them (and being incredibly sweet and happy about it), moving in, then having kids. I love that the farmer also causes him to rethink his negative views about Pelican Town, his family, and people in general (similar to Haley in a way, who I want to romance at one point since she gets super sweet and down-to-earth once you get to know her). Not that he ever really hated anyone, he just wanted to be left alone and didn't understand why people kept bothering him. When you're married to him, he also is so grateful to the farmer for being the breadwinner, allowing him to follow his passions! He just melts my heart and soul, okay, sorry for spewing further, y'all are great, love ya, bye!
 

sapocoto

Greenhorn
Lol I cant choose! I really like all of them! But the ones I least like are Sam and Abigail, yet I still really like them, its just that the other candidates are more interesting tbh.

I identify with Elliott and Leah, Penny is waifu material, I empathize with Sebastian and Shane and Emily makes me so happy :heart::hlevel:
 
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