Stardew Theory Thread! (Warning: May Contain Spoilers)

[Lemon_Stone]

This thread is exactly what it says on the tin, a place to share and debate theories pertaining to the world of Stardew Valley. Given the nature of this thread, those who enter it should be forewarned of the possibility of encountering spoilers. Anyways, to get this started, here are some theories of my own!

What Dwarves look like (contains 1.5 spoilers):

Spoiler

Okay, I think we all know at this point that the Dwarves are aliens, but what kind of aliens are they? What do they look like? Well, in my personal opinion, I believe there is evidence to suggest that they are at least relatively humanoid, albeit with vaguely cat-like traits, such as large eyes and ear shape. The evidence:
A) Journal Scrap #5- "I've seen little men with glowing eyes, skittering about in the dark… like cats in the night."
B) The glowing eyes of the Dwarves could potentially be tapetum lucidum, which is something that cats have.
C) It would make sense for Dwarves to at least be loosely based on something that can see well in the dark, and cats definitely fit that bill.
D) If Dwarves had cat-like ears, it would certainly explain the nubs on their hoods/helmets.
E) What is it that the Dwarf is curious about? Milk.

The Dwarf is not male (contains 1.4 spoilers):

Spoiler

The Dwarf's gender has been a subject of speculation for a while. Personally, I do not think that the Dwarf is male. They are either female, or possibly even neither. The evidence:
A) The Dwarf is never once officially referred to with masculine language both in-game and out.
B) At the Fair, Welwick, the Fortune Teller, refers to the Dwarf with feminine language. Now, the Wiki has this listed as a bug on the page for the Fair, but I am inclined to disagree with this assessment for a few reasons. First of all, if this is due to Welwick's dialogue not being able to pull neutral language for an undefined gender, then why is neutral language properly pulled when bringing the Dwarf as a guest to the Movie Theater? Secondly, to my knowledge, this has never been officially confirmed to be a bug, and if it is a bug, then it's definitely been in the game for a long while now. Finally, there's just something that feels significant about Welwick, the Fortune Teller, who knows Rasmodius, who knows the Dwarf, referring to the Dwarf in this way.
C) Aside from the Movie Theater, out of game, most namely in patch notes, the Dwarf is referred to with neutral language. And, as mentioned before, the Dwarf's gender is "undefined" in the game code. This could certainly be because the Dwarf is neither male nor female. Or, alternatively, the subject of the Dwarf's gender could be a plot point someday, and listing it that way in the code could be a smart way to prevent data miners from spoiling it. In my opinion, I lean slightly more toward the idea of the Dwarf being female, but that could go either way, just not male.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

The dwarves (and monsters) could be native and the humans are aliens. The length of the year and the world map clearly show that it's not Earth. On Earth, the meteorite that extincted the dinosaurs left a layer of iridium in the fossil record. Iridium meteors fall in Stardew Valley as well but didn't make dinos extinct. It must have been a very long time ago that people colonized this planet, long enough to forget their origins. And long enough for an artifact like the bone flute to fossilize, which takes ten thousand to a hundred thousand years. I believe it is Abigail's. I mean, she never ages, no one does, she could be that old.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I've written about this before but I wanna try again and see if it comes out differently this time.

Pelican Town and the whole of Stardew Valley exists in a pocket dimension attached at irregular times to the reality of the rest of the world in the Ferngill Republic. Entrance into the Valley is by invitation only, though there are few restrictions on the form of that invitation, only that it must come from someone who has lived there before. It seems that visitors can wander in at various times for Festivals and that may even serve as an evaluation period to see if the visitor is appropriate future townie material.

People who are invited have a need. It could be personal, emotional, motivational, social. Or... not enough chickens in your life? Hey, society takes all kinds! Once invited, that does not expire as the Valley will make room for you, partitioning a 4 Corners Farm if needed. Or apparently a JojaMart. Yes, even Morris was invited.

People from Town can exit at irregular intervals but the nature of living there suppresses that impulse somewhat, so Seb wants to explore and Haley wants to shop, but those trips are few and far between. Some people leave, possibly when their needs have been fully met. Grandpa clearly did, as have Emily and Haley's parents. It's implied that other missing adults also left for points beyond at some point.

So.

Stardew Valley is rehab, then. Just like the game is for many of us.

 

[WhiteEagle12]

I've written about this before but I wanna try again and see if it comes out differently this time.

Pelican Town and the whole of Stardew Valley exists in a pocket dimension attached at irregular times to the reality of the rest of the world in the Ferngill Republic. Entrance into the Valley is by invitation only, though there are few restrictions on the form of that invitation, only that it must come from someone who has lived there before. It seems that visitors can wander in at various times for Festivals and that may even serve as an evaluation period to see if the visitor is appropriate future townie material.

People who are invited have a need. It could be personal, emotional, motivational, social. Or... not enough chickens in your life? Hey, society takes all kinds! Once invited, that does not expire as the Valley will make room for you, partitioning a 4 Corners Farm if needed. Or apparently a JojaMart. Yes, even Morris was invited.

People from Town can exit at irregular intervals but the nature of living there suppresses that impulse somewhat, so Seb wants to explore and Haley wants to shop, but those trips are few and far between. Some people leave, possibly when their needs have been fully met. Grandpa clearly did, as have Emily and Haley's parents. It's implied that other missing adults also left for points beyond at some point.

So.

Stardew Valley is rehab, then. Just like the game is for many of us.

Wow, that's an interesting and in-depth theory. I haven't ever really thought about many or any big theories like that lol. Pretty cool idea though.

 

[Lemon_Stone]

I came across this Stardew Valley iceberg video and was excited to see the "Sebastian's father is a Shadow Person" theory on there, but then it seemingly got accidentally skipped over. That disappointed me a little because it's one of my favorite theories, and it's one that holds a lot of water when you really think about it. For one, there's his favorites gifts, which include void eggs, volcanic obsidian, and pumpkin soup. Then you have the fact that he has black hair, dark eyes, dresses all in black, lives in the basement, and mainly comes out when it's dark or raining. Finally, there's this dialogue you can get if you have two children with him: “I've had this recurring dream that [child] is wearing a shadow shaman costume and sitting on a glowing pumpkin. Weird, huh?”

But what happened to Sebastian's father if this is the case? Why isn't he in the picture? Well... I think the answer lies in this housemate dialogue from Krobus: “If the other shadow people knew about our living arrangement, they would... 'punish' me. Most of them despise humans, you know.” Something tells me that other Shadow People caught on to the relationship and unpleasant things happened to Sebastian's father as a result. It would definitely explain why it never gets talked about at all. You know that would've had to have been painful for Robin. Case in point, Sebastian can say this: “I snuck into the caves last night and got a nasty cut from a rock crab. Don't tell anyone, okay?” Clearly, Robin doesn't want him going into the mines.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

Sebastian may be part shadow. Abigail, Clint, and Emily may be part dwarf. Elliot and Willy may be part merperson. Wizard, Robin, Linus, and Leah may be part forest spirit.
In my first playthrough I thought Jodi and her family were ghosts. Like in the movie The Others.

 

[Magically Clueless]

I came across this Stardew Valley iceberg video and was excited to see the "Sebastian's father is a Shadow Person" theory on there, but then it seemingly got accidentally skipped over. That disappointed me a little because it's one of my favorite theories, and it's one that holds a lot of water when you really think about it. For one, there's his favorites gifts, which include void eggs, volcanic obsidian, and pumpkin soup. Then you have the fact that he has black hair, dark eyes, dresses all in black, lives in the basement, and mainly comes out when it's dark or raining. Finally, there's this dialogue you can get if you have two children with him: “I've had this recurring dream that [child] is wearing a shadow shaman costume and sitting on a glowing pumpkin. Weird, huh?”

But what happened to Sebastian's father if this is the case? Why isn't he in the picture? Well... I think the answer lies in this housemate dialogue from Krobus: “If the other shadow people knew about our living arrangement, they would... 'punish' me. Most of them despise humans, you know.” Something tells me that other Shadow People caught on to the relationship and unpleasant things happened to Sebastian's father as a result. It would definitely explain why it never gets talked about at all. You know that would've had to have been painful for Robin. Case in point, Sebastian can say this: “I snuck into the caves last night and got a nasty cut from a rock crab. Don't tell anyone, okay?” Clearly, Robin doesn't want him going into the mines.

oh man, don't break my heart like that!!! that's a really fun theory, i like it

 

[Giant Octopodes]

I want to know what's up with the Junimo. Let's begin with what we know:

- They have their own language which no one knows but the Wizard knows how to magically decipher.
- They hang out in the Community Center, an abandoned Structure, despite being deeply tied to the forest.
- If the community center is sold to Joja, they clear out.
- While there, they ask for random stuff. For the bulletin board, it's items requested by folks years ago. For the other rooms, it seems to be entirely driven by their own desires.
- Once they have what they've asked for, they appear to fix the room using magic, and it's very unclear what happens to the stuff they've gathered.
- If their hut is on your farm, they will grab crops ready for harvest and bring them into their hut. You can freely take those crops, and they Never eat it.
- They don't go out while it's raining.

My question is... why? Why does any of that make sense, and how does it fit together? Yeah sure it's easy to say 'they're forest spirits', but then why are they hanging out in a building in the first place? Why do they gather crops? What are they doing with the stuff you donate? They ask for massive amounts of money to fix the bus, but then it's fixed with magic. What are they using the money for?

There's lots of other stuff which I wonder about but the Junimo are definitely the top thing which generates questions in my mind. They're integral to the game yet I feel like I understand the Dwarves and Shadow Brutes and their relationship to each other and the world around them more than I do the Junimo. I mean, no one can see them, they're stunned you can, but there's a game called Junimo Cart! Also if no one can see them what does your spouse see when they're outside on the farm while the Junimo are gathering crops? So many questions.

 

[Elenna101]

There's lots of other stuff which I wonder about but the Junimo are definitely the top thing which generates questions in my mind. They're integral to the game yet I feel like I understand the Dwarves and Shadow Brutes and their relationship to each other and the world around them more than I do the Junimo. I mean, no one can see them, they're stunned you can, but there's a game called Junimo Cart! Also if no one can see them what does your spouse see when they're outside on the farm while the Junimo are gathering crops? So many questions.

I think there's a book in the library that mentions junimos as a myth, so maybe someone else saw them in the past and talked about it and it became a semi-common myth? Someone might have then made an arcade game about the mythical junimos, without actually believing they exist (rather like how someone IRL might make a game that included, say, a dwarf or a wizard, without actually believing in either one).

I have no answers to your other questions, though, although it's kind of funny to imagine the spouse seeing crops just float through the air or something. Similarly, I've always wondered what the villagers think when it gets to late-game and I start teleporting around in front of them.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I want to know what's up with the Junimo. Let's begin with what we know:

- They have their own language which no one knows but the Wizard knows how to magically decipher.
- They hang out in the Community Center, an abandoned Structure, despite being deeply tied to the forest.
- If the community center is sold to Joja, they clear out.
- While there, they ask for random stuff. For the bulletin board, it's items requested by folks years ago. For the other rooms, it seems to be entirely driven by their own desires.
- Once they have what they've asked for, they appear to fix the room using magic, and it's very unclear what happens to the stuff they've gathered.
- If their hut is on your farm, they will grab crops ready for harvest and bring them into their hut. You can freely take those crops, and they Never eat it.
- They don't go out while it's raining.

My question is... why? Why does any of that make sense, and how does it fit together? Yeah sure it's easy to say 'they're forest spirits', but then why are they hanging out in a building in the first place? Why do they gather crops? What are they doing with the stuff you donate? They ask for massive amounts of money to fix the bus, but then it's fixed with magic. What are they using the money for?

There's lots of other stuff which I wonder about but the Junimo are definitely the top thing which generates questions in my mind. They're integral to the game yet I feel like I understand the Dwarves and Shadow Brutes and their relationship to each other and the world around them more than I do the Junimo. I mean, no one can see them, they're stunned you can, but there's a game called Junimo Cart! Also if no one can see them what does your spouse see when they're outside on the farm while the Junimo are gathering crops? So many questions.

OK, this post is my v1.5 rehab.

I've made a number of complaints about not liking how the parrot storyline is handled in the v1.5 update, but you putting the rest of the game out there in all it's insane glory shows that the parrots are just an extension of the already logic-defying narrative known as Stardew Valley. I really think I'm OK with it now. However my complaint about it all taking place too far away from the previous game maps still stands, that part does take me out of the game to a significant extent.

Thanks a bunch for this post, though!

 

[PoppyForPenny]

A few ideas previously discussed: what day do you arrive? It looks like spring but the next day is Spring 1.
Who is the wizard's daughter?
And from the Stardew Valley Hangout facebook group- what's going on with the secret note picture of Marnie & Jas? Shane just moved in a few months ago but the picture is old-timey and they are wearing different clothes.
And from my own imagination, did Haley dove her parents? Is that why she hates the prismatic shard?

 

[Cuusardo]

I rather like the idea of dwarves being space felines.

And I've always thought it's silly that nature spirits (juminos) won't harvest in the rain. I guess junimos are like cats who hate getting wet?

Cats are just everywhere in my life, y'all.

 

[Zen_the_Ogre]

Oh noes. I am picturing the cat dude from Re:Zero. Mr Felix Argyle

Ok and I am going to mention something about space cats that seems fitting. First the disclaimer the manga/anime referenced is directed towards males. Keep google safe on as not all material is family friendly. Cat Planet Cuties was an anime of basically space travelling cat girls. That is all I am gonna mention about them. There was an antagonist race of interdimensional dogs that they have a shadow war with. Now the dwarves in Stardew have a war with shadow folk. What is the image of the shrine in the sewers and what sound does it make. That's right a dog.

So if cat-folk then the shadow people are descended from the dogs or at least Revere them in some form

 

[Zen_the_Ogre]

Also I don't think junimos are active in the rain as Abigail is more active in the rain. I am picturing her trying to eat a crying green apple. Or attack on Titan with Abigail as Titan and junimos with 3d transversal gear.

 

[Lemon_Stone]

Now the dwarves in Stardew have a war with shadow folk. What is the image of the shrine in the sewers and what sound does it make. That's right a dog.

I can't believe I didn't think of that when writing that theory! The evidence just keeps piling up!

 

[MRight]

A few ideas previously discussed: what day do you arrive? It looks like spring but the next day is Spring 1.
Who is the wizard's daughter?
And from the Stardew Valley Hangout facebook group- what's going on with the secret note picture of Marnie & Jas? Shane just moved in a few months ago but the picture is old-timey and they are wearing different clothes.
And from my own imagination, did Haley dove her parents? Is that why she hates the prismatic shard?

I remember reading a secret note that said that Haley’s parents moved possibly when Emily came of age leaving her the house and the responsibility of Haley. Your thoughts on the wizards daughter and the picture of Jas and Marnie could have been taken after the wizard told Marnie about how he and Shane were related and how Shane was Jas’s uncle meaning that the wizard could have been Jas’s father instead of the popular theory of his daughter being Abigail

 

[lilan castel]

The dwarves (and monsters) could be native and the humans are aliens. The length of the year and the world map clearly show that it's not Earth. On Earth, the meteorite that extincted the dinosaurs left a layer of iridium in the fossil record. Iridium meteors fall in Stardew Valley as well but didn't make dinos extinct. It must have been a very long time ago that people colonized this planet, long enough to forget their origins. And long enough for an artifact like the bone flute to fossilize, which takes ten thousand to a hundred thousand years. I believe it is Abigail's. I mean, she never ages, no one does, she could be that old.

One of the books in the library says that dwarfs call themselves "sky people" so they are not native.

 

[FairyRing]

Because the dragons in My little pony eat crystals I think Abigail is part dragon. I know way off the original universe.

 

[hexnessie]

Yeah sure it's easy to say 'they're forest spirits', but then why are they hanging out in a building in the first place?

They appear to be modeled a bit on your typical Slavic household spirits (domovoi, skrzat, basically little things of nature you need to get on your side to prosper and stay afloat, so you give them what they want to prove you can be trusted and then they help you to prove they accept you. Or not, and pee in your milk to curdle it.)

My feeling is they are specifically the spirits in charge of reclaiming urbanized areas for nature and forest. The spirits of ruderalization, if you will. And they don't really fix things by magic. They only remove their curse that made it impossible for things to be fixed by humans!

The ones you invite to live on your farm seem a bit different. Maybe these are baby cursing spirits doing on the job training and getting used to people.

Plus who knows what REALLY goes on with the crops between junimos picking them and placing them in their huts...

 

[LRangerR]

Perhaps the Junimos you invite to your farm are representative of the equilibrium you've found between nature and civilization. Just a theory. I know not everyone exactly has found it but it's a nice thought.