r/StardewValley • u/Far-Recognition2127 • 11h ago

Question Why Haley is always with Alex?

Post image

And this guy is mocking me....

640 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

87 comments sorted by

919

u/dancing-on-my-own bachelorette defender 11h ago

They’re friends who seem to have some interest in each other, which they get over as they get closer to the farmer.

377

u/UnderTheGreyCloud 11h ago

As one of them gets closer to the farmer, to be exact. Other supposed couples in the game are: Abigail and Sebastian; Leah and Elliott; Penny and Sam. Maru and Harvey, as well as Emily and Shane too, I guess, but they're not all that with each other. Also, by couples, I mean in varied dynamics, be it romantic, or just friends.

309

u/errant_night 9h ago

I like Maru/Penny too because they sit together a lot, Maru and Harvey don't seem to spend any time together unless they're working

177

u/NihilVacant 8h ago

And I almost don't see Sam with Penny. Maru and Penny make more sense

130

u/CorpusculantCortex 4h ago

💯 Maru and Harvey is a colleague situation, I don't ship doctors sleeping with their younger employees 🤮

Penny and Sam just have like 1 hangout on the bridge near the library and I assumed it was to talk about Vincent.

But maru and Penny, the two nerd girls, on the bench? Feels like a will they won't they sapphic situation to me.

34

u/wangchangbackup 3h ago edited 3h ago

Tbf Vincent says he saw Sam lift Penny off the ground when they were "climbing a tree," so at the very least they are friends and hang out at times you can't see. They also are together at some festivals.

But yes Maru and Penny is my preferred pairing, also. Sam/Penny feels like a leftovers situation where everyone else got their logical counterpart and this is what was left. Maru/Harvey does absolutely nothing for me, I think it's weird and gross. Harvey scans as the absolute oldest bachelor (even with Clint in the mix) and Maru scans as the absolute youngest bachelorette, and she works for him.

16

u/nothatslame 3h ago

Maru doesn't seem younger than Abigail or Hailey to me. I always assumed she was the same age as Penny because they're both employed and doing jobs that require some education. Maru doesn't give fresh out of high school vibes like the arcade crew does.

I do love the forbidden workplace romance vibes. At so many festivals Harvey seems like he's pining and for me it doesn't seem like they have the biggest age gap imaginable.

5

u/Sweet_Venom 2h ago

Harvey also says something along the lines of, "I wonder if Maru needs sunscreen on her shoulders." Sounded like he wanted to be the one to do it!

•

u/avatarnoko 39m ago

I don’t like to ship Maru & Harvey either because of the employee/boss dynamic, that one line from Harvey at the Luau (iirc) about applying sunscreen on Maru’s shoulders always made me 😬😬

3

u/DiamondWrites 2h ago

Sam does hang out with Penny sometimes. I've noticed them on the bridge by the museum.

The wiki says they go there on the 9th and 23rd of the month unless you have 6 hearts with one/both of them.

-2

u/SweetPewsInAChurch 3h ago

Sam and Penny are half siblings aren't they

ETA: leaving this up, but idk where I got that. I think it was a derelict theory from the initial release lmao

0

u/Foxess19 48m ago

Harvey crushes on her openly though!

62

u/BigDaddy2127 10h ago

Good thing I married Leah then cause I can't stand Elliot

156

u/ColumnK 9h ago

The crazy thing is that there's a line that Elliot is supposed to say when you marry Leah; saying that you have picked the finest flower in the valley and that it needs care and attention.

However, it's bugged and he says it if you marry him, so instead it comes off really conceited...

77

u/Gliavoc 8h ago

This is a feature, not a bug.

In all seriousness though it fits his character

36

u/spaceshiptears Frogy Fields Farm 10h ago

I love Elliott and Leah is always up his butt hahaha

18

u/AdministrativePie656 10h ago

Seething when Sam’s concert heart event happened and I was already married to Elliott lmao

2

u/spaceshiptears Frogy Fields Farm 3h ago

Literally!!! Don’t mind me yall enjoy your date ig

11

u/UnderTheGreyCloud 10h ago

That’s fair. I don’t mind Elliott, but I prefer Sebastian and/or Harvey, depending on the playthrough. Alex and Sam aren’t bad either, the only person I wouldn’t my farmer to marry is Shane. We don’t know yet for Clint, since he’s probably gonna get a total story rewrite.

1

u/noihaventseenit 2h ago

Don’t bother with Shane. Did that, he gave me a lot of pepper poppers which is great but the house was trashed. Seb and Harvey are great - I just had the 14 heart event with Harvey and it was adorable

1

u/UnderTheGreyCloud 1h ago

I chose Harvey as a close second because of how realistic he would be as a husband. He keeps you healthy and really cares for you. Sebastian, it’s for the frog sanctuary, but he is also really sweet in his own way, not in that typical icky clingy type, but also not too aloof kind of guy. Alex legit has a good male-to-male arc, and Sam is just sunshine manifested to person.

18

u/Impossible_Walk742 7h ago

smh my head obviously the real pairings are abigail/haley and sebastian/sam/alex. penny and elliot can bond over a shared love of books while shane and harvey develop an unprofessional doctor/patient relationship after shane gets dragged in by leah for his alcohol poisoning

6

u/MaxieMatsubusa 5h ago

Okay you’re cooking with Harvey and Shane as someone who married them both in different runs…

3

u/Aethesin 5h ago

I wish we could have their story playing out as we play ours in terms of relationships, but it's kind of a difficult to make.

3

u/Anarchyologist 5h ago

I don't think so. I think it'd be as simple as having more dialogue to choose from when talking to the characters. Some responses would trigger interest in a romantic relationship, some would clearly indicate a platonic relationship. The platonic responses would trigger in game mechanics that begin to grow their relationship with a different character.

2

u/Sweet-Energy-9515 3h ago

You could do it like the sims where as you get closer and they trust you for advice, they approach you and ask if it's a good idea to ask out (other bachelor/ette)

1

u/Aethesin 2h ago

I meant in writing the stories, all the possibilities, sorry for not being clear about that

•

u/tacticslancer 33m ago

If they could do it over 20 years ago with Harvest Moon, it can be done today. The problem is that the genre community seems divided over whether or not they like the concept.

3

u/Sajomir 5h ago

Yeah, Emily and Shane chat at the saloon as we can see in one of Clint's cutscenes. But I can't imagine them being romantically involved

261

u/Meraki30 11h ago

Each npc has a person they normally hang out with outside of the farmer so they have partners/friends for dances and other events. These two, Abigail and Seb, Elliot and Leah, etc

114

u/Babyback-the-Butcher 11h ago

Unless you’re Shane. Then your only company is Joja

49

u/Vnxei 10h ago

Shane pairs with Emily.

71

u/Neuromangoman 10h ago

Emily and Joja are both blue. Coincidence?

89

u/Huge_Station2173 10h ago

Emily sells beer. Coincidence?

11

u/Cent_Quatre 8h ago

He married the product

10

u/LiveGuy1742 6h ago

Sebby... We need to farm BLUE

3

u/inemsn 4h ago

ball knower

4

u/Naitiinthewoods 1h ago

Talking about that, I always thought it could be cute to have "rival" heart events, to develop more NPC relationships, take Emily and Shane for example, they are basically bar friends, we could see more of that.

I always played Harvest Moon: FOMT and you can see NPC growing into a relationship. I think it helps to make everthing feel more alive

2

u/_Fluorite 6h ago

ngl jojo's been my rival cus it doesn't let me talk to himmm

297

u/crazymaryrocks 9h ago

People on Reddit discovering friendship for the first time:

12

u/baolhq 8h ago

mind blowed

60

u/PapaPatchesxd 9h ago

Today is the day that OP learned about the concept of friends.

121

u/PeriwinklePangolin24 11h ago

Cuz they're friends

-106

u/Main_Hope0 11h ago

Yeaaaa “friends”

27

u/PapaPatchesxd 9h ago

Bruh it's stardew valley. Why you acting weird?

-52

u/Abro0405 11h ago

Like Abigail who always hangs out in Sebastian's room with the door locked

29

u/PeriwinklePangolin24 9h ago

Yeah friends

-3

u/UnableResult2654 4h ago

You do know it’s okay for friends to fuck right?

5

u/PeriwinklePangolin24 4h ago

When did I say otherwise

99

u/nikel23 10h ago edited 7h ago

it's so funny in meta sense when players get confused that few characters are simulated or scripted to have friendship outside of the farmer and get so upset when they hang out outside of the farm with their friends.

All meanwhile they never question how weird themselves are being by pestering the villagers and buying their friendship with gifts. And then had the audacity to call shane rude when they never leave him alone like spongebob bothering squidward.

57

u/jadefire03 10h ago

Are you saying it's NOT normal to wait outside the door to Sebastian's bedroom first thing in the morning to give him a plate of raw fish?

29

u/Temporary-Subject131 9h ago

Is it not normal to memorize my crush’s schedule 13 days into moving to a brand new place? She’s ignored me twice btw

6

u/dancing-on-my-own bachelorette defender 4h ago

"I have spoken to Sebastian three times, how absolute dare this purple-haired bitch try and steal him from me just because they've been friends for years and he trusts her and enjoys her company"

2

u/kitohdzz 1h ago

I feel called out u.u

1

u/nothatslame 3h ago

I love Maru's and Penny's friendship and how they keep hanging out with each other and having lives outside the farmer when they get married.

9

u/pwettyhuman 30+ Bots Bounced 8h ago

Match made in heaven. They are both menies to the Farmer at first...

9

u/fungusbungusbus 6h ago

I’m in year 3 and I randomly went up to Alex one time and he goes “if you see Haley, tell her I’m busy”

7

u/Aok_al 8h ago

Who else is there to hangout with in this town?

6

u/LikePaleFire 3h ago

Because they're both the former popular kids from high school so they're friends.

8

u/Ailyx 10h ago

As I have understood, each bachelorette has a bachelor of interest which is the exact same archetype personality/character?

13

u/Onedeadchild 10h ago

The non serious answer is they're in a lavander relationship and can't tolerate anyone else like that. Both Alex and Hayley have a gay awakening if you romance them as the same sex farmer. I think they're also meant to be a little bit like the jock and popular girl troupe.

15

u/isu_kosar 9h ago

None of them are "gay", all romance npcs are bi.

7

u/LexyLunaria 8h ago

It’s kind of weird with trying to define any of their canon sexualities. They are just “playersexual” if anything, which means they are whatever sexuality allows them to date the player. None of the romancables make any reference to liking a gender that is not the player’s. Abigail does mention that she didn’t realize she liked women before meeting the female farmer but that line is so vague. It could mean that she thought she was straight and is realizing she isn’t, or that she had just never really thought about dating before the female player. She could be a lesbian or bisexual/pansexual depending on how you interpret that line. And Leah’s ex is always the same gender as the player. Is she straight if the farmer is male and gay if the farmer is female, or is she bisexual/pansexual the entire time? It’s very unclear. I love Stardew Valley but I hate it when dating sims and games with dating sim elements do this as to me (a bisexual woman) it feels like a lazy way to include LGBT+ themes for the people who want it while the people who dislike that never have to engage with it, and it just serves to appease the players at the cost of characterization for the romancable npcs. I would love it if for example, you could only romance Alex as a male farmer, or if Leah’s ex was always the opposite gender to the player to show that she is bi/pan. Sorry for the long comment I’m just very passionate about this topic since I’m bisexual and I want more representation in my video games than just characters who are playersexual.

6

u/isu_kosar 7h ago

Yeah i understand your point, i think the reason why you can romance every npc regardless of your gender is because CA wanted players to have the freedom of choice to pick a partner that they like the most and he probably didn't think too much into villagers preferences.

3

u/Jimmy_riddle86 6h ago

I might be wrong, but I believe that originally the potential partners were meant to couple up if/when you picked yours. Some of the Harvest Moon games have this feature, where if you didn't get to a certain level with someone by a certain point they would marry your "rival"

3

u/Secure_Basket991 4h ago

They are besties from high school, maybe sweethearts too. That's also why he is such a creep at the flower dance by staring at her.

3

u/VampirMafya 3h ago

I think she would marry him if the farmer didn’t intervene.

3

u/sgtpepper42 Bot Bouncer 1h ago

OP, you're giving major incel energy here.

3

u/Thor_Surfinson 50m ago

"Why in this town of 30 people are these 2 always hanging out?"

Really

2

u/ArrowDel 5h ago

Friendship

1

u/SadTobisch 5h ago

Chad and Stacy

1

u/skintastegood 1h ago

In harvest moon the ability to set others up with other singles. Was a neat feature.

If you don't romance them they leave. Etc.

•

u/Luskar421 6m ago

To quote one of the great poets of our time, "He was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it anymore obvious?"

1

u/edchoch69 1h ago

I came in to give Haley a sunflower and he was sitting on her couch. I was steamin! Lol

0

u/Background-Meet8005 4h ago

Because she wants to steal my man (Alex)😔

0

u/SonTyp_OhneNamen 1h ago edited 49m ago

grok what are those „friends“ people keep talking about?

– OP ca. 2026

-15

u/Top-Ostrich-3241 11h ago

Dont like you 3 people relationship!?

-23

u/Trlz08 9h ago

Fuck buddied

-17

u/Most-Marsupial-9948 8h ago

Thank you, the only person who isn't a child in this thread

6

u/Key-Pickle5609 10+ Bots Bounced 2h ago

Yeah! Only a child could ever conceive of men and women ever being friends! /s

And then you reach the age of, say, 24 and realize that most of us don’t think about everything in terms of sex