• AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I really hate what this character represents. The country that Stardew Valley is in is supposed to be at war with the Gotoro Empire, but there’s absolutely no indication outside of some random snippets of dialogue that war against a hostile country is even a thing. This is even worse by the fact that Pelican Town is supposed to be right on the border of the Ferngill Republic and not only on the border, but on the border that’s closest to the Gotoro Empire. Presumably, the war is over territorial rights over the Gem Sea.

    The fact that Pelican Town hasn’t been shelled by Gotoroan artillery or has been forced to implement wartime rations or the player being forced to grow crops in order to aid the war effort means the war isn’t going in the Gotoroan’s favor. The absolute lack of any evidence of warfare whatsoever within a border town or an island that’s even closer to the Gotoro Empire means that it’s most likely that it’s the Ferngillians who are the invaders, not the Gotoroans. In other words, the actual destruction of people’s lives is exclusively on the Gotoroan side of the Ferngill-Gotoro border because the Ferngillians are invaders who violated Gotoroan sovereignty.

    I really have no idea why the developer even added a veteran character and pulled some “uh, we’re actually at war with a hostile country that styles itself as a expansionist empire lmao” backstory out of his ass to justify the veteran being a veteran. I guess we’re supposed to feel sorry for the Iraqi War veteran stand-in because he got PTSD from shooting too many Iraqi Gotoroans kids? Like, the game tries so hard to tonally Pelican Town as a peaceful and idyllic town, which doesn’t work at all if Pelican Town can be hit by cruise missiles and self-loitering drones from a hostile country. This really shows how your average American is thoroughly removed from the ravages of war because the entire tone and aesthetics of the game would be totally different if you seriously consider how a border town would be like in an actual fucking war.

    Imagine a mod where martial law has been enacted, where curfews are imposed, where property damage done by cruise missiles is everywhere, where you the player are mandated by the authorities to grow a certain number of crops to feed troops, where Alex is conscripted to the Ferngillian army, where the traveling merchant disappears after Year 2 because she has been locked away for being a Gotoroan spy, where Kent gets KIA, and so on. It could work. And it would be a totally different game from the base game.

    Sorry for going on this rant. This has been bothering me for a really long time.

    • RamrodBaguette [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I agree, but to ignore getting to much into it and preserve immersion (or just blocking out the possibility of Ferngill being a 1-1 Murikkka stand-in), I just assume it’s like the Falklands War or one of the many 17th/18th Century wars between sea-faring colonial powers fought over some tiny island. The fact that there doesn’t seem to be any hint of a refugee crisis (as an Iraq/Vietnam War situation would imply) helps.

      Which can be a nice bit of commentary about how even remote, “minor” wars between two nations over a tiny chunk of rock which make at most a footnote in the history books still have human consequences.