I see a lot of people clowning on the people of Pelican Town for not repairing the community center themselves or clowning on Lewis for embezzling and. like. Those criticisms aren't entirely unfair. But I think instead of coming at it from a perspective of "why can't the townspeople do this" we should be asking "why and how can the farmer do this?"

Like. Think about it. The farmer arrives in Stardew Valley on the first day of spring. By the first day they're obviously different. By day five the spirits of the forest who haven't been seen by the townsfolk in years or generations are speaking to them. By the second week they've developed a rapport with the wizard that lives outside town.

In the spring they go foraging and find more than even Linus, who's spent so many years learning the ways of the valley. Maybe he knows, when he sees them walking back home. Maybe he looks at them and understands that they're different, chosen somehow.

In the summer they fish in the lakes and the ocean for hours on end, catching fish that even Willy's only ever heard of, fish that he thought were the stuff of legend. They pull up giants from the deep and mutated monstrosities from the sewers.

In the fall, their crops grow incredibly immense; pumpkins twice as tall as a person, big enough that someone could live inside. The farmer cuts it down with an axe without even batting an eye. Does Lewis wonder, when he checks the collection bin that night and finds it full to the brim with pumpkin flesh? What does he think? Does he even leave the money? Does he have the funds to pay the farmer millions of dollars for the massive amounts of wine they sell? Or is it someone--something--else entirely?

In the winter, the farmer delves into the mines. No one in Pelican Town has been down there in decades. No one in living memory has been to the bottom. The farmer gets there within the season. They return to the surface with stories of dwarven ruins and shadow people, stories they only tell to Vincent and Jas, whose retellings will be dismissed by the adults as flights of fancy. People walking by the entrance to the mines sometimes hear the farmer in there, speaking in a language no one can understand. Something speaks back.

The farmer speaks to the the wizard. They speak to the spirit of a bear inside a centuries-old stone. They speak to the shadow people and the dwarves, ancient enemies, and they try to mend the rift. They speak to the Junimos, ancient spirits of the forest and the river and the mountain. They taste the nectar of the stardrops and speak to the valley itself. They change Pelican Town, and they change the valley. Things are waking up.

And what does Evelyn think? She's the oldest person in the valley; she was here when the farmer's grandfather was young. (How old *is* she, anyway? She never seems to age. She doesn't remember the year she was born.) Does she see the farmer and think of their grandfather? Does she try to remember if he was like this too, strange and wild and given the gifts of the forest?

And does their grandfather haunt the valley? He haunts the farm, still there even after his death; his body died somewhere else, but his spirit could never stay away for long. Does Abigail, using her ouija board on a stormy night, almost drop the planchette when she realizes it's moving on its own? Does Shane, walking to work long before anyone else leaves their house, catch glimpses of a wispy figure floating through the town? Does the farmer know their grandfather came back to the place they both love so much?

Mr. Qi takes interest in the farmer. He's different, too; in a different way, maybe, but the principles are the same. They're both exceptional, and no matter what Qi says about it being hard work and dedication, they both know the truth: the world bends around the both of them, changing to fit their needs. Most people aren't visited by fairies or witches. Most people don't have meteorites crash in their yard. Most people couldn't chop down trees all day without a break or speak to bears and mice and frogs.

The farmer is different. The rules of the world don't work for them the way they work for everyone else. The farmer goes fishing and finds the stuff of fairy tales. The farmer goes mining and fights shadow beasts and flying snakes. The farmer looks at paths the townspeople walk every day and finds buried in the dirt relics of lost civilizations.

The farmer is a violent, irrepressible miracle, chosen by the valley and destined to return to it someday. Even if they'd never received the letter, they would've come home.

They always come home eventually.

Shane's getting ready for the day 🐔☀

all the stardew valley spouses! :D

my version of the guys (tm)

"whatever, who cares anyway?" a meme redraw of a pic i found on pinterest and thought it'd fit Shane perfectly lol. *i love Shane* · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

could you draw haley's coconut collection from the farmer?

.. I think haley would have to buy a separate closet for the huge coconut collection she got from the farmer..

something bonus:

junimo sight

the second i start thinking about stardew valley heart events in real life terms it becomes such a chaotic telenovela, demetrius is trying to lecture me about not dating his daughter when ive been dating his son for months, abigail invites me for a oujia board sesh but the board starts spelling out "i love you" so she gets embarrased and stops but the next day comes to me like "sorry about yesterday, im sure you know what it means 😳👉👈" all while standing in front of my house which i share with my husband who i got married to YESTERDAY, one of emily's heart events ends with clint walking in on us literally just talking and he's like "oh sorry i must be interrupting.. congratulations man" CLINT STOP IMPLYING SHIT IM MARRIED TO A MAN

dr harvard and smelliott

the golden retriever and black cat duo <3

My bbg girl 🫶 ft. pickle socks

Thats all i have to say.

All bachelorettes!

Are your masc and femme farmers siblings?

They're twins actually! and have telepathy😂

Not many people mention it but if you have more than one farmer I like to headcanon that using the game chat is using telepathy between each other

I mean if you think about it... that's exactly what you're doing

THAT and because it's a stereotype that twins have telepathy so it's just kinda funny to me, LMAO

my spouse since day 1!

Remade that one SDV doodle I did for Emily