LogFAQs > #932697990

heh. well, I just threw out some random numbers. it sounds like you actually have it down to a science!

- 15 -


Gus

The owner of the pub is honestly just a pretty nice guy that might have snuck a bit higher up on the list than he really deserves. He's not an amazing vendor, he doesn't have a ton of unique scenes or dialogue that make him stand out. Buying a bunch of salads is nice. Also it's useful that a bunch of people meet in the pub in the evening, so you don't have to go track them all down, and Gus conveniently sells gifts that work for just about everyone there.

Obviously it'd be better if the Cafe owner was a cute girl with drill hair, but Gus is fine too. I guess.

- 14 -



Leah

And ohhhh boy here we go. This is one of the write ups I was originally looking forward to, since I knew my opinion was gonna be pretty controversial. But man, after looking at the data for the first time recently, I am now ready to be completely disintegrated. Apparently Leah is the #1 most popular female marriage candidate in basically every category (ranked preference, #1 preference only). On my list, she is the first female marriage candidate to appear. Meaning that, in a sense, yes, I have technically ranked Stardew Valley's resident artist and most popular waifu as the lowest.

Okay. Keeping in mind she's a top 14 character still, I wouldn't say Leah is a bad character by any means. But she definitely has some issues that make me not love her as much as others do. I alluded to her immaturity a bit earlier in my Harvey write up, and the fact that Leah is apparently one of the older single women in pelican town makes this issue stand out a bit more. She SHOULD be one of more mature ones, right? Well, that might technically even be true, but she's still very immature and at least Abigail has the excuse of being like 19.

I've also talked about how I have a pretty solid ranking in my head of how selfish the different marriage candidates are. Leah is... similar to Sam in the sense that she is very nice to you as soon as you arrive. And she is really nice. Honestly, she makes a good friend. But man, I always felt like after you marry Leah she becomes a lot more complacent and selfish. Especially compared to the other female marriage candidates who all rank pretty high on selflessness. Even Haley's entire arc is that she starts off cold but becomes one of the more warm marriage partners eventually. Leah is nowhere near as bad as some of the husbands, but she is definitely on the more selfish side when it comes to the wives. Unfortunately it's been a LONG time since the file when I married Leah, so I can't give any great specific examples.

One other thing that bugs me a bit about Leah is similar to a problem I have with Clint... The only difference is that Leah is thirsty for the main character no matter what, similar to how Clint is thirsty for Emily no matter what. One of the big problems, and huge complaints with the male marriage candidates, is that they aren't really flirty enough and so their interactions don't ever feel romantic even at a high level of hearts. I can kinda see why... on top of the fact that CA is potentially less interested in writing that kind of romance, there's also the issue of having the characters not come across as TOO flirty when it's inappropriate. Considering that Robin still asks you if you've ever met her son, Sebastian, after you've been married to Sebastian for 2 years, I'm gonna say that this is a difficult issue for CA to work around.

Leah is one of the few marriage candidates who becomes VERY flirty around 8 hearts, before you even start dating her, and her dialogue doesn't change too much no matter what you do. When I was dating someone else, Leah would repeatedly proposition me to come to her cabin if I was ever lonely, so we could "snuggle" together under the covers. Do you think this isn't supposed to be explicitly sexual? Well, after you are married she keeps the same dialogue but only changes it slightly.... telling you, a married man, that if you ever feel lonely you should come to her cabin so you could "talk" about it. Holy shit. Maybe others don't read as deeply into this, but it definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Essentially the only difference between you being married is that she makes her offer a bit more subtle, acknowledging the fact that you are married and basically not giving a shit. If anything she seems to assume that you are lonely and need to talk to someone else about it. Yeah, no thanks!

Obviously minor issues like this aren't enough to ruin Leah's character for me. She's not at the bottom, like Clint is, so let's talk about the good things.

She's VERY easy to befriend. Along with a small group of similar characters, Leah is happy with almost anything you pick up off the ground as long as it's somewhat edible or decorative. And among this group she's one of the ones who wanders around pretty often, but is still fairly easy to track down. She's like the anti-Elliot.

Leah has a really good, friendly personality. There's lots of unique scenes that you can trigger with her, like even hosting an art show in pelican town. I don't think she has an amazing character 'arc' per se, but she does have a good backstory. The 'arc' is more just you learning about her backstory, and her finding a little bit of confidence in herself. Although this feels somewhat forced, because she seemed to already be pretty confident in herself, I choose to believe this just falls into the 'Leah is super thirsty for the farmer' school of thought. It's basically just an excuse for her to endear herself to you, and compliment you, and make you feel like you helped her out.

And heck, there's nothing super wrong with this. I don't think Leah has any ulterior motives. Her being attracted to a farmer of all things is VERY fitting with her values and her personality. The stuff she does and says is really no different from the normal rituals of flirting that people go through in the real world. Not everything you do or say is 100% genuine, there are some things you just kinda do because this is what people are supposed to do. I would say that Leah is among one of the most "natural" candidates for the farmer to end up marrying.

Still, while I get the love for her, I just don't love her that much myself. I did like her enough to go out of my way to marry her at least once. But... At this point I would pick pretty much every other potential wife before Leah. Which is exactly what I