#the subreddit is also so fucking racist that even bringing this up gets you downvoted into oblivion

[lacependragon]

I am prefacing this with I love Stardew Valley and Demetrius and I am not trying to start a fight. This is a frustration I feel with the game as well as many things I've seen. Just. Sharing it.

You know man I've been playing Stardew since. Forever. And so I've seen dialogue changes quite a bit. Vanilla dialogue can be... repetitive, and so when it changes I very much Notice.

And like. Demetrius' writing, whether intentionally or not, as gotten both much more racist and ableist in the last few years. And maybe it's not on purpose! Maybe it's totally subconscious on CA's part! I don't wanna assign malice. It's easier to think it's ignorance and accidental.

And it's easy to assume it's partially fandom response, considering how much people hate him. And CA is very fandom oriented.

But Demetrius' writing is bad. It is uniquely bad. It is bad in a way that none of the others are (yes I am repeating myself). And that is oh so very obvious in any run where you get hearts up with that family.

Oh the singular Black man in town totally ignores his white step-son, treats his white wife terribly, and dotes on his mixed race daughter as if she's the only person who matters? Insults everything his wife makes? Makes vague threats at the farmer?

"Oh but it's not because he's Black!" How do you know? Are you inside CA's head? Do you know what he thinks? Do you know every unconscious bias of a man you've never met? No. You don't. I bet you don't even know all of yours. Fuck knows no one does.

Don't defend him when you don't even know him. Listen. Listen. LISTEN.

Stardew Valley is a wonderful, awesome game. But it's made by a flawed man (everyone is flawed) and it reflects his biases pretty clearly if you ask me (as many works of art do).

And if that offends you, maybe you should ask yourself why. Maybe you should ask yourself why it's so important this game and man are perfect instead of acknowledging that this amazing game has flaws that can make the game uncomfortable or frustrating for many players. Flaws that diminish characters who could otherwise be very interesting.

I also said Ableist. I'd go on a whole rant about that, too, but because Demetrius' neurodivergence is implied, not explicit, it's hard to know what is and isn't meant to be taken. But again, making the clearly "different" character so awful to others is not ideal. Especially when they're the only one.

And before you ask: Yes. This has a lot to do with Demetrius being the only Black man in town. And fitting into a lot of awful stereotypes along the way. I'd be much much MUCH more lenient if there were other Black men in Stardew. But there aren't. Demetrius is all we get.

And he just keeps getting worse every update.

I love him so much. He's a neurodivergent father. He's the only non-white parent in town. He's the only step-parent in town. He and Robin and Seb and Maru have the only blended and mixed family.

There's so much nuance to him and to his relationships and to his family and his backstory. There could be so much going on with him and science, or him and Maru, or him and anything.

But nah he hates fun, talks about how dancing sucks (even though he dances every week) and seemingly hates both his wife and step-son in many dialogues.

Why? Why? It makes no sense to me in-universe.

Watsonian versus Doylist analysis. When there's no in-universe explanation that follows the world. Look to the people creating the universe.

#lace speaks #the subreddit is also so fucking racist that even bringing this up gets you downvoted into oblivion #rant #negative #critical #stardew critical #concerned ape critical #stardew demetrius