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
IraqiGotoroans 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.
No need to be sorry, these are a lot of my thoughts too. It really breaks the immersion of being in a peaceful town when he enters. I find it uncomfortable that he's around and his dialogue doesn't make him sympathetic.
According the the wiki, there's even a book in the museum titled "Is War With The Gotoro Empire Necessary? A Unique Perspectiv" so clearly not everyone in this world thinks this is a justified war
I didn't even think about it like that, but you're right lol
Wtf I put possibly a hundred hours into this game and I never knew about the countries and the war. Very bad decision on the devs part.
I can't help but think of the weird implications in the background of Pokemon's foundational lore that wars were fought with Pokemon used as supernatural/biological weapons. :surprised-pika:
Since so much of the Pokeverse seems to be a post-scarcity utopia (the money you can get is basically funbucks - they even let you play the lottery and casino games for free in later games, which implies that money doesn't mean anything they just have games of chance for fun), I've always imagined that Lt Surge and co were veterans of the Communist Pokemon Revolution.
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.
according to the wiki, he says this about tortillas and sashimi as well
Interestingly enough the only burger in the game is vegan.
And despite an abundance of livestock, the recipe set is pescatarian.
Does Japanese cuisine have a flatbread or pancake like the Chinese chun bing? That'd be pretty tortilla like
The Vietnamese never tortured Kent when he was imprisoned by them but they should have, John McCain too
Every line of dialogue I've seen tries to make him sympathetic
I mean if the US invades China, is every Chinese soldier a irredeemable war criminal? Is this troop worship propaganda or just a character?
My read on the situation is the Gotoro Empire is not the aggressor in this situation, so I think Kent is an imperialist. Stardew Valley doesn't give us a glance at the outside world much, but as others have said there isn't any indication that the war is affecting things locally.
Uncritical support to the Gotoro
Unlimited genocide on SStardew Valley
