We need to talk about Clint

Now that we’ve had about a month to think about it… How about that Clint? I think a lot of people were very surprised, but when we take some time to think about it, this could change everything about the way Clint is perceived.

Sections:
0:00 – Intro
2:16 – Why Clint?
3:25 – Did Clint steal someone else’s spot?
4:40 – Will Clint be rewritten?
5:26 – Reviewing Clint’s current cutscenes
16:22 – Final Clint Thoughts
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42 Comments

  1. ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS I HAD AFTER FINISHING THE VIDEO:

    If you look at only cutscenes that were in version 1.0, Clint and Emily kind of seem like a "will they/won't they" type of situation. Emily never turns him down, and the last thing you hear is that they had a good time on a date.

    BUT THEN 1.1 COMES OUT, and suddenly Clint as seen as a rival to you, but since we're the main character, we always get our way when it comes to love. Now there's cutscenes in the game where Clint needs to be forced away from Emily.

  2. I like how in every Clint's video, nobody talks about him and Emily in Shane's 7 heart event.
    Actually, I don't think anyone talk about it ever.

    Perhaps there is nothing to talk about, or perhaps it's too obscure.

  3. I feel like SV players forgot that world ain't perfect. Especially people. We all have our traits and things that make us seem weird or something.
    Yeah Clint brags about him being nice but… ain't that how some people just are? They feel that world is unfair cause they ARE actually friendly and all and all they get is shit?

    Life is not just pure text in a chat-box.

  4. I think it’s okay to say that an Indy dev was simply not a mature writer when he was younger. Stardew is amazing but the characters are written like an immature guy but that’s okay. CA has grown, he is moving in the right direction by hiring very successful modders for 1.7, and he has consistently been putting out updates for ten years. The story is fixable.

  5. imo harvey actually is what clint’s fanon is. harvey is seen as a more attractive set of pixels though so he gets significantly less hate 🤷

  6. I was actually super happy it was Clint and not the Wizard. Since the Wizard has so much lore woth expanded and other mods, while Clint feels ignored by even the mod scene. So having him be resisted has me very interested.

  7. Clint is very cynical and sometimes just sad on his normal dialogues.

    Classic Clint dialogue:"my father was a blacksmith, his father was a blacksmith and his father was… " and then he gets angry or sad depending on which option you choose.

    The reason I don't like Clint is because I use his shop a lot, and his hours are very annoying to work with.

  8. This is why I never understood the Clint hate. He seems genuine in his attempt to be more social, with the goal of dating Emily. Even if Emily ends up with the player, he doesn't push past that when he knows you're dating her. He's just a guy who doesn't know how to express himself, and isn't good at socializing. And I can relate to that a little.

  9. I've never really seen Clint as the creep people paint him out to be. To me he's always seemed like a really awkward, insecure and sad guy that just wants to be happy but nothing goes his way
    I do agree that the "I'm a nice guy" line gives the ick, but I don't think it automatically makes him a bad or creepy person. He seems more like he doesn't understand that being nice =/= someone falling for you and/or that he's just really bad with social stuff in general

  10. Clint doesn't need a rewrite, he needs to grow. Honesty the way he is written is more of a 'I have no idea how to interact with anyone' kind of awkward. Him asking the farmer about dating and things makes sense as the two of you started as a business relationship turned kinda friendship by the salon event. I can see him growing more confident over his new events, regardless of if Emily would actual see him as anything more then a friend.

  11. I just wish we could have some more options in general! I hadn’t actually noticed how few single female NPCs there are, so some of them, even non-romance options, would be great.

    I’d also love to romance Marlon but hey that’s just me

  12. i would LOVE if there was an option you could turn on for rival marriages to be a thing. like imagine you could choose if it was Clint and Emily, you and Emily, or you and Clint. You could choose the story to fit your taste, it would be GENUINELY cool

  13. I tended to think that Clint was on the cusp of being an incel. I thought a romance storyline would centre around helping him walk away from that line. Saying that though, he clearly doesn't think Emily's love is somehow owed to him; he's just shy. The new storyline is probably going to revolve around helping him find his confidence!

  14. Clint's issue is his lack of self confidence and self esteem that has a lot to do with his job and life, he does what his father told him to do and while he takes pride in making a good job he doesn't care about being a blacksmith so he doesn't really derive pride or satisfaction from it.
    He doesn't know who he is and is completely depressed
    Because of that he is excessively shy and self sabotages any interaction with Emily.
    I remember after the date he tells you he spilled his drink or food I can't remember and was too ashamed to even talk to her and thinks she had an awful date with him and it's all over.

  15. I think the main source of people's issues with Clint is he's just unhappy. He feels like he's stuck in a life he didn't ask for because of the family business. The feeling of discomfort he starts with is easy to project onto other scenes. Giving his character a little more room will hopefully help mitigate that.

    Looking forward to Sandy having more time off than three hours on her birthday.

  16. Maybe part of the issue is that "nice guy"ing over Emily is his whole thing? Like, him just not having a cutscene if you are dating her also just implies he has nothing else going on.

  17. I’ve never gotten the animosity towards Clint. Yes, he’s socially awkward. Lots of people are, me included, so I can relate. I think compassion is more appropriate than criticism. I plan to marry Clint when the update comes out. Curious to see how his absence from the shop is handled. Thanks for the objective review of what he actually says and does in vanilla Stardew.

  18. SVE already did it, it streamlined every character into normal. I love SVE but I totally hated it when Pam and Clint and everybody suddenly got totally aware of their social issues and characteristics which don't fit the norm, and they excused and changed themselves. That's just so stupid. Clint is perfect to show what's wrong with people out there. Talking always about respecting each other, each human is different, even endorsing autism. But then when there is someone social akward he gets hated and being portrayed almost like a rapist or whatever? I would be sad if Clint gets changed just to comfort hypocrates.

  19. i genuinly can remember that the second cutscene had emily friendzone clint
    edit: it happens when you talk to emily the same day cutscene is afterwards, she says something like "as friends" or something

  20. I think the 2 places people have this idea from is not cut scenes but festival dialogs and some of his quests have you collect gems for him so that he may try and win Emily over with

  21. The "I'm a nice guy" line gives me the ick! I know men irl who said this, and they were the most horrible men ever. If you're actually nice, you don't have to announce it, people will find out. But he's an npc, so I won't take it that seriously 😄.

    There is a content creator on TikTok, and in his videos when he role-plays Clint, he uses a speech impediment where his "R"s and "L"s sound like "W"s… I've watched too many of them to take Clint seriously🤣

  22. I think my issue with his 6 heart scene, which is admittedly partly the farmer's fault, but I still think Clint holds the majority of the blame here, is that Clint just interrupts Emily's conversation with Caroline to ask her out. He couldn't wait until she was done with the conversation, or come back later. It just feels very disrespectful for her time, like his romantic interest matters more than an ongoing conversation.

  23. There’s a dateable character in this game called Coral Island named Rafael that NAILED what I think ConcernedApe was going for Clint. The shy, unsociable character that gets fidgety around a huge crowd but is actually cute once you get to know him. However, putting Emily into the narrative made Clint come off as a creep, not a romantic loser. Funny thing is Rafael is also a blacksmith in the gam lol

  24. 7:39 What's another point of contention here, maybe againt Clint idk how others take it, is that the best option (as in the one that nets you the most heart points) is telling Clint that he should "Treat Women Like Men". I think it implies a sense that Clint has this dichotomic perception that men and women are two wholly different kinds of person, almost incel-like in ideal. Again as you said this was made over a decade back so it wasn't intentionally written to be exactly that, but especially closer to 2020 with the rise of that in-group folks started applying those red flags to Clint more and more.