Fans of Stardew Valley are eager to get married... again. To whom? They don't know. But they're hoping their bride/groom will be a couple of individuals in particular.
To understand why, take a look back at our own interview with ConcernedApe, where he exclusively revealed to us that the next update, 1.7, would include two new marriageable characters. He wouldn't say who they were, and we don't even know if these will be brand new characters or existing characters that suddenly become available. While ConcernedApe will let us know later this month on the game's 10th anniversary, that hasn't stopped people from wildly speculating who it'll be, and there are a few theories reigning supreme right now.
Logically, we can put together that we will likely get both a man and a woman, as all the other candidates have opposite-gender pairings for events like the Flower Dance. To find out who the most popular people in the game for romance were, Reddit user JeffTheKillerFa put together a poll for fans to see who came out on top. They've since posted the results, showing Sandy coming out waaay ahead of the other single women (Marnie was in second place), and the Wizard winning the vote for single men.
But interestingly, fans have latched onto another possibility that we could see in 1.7: breaking up an existing couple. The poll also asked fans who of the currently married individuals in the valley they wanted to steal. Robin was the clear winner, with players clearly not losing any sleep over breaking her up with Demetrius. That's even something ConcernedApe has discussed as a possibility before! But Caroline (currently married to general store owner Pierre) was also a favorite.
As a bit of a gag, the poll also included a section for "non-giftable" characters, or individuals who you can't currently form even a friendship with due to a lack of ability to give gifts and limited dialogue options. Marlon of the Adventurer's Guild was a pretty obvious winner here, followed by Gunther from the museum. And in a final poll, it seems like people don't necessarily want to marry the Dwarf, but like Krobus, they wish she would move in as a roommate.
These poll results do seem to line up roughly with comments posted all over the community since our interview about who people want to see. However, there's one character that got some attention on socials who wasn't in the poll at all:
Yes, the Hat Mouse! I too would love to marry the Hat Mouse! We could run a little hat store together! Of course that's realistic!
Again, it's possible we're going to get two brand new characters in the valley, and all of this speculation will have been just silly wishcasting. But until ConcernedApe says otherwise, I will be eagerly awaiting the addition of my preferred combo of Hat Mouse and the Wizard, the most obviously romantic individuals in the game.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
