In case your social media is attuned to homosexual stuff, pop queens, or Coachella, you’ve in all probability heard Chappell Roan. The budding pop artist has been making waves on platforms like TikTok with songs like “Informal” and her newest single, “Good Luck, Babe!” Her Coachella efficiency has additionally been popping off, particularly a clip of her singing the latter track and showcasing her spectacular vocal vary. The mic was on, mates. However why are we speaking about Ms. Roan at Kotaku, a online game web site? As a result of Stardew Valley followers have latched onto her newest hit as an anthem for Haley, one of many ladies the participant can courtroom within the farming sim.
Haley is a photographer in Stardew Valley’s titular village, and when the participant first meets her, she’s a bit chilly to them. As a result of some folks just like the enemies-to-lovers arc, you’ll be able to see the enchantment in breaking down her partitions, discovering the susceptible middle, and dwelling fortunately ever after at your farm. However the angst within the relationship provides gamers loads of room to challenge and fill within the gaps. For queer gamers, this sort of push and pull naturally invitations sure readings, equivalent to somebody battling who they’re and taking it out on somebody they could have emotions for. This, on high of Haley’s theorized relationship with Alex, considered one of Stardew Valley’s attainable bachelors, provides extra to the studying that her anger comes from a spot of her struggling together with her identification, and attainable attraction to a feminine participant. All of that’s, after all, open to interpretation and can fluctuate relying on a particular playthrough. However that studying of the character makes it an ideal match for Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”
When you haven’t heard the track, right here’s the official lyric video. However the skinny of it’s the banger has Roan recount a relationship with a lady who appears to be hesitant about making it official as a result of she’s not sure of herself, and is taking the better path of obligatory heterosexuality. She’s prepared to marry a person if it means dwelling with out the scrutiny of being in a sapphic relationship. The bridge fairly properly sums up the themes of the track:
“Once you get up subsequent to him in the midst of the night time
Together with your head in your arms, you’re nothing greater than his spouse
And when you consider me, all of these years in the past
You’re standing head to head with ‘I advised you so’”
The track’s virality and the Stardew fandom’s uncanny skill to make memes about small moments within the recreation have resulted in a number of edits and artwork utilizing the track to explain Haley’s relationship with a feminine important character.
As a homosexual man, my solely romantic pursuits after I performed Stardew Valley have been towards Shane, so I used to be not tuned into Haley’s story again then. However who amongst us hasn’t handled a attainable associate battling comphet, and are nonetheless ready for the day they hit us up years later like, “yeah, you have been proper”? So this development checks off all my packing containers: it’s homosexual, it makes use of a banger track by a pop goddess who I really feel goes to be big by the top of the yr, and it’s just a little angsty. Thanks, Stardew followers, for figuring out this and ensuring it will overlap with my algorithm sufficient that I’d see it. It’s been a beautiful break from all of the Jojo Siwa bullshit exhibiting up on my feed as of late.
Anyway, sing us out, Ms. Roan.
