Fridge / Stardew Valley

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

---

Fridge Brilliance

• Why does Pierre claim he can't beat Joja's cheap prices when they sell seeds more expensive? Easy! As an independent businessman, Pierre can modify his prices just for you. After all, after you've set up you're coming in at the start of every month buying several hundred seeds, his wallpaper catalogue, and backpacks. As for the cheaper cooking goods, that's because he likes you. Morris has no such flexibility as he can only sell at JojaMart's inflated prices until you have a membership, and even then they're identical to Pierre's. If you choose to restore the community center and drive out Morris and JojaMart because of this, that may well have been a successful long-term Batman Gambit on Pierre's part.
  • There's a deeper level of brilliance here. JojaMart is essentially a supermarket, and as such they carry typical supermarket goods. The kinds of things you buy as a farmer are not typical merchandise for them. They still want your business, but they don't have the supplies or the connections at that location to sell at the prices of Pierre's store because Pierre actually runs the kind of store that routinely stocks those goods. Instead Joja has to have all that stuff specially shipped in. The extra money you're paying until you get the membership is essentially shipping and handling, which gets waived with a membership because then Morris knows you're interested in shopping with them and starts stocking it.
  • Another way to look at it: Joja sells produce (to the other villagers) at cheaper prices than Pierre's, and sells you seeds at steeper prices - which means that, if it was up to Joja, you'd be forced to buy high and sell low, and that is certainly a way to discourage independent farmers and traders like yourself.
  • Possibly another, more malicious reason could be that Joja recognizes you as an ex-employee, so Morris is intentionally overcharging you specifically until you give in to them.
• Joja Cola doesn't restore much energy for a caffeinated beverage. Well, the most likely place you're going to find it is as fished up trash, since it's insanely overpriced in its vending machine. Everybody in town except Sam dislikes it, and they're throwing their cans away half-empty!
  • Also, Joja Cola is the only item categorized as trash which cannot be recycled into anything useful. It's not just garbage, it's irredeemable garbage.
  • This is a Genius Bonus if you know about the details of soda manufacturing. While 'cola' is derived from the kola nut that gave most sodas their flavor profile, and the kola nut does contain a hefty amount of caffeine, it's also not used in soda production anymore due to its low availability making it unsuited for large-scale manufacture. Thus Joja Cola, which is manufactured on that level, wouldn't include kola nut. So where does that caffeine come from? It's synthetically manufactured and added during production because people expect soda to have caffeine in it. The Joja Corporation, however, is so cheap and Joja Cola so low-quality that they don't add caffeine either. That's why it doesn't have the kick of a caffeinated drink - It's caffeine-free.
• Gifting
  • Maru has diamonds as one of her favorite gifts, and at first glance you wouldn't think someone like Maru would be into superfluous gems, but then you take another look at what she likes and dislikes and you realize, as a scientist, Maru would need rare gems and materials for her and her dad's projects.
    • In fact, she explicitly notes down that she needs diamonds for "her greatest invention yet!"
  • Maru also loves Pepper Poppers. This seems a little odd... but not if you consider another of her likes: Cheese Cauliflower. Cheese is a universal like anyway!
  • Take a look at the projects Maru and her father do: Maru does a lot of practical applications, building, and the like, whereas Demetrius is more observation and taking notes. You'd think a scientist would love Battery Packs (as Maru does), but Demetrius hates them. Look at what he does: Research and a lot of writing. Of course he doesn't like them, they're useless to him. Speaking of batteries, why does Maru like gold bars? It's because gold is one of the best conducting metals in its pure state, perfect for wiring in mechanical devices. That's probably also the reason she's one of the only two people who likes copper bars as a gift, while almost literally everyone else dislikes or hates them.
  • Haley has diamonds as one of her liked, but not favorite gifts, which at first glance would seem strange for a girl into clothing and accessories, but that's the point: Haley probably has a large amount of jewelry already and while she still likes them, it is still dulled down a little because of it.
  • Haley is also the only villager who doesn't love the Prismatic Shard; in fact, it's one of her hated gifts. Presumably a fashion-conscious girl like Haley would find the bright, contrasting colors of the shard to be tacky.
  • One of Haley's hobbies is baking, mostly sweet things. She also has a one sided crush on Alex early in the game. While Alex does love food, he prefers high protein dishes since he exercises a lot. Looks like Haley has been giving him the wrong gifts.
  • One of Sebastian's favorite foods is Pumpkin Soup. And where do you get the recipe for Pumpkin Soup? From befriending his mother, Robin! The guy must really like his mom's home cooking. One of Seb's lines in the Fall season has him griping about "pumpkin spice everything". This isn't just simply him going against a trend; Sebastian knows (and likes) the authentic taste of pumpkin.
  • On a more somber note: Penny's hated gifts include wine and beer. With her mother being an alcoholic, that shouldn't come as much surprise. Her dislike of grapes may seem odd until you quickly realize that wine is a product of fermenting grapes. There's also the fact that she hates the Rabbit's Foot, while everyone else loves it. Maybe she's an animal person... On a brighter note, among her favorite gifts are Tom Kha Soup and Sandfish. These seem out of place; especially compared to her more modest favorites, the Red Plate (Red Cabbage and Radish), the Roots Platter, Poppies, and Emeralds; and would be easy to write off as someone who's lived poor wanting a taste of something exotic. Except that these items are found in Calico Town, on the bus line. The bus line her mother used to work before it broke down. It's easy to gather that these foods were probably brought back when her mother was employed, and remind her of happier times. Penny also loves poppyseed muffins - actually this makes sense: Those are made with Poppies.
  • Marnie's list of loved items include pink cake, farmer's lunch, pumpkin pie... and diamonds. The last one seems a bit odd for such a down-to-earth woman, doesn't it? Until you get to know her (and Lewis) a bit better. She's an old maid whose "boyfriend" insists on keeping their relationship secret. Which means no engagement ring.
  • Elliott obviously loves seafood - that's why his likes are all about seafood. (Makes sense for someone who lives on the sea shore too!) Sea shells are universal neutrals for him - because as someone who lives on the beach, he sees them every day and doesn't think they're anything special. His dislikes are all about things from the forest. Somewhat of an inverse of Leah in that regard.
  • Abigail's love of pumpkins is obvious when you find out how much she loves the fall season. She also loves Blackberry Cobbler, but hates Blackberries. This makes more sense when you realize that giving her a blackberry implies that she'd need to make the Cobbler herself, which itself implies she'd need to stay home / stay safe / act like a stereotypical girl, as she puts it. As shown in her 6 heart cutscene, she tells her father that she hates being treated as such. Another possibility is that Abigail doesn't like the taste of straight blackberries very much, but loves them when they're cooked into something. It'd be like a person loving banana bread (with the sugar, spices, nuts, etc), but not being at all fond of bananas as a fruit. Her love of the Amethyst becomes obvious as the color matches her hair. Her liking Quartz, similarly, isn't too far off.
  • Leah's the only person who likes Driftwood, which without a Recycler is otherwise completely worthless. But a Nature Lover like Leah would probably find a couple uses for such a thing, either as material for her work or as fuel after it's been dried out.
    • Alternatively, given that she considers wood to be her favorite sculpting material, driftwood might remind her of her own sculptures, and she might admire how nature can create the shapes that she creates deliberately.
  • While enjoying animal products (and certain universal dishes), Leah's gift preferences seem to suggest that she is a vegetarian. She has a number of personal loved and liked items, most of them being edible plants/mushrooms. Given her overall granola girl lifestyle it would certainly fit.
  • Shane's love for hot peppers and spicy food: being drunk numbs the sense of taste (among other things), so he may be craving anything flavorful. Hot food also encourages drinking more, and studies have indicated a possible link between an affinity for spicy food and an increased risk of addiction/alcoholism. Ties into his depression as well; spicy food isn't unheard of as a coping strategy for a number of reasons. The intense taste might make him feel more alive, and the pain of capsaicin burn can be handy as a safe way to sate self-harm urges. Alternatively? Bloody Mary drinks.
  • Jodi loves receiving dishes of food (and diamonds!) from the player. Considering how often she gripes about having to do chores and the sort for her family, you handing her plates of food probably saves her plenty of time and energy to do what she wants! Also, one of her favorite dishes, Crispy Bass, is Kent's recipe. So it probably reminds her of happy times. Alternatively, she probably exhausts herself by doing all the housework, and recovers energy better with cooked dishes!
  • While Kent's loves are dishes his mother used to cook for him, he likes springtime flowers, very odd for a man like him. But he returned home in spring from being in a prison camp. The flowers probably remind him of no longer being in the prison camp.
  • Pam loves alcohol of course - this isn't surprising. But her loves also include things like Parsnips, parsnip soup, Glazed yams, and cactus fruit. Not only are these simple recipes to make, but Pam perhaps might have a fondness for these types of vegetables - perhaps her own mother made them. Or maybe Penny makes them. Cactus fruit is also obvious - it's from the desert.
  • The Wizard doesn't like Strange Buns. Strange Buns are used in his ex-wife's dark rituals.
  • A good amount of Emily's dislikes and hates are stuff that involves fish^note aside from the universal hates, the only gift Emily hates that doesn't involve fish is Holly. While Haley's more vocal about how she misses their parents (who have been traveling for two years), Emily's dislike could come from the same place: there's no indication that there's an airport nearby Pelican Town, so it's very likely her parents are traveling on the water.
    • Alternatively, Emily is shown to be an Animal Lover, particularly when she nurses a parrot that flew into her window. So it's very possible that her love for animals means that she's a vegetarian; dishes with fish in them would go against her lifestyle.
    • As for most of her loves being gemstones? Considering that Haley has so many that diamonds are merely a liked gift for her, she's probably thrilled to be the one getting them for once. Alternatively, given that she's shown to make clothing (and wool and cloth are also some of her loved gifts), it's probably because she enjoys using gemstones to make clothing (quartz being merely "liked" as opposed to "loved" mainly because it's not as useful in clothing/jewelry as, oh say, a sapphire or ruby).
    • Clint loves the exact same selection of gemstones as Emily. It makes sense when you remember his crush on her; he presumably loves them because he can give them to her instead. An alterntative to this is that rare gems are used in decorative pieces in his special weapons that he makes, or more likely, used to grant said weapons magical properties since gems have been proven to do that, explaining why he also loves diamonds.
• There is a shrine that turns unwanted children into doves and erases the memory of them. Considering you find it in the Witch's Hut, it may explain why the Wizard had an affair. It seems the shrine can only be activated by someone with a close bond to the child, such as a parent or guardian. The Wizard knew this and wanted a child the Witch couldn't transform, so he cheated on her then left the child to be raised by someone else.
  • The Wizard only suspects his child is one of the villagers. While this could be normal uncertainty about such a messy situation, it's possible the Witch actually used the shrine to erase the memories of those involved. However it wasn't a perfectly clean wipe and all involved remember something about what happened. The Witch remembers everything because she's the one who used the shrine; the Wizard remembers parts thanks to his magic and piecing things together; Caroline remembers enough to feel wistful about her time with the Wizard; and Pierre remembers enough to be suspicious of the Wizard and Abigail's parentage.
• The reason why the Player Character can function on so little sleep is because they are an ex-corporate worker. Seeing how someone died while working for Joja and they didn't even bother to clean up the corpse suggests that Joja squeezes every ounce of sweat and blood out of their workers. Working at a farm might just be light work for the PC.
• How does the player take to farm work so readily after working a desk job? Well, the farm belonged to Grandpa, who they seemed very close to, so they probably spent a lot of time there growing up, and it only took a little while for it all to come back to them.
• The starter watering can is capable of watering 40 crops on one fill, which is exactly the maximum number of crops you can plant on Day 1.
• Why does Sandy like all of the movies at the Movie Theatre, from the childish-looking Brave Little Sapling to mature films like It Howls In The Rain? Well, she did say she wanted a reason to come out to Pelican Town, and you inviting her to watch a movie is reason enough, regardless of what kind of movie that's playing.
  • The Dwarf also likes all movies. The Dwarf lost their family in an attack by the Shadow People, and is an outsider to the humans. They're probably just happy to have a friend. It may also be that the Dwarf has lived their entire life underground in the Mine, and so is simply taken with the novelty of movies in general. New foods, bright, moving colors on a screen, the whole thing is likely new and exciting to them.
  • Krobus dislikes almost all movies. Krobus has a light sensitivity. The bright screen probably gives him a headache! The one exception, Mysterium, is in black-and-white, so it's probably easier on his eyes enough for him to enjoy the movie a bit.
• Why do Jas and Vincent not like cheese? Kids love cheese... well, it's probably not the type of cheese that kids typically like.
  • It also makes sense that Jas and Vincent dislike most artisan goods (Except for the sweet stuff) as well - they like sweet things you can eat, things you can play with, or in Jas's case things that are pretty like flowers. (That aren't Dandelions) Vincent and Jas also don't like triple shot-espresso because kids don't like the taste of coffee.
• One of Penny's heart scenes shows that she's really bad at cooking. Given that Pam lives on pub food and TV-dinners and the father left, she's never had the opportunity to learn from someone. If you marry her, Penny learns to cook better food for you— either you're teaching her, or she's watching "The Queen of Sauce" while you're out working.
• It seems odd that the lava pit at level 100 of the Mines has so much trash in it, but consider that Pelican Town has no garbage disposal service. Presumably, all the town's trash is dumped into the lava pit. As for why it doesn't burn up, chalk it up to Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • The behavior of fish ponds when lava eels are added suggests it may not be a lava pit, just water colored from the presence of lava eels.
• For a small town, Pelican Town seems to have quite the unemployment problem, with Jojamart easily being the biggest employer (including the nameless NPCs who work there). This is a sad truth about real life small towns - no wonder the protagonist's parents didn't stay there. Little to no job opportunities.
  • So why wouldn't anyone else take up farming? Note how the PC and Marnie seem to be the only ones with any kind of land that extends more than 10 tiles beyond their house, combined with the fact that they don't have much money. In real life? Farms are quite expensive... but there aren't a lot of profit margins to be had there.
• For some reason, Shane loves being given a cup of Joja Cola at the movie theater, even though he hates being gifted the cans of it just as much as everyone else save Sam. One possible explanation is that Shane only dislikes being given the cans because they remind him of the job that he hates, where he probably stocks them all the time, not because he doesn't like the taste.
  • Additionally, take this into account: In order to have the Movie theatre? Joja's been shut down for awhile now. It's also possible that he might be given warm soda.
• Although the player character proposes to one of the bachelor(ettes) by giving them a Mermaid's Pendant, proposing to another player instead requires them to craft an engagement ring. This makes sense when one considers that the Mermaid's Pendant is a local Stardew Valley custom, and the player characters are all outsiders to the valley- they would naturally expect a traditional ring proposal, and wouldn't understand what the pendant was supposed to mean. ConcernedApe even confirmed this.
• At the saloon, Shane doesn't go to a table or a spot at the bar, preferring a corner by the fireplace. Just him being his solitary self? Maybe, but there could also be more to it. Depression interferes with thermoregulation, especially against cold. Shane is rarely seen without a hoodie on, even in the summer, so he might be there to stay warm.
• Broken glasses are a common trash loot from fishing, but where ALL of them come from? The only NPCs with glasses are Harvey, Maru, Pierre, Gunther, and Morris (and Mr. Qi if you count in sunglasses), not exactly many enough people to need that many glasses per year. However, there is a pointer on who might be the culprit: all broken glasses have round lenses. While people may wary their glasses styles, people tend to like a specific personal style. Who is the one with round lenses? Morris! The local "quantity over quality" person. He probably has a bulk of poorly made glasses that he keeps discarding when they break.
• A small one, but the game's main theme, "Stardew Valley Overture" is actually an arrangement of your Grandpa's leitmotif, which fits on how the game's theme to continue with your Grandpa's legacy.
• Why don't you get vodka from putting potatoes in the keg? Because vodka requires distillation. Putting potatoes in the keg would, at best, only give you the base from which vodka is made.
• Demetrius praises the artistry of Leah's wooden sculpture but also doesn't see the point of Robin's elaborate four-poster bed. Robin even wonders if he knows what 'beauty' is anymore. He clearly appreciates Leah's artistry, so why doesn't he appreciate Robin's? If you're familiar with psychology this makes perfect sense - Demetrius's view of the world is very categorical, functional, and scientific. A bed does not have to be pretty to be slept in, so its beauty is irrelevant to its function. The extra material and effort put in to make it look pretty is inefficient, so he's confused as to why Robin would do that. On the other hand, art's only purpose is to look pretty so its beauty is its function. He's evaluating both objects on how efficiently they serve their designated function.
  • His argument about tomatoes is also not unreasonable. He's a biologist, not a chef, so he would have looked for fruit in the botanical sense, not the culinary one. You don't have a good way to explain to him that for cooking, Robin probably wanted sweet fruit.
• In the beginning of the game, the player character has a pitiful amount of energy that's usually depleted in half a day (or less) of work. It makes sense: the player had been a cubicle worker for who knows how long, and the sedentary job eroded their endurance for physical labor.
• During the Stardew Valley Fair, you can spot several tourists visiting the town, who all have good things to say about it. It's entirely possible that tourists like these actually visit the town throughout the year and just don't appear in normal gameplay. This would explain how the town stays afloat at all before the Farmer shows up. The fact that JojaMart tries so hard to set up in the valley also supports this, as why else would they bother setting up shop in a village of barely 30 if not to sell to the tourists?
  • The new events added in 1.6 also showcase that there's definitely tourists who visit. After all, Pelican Town is a beach town!
• Why does Kent have explosives gathering dust? It's implied he probably worked in the mines (Which is what explosives were invented for) and possibly demolition. He'd be too afraid to use them - so they're gathering dust.
• Jodi complains that having kids and taking care of her family has left her feeling like she has no individual identity anymore. While most characters have various thing in their bedrooms, hers is practically empty.
• Alex is seen as somewhat sexist... Jerk Jock, right? Well, he lives with his grandparents - who likely have a lot of "old fashioned" views as demonstrated in-game. It's not uncommon for people who were Raised by Grandparents to pick up on their worldviews.
  • This also explains why a lot of people think romancing Alex as a male farmer is more wholesome - because you end up challenging the worldviews in a positive way. You're not just changing one person's worldview - you're changing three.
  • Another reason why Alex might be more flirty with a woman - he was abused by his father. Perhaps if he's bi, that's one of the sources.
• Kent has a friendship cutscene where his PTSD triggers when Jodi makes popcorn for him (because popcorn had been one of his favorite snacks before he went to war). Yet when you take him to see a film at the movie theater, popcorn is one of his favorite snacks. This actually makes sense when you consider what triggered his PTSD episode—it was the sound of popcorn being made, which reminded him too much of the sound of guns and explosions on the battlefield. If Kent doesn't have to hear the popcorn being made, then he can still enjoy it.
  • Alternatively, when you take him to the movie theatre, he already knows popcorn is being made there. So he has time to prepare himself.
• All of the things Haley will make for you are vegetarian - sure there's a bias towards Pescetarian food (only meat is fish) in general, but the fact that Haley would make Hotpot for dinner is also Heartwarming in Hindsight: It's something she likes, and her sister loves. Perhaps during her Character Development, Emily taught her... or maybe she already knew since Bean Hotpot is a liked gift for Haley as well.
• The descriptions of both strange dolls consist simply of "???" because they're not actually artifacts. They're licensed merchandise from the Wumbus film franchise that was either lost or discarded. Since Gunther doesn't know much about popular culture, he has nothing to say about them.

Fridge Logic

• Why does Emily make you rice pudding if she dislikes it?
  • Haley likes rice pudding, so she probably learned there and figured she'd try and see if the farmer enjoyed it as well. Alternatively, since she may specify that the food she's gifting you is gluten-free, that may be her primary concern during cooking rather than whether or not she personally likes it.

Fridge Horror

• Joja Corp doesn't bother to clean up the corpse of your dead coworker at his desk in the intro (or, in the censored version, label the empty desk as "terminated"), so they clearly don't care about employees dying. When you chase the Joja company out of town by fixing the Community Center, Morris exclaims "I'm done for!" He might be completely literal about that.
  • Not helping is that when the store goes out of business a big 'Terminated' sign appears over the door right where the 'Life's better with Joja' slogan is printed, making it read 'Life's Terminated'
• While the shrine that erases your children's existence by turning them into doves is horrific enough, the fact that its owner is the Wizard's ex wife who is hinted to have left him after he cheated on her and had a child with another woman makes you wonder exactly why she owns it. Is she suspicious of her former husband? Or was the shrine the reason he left her in the first place?
  • Or was it that the witch discovered the limits of the spell (specifically, the part where one must be close to, implied to be the parent of, the child) when she tried to turn Abigail into a dove and it failed? Having no relationship to Abigail and the Wizard refusing to participate, maybe the best it can do is erase memories from those around the child.
• The entire shrine and divorce system might be an extreme but effective way to subvert Permanently Missable Content in the game. Think about it: a player makes enough progress to have a thriving farm, perhaps collect most of the in-game achievements and rare items. They marry one of the candidates, which take in-game months to woo and propose to, but also want to see the heart events and married life with another candidate, hence the divorce. But they also don't want to permanently close off their relationship with the ex, so they basically Retcon the entire relationship out of existence.
• Rabbits regularly drop rabbit's feet once you start raising them. That raises all kind of implications as to how they're being harvested.
• Void Spirits AKA Shadow People are among the monsters you can kill for a reward in the Adventurer's Guild. Think about that for a second. The existence of Krobus pretty much confirms that Shadow People are sapient. Granted, Marlon and Gil probably just intend it to be in self-defense rather than actively seeking out and killing them, but still.
  • To have Krobus move in to your house you need the Void Ghost pendant, which you buy with void essence, which comes from killing Shadow People. In short, to befriend Krobus you need to kill hundreds of his friends and family. It seems less like you're asking to be his best friend, and more that you're threatening him into becoming your housemate.
  • Then again, Krobus himself sells 10 void essence per day. Is he secretly a serial killer? Though alternatively, it could be that Shadow People naturally produce void essence as a waste product, or that they keep it on them as currency.
    • If it's a waste product, that opens up some fridge squick in that Krobus is selling you his Solid Gold Poop.
• Stardew Valley is situated at the coast of the Gem Sea. The Gotoro Empire, which is at war with your country, is across the Gem Sea. Should the Gotoro Empire strike, Pelican Town and the rest of the valley would be subject to attack.
  • Fortunately, hope isn't entirely lost. Stardew Valley does happen to have the Wizard and the Witch present, whose true capabilities in magic are unknown, but could be impressive enough to at least give a battle-hardened navy pause long enough for the Ferngill Republic's own military to respond - and the two exes would hopefully be willing to call truce in the face of a hostile foreign power disturbing their peace. Additionally, depending on how you handle the Community Center, either the Junimos will be present to support the humans, or Joja, should it have a sufficient presence thanks to you and Morris investing in the town, might use its mountain of wealth to grease the wheels in government and get a military response fast-tracked to protect its interests. Further, the local Adventurer's Guild, while its members are depleted in the modern day, may have served as a deterrent in the past, and may assist the town in the modern day as well. Wouldn't stop things from becoming extremely messy if the Gotoro Empire did invade, but it might be enough to save the valley from being overrun and/or turned into a crater.
• Less Fridge Horror, more Fridge Sadness. None of the characters have established ages, but Maru is old enough to be married and Sebastian is old enough that living in his parents' basement is a little embarrassing but young enough to be irritated by his mom coming to his room, and they both look fairly young. Sebastian would have been about ten years old at the most when Maru was born, probably younger. Demetrius has a book about how to be a first-time step dad but he never so much as mentions Sebastian's existence (or acknowledges your existence as his new son or daughter-in-law if you marry him). The situation is ambiguous, but given Demetrius' logical, scientific approach to pretty much everything in his life, it implies that his goal was "to be a dad", and he gave up on a less-than-ten-year-old Sebastian completely because he met that goal when Maru was born.
• One of the objects you can build in your farm is a Fish Pond, which allows you to breed fish to gain eggs and a sustainable supply of those fish. After a while, those fish start giving you quests to help you boost the capacity of the pond, and they give you a general idea on how they're doing when you interact with it. In case you've missed the implications there... All those fish you've caught, cooked, sold and eaten raw? Yup, they're all sapient.
  • Alternatively, and slightly less horrifying, is that it's not actually the fish giving you quests, so much as that your character is able to interpret what they're wanting through the vague "forest magic" you're tapped into. (The same magic that lets you speak to bears and Junimos)
  • They are also still alive in your backpack, fridge, or chest.
• The sewer cave is generously littered with apparent human remains. Who are they? Ill-fated maintenance workers? Adventurous young people like Abigail and the kids? Financial liabilities for Joja?
• The hospital is closed for a significant portion of each day, notably the night, when health emergencies are more likely to occur. Being the town's only doctor, Harvey is likely always on duty for such emergencies, even during his off times. The big Fridge Horror comes from the emergencies Harvey can't handle, like those requiring surgery, but he likely knows enough to stabilize those types of injuries just to give people enough time so they can be transported to a hospital. This is outright confirmed by any time you pass out from damage in the mines—you come to in the hospital, with a very worried Harvey hovering over you, having patched you up—and Shane's six-heart event: any time you find him, between 9 a.m. or 8 p.m., he'll end up in Harvey's clinic, where the doctor pumps his stomach and gets him some bed rest.
• 1.5 introduces a volcano with actual lava pools, which look more like actual lava (or at least a Coconut Effect version of lava) than the "lava pool" at level 100 of the mines, which is just water colored red. So what is up with the latter? Given that 99% of what you fish up there is literal garbage (which you'd think would burn up if it was tossed in actual lava), it's possible that it really is normal water, discolored from insane amounts of pollution from all the litter. It would also explain why you only find one species of fish there, and even more rarely than you do fishing in the lava pools in the Volcano Dungeon; only the most robust species of fish can survive in that anymore, and even then they're not exactly thriving.
  • To be fair, if you put enough Lava Eels into a fish pond, the water there will turn red too. We're probably looking at a situation like the Lava Lakes in Subnautica.
• The fact that Kent, the Shell-Shocked Veteran, sends you BOMBS in the mail if you have a good enough relationship with him. He often says that the bombs are just gathering dust too.
  • One hopes that Kent has the bombs because he used to work in demolitions in the military (and possibly in the mines) and still had surplus of them, and sends them to you because he trusts only you to deal with them appropriately. (After all, who else in the town would he trust to do that?)
    • Which is also a bit of Fridge Horror as well. For obvious reasons, explosives workers are not allowed to take explosives home. The fact that he has them gathering dust in his shed implies that he's been stealing explosives from either the military or the mines, quite possibly for a long time. Just what was he planning to do with all those stolen explosives? The fact that the authorities don't seem to keen on investigating the stolen explosives also says some bad things about them.
  • Hopefully, Kent secured those bombs - because his kids could easily have gotten into them and thought they were toys!
  • Kent is storing his explosives in a shed in his backyard...in the middle of town. One shudders to think what would happen if they were accidentally set off.
  • If you married Sam before Kent returned, then it seems really really fucked up...
• Just what happened to Jas's parents, anyway? The fact the grandpa doll is under the table has led some people to think her grandfather abused her.
• Speaking of Jas, some people don't marry Shane just because of that - because if Shane marries the farmer and has (or adopts) kids with them? He is essentially abandoning his goddaughter to marry the richest person in town! What the Hell, Hero?! Poor Jas would have a lot of abandonment issues in the future!
• Was Alex's father abusive towards him because of him being an alcoholic... or was it also because he is open to dating and marrying a guy as well?