#explained playlist

[deni-means-flor]

Stardew Valley but you're at a Mexican Rancho

The Playlist

And here you have it friends, the cursed playlist that started it all. Every time I played the game during my first playthrough, there were some character plotlines or in-game events that reminded me of ranchero, regional mexicano, or banda songs from my country, and the fact that all those songs are linked to the idealized culture of rural areas of my country, and that Stardew is basically a farming game, made sense to my weird neurodivergent brain. So here you go, the playlist and which songs I relate to each character.

The list is ordered as follows:

Song title - Artist

Character/Event I relate the song to and why.

If you have any questions/comments, feel free to jump to the end of this playlist for my Author's Note

WARNING: THIS PLAYLIST DESCRIPTION CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR IN-GAME / HEART EVENTS.

Los Agachados - Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del 5to Patio

Character/Event: You know when we meet our main character and they are stuck in their routine, in a crowded city working a job that they don't like, 9 to 5? Well that happens too often down here, but in Mexico, for as long as we can remember, all that tediousness is alleviated by hanging out with our buddies and eating with our families or friends. The golden age of Mexican cinema reflects that enduring part of our history. This song is a homage to Tin-Tán Valdez's movies.

2. Mi Ciudad - Guadalupe Trigo

Character/Event: After our MC gets the letter from their Grandpa and has the opportunity to move to Pelican Town, during their bus ride they start to say goodbye to their city, looking forward to the possibilities that the new location offers. It's not that they hate the city, they just needed to grow their roots somewhere else, so the journey is filled with gratitude.

3. Recuérdame - Carlos Rivera

Character/Event: Grandpa's message. Ah, the favorite singer of Mexican moms and abuelas, it was only natural that this song helps MC reminisce about their summers in Pelican Town and their late grandpa. Do I hate that Disney tried to trademark a national tradition? absolutely, but the soundtrack from Coco slaps, especially in Spanish.

4. Árboles de la Barranca - Antonio Aguilar

Character/Event: The Farm. This one is self-explanatory for Spanish speakers. After MC's (now Farmer) arrival on the farm, they look at the condition of everything. "Árboles de la barranca, ¿Por qué no han enverdecido?" (Translation: Trees of the ravine, why haven't you gone green again?) and look at all the work they have ahead of them.

5. Soy de Rancho - El Komander

Character/Event: This is when MC becomes the Farmer. Maybe after their first Spring in Pelican Town or selling their first successful crops, the Farmer is getting the hang of things and are fully taking pride in the progress they've made.

6. La Granja - Los Tigres del Norte

Character/Event: The Community Center / The Barn / Lewis / Joja Co. Los Tigres del Norte are almost ubiquitous in representing Mexican culture all over the world, and it's only natural that this song (one of their hardest critiques to corruption) appears here. After managing to get a barn and their first animals through their hard effort, meeting the Junimos at the community center, and getting tasked by Lewis with the repair of the building, the Farmer begins to think that maybe the city and Pelican Town aren't so different in terms of the lack of care from their representatives. Lewis isn't necessarily bad, he's a nice man who cares about his community... but he has enough money to buy truffle oil and create a golden statue of himself while the community center has been abandoned and JojaMart is messing with local businesses. The problem isn't the lack of resources, but the greed and hunger of a few (which the Tigres del Norte song addresses directly)

Author's Note: Thanks for reading this first part of the playlist and feel free to leave me your comments/questions/asks. In the next post, due to the length of this one, I'll talk more about the other songs in the playlist and what they mean for the universe in my playthrough, especially, the ones I gave to the romanceable characters.

[panevanbuckley]

i hope fic authors who put songs that inspired the fic in the notes know that i am immediately adding those songs to that ship's playlist

[tricoufamily]

you saw her bathing on the roof her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Based on the limited number of remaining davechella spots, it's unlikely we'll get a Dundy playlist, which is a shame because I personally would have loved to hear Daft Punk's Get Lucky 18 times in a row.

[titanebaby]

ain’t no man gonna put a rope around me (except probably hickey)

[stinky-toons]

So your stalker finally got his hands on you, what are you doing before he sinks his teeth into your neck and rips you apart

[cacw]

oh my god i’m so sorry for saying this i feel unwell. do you know the song mother stands for comfort by kate bush. i think you’d like it 🥹

oh please never apologize... ive never heard this one in my whole life i am so glad you sent this. i really do like it i might even love it bad ive listened 20 times already and frankly im not sure how much more of this i can take. it is so hauntingly beautiful i might be listening forever. mother hides the madman. heres some unrelated characters as ponies

[birdietrait]

pretty like the sun

[i0099]

TRANSFEM FREELANCER

Yeah, thats it

[billcarden]

cut it loose (x)

[loganslowdown4]

So the lovely @skylarstar1000 was asking their daily question: ‘what are your thoughts on King Creativity’? I’m going to tell you exactly what I think. I believe he was REAL (possibly with another name) and that Thomas will write about him one day. Let me explain my proof—

Logan was the one that explained that Roman and Remus split like an ovum into two creativities, and they are essentially twins, or two halves of the same coin, a light half and a dark half. When that all was said, Roman was knocked out cold and Remus really only had to explain who he was, not how it happened.

What was left out, what we all missed, was the most important information: ROMAN’S SIDE OF THE STORY. I do believe there is still some lore to be explored about Roman before he had to split himself and when/why he went through the process. Maybe not the reason, but I do feel he would want to explain how he felt and the responsibility he claimed for doing so.

It’s possible that the name ‘King Creativity’ is just a fanon name, but there is a hint of proof if you look at Roman’s playlist. In it there is a song called ‘King’ by Years and Years. ‘King’ might just be an arbitrary title reserved for a royal person, HOWEVER, there’s a line in the song that says ‘I had to break myself to carry on’ most definitely referring to Roman splitting from Remus.

So Roman might have been King Roman, is what I’m saying. He was ‘King Creativity’ all along, he broke himself in two to ‘carry on’. There is more to that song about how Roman did all this for C!Thomas, and how Roman was finding the courage to fight that part of himself so that Thomas can live a more noble and happier life. It’s complicated and self sacrificing, but in the end, Roman will always be a protector willing to serve, no matter the cost.

Here’s the song! 😁👑

[artificialac1d]

helloo just want to share a thing ive been working on for a bit. i started this youtube playlist with every video i could find of gregg turkington/neil hamburger and one of the videos got taken down so i also made a big spreadsheet to keep track of all the videos

if you want to take a look through some of the stuff in there the playlist is here and the spreadsheet is here (also linked in my pinned) spreadsheet is still a wip but i hope its a helpful or at least interesting resource. yayy

[demodraws0606]

I've realised that in making the whole "assign DRDT character to the playlist" is that everytime someone assigned Good Grief to Whit there was just the blank slate that was Mistaken Belief of Love.

Which like I've seen people assign Eden based on Chapter 2 having Eden be the culprit which wasnt the case

The other pick would be Min which I honestly don't think works at all with the meaning of the song especially asymptotic does the same thing but better.

Like it's not just because I'm a deranged Whit truther but it's also because out of process of elimination Whit goes to Mistaken Belief of Love.

Eden also just gets kinda shoved around in playlist picks when Whit has Good Grief, I've seen her be put in Sing Along and Mistaken Belief of Love both which don't work with her.

Good Grief Eden just is the most fitting song for her because like Whit she's a person who struggles with toxic positivity and her feelings towards losing people she's close to like Arei and Min is a major part of her character. I mean that's most of her character in the trial, her grieving over Arei.

My girl Eden deserves Good Grief and stinky Whit will go into the stinky sussy zone

[fuumiku]

They’re really interesting foils in many ways. I’ve always thought that Marcille & Mithrun have underrated dynamic potential. Give me the cringefail dungeon lords. Give me the elves with ears-centric metaphorical self-image issues. Give me the academic elites whose deepest strongest desires will always remain unreachable and the only option is to turn to the corrupt forbidden fruit of a demon pact. I am so so normal about Mithrun and Marcille

I wonder if the resemblance between captain Mithrun and general Hagreus aka Marcille’s fave in Dalclan is intentional… They definitely look very alike. It could represent idealization vs reality? Something something the romanticization of elves and their societal drama in their fiction vs a very real and imperfect product of their military system. The canaries certainly aren’t glamorous next to whatever Hagreus is the general of. I feel like she never had the opportunity to notice the resemblance herself bc within seconds of meeting him he was wrestling her on the ground but. If she had… She would so think he should have been his actor in the tallman stage play of Daltian Clan in that new extra comic hehe. I love the little details like Hagreus’ lips being drawn with extra details because they’re full and pretty while Mithrun’s lips are drawn with extra details because they’re chapped lmao.

This art is all silly and surface level but in my head mithrille is like so dramatic and I make up daltian clan level big plots with them gbdgd. I made a spotify playlist for mithrun if y’all interested, rn it’s mostly centered around cravings that consume and losing yourself and illusions inspired from his time as dungeon lord but it’s branching out. Varied vibes, levels of intensity and degrees of confusion and await you ✨ I would emotionally rant about Chainsaw Man ost lyrics and how they tie in with Mithrun and the winged lion’s relationship but this post is already a monster

I want more of these two please please please pleaseee just one or two interactions in the new canon content coming up… All they ever did was debate philosophy on desires and human self-fulfillment and try to murder each other, please… I never get to gush about them and I can’t shut up so if you want more thoughts I talk about them more below

To get a girl to peacefully accept arrest follow these simple steps: in private, ominously stand above her and forcefully interrogate her, while in public, tell her you’ve met before (untrue and also not a pickup line) and interrogate her with a thin veneer of decorum. If all else fails, threaten and follow through on said threat. My guy needs more than just physical therapy I’m afraid

Sorry if most of these were Marcille-centric with Mithrun standing there looking cool, if I were doing these more from Mithrun’s pov things would be like "She’s a bit much but I guess I don’t mind hanging around her." or "Oh you’re a half-elf? -insert elven supremacist rethoric-" or "I have to keep her from becoming demon stew." immediately followed by "Did someone say demon? Kill kill kill kill kill" since these are set prior to like really knowing another. Then things would be more like "huh she has bad tastes in novels but her magic research is pretty interesting" and "I’m lonely and don’t understand myself— Oh she loves talking about feelings? Oh shi-" That last one is an aspect of why I like Marcille and Mithrun’s potential dynamic lol. She’s very… Emotionally intelligent alongside being impulsive. You think you have no feelings because the world has beaten them out of you? Think again!! Marcille be upon ye! -In a therapy sort of way but mostly in a connecting with people and your own self through interpersonal relationships and talking kinda way. I just think a lively, upbeat, annoying friend way too interested in your personal life would do him good, the canaries are nice but like if Marcille went to prison and was a sort of extra new bunkmate I think that’d be interesting and fun to read is what I’m saying

Unlike Kabru she wants all the useless messy filler of his backstory, eating chips while listening. Like two chibi sets side by side, "me and my fellow canaries, name name and name-" "Hold on that’s too much info we have to compact this" vs "Then we were to sleep on the third floor of the dungeon, which had the look of a mausoleum, and name and name got into a fight over the campfire placement." while Marcille is like uh-huh what next what next while kicking her feet. She thinks of pre-dungeon pompous Mithrun and is like omg you went through a character arc and became better as a person- and then he opens his mouth and she’s like nevermind let’s keep working on that. She would also go "ew ur hair is greasy" and give him a full hair care treatment. What I’m saying is I need them to be forced to spend time in a dungeon together and become besties through a life or death roadtrip

Marcille is insecure about her ears, long, like an elf’s pride should be, but rounder, inelegant. Seeing Mithrun though, the epitome of beauty, with his half-cut ears make it a sillier thought. Not sure if Mithrun is the best person to reconnect with ur elven culture with but it sure is an option Marcille would so appreciate being around someone both cool headed and kind, I genuinely think they’d get along, like not that Senshi isn’t that too most of the time but I think Mithrun would be in a way that’s more refreshing to her. I’d be so curious about them discussing Dalclan, I doubt he’d have read it but she could make him read it, maybe post-canon with the excuse that they’re trying to find him a new hobby hah. He’d tear into the writing and everything but it’d be a fun time, I like to think that it’d make him a bit less prejudiced. Marcille @ Mithrun "👉👈 Soo maybe you don’t know these books they’re pretty recent having come out 50 years ago but…"

I’ve been in a Mithrun phase I want to make and read Mithrun-centric fics and angst so baaad. I razz him a lot here but he’s literally a traumatized military man that became obsessed with revenge due to bad coping and neglects himself in the process idk not much for him going on and some of it is because he has to work on himself, but hey no one’s perfect it all comes from a place of love and relating though I prommy. He’s the one ungodly angsty squeaky toy blorbo with brain damage rep I have don’t take him from me

[luckyfailuregirl]

Better off recovering than recovered; better off hurting than to have hurt; better off in the dark than in the light; better off near death than be alright

Alt versions under cut as always,, (NOT A SHIP BTW... at least not here/hj)

[that-one-raccoon]

Ricky Montgomery 🤝 The Crane Wives 🤝 Mitski:

The most KuniZai-coded songs you'll ever hear