#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

[charliebot-art]

2.0 was three hours old?? it shoulda been at the club

[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

[getthembees]

my dc finest batgirl book came in so naturally i’m rereading bg2k and i can now pick up on the small silly things i missed. Like did you know that when cass breaks into catwoman’s apartment selina has a recording that ends with a six hour marathon of scooby doo? which means that the entire fight cass had afterwards with those thieves was done with the “What’s New Scooby-doo?” theme song playing in the background. and i think that’s beautiful.

[sillygoofyqueer]

"Hey, Four, what about those oneshots/LH update/TH update/other works/education you need to focus on?" *looks at you in disgust*...so anyway back to the mad scientist AU- Lan Wangji is struggling to even walk on the uneven terrain, let alone clamber down rope - the only reason he manages to get down is because of the typical arm strength that people proclaim the Lan to have. Even then, Jin Zixuan is waiting at the bottom like he was half ready to catch him which is...nice, he supposes. (He's pretty sure Nie Huaisang put him up to it.) All warmth he feels at the surprising comradery is soon cut short when Wen Chao says that they were going to bleed one of the disciples in order to lure out the mystery monster they're hunting. Then Wen Chao's...mistress says that they should use Luo Qingyang, and people actually move to do it.

Before he (and Jin Zixuan) can step to her defence, Wei Wuxian's voice rings out from where he's perched on top of a large boulder in the middle of the lake, proclaiming that "no monster would be interested in dirty Jin blood!" Xue Yang, who seems to cling to him, moves to slice open his own palm with a dagger, but Wei Wuxian's hand reaches out to casually halt the blade. Of course, his blood is spilled by this, and everyone seems to hold their breath as they look around the room. Nothing happens for a few moments, before there is a sudden rumbling as the boulder that Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian are on seems to move, and a head raises up to stare at the two on its back.

While Lan Wangji (despite his best efforts) hopes that the monster will just eat the two before they can react, Wen Zhuliu moves as if to grab them, but Wei Wuxian barely shakes his head before the older man is freezing in place. The room is deathly silent. Arrows are trained on this monster from all sides. Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang are staring into the face of death, the older boy with one arm thrown in front of Xue Yang as if to protect him. Then someone makes a sound in the crowd and one of the Wen soldiers accidentally looses an arrow at the monster, causing it to rear back and knocking the unfortunate boys into the lake below.

All hell breaks loose. People are screaming, the Wen make an effort to attack the monster but it becomes quickly clear that it sees their attacks as nothing more than inconveniences, Xue Yang is throwing soggy talismans from a perch nearby and Wei Wuxian is-..where is Wei Wuxian? Lan Wangji expects him to be fighting either the monster or the rebelling disciples (yes there is a sword in his hand, no it is not his own), but he looks over just in time to spot the boy taking a blow from a branding iron that was meant for Luo Qingyang of all people. His cry rings out before becoming lost in the sounds of battle, just as the Wens seem to retreat as one. Wen Zhuliu takes only one look back (his expression filled with rare concern) before dragging Wen Chao and his mistress along.

Wei Wuxian, despite his injury and the fact that he has been left behind, takes initiative and practically orders everyone to move deeper into the caves. Lan Wangji would never dare to stoop so low as obeying a Wen in normal situations, but really it's just a logical suggestion and he would have done it anyway, regardless of what Wei Wuxian said. It is very obvious that Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian are very outnumbered when it comes to enemies, and Wei Wuxian's jaw is clenched against the pain of the burn upon his chest. It would be so easy to get rid of these psychopaths. However, it would also not be honourable to strike a man while he is down, as the saying goes - plus, he may be their only ticket out of there. It seems that everyone else has similar thoughts (except one impossibly cocky Lan disciple who almost ends up skewered on the end of Xue Yang's blade).

The duo separate themselves from the rest of the group in this new cave, sitting beside one another and muttering about something or other while using a dagger to draw something in the dirt. The rest of the disciples talk amongst themselves, trying to figure out a way to get out of this hellish situation, and Lan Wangji is just trying to maintain his composure while sitting down in an attempt to ease the throbbing pain in his leg. The two 'groups' don't try and interact with each other until Luo Qingyang hesitantly makes her way over, followed by Jin Zixuan (who is acting as a guard of sorts probably), and asks why Wei Wuxian took the blow for her. "It's wrong to attack someone for trivial reasons, and violence for the sake of violence is something I won't stand for," he says it casually, as though he isn't still bleeding from the chest, "plus, I never liked her anyway." It's honestly shocking to hear of a Wen with (relatively) good morals, and it leaves Lan Wangji reeling as Luo Qingyang silently hands over a perfume bag and retreats. (Yes yes "it's still going?!?!!" THIS IS THE BASIS OF AN IMPORTANT TURNING POINT OKAY. GOTTA GIVE IT TIME TO WORK. Anyway after I finish the cave scene I'm going to focus on how the Wen siblings play into all this (and Nie Huaisang, but that's to be explained))

[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

[presiding]

two different playlists, two different concepts for daud:

daud's casette tape: you know when you're in the passenger seat of a 40-something dude's car and his playlist is a banger in a dadrock way. this is that. if that guy was daud

the knife of dunwall: lofi noir-movie jazz & neo-classical to assassinate and brood to

[i0099]

TRANSFEM FREELANCER

Yeah, thats it

[billcarden]

cut it loose (x)

[ducktracy]

i don't think i ever fully shared my Potential Bob Clampett Encounter on here, did i... probably because i was too embarrassed to. it probably is just a series of coincidences, but it's still neat to think about. tldr Cool Profound Stuff happened when i visited his grave and in the days following

[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! 😁👑