Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” Has Become an Anthem for Queer Stardew Valley Gamers
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YouTube/Burak Cingi/Redferns
You pretty much can’t be anywhere on the internet right now without hearing the sweet ’80s synth riffs and soaring falsetto that make up “Good Luck, Babe!” the latest hit from rising pop girlie Chappell Roan. The song might be taking shots at a woman who leaves the singer for a life of domestic, heterosexual “bliss,” but it’s been used to soundtrack anything and everything at this point, from hair tutorials to videos of dancing clowns.
But as the video game outlet Kotaku noted, one particular faction of the World Wide Web has really latched onto “Good Luck, Babe!”: Stardew Valley stans. If you scroll through the “Good Luck, Babe!” sound on TikTok, you’ll see plenty of videos that seem to feature the game.
Stardew Valley players are particularly fixated on “Good Luck, Babe!” right now because of one of the 12 romanceable characters, Haley. She’s a photographer who lives in Pelican Town, described by The Gamer as being initially cold and rude when the player first interacts with her. She can be a difficult character to romance, The Gamer explains, since her favorite gifts are harder to find earlier in the game. And if there’s anything queer people love to do, it’s chase after emotionally unavailable people.
The creator of Stardew Valley likely didn’t intend to create the perfect sapphic yearning storyline, but the beautiful thing about simulation games is that people are free to project whatever stories they want onto their player characters. It totally makes sense that queer people might reinterpret Haley’s initial coldness, and the fact that she’s difficult to romance, as a sign of a woman in denial of her feelings for another woman. If you’re not convinced, plenty of TikTokers have put their talent to work, drawing short animated sequences of Haley and the player character set to the chorus and the bridge of “Good Luck, Babe!”
Considering that Roan is lowkey a gamer girl (she’s said that her “favorite thing to do is get really high and play Fortnite or Mario”) it feels righteous that her latest song is blowing up partially thanks to Stardew Valley. Gamers rise up indeed.
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