The bachelors and bachelorettes of Stardew Valley's Pelican Town are complex, with personality traits and secrets that players slowly unveil as they get to know the NPCs. Alex, Pelican Town's resident hunk, is the same, with a deeper backstory and personality than the jock persona he presents on the surface.
For players unsure of who to date or those simply making the rounds of dating every Stardew Valley NPC, Alex is a great option. With complex family relationships, easy gifting options, and very sweet heart event cutscenes, the case for marrying Alex in Stardew Valley is not a hard one to make.
Alex's Story
When players first interact with Alex in Stardew Valley, he's a little bit flirty, arrogant, and is confident he's going to make it big as a professional gridball player someday. He lives in town with his grandparents, Evelyn and George, and his only real friend in Pelican Town is Haley. Alex is confident and spends most of his time working out, but in his four-heart event cutscene, players get a glimpse behind the facade that he puts up. He's speaking with Dusty, the dog that lives in front of his house, when the farmer overhears. Alex spots the player and reveals a bit about his past: he lives with his grandparents because his father was abusive and his mother passed from an illness a long time ago.
As the player strengthens their relationship with Alex, they will find him crying on the beach in his eight-heart event cutscene. In this event, Alex admits that it is the 12th anniversary of his mother's death and expresses how much he misses her and wishes he could thank her for taking care of him. Alex also has a unique relationship with his grandfather, George, especially in the context of Alex's dating life. In Stardew Valley, all of the marriable NPCs will date the farmer regardless of the player character's gender. Many characters have lines about having feelings for a farmer that's the same gender as them, Alex included, but Alex's family is the only one in the game to also make comments about Alex's homosexual relationship.
When a male farmer romances Alex and the two get engaged, George initially makes comments about how he is "old-fashioned" and "two men marrying each other is unnatural" but as your relationship with Alex progresses, he apologizes, saying "You're such a nice young man and I know you two are in love . . . I've changed my mind." Fans have loved this part of Alex's storyline and the insight it provides on how much both George and Alex have grown in their openness to queer relationships.
Beyond learning about his family, players also see Alex change and become more open and sensitive through his dating storyline. Through other heart-event cutscenes, Alex expresses a wide variety of emotions, including insecurity about his lack of intelligence, doubt about his future, and regret for the way he behaved in the past. Arguably, his ten-heart cutscene is one of the game's most romantic, as Alex organizes a secluded dinner for the player and himself at the saloon where Gus plays the violin and Emily serves the couple dinner. On this date, Alex expresses his feelings for the farmer in a moment of vulnerability, showing how different the character is from the day he met the farmer.
Additionally, Alex is a moderately easy character to boost a player's hearts with. He only has two loved items besides the universals, but he also likes all eggs, providing an inexpensive gift option for Stardew Valley players strapped for cash. Alex is a fan-favorite character, especially for his male-farmer romance storyline, and players love the "himbo" and his growth throughout the game. Players interested in romancing Alex should consider playing as a male farmer for exclusive dialogue options, and they should also make sure to stock up on chickens and eggs.
Stardew Valley is out now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
