Haley (Stardew Valley)

About

Haley is one of the villagers in the indie farming simulation video game Stardew Valley. She is one of the 12 available partners for marriage and is also considered one of the most hated love interests in the entire game by much of the fandom. The character has been a prominent source for fan art and memes on social media since the game was released in 2016 but, in April 2024, Haley grew exponentially more prevalent with a fan edit video portraying the character as lesbian paired with Chappell Roan's "Good Luck, Babe" song.

Origin

Haley appears in Stardew Valley, which was released on February 26th, 2016. She is portrayed as a blonde girl^[1] who's a cheerful, fashionable resident of Pelican Town and one of the 12 bachelorettes available for the player to marry (shown below).

Spread

After the game was released in February 2016, debates across social media about Haley being the most hated love interest started to become prevalent online. For example, on March 28th, 2016, Reddit^[2] user @Joelin8r posted a full article expressing their hate towards Haley, calling her a gold digger and that she does not help at home. The post amassed over 1,600 upvotes and 400 comments in eight years.

On October 7th, 2023, YouTuber^[3] @Leapalot posted a video titled "Why Does Everyone Hate Haley?" The video (shown below) tries to explain why so many players hate the character, amassing more than 34,000 views and 1,600 likes in almost a year.

Haley Lesbian Fan Edit

Sometime in early April 2024, TikTok artists started to draw fan edits portraying Haley in a lesbian relationship with the female farmer, with the earliest known being posted by TikToker @piineapples^[4] on April 8th, 2024. The video (shown below, left) amassed over 1.6 million plays and 394,000 likes in a week.

Haley fan edits started to use the chorus from Chappell Roan's song "Good Luck, Babe" in the fan edits, like user @baxbi's^[5] video (shown below, right) on April 15th, which garnered more than 539,000 plays and 131,000 likes since being uploaded.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References