Shane or Sebastian to marry?

So they're both candidates, I've been through all the cute cut scenes but I am still torn! In my first runthrough I married Elliot, and then in my second, Alex and now I've gone for the tsundere no one understands me type but I don't know who to pick!

Pros and cons of both?

 

I'm about to marry Shane in my current save but I have been married to Sebastian twice and I can tell you, he's a real sweetheart as a husband. If you pick him, you won't regret your choice.

 

A load of my friends say he's a super good husband but I don't want him to stop doing his programming thing and just help out at the farm, and i'm curious about shane!

 

I think it's somewhat implied that he's still working from home after he moves in with you, there's a line he says where he mentions that he appreciates that you work so hard to make money for the farm so that he can do what he loves for a living. As for Shane, I can't give you any info on him yet, I haven't married him yet. (Soon though!)

I'd say just go with whoever you're pulled to the most - you can always do another save later on and try a different option.

 

Shane is a sort of recovering alcoholic, so take that as you will. He's starting to get his life together, but the pigsty he tacks onto your house if you marry him suggests that he still has a pretty serious problem and maybe needs to spend some time focusing on himself.

Seb seems to have some social issues, but he's not bad once he warms up to you. My issue with him is that he's dead set on leaving the valley when you first meet him, and I tend to think he really should get out of town to start his own life in the city where he can find a place to fit in and move up from this small-time freelance programming gig. He's giving up his dreams and career if he marries the PC, and that doesn't sit well with me.

Harvey, though... he's settled and has a good job. He already likes it in the valley, and he's sweet in a dorky way. Plus that mustache...

 

My girlfriend married Sebby and lost a heart with him (forgot to give weekly presents) and he was super meanie with her, to the point that she deleted that save.

 

I don't think it's completely unheard of for people to change their mind, especially when they're that young. He wanted to move to the city at one point but he says later on he doesn't think he would have liked it, too crowded (and he's an introvert, a crowded city is probably the last place you'd want to live if you like your space), and he starts having feelings for the farmer and it sort of changes his whole view on what he wants for his future. After you get him to 8 hearts, he starts telling you he's been thinking about living on a farm - indicating he is at least considering it and maybe thinking it might be better. (Not to mention he's dropping a pretty huge hint that he'd like to move in with you.) I think a lot of that angst about going to the city stems from him not getting along with his stepdad and feeling like he isn't wanted in his own home. Until the farmer comes along, the only option is pretty much to pack up and move to the city.

After he moves in, he never gives any indication of being unhappy with that decision, in fact the contrary. He says marrying you was the best decision of his life. He can still do his programming since all he needs for that is an internet connection, and he's still near enough to his old friends to hang out with them once a week, and close enough to his mom to go see her once a week. His life hasn't been disrupted, it's been enhanced.

That's my take on it anyway - I wouldn't tend to think any of the marriage candidates are giving up their whole future for you (Maru would be the only one that might, since she could go off and have a brilliant career in a tech science field) - and even if they do, that's a sacrifice they willingly make because they love you.

 

You make Seb sound so cute ;; I wish I could cut his fringe a little bit shorter tho ngl

 

Well...there's a couple mods that'll do that for you, not sure if you want to mod though. lol I love the fringe myself. ^u^

 

I've modded the heck out of my game , I've found the diversity mod which make shis hair a little less crazy!

 

So, I've married both (in the same play through). When it was patched that you could marry Shane, I got super excited and created a new game, JUST to marry Shane.

I ended up divorcing him and turned around and married Sebastian instead.

10/10 Do not regret that choice.

 

I find both have their personal pros/cons. The biggest thing I've noticed with Shane is that while you definitely help pull him out of the brink of the worst, he is still a character who struggles even after you get married and it isn't a case of him magically being better. I know a lot of folks were kind of eghn about the untidiness of his room, I cannot deny I ended up getting one of the mods that made it a little less messy myself. At the same time, I find a lot of his dialogue pretty entertaining and genuine...and I can appreciate the dry sense of humor he has to some things.

ADMITTEDLY, I am a terrible person and the save Shane is married on is my T-800 save where my farmer is a Jojatech terminator sent from the future because in the main timeline JojaCorp in its attempt to undercut the prices just a wee bit more went a little too aggressive on the robotic AI and created the uprising of machines. However there has been a lot of resistance due to the small outliers of communities because where the community center was built and Joja was run out...it meant there wasn't the proper footholds for a full takeover. So my char was sent back on mission to re-route the timeline by taking the place of the farmer and basically "farming" and upholding a "perfectly normal quaint human lifestyle. Do not arouse suspicion from the locals." Which is basically also my excuse to do the Joja route of things. Midway through though, T-800 took a shine to Shane because of his Joja uniform and how he worked for Joja. So she has married him feeling his abilities are better suited for the farm project and plans that when the robot uprising comes to be that he will be the first to be given the proper nanotechnology to upgrade to a superior form.

So needless to say one's milage may vary.

Sebastian inversely I find kind of catlike in that I never really feel he necessarily needs me...but he likes having me around. My biggest regret with Sebastian is how he's scripted to kind of feel bad about not being much a brother to Maru but never actually has anything he does about it. Its like boy! Visit yo sister! Admittedly though I have a harder time being interested in my Sebastian save compared to the others I have. I cannot deny I have a thing for underdogs which means the most popular characters often end up being the ones I'm least interested in which means it is hard for me to really find much interest in Abigail and Sebastian compared to the rest.

 

Best story ever xD
But if you like underdogs then you should like Maru and Harvey, I think that they are the most unpopular characters, everyone have a thing for Aby and Sebastian, I think that Shane is very popular, even with people disliking Haley she is a constant speak subject, but poor Maru don't get nothing in comparison lol. Actually I can't decide if Harvey is the most unpopular, or Sam, I hardly see people talking about Sam.

 

While I haven't married Sam yet, I will admit I find him adorable.

 

I'd say Shane, but that's just b/c I'm incredibly biased by Sebastian. I don't wanna junk on anybody else's preference, if you like Seb then follow your dreams, but Seb always struck me as an incredibly annoying, whiny emo kid. Then again, most bachelors in SDV are sort of whiny in their own ways...I think Sam is the least whiny.

Still, if the choice is between Seb and Shane I'd pick Shane. Guy needs some happiness in his life.

 

I did marry Sam but recently divorced him.
He's really adorable and all but a very lazy husband. He even says himself:''Hmm.. maybe I'll help another day on the farm. I feel lazy today.''
Despite you treating him really well. I've always kept my hearts 13/12 with him, but still.
Even his mother started saying after we got married:''I hope I didn't raise my children to be lazy.'' Welp, she did.
I don't really relate to his character either. Besides being cute and being one of the characters that's friendly towards you from the start, there wasn't anything else I liked about him.

At first I was torn between Leah and Sam, (then I ended up with Sam) but my interest in Leah is very low now. First I really admired her since she likes art and nature which speaks to me since I like these things as well. But during my marriage with Sam and talking to all the other characters, Leah didn't say much else then:''I think I'm gonna cook something spicy today...'' ect. Which didn't interest me.

Now I like Harvey and Abigail's character the most tbh.

 

I haven't gone any of the male routes yet, though I probably will on the next playthrough, and I'll probably be going for Sebastian rather than Shane. Shane needs professional help, something a loving partner may not necessarily be able to give. A relationship built on pity (and that is clearly the case here, at least for me) can't work out. What if he relapses? Alcoholics tend to turn violent and abusive, and alcoholism isn't simply 'solved' as is shown in the game - you remain addicted eternally and can relapse at any given time (Source: I'm a smoker, and tobacco is even more addictive than alcohol, and boy do I get pissed if I don't get my cigs). Sebastian, on the other hand, needs love and confirmation and nothing else. His complaints about his family are legitimate, he's a good, nice guy if you get to know him and I perfectly understand why he's a shut-in most of the time given that noone except his few friends seems to take him seriously.

 

And this is why I really don't tend to like the Shane route even though it's easiest, like I said in another thread. I've unfortunately seen how alcoholism and addiction play out badly too many times (being a fan of Visual Kei where unfortunately, alcohol is the lifeblood of the scene and there's a lot of people with major alcohol problems, and many of those people end up in some awful places - like the guy in my icon, dead in '98 at only 33 from alcohol poisoning and doing something incredibly stupid while drunk and allegedly high on methamphetamine, had he lived, he would likely be right up there with Malmsteen and Satriani and Vai etc as guitar legends, and he was already there in Japan).

I do like how the game handles it in that he doesn't "get better through love" despite professing that he does and doing the whole "I'm talking to someone" thing, but still having alcohol as a "love" gift and having the messy wreck of a room etc because that's actually realistic, but it just makes things really sad (as it should) and I see his relationship route as basically enabling him at worst (e.g. if you keep giving him alcohol) or as at best trying to hold the line when he's lost everything and really, REALLY needs to get out of the valley, go to rehab, and start over again in a situation where he's got more to live for than the next drink or the blue chickens.

That said, I'd actually like to see the Shane route be able to go two ways - idea for that would be that upon marrying him, there's a cutscene where he tells you he really can't stop drinking despite talking to someone or something similar.

If you take the enabling route, you pick an option that allows him to stay, and his love gift remains alcohol, his room is a wreck, he occasionally gives you nasty or hostile responses even if you have full hearts with him, there's cutscenes of him passing out or such, and each year for two years the option comes up again, seeming even more desperate as it does. If you keep going with the enabling option, in the third year, he disappears. For good. Either implied that he died, or that he divorced you on realizing you made things worse.

Alternately, if you don't take the enabling option but instead go "I think you need to go somewhere for professional help," (or if you do so at the other times it comes up every year), he disappears for two seasons, but remains your husband in social window, and returns after those two seasons, looking happier and healthier and acting far more responsible and better off in general. Alcohol becomes a hate for him, he doesn't hang out in the bar anymore, and he will occasionally talk about going to a meeting/going to Yoba and will participate in the workout group.

Edit: I'd also put into the non-enabling route a flag where if you have Shane post-rehab, you cannot have kegs/alcohol on the farm and/or you have to keep it in the shed so he can't access it, something like that.

 

@seth0et0holth I agree to most of this. However, alcoholics are still addicts, and that addiction never fades. It could in the game though, since it's not firmly grounded in realism (what kind of farmer waters each and every crop with a watering can every morning? Has nobody ever heard of irrigation ditches? The darn Egyptians had that figured out 4000 years ago, not to mention the Sumerians or Babylonians even before that!), however, CA has been very realistic with other difficult topics such as wartime PTSD (honestly, Kent reminded me a bit of myself after my admittedly short tour in Afghanistan), the sour effects of capitalism on small communities and so on. Alcoholism is a disease, and a single drop will make you relapse. So maybe, when pushed far enough, he will start drinking again. Maybe that's an option for a divorce scenario that he just can't handle that kind of betrayal and he starts drinking himself to death again?

 

Exactly. I think something like that would work - and why I added the edit of the idea of having Shane post rehab means you have to have an alcohol-free farm. A bit more of a challenge route for those of us who make gold off keg setups, but it would also even bring some balance in that you'd have to figure out a way to make your farm profitable off something other than kegs, making say beehives useful again?

(I did that with my first farm before I had ancient fruit - rows and rows of beehives. Devoting a segment to tons of beehives and flowers basically frees up a lot of time before doing iridium sprinklers and some honeys are worth quite a fair bit - fairy rose especially can make you a ton...)