I started a new stardew save on a whim and kent is making me think of the poem "bluey in the genocide." like it's not that deep bc kent lives in a fantasy world and fights another fantasy race. but it still positions war as something that happens to other people elsewhere and the only ones affected are returning soldiers and their families. there might be one or two incidental lines about the war affecting supply chains? but overall being at war does not seem to affect the people of stardew valley. it's a neutral background event. and I think it's true to the reality of rural America that you will get a guy who fights in the army and comes back jumpy but it's something to examine in fiction
I saw a post recently asking why you can't raise livestock for meat in stardew and I think that one's inherited from harvest moon but there are things new to stardew that just go unquestioned. I don't know that it's possible to make a truly neutral "cozy game" bc everyone brings their own baggage to their art. there's always something there that the creator hasn't noticed
