jojaxcola

[jojaxcola]

there’s something that bothers me about sam, jodi, and kent

Jodi says this if you have high friendship with her:

“We kind of rushed into our marriage, with Kent being a soldier and all... I hardly got a taste of youth and freedom, and now it's too late to ever go back. Just don't make the same mistake.”

At face value it makes a lot of sense, especially since marrying early and young like this is the case for a lot of military couples.

But Sam has this piece of dialogue that throws things off a little:

“Dad used to work as a garbage man in the city. You don't even want to know some of the things he found in people's trash.”

Which makes me think that Kent had a civilian job and Sam was old enough to remember it at the time (at least from the way he talks about it)

Given that, the timeline seems a little off. There are a million reasonable explanations for how these two pieces of dialogue could be compatible with each other (a break in service, garbage collection being part of being a Ferngill soldier, Sam referring to something that happened before his parents were married, concernedape just forgot lmao)

But to me the most narratively interesting interpretation is that Jodi is lying, and that she married young after getting pregnant out of wedlock (and that Kent didn’t enlist until well after Sam’s birth). She seems like the type who would want to keep that kind of a thing a secret (especially since a lot of people see her as a gossip)

And I think it recontextualizes a lot of what Jodi says and does (like how she emphasizes to the player to not repeat her mistakes, or why she tries to intervene when she thinks Sam is doing something “bad” in his 8 heart event)

[jojaxcola]

hey I don't know if you've answered this already but I've noticed that back in part 5 Sam has something written on his arm

I'm assuming it's about Sam's health check-up at Harvey's clinic but why does it say uncle doctor?Does Sam view Harvey as an uncle figure or did you actually made them related?

It's based on in-game dialogue :)

[jojaxcola]

Stardad Valley?

It's a good contender but "daddy" has to be in there. contractually obligated

[jojaxcola]

dads trash talk at the egg festival

[jojaxcola]

i’m so sorry babe i promise i’ve read the series and played the game but who is fizz?

btw love your work I think about it all the time it’s kind of ruining my life lol

He's a character from 1.6 who sells perfection waivers on behalf of Joja

And he really scares me :'(

Also please feel free to share your life-ruining thoughts about this series 👀 i love to hear people's thoughts on shane and sam

[jojaxcola]

DOBSON REFERENCE IN THE NEWEST MOCKUMENTARY EPISODE IM GOING INSANE

Because of this ask I tried to get part 2 out as soon as possible and i'm really sorry for it

[jojaxcola]

"I thought I was just gonna nail the impression and leave..."

fizz's visit (part 2)

[ jojamart mockumentary #21 ]

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[jojaxcola]

fizz's visit (part 1)

[ jojamart mockumentary #20 ]

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[jojaxcola]

Hi! I don't play Stardew, but I really like your series :D

Thank you!! I'm glad I've made it accessible to non-stardewers :)

[jojaxcola]

Hi! I found your mockumentary on reddit and was thrilled to see that you have it here too! I just wanted to say that I love how you portray all the characters! I never gave Sam much thought before, but since reading your comics I started paying more attention to him in game and now he's one of my favorite characters. You're doing awesome, keep up the great work and remember to rest and hydrate as needed!

The jojamart mockumentary series is a proud piece of pro-sam propaganda 🥹🙏❤️ I love him so much. He's so sweet and silly, and I'm happy to get more eyes on him!!

[jojaxcola]

hi I love your joja mart mockumentaey series and was wondering if it would be okay if I made a fanfic based off of it? I would credit you of course and if you have an ao3 account I could even gift it to you. I’ll come up with like my own plot and story I won’t just like copy your comics but I’d do the whole mockumentary and have the farmer be behind the camera and that stuff from the series. If it’s okay with you I’d love to write but only if it’s okay with you. Thank you have a good day and seriously your work is amazing.

:)

Thank you so much!! And yes that would be amazing!! I’d love to see whatever you decide to do ❤️

[jojaxcola]

jojamart mockumentary reference in part 1 of 4 of fiona sangster's shane deep dive..... i'm going to ride this high for the rest of my life

[jojaxcola]

i sometimes get reblogs for my jojamart series from people who haven't played stardew valley or who don't know what franchise it comes from..... and i am desperate to hear from them!! what is your impression of stardew and the characters? what are your assumptions? have i tricked you into thinking the blond guy offers anything of consequence

[jojaxcola]

So I, like a lot of people, love your mockumentary series. And this is a stretch and probably won't get done for ages but could I use your mockumentaries to write a fanfic? It won't be long or complex, more of an extension to the scenes you've drawn. I'll give credits, don't worry but yeah.

But if I do, I'd love if you answered a few characterisation questions.

I know the farmer filmed some but is any of it not farmer filmed?

Why is the farmer doing this?

Are there any fanon or hcs you used to create characters that I should use too?

Expect more soon + updates

Thank you so much!! I had this in my inbox for a while and I've been thinking for a while about how to answer, because I'm not sure how much I want to give away at this point in the series hehe 👀 but I hope these answers are helpful

I consider the farmer/producer to be the project lead and to be present for everything that's being filmed. While they take on some of their own filming, they have a small crew to handle things like camera work and sound. During the talking head segments, the farmer is the one prompting them with questions as needed

The farmer is still a Joja employee like in the beginning of the game, but not with the same office desk job. Their team has been tasked with filming a documentary series highlighting the happenings of a JojaMart location, and the farmer was the one to propose the relatively new Pelican Town location due to their grandfather's love of Stardew Valley. So they're still a newcomer to the town, but they don't have the farm. I might stay a bit quiet about the farmer's ultimate motivations for this project, though... :)

This one's a bit tricky since I'm not totally sure how to narrow it down hehe. One thing I'll say here is that I altered Sam's work schedule to have him appear in the store more often (since in the game he's only there like six hours a week). I'll also say a little bit about how I like to characterize the main players in the series:

Sam is someone whose cheeriness is partly genuine, but also partly because he needs to be the guy who keeps everyone positive in tough times. It's important to him to make sure everyone feels included and not forgotten. Sam isn't dumb—he's actually very creative and resourceful—but he does tend to rush his thinking and follow bizarre trains of logic. He doesn't like to slow himself down, and when he dwells too much on his thoughts he tends to reach uncomfortable conclusions.

Shane has an extremely low opinion of himself, but keeps himself going at work to provide for Jas and to not be a burden to Marnie. He's easily annoyed and has a tendency to push people away, but he's not completely shut off. He'll accept gifts and other gestures of kindness but doesn't totally understand why he's getting them, or why he even deserves them. He needs significant and repetitive convincing to believe any friendship with him is genuine. Shane believes that life is harsh, and he tends to fixate on difficult truths. Sam's optimism frustrates him, and he sees Sam as a naive little boy who will be eaten alive by the cruelty of reality.

I don't like depicting Morris as cartoonishly evil. I think it's more fun to make him "corporate evil", where his villainy comes from a "socially-acceptable" disregard for the little guy. He'll go on about how the JojaMart personnel are one big family, but he can't even call his employees by their names. He thinks he's above his staff, and he's satisfied by the idea of getting to look down on someone; he views higher-ups as having earned their power, and that looking down on others is just part of that package. Morris loves to project the image of human connection, not because he genuinely believes in it, but because that's what appeals to customers. And he'll do everything he can to convince Pelican Town that Joja is the answer to all of their problems.

I also like to pepper little personal headcanons into the different entries (I like to think Sam is left-handed, so I wrote his notes on his right wrist in no. 5) but I think listing them here would bloat this post :o

Please feel free to ask anything else about the series (or individual scenes), this was really fun to write up! And I can't wait to see what you come up with!! :D

===============

Follow ups to this post (I might make a separate FAQs post if needed):

What has become of the community center? (@happycomputertimetravel): It's still dilapidated. I consider the jojamart series to have the town in the same state as it is at the start of the game (so Kent is still overseas, the bus is still broken, etc.) unless depicted otherwise

[jojaxcola]

hey there, i love your art and the mockumentary series so much!! your sense of humor is so good, i've spent so much time going back through them just to make myself smile :)

i wanted to ask, back when i saw your sam & maru art (of maru patching sam up after a skating accident) that really lit something up in my brain, and now i would really like to write a sam/maru fic <3 idk if i actually will get around to it, but IF i ever do, would you mind if i link to your art and reference it as a piece of inspiration? ik you said its not specifically a romantic ship art, so that's why i wanted to double check. no matter what, it's super cute, and it did make me want more sam & maru together, whether they're friends, dating, or anything else bc i could totally see them getting along super well!!

i hope you're doing well, and good luck with school and your job! i'm looking forward to more art whenever you're able to create it <3

I wouldn't mind at all!! In fact I would love that no matter which direction you decide to take it, I get so happy when something I've done inspires someone else to create stuff (like this!!)

(I'll also take this moment to say that anyone is allowed to make fanworks relating to the jojamart mockumentary too, since I also have a few asks related to that in my inbox. Please please please do it, I would be so excited to see it!)

Thank you so much <3

[jojaxcola]

For jojamart mockumentary #19 i ended up drawing more of sam than what ended up in the final post, i had to zoom and crop to get the speech bubbles in a more comfortable position. But here's another look at that shot (with the shot in focus this time) to capture more of disheveled sam

[jojaxcola]

threat level samson

[ jojamart mockumentary #19 ]

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