One of the many reasons that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has blown up so much during the quarantine is that you can visit your friends’ islands. It’s a way to be a social at a time when we can’t get near each other, and in an adorable cartoon world full of painfully cute animals—so one that’s much better than our own, even when it’s not dealing with a pandemic.
Nintendo, as usual, tries to keep online interactions strictly between friends, but social media has made it easy to share your info for anybody to come for a visit. And the game’s turnip-driven “stalk” market—with prices fluctuating every 12 hours, and occasionally spiking to absurd heights—has given rise to a secondary economy where players basically barter or sell access to their island on high-price days. People touting their turnip prices and inviting others over is a regular sight on social media, and there are entire web sites devoted to connecting players to maximize turnip profits.
Earlier today an Animal Crossing player named Jessica tweeted that her turnip price had reached 599 bells. That’s a really good price, so she was inundated with DM requests to visit her island. Only one of them, though, came from the beloved star of one of the biggest film franchises of all time.
guys I tweeted my turnip prices and elijah wood just came to my island and hung out this is the best day in quarantine yet pic.twitter.com/H3mYJWnvgR
— jessa (@directedbyrian) April 23, 2020
Yep, Frodo himself trekked to her island. Instead of a motley fellowship of fantasy archetypes, Elijah Wood made this journey with Dodo Airlines, and sat a spell with Jessica and her friends. He even politely asked if he could have some fruit, instead of just grabbing whatever he can take. Turns out Elijah is just as much of a gentleman in Animal Crossing as his character was in The Lord of the Rings.
#AnimalCrossing#ACNH#NintendoSwitchpic.twitter.com/mItAycEWUg
— jessa (@directedbyrian) April 23, 2020
Remember that period when active duty military members would ask celebrities to be their date at official functions? Perhaps this will kick off a similar fad of people trying to get stars to drop in on their islands. Either way, Jessica was left with a cool story, Elijah Wood probably made a fortune in the turnip market, and we all got to see the screenshots. It’s a win-win for everybody.