How do you decide whether to keep a villager or let them move?

[Last_bus_home]

[Repurposing this thread to ask a slightly different question but will leave original question below.]
How do you make up you mind over whether to let a villager leave? Is it based on whether you really like them? How long it took to find them? Whether they ‘fit’ on your island? Whether you have their photo? Whether you could easily get them back again? With most villagers, I would be able to amiibo them back in again but that’s not the case here, so I can’t decide whether to keep Raymond or whether to let him move on. I don’t really warm to smugs easily so I’m thinking maybe it’s easier to keep him since I do rather like him. I’m just curious how others make up their minds.
Original question:
Okay, so a villager asked me if they could move, they didn’t have a thought bubble so I’m guessing I went up and talked to them just as they were about to start the animation, but anyway, I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t want to stop playing until I had decided so I froze and then quit out of the game Anyway, so I still don’t know what I want to do, but my question is, will this villager ask to move again (soon) like how in New Leaf the mover was decided when the town loaded up for the day? or will someone else ask to move, or maybe no one will? I don’t know how the mechanics work in this game, and they so rarely ask to move, but I needed more time to think!!
As an aside, it was Raymond, so feels like a weirdly big decision due to the lack of amiibo and the fact that if he moved I’d have to choose another smug and I don’t warm to them easily, so any advice on that would also be welcome.

 

[InstantNoodles]

I think the same villager will ask to move if you quit the game without talking to them. However, I'm not sure if this applies if you have already started the conversation with them!

 

[cheezu]

The bubble can apparently move only the following day though sometimes you may end up unlucky and have the same villager wanting to leave during consecutive days.

 

[Last_bus_home]

Hmmm, so likely he’ll still ask to move? Thanks for the replies! He’s indoors at the moment, so I can’t tell. However I did see Dom walking around thinking and I was like “oh no, here we go, it’s going to be HIM now” and he just offerered to sell me some glasses (there is no way I’d have let him move out!). So I guess I’ll find out later if Raymond still wants to move. Anyone got any advice on decided whether to let villagers leave?

 

[greenvoldemort]

I think considering you started a conversation with them, when you mext load the game the same villager will ask to move again! :’(

 

[Last_bus_home]

I think considering you started a conversation with them, when you mext load the game the same villager will ask to move again! :’(

I’m okay with that, I’ll just avoid them until I’ve made my kind up, I just didn’t want to have this whole internal turmoil over whether to let them go or not if quitting the game meant they wouldn’t actually ask again!

 

[Last_bus_home]

Asking another, different question, I know it will have been asked, but I’m asking again.

 

[InstantNoodles]

Tbh for me, I would think about letting villagers leave only if I don't feel like I've bonded with them. I also take into consideration how easy / difficult (in the case of Dom and Judy) it would be to get them back. Even though I have amiibos for my current villagers, I wouldn't want to move them out and back again with amiibo (it wouldn't feel the same idk). Regarding the value of villagers, I would consider what you are going to do with the NMTs / TBTs / bells / whatever else you'd get in exchange for trading them and weigh that against how you would feel about losing that villager!

 

[Barney]

My three-year-old son tells me!



So far, only Marshal has been allowed to leave. I think he may be the only one who ever gets to leave, to be honest.

 

[Feferily]

I think you should let him stay for a bit longer. It seems you’re conflicted and if you let him go it’ll be a bit harder to get him back than the amiibo available villagers. Also, he’s a special smug so you might not have an easy time warming up to others! I recently decided to let some dreamies go and have made it so I’d have to cycle spots free and it was... sorta refreshing? Though I very much will be keeping Raymond and Judy because I’m worried I won’t ever get them back TwT

 

[Last_bus_home]

My three-year-old son tells me!



So far, only Marshal has been allowed to leave. I think he may be the only one who ever gets to leave, to be honest.

That’s amazing! I don’t have a 3 year old to hand, but maybe I’ll ask my cats

Tbh for me, I would think about letting villagers leave only if I don't feel like I've bonded with them. I also take into consideration how easy / difficult (in the case of Dom and Judy) it would be to get them back. Even though I have amiibos for my current villagers, I wouldn't want to move them out and back again with amiibo (it wouldn't feel the same idk). Regarding the value of villagers, I would consider what you are going to do with the NMTs / TBTs / bells / whatever else you'd get in exchange for trading them and weigh that against how you would feel about losing that villager!

Thank you! I have only let villagers go and used amiibo to bring them back twice, once was so that Punchy could upgrade from his starter home, and once was when I let Diana go so that I could adopt Audie, both times it was pretty horrible but worth it in the long run, I posted on my town message board saying that Diana had vacated her plot so Audie could come live with us but she’d be moving back in soon, and that Punchy had gone to buy new furniture! It made it easier, but it was still awful, especially with Punchy who was my best friend before he moved. I think weighing it up like you, I do want to keep him, there’s nothing I actually want to trade him for, I just wanted to give someone else the chance to enjoy him but I do like him quite a lot, as much as any smug. I’m going to keep him.

I think you should let him stay for a bit longer. It seems you’re conflicted and if you let him go it’ll be a bit harder to get him back than the amiibo available villagers. Also, he’s a special smug so you might not have an easy time warming up to others! I recently decided to let some dreamies go and have made it so I’d have to cycle spots free and it was... sorta refreshing? Though I very much will be keeping Raymond and Judy because I’m worried I won’t ever get them back TwT

Yeah, you’re completely right, I was super conflicted and lets face it, pros and cons, if he goes I have one more plot free and someone else gets to enjoy him, if he goes then I don’t get to enjoy him anymore! When I think about it, my reasons for considering letting him go weren’t the right ones, I don’t want him gone, I just feel weirdly greedy keeping him Thank you for helping me to think sensibly about it!

 

[Arckaniel]

I have a dreamie lineup for my island so it's pretty easy for me to know who I'm willing to let go off, but will only let go off the ones not part of my lineup once they gave me their framed photo, so until they give me their photo, even tho they aren't a dreamie of mine, they cannot leave, I already got 3/5 of the villager photos I'm going to let go off, and Bam has already found his new home today (cycled him out as I want a slot for Lily whom I'll get later in the day), so yeah basically I just have a list of my dreamies then get the villager photos of the ones I'm letting go off asap so that I could invite my other dreamies to my island