Reasons why Henry is my favorite character

[amielleon]

I won't claim that he's the best written character in Ylisse -- I might have to vote for Chrom or Lucina on that one -- or that you should all love him too, but after having gone through most of his supports, I think I have to say that first, he is my favorite, and second, though he has his gimmicks, the handling of those gimmicks set him apart.

So, here's my first FE-bruary post in some time that isn't FE13 liveblogging. :P



Since it's currently difficult, due to inexperience and lack of resources, to instantly identify the source of a factoid, I've sourced everything of interest:
P = Panne supports
T = Tharja
N = Nowi
O = Olivia
S = Sumia
U = Sully
M = Maribelle
R = Ricken
L = Lissa
C = Cherche
S, A, B, C = rank
(J) = Japanese version only, for sure. (I'm referencing the Japanese because the English sources are silent, so many more of these may be Japanese only than I think they are.)

1. His gimmick is substantiated to the extent it's presented.

Cordelia is perfectionist and hyper-prepared because a people expect a lot from her. Frederick is hyper-attentive to his lord's needs because he's a knight. Everyone's gimmick has a reason, but often not quite reason enough.

Frederick isn't just a good knight, he's picking up pebbles in the off chance his lord could sprain an ankle -- instead of, oh, I don't know, keeping watch in case of an ambush? While he's picking up rocks, someone could jump out of the bushes and knife Chrom. And he works everyone hard, so hard that it's probably very nearly life-risking, which is quite counter to the intent. Everyone has not only a reason, but some mysterious case of selective insanity.

In Henry's case, his gimmick is in part insanity. You can attribute seemingly-naive misunderstanding of intentions^SB/TB to his critical lack of socialization as a child^NC/PB and his cold-seeming violent streak^{OC(J), UB} to his situation as well^OB, and in both cases they cover the extent of these things as well.

(Of course, the reverse isn't necessarily true -- his characterization omits other traits you might expect with his backstory -- but it's a pretty good job for FE, especially FE13.)

2. His gimmick is "interesting".

This is actually three claims in one: It isn't simply a trope, it isn't blatant fanservice, and it isn't purely for the lulz.

His gimmick seems to me to be a strange combination (and therefore reversal) of two common anime tropes: the happy-on-the-outside sensitive^MC tortured soul^OB(B) (eg, Tsuzuki, Rika Furude) and the smiling-sweet-on-the-outside secret sadist^everything (ie the "yandere" trope). If he were either one or the other, that'd be one thing, but he is both and yet neither. For one, he perceives his "happy" exterior to be genuine^OB, and to a great degree it may very well be, as he says he has a pure heart while under an honesty hex^TB. And to whatever extent he affects happiness, it's not for the benefit of being socially appropriate or to spare others (or otherwise to be sweet and squishy), but as a compulsive survivalist habit^OB/OA. (Not to mention, his creepy-cold side isn't exactly a secret...) And sweet, he is not. He doesn't even consider himself sweet, though he can appreciate that quality in others.^LA Though he's hilariously un-self-aware^OB/CA so that's subject to doubt.

(Though for what it's worth, he does marginally fit the derpy super-strong^TA trope a la Honey of Ouran. Though usually said derps don't kill puppies...)

Which ties into my second point, that his characterization continually defies the norms of fanservice. Usually you make characters with angsty pasts so that you want to snuggle them and feed them soup -- but puppy killing^OC(J) invokes the opposite emotional reaction. (Tiny little birds, too.^LB) Or perhaps you're serving the part of fans who really love a cold psychopath, especially with a sweet exterior (yandere/bad boys/etc)... but his emptiheadedness is apparently for real^TB/TA, he fucking talks to flowersMC, and apparently he has complex feelings after all^OA/OS/CA -- for people who ain't the Avatar -- and explicitly expresses attachment (even below the S level, ie, it isn't plot-mandatory) for several characters^{RA,PA, may be more}.

The last part, that it isn't purely for the lulz, is kind of extraneous in Ylisse because most characters' gimmicks lend to more than just situational comedy. But I just wanted to point out that he's no Ilyana and he has support branches with genuine development (Olivia, Minerva).

3. His supports play off different aspects of his character.

This is also an anti-Ilyana argument that may not be purely necessary, because I've discovered that Ylisse characters have an impressive variety of supports despite their apparent gag personalities. Nonetheless, there's a nice variety in his supports that anchor him into the setting.

To Panne and Ricken, he's a Plegian. (Apparently one who hung out with early-game bosses. Did you know the boss of Ch7 brags about his mom's knitting? And Mustafa hands out pastries?^RB) To Frederick, he's a member of the army. To Nowi, he's a playmate. Olivia and Minerva Cherche have the honor of getting to meet on personal terms. To most of the other people, he's a dark mage. Though to Liz, he's a pillow. *bricked* You get to see a lot of different things about him in his supports. I started writing up this post having read only a few of his supports, thinking that I'd had a good enough picture of him, but decided to read the rest in case -- and it turns out that many of them presented very new things about him.

4. something something bias

something something hurt children something something sharing a sense of humor something something bias