Fridge Brilliance / Henry Stickmin Series

• In Airship, when facing against the Right Hand Man, regardless of what battle style you choose (Final Fantasy or Earthbound), Henry wins if you choose the items/goods option. This is appropriate, since throughout his escapades, Henry's only been good at using items and gadgets. This even remains consistent with the Undertale-style battle with Mr. MacBeth that appears in Mission. This is also why Henry seemingly Took a Level in Badass in the Executive/Betrayed route in Mission. With cybernetic enhancements, his whole body is a gadget.
• In Complex, Markiplier and Jacksepticeye make cameos as prisoners. This makes sense when you remember that they've played the games before, and thus, they've helped Henry pull off his crimes!
• Obtaining the "Presumed Dead" ending in Complex requires you to let the decision timer run out, something that has always meant certain death up until this point. The "presumed" part could refer to the player just as easily as the complex staff.
• In the "Presumed Dead" ending in Complex, when Dmitri says that this is coming out of the guards' paychecks, he's not just referring to Henry's escape. He's also referring to the truck destroyed in the incident. There's even the Humvee that Henry rammed off a cliff earlier. Humvees are expensive, and that's at least two casualties (Danil Dolche with the gun, as well as whoever was driving), so there's the paperwork for that.
• Why does Reginald grow to accept Henry's leadership of the Toppat Clan in Mission's Executive/Allies and Executive/Dead routes? Because in Airship, Henry only assumed leadership by usurping Reginald, a gamble that Reginald had to make or else the entire clan would have been crippled by the government. In the process, Henry betrays his initial employers to satisfy his own Greed. Someone like that is hardly the person you want commanding a team of people (criminal organization or otherwise), leading Reginald to happily betray Henry in Complex's Betrayed route. However, in Mission's "Toppat King" and "Toppat 4 Life" routes, Henry puts himself at risk to protect the clan, proving he has their interests at heart rather than his own and finally earning Reginald's respect and trust.
  • Reginald became the Toppats' then-current leader to begin with because he was the one who killed the previous leader Terrence Suave, a Pointy-Haired Boss who kept blowing resources on nonsensical raids for fun. Thus, he's so eager to betray Henry in "The Betrayed" and "Toppat Civil Warfare" not just because of his own virtues, but also because he can't possibly stand to have someone like Terrence rule again right after him. It also explains why, in the Executive/Ghost path, Reginald is so willing to capitalize on the opening to overthrow Henry that Ellie provides. Henry still hasn't earned Reginald's respect in that path, so Reginald was still planning to betray Henry.
• Why did the other Toppats initially accept Henry as a leader? Alternate Character Interpretation. For them, Henry is a fellow criminal who was captured by the Government and forced to work for them; but as soon as he got the chance, he managed to free himself, screwing the Government over (which, to be fair, could be at least part of the reason Henry deferred to the Toppats, as the Government did kidnap him, and on top of that, he had no guarantee that Galeforce would keep his word — he does, yes, but Henry has no way of knowing he will). On top of that, Henry defeated both the Right Hand Man and Reginald — and therefore, by the Clan's standards, he has the right to be their leader.
• In the Executive/Betrayed path of Mission, Henry is revealed to possess a Spirit (named "Reference") whose ability is to access different timelines. This is not just a shallow reference to D4C, as it contains several pieces of brilliance:
  • If you think about it, every path (sans Bank) and ending in the whole series can be considered as alternate timelines, even the failures themselves. Thus, it's only natural for Reference to be able to hop between timelines and guide Henry to victory, just like how the players do.
  • Reference's battle cry, "failure", references just how Henry has failed over and over across different routes.
  • If Henry's medical report in the Lawyered Up route of Prison is to be believed, then it means that Henry did try every option in Bank before landing on the disguise option. Considering the other options end up in a massive failure that injures him, it shows that no matter what, Henry will always try every option available to get what he wants. Having the ability to access different timelines is a natural fit for someone like him.
  • At one point in the battle, Henry and Reference swap places with each other. This could be explained as him simply accessing a timeline where he and his spirit are in a different position, and then applying that to his own timeline.
  • If we assume that Reference's core ability is to send the target in an alternate timeline and force them take the role of the alternate counterpart (hence why the Right Hand Man lost his cybernetic augmentations when he was punched into the other timeline), there's another explanation. A Stand is a part of its user, and it can be interpreted as an alternate version of them; therefore, Reference can take Henry into another timeline and have each of them take the other's role — the Stand becomes the user and vice-versa. So, if Henry and Reference travel into the same timeline they started from, the end result is that they switch places.
• If the "Ghost Inmate" path is chosen in Mission, "Toppat Civil Warfare" is the only combination route where Ellie seeks revenge on Henry for abandoning her. Why only that specific one? In the "Capital Gains" path, she reveals that she is familiar with the Toppat Clan and knows how to find them with her contact, which is why she can hunt Henry down if he leads the Clan: The Toppat Clan leader is notorious and it would be known that this was Henry. "Cleaned 'Em Out" and "Jewel Baron" have Henry going after the clan solely for profit, so Ellie would have no reason to assume he was targeting the Toppats, nor would she have been able to get a bead on his location: Ellie would have no way to target a random jewel thief, nor would she be privy to whom Charles might be acquainted. "Free Man" has Henry captured as a personal vendetta by the Right Hand Man: As Burt mentions in the ending, no one was aware of why the Right Hand Man bothered to capture Henry. And if a high-ranking Toppat didn't know, a casual acquaintance like Ellie wouldn't fare any better.
  • Ellie taking over the clan at the end of the route also makes sense, considering how Henry did it in the past; she is skilled enough to escape the complex by herself, follows Henry to the airship without being seen by him and/or even other Toppats, and tells about him how he betrayed her in the previous game. This leads to Henry being no longer the leader of the clan, and after he accidentally kills the supposed leader, Reginald, Ellie's actions are enough to make Toppats respect her and give her leadership. Consider how Henry's actions are atrocious, Ellie would likely be better morality than him..
• Why is Henry only chased by the Wall in the Thief/Allies route? Because in the Thief ending, Henry became the enemy of both his government and the Toppat Clan, making him especially notorious. Plus, Allies is the ending of Complex that tarnishes the name of the Wall the most, with a full-scale prison riot. Only with these two powerful incentives do the forces of the Wall chase Henry and Ellie all the way to a tropical jungle.
  • It's also possible that the Wall was able to track them in the Thief/Allies route simply because they were still riding the motorbike they used to initially escape. Given that it was part of the Wall's fleet of vehicles, there was almost certainly a tracker embedded in it, which they used to follow Henry and Ellie to the launch site. Every other path clearly has them ditching the bike at some point, either by swapping out for Henry's tank in the Bounty Hunter route, hitching a ride with Charles in the Investigator route, or finding a way to rejoin the Toppats in the Executive route.
• One background detail during the Undertale fight in Mission (Bounty/Dead path) is that Henry is LV 18. Anyone who's played Undertale to the end should know the significance of this detail: Henry's Level of Violence has been raised above the minimum because he's taken lives before, which is exactly the case considering how many prison guards and Toppats Henry has killed in pursuit of his varying goals over the series. He's not LV 19 or 20, however, because he's not genocidal and generally kills in self-defense or as part of his heists.
  • The Undertale battle also reveals that Henry's soul color is cyan, indicating the trait of patience. Henry tends to be very patient with all the ridiculous shenanigans he gets put through, especially in continuing to use the teleporter despite implicit knowledge that it tends not to work.
• The reviews on the devices made by Gadget Gabe could be past reviews referencing the year the original games were made. This could be how the events of the series take place only over a year.
• The CorrupTick messes up the software and corrupts the code. It is a literal bug.
• In some of the routes of Mission, the Right Hand Man has been turned into a cyborg after Henry defeated him in Airship; his legs, right arm, and head received cybernetic implants or were replaced entirely. In the Executive/Betrayed route, Henry is also turned into a cyborg, with augmentations to the remaining parts (spine and left arm).
• During the choice where you have to decide between three same hammers in the Thief/Dead route, the positioning of the choices actually hint at how the hammer will be used. The left hammer has you use the hammer on the left side of the screen. Since there is nothing but the glass on the left side, Henry will whack at the ceiling unsuccessfully until he gets shot. The middle hammer has you use the hammer on the middle of the screen, which is where Henry is. He will use it on himself. The right hammer has you use the hammer on the right side of the screen. The sniper is firing from that side. So the logical turn of events would be Henry swinging the hammer to the right, hitting the bullet in mid-air back to the sniper. On top of that, there is a second hint. This is literally the right hammer.
• All the teleporter failures (and successes) have always sent Henry to a tangible place, except in Airship where it simply sent him to an empty void, and it makes sense why. If you look closely, in all other teleporter scenes (barring Airship and Mission), he always presses the bottom button, top left button, and the middle red button, in that order, and only once per button. However, in Airship, he pressed the top left button twice instead of once. That may have caused the teleporter to malfunction.
• Choosing to side with Charles in the Thief/Allies route has him recruit you and Ellie to take out the rocket's support beams with mounted machine guns. The Fridge Logic would be why they apparently couldn't spare a couple more soldiers to be in the helicopter to do that instead. The Brilliance comes in when you remember an earlier choice: when you and Ellie are pursued by a pair of soldiers, the correct choice is to go back in time and get those two ejected from boot camp, resulting in there being no-one to pursue you. The helicopter that they jump out of is the same kind that Charles is piloting, so they were probably the two assigned to do just that before Henry messed with the timeline, and since they were already pulling out all the stops for this (as mentioned in a couple other routes), they might have been stretched thin enough that there was no-one else they could assign to that role.
• Doubling as Fridge Sadness, you wanna know why they opted to make Valiant Hero so depressing? The guy who got Charles killed is named Jacked Hughman. And if you're gonna name a character after the guy who played Logan, it's only a matter of time before your audience is drenched in tears.
• When you do the International Rescue Operative ending in Complex, Charles mentions that he's on a mission, but should have enough time to pick Henry up. Mission often starts with the Government raiding the Toppat Orbital Station in hopes of destroying it, and the Bounty/Operative ending has Henry still on Charles' helicopter, moments before the raid begins. Charles was mentioning the battle with the Toppats all along.
• During the TCW route, when Henry is forced to walk the plank, he can use a chainsaw to try and invoke cartoon physics, but it doesn't work. While this could be a case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, it could also be because whenever the joke happened in cartoons, the person that falls is always the one cutting the wood. So, in short, Henry could've avoided falling by giving the chainsaw to Ellie, and the fail would be for a different reason.
• On their own, Reference and Bottled Time seem like really generic Spirit names, but once one considers that they're a play on the subtitle censorship of the JoJo anime, they can look at their Stand names, and come to realize that their actual names are song references. Reference is actually Tribute, the name of a Tenacious D song, and Bottled Time is actually Time in a Bottle, the name of a Jim Croce song.
• In the Government/Ghost route, Charles doesn't appear at all. Why? Every game had a sneaky ending (Sneaky Escapist, Unseen Burglar, Government Supported Private Investigator and Ghost Inmate), so to follow the tradition, Mission also needs to have one. However, considering what is Charles' definition of a great plan, he had to be cut from the route. Besides, Charles wouldn't side with Henry as in this route, Henry doesn't plan to bring down the Toppats, just steal something from them.
• Why did Geoffrey and Thomas stay loyal to Henry in the Executive/Ghost route? Part is because Henry is legitimately a good leader, but part is also because they noticed how quickly Reginald pushed for a mutiny without giving Henry a chance to explain himself. And when the two tried to question Reginald's actions, the Right Hand Man immediately imprisons them in the brig. So they probably came to the conclusion that Henry is actually innocent and Reginald was just attempting a coup. Even if they were completely wrong and Ellie was right…
  • Also, bear in mind the two weren't actively rebelling against the dethroning when they were thrown into the brig, merely questioning it while mentioning that they thought Henry was a good leader. Whether or not Ellie was right about Henry, Reginald still threw them in the brig for merely questioning his decision, while Henry was the one who freed them. Something like that would easily be enough to convince them to follow Henry, even if Ellie was speaking the truth.
  • Additionally, Reginald immediately sending the two to the brig as soon as they mildly questioned dethroning Henry could have caused any other Toppats who disagreed with the dethroning to keep their mouths shut, in order to not be given the same fate. This might even be why Reginald was so willing to throw two members away for mere questions, he was instilling fear amongst the rest of the Toppats, preventing anyone else who might be loyal to Henry from speaking up or acting on it.
• Why does Reginald care so much about Henry betraying Ellie (a girl he literally just met) despite the fact that Reginald is all too willing to betray Henry in The Betrayed? It's simple: he doesn't. Reginald was always going to betray Henry, it was just that Ellie arriving and stating that Henry abandoned her gave him a good excuse to do just that in a way (most of) the Toppat Clan would back him on. Given how many backed him up, he was probably wise to do so.
• In Airship, Winston Davis (the guard that unknowingly smuggled Henry into the bank) can be seen in the Earpiece route, having become a Toppat member. If you choose the Disguise option, he's the one who treats "Smith" with the most suspicion - because he's the only Toppat who has already seen Henry before, and he lost his job because of Henry. No wonder he almost recognized him.
• Reference is a combination of Hierophant Green's design, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap's alternate timeline power, and Gold Experience Requiem's speaking ability, and with those three aspects in mind, you'd think that Henry would have an easy victory against the Right Hand Man and Bottled Time. …However, what's worth noting is that D4C and GER are seen as some of the most overpowered Stands, whereas Hierophant Green is often seen as worthless. And when you consider that RHM's Spirit is based on The World, anything resembling Hierophant Green doesn't stand a chance. Doubly brilliant when factoring in that Reference being a combination of two overpowered Stands and one very weak Stand directly mirrors Henry's incredibly inconsistent luck.
• The people that Henry can meet in the Tavern (by picking one of the Dead routes in Mission) directly reflect the state of the Toppat Clan after the events of Airship. From strongest to weakest:
  • Executive/Dead: Henry has become the leader (and is implied to be better than Reginald), Right Hand Man has become a cyborg, and nobody was arrested. Both Icepick and Snowcap are present in the Tavern — but there's also a couple of soldiers that don't appear in any other route. Presumably, the Government called for extra soldiers precisely because the Toppat Clan is so strong in this route.
  • Bounty/Dead: The Clan has lost Reginald, but RHM has become a cyborg and succeeded him as the new leader. Both Icepick and Snowcap are present.
  • Thief/Dead: After crashing the airship, the Clan presumably lost several members - but both Reginald and RHM managed to survive, and remain the leaders of the Clan. Icepick is present, but Snowcap is nowhere to be seen throughout the entire route.
    • Another thing that is notable is that Icepick asks someone on the phone if the rocket plan is still in action. The Toppat Clan has suffered heavy losses due to the airship division being conpletely destroyed losing lots of men, weapons, money and resources so it would make sense for the TC to scale back on operations and funding hence Icepick's concern.
  • Government/Dead: Following Henry's mission, Reginald, RHM, and many other Toppats were arrested, and the survivors are now led by the inexperienced Sven. Neither Icepick nor Snowcap appear, so we can assume that they were arrested as well.
    • Ironically, Icepick and Snowcap's absence also means that Henry had no way to learn about the Toppats' rocket plan before they enacted it — and since he couldn't interfere with the launch, the Toppats successfully placed their space station into orbit.
• Why did Henry turn the Toppat Clan's space station into a resort in the Thief/Dead route? It may have been his plan all along… but more likely, it was an improvised solution to his usual problem of not thinking his plans through to the very end. When he stole the rocket, he was likely only thinking of the massive treasure on board (Greed and poor impulse control being his usual issue), and he succeeded insofar as that… but once there, he was in orbit aboard a very high-profile space station that the Government had targeted as a threat, surrounded by many members of a criminal organization. While he could possibly have located the treasure aboard, he couldn't possibly take it all with him, and he still had the problem of being a criminal on the run. Perhaps using the fancy decor of the space station as inspiration, he recognized a better solution in the vein of his usual ideas: entrepreneur of the world's first luxury space station resort. How would this work, you ask? Well:
  • Since Henry was responsible for the stranding and eventual arrest of the Toppat Clan's leadership (with the rocket gone, those Toppats left behind, including Reginald Copperbottom and Right Hand Man, had no way to escape the upcoming Government assault seen in other paths), he could possibly negotiate a pardon for himself from the Government.
  • As for the station being perceived as a threat, a spacebound luxury resort is much lower on the Government's list of threats than the spacebound base of a criminal empire.
  • The situation also gave Henry leverage to strike a bargain with the remaining Toppats aboard — he could offer to allow them to join his staff and reform, or to leave the station freely… the latter option being little or no problem for those Toppats with no criminal record, but more of an issue for those who were wanted for crimes back on the planet.
  • In other paths, Henry has been shown to have some real leadership skills when thrust into such a role, so as long as he treated the staff well, the situation should work long term. And indeed, one year later, this crazy idea seems to have paid off for everyone involved.
• The Right-Hand Man only kidnaps Henry in the Bounty/Ghost route because that's the only one where he has a specific grudge against Henry and the opportunity to act on it. All the other routes have Henry interfering with the launch (either to pull off a heist on the money car or to hunt down the Right Hand Man himself), but here Henry doesn't hear about the money (either through Icepick or Ellie) and doesn't have Charles to fly him to the launch site.
  • Additionally, in the Bounty/Rescue path, the Right-Hand Man explicitly said that he wanted to capture Henry after launching the space station into orbit; in that same route, Henry confronts him at the base before the launch.
  • As for the Bounty/Dead path, RHM decided to call off the hunt for Henry. Why? There's two possibilities. The simpler one is that, after the Dead route in Complex, Henry was declared dead — so there's the chance that RHM called off his revenge because he thought that his nemesis was already gone, and that the guy who stole the money cart was an unknown stranger. The other possibility is that RHM recognized Henry; but decided that wasting time and resources hunting down someone who came back from the dead, has already stole what he presumably wanted (the money cart), managed to escape with a big lead over the Toppats, and is now hiding in a dense jungle simply isn't really worth the risk — especially when you have the whole "launching a space station into orbit" plan to worry about.
• The Bug Juice FAIL in the Special BROvert Ops path may seem like a reference to how long bugs tend to live (not very long), but pay attention to when Henry sticks himself. He doesn't push the plunger of the syringe in at all. Which means he got perhaps a few drops from the tip of the syringe into his system. The fact that that's enough to cause even a brief transformation is impressive.
• It seems odd that the Hammer option in Diamond easily poofs the glass surrounding the diamond into tiny harmless pieces... until it's revealed that the mayor who opened the exhibit is a mole for the Toppats who planned for the diamond to be easily stolen... for them.
• The reason why Henry's Pokéball/Goodball in Diamond sends out a glitch Pokémon is because he tried obtaining the ball from nothing!
• In the Thief/Allies route, Charles, having not been outright double-crossed by Henry, greets him like an old friend and offers him a chance to redeem himself by toppling the Toppat rocket. The reason why there's no Thief/Rescue combination? As a Pure-Blooded Thief, not only did Henry not befriend the Government, but such means he has no idea how to call Charles on the phone.
• The "Really Dumb Option" fake choice in Bounty/Allies is the last one to appear in its set, just like "Needle" in the following set. Popping the fulton balloon with the needle happens to be a really dumb option. Not to mention, the "Really Dumb Option" logo is that of someone picking a nose, very similar to how one would poke a balloon with a needle.
• In the Toppat 4 Life ending, Henry's foiling of the Government's raid ensures that no Toppat lives are taken or apprehended.
• Executive/Allies route:
  • Shortly after Henry hijacks a Government helicopter, Reginald, even while getting arrested, expresses utter confidence that Henry will save him. He's already starting to decide against betraying Henry — because unlike in Executive/Ghost, Henry expressed hints of loyalty by bringing a new friend along. Alternatively, Reginald was expecting Right Hand Man to be the one to come to the rescue, and (with the correct choice) was genuinely surprised when it was Henry who did so instead.
  • If you look closely, Reginald expresses his surprise after you choose the "Dual Tech" option when surrounded by the army. Why is he impressed? Because Henry is working with the Right Hand Man, the guy whom he beat up so badly he needed to be rebuilt as a cyborg. If Henry can work with a former enemy who potentially hates his guts, then he's quite the leader material. Moreover, if the Right Hand Man trusts Henry enough to work with him, then Reginald can trust him too.
  • Adding to the point above, the scene following that is the drive up the ramp. The correct option is to pick Henry so that he will put himself on the hubcap and deliver a punch to the army general. Risking his neck out like that is exactly why Reginald came around to trusting him, as he would later explain after Henry got inside the rocket.
• In the Thief/Dead route, Reginald looks at Henry with his binoculars, but doesn't recognize him as the guy who stole the ruby. This is because Henry faked his death before the route's events.
  • Alternatively, since the Toppats have no idea who Henry even is on the Thief routes(or his name, since RHM simply calls him "the guy who stole our Ruby" on Thief/Ghost, so hearing that a Henry died at the Wall would mean nothing to them), it's possible Henry was simply too far away for Reginald to recognize his face clearly. Adding to the fact that he's on a fast moving vehicle, and it would make it difficult for anyone to get a clear view of him.
• The Executive and Ghost routes (in Airship and Complex, respectively) are the only two that involve Henry outright double-crossing others. Proceed to the events following both endings in Mission, and it's as if the game decided two betrayals on Henry's end is too many — and sorely punishes you with not only one of the smallest routes in the game, but the only ending that is a series-finale cliffhanger and thus widely considered the least satisfying.
• The amount of deaths and destruction caused by Henry seems to be dependent on his current route. Government-aligned endings, where Henry is more heroic, tend to have little to no deaths in them, whereas the Executive and Thief routes (where Henry is a Villain Protagonist or more of a neutral party respectively) tend to have the most. Specifically, Jewel Baron (Thief/Ghost) and Revenged (Executive/Betrayed), where Henry is by himself working towards his own goals, have the most amount of deaths and destruction out of any other route in the game. The Bounty Hunter endings are the exception and instead appear to be dependent on the ending Henry got in Complex:
  • Bounty/Rescue, where Henry is working with the government, has no deaths directly caused by Henry
  • Bounty/Allies and Bounty/Dead are simply Henry trying to steal something either by himself or with Ellie, giving him more of an anti-hero role. Bounty/Allies in particular has the most deaths outside of Executive/Thief-aligned endings.
  • Bounty/Ghost appears to be the exception, although it could be argued that everything Henry did on that route was out of self-defense.
• Henry is simply presumed missing by the government in Executive/Dead and the fact that he's supposedly dead is not acknowledged by either faction. Why is this? Well, the government obviously would have noticed the old Toppat leader is back in charge with no sign of Henry, and with how secretive the Wall is (to the point where Charles only recalled hearing of the name without anything else to go on), they wouldn't have heard the news of Henry's death, or had any proof to confirm it. Adding on to this, the Toppats in the bar would obviously not disclose this information with all the government agents around them, as doing so would not only out them as members, it would also give the government the perfect opportunity to launch their attack and put the clan at a disadvantage.
  • As for why Reginald doesn't acknowledge Henry's supposed demise? There's multiple reasons: The Betrayed ending in Complex indicates Reginald has never even heard of the Wall, and even if he did, he had no reason to assume Henry was locked up in there. So he most likely didn't even hear of the news and just assumed Henry ran away and abandoned them at some point after Airship. Alternatively, it's possible he WAS made aware of the news from Snowcap or Icepick in the tavern... and simply didn't care. After all, Reginald was still plotting to get rid of Henry at this point, so hearing that he went missing/died? Well, that's one less thing to worry about. And since Geoffrey and Thomas were the only members who genuinely liked Henry, it's not hard to image the clan had little to no morale drop from this.
    • The Toppats definitely know about The Wall; they have an undercover agent who was there for three years (according to one of the FAI Ls). It's very likely that Reg and the other Toppats didn't know Henry was locked up there, however. And in Executive/Ghost and Executive/Allies, Henry apparently did immediately get in touch with the other Toppats nearby (such as Icepick and/or Snowcap) and returned directly to the Toppats, with the latter taking a bit longer because there were two people to smuggle back, not just one. But in Executive/Dead Henry laid low for a while and did not attempt to contact anyone, meaning the Toppats didn't know where Henry was or what happened to him, until he returned to their rocket base in a stolen tank.
• While Cutting the Knot choices are often still valid, most of the successful choices often involve Henry doing something bizarre, weird, or even just picking a more indirect way to beat his opponents as opposed to simply brute force his way out. Henry is noted to be somewhat lacking into the combat territory and even after getting better overtime he still often needs to outsmart his opponents as he's still often at risk of being beaten himself. Most of the fails involving Dmitri, the Right Hand Man and average guards and toppat members happen whenever Henry tries to fight head on straightforward.
  • Fittingly enough, the only canon deaths of Henry were caused by Reginald Copperbottom, who's arguably an even worse fighter than Henry and is often prone to panic. Nonetheless, Reginald got both of his ultimate victories against Henry by effectively tricking him and use the same kind of sidethinking and misdirection Henry himself uses. Plus, Henry did betray Ellie and the Government in a couple routes to succeed, so Reginald betraying him could come up as somewhat poetic. Reginald is technically speaking Henry's Evil Counterpart.
    • Also, in Toppat Civil Warfare, while Henry doesn't die in that route, it is another ending where Henry is worse off than when he started. Because Henry abandoned Ellie and she managed to track him down and call him out in front of the Toppats, Reginald quickly took advantage and dethrone him in front of everybody, leaving Henry with only the support of Geoffrey Plumb, Thomas Chestershire and Dave Panpa; forcing him to retreat just to rethink his plans. While Reginald and RHM die in the process by accident, Reginald still caused lasting damage to Henry he cannot just simply undo or make a sudden comeback from, all with sheer cleverness, charisma and admittedly some opportunism.
  • Also, in The Betrayed, Henry's behavior is notably more combat oriented and even the succesful choices are surprisingly straightforward, which actually clashes against the usual philosophy of the entire games, so it's fitting that this is the route where Henry finally dies as Henry is actually trying to win using an approach that he's not used to.
  • Fittingly, Reginald's victory was due to him taking note of a detail and using it to his advantage: mainly, Henry's cybernetic technology, which Reginald is obviously familiar with and knows its weak points due to RHM using the same exact thing. Just like Henry does in other routes, Reginald managed to outsmart him by thinking outside the box and using less direct means, as he stood no chance in a direct fight against Henry.
  • There's also the fact that, just like his opponents, Henry's ultimate death was caused by him being misdirected and making a mistake: by choosing to simply walk away and let Reginald die rather than immediately killing him when he had the chance, he effectively sealed his own doom.
  • Notably, the only time where Henry is successful in a one-on-one fight is when he's fighting Dmitri at the end of Thief/Allies, which he only managed to do because he was angry at Dmitri for hurting Ellie, and directly fighting him wasn't even an option he could have picked anyways.
• The intro to "Jewel Baron" (Thief/Ghost) shows that Henry's living situation is more or less the exact same as it was in "Diamond": a run down small apartment with nothing but a table, chair, and small TV, and cracks and water damage visible everywhere. This seems odd since Henry has already stolen the Tunisian Diamond from the museum, and the "Unseen Burglar" ending indicates he managed to sell it off and became a multi-millionaire. However, Henry's heist of the diamond is presumably what caused him to get put on the government's radar (since an attempted bank robber who escaped prison wouldn't be that big of a deal), who proceed to put him under surveillance and do an extensive criminal background check on him. Since the government is fully aware of Henry's history and where he got that money, they no doubt seized everything he got from his illegal gains, leaving him all the way back at where he started. Presumably, Henry is unable to sell the ruby he stole from the Toppat Clan since he knows the government will just come after him again if he does. Thus, he's left with a giant gemstone that he can't even do anything with.
  • Henry could also be hesitant to part with the ruby since he's now been made aware of the Toppat Clan. Thief/Allies ends with Reginald demanding the ruby back in exchange for safety for himself and Ellie, which he apparently does, indicating Henry indeed still has the ruby in his possession. Seeing how much the clan cares about the ruby in the Thief route in Airship, Henry could be afraid that attempting to sell the ruby would give the Toppat Clan a way to track him down and take revenge for its theft. Presumably, he no longer has any concerns after stealing the emerald at the end of "Jewel Baron" since the Toppat Clan is no longer a threat to him, and the deaths of its higher ups would keep the government occupied long enough for him to find somewhere to sell off the gemstones.
• In the "Presumed Dead" ending of Fleeing The Complex, Dmitri displays some Villain Respect towards Henry for being the first person to successfully escape the Wall, so why is he absolutely pissed instead when he does it in "Convict Allies", and shows nothing but contempt in the only route following up from this ending in which he appears in? Simple. The damage dealt to the Wall in PD is nothing compared to what happens in CA. All the inmates were released, a prison riot ensued, and according to Dmitri, his reputation was ruined. So of course, in PD, the warden can afford to show some Villain Respect because nothing much suffered from Henry's escape (Nothing that he would care about, anyway).
• At the end of Thief/Allies, why in the world would Henry and Ellie even consider surrendering to the Wall when doing so is such a blatantly bad choice? Well, from their perspective, their other options aren't much better. While Reginald promised to grant them membership if Henry returned the ruby, he has no reason to trust Reginald or believe he would keep his word, especially after witnessing firsthand how ruthless the Clan is and them attempting to kill him when his theft was discovered. And if Reginald was indeed lying, that means he would have gotten Ellie killed as well for something he did, and for something she had no part in. As for the government, Henry barely knows Charles, and he has no reason to believe Galeforce wouldn't just turn around and throw the two of them in prison after he abandoned them and threw away the chance to gain his freedom. Choosing neither isn't an option either, not only because doing so gets them killed, but it wouldn't solve any of their problems even if they escaped. So while they both know surrendering is a bad idea, their other options lean on a gamble that the other party would keep their word, when both parties have every reason to backstab them.
• Why is Thief/Dead the only route where Henry's supposed death is never acknowledged? On the Government and Bounty routes, Henry is a high-priority enemy of the clan, whereas on the Executive route, he's allied with them. In all three, Henry is a well-known adversary to the clan, who's death would be very important news to them. As for the Thief route? Simple: the Toppat Clan has no idea who he is. While they recognize Henry by face, they don't know his name, meaning they would quickly brush off news of his death, since they wouldn't know or care about hearing that a Henry died at the Wall.
• Henry is shown to have no idea how to fly a rocket in the "Ghost Inmate" route of Complex, yet he does know to fly one in the "Stickmin Space Resort" route in Mission. Why is this? Because Henry activated an emergency launch protocol in the "SSR" route. So it's possible it wasn't Henry flying it, it was simply an autopilot program which took him on the Toppat Clan's intended route into space.
  • It's possible Henry does know how to fly a rocket, and the one at the Wall was booby trapped to prevent inmates from using it as an escape route. Or it could have simply had a different control scheme than what Henry is used to, and he got things mixed up as a result.
• While it can seem a little random that Dave ended up being captured by the Toppats at some point between StD and ItA, it makes a lot more sense once its revealed that the mayor is secretly a Toppat who intended to have the clan steal the Tunisian Diamond. Dave probably just got caught in the crossfire somewhere and was taken prisoner.

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