YMMV / Henry Stickmin Series

#-F

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • In the Convict Allies ending of Complex, Henry holds on to Ellie's chest instead of her waist as one normally would on a motorcycle.
  • Oddly enough, the Bounty/Allies route of Mission has THREE of them:
    • There's just something odd-looking with Ellie riding Henry's tank on its cannon between her legs. This◊ shot, in particular, looks extremely suggestive.
    • A certain FAIL involves Ellie diving straight into the cannon with Henry to hide from the Toppat Clan's guns and sword-launching turret. Then, Ellie says "We should have just done this from the beginning." While it meant that they should have been inside the tank since the beginning, some fans thought it meant doing it.
    • One of the fake choices, namely "Really Dumb Option", has Henry picking his nose. That said, given how… odd the image appears to be and it being represented with the middle finger, it could be misinterpreted as a Double Entendre representing sex with Ellie — on top of the money cart in the sky.
  • The fact that Mission's Pardoned Pals ending in is abbreviated as PP might elicit a few giggles from some fans.
  • Similarly, Collection abbreviates Stealing the Diamond as "StD" in the main menu.
  • In the Bounty/Rescue route, the fact that the converted Kayn says "Erectus" when he's told to stay on guard can catch players who don't know much about the first Age of Empires I game (which "Erectus" makes a Shout-Out to) off-guard.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Henry has this on several scenarios:
    • In most routes in Mission that have Henry burglarizing the Toppat Clan, is Henry still as much of a thieving Villain Protagonist as ever, or is he now more of an Anti-Hero who's now making it a point to only steal from other criminals? The latter interpretation is unlikely if the Thief route was chosen as the Airship ending, but if the Bounty or Government routes were selected, then the jury is well and truly out. Regardless of whether Henry was pardoned by the Government or not, it's never really made clear. There are still a few deaths that happen on these routes that are caused by Henry, but then again, this is the Toppat Clan we're talking about.
    • In the Thief/Allies route regarding Henry's possible choice to side with the government at the last second instead of his original plan to join the Toppats. Is it because Charles convinced him enough to switch sides or did Henry simply refuse to return the ruby as a requirement to join the clan, therefore using this as an opportunity to bail out of the deal?
  • How "evil" is Dmitri Johannes Petrov? Unlike other previous law enforcement, his methods of punishing criminals are morally ambiguous, running the Wall like a gulag. His imprisonment of Henry is also questionable if the Government Supported Private Investigator or Relentless Bounty Hunter paths were pursued, in which Henry was pardoned of all crimes, unless Henry got into more trouble after said pardon. Mission adds even more ambiguity, as he allows his men to attack the American Government and the Toppat Clan, in addition to trying to kill Henry and Ellie rather than capture them because they ruined his reputation. It's also shown in the Master Bounty Hunter ending that Gastro the Toilet Wizard is still wanted by the American Government, even though he is shown to be imprisoned at the Wall, implying that Dmitri has been unlawfully capturing criminals behind the American Government's back and bringing them to Canada.
  • Additionally, has he always been an evil warden who only cares about himself, or was he actually once an idealist but those five decades disillusioned him?
  • In the Executive/Ghost route (Toppat Civil Warfare), was Reginald truly disgusted about Henry's abandonment of Ellie? Or was he acting more out of a sense of opportunism, using the situation to overthrow him? Other paths show that he wasn't very happy about giving up his leadership position to Henry, and would've jumped at the chance to have it back. But on the other hand, his loyalty can be won in other routes when he sees Henry risking his neck for the Clan, which in this route, Henry doesn't get to do. Plus, his genuine-sounding revulsion and choice of words implies that it may be a little of Column A and a little of Column B.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: In the Executive/Ghost route, when Henry tries to invoke toon physics using the chainsaw, it doesn't work and his side falls instead of Ellie's side. Did it not work because of realism, or, since Henry cut the plank himself instead of getting Ellie to do it, did it just seem realistic and Henry just forgot how the joke works?
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Charles Calvin. Is he a funny sidekick whose Heroic Sacrifice is absolutely depressing, or he is he overrated and useless, being so dumb he often gets Henry in trouble during fails? Another point is Charles' popularity, to the point that he may get forced inside paths where he is completely irrelevant or even Henry's enemy. Yet another point is that he's been pretty much a Sacred Cow in the fandom for a while, and if you insulted Charles or otherwise said harsh things about him, fans would come after you. Thankfully, the latter has died down.
  • Jacked Hughman, despite being a one-shot minor character and appeared for literally only a few seconds, broke the fan-base due to being the cause for Charles' death. While fans hate him for doing so, others defend him by saying he simply followed his survival instincts or it was Charles' decision to save Henry, and that Charles is to blame for his own death as him pulling off the Greatest Plan caused it.
• Best Level Ever: Completing the Mission is the longest, most detailed, and most complex game in the series. It has an impressive 164 fails, tons of different paths, and even allows you to pick one ending from each of the two last games to follow one of many paths, barring any occurrences where it wouldn't make sense to have both selected endings occur on one timeline^{For instance}Betrayed is unselectable unless Henry joined the Toppats in Airship. Within Mission, six story paths tend to stick out as being the most interesting:
  • The Government/Allies route, which put both Henry's main partners, Ellie and Charles together and for being constantly hilarious throughout the story.
  • The Executive/Betrayed route, for its dark nature and non-stop frantic action.
  • The Government/Operative route, for Henry's Bash Brothers relationship with Charles and their hilarious successes.
  • The Executive/Allies route, for its fantastic pacing and great dynamics with Ellie and Right Hand Man.
  • The Thief/Allies route, for its epic confrontation with the Government, Toppat Clan, and the Wall.
  • The Thief/Ghost route, for continuing on the legacy of Henry's jewel thievery, having possibly the highest stakes of any route, and even including an homage to the first Stickmin-style game, Crossing the Pit.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • In Diamond, Henry can use a pickaxe to dig through the museum's wall, only for a Creeper to suddenly come out of nowhere and blow him up alongside the wall itself. Yet somehow, it's a correct answer as Henry manages to survive the explosion, continuing the plot.
  • In Mission, one of the options to start the battle against Right Hand Man in the Executive/Betrayed route is "Spirit Forme", which pits them against each other… in a Stand battle, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-style. All complete with Gratuitous Japanese, the art-style mimicking the anime itself, and even the soundtrack sounding close enough to the source. It stands out for having a lot of effort put into it for being a Fail.
• Bizarro Episode: The Stickmin Space Resort ending classifies as this due to how weird it is even for the setting itself. The idea of stealing an entire rocket from a criminal organization to convert it into a resort seems pretty bonkers, even for Henry's standards. The fact that he's even able to do so and even reform all of the Toppat members on board the rocket to become his employees seems even more ludicrous. However, the ending is conclusive enough to not entirely be classified as a Gainax Ending. The head concierge, Brian Hampton, also heavily lampshades the ending itself, as while his presence explains through the bios how Henry convinced the crewmen inside to join him and refit the space station, Hampton himself states that he and just about everyone else don't know how or why Henry decided to do this, only that he did, and that's what matters.
  Hampton: You may wonder: Why did he steal a criminal clan's rocket and decide to turn it into a resort? We may never know… But hey, you wouldn't be here if that didn't happen. Enjoy your stay.
• Broken Base:
  • The Valiant Hero ending has certainly broken the base. Some love it because of how emotional it is, others hate it simply because Charles dies, while others are in the middle. But the main point has to be just how popular it is, just like Charles. Much like the pilot himself, the ending may get put or otherwise referenced by fans in other paths where Charles should still be alive, and if he isn't, Henry (and possibly Ellie) shouldn't mourn him because they are enemies (in paths where he's a Toppat) or just don't know each other enough (paths following Pure-Blooded Thief).
  • The Toppat Civil Warfare ending is also quite divisive, although not because of the contents of it, but rather because of trying to figure out who is the bad guy. People rooting for Henry would say that Ellie is overreacting to being "betrayed" by Henry, as they knew each other for a few seconds, and that he never got the proper chance to explain his view of the situation (additionally, Ellie never asked Henry to bring her with him). People rooting for Ellie will say she has a valid reason for doing what she did, as they consider Henry was selfish for leaving her at the Wall to risk her rotting there for the rest of her life.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Letting time run out on Police Chase (Car) in Stealing the Diamond. Johnny Panzer shooting Henry dead? Mundane, and somewhat of a downer. Rupert Price congratulating Johnny whilst running Henry over? Darkly gut-busting.
  • The Acid fail in Infiltrating the Airship. Henry burning his legs off with a bottle of acid? Horrific. Him helplessly trying to stay on the airship as the wind blows him off? Hilarious. Then there's the FAIL message for it.
    FAIL Screen: I can't stand acid either.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Many fans are willing to ignore how Wilson Stone is willing to simultaneously murder both the Toppats and the Government in exchange for depicting him as a diligent family man just trying to do his job, if only because of the Dark Energy Bomb fail.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Burt Curtis is popular for basically being an Evil Counterpart to Charles.
  • Sven Svensson is equally popular as Burt for a reason, and also because he's the Toppat Leader in post-Government endings.
  • Carol Cross and Victoria Grit have also got followings of their own, mainly due to being females. The former is often paired with the first two examples as a sort of an Evil Counterpart to the main trio.
  • Mr. Macbeth for his awesome leitmotif inspired by Undertale and also served as an obstacle in the Little Nest Egg route.
  • If the live chat for Puffballs' Developer Commentary is any indication, fans love Topbot for being a weird combination of an Attention Whore and a Boogie Knight encased in a robot.
  • Winston Davis and Ted McAdams (the truck drivers who appear in Bank) are pretty popular with the fandom, and many are willing to sympathize with them for having their lives ruined by Henry, espcially Winston, considering he lost his truck job, got framed for attempted murder in one ending and ended up joining the Toppat Clan.
  • Dave Panpa is popular for being a constantly funny Recurring Extra, his partnership with Rupert Price, his role in Executive/Ghost and him indirectly being responsible for the entire series.
  • Sam Turner in a one-time character briefly appearing in Diamond, but they attracted fans because likely they're the only non-binary character in the game.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Two endings, Cleaned 'em Out, and Little Nest Egg, focus on Henry robbing the Toppat Clan of their riches. While they concluded that Henry's the victor, the Toppat Clan still has their leader, and their satellite that's stated to be able to let them rob anywhere they please, meaning that the Toppat Clan still has the chance of getting revenge in the future. Little Nest Egg is even more egregious, as while Cleaned 'em Out has Bad Boss Sven Svensson as the leader, who couldn't care less about being leader, Right Hand Man is the leader in Little Nest Egg, who plans on capturing and imprisoning Henry in revenge, and does so in Free Man.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • The Right Hand Man is pretty popular amongst the fandom due to his badassery and the fact that in some routes in Mission, he's a literal cyborg. It helps that he's also Puffball's favorite character. When the official Twitter of Among Us posted a leak of a new map (which obviously takes place in the Toppat Airship) along with a possible Cyborg Right Hand Man skin, fans were really hyped on this news.
  • Reginald has his fair share of fans too. He may be a Dirty Coward and a Starscream, but damn if he isn't a Noble Demon with a value for loyalty.
  • In their villainous routes, both Henry and Ellie themselves also count, especially when the Toppats involved with both of them either being their underlings or outright rule the clan together, despite for Ellie's case, she joins the Toppat Clan only at the very end of couple endings.
  • Dmitri is no slouch either. Despite being an elder, he's resilient and a strong fighter. He's also a very serious and no nonsense villain, adding to his cool factor.
• Fan Nickname: When Ellie becomes Henry's Right Hand Lady at the end of Toppat King route, many fans call her the "Toppat Queen", for very obvious reasons. This also applies to the end screen of Toppat Civil Warfare, when she became the new leader of the clan.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
  • It is spelled Henry Stickmin, not Stickman. Expect to be swiftly corrected on the matter if you misspell his name as the latter, especially since Henry Stickman is now his own character.
  • Many fans do not appreciate when Among Us players say that the Airship is from Among Us, while it actually originates from Infiltrating the Airship, which came out about seven years before the Airship map was announced for Among Us.
• Fandom Heresy: As the comments show in GTLive's playthrough of the series^note And to a lesser extent, the playthrough by EthGoesBoom, who also had a notable dislike of the character, do not say that Charles isn't funny or helpful. Say goodbye to your viewers if you don't take that back after a full playthrough of Mission, especially after the Valiant Hero ending.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • Henry and Ellie living together after Convict Allies is quite common, which is fueled further in Mission with how the two practically become inseparable partners.
  • It’s also quite common to see Dave as the fourth member of the team formed after Government/Allies.
  • It’s also quite common to see Dave promoted to a Toppat after Executive, with him being Affably Evil at the worst of times.
  • It’s also quite common to see Ellie having appearance, and seeking revenge on Henry (or even just forgiving him later) in all other three routes involving Ghost Inmate.
  • Several continuation fanfics of Executive/Ghost usually show the Government and the Wall fighting against Henry along with Ellie, who is trying to get away from the former two, during the civil war.
  • A Executive/Operative plot is rather popular in the fanbase. It often involves the Government capturing Henry, who has to return to the Toppat Clan and be safe again.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Just why was Ellie at the Wall in the first place? Although the Capital Gains route reveals she is just a thief much like Henry, which could be a reason for her imprisonment, this still raises the question since that route is the only one where she's actually shown stealing.
  • Some of the endings in Mission also qualify, given it's the last game and all, but special mention goes to the Toppat Civil Warfare cliffhanger ending, with Henry, alongside his loyalists (and Dave), escaping the airship, leaving the conflict between Henry's and Ellie's factions up to anyone's imagination.
  • The Center for Chaos Containment has incredible Fanfic Fuel potential especially when you find out in the Omega Ending, the CCC is responsible for sending the package to Henry in Escaping the Prison.
  • The bio system reveals a lot about the game world, a few of the major characters, and the hundreds of extras dotted throughout every scene, leaving behind countless story threads and interactions to speculate on.
  • Considering that all endings are canon, what if Henry could meet his alternate versions of himself?
• Fanon:
  • In the hamster ball option in ITA, Henry crashes through the airship cockpit and and lands square first on Thomas Chestershire, a toppat. Thomas is visibly nearly crushed by the thing, but later in routes where Henry becomes toppat leader, Thomas seems to take his side anyway, even if the hamster ball was basically required to get to the RPE ending. In fact, most of Thomas's bios tell that he is actively worried for and supports him, despite being crushed by a giant hamster ball. Many fans have taken this absurdity in Thomas' character to mean he might have a crush on Henry in some way despite crushing his spine. Memes and fanart ensued.
  • In Diamond there is a security guard named Jacob Rose. The fact that he shares his last name with Ellie has led many fans to conclude the two are related, with them being siblings being the most popular theory. Neither of their bios confirms this, and by Word of God in the first Henry Stickmin Developer Commentary, Puffballs jossed the theory outright.
  • Because Henry's capacity to remember the Teleporter fails, he can do this to all endings, and other non-Teleporter fails. As such, it's not even uncommon to depict Henry remembering and getting traumatized in the worst timelines, such as his pilot friend dying in the station explosion, getting dethroned by vengeful red-headed criminal and thrown into the civil war, and dying alone tragically after killing all the Toppat clan for his death.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Despite Puffballs insisting that every ending is canon, a good number of fans like to pretend some endings don't exist especially the former three down below for a good reason.
  • Revenged is the least detested of the three, as this route is also mentioned in Best Level Ever above, but still gets shoved to the intentional forgetfulness wayside for having Henry die on-screen, even if not being explicit about it, as well as the Black-and-White Morality being switched out for Grey-and-Gray, arguably Black-and-Grey Morality given Henry’s actions on this ending.
  • Toppat Civil Warfare is a major step-up in fan detesting from the last one, so much that it's considered a punishment for the player, as while nobody (except for Reginald and Right Hand Man) dies, it's infamous for having Ellie become Henry's Arch-Enemy to the point of wanting him dead, especially if you prefer any one of four routes in Convict Allies a lot where she serves as his faithful partner. It doesn't help that it's the only one to end on a cliffhanger (or virtually to have No Ending due to Mission being the Grand Finale of the series).
  • As much as the previous two endings are lambasted by a good section of the fandom, you'll be hard-pressed to find anybody who willfully considers Valiant Hero canon. Despite the fact that Henry doesn't die and he has no fractured relationships, the death of the series' most beloved character, Charles, sent the majority of fandom into an absolute frenzy of tears and anger. If you consider this ending canon, you're close to being one-of-a-kind.
  • Pardoned Pals gets a lot of flak from the fandom as it doesn't make sense for Henry and Ellie to join the government, due to the latter has already planned to join the Toppat Clan, doing so would effectively "betray" the clan. As such, Toppat Recruits is widely considered to be better than its sister route.

G-Z

• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the series' popularity has dwindled down a bit in North America and Europe, it still manages to hold a pretty sizable fandom over in East Asian countries, notably Japan and Indonesia. In particular, nearly every member of hololive has played The Henry Stickmin Collection at some point or another and appreciate it for its copious (if ballsy) amounts of references.
• Growing the Beard:
  • The first two games (Crossing the Pit and Breaking the Bank) are rather simplistic. Escaping the Prison introduced an ongoing storyline (albeit one that is heavily subjected to Shrug of God), as well as Easter Eggs and Multiple Endings to spice things up and make the games more engaging.
  • Infiltrating the Airship onwards takes this even further, as the series introduces more staple characters and the ability to choose Henry's morality throughout his adventure, which eventually led to the Grand Finale game, Completing the Mission, where its scenario starts depending on the ending combinations you get from the previous two games.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Charles' penchant for ramming his vehicle at full speed into whatever is in front of him is bound to bust a few sides. Then it actually works in Completing the Mission, and it becomes a whole lot less funny when doing so causes the station's reactor to go critical and some last-minute interference from a Toppat goon costs Charles his spot on the station's last remaining escape pod, ultimately resulting in Charles' tragic demise.
  • When Henry receives help from Ellie and then leaves her behind in Complex, it is Played for Laughs when the game notes that "Ellie will remember that." Not so funny anymore in the Toppat Civil Warfare ending in Mission, where Ellie escapes the Wall herself, calls out Henry for abandoning her, and Reginald uses the opportunity to turn most of the Toppat Clan on him.
• He's Just Hiding: At the tail end of the Government/Dead route in Mission, Charles throws Henry into an escape pod which leaves without him while he's busy fighting a Toppat Goon, leaving Charles in the Space Station as it explodes. Some fans point out that there was an unselectable escape pod behind the rubble in the same hall where you make that final choice (and there are actually five escape pods flying towards Earth in the outro), and subscribe to the idea that Charles left in that one and is simply presumed dead just like Henry was.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Airship (the original of which dropped in 2013), there's a moment during the Cannonball route where Reginald is struggling to swipe his card to open a door. Puffballs would later work on Among Us, which came out five years later (and picked up speed two years after that, soon after Collection was released), and the finicky nature of the "Swipe Card" task of that game had plenty of people sympathizing with Reginald. Eventually, Among Us got its own map based on the Airship added, which requires players to swipe their card to open doors, bringing the gag full circle.
  • In Complex, one of the fails is Henry kneeing Ellie and Grigori, knocking them out of the screen Super Smash Bros. style, and then the victory screen from Street Fighter II shows up — after which the FAIL screen scolds Henry for "mixing fighting game references". And then Ryu became a playable character in the fourth Super Smash Bros. game...
  • The collection sidequest for Mission involves collecting little Among Us dolls. One of them, Tan, gets unceremoniously punched away when picked up instead of added to the roster. At the time of Mission's release, Tan was Dummied Out as a color due to its similarity to White and Brown causing confusion. Fast forward to June 2021 and Tan ended up being readded to the roster; due to a combination of larger maximum lobby sizes necessitating more color options, and hats and outfits being brought into the debate menu, thereby making similar colors less of a dealbreaker.
  • In general, the references to Among Us were at the time a shout-out to a game Puffballs United was also involved in which didn't have huge widespread recognition, evidenced by playthroughs like Markiplier's where the references didn't click. Not very long after Completing the Mission, Among Us would have a massive, inescapable surge in popularity, to the point where CtM could be erroneously perceived as jumping on a bandwagon or invoking a tired meme with its Among Us references, when it was actually making a relatively obscure shout-out to a fellow project.
• Ho Yay:
  • Henry/Charles is beloved by many fans due to their dynamic. Although it started off only after The Henry Stickmin Collection was released, it without a doubt skyrocketed in popularity and is one of the two biggest pairings, alongside Henry/Ellie, arguably becoming even more popular.
  • Although we never see them interact aside of one brief moment in Government/Dead route, Sven Svensson/Burt Curtis is also beloved by number of the fans and arguably takes second or third place in popularity. Some shippers believe that in any route in which Sven becomes the Toppat Leader, Burt becomes The Dragon.
  • Reginald/Right Hand Man also manages to be quite popular. Mainly because Reginald has shown that even he has standards which made him a Noble Demon, and it is implied in the Thief/Ghost route of Mission that they are close given that RHM refers to him as "Reg" instead of "Chief" or "Boss" during that route, and is the only Toppat to do so in all games.
  • Some people also ship Dmitri with his right hand man Grigori, as the two seem to be casual friends outside of work.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Henry/Charles/Ellie is usually dubbed "Triple Threat" or "Polythreat" by shippers.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Some of the endings in Completing the Mission are seen as rushed and short despite it being the Grand Finale of the Henry Stickmin series. Most notably the Toppat Civil Warfare ending, which ends in a cliffhanger.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Charles dies at the end of the Government/Dead route in Mission. The Valiant Hero ending among the game's 16 endings is considered the most infamous among the fandom, having the most fanworks related to it, some reaching six digits worth of views. This makes avoiding the spoiler practically impossible unless you played the route during the first few days of the game's release.
  • The names of the endings in Mission also hit this hard, which aren't seen until the route is completed. Aside from above, "Triple Threat" is probably the most popular of the bunch by the community.
• Jerkass Woobie: Henry may be a thief and criminal, but it's hard not to feel bad for him whenever the items he has at his disposal screw him over, especially when he slowly becomes a more sympathetic character from Airship onward depending on the player's choices. And then it gets worse for him in Completing The Mission where in one ending, he dies alone after getting shot in the back and barely surviving an airship crash, while in another ending, he lives, but watches Charles die after he saves his life. Even his most despicable role in Toppat Civil Warfare aren't far from being the most unsympathetic character, considering how Reginald and Ellie are pretty unlikable in that route despite the two having good points to dethrone him.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Henry. He has been shipped with fellow main characters Charles and Ellie, antagonists like Reginald and the Right Hand Man, as well as other supporting characters like Dave and Burt.
• Love to Hate: Dmitri is the least sympathetic of the series' antagonists; he's sociopathic, selfish, petty and callous towards almost everyone, but he's also badass, strong and doesn't mess around.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Right Hand Man is the second in command of the Toppat Clan and The Dragon to Reginald Copperbottom. The Right Hand Man assists Reginald in his plans to launch the Toppat Orbital Station into orbit, allowing them to pull off as many heists as they please while remaining completely untouchable to The Government. Having mastered the utilization of many forms of weaponry, the Right Hand Man is often able to hold his own against many threatening foes such as Henry Stickmin, proving to be a formidable adversary even despite the latter's game-breaking capabilities. Following the Rapidly Promoted Executive and Relentless Bounty Hunter routes, the Right Hand Man is turned into a cyborg after being temporarily put out of commission by Henry. Now with his newly added cybernetic enhancements, the Right Hand Man utilizes his new array of abilities to give his adversaries a run for their money, proving himself to be one of the toughest obstacles that his enemies would ever have the displeasure of facing.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • This is the Greatest PLAAAA-^note In the games in which Charles appears, at one point there is an option to directly ask him for help, which if selected, involves him crashing his helicopter into Henry's position, the dialogue being from Complex's take on the scene.
  • The Distraction Dance.^note In Complex, one scenario has the Distract option, which involves Henry dancing to a catchy tune to distract two prison guards, which also works on Ellie. Works the same way as a Rick Roll.
  • Charles has an important announcement.^note Puffballs made a voice reel of Charles on his twitch about not reposting someone's meme or else he will personally crash into your house and take you to the goverment's complex. Now in animated form.
  • One, two, threeeee-AAAAAAAA-^note A certain FAIL involving Henry and Charles trying to lift a door. Said door is metal and part of the Toppat Orbital Station, and gets lifted up for mere seconds before falling on Charles' fingers (and Henry's back). Charles' scream gets replaced with something else.
  • It's simple: he didn't. ^note When someone asks how did Henry tie the knot from the outside of the bag in Bank, you have to answer with this, so everyone can fully complete the Lawyered Up ending of Prison.
  • This money ain't even yours, kid!^note Said by Mr. Macbeth during Henry's battle against him, when Henry tried to bribe Mr. Macbeth with the Toppats' own money, resulting in Henry being killed. Fans would usually replace 'money' with something else in the quote.
  • Henry Smugmin.^note Refers to the face Henry makes when hearing of the Toppat Rocket containing valuable items in the intro to Cleaned 'em Out. His face is even shown in his Mission bio card.
  • STONKS^note The ending card of Capital Gains shows Henry and Ellie with smug faces and all the money from the Toppats, in the vein of the famous STONKS meme.
  • Ellie has canon force powers.^note Due to the Force being a Star Wars reference, she is jokingly considered a Jedi or Sith.
  • FROSTY'S ESCAPING!^note One of the fails in Complex during Presumed Dead has Henry dress up as a snowman to try and get past some guards, only for one of them to shoot him on sight while yelling this phrase. Many clips of this scene have been uploaded on YouTube, and people like to theorize about who Frosty actually is and if he's an actual inmate at the Wall.
  • Sven Svensson is obviously a Swede, so the fandom associates him with the real life Swedish furniture chain IKEA, particularly their popular "blahaj" stuffed animal. In fanfic works/fanon, he'll usually have a shark plush in his possession (or several), as well as a fixation on the sea and sharks in general. Whether he keeps this as an embarassing secret or is 100% shameless about using it is up to the author.
• Memetic Psychopath: Probably in response to the general portrayal and treatment of Charles, there have become instances where Charles is treated as evil, insane, or otherwise the complete opposite of his canon portrayal, all played for laughs.
• Moe: Although a game about stick figures is the last thing you'd want to call "adorably squishy", there are some aspects of it (particularly in fan works) that strike this kind of vibe.
  • The Toppat's jobs are often seen to that of an office, making it all the more cuter to think most Toppats are just average salarymen working for a powerful criminal organization. Bonus moe points if it's potrayed as a taxing effort.
  • Charles is often seen as a very innocently clumsy person by the fanbase. While it may come off as a more Draco in Leather Pants situation to some, many agree that Charles is the cuter one out of the main three characters.
• Narm: In the Steam release of The Henry Stickmin Collection, most of the copyrighted images and music had to be replaced and given substitutes, which is understandable. Most of the attempts to re-create them were fine efforts, but Stealing the Diamond had two rather poor cases:
  • The sound that was made to replace Dio's infamous "WRYYYYY" in the Shrink Ray fail (when the earthworm emerges from the ground and roars at Henry) sounds rather... silly. It was changed to a weird kind of "REEEEEEOOOOOOOOOO" sound that seems to run out of enthusiasm partway through, and overall lacks the same impact.
  • The dubbing over of the Sniper voiceline is less impactful than the original, with Puffballs doing a somewhat poor attempt at an Australian accent.
• Narm Charm:
  • The voice-acting. While some of the deliveries can be a bit subdued and all over the place (given how the male and female characters are voiced by only one person each), it's what made these games so beloved to begin with.
  • In Executive/Betrayed route of Mission, the Japanese dialogue in the "Spirit Forme" option doesn't really match up the subtitle most of the time and it's pretty broken and unnatural altogether. But it's so hilariously broken that it ends up endearing instead, especially for those who understand Japanese.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The Toppat Clan's appearance goes as far back as 2007 in this animation.
  • Several players were surprised to hear Henry talk in Completing the Mission, the sixth and final game of the series, but he has occasionally talked since Escaping the Prison, the second game.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Henry/Charles: Their last names are combined to make Stickvin
  • Same with Henry/Ellie: Rosemin
  • Reginald/Right Hand Man is called Copper(r)ight
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The Toppat Leader wasn't a big favorite in the fandom during 2012-2019, due to his only characterization being a cowardly Starscream. Come Completing the Mission, he got a name, and multiple endings developed his character more, making him a fan-favorite.
  • More so a victim of circumstance, but from 2010-2019, Dave Panpa was outright disliked by the fandom. He had some sympathizers back when Escaping the Prison came out, but once Stealing the Diamond was released, thanks to a bug that kept restarting his story of getting fired to the beginning every time the fails in his scenario were retried, many people found Dave whiny and annoying, wanting him to shut up as much as Kurt Dietrich did. His imprisonment in Infiltrating the Airship lessened the blow a little bit, but thanks to the bug being fixed for the Collection and the earlier mobile version, as well as Dave getting additional spotlight in Toppat Civil Warfare, Dave has quickly become a fan-favorite following his near-decade of scorn.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Character bios in the Collection version. You have to right click on a character to get their bio, which doesn't sound so bad until you find out that basically every background character who makes an appearance on screen also has a bio, even if they only appear in one specific scene for less than a second. A particularly annoying early example is the Lawyered Up route of Prison, where you may have to restart Felix White's defense speech several times to get another opportunity to snag the bios of everyone who briefly appears outside the courthouse when Henry is released. This is at its worst in Mission, which has over 200 character bios you need to unlock, and certain background characters don't have them, which leads to a lot of confused clicking. Not helping matters is the sheer amount of characters that only appear in one specific pathway, and you are given no indication of what said pathways are.
• Seasonal Rot: While it's by no means considered a failure, Fleeing the Complex isn't considered on par with the series' remainder in terms of its charm. In trying to go for a more serious approach, it stripped out a lot of the humor that was a core part of the series appeal. The fails are more referential than usual and with less impactful punchlines, the FAIL Screens aren't as witty, and unless you go after Ghost Inmate or International Rescue Operative, none of the paths are particularly funny when running through them without any fails. Mission would fix many of these problems, and would even outdo Complex in many of its most memorable jokes such as the Distraction Dance. As a result, Complex somewhat lacks an identity compared to the rest of the series. Mission seems to pick up on this, as the Wall personnel are only featured in a single pathway, and the overall plot is centered around the Toppat Clan and a continuation of the the events of Airship.
• Self-Fanservice: Happens every time a character is humanized.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Somehow, despite the simplistic choose-your-own-adventure format of the series, people managed to come up with some.
  • Blantados^note Best known for BETADCIU tried to beat the series without ever hearing Henry's voice. Lawyered Up and Just Plain Epic are the winning routes for the second and third games, while Government/Dead and Government/Rescue are both valid ending paths; though the latter stretches the Heroic Mime idea a bit, since Henry clearly talks to Charles in the Rescue ending even if we don't hear him.
  • ShyGuyMask tried to complete the series without killing anyone. It's impossible to kill anyone in Bank and Prison, with all three endings of the latter being fair game. Diamond was beatable on a technicality since Henry isn't directly responsible for any casualties in the Just Plain Epic ending. Unfortunately, only one ending each of Airship and Complex—Thief and Ghost, respectively—are valid towards this challenge^note And he admitted that Thief pushed it, as it's easy to assume that at least some Toppats died when the airship crashed, we just can't confirm or deny that., leaving only their combined path in Mission... in which you're forced to kill Right Hand Man and Wilhelm Krieghaus by force-shouting them into space.
  • Tyz attempted to finish the series without Henry running outside of ending cutscenes (if he counted those, the challenge would have ended at Prison), noting a couple of quick time events that set the pace for what constitutes "running" for the sake of the challenge. Badass Bust Out is the only invalid ending of Prison, Intruder on a Scooter is the only valid ending of Diamond, and Government is the only valid ending of Airship, leaving Rescue as the only valid ending of Complex (as not getting Executive locks you out of Betrayed). Fortunately, their combined path in Mission doesn't contain any running to end the challenge.
  • Tyz later tried again, this time to beat the series without running into any quick-time events. For Prison and Diamond, the winning endings are Laywered Up and Unseen Burglar, respectively. Unfortunately, Thief is the only winning ending of Airship, and while the Allies and Ghost endings of Complex are valid (also Rescue, but it can't be paired with Thief anyway; he probably only got it because he previously got Government as an Airship ending in the previous challenge), the combined paths both contain quick-time events (one even starts with one).
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Sven Svensson/Burt Curtis is popular as both friends and a couple, yet we never saw them interact much aside of one brief moment in Government/Dead route, where Sven orders Burt to blow up the incoming government spaceship.
  • Some fans ship General Galeforce and Dmitri Johannes Petrov, despite them never interacting at all in the series.
• Signature Scene:
  • The "Distract" option in Complex, as it introduced the memetic distraction dance, along with the "Diversion" option in Mission.
  • Charles' Heroic Sacrifice in Mission's Valiant Hero ending, viewed by many as the biggest Tear Jerker moment in the whole series.
  • Henry's confrontation with Right Hand Man is another if you chose the Spirit Forme option, which is an Affectionate Parody of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and then Henry and Right Hand Man are speaking (awful) Japanese. Many players, including Japanese, loved the JoJo reference.
• Squick:
  • In the Earpiece of route of Airship, Henry has Charles take out Wilhelm Krieghaus by literally melting his bones! The poor guy is reduced to a lump of flesh as a result.
  • One particular option in Fleeing the Complex involves Henry pretending to be sick in the hopes of finding a way to escape. He's tranquilized by a guard and left in a quarantine cell with an unknown number of inmates, presumably infected with debilitating or even lethal illnesses. The inmate who greets Henry when he wakes up actually loses his hand, and when we see the quarantine cell from the outside, a green liquid is pooling out from underneath the door.
  • Another involves Henry bungee-jumping down an elevator, resulting in his back getting ripped out since he's using an ordinary rope.
  • The Special BROvert Ops route of Mission allows Henry to turn himself into a bug with Bug Juice. But you can hear his bones audibly cracking as he contorts into a bug in a sequence that's both painful-sounding and disgusting.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The original theme for Airship has an intro and structure that resemble the New Orleans Police Station theme from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
• That One Sidequest: While a lot of bios are rather hard to get, Tayne Flarhgunnstow is by far one of if not the most infamous. He appears in the Jewel Baron ending of Mission, and he only appears for less than a second during the shot of Henry clinging onto the Norwegian Emerald in front of the Toppat Space Station.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A harmless example. Fans from the original games before Mission are bit disappointed due to some of their music and references having to be changed for their remasters on Collection in order to avoid copyright infringement on Steam.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The time spent building up the Bounty Hunters in the Bounty/Rescue path serves little purpose other than making it sting a bit more when they're unceremoniously killed off. Apart from Eel hacking into the security cameras and Turtle giving Henry a Cluster Charge during one fail, none of their hyped-up abilities come into play. More glaring when there were a couple more fails where the others could have been helpful: Stealthing past the guard at the beginning, and hacking the RHMR near the end, both of which Henry did alone (granted, Eel was out of the picture by the time the latter happened).
  • Looking at the bios reveal several other characters who could’ve played bigger roles in the endings than what they were relegated to.
  • Many fans agree that the Wall was underused in Completing the Mission, with Dmitri himself only appearing in the Thief/Allies route and the Wall only appearing in that and the ending of Triple Threat.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Everything about the Toppat Civil Warfare ending. While few may like this unique concept due to having somewhat serious tone compare other routes similar to Valiant Hero and Revenged, it is mainly hated in the community for ending with a cliffhanger (plus Ellie's potential role as the Big Bad of the route being wasted) when it could have been so much more, with some fans believing it was rushed. It is often regarded as the only conclusion to the franchise that isn't satisfying in any way.
  • When compared to other routes preceding Convict Allies, Toppat King only made Ellie assist Henry to drive to the rocket, possibly so that the Right Hand Man would take the role of the deuteragonist instead.
• Underused Game Mechanic: In the Government/Allies route of Completing the Mission, the player can tag in Ellie, who has her own set of choices. This is the only time this can be done, and none of Ellie's choices work.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Henry Stickmin in Toppat Civil Warfare. Despite that route being his one of the most villainous appearances, him getting karma, although well-deserved, is so mean-spirited that he ended up more sympathetic than Reginald or Ellie. Bonus points for having Dave Panpa on his team, after he unlocks the poor guard in the brig, despite Henry had been betrayed someone before.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Besides Breaking the Bank, each game in the series has a number of jokes that provide a dead giveaway as to when exactly they were made.
  • Escaping the Prison: Shoop da Whoop; Brawl tripping
  • Stealing the Diamond: I told you about stairs, CD-i Luigi and King Harkinian, Portal gun, 1337, Like a D6; WRYYYYYYYYYY
  • Infiltrating the Airship: [Allan please add details], LOLOLOL airhorn; G.A.B.E.N.
  • Fleeing the Complex: Freddy Fazbear, aeiou; MLG Instant Replay
  • Completing the Mission: Default dancing, Earrings dabbing, "Where we droppin', boys" followed by Fortnite, PUBG & Apex entrances, Play of the Game; Walkthrough
• Viewer Name Confusion: Historically, many people thought that the series and the main character are named Henry Stickman instead of Henry Stickmin. As a joke toward this misconception, Completing the Mission actually features a minor character named Henry Stickman, who was tired of being mistaken for a criminal and decided to join the Toppat clan in response.

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