Sans, Henry & Me

How We Met

Henry is a recurring character in the No More Heroes video game series. It's my best friend's favourite— the protagonist is her soulmate!— so I tried playing it shortly after we met. Admittedly, I didn't get very far.┌ It's not my usual genre. I kinda sucked at it. As much as I was enjoying the story of the guy I came there to meet, I chose to learn about him by talking to my friend instead.

It was only later on, when I asked her to share her favourite songs from the series, that my interest was properly ignited.

Right away I asked, "WHO IS THAT???"

Visually, he checks all my boxes. Big coat, gloves, a little menacing. The theme itself, "We Are Finally Cowboys," blew me away, too. There's no doubt about it: this was love at first sight. At the very least, I was intrigued and ready to learn more. Sadly, there wasn't much my bestie could tell me about Henry without spoilers. Properly playing the game jumped to the top of my to-do list.

At first I played a little coy about my crush, but about 25 minutes later I already knew I was sold.

Here's the bathroom, BTW. I misremembered the graffiti forbidding sex— evidently that was my own invention.

In the days since, my Henry Daydreams have evolved far beyond this silly scenario. One day I'll make a shrine to my OC x Canon ship, Ethelry... But for now, I just want to talk about who Henry is and how we are together: him, me, and Sans!

Who He Is

Henry describes himself as a "cool, handsome foil" to the protagonist. He is a smug weirdo who refuses to play by others' rules. He is super smart, deadly strong, and a major wildcard in the series. Wherever he appears, you can count on him to be twelve steps ahead and lowkey gloating about it. The EGO on this guy!!!

He's like... mysterious... and scary... but also fundamentally silly? My bestie agrees that he's not always silly on purpose— mans takes himself a little too seriously, honestly— but that won't stop us from laughing at the ridiculous shit he does. He's a total troll, and deep down he's a sweetheart, too.

He's rich, he's romantic, he's traumatised. He's an unkillable divorcee-orphan-cult-leader-bastard-freak who may or may not get brainwashed by aliens. A lot of his backstory and reactions to major events are missing from canon, but I don't need much to spin a satisfying story for myself. Henry reveals just enough to hook me in, and dear God I am smitten.

I want to cross swords with him. I want to ruin his life. I want him to get crazy obsessed with me and reorient his whole existence around mine. I invited him to live in my house with me and Sans because ahhhh I just LIKE HIM SO MUCH!!!!!!

Compare & Contrast

On the surface, Henry and Sans are completely different characters... But once you start looking for similarities, you'll find a bunch.

Henry

Love at first sight!│

My usual "type" (i.e. big coat + gloves)

Bloodthirsty as fuck

No friends? Start a cult!

Weird fucking accent

Colour:

Chaotic Neutral

Sans

Love at first sight... (but I didn't know it ┌)

Unconventional attraction

Doesn't like to fight

Friends with everyone

Weird accent = fanon only

Colour:

Neutral Good

Both of Them

Final boss (with best battle music)

Older brother trolling his younger brother

Super smart

Mysterious past

Central to plot twists

4th-wall-breaking

Forever in love with ME!

Being the Final Boss

Punishing fights, the most difficult in the game. You must defeat Henry to see the true ending of NMH. There's lot of lore hidden in the G-Route, too... You have to defeat Sans if you want to meet the first fallen child— though of course this comes with its consequences.

Having the Best Battle Music

Great opportunity to sperg out about "We Are Finally Cowboys."

Alternately Trolling & Caring For Their Younger, Baby Brothers

Henry is more antagonistic towards his brother but they both love each other still... Honestly I think Papyrus would be happier with a brother like Henry— someone willing to spar with him! Meanwhile Henry's brother doesn't like to fight so much as he likes to kill, so a laid-back brother who indulges his hobbies might suit him more. Man, can we get them to swap??? Hahaha.

Central to Plot Twists (Spoiler Warning!)

Sans reveals the true meaning of EXP and LOVE. His battle in and of itself is a plot twist, too. Could expand on this with Deltarune as well, the huge tonal shift in chapter 4...

We get zero time to unpack any of that. Even though the NMH series continued, we STILL didn't unpack it, hahahaha.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

Everyone in No More Heroes jokes about the fact that you're playing a video game so, within his source material, this isn't unique to Henry.

How We Are