Chapter Text
My purpose in conducting this Henryological study is to attain a deeper understanding of Henry Ledore: that is to say, while I hope my work is of use to my peers, this project is ultimately personal. I have long found Henry immensely interesting and an enjoyable subject of rumination, so this is certainly a labor of love and a form of intellectual play — but, to some extent, it also feels obligatory.
I must note that a significant part of my desire to undertake such a large, ambitious project of documentation and analysis is that I have difficulty trusting my own interpretation of Henry: this is an insecurity which has an especially strong effect on me given how my peers find me a trustworthy source on him (I have been affectionately nicknamed “the Henry guy” for this reason). Indeed, I have many observations about his nature which I frequently share: though, I just as often fear I am misconstruing him in these observations or, more egregiously in my eyes, projecting too many of my own emotions and experiences onto Henry, or projecting such emotions and experiences onto him even when my belief in his sharing them is not strongly supported or accommodated by canon material. Indeed, my eagerness to explore Henry’s psychological state is inherently linked to my own psychological state and its similarity to (my perception of) his, so undoubtedly some level of projection underlies many of my interpretations; what I desire, then, is to justify the projection I partake in as being consistent with and appropriate to canon, and, in a broader sense, to ground my reading of his character and person in canon such that I can be more secure in its veracity.
It could be said that this endeavor is entirely compulsive, the result of a desire to preemptively address my wrongness (with sufficient strictness) before anyone else feels the need to; I cannot in good faith deny such an argument. As will be discussed below as I elaborate on my interpretation of Henry’s psyche, I read Henry as someone who wants things "just so", so it should perhaps be unsurprising or even inevitable that I, someone who is nearly as perfectionistic as I think Henry is, should settle on that conclusion in a project which in itself is a massive, convoluted, compulsive self-corrective effort. For better or for worse, my understanding of Henry and my fervent desire for this understanding to be faultless are inseparable: given his proximity to myself, I see it as a moral imperative for me to be right about him. You, dear reader, likely do not see it that way, but I hope, at least, that this obligation which I perceive will have helped me produce a summation of Henry which is valuable to you.
Aside from all of this, as I will elaborate on below, Henry is very easily misunderstood both by other characters in-game and by people playing the game: I thus think it pertinent to put in a substantial effort to truly understand him.
Through this project, I aim to give Henry Ledore the proper understanding of his personality which he was programmed to lack.