#of course there is massive sampling bias in my perception of how professor layton fans interact with and thus publicize the characters

[smile-files]

i do think characters from franchises like mlp are much easier to analyze in a story-audience lens because they are so marketable/merchandisable and thus have a very tangible relationship to public opinion. for what it's worth i don't think there's any official henry merch, but then i don't know if any other miracle mask characters get that privilege. being part of a game series which is fairly well-known but not particularly large (which contributes to its relative lack of merchandising) does add a unique spin on how characters end up being perceived. in henry's case, from my own experience, many peers who aren't fans of the series know of him only through my philosophizing on his suffering: and thus his suffering comes to define him again, as it is that whence most of his character derives and thus what i would focus the most on. that in itself can be connected to how the community, at least this particular corner of it, is comprised of many people who are queer, mentally ill, and/or neurodivergent - including myself - which has the potential to make us more likely to latch onto the suffering of said characters and inadvertently broadcast it to a larger internet public who will thus know of the characters through that lens