#nomoreposting

A small yet vital aspect to the Henry/Shallow ship lore is how the Order of the Emerald Knights, will always pledge their full allegiance to Shallow, even in AUs where she doesn't join Henry. like there are many alternate timelines of my self ship with Henry that kind of work as their own AUs. 

There are instances where she joins him in his crusade against the Cooldown family, but there are instances where Henry wants to keep Shallow (and his daughter Jeane), safe from the clutches of his adoptive family and kinda leaves them to undertake the impossible, suicide-like mission alone.

like there's one specific AU where Shallow doesn't join Henry, and that when you fast forward to NMH3 to the Flesh and Blood episode, instead of Travis fighting Henry, it's Shallow - and in this timeline she defeats him in battle (although it is a VERY emotional fight). 

When the cut-scene occurs of her standing over a defeated Henry, she basically asks him to yield (all the while pointing her own beam katana at him) which causes the arrival of the Order of the Emerald Knights to intervene.

The Order of the Emerald Knights is… admittedly a very left-field late introduction to the series (they do appear in TSA briefly), but in NMH3 they’re… either clones of Henry (which is a whole can of worms in of itself and has a lot of implications as cloning is impiled to be possible + where do you think the Guys in the Bad Girl’s batting chamber are coming from?) or are different Henrys from alternate universes. It’s genuinely unclear but it again it’s… a late inclusion in the series, especially when you realise Henry was potentially a character put in the game late in development.

Back on track: The Emerald Knights were watching Shallow and Henry’s fight the whole time on the rooftops of the No More Heroes Hotel, and they jumped in to intervene, thinking that she was going to kill their leader. Their swords are drawn and pointed against her, but they haven't actually attacked her, but it's more so a 'threat' more than anything else. Anyways their appearance genuinely surprises Shallow, and realising her predicament, turns off her beam katanas and disarms herself to de-escalate the situation. 

Henry doesn’t get back up yet, if anything hems still kinda taking in the fact that the love of his life has bested him in battle. From his POV, it has been so long since they’ve had a real competitive fight together and this fight was one he genuinely enjoyed and savoured. He does order the Knights to 'kindly stand down,' 'that they [Shallow], isn't the enemy'. An injured Henry makes a stand again, which alerts the knights, who lower their weapons in response to seeing their leader rise to zeir feet.

Henry approaches Shallow, and the two for a moment, stand there in the middle of the No More Heroes Motel Carparking lot, and just... kinda take in the surrounding silence around them. There is a moment when Henry finally takes off his glasses, and Shallow briefly looks at him, only to feel like a goddamn schoolgirl with a crush and looks away from him while visibly blushing. she whispers 'goddamn you're more beautiful than i remember', it's vaguely audible enough that maybe Henry and his knights hear her words.

The two assassins exchange some form of PDA/affection with one another, Henry, ever the gentleman, takes the initiative to greet her by kissing the back of her hand, as if she were royalty (he understands that she's not the best with one-on-one direct eye contact, hence the gesture). Shallow, touch starved goes in to hug him tightly, which is something Henry hesitates to reciprocate at first, but he does eventually give in and hugs her back. Perhaps Henry gives Shallow a forehead kiss or just a regular old romantic kiss.

From there the Knights kinda look at each other, and realise 'oh, this is a person Henry cares about, they are an ally. We must be ready and able to assist them in any instance she needs.' It results in them kneeling like actual knights, as which is their way of pledging allegiance to someone.

Henry gives her an offer to join him in his crusade and the Emerald Knights but emphasizes that she can decline this offer. 

In this AU, Henry isn't done taking down his adopted family (look it’s a whole thing I have in my head!), and still doesn't want to put Shallow (and Jeane Cooldown) at risk. In addition to this AU, Henry never initiated the alien invasion of earth like in the original game, if anything he's just minding his own business in this timeline.

I should stress that, Henry insists that Shallow can make whatever choice she desires and that he would never hold faer's decision against her. He won't use it to get to her, he won't resent her, he would understand simply because A) this is a person he deeply cares about and B) he'd prioritize her happiness over his own, even if it's at the cost of his own heartbreak.

Had a thought, but since Henry's clones wear masks, I assume that some may have a form of facial scarring/facial trauma/facial disability (like blindness, facial muscles not working, gouged out eye/s etc) or have some eldritch body horror thing going on, either due in part from then either taking missions that went awry, or that said characteristics is the result of... human experimentation or something... even worse... (Clones have been established due in part to Bad Girl’s dungeon in NMH1, which implies that her victims are clones.)

Anyways, NMH3 implies that these clones kinda operate like a hivemind, but at the same time each clone member wears a mask that have small differences to them in their designs - which implies some form of individuality. Maybe I could be wrong here but whatever the case is, it could be possible Henry did this to discern each clone as potentially their own separate person.

Honestly whatever the case is, it's very clear that Henry trusts them enough that they literally share the same attire as him - which does still kinda imply some sort of hivemind. But hiveminds doesn't mean freedom/individuality is gone. The best comparison I can make is that of the Zerg from Starcraft, who seem like a mindlessly destructive horde/colony of monsters but they DO have emotions, feelings, are able to feel pain etc. They are also capable of showing affection, sadness and grief especially when in the presence of Kerrigan, even after she's been de-zergified, they still view her as their leader of sorts.

Now stay with me, that whole pre-amble is important! because they do sort play a role in Shallow/Henry's relationship, like obviously it would be SO EASY to make a reverse harem joke when there is like so much more to it.

She takes time spending with each member, trying to gain an understanding of who they are individually - she even asks if its okay to give them nicknames in the meantime to help them feel more human. Shallow is undeniably affectionate to them, but it’s mostly due to A) them never having experienced affection of any kind and B) even as a hivemind, they still are like. Human beings. With feelings you know. They are more than assassins!

I think when enough trust gets built with each clone individually, I think they start to open up to her one by one, and while they are similar in mannerisms, speech, actions, behaviours but their emotions and feelings are their own. Or at least it helps them start to build an individual identity on top of the collective hivemind clone thought process they already have.

I think I should stress that Henry’s clones deeply respect Shallow, and kinda revere her in a way? It’s kinda teetering on borderline ‘worship’ type thing, although it’s really just they have undoubtedly pledged their full allegiance to her to their dying breath.

Like if you imagine what a pissed off and angry Henry Cooldown looks like, imagine that and times it by 8. Yeah um… they are not to be trifled with.

Shallow Candy is sometimes intimate with the clones, and Henry doesn’t mind it, because they ARE his clones, so by proxy she’s just giving him attention by default. It should be noted that Shallow is FULLY aware of the kind of power she has over these clones because of their allegiance to her, and so she instead prioritises what the clones want regarding intimate interactions, because again these folks are fully human beings who were denied a small facet of the ‘human experience’.

This never really gets displayed in front of house guests or anything, but I think Travis would be the LEAST weirded out by this whole thing. Like to him it’s just no different to any of the weird otaku shit he’s into.

LASTLY, and this kinda affects my whole Amelie and Rhys Cooldown fankid hing, BUT I like the idea of Henry's clones slowly warming up to the idea of being important figures in the lives of their leader's children. Although the problem is that they are terrified of taking off their masks and scaring the children - so they unfortunately again distance themselves but since the kids are curious and they can’t really say no to their big puppy dog eyes that they give them.