Toppat Clan's Backstory Explained (Reginald Copperbottom, Right Hand Man, & more) Henry Stickmin

this video is brought to you by beloved rapture it was recently announced that two left thumbs will be taking on publishing for this story rich turn-based jrpg throwback to the super nintendo era while obviously it doesn't share gameplay with stickman i think you guys are really gonna love this layered story populated by lovable characters anyone who's into the lore relationships friendships and conflicts of characters within their game are going to have a wealth of things to appreciate in beloved rapture if that's all of interest to you i'll have links in the description and a pinned comment to go wish list it for yourself it helps us out immensely thank you so much and let's get on with the video how's it going everyone my name's graham and welcome to two left thumbs i wanted to do something special to celebrate the anniversary of the henry stickman collection i started off that celebration by finishing finding the references and i felt inspired to do one additional video having already made backstory and theory videos centered on the three main heroes of the story i thought it would be fun to add to that list with something focused on the other side of that proverbial wall so today we're attempting to fill in the blanks and creating another half fact half theory half fanfic backstory this time for reginald's copper bottom and right hand man first i think we need to zoom out some the top hats have a long history of violence crime global disruption and general super villainy and we don't meet these two characters until they are already operating at the positions of leader and second in command at the top hats so it may be beneficial to first give a small outline of the top at clan's own full history first the top hats are an international crime syndicate showing no major allegiances to any country or anyone other than themselves as is revealed by eduardo giancarlo's bio they are known to seek out and recruit new members hand-picking master criminals to join their ranks in addition to that through quincy tattle muffin we know that you can be born into the clan or howie howitzer who was adopted at a young age and several characters including ellie were able to seek out and request membership so the top hats appear to be opportunistic and will accept new recruits when and where they see the potential as an aside but i promise this is a relevant history lesson the real world top hat was first invented in 1793 quickly gaining popularity over the next 30 years meaning that at most the top at clan is a little over 200 years old but could easily be younger we appear to only be seeing a thin slice of their history through these portraits although considering the seemingly short tenure of each top at leader it's possible all these portraits are only covering a relatively short period of their history through these few scenes we're able to see nine prior leaders of the top hats and puff confirmed on stream that the portraits exist in the order they ruled leadership appears to largely be a constant power struggle and while we don't know every step the majority of incoming leaders have overthrown those that came before in this room of completing the mission we see 16 portraits although there are some inconsistencies seen here the doorway henry flees through should appear left of terrence and instead we have someone with long pinkish hair and a white top hat i'll assume that's just a slight error in the art and with us knowing terence was the most recent leader before reginald we can assume these other portraits represent leaders who came before the nine we have complete bios for i won't even attempt to fill in the history of those who came before this one as we really have nothing to go off of dusty is the first leader we are shown and is said to have been the longest lasting leader so much so that the clan saved his top hat to honor his memory he was an old-fashioned no-nonsense type whom everyone respected i believe he was a holdover of a prior era or perhaps a return to that old management regime when the top bats had a clearer mandate less infighting and were content to operate on a smaller scale to avoid being noticed the next leader was cloudface who appears to also be on the older side i suspect cloudface was akin to a right-hand man some form of second-in-command appointed to power by dusty to carry on his vision for the top hats as he aged out of the role i don't think he would save someone's top hat if the position was seized from them or they were squeezed out through some sort of mutiny i think this was the last peaceful passing of the leadership role however cloudface was a short-lived leader removed from power because nobody could understand him through his beard they still attempted to keep things civil he would have been removed calmly perhaps through a vote of confidence after the stuffy aging leadership of both dusty and then cloudface the top hats were ready for new blood and turned to randy radman someone with radical new ideas randy ruled during the party era presumably in the 1980s based on his name and appearance until he managed to bankrupt the clan presumably by spending money and not putting forward new operations through which to earn anything new we know and see the top hats during the stickman collection when they have a wealth of members resources and treasures showing us that they were able to rise again potentially indicating an overall instability of the organization it wouldn't be a stretch to assume they've gone through many financial highs and lows through frequently changing leadership that's a reality that feels inevitable when you have a clan made up entirely of criminals a demographic who aren't necessarily known for planning ahead or fiscal responsibility next reynaldo the brute who marked a turn for the top hats after losing everything under radman they needed someone confident who could take action and attempt to reclaim that former glory the brute was a much more aggressive leader but through this he was able to push the clan back to new heights while they were always criminals there was a presumed code of honor among thieves in the early days ronaldo was a fierce leader who raised them to a new height of glory but who also fostered more animosity among the ranks a once strictly underground organization was suddenly out in the open becoming more militarized and taking greater risks he ruled through fear and nobody dared try to take him down especially not while things were prosperous but once the brute perished in combat jacques kensington pushed his way into the role at this point there wouldn't have been a system in place to appoint anyone new jacques was known to be eccentric and carried around a golden deagle at all times it's possible others were threatened by this oddball with a gun and didn't resist his claim however he was eventually sucked into and left stranded in a portrait little is known about his time in charge he probably more or less maintained the status quo but was largely unpredictable and perhaps a bit of a liability after one violent leader and another unhinged one the top hats chose to return to their roots attempting to revive a long dead leader to take the role the result of this experiment was trnk puff says he never had an acronym in mind for this and just thought trunk sounded fitting for the character i'll stencil in my own head cannon that trnk ties into the top at king route we play through suggesting that that is either recurring or former title used in the clan and that trnk is the top hat's resurrected new king going back to jacques for a moment because another leader did not immediately take his place with them turning to this revival process it is assumed that he trapped himself in the portrait accidentally rather than being forced into it by someone trying to take his position and with his whereabouts unknown the top hats were stuck needing to find a solution when looking at trunk it does beg the question who is this long dead leader who has been resurrected i suspect it wasn't dusty as they seemed to treasure his legacy and probably wouldn't want to dig him up and experiment on him instead it could be cloudface given a second chance perhaps feeling he had more to offer and that with a quick shave maybe he could carry on the legacy of dusty more directly it's equally likely to be an otherwise unnamed leader since we have so little to go off of if it were cloudface we can see electrified spikes coming out of trunks's head so i like to picture that a surge of energy vaporized his once bushy whiskers true to his frankenstein's monster like origins he soon attempted to attack and destroy the clan and had to be removed i think it's probably less of a tragedy like frankenstein's monster and more just that they cooked this guy's brain when they revived him billy g defeated trunk and was awarded the leadership position in return this marks another shift in the sequences of top at leadership now it could be taken rather than selected or earned little is known about billy other than him being quite the romantic perhaps he romanticized the idea of what the top hats could be and that appealed to members who were desperate for some form of stability sir wilfred iv defeated billy to become leader choosing to wear three top hats to assert his status it is assumed that he added billy's hat in addition to his own i suspect that the third top at would either be a leader that sir wilfred admired possibly the grey top hat of the brute or knowing that you can be born into the clan it could have belonged to one of his ancestors a previous sir wilford who also at one time served as leader he is said to despise incompetence and was considered a strong leader for the top ads although it's not like he's had a lot of competition in recent years this roster is filled with quite a few duds terence suave came immediately prior to reginald he was reckless frivolous and accepted as being one of the top at's worst leaders considering randy radman bankrupt them and doesn't have a mention of being the worst leader in his bio means terrence may have been a truly spectacular disaster following such a strong leader it is unlikely that anyone would have sided with terence to overthrow wilford meaning he likely came into the role through his charisma winning the spot through a popularity contest using his charm before everyone realized how ill-suited he was for the position i also use this as an indication that wilford likely perished in combat same as the brute these aggressive leaders are good for the clan but it often results in even higher turnover of leadership which has proven to be quite detrimental after reginald took over he was inspired by sir wilford iv to stack top hats and chose to claim his predecessor terence's hat to stack with his own considering reginald appears to rely more on underhanded tactics and betrayals rather than straightforward might or confrontations it's likely he usurped the position of leader through similar means which feels like the perfect opportunity to segue into a more focused section of the video talking about reginald first we know through his name and accent that reginald copperbottom is british confirmed by puffballs simply looking through surname history copper bottom isn't now and has never been a true surname the only example i could find is the character rodney copper bottom in the 2005 animated movie robots maybe puff lifted the name from that but it is apparently also a phrase to be copper bottomed means that either a thing or idea is genuine trustworthy and unlikely to fail i think these traits apply quite well to reginald and is perhaps an earned nickname rather than one he was actually born with we have seen in various top app bios that nicknames within the clan are incredibly common likely this is most often done to maintain some level of anonymity for the members when committing their crimes even among the limited leaders we've seen cloudface the brute possibly randy radman are all presumably nicknames with their legacy being remembered through those names even over their birth ones so copper bottom being a nickname isn't out of the question calling reginald trustworthy or unlikely to fail may feel contradictory to my previous statement that implies he's rather sneaky and self-serving but his shadier tactics are always aimed at a singular result serving the top hats reginald only ever works to put himself in a position of power when he feels it is what's best for the clan he does so without ego and not pushing some agenda that his way is always best we see him willfully step aside to make room for henry after he proved his own allegiance to the top ads it's an attitude we've actually seen on display repeatedly despite holding a somewhat personal vendetta against henry especially after he makes off with their ruby reginald still chooses to retreat for the sake of his crew rather than chasing henry down the losses would have been too great with both the government and center for chaos containment arriving in force or later on when they are ambushed by the government reginald encourages ellie and right hand man to save themselves while he and henry attempt to initiate the rocket's launch when it comes to his own safety and preservation he often ducks and covers and tries to hide away but when it's for the good of the clan he steps up through the descriptions of past leaders the top hats seem to value displays of might and often highly regard tough and ruthless leaders as well as those who are more charismatic with this in mind reginald feels like an odd choice he is often shown to be meek cowardly impatient and rather dependent on others he's too weak and somewhat personally incapable to be viewed as a strong leader and he also overcompensates for a lack of charisma by stealing wilford's signature stacked hat look and wearing a big flashy gold chain he's trying to communicate that status through a way his personality otherwise would not without violently taking the leadership position and lacking the typical traits valued by the top hats i believe he was instead chosen for his loyalty and dedication marking the first time in a few leaders that the successor was actually picked these traits are something that members would only truly take notice of in someone who has been a member for a long time proving their worth over the years never compromising on putting the clan first we don't have a firm age for reginald but with henry being 28 at the time of fleeing the complex it's fair to assume reginald is at least that old probably somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 years old my proposed backstory for reginald is that he was a british orphan one who grew up on the streets acting as an urchin picking pockets and committing petty crimes to get by there's a chance that he never really had a family and thus lacked a surname helping explain the way they eventually gave him the name copperbottom the top hats are known to recruit thieves burglars con artists and any other form of criminal that is seen as being an asset to their ranks reginald was observed to have a specific skill set that was seen as being valuable howie howitzer is a known example of the top at's exercising this precise method of orphan recruitment however howie howitzer just a fun sentence to say was given a nickname in the hopes he'd live up to it rather than earning one later on perhaps they learned a lesson there about putting the cart before the horse ball parking the timing of all this i believe reginald would have been recruited somewhere close to 30 years ago likely back in the 90s shortly after the top hats hit a low with randy radman in the party era this could have been when the top ats first experimented with recruiting orphans trying to replenish their numbers and fill the clan with deeply loyal indoctrinated individuals who they could ingratiate to their cause reginald came up under the strict rule of reynaldo the brute exasperating some fears he already had by living on the streets and also motivating him to eventually rule with a gentler touch he's a sensitive little guy and wouldn't have responded well to that negative pressure little reggie witnessed all the leaders that came after as well seeing how dangerous infighting in the clan could be learning that style and flourish was often expected in a leader and witnessing the actions and greed that would result in mutinies against unfit leaders he developed an excellent sixth sense for the current pulse within the top app members taking small litmus tests to see how well received a particular new strategy or direction was received over the course of the next few decades reginald learned the ropes displayed his best qualities especially his loyalty and positioned himself as best he could and when the time came he was able to step up for the head position claiming a small slice of power after spending his childhood destitute and without anything he would have avoided making this claim when the leadership was being fought for and taken through acts of aggression that was never his strong suit and in the spirit of self-preservation bided his time once terence proved to be irredeemably inept reginald could have then given others the pitch of seeking a new leader suggesting suave be pushed out playing a political game incepting the idea without pitching himself as the replacement but when the time came he graciously accepted the nomination for the role as if it were a surprise to him once appointed the new leader reginald did everything in his power to both benefit the top hats and hold on to that position however he knows how petty and unforgiving the clan can be quickly giving away the role of leader if he ever felt too threatened better to step aside and live another day than be killed off by someone who thinks they know better one of his earliest achievements as leader may have been securing the romanian ruby a big score for the top hats and one that proved to others that he was fit for the role of top top at this is both why he is so bitter that the ruby is stolen by henry and why he so often insists on its use as a bargaining chip attempting to return it to his possession that ruby is symbolic of his leadership and having it stolen away signals to others that he may be losing his touch feeding into his pre-existing insecurities and need for approval and who is always there to back reginald up supporting him when he feels low encouraging him when things go wrong and protecting him from any imposing threats right hand man these two are practically attached at the hip to the point that some fans actually ship reginald and right hand man together with a cockney accent i believe that he would have been another orphan living on the streets with reginald while not literal brothers they forged an iron bond looking out for one another right hand man is shown to be notably more brave and more capable than reginald having been toughened on the streets protecting reginald even back during their childhood and sheltering him from the worst of that experience relying so heavily on this protection created a dependency from reginald to the point he can't really be without right hand man my theory here is that they complemented each other even in those early days it was not a one-way relationship right-hand man was a thug able to beat away those who would do them harm while little reggie was the brains scoping out marks to steal from and planning cons that would make use of both of them to distract the intended victim these would have been the more valuable skills that the top hats identified but when reginald was taken in he made it clear that they were a packaged duo securing membership for both of them may have felt like repaying a life debt to right-hand man by insisting that they join together their closeness is even shown through right-hand man referring to his boss on such casual terms simply calling him reg hey rage yeah found that intruder considering all of this was the post-party randy radman era with a more serious leadership in charge right-hand man may have fit in well easily navigating the top at's membership structure by having values and an attitude that fell in line with their latest direction the two could have once again used that to their advantage with right hand man not having any interest in leading himself instead being a valuable tool to worm their way deeper into the top hats same as their two-man cons pulled back in the streets his bio in infiltrating the airship makes it clear that right-hand man is another nickname with nobody knowing his actual name suggesting that this one may have been in place since the very beginning he may have been more resistant to the recruitment only coming along to watch over reginald after he insisted that this would be best for both of them right-hand man initially chose to keep to himself keeping his emotional guards up refusing to even give a name while a trust was built between him and the clan with his insistence on sticking so close to reginald that they began to refer to him as reggie's right-hand man just a couple of young troublemakers until that name eventually stuck rather than being some honorific given to the second in command of the top hats it is instead the only thing anyone has ever known to call him while reginald has beef with henry there is an acknowledgment that they are both thieves and that they are both serving their own best interests right hand man is instead more openly antagonistic with his efforts to protect reginald leading him to be the true nemesis of henry the one who is most likely to square off against him when things come to a head it was his defeat at the hands of henry that led to his cybernetic upgrades physical evidence of the clashes those two have had the only thing that supersedes that hatred for henry is his loyalty to reginald right hand man peacefully allows henry to operate as the top at leader never speaking out against him and eventually coming to accept him in the role this tolerance and cooperation shows one of right hand man's greatest assets that he's able to recede into the background while subtly complementing the skill sets of others and bringing out the best in them despite their history henry and right hand man are able to quickly and effectively work together to perform combo attacks he's able to forgive in order to serve their larger cause but he is certainly not one to forget as soon as jeffrey plumm and thomas chestershire voice their opposition right-hand man springs into action to both protect reginald and kneecap henry ordering loyalists to stickmen to be locked away in the brig while right hand man spent years protecting reginald from street level threats reginald has now spent years in power returning the favor right hand man is seen as invaluable and indispensable especially to reginald he is seemingly the only character to receive cybernetic enhancements in order to be saved from death in combat perhaps the technology wasn't there previously but they don't seem to have ever used it on any other member even in more recent battles the risks of joining the clan are widely understood and ever since trunk they have not wanted the expense or risk of reviving a downed member forcing dr vince pinchelstein to augment right-hand man was reginald's influence insisting that he be saved by any means necessary an absolute refusal to let his friend fall the other top hats saw the value in this supported that move and it seems to have been for the best right-hand man's loyalty to reginald and by association the top at is so strong that he was able to overcome being physically rewired against them that level of loyalty and dedication is something you absolutely want on your side before i wrap things up i need a short section dedicated to sven spensen he's the only other leader we spend a significant amount of time with so while his character is important to the top hat's modern history very little is known about him we know he's swedish and he took over as leader after various routes like government-supported private investigator where reginald and or right-hand man are either arrested or have gone missing sven had not appeared in either infiltrating the airship or fleeing the complex as those games focused on the airship division of the top ads he was still likely an important member of one of their other divisions seeing as he was included in their luxury escape pod filled with high-ranking top-hats however which division specifically remains unknown sven appears somewhat uncomfortable in a leadership role he's prone to complaining and largely bases his actions off leftover plans from the previous leadership he's potentially lazy or simply complacent his polite attitude asking nicely for others to board the ship please the rocket will be launching very soon please get on board immediately requesting things be done rather than demanding it show his relative inexperience in delegating sven suggests he didn't really seek out this job and begrudgingly stepped up my assumption here is that he worked under the leader of another division and was comfortable with the power he held there the fates of most top at leaders would be well known and sven wanted to remain in the golden zone of benefiting from the top at's resources without needing to take on much responsibility or the risk of someone trying to steal his position away sven's general indecisiveness and lack of conviction make him a relatively easy adversary for henry to overcome and with this short tenure as leader we witness him be outwitted outmatched and defeated in pretty well every route in which he's leading even failing so disastrously in some instances that he seems to have brought an end to the top hats entirely an important bit of war to be derived from sven's presence in the collection is that he does not appear to ever have a right hand man of his own which feeds into my theory that this was a nickname given rather than a standardized title for the second in command and when henry recruits ellie to be a top hat under his leadership he chooses to play into that dynamic recognizing the strength of reginald and right hand man's partnership thus also wanting a co-leader and giving ellie the title of right-hand lady it's very likely that henry wouldn't know that right-hand man was a nickname not a title and henry thought he was simply carrying on some known top at tradition perhaps through this path this hierarchy of power would become the norm for the top hats ensuring someone is always in a place to step into the role of leaders similar to a president and vice president rather than allowing the self-destructive cycle of top hats killing each other in a constant power struggle to continue that's obviously unsustainable and this could have been a move away from that in my own top at head canon the top bats were founded roughly 200 years ago they would have started at a smaller scale existing within one country at first likely somewhere western like the united states especially seeing as that's where the literal top hat was invented this headwear was initially chosen because it existed as a status symbol with the top at clan trying to distinguish themselves as being a higher class of criminal it's certainly not because it's difficult to add a uniform to a stick figure character no no of course not the top hats had early success as an underground operation eventually scaling up recruiting new members and realizing they could pull off grander scores if they opened themselves up to international partners plus it's easier to flee from the authorities and to move money around dummy accounts when your operation crosses over international borders soon the top bats spanned the globe pulling off worldwide heists and expanding their influence as this all grew there was a need to separate themselves out into various divisions such as the airship division needing separate heads at each to oversee their operations this expansion of the clan allowed for greater growth than ever but was also where the cracks began to show and the main drawback of having a criminal owned and run operation is that everyone is always looking to gain a personal foothold in any such crack leadership began to disagree more frequently internal conflicts became more common and the old-school methods of management and target selection gave way to thefts that were both more aggressive and far more conspicuous as the scenes began to come apart it became less clear how the top hats should be structured who should be in charge was no longer decided diplomatically several leaders dragged the organization down while others fought to restore it to a former glory numerous assassinations took place as emergent leaders with bold new ideas fought to stake their claim reginald and right-hand man near-life-long members owed everything to the top ats their ability to trust each other having been through hell together made them a formidable pair within the top at ranks their combination of brains and brawn allowed them to navigate this criminal underbelly and position themselves to come out on top that brotherly bond made them dangerous criminals ideal recruitment candidates and eventually an undefeatable political force within the top at's hierarchy they were born and bred for this position and while neither are good people they do carry a set of guiding principles that places their chosen family above all else the top hats are all they have outside of each other and they'll do everything they can to respect and protect that home reginald and right hand man together fostered an era of the top hats that was not aggressively evil or vindictive instead trying to unify this fragmented organization going back to their roots of big score thefts and under their leadership the top hats were well on their way to a stable end point launching into space away from the prying eyes of any government bodies and allowing them to escalate to a sort of global superpower having an organization of crooks all working together may be a fool's errand but at least reginald and right-hand man had the guts to try but we'll never really know as this was all derailed along the majority of paths in which henry stickman encountered the top ads undermining and exposing what was already an unstable level of security they held and now predicting what the end points for the top hats will be with henry in charge we have to acknowledge that he is not a hero himself henry's unique skill set has the capacity to catapult them to some of their greatest heights yet although henry often chooses to help himself first and does not carry any of that same loyalty except when it suits him so henry could just as easily spell the end for the top hats seemingly reginald and right hand man were the best things to happen to the top hat since their inception while henry is potentially the worst as is proven by top at civil warfare after a long history of differing styles of leadership with varying goals there remains a massive rift in the top at structure where even a small failure feels it could lead to their complete undoing through it all in charge or not reginald and right hand man remain inseparable capable of weathering anything that comes their way looking out for one another above all else they've sacrificed much to save one another and attempted to foster that very same loyalty into the very bones of the top at plan both of them and the entire tophat plan have seemingly weathered worse but none of them have had to deal with an unleashed stickman before these two are survivors and in any scenario where they're able to get away together they're destined to rebound and any path where they've lost one another is a tragedy but come what may for their clan or for each other they will remain top bats for life and with that i would say i'm done with henry stickman for the foreseeable future someday i'd like to do the compiled references video i definitely need a break before that and who knows what the future holds for this series but it's been a ton of fun working through it with all of you go watch those other videos if you haven't be sure to wishlist beloved rapture thank you all so much for watching thank you to patrons of the channel and i hope to see you all again

Channel: 2 Left Thumbs

Views: 207,465

Keywords: 2 left thumbs, toppat clan, henry stickmin toppat clan, toppat clan stickmin, toppat clan henry stickmin, toppat clan stickmin collection, toppat clan henry stickmin collection, toppat clan backstory, toppat clan theory, henry stickmin theory, henry stickmin game theory, toppat clan explained, toppat clan theme, stickmin theory, stickmin backstory, reginald copperbottom, right hand man, sven svennson, sven svensson, the toppats, toppat clan history

Id: eVUNts2fIfI

Length: 37min 28sec (2248 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2022