For that puppet master au, wouldn't Henry be one of Joey's favorite puppets? At least before he ran away and cut his strings.
Absolutely. He was what got Joey into puppetry in the first place. He found him in a thrift-store window, picked him up, and went to his uncle for guidance on how to fix Henry up. It seemed a pity to have such a beautiful puppet and do nothing with it, so Joey arranged a little puppet show for the neighbourhood kids, and continued to do shows afterwards because he enjoyed it.
As Joey became more serious about puppetry, he made other puppets, like Sammy, Norman, and Wally.
Henry eventually found out that Joey was burning the puppets that didn’t turn out right. Having once been one of those puppets, Henry begged Joey to give them to a thrift store instead. Joey retorted that no one would want them. When Henry pressed the issue, Joey said that Henry should run back to the thrift store if he liked it so much- he was imperfect and no one else would have bought him anyhow.
When Henry did try to leave in this way, Joey caught him and made sure that he was never free from his strings, and so Henry cut them and ran away while Joey slept. Joey was no longer the kindhearted man who had rescued him, and he knew that now.
Joey was devastated. From then on, any puppet he deemed a favorite would be guarded from escaping (Thomas Connor’s job in this AU). Puppets under Joey’s command have to try to be good enough to not be burned, but not so good that they are made favourites. He will also burn any puppet he sees trying to escape- it puts him into a state of rage.
Joey spent years making puppets that would fill the void that Henry left behind- Buddy in particular was a direct attempt to copy Henry’s design. Sadly, Buddy ended up burnt as well after an attempt at escape.
