Handy Smurf (Empath stories)

"Being born second isn't what bothers me. What does bother me is that Hefty has to smurf a big deal about being the firstborn. To me, being born the first doesn't make you the best. He can smurf bigger muscles, I can smurf better machines."

Handy is a Smurf character who appears in the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story series.

History
Handy was the son of Muscles Smurf, born as the twin brother of Hefty Smurf. While Hefty was named right after he was born for being a big and strong baby, Handy's name was simply from a careless comment about having a twin child being "handy" that got picked up by Tailor's father who sewed matching name sleepers for the children. Like most of his fellow Smurfs his age, he was raised by his parents until an unknown disease had claimed their lives, leaving him and his brothers Hefty and Grouchy in the care of Culliford Smurf, who eventually became known as Papa Smurf. The rest of his personal history at least in the present point of the story series is similar to that of his cartoon show counterpart up until around Seasons 5 and 6.

Personality
While sharing some similarities with his cartoon show counterpart, Handy finds himself constantly competing with his twin brother Hefty Smurf, proving that brains is better than muscle, not to mention that Hefty being born the first of the two doesn't make him the best. Although Handy is jealous of Empath and his abilities, he finds himself rather inspired by what Empath can do and builds machines that would allow his fellow Smurfs to do things similar to what Empath can do.

Handy at one time fell in love with a mermaid named Marina when she lost consciousness swimming up the River Smurf in order to reach the Pool of Avalon to get lilyroot for her ailing father King Aquarius. However, because Handy could only live on land and Marina could only live in the sea, their relationship was difficult to maintain. Eventually, during an incident where she was captured by an undersea menace called the Leviathan, she fell in love with a Snorkelian named Dylan and thus her relationship with Handy ended at that point, though they still remained friends.

Role
He is the village mechanic and inventor who is always on call to fix or build things, and he often tries to invent new things that can make the Smurf way of living easier, though most of those inventions either get abused or get out of control, requiring Handy to shut them down or to destroy them, which results in the village returning to their normal tried-and-true ways. Sometimes Handy gets carried away with his own inventions, such as the time that he developed a power driller and started drilling everything he got his hands on, including a cake mold that Smurfette intended to use for making a cake for Papa Smurf. In that instance, the Smurfs retaliated by turning Handy's power driller into a Handy Smurf butt-kicking machine.

Handy was inspired by Empath's ability to fly using his telekinetic powers to come up with a way for himself to do the same. About five years before Empath's final return, Handy invented the Smurf plane, which he used to rescue Smurfette from Gargamel, though he ended up sacrificing it to stop Gargamel's flying invention which he used against the Smurf Village.

Handy is the inventor of Clockwork Smurf, who became sentient and saved a young prince named Gerard from imprisonment by his aunt Imperia, who sought to claim her nephew's rightful place on the throne. After Imperia was cast away and Gerard was coronated king, Clockwork Smurf became his adviser. Handy later built a companion for Clockwork Smurf named Clockwork Smurfette, and around the time of Empath's wedding he discovered that the two had built for themselves a child named Baby Clockwork, in essence making Handy a "grandfather".

At Empath and Smurfette's wedding, Handy and Hefty were given the usher positions.

Relationships

 * Empath is his friend and inspiration for his inventions.
 * Papa Smurf is his adopted father, whom he seeks to please in everything he does.
 * Smurfette was his love interest before he met Marina.
 * Hefty is his brother and is treated as both a friendly rival and a complementary equal. While they both have the same birthday since they are twins, Greedy bakes separate cakes for both Hefty and Handy.
 * Carpenter, Mason, and Smithy are his occasional co-workers, for whom he has nothing but praise for their individual talents in construction.
 * Marina was his girlfriend, up until she met Dylan.
 * Clockwork Smurf is treated as a son by Handy, which partly explains how he felt when he first saw and held Baby Clockwork Smurf in his arms at the time of Empath and Smurfette's wedding.
 * Gizmo and Widget are his two children through his wife Gadget Smurfette.

Abilities
Handy Smurf is a master craftsman who tends to be very resourceful, able to turn anything he can get his hands on into an invention.

Clothing
Originally Handy wore a white Smurf hat with a visor and white overalls, but a year after Empath's final return to the Smurf Village from Psychelia in the story "Monkey On Your Smurf", he switched to wearing blue overalls, similar to his current comic book counterpart.

Trivia

 * Handy is the team captain of the West Smurfs in the first Smurfic Games Tournament.

Voice Actor(s)
He would most likely be voiced by Jensen Ackles, who was the voice of Gibson from the videogame TRON: Evolution for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.