Hefty Smurf (Empath stories)

"You've got to smurf yourself as a winner in this world or you're not going to smurf any respect from me."

Hefty is a Smurf character who is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series.

History
Hefty was the son of Muscles Smurf, born as the twin brother of Handy Smurf. He was named right after he was born for being a big and strong baby, while 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 Handy 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 to his cartoon show universe counterpart, Hefty in these stories tends to be a bit more prideful in his abilities, his being the firstborn Smurf of his generation, and above all else, being a male Smurf. For one of his birthday parties, Greedy made a cake for him with a chocolate sculpture made by Sculptor of Hefty proudly lifting up a set of barbells. However, at its presentation at Hefty's birthday party, the sun had melted the sculpture so that Hefty's arms were lowered and it appeared that he was losing his strength holding up the barbells. While the other Smurfs found that to be funny, Hefty was not amused and ended up chasing after Sculptor and Greedy.

He is rather jealous in the presence of Empath so much that he has become a bitter rival -- acting only civil when a job needs to be done, but always suspicious of Empath and looking for an opportunity to show him up. He is particularly jealous that Smurfette would focus all her affections on Empath instead of him, feeling that he genuinely cares for Smurfette and doesn't want to see her get hurt, and assumes that Smurfette is only interested in "getting under Empath's hat". Hefty's dislike for Empath is made worse by the fact that he and Brainy are both half-brothers, which gives Hefty more of a reason to dislike Brainy.

His firstborn pride also extends to a bit of friendly rivalry with his twin brother, Handy, who both live at opposite ends of the Smurf Village, and who both consider themselves to be more important than the other. As a young Smurfling, Hefty acted as a bully toward his younger brother, Grouchy, until Empath stood up against him and eventually forced Hefty to back away from tormenting Grouchy. His position as Papa Smurf's assistant was given over to Brainy and, later on, to Empath. In another instance, Hefty had his hand broken by Empath when he kept poking Empath in the chest during a time when Empath didn't like being physically touched. Though Hefty recovered from the hand injury, he eventually learned it was not wise trying to physically intimidate Empath. Besides his hand, Hefty suffered a broken leg which required him to use a wheelsmurfer in order to get around while it was being healed.

Other Smurfs that Hefty seems to have a bit of a rivalry with include Tuffy and Duncan McSmurf, the latter of which he constantly refers to as Gutsy, a name that somehow irritates Duncan. Tuffy and Duncan serve as sort of the id and superego to Hefty's personality, with Tuffy being rather impulsive and Duncan being rather sensible. Kayo Smurf, who constantly challenges Hefty to a boxing match despite the fact that he always loses to Hefty, is usually considered to be a friend of Hefty, as are Willpower and Pushback. Although Hefty claims that he truly loves Smurfette, his attitude towards her tends to get rather chauvinistic, as was his attitude toward his sister Sassette before she ran away and was put into a crystal by Avengelica, believing that female Smurfs can never be "true Smurfs". This kind of thinking got him into various sorts of trouble, such as when his sister a few years after she was released from the crystal turned against him, and also when Ghinelle decided to curse Hefty by turning him into a female Smurf for a day. Aside from this, Hefty's pro-masculinity viewpoint also extends to a very militant belief that males and females should be attracted to each other, instead of having a sexual orientation toward the same sex, which he considers very unnatural.

Hefty took after his father, Muscles, in the manner of both bodybuilding and wearing tattoos on his arms, although the heart on his right arm is actually a birthmark that got reshaped to match the heart tattoo on his left arm.

Hefty is a bit of a health nut who is very conscious about what he puts into his body, and thus is very careful about what he eats or drinks. He prefers drinking the nonalcoholic version of sarsaparilla ale if it's available. Apart from his first drink at Tapper's Tavern when it was opened, the only other time he ever drank the alcoholic version was the day before Empath's wedding, when he had to face the fact that Smurfette could never marry him no matter what. Surprisingly, it only takes one glass of sarsaparilla ale to make Hefty feel completely inebriated to the point of almost losing consciousness. However, one of Hefty's favorite foods is fruitcake, which he tends to eat plenty of around Christmas. Hefty isn't fond of smoking and is very vocal in his opposition to Smurfs who do smoke, calling it an unhealthy habit, though as a concession he may appear with a lollipop or a candy stick.

Although he engages in nature and ancestor worship along with his fellow Smurfs, Hefty is at heart an atheist and refuses to get involved in religious discussions with anybody, particularly with Tapper who calls himself a Christian. Strangely, though, he does get swayed into believing in the teachings of Benedictus, a Viperion posing as a traveling missionary.

Relationships

 * Empath is treated as a rival, though Empath does not reciprocate. In fact, Empath admires Hefty and wishes to be like him. He knows Hefty cares for his fellow Smurfs and won't abandon them.
 * Papa Smurf is treated as his current father figure after his own has passed away, and seeks to please him in everything he does.
 * Smurfette is his love interest, though she treats him more as a friend.
 * Polaris Psyche is treated with a bit more suspicion from Hefty than with Empath, due to Polaris being a Psyche and a telepath.
 * Baby Smurf is treated like a little baby brother. Though he doesn't always admit it, Hefty has a soft spot in his heart for the child. His pet names for him are "the little squeezer" and "the little tyke".
 * Brainy is one of the few Smurfs he can hardly stand, mostly for his behavior.
 * Handy is his brother and is treated as both a 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.
 * Grouchy is his brother, whom he originally treated with disdain.
 * Sassette is his young sister and is currently treated as such.
 * Tapper is seen as rather pushy with his religion, but Hefty has no animosity with him. Tapper generally sees Hefty as good-hearted despite his faults.
 * Duncan McSmurf is treated as a rival, whom he constantly calls Gutsy, which only irritates Duncan. (Narrator believes his reason for doing so is that Hefty in a completely different story was upstaged by Duncan's counterpart.) Nevertheless, Duncan cares for Hefty and treats him as a friend, even if at times he needs to call Hefty out for his mistakes.
 * Tuffy is seen as someone he has to look out for because of his impulsiveness.
 * Willpower is his friend that he hopes would turn out to be a better Smurf than he is half the time.
 * Pushback is treated with great respect since at the end of "The Smurf Who Couldn't Say No" he stood up against Hefty.
 * Clumsy surprisingly is treated with great respect by Hefty and is generally regarded as a friend. Anyone who basically treats Clumsy badly will have to answer to Hefty, who doesn't tolerate any abuse towards him.
 * Vanity is treated with some suspicion of possibly being homosexual by Hefty, and prefers that Baby Smurf and the Smurflings do not emulate his kind of behaviors.
 * Wild Smurf was at one time treated as a rival, but over time he and Hefty became friends.
 * Jokey likes to refer to Hefty as "Muscle Brains" and also likes to mess around with Hefty's weights during his exercise routines.
 * Psycheliana is treated like an adopted daughter, and becomes his student in her early adult years. His only wish for her is to not be like her father.
 * Bruno and Buff are his two children through his wife Artemis Smurfette.
 * Traveler, believe it or not, is Hefty's great-grandson, as he is also that of Empath, Smurfette, and Polaris Psyche.

Role
His current role in the Smurf Village is that of a work-related supervisor, particularly those requiring physical strength and labor. Though Empath is put into a position above his own as the assistant counselor, given authority to lead the village in Papa Smurf's absence, Empath could pass along those duties to Hefty if necessary. When not busy with important village tasks, Hefty is usually seen working out in or operating his gym or playing various types of sports with his fellow Smurfs except for Empath.

At Empath and Smurfette's wedding, Hefty, Handy, and Duncan were given the usher positions. At Snappy and Sassette's wedding, he was the escort of the bride.

Hefty's role later in his life would be that of a drill instructor, teaching young Smurfs how to protect themselves and their village from possible dangers.

Alternate Identities
During the events of "Smurfette For A Day", Hefty posed as Smurfette to protect her from the unwanted advances of Picklick the gnome.

Abilities

 * Great Physical Strength - he is considered to have five times the strength level of a normal Smurf. In "The Magic Flute" he is able to bend a steel bar with his hands and break a table in two with a single hand chop. In "Smurfily Ever After" he could lift up a cake that is five times his normal size.
 * Great Agility
 * Skilled Athlete in various forms of sports and activities requiring physical skill.
 * Skilled Quarterstaff Fighter
 * Skilled Hand-To-Hand Combatant
 * Organization Skills - he is capable of getting his fellow Smurfs to do their assigned tasks, though his methods for doing so changed over the years as Empath, Duncan, and even Papa Smurf had to take Hefty to task over his rather rough and bullish behavior with his fellow Smurfs in his early years.

Weaknesses
As noted in "A Circus For Baby Smurf", Hefty had a fear of heights. He also has the physical weakness of not being able to fully metabolize fermented drinks, as a single glass of sarsaparilla ale is capable of rendering him completely drunk.

Clothing And Appearance
Hefty wore standard white Smurf clothes up until around 15 years after Empath's final return from Psychelia. During his temporary takeover of Papa Smurf's role as the village leader at the end of The Lost Year, Hefty wore a red hat and pants. Since the beginning of his role of a future drill instructor, Hefty wore Smurf clothes with a military camouflage appearance, which was inspired from his time with Wild Smurf.

Hefty is identified by the heart marks that he wears on both his upper arms. In his later adult years, Hefty would wear an orange moustache and a face full of stubble.

Trivia

 * Despite his aversion to being anything feminine, Hefty did disguise himself as Smurfette to protect her from the unwanted affections of Picklick the gnome.
 * In mainstream media, Hefty did not receive his tattoo marks until around the time of the cartoon show, and was left in that state in the comic books until "The Jewel Smurfer", the first Smurfs comic book that was published after Peyo passed away in 1992. Because of this, Hefty was able to disguise himself as a rebel Smurf in the comic book version of "King Smurf" by removing his royal medal. Unfortunately, he was ambushed by other Smurfs wearing medals who mistook him for a rebel, and nobody believed he was Hefty Smurf until he gave them a good licking.
 * In the comic books, Hefty wears his heart tattoo on his right arm while in the 2011 Smurfs movie and The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol he wears it on his left arm. In the cartoon show, Hefty's tattoo can be seen on both arms as in the episodes "Gargamel's Second Childhood" and "Swapping Smurfs". In the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series, Hefty received a tattoo mark that matched his birthmark on his right upper arm at around 78 years old.
 * Hefty is the team leader of the East Smurfs in the first Smurfic Games Tournament.

Voice Actor(s)


Hefty would most likely be voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who was the voice of Kevin Flynn in the TRON: Evolution video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and also the Hulk in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Another suitable voice actor would be John C. Reilly, who was the voice of Wreck-It Ralph from Disney's 2012 movie Wreck-It Ralph.

Jennifer Hale would most likely do the voice of Hefty as a female Smurf, using the female voice of Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect video game series.

A voice similar to that of R. Lee Ermey, the drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket, would be suitable for the older version of Hefty.