Ripple (LD Stories)



Ripple is a Woodsprite who originally appeared in the cartoon show of Season 7 - he is a one-shot character in only one episode called, The Smurflings' Unsmurfy Friend. Please click here for his official page. According to Numbuh 404's accounts, he is still the energetic prankster he was before, but after his encounter with the Smurfs he learned to think before pranking (to an extent). It leads him to unveil an emotion he's never yet allowed himself to feel, and all it took was a female.

Friends Before Meeting Karma
Ripple has several friends or groups of friends that he has known - some of which date back to his early childhood. He usually associates with creatures other than his own kind, but stays away from females with the belief that one might get in the way of his carefree lifestyle.

Mystico the Goblin
He has been extremely close to one of the most unlikely creatures (as everyone else sees it): Mystico. Despite him being unrelated to goblins, they share a habit of joking around and causing mayhem for other people in various ways. If they aren't working together on a prank, they're most likely already putting one into effect or enjoying the results.

He first met the goblin when they were both young boys, but Mystico has always been a few years older. They had a good friendship going until the day that the goblin was imprisoned in the magic fountain by a warlock with a bad temper and desire for vengeance; then Ripple was left alone. He tried to free him from the fountain, but the warlock, having known he would do so, enchanted it so Woodsprites were unable to. Since then he led a solo life, never forgetting his friend, but also never letting anyone take his place.

Several centuries passed and he grew up to be the adult Woodsprite who appeared in the cartoon show, and he developed a fairly good relationship with the Smurfs. He seldom sees them, but he does consider them to be "friends". A short while later on a particular visit he heard about Nobody Smurf freeing and re-trapping a goblin from a magic fountain in the forest, so he inquired for more and discovered that it had been his old friend.

The Smurfs led him to the fountain and he saw his reflection in it, but when he placed the goblet in the water and failed to provoke the curse, he remembered the warlock's enchantment. When he asked the Smurfs to do it for him, they refused, remembering how Mystico went crazy and tried to turn every living creature into goblins - he couldn't believe them and stormed off. He ultimately came to terms with the fact that he would never see his friend again and tried to move on.

Finally Reunited
Several months later he was looking for a unsuspecting creature to prank when he came across a being hidden in the branches of an oak tree. He climbed the tree and pulled back another smaller branch that he intended to whack his victim with, sending them to the ground, but hesitated to see who he was dealing with. He nearly lost his footing when, upon closer inspection, he recognized it to be a goblin; they were thought to have gone extinct years ago.

He only managed to say, "Mystico - is that you?" To his astonishment and happiness, it was him, and he recognized Ripple right away. Without thinking, he let go of the branch - Mystico dodged it, and then it snapped back and hit his friend instead, knocking him out of the tree. Immediately the goblin leapt after him and grabbed his cape with his feet, carrying him safely to the ground with his wings beating. Once he's back on his feet, they tussle and rekindle their friendship by catching up.

Ripple learns that he was freed several times before - maybe within two hundred years - and enacted chaos each time, mostly for humans. The first time he was able to do as he pleased for a few decades, and then one human girl put the goblet on his head which prompted the others to return him to the fountain. At that point, he had reached young adulthood, and after being free again for a few more decades forty years later, he was fully grown. But he always ended up back in his watery prison one way or another - that is, until now. He finally succeeded in destroying the goblet, thus breaking his own curse.

They have been a dynamic duo ever since, and even after Ripple hooked up with Karma, they remain best friends.

The Gnome Prince
Two years after losing Mystico, Ripple had met and developed a decent relationship with Prince Pyro, but they never reached a point where they could be best friends. Indeed, he only saw the fiery gnome child as a companion or prank target - nothing when compared to the goblin. Regardless, they talked and engaged in various endeavors until Ripple became an adult; since Pyro is thirty years younger, he was just a teenager. This created an awkward age gap between them, so they separated for quite a few years.

Shortly before being reunited with Mystico, the young prince sought him out for advice - it was about a girl of all things. He disliked the idea of females and had no prior experience dealing with them, so he told him not to fret over her so much: "Just enjoy life as it is right now and worry about her later." To his amazement, he heard only weeks later that they were together. He distanced himself from the prince after learning this, but then he met Karma not more than a month or so later.

After he and Karma hooked up, he apologized to Pyro for giving him useless advice and admitted to understanding what it felt like to be in love. They remained mutual friends since then.

Role in the Story
He is one of two main protagonists in the Season 10 episode, "Tripped Up" with a female named Karma being the other. When they meet, he boasts about being "Ripple the Remarkable" because he's never met anyone able to prank him. Not too surprising to him, she intends to be the first laying claim to be an expert prankster - unfortunately, when she attempts her signature "Gotcha Gag" on him later, it backfires from his quick thinking: he sees her hiding and sneaks up behind her. Then he impersonates a bear roaring which gives her such a fright that she ends up running into a shrub. He laughs at her misfortune and tells her to put a little more effort into it next time. As he leaves, he hears her say that she refuses to give up.

Quite some time goes by with her constantly trying to prank him, the ideas backfire on her instead, and he laughs until one day: as he's strolling through a flower patch in the afternoon he spots a closed Buttercup and picks it, thinking fondly of Karma for a moment. He remembers it being her favorite flower and smiles. Recognizing the feeling accompanying the thought, he briskly leaves the patch in search of a pond. With any luck, some water will snap him out of it - a solo prank master is who he is, he reminds himself, and a female would only get in the way of that.

Along the way, he stops to let a mother duck and her ducklings cross the path he's on - then he spots Karma sitting at the edge of a pond abundant with fish and water plants. He takes a few feet forward, stumbles, falls, and hears her laugh abruptly; he looks back and sees - to his dismay - a rope. Instantly he realizes he has just fallen for her "Gotcha Gag" and proven his own prediction right. As he stands up and brushes off the dirt, he curses himself for letting a soft spot grow within him. Then he approaches the edge where Karma is sitting and pushes her into the pond as payback.

Since then he noticed that she is starting to ease up on him - and her pranks - until he grows tired of their mutual friendship-rivalry. He is tortured by the constant thought of her after they've known one another for half a year, so he purposely falls for some of her pranks, hoping she will become bored and leave him alone. He discovers that she recognizes his plan and - to his astonishment - stops pranking him, but never disappears from his life. Eventually he is fed up with their "game" and gives in to his feelings (despite hating the taste of defeat).

One day he walks straight up to her and comes right out with a bouquet of flowers dispersing from his hat, telling her that he has developed a certain fondess for her. At first she doesn't seem to comprehend the phrase, and for several days he sees no sign of her anywhere. This troubles him - he wonders if she has truly left or if she may even remotely like him back.

Then he is taken by surprise when she tackles him to the ground and happily announces that she loves him; at first he questions the sincerity of her words. He pushes her off of him so he can sit up, and then she leans in, giving him a very simple - yet meaningful - first kiss. It triggers an emotional response he's never felt before: love. Immediately he is hers and vice versa.

Meeting and Relationship with Hethera the Goblin
This section will be expanded upon this character's arrival!

Appearance
Ripple wears a purple hat that matches his cape and shoes, a lavender long-sleeve shirt under a semi-turtleneck lime green tunic, lavender leggings, and has a small rope-like tie around his waist. His long hair is chestnut brown, he has two long, thin antennae, and pale skin. He is also taller than the Smurfs and his girlfriend, and has standard black eyes.

Voice Actor(s)
He is most likely voiced by the same person who was Hefty - Frank Welker - in the original cartoon show because their tones have similar inflections. He also did the voices of Handy and Peewit in the Smurfs, but he was also known for his work as Scrappy Doo in the various Scooby Doo movies.

Trivia

 * In some European beliefs, Goblins and Woodsprites are considered enemies, but in others they are considered "relative species", but quarrelsome.
 * His powers are all in his hat; without it, he would be be rendered "human" and vulnerable. This goes for all Woodsprites.
 * He is willing to do anything for Mystico, but is unaware of the consequences occuring if he were to lift him from death. Because Woodsprites and Goblins are not normally friends, this is a rare and unique problem.
 * He still believes in the saying, "Bros before hos" - this is modified to be more appropriate for all ages to be, "Brothers before lovers". The meaning is the same whichever way it is said.