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. 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 and his being the firstborn Smurf of his generation. 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. 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.

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.

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. The only 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.

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.

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.

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

Voice Actor(s)
Hefty would most likely be voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who was the voice of Kevin Flynn in the TRON: Evolution videogame for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and also the Hulk in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Jennifer Hale would most likely do the voice of Hefty as a female Smurf.