Empath: The Luckiest Smurf (series)
From Smurfology
The Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story series is Vic George's series of Smurfs fanfiction stories featuring his main character Empath. Like the novel which is part of the story series, most of these stories take place somewhere between Seasons 5 and 6 of the Smurfs cartoon show, but are set in an alternate universe which includes characters and elements from the original comic books.
Summaries
- "Papa's Big Crush"
This story is created as an unofficial follow-up to "Romeo And Smurfette". Papa Smurf is starting to have affectionate feelings for Smurfette that ultimately manifest themselves in a grotesque way when the village leader is accidentally changed into a muscular love-crazed version of himself who is after Smurfette.
- "Smurphony Of The Night"
The Smurfs are holding their annual Smurfstock music festival when Handy and Miner accidentally bring a vampire Smurf named Lord Vladimir Smurfula into the village, who seduces Smurfette into becoming his eternal companion, and Empath must stop him from doing so.
- "Virtual Smurfality"
On a cold snowy day in the dead of winter, Papa Smurf comes up with his own version of Homnibus' Imaginarium room where the Smurfs can actually interact with whatever they can imagine. A problem occurs when most of the Smurfs go off into their own fantasies, and only Empath, Smurfette, and the Smurflings can rescue them before the Imaginarium crystals are totally destroyed.
- "The Innocence Of A Smurf"
It is a special observance day where the Smurfs examine their own personal faults, to confess them, and to be cleansed by swimming across the Pool of Souls, when Empath is confronted by a fault he committed that may cost him his life.
- "Papa Smurf & Mama Smurfette"
A follow-up to "Romeo And Smurfette" and "Papa's Big Crush", where Empath's time-traveling descendant Traveler examines an alternate timeline where Smurfette falls in love with, and marries, Papa Smurf.
- "Polaris' Fantasy"
Empath's friend Polaris Psyche is finally a member of the Smurf Village, and he has trouble interacting with the other Smurfs until a female being called Elatia appears in the Imaginarium beach setting where the Smurfs have their Summer Solstice celebration. However, Empath and Polaris discover that Elatia is more than just a mere creation from Polaris' imagination when she tries to take over Smurfette's body.
- "Monkey On Your Smurf"
Handy brings Clockwork Smurf back to life by giving him a new mechanical body with some new features such as a hat that squirts liquid from it (similar to his counterpart in the original Smurf comic books), while Empath and the other Smurfs deal with various types of mutations and strange behaviors such as Papa Smurf's restlessness and flaring temper.
- "Where No Smurf Has Gone Before"
This story is created as an unofficial follow-up to "The Astro Smurf" and "Dreamy's Pen Pals". Empath finds Dreamy desiring to travel the stars again when an alien spaceship lands in the Smurf forest, complete with a computer that seems to be alive. Empath, Dreamy, and Handy borrow the spaceship to help fulfill Dreamy's wish to travel the stars, but they end up running into another alien race called the Schliphargons who are intending to capture them and use them as their slaves.
- "Days Of Auld Lang Smurf"
It is around New Year's Eve, and most of the Smurfs are thinking about their loved ones who have passed away years ago, which Chlorhydris the evil witch takes advantage of by casting a spell on them that makes them think their loved ones have returned back from the dead. But can Smurfette and Polaris Psyche convince them that what they think they're seeing is not real?
- "Snaggers Keepers"
Empath deals with his fellow Smurf Nabby, who just can't seem to keep his hands off other Smurfs' personal things, when he takes and accidentally loses Polaris Psyche's meditational stone. While searching for the missing stone, Nabby takes a gnome's magical amulet as a substitute, not knowing the trouble he brings to the village.
- "The Grouchiest Friendship"
This story takes place during Empath's first visit to the Smurf Village, where he is learning about how he is a Smurf and how Smurfs live their lives. It is during this visit that he tries to be friends with one Smurf nobody would thought any Smurf could be friends with -- Grouchy.
- "The Fear Of Smurfitude"
This story takes place during Empath's third visit to the Smurf Village, when he is given his own Smurf house to live in and take care of. However, he finds it difficult to sleep alone in his new house, especially when somebody is in his dreams trying to draw him to be used for an evil purpose.
- "I Believe I Can Fly"
This story is divided into two parts: the first part takes place during one of Empath's visits, where Empath's demonstration of his then-recent ability to fly inspires Handy to come up with his own way to fly, most of them usually ending up in failure; the second part takes place during Empath's final absence from the village, where Handy unveils his smurfplane invention and uses it to rescue Smurfette from the clutches of Gargamel.
A "story board web comic" story that takes place around the time of the Season 9 episode "The Smurfs That Time Forgot", this is about how Empath and Polaris were the only ones left behind while every other Smurf is trapped in time by the use of the Key Of Chronos to bring an unfrozen baby dinosaur back home.
Notable Differences
Some notable differences that exist between the Smurfs of this story series and those of the cartoon show series on which it is partially based include:
- Most of the young adult Smurfs that Papa Smurf calls "his little Smurfs" are all physically born of Papa Smurf's own fellow Smurfs, some of which are even related to each other (such as Handy and Hefty being twin brothers).
- Baby Smurf and the Smurflings are mentioned as coming from Smurfling Island, with Sassette being a real female Smurf who was trapped in a suspended animation crystal instead of being another artificially-created female Smurf like Smurfette.
- Smurfs are physically born instead of coming by stork from an unknown location in both the comic books and the cartoon series.
- Smurfberries have been known to exist in the Smurf Village, whereas in the cartoon show they were a rather recent introduction as per the episode "Smurfs At Sea".