Writer's Notes On "The Innocence Of A
Smurf"
- This short story was inspired by the cartoon show
episode "For The Love Of Gargamel", where a similar moral dilemma
over preserving life, including that of the Smurfs' worst enemy, is
presented.
- Unhappiness Day, mentioned by Empath in his personal
journal entry, was celebrated in the cartoon episode "Happy Unhappiness Day
To You".
- The flood in the Smurf forest that Empath remembered
hearing about took place in the cartoon episode "Blue Eyes Returns".
- Smurfette recalls being transformed back into her
"un-Smurfy self", an event that took place in "Smurfette Unmade", though how
it happened in the history of the Smurfs that Empath knew may be different.
- Vanity had his mirror broken by Clumsy in the cartoon
episode "Clumsy Luck", which may be what he is referring to in speaking
about Empath breaking his mirror.
- Tracker's concern for animal life may be an
intentional amalgamation of Tracker's character and that of Nat Smurf, who
in the EMPATH story series was never an adult Smurf changed into a
Smurfling.
- Empath's personality as a Smurfling, also shown in
"The Grouchiest Friendship", is modeled after that of Seven of Nine from
Star Trek: Voyager.
- The story attempts to connect the clothing color of
the Smurfs (Papa Smurf wearing red, the other Smurfs wearing white) to the
red-white color theme that runs through the entire text of the Holy Bible.
- Empath also had a moral conflict over taking lives in
"Smurphony Of The Night", where it was revealed that he was the one who was
fated to destroy a vampire.
- Empath did reveal in the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf
story that he had indeed taken a life in Psychelia, though the details of
how that life was taken was not revealed at that point.
- The story element of the Psychelian training exercise
where a Psyche would fight another Psyche to the death was originally
intended to be part of a story called "The Psychelian Way," showing parts of
Empath's life during his years in Psychelia.
- The Pool of Souls also appears in "Smurphony Of The
Night", though why Empath was not affected by its waters at that point is
not known.
- The marking of a Smurf's forehead with ashes at the
closing ceremony of Redemption Day is modeled after the Ash Wednesday
ritual.
