Recap / Empath: The Luckiest Smurf - Smurfed Behind: Smurfing In Heaven

Smurfette: Empath, it's me, Smurfette! It's time for you to smurf home!
Empath: Come home? You mean, you and all the other Smurfs, including Papa Smurf, have found a way back home to the Smurf Village?
Smurfette: No, you silly. It's time to smurf home with us...to our new home up in the sky...a new place where Smurfs could smurf in peace and harmony.

During Empath and Polaris' journey to bring their fellow time-lost Smurfs back home, they run into the Schliphargons, whose leader, Heftargan, taunts Empath with the statement that those Smurfs have all died at their hand. This makes Empath so upset, particularly with what he heard Heftargan did with Smurfette, that he wants to die himself. One morning upon awakening, he finds Smurfette standing there with a halo over her head, confirming that she and all her fellow Smurfs have died. And Empath looks and sees that he too has died. Smurfette has come to take him to Elysium, the Smurfs' version of heaven, where Empath is reunited with his fellow Smurfs... or so he thinks. After a while, though, Empath realizes that this version of Elysium isn't real, that it was a magical creation of Ares the god of war, who wants to make Empath his assistant as the god of conquest.

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This story features examples of:

• Afterlife Welcome: Empath's fellow Smurfs greet him upon entering Elysium (or so it appears).
• Artificial Afterlife: The Elysium Empath enters is fake, as is also the Tartarus that he goes down to.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Empath believes he has done that when he rises from his body to ascend into Elysium with Smurfette.
• Berserk Button: Empath DOES NOT LIKE ANYBODY calling Smurfette a slut! And he surely DOES NOT LIKE ANYBODY raping her either and saying that she enjoyed it.
• Blood Magic: The Chalice Of Conquest, which is filled with blood. Ares says it would give Empath the power to become a god, while Hermes says it will actually turn Empath into a demon.
• Buried in a Pile of Corpses: After Empath rejects the offer of godhood, the Smurfs all turn into rotting corpses and pile on top of Empath so fast that he finds himself falling from Elyisum and down deep into the earth to the other afterlife destination, Tartarus. Empath eventually breaks through the pile of Smurf corpses he was buried under and reduces them all to dust, discovering that they were not really his fellow Smurfs at all, but magical constructs created by somebody.
• Call-Back: To the novel where Empath destroys a statue of himself amid the whole village pressuring him to be something they're desiring of him to be.
• City of Gold: The Smurf Village version of Elysium appears as this.
• Death Seeker: Empath wants to die when he hears that his fellow Smurfs have died. Polaris Psyche tries to dissuade him from killing himself, but Empath dies anyway. Or so Empath thinks.
• Discovering Your Own Dead Body: Smurfette tells Empath that he is dead, and Empath doesn't believe it until he sees his body still lying on the ground, his hand being able to pass right through it, and realizing that he is now a spirit.
• Fell Asleep Crying: Empath when he had the desire to kill himself after getting revenge on the Schliphargons for (supposedly) killing all the Smurfs.
• The Final Temptation: Failing to tempt Empath to becoming his god of conquest through his fake reunion of Empath with his fellow Smurfs in the "afterlife", Ares tempts him with the Chalice of Conquest that claims to give him the power of a god so that he could bring his fellow Smurfs back home. Empath nearly gives into it, but is rescued by Hermes who knows what the Chalice of Conquest actually does to those who drink from it.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: The fake version of Tartarus that Empath is sent to is depicted as this.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: Empath notices this with what Smurfette says about the afterlife he's supposed to be in, though it doesn't clue him in that there's something wrong about that "afterlife".
  Smurfette: My smurfness...the glorious feast is about to begin! We're going to be late for it if we don't smurf back there soon!
  Empath: Smurfette, how can we be late if we're in heaven? Aren't we supposed to have all the time in the world in heaven, since it exists for all eternity?
  Smurfette: Oh. I didn't even realize that…I guess I'm just so used to smurfing in a world of time, I'm still trying to adjust to a world without time!
• Go into the Light: Empath floats with Smurfette as disembodied spirits to the light in the sky that turns out to be the gateway to Elysium. (Or so Empath thinks.)
• Heaven: Elysium is depicted as this for the Smurfs.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Empath is talked down from killing Heftargan after being told how his fellow Smurfs "died" (along with a Post-Rape Taunt of what he supposedly did with Smurfette) when Polaris tells him something along the lines of this trope.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: This conversation between Empath and the HoloSmurf.
  Empath: HoloSmurf, we could use a hand in the battle.
  HoloSmurf: But Empath, I'm just a mere assistant, not a warrior.
  Empath: You're a warrior now. (Quarterstaff appears in HoloSmurf's hand)
• Mistaken for Afterlife: Empath realizes that the Elysium he is in isn't real... and neither is the Tartarus that he is later sent down to.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Empath practically yells this trope at Ares regarding Smurfette, whom Ares insinuates is secretly having her way with her fellow Smurfs and who knows who else she might find interesting in those different time periods during their time-traveling.
• No Animosity in the Afterlife: The Smurfs get along much better than they did with each other among the living in the Elysium Empath sees them in.
• Personalized Afterlife: The afterlife version of Smurfette tells Empath that the good of heart will go to whatever form of Elysium it is they desire to go to, indicating that not everybody's version of Elysium will be the same as the Smurfs'.
• Proscenium Reveal: Ares reveals to Empath that he has been in Ares' temple all along when the fake version of Tartarus vanishes before Empath's eyes.
• Rape and Revenge: Heftargan claims to have raped Smurfette, so that it would drive Empath to the point of killing him.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: To Heftargan, a real warrior is a killer, which is what he taunts Empath with when he tells his foe how his friends, the other Smurfs, have died.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Ares looks through Tapper's eyes to see Empath in the fake version of Elysium being happy where he is now, knowing that things are going according to plan.
• Sickeningly Sweet: Dissonance the demon says that this version of Elysium that Ares the god of war has created for Empath is so "disgustingly pure and sweet".
• Smash the Symbol: Like in the novel, Empath destroys the statue that was created in his image as they were again using it to worship him (this time as a god), which makes the other Smurfs angry at him for doing that.
• Son of a Whore: Empath refers to Heftargan as a "motherless beast" after hearing how he (supposedly) raped and killed Smurfette.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Heftargan tries to goad Empath into doing this, but Polaris talks Empath down from doing it.
• Tears of Joy: Empath cries these when he sees his fellow Smurfs again in Elysium (or so he thinks).
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Heftargan combines this with a Post-Rape Taunt when he tells Empath about his fellow Smurfs supposedly died, and how Smurfette "enjoyed" being ravished before her death. This was all done for the purpose of goading Empath into killing Heftargan to prove himself as a warrior.