Grim

Introduction

The Grim Reaper (or just Grim) is the titular main protagonist of the 2003 Cartoon Network animated TV series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. He is an undead skeleton personification/manifestation of Death, who speaks with a Jamaican accent. After having lost to Billy and Mandy after Mandy cheated in a limbo contest over the soul of Mr. Snuggles (and also the soul of Billy himself), Grim is now forced to be their best friend forever. If Grim does not live up to his commitment, he will be stripped of his powers and be forced to spend eternity in Underworld Jail. Grim is often stuck with cleaning up the consequences of mishaps that are in no small part due to Billy's stupidity and lack of common sense. On Mandy's part, Grim is often forced to do her chores and obey her direct orders, as her unwilling slave. It is stated several times in the series that he does the dishes every single day for Billy and Mandy ever since they first met, whom he genuinely despises for using him as a friend-slave.

Bio

Physical Appearance

Grim's appearance stays true to the iconic image of the Grim Reaper; Grim is depicted in the series as an adult-sized 'undead, talking magical skeleton'. His ID says he's 6'6" and 77 pounds.

Outfit

Grim is most often seen wearing a long black robe with red on the inside with a hood.

Personality

First and foremost, Grim loves his scythe and his job, and was once sent to anger management because he loves his job "a little too much". Grim enjoys Ice Cream and Chocolate, his favorite part of the newspapers are the obituaries and his favorite time of the year is "El Día de los Muertos"—it's the only day of the year that is dedicated solely to him. Grim dislikes Billy, Mandy, and Irwin and often fantasizes about their gruesome deaths, releasing him from their company forever. In Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, Grim confirms that as much as he hates Billy, Mandy, and Irwin, his hatred of Boogie far overshadows his hatred of them, driving Grim to go through the "Cannibal Run" to get Horror's Hand before Boogie. Grim also reveals that Horror's Hand can't affect him because he lives his worst nightmares every day - being stuck with Billy, Mandy, and Irwin as their 'friend slave'. Grim also keeps a voodoo doll of Billy in his trunk. If Grim doesn’t live up to his deal with the kids, he will end up in Underworld Jail and be removed of his assets and powers (including his scythe). Over time though, Grim grew to genuinely care about the kids. This is shown in instances where he's been given a chance to be free from them, but ends up not taking it. In most cases, Grim seems to prefer being with Billy more than Mandy, since Billy's generally much kinder and friendlier towards him than Mandy, although one thing he and Mandy have in common is that they both have similar personality traits and how they tend to get annoyed with Billy's stupidity (which they both take advantage of at times).

Age

Grim's age is hard to pin down; in A Grim Prophecy, it shows an account of how Grim became the 'Grim Reaper' depicts Grim's early childhood taking place during the time of Neanderthal Man, putting Grim's age at around 137,000 years old in human years. In Wrath of the Spider Queen, it was shown that he was in his preteens in around the same time period, and that dinosaurs and cavemen were around then, which supports the same timeline. However, in Dad Day Afternoon, Grim says that it's been 1.4 million years since he became the "Grim Reaper".

Background [1/2]

Originally a resident of The Underworld, Grim is an undead talking magical skeleton, along with the rest of his family. Grim has been identified as having a father (named "Earl" in passing), a mother (also only named in passing as "Miriam"), a grandmother known simply as "Granny-Grim", and a Great Aunt called "Aunt Kali"(named for the Hindu Goddess of the same name). Grim's mother has been heard speaking in an Jamaican accent like Grim does, along with Granny-Grim. Throughout the show, Grim has had many different backstories as to how he became the Grim Reaper, though we'll detail the origin story shown in Wrath of the Spider Queen, as it seems to be the one treated as truly canonical in the show. Born and raised in the Underworld, Grim attended Doomsday Junior High School along with many other supernatural entities and recurring characters of the show, such as Eris, Nergal, Lord Pain, and to his dismay, The Boogeyman. Grim was unfortunate enough to be stuck as the favorite target of Boogey the school bully, who enjoyed making the lives of the other students (Grim in particular) as miserable as possible. Grim played Underworld Little League as a child and was also a member of the 'Dead Poets Club' during junior high. But thanks to Boogey's antics, Grim was labeled with the nickname of "Wedgie Shakespeare" for the rest of school. Despite this, a few of Grim's classmates have stayed on good terms with him, such as Velma Green, his very best friend, Lord Pain (who became devoted to Grim) and Lubber (sort of). In Billy and Mandy Save Christmas, Grim mentions that he went to College with Santa Claus.

Background [2/2]

Grim also has ownership of the original Hellhound, of Greek myth; a massive, three-headed 'Demon-Dog' called Cerberus. How Grim ever came to own Cerberus was never addressed during the series, but it was evident in Cerberus' debut that Grim couldn't control him, claiming that Cerberus, "didn't just eat [Grim's] homework, [Cerberus] also ate [Grim's Dad]", (though it was probably just an exaggeration on the script writer's part). Growing up, Grim has considered King Dracula along with many other classic monsters his boyhood idols.

Dislikes

He hates elderly people, health freaks, the community, community service, neighbors (and new neighbors even more so), false alarms while he's at work, anytime that Billy and Mandy mix his professional life with their personal life, whenever Billy goes through his trunk or robe pockets, and when Mandy makes him do her chores.

Grim Reapere Scythe

Grim is also seen with his scythe, an object of tremendous magical energy and power in the series and the source of most of Grim's abilities and powers. Though he does possess telekinesis. As the Grim Reaper, Grim is the "Master of the Forces of Life and Death" and the owner of 'The Reaper's Scythe'; an Underworld object of enormous magical strength and power, (other such objects of power include, Eris' Apple of Discord, Pandora's Box, and Horror the Ancient's 'Left Hand of Horror'). All the most prominent of Grim's powers stem from this scythe. For the most point, Grim is dependent upon the scythe in the series for his powers and is usually rendered powerless when disarmed, but has been seen shown as capable of magical feats without it.

Other Magical Artifacts

Grim is also in possession of a Magical Trunk, larger on the inside than it is on the outside, Grim stores a menagerie of sinister, evil, and, more importantly, dangerous magical objects for safekeeping. A handful of episodes show the calamities that follow when Billy, having unheeded Grim's instruction not to do so, opens and takes things out of Grim's trunk. Grim's Black Robe is also magical, aside from being able to expand along with him whenever he shapeshifts, Grim's robe has been seen as sustaining damage and then seen again intact. In Sickly Sweet, it is revealed that aside from keeping cursed objects within his trunk, Grim explained to Billy that he also keeps "terrible, cursed objects", such as magical metal gloves, or "The Mask of the Beast" in the pockets of his robe.