Grim

The Grim Reaper or just Grim is the main protagonist of the Billy and Mandy franchise. He is an undead skeleton personification 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 which he seriously despises.

## Background

Originally a resident of The Underworld, Grim is an 'Undead, talking, magical skeleton', along with the rest of his family: So far, 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 Jamaican accent like Grim does, along with Granny-Grim.

Born and raised in the Underworld, Grim attended Doomsday Junior High School with supernatural entities and other characters of the show, such as Eris, Nergal, Lord Pain, and The Boogeyman. Grim was unfortunate enough to be stuck as the favorite target of the school bully, Boogey, 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 Boogie'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 and Lubber (sort of). In Billy and Mandy Save Christmas, Grim mentions that he went to College with Santa Claus.

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 Dracula his idol.

### Grim's 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".

## Appearance

Grim's appearance stays true to the iconic image of the Grim Reaper; Grim is depicted in the series has an adult-sized 'undead, talking magical skeleton'. Grim is most often seen wearing a long black robe with a hood. His ID says he's 6'6" and 77 pounds.

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.

## Personality

Described by series creator Maxwell Atoms as 'cantankerous', Grim is unsatisfied being stuck as Billy and Mandy's 'best friend/slave'. It is implied he is easily tricked, as he was tricked by two children into being their friend/slave, tricked by Boogey into falling for his own prank, and tricked by Jack O'Lantern, and had his scythe stolen from him many times. But that doesn't change the fact that he is a very dangerous and powerful being. This was shown very clearly during his encounter with A-Bom the Yeti and various other individuals.

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 everyday - 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.

Overtime 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). Some examples showing Grim's genuine care for Billy and Mandy is when he challenges Nergal to a fight for Billy and Mandy's lives, helping Billy overcome his fear of clowns, and helping Mandy get her nerve back. Despite this, Grim is always in a constant battle of mind in many episode on whether he feels like getting rid of Billy and Mandy or saving them which he does both mixing it up every other episode.

Other things that Grim hates are old folks, 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. It appears that he has met a giant monster named Cragera.

Grim is also shown to be very sensitive to insults, especially "yo mama"-type insults where his feeling are shown to be hurt when Mr. Goodbling or Billy made Yo Mama jokes onto him or when Sperg insulted him for being a skeleton. When Billy called Grim stupid after saying the rented video was stupid. Grim also usually does not miss the opportunity to laugh in a sinister manner whenever he witnesses the suffering of others.

## Profession

Grim is the Grim Reaper, a privileged title, role and position within The Underworld. Armed with the Reaper's Scythe, Grim come to collect those whose time has come and escorts them to the 'other side', in other words, Grim's occupation is primary as a psychopomp: In Schlubs, Grim comments upon how he used to charge two coins for ferrying souls across the River Styx. But Grim also has power over life and death, as he is able to extend someone's life, (as seen in Jeffy's Web,) and can be challenged to stop someone from dying (as seen in Meet the Reaper). On the darker side, and more biblical of the role of the Grim Reaper, Grim, as Death, and armed with the scythe, is meant to "carve a swath of despair and destruction through the world of men, to blacken the skies and redden the seas, leaving nothing behind but entropy and uncomfortable silence...".

While the position of the Grim Reaper is a privileged one, Grim is not immune from punishment for misuse of his power, as seen in Home of the Ancients when he had used his powers to pull the moon out of orbit and used it as a bowling ball for Billy and Mandy.

In the episode The Halls of Time, Grim is seen having a very special sand timer, larger than regular humans, and full of Black Sand. In the episode Duck!, Grim explains to Billy that, as the Grim Reaper, Grim cannot have good dreams. If Grim has good dreams, then a vortex would open in the back of his skull, giving all manner of unsavory ‘bugaboo’s access to the human world. In the episode Scythe 2.0, Grim can go to F, a humanoid, Q-like character in the Underworld who is responsible for repairing the scythe. In The Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name, Grim's profession is touched upon as less about reaping a person whose time has come, as Grim is shown explaining to Billy that "the first rule to a successful reaping is selection".

In Billy and Mandy vs. the Martians, it is shown that, apparently, there is a 'Reaper' for other planets, such as Mars, Mercury, Venus and Uranus. The Martian Grim Reaper is called Morg.

### Becoming the Grim Reaper

Several conflicting accounts and a number of clues have been given as to how Grim first came to be The Grim Reaper:

#### Evidence that it is hereditary

* Billy and the Bully: In this episode, Grim's mother is seen in silhouette, in the same foreboding robes as Grim, hinting that the position of the Grim Reaper is hereditary.
* Lil' Porkchop: In this episode, when Grim shows Mandy a picture of his old pet skeleton fish, called "Chudney", the picture also shows Grim as a preteen in his traditional foreboding black robes, supporting the back story that Grim's position as the Grim Reaper is hereditary.
* A Grim Prophecy: In this episode, Grim is shown as having been forced into the role of the Grim Reaper by both his parents, further supporting that Grim's position as the Grim Reaper is hereditary.

#### Evidence that it is not hereditary

* Dad Day Afternoon: In this episode in season 6, Grim is shown as becoming the Grim Reaper after coming across the scythe randomly, unbeknownst to his father, whom Grim lead to believe that he had become a Country Western Rocker. Grim also says that it's been 1.4 million years since he became the "Grim Reaper".
* King Tooten Pooten: In this episode in season 7, Grim muses over his time as an intern for Osiris, God of the Egyptian Afterlife before he became the Grim Reaper.
* Wrath of the Spider Queen: In this story it's shown that, 137,000-years earlier, Grim was elected to the role of the Grim Reaper by his classmates after his display of supernatural powers with the scythe.
* Bully Boogey: In a flashback in this episode, Grim is seen in ordinary clothes as a child and not in his black robes.
* The Secret Decoder Ring: In a flashback in this episode, Grim is seen in ordinary clothes as a child and not in his robes.

## Abilities and Powers

As a supernatural creature of the Underworld, Grim naturally has tremendously powerful supernatural powers of his own, such as being able to grow in size and warp his form and the ability to possess the living, (as seen in Get Out of My Head). As an 'undead, talking magical skeleton', Grim is a complete animated skeleton of bones that is able to function both as a complete skeleton or independently as individual bones. Grim has also been seen creating flames whenever his tempers flares, even his eyes will shoot out flames when he gets angry or determined. It can also be seen that Grim has telekinesis. He used this when he flew the Chupricabra tape into his hand out of the VCR.

Beyond this, Grim has demonstrated the use of spells in earlier episodes; consulting with Underworld editions of books and manuals of magic, (such as in Tickle Me Mandy when Mandy went away for a day, Grim used some of Billy's toys to make a 'Mandy-Substitute' to keep Billy company). Grim owns copies of Underworld tomes such as "The Bad Book", the "Destruction Manual", "The New Jersey Book of the Dead", and "The Monster Manual - vol 1".

Possibly because of his profession as the Grim Reaper, Grim has the power to extend any living thing's lifetime by adding sand to their hourglass (shown to be manufactured by Father Time) which he does to Jeff (so that he can keep scaring Billy, stating that while he doesn't like spiders he loves watching Billy wet his pants).

### The Grim Reaper's Scythe

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 like magical metal gloves, or "The Mask of the Beast" in the pockets of his robe.

### Unrelated to his Profession

Grim admits that he used to play "that 'Stairway-to-Heaven' thing" back during high school and is very good at playing the guitar, (or bad depending on one’s interpretation, seeing as when he once played 'Stairway to Heaven' out in the street, it sounded good, but it also tore down the surrounding neighborhood.) Grim played the lead guitar position for Sperg's garage band, Purple Filth, for their entry in the Endsville 'Battle of the Bands', (see Battle of the Bands).

Grim also love to play Golf and Mini golf--he has an excellent golf-swing technique--as well as any sport that involves swinging a stick, such as Baseball. Grim's favorite dance is The Skeleton Dance--but hates having to dance it with amateurs.

Grim is apparently the only person immune to the Hand of Horror. This is due to the fact that, since being forced to befriend Billy and Mandy, he has to 'live his worst nightmares every day' and so the hand doesn't show him anything new.

Being a skeleton also gave him a natural talent for limbo, as he can bend in ways the living can not.

## Role in the series

According to Gregg, a fellow Grim Reaper, if you ally yourself with a Grim Reaper or any other personification of Death, you can die as many times as you think you can get away with, and the Punch Time Exploders are no exception. If any of the members die for any reason, Grim is the one who can decide to take their soul, and because they're his friends (considering Billy and Mandy forced him to be), he will always vouch for them to stay alive.