You knew the reaper was bound to make an entrance here sooner or later, but for something so powerful as the literal force of death and a character I love so much I had to place it as high as I possibly could... poor Death though, you've placed in my countdowns three times now (though I'm not really keeping count for this year as it's doing it's own thing) and still you always come up just short of first place.
As I said before I tried to avoid using characters I've already made for this countdown, but when it came to this one I really couldn't. Grim's look is the epitome of how I picture the Grim Reaper, which was my main goal when designing him, so I really couldn't think of anyone else that would sum up this role better. I also couldn't resist the urge to show the very rare glimpse of Ridley dawning his own Reaper robes and scythe. Since I have a series that stars Death, it would just be wrong not actually using them for this.
I'm not sure exactly why I like the Grim Reaper as much as I do. They look cool, sure. Skeleton in a dark robe wielding a scythe, in the immortal words of Nathan Explosion, "Brutal..." but I think why I like him is because it is the quintessential monster. The creature is literally death, it is a pure embodiment of demise and human fear. It's simple, but so effective. Depicted hundreds of different ways, evil, indifferent, or even comical but the look is universal. Everyone knows that image. I personally prefer Death as a more distinguished figure, it is his job, he takes no sides no enjoyment out of, it is something that must be done. Old as time and intellectual... it just adds an interesting vibe to the character. So... how can something top a character I love so much, especially after I've summed up why they're superior to everything else so far..? Well stick around to find out for the finale~
Now to drop one of the biggest facts of High School Death Party (that was going to become very well established soon enough, so it's really nothing to get worked up about!) There is more then one Grim Reaper. Now I don't just mean Ridley and his father, no. The entire Muertis family is a network of Deaths. Simple put, death is a big job, one guy can't do it alone! The family is massive and there are roughly two Grim Reapers per country, give or take on size and need. Each Reaper is extremely varied in look and personality given their location and they hold their position for eons before passing it over to their eventual successor, which is usually their son. A Reaper's time line is shown by the age of their scythe. The blade is indestructible and suffers no fatigue from use, however as the centuries pass the blade will slowly wither and chip until it finally shatters of it's own on their final reaping, signaling the end of their job. This may never come up, but it's cool information I thought up. You may also notice that Grim seems to have 5 fingers, while Ridley and nearly everyone else have 4. Reason being, reapers also gain the extra finger, their literal touch of death, some opt to use this instead of a scythe but it too will vanish when their job is over.
Grim Reapers are the strongest beings in Purgatory, being the only creatures capable of fully traversing every realm of existence as well as being capable of actually killing what is already dead. Their scythe do not cut flesh, but the soul. They exude several other powers which grow as they age. In truth the only things that best a Reaper in power are the forces of Heaven or Hell (no, HSDP does NOT take place in either) and even then, Reapers are usually on par with them. Also, just an extra little fact, Grim Reapers aren't actually skeletons, at least not in the traditional sense. No one died to make them, that would just be silly. Reapers are being created for the soul purpose of carrying on the cycle of life and death. They can look anyway they want to, but throughout generations they have settled on the skeletal look and it requires a massive physical toll in order to change their look. Only one was known to have done that in order to soften his image and it's been heard that he's been rooted to one spot ever since...
Well that was a mouth full, sorry, but I figured it was something I needed to share, since my series stars Death itself!
