Grumpy

"As wretched as it is, I need my pain. It makes me who I am. It makes me Grumpy."

- Grumpy to Snow White about love Grumpy, formerly known as "Dreamy", is a character on Once Upon a Time. He debuts in the first episode of the first season. He is portrayed by guest star Lee Arenberg, and his Storybrooke counterpart is Leroy.

Grumpy is based on a character from the fairytale, "Snow White".

Before the Curse
Grumpy was born and given the name Dreamy. He was grown in an incubator in the mines and hatched from an egg, along with his seven brothers. As soon as he was ready, he was given a magical pickax that named its owner and was sent to the mines to work. Dwarves mine diamonds that are ground into fairy dust.

A year later a clumsy fairy by the name of Nova was collecting the year's supply of fairy dust and was unable to turn off the grinding/dispensing machine. Nova called for help as her bag was getting dangerously close to overflowing, and a few seconds later Dreamy came and helped her turn off the machine. Nova thanked him, but then her bag was scooped up and put on the assembly line heading for the furnace.

After a few paralyzing seconds, Dreamy climbed up and managed to grab the bag of fairy dust before it was incinerated. Nova thanks him and talks about her dream to become a fairy godmother, and Dreamy tells her that she would make a great fairy godmother. Nova, in turn, casually invites him to Firefly Hill to see the fireflies with her later that day, but he fails to get the subtle invitation, and she leaves, disheartened.

That night, he is celebrating at a bar with his brothers, albeit half-heartedly. He tells his boss, Bossy, that he feels strange, but Bossy scoffs and walks away. However, a human woman named Belle knows what is going on and tells him that he is in love. Dreamy questions her about love and tells her about Nova mentioning Firefly Hill. Belle laughs and says that she was inviting him to go with her. Dreamy gets excited and runs off.

He reaches Firefly Hill just in time to find Nova is waiting. While there, the two fall in love and make secret plans to travel the world together on a boat. Soon after, he meets Belle again and tells her of his plans to run off with Nova. There are men in the bar discussing a quest to slay a yaoguai, and Dreamy encourages Belle to go with them. He also gives her a vial of fairy dust. The next night, Dreamy is packing his bag and is about to leave to go with Nova when Stealthy, one of his brothers, stops him. One by one, all of the other seven dwarves wake up and ask him where he is going. Dreamy explains his love for Nova and the plans they've made together, and his brothers wish him luck.

Halfway to Firefly Hill, Dreamy is stopped by the Blue Fairy and Bossy. They point out that dwarves cannot fall in love, and that Nova wants to become a fairy godmother. The Blue Fairy says that the two of them would accomplish great things alone, but they would make a disastrous couple. They give him a choice--ruin both of their lives, or make Nova happy.

Dreamy goes to Firefly Hill, where Nova is waiting. She conjures a spyglass and shows him the ship that she acquired for their travels. Dreamy tells her that the two of them cannot be together, citing that dwarves do not fall in love, and that she deserved to be a fairy godmother. Nova quickly catches on that a conversation with the Blue Fairy has caused his change of heart and demands to know what she said to him. However, Dreamy says that he cannot love, and he walks away, leaving Nova in tears.

He returns to the mines and upon his arrival he asks for his magical ax, which breaks as he is furiously trying to chip diamonds and rubies out of the rock. Bossy then supplies Dreamy with a new magical ax that gives him the new name of Grumpy. Some time later, Grumpy is arrested and thrown into King George's dungeon, where he meets Snow White. As he tells her, it is because of love he is stuck in this prison. Grumpy explains how he fell in love with a certain fairy (alluding to Nova) and lost her, but wanted to win her back. So he formulated a plan by working at the diamond mines and traded all his wages to the foreman in exchange for a diamond to propose to her. However, Grumpy was swindled as the diamond was a stolen one, and he took the blame for it landing himself in jail.

He counsels her on her lost love, Prince Charming, and is fully content to stay in the prison. However, Stealthy suddenly arrives to break him out. Snow White convinces Grumpy to let her out, too.

On their way to escape, Stealthy is killed by King George's men. Snow White agrees to give herself up for Grumpy's life, and Grumpy goes free. After Snow White is secretly forced by King George to tell Prince Charming she does not love him, or else he will kill Charming. After she rejects Charming, Snow White meets all seven dwarves in the woods and goes to live with them in their cottage.

Later at the cottage, she is about to drink the magical potion that Rumplestiltskin gave her to forget about her lost love Prince Charming, but Grumpy stops her and convinces her to hold out on the potion for just a little while. Once Prince Charming's wedding to the Princess Abigail is canceled, Grumpy is the one to break the news to Snow White; however, she has already drank the potion, and thus no longer remembers who Prince Charming is. Because of this potion, Snow White becomes easily irritated, angry, annoyed, and rude. Finally, Grumpy and the other dwarves decide to bring in Jiminy Cricket to help her with her new self. However, the cricket fails to help Snow White, and only gives her the idea to kill the Evil Queen.

Grumpy finds Snow White stealing one of the Evil Queen's guard's armor, and reprimands her, insisting that her plan would not work. He then suggests taking her back to Rumplestiltskin to fix her, to which she agrees, but not for the reasons he suggests. While at Rumplestiltskin's palace, Grumpy is shocked when the imp does not fix his friend, but instead encourages her in her mission.

Rumplestiltskin gives Snow White a bow and arrow, and tells her where to shoot so that the assassination would be successful. Grumpy is incredulous, and tells Snow White that she will take her mission on alone.

Many days after, Snow White returns to the cottage and gives Happy a replacement of his favorite cup that she broke under the potions spell. She reveals that the curse created by the potion has been broken and she apologizes for her recent behavior. She then reveals that Prince Charming was taken by King George's men, and that she needed to rescue him. The dwarves accept her apology and take up their pickaxes as they proclaim that she cannot do it alone and luckily she will not have to because they will help her. Grumpy enlists the help of the fairies to attack King George's castle and free Prince Charming. Their rescue is a failure because the Evil Queen already took Charming off of King George's hands. Instead, the Evil Queen asks Snow White to come to a certain place for a parley so they can talk. Snow White agrees to it, despite that Grumpy, the other dwarves, Granny and Red do not want her going there alone and unarmed. She goes even though they don't trust the Evil Queen's intentions. Red has a bad feeling about it, and eventually they go to find her. Snow White is found lifeless and still on the floor. After Red tests to see if she is breathing, it is concluded she is dead, although in actuality Snow White was under a sleeping curse. Grumpy and his six brothers decide to put Snow White in a glass coffin in the forest. As they are mourning her death, Prince Charming, who escaped the Evil Queen's castle, gallops on his horse to stumble on the scene. He is too late, but gives Snow White one last kiss as a final goodbye. Unknowingly, he wakes her up from the sleeping curse with true love's kiss, and restores Snow White to life. Grumpy is present at the war council meeting which is held to discuss the fate of the Evil Queen. He seems to be in favor of a quick, violent death for the tyrant. Later, he is present when the Evil Queen is nearly executed before Snow White calls the execution off. After Snow White and Prince Charming "take back the kingdom", they have a marriage ceremony. Grumpy is present with the other six dwarves in the ceremony hall, but the wedding is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the Evil Queen. She says she has a gift for the happy couple, and that this present will take away everything they love. Many months after Snow White and Prince Charming reunite, Grumpy is seen meeting with others discussing how to defeat the Evil Queen's impending dark curse. Grumpy is in favor of war instead of the idea of creating a magical wardrobe that the Blue Fairy suggests to the royal family, but nevertheless is overridden when the group votes for the crafting of the wardrobe which will take one person to another land to be protected from the effects of the dark curse.

Grumpy is last seen watching for the dark curse with Sleepy. On the day Snow White goes into labor and gives birth to a daughter, he sights the approaching dark curse in the form of black smoke and rings the warning bell that lets the townspeople know that the curse is upon them. For events occurring after the casting of the Dark Curse, see Leroy.

Trivia

 * Sister Astrid gives Leroy a pie to thank him for selling candles to help the convent. This references Snow White baking Grumpy a pie in the 1937 Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Appearances
Grincheux Grumpy Gruñón Brontolo