Astrid

"You know, someone once told me you can do anything as long as you can dream it."

- Astrid to Leroy

Astrid is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the fourteenth episode of the first season. She is portrayed by guest star Amy Acker, and is the Storybrooke counterpart of Nova.

During the Curse
During Storybrooke's annual Miner's Day festival, Astrid is one of the nuns helping to set up light decorations around town. Traditionally, the nuns make candles to sell on Miner's Day. As Leroy walks past, she accidentally spills some glitter on him. Quickly, she gets off the ladder and apologizes for the mess. Leroy is undeterred and offers to help her with the lights. He discovers she is setting them up incorrectly, and fixes it. Astrid thanks him for his efforts, and they get to know each other. She finds out he is a janitor, and learns his actual desire is to sail the world on his boat. Astrid urges anything is possible as long as he can dream it up.

Later, Leroy goes in to sign up in volunteering to help sell candles for Miner's Day. The head of the nuns, Mother Superior, put Astrid in charge of using the appropriate amount of money to buy helium, but instead she ends up spending the entire budget; including their monthly rent to their landlord, Mr. Gold. Shocked, Mother Superior demands she fix her mistake as soon as possible. In a depressed stupor, Astrid is approached by Leroy, who promises to help her sell out all the candles to get back the rent she owes.

During the first day of the festival, Leroy and Mary Margaret set up their tent in town to attract townspeople into buying candles, but no one pays them any attention. Thus, they go door-to-door to sell them, but find themselves rejected repeatedly. Mary Margaret pushes Leroy to tell Astrid the truth about their candle selling failure, but he doesn't want to disappoint her, and instead he says they sold out and need her to make more candles. Estatic, Astrid warmly embraces him.

Leroy ends up hiding the unsold candles by the dock near his anchored boat. He resorts to trying to barter with Mr. Gold in buying his old boat for five hundred dollars—the exact amount of rent the nuns need. Mr. Gold refuses Leroy's price and also won't allow a month's rent to be excused as he is looking forward to kicking out the nuns. Astrid comes by to brhing him food as thanks, but discovers the candles underneath the tarp.

Disappointed that Leroy lied, she leaves wordlessly. The second night of the festival, Leroy causes a blackout in town; thus making the townspeople reliant on buying candles as light sources. After he and Mary Margaret sell out all their candles, Leroy goes to Astrid personally and gives her the five thousand dollars, which renews her trust and admiration in him. He offers her to be the first passenger on his boat when it's fixed up enough to use, and Astrid happily accepts.

Trivia

 * The name "Astrid" is of Old Norse origin derived from the words "áss" and "friðr" that respectively mean "god" and "beautiful".