Lord Balthazar is a supporting antagonist who has appeared in the 1980s Smurfs cartoon show since "The Smurfs Springtime Special" in Season 1 up until around Season 8.
Character
He is Gargamel's godfather who is even more wicked and cruel and a better wizard than Gargamel is, and his plans for capturing Smurfs tend to be more lethal. He has a pet raven that he uses on various occasions, as well as a serpent who swims around in a moat guarding his master's castle. Balthazar is a cruel and cunning individual who is almost pure evil and loves nothing more than getting his way and crushing the will of others.
Personality
Showing that Balthazar is a very shrewd and pretentious individual with no respect for anything or anyone but himself, and even after seeing beings such as the Smurfs and Father Time, he continues to doubt most claims made by his godson. He may also be a sociopath; holding violent grudges over being disobeyed and not caring who or what he has to destroy to accomplish his goals, even if it means destroying the balance of nature or the world itself to get what he wants. He is apparently a futurist who is obsessed with knowing what the future holds and wishes to know what age will come after the age of wizardry (possibly an age of industry), as he believes that it will give him access to even greater power which he can use to make himself unstoppable.
Powers and skills
Despite calling himself a wizard and the greatest in the world, he rarely (if ever) uses any actual spells and seems to prefer using machines or experiments to achieve his goals. In fact, his godson Gargamel (and almost every other wizard in the series) has displayed far more magical knowledge and skill than Balthazar, with Balthazar dismissing almost anything mysterious or magical as "nonsense", despite that Gargamel is constantly in contact with such things, and Balthazar even dismisses his own books as fairy tales even though they contain a plethora of knowledge. In fact, he seems to outright look down on the age of wizardry despite its achievements and cares only about the "magic" of the future. In fact, even his "magic wand" is actually a musket.
Roles
In "The Smurfs Springtime Special", Gargamel sought out the aid of his godfather Balthazar in hopes of finding a way to finally capture the Smurfs with one of his many books. Upon arriving at Balthazar's castle, Gargamel is given a very deadly welcome and is treated with absolute hostility upon coming face to face with Balthazar. Balthazar at first dismisses Gargamel's request as nonsense and the Smurfs as fairy tale creatures, and demanded that he leave, but not before Gargamel stole the book he needed to end the Smurfs. After Gargamel follows the instructions within the book to kidnap Mother Nature, it causes a sudden snowfall which even Balthazar notices, which makes him question his previous doubts about Gargamel's claims. He then heads out to Gargamel's hobble where he ends up coming face to face with Papa Smurf. He then prepares to kill Papa Smurf with his "magic wand of the future" (a musket) and fires it at the Smurfs; however, the shot is taken by Smurfette's pet Ducky. Balthazar then prepares to fire another shot but is stopped by the sudden arrival of the Smurfs' fearsome animal friends who tackle and chase off Balthazar. Mother Nature is then rescued and heals the wounded Ducky.
In "Puppy", Balthazar abducted the Smurfs' pet, Puppy in hopes of opening his locket and finding out the secrets of ultimate magic. He went to great lengths to do so to the point where he even tried to behead him with a guillotine, an act which even Gargamel found to be too drastic. Thankfully, Puppy was saved by the Smurfs and taken home.
In "A Circus For Baby", Baby Smurf accidentally ended up in Balthazar's castle, and upon finding the infant, Balthazar took it to his lab with the dark interest of using Baby Smurf for his twisted experiments, but his plans fall apart when Baby is saved by the Smurfs and their elephant friend, Pyramis.
In "Future Smurfed", Balthazar desired to see into the future, believing that the age of wizardry was nearing its end and he desired to be the first to see the next age and be the first to know its secrets. To do this, he had Gargamel find him a way to do so, which mostly involved fortune tellers, but after intimidating Gargamel enough, Gargamel suggested that they seek out Father Time and use him to find out the future. Balthazar abducted the wise ancient and tried to force him into revealing the future, and if he did not, Balthazar threatened to use Father Time's sickle to destroy the fabric of time itself and undoing the world. Luckily, Father Time was saved with the aid of the Smurfs, and he proceeded to punish Balthazar by leaving him bound to his chair.
In "Poet The Know-It-All", Lord Balthazar once again desired to gaze into the future. He demands this from a traveling merchant, who reveals he met an old gnome named Solomon the Soothsayer who offered an amulet that would do so. The merchant thought the amulet cursed, so he declined. When Balthazar hears of this, he seeks out Solomon the Soothsayer, only to learn he already gave it away to Poet Smurf, causing Balthazar to go after Poet. Poet, meanwhile, learned from Papa Smurf that the cursed amulet is attached to the body of the wearer, and can only be undone if someone else desired it. Baltazar seizes the amulet from Poet due to his wish to use the amulet, but his victory is short-lived as it falls off a battlement and is eaten by the moat monster, of whom Baltazar falls atop in an attempt to retrieve it.
Family
Lord Balthazar is the godfather of Gargamel. He has a niece named Denisa, who is friends with Sassette Smurfling.