Spyro (character)
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Spyro the Dragon is the main character of the Spyro the Dragon series. The first three games of the series were developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America for the PlayStation.
Biography
First Adventure: Dragon Realms
In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc attacked the Dragon Realms, freezing all the dragons in crystal statues after being called ugly. Spyro, the one dragon Gnasty's magic spell failed to effect due to his small size, realized this, and set out across the Dragon Realms to free the resident dragons and recover their treasure. After travelling through many worlds, freeing many dragons and disposing of all of Gnasty Gnorcs's minions, Spyro challenged, pursued, and defeated Gnasty Gnorc and rescued all of the Dragon Realms' treasure.
Second Adventure: Avalar
Several weeks after defeating Gnasty, during an extended period of rainy weather, Spyro decided that he needed a vacation from the Realms. Noticing a portal to the location of "Dragon Shores", he entered the portal to escape the weather. However, to his surprise, he arrived in a realm called Avalar, because the residents had redirected the portal to bring him there instead. After a confusing moment, he encountered the dictator Ripto, who accused the residents of "bringing a dragon to Avalar." A brief tussle ensued, ending with Ripto's escape to Avalar's Summer Forest homeworld after his magical sceptre fell into the maw of his steed, Gulp. At Elora's request, Spyro visited the realms of Avalar and recovered several talismans, then pursued Ripto and fought against one of Ripto's minions, Crush.
After Crush was defeated, Ripto and Gulp escaped to Autumn Plains, and Spyro pursued them. In Autumn Plains, he was asked to help out the residents and recover the rest of Avalar's talismans. Spyro caught up to Ripto, and fought against his steed, Gulp. Elora assisted by providing weapons to use against Gulp; Ripto fell off the battle area after the battle, and Elora gave Spyro a place to rest while she returned to the Professor to check up on a portal to return Spyro home.
Spyro decided to search for Elora and found himself in Winter Tundra, he was met with news that Ripto was still alive, and had locked himself inside the Tundra's palace. Once more, Spyro was asked to travel through the local portals, this time to recover enough Orbs to challenge Ripto with. Spyro succeeded, and challenged Ripto to a duel. Elora informed Spyro that the Professor was working on new types of Orbs, and a fierce battle ensued, with both Spyro and Ripto using powers from the Orbs for attack. Ripto used one Orb to create a large, mechanized version of his steed Gulp. When Spyro destroyed that, Ripto used another Orb to transform the arena floor into lava, while creating a large bird to help finish Spyro off. Spyro combatted them in an aerial duel, however, and defeated him, sending him and his bird into the pool of lava. Spyro was then sent back to Dragon Shores.
Third Adventure: Forgotten Realms
In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, The Dragon Realms were celebrating an important event: the Year of the Dragon Festival. Every twelve years during this time, the fairies deliver 150 dragon eggs to the Dragon Realms, which will become the next generation of dragons. The dragons celebrated until they fell over from exhaustion and slept. While they were asleep, a mysterious rabbit girl named Bianca came with army of rhynoc creatures to steal the dragon eggs. The dragons woke up to notice their newest brood gone, and found Bianca trying to steal the last remaining dragon eggs. Spyro, Sparx and Hunter attempted to stop Bianca, but it was too late. She took the egg back through a wormhole to the realm where the dragons once lived: the Forgotten Realms. Her master, known as the Sorceress, was beginning to lose her powers, due to the fact that the dragons, the source of the world's magic, had migrated to the other side of the planet. She took the dragon eggs, planning to use them in a spell to give her eternal life and power.
After the elder dragons tried to fit through the wormhole, they determined that only Spyro was small enough, meaning that he had go to the Forgotten Realms and recover the 150 eggs. The Sorceress, along with Bianca, created monsters to fend off Spyro, but he defeated them. Along the way Spyro recruited several new allies, including Sheila the Kangaroo, Sgt. James Byrd, Bentley the Yeti, and Agent 9, a monkey in the Professor's (from Spyro 2) service, all of whom were being held prisoner by Moneybags at the behest of the Sorceress. As Spyro arrived in the Midnight Mountain world, Bianca realized how far her master would go to achieve power. She betrayed the Sorceress and went to Spyro's side, releasing Hunter from a trap he had fallen into and opening the door to the Sorceress's lair (after Spyro found 100 eggs). The Sorceress was not killed, however. Spyro had to recover 149 of the missing eggs, as well as 20,000 gems to fight her again in a secret region of the Forgotten Realms. After taking control of a spaceship, Spyro shot down the Sorceress once and for all, recovering the final egg and saving the Dragons from extinction.
Other Adventures
Most of Spyro's subsequent adventures took place in the Dragon Realms, where Spyro was called upon to defend against various threats. In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, Ripto invaded to steal the Realm's dragonflies (companions and protectors for the young dragons previously born in Spyro: Year of the Dragon), and Spyro set out across the realm, learning new abilities from an ancient dragon elder, to recover the dragonflies and to teach Ripto a lesson.
In Spyro: Season of Ice, Spyro travelled to the Fairy Realms to rescue the resident fairies (including Zoe), who had been trapped in ice following one Rhynoc's misguided attempt to cast an enchantment of strength and intelligence upon himself.
In Spyro 2: Season of Flame, Spyro found the Dragon Realms grown icy cold (even his own fire-breath frozen into breath of ice), Due to Ripto taking the Firefiies, Bianca was able to restore his normal flame breath with the magic of a few fireflies, Spyro searched again throughout the Realms to recover the other missing fireflies, using both his normal breath (as well as his newfound ice and Electric powers) to defeat enemies, recover the fireflies, and defeat Ripto.
In Spyro (a mobile phone game), Spyro was the special guest of the Fairy Queen for the Royal Ball. But before the party began, none of the fairies were ready. Their dresses were locked in magical chests. Spyro set off to unlock the chests to get their dresses to get them ready.
In Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs, Ripto tried invading again, and was successfully able to take over the Professor's laboratory and drive Spyro out; Spyro was tasked with travelling throughout the Realms to recover twelve 'Hearts', in order to open a passage back to the Professor's lab and confront Ripto again.
In Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, Ripto teamed up with Dr. Cortex to get rid of their foes. Spyro arrived in Wumpa Jungle while Crash was in the Dragon Realms as they teamed up to defeat Ripto and Dr. Cortex.
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Spyro discovers that the Dragon Realms was being plunged into darkness, this time by an evil resident and a Dragon Elder from a long time ago named Red. With the help of four allies, Spyro defeated Red and Gnasty Gnorc again.
In Spyro: Ripto Quest, Ripto attacked once more, and Spyro set out to recover parts of a machine protecting the realms of Fire, Grass, Ice, and to defeat Ripto again.
In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, Spyro fought against a dark sorcerer attempting to seize control of the realms using dark, shadowy mirror of each (called the Shadow Realms). Spyro learned the art of "dragon-kata" (melee attacks) and the use of magic from the Dragon Elders, and set out to rescue those the Sorcerer held captive, and defeat the Sorcerer himself.
Reboot: The Legend of Spyro
Spyro's quest to discover his heritage and realize his destiny is the subject for the newest Spyro game The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Spyro was born somewhere in a swamp, then was shortly discovered and raised by a family of dragonflies (unaware that he was not a dragonfly himself but a dragon and also a very special creature). However, though this game was originally advertised as a prequel, it has been revealed to be a total reboot of the series, thus, the use of the subtitle, a new beginning. The storyline of A New Beginning will be the foundation of a new continuity, created by Krome Studios. [1]
Personality
No character description is given for Spyro in Spyro the Dragon, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, or Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, but one is provided in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, giving a definite personality written for at least one of the games in the series.
Spyro's character description in the game manual for Ripto's Rage! is narrated by Sparx:
- "Spyro is the mischievous hero of this tale. He may be the smallest hero in the Dragon Family, but even the Elder Dragons admit he's got gumption! Just ask Gnasty Gnorc - he won't mess with Spyro again! Spyro's always rarin' to go, especially when he can headbash some sheep or flame some frogs. He's so full of energy, he keeps me on the move! Spyro is extremely curious and hardly ever cautious, which sometimes gets him into trouble! That's why I stick around, to make sure nothing too serious happens to him!"
Enemies
Spyro has had many enemies over the course of the games, including Ripto, Red the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc, Cynder, and the Sorceress.
Current status
Spyro has become much more arrogant after the original trilogy, and in more recent outings, has actually denied help to those who did not expressly indicate that they would award him. Also, any friendship he had with Elora has seemingly been severed, instead having Ember in her place. Most will argue, however, that Elora and Ember are not to be considered as replacements for each other. In any event, Spyro is likely still friends with both characters.
In "A New Beginning", Spyro's personality is alot different than in past outings. Spyro is young and compassionate for others and he is always willing to help them no matter what happens. Spyro doesn't asks for rewards and is just glad to be a big help to those in danger. He even saves Cynder from being destroyed when the area he fought her in was collapsing.
Other Appearances
- Spyro has also appeared in several recent Crash Bandicoot games, such as Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Crash Twinsanity, and Crash Nitro Kart. It seemed that he is a good friend to Crash Bandicoot.
Sparx
Throughout the series, Spyro has always appeared with one companion at his side: a dragonfly named Sparx. In the world of the Dragon Realms, dragonflies offer protection for young dragons such as Spyro; without Sparx, Spyro would be susceptible to being killed or defeated in a single hit.
While Spyro and Sparx occasionally converse with each other, Sparx's focus in the Spyro series is more oriented towards gameplay than narrative: Sparx is the player's health meter personified. Whenever the player takes a hit, Sparx's body color changes, from gold, to blue, to green, and ultimately disappearing entirely, leaving Spyro vulnerable to defeat upon the next hit. The player can restore Sparx's (and, hence, Spyro's) health by defeating small creatures called "fodder" throughout each level. Doing so releases a butterfly, which Sparx devours, recovering one hit point in the process.
Aside from his function as a health meter, Sparx also assists by collecting nearby gems and treasure for the player, and in later games Sparx's own abilities can be upgraded, including the ability to withstand an extra hit (first with a brighter shade of yellow to represent full health, but later with a shade of red to indicate low health), being able to retrieve treasure from a larger distance, or even the ability to retrieve gems directly from boxes without requiring Spyro to destroy them first. Sparx can also help Spyro by pointing towards the location of gems that Spyro has not collected yet.
Sparx also appears as a playable character in several mini-games throughout the later games in the Spyro series, such as several Gauntlet-style levels in Year of the Dragon and Season of Ice, and a rail shooter-style minigame in A Hero's Tail. If the player has acquired the additional hit point, Sparx's own health reflects the extra hit as well.
In levels where the player controls a character other than Spyro (such as Hunter in A Hero's Tail), Sparx follows along with that character in the same manner as for Spyro.
Sparx's voice is a high pitched buzz that many would expect from an insect, but more recently he has been shown to speak in a more human-like way. Most recently, Sparx was voiced by David Spade in "A New Beginning".
In "A New Beginning", Sparx adopts a surfer-like accent and is the game's comic relief. Despite this, he is still willing to help Spyro no matter what happens (even if he denies this).
Voice Actor
Spyro has been voiced by four different actors so far:
- Carlos Alazraqui, for Spyro the Dragon
- Tom Kenny, for Ripto's Rage!, Year of the Dragon, and Enter the Dragonfly
- Jess Harnell, for A Hero's Tail and Shadow Legacy
- Elijah Wood, for The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
Trivia
- Starting with Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro's rendered art displays a ridge of yellow spikes down his back, although this was not reflected by Spyro's in-game model until A Hero's Tail.
- Spyro has a resemblance to the Disney character Figment. The primary difference between the two is Figment being bipedal and frequently seen in a yellow sweater.
- When the first game was being developed, Spyro was originally green. However, this would result in him periodically "disappearing" while standing or moving in front of similarly-colored green scenery. To remedy this, his color was changed to purple. [2]
- He makes a small appeareance in South Park on the episode Make Love, Not Warcraft, where he is seen on the cap of a boy playing World of Warcraft in Best Buy.