Spyro

Spyro the Dragon (スパイロ Supairo in Japanese) is the main protagonist and titular character of the Spyro the Dragon series.

Personality
Spyro is known for being courageous, headstrong, eager and arrogant. He has an immutable sense of heroism, friendliness, and has a fiery personality. He has little concern for his own safety and can be irresponsible at times, being extremely curious and hardly ever cautious, which could get him into trouble. Spyro gets into lots of mischief and is known to be cocky, a trait that can lead to his downfall.

As a young dragon in the first game, Spyro was mischievous, bratty and somewhat of an upstart.

In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, he became less cocky and more levelheaded. He has minimal interest in love, as he lost his chance with Elora in Ripto's Rage! and regarded the scene of Hunter falling in love with Bianca as "a sad sight".

In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, he has become much more arrogant, and in more recent outings, has actually denied help to those who did not expressly indicate that they would award him. Despite this, he still saves the world, even if it is not willingly.

Abilities
Spyro's main attacks consist of charging his opponents with his horns and breathing fire at them. Because he is young, Spyro can't fly very well and can't breathe a continuous stream of fire; instead, he just spits arrow-shaped fire bursts and glides from place to place.

As Spyro gets a little older, he learns how to use his wings as a shield, swim underwater, double jump, head dive, and breathe a stream of fire. In Ripto's Rage, and Year of the Dragon, there are powerup gates that temporarily give Spyro the ability to be invincible, fly, spit massive fire blasts (superflame), and charge extremely fast (supercharge). In Enter the Dragonfly, Spyro gains ice, electric, and bubble breaths. In A Hero's Tail, Spyro receives an additional water breath. He also gains the ability to cast various magic spells and the art of Dragon Kata in Shadow Legacy.

Background
As told in an interview with Sparx by the DNN (Dragon News Network), some details of Spyro's past are known. Sparx used to crawl around Spyro's egg when he was a larvae. There was peace in the Dragon Realms during this time.

However, unknown to the Dragons, three thieves were running off with two eggs. One was a dragon egg while the other was a dragonfly egg. Suddenly, the Dragons discovered the thieves who ran off and they dropped the eggs. The red dragon egg became hot, as if something was on fire from the inside. Spyro hatched from the red egg and Sparx hatched from the yellow egg. Spyro is in fact an Artisan Dragon and may have been born in Stone Hill, as the opening and ending cutscenes are both set in Stone Hill.

Dragon Realms
In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc attacked the Dragon Realms, freezing all the Dragons in crystal statues after being mocked and insulted by Lindar. Young Spyro and Sparx were the only ones that Gnasty's magic spell failed to affect, due to Spyro being smaller than the other dragons, and they set out across the Dragon Realms to free the resident Dragons and recover their treasure. After traveling through all five Dragon Realms (including Gnasty's Realm, the former Dragon Junkyard), freeing all 80 Dragons, recovering all 14,000 treasure, finding all 12 dragon eggs and disposing of all of Gnasty Gnorc's minions, Spyro and Sparx challenged, pursued and defeated Gnasty Gnorc.

During an interview on Spyro's victory, the young dragon remarked that with every good battle, one needs a good adversary, and revealed that Gnasty Gnorc was a worthy opponent, despite having a misguided nature. This caused the Dragons to once again be trapped in crystal by an unseen character (presumably Gnasty Gnorc), and Spyro anticipated another adventure. Sometime later, Spyro treated Sparx and himself to a vacation in Dragon Shores, a theme park in the Dragon Realms operated by Big Gnorcs that managed to survive being flamed by Spyro and have since reformed.

Avalar
In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, during an extended period of rainy weather, Spyro and Sparx decided that they needed a vacation from the Dragon Realms. Noticing the portal to Dragon Shores and recalling they had not been there since defeating Gnasty Gnorc, Spyro and Sparx entered the portal to escape the bad weather.

However, to their surprise, they arrived in a realm called Avalar because the Professor, Elora the Faun, Zoe the Fairy, and Hunter the Cheetah, had redirected the portal to bring them there instead. After a confusing moment, they encountered a dictator named Ripto, who was enraged that the residents had brought a dragon to Avalar. A brief tussle ensued, ending with Ripto's escape to Avalar's Summer Forest after his magical scepter fell into the maw of his dinosaur-like mount, Gulp. At Elora's request, Spyro and Sparx visited the realms of Avalar and recovered several Talismans, then pursued Ripto and fought against one of Ripto's minions, Crush.

After Crush was crushed under a pile of rocks, Ripto and Gulp escaped to Autumn Plains, and Spyro and Sparx collected the rest of Avalar's talismans and pursued them. Spyro and Sparx caught up to Ripto, and fought against his mount, Gulp. Elora assisted by providing weapons to use against Gulp; Ripto fell off the battle arena 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 and Sparx home.

Spyro and Sparx decided to search for Elora and found themselves in Winter Tundra. There, they were met with news that Ripto was still alive and had locked Elora and the others out of the Tundra's palace. Once more, Spyro and Sparx were asked to travel through the local portals, and this time, to recover enough Orbs to challenge Ripto with. They both succeeded, and challenged Ripto to a duel. Zoe informed Spyro and Sparx 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 deploy 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 mecha-bird to help finish Spyro and Sparx off. Spyro combated them in an aerial duel and defeated him, sending him to his (supposed) demise in the pool of lava. Spyro and Sparx were then sent back to Dragon Shores to begin their vacation.

In the epilogue, it was revealed that Spyro visited Avalar sometime after his vacation, taking part in a hot tub party with The Chef, missing his chance with Elora while riding the Love Boat attraction, and was confronted by the black sheep of a herd of sheep.

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 dragon eggs to the Dragon Realms, which will become the next generation of Dragons. In this year, the Fairies delivered 150 eggs to the Dragon Realms. The Dragons celebrated until they fell over from exhaustion and slept. While they were asleep, a mysterious rabbit girl named Bianca came with an army of Rhynocs to steal the dragon eggs. The Dragons woke up to notice their newest dragon egg brood was gone, and found Bianca about to steal the last remaining egg. 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.

Since the older Dragons couldn't fit through the wormhole, they determined that only Spyro and Sparx were small enough to go to the Forgotten Realms and recover the 150 eggs. Hunter insisted that he went along, and after getting through the hole with difficulty, managed to help Spyro and Sparx.

The Sorceress, along with Bianca, created monsters to fend off Spyro, but he defeated them. Along the way Spyro recruited four new allies, including Sheila the Kangaroo, Sgt. James Byrd the flying Penguin, Bentley the Yeti, and Agent 9, the Monkey in the Professor's service, all of whom were being held prisoner by Moneybags at the behest of the Sorceress. As Spyro and Sparx arrived in Midnight Mountain, Bianca realized how far her mistress 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 using the magic of 100 dragon eggs Spyro found. In a great battle, Spyro defeated the Sorceress; however, she was not killed. He 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.

Fairy Realms Crisis
In Spyro: Season of Ice, after Spyro saved the dragon eggs from the clutches of the Sorceress, Spyro, Hunter, and Bianca returned from the Forgotten Realms and the three decided to take a vacation. Bianca was researching vacation spots in the Sorceress' library, but dropped her magic book. It was found by the lowly librarian Grendor. Seeing that it could make him incredibly smart, he found that desired spell and recited it. ...Unfortunately for him, he read the spell wrong, prompting him to grow another head with a pounding headache. Grendor then used his newfound magic to freeze all the fairies, and scatter them across the Fairy Realms.

When Zoe found out, she quickly alerted Spyro in her letter. Spyro, Sparx, Hunter, and Bianca ascended up to the Fairy Realms to rescue all one hundred frozen fairies, including Zoe. As Spyro entered the first world, he found that the Fairy Realms had been infested by Rhynocs. Spyro was able to defeat all of the Rhynocs, and ultimately Grendor, and freed all of the fairies.

Ripto's Return
In Spyro 2: Season of Flame, upon Spyro and Sparx's return from the Fairy Realms, Ripto returned for his ultimate revenge on the Dragons by scattering all of the Fireflies, the creatures whose magical properties give the Dragons their flame breath, all over the Dragon Realms. The Dragons' breaths became icy cold as Spyro and Sparx embarked on a quest to find the fireflies. Eventually, after saving all of the Fireflies, Spyro once again defeats Ripto, where he is banished by the Dragon Elders.

Ripto's Revenge
Later, in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, Spyro and Sparx returned victorious after saving the Fireflies, prompting the Dragon Elders to begin celebrating the previously saved baby Dragons obtaining their Dragonflies. Unfortunately, Ripto escaped banishment and crashed the party, scattering 90 of the 151 Dragonflies across the Dragon Realms. Spyro and Sparx were tasked with tracking them all down.

Eventually, Spyro and Sparx cleared all nine worlds attached to the Dragon Realms, and entered Ripto's portal with the combined magic of all of the Dragonflies. They entered Ripto's portal, and Ripto created a shield for himself that was resistant to fire. Spyro destroyed the shield and beat Ripto. But when Spyro thought he had Ripto on the verge of defeat, Ripto used a magic spell to grow twice his size. He then erected a flame barrier, making Spyro's flame breath useless.

Spyro used his ice breath to bring down the barrier, and freeze Ripto. Finally, in one last act of desperation, Ripto used his magic to grow even bigger and incorporate pieces of Crush and Gulp into his body. Spyro easily brought down the monster with his electric breath. As Ripto was defeated, he cursed Spyro. Spyro discovered that Ripto's magic doesn't work properly because he was a dinosaur, and as such, their magical properties could not sustain the proper use of magic. This has lead to Ripto's hate of Dragons, and is the reason why he is so relentless on destroying them. The Dragon Elders banished Ripto once again, and the Dragon Realms were safe once more.

The Stolen Laboratory
In Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs, Ripto attempted another invasion, and was successfully able to take over the Professor's laboratory and drive Spyro and Sparx out. Spyro and Sparx were then tasked with traveling throughout the Realms to recover twelve 'Hearts', in order to open a passage back to the Professor's lab and confront Ripto again. Spyro and Sparx did so, and re-entered the lab and engaged in combat with Ripto once again. After they defeated him, Ripto was banished to Chateau Ripto, until he met with Dr. Neo Cortex, leading to the events of Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy.

Hero Team Up
In Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, Ripto teamed up with Dr. Neo Cortex to get rid of their foes, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. They began by genetically modifying Ripto's "Riptoc" minions and disguising them as Crash and Spyro, leading the two protagonists to believe they are against each other. Crash and Spyro are alerted of their respective worlds' predicament and are sent to get rid of the disguised Riptocs. Crash and Spyro eventually encounter each other at Dragon Castles, believing each other to be a disguised Riptoc, but soon discover that they both have been tricked and decide to team up against Ripto and Cortex. Eventually, Spyro, Sparx, Crash, and Aku Aku defeated both Cortex and Ripto. The two heroes thank each other as the games end with a photo of Crash having Spyro in a friendly headlock.

The Traitorous Elder
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Spyro discovered that the Dragon Realms were being plunged into darkness, this time by an evil Dragon Elder from long ago named Red. Spyro and Sparx teamed up with Hunter, Sgt. Byrd, and Blink the Mole in order to take down Red, and his unholy alliance of Gnorcs, along with Gnasty Gnorc and Ineptune. The five heroes battled their way through new homeworlds, and eventually defeated Red. However, Red escaped to his laboratory, and built a robot army by turning Gnorcs into robots with the unwilling help of the Professor.

Finally, Spyro tracked down Red in his secret laboratory, where the evil dragon had become a robot himself because of Spyro's mistake. Spyro defeated him again, and the Professor shrank Red down to a very small size, so he wouldn't be able to attack the Dragon Realms again.

The Shadow Realm
In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, Spyro and Sparx returned to the Dragon Realms to rest, only for the Realms to be in ruins by an unknown evil force. They soon discovered that the Sorcerer was attempting to seize control of the Dragon Realms using dark, shadowy mirrors of each Dragon Realm (called the Shadow Realms). Spyro learned the art of Dragon Kata and the use of magic from the Dragon Elders, and set out to rescue those the Sorcerer held captive, and defeat the Sorcerer himself.

After clearing the Dragon Realms and Avalar of the shadowy influences, Spyro found Red in the Forgotten Worlds. After defeating him, it became apparent that Red was merely a pawn in the Sorcerer's plan to destroy the Dragon Realms. Red decided to change his ways and help Spyro defeat the Sorcerer. After Spyro made his way to the Sorcerer’s lair, the Sorcerer revealed himself to be a dragon with four wings who, like Spyro, was purple as well. The two engaged in combat, and when Spyro won, the Sorcerer made his escape before he lost his power completely. Spyro returned to the Dragon Realms, and a parade was thrown in his honor, with Red being welcomed back into the Dragon Realms and made peace with the other Elders (except Titan). Afterwards, Spyro and his friends prepared themselves for the Sorcerer's next move.

Sparx the Dragonfly
Not many words are necessary to describe the strong bond these two share; although it's rarely discussed verbally, the two have been best friends since the beginning. Sparx has protected Spyro from certain doom by enemies many times (depending on the player's skill of course). Although, even though they are best friends, it is naturally a dragonfly's duty to protect young dragons in the Spyro world. Overall, you'll never see one without the other too far away.

Hunter the Cheetah
Other than Sparx, Hunter was one of Spyro's best friends and greatest allies. The two seem to have a playful rivalry however, as they are almost always competing with one another in various activities that mostly involve racing, skateboarding, item collecting, etc. Spyro and Hunter first met when Spyro was transported to Glimmer, one of the worlds of Avalar, by the Professor. Hunter initially feared dragons, as they are usually described as large, powerful and ferocious creatures. This fear turned to surprise and disbelief when he first laid eyes on Spyro (possibly because of his small stature), to which he didn't take lightly. Since Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, the two have been close friends.

In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Hunter began to display romantic feelings for Bianca, one of Spyro's former enemies. After Spyro defeated the Sorceress for the first time, the feelings were shown to be mutual and Spyro began to feel he lost his friend to "The Plague of Love." Contrary to Spyro's beliefs, Hunter and Bianca were actually more concerned about his well-being during his battle with the Sorceress. So Spyro's friendship remained intact, and he even gained a new friend in the process.

Elora
Spyro met Elora when he arrived in Glimmer, but they didn't formally introduce themselves until Spyro arrived in Summer Forest. Even when they first met, Elora had much faith in Spyro, and truly believed that he would be the one to end Ripto's tyranny in Avalar. She was very informative and kind, aiding him many times during his quest. When Spyro finally did defeat Ripto, she personally rewarded him with a kiss on the forehead. Although, Spyro seemed more surprised by this action than anything else, of course, being a "young" dragon, Spyro doesn't seem to be interested in things like romance or affection, which resulted in missing his chance with Elora in the epilogue of Ripto's Rage!. However, the two are still quite close.

Ember
Ember, the pink female dragon, was quite close to Spyro. She constantly goes on about them loving each other, getting engaged, married, etc., but Spyro only ever viewed her as a friend. In one of the games, Shadow Legacy, Ember falls in love with an armadillo named Bandit. After this, she never 'flirts' with Spyro again, suggesting that she 'dumped' him for her new lover. Spyro seems to cope fine with this and they both see to each other as friends, and nothing closer.

Gnasty Gnorc
During Gnasty's time of terror within the Dragon Realms, Spyro verbally admitted on numerous occasions that he had great disdain for the Gnorc king, and was determined to bring him down for turning all of the other dragons into crystal statues. After defeating his entire army of Gnorcs and finally confronting him, Gnasty chose to run during the battle, hinting that he may have feared Spyro. It is possible, though purely speculative, that Gnasty avoided turning Spyro into a statue because he didn't see him as a possible threat; if this is the case, it was that action that lead to his first defeat.

Character Development
Spyro was created by Charles Zembillas. His original name was "Pete", which was also the working title early on in the development of the game, Spyro the Dragon.

During the making of the game, Spyro was originally going to be a green dragon, but it was considered to be a bad idea because that would make him blend in with the grass areas. He was then changed to purple because they wanted Spyro to be unique, as not many dragons are purple.

Preliminary Design
Various drawings were the first pass in an attempt to find the character that would eventually become Spyro. The creative direction was simple and basic: Draw a dragon that a video game can be developed around. It didn't really matter what the dragon looked like at this point. Decisions would come later based upon the sketches that were generated as Charles embarked upon the creative journey. An important factor in the concept design process was that the character would eventually be modeled digitally and animated in a 3D program, so technical considerations and the final medium were something that had to be kept in mind while the conceptual sketches were in progress.

Design Refinement
After the first creative pass into the project, the producers came to their first important decision: they decided that the dragon would be a character that appealed to 8-10 year olds. The character had to be cute, but at the same time, mischievous, bratty, unpredictable and something of an upstart. By the end of this pass, the character design that would become the basis for Spyro was defined.

Gallery

 * Spyro the Dragon (character)/Gallery

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version of Spyro the Dragon and Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro was voiced by actress Akiko Yajima to add on the charm of the Japanese atmosphere of the game's release in the Japanese markets. Akiko Yajima has also done Charlie Brown's Japanese voice, Teddy's Japanese voice from Full House, Peter Shepherd's Japanese voice from the Japanese-dubbed Fuji TV and DVD versions of the film Jumanji (TV Asahi version was done by: Kazuhiro Shindou), and Edith's Japanese voice from Despicable Me. She was probably best known for doing Shinnosuke Nohara's voice for the anime Crayon Shin-chan as well as Annie Barrs from the PS2 RPG Tales of Rebirth.
 * Spyro makes a cameo appearance in Crash Twinsanity where he appears in the Evil Twins' Treasure Room (without Sparx) to recover his stolen treasure and toasts Dr. N. Gin, N. Brio, and N. Tropy when they try to take it as well.
 * Spyro also made a brief appearance in an early trailer for the first Ty the Tasmanian Tiger game, alongside Crash Bandicoot and Sonic the Hedgehog, all three of whom were in a hospital ward, having apparently come away from a battle with the tiger, worse off.
 * The game developer of the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger game series would later develop the first two The Legend of Spyro games.
 * His name could come from the Greek word "pyro" (meaning "fire"), possibly fused with the Latin "spiro", "to breathe".
 * Spyro's name could have been named after Spyro Gyra, an American jazz fusion band.
 * This reference would later be put in Skylanders Academy, where Spyro had finished explaining why he got his name and mentioned someone named "Gyra".
 * Spyro shares voice actors with Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Finkelstein from the Kingdom Hearts series. They were all voiced by Jess Harnell, at least once.
 * Spyro also made a cameo appearance in the South Park episode, Imagination Land.
 * It is apparent that Spyro was at least 12 years old in Spyro: Year of the Dragon, since the Dragon Eggs come every twelve years to the Dragon Realms. Although if dragons mature slower than humans, Spyro's age could be any multiple of 12.
 * In one of the first game's commercials, the protesting sheep/lamb said Spyro is like "napalm on four scaly legs".
 * Spyro's relationship with Ember is similar to Sonic's relationship with Amy Rose from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Except now, Ember no longer flirts with Spyro, while Amy is still chasing after Sonic.
 * While Spyro's horns and tail spike are yellow in most art, in the first three Spyro games, his horns and tail spike are orange.
 * Spyro is said by Astor to have A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder).
 * In the GBA classic Spyro games (Spyro: Season of Ice, Spyro: Season of Flame, etc.), the image on Spyro's dialogue box shows Spyro with mistakenly red colored eyes, which is similar to Spyro's Skylanders counterpart who also has red eyes.
 * Ironically, while Spyro had no interest in love and called it a "plague", his counterpart in The Legend of Spyro series was the one who "fell victim to love".
 * In gameplay, Spyro did not have significant spikes protruding from his spine until 2004.
 * Despite Spyro being a reptile, his body structure, controls, and muscle movements are in many ways feline-like, especially in the games that came before 2004.
 * Spyro and Hot Dog from the Skylanders series share voice actors (Carlos Alazraqui and Tom Kenny).
 * In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, when Spyro is using the Supercharge, he will change to his Spyro 1 model. This also happens in Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
 * His appearances in the Stephen Squirrelsky and Friends' movie spoof travels in The Secret of NIMH, Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Episode 6, The Little Mer-Lioness 2: Return to the Sea, Skunkules, Home on the Range, Kermit's Winter Wonderland, and The Little Jungle Boy and will even be in more movie spoof travels.