Spyro

Spyro the Dragon is the titular main character and protagonist of the Spyro franchise and a major character of the Skylanders series. Spyro made his debut in the 1998 video game, Spyro the Dragon. He is a young, purple dragon with an energetic personality. His main abilities include breathing fire, charging, and gliding. Spyro is often accompanied by Sparx the Dragonfly, who protects Spyro during his journey.

Concept and creation
After developing , Insomniac president Ted Price contacted Charles Zembillas (who had previously designed Crash Bandicoot) to design a playable video game character that is a dragon. Spyro was originally named "Pete", but the name was dropped to avoid infringing on Disney's trademark . "Pyro" was then considered as a name, but since the series would appeal to children, the name was dropped, and the character's name would be finalized Spyro.

Spyro was given the ability to glide infinitely, giving him an attribute that no other playable character in a platformer had and making the game's worlds significantly larger and providing more incentive for exploration. According to programmer Peter Hastings, NASA rocket scientist Matt Whiting was hired to program Spyro's controls so that he could move as smoothly as possible.

Spyro was originally colored green but was changed to purple to avoid blending in with any grassy areas.

Background
Some details of Spyro's past is revealed in the Japanese Spyro the Dragon manual and Sparx's interview with DNN. Two thieves were running off past the dragon kingdom with two eggs, one was a red dragon egg and the other was a yellow dragonfly egg. The dragons caught the thieves, who then dropped the eggs. The dragons took the eggs and cared for them until they hatched. The dragon egg became hot, hatched after the dragonfly egg, and Spyro was born.

Spyro the Dragon
In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc attacks the Dragon Realms, freezing all the dragons in crystal statues and turning all of the dragon's treasury into minions called "Gnorcs" 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 traveling through many worlds, freeing many dragons and disposing of all of Gnasty Gnorcs's minions, Spyro challenged, pursued, and defeated Gnasty Gnorc (though he later returns) and rescued all of the Dragon Realms' treasure as well as the remaining dragons.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, several weeks after defeating Gnasty Gnorc, during an extended period of rainy weather, Spyro decided that he needed a vacation from the Dragon 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. Avalar includes portals like Skelos Badlands, Glimmer and Idol Springs and bosses like Gulp and Ripto. 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 crushed under a pile of rocks, 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. Zoe, the fairy, 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 to their demises in the pool of lava. Spyro was then sent to Dragon Shores.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon
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 an army of rhynoc creatures to steal the dragon eggs. The dragons woke up to notice their newest dragon egg brood gone, and found Bianca trying to steal the last remaining dragon 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.

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 four 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). In a great battle, Spyro defeated The Sorceress. She was not killed, however. 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.

Spyro: Season of Ice
In Spyro: Season of Ice, Spyro traveled 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.

Spyro 2: Season of Flame
In Spyro 2: Season of Flame, Spyro found the Dragon Realms grown icy cold (even his own fire-breath frozen into breath of ice), as Ripto had invaded once again, this time to steal the realm's Fireflies; while 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 powers) to defeat enemies, recover the fireflies, and once again take on and drive Ripto out.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly
In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, Ripto invaded to steal the Dragon Realm's dragonflies, who served to protect the young dragons born in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Spyro goes on an adventure across the realm, learning new abilities from an ancient dragon elder, to recover the dragonflies.

Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs
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.

Spyro: A Hero's Tail
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 long time ago named Red. With help of four allies, Spyro defeated Red and Gnasty Gnorc again.

Spyro: Shadow Legacy
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.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Spyro is the main character of Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which has a remake for each the original three PlayStation games.

Spyro
In the mobile game Spyro, Spyro was the special guest of the Fairy Queen for the Royal Ball. Before the party began, none of the fairies were ready. Their dresses were locked in magical chests. Spyro set off on an adventure to unlock the chests and retrieve their dresses.

Spyro: Ripto Quest
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.

The Legend of Spyro series
Spyro is also the main character of The Legend of Spyro series, which has a different continuity from the main Spyro series.

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
In The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, Spyro is a dragon of prophecy, a rare purple dragon born once every ten generations. As an egg, the temple where the unborn Spyro rests is attacked by the forces of the Dark Master who are intent on destroying all the dragon eggs. Ignitus, one of the eggs' guardians, escapes with the purple dragon's egg, leaving it to drift downriver into a swamp, hoping for the best. The egg is discovered by a family of dragonflies, and upon hatching, Spyro is adopted into the family and raised as one of their own, alongside Sparx, a young dragonfly born the same day.

One day, after coming under attack by strange foes and discovering that he can breathe fire, Spyro is told that he is not a dragonfly himself but a stranger from a distant land; Spyro decides to leave the swamp in search of his true home; Sparx, though reluctant at first, decides to follow along. Spyro is pursued by hostile forces, but eventually comes into contact with a distraught Ignitus, who although pleased that Spyro is alive, fears that with the Dragon Temple under occupation by their enemy, and led by an enemy dragon named Cynder, their war is already lost.

Spyro convinces Ignitus to lead him to the Temple, and is able to drive Cynder's forces out, after which Ignitus tells Spyro more about their war against the dark armies, offers Spyro some training in the art of the fire element, and then sends Spyro off to rescue three other dragons from Cynder's forces. One by one, Spyro clashes with Cynder's armies, rescues the three other dragons, while acquiring new skills and training along the way. It is learned that Cynder has been draining the dragons' power into crystals, and also that Cynder herself is merely a pawn serving the Dark Master -- Cynder originally being born from the same brood of eggs as Spyro, but are not siblings, as said by the Sierra production crew [3].

After freeing the final Guardian, Terrador, Ignitus is captured by Cynder. Spyro attempts to fight Cynder, but Cynder succeeds in draining Ignitus's power of fire into a crystal, and escapes to the sealed realm of the Dark Master. Ignitus fears that it is too late to stop her, but Spyro pursues Cynder and forces a showdown, eventually using all of his power in a final attack which defeats her, purging her of the Dark Master's influence and returning her to her true form, a young dragon the same size as Spyro. The realm begins to collapse in on itself; Sparx insists on making a quick exit but Spyro declares he will not leave Cynder behind with the Dark Master; though barely, Spyro is able to grab Cynder and escape safely.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night continues from where the first game ended, with a new villain, Gaul the Ape King, arriving at the Well of Souls in an effort to usher in a new age of darkness. Spyro must unlock the secrets behind a series of strange visions that he is having and find the power to defeat this terrifying new force[4]. When fighting Gaul, Spyro falls through the Well of Souls. This, combined with the Well's beam hitting the celestial moon from right underneath causes Spyro to become possessed by the Dark Master, transforming him into "Dark Spyro". After defeating Gaul, he was unable to control his emotions and struggled to get out of his dark state until Cynder saves him, knocking him free from the Dark Master's influence.

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
In The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Spyro, Sparx, and Cynder emerge from the crystal. They meet Hunter, and learn that the Dark Master, Malefor, has returned. Malefor himself is a purple dragon like Spyro, but intends to cover the world in darkness and ultimately destroy it. Malefor nearly succeeds, but Spyro and Cynder confront and defeat him. Spyro seemingly sacrifices himself to repair Malefor's damage and Cynder chooses to die with him, telling him she loves him. Their fate is left ambiguous, but they are seen flying through the air together at the end of the game.

Skylanders series
In the Skylanders series, like The Legend of Spyro series, Spyro originates from a rare line of purple dragons in a faraway land. His adventures and heroics were chronicled by the Portal Masters of Old. He was eventually invited to join the Skylanders by Master Eon and lives in Skylands as one of the protectors.

Skylanders: Imaginators
Spyro acts as a guide for players within certain levels of Skylanders: Imaginators, alongside other popular Skylanders.

Crash Nitro Kart (Game Boy Advance)
Spyro is an unlockable character in the Game Boy Advance version of Crash Nitro Kart. He is unlocked after winning against Emperor Velo XXVII|Velo for the first time. In contrast to his traditional depiction as a hero, Spyro races for Team Trance and uses Uka Uka for his mask.

Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy
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.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled
Spyro is an unlockable DLC character in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. He can be unlocked in the Pit Stop for 1,500 Wumpa Coins, and he is also featured in the Spyro & Friends Grand Prix. Spyro has high speed but with low acceleration and turn. His signature kart is the Spyromobile, and his signature course is Spyro Circuit.

Personality
"'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!' –Sparx (Spyro: Year of the Dragon manual)"

In the first Spyro the Dragon, Spyro has a mischievous and bratty personality. Through much of his adventure, he mostly focused on defeating Gnasty Gnorc and was eager to defeat him. The two sequels, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, feature Spyro as less cocky and more levelheaded. He has minimal interest in love, as he lost his chance with Elora in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and regarded the scene of Hunter and Bianca falling in love as a "sad sight".

In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, Spyro is friendlier than in the first three games. In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Spyro was given a cocky personality, even more than the first game. His arrogant personality was retained for subsequent games.

In The Legend of Spyro series, Spyro's personality is largely different than the main Spyro the Dragon series. Spyro is young and compassionate towards others and he is always willing to help them no matter what happens. Spyro doesn't ask for rewards and is just happy 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.

In the Skylanders series, Spyro is described as strong-willed and young at heart, but has a headstrong and arrogant attitude.

Physical appearance
Spyro is a purple dragon with both yellow horns and wings, and a light-colored belly. 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 Spyro: A Hero's Tail.

Abilities
Spyro's main attacks involve him charging at opponents with his horns and breathing fire at them. Spyro can use his wings to glide but needs to utilize certain powerups to fly around freely. He spits arrow-shaped fire bursts instead of a continuous stream of fire.

In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro learns new abilities from Moneybags in exchange for treasure. This includes the ability to swim underwater, where Spyro can charge at enemies but can only blow bubbles instead of fire. He also learns to climb up certain walls with his claws and the headbash maneuver. Spyro retains these abilities in later games.

In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, in addition to his fire breath, Spyro can collect magic runes that allow him to breathe lightning, ice, and bubbles that he can use to catch lost baby dragonflies. In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Spyro rescues fairies that grant him the power to breathe lightning, water, and ice.

In Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, Spyro learns how to fly short differences by himself, and in the opening screen, Spyro is also shown to be flying independently. Certain quests in Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs depict Spyro with the ability to fly outside of speedways or special stages without the use of power-ups.

In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, Spyro learns to cast various magic spells and to perform the art of Dragon Kata.

In The Legend of Spyro series, Spyro can breathe and manipulate fire, ice, electricity, and earth. Once he learns to use all four elements, he can use a fifth energy-based element known as "Aether", which only purple dragons can use. In The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, Spyro acquires the "Dragon Time" ability, which allows him to slow down time. Spyro can fly infinitely in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, having become a teenager, and is also playable as Dark Spyro when consumed by Dark Aether.

In the Skylanders series, Spyro can control every element in Skyland, although he still prefers to use fire. He can harness nearby darkness, allowing him to become Dark Spyro.

Sparx the Dragonfly
Spyro and Sparx have been best friends ever since they were still in eggs. Sparx follows Spyro and acts as his health indicator, and helps him collect treasure scattered throughout the game world. If Sparx disappears, Spyro will be left vulnerable, but Spyro can replenish Sparx by finding butterflies for him to eat, which are usually acquired by attacking smaller animals such as sheep. Spyro generally respects the other dragons, but is impatient with more senior ones and often tries to leave as they are talking.

In The Legend of Spyro series, Spyro and Sparx were almost like brothers, as Spyro was adopted by dragonflies at a young age. When Spyro found out that he was adopted, Sparx followed him to find out the truth about his past. Spyro and Sparx may have their differences such as Spyro occasionally gets annoyed by Sparx's sarcastic comments and Sparx being annoyed by Spyro's decisions of choosing a path of which he thinks could lead to danger, the two are almost never seen without each other.

Ignitus
Spyro shares a strong "father-son" relationship with Ignitus. Usually when Spyro doesn't have much confidence in himself, Ignitus believes that he will succeed in his destiny to restore peace into the world. Upon Ignitus' captivity by Cynder, Spyro felt guilty when he failed to save him. However, after Terrador's training sessions, he and Sparx go after him. During Malefor's reign, Ignitus leads Spyro and a now redeemed Cynder to confront the Dark Master to the burned lands where he uses up all of his powers to clear the path. Spyro, shocked in horror, transforms into "Dark Spyro" (a form channeled by Malefor through Spyro's emotions) and attempts to rescue him, only to be stopped and calmed down by Cynder.

Cynder
His relationship with Cynder is has also been a key element throughout the series. Since Cynder began as an antagonist, Spyro was indifferent and tried to stop her. Once learning the truth from Ignitus that Cynder was a stolen egg by the forces of darkness, Spyro confronted her and after her defeat, she shrunken back to her original small form leading Spyro to bring her back to where she came from. However, Cynder felt greatly responsible for what happened and leaves the temple. Upon meeting the Chronicler and learning the truth about Cynder, Spyro ignores his wishes and searches for Cynder. There have been some debate over Spyro's relationship with Cynder.

Being the only female dragon of the series, many believed that Spyro and Cynder share a "romantic relationship", similar to Link and Princess Zelda's relationship. At the end of The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Cynder says "I love you" to Spyro.

Voice actors
English:
 * Carlos Alazraqui (1998)
 * Tom Kenny (1999–2002, 2018–present)
 * Jess Harnell (2004–2005)
 * Elijah Wood (2006–2008)
 * Josh Keaton (2011–2015)
 * Matthew Mercer (2016)
 * Justin Long (TV series) (2016–2018)

Japanese:
 * Akiko Yajima (1999–2000)
 * Manabu Ino (2013–present)
 * Masahito Kawanago (TV series) (2016–2018)