Gnasty Gnorc

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This article is about the main villain of the first Spyro the Dragon game. For the name of the realm, see Gnasty Gnorc (realm).

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Gnasty Gnorc
Gnasty Gnorc's artwork from Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Species:	Gnorc
Gender:	Male
First appearance:	Spyro the Dragon (game) (1998)
Latest appearance:	Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! (2021)
Portrayed by:	Michael Gough (1998, 2018-19) Jess Harnell (2004)

“Ugly?! That does it!”

– Gnasty Gnorc, Spyro the Dragon (game)

Gnasty Gnorc is a large Gnorc who first appeared as the main antagonist in Spyro the Dragon. He later returned as one of the supporting villains in Spyro: A Hero's Tail. As the first major villain Spyro defeats, Gnasty is referenced in nearly every game in the classic series.

Pronunciation

His name is pronounced as "Nasty Norc," with the Gs being silent. However, the interviewer in the opening and ending cutscenes of the first game humorously mispronounces Gnasty's name as "Guh-Nasty Guh-Norc."

Personality

In his debut, Gnasty Gnorc is very smart, and calculating, as shown when he executes his plot to take over the Dragon Realms and freezes the Dragons in crystal with ease. Despite this, he is a mean, ugly, greedy, unruly, bad-tempered, and "nasty" Gnorc who hates Dragons. He is also extremely cowardly, seeming to run at the slimmest sight of danger. The Dragons see him as unintelligent, and he is sensitive about his appearance and will not hesitate to attack those who stand in his way. Gnasty also resents the Dragons for banishing him to the Dragon Junkyard and constantly insulting his appearance. This eventually drives him to launch a full-scale, coordinated assault on the Dragon Realms.

Despite his seemingly simplistic mannerisms, Gnasty prefers to use his tactical efforts over brute force; even when facing off against a smaller dragon like Spyro he fights very defensively, keeping his distance and attacking from the other side of obstacles and traps. He always seems to have a trick up his sleeve. Whether if it's hiding the keys used to get up to him, or jumping on receding platforms, Gnasty will attempt to trick his foes until the end.

In A Hero's Tail, Gnasty Gnorc has drastic changes in his personality. He is not cowardly as he once was, and he stands his ground throughout his entire fight with no intent on leaving. He is also much calmer at first but still has a generally short temper when insulted or threatened. He also seems to be much more arrogant and confident in his abilities than before. Gnasty still appears to have a battle strategy, but his temper gets the better of him, and because of this, he attacks more aggressively, which leaves him open for attack. Despite the rivalry between him and Spyro, Gnasty seems to have gained some respect for Spyro's abilities. He sometimes acts like he is superior to Spyro as well, saying things like he defeated Spyro in the first game, even though he secretly knows that Spyro is better than him. He obtained a new layer of armor that is immune to fire, electric-based attacks, and changed his entire battle strategy from the first game, to try and beat the dragon.

Abilities

After learning a bit of magic on his own, Gnasty Gnorc can conjure a few spells. In the first game, Gnasty casted a spell that turned the dragons into crystal statues by shooting a green blast of magic out of his club. He uses this against Spyro in a way that causes damage, although Spyro's ability to withstand the crystallization may be due to Sparx's magic. Gnasty Gnorc also created a spell that turns the beautiful Gems of the dragon realms into gnorcs to be part of his army. In A Hero's Tail, Gnasty Gnorc can shoot electricity from his hammer by using the power of Amp, a fairy trapped inside his club.

In Crash Bandicoot: On The Run, he generates a shield that can only be damaged by projectiles, in this case Boom Berries, that come into contact with the shield.

Gnasty also uses his club as a close-range weapon, smashing it on the ground to harm adversaries. If he hits it on the ground hard enough (mainly when he's in a cave), boulders will fall. In Crash Bandicoot: On The Run, the strength of Gnasty slamming his club on the ground can create surging shockwaves towards his enemies.

Despite his burly appearance and use of magic, Gnasty is an outstanding runner. In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty can run long distances, perform tight turns, and fast maneuvers with ease. He can also jump distances without slowing down.

Story

History

Gnasty Gnorc was originally an inhabitant of the Dragon Realms, but as time went on, he found it hard to live with the Dragons' rules and customs. He became chaotic and unruly as he gazed at the Dragons' treasure stock of gems that were not only beautiful to look at but also showed him the reflection of his ugly mug. As time went on, Gnasty began causing mischief, which soon escalated into trouble in the Dragon Realms as he began learning and meddling with magic. So the Dragons banished Gnasty to a wasteland world known as the Dragon Junk Yard, where he was far enough away to do whatever he wanted without hurting any other residents.

File:GnastyGnorc SpyrotheDragon1 Screenshot.jpg

Gnasty Gnorc in Spyro the Dragon

After a while, Gnasty claimed the junkyard as his kingdom and renamed the wastelands "Gnasty's World." He realized, however, that his power was nothing without minions to command. After a while, he found a spell that can turn gems into Gnorcs and other unsightly beasts. So he began "borrowing" the Dragons' treasure and creating soldiers out of them to serve his cause. The Dragons knew of this, but believed it would be best to let it be for the time being, as they thought that even with such man-power, Gnasty was still no threat to them.

Dragon Realms Invasion

While most inhabitants of the Artisan World saw Gnasty as no threat, there were some concerns among a few. One day, during the creation of a documentary video for the DNN (Dragon News Network), Lindar, when asked about Gnasty Gnorc, called Gnasty "ugly" and other derogatory terms, while reassuring the interviewers that Gnasty was of no threat to the Dragon Kingdom. Gnasty, who was watching, became enraged, and encased every dragon in crystal (except for Spyro, apparently due to his small size). He then sent his Gnorcs throughout the Dragon Realms to recover all the gems they could find to make into more soldiers and to deal with any dragons that may have avoided imprisonment. He also hired thieves to steal the remaining twelve dragon eggs in an attempt to fully exterminate the Dragons. Gnasty Gnorc placed a single boss in charge of each one of the realms: Toasty, Doctor Shemp, Blowhard, Metalhead, and Jacques. Since Spyro was essentially the sole remaining Dragon, he took it upon himself to free all the other Dragons, recover the gems and eggs, and defeat Gnasty and his armies.

Several of the dragons Spyro freed went to Gnasty's World, presumably to battle Gnasty themselves. However, Gnasty simply re-froze them in crystal during their counter-assault, eventually being rescued once again by Spyro. The dragons then decided that letting Spyro infiltrate Gnorc Cove and take on Gnasty Gnorc might be best.

In the final battle between Spyro and Gnasty Gnorc, Gnasty constantly fired beams at Spyro (which don't encase him in crystal, but rather harm him instead, possibly due to Sparx's protection), all the while standing safely on a ledge too high for Spyro, forcing him to chase down a thief to get the key needed to open the door to another thief to get another key to reveal a stepping stone, to reach Gnasty. Once Spyro reached Gnasty, the big Gnorc ran away. Spyro chased Gnasty down throughout the realm and got close enough to flame him. Afterward, Gnasty entered a lava tunnel, with Spyro in hot pursuit. The young dragon got to the end where Gnasty was waiting, and Spyro flamed the Gnorc a second time, finishing Gnasty Gnorc off and ending his threat.

After Gnasty's defeat, Spyro went on to Gnasty's secret treasure trove to find all the rest of the treasure Gnasty took from the dragons, which can only be done by freeing all the dragons, retrieving the lost dragon eggs, and recovering all other gems in the realms 100%. The final cutscene had Spyro being interviewed by the DNN. Spyro commented that in spite of his flaws, he found Gnasty to be a worthy opponent. At this moment, Tomas and Argus were re-imprisoned in crystal by blasts of magic, apparently fired by Gnasty, who had survived his defeat by Spyro, prompting the young dragon to comment "Here we go again."

Spyro: Year of the Dragon

Gnasty appeared in the epilogue along with Ripto, where they were shown discussing the "Spyro problem." In the Spyro Reignited Trilogy however, this epilogue scene wasn't included.

Spyro: A Hero's Tail

In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Red, an evil dragon, hired Gnasty Gnorc and his Gnorc army to assist him in his plans. When Spyro confronted Gnasty the second time, Gnasty claimed that he was the one who defeated Spyro, but Spyro corrected him. During this battle, Gnasty stood his ground without running away, and he took far more hits to defeat. Additionally, Gnasty's new armor made him immune to fire breath, meaning Spyro had to attack his exposed underpants. In battle, Gnasty also used electricity as his primary attack, which he generated from the magic of Amp, a fairy trapped within his hammer. Upon his defeat, Amp was freed and rewarded Spyro with Electric Breath.

Other game appearances

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

"Here to defeat Spyro again!"

In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Gnasty Gnorc appears along with Spyro and Hunter for the Spyro & Friends Grand Prix. During an interview with CTR TV, Gnasty interrupts Hunter the Cheetah and growls to the camera that he is in the Grand Prix to "defeat Spyro again,” despite him having never actually defeated the young dragon. In the game, Gnasty Gnorc is an unlockable turn-based racer and has a signature kart, the Gnasty Ride.

Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!

“Face the classic Spyro villian in COTR! But you gotta be quick, as the cowardly leader of the Gnorcs will run when things get tough! Even though his appearance might not show it, Gnasty Gnorc is a tactical genius who should not be understimated!”

– Crash Bandicoot: On The Run! Gnasty Gnorc's character profile

For the Battle of the Dragons event in the Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! spinoff mobile game, the defeat of N. Tropy left open a portal to the Dragon Realms, allowing Gnasty Gnorc and Dark Spyro to enter Crash Bandicoot's dimension and take over three Spyro-themed lands. Spyro soon followed after them, but the portal to the Dragon Realms was broken in the process. Thanks to Crash and Coco's efforts, the Dragon Portal was repaired and Dark Spyro was banished back to his dimension. Gnasty Gnorc however, is still at large in Crash's universe.

Profiles

“Wanna guess who's back? Having been banished from the Dragon Realms long ago, Gnasty has returned to team up with Red to form a diabolical alliance.”

– Spyro: A Hero's Tail game manual, page 9

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ナスティ・ノーク	Nasuti Nōku
Russian	فëîًà

Voice portrayals

Voice Actor	Appearance
Michael Gough	Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro Reignited Trilogy Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Jess Harnell	Spyro: A Hero's Tail

Voice portrayals in other languages

Language	Voice Actor
French	Unknown (Spyro the Dragon) Patrice Melennec (Spyro: A Hero's Tail) Patrick Mancini (Spyro Reignited Trilogy)
Italian	Alessandro Ricci (Spyro the Dragon) Gianni Quillico (Spyro: A Hero's Tail) Antonello Governale (Spyro Reignited Trilogy-Present)
Japanese	Katsuhisa Hōki

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gnasty Gnorc/Gallery.

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  Spyro: A Hero's Tail

Trivia

• Gnasty Gnorc is one the two bosses of Spyro the Dragon, whose realm portal is hidden within a giant dragon head, the other one of the two being Toasty.
• In the first cutscene in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro mentions that he and Sparx had not visited Dragon Shores since they "kicked Gnasty Gnorc's butt."
• In Year of the Dragon in Enchanted Towers, Hunter claims he created a skateboarding move called "the Gnasty Gnorc." This move can be performed by doing two front or backflips and two side rolls.
• In Enter the Dragonfly, Ripto claims he first found Crush and Gulp "begging for work from Gnasty Gnorc."
  • Speaking of which, Gnasty was originally going to appear in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly as co-antagonist alongside Ripto (hinted at in the Year of the Dragon epilogue) but did not because the creators were forced to speed up production for the winter release.
• In Shadow Legacy, one of the books in the Dragon Shores hotel mentions Gnasty when it summarizes the plot of the first game.
• Despite being the final boss in the first Spyro the Dragon game, he is defeated in merely two hits. Most of the previous bosses are defeated with at least three hits. The actual challenge of the fight is reaching him.
• In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc holds his staff in his left hand, implying he is left-handed, but in A Hero's Tail, he holds it in his right hand, implying that he might be ambidextrous.
• In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Gnasty wears his armor from Spyro the Dragon under his Hero's Tail Armor.
• The symbol on Gnasty's shoulder plates in A Hero's Tail looks similar to the bottles found underwater in Coastal Remains in the same game.
• In an unreleased prototype build, Gnasty Gnorc would spawn Gnorc soldiers to try and hurt Spyro, in the final section of the level.
  • In this build, Gnasty could also be hurt with a charge.
• The case and manual for the first game show Gnasty Gnorc with silver-plated armor. However, his armor is gold and looks different in the game itself. In A Hero’s Tail, he wears the silver armor.
  • In the Reignited Trilogy, it appears Gnasty wears an updated version of the gold armor.
• During the CTR TV introduction to the Spyro & Friends Grand Prix, Gnasty Gnorc claims he defeated Spyro when it was actually Spyro who beat him. This is a reference to Spyro: A Hero's Tail where Gnasty Gnorc claimed he defeated Spyro in battle before the Gnorc was corrected by Spyro himself.
• In Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, his name is misspelled as Gnasty Gnork.