Ripto

Ripto (リプトー Riputō in Japanese) is an antagonist and one of Spyro's greatest opponents in the Spyro series, who first appeared in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!. He is a short dinosaur (basically Riptoc) and a persistent enemy of Spyro, appearing in several games. Ripto has two minions, Crush and Gulp, who serve him and carry out his orders.

Personality

Ripto is a despicable madman who enjoys power simply for the sake of it. He delights in causing all sorts of trouble and havoc with his magic, and is known for his general disgust for Dragons. In truth, Ripto despised his small stature, and he took it out on the world to prove that his wrath was much bigger and scarier than his modest size suggested. Frustrated, short tempered and spiteful, Ripto pulled off deception and trouble that would suit a large, intimidating creature. One thing is for certain: he's an ill-tempered villain who despises being called short (this is displayed when Spyro called him "shorty").

Like the Forgotten Worlds' evil queen known as the Sorceress, Ripto is a dictator who typically sends out his minions, Crush and Gulp, to do his dirty work (though they are both unintelligent).

Abilities

Ripto's only known ability is to conjure various magic spells at his disposal using his scepter. However, as a dinosaur, he was unable to properly use magic like Dragons do. When acquiring three of the same powered up Orbs, he can either unleash waves of fire from his Scepter, breathe blast of acid, or surround himself in a blue energy barrier that can harm his enemies.

Story

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

As a Riptoc who hated dragons, Ripto enlisted Crush and Gulp at Molten Crater in order to help him wage war on their race. When attempting to warp from one world to another, the threesome were accidentally intercepted by the Super Portal in Avalar thanks to Hunter's mistake. Upon arrival, Ripto set about enslaving Avalar and all of its realms. Thinking fast, Elora took measures to hinder his progress, shutting down the Super Portal to prevent reinforcements (most likely his Riptoc minions who would not yet appear until the events of Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly) from arriving, and delegating Zoe and her fellow fairies to scatter the orbs (which power it) across all the realms of Avalar.

File:Ripto, Gulp and Crush.jpg

Ripto, Gulp and Crush in Avalar.

Sometime afterwards, Ripto trailed Hunter, Elora, the Professor, and Zoe to the depths of the Glimmer and watched them summon a dragon (who turned out to be Spyro) by means of a portal. After destroying the portal that brought Spyro into Avalar, Ripto became enraged at the sight of the dragon. The tyrant was forced to retreat, however, when Gulp accidentally devoured his scepter during a distraction made by Zoe, but not before vowing to deal with Spyro later.

During his reign in Avalar, Ripto succeeded in turning the citizens of some of the realms against each other, causing outbreaks of war between some realms and within others. These quarrels are soon resolved by Spyro when he travels to each realm and intervenes. Spyro battled and defeated Crush and Gulp successfully. At the climax of Spyro's battle with Gulp, Ripto seemingly met his end when the throne he was sitting on tilted back and he plummeted into the abyss of the Autumn Plains homeworld.

However, Ripto survived and managed to steal the Super Portal's power crystal for a new scepter before locking himself into the castle in the Winter Tundra. In his arena, Ripto tried to test the power crystal on his new scepter on three sheep, but the fodder ran off before the tyrant's attack could reach them, angering him. Spyro arrived and volunteered to be a target for Ripto's power crystal, mockingly promising to stand still. Ripto agrees but found that Spyro is prepared to fight to the bitter end. During their final battle, Ripto conjured a magically-created, mechanized version of Gulp, as well as a large mechanical bird, both of which he used for attacking and protection throughout the conflict. However, Spyro ultimately triumphed by knocking the tyrant into a pool of lava.

In the epilogue of the original game, it is revealed that Ripto survived his battle with Spyro and was being used as a toy by one of Spyro's friends, an adult dragon.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon

In the original epilogue of Year of the Dragon, Ripto and Gnasty Gnorc were holding a summit to discuss "The Spyro problem". A picture of Ripto can also be found on the underside of Spyro's Skateboard, and a skateboard trick, the Raging Ripto, is named after him.

While technically not Ripto himself, the game's second boss, Spike, not only bares a striking resemblance to Ripto, but also fights in a very similar manner to Ripto's first (and technically second) phase during his Ripto's Rage! fight.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

One year later, Ripto successfully attacked the Dragon Realms, scattering the Dragonflies far and wide and leaving the young dragons defenseless. Once again, he was foiled by Spyro during a battle in which he turns into a giant monster.

Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy

Later, Ripto formed an alliance with Dr. Neo Cortex to destroy their enemies, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. They start by genetically modifying Ripto's "Riptoc" minions and disguising them as Crash and Spyro, leading the two heroes to believe they are against each other. Instead of fighting one another like Ripto and Dr. Neo Cortex had wanted, Spyro and Crash worked together to defeat their arch-nemesises and free the world once again.

Gallery

Ripto/Gallery

Trivia

• The manual for Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer says that Ripto was picked on at school as a child. He became so used to not joining in with games that now he only wants to ruin everyone else's fun.
• Ripto got his name because Spyro's Japanese Katakana name (スパイロ) looked like the word "Ripto."
• He appeared in the epilogue of Spyro: Year of the Dragon with Gnasty Gnorc discussing the "Spyro Problem." A picture of him can be found, oddly enough, on the underside of Spyro's skateboard.
• In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, a skateboard trick, the Raging Ripto, is named after him. This is performed by doing either two front flips or two black flips and three side rolls, essentially a Gnasty Gnorc with an extra roll. It is the highest scoring trick in the game, giving 3000 points the first time it is performed.
• As a dinosaur, Ripto apparently has a good sense of smell, as when he arrives in Avalar, he sniffs the air to conclude dragons weren't there, and in Spyro's arrival in Glimmer, Ripto immediately smells Spyro's presence before actually noticing him.

  File:Scepter Error.png

  The scepter error

• Ripto is one of the few main villains to make numerous recurring appearances in the Classic Spyro games, despite his apparent defeat in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!.
• Despite the implication that Gulp had swallowed Ripto's Scepter in Ripto's Rage! prior to recreating it with the Power Crystal, during the boss fights against Crush and Gulp and the "Gulp Defeated" cutscene, Ripto is actually seen holding his Scepter.
  • This is later corrected in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
• Despite Ripto's apparent hate for dragons, one of his servants, Crush, is a riptoc that somewhat resembles a dragon, only his wings are VERY tiny (barely noticeable in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!), is given a club, and supposedly cannot breathe fire.
• Ripto bears a very strong resemblance to Lord Balthazar, a villainous sorcerer from the Smurfs series.
• Ripto is very similar to the actor Edward G. Robinson.
• Emperor Percival Tachyon, the main antagonist in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, is rumored to be based on Ripto: they are both evil dictators who hate the species that the protagonist is (Ripto hating Dragons, Tachyon hating Lombaxes).
  • Tachyon also uses a scepter, but it's unknown if he is a wizard, like Ripto.
  • Additionally, they both have rather short stature.