Malefor

Template:Characterbox Malefor (マレフル Marefuru in Japanese), also known as the Dark Master (ダークマスター Dāku Masutā in Japanese), is the main antagonist of The Legend of Spyro series as well as the primary antagonist in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.

Malefor is in many ways the exact opposite of every Spyro villain in the Spyro series. Tying in with The Legend of Spyro series have a much darker setting, Malefor is depicted as completely evil, and possess no comedic elements to his character. He is Spyro and Cynder's archenemy and true villain of the series. Malefor tried to get rid of "all" of the dragon eggs in "The Year of the Dragon", to prevent the birth of another purple dragon like himself. During "The Year of the Dragon," his minions kidnap Cynder's egg, and Malefor corrupted her as his faithful servant in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Malefor was Cynder's master and used her to release him from the Convexity.

Personality

Malefor is depicted as completely evil, possessing no comedic elements. He is ruthless, sadistic, extremely cunning and deceitful, destructive, violent, and as his name dictates and represents, he is downright malevolent; the complete opposite of Spyro. While Spyro does good and wishes to protect the world he lives in, Malefor seeks destruction of it, and will use all he can to finish what he started.

He seems to personify the Deadly Sin of Gluttony for his uncontrollable hunger for power that has occurred since his corruption. He also possesses a fatalistic philosophy; believing it his fate and destiny to purify the world by destroying it so a new one would be created. Therefore, he most likely does not perceive himself as evil, more so as an anti-hero; using questionable means to accomplish a "noble" goal. Judging from his ruthless and purely sadistic nature, Malefor is especially a murderer as he killed millions of creatures in his "quest to fulfill the destiny of the purple dragon."

But like all villains, he undervalues the true power of love when he uses Cynder to kill Spyro for his nonacceptance of the alleged truth of the purple dragons' natures, only for her to break his bind when Spyro says he thinks there's nothing left to fight for.

Story

Early Life

Malefor was a purple dragon and a talented one at that. He first mastered fire, then ice, wind, earth, electricity, and many other elements none thought existed. The Dragon Elders willingly taught him how to master the elements, but his power was unlimited and he consumed everything. When he would not stop, the Elders banished him to exile. After that, he took on the title the Dark Master and built a fortress. He recruited an army not of dragons but of Apes and taught them how to artificially harness the power of the gems, which are the Dragons' lifeforce. His malice was so great, that it split the Earth and created a pit of despair called the Mountain of Malefor, also called the Well of Souls, where he was imprisoned. While his spirit was imprisoned in the Mountain of Malefor, his essence was trapped in Convexity.

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

During the Year of the Dragon, Malefor sent his Ape army to the Dragon Temple, under the command of his servant Gaul, the Ape King, to destroy all of the Dragon eggs to prevent the next Purple Dragon from being born. Though it might be that he really wanted to capture the Purple Dragon's egg so he could use him to free him, and used the idea of killing him to destroy the other eggs to prevent an overwhelming army against him or to scare his enemies. Gaul also captured Cynder's egg, so she could serve Malefor and bring him back. Gaul used Malefor's dark powers to corrupt and influence Cynder, transforming her into a large, evil dragoness with greater strength and agility at an unnaturally fast rate. Cynder and Gaul then set out to bring Malefor back.

Cynder goes on a journey to open the Convexity portal which imprisoned her master's soul. Her Ape army scatters and leaves the land in ruins. Cynder's ultimate plan is to capture each of the Dragon Guardians during a battle which may seem to be a ruse for her to snatch all the guardians while they were distracted to fend off their enemies, and drain their energies into crystals which she would use to release Malefor from his prison. Spyro, the newly born Purple Dragon, and his adoptive brother, Sparx the Dragonfly, travel across the land and rescue each of the four Dragon Guardians after Cynder drains their energies into crystals. She then goes to Convexity and places the last one into the portal containing her master. Spyro uses his full power and defeats Cynder, freeing her of Malefor's control and returning her to her normal size. As the portal opens, he saves Cynder and the three escape the collapsing Convexity dimension as Malefor's spirit emerges. After they get back to the Dragon Temple, Spyro and Cynder watch the sky, wondering if the Dark Master will soon return. While resting off the weakness from the battle, Spyro dreams of the battle and how he saved Cynder, hearing the Dark Master's voice in his head, calling his name.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night

Gaul and his Ape army find the Well of Souls and set up their base there. Gaul plans to resurrect their master on the Night of Eternal Darkness and release him from the Well of Souls to satisfy the Apes' lust for power and get their revenge. He also captures Cynder, who leaves the Dragon Temple because she still blames herself for what happened, to lure Spyro in his unaware stage. He tells Cynder that Malefor can either take her back as his servant or kill her. Cynder refuses and is held prisoner by Gaul. Spyro, who has developed romantic feelings for her, and Sparx set out to rescue Cynder and eventually make it to the Well of Souls where Spyro confronts and fights Gaul. During the celestial moons' eclipse, Malefor's dark influence takes control of Spyro's mind and he destroys Gaul just as he planned from the start. Cynder saves Spyro from Malefor. The Mountain then begins to collapse, trapping the three. Spyro uses his Dragon Time powers to save them, encasing them in crystal. After the eclipse, Malefor finally escapes from the Well of Souls after his master and secret plan succeeded, and plagues the world.

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

Voice actor: Mark Hamillthumb|300px|right

After three years of being trapped within a crystal, Spyro, Sparx, and Cynder finally awaken to stop Malefor from destroying the world. After going on a long journey, Spyro and Cynder make it to Malefor's Lair where they confront Malefor. He taunts Spyro by saying that they have more in common than just their color. Spyro denies that he is anything like Malefor, who frees the young Dragons of an energy chain that his minions had shackled around their necks in the beginning of the game. He then claims that his influence over Cynder has not completely diminished and that she had led Spyro to free him. Cynder both denies Malefor's words and says that she no longer knows, to which Malefor replies by taking control over her again and renewing her dark side. Malefor attacks Spyro through Cynder repeatedly while he assures Spyro that there have been many Purple Dragons before them and that the history of their kind has been to dominate the world and not save it; during each age, the Golems of the Deep and the Destroyer would serve the Purple Dragon in order to bring about the "Great Cleansing".

Spyro denies Malefor's statements and continues to be struck by Cynder while Malefor laughs maniacally. Cynder angrily asks why Spyro won't fight back. Spyro sadly declares that it is because Cynder has left him nothing to fight for. This breaks Malefor's hold on Cynder, and she lovingly tells him that there's always something (like their love). Malefor becomes enraged and chains Cynder to Spyro with the same energy cord around Spyro's neck, binding them together to kill them both. After a long battle against Malefor, Spyro and Cynder manage to defeat him. However, Malefor's servant, the Destroyer, manages to jump into the maw of the Earth, breaking it apart. Spyro and Cynder then fight him again while they are descending into the core of the Earth. After a final energy blast against Spyro and Cynder, Malefor is knocked to the Earth's crystal core, where he is pulled and sealed away into the crystal by several Dragon spirits that appear to be "The Ancients", the dragons who trained him. Spyro then uses his powers to reconstruct the world, slowly putting it back together and ending Malefor's malice for good.

Trivia

• Malefor may be a variation of the name "Valefar", a Christian demon and Duke of Hell.
• His name might be composed from the Latin noun malum (-i,neutrum) - evil; and Greek foreo - i carry; meaning ˝The carrier of evil˝, or maybe ˝The source of evil˝.
• The Dark Master (or DM) is usually a name given to the main villain in an RPG.
• Malefor is similar to many embodiments of evil, especially from films. His name seems to be the male version of Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty," who also becomes a dragon.

• Malefor may be more clever than he appears, and as parts of his plans turned out to be part of a ruse to trick Spyro in releasing the evil dragon, it may be that the rest from the start all were. It may be that Malefor pretended to send his Apes to kill Spyro, but since the young purple dragon would be the key to free Malefor, this action of assassination was probably itself a ruse to scare his enemies, and that maybe along with Cynder, who would be used to bring Malefor back with all his powers, Spyro's egg would also be stolen as well so he could be corrupted and used to free Malefor after Cynder completed her stage. And despite Ignitus' interference in saving Spyro from that fate, the young dragon's part would still be played, as he would be lured to the Mountain of Malefor to save Cynder, and unwittingly free Malefor. How Cynder seems to betray the people she loves though is unknown, but it seems Malefor was aiming to confuse Spyro and Cynder before their final battle.
• In the movie Dragons Destiny of Fire, there is a dragon called Vildrok that is very similar to Malefor because: both want to destroy the world, both are evil and both are the main antagonist, however Malefor is despised and far times more evil, bloththirsty, malevolent, cruel, ruthless than Vildrok.
• His Japanese name is translated in Korean as in: 마레후루. (Malehulu).
• In the Finnish version of The Legend of Spyro trilogy, Malefor's name is known as: Ärhämä.
• The fall of Malefor is very similar to the Satan one, which it's possible that it could mean Malefor could be a dragon incarnation of Satan, since he seems to be the ultimate incarnation of 100% pure evil. Not to mention his goal and belief and imprisonment and release made by his minions are similar to Satan's Digimon equivalent, Lucemon, who too was corrupted by his own powers, trapped in the Dark World, was released near the end of the series, and too seeks to destroy the world he dwells within to make a new one. They also both corrupted someone to help free them. Lucemon corrupted Cherubimon just as Malefor corrupts Cynder.
• The massive statue in the Dragon Temple training room and the dragon statue in the large shrine near the top of the Well of Souls are both statues of Malefor. Two more massive statues of Malefor also appear outside the temple of each of the elemental dream levels Spyro is taken to to regain his elemental breaths in The Eternal Night.
• Malefor is the only dragon in the Legend of Spyro who shows to have a reptilian puppil.
• Malefor's voice was so distorted that nearly no one could understand what he said, and instead had to rely on the subtitles.
• It is possible if he is the sorcerer from Spyro: Shadow Legacy.