Spyro the Dragon (character)

Spyro the Dragon is the titular main protagonist of the series and franchise of the same name.
== Character Development and History ==
=== Pre-History and Disruptor ===
Insomniac Games was founded in 1994 by Ted Price and named in 1995. Their first project, Disruptor, a first-person shooter, performed poorly, and Universal decided to contract them to create three games for Sony's PlayStation console. The poor sales disheartened the company, and they had decided to do something different for their next project. Due to the changing demographics for the PlayStation, at the suggestion of Mark Cerny, they decided to make a child-friendly game, with the success of games like Super Mario 64 making them decide upon a platformer as their genre of choice. It was at this point that the game was set in motion.
=== Character Conception ===
Spyro, as a concept, was originally brought up by Insomniac in-house artist Craig Stitt, who had an interest in the fictional beasts. With the dragon decided upon, the developers then began conceptualizing names and potential designs for the character.
In very early development, Spyro was depicted as green, but developers noted that he would blend into the grass in the levels too much. Additionally, as there were several other green reptile characters such as Gex and Croc already on the same console at the time, another color was decided upon to help Spyro differentiate from these characters. In early 1997, Spyro's purple color was chosen, due to it contrasting well with greens and other colors commonly found in various environments.Lessons in Color Theory for Spyro the Dragon. (Date Posted - May 2, 2000). Gamasutra.
Prior to deciding on a name for the character, Spyro was referred to as "Pete", a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 1977 Disney film, Pete's Dragon. Allegedly, this was nothing more than a codename for the character, picked in this manner to remind them to not "get sued" by Disney.Michael John on Twitter. (Date Posted - Mar 2, 2020). Twitter. The name carried over to much of the game's development time, and was even reported on by retail outlets as late as March 1998Game Informer report. (Date Posted - April 17, 1998). GameInformer. According to some developers, a second name - "Pyro" - was briefly used, being the Latin and Greek word for "fire." The name was altered to Spyro shortly afterwards, which would be the name that ultimately ended up sticking.
===Preliminary Character Designs===
Insomniac brought on illustrator Charles Zembillas and tasked him with creating their dragon with the mentioned caveats in place.
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 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 3-D (Three dimensional) program, so technical considerations and the final medium were something that had to be kept in mind while the conceptual sketches were in progress.The Origin of Spyro - Preliminary Concept Designs. The Animation Academy.
===Design Refinement===
The initial designs were rather large and bipedal and featured a rather crude, beaked dragon. After the first creative pass into the project, the producers came to an 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, that of a smaller, cuter, quadrupedal, a tiny pointed-nose dragon, was defined.
==Characteristics==
===Physical Appearance===
Spyro is a small, purple child dragon, with a yellow mohawk and horns on his head, yellow wings with orange webbing, a yellow spike on the tip of his tail, a yellow plated belly, purple eyes with heavy eyebrow ridges and grey claws. However, his design suffered a few changes over the years. For example, from the original trilogy until Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy. Spyro appears to be a relatively close recreation of his original HD Render used for official artwork, featuring pointy eyebrows that seem to float to a degree, a round head, and a "fatter" body. It should be noted that for Ripto's Rage!, Spyro's wings became longer and anatomically adjusted to be like bat wings, with "fingers" sticking out from the second joint.
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, his desgin became slightly more refined and expressive with a more compact and chubby body, smaller eyes, and smaller, rounder eyebrows. He was also given yellow spikes on his back that weren't present on his previous designs. The A Hero's Tail design would be carried over to Spyro: Shadow Legacy on the Nintendo DS. Funnily enough, despite these in-game alterations, the original high-defintion artwork was still used for promotional material, leading to some dissonance in the designs, at least for A Hero's Tail, which had more visible character models.
In Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Spyro's original design is furthermore refined and with it, even includes brand-new 2D artwork to replace the original, greatly reducing the dissonance in models and art. This new design is much more fluid than the original one, while also having him somewhat chubbier. His eyebrows are now properly attached to his face, but remain equally, if not more expressive than the originals. Spyro's purple scales are brighter, his purple back spines are sticking out and developing, and he has a more orange complexion on his underbelly, horns and head spines.
===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 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 and blunder.
As a young dragon in the first game, Spyro was mischievous, bratty, and somewhat of an upstart. Through much of his adventure, he mostly cared about taking down Gnasty Gnorc. 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 the original epilogue of Ripto's Rage! and regarded the scene of Hunter falling in love with Bianca as "a sad sight." In his adaption in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, Spyro's demeanor is significantly friendlier than that of his former and succeeding games, despite the limited number of cutscenes he's featured in.
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, he has become much more arrogant, and in more later outings, has 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.
In the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Spyro's overall personality seems to be more mature and friendly compared to that of the original trilogy. His first interaction with Elora is significantly more friendly, almost playful in tone. Alongside this, his interactions with the various dragons in the first game have been significantly lightened, and Spyro's tone has been made softer.
==Profiles==
===Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!===
*Manual
Spyro is the mischievious 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 even cautious, which sometimes gets him into trouble! That's why I stick around, to make sure nothing too serious happens to him!
==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 steady stream of fire. Certain levels in Spyro: Season of Ice and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy shows Spyro breathing fireballs. He even starts to learn how to fly on his own in Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy (for short distances). Certain quests in Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs depict Spyro at being able to fly outside of speedways or special stages and without the use of any power-ups. He is also seen flying on his own in the opening screen of Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy.
===Powerups===
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, and charge extremely fast. He can also gain powerups through orbs infused with powerup energy.
===Elemental Breaths===
Spyro was first given an elemental breath in Frozen Altars by an ice fairy, and was able to breathe ice as long as he remained in that world.
In Enter the Dragonfly, Spyro was given not only Ice breath, but electric and bubble breaths through magical runes and the Spirit Dragon. In Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs, Spyro has the Wind breath ability. This game also shows him being able to use superflame (without the use of powerups) by charging his normal fire breath. In A Hero's Tail, besides the traditional Electricity and Ice breaths, Spyro receives an additional water breath that he can use to activate water wheels to open new paths.
===Magic Casting===
In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, Spyro learns to cast various magic spells taught to him by the Dragon Elders. 
===Dragon Kata===
Under Sensei's tutelage, Spyro was taught the art of Dragon Kata in Shadow Legacy to combat the Shadow Minions of the Shadow Realm.
==Story ==
===Background===
As told in an interview with Sparx by the DNN (Dragon News Network), some details of Spyro's past are known and verifiable. Sparx used to crawl around Spyro's egg when he was a larvae, when there was peace in the Dragon Realms.DNN - A Day in the Life of a Sidekick. 1998. PlayStation. Spyro is, in fact, an Artisan Dragon and may have been born in Stone Hill, as the opening cutscene is set in Stone Hill for the first game.
=== 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 on DNN. The young Spyro and Sparx were the only ones that Gnasty's magic spell failed to affect due to Spyro being smaller than the other dragonsSpyro the Dragon Europe Press Brochure, and they set out across the Dragon Realms to free the other dragons and recover their treasure. After traveling through all six 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 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 be once again 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 network to bring Spyro and Sparx 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 struggle 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 fight, 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 the news that Ripto was still alive and had locked Elora and the others out of the Tundra's castle. 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 attacks. 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 Ripto 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 a group 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 hole to the realm where the Dragons once lived: the Forgotten Realms. Her master, known as the Sorceress, was beginning to lose her powers, since 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 down the holes left behind by the Rhynocs, 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 one by one. Along the way, Spyro recruited four new allies, including Sheila the Kangaroo, [[Sgt. 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 defected 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.
===Ripto's Revenge===
In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, Spyro, Sparx, Hunter and Bianca were having a celebration for 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 defeated Ripto. But when Spyro thought he had Ripto on the verge of defeat, Ripto used a magic spell to grow twice his size and created 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 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 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 in preparation for school, only for the Realms to be in ruins by an unknown evil force. They soon discovered that a villain named the Sorcerer was attempting to seize control of the world using dark, shadowy mirrors of each 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). Afterward, Spyro and his friends prepared themselves for the Sorcerer's next move.
==Other appearances==
===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 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 a letter before she herself was captured. Spyro, Sparx, Hunter, and Bianca ascended to the Fairy Realms to rescue all one hundred frozen fairies, including Zoe. As Spyro entered the first world, he found that Rhynocs had infested the Fairy Realms. 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.
===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,' 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.
=== Heroic 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.
===Stolen Treasure===
Spyro discovers that his treasure has been stolen and travels around the world until he traces it down to the Evil Twins' lair in Crash Twinsanity, discovering that some of Crash's enemies are trying to take it. As revenge, he toasts them, taking it back.
=== Racing Time===
In the Spyro Circuit portion of Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, Spyro appeared as one of the racers with his signature kart, the Spyromobile. The TV hosts Chick and Stew had Spyro with them during their CTR TV interview on the Spyro & Friends Grand Prix. The young dragon had decided to challenge competitors on his personal race track across the Artisans and Magic Crafters homeworlds, having also managed to gather Hunter the Cheetah and Gnasty Gnorc to race him.
In the game, Spyro is a speed-based racer, and can be bought in special character bundles after his Grand Prix. His playable character skins include Fairy Kiss, Ice Breath, Dark Spyro, Winter Guardian Spyro, and Space Spyro.
=== Dimensional Adventure===
In Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, the defeat of N. Tropy left open a portal to the Dragon Realms, letting in the dastardly Dark Spyro and Gnasty Gnorc, who proceeded to take over three Spyro-themed lands in Crash Bandicoot's dimension. Spyro soon followed, but the portal to the Dragon Realms was broken in the process. The Battle of the Dragons commences as Crash and Coco sought to defeat Dark Spyro and Gnasty Gnorc and help Spyro repair the Dragon Portal. With Crash and Coco's help, Dark Spyro was banished back to the dragon realm but Gnasty Gnorc still remains at large. The Dragon Portal was repaired during the event, and Spyro returned to his own dimension, bidding farewell to the bandicoots.
=== Ready to Rumble===
Spyro appears as a playable character in Crash Team Rumble Season 3.
==Relationships==
===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. Although, even though they are best friends, a dragonfly naturally must protect young dragons in the Spyro world. Overall, you'll never see one without the other too far away.
===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.
===Hunter ===
Other than Sparx, Hunter was one of Spyro's best friends and greatest allies. However, the two seem to have a playful rivalry, 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 felt he lost his friend to "The Plague of Love." Contrary to Spyro's beliefs, Hunter and Bianca revealed they were 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 first 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 over Avalar. She was very informative and kind, aiding him many times during his quest. When Spyro finally did defeat Ripto, Elora 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 original epilogue of Ripto's Rage!. However, the two are still quite close.
=== Crash Bandicoot===
At first Spyro saw Crash Bandicoot as an enemy that needed to be stopped after being tricked by Ripto and Doctor Neo Cortex. When both he and Crash discovered they were deceived, Spyro willingly joined forces with the bandicoot and Aku Aku to take down their respective archenemies, save their friends and their worlds. At the end of their adventure, Spyro and Crash parted ways on friendlier terms (with Crash having Spyro in a friendly headlock) and have even crossed paths again in several other Crash Bandicoot game titles, such as Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, and Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!. Their close friendship is similar to bash brothers, both engaging in competitive tournaments and stopping bad guys together.
===Ember===
Ember, a pink female dragon, was friends with Spyro but dreamed of marrying him. She constantly went 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 with this just fine, with both seeing each other as friends, and nothing more.
==Gallery==
::Main article: 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 done many popular voices, but she is 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 installments of the The Legend of Spyro series.
*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 and Crash were also both voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.
*Spyro also made a cameo appearance in the South Park episode, Imagination Land.
*Spyro may be at least 12 years old in Spyro: Year of the Dragon since the Dragon Eggs are brought to the Dragon Realms every twelve years, but there is no canonical age in-game.
**The development team of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning would later use Spyro's age for their take on the Spyro character in the Legend series.Interview: The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. (Date Posted - June 25, 2006). Vooks.Spyro, Cynder and Sparx's age. (Date Posted - Apr 23, 2015). DeviantArt.
*In one of the first game's commercials, the protesting sheep / lamb said Spyro is like "napalm on four scaly legs."
*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 Game Boy Advance 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 the original version of 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.
*In 2019, Spyro makes his first appearance in a Crash Bandicoot game since Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled as a part of the Spyro and Friends Grand Prix as an unlockable racer, which was released in September.
*Spyro has three separate cameos in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time: the first is a Spyro inflatable pool ring at the beginning of the first level, Rude Awakening. The second cameo is in the level Off Beat, where he appears as a balloon float in the parade. In Tawna's 100% ending illustration, a stack of games can be seen sitting beside her; among this stack is a copy of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
*In World of Warcraft, a Dragonkin Battle Pet called Spyragos is based on Spyro.
==References==
 
 
 
 
 
ru:Спайро
de:Spyro
es:Spyro
Category:Characters
Category:Male Characters
Category:Dragons
Category:Playable Characters
Category:Purple Dragons
Category:Spyro: A Hero's Tail
Category:Characters (Spyro the Dragon)
Category:Characters (Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!)
Category:Characters (Spyro: Year of the Dragon)
Category:Characters (Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly)
Category:Characters (Spyro: A Hero's Tail)
Category:Characters (Spyro: Shadow Legacy)