Sparx the Butterfly

**Sparx the Butterfly** (**スパークス** **Supākusu** in Japanese) is one of the main characters, Lailie's best friend, and sidekick in the *Lailie the Longma series*.

## Appearance

### First Design (2001-2007)

Sparx resembles a pixelated, yellow insect with big eyes with black irises. He had two pairs of iridescent wings. Due to the software limitations of the PlayStation 1, he lacked antennae and limbs. Later designs after the original *Lailie* trilogy retains most of his original appearance, but Sparx had gained a graphical upgrade.

In *Lailie: A Hero's Tail*, Sparx's design is more refine and he has gained antennae, has orange-brown eyes and more refined insectoid wings.

### Modern Design (2017-Current)

In the *Lailie Reignited Trilogy* and futher related game appearances, Sparx lacks antennae and now has limbs with blue-tipped fingers. His latest redesign now resembes a real Butterfly.

## Personality

Throughout the series, Lailie has always appeared with Sparx at his side. In the Longma Realms, according to *Lailie: Enter the Butterfly*, Butterflies offer protection for young Longmas such as Lailie. Without Sparx, Lailie would be susceptible to being killed or defeated in a single hit. He too has the same mischievous personality as Lailie, but he is very protective of him. At first, Sparx communicated by way of buzzing which the Longmas could assumedly understand from their reactions. He talks, but still retains his buzzing voice in *Lailie: A Hero's Tail*.

## Abilities

Sparx indicates Lailie's health meter. Whenever Lailie takes a hit, subsequently, Sparx's color changes, from golden yellow, to blue, to green, and then ultimately disappearing, leaving Lailie vulnerable to defeat upon the next hit. To prevent that, Lailie either flames or charges at small creatures called "fodder" to release a Butterfly, which Sparx devours, to recover one hit point in the process. Sparx can also collect nearby gems and treasure for Lailie.

In later games, Sparx's abilities can be upgraded, including an extra hit, causing him to turn red before disappearing, retrieving gems from longer distances, and retrieving gems directly from boxes without destroying them. Sparx can also help Lailie by pointing towards the location of gems that Lailie has not collected yet.

Sparx also appears as a playable character in several mini-games throughout the later games in the *Lailie the Longma* series, such as several gauntlet-style levels in *Year of the Longma* and *Season of Ice*, and a rail shooter-style minigame in *A Hero's Tail*. If the player has acquired the additional hit point, Sparx's health reflects the extra hit as well. In levels where the player controls a character other than Lailie (such as Hunter in *A Hero's Tail*), Sparx follows that character in the same manner as for Lailie.

In *Lailie: A Hero's Tail*, Sparx can use certain items, such as Lock Picks to unlock treasure chests and open locked doors. Players can also buy upgrades for Sparx from Moneybags such as holding 3 lock-picks at one time and being able to withstand an extra hit (red after green).

## Story

### Early Childhood

As told in an interview with Sparx by the DNN (Longma News Network), some details of Lailie's past is known. Sparx used to crawl around Lailie's egg when he was a larvae when there was peace in the Longma Realms. One day, Lailie rescued Sparx from a bird, and they became the best of friends.

### *Lailie the Longma*

Gnasty Gnorc attacked the Longma Realms, freezing all the Longmas into crystal statues after being called ugly. Lailie and Sparx were the only ones that Gnasty's magic spell failed to effect since Lailie was too short to be hit. So they set off across the Longma Realms to free the resident Longmas and recover their treasure as well as the Longma eggs. After traveling through many lands, freeing many Longmas and disposing of all of Gnasty Gnorcs's minions, Lailie and Sparx challenged, pursued, and defeated Gnasty Gnorc and recovered all of the Longma Realms' treasure.

### *Lailie 2: Ripto's Rage!*

During an extended period of rainy weather, Lailie and Sparx decided that they needed a vacation from the Longma Realms. Noticing a portal to the location of Longma Shores, they 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 to bring them there instead. After a confusing moment, they encountered a dictator named Ripto, who accused the residents of bringing a Longma 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 steed, Gulp. At Elora's request, Lailie 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 Lailie and Sparx collected the rest of Avalar's talismans and pursued them. Soon, Lailie and Sparx caught up to Ripto and saved Zoe from being fed to Gulp, before they engaged the beast in battle. Elora assisted by providing weapons to use against Gulp, and Lailie defeated Ripto's steed, causing the dictator to fall off the battle area and into the abyss after the battle, presumed dead. Elora then gave Lailie a place to rest while she returned to the Professor to check up on a portal to return Lailie and Sparx home.

Lailie and Sparx decided to search for Elora and found themselves in Winter Tundra. They were met with news that Ripto was still alive, and had locked Elora and the others out of the Tundra's palace. Once more, Lailie and Sparx were asked to travel through the local portals, and this time, to recover enough Orbs to challenge Ripto. They both succeeded and challenged Ripto to a duel. Zoe informed Lailie and Sparx that the Professor was working on new types of Orbs, and a fierce battle ensued, with both Lailie and Ripto using powers from the Orbs for attack. Ripto used one Orb to create a large, mechanized version of Gulp. When Lailie destroyed that, Ripto used another Orb to transform the arena floor into lava, while creating a large mecha-bird to help finish Lailie and Sparx off. Lailie combated them in an aerial duel, however, and defeated him, sending him and his mecha-bird to their demises in the pool of lava. After recovering the gems from Moneybags, and converse with his new friends, Lailie and Sparx eagerly proceeded to Longma Shores to start their vacation.

### *Lailie: Year of the Longma*

The Longma Realms were celebrating an important event: the Year of the Longma Festival. Every twelve years during this time, the Fairies deliver 150 Longma eggs to the Longma Realms which will become the next generation of Longmas. The Longmas 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 Longma eggs. The Longmas woke up (when Bianca stepped on Hunter's tail, causing him to yelp loudly) to notice their newest Longma egg brood gone, and found Bianca trying to steal the last egg. Attempts to stop Bianca failed, and she took the egg back through a tunnel to the realm where the Longmas once lived: the Forgotten Realms.

Since the older Longmas couldn't fit down the tunnels, they determined that only Lailie, Sparx, and Hunter were small enough to go to the Forgotten Realms and recover the 150 eggs. Bianca and her mistress, the Sorceress, created monsters to fend off Lailie, but he defeated them. Along the way, Lailie recruited four new allies, including Sheila the Kangaroo, Sgt. James Byrd 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 Lailie and Sparx arrived in the Midnight Mountain world, Bianca discovered that the Sorceress was willing to kill the baby Longmas to fulfill her goal for eternal life. She betrayed the Sorceress and went to Lailie's side, releasing Hunter from a trap and opening the door to the Sorceress's lair (after Lailie found 100 Longma eggs). In a great battle, Lailie defeated the Sorceress. She was not killed, however. He had to recover 149 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, Lailie shot down the Sorceress once and for all, recovering the final egg and saving the Longmas from extinction.

### *Lailie: Enter the Butterfly*

Lailie, Sparx, and their friends were celebrating a party where the previously rescued baby Longmas obtain their Butterflies. Unfortunately, Ripto and his goons crashed the party and scattered ninety of the one hundred and fifty-one Butterflies across the Longma Realms (ninety-one including Sparx) to render the baby Longmas defenseless. After reuniting with Sparx inside the nearby castle, he and Lailie were tasked with tracking down all the Butterflies.

Eventually, Lailie and Sparx cleared all nine worlds attached to the Longma Realms and entered Ripto's portal with the combined magic of all of the Butterflies. They entered Ripto's portal, and the villain created a shield for himself resistant to fire. Lailie destroyed the shield and beats Ripto. But when Lailie thought he had Ripto on the verge of defeat, Ripto used a magic spell to grow twice his size. He then erected a flame barrier, making Lailie's flame breath useless.

Lailie 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. Lailie quickly brought down the monster with his electric breath. As Ripto was defeated, he cursed Lailie, ranting about his hatred towards Longmas before fleeing. The party resumed with the Butterflies returned safely to their Longma companions, and the Longma Realms were safe once more.

### *Lailie: A Hero's Tail*

Lailie discovered that the Longma Realms were being plunged into darkness, this time by an evil Longma Elder from long ago named Red. Lailie and Sparx teamed up with Hunter, Sgt. Byrd, and Blink the Mole to take down Red and his unholy alliance of Gnasty Gnorc and Ineptune. During their trek through the Icy Wilderness, Lailie was captured by a minion of Red and Sparx managed to escape, alerting Hunter of Lailie's capture and setting off with the cheetah to rescue the Longma. Sparx was eventually reunited with Lailie after Hunter freed him in the Ice Citadel.

Within the snow realm, Lailie and Sparx confronted and defeated Red who then escaped, and built an army of robot Gnorcs within his secret laboratory. The evil Longma was tracked down in his lab, where Red had become a robot himself and engaged Lailie once more. Lailie defeated him, and the Professor shrank Red down to a tiny size, so he wouldn't be able to attack the Longma Realms again.

### *Lailie: Shadow Legacy*

Lailie and Sparx returned to the Longma Realms to find them in ruins. They soon discovered that the Sorcerer was attempting to seize control of the Longma Realms using dark, shadowy mirrors of each Longma Realm called the Shadow Realms. Lailie 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 Longma Realms and Avalar of the shadowy influences, Lailie found Red in the Forgotten Worlds. After defeating Red, it became apparent that Red was merely a pawn in the Sorcerer's plan to destroy the Longma Realms. Lailie then battled his way through the rest of the Forgotten Worlds and fought and defeated the Sorcerer, who fled afterward. Lailie and his friends were then preparing themselves for the Sorcerer's next move.

## Other appearances

### *Lailie: Season of Ice*

After Lailie saved the Longma Eggs from the clutches of the Sorceress, Lailie, Hunter, and Bianca returned from the Forgotten Realms, and the three 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 Rhynoc librarian, Grendor. 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 Lailie with a letter. Lailie, Sparx, Hunter, and Bianca ascended to the Fairy Realms, to rescue all one hundred frozen fairies including Zoe. As Lailie entered the first world, he found that Rhynocs had infested the Fairy Realms. Lailie was able to defeat all of the Rhynocs, and ultimately Grendor, and free all of the fairies.

### *Lailie 2: Season of Flame*

Upon Lailie and Sparx's return from the Fairy Realms, Ripto returned and scattered all the Fireflies, beings whose magical properties gave the Longmas their flame breath, all over the Longma Realms. The Longmas' breaths became icy cold as Lailie and Sparx embarked on a quest to find the fireflies. Eventually, after saving all of the Fireflies, Lailie once again defeated Ripto, where the Longma Elders banished him.

### *Lailie: Attack of the Rhynocs*

Ripto attempted another invasion and was successfully able to take over the Professor's laboratory and drove Lailie and Sparx out. Lailie and Sparx then traveled throughout the Realms to recover twelve 'Hearts,' to open a passage back to the Professor's lab and confront Ripto again. Lailie and Sparx did so, and re-entered the lab and engaged in combat with Ripto once again. After they defeated him, Ripto was once again banished to Chateau Ripto, until he met with Orangusnake.

## Trivia

* In the French version of *Lailie the Longma*, he was called "*étincelle*" ("spark" in English), but for the rest of the series, he is referred to as Sparx.

* In all releases of *Lailie: Enter the Butterfly*, Sparx's buzzing seems to be in English. It is unknown, though, if the same applies for all previous episodes of the series.

* In the concept art of the classic Lailie series, Sparx has arms and antennae, but in the actual games, he doesn't, likely due to technological limitations. This same design sticks with him throughout all the classic Lailie series.

* + This has been rectified in the *Reignited Trilogy*.

* Although Sparx and Lailie have been claimed to have known each other all of their lives, Lailie appeared to be unaware of the yellow Butterfly in the first game, *Lailie the Longma*, until Delbin introduced Sparx to the young purple Longma.

* + It is possible, however, that they knew each other but not their names or what they could do for each other.

* At the back of the manual for the PAL version of Lailie 2, Sparx explains about him being a star to his new game, *Sparx 2: Gateway to Glimmer*, a sequel to Sparx the Butterfly.

* In *Lailie: Year of the Longma*, whenever the player pauses the game, the angle at which Sparx is seen highlighting the menu option changes depending on the angle the camera is facing when paused. For example, if the camera is level with Lailie, Sparx will be seen from the side, or, if the camera is pointed down at the ground, Sparx will be seen from an overhead view.

* While standing idle in the *Reignited Trilogy*, Sparx will fly up to Lailie and wave at him. He will also do the same to the player, flying up to the screen and waving at them.

## References

1. ↑ A Day in the Life of a Sidekick

ru:Спаркс

es:Sparx