Cynder

Cynder is a black dragon who appeared in The Legend of Spyro series and became the primary love interest of the main character, Spyro. Originally a servant of the Dark Master Malefor, Cynder was the main antagonist in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning until she was defeated and freed by Spyro. She now seeks to find her own destiny, evolving into a heroine in the process.

Her Dark Form resembles an adult dragon. She is also known as Dark Cynder. her dark form is dubbed as Avatar Cynder, popularly referred as what is mentioned above.

## Appearance

Cynder is a black dragoness with a magneta underbelly, a blade-like tail made of iron and blade claws on her wing thumbs, big magneta wings, and six silver horns on her head. In her adult form, she wore two silver bracelets on her two front paws, and a silver "choker" on her neck and her tail made of iron, but she wears them again in Dawn of the Dragon. Also, Cynder has markings on her head, back, and forearms. When in the form she is in for the majority of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning she is larger than usual. Some other attributes of that form are her longer neck, different wings, and more adult face.

## Personality

After being kidnapped while still in her egg, Cynder was raised under the control of Malefor, an evil dragon known as the Dark Master. After all this, Malefor transformed Cynder into an evil adult black dragon with a personality that was truly horrible and cared about nothing but reviving her master with the Dark Crystals.

After Spyro freed her from Malefor's grasp, Cynder felt responsible for the suffering she caused everyone, even Spyro. As time passed, however, Cynder realized that Spyro really cares about her, and started to care about him in the same way. Her friendship with Spyro eventually blossoms into true love due to his heartfelt understanding of her, as it becomes shown in the middle of the third game. Cynder, in turn, begins to show some of her feelings. After Ignitus's death, she starts speaking to Spyro in a soft tone of voice from there on out. Spyro also shows Cynder that it wasn't her error while the other denizens still remember her corrupted days and despise her still, and the young black dragoness quickly takes on a more positive attitude, even admitting her love for Spyro.

Cynder and Spyro's companion, Sparx, don't seem to get along very well, mostly due to him still thinking that she is still evil, unlike Spyro, who truly understands her, or might be jealous of her garnering Spyro's attention rather than him. She always takes a more sarcastic personality when "conversing" with him. The argument between the two seems to be over when Sparx cannot accompany Spyro and Cynder to face Malefor, and the two know their differences should be saved for another time to come. It is assumed that Sparx is jealous of Cynder because Spyro is growing more close to her than he did with Sparx.

Like all heroines, Cynder is cunning, resourceful, brave, spirited, determined, independent, and is not afraid to speak her mind. Despite her damsel-in-distress role in the first two games, Cynder is far from passive and demure, and is indeed strong-willed. Since Cynder does not enjoy such roles of frail and weak heroines or letting other characters decide before she, like Spyro telling Cynder to follow his lead, she immediately responds in an indignant tone, "Why should you lead?'. Cynder's feelings are so strong that she wants to do all she can to keep her loved ones safe, and becomes brave enough to show Spyro hints about her romantic feelings before fully revealing them at the end of the game. she is like a strong-willed, but caring and considerate sister to the louge.

## Abilities

Having been exposed to Malefor's corruption, Cynder was granted abilities most uncommon. She has the ability to use Poison, Fear, Wind, and Shadow as her breath attacks, which were granted to her in Dawn of the Dragon. In her dark corrupted form in A New Beginning, Cynder was seen breathing Shadow Fire, but this ability wasn't included as one of her breath attacks when she returned to her normal form and size.

## Story

### A New Beginning

The black dragon Cynder is the main antagonist in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.

The story reveals that she has been in a war with the Dragon race, and the Guardian Dragons Ignitus, Terrador, Volteer and Cyril, and possibly other dragons. Ignitus was the only one who managed to escape and hide from Cynder. Spyro soon meets the Dragon Guardian of Fire, who tells Spyro that Cynder has managed to capture the three Guardian Dragons, and her army has taken control of the Dragon Temple.

After Spyro saves the three Guardians, it is explained that Cynder is utilizing the elderly dragons to charge up energy crystals to free the Dark Master. Moments after saving Terrador, Cynder retrieves the crystal charged by the Earth Guardian's energy, then chases Spyro and attacks him, until he is rescued by Ignitus, who gets captured after protecting Spyro from Cynder.

After learning how to utilize Earth, Spyro goes to Cynder's fortress to rescue the Fire Guardian. They begin to fight, but Cynder escapes to Convexity with the final crystal. The weakened Ignitus, exhausted from getting his energy drained, crawls to the floor and tells Spyro that Cynder was born in the same clutch of eggs that Spyro was in, making her the same age as Spyro. She was taken from the shrine when she was an egg and was corrupted by Malefor's dark energy, which made her grow at an unnatural pace.

Spyro follows her but arrives too late, as Cynder had already triggered the portal and provided Malefor with a way to escape. Once she sees Spyro, Cynder attacks him, willing to get rid of the purple dragon once and for all.

After a fierce battle, she is defeated by Spyro, and her body is freed from Malefor's control, changing her back into a young dragon again. However, the gateway to Convexity starts to implode after Spyro and Cynder's fight. Despite a difference of opinion between Spyro and Sparx, Spyro rescues Cynder and flees from Convexity, making a narrow escape.

Cynder is returned to the Dragon Temple, where the four Guardians apologize to her for not guarding her on the night of the raid. That night, Spyro goes to the temple's balcony, looking for any sign of Malefor's return, and Cynder soon joins him, as they both feared that Malefor wasn't defeated yet.

### The Eternal Night

It is noted that a number of weeks have passed between the events of New Beginning and Eternal Night (Sparx mentioned at the beginning of The Eternal Night that he hasn't able to sleep well for weeks since Cynder stayed at the Temple). In this time Cynder lived in the Dragon Temple with Spyro and the other Guardians. Shown in a teaser trailer for the game, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx enter a temple to help Spyro gain his powers back, using a magic circle, whereby the trainer can conjure up anything they think of inside the circle. When Cynder accidentally conjures up Gaul, Spyro ends up fending him off. This is probably one of the reasons Cynder leaves in the first place.

The story begins with Cynder departing from the Dragon Temple. Spyro catches up to her and asks her to stay, but Cynder refuses, telling him that she felt guilty about the things she did when she was under the Dark Master's control. She also tells him that she needs to find her own place in the world, despite Spyro telling her not to do so. Cynder soon runs off, leaving Spyro and Sparx behind.

Sometime later, Cynder is captured by a group of pirates, who intended to have her as a combatant in their stadium. Spyro is captured as well, and is soon made to fight other combatants. After beating his last opponent, he is shocked to find out that Cynder was to be his next opponent. Despite appearing to be evil again, the young dragoness reassures Spyro by telling him to fake the fight. However, the fight is interrupted by Gaul's Ape army, and Cynder is captured once again.

Later, it is revealed by the Chronicler that Gaul captured Cynder to leave her fate in the hands of the Dark Master, telling Cynder that he would either take her back for being a faithful servant, or destroy her. Spyro, who has developed feelings for Cynder since he rescued her, refuses to accept this as the truth, and goes to the Mountain of Malefor to rescue her. When he arrives at the castle, he is approached by Cynder, apparently wanting to fight him. However, this is proven to be a ruse as well when she tells Spyro to line her up with Gaul's staff. As the fight starts, Cynder makes an effort to snatch the staff, but Gaul catches her by the neck and throws her to the wall, knocking her out.

After Gaul and Spyro fight, the floor gives way under them and they fall to a lower level. The moons eclipse each other, and its evil energy zaps through Spyro, transforming him into Dark Spyro, who swiftly and cruelly defeats Gaul. After he flies back up, Cynder is horrified to see Spyro as a creature of darkness, and soon knocks him out of the beam, returning him to normal. Spyro apologizes for his inability to control his new powers, though Cynder forgives him, saying that he is with friends; she probably begins developing feelings towards Spyro for his determination to save her despite her past. However, as a result of Spyro's battle with Gaul, the mountain begins to collapse. Spyro recalls the Chronicler's words as he utilizes his Time Fury to freeze Cynder, Sparx, and himself inside a crystal, protecting them from harm as the mountain crumbles.

### Dawn of the Dragon

In The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Cynder becomes a protagonist alongside Spyro and is a playable character. Due to the game being set three years after The Eternal Night, Spyro and Cynder have been given a new look to make them appear older, but this may be due to the game being made by a different game developer.

The game begins with Spyro and Cynder being broken free of their crystal in the ruins of the Well of Souls by a group of Grublins. A pair of magical necklaces in the shape of snakes are attached to them whilst they lie unconscious, linking the two dragons together and preventing them from being able to move freely or away from each other. They are taken away to the Catacombs, and then pinned by the chain to the floor. After they wake up, they are forced to fight waves of Grublins, until a large Golem arrives and scares the grublins away.

Spyro and Cynder manage to break free of the floor, but remain tethered together, and they try to repel the Golem. When they fail to defeat it, Hunter saves them, telling them that he had been sent to find them by Ignitus three years earlier, much to their disbelief. He begins to take them to the dragon city of Warfang, but along the way, they are captured by Hunter's tribe, whose leader, Chief Prowlus, is distrustful of dragons because of Malefor and Cynder when she was under his control. After saving the village, Spyro volunteers to find a missing member of the cheetah tribe, and Cynder goes along. Along the way, they encounter an old hermit, who Cynder does not recognize. The Hermit insists that he knows her, however, recognizing her as the monstrous dragon from A New Beginning, telling her that even though her appearance has changed, her eyes remain the same, and that Malefor will find Cynder for betraying him. She appears visibly upset over this, but Spyro reassures her and tells her not to listen.

When they arrive at Warfang, Cynder assists in the city's defense. After the Golem is defeated, Spyro and Cynder are happily reunited with Ignitus and the other Dragon Guardians. She then asks Ignitus for a way to get rid of the chain she and Spyro are still wearing, though the great dragon replies that it is irremovable. As Cynder appears frantic that the chain will stay around her neck, Ignitus adds that the chain is more than a hindrance, but a reminder of the bond Spyro and Cynder share, and their destinies are intertwined. Cynder and Spyro turn to each other, and share what seems to be loving glance, which indicates that she is starting to fall in love with Spyro.

After Malefor declares his plan to end the world and lets loose the Destroyer, Cynder comes up with a plan to stop the immense Golem: destroying a dam holding back the water from a valley. With the Destroyer momentarily halted as a result, Spyro and Cynder try to destroy it, only to find that it is unstoppable. They decide the only other course of action is to face Malefor himself.

Ignitus takes the two through the Belt of Fire, sacrificing himself in the process in order to get them through. Spyro is upset over this and nearly goes back into the fire to save Ignitus, transforming into Dark Spyro in his grief. However, Cynder brings him back to his senses and comforts him in his despair by nuzzling up to him, reminding him that he's not alone. Soon afterwards, Cynder decides at first to give up, but Spyro reminds her that they mustn't otherwise their journey's been all for nothing. She agrees on his behalf, but hides her real reason (which is her love for him) and quickly says that she simply wants to rid herself of their chain. Together, they venture through the wastelands of the Burned Lands, the Floating Islands and finally arrive at Malefor's Lair. There, Cynder tells Spyro that she's scared, but despite that, they both confront Malefor after Spyro tells her to stay close to him.

Inside, Malefor begins the task of verbal corruption of Spyro, and states that they have more similar qualities than just their color. Spyro immediately begins to deny Malefor's words, and the Dark Master proceeds to release him and Cynder from the magical chain linking them. Cynder tells Spyro to not listen to anything he says, and it is then that Malefor claims that his influence over Cynder has not been extinguished, saying he had caused her to lead Spyro to him and that she tricked Spyro into resurrecting Malefor. Cynder at first denies his words, but gradually begins to become unsure over her actions in the past, allowing Malefor to once again unlock the darkness within her and turn her back to his cause. She begins to attack Spyro, who only shrinks away whilst Malefor continues to talk, claiming that there had been many purple dragons before them, and that their purpose was to destroy the world, not save it. He goes on to say that, during each age, the purple dragon would call upon the Golems of the Deep to bring about the "Great Cleansing". Spyro refuses to believe him, while Cynder continues to attack relentlessly.

After striking him several times, she growls at Spyro to fight back before demanding to know why he doesn't fight back. Disheartened, and possibly the thought of his friends and family dying when the world ends, Spyro tells Cynder that losing both her and Ignitus has left him nothing to fight for. Upon hearing those words and discovering Spyro's feelings, Cynder breaks free of Malefor's hold, and lovingly replies that there is always something. Enraged by the turn of events, the Dark Master chains Cynder back to Spyro and declares that she will share his fate before battling both dragons.

During their first phrase in the battle, the Destroyer manages to throw itself back into the Volcano from whence it came, thus completing its circuit and beginning the destruction of their world. Spyro, Cynder, and Malefor continue to fight, however, the Dark Master is soon thrown down to the planet's heart, a giant purple crystal, by a joint attack. He declares that he cannot be defeated. However, the spirits of the Ancients, the dragons who taught him all he knew, emerge from the purple crystal upon these words, and then proceed to drag Malefor into the planet's heart and sealed him away, much to his dismay and the awe of Spyro and Cynder.

With Malefor gone, the chain around Spyro and Cynder's necks disappears, but Malefor's plan is still underway as the planet began to break itself apart. Cynder apologizes to Spyro for her past actions, and Spyro forgives her, telling her that she shouldn't be sorry now that it's all over. She then wonders if this is the end. With Ignitus' words in his head, Spyro tells Cynder to get out of the earth's core, not wanting to risk her life should he fail. Not wanting to lose Spyro again, she refuses to leave him, and, as Spyro uses his powers as a purple dragon to try and prevent the world's end, Cynder whispers "I love you" to him. The world is then restored by Spyro's desperate endeavor as it was slowly being put back together, but it seemed that both Spyro and Cynder were killed as a result.

At the very end of the game, it is shown that Ignitus is now the Chronicler of the new age, and Spyro and Cynder are shown to have survived, flying above the Valley of Avalar, free of their chain and finally having their happily ever after, until the fateful visit from Lord Cobra, and really messing things up.

## Role in the series

As with Spyro, her role in the Legend of Spyro series remains largely unchanged.

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