History Characters / TheLegendOfSpyro

* ClimaxBoss: The Destroyer is the weapon used for Malefor's world destruction plot, it's fought near the end of the game in a dramatic, high-stakes battle, it's the final obstacle before the Burned Lands where Malefor's forces reside, and it's immediately followed by [[spoiler:Ignitus' death]].

* ArcherArchetype: He's a serious, noble and no-nonsense individual, who travels through the wilderness seeking to oppose the forces of evil.

[[quoteright:307:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2022_03_06_092125_5.png]]
[[caption-width-right:307:The Elemental Spirits as depicted in the console version of ''The Eternal Night''.]]

* DropTheHammer: He's shown in flashbacks to have a huge war hammer and wielded it against the dragons, but it's never actually seen in the game proper.

* ColorWash: Despite being a gray dragon in ''The Eternal Night'', Étranges Libellules changed his colors to bright blue in ''Dawn of the Dragon''.

* PurpleIsTheNewBlack: Despite being a black dragon in the previous two games, Cynder's scales were suddenly made purple/violet in ''Dawn of the Dragon'' with no explanation other than it was the choice made by the game director of ''Dawn of the Dragon''. The characters in the game, particularly the Hermit, still call her the "black dragon" regardless.

* WorldsStrongestWoman: Prior to the first game: Malefor is still imprisoned in Convexity and Spyro doesn't even know he's a dragon, and thus Cynder is pretty much unopposed in terms of sheer power. To note, the four most powerful dragons, the Guardians, are no match at all for her and its implied Gaul is weaker than she is. Even when Spyro gets trained enough to stand a chance, he needs to unlock Aether to defeat her. As of Dawn, she's regained enough of her power to be on par with Spyro and after Malefor's demise, is most certainly this alone with Spyro [[spoiler:assuming she actually survived]].

* AncientEvil: He's at a bare minimum ten generations older than Spyro, but it's implied while he's the first one before Spyro, Malefor claims there were more purple dragons between him, meaning he's likely much older than that.

* AncientEvil: He's at a bare minimum ten generations older than Spyro, but it's implied while he's the first one before Spyro, there were more between them, meaning he's likely much older than that.

* ArchEnemy: To Spyro and Cynder. Notably, while Ripto was this prior, Malefor seems to have become Spyro's nemesis on a meta level, with both ''Skylanders'' incarnations being depicted as one of his strongest foes and always having a personal grudge on him.

* BackFromTheDead: Malefor was killed when his fortress collapsed on top of him and his soul was trapped in Convexity, but he is resurrected by Gaul on the Eternal Night.

* CompositeCharacter: Similar to how Gnasty Gnorc was cutoff from the Dragon Realms, Malefor was banished from them. They both waged multiple wars on the realms afterwards, they both used magic to raise armies where there previously were none and they both ultimately managed to conquer the Dragon Realms, for a time. Like Ripto he blindsides the supporting cast in Spyro's absence, proving the defeat of [[CoDragons his two figurative dragons]] did not save the day. Like The Sorceress, he wanted to kill every dragon that would have hatched during the Year Of The Dragon but ended up using one (or two) to further their plans and they also both transform their minions into forms that better suit their needs. Outside of the original trilogy, he's also similar to The Sorcerer, a purple dragon who turned against the other dragons and made one of them to do his bidding.

* FallenHero: Malefor was formerly a prodigy who was meant to usher in a new age for the planet. Unfortunately his ambition for power got to his head and twisted him into an omnicidal monster.

* HiddenAgendaVillain: Until the third game, Malefor's goal has been to escape his prison with no clue to what his goal will be when he escape. Although he wages war against civilisation, his true goal isn't revealed until later in the game: which is to use the Destroyer to annihilate the planet.

* InvincibleVillain: Malefor is borderline unstoppable with how he always turn any setbacks into his favour. Best displayed within ''Dawn Of The Dragon'' as despite the heroes' efforts, nothing dents Malefor's plan of wiping out all life. It takes to the very end of the game for his evil to be reversed and even then it was only due to Spyro having the magic capabilities to.

** There's also the fact that apart from the spirits of the Dragon Elders pulling him into the Earth's core, nothing seems to hurt him. Also, getting buried under his own mountain didn't seem to hurt him, though he couldn't dig himself out until the Portal of Convexity was opened and had to wait until the Night of Eternal Darkness.

* MadeOfEvil: The Chronicler describes Malefor's evil as so strong that it ripped the earth open and created the Mountain of Malefor, causing his own fortress to collapse on him.

* SealedEvilInACan: Malefor was imprisoned in the Well of Souls for trying to destroy the world and his thirst for power growing out of control. Well, he was banished. His imprisonment ended up being his own doing.

* WouldHurtAChild: Malefor tasked Gaul to have his forces to smash the unborn dragon eggs to stop the prophecy of the purple dragon to commence. Killing children isn't enough for Malefor as he also used his dark magic to twist Cynder into a cruel monster to wage war against his foes, keeping her aware of her actions.

A race of mole-like people who live in the Munitions Forge, led by Mole-Yair. Spyro first meets them when their home has been taken over by Cynder's forces, and later crosses paths with them again after finding them imprisoned on the sky pirates' fleet.

A tribe of fierce feline warriors who inhabit the valley of Avalar. While they once coexisted peacefully with the dragons, they developed a deep distrust of their former allies after Malefor's rise, blaming them for their misfortunes, and retreated into isolationism. As such, when Spyro and Cynder appear on their doorstep, they're less than pleased.

* FantasticRacism: They deeply fear and mistrust dragons, as they believe them to be source of all the misfortune they're experienced.

* InformedAbility: Despite having mastery over all the Dragon Elements (including the unseen Water and the corrputed ones such as Poison, Fear and Shadow), Malefor only uses Fire, Ice, Fear and Dark Aether attacks during his boss battle.

* FlatCharecter: He is an evil king that serves an evil dark lord. There is not much more to him than that, persoainlty wise. Although he mentions getting revenge on the dragons, he is given no further backstory nor is it explained what he actually wants revenge for. Although it could have something to do with why he is missing an eye.

* IdiotBall: Instead of placing the purple and rest of the dragon eggs (which Ingitus states are vital to the survival of their race) they were charged with protecting inside of Warfang, a city with a fortified wall and cannon protecting it, they chose to put the in a swamp temple with very little in the way of actual defenses to it.

* BewareMyStingerTail: His tail ends in a large knobby club similar to an ankylosaur's. We've only seen him use it in a brief flashback of the isle-wars in ''A New Beginning''.

* CardCarryingVillain: A rare ''dead serious'' example. The Dark Master is his self-appointed title, but he's not the least bit comical, and he's more than earned it due to his mastery over darkness.

* GutturalGrowler: He has a very deep, growling and raspy voice.

* EvilIsSexy: Teasingly invoked by Sparx in ''A New Beginning'', when Spyro tries to ask Ignitus why she is an adult when they are from the same clutch of eggs.
-->'''Spyro''': But if we come from the same place, why is she so, so...\\
'''Sparx:''' Evil? Monstrous? Big? Sexy? Oops, did I say that?

* DeathByIrony: He's the Guardian of Fire, but dies in the flames of the Belt of Fire that surrounds Malefor's domain.

* DemotedToExtra: He only receives one short line of dialogue in ''Dawn of the Dragon'', and generally receives less focus than any other Guardian

* ElementalPersonalities: Cyril, the guardian of ice, is intelligent, calm and haughty.

The Earth Guardian and the third dragon Spyro meets, Terrador was imprisoned within the Munitions Forge. Unlike the others, he actually faced Cynder in combat. He is the reasonable one of the four along with Ingitus.

* TheDragon: In the first game, while under the effects of Malefor's magic, she is a leading minion for him and captures the Guardians in order to release him. Notably, while she shares this position with Gaul, the fact Gaul needed to weaken Spyro before fighting him implies that Cynder was Malefor's strongest minion overall.

* MakeMeWannaShout: Her Fear element manifests as a powerful screech that can stun enemies.

* DarkIsEvil: He is darker in color than most dragons, calls himself the Dark Master, and seeks to destroy the world. But he's not as dark as Cynder, who was made the way she was by his darkness and ultimately proves to not be evil.
* DraggedOffToHell: After he's defeated by Spyro and Cynder, a group of dragon spirits heavily implied to be the spirits of his elders emerge from the core of the world, grabbing him and dragging him into the core of the world. Just where he ended up is up isn't revealed, but Hell is certainly a fitting place for him.

** Her adult form was confirmed [[https://www.deviantart.com/dragonoficeandfire/journal/Q-A-with-Jared-Pullen-lead-concept-artist-of-TLoS-591799120 during a Q and A]] to have been partially inspired of [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent's dragon form]], primarily the black coloration.

* ShoutOut: One of her ground-based poison moves is the [[Videogame/{{Metroid}} screw attack and she can use shadow to compress herself quickly through small places.]]

* DisappearedDad: Never really touched upon, but there is absolutely no word of what happened to her biological parents. Seeing as she was kidnapped while only an egg, but she would never have met her biological father. If he is still alive or was killed in the war is not even hinted at.

* ChildSoldiers: Not him personally, but he effectively uses them during the trilogy. The most obvious is Spyro, who is only twelve when fighting in the war to save the world. Prior to this, a cutscene showed Ignitus leading his battalion in battle, accompanied by a young dragon child. It does not seem to be out of cruelty but rather desperation. It is implied Ignitus and the other's guardians' battalions of soldiers have been wiped out by Cynder and the apes long ago, leaving only the guardians themselves and Spyro to fight in the present. That and Spyro was literally the only one powerful enough to take on Cynder, as the Guardians were unable to defeat her.
** According to the series concept artist, the child accompanying him in the aforementioned cutscene was intended to be Ignitus' battle squire, Pyra. Why he was on the battlefield as a child is unelaborated, however.

* ChildSoldiers: Not him personally, but he effectively uses them during the trilogy. The most obvious is Spyro, who is only twelve when fighting in the war to save the world. Prior to this, a cutscene showed Ignitus leading his battalion in battle, accompanied by a young dragon child. It does not seem to be out of cruelty to that he used them, however, as bgy the time Spyro comes around, it is implied Ignitus and the other's guardians' battalions of soldiers have been wiped out by Cynder and the apes long ago, leaving only the guardians themselves and Spyro to fight in the present. That and Spyro was literally the only one powerful enough to take on Cynder, as the Guardians were unable to defeat her.
** According to the series concept artist, the child accompanying him in the aforementioned cutscene was intended to be Ignitus' battle squire, Pyra. Why he was on the battle field as a child is unelaborated, however.