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Characters from the original Spyro the Dragon series. This counts all games through the original PS1 game to Shadow Legacy on the DS. While this series, The Legend of Spyro, and Skylanders technically share some characters, we'll be giving them separate entries, because their characterizations differ across the series. Legend of Spyro and Skylanders character entries can be found on their own pages.

Spyro

The Purple One himself. He's a young dragon living in the Dragon Realms. He can do the usual dragon things: Breathing fire, flying, hitting things with his horns... In the first game, he saved the world because he was the only dragon not transformed into crystal. After that, though, he quickly became a member of the Frequent World-Saver's Club.

Badbutt
Bag of Spilling: Averted. All of the powerups he purchases from Moneybags in the second game are retained in the third (with the exception of the superflame powerup).
Breaking the Fourth Wall: He makes quite a few nods to it, most notably in the first game.
Breath Weapon: Well, he is a dragon.
Celibate Hero
Spyro: It's a sad sight, Sparx. Another noble warrior falls victim to the plague of love.
- Though he does show something of an attraction to Elora.
Deadpan Snarker
Elemental Powers: In the original few games, he stuck with fire a lot, but as the series went on, he branched out. Including into bubble.
Evil Laugh: He does one after defeating Gnasty Gnorc in the original game.
Flight: He's usually restricted to just gliding, but with a powerup he can fly freely (but often with time limits).
Kid Hero: He seems to be twelve in the third game, though it's unknown how dragons age so he might be older than he looks. Even than he doesn't seem any older than mid-teens.
Mascot with Attitude
The Other Darrin: He went from Rocko (in the original game) to Spongebob.
Playing with Fire: Of course.
Use Your Head: No matter the game, his two basic attacks are usually "fire breath" and "hit it really hard with his horns." After the second game he also gets a headbutt-based variant of a Ground Pound.

Sparx

Spyro's best friend, and his health meter. With firefly magic, he keeps Spyro safe from harm, and picks up gems for him. Inquisitive and helpful, he and Spyro stick up for one another through thick and thin.

A Day in the Limelight: He has a few levels in the third game dedicated all to himself.
Dragonfly Companion
Platforming Pocket Pal
Suddenly Voiced: In A Hero's Tail, he suddenly started speaking intelligibly.
The Unintelligible: In Year of the Dragon and Enter the Dragonfly, he only talks in buzzy kazoo-noises.

Gnasty Gnorc

The main villain from the first game; a powerful and brutal gnorc who was banished from the Dragon Kingdom and allowed to reign free over the dragon dumping grounds, which became known as Gnasty's World. When a dragon called him ugly on a TV interview, he reacted by turning every dragon (except Spyro) into crystal, and turning their gems into gnorc minions.

Big Bad: Of the first game. He's later The Dragon to Red in Hero's Tail
Carry a Big Stick: He's always seen with a large mace which doubles as a magic wand.
Demoted To Dragon: In Hero's Tail he's Red's Dragon. Surprisingly, it takes a lot more effort to defeat him as The Dragon than when he was the Big Bad.
Disproportionate Retribution: As mentioned above, he enslaves all the dragons because they called him ugly. With that said, he was probably just looking for an excuse to use that spell, anyway...
Flat Character
Get Back Here Boss: He spends most of his boss fight running away from you.
Informed Attribute: His strength - he goes down in two hits. For clarification, that's one less hit than the gnorc thief enemies in the first level hub.
- More explicit in A Hero's Tail; when he pounds his mace to the ground, it's strong enough to send large lumps of rock falling from the ceiling, as well as create shockwaves. He also takes a lot more effort to take down compared to the two hits it took originally.
Power-Up Magnet: His ability to grab gems.
Shock and Awe: In A Hero's Tail he has trapped a sort of thunder-fairy in his mace, and thus he can cast lightning bolts and zap you.

Hunter

An anthropomorphic cheetah and another one of Spyro's good buddies, this, er, hunter lends his bow to Spyro's cause. Other than that—well...

Ascended Extra: In his first appearance, he exists just to offer the odd tutorial and accidentally start the whole Ripto takeover in the first place. By the third game he's playable in some levels. He's also one of few characters from the original games to be reimagined and reused in the reboot.
Butt Monkey: Getting his feet locked in solid rock, thrown into a wall, stuck in a hole, battered with attacks aimed at Spyro, being kidnapped...
Cast Herd: With Elora and the Professor in the second game, though he becomes independent in the third.
Cats Hate Water: Pops up once or twice in the third game, which is bizarre as he's quite happy to scuba dive on other occasions.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: When he does fight, he's actually pretty good at it, usually employing his bow, but also using anything from laser pistols to a fighter plane.
Depending on the Writer
Funny Animal: He's an anthropomorphic cheetah.
Lovable Coward: Sometimes he's like this. In the second game, when Ripto steals the power crystal from the Professor, Elora tells him to do something to stop him. His reply?
"Uh... Hey! Give that back! ...Well, I tried."
The Rival: Albeit a good-natured one, as he quickly comes to respect Spyro's capabilities during the second game.
Took A Level In Bad Ass: From a bumbling sports fan in the second game to a competent warrior in A Hero's Tail. Not to say that he was completely helpless before then, however, considering how he was able to combat the rabbit-monster that Bianca had accidentally created in Year of the Dragon.

Elora

A Faun from Avalar, and the series' first female character, she appears in Ripto's Rage as an associate of Hunter and the Professor. She is the one who tells Spyro to collect the Talismans and guides him on his quest to defeat Ripto.

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Cameo at the end of Year of the Dragon aside, she's never mentioned again after Ripto's Rage.
First Girl Wins: More like Only Girl Wins, but she and Spyro do seem to have an implied interest in each other.
Put on a Bus: Despite Hunter, Moneybags and the Professor having large roles in the games post-Ripto's Rage, Elora disappeared entirely except for a cameo at the end of Year of the Dragon.
The Bus Came Back: After being entirely absent for the whole game, she appears in a cutscene at the end of Year of the Dragon to celebrate Spyro's latest victory.
- Back for the Finale: Her appearance was at the end of Insomniac's last Spyro game.

The Professor

Another of Spyro's associates from Avalar, the Professor is a mole who is an unrivalled expert in superportal technology. He has a base in the Forgotten Worlds and later seems to move to the Dragon Worlds full-time. He has close ties to two other characters - his ex-lab experiment Agent 9, and his nephew Blink.

Absent-Minded Professor: Especially in the later games.
The Professor: Of course.

Moneybags

A greedy bear from Avalar whose main purpose throughout the series is to extort gems from Spyro (sometimes in ludicrous amounts) in exchange for services (i.e. unlocking levels, opening passages and teaching Spyro abilities) essential for progression. In Year Of The Dragon he is found in the Forgotten Realms where he apparently works for The Sorceress, though he is willing to help Spyro in return for a bribe.

Arms Dealer: According to some of his dialogue regarding the Zephyr/Breeze Harbor conflict.
Bears Are Bad News
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Year of the Dragon. Say no to him in Icy Peak, and he'll ask Spyro if he's saving up for another sequel. Hilarious at the time, but it soon stopped being funny given what happened next.
Broken Bridge: Which he'll fix for a fee, of course. At one point he even claims bridges are his most profitable business.
Cash Gate
The Chew Toy: He is systematically humiliated (much to the amusement of the players) in Year Of The Dragon, possibly as karmic payback for joining up with The Sorceress.
- In 2, if he appears in a cutscene, chances are he's only there to get hurt
- At the end of the second and third games, Spyro gets all the gems he'd given to Moneybags back. In the second game, it's his reward for defeating Ripto, whereas in the third, Spyro beats them out of him upon learning that Moneybags plans on auctioning a dragon egg in Avalar.
Demoted to Extra: He only appears once in Enter the Dragonfly, charging Spyro to cross a bridge which costs a piddling 200 gems. He's still mentioned in the manual despite this.
Enemy to All Living Things: He brings it on himself, though it is noteworthy that the game picks exceptionally docile characters for him to piss off (the usually reserved Sgt Bird even saves his ammo and delays an escape attempt just so he can fire it all on the bear. Worth It).
Greed
Honest John's Dealership
Jerkass: Moneybags is, all and all, a dick who will do anything for money without any care for morals or ethics. He is rather affable despite this - whenever he gets certain kinds of misfortune, that is.
Meaningful Name: He is usually seen carrying a bag with the "$" symbol (or a picture of a gem).
Moneybags Hates Your Guts
No Hero Discount
Only in It for the Money
The Quisling: In Year Of The Dragon, assisting the Sorceress for, of course, Money, Dear Boy.
Smug Snake

Bianca

A rabbit who starts out as The Dragon (no pun intended) to The Sorceress in Year of the Dragon, but after a Heel Face Turn falls in love with Hunter and becomes one of Spyro's allies. A skilled sorceress herself, her magical abilities have proven to be helpful several times.

Chickification: In the fourth game.
Defrosting Ice Queen
Even Evil Has Standards: See My God, What Have I Done? below for details.
Flanderization: Bianca has been subject to some... controversy in the later games, where her formerly-badass personality is replaced by a comparatively weak, stereotypical female one, only showing up to be the Token Girl or to use her Deus ex Machina spells.
- Heck, not even her voice or design seems the same.
Heel Face Turn: Later on.
How Do I Shot Web?: Still training as a magician and thus some of her spells don't quite end up as planned
Humanoid Female Animal: Most evident in Enter The Dragonfly.
Minion with an F in Evil: While working for the Sorceress. She repeatedly tries to pull off a villainous facade in front of the heroes in an attempt to scare them off, though constantly flops due to her meek and clumsy demeanor.
My God, What Have I Done?: Her reaction to the Sorceress announcing that she wanted the baby dragons for their wings, considering that Bianca had helped her to achieve this goal.
Sycophantic Servant/The Dragon: To the Sorceress, at least at first.

Sheila

The first unlockable ally in Year of the Dragon. Sheila is an Austrialian-accented Kangaroo who lives on a mountain with her three goat friends, who she been protects and takes care of. In Year Of The Dragon, she (along with all other playable characters except for Spyro and Sparx) was captured and imprisoned by the Sorceress' Rhynocs. After Spyro pays Moneybags to release her, Sheila becomes Spyro's ally against the Sorceress.

Beware the Nice Ones: She's a friendly and pleasant lass, but won't hesitate to trample any Rhynoc she encounters.
The Chick
Double Jump
Goomba Stomp: One of her main forms of attack.
Kick Chick
Team Mom: Seems to take this role toward the goats of Sheila's Alp.

Sgt. James Byrd

The second unlockable ally in Year of the Dragon. Sgt. Byrd is a flying penguin (yes, you heard right) who was raised and trained by hummingbird soldiers, and has a secret relationship with a fairy from Charmed Ridge. The Sorceress captured him for 'letting off rockets in the Fireworks Factory', as well as leading an uprising against her. He is later freed by Spyro, who he helps in fighting the Sorceress with his use of shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and dropping bombs on foes.

Authority Equals Asskicking: He IS a sergeant after all.
An Officer and a Gentleman: Sometimes.
Death from Above: He can pick up things with his legs and then drop them down to an enemy below.
Flight: His is less restricted than Spyro's (when the latter's not getting in his flying powerup anyways).
The Lancer
Macross Missile Massacre: As stated before, one of his main combat methods are his shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.
The Stoic: Much of the time he speaks in a professional matter common among military personal.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: While it is g-rated Bloodless Carnage, the fact James relies heavily on explosives makes him the most destructive of Spyro's allies.

Bentley

The third unlockable ally in Year of the Dragon. Bentley is a large yeti-like creature who wields a massive icy club and a vocabulary range to match. He lives with and protects his younger brother Bartholomew. He's been known to have a liking for magic shows and the noble sport of boxing. He lends Spyro his assistance after the dragon buys his freedom from Moneybags.

Beware the Nice Ones: Normally a nice guy, but if you mess with his little brother he WILL bring down the thunder.
Bigfoot, Sasquatch and Yeti
The Big Guy/Genius Bruiser
Carry a Big Stick: His Weapon of Choice
Mighty Glacier: He's very slow and can't jump very high, but he's the only character who can break hardened doors and chests without powerups.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He tends to talk like this, especially in his introductory cutscene.
Bentley: [to Moneybags] Why, you brazenly avaricious, duplicitous, larcenous ursine!

Agent 9

The fourth and final unlockable ally in Year of the Dragon. Agent 9 is a hyperactive laser-wielding monkey who was the Professor's student and lab assistant, with an itchy trigger finger and a marked dislike of Rhynocs. He can also pick up bombs for use against tougher enemies and obstacles. After Spyro frees him from imprisonment, he's ecstatic to help Spyro in his campaign against the Sorceress and her Rhynoc armies.

Blood Knight: Almost to the point of Ax Craziness. Not just restricted to Rhynocs either; he'll shoot random people in the butt just for kicks
Everything's Better with Monkeys
Evil Laugh: Does this when he finds the powerup mentioned below.
Frickin' Laser Beams: Uses a laser pistol as his main method of attack.
Keet: Especially in his introduction.
More Dakka: Can find a powerup that gives him this in his section of Fireworks Factory.
Motor Mouth
Throw Down the Bomblet
Trigger Happy

Ripto

The main villain of the second game. Ripto had enlisted Crush and Gulp to wage war before he was accidentally warped to Avalar by Hunter. Upon arrival, he set about enslaving the worlds in which his reign brought disaster upon Avalar until he was eventually defeated by Spyro.

Berserk Button: I! HATE! DRAGONS!
Big Bad: Of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. Returns as the Big Bad of Season of Flame, Attack of the Rhynocs and Enter The Dragonfly.
Card-Carrying Villain
Disney Villain Death: In the final battle he tries to flee via a mechanical bird. But after a dogfight with Spyro, he dies when he falls into a pit of boiling lava which was under the arena. However, he somehow survived that and returned for his revenge in the games mentioned above.
Evil Sorcerer: Played straight in the second game.
Large Ham: If you try to hit him with a standard flame breath of charge attack in the final battle against him in Ripto's Rage, he'll leap up and yell 'NO!", even though no damage is actually dealt to him this way.
The Napoleon
Obviously Evil: Just look at his ridiculously high collar and black cape.
One-Winged Angel: At the end of the final boss battle of Enter The Dragonfly he turns into a gigantic troll-like monster to try and kill Spyro.
Shout Out: His name is similar to the katakana for "Spyro".
Unexplained Recovery: How did he survive the lava pit?
Villainous Breakdown: When defeated in Enter The Dragonfly, he goes into a temper tantrum and yells about how much he hates dragons before escaping.

Crush

One of Ripto's minions next to Gulp. He wields a club as a weapon. He is defeated while battling Spyro when he accidentally causes rubble to fall from the ceiling, the rubble burying him.

The Brute
Boisterous Bruiser: Played fairly straight
The Ditz : Even among many other examples of Dumb Muscle, he stands out as being spectacularly stupid. When told to go through a portal — a technology so simple that you just walk through it — he stares at it in puzzlement, has no idea how to use it, and simply shakes his head in bewilderment when the fairies remove the orbs powering it.
Dumb Muscle: He loves using that club of his, but falls for fairly obvious tricks as a result.
Hoist by His Own Petard: His reliance on the club is used against him during his boss fight.
Hulk Speak: When he does speak; in his debut appearance, he never said a word and simply made animal noises.
Suddenly Voiced
Take A Level In Smartass: The epilogue to the second game revealed that he went on to improve himself through education, learning such concepts as 1+1=2.

Gulp

One of Ripto's minions next to Crush. He has two giant laser cannons strapped to his back. He is defeated while battling Spyro, but returns in the sequel.

All There in the Manual: Which reveals his Hidden Depths, namely that he would love to be a dancer who can cook.
BFG: The laser cannons mounted on his back.
Big Eater: His most distinguishing characteristic. He begins the game by accidentally eating Ripto's sceptre, is promised his favourite food (fairies) as a reward for helping Ripto, and begins many of his attacks by swallowing the required explosives (and can even heal himself by chowing down on the fodder that you could otherwise use yourself). Even his mechanical replacement in Ripto's fight copies his eating mannerisms.
The Brute
Boisterous Bruiser
Cruella to Animals: In the epilogue to the second game, Gulp is looked after in a monster sanctuary, implying that Ripto used to mistreat him.
Dumb Muscle: Not as bad as Crush, but still pretty dim.
Hulk Speak
Suddenly Voiced: Very briefly in the fourth game.

The Sorceress

The main villain of Year Of The Dragon. A vain, selfish, tyrant who ruled the Forgotten Realms. She kidnapped all the baby dragons during the Year Of The Dragons so she could extract their wings for use in a spell that would make her immortal, forcing Spyro to come rescue them. Bianca was formally her Dragon but once she discovered the Sorceress' true intentions, she performed a Heel Face Turn and helped Spyro defeat her.

Acid Pool: How she meets her end.
Big Bad: Of Year Of The Dragon
Bad Boss: Turns a lot of her minions into more powerful monsters against their will.
Disney Villain Death: Falls to her death when the flying saucer she was fighting Spyro in was disabled. Special mention for falling into acid! Not to say she didn't deserve it though.
Didn't Think This Through: The Dragons lived in her kingdom till she got ticked off and banished them. Only afterwards did she discover they were the source of her powers...
Evil Sorcerer: It's in her name.
God Save Us from the Queen: Ruled the Forgotten Realms and is as evil as they come.
Knight of Cerebus: Unlike Gnasty Gnorc and Ripto, her evil gets played completely straight and she lacks any sort of comedy.
Meaningful Name
Not Quite Dead: Is thrown into molten lava by Spyro and seemingly killed, but she claws her way out and fights Spyro one last time before being Killed Off for Real by falling into an Acid Pool.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: Her spell literally required the wings of 300 baby dragons to work. While it's not explained if it hurt them, both her wands were powered by a dragon egg.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show
Would Hurt a Child: Wanted to kill all 300 of the baby dragons she'd captured for their wings so she could cast a spell and become immortal. She mentions that she didn't need to kill them in the process of removing their wings, but doing so would stop them from squirming as she did it...

Ember

A pink dragoness introduced in A Hero's Tail, who is shown to have a crush on Spyro.

Fangirl
Innocent Blue Eyes
Interspecies Romance: Eventually falls in love with an armadillo in Shadow Legacy.
Rose-Scaled Girl
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: In addition to being pink, she has a necklace and a heart-shaped tail.

Flame

A supporting character in A Hero's Tail.

Hey, It's That Voice!: Voiced by Tara Strong, and sounds remarkably similar to Timmy Turner.
Palette Swap: Flame is basically Spyro with red scales instead of purple ones. There are some subtle differences (a wider snout on Flame, for example) but they're still really similar. Without going into the Model Viewer, it's hard to notice.

Red

The villain of A Hero's Tail. Formerly a dragon elder, his lust for power led him to be banished. He returns to the Dragon Realms years later, using Dark Gems to fuel his power.