Characters / Spyro the Dragon - Villains

Spyro the Dragon: Main Character Index
Heroes (Spyro) | Villains | Supporting

Every bad guy who appeared in the original Spyro the Dragon continuity. Visit the index here for other characters from the same canon.

Spyro the Dragon (1998)

Gnasty Gnorc

"Simple?! No threat?!? UGLY?!?! That DOES it!"

Voiced by: Michael J. Gough

"Spyro! It's been a while since I last defeated you in battle."

The main villain of Spyro the Dragon. A powerful, brutish gnorc, he was banished from the Dragon Kingdom and allowed to reign free over the dragon dumping grounds, which became known as Gnasty's World. A dragon calls him simple, non-threatening, and ugly in a TV interview, causing Gnasty to retaliate by casting a spell to trap every dragon in crystal, as well as turning stolen treasure into warriors. Gnasty's spell misses Spyro, who immediately sets out to torch his tush.

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• Acrofatic: He's around 7 feet tall and 500 lbs, with skinny legs, but is able to outrun Spyro with ease during the chase.
• Adaptational Sympathy: In the original game, he came off as more angry and spiteful for turning the dragons to stone for being called ugly, with the implication he was just using it as an excuse. In the Reignited Trilogy, he was shown to genuinely hurt by the comment and can earn audience sympathy for it.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Downplayed. Gnasty was never the best looker in the original Spyro series; no Gnorc ever was. Thanks to Reignited Trilogy being released on superior hardware, the dev team apparently ramped up the ugliness factor and made him outright abhorrent.
• Alliterative Name: Gnasty Gnorc.
• Armor Is Useless: In the first game, Gnasty dons a flashy suit of armor, and can be offed in two flame attacks by Spyro. Subverted in A Hero's Tail where he is legitimately invulnerable besides one open spot in his metal suit.
• Attack Its Weak Point: A particularly embarrassing one. In A Hero's Tail, he's hurt by hitting him in his Goofy Print Underwear.
• Bald of Evil: He's seen without his helmet in the intro to the Spyro the Dragon remake, and he doesn't have a hair on his head.
• Berserk Button: Unless you want to become a crystal statue, don't call him simple, don’t say that he’s no threat, and especially don’t call him ugly.
• Big Bad: Of Spyro the Dragon. He's later The Dragon to Red in A Hero's Tail.
• Carry a Big Stick: He's always seen with a large mace, which doubles as a magic wand.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: In A Hero's Tail, he can smash the ground with his club to make rocks fall from the ceiling.
• Costume Evolution: He wore a set of gold spiked armor in his first appearance, though his artwork depicted him with completely different silver armor instead. A Hero's Tail's version of him resembles his artwork more closely, though the design of the armor is slightly different (most notably the large circular breastplates) and he's given Goofy Print Underwear. The Reignited Trilogy goes back to a design resembling his Spyro 1 in-game model, albeit much more detailed and with new additions such as the belt from his artwork. His helmet also now resembles a Spanish morion with Viking horns.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite going down in two hits and being a Flat Character, he turns an entire kingdom of dragons into statues, twice according to The Stinger of Spyro the Dragon, and created an entire magical army out of gems, so he's a pretty powerful magician. Several dragons Spyro freed went to face him in the final level directly, but he just refroze them. Exemplified in both A Hero's Tail and Crash on the Run where he puts up a much more direct and persistent fight, despite his dim wittedness still being in full view.
• Demoted to Dragon:
  • In A Hero's Tail, he's Red's second-in-command. Surprisingly, it takes a lot more effort to defeat him as The Dragon than when he was the Big Bad.
  • Repeated in the Spyro season of Crash On The Run where he is (poetically) such for Dark Spyro, and gets even more of an upgrade in power.
• Dirty Coward: Gnasty Gnorc refuses to fight any dragon in head-to-head combat, and when Spyro gets to him, Gnasty has put himself on high ground where Spyro can't reach him. Until Spyro lowers the platform Gnasty's standing on, he'll continually fire magic spells and taunt the dragon... and when said platform lowers, Gnasty runs away at high speed and tries to get Spyro killed in a room full of lava.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He imprisons all the dragons because one called him ugly. He was probably just looking for an excuse to use that spell, but even if he was genuinely hurt by the comment as implied in Reignited, taking it out on the whole species goes too far.
• Dumb Muscle: Very physically intimidating and a Top-Heavy Guy, but not particularly bright.
• Evil Is Petty: The entire interview at the start of Spyro the Dragon pisses him off, but what pushes him over the edge is being called ugly.
• Flat Character: Originally follows the usual role of a brutish dopey Big Bad, but gets little development outside the opening cutscene, unlike Ripto and the Sorceress. This is Averted in A Hero's Tail, where he Took a Level in Dumbass, with Reignited retooling his first appearance accordingly.
• Fragile Speedster: He's faster than Spyro but can only take one more hit than him. Add in Sparx and Spyro can actually take more hits than the gnorc.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss:
  • He spends most of his boss fight in Spyro the Dragon running away from Spyro.
  • Repeated in Crash On The Run as par for the endless runner format. He puts up way more of an offence here however.
• Glass Cannon: He dishes out a lot of nasty spells and can throw a mean hammer, but isn't that good at taking hits back. In the first game he has less hit points than some of his mooks. He tries to get around this in Crash On The Run with a resilient shield to deflect attacks, but when left open he still has the least hit points out of all the main bosses in the game.
• Glurge Addict: Played for Laughs in Reignited Trilogy. Compared to the original, Gnasty is shown to have some serious self-esteem issues, and this is compensated for by him filling his treasure room to the brim with love letters, a self-portrait, and best of all, Fauxtivational Posters, with shamelessly degrading phrases such as...
  TEAMWORK
  Is for Gnorcs who can't do it themselves…
• Gonk: Lindar wasn't kidding when he called Gnasty ugly - he looks downright horrifying, especially in the remake.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: In the Reignited Trilogy, he has several scars all over his body, presumably from a previous scuffle he had with the dragons.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Red polka-dot boxers in A Hero's Tail. They're his weak point.
• Green and Mean: Him and most other gnorcs, though assuming the dragon egg thieves are not gnorcs, all the rest are his creations. The showman gnorcs who run the theme park in Dragon Shores are both green and friendly.
• Guest Fighter: Gnasty became a playable racer in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, motivated by wanting to beat Spyro at something (or, as he puts it, beat him again). He brings with him his own kart, the Gnasty Ride.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: His game model from Spyro the Dragon is seemingly wearing his breastplate on top and nothing below. Very curious since promotional material depicts him wearing a Leotard of Power under his armor. A Hero's Tail splits the difference by giving him Goofy Print Underwear.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Being called simple and not a threat does little to tick him off, but call him ugly and he'll turn you and your entire species to stone.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Treated as one of the most pitiful of the Big Bads due to being Dumb Muscle with an ultimately wimpy personality.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Heavily implied in the Reignited version of the first game. The intro shows Gnasty watching the dragon interview from his room, the walls now heavily decorated with inspirational posters, and the floor now littered with love letters he presumably sends to himself. It's also made more clear that getting called ugly during the interview cut pretty deep. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled appears to support this, as he occasionally calls the other racers ugly when he passes by them and generally vents a lot of insecurities.
• Informed Attribute: His strength. Being a "Get Back Here!" Boss, he goes down in two hits in Spyro the Dragon. That's one less hit than the gnorc thieves in Artisans. He's much tougher in his later boss fights however.
• Level in Boss Clothing: His entire level has you trying to reach him by chasing thieves, then chasing him across a pathway, then gliding across retracting platforms to finally reach him. He doesn't do much in the way of attacking you aside from attempting to blast you in the first part of the fight, and trying to crush you in the final stretch.
• Maker of Monsters: It's mentioned in the first game's intro cutscene that the enemies that Spyro faces on his journey were created by Gnasty Gnorc from the treasure hoard he stole from the dragons prior to the start of the game to build his own army. This explains why they drop gems upon defeat.
• Meaningful Name: If turning every dragon in the Dragon Realms into crystal just because one of them called him ugly didn't tip you off, he's not a particularly gnice gnorc.
• Miles Gloriosus: He displays this when he wins a race in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
  Gnasty Gnorc: Told you I was a threat!
• Never My Fault: Should he lose a race in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, he'll blame a dragon for his loss, regardless of whether or not Spyro was participating.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being the laughing stock of the Rogues Gallery, Gnasty can be threatening when on his A-game. Mocking him on live TV proved a bad idea when he turned the entire Dragon kingdom to crystal. He is often reduced to serving more calculating villains in later appearances, though actually proves a tougher opponent under their allegiance.
• No, You: One of his quotes upon passing another racer in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a responsive "You're ugly!".
• Our Orcs Are Different: Gnasty has the apperance of a typical orc, with green skin and a tough expression. Granted, his race is referred to as gnorcs and not all of them are green, but he still fits the bill nicely.
• Promoted to Playable: He is a playable racer in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: A green-skinned gnorc who wears orange-ish gold armour, and Spyro's first major enemy.
• Self-Serving Memory: Is shown to have one in his appearances past the first game. In A Hero's Tail, he says it's been a while since he beat Spyro in battle, with Spyro having to correct him that it was the other way around. Then, in his appearance in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, he appears in the Grand Prix intro to say he's there to "beat Spyro again".
• Shock and Awe: Casts lightning spells in A Hero's Tail, having trapped the electric fairy Amp in his mace.
• Species Surname: He's a Gnorc.
• Squishy Wizard: He has very powerful magic, but is not a good fighter and can't take much punishment. This is downplayed in later games, where he can take more hits and equips himself with better shields and armor, though is still relatively less durable than the other bosses.
• Took a Level in Badass: Played with. He's Demoted to Dragon in A Hero's Tail, but he puts up a far stronger direct fight, and takes more hits to deal with, and is only harmable from one particular open spot in his armor. Repeated again in Crash On The Run, where he's a mook to Dark Spyro, but is actually a rather resilient Tennis Boss (though has the least hit points of the main bosses).
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Zigzagged. In the first game, he is easily angered but is a very powerful magic user, and only once is he called "a simple creature". In A Hero's Tail, it's amazing he can tie his own shoes. On the other claw, he used to be a "Get Back Here!" Boss that took relatively little effort to actually bring down, whereas A Hero's Tail made him more of a challenge as the first boss than he was as a Final Boss.
• Top-Heavy Guy: He can outrun Spyro despite his stubby legs.
• Unexplained Recovery: He was heavily implied to have been killed in his fight with Spyro with the dragon referring to him as "ancient history", yet he's perfectly alive and well in "A Hero's Tail", serving as the game's first boss fight.
• Vocal Evolution: Despite Michael Gough voicing him in all his appearances, his take on Gnasty alters drastically with each game. In the first game, he sounds much more gravelly and deep, in A Hero's Tail he has a more nasally and comical voice, while in Reignited he has a smoother but louder take (punctuated by him saying the exact same lines as in the first game).^note Subsequently, this take is carried over to his appearance in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.
• Worthy Opponent: In the 100% cutscene in the first game, Spyro admits that he views him as one.
  "You know what they say: for every good battle, you need a good adversary, and I felt that Gnasty, in spite of his misguided nature, was a worthy opponent."

Gnorcs

A basic Gnorc from the first game.

The main antagonistic faction of the first game, a race of orcish enemies created by Gnasty Gnorc to serve him in the first game. They later appear as the main enemy set in Spyro A Hero's Tail under the command of Red.

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• Adaptational Ugliness: The gnorcs in the original game have extremely simple designs. The gnorcs in the Reignited trilogy have gross, warty skin, beady little eyes and mouths full of sharp, jagged teeth, making them much less cute and more like stereotypical orcs.
• Airborne Mook:
  • Copter Gnorcs fly by means of harnesses with large helicopter blades.
  • Gnorc Balloonists float by means of holding on to large balloons. The only way to defeat them is to pop their balloons when they dip down to attack, sending them plunging into the bottomless pits they hover over.
  • Plane Gnorcs fly around on big diesely airplanes.
  • In A Hero's Tail, Birdmen are skinny gnorcs who fly with leather wings strapped to their arms and mostly exist as obstacles in certain platforming sections, while Balloon-a-rang Gnorcs float with balloons tied to their backs and must have their boomerangs reflected back at them to pop their balloons and send them falling to their doom.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted. Although they usually appear as enemies, some friendly Gnorcs appear in the bonus level in Ripto's Rage.
• Aquatic Mook: In A Hero's Tail, the Sunken Ruins are home to aquatic Mer-Gnorcs with mermaid tails and armed with either tridents or throwable starfish.
• Bucket Helmet: The Big Gnorcs in Dark Hollow wear upended wooden buckets as helmets.
• Cartoon Bomb: In the Reignited version, Gnorc-Adiers throw matte black, spherical bombs with constantly-sizzling rope fuses.
• Cowardly Mooks: The very first gnorcs you encounter in the whole franchise run away from you.
• Ear Fins: The Mer-Gnorcs in A Hero's Tail have webbed fins instead of the regular Gnorc's usual ears.
• Edible Bludgeon: The Big Gnorcs in Dark Hollow wield gigantic drumsticks like clubs, which they can be seen to chew on when Spyro isn't in aggro range.
• Explosive Barrels: In the Reignited version, Gnorc Survivalists throw exploding barrels marked with skull-and-crossbones signs.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: In the original games, the machine gun-toting gnorcs in Twilight Harbor shoot bullets, while the Gnorc Survivalists and Gnorc-Adiers throw grenades. In the Reignited trilogy, these are changed to purple goo, Explosive Barrels and Cartoon Bombs. The first kind is given an In-Universe justification, as the purple goo is shown to be extremely dangerous (Spyro will die if he falls into it) and the gnorcs have built a factory in Twilight Harbor to extract the goo and use it in their weapons.
• Giant Mook: They're usually divided into this or their normal-sized brethren.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Armored Gnorcs wear heavy plate that will weather out both flames and charges without harm. The only way to defeat them is to bodily push them off of cliffs.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Soldier Gnorcs in Peace Keepers world will react to Spyro burning their tent by pulling down their trousers and mooning him.
• Lightning Gun: Gunners wear large mechanical harnesses that fire electric bolts. Their Reignited design gives them big electric coils cracking with power on their backs.
• Mecha-Mooks: Near the end of A Hero's Tail Red has them converted to robots for his new and improved army.
• Mook Carryover: Even after Gnasty Gnorc is defeated in A Hero's Tail, Gnorcs continue to serve as the main enemies of the game, now serving directly under Red.
• Mooks: The first set of Mooks in the entire franchise. Found early, found often, found in a large number of thematic varieties and reskins, and never very dangerous.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: The Mer-Gnorcs of the Sunken Ruins in A Hero's Tail are Gnorcs with fish tails instead of legs, Ear Fins, and anglerfish-like lures on their heads.
• Our Orcs Are Different: They're named after orcs and resemble big, muscular or heavyset humanoids with bright green skin.
• Prongs of Poseidon: In A Hero's Tail, the aquatic Mer-Gnorcs can be armed with big tridents with spearlike tips.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: In the first game, small ones tend to wield shields, provinding them immunity to Spyro's flame breath. In A Hero's Tail the medium (blue) ones and their robot counterparts can be found with shields.
• Smash Mook: While most advanced Gnorc varieties have a number of tricks up their metaphorical sleeves, from flight to shields to various ranged attacks, the Big Gnorcs and their Ice Gnorc reskins just have their great size, an immunity to charge attacks, and a very big club.
• Underground Monkey: They come in a great variety of colours, weapon variants and sizes throughout the first game. In A Hero's Tail they come in three sizes with the only differences being their clothing which is related to their desingated envirnonments.

Toasty

Nevin: Gnasty Gnorc has put one of his most devious henchmen in charge of the Artisan world.
Spyro: Bring him on! I think I smell a barbecue!
Nevin: Be careful, Spyro. Toasty has many tricks up his sleeve.

The boss of Artisans. Toasty is a large, pumpkin-headed scarecrow wielding a scythe.

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• Adaptational Badass: Redesigned in Reignited Trilogy to be much more intimidating. This extends to the sheep underneath the robes, who looks a lot more manic and crazed. Downplayed in the sense that, in a fight, he goes down as easily as the original version though.
• Armed Legs: He has sickleblades for heels in Reignited Trilogy. This is so Toasty can still attack when he's lost the scythe his disguise uses.
• Body Armor as Hit Points: His scarecrow disguise disappears when he gets hit, exposing his true form underneath.
• The Dog Bites Back: Given the sheep grunts are health replenishers and general punching bags to Spyro throughout the first game, Toasty turning out to be one in disguise suggests it's trying to get its own back on the dragon for bullying its kind.
• Expressive Mask: In Reignited Trilogy, his pumpkin head reacts to being attacked as if it was his real face.
• Flunky Boss: Has a few dogs at his beck and call.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: He runs away every time he's hit, to an area with more dogs.
• Meaningful Name: A sheep that's visibly burnt and toasted.
• Paper Tiger: He's a Scary Scarecrow that weilds a Sinister Scythe, and is accompanied by foreboding background music that makes him out to be a serious threat. He's still pathetically easy to take down, even by the standards of this game; his pack of Angry Guard Dogs actually poses more of a threat than he does. Justified, because he's actually a sheep propped up on stilts.
• Pumpkin Person: His head is a pumpkin.
• Scary Scarecrows: His design motif, though he becomes "scary" in Reignited Trilogy.
• Sinister Scythe: His weapon of choice.
• Totem Pole Trench: A variation. Beneath his dark clothing is a grey sheep on stilts.
• Weapon Twirling: Loves to spin his scythe in an intimidating fashion.

Doctor Shemp

Trondo: Doctor Shemp thinks he's so cool! You don't know what it's been like listening to him over and over! But I'll tell ya one thing: He should watch his back!

The boss of Peace Keepers. An armor-clad shaman carrying a big staff.

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• Achilles' Heel: His back, which is the one place he doesn't wear armor.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The only way to hurt him is to flame his back, which can only be reached when he's attacking.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Grunts loudly the whole time he's fighting Spyro. Apparently it's too much for Trondo.
• Cool Shades: His circular sunglasses. Doubles as Sinister Shades since he's a villain.
• Expy: Big, boisterous, shamanistic, and carries a skull staff, like Papu Papu from Crash Bandicoot. He shares Papu's attacks, as he'll spin the staff around and try to whack you with it.
• Fat Bastard: A rotund gnorc-like creature who's also an unabashed braggart and the boss of the Peace Keepers world.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Quick to run away as soon as he takes damage.
• Meaningful Name: In the Japanese version of his name roughly translates to "Dr. Cool", and he wears sunglasses and thinks he's cool.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: How he got the title "Doctor" is a mystery. It's not known if he has a degree or is even an established witch doctor.
• Naked Apron: Or naked armor in this case, since the big plate armor he wears in front is the only real article of clothing he has, and it covers about as much as an apron.
• Rump Roast: The only way to damage him is to shoot fire at his bare bottom.
• Small Name, Big Ego: As the above quote indicates, he's very full of himself. Subverted somewhat in the remake, where he does look pretty awesome.
• Spin Attack: Dishes a few of these out during his boss fight.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: He does this in his Idle Animation.

Blowhard

The boss of Magic Crafters. A tornado-based creature created by Gnasty Gnorc to lead the other Weather Wizards guarding the homeworld against Spyro.

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• Adaptational Wimp: Already a pretty wimpy boss to begin with, his Reignited incarnation can be also be hurt by being charged - a weakness his PS1 version lacked.
• Beard of Evil: A long yellow one.
• Blow You Away: His main power.
• Evil Sorcerer: A wizard, and one of Gnasty's bosses.
• Fog Feet: Everything below his shoulders/arms is a tornado.
• Floating Limbs: He has hair, eyes, a nose, and a beard, despite having no head connected to them. His arms are also not connected to a body, as everything below his shoulders is a tornado.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Travels further into his level as Spyro deals him hits.
• Level in Boss Clothing: Like Gnasty Gnorc, his entire fight is level-wide, with plenty of platforming before you finally defeat him.
• Meaningful Name: Blowhard is a tornado wizard.
• Punny Name: Given his wind-based powers and position of authority.
• Shock and Awe: He can also generate thunderclouds.
• Squishy Wizard: Dies in three hits.
• Tornado Move: A variation. The lower half of his body is a constantly-spinning tornado.
• Weather Manipulation: The most powerful of the Weather Wizards.
• Wizard Beard: A long, orange one at that!

Metalhead

Metalhead

Sadiki: Metalhead is all charged up to meet you. Attacking the power poles should disrupt its power supply.

The boss of Beast Makers. A large robot dwelling inside a swamp temple, energized by electric pylons found throughout the level.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: Metalhead himself is invulnerable to damage; the power poles that sustain him are not.
• Deadly Dodging: Though you don't need to, you can actually trick Metalhead into throwing Strongarms and Banana Boys into his power poles.
• Delinquent Hair: The spikes on top of his head look like a mohawk, making him resemble a true metalhead.
• Fastball Special: Tosses Strongarms and Armored Banana Boys at Spyro when he's still charging his Arm Cannon.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Downplayed. He only runs away once during the battle when all the power nodes in the first room are destroyed.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Big yellow ones.
• Horns of Villainy: One on each side of his head.
• Humongous Mecha: Metalhead is amongst the largest enemies encountered in the game.
• Marathon Boss: By the standards of the game he's this, as while most enemies can be beaten with one hit and the other bosses only take two to three to down (compensating with Mooks and traversing a good portion of level before they can be attacked again), Metalhead won't fall until all of his power poles are destroyed, which easily number over a dozen.
• Meaningful Name: He's a robot, and his name is Metalhead.
• Punny Name: Many of the gnorcs in Beast Makers are dressed like punks and wear headsets, he's a robot, and the spikes on his head resemble a mohawk.
• Shock and Awe: The power rods in his level generate electricity, which he can channel through his hands to attack. The rods themselves can charge themselves temporarily with electricity, which will shock Spyro if he tries to ram them at the time.
• Top-Heavy Guy: His upper body is huge, but his legs are downright puny.

Jacques

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Spyro: Any advice before this...battle?
Revilo: Advice. Hmmm... A wise dragon once told me, "Aim high in life, but watch out for flying boxes."
Spyro: Huh?

The boss of Dream Weavers. A misshapen jack-in-the-box creature residing over a lava-filled land of nightmares.

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• Abnormal Ammo: His "flying boxes".
• Aerith and Bob: Notable for having a semi-normal name (Jacques) when compared to the other Spyro 1 bosses.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: He has a large, toothy grin that stretches across his face.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Spyro must chase him around his arena until he can land three hits, killing Jacques.
• Green and Mean: His face is green, the rest of him isn't.
• Happy Harlequin Hat: Being an oversized jack-in-the-box, he wears this.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Looks like an average fool aside from the big green face, which is reptilian, and the spring where his legs should be.
• Perpetual Smiler: Grinning the whole time you fight him.
• Punny Name: He's a Jacques-in-the-box.
• Scary Jack-in-the-Box: Bears the appearance of one.
• Spring Coil: He has a large coil where his legs should be, and he uses it to get around quickly.

Thieves

"Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!"

^{In the original game}

Voiced by: Carlos Alazraqui

One of the many enemies in the Dragon Realms, these lightning-fast enemies are well known for stealing items Spyro needs to proceed such as dragon eggs, keys and gems, forcing him to chase them down.

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• Fragile Speedster: They're often faster than Spyro himself, but one swift blast of fire or a well-aimed charge will take it out instantly.
• The Hyena: They laugh whenever Spyro is unable to attack them.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Despite most of them being enemies to Spyro, there's the occasional friendly one, as seen in Enter the Dragonfly and Attack of the Rhynocs.
• Troll: They'll repeatedly laugh at Spyro if they're far away from him.
• Underground Monkey: They come in several colours, each with their own speeds and stolen items: blue, red, green, yellow and purple.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

Ripto

"A dragon? You brought a DRAGON to Avalar?! I! HATE! DRAGONS! NAAAARRGGGHHH!"

Voiced by: Gregg Berger, Kenji Utsumi (Japanese), Johan Hedenberg (Swedish, Reignited Trilogy)

"You little fools! After I destroy you all with my new scepter, I'm going to rename this place 'Riptonia'!"

The eponymous villain of Ripto's Rage!. He, Crush, and Gulp are accidentally summoned to Avalar by Hunter's misuse of the Professor's superportal. Ripto takes a shine to the place because there are "no dragons" and sets about making trouble and trying to take over, so Spyro is brought in to stop him. Following this, he becomes Spyro's most frequent enemy, appearing in numerous games afterward.

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• Adaptational Badass: Slightly in the Reignited Trilogy. While he acts largely as silly and bumbling as in the original, he's generally presented as more of a credible threat by people's reactions to him, his first appearance has him try to destroy Spyro on sight rather than simply throw a tantrum, and when he manages to crawl his way back into the final boss position, any attempt to resist him once he's vulnerable is met with casual sidesteps as he walks off to reassemble his scepter.
• All There in the Manual: The manual for Ripto's Rage gave him his Freudian Excuse. Meanwhile the prototype and Japanese release of the game featured narrations by Elora accompanying each of the level intros, explaining that Ripto had hired or manipulated most of the antagonists in each world.
• Arch-Enemy: Ascended to being Spyro's most prominent nemesis after his first appearance, and his antagonism toward him became more developed.
• Back from the Dead: He somehow survived his apparent death at the end of Ripto's Rage! and returned for several more games.
• Bad Boss: Frequently derides his minions for their low intelligence early on in Ripto's Rage!. He does mourn Crush's death, but refers to him as a "simpleton". In Enter the Dragonfly, he blasts them unconscious for the whole game upon learning he accidentally scattered the baby dragonflies.
• Badass Normal: He can't channel magic naturally like a dragon, so he uses an equally powerful scepter to battle Spyro.
• Barrier Warrior: Most of his appearances outside of Ripto's Rage! involve him creating some sort of shield. In Enter the Dragonfly, he has ice and fire shields that can be destroyed with fire and ice breath, respectively. Season of Flame gives him magic cards based on all three elements, which have to be destroyed using the power-up gates around the area. Finally, Attack of the Rhynocs gives him more magic cards that can be destroyed with the bombs he throws during his first battle.
• Berserk Button: Hates dragons, as well as Spyro calling him "shorty".
• Beware the Silly Ones: A tantrum-prone buffoon, but also the most consistent pain in Spyro's tail. In both Ripto's Rage and Attack of the Rhynocs he makes a swift takeover of the heroes' worlds, with Spyro having to undo all the damage he has done.
• Big Bad:
  • Is the main villain of Ripto's Rage!, returns in the same role in Season of Flame, Attack of the Rhynocs, Enter The Dragonfly, and Spyro Orange, where he forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with Doctor Neo Cortex.
  • He’s also considered to be the main antagonist of the classic continuity as a whole.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: In Season of Flame, his lair includes all three breath power ups that just happen to be able to break his shields.
• Breakout Villain: After his debut and a brief absence from the following game, Ripto quickly became the most iconic villain of the series, appearing as the main Big Bad in Season of Flame, Attack of the Rhynocs and Enter The Dragonfly and being used as the Spyro-representative villain in Spyro Orange and Crash Purple.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He just plain hates dragons.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Compared to Gnasty Gnorc, who had minions guarding every Dragon realm including the homeworlds, Ripto is only seen enslaving Avalar's three castles and antagonizing the major characters (though the prototype and Japanese dialogue imply he's also responsible for most of the realm's dilemmas). Ripto is also small and physically unimposing but is actually willing to fight Spyro head-on if necessary, in contrast with the large and brutish but cowardly Gnasty.
• Costume Evolution: His costume was slightly updated for the Reignited Trilogy to match the game's art style. His cape is longer and more noticeably drags across the floor, his shoes now curl at the end, and he wears a cravat to complete his Dracula-esque look. Additionally, his scepter is now carved in the shape of his head.
• Deadly Gas: If he gets three green orbs in Ripto's Rage!, he can unleash damaging green clouds. Reignited makes it clear he does this as a Breath Weapon as opposed to casting it.
• Death by Adaptation: Possibly. In Reignited, the epilogue of his survivial is omitted, and thus far none of the games outside of the original trilogy are canon in Reignited, with it remaining up in the air whether he retains his original tendency to come back from the dead. He is at least still making returns in spin-offs, as observed by Crash Team Rumble.
• Depraved Dwarf: An easily-enraged, megalomaniacal Evil Sorcerer who's also about the same size as Spyro.
• Disney Villain Death: Twice in Ripto's Rage!. First he falls off the castle in Autumn Plains when Spyro defeats Gulp, but emerges alive in Winter Tundra. Then Spyro knocks him into some lava after defeating him, but he's seen alive in the epilogue of both this game and Year of the Dragon, and returns in later installments. Subverted in the remake, which has no such scene suggesting his survival.
• Egopolis: He wants to rename Avalar to "Riptonia", and he makes sure to drape flags with his face on them over every castle in the land.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zig-zagged. He seems to care about Crush and Gulp, as he appears genuinely upset when the former is defeated, and he occasionally rewards the latter with treats. However, that doesn't stop Ripto from berating and bullying them when he's in a bad mood.
• Evil Counterpart: Of all of Spyro's foes, Ripto mirrors him the closest in concept and personality. Both are snarky, hot headed half-pints who make as great an impact as their peers despite their diminutive size. However where Spyro exerts proving himself by helping those around him, Ripto focuses on bullying and conquering them instead. Naturally when the two meet, their personalities immediately clash.
• Evil Is Hammy: He shouts constantly.
• Evil Laugh: After scaring Moneybags off a ledge in Autumn Plains, then again during his boss battle whenever he acquires orb power or hurts Spyro.
• Evil Sorcerer: Dresses the part and uses a magic scepter to attack.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: His voice is pretty gravelly, especially in the Reignited Trilogy.
• Eye Beams: His Gulp robot does this upon acquiring three green orbs.
• Fantastic Racism: A dinosaur who hates dragons.
• Faux Affably Evil: He often dips into this when speaking to his enemies, whether by sarcastically lamenting that he wasn't invited to Elora's "party" or telling Spyro that they would make a great team.
• Freudian Excuse: According to the manual for Ripto's Rage!, he was constantly picked on at school as a child, and eventually became so used to not joining in on games that he just wants to ruin everyone else's fun.
• Guest Fighter: Appears alongside Spyro and Elora as a playable character in Crash Team Rumble.
• High Collar of Doom: A massive one compared to his head.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Knocks out the floor of Ripto's Arena to give way to lava, which Spyro knocks him into, defeating him.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Ripto only debuted as the main villain of the second game, but he made such an impression on audiences that he gained several return appearances as the overarching Big Bad of the series, while Gnasty Gnorc only returned for A Hero's Tail and the Sorceress never came back after her debut.
• In a Single Bound: He makes an impressive jump to his throne to escape Spyro before the fight with Gulp. The Reignited Trilogy changes this to a Pain-Powered Leap.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He talks big, and he can put up a decent fight, but nothing seems to go right for him most of the time. He ends his debut to Avalar in Ripto's Rage being carried away by a fairy with him unable to do a thing about it, has his staff eaten by Gulp shortly after meeting Spyro, is denied a chance to immediately avenge his minions' defeats, and suffers other such misfortunes. At most, he only manages to terrorize the hub worlds — each for only a short time — while leaving most of the other realms throughout Avalar untouched. Come Enter the Dragonfly, his luck has somehow gotten worse; he couldn't even carry out his fairly simple plan correctly.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Ripto is deeply insecure about his height and tries to cover it up by conquering and bullying others. Unfortunately for him, his insecurities are blatantly transparent, leading to Spyro constantly picking on him as a result.
• Informed Species: Does he look like a dinosaur to you? Averted in the Reignited Trilogy, where he is redesigned to look a lot more like a dinosaur, with claws, sharp teeth and reptilian eyes. He looks somewhat like an anthropomorphic midget Allosaurus with a single large horn.
• Jerkass: Yells at Crush and Gulp, threatens to kill people at the drop of a hat, scares Moneybags into falling a considerable distance, buys bombs from him to attack the Professor with, tries to test his new scepter on some sheep, then complains when they run away.
• Large Ham: He shouts a lot, waving his arms frequently as he does so. Try to hit him with a standard flame or charge and he'll just shout "NO!".
• Laughably Evil: He would be more fearsome if he weren't so angry all the time. Crush and Gulp also tend to blindly hurt him.
• Miles Gloriosus: Throughout his introductory game, he acts tough, pushes people around and gives threats when Crush and Gulp are with him. When Spyro faces him, Ripto does shoot fire from his sceptre and gleefully goes after Spyro should he collect three orbs and get a power-up. When Spyro gets a power-up? All bravado is gone and Ripto tries to run away.
• Mirror Boss: In a similar manner to Gulp. His boss battle requires Spyro to collect power-ups and use them to damage Ripto, but Ripto can collect those same power-ups and use them against Spyro as well. For extra similarities, he's smaller and more mobile than Gulp in his first phase, matching Spyro himself in size and speed (although this is dropped from the second phase onward).
• Mook Carryover: Inherits the Sorceress' rhynoc forces in the Game Boy Advance games.
• Mysterious Past: It's not known where he lived before he was taken to Avalar, or why he hates dragons so much. There is his backstory in the manual of Ripto's Rage! that states he was bullied in school, but you wouldn't know that from playing the game...
• Mythology Gag: His name is similar to the katakana for "Spyro".
• The Napoleon: Significantly smaller than Crush and Gulp. Don't remind him.
• Narcissist: He compensates for his diminutive size with his massive ego, which he makes sure to express by demeaning everyone around him, boasting about his magical abilities, and plastering his face on every major structure he can find.
• Never Say "Die": Averted a lot. He tries to "kill" Zoe three times, then tells Spyro he "just sealed [his] fate" before their battle.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His destruction of the portal in Glimmer and theft of the superportal's power crystal in Winter Tundra keep Spyro in Avalar to make him miserable.
• Non-Action Big Bad: For most of Ripto's Rage! thanks to Gulp eating his scepter. Until he can find a new scepter, he has to rely on him and Crush for everything.
• The Nose Knows: He can smell dragons, knowing Avalar lacks them by the air. It's also how he senses Spyro's presence.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • Is prone to slapstick for most of the game, but takes matters into his own hands when Crush and Gulp are lost, and becomes immediately more dangerous.
  • In the Crash Team Rumble promotional comic, he once again blunders through a portal, this time into Crash Bandicoot's world. When ambushed by the villain squad there, he quickly blasts them away with his scepter. Ripto's magic is more powerful than Neo Cortex, Ripper Roo and Alt! N Tropy combined.
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction to Spyro acquiring orb power during their battle, complete with a Big "WHAT?!" and bulging eyes.
• Obviously Evil: High collar, dark purple cape, mangled-looking head horn, angry demeanor, carries a scepter.
• Offstage Villainy: It isn't known what he does to oppress Avalar's residents in Ripto's Rage! between enslaving castles and screaming bloody murder at people. Elora only mentions that Ripto has "been causing all sorts of trouble around here". Elaborated further in the beta version of the game, where Elora explains how he has been tormenting every individual area and is responsible for most of the conflicts there.
• Ominous Opera Cape: His small stature is emphasized by his oversized cape, which constantly drags across the floor behind him.
• One-Winged Angel: In Enter the Dragonfly, he becomes a large, troll-like monster to try and kill Spyro.
• Orbiting Particle Shield: He gets one if he gets three blue orbs.
• Orcus on His Throne: Subverted. He can't fight Spyro directly until he has a new scepter, leaving Crush and Gulp to deal with him until then. When the time does come, he gladly accepts Spyro's challenge.
• Pet the Dog: In a twisted sense. In the second game, he decides to give Gulp a treat after a job well done. Unfortunately, the "treat" in question is a live fairy.
• Playing with Fire: What he mainly does with his "new" scepter. He can create a heat wave if he gets three red orbs, and his robot Gulp can summon a lava monster by getting three red orbs as well.
• Promoted to Playable: Is fully playable in Crash Team Rumble as of Season Two. Curiously he was added before Spyro himself. He, Crush and Gulp were also playable in the multiplayer minigames in their previous crossover game Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: He's orange, and wears purple. Oh, and he's evil, of course.
• Segmented Serpent: Creates one using his robot Gulp and three red orbs.
• Sequential Boss: He's the only boss in the classic series so far to have multiple distinct phases. In his first phase, he fights you on his own. In his second phase, he rides a robot shaped like Gulp. In his final phase, he flies on a robot Pterodactyl.
• Shock and Awe: If Ripto gets three blue orbs he'll get an electric shield barrier and he'll chase after Spyro to try to hurt and kill the heroic little purple dragon by shocking and electrocuting him. His robot Gulp can conjure electricity with three blue orbs.
• Squishy Wizard: Zigzagged. Ripto can't be damaged normally during his boss battle and takes any number of blows from his own minions, though he isn't much of a fighter without the aid of some weapon.
• Unexplained Recovery: Ripto is knocked into a pool of lava at the end of his boss battle. He manages to survive without explanation, and is shown being picked up by an adult dragon during the game's epilogue.
• Villain Decay: Ripto becomes much less competent in Enter the Dragonfly than he was in Ripto's Rage!. It takes half the game for him to figure out that his spell didn't even go as planned! He is relatively more calculating in the GBA series, though still not quite the threat he was in his first appearance.
• Villainous Breakdown: When defeated in Enter the Dragonfly, he throws a fit and yells about how much he hates dragons before escaping.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Gregg Berger's take on Ripto in Enter the Dragonfly sounds much smoother, far more flamboyant, less gravelly, and somehow manages to sound even hammier than he was in Ripto's Rage!.
  • In comparison, Berger's take on Ripto in the Reignited Trilogy is quite different from his original portrayal in Ripto's Rage!. In particular, he sounds much more gravelly and seems to have traded in his hammy attitude for pure anger.
• We Can Rule Together: Ripto briefly snarks about the idea of Spyro teaming up with him in Enter the Dragonfly.
  Spyro: Who are you calling little, shorty? Nobody invited you. This is an invitation-only party!
  Ripto: Very clever, dragon. You know you should join me. We would make a great team.
• Your Size May Vary: In cutscenes he's not much taller than Spyro, but in the final battle he's nearly as tall as Hunter.

Crush

"Excuse me, oh short one, er... Sir... Sir short one? Something went wrong with your Scepter. I think the dragonflies were scattered all over."

Voiced by: Gregg Berger

Ripto: "Crush, kill it! KILL IT!"

One of Ripto's minions alongside Gulp. He wields a large club and is ostensibly the less intelligent minion.

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• An Ice Person: In Season of Flame, he gains the ability to shoot balls of ice at you. To defeat him, you have to spit them out at him when they stop moving.
• Barrier Warrior: Uses his dungeon's platforms to create barriers around himself before attacking.
• The Brute: Large, strong, evil, and an adept runner.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: He and Gulp are not the brightest bulbs, and tend to screw up Ripto's plans with their incompetence. Crush accidentally smashes Ripto with his club during their introductory scene, and is later shown to not know how to go through portals.
• Carry a Big Stick: Wields a club, which is actually a giant chicken leg.
• Co-Dragons: With Gulp, to Ripto.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: Slams the floor with his club each time Spyro flames him, causing rocks to fall and damage him. The last hit buries him permanently.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: He's officially a dinosaur but looks a lot more like a dragon, to the point of having wings on his back. He doesn't breathe fire though.
• The Ditz: So dumb he doesn't understand how to use a portal properly.
• Dumbass No More: In the epilogue of Ripto's Rage! he goes on to seek the Professor's tutelage, learning such concepts as "1 + 1 = ?" In Enter the Dragonfly, he has become smart enough to realize how Ripto's plan had backfired.
• Dumb Muscle: He loves using that club of his, but falls for fairly obvious tricks as a result. It's slightly downplayed in Enter the Dragonfly, as he's gained enough intelligence to realize that Ripto accidentally scattered the dragonflies around the world before Ripto himself does.
• Edible Bludgeon: His club is actually a drumstick, as evidenced by him taking bites out of it during his Idle Animation. It's made more obvious in the Reignited Trilogy, where it even has a visible bite taken out of it.
• Fireballs: Shoots these using red platforms.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Powerful enough with his club to cause rocks to fall from the ceiling and hurt him. Spyro must exploit this in order to defeat him.
• Informed Species: Is supposed to be a dinosaur, but looks very little like one. Even less so in the Reignited Trilogy, where he basically looks like a more brutish, primitive version of a dragon, with small wings on his back and a longer, reptilian snout.
• Meaningful Name: He will attempt to crush you. This is also what you have to do to him to prevail.
• Mighty Glacier: Not as fast as Gulp or Ripto, but he can take a few blows from Spyro and deal heavy damage with his club and variety of projectiles.
• Roar Before Beating: Announces each projectile attack with a single roar.
• Shockwave Stomp: Does these using blue platforms.
• Suddenly Voiced: Briefly in Enter the Dragonfly.
• Too Dumb to Live: His first reaction to Spyro's flame is always to whack the floor with his club, causing rubble to fall on him.
• Turns Red: As the battle progresses, Crush eventually gets the idea to stomp on the platforms one foot at a time, generating their magic attacks more quickly. When his health is low enough, he also starts chasing Spyro to club him. Of course, he'll eventually stop, miss, and shower himself with debris he disturbs.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ripto, to the point where he's willing to fight Spyro to the death to protect his master.
• Unexplained Recovery: Returns to Ripto's side in Enter the Dragonfly after apparently having the roof of his dungeon fall on him.
• Warm-Up Boss: He's the first boss of Ripto's Rage, and also the easiest.
• Wings Do Nothing: Crush has a tiny, tiny pair of vestigial wings atop his back.

Gulp

"Uh, yeah-heh-heh. Wha-uh-uh-what do we want this time, boss?"

Voiced by: Gregg Berger

Ripto: "Gulp, lunchtime!"

One of Ripto's minions alongside Crush. He serves as Ripto's mount and right-hand man, being more intelligent than Crush.

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• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed in Reignited. In the original opening, Gulp does little against Zoe and just dimly swallows Ripto's scepter when it lands in his mouth. In Reignited, he actively stops her running off with it, mistakenly crunching into it when trying to eat her. Being a fairy-devoured dinosaur, Zoe's enhanced expressions around Gulp also make him look far more menacing.
• All There in the Manual: Namely, he would love to be a dancer who can cook.
• Back for the Finale: Returns in robot form in the second phase of Ripto's fight.
• Belly Flop Crushing: His main form of physical attack.
• BFG: Carries a huge pair of laser cannons on his back.
• Big Eater: Accidentally eats Ripto's scepter and is promised "all the fairies [he] can eat" by Ripto, who nearly feeds Zoe to him. He can also attack Spyro by consuming explosives, and can heal himself by eating chickens. Ripto's robot Gulp copies these mannerisms to attack using colored orbs.
• Breath Weapon: Acquires this from explosive barrels.
• The Brute: Like Crush, albeit tougher.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: He and Gulp are not the brightest bulbs, and tend to screw up Ripto's plans with their incompetence. Gulp in particular accidentally swallows Ripto's scepter in their introductory scene, putting him out of action for most of the game.
• Co-Dragons: With Crush, to Ripto.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He accidentally eats Ripto's scepter, but understands and obeys him otherwise. Gulp is also intelligent enough to operate his laser cannons and turn Spyro's explosive weapons against him.
• Dumb Muscle: Not as bad as Crush in his debut, but still pretty dim. It's reversed in Enter the Dragonfly, as he doesn't realise what Ripto's plan is until the latter actually carries it out, while Crush has gained enough intelligence to actually point out how said plan backfired.
• Eat the Bomb: Gulp can eat explosives without ill effects and even channel them through his breath.
• Extreme Omnivore: Gulp can eat anything without harming himself: explosive barrels, bombs, rockets, and even Ripto's scepter at one point.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In the epilogue of Ripto's Rage!, he runs away to an animal sanctuary. But then has come back to Ripto in Enter the Dragonfly.
• Homing Projectile: If he swallows a rocket during his battle, he will spit it at you—and unlike the missiles you fire, it chases you around. He also fires these in Season of Flame, and once again you have to spit them at him to damage him.
• Informed Species: Like Ripto and Crush, he is supposedly a dinosaur, though he does more closely resemble an actual species, looking like a cross between a ceratopsian and a bull.
• Lightning Bruiser: For a huge creature, he's deceptively agile, being able to jump high and charge quickly.
• Meaningful Name: He's a Big Eater.
• Mirror Boss: His boss fight in Ripto's Rage plays out like this. Though he's a lot larger and has lasers mounted to his back, he can interact with all the items in the arena just like Spyro (albeit exclusively by eating them), and can even regain his health by eating fodder.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Eats Ripto's scepter at the start of Ripto's Rage! when trying to stop Zoe from stealing it, leaving Ripto unable to do anything against Spyro for most of the game.
• No-Sell: He's already too big for Spyro to charge, but can also resist his regular flame.
• Shock and Awe: He has a pair of laser turrets mounted on his back that let him fire orbs of electricity at Spyro, with pretty great accuracy to boot.
• Simpleton Voice: In Enter the Dragonfly; his one line has him stumble over his words and dopily laugh.
• Suddenly Voiced: Briefly in Enter the Dragonfly, also like Crush. He gets more dialogue in the Game Boy Advance series.
• Super Mode: A robot form in Ripto's fight, with access to a whole arsenal of new attacks.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Enter the Dragonfly makes him the dumber minion than Crush.
• Turns Red: As his health goes down, he starts moving around more and firing more electric balls in a row. He also starts eating the items Elora drops to help you, allowing him to use his own powered-up moves.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ripto. Enter the Dragonfly provides an explanation for this: he used to live in Molten Crater, constantly begging for work from Gnasty Gnorc before Ripto saved him from perishing and took him in as his henchman.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: He is a fair bit more challenging than Crush.
• Weaponized Animal: Carries a pair of laser cannons on his back during his fight.

Colossus Yeti

Brother Ned: "Even though I'm a vegetarian, I think you should torch that yeti."

A ferocious yeti that invaded the Colossus temples one day, forcing the monks to bring him food to avoid his wrath. He later returned in Year of the Dragon, where a misunderstanding between him and Bartholomew leads into a boxing match between him and Bentley.

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• Ax-Crazy: Incredibly vicious and destructive. The monks brought him a goat to eat, only for him to eat one of the monks.
• Boxing Battler: Bentley has to fight him in a boxing match in order to get Bartholomew's ball back. The yeti never actually took the ball, but Bentley got two eggs out of it.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being one of the few villains who hasn't stayed dead, he hasn't appeared since Year of the Dragon.
• Cutscene Boss: He takes himself out by jumping so hard he gets crushed by a statue above him before Spyro can do anything.
• The Dreaded: Among the monks in Colossus, to the point where one of them outright told Spyro to torch him despite being a vegetarian.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Upon seeing Spyro in Colossus, he ends up stomping the ground so hard he ends up being crushed by a statue before Spyro can actually do anything.
• Unexplained Recovery: He survived his apparent demise in Colossus, as shown when he's later found in Dragon Shores as part of the ball dunking game and the Tunnel of Love.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon

The Sorceress

"Now, watch how a real Sorceress dispatches her enemies."

Voiced by: Flo Di Re (Year of the Dragon), Cissy Jones (Reignited Trilogy), Isabel Martiñón (Mexican Spanish, Reignited Trilogy), Anna Apostolakis (Polish, Reignited Trilogy)

"Listen carefully, you stupid girl! I'm going to ask you one more time - why haven't you disposed of that infernal dragon?!"

The main villain of Year Of The Dragon. The ruler of the Forgotten Realms, she evicted the dragons after they grew tired of her Vanity and selfish ways. Doing so caused the realms' magic to slowly deteriorate, so on the Year of the Dragon, she sends her student Bianca to steal a batch of dragon eggs from them in order to replenish the magic. Spyro's interference causes her to send Bianca and various monsters after him.

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• Acid Pool: Her final boss fight takes place over such a pool, with her demise involving her falling into the acid.
• Adipose Rex: Appears to be the queen of the Forgotten Realms, and a Fat Bitch to top it off.
• Asshole Victim: Falling into a pool of acid is a horrific way to go but being someone who attempted mass infantcide just for immortality, The Sorceress deserves it massively.
• Ax-Crazy: Although the Sorceress initially portrays a refined image befitting of an evil queen, it eventually becomes apparent just how unhinged she truly is when she gleefully admits she was planning to kill all the baby dragons for a spell to give her eternal life. What truly cements it afterward is the fact she doesn't even need to kill them to begin with: she just wants to do so to stop them wriggling while she takes their wings.
• Bad Boss: Turns a lot of her minions into more powerful monsters against their will, and chews out Bianca on a frequent basis.
• Big Bad: Of Year Of The Dragon. There are few problems in the game she isn't directly responsible for or an accomplice to by way of her minions.
• The Cameo: Hunter is frightened by a Sorceress balloon at the start of Enter the Dragonfly.
• Carry a Big Stick: Her scepter can be used as a club for close-ranged attacks.
• The Comically Serious: Thanks to her hamminess and annoyance with Bianca's terrible attempts at villainy.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Ripto. He was an invader in Avalar and spent his time usurping the various home worlds; the Sorceress has been the uncontested ruler of the Forgotten Realms for years by the time you get there. Ripto had extensive interaction with the heroes and often showed up to antagonize them, with a deep personal hatred of dragons and his purple nemesis in particular; the Sorceress doesn't even meet Spyro until the Final Battle, spends almost all of her screentime in her palace with her minions, and the cruellest bullet point of her Evil Plan is quite impersonal: she only wants to kill the baby dragons because their bawling would be obnoxious. Physically, Ripto was a diminutive little gremlin, while the Sorceress is a large, rotund dinosaur/reptile-esque creature. Personality-wise, at least, they are both choleric jerks with bad senses of humour.
  • She also acts as this to Gnasty Gnorc; Both are vain creatures who get angry when they're insulted, but Gnasty was a brutish top-heavy gnorc with a fragile ego who waged war on the dragons until he was finally banished and kept in a very delicate state of "too depressed to lash out again" and "too frustrated to properly collect himself" until he was sent back on his warpath. The Sorceress is a rotund, self-absorbed and self-confident lizard who threw such a tantrum that she banished the dragons from what would become the Forgotten Realms and, when faced with the reality of her situation, kept a relatively collected demeanor and decided to strike with subterfuge and precision.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: She owns a Fireworks Factory that operates near several pools of lava, as well as Bugbot Factory, which produces malicious robots. She also kidnaps animals and hires Moneybags to look after them (though Moneybags outdoes her in the trope by doing trade for both sides).
• Costume Evolution: Her outfit has possibly the least amount of changes in the Reignited Trilogy, but is still markedly different; most notably, her crown is much taller and she now wears a pink vest.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Sinks in a pool of acid.
• Deflector Shields: Creates these around herself to damage Spyro and repel his charges and flames.
• Disney Villain Death: Falls to her death in acid when her flying saucer is disabled.
• Didn't Think This Through: She doesn't realize that the dragons are the source of the Forgotten Realms' magic until after she banishes them.
• Dramatic Irony: Her whole plan hinges on her seeking immortality. She is currently the only Big Bad of Spyro's to not return from her defeat in some capacity, implying thus far that she was the only one genuinely Killed Off for Real.
• Evil Is Petty: Leaves signs wherever an ally is absent to rub it in Spyro's face.
• Evil Laugh: Unleashes a chilling one from offscreen when Hunter is captured in Evening Lake.
• Evil Mentor: To Bianca. It doesn't last, with The Sorceress already planning to kill her right after her defection.
• Evil Sorceress: It's right there in the name. She's one of the most powerful magic users in the series, in fact, being capable of banishing the entire dragon race to the other side of the world with a magic spell.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": She does seem to be the only sorceress in the Forgotten Realms, at least until Bianca becomes one herself. It seems she doesn't want Bianca succeeding her, seeking immortality so she herself can rule eternal.
• Fat Bitch: A rotund ruler and the ruling tyrant of the Forgotten Realms.
• Faux Affably Evil: How she's characterized in Reignited Trilogy. In the original PS1 game, she's much more Obviously Evil with her vocal patterns, and is much less refined in her movements. In Reignited Trilogy, she's much more poised, gives her remarks as if they were Damned by Faint Praise, and overall shows more joy in how sadistic she is as opposed to pure anger.
• Fireballs: Can shoot these from her wand.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Rules the Forgotten Realms and is evil as they come. Almost every level Spyro visits, there is suffering because of something she did. The Queen part is played up a bit in Reignited Trilogy, where she speaks with a more regal-sounding voice instead of a deep, rasping one, as well as wearing jewellery like an amulet and a ring to go with her fancy crown.
• Immortality Seeker: Needs the baby dragons' wings for a spell to make herself live forever.
• It's All About Me: Has banners of herself in her throne room, and commissions statues in her likeness. Also the motive for her immortality spell.
• Jerkass: A vile, ill tempered hag who constantly verbally abuses Bianca and intends on mass murdering baby dragons and commiting genocide on the dragon race.
• Kick the Dog: Admits she doesn't need to kill the baby dragons for their wings, but intends to do so anyway it would be more convenient.
• Killed Off for Real: Isn't seen alive again after dying for the second time in Year of the Dragon. Later games would have her Rhynoc minions rallying under Ripto as a result.
• Knight of Cerebus: She has her comical moments but her villainy is played more seriously than any other villain up to that point, especially with her plan to commit mass infanticide.
• Large Ham: Throws a giddy fit as she describes what she's going to do to the dragons.
• Magic Knight: More emphasis on the "magic" part, she mainly attacks with spells yet no slouch in melee combat either.
• Magic Staff: Wields a large scepter, similar to Ripto before her. She uses a dragon egg as its power source.
• Meaningful Name: She's, well, a sorceress.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Telling Bianca her plan prompted Bianca's Heel–Face Turn.
• Not Quite Dead: Pulls herself out of the lava after Spyro beats her the first time.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Initially appears to wish to restore her homeland to the way it was. She turns out to only desire her own immortality at the cost of innocent newborn dragons, much to Bianca's disgust.
• Obviously Evil: A foul-tempered, abusive, repulsive tyrant.
• Orcus on His Throne: Despite her annoyance with Spyro, she waits to fight him when he comes to her.
• Post-Modern Magik: Has a flying saucer dogfight with Spyro in her second battle.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Her spell requires the wings of baby dragons, and both of her wands are powered by dragon eggs.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Her Villainous Breakdown after Spyro defeats Spike is basically her throwing a huge temper tantrum (which is emphasized in the Reignited Trilogy, which dials up the scenery-chewing quite a bit). Her response to Bianca questioning her plan cements her as this.

The Sorceress: What did you think I was going to do with all those dragons, open a zoo?

• Really 700 Years Old: She's over a thousand years old.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: She resembles a cross between a lizard and a dinosaur.
• Satellite Character: Interacts with no one but Bianca and a few silent minions in cutscenes. Despite fighting Spyro twice, they share no banter.
• Shock and Awe: Can fire electricity in a shower pattern with her wand.
• Sorcerous Overlord: Her name is "the Sorceress", and she rules the Forgotten Realms.
• Stupid Evil: She doesn't need to kill the baby dragons, but says she'll do it anyways. This drives Bianca to turn on her.
• Vain Sorceress: Had a statue built in Enchanted Towers, then complained that it was too ugly, despite it being an accurate likeness.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: She cares nothing for the life of the world she made worse, only for extending her own. She gives Malefor a run for his money.
• Villainous Breakdown: Spyro's persistence gradually wears on her until she lets her true plan slip to Bianca.
• Would Hurt a Child: She mentions that she doesn't need to kill the baby dragons to remove their wings, but doing so "stops them from wriggling so much".

Bianca

See the Spyro the Dragon - Supporting Characters page

Rhynocs

A Rhynoc from Enchanted Towers.

The main enemies in Year of the Dragon, the Rhynocs are anthropomorphic rhinos who serve the Sorceress. After her defeat, they started shifting around to different villains, starting with Grendor in Season of Ice and later Ripto in Season of Flame.

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• Airborne Mook: Some of the Ghost Rhynocs in Lost Fleet have wings, allowing them to fly. Additionally, some of the umbrella-wielding Rhynocs in Bamboo Terrace enter the stage by floating down from the sky.
• Aquatic Mook: Seashell Shore and Desert Ruins feature Rhynocs wearing scuba suits during the undereater sections. One mission in the former even requires you to clear them out of a tunnel!
• Always Chaotic Evil: Unlike the Gnorcs, there's nary a good Rhynoc to be seen; the closest we get to one is Grendor, who starts as a villain before pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
• Blow You Away: Cloud Spires' Rhynocs attack by flapping their wings, blowing gusts of wind at Spyro. This attack doesn't actually hurt Spyro, however, instead merely pushing him back.
• Breakout Mook Character: They're the main enemy type in all three GBA games. This makes them the Mooks with the most appearances in the series, at four games.
• Chest Monster: Some of the Rhynocs in Attack of the Rhynocs hide inside the baskets you'd normally get gems from. They run away once Spyro approaches them, forcing him to chase after them to get those sweet gems.
• Cowardly Mooks: In series tradition, the first Rhynocs Spyro encounters try to run away when he gets near them. Amusingly, it's possible to make two of them crash into each other.
• Dumb Muscle: As a whole, they don't seem to be very intelligent. Many of the things they try to do with the Dragon Eggs (including shooting them into space and implicitly eating them) run contradictory to the Sorceress' plan to use the baby dragons' wings for a spell.
• Giant Mook: Like their predecessors, the Gnorcs, Rhynocs have small and large variants, with large Rhynocs being immune to the Charge attack.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Fireworks Factory features large Rhynocs wearing suits of armor, who are immune to both the Charge and Fire Breath. To defeat them, you must either shoot a firecracker at them, or light the box of explosives on their back when they're turned away.
• Henchmen Race: With the exception of Grendor, who was the Big Bad of one game, every known Rhynoc is an underling to another villain.
• Hockey Fight: Hockey-themed Rhynocs appear in two missions—one in Icy Peak (where they try to beat up Nancy while she's ice skating) and one in Frozen Altars (where they play against Spyro in a game of Cat Hockey, often attacking him if he gets too close).
• Improbable Weapon User: Many of the Rhynocs' methods of attacking are just downright weird. From lanterns to jackhammers to flowerpots, it seems there's nothing they can't use as a weapon.
• Mook Maker: Fireworks Factory has boxes that endlessly spawn Ninja Rhynocs until they are destroyed. Similarly, the sarcophagi in Haunted Tomb endlessly spawn Mummy Rhynocs until you blow them up with a bomb.
• Mooks: They make up the bulk of Year of the Dragon's enemies.
• Mook Promotion: All of the main bosses in Year of the Dragon (with the obvious exception of the Sorceress herself) were Rhynocs that Bianca or the Sorceress transformed into monstrous creatures.
• Ninja: Most of the Rhynocs in Fireworks Factory are clad in ninja garb, and attempt to dodge Spyro's attacks before hitting him with their staff.
• Rhino Rampage: They're anthropomorphic rhinoceroses who are also the main attack force of the Sorceress.
• Totem Pole Trench: Many of the Ghost Rhynocs in Lost Fleet are actually two or more Rhynocs hiding under a sheet.
• Underground Monkey: The vast majority of enemies in Year of the Dragon are Rhynocs with different costumes and functions.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: While the Sorceress is one of the series' most dangerous and reprehensible villains, her Rhynoc footsoldiers are mostly incompetent Dumb Muscle.

Buzz

Sheila: "When I heard the Sorceress was planning to ambush you, I got here as fast as I could. No worries though, this wussy green toad will be no match for the two of us."

The first boss of Year of the Dragon. Buzz was a rhynoc minion of the Sorceress who was magically transformed into a large toad-like... thing by Bianca in order to combat Spyro.

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• Bewitched Amphibians: Bianca transforms him into a giant toad. Interestingly enough, not only did he want to be transformed, but it actually made him stronger.
• Breath Weapon: In the last stages of his fight, he begins spewing fire at Spyro, though not all of it comes directly from his mouth.
• Bullfight Boss: He mainly attacks by charging at Spyro, trying to force him out of the arena. Unfortunately for him, Spyro can do this too.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: He's constantly smiling toothily throughout Spyro's encounter with him.
• Degraded Boss: Copies of him hatch out of eggs later in Scorch's boss fight.
• Dumb Muscle: He adds more attacks as he goes on, but since his basic strategy never really changes, he's extremely easy for Spyro to outwit and leave open for a counterattack from Sheila.
• Elemental Barrier: He can create a protective ring of fire around himself.
• Evil Laugh: Usually does this after creating the aforementioned barrier.
• Green and Mean: He was originally purple and nice, then white and cuddly before he became well, what he is.
• Meaningful Name: His Rolling Attack resembles a buzzsaw.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family Despite being called a "toad" by Sheila, he has some very unusual teeth.
• Playing with Fire: Can create rings of it.
• Ring-Out Boss: The only way to damage Buzz is to push him out of the arena and into the surrounding lava.
• Rolling Attack: After Sheila stomps him into the lava, he bursts back onto the arena and attempts to flatten Spyro by rolling over him.
• Spikes of Villainy: Has a row of spikes lining his back, which he uses with his Rolling Attack.
• Turns Red: He starts using more attacks as his health goes down—he starts out by simply charging at Spyro, then he can create a fire shield, and finally he starts shooting fireballs.
• Use Your Head: When he's not using Rollout, he's using Headbutt.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: He's not the toughest boss ever but he's pretty darn challenging by first boss standards.

Spike

Sgt Byrd: "My tactical instincts told me the Sorceress would attack you here, so I flew in to help out. It seems my rocket launchers don't affect this creature, but I can assist you by dropping ammunition. Now, get in there, and fight the good fight!"

The second boss of Year of the Dragon, Spike was a rhynoc minion of the Sorceress, transformed into a powerful minotaur-esque creature and given a magic cannon in order to stop Spyro from collecting any more dragon eggs.

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• Abnormal Ammo: At first he just smashes the lava rocks Sgt. Byrd drops for Spyro, but when Byrd starts dropping crystals, Spike loads them into his weapon.
• BFG: He carries a gun that is bigger than Spyro's whole body.
• Energy Weapon: His gun will fire what looks like a laser whip if Spike manages to load a blue crystal.
• Expy: He fights in a manner much like Ripto in a similar area, though Spike is bigger, stronger to the point he can attack directly, and even more resistant to direct assault. However, he doesn't have as much health (because he lacks phases that reset his bar) and can't perform magic.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes become a blank green after his transformation.
• Hand Cannon: His blaster is large, even compared to his enormous body, and he still manages to wield it with one hand.
• Hair-Raising Hare: His Reignited design gives him long side ears, a small nose and buck teeth, making him look somewhat like a rabbit.
• Horned Humanoid: Like all rhynocs, however Spike also has two horn like protrusions coming out of his shoulders.
• Lightning Gun: Electric balls are his default ammo.
• Large and in Charge: He's freaking huge.
• Meaningful Name
  • Spike has spikes on his body.
  • If Spyro gets to close to him, Spike will slam his fist down on the little dragon.
  • He's WAY harder than the previous boss, at least in the original game.
• Magma Man: Not innately, but if Spike manages to load a red crystal his gun will shoot a wave of what is either fire or lava.
• Nerf: Significantly easier in Spyro Reignited Trilogy, where he has less health and less aggressive AI. This is because the Dynamic Difficulty of the original Year of the Dragon was removed in the remake, meaning Spike's easiest difficulty setting is now the only setting.
• No-Sell: Not only is he unfazed by Spyro's basic attacks, Sgt Byrd states he tried shooting at him before the fight and his rocket launchers had no effect.
• Spikes of Villainy: Spike has one horn on his head, and one on each shoulder.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Far from the most pronounced example in this series though.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Compared to Buzz, Spike doesn't pull any punches during his fight. It also showcases the Sorceress' magic as that much more powerful than Bianca's.

Scorch

Bentley: "This might be our last stand, Spyro. The Sorceress plans to use this monster to destroy every iota of her opposition, beginning with the two of us. Alas, there is no time for ruminating. A battle awaits us. I will endeavor to assist you by means of a steady provision of combustible projectiles."

The third boss of Year of the Dragon. Fed up with Spyro's selfless acts of heroism and constant meddling, the Sorceress decides to make "The Monster to End All Monsters" out of one of her rhynocs, Scorch. The result was a horrifying winged creature created to finally eliminate the little dragon, as well as every single dragon in the world.

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• Barrier Warrior: Creates rings that block the rockets Bentley gives Spyro.
• Bat Out of Hell: He's a large, bat-like monster who puts up a huge fight against Spyro and Bentley. His Reignited redesign makes his bat-like traits more apparent.
• Climax Boss: He was created to be the "Monster to End All Monsters", acts as the penultimate boss, comes after a major plot revelation, has a good amount of build up, and is a challenging battle.
• Disney Villain Death: Falls into a pit of acid.
• Energy Ball: Scorch can create a shower of energy by blasting out plasma orbs into the sky, causing them to rain down on Spyro.
• Giant Flyer: He dwarfs Bentley, Spyro's largest Year Of The Dragon ally, and is constantly airborne.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Glowing yellow, similar to Spike.
• Knight of Cerebus: The other bosses have their comedic moments here-and-there (even the tactiturn Spike can cartoonishly squish Spyro with a punch), but nothing about Scorch in either version of the game is played for fun. The Rhynoc that becomes Scorch is transformed under extreme duress , the creature has no lines, the boss is fought in a gloomy, apocalyptic-looking arena and Bentley outright treats the impending battle like a Last Stand. If the Sorceress had her way, Scorch would've been the very monster to kill the infant dragons.
• Meaningful Name: He fires scorching energy blasts.
• Mook Maker: He can create enemies to fight Spyro, starting with Lost Fleet crabs. Then rhynocs carrying TNT crates, then fireballs with legs and then the first boss Buzz.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: All fangs, though not as many as Buzz.
• Mister Seahorse: The enemies he spawns come from eggs that he spits out. Especially when other rhynocs start hatching from them.
• No Ontological Inertia: When you beat Scorch, you don't have to worry about anything hatched from his eggs that you haven't beaten yet.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. He shares a name with one of the fireflies in Season of Flame. If stages are counted, he also has the same name as the desert level in Ripto's Rage!.

Bluto

A rhynoc who serves as a mini-boss within Seashell Shore. He has a bet with the seal inhabitants to give them the dragon egg he has if their speedboat can best his nuclear shark submarine.

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• The Bet: Bluto and the seals are betting a dragon egg as the prize for their boat-battle. The seals (and by proxy Spyro) get the egg if they win. If the seals lose, they have submarine kitchen-duty to look forward to...on top of the 7 years they already owe from their 84 losses.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Seal hosting the contest states that Bluto crushed them in 84 previous battles before Spyro came along.
• Healing Boss: Bluto's sub can collect the same missile-crates Spyro can, restoring a chunk of health per collected box. Bluto will also occasionally pop out of the sub's hatch and repair the sub himself to heal. This is one of the best times to send a missile his way.
• Homing Projectile: The shark sub can launch these at-random.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Bluto's shark-sub will automatically gun for Spyro's boat with its jaws after it takes enough hits or enough time passes. Therefore, pelting it with a rocket or two and speeding off is the ideal way to fight. Charging it guns blazing is not advised.
• Shout-Out: He's named after the character from Popeye.

Sleepyhead

A rhynoc wizard who resides in Spooky Swamp. After Spyro lights all of the tea lamps, the door to his lair opens where Spyro can engage in a fight with him to claim an egg.

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• Disproportionate Retribution: Is willing to murder anyone that wakes him up from his slumber.
• Flunky Boss: Sleepyhead never moves from his center pedestal, relying on the occasional shockwave and Gators he summons to pursue Spyro and make charging his bombs back to him harder.
• Meaningful Name: Sleepyhead consistently uses tired idle animations when not attacking Spyro and is also asleep prior to the tea lamps being lit.
• Rhino Rampage: Is an anthropomorphic rhino and is shown to be willing to kill Spyro.

Spyro: Season of Ice

Grendor

"ARGH! This spell book is worthless! Look what it did to me! I've got two heads and four headaches!"

^{Click here for his normal appearance}

The villain of Season of Ice. Once just a simple pink rhynoc working in the library of paths and knowledge, he became the new leader of the rhynocs after using the Sorceress’s spell book to gain power and intelligence. Unfortunately, the spell also gave him two heads with constant headaches. He attempted to create a potion from the wings of 100 fairies in order to undo his predicament.

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• Ambition Is Evil: Grendor didn’t want to be a librarian, and hastily tried to seize power the first chance he got.
• An Ice Person: He wields magic powerful enough to freeze every fairy in the Fairy Realms. He also uses this power in his second fight.
• Anti-Villain: While his plan to steal fairy wings is undeniably heinous, he only tried it because he didn't want to constantly deal with his changed form and the constant headaches that came with it. After Zoe reverses the spell, he's perfectly happy to abandon his evil ways and return to his job as a librarian.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Spyro has to hurt him by charging into his belly.
• Big Bad: For Season of Ice.
• Blessed with Suck: The spell he cast gave him the strength and brainpower he wanted, but he gets two heads and constant migraines as a side effect.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Rather than starting out as a monstrous, powerful creature, Grendor started as an ordinary Rhynoc who tried to become more powerful with a previous villain's spellbook. Rather than having purely selfish or evil motives, he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's just trying to undo his botched spell. Finally, once Zoe helps him, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn without hesitation.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Becomes content with his librarian job after Spyro beats him.
• Evil Sorcerer: Like most Spyro villains, he's a wizard with a magic scepter. However, unlike the other villains in the series, he wasn't one to begin with—he learned magic by using the Sorceress' spell book.
• Fireballs: He uses these in his first bout with Spyro.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from a little rhynoc who was deemed too weak to be a soldier to an incredibly dangerous sorcerer.
• Heel–Face Turn: He renounces his evil ways at the end of his debut game.
• Large and in Charge: The largest rhynoc Spyro encounters, and the leader of them all.
• Magic Misfire: Grendor wasn’t the most magically well-versed rhynoc in the first place, but after rushing through the spell and reading the book upside down, it’s not much of a surprise the attempt went wrong.
• Multiple Head Case: The botched spell he uses gives him two bickering heads and four headaches.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Each half of his body, Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. The green half is constantly sad, the red half is constantly angry.
• Rhino Rampage: He is an anthropomorphic rhinoceros and the main antagonist.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He only kidnapped all the fairies to try to get rid of his headache. Once Zoe turns him back to normal, he gladly gives up his evil ways.

Spyro: A Hero's Tail

Red

"What? Defeated by that little twerp Spyro? He is only a dragon whelp!"

^{Click here for his Mecha form}

Voiced by: Jess Harnell

"Well, well, well! You do have a lot of fire in you... but don't think you're any match against my infinite power!!"

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.

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• Ambition Is Evil: According to Magnus, his lust for power led him to seek more and attempt to overthrow their leader.
• An Ice Person: Red uses his magic staff to shoot ice.
• Bad Boss: He has no qualms against threatening, insulting, and outright killing his minions.
• Big Bad: He's behind all the dangerous Dark Gems that show up in A Hero's Tail.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: The battle against Mecha-Red takes this trope to an absurd degree. The area he fights in is full of weaponry that can be used to attack him, but he doesn't even try to avoid it—he just stands still doing nothing while Spyro pelts him with missiles, electrocutes him, and gets his own minions to shoot at him. He also never does anything about the Professor repeatedly undoing his transformation, even though it leaves him vulnerable.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Courtesy of the Sorcerer. He was under the Sorcerer's control during the events of A Hero's Tail as well.
• Breath Weapon: Being a dragon, he's capable of shooting fire from his mouth. He can use this to melt the icy platform Spyro stands on during his boss fight.
• Bring It: Threatens Spyro with these exact words once he's moved onto his second phase during their battle in Icy Wilderness.
• Character Tics: He seems to have a tendency to pick at his nails, as shown in both the intro cutscene for Icy Wilderness and the introduction to his boss fight.
• Chest Blaster: Mecha-Red has a pair of rocket launchers on his chest, which seem to be situated where his nipples would be.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: In both of his battles, he can stomp the ground to make debris fall on Spyro. Mecha-Red's version also counts as a Shockwave Stomp.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While every previous villain was some kind of creature who hated dragons, Red is the first to be a dragon himself, having turned evil and attempted to take over the realms. He doesn't have his own minions, so he employs a previous villain and his army to help him. While he's still an Evil Sorcerer, he has a greater association with technology, with his Mad Scientist Laboratory and robotic transformation. Finally, he turns out to be a pawn of an even bigger evil, described below.
• Demoted to Dragon: Once The Sorcerer is made as the true villain.
• Dirty Coward: Zigzagged. Spyro accuses Red of being this before the latter's boss fight, and he does make a hasty exit after the fight. However, he also battles Spyro head-on twice, and would have presumably done so without any weapons in the second battle had Spyro not accidentally turned him into a robot, so it comes across as more of an Informed Flaw.
• Easily Forgiven: After it was revealed that he was brainwashed by the Sorcerer, everyone in the Dragon Realms (except for Titan) forgave him.
• Evil Brit: A Hero's Tail gives him a British accent.
• Evil Former Friend: He was friends with the dragon elder Titan before his Face–Heel Turn.
• Evil Is Hammy: In a world full of hammy villains, Red sticks out as one of the hammiest.
  Red: "Your master was a useless lump of dragon dung! And you brainless imbeciles better get your act together or you will find yourselves working in the mines, digging for dark gems for the rest of your miserable lives!!!
• Evil Sorcerer: He's adept at magic thanks to his staff, which harnessed the power of a fairy trapped inside of it.
• Expy: He has some marked similarities to Darth Vader, even if very different appearance-wise. Besides being the main villain, he's a fallen Dragon Elder, speaks in a fairly deep aristocratic tone, is an evil sorceror who carries a magic weapon (a staff containing a fairy at its tip in this case) and is generally dark, stoic, serious and yet easy to tick off, and has no patience with minions that fail him. On top of that, he turns out to be an underling of a more powerful villain wearing a hood, and pulls a Heel–Face Turn after being freed from his control.
• Eye Beams: One of Mecha-Red's first attacks is to shoot a homing laser from his eyes.
• Fallen Hero: Was a Dragon Elder before he encountered The Sorcerer.
• Flunky Boss: He can summon Critters to attack Spyro during his first battle, and Robo-Gnorcs during his second battle (which Spyro can literally turn on him).
• Generic Doomsday Villain: In A Hero's Tail, when you look past his whole "fallen Dragon Elder" backstory (which is even discussed rather lethargically by the other dragons), he's a dime-a-dozen haughty egomaniacal sorceror who wants to take over the Dragon Realms for the sake of power. Though Shadow Legacy retroactively added a bit more layers to him by showing that he had been brainwashed into becoming evil all along.
• Heel–Face Turn: Becomes an ally in Shadow Legacy.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: He's ultimately defeated by being shrunk down to the size of a mouse, allowing the Professor to trap him in a jar.
• Large Ham: His manner of speech is quite dramatic and theatrical.
• Literally Shattered Lives: He inflicts this on the unfortunate gnorc who brings the news of Gnasty Gnorc's defeat in Lost Cities.
• Mad Scientist: Implied. We never actually see Red do any science work and he needs to kidnap the Professor to help build his Robo-Gnorcs; however, his lair is a Mad Scientist Laboratory that already existed before the Professor's kidnapping, indicating that he probably knows a thing or two about inventing himself. He also has Mecha-Mooks and maintenance droids that he seemingly made himself, though they're not as effective as the Professor's Robo-Gnorcs.
• Marathon Boss: He had the same amount of health as any other boss in A Hero's Tail, but his attack pattern is the longest of them all, meaning you'll have to sit through a lot of attacks before you can get a chance to hit him. Not to mention he starts dodging your attacks later on in the fight... Mecha-Red, however, is an aversion, as his phases can be blown through very quickly.
• Meaningful Name: Guess what color he is. He also has a short temper, which means he's seeing red.
• No-Sell: None of Spyro's abilities can so much as put a dent on him—at most, the Electric Breath just makes him jolt in pain—and he has to rely on outside means to harm him (i.e. exploding crates, rockets, electric pylons, robot laser guns being turned on him).
• Not Me This Time: Everyone immediately assumes that Red was responsible for taking everyone to the Shadow Realm in Shadow Legacy. Turns out, he wasn't—it was actually the Sorcerer, who likely deliberately arranged events so that Red would be blamed while he continued to work in secret.
• One-Winged Angel: Transforms into a robot for the final boss fight in A Hero's Tail. The transformation is undone after the battle and is sometimes undone throughout the fight to give the player a window of oppurtunity to attack him.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: His icy wand blasts move very fast, and are difficult to dodge normally. They can, however, be easily blocked with the Wing Shield, which usually doesn't see much use outside of Cloudy Domain. They can also be destroyed with Fire Breath, which makes more sense but still isn't hinted at (plus it's more risky since it requires precise timing to hit them).
• Post-Modern Magik: He's a skilled wizard, but his island is full of machinery and he has a Mad Scientist Laboratory. He also has an army of Robo-Gnorcs and becomes a robot himself in the final battle (though granted, this was the Professor's doing).
• Psychopathic Manchild: He throws childish insults around on occasion and tells Spyro that he "always gets his way" right before their final fight, giving the impression that he's a Spoiled Brat who's all grown up.
• Red Is Violent: He (obviously) has red scales, and he's a villain.
• Shoot the Messenger: After Gnasty’s defeat, a gnorc delivers the news to Red, who proceeds to freeze and smash said gnorc.
  Red: This is the first and last time you’ll deliver me bad news.
• Smug Super: He's very arrogant and haughty in personality, but he unquestionably has the power to back it up, at least when he has his staff on hand.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: The first battle against Red works like this. One of his attacks is to summon exploding crates. Since none of Spyro's attacks will hurt Red directly, he has to push these crates into Red with his Water Breath to damage him. As the fight goes on, Red will start summoning smaller amounts of crates, and will even jump over them to avoid getting hit, but he never seems to think to just stop summoning them altogether.
• Unwilling Roboticization: At the end of A Hero's Tail, Spyro knocks Red into his robot assembly line, causing him to be converted into a robot. However, he quickly uses this to his advantage.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: His eyes have a yellow sclera, and he's definitely not a good guy (until Shadow Legacy).
• You Have Failed Me: He's not afraid to kill his minions when they screw up. He's also shown to kill minions who give him bad news.
• You Remind Me of X: Tells Spyro that he reminds him of himself when he was younger.
• Zero-Effort Boss: In contrast to his difficult battle in A Hero's Tail, Red just stands still and allows you to hit him with the Shock spell in Shadow Legacy. This is justified, as the Sorcerer has already been draining his magic, making him very weak.

Ineptune

Ineptune

Voiced by: Susanne Blakeslee

The evil queen of the seas, hired by Red to ambush Spyro at the Watery Tomb of Coastal Remains.

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• Acid Attack: Her primary means of attack, either by throwing globs of it or spewing it from her mouth.
• Adipose Rex: She's the very fat queen of the sea.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The purple gem on her belt is her weak spot.
• Drama Queen: If her reaction to being defeated is anything to go by.
• Evil Is Hammy: She chews the scenery a lot, especially after you defeat her.
• Evil Laugh: Is rather prone to these.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Inverted. Before her boss fight, Ineptune comments that Spyro is bigger than she expected, which Spyro lampshades. For some reason, though, she constantly brings up how small Spyro is throughout the rest of the battle.
• Expy: She looks and acts an awful lot like Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989), though with a fish tail as opposed to octopus tentacles.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: She's the self-proclaimed queen of the seas, and is certainly rather malicious.
• Green and Mean: Her skin is green, and to say she is mean is an understatement.
• I Shall Taunt You: She'll point and laugh at you if she lands a hit on you. If she's close enough to the platform, you can attack her during this time.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: She can spit acid, for one. Apparently she also needs to hold her breath before going underwater, despite being half-fish.
• Purple Is Powerful: Her tail and clothes are purple.
• Punny Name: Her name is a portmanteau of Inept (stupid) and Neptune (the Roman god of the sea).
• Super Spit: One of her main attacks is spewing out a stream of acid.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: When she gets close to the platform to use her acid breath, she gives Spyro an opportunity to hit her after she tires out from using it.
• Villainous Breakdown: She does not take losing to Spyro very well.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Ineptune's eyes have a yellow sclera, and she is seen scheming with Red in her introduction.

Mammoth

A woolly mammoth that Red hires to guard his Lair in the Icy Wilderness. He successfully captures Spyro, forcing Hunter to rescue him.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: If his Hulk Speak is any indication, he probably isn't all that smart. Despite this, he manages to capture Spyro just by ignoring the usual boss fight structure.
• Combat Pragmatist: He simply stomps on Spyro while he's bragging.
• A Dog Named "Dog": A mammoth named "Mammoth".
• Hulk Speak: Speaks like this in his only line of dialogue.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He only seems to want to capture Spyro because Red threatened him—he doesn't seem particularly mean otherwise.
• Talk to the Fist: When he tells Spyro he's going to stop him, Spyro starts bragging while lampshading the way the game's boss fights usually go. The Mammoth just steps on him while he's talking.
• The Unfought: Despite being shown in the cutscene before reaching Icy Wilderness, Spyro never actually gets to fight him—the Mammoth just stomps on him and throws him in a cage and disappears from the game completely afterwards. Unused idle animations in the game's files suggest a fight may have been planned at one point in development.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He never shows up again after Hunter rescues Spyro, not even for a boss fight.

Spyro: Shadow Legacy

The Sorcerer

"Your journey ends here."

^{Click here for his true appearance}

Voiced by: Jess Harnell^note The game doesn't have full voice acting, but his Voice Grunting during gameplay is done by Jess.

"In fact, I think you've never seen a real dragon. <keff> You know, a dragon in his prime? A dragon with the strength of a mountain. A dragon with wings larger than a house. A dragon wielding magic powerful enough to bend reality itself to his will. <keff!> No, you've not seen such a dragon."

The villain of Shadow Legacy. A dark Wizard Dragon that seeks to plunge the Dragon Realm and other homeworlds into the Shadow Realm so that he may drain their magic.

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• Badass Boast: He has one heck of one before the climatic battle against Spyro.
  "In fact, I think you've never seen a real dragon. <keff> You know, a dragon in his prime? A dragon with the strength of a mountain. A dragon with wings larger than a house. A dragon wielding magic powerful enough to bend reality itself to his will. <keff!> No, you've not seen such a dragon."
• Bad Boss: It's implied that the reason the Sorcerer corrupted Red was to use the latter as a scapegoat while he carried out his plans in secret. Once he stops being useful, the Sorcerer starts draining Red's magic as well.
• Big Bad: He's the one who's trapped everyone in the Shadow Realm in Shadow Legacy.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When you first encounter him, he politely points out some "trinkets" that the player needs. Then you find out that he's the one dragging people to the Shadow Realm to be drained and is the evil behind Red's actions.
• Black Cloak: Is seen throughout the game wearing a dark cloak with a hood shaped like a knight's helm. He loses it however when revealing his true self.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: He has black eyes with glowing white irises, and he's one of the most twisted foes Spyro has ever faced.
• Casting a Shadow: The Sorcerer has many darkness-related spells and abilities.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike the other antagonists in the classic continuity, The Sorcerer is a Hidden Villain who was also responsible for another villains actions. He also has goals spanning beyond the scope of the other villains as he affects multiple realms. While Fantastic Racism against dragons is a common trope for the villains; The Sorcerer is unique as he also is a dragon himself, claiming he is a "true" dragon while the others are not. The Sorcerer is also much more subdued in personality, lacking the hammy flair of the other antagonists.
• The Corrupter: He used his dark abilities to turn Red evil before the series began.
• Dark Is Evil: Is a dark shade of purple and is one of the darkest Spyro villains.
• Dirty Coward: He may be one of the strongest and most menacing villains in the series, but he never challenges Spyro directly until the ending (using Red as a Fall Guy for most of the game) and runs away the moment he realizes he might be in danger.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Just like the Sorceress, his real name is never revealed. He's only ever called "Stranger" and "Sorcerer".
• Evil Is Bigger: His true form is tied with Red's mechanical form as one of Spyro's largest opponents that he has fought.
• Evil Sorcerer: If the name didn't tip you off, the Sorcerer is a both a very powerful and very cruel wizard.
• Fantastic Racism: Claims that Spyro and the other denizens of the Dragon Realms are not true dragons, and that he is the only real dragon.
• Faux Affably Evil: Seemingly a polite mysterious character and keeps his formalities to Spyro until it's obvious he's just an megalomaniacal psychopath with hegemonic goals.
• Final Boss: The last major antagonist in the original series.
• Flat Character: Unlike a majority of the villains in the series, The Sorcerer isn't a character with a deep personality, mostly being a mysterious being who's dragging innocents to the Shadow Realm. What he lacks in that though, he certainly makes up for in terms of scale when it comes to villainy.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He was the one who manipulated Red to evil, which led to the events of A Hero's Tail.
• Hidden Villain: He caused the events of A Hero's Tail.
• In the Hood: His main attire in his regular form is a black cloak with a hood shaped like a knight's helmet.
• Karma Houdini: Despite being one of the biggest threats Spyro has encountered, he simply flees his battle with nothing but a major blow to his ego. Although the ending text states that the next time he returns, the other dragons will be ready for him, so any of his future moves are unlikely to go without shift and strong opposition.
• Knight of Cerebus: Is considered the Spiritual Predecessor to Malefor right down to his One-Winged Angel form. He shifts the games tone from a standard Spyro adventure to "saving everyone from being tortured in an Eldritch Location".
• Meaningful Name: Well... he's a sorcerer.
• Mysterious Past: Hardly anything is known about him, and seeing as the Sequel Hook set up at the end of Shadow Legacy is unlikely to be addressed in any future games, the chances of learning anything new about him are very slim.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Even by post Insomniac games standards, he looks more in line with what the next series would look like. Especially after he pulls his One-Winged Angel form.
• Obviously Evil: Dark attire, mysterious, oh and a twisted monster? Yeah The Sorcerer isn't winning points for subtlety.
• One-Winged Angel: Reverts into his true form, a giant four-winged purple dragon, in the final fight against him.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Spares Bianca when he finds her in his lair, not out of kindness but to use her as bait for Red to ambush Spyro with.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: By far the villain with the largest plan by scale as he drags people from the Dragon Realms, Avalar and The Forgotten Worlds to the Shadow Realm for his twisted agenda whereas the other villains are situated in a singular realm.
• Smug Snake: Constantly boasts about how powerful he is and even rejected Spyro joining his side, deeming him weak but when bested in combat, The Sorcerer has a full on Villainous Breakdown.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: In a stark contrast to every other Spyro villain, the Sorcerer has next to no hamminess at all—he seldom raises his voice, but he certainly gets across that he's evil nonetheless.
• Spikes of Villainy: His dragon form has quite a few.
• Tennis Boss: None of Spyro's spells can hurt him directly — the only way to make him vulnerable is to cast a Banish attack on one of his fireballs to send it back towards him.
• This Cannot Be!: He quotes this almost verbatim during his defeat.
• Vader Breath: Implied. While the game has no voice acting, the Sorcerer often says <keff!> while speaking. Given his wizened, elderly appearance, it's likely meant to be coughing.
• Vampiric Draining: His modus operandi is to drain magic from people to make himself stronger.
• Verbal Tic: He has a habit of going <keff!> when he speaks.
• Viler New Villain: The Sorcerer is the last antagonist within the classic continuity and is among the most heinous villains across the entire franchise, with his whole schtick of draining innocents and leaving them to die in the Shadow Realm.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: There's nothing positive about this guy and the Shadow Realm he leaked was one of the darkest settings in a Spyro game. He overall ties with The Sorceress as the most vile villain within the original continuity.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He flees in order to live and fight another day at the end of Shadow Legacy.
• Villainous Breakdown: He loses his composure after being defeated by someone as small as Spyro, and hastily flees.
  Sorcerer: How... how can this be? You're so small... must return home, must... survive...
• Walking Spoiler: Learning about his significance changes the stakes of the game.
• We Can Rule Together: Grows increasingly impressed by Spyro's abilities, and eventually offers to take him on as his apprentice. Then rejects him anyway.
• Would Hurt a Child: Several of the people he trapped in the Shadow Realm were children, with at least one being a baby dragon.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Despite being his unwillingly loyal servant, Red is not spared from the Sorcerer's magic-draining plot, as he reveals after his defeat.

Ice Minion

"You will go no further! My Master commands it!"

The first boss encountered in Spyro: Shadow Legacy. A brutish knight who resides in a fort along the coast. After Spyro defeats him, the ice surrounding his fort melts, allowing Spyro to travel to Avalar by boat.

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• An Ice Person: The Ice Minion utilises an ice blade and claw to attack Spyro with.
• Co-Dragons: Serves The Sorcerer along with his brother and tries to stop Spyro with interfering with his plans.
• Flat Character: He's less of a of character and more of an obstacle in the way.
• Magic Knight: He has a knight-like appearance and is shown to wield magic abilites.
• Meaningful Name: He has the reocurring theme of ice and is shown to be a minion to his despicable master.
• Undying Loyalty: Fights Spyro to stop him because his master commands it.

Fire Minion

"You won't defeat me like you did my weakling brother! My Master commands it!"

The second boss of Spyro: Shadow Legacy. A flamed clad knight who resides in the volcano of Skelos Badlands. Defeating him releases the Professor from his cage and allows the heroes to travel to the Forgotten Worlds.

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• Co-Dragons: Along with his brother, both serve The Sorcerer and try to stop Spyro with interfering with his plans.
• Epic Flail: The Fire Minion wields one within his battle.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. The Fire Minion chastises his brother for failing to kill Spyro, even dismissing him as weak.
• Flat Character: Like his brother, he's less of a character and more of an obstacle in the way.
• Magic Knight:He resembles a spectral suit of armour and is shown to wield magic abilities.
• Meaningful Name: Well he's a minion and wields fire related attacks.
• Playing with Fire: The Fire Minion resides within a fiery lair.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Fire Minion's colour scheme which suits his environment.
• Undying Loyalty: Like his brother, he fights Spyro to stop him because his master commands it.

Shadow Minions

Some of the Shadow Minions encountered in the game. From Left to Right: Lookouts,Long Legs, Brains, Shelleys

Strange creatures under the control of The Sorcerer that reside in the Shadow Realm. Either guarding the trapped innocents The Sorcerer had pulled into the Shadow Realm or roaming the lands, these will be a repeated thread in Spyro's way.

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• Airborne Mook: The Brains are floating tentacle creatures that use dark magic which deals high damage to Spyro. They can only be stunned by the magic side of Dragon Kata.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Shadow Minions are the hostile creatures serving The Sorcerer and are the only lifeforms seen inhabiting the Shadow Realm. Unlike their master and the Ice and Fire Minion, they only communicate with growls and will immediately attack Spyro.
• Dark Is Evil: Every Shadow Minion is a dark murky colour and are content with seeing innocent people being dragged to the Shadow Realm to be drained of their magic.
• Mooks: The main ones of The Sorcerer and are the only enemy threat to Spyro when exploring the Shadow Realm.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Rather than the cartoonish animal designs of the other enemies in the series, The Shadow Minions are depicted as weird insectoid creatures from an Eldritch Location.
• Obviously Evil: Like their master, The Shadow Minions are dark insectoid monsters who will instantly go to attack Spyro when they spot him. Not exactly subtle with their allegiance.
• Outside-Context Problem: Unlike any of the other enemies within the classic continuity, Spyro can't even harm the Shadow Minions with his charge or flame attack. It takes learning Dragon Kata to be able to even harm them.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: The Knight, one of the tougher minions, is a insectoid creature that wields a blade and shield. While they use their blade to hurt Spyro, they can also use their shield to block attacks although it can be shattered.
• Underground Monkey: Later in the game, Shadow Minions will have coloured markings on them, giving them a protective barrier against standard Dragon-Kata. The barriers can be destroyed with advanced Dragon-Kata. There's blue and red variants, with blue being encountered first and red ones being the primary force in the last stretch of the game.

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