Cynder

Cynder

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

Appearance

Cynder is a black dragon with emerald-green eyes, a ruby underbelly, a tail-blade and blades on her wing carpals, big wings with ruby membranes, and six silver-white horns on her head. In her adult form, she wore two platinum bracers on her wrists, and a platinum choker on her neck and another two bracers on her tail. Curiously, she wears them again in her teenager form in Dawn of the Dragon. Cynder also has symbols on her forehead, back, shoulders, and around her eyes, which are the result of Malefor's corruption.

When in the form she is in for the majority of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, she is much larger than usual. Some other attributes of that form are her longer neck, long, lean body, different wings, and a more pointed, adult-looking face.

Personality

As an egg, Cynder was stolen by Malefor's dark forces and born under his influence. Malefor's powerful magic transformed Cynder into a lithe, monstrous dragon who was the classic femme fatale: unstable, alternately calm, but explosive, caring about nothing but the return of her master. After she was freed from Malefor's control, Cynder felt guilty about all of the things she had done while under his corruption and thrives to discover her own destiny and help fight against her former master.

In Dawn of the Dragon, Cynder's personality is explored. She is cunning, intelligent, witty, resourceful, brave, spirited, determined, independent, and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Despite her damsel-in-distress role in the previous two games, Cynder is far from passive and doesn't enjoy such roles of frail and weak heroines. For instance, when Spyro was telling Cynder to follow his lead, she immediately responded in an indignant tone, "Why should you lead?".

Her time as Malefor's puppet traumatized her deeply that she quickly becomes upset whenever anyone mentions her dark past or the possibility of her still being evil and returning to Malefor's side, something that happens rather often. Cynder strongly dislikes being chained in any form (physical or psychologically), shown by her desire to find her destiny and frequent irritation over the green chain. Cynder shows strong determination to help others and prove that she isn't the monster she once was. Her feelings are so strong that she wants to do all she can to keep her loved ones safe, and becomes brave enough to show Spyro hints about her romantic feelings before fully revealing them at the end of the third game.

Abilities

When first introduced in A New Beginning, as a result of Malefor's corruption, Cynder was made to age at a much quicker rate than an ordinary dragon, giving her the body of an adult dragon despite being the same age as Spyro. In this form, Cynder possessed enormous power, being able to subdue a powerful dragon like Ignitus. Her true abilities aren't seen until the end of the game, though she is hinted to be incredibly powerful, as the Guardians (all of whom are masters of their respective elements and rather powerful dragons) spoke of her in a fearful manner and her assault caused Spyro (a dragon known for his bravery) to flee in fear. During her fight with Spyro, she reveals that she has excellent melee combat abilities, being able to attack Spyro at any angle he approaches from. She also displayed a unique ability known as Shadow Breath, which is powerful enough to cause rock to catch fire and deal significant damage to Spyro. She seemed to have lost most (if not all) of these abilities upon being purged of Malefor's influence and returning to her natural form.

Despite this, throughout The Eternal Night, Cynder has been implied to be a capable fighter. She displayed enough confidence in her skills to travel the realms alone, and both the Skavengers and the Ape King appeared confident enough in her skills to pit her against Spyro, despite possessing no elemental abilities at the time (though in the latter case, Spyro had his elemental abilities drained in addition to being physically weakened by the Ape King's staff).

Malefor's corruption granted Cynder abilities most uncommon among Dragons. She has the ability to use Poison, Fear, Wind, and Shadow as her breath attacks, which were given to her in Dawn of the Dragon. Aether is also one of the abilities that was unwillingly bestowed upon her by Malefor. It is interesting to note that Cynder appears to have greater reserves of magic than Spyro, despite the latter being a purple dragon (who are renowned for their enormous elemental and magical potential), though this may due to the fact she was exposed to the dark magic of a fallen purple dragon.

Cynder has also displayed great skills in melee combat (exceeding Spyro in terms of skill and speed, although not as physically strong), and favours using quick strikes and dodging using her natural speed and agility, performing complex and highly acrobatic attacks within close proximity.

Story

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

File:TEN Cynder.png

A young Cynder in chains, moments before being corrupted by Malefor's dark powers.

Cynder was born in the same clutch of dragon eggs that Spyro was in during the Year of the Dragon, making her and Spyro the same age. On the night the Dark Armies raided the Dragon Temple, the Ape King Gaul kidnapped Cynder's egg, choosing her to be the dragon who would free the essence of the Dark Master, Malefor, from his prison in Convexity. She was then corrupted by Malefor's dark powers, which transformed her into a monstrous and horrific, adult dragon brainwashed to do Malefor's bidding. Becoming the general of Malefor's army, Cynder led the Apes in the war against the Dragon race and the Guardians. She captured three of the Guardians in order to drain their elemental powers into a crystal that would be used as a key to free Malefor. The Fire Dragon, Ignitus, was the only Guardian who managed to escape and hide from Cynder. Eventually, the Dragons lost the war due to Cynder's intervention. The evil dragon took control over the islands and the surrounding land, putting them under her iron rule, all the while searching for Ignitus in order to drain his elemental power. Cynder's terrifying fury and the war's aftermath led to the deaths of many Dragons, dwindling their numbers.

Cynder Plays Nala in The Blue Dragon King (1994)

She is a lioness

Trivia

• In Dawn of the Dragon, the sudden appearance of Cynder's silver jewelry was unexplained, as it was apparent that she didn't wear them on before she, Spyro, and Sparx were frozen in time in The Eternal Night.
  • It was later revealed by one of the producers of the Legend of Spyro trilogy, that Cynder wears the silver jewelry as a way of facing her fear of becoming Malefor's servant again. There was originally going to be a cutscene involving her putting the jewelry on, but there was no time in creating and adding the scene in during the game's rushed production.
• Cynder's black scales, markings, and sinister powers were a result of Malefor's corruption. It is implied by Jared Pullen that her true element was Wind before she was corrupted.
• According to Jared Pullen, in response to Cynder's return to the Dragon Temple, the Guardians were intended to be in a debate over Cynder's stay at the Temple. Cyril was the most vocal against the decision, and Ignitus strongly supported Cynder's re-inclusion, as he felt he had failed Cynder on levels the other Guardians could not imagine. His guilt, coupled with his understanding of failure prompted him to reach out to Cynder in this way. "Terrador seconded the notion, trusting in Ignitus' judgement and out of respect for his close ally. Volteer endlessly debated the pros and cons of Cynder's return until Cyril finally grew tired of all the conjecture and relented!" However due to time restraints, this detail wasn't made known until now.
• Throughout Dawn of the Dragon, Cynder was the only one who was greatly irritated that she was tethered to Spyro, and wanted to get the green chain off as soon as possible.
• Lead concept artist of A New Beginning and The Eternal Night, Jared Pullen, revealed that Spyro and Cynder weren't originally going to fall in love with each other. But since the fans wanted to see them together, the team obliged and made the pairing canon to the story at the last minute.
• In the GBA version of The Eternal Night, Amaze Entertainment mistakenly labeled Cynder as Spyro's "sibling," which is entirely false.
• In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, there is a dragonfly named Cinder.
• Cynder is one of two roles in The Legend of Spyro series to be constantly recast (the other being Sparx). She is voiced by Cree Summer in A New Beginning, Mae Whitman in The Eternal Night, and Christina Ricci in Dawn of the Dragon.
• Despite Cynder being a black dragon, her scales sometimes appear to be purple, be it dark purple, when compared to Spyro in Dawn of the Dragon. This appears mostly in previous concept art of Cynder, and in the final game of the series (where her body is seemingly always shown to be purple). It could be a glitch, a color error, or could also be a result of the lighting (notice that blacklights glow purple). It is also possible that if her coloring was black, it would be hard to see the shading on her.
  • She is however, black in the DS and mobile version of Dawn of the Dragon.
• Taking both the original and The Legend of Spyro series into consideration, Cynder is one of the only other playable dragons who does not have the same elements as Spyro.
• Cynder was originally going to breathe green fire. As soon as it was apparent that the Earth element (and its corresponding Guardian Terrador) were to take on the green color, Krome Studios dropped the idea of green fire for Cynder.
• Cynder is the only female character who has really proven to Spyro that she is in love with him in Dawn of the Dragon, and at the same time she is the only female character in any game of any continuity that Spyro developed feelings for.
• In the movie called Dragons: Destiny Of Fire, there is a dragon called Marina who is very similar to Cynder because they have the same horns, the same eyes, both are partners to the main character, and they have almost the same color.
• In A New Beginning, Cynder's wings are shown to have a few holes (possibly from the battles she had won), but her wings didn't have any holes in most cutscenes, likely from the pre-rendered cutscenes using models differing from those in the game.
• Cynder is the only Legend character to have a different role in each game; in A New Beginning, she was the antagonist, in The Eternal Night she was a deuteragonist, and in Dawn of the Dragon, she was a protagonist.
  • It should be noted that, like her role, she has a different physical look for each game; as she appears shorter after A New Beginning.
• In A New Beginning, Cynder was shown using a dark fire element, although this ability never appeared after the game.

A Skylanders version of the scene from Dawn of the Dragon is adapted as Spyro's first battle against Cynder when she was under Malefor's control

• Cynder's corrupted form has two bracelets on her tail, while her normal form only has one. This is because in her adult form, her tail is long enough to allow enough space for more than two bracelets.
• The scene when Spyro is being attacked by Dark Cynder in Dawn of the Dragon is later used as a reference in the Skylanders series as one of the scenarios that depicts Skylanders Spyro's first battle with Skylanders Cynder when she was under Malefor's influence.
• In the GBA version of The Eternal Night, Cynder does not appear in Fellmuth Arena, instead, Ignitus appears.
• Spyro and Cynder's whereabouts at the end of The Legend of Spyro trilogy is intentionally left ambiguous. Although they are seen flying over the Valley of Avalar, whether they are alive or dead is left up to the speculations of the fanbase.
• Given the situations, Cynder may have been cast as the damsel in distress. First being under the control of Malefor and almost sucked into the Convexity vortex in A New Beginning, then being kidnapped and held hostage by Gaul in The Eternal Night.
• Cynder is one of only two known female characters in the entire Legend of Spyro series, the other being Nina.
• In the cutscenes of A New Beginning and The Eternal Night, the bottom of Cynder's chin appears to be red colored, however, in the actual gameplay and in Dawn of the Dragon, her chin is black.
• Her appearances in the Stephen Squirrelsky and Friends' Movie Spoof Travels are in The Secret of NIMH (Nikkdisneylover8390's Human Style), Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Songs Episode 6, The Little Mer-Lioness II: Return to the Sea, Skunkules, Home on the Range (DalMatian Tunes' Style), Kermit's Winter Wonderland, The Little Jungle Boy, Kermiladdin 2: The Return of McLeach, AiAi the Monkey and A Day for George, The Reindeer and the Deer, Animal Story 2 (Stephen Druschke's Style), AiAi's Grand Adventure: The Search for Tails, A Cartoon Character's Life, Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Songs Episode 7, Here Comes Winnie the Pooh, Animals, Inc. (Dragon Rockz's Style), Simba 2, Miss Bianca and the Bernard 2: Fievel's Adventure, FernGully: The Last Rainforest (Dragon Rockz's Style), A Pooh in Central Park, Bubblesrella 2: Dreams Come True, The Brave Little Piglet, Kung Fu Owen, Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Songs Episode 8, The Thomas O'Malley Movie, Kermit Returns, Fievel the Red Nosed Mouse and The Island of Misfits, Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Songs Episode 9, A Cartoon Character's Life Activity Center, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Justin Quintanilla's Style), Finding Alvin (J.B. Eagle's Style), Animated Tale (TheTure DisneyKing's Style), The Forest Book 2 (TrainBoy43's Style), Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Songs Episode 10, Madagascar (FamousImagination50's Style), Sleeping Beauty (Justin Quintanilla's Style), Aurorastasia, Despicable Me (Justin Quintanilla's Style), We're Back!: A Jungle Animal's Story, Jimmynocchio, and The Wizard of Oz (Uranimated18's Style) and will even be in more movie spoof travels.