Malefor (The Legend of Spyro)

"It seems we share other qualities besides that of our color."

- Malefor to Spyro (about both being Purple Dragons).

"Ignitus should have warned you, you are alone here young dragon you have always been alone. Still here you are, trying so desperately to save this miserable world refusing to accept the true role of the purple dragon. I'm sure you've been I was the first of our kind but I assure you, there have been many. It has been the duty of our predecessors to resurrect the Destroyer and the Golems of the deep to bring about the Great Cleansing. This is the true nature of our kind. Your destiny is to destroy the world."

- Malefor to Spyro.

Malefor, the Dark Master, is the primary antagonist in the Legend of Spyro: Dawn of Dragon and the main antagonist in the Legend of Spyro trilogy. He is an unfathomably powerful Purple Dragon who turned evil because of his lust for power. Malefor tried to erase the world, but the Dragon Elders imprisoned him in his own realm. Malefor is accidentally set free at the end The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, and he attempts to destroy the world once again, but he is defeated by Spyro and Cynder and sealed away once and for all into the world's core.

Malefor is presented as an evil counterpart of some sort to Spyro, and he is without a doubt the most evil, dangerous, and cruel villain in the entire Spyro multiverse.

He has a counterpart with a similar story in the second Spyro reboot Skylanders.

History
Malefor was the first of the Purple Dragon kind (though he claims that there have been many before him). Seeing that his mastery of the elements did not stop to only one, the Dragon Elders taught him all their secrets but he was never satisfied and would stop at nothing to become all-powerful. Fearing his malevolence, ambition, and limitless potential, the Dragon Elders banished Malefor but it was too late, he had already fallen beyond redemption. Malefor established himself in the mountains and raised an army of Apes Monsters.

Malefor eventually became the very embodiment of Evil of the Legend of Spyro universe and the ruler of Hell. His ultimate goal, which he grew to regard as his destiny, is to destroy the world; perhaps intending to build a new one following his own ideals and rule with an iron fist.

Malefor waged war against the Dragon kind for several years, slaughtering countless people to fulfill his "quest". His evil power tore open his own base of operations, the Mountain of Malefor, turning it into the Well of Souls: a chasm to the Underworld where all the souls of the malevolent dead people were sent, submitted to his influence. Malefor stole the Spirit Gems, the source of the dragons’ life-force and used them against the dragons, but he was ultimately defeated. He was imprisoned in the Well of Souls and his essence was sealed within the Convexity Dimension. However, his armies survived and went into hiding. They could still communicate with him somehow and waited for an opportunity to set him free again.

Personality
Malefor is a villain of pure malevolence, without the slightest comedic element or redeeming quality; he is very cruel, ruthless, scornful, sadistic, violent, manipulative and ambitious. He behaves in a calm, collected and very courteous fashion, but his refined manners do not hide his cruelty, or his imposing and menacing presence.

Malefor is also very self-confident and self-righteous, dismissing any beliefs than his owns as irrelevant. He is willing to use anything he can to fulfill his goal, and remorselessly destroys everything in his way or everyone useless to him, except if he can use them again later. He also enjoys killing people or breaking their spirit for pleasure and revels in his victims torment.

Malefor is highly intelligent, cunning and manipulative. He is also a skilled orator, able to instill doubt in the most determined minds and to use it for his own gain, as evidenced with Spyro and Cynder before the final battle. In his dark and twisted point of view, he does not consider himself evil but as a messiah of some sort, destined to purify the world. He states that destroying the world is the duty of the every Purple Dragon and he attempts to convince Spyro of this, by telling him that every Purple Dragon before him pursued the same goal. (Although this might be a lie, as he was stated to be the first Purple Dragon.) He heavily underestimates and dislikes the value of friendship and bonds. Instead, he views them as weapons to weaken and manipulate his opponents, making them feel lonely and betrayed.

Through various hints over the trilogy, it is suggested that before his descent into darkness, Malefor was much like Spyro, kind, courageous, and eager to learn. He was strongly revered by the elders and they had high hopes of him, as they built a large statue of him at the Dragon Temple.

Powers and Abilities
As expected of a Dark Lord of his level, Malefor is incredibly powerful. Being a Purple Dragon, he can control virtually any element through his breath. He is seen using Fire, Electricity, Ice, Earth, Wind and even the Convexity Element, (a sort of quintessence element which manifests as a purple energy) including the elemental furies, which he all masters to the point of perfection; (his best elements being apparently Convexity, Fire and Ice). It is hinted that he can also control other elements, most likely Shadow, Fear and Poison, which are evil-based elements that Cynder learned to master when she was under his control, and perhaps even Time itself. He is unsurprisingly able to fly and has extreme physical strength, being able to fight on air or on the ground, in melee or at any distance.

Malefor also wields extraordinary powers of dark magic, which enables him to create, transform and manipulate things as he pleases. This is demonstrated for example when he makes his fortress levitate, when he turns his Ape monsters into undeads, and when he creates magic collars that binds Spyro and Cynder together. He can witness far away events and communicate with anyone in the world, and is apparently able to influence dreams as well.

He has complete control over darkness and everything evil, being able to control every malevolent being and to increase the smallest drop of malevolence in someone's soul, to the point of turning them into a dark version of their former self. Using his dark energy, he can corrupt and transform the Monsters under his command, such as Cynder, vastly increasing their power.

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
Malefor never appears in person during the first game of the trilogy, being only mentioned several times under his title, the Dark Master. A statue of him prior to his corruption can be found at the Dragon Temple, but at that point is not revealed that the statue is him. Gaul the Ape King, Cynder and his other servants are following his orders and he most likely devised Cynder's plan of action himself.

Years before the start of the series, Gaul and his army of Apes attacked the Dragon Temple during the Year of the Dragon under Malefor's orders. They crushed all the dragon eggs in order to prevent the birth of the Purple Dragon (who is born only once every ten generations and has the power to defeat the Dark Master). Yet, the fire Guardian, Ignitus sent the purple egg away from the Apes, where the young Dragon was found and raised by a family of Dragonflies.

Since a dragon was needed to release Malefor from his prison, Gaul took an egg from the temple which then hatched and was given the name Cynder. Cynder was exposed to Malefor's dark influence and was forced into an unnatural and painful growth. In a short space of time, she quickly matured to adult size and became more powerful than most dragons, including the four Elemental Guardians.

In the game, Cynder leads Malefor's armies in a war against the Dragon Realms, defeating the Dragon armies and forcing them underground. She sends her minions to distract the Elemental Guardians, so as to capture them and harness their powers into magic crystals. This being done, Cynder goes to the Convexity Dimension and inserts the magic crystal into the Altar Portal which holds Malefor captive to destroy it. Fortunately, Spyro and his adoptive brother Sparx catch up to Cynder in time and manage to defeat her, reverting her to her normal state and age. As the Portal is about to explode, Spyro succeeds in rescuing Cynder but Malefor's essence is set free and returns to the Mountain of Malefor, calling Spyro in his nightmares.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
Malefor plays a larger role in The Eternal Night but once again never appears in person; instead devising a new plan to revive which is enacted by Gaul the Ape King. Gaul gathers his armies in the Well of Souls and prepares the Dark Master's return in the Night of Eternal Darkness: a lunar eclipse which plunges the entire world in shadows, during which all the malevolent souls imprisoned in the the Well of Souls are free to roam the mountain.

Along the way, Gaul attacks the Pirate Arena ship that had managed to capture both Spyro and Cynder, after they left the temple for two different reasons, and recaptures Cynder. Gaul brings Cynder to the Well of Souls offers to welcome her back into his service, or be the first to perish by his hand; she seemingly agrees to rejoin his side, but secretly plans to find a chance to escape.

The Chronicler, an ancient dragon of immense wisdom, summons Spyro to his sanctuary where he reveals Malefor's past and explained that while the Night of Eternal Darkness allows spirits to leave the Well of Souls only during the duration of the eclipse, Malefor is powerful enough to regain his physical form. After reviving, he plans to have Cynder rejoin him and then he will destroy the Guardians. The Chronicler then revealed that Malefor's revival cannot be stopped and suggested Spyro to hide from him until a later time.

Against The Chronicler's better judgment, Spyro leaves his sanctuary to rescue Cynder, unaware that that's what Malefor wanted, and in doing so faces off against Gaul in the Well of Souls. However, when the Night of Eternal Darkness begins, Spyro gets trapped in the beam of demonic energy caused by the eclipse, which corrupts him and turns him into a powerful dark dragon under Malefor's control, very similar to Cynder's situation in A New Beginning. Spyro kills Gaul, who had outlived his utility to Malefor, in cold blood and returns into the beam of demonic energy, serving as the key to open the Well of Souls and allow Malefor's return.

It is now revealed what Malefor's real plan was: Use Cynder as bait to lure Spyro to the Well of Souls during the Night of Eternal Darkness; because he needed a Purple Dragon be fully revived, and because the eclipse would corrupt him. By having Spyro and Cynder by his side, Malefor would remove them as a threat and gain two powerful servants.

Fortunately Cynder resisted Malefor's corruption, and she managed to free Spyro from Malefor's control. However, the battle caused the Mountain of Malefor to collapse. Being left trapped there, Spyro uses his power over Time to encase himself, Cynder and Sparx in a Crystal to save their lives. Despite failing to corrupt Spyro and Cynder, Malefor's plan was successful, and with Spyro and Cynder frozen in the time crystal, he is now free to destroy the world without interruption.

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Malefor did not lose time after being freed. He turned all his Ape servants into living skeletons, as he rightfully deemed them too greedy and not faithful enough, and replaced them with an army of monsters known as the Grublins. He invaded the Dragon Temple and turned it into a flying fortress where he based himself, forcing the Elemental Guardians to flee to the Dragon City of Warfang. Malefor then covered the entire world in darkness, spreading plague and misery everywhere and resuming the war he had begun during his first reign while causing the world denizens to fear the dragons.

Three years have passed since the end of the previous game. Spyro, Cynder and Sparx are awoken from their slumber in the crystal by a horde of Grublins, who place magical, snake-shaped collars on Spyro and Cynder to bind them together; before taking them away to sacrifice them to a huge and powerful Golem of the Deep. They are unable to defeat the ancient creature but they get rescued by Sparx and the Hunter of Avalar.

They later go to Warfang, which is being attacked by Malefor's armies, and manage to defend the city and to destroy the Golem (who tracked them down) in the process.

Later this night, Malefor contacts the protagonists and reveals that their victory was meaningless; as the attack was simply meant to keep them from interfering while he released the legendary Destroyer. (He goes as far as presenting it as a twisted form of "congratulation".) The monster has begun to travel around the world, leaving behind a fiery trail called the Belt of Fire, or the Ring of Annihilation. Once the creature completes its circle, the apocalypse will begin.

In a desperate attempt, the protagonists travel through the underground ruins of the ancient Warfang and try to stop the Destroyer by causing a flood, but to no avail. Next, they manage to shatter the Destroyer's Crystal Core but Malefor predicted this and activates a backup Crystal kept in his lair. Realizing that their only hope is to defeat Malefor himself, Spyro and Cynder set out to face him, but Ignitus has to sacrifice his life to allow them to escape. In his grief, Spyro gets once again corrupted by Malefor's influence, which left a lasting effect on him. Fortunately Cynder manages to bring Spyro back to his senses.

Spyro and Cynder enter the Dragon Temple to confront the Dark Master; who greets them politely yet menacingly, and proceeds to break their confidence with but a few sentences, using Cynder's doubts to turn her evil again and make her attack Spyro, mockingly saying that Ignitus should've warned him about Cynder. Malefor tells Spyro that the destiny of the Purple Dragons, including him, is to bring about the "great cleansing", and even if he rejects that views, he had fulfilled that role anyways by freeing Malefor so he could summon the Destroyer. The Dark Master revels in the situation as Cynder continues to attack Spyro, confident that he had completely destroyed the young dragon's will to fight.

However, Malefor did a fatal mistake when he underestimated Spyro and Cynder's bond. When Spyro refuses to fight Cynder and she angrily asked why, he sadly says that because without her he had nothing left to fight for; those words break Cynder free from Malefor's control. Enraged, Malefor declares that she will share Spyro's fate.

Spyro and Cynder engage a tremendous battle against Malefor, but they are too late as the Destroyer has just completed his journey and the world starts breaking apart. Nevertheless, they continue to fight Malefor, and their battle drags them to the planet's core. There, the evil dragon declares that he is eternal and engages Spyro and Cynder in a duel of Convexity Breath, but they managed to knock him down.

Malefor recovers, proving his claims of immortality to be true, but the Spirits of the Dragon Elders appear before he can resume the fight and seal him away for good into the core of the world. Spyro then uses his power to stop the destruction of the world and restore it, ending the Dark Master's malice once and for all.

Boss Battle (PS2 and Wii)
"Graaah! So be it! You’ve made your choice, so you shall suffer the same fate. PREPARE TO DIE!"

- Malefor (to Cynder and Spyro)

First Stage: Malefor is a formidable enemy who uses highly powerful attacks, but he is slow and you must take advantage of it. Try to stay behind him, watch his movements and keep attacking him at close range, mostly with magic-infused Melee attacks which deal heavy damage and create gems that replenish your magic and life-points.

Malefor attacks by firing one or many Fire Bombs, (huge fireballs) by firing many Convexity Bombs, (huge balls of purple fire, which tracks you down and that you must dodge several times) by breathing a continuous stream of purple Convexity Fire, by performing a Convexity Comet Dash (he surrounds himself with purple electricity and charges at high speed) and by delivering vicious claw swipes and bites, which he can infuse with magic. Dodge as much as you can and use Spyro's power of Earth as a protection. You can switch characters whenever your life runs low. When Malefor's life is depleted he plunges into a cloud and reappears to deliver a tremendous bite attack. Quickly press the button that appears on screen to finish him off. If you fail, his attack will harm you a lot and you will have to wait until his next bite attack.

Second Stage: At this point of the battle, the Destroyer will reach its destination and the apocalypse will begin. The battle continues in the ruins of the temple, which is a much shorter arena where flying is way harder. This can be a severe hindrance, as you need to fly continuously. The battle is very similar to the first stage, but Malefor now regularly moves from one place to another.

The Dark Master uses the same attacks, but in a different way: he now breathes short streams of Convexity fire, his Convexity Bombs are harder to dodge, and he strikes with a double claw swipe that stomps the ground. He also uses the dangerous Ice Shard Bomb: he breathes a huge stream of Ice, which divides itself into a flurry of homing ice balls. If you are hit by the stream of Ice, it is an instant Game Over and the ice balls are hard to dodge. Near the end of the fight, Malefor will surround himself with a Convexity Sphere which deals huge damage, so stay away from him and wait for the Sphere to vanish before attacking him again. Do not hesitate to unleash your Fury attacks whenever you can. Once again, when Malefor's life is depleted you will have to finish him off when he charges at you and strikes you with his claws, by pressing the button that appears on screen. This time, you must do it twice.

Third Stage: A meteor falls into the volcano and the world starts breaking apart, separating the arena into many platforms. Malefor surrounds himself with a huge spherical Convexity Shield, which protects him from your attacks. Only your Fury Attacks can harm him, so unleash it and keep attacking Malefor's shield to replenish your fury bar, while dodging his attacks. (He uses the same attacks as in the previous stage.) This time striking Malefor does not release gems to recover life and magic, so be very careful. Striking him with a Fury Attack will raise your life points.

When Malefor's life is depleted, he will breathe a huge, continuous stream of Convexity Fire on Cynder. Push quickly and repeatedly the button that appears on screen, until the control switches to Spyro, then, pushes the button that appears to strike Malefor. You will then dive into the planet's core and Malefor will crush both dragons against the cliffwall. Once again, push repeatedly on the button that appears and land the coup de grace.

Boss Battle (Nintendo DS)
First Stage: The battle begins as a 2D fight which takes place on a bridge. Malefor mostly uses melee attacks with his fangs, claws and tail. Avoid it by jumping and use your own Melee attacks and your elemental breaths until he starts using his wings as a shield. Wait a little while until he starts attacking again. After some time, Malefor will start flying behind a huge purple crystal that you must attack as much as you can, while dodging the streams of Fire or Ice that Malefor breathes at you from above. When part of the crystal breaks, run back to avoid Malefor when he lands and repeats the operation until the crystal is broken.

Second Stage: Spyro and Cynder are now facing Malefor in an aerial 3D battle. The world is breaking apart and Malefor has become even more demonic and powerful. Malefor is surrounded with purple, floating Convexitiy Shards which he hurls at you and which you must destroy before striking the big purple gem on his chest.

Cynder is the best choice here, as she can take down more shards with her Wind breath. As the battle progresses, Malefor will starts breathing a huge fireball that you must dodge, then huge fireballs and iceballs in rapid succession. Also, when all the Convexity Shards start flying towards you, you must destroy the ones right before you and rush into the gap created. Continue until you defeat him.

Trivia

 * Malefor is voiced by Mark Hamill, who's voice was edited to sound more distorted and sinister.
 * Malefor's name maybe derived from that of the Demon Prince Valefar from the Christian demonology.
 * His name might also be composed from the Latin "malum" (evil or malice) and the Greek "foreo" (carrying in the first person of singular). As such, Malefor might mean "The Source of Evil" or "The One who carries Evil".
 * His ultimate fate is uncertain; After the dragon spirits pull him into the core, rays of light shine from the core as it falls apart, leaving open possibility that he was destroyed inside the core. The scene also gives the impression he may have been dragged into hell.
 * It is worth nothing that those Spirits were purple colored, suggesting that Malefor's claims about him not being the first Purple Dragon were true.
 * Malefor is similar to Myotismon, one of the main villains from Digimon, in that he is the third and final antagonist of the trilogy. In Season 2 of Digimon, Ken (the Digimon Emperor) was the first main antagonist but turned good, as he was corrupted much like Cynder (who was antagonist of the first game). The second main antagonist was Arukenimon, the one who corrupted Ken much like Gaul, the antagonist of the second game, corrupted Cynder. And finally, Arukenimon and Gaul were working for Myotismon and Malefor who are the final antagonists, and the entire scheme was to release Malefor and revive Myotismon.
 * In essence, Malefor represents a dark version Spyro's future. Both were said to be very similar in their younger ages, and Spyro was at times accused that he will end becoming just like Malefor, something that Spyro himself came to fear. Malefor himself agreed that they are equals beyond their color.
 * Spyro didn't truly defeat Malefor, him and Cynder just knocked him to the crystal where the spirits trapped him in, and Malefor was also almost unscratched after their final attack against him.
 * He is considered the darkest and cruelest of the Spyro villains, next to The Sorceress.