Malefor

Malefor (マルフォー, Marufō), also known as the Dark Master, is both a fictional character and the main as well as primary antagonist of the Skylanders series. He serves archenemy of all Skylanders (particularly Spyro and Cynder's), and the true villain of the series. He is the first in the rare line of magical purple dragons like Spyro. Prior to his debut, he was the one who corrupted Cynder into doing his evil bidding and attempted to capture Hex learn the secrets of her powers.

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

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Mark Hamill (English), Bin Shimada (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Chinese), Dick Kaysø (Danish), Fred Meijer (Dutch), Rauno Ahonen (Finnish), Pierre Hatet (French), Bodo Wolf (German), Claudio Moneta (Italian), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Korean), Per Frisch (Norwegian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Andrei Tashkov (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), José Padilla (Spanish), Johan Hedenberg (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

Appearance

 * Hair Color: Not Known
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Not Known
 * Age: Not Known
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: Not Known
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
It was said he was the first purple dragon ever born. Malefor is, in many ways, the exact opposite of Spyro. As his name dictates and represents, he is completely malevolent. Despite being calm and courteous, Malefor is also cunning, highly intelligent and manipulative, being able to devise twisted plans. While Spyro does good and wishes to protect the world he lives in, Malefor seeks the destruction of it, and will use all he can to finish what he started.

Judging from his ruthless and purely sadistic nature, Malefor is, no doubt, a murderer as he killed millions of creatures in his "quest to fulfill the destiny of the purple dragon." He is willing to use anything he can to complete his goal, and destroy everything in his way or anyone useless to him in cold blood unless they can be of use to him again later on.

Malefor is also a skilled orator, able to strike doubt in the resolute and courageous minds and use it to his advantage. With this powerful skill, he is very experienced at using his enemy's faults against them; a prime example is his use of Cynder's past deeds and the fact he used her to free himself to make her doubt herself long enough for him to take control of her.

He seems to personify Lust, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, as his intense desire for power is what lead him to his corruption. Malefor also appears to possess a fatalistic philosophy; believing it his fate and destiny to purify the world by destroying it so a new one would be created. Therefore he most likely does not perceive himself as evil, more so as an anti-hero; using questionable means to accomplish a "noble" goal. But like many villains, he undervalues the power of friendship and ultimately love when he tries to use Cynder to kill Spyro for his non-acceptance of the alleged truth and nature of the purple dragon race, only for her to break his bind over her when Spyro tells her that she has left him with nothing left to fight for, somewhat revealing a trace of his caring brother-sister relationship for her.

Despite his current malevolent nature, it was implied that during his youth Malefor was a rather caring and courageous individual. Chief Prowlus mentioned that when he was young, Malefor's personality was rather similar to Spyro's, displaying great kindness and an eagerness to develop his abilities. Based on the ruins below Warfang, the ancestors had very high hopes for Malefor and had built the whole place as a training ground for him, as well as a statue of him which was placed at the Temple Dojo of the Dragons.

Abilities and Powers
Malefor is unfathomably powerful. Being a rare purple dragon like Spyro, he can control many abilities others cannot, but to a greater extent, such as the element of Earth, Ice, Wind, Plant, Fire, Water, Lightning, Magic, Tech, Life, Undead, Light, Aether, and perhaps even Time itself. It is hinted that he can also control other elements, as he was shown using the Undead ability during his final battle against Spyro and Cynder, and most likely wields Shadow and Poison as well, the powers that Cynder was granted with when she was exposed to Malefor's darkness. Since he is over 100 years old, Malefor's elemental abilities are far more developed than Spyro's, as shown by his use of Convexity abilities in place of Spyro's fire abilities, and on a much larger and more powerful scale that Spyro has displayed thus far. He has also demonstrated the ability to project forcefields that protects him from all attacks except for Convexity Breath (which is similar to the heat forcefields Ignitus used), which appears to be an incredibly useful ability.

Living up to his title after choosing evil, Malefor wields powerful dark magic, which enables him to corrupt anything or anyone as he pleases. This is demonstrated when he transforms the Temple Dojo of the Dragons into a Fortress of his likeness and makes it levitate, turns the Apes into undead ghouls, creating artificial creatures like the Grublins, and crafted an energy chain that his minions shackle Spyro and Cynder together. His notable power is having absolute control over everything evil and every malevolent being, also transforming others into a dark version of their former self that greatly increases their power and corrupting them into being in complete servitude to Malefor. Examples of this are the two times he corrupted Cynder, the first after she was born (giving her enough power to defeat all of the Guardians in single combat) and the second (though this form's power is unknown as Spyro refused to fight back).

Like all dragons, Malefor possesses the ability to fly, and holds extreme physical strength. He also claims that he is eternal, thus somewhat possible that he is undefeatable and immortal. As said of his reputation as Dark Master, Malefor can be a powerful opponent, possessing the strength to hold his own against a vast large odds of military forces of the Arkyeans, Monsters, other Dragons, and the Skylanders, including Imaginators, Senseis, SuperChargers, Trap Team, Swap Force, and the powerful Giants, and defeat them all with relative ease.

Skills

 * Fire
 * Pyrokinesis
 * Fire Breath
 * Super-Fire Breath
 * Fire Shield
 * Fire Fury
 * Fire Bomb
 * Fire Wall
 * Fire Stream
 * Fire Shot
 * Triple Flameballs
 * Fire Bomb
 * Fire Flail
 * Fire Pound
 * Fire Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Ice
 * Cyrokinesis
 * Ice Breath
 * Ice Fury
 * Ice Bomb
 * Ice Wall
 * Ice Stream
 * Ice Shot
 * Ice Flail
 * Ice Pound
 * Ice Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Earth
 * Geokinesis (a.k.a Terrakinesis)
 * Earth Breath
 * Earth Fury
 * Earth Bomb
 * Earth Wall
 * Earth Stream
 * Earth Shot
 * Earth Bomb
 * Earth Flail
 * Earth Pound
 * Earth Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Water
 * Hydrokinesis
 * Water Breath
 * Bubble Breath
 * Water Fury
 * Water Bomb
 * Water Wall
 * Water Stream
 * Water Shot
 * Water Bomb
 * Water Flail
 * Water Pound
 * Water Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Electricity
 * Electrokinesis
 * Electric Breath
 * Electric Fury
 * Electric Bomb
 * Electric Wall
 * Electric Stream
 * Electric Shot
 * Electric Bomb
 * Electric Flail
 * Electric Pound
 * Electric Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Wind
 * Aerokinesis
 * Air breath
 * Whirlwind Breath
 * Air Fury
 * Air Bomb
 * Air Wall
 * Air Stream
 * Air Shot
 * Air Bomb
 * Air Flail
 * Air Pound
 * Air Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Plant
 * Aether
 * Magic
 * Tech
 * Life
 * Fear
 * Light
 * Dark
 * Dark Breath
 * Dark Fury
 * Dark Bomb
 * Dark Wall
 * Dark Stream
 * Dark Shot
 * Dark Bomb
 * Dark Flail
 * Dark Pound
 * Dark Style: Dragon Cannonball
 * Dark Fire
 * Black Lightning
 * Shadow Dash
 * Shadow Reach
 * Elemental Fury
 * Melee Combat
 * Aerial Combat
 * Charge
 * Horn Ram
 * Super-Charge
 * Glide
 * Fly
 * Hover
 * Climb
 * Dive
 * Horn Dive
 * Wing Shield
 * Headbash
 * Barrier
 * Regeneration
 * Cursing and/or Exposing Other Dragons To Darkness
 * Cursing other Races e.g. Apes

Miscellaneous Skills
Since dragons, are also reptiles, he has a natural ability to regrow his parts. Because of his heritage, Malefor's scales are nigh impenetrable, though he can still feel pain.

Past
Born in ancient times, Malefor was the first purple dragon, and a talented one at that. He first mastered Fire, despite not being a fire dragon, and harnessed the powers of Ice, Wind, Earth, Electricity, and many other elements none thought existed. Thus, Malefor was the first dragon to be able to use more than one element, which other Dragons were restricted to only one. Believing him to be the dragon to usher them into a new age, the Dragon Masters willingly taught him how to master these elements. When Strykore began to wreck havoc across the world. The Ancients summoned the world's greatest fighters, warriors, and heroes, and Malefor was among them. Armed with magical weapons, machinery and elemental-based super powers, they battled against Strykore. The fight ended when Malefor managed to topple the evil Portal Master and was holding him down long enough for the Elders and Portal Masters to combine the powers and magic to sealing him away into the Book of Dark Magic.

Descending to Evil
However little did anyone knew, during the fight, Strykore was secretly corrupting Malefor, by imbedding his powers into him through the certain hit spots and scratches that were on him, knowing that he would fail at his goal. The heroes returned victorious, and the Elders had founded them to be world's greatest band of heroes, the Skylanders. However, as time went by, Strykore's corruption on Malefor made him became arrogant and over-confident as his power and knowledge grew far beyond what was expected, as did his lust for power, and he consumed everything.

Fearing his lack of restraint, the Elders banished him to exile. Filled with hatred for his own kind and need for revenge, Malefor abandoned his true calling and embraced the darkness of the Aether element, the signature raw ability of the Purple Dragon. The dark influential powers of the Dark Dragon King began corrupting his physical appearance and altered his voice, but Malefor was able to gain full command over Dark Aether and not let it consume his consciousness. He took on the title as "the Dark Master" and recruited an army of Apes, teaching them how to artificially harness the power of the gems, which are the lifeforce of all things in the world.

The Great War
It wasn't long before the corruption ultimately turned him to evil, seeking more and greater power and waging a war against the entire world, mostly the Skylanders. His actions sent the world spiraling into chaos, ruining the peaceful reputation of the Dragons in the process. With his army established and growing by the day, Malefor built a great fortress upon a mountain, and there he resided, staring out upon the lands with his sheer malice so great, that it split the earth and created a pit of despair, called the Mountain of Malefor, also known as the Well of Souls, by the evil-hearted.

The surviving Skylanders and Portal Masters battled against their former comrade in a magical battle, and harnessed the combined powers of all the elements of the world. Eventually, Malefor was defeated by them and the Ancestors confined within the Well of Souls. However, they knew such powerful forces like him could never be destroyed, and while his spirit was imprisoned in the Mountain of Malefor, his essence was trapped in Convexity. They have kept watch over to this very day, for if they were to be reunited then Dark Master would escape. To help them prevent Malefor's return, the Dragons in different elements founded and declared themselves the Dragon Sages and taught their secret arts in the ancient ways to pure, worthy, young, dragons. He sought to escape the mountain, and while Malefor manipulated a plan to do so, his army was still able to carry out his orders.

Etymology

 * His Japanese name is translated in Korean as in: 마레후루. (Malehulu).
 * In the Finnish version of The Legend of Spyro trilogy, Malefor's name is known as: Ärhämä.
 * Malefor's name translates to Russian as: "Мальфор"

Notes & Trivia

 * The Legend of Spyro series was also released in Russia, but it may be possible that Anderi Tashkov may be the Russian voice actor for Malefor, since he did the original 1990 Russian dubs for Star Wars episodes IV-VI as the Russian dubbing voice for Luke Skywalker, since Mark Hamill originally played as him.
 * Malefor's voice actor, Mark Hamill, is perhaps most famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas's original and sequel Star Wars trilogies; as well as the voice of the Joker in various Batman media, including Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and most recently in the Batman: Arkham video game series.
 * As shown in the Exclusive talent trailer, Mark Hamill's voiceover for Malefor was originally much more clearer than the heavily darker and filtered version of his voice in the final version of Dawn of the Dragon.
 * In the intended draft of the story, Malefor's corruption would have been caused by something dark and powerful.
 * Malefor's The Eternal Night design bore a scar on his left eye as evident in his flashback image and the statue of himself in a shrine within the Well of Souls. The scar is absent in his redesign for Dawn of the Dragon.
 * In the early draft of the story, Malefor was originally intended to be one of the two dragons who can perhaps be Spyro's father, the other being Ignitus. The concept was to re-occur across the three games, but it was never panned out. Jared Pullen confirmed that Malefor was intended to taunt Spyro and cloud his mind with the lie that he was his father.
 * Malefor's appearance in the games is actually his "Dark" form, which resulted from him embracing his Dark Aether. Unlike Dark Spyro, Malefor remains conscious and is in full control of his actions. His Dark form is what alters his voice.
 * In addition, Jared Pullen stated that it is possible for Malefor to be "stripped" of his dark form and be returned to normal.
 * Malefor's voice was so altered that it was hard for some fans to understand what he said in the game, and instead they had to rely on the game's optional subtitles.
 * Malefor may be a variation of the name "Valefar", a Christian demon and Duke of Hell.
 * His name might be composed from the Latin noun malum (-i,neutrum) - evil; and Greek foreo - i carry; meaning ˝The carrier of evil˝, or maybe ˝The source of evil˝.
 * The Dark Master (or DM) is usually a name given to the main villain in an RPG.
 * Malefor may be more clever than he appears. As parts of his plans turned out to be part of a ruse to trick Spyro in releasing the evil dragon, it may be that the rest from the start all were. It may be that Malefor pretended to send his Apes to kill Spyro, but since the young purple dragon would be the key to free Malefor, this action of assassination was probably itself a ruse to scare his enemies, and that maybe along with Cynder, who would be used to bring Malefor back with all his powers, Spyro's egg would also be stolen as well so he could be corrupted and used to free Malefor after Cynder completed her stage. And despite Ignitus' interference in saving Spyro from that fate, the young dragon's part would still be played, as he would be lured to the Mountain of Malefor to save Cynder, and unwittingly free Malefor. He also kept an additional Dark Crystal to control the Destroyer just in case.
 * Additionally like many villains, he underestimated his enemies which was his fatal mistake that caused his demise. He tried to make Cynder betray the people she loves, and it seems Malefor was aiming to confuse Spyro and Cynder before their final battle. Both of these plans failed, which then led to having to fight the the two Dragons by himself and losing.
 * In the movie Dragons: Destiny of Fire, there is a dragon called Vildrok that is very similar to Malefor: both want to destroy the world, both are evil dragons and the main antagonists. However, Malefor is despised and far times more evil, bloodthirsty, malevolent, cruel and ruthless than Vildrok.
 * The massive statue in the Dragon Temple training room and the dragon statue in the large shrine near the top of the Well of Souls are both of Malefor. Two more massive statues of Malefor also appear outside the temple of each of the elemental dreamscapes Spyro is taken to to regain his elemental breaths in The Eternal Night.
 * Malefor is the only dragon in The Legend of Spyro series who has reptilian pupils. His eyes are also yellow unlike all other known dragons, who have white eyes. This is the result of his corruption under Dark Aether, but he retained full control over his actions and didn't let the dark power consume him.
 * In the DS version of The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Malefor is purple and white instead of being purple, yellow and red, and does not have a fully drawn appearance in any cutscene.
 * Worth noting is that Spyro and Cynder didn't actually defeat Malefor themselves since he recovered from their combined Aether attack unscathed. It was only the intervention of the ancestors that allowed Malefor to be beaten in time to save the world.
 * In most concept art of Malefor, his eyes are depicted as completely yellow with no pupils, which show off his full corruption under Dark Aether. However, when you face him in the game, he has snakelike pupils, making his face seem more gentle and sinister, revealing that he has not let the Dark Aether element fully control him.
 * Malefor is presumably the most evil and darkest villain in the Spyro series.
 * His personalities and actions are similar to Lucifer from Dante's Inferno; both have been imprisoned, sought to kill the main protagonist and mention that the hero had freed them..
 * Like the other concept art of the dragon characters made for Dawn of the Dragon, Malefor's right wing is missing.
 * Malefor's fearsome appearance is coupled with a large pair of crown-like horns.