Gaul The Dark Master

Gaul is the Ape King, ruler of the Apes and a loyal servant of Malefor in the The Legend of Spyro series. He is the main antagonist of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night.

Appearance
Gaul is a disgusting, hairy wart-covered enormous ape with one eye as a green shining jewel. Several scars run across his demented face, suggesting that Gaul was a seasoned fighter during the war against the Dragons. He has a purple, horned helmet that looks very similar to a Viking's helmet. He wields a pair of scimitar swords and a long staff brimming with magic.

Personality
Gaul is a ruthless Ape who cares about nothing more than to await the resurrection of his master, Malefor, who he believes will bring about a new age of power for the Apes.

Abilities
In combat, Gaul is definitely a force to be reckoned with. He attacks with his two large swords, and has the ability to launch fireballs. Gaul also wields a staff that can drain the energy of his foes, rendering them weak and purged of their elemental abilities. Although without his swords and staff, Gaul is still a formidable foe. He can use his jewel eye to fire an energy laser and can spin around to turn into a tornado to pull his enemies closer to him.

History
When Malefor turned to evil, Gaul was among one of his many followers. The Ape King notably led the attack on the Dragon Temple on the night of Spyro's birth, and was also responsible for stealing Cynder's egg. He performed the ritual in poisoning Cynder with Malefor's dark powers, transforming her into a monstrous black dragon made to serve the Dark Master. As Cynder led the Ape army, Gaul participated in the war against the Dragons.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
Weeks after Cynder's defeat at the hands of Spyro, Gaul and his Apes journeyed to the Well of Souls where the Ape King planned to revive Malefor so the Apes could get revenge on the Dragon race and to satisfy their lust for power in the impression they would be rewarded. Gaul's Apes later captured Cynder and held her at the Mountain of Malefor to either be taken back by the Dark Master or she would be the first to perish by his hand.

Spyro arrived at the Well of Souls to save Cynder from Gaul, but the Ape King had anticipated his arrival, using his staff to render the purple dragon weak and drained him of his elemental powers. He gloated to Spyro that he was no match and that all it took to lure the purple dragon into Gaul's clutches was Spyro's friendship with Cynder. He then ordered Cynder to destroy Spyro, but she instead made an attempt to snatch Gaul's staff, only for the Ape King to catch the black dragoness by the neck and throw her into a wall, knocking her out. As an Ape Leader advanced towards the weakened Spyro, Gaul stopped him, announcing that the purple dragon was his to kill.

Wielding two large blades at his disposal, Gaul battled Spyro,  though the young dragon was able to hold his own in spite of his disadvantage. As the Ape King prepared to kill the purple dragon with his swords, Spyro dodged the strike, causing the floor beneath them to crumble when both of Gaul's swords pierced the ground heavily. The two combatants were sent falling down into another floor of the mountain, resulting in Gaul's staff spiraling out of his grip and shattering into pieces upon coming in contact with the floor. Infused by the dark power of the Lunar Alignment that was intended to free Malefor from the Well of Souls, Spyro transformed into Dark Spyro and engaged Gaul once again, this time gaining the upper hand. Knowing he had been beat, Gaul demanded Spyro to finish him off, but the young dragon hesitated. The Ape King, seeing his adversary not moving in for the final blow, called Spyro a coward before releasing a guttural laugh. The Ape King then used Spyro's moment of hesitation as a chance to charge at the young dragon to kill him, but Spyro finally reacted and ultimately destroyed Gaul in cold blood by turning him to stone and breaking the Ape King into pieces using his Aether Fury.

Attacks
In the first stage of the fight, Gaul mainly attacks with his very large swords. If you get too close to him, he will unleash a flurry of powerful slashes (three of these slashes will kill Spyro). If this doesn't work, Gaul leaps into the air and stabs down with both swords, sending out a shockwave of green energy. The various green fires around his throne room seem to enhance his shockwaves, so unless you are an expert, it is best if you destroy them to increase your chances of survival. His final stab is the strongest, but it will cause his blades to get stuck in the ground (Two small stabs will kill, and the final strong stab is a one-hit kill move). After recovering, Gaul would sometimes hurl a smoldering, green fireball in your direction (this is not a strong attack, but still must be avoided).

In the intermission cutscene, Gaul loses his swords, his helmet, his shoulder-plating, and his magic staff. Although he now uses different attacks, he is still a very formidable foe and he can still kill you in no time at all.

In the second stage of the fight, Gaul seems to be able to use his jewel eye to fire a laser beam (it is useful for pushing Spyro off the edge). He also can spin around to transform into a tornado that sucks Spyro towards his flailing limbs (this attack is normally unavoidable but it can be avoided if you charge fast enough. It does not inflict damage on Spyro). He can summon fireballs to fall from the sky and explode near the ground, but it is almost impossible to get hit by this attack if Spyro is careful. For physical attacks, he wields a pair of blades ejected from his gauntlets. He will chase you around the room, and if you get too close, he will swipe at you; usually three attacks will kill you.

After lowering Gaul's health all the way, prepare to finish him off when prompted to, and you will have won the game.

International Voice Actors

 * Dutch = Joris De Groot
 * French = (unsure)
 * German = Dagmar Eberhardt
 * Italian = Marco Balzarotti
 * Spanish = Sergio Lechuga
 * Russian = (unsure)

ADVICE: The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is the only Legend game to also have a Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian audio dubbing track. Therefore, Since Gaul does not appear in that game, he does not have those following language voices.


 * NOTE: Some of the voice actors are missing. Please fill in the correct voice actors for the correct language.

Trivia

 * In the last cutscene of Spyro's battle with the Ape King, when the villain is turned to stone, it is seen that both hands go up in a surrender like manner. It is unknown if he was truly surrendering, or just trying to protect himself.
 * Gaul could possibly be named after the Roman city-state of Gaul, which is now present-day France.
 * In The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, Gaul was briefly pictured in the beginning of Ignitus's tale, roaring his challenge to the dragons with a massive hammer slung over his shoulder. He is never seen using this weapon in The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night.
 * Gaul's death is similar to how Starscream dies in the 80's Transformers movie.
 * Gaul is very similar to the Lloyd Alexander's first book villain the Horned King, as both were sent to kill the main protagonist and an important object (in Gaul's case, Cynder; in the Horned King, one Hen Wen) and Gaul's death is similar to that of the Horned King; both were killed by a lighting beam, but in the Horned King's case it was because they mention his real name, in the case of Gaul, Spyro killed him.
 * It is unknown if, like the rest of the Apes, Gaul was simply following Malefor for power and greed or true loyalty, as in game actions seem to make him out to be very loyal to his master. It is possible though that Gaul might have been one of the few Apes most loyal to Malefor and merely kept his soldiers in line in such terms, but after Gaul's death, the remaining Apes were now free to think more of their own selfish desires than loyalty to Malefor despite continuing to serve him.
 * He is more reminiscent of a demonic baboon than an Ape.
 * In the DS version of The Eternal Night, Gaul has one sword instead of two and there is only one stage in the battle.
 * Gaul is the only main villain of The Legend of Spyro series who is not a dragon.

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