Gnasty Gnorc

Gnasty Gnorc (ナスティ・ノーク Nasuti Nōku in Japanese) is a main antagonist in Spyro the Dragon, and was one of the supporting villains in Spyro: A Hero's Tail. As the first major villain Spyro defeats, Gnasty is referenced in nearly every game in the classic series. He is a big green Gnorc and was a first antagonist in Spyro the Dragon series.

Pronunciation
His name is pronounced as "Nasty Norc," without the Gs. However, the interviewer at the start of the first game mispronounces the Gs as "Guh-Nasty Guh-Norc."

Personality
In his debut, Gnasty Gnorc is very smart, and calculating, as shown when he executes his plot to take over the Dragon Realms and freezes the Dragons in crystal with ease. Despite this, he is a mean, ugly, greedy, bad tempered, and "nasty" Gnorc who hates Dragons. He is also extremely cowardly, seeming to run at the slimmest sight of danger. The Dragons see him as unintelligent, and he is sensitive about his appearance and will not hesitate to attack those who stand in his way. Gnasty also resents the Dragons for banishing him to the Dragon Junkyard and constantly insulting his appearance. This eventually drives him to launch a full-scale, coordinated assault on the Dragon Realms. Despite his seemingly simplistic mannerisms, Gnasty prefers to use his tactical efforts over brute force; even when facing off against a smaller dragon like Spyro he fights very defensively, keeping his distance and attacking from the other side of obstacles and traps, and he always seems to have a trick up his sleeve. Whether if it's hiding the keys used to get up to him, or jumping on receding platforms, Gnasty will attempt to trick his foes until the end.

In A Hero's Tail, Gnasty Gnorc has drastic changes in his personality. He is not cowardly as he once was, and he stands his ground throughout his entire fight with no intent on leaving. He is also much calmer at first, but still has a generally short temper when insulted or threatened. He also seems to be much more arrogant and confident in his abilities than before. Gnasty still seems to have a battle strategy, but his temper gets the better of him, and because of this he attacks more aggressively which leaves him open for attack. Despite the rivalry between him and Spyro, Gnasty seems to have gained some respect for Spyro's abilities. He sometimes acts like he is superior to Spyro as well, saying things like he actually defeated Spyro in the first game, even though he secretly knows that Spyro is better than him, for he obtained a new layer of armor that is immuned to fire, electric-based attacks, and changed his entire battle strategy from the first game, to try and beat the dragon.

Abilities
Gnasty Gnorc is able to use a bit of magic, but he only uses a few spells. In the first game, Gnasty is able to use a spell to turn the dragons into crystal statues, by shooting a green blast of magic out of his club. He uses this against Spyro in a way that simply causes damage, although Spyro's ability to withstand the crystallization may be due to Sparx's magic. Gnasty Gnorc can also create a potion that turns the beautiful Gems of the dragon realms, into gnorcs to be part of his army. In A Hero's Tail, Gnasty Gnorc has the ability to shoot electricity from his club, by using the power of Amp, a fairy trapped inside his club.

Despite his burly appearance and use of magic, Gnasty is an outstanding runner. In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty can run long distances, perform tight turns, and fast maneuvers with ease. Gnasty can also jump distances without slowing down, and can use his club as a close combat weapon and smash it on the ground to harm adversaries. If he hits it on the ground hard enough (particularly when he's in a cave) boulders will fall down.

History
Gnasty Gnorc was originally an inhabitant of the Dragon Realms, but as time went on, he found it hard to live with the Dragons' rules and customs. He became chaotic and unruly as he gazed at the Dragons' treasure cache of gems that were not only beautiful to look at but also showed him the reflection of his own ugly mug. As time went on, Gnasty began causing mischief which soon escalated into trouble in the Dragon Realms as he began learning and meddling with magic. So the Dragons banished Gnasty to a wasteland world known as the Dragon Junk Yard, where he was far enough away to do whatever he wanted without hurting any other residents.



After a while, Gnasty claimed the junkyard as his kingdom and renamed the wastelands "Gnasty's World." He realized however, that his power was nothing without minions to command. After a while, he found a spell that can turn gems into Gnorcs and other unsightly beasts, and so he began "borrowing" the Dragons' treasure and creating soldiers out of them to serve his cause. The Dragons knew of this, but believed it would be best to let it go for the time being, as they thought that even with such man-power, Gnasty was still no threat to them.

Dragon Realms Invasion
While most inhabitants of the Artisan World saw Gnasty as no threat, there were some concerns among a few. One day, during the creation of a documentary video for the DNN (Dragon News Network), Lindar, when asked about Gnasty Gnorc, called Gnasty "ugly" and other derogatory terms, while reassuring the interviewers that Gnasty was of no threat. Gnasty, who was watching, became enraged and encased every dragon in crystal (except for Spyro, apparently due to his small size). He then sent his Gnorcs throughout the Dragon Realms to recover all the gems they could find to make into more soldiers, and to deal with any dragons that may have avoided imprisonment. He also hired thieves to steal the remaining twelve dragon eggs in an attempt to fully exterminate the Dragons. Gnasty Gnorc placed a single boss in charge of each one of the realms: Toasty, Dr. Shemp, Blowhard, Metalhead, and Jacques. Since Spyro was essentially the sole remaining Dragon, he took it upon himself to free all the other Dragons, recover the gems and eggs, and defeat Gnasty and his armies.

Several of the dragons Spyro freed went to Gnasty's World, presumably to battle Gnasty themselves. However, Gnasty simply re-froze them in crystal during their counter-assault, eventually being rescued once again by Spyro. The dragons then decided that letting Spyro infiltrate Gnorc Cove and take on Gnasty Gnorc might be best.

Initial Defeat


In the final battle between Spyro and Gnasty Gnorc, Gnasty constantly fired beams at Spyro (which don't encase him in crystal, but rather harm him instead, possibly due to Sparx's protection), all the while standing safely on a ledge too high for Spyro, forcing him to chase down a thief to get the key needed to open a door to another thief to get another key to reveal a stepping stone, to reach Gnasty. Once Spyro reached Gnasty, the big Gnorc ran away. Spyro chased Gnasty down throughout the realm and got close enough to flame him. Afterwards, Gnasty entered a lava tunnel, with Spyro in hot pursuit. The young dragon got to the end where Gnasty was waiting, and Spyro flamed the Gnorc a second time, finishing Gnasty Gnorc off and ending his threat.

After Gnasty's defeat, Spyro went on to Gnasty's secret treasure trove to find all the rest of the treasure Gnasty took from the dragons, which can only be done by freeing all the dragons and recovering all other gems in the realms.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon
It has been revealed that Gnasty Gnorc survived his battle with Spyro, as he appeared in the epilogue along with Ripto, where they were shown discussing the "Spyro problem."

Spyro: A Hero's Tail
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Red, an evil Dragon Elder, hired Gnasty Gnorc and his Gnorc army to assist him in his plans. When Spyro confronted Gnasty the second time, Gnasty claimed that he was the one who defeated Spyro, but Spyro corrects him. During this battle, Gnasty actually stood his ground without running away, and he took far more hits to defeat. Also, Gnasty's new armor made him immune to fire breath, meaning Spyro had to attack his exposed underpants. During this battle, Gnasty also used electricity as his primary attack, which he generated from the magic of Amp, a fairy trapped within his staff. Upon his defeat, Amp was freed and rewarded Spyro with Electricity Breath.

Trivia

 * In the first cutscene in Ripto's Rage!, Spyro mentions that he and Sparx had not visited Dragon Shores since they "kicked Gnasty Gnorc's butt."
 * In Year of the Dragon in Enchanted Towers, Hunter claims he created a skateboarding move called "the Gnasty Gnorc." This move can actually be performed by doing two front or back flips and two side rolls.
 * In Enter the Dragonfly, Ripto claims when he first found them, Crush and Gulp were "begging for work from Gnasty Gnorc."
 * In Shadow Legacy, one of the books in the Dragon Shores hotel mentions Gnasty when it summarizes the plot of the first game.
 * Gnasty was originally going to appear in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly as co-antagonist alongside Ripto but did not because the creators were forced to speed up production for a winter release.
 * Despite being the final boss in the first Spyro the Dragon game, he is defeated in merely two hits. Most of the previous bosses are defeated with at least three hits. The actual challenge of the fight is reaching him.
 * In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc holds his staff in his left hand, implying he is left-handed, but in A Hero's Tail, he holds it in his right hand, implying that he might be ambidextrous.
 * In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Gnasty wears his armor from Spyro the Dragon under his Hero's Tail Armor.
 * The Symbol on Gnasty's Shoulder plate in A Hero's Tail looks similar to the bottles found underwater in Coastal Remains in the same game.
 * The Spyro the Dragon manual says Gnasty is the sloppiest Gnorc. This explains why gems are lying all over the ground in the game.
 * In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty responds in outrage to the description given during the interview at the start of the game. The way he pronounces the words, however, almost imply that he agrees with the description.
 * In the late demo for Gnasty Gnorc's boss battle, in Spyro the Dragon, he could not attack Spyro at all, and on his second health he dropped Gnorc soldiers to try and harm Spyro.
 * Spyro also needed the Superflame power up to harm Gnasty, and Gnasty jumped on platforms on his first health to try and lose the dragon.