Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

Slaanesh · Jul 10, 2010 4:45 AM

STD was always my favorite of the spyro games ever since I was very young. However, now that I am older, I have fun speculating and musing on more "adult" ideas such as politics, economics and society in relation to the Spyro games.

Out of all the areas in the old Spyro games, none intrigued me more then the dragon junkyard, Gnasty's realm. The whole game was filled with whimsical worlds bearing bright colors and fantasy architecture. However, when you get to the dragon junkyard everything is industrial and gritty. While I know this is done to make the area more "evil" I recalled something in the game being said about Gnasty Gnorc being imprisoned there by the dragons and aforementioned junk yard being unwanted property of the dragons. Thus, this made me go off into a tangent of "what-ifs" and speculation about just how the dragon junkyard was connected to the rest of the dragon world.

If it is in fact owned by the Dragons, then my personal thoughts that the dragon junkyard had been the industrial center for the dragons that was "unwanted" because of the fact it was the "dirty side" of the dragon worlds. By the dirty side I mean not only dirty due to the pollution, but also dirty because it of a "what if" that came to my mind.

The aforementioned "what if" was that the industrial region known as the dragon junkyard was in fact the dwelling place of the Gnorcs. The catch? It was still owned by the dragons and the Gnorcs acted as the dragon's factory labor force. In other words, the dragons basically had the Gnorcs in a state of psudo slavery, forced forever to work in the industrial hell of the dragon junkyard while the dragons themselves spent their time rolling in gems in fancy castles and cloud cities and tropical jungles and whatever other places could be found in the game. The whole thing with the dragons shores workers being Gnorcs just add to the idea of the Gnorcs as the dragon's cheap labor force, though I do recall hearing something about those workers being reformed Gnorcs.

Another "what if" that I came up with is that the dragon junkyard was that is was simply an "'unwanted" world because the dragons did not want to deal with the negative effects of their own industry and just decided to confine all their industrial activity to a single area so they could turn a blind eye to the pollution and other downsides of having heavy industry like the kind found in the dragon junkyard. This idea I also easily combined with the first one for an interesting scenario where the dragon world is not as "clean" as it first appears.

While this is nothing more then a construct of my imagination, it dose explain the mysterious nature of the "sudden industry" of the dragon junkyard and also gives Gnasty a legitimate reason to strike back against the dragons other then the fact they called him ugly and banished him just because he was disgusting. Heck, if this was true and not just me going wild with my imagination it would make Gnasty a much more likable character since many people can empathize with a guy striking back against a civilization which enslaved his race and/or hide their own industrial complex from their view and forced others to live with the externalites of their economic activity.

So, while this is all just my wild imagination, I would love to hear what you all think about this? Could be true given so little info by the game? Not true at all but would be interesting if it was? Or do you think my imagination is just wacked on crack to think of something this silly?

Oh, and yes, I was an ancient as all hell member on this site who's decided to come back.

Scarlett-Fear-Dragon · Jul 10, 2010 10:13 AM

Wow, you've put a lot of thought into this.

Julvenzor · Jul 10, 2010 1:57 PM

No doubt! You've a lot of imagination and I like that. It's no nonsense. Sometimes it's related the evil with a dirty environment, where the villians figure his dark and diabolic plans. Perhaps, this isn't detailed in the game because they didn't consider it important. The essencial is to enjoy of a platforms game. Personaly, I love when a history is explained in all his aspects.

Slaanesh · Jul 10, 2010 2:09 PM

Thanks for the complements on my weird musings, they really make me feel like these things are not a waste of time. Also, there's a lot more "holed" I have taken the time to fill and one day when I get a chance to speak to my computer programmer friend I plan to make a 100% free dragon world/spyro "mmo" which will explore the dragon world(and eventually Avalar when we decide to add it on.) in more depth. Also, the "part 1" in the thread title is because there will be another post where I discuss the royal family that originally existed in the Spyro world but was done away with at the last minute for reasons unknown. Some signs of said royal family's existence can be found in both the game and it's insert pamphlet even though it was apparently done away with for reasons unknown.

jamieque · Jul 11, 2010 7:03 PM

Slaanesh wrote:

Thanks for the complements on my weird musings, they really make me feel like these things are not a waste of time. Also, there's a lot more "holed" I have taken the time to fill and one day when I get a chance to speak to my computer programmer friend I plan to make a 100% free dragon world/spyro "mmo" which will explore the dragon world(and eventually Avalar when we decide to add it on.) in more depth. Also, the "part 1" in the thread title is because there will be another post where I discuss the royal family that originally existed in the Spyro world but was done away with at the last minute for reasons unknown. Some signs of said royal family's existence can be found in both the game and it's insert pamphlet even though it was apparently done away with for reasons unknown.

Interesting! I always viewed the Dragon Junkyard as more a part of the lost history of the Dragon Realms. I mean even on Avalar there is hints in various places that hint at royal families and ancient wars. These little hints are what I used as a foundation to build the links to the Legend of Spyro timeline in the new Legacy of Ages alternate reality. In the original universe Insomniac Games never explored any of these histories or backstories. They only covered Spyro's story and even his story is incomplete in a way since his origin/background has never been deeply dug into. We know nothing about his mother or father or whether he has any siblings at all.

Shadow Legacy began to take the purple dragon is special idea in the direction that Legend ultimately fulfilled in slightly successful way. Your idea about a royal family works very well with my new alternate reality world history of the upcoming Spyro: Legacy of Ages/Dragon of Destiny Universe relaunch because my idea deals with a more realistic Spyro world. The things you pointed out about a political system and various other 'dirty' sides of Spyro's world will be explored in extensive depth in the relaunch universe. Plus other things will be revealed and fleshed out.

Slaanesh · Jul 11, 2010 8:42 PM

Yeah, if you see the dragon junkyard as part of the history of the dragon world then how exactly did they go from a society with heavy, modern industry to a pre-industrial society? I would really love to know what catastrophe you created that caused the dragons to lose their industry and technology.

Also, as for the royal family thing, what I found out through observations was that Spyro himself was most likely originally intended to be of royal blood, but they then decided to cut the royalty out of the story for some unknown reason. Hints of it can be found in both the STD game Manuel/insert and the game itself. The main hint of it is in the game Manuel, where in the back somewhere you see Spyro being reprimanded by an older dragon who looks ALMOST EXACTLY like Spyro except older. Said dragon also has a golden medallion with a spiral shaped symbol on it. In the artisans homeworld if you look closely at the big castle which is behind the first dragon you free(NOT the castle that you walk through to find the balloonist. The one that's directly behind you when you first start the game.) you can see two flags with the same spiral symbol found on the medallion of the dragon you see reprimanding spyro in the insert.

Since said dragon is the ONLY dragon to have any kind of medallion in that game, and the same symbol of the medallion can be seen on flags in the game, it lead me to believe that, at least at one point in the game's design, Spyro's history would have played a bigger part, and Spyro himself would have been the prince of dragons and the dragon in the insert picture would have been his father, the king of the dragons.

However, for whatever reason, the company had decided to cut all references to Spyro's past and possible royal blood out of the game save for subtle hints such as that one, and later the dragon that was meant to be Spyro's father was retconed into "papa dragon" who was a character on the old spyro website who was some kind of high dragon elder that was old, wise and extremely knowledgeable. His purpose on the site was to answer fan questions, and he never appeared in any spyro related media other then that website and the insert in the original game.

Also, as for those games you mentioned, are they fangames or do you actually work for a big time gaming company?

Oh, and one more thing, what other easter eggs/subtle signs did you find in the old Spyro games that point to a history and such? I ask because I honestly love piecing these things together and since I have not dusted off my games in a long while I could use a bit of a refresher.

Jackson117 · Jul 11, 2010 11:48 PM

We all know that Spyro's father was cut during production..there is a picture somewhere.

As for backstory..it be like making the backstory of Warhammer...it's too large and confusing and in the end you have to simple it out.

iSO · Jul 14, 2010 9:21 AM

From what I see in these comments from the original poster who created this topic - It is essentially heartwarming to hear a different POV of one of the places in the original Spyro 1 game. To tell you the truth, sometimes I feel like we should call Insomniac (or older members of the team who worked on the purple dragon) to see if there was more to this than having an enjoyable platform game. Although this move would be unlikely, imagination indeed may drive us back to rethinking how those games are supposed to be interpreted as what setting.

I look forward to hearing this more Slaanesh. And this comes from a Spyro fan who rarely posts due to the forum's primary focus on the Legend series. Small amount of posts than most users. x3

#1 Jul 10, 2010 4:45 AM

Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#2 Jul 10, 2010 10:13 AM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#3 Jul 10, 2010 1:57 PM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#4 Jul 10, 2010 2:09 PM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#5 Jul 11, 2010 7:03 PM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#6 Jul 11, 2010 8:42 PM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#7 Jul 11, 2010 11:48 PM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

#8 Jul 14, 2010 9:21 AM

Re: Some observations and "what ifs" (part 1: dragon junkyard)

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