Hey! Skylanders loving mutuals @daliatheportalmaster and @wrenchitgood!!
Just thought I'd share my idea for the underutilized Dark Spyro.
Dark Spyro, to me, is the only dark variation I can get behind being important. To me, he's an entirely different persona of Spyro, harnessing the Darkness. Which that gave me an idea:
What if, instead of Kaos being the main antagonist in Imaginators, it was a playable dark story focused entirely on Dark Spyro?
He's possibly the only remnant of the Darkness left in Skylands, except for maybe a few Petrified Darkness remnants. He could've been trying to rebuild the Darkness to become the "ultimate" Spyro, similar to Metal Sonic trying to be the "real" Sonic.
Instead of Imaginators, he'd use his powers of the Darkness to create beings similar to Doomlanders. Except, he'd call them Darklanders, making them his servants to achieve his goal.
And imagine if he was split from Spyro at some point between Superchargers and Imaginators, and he went on the run to gain more power from the Darkness. Now, if you had his figure, you could play his side of the story! YOU COULD BE A DARK PORTAL MASTER FOR A DAY!!
A shortish chapter, mainly because I’m fighting writer’s block.
The response that Spyro had gotten from any available Skylanders, was tremendous to say the least. Any that weren’t there, were already called away for missions and couldn’t make it. However, the ones that did were more than enough for what they needed. It was almost too perfect with how it all came together. Flynn, even with all the hot air in his head, managed to stay focused on being the escort for some of the Skylanders. The Dreadyacht even had some of the vehicles belonging to the Supercharger Skylanders to help with the element of surprise. The Trap Masters had managed to scramble more than enough of the Traptanium that was needed. Every Skylander present was ready to fight. They knew that the Doom Raiders had taken one of their own and were willing to go into battle just to save him. The motive behind the kidnapping was sworn to secrecy between Master Eon and the Skylanders involved with the Gulper’s interrogation. The less that knew about that dark spot in Flameslinger’s history, the better it’ll be for him in the long run. It was Flameslinger’s choice to tell others what happened. It felt wrong to have word spread more about it. The only thing that the Skylanders didn’t know about were Flameslinger’s eyes, a secret that Eon kept to himself. He thought it was for the best.
“Remember what Master Eon said!” Spyro announced through a speaker on Flynn’s ship. It rang out clear over the army that had gathered, a hushed silence between each Skylander. “We hit the Doom Raiders hard and fast. Stick to the ones you’ve been assigned to. Watch each other’s backs. If you’ve coordinated a plan amongst yourselves, stick to it as best you can.”
A tactical approach to take down the criminals. It was simple, but hoped to be effective. Especially if said criminals had minions at their disposal. Since Gulper’s capture, the Doom Raiders had more than likely found out about it and rushed to prepare for a battle. Hopefully, in said rush, they probably didn’t have time to formulate a proper plan of defence.
Almost immediately after Spyro had said those words, portals opened up. One large one for Flynn’s ship and numerous smaller ones for the Skylanders to rush into. The purple dragon could picture Master Eon straining from the pressure of opening up so many portals at one. Time to rush into them before he causes harm to himself. Spyro continued his speech in order to get the heroes moving as fast as possible:
“We’ve got two goals in mind: take down the Doom Raiders and bring Flameslinger home.”
A deafening roar came from the Skylanders as they rushed forward to each of the portals. Flynn gave a cry himself (mostly from excitement) as he pushed the ship’s engine. It gave a splutter of smoke and fumes as it groaned a little from the strain. However, the ship pushed on through that. A couple of air vehicles that belonged to the Superchargers went on ahead, their engines more than able to push on. Spyro took his place at the front of the ship, staring ahead to where the portal ended. His hackles were raised as he saw it getting closer. The fire in his belly was swelling up, ready to be released when he was.
The portal ended almost as quickly as the ship had entered it. The land of the Golden Desert was open, nothing but sand for miles. The only thing that broke the picture was the large pyramid base that was right where Gulper said it would be. With the sun starting to set behind it, it cast a long dark shadow, directly pointing right at the portals that the Skylanders were still erupting from. Along with the shadow, glaring menacingly were numerous minions that belonged to the Doom Raiders. Too many to even imagine how they were hiding in that base. The Doom Raiders, whether through arrogance or sheer stupidity, were right in the centre of their own individual armies. They were all prepared for the fight. So were the Skylanders.
Without so much as a warning, Spyro unleashed his Daybringer Flame. The white hot flame erupted from the dragon, landing square in the centre of the army of villains. It was enough to catch them by surprise. It was also the beacon that the Skylanders were waiting for to charge. With the flick of a switch and a loud “BOOM” from the captain himself, Flynn released hatches that were installed on his ship at the last minute. Land vehicles of the Superchargers came charging out, landing heavily on the desert ground. Wheels spun in the sand for a few seconds before they managed to gain the grip they needed. They all charged as a frontal assault. It took the frontlines further by surprise from the speed and brute force of the vehicles, as well as the Skylanders that were driving them. The vehicles in the air assisted with the sudden assault from above. Spyro spread his wings out before they flapped a hard beat. He was propelled into the air.
“Game on!” He growled as he surged forward. He unleashed more of his flames, minions scattering like ants. Each of the teams that were assigned to the Doom Raiders were given a semi clear path to their targets as other Skylanders assisted them. They all had a Trap Master in tow, a Traptanium ready to be used. Spyro watched from above, seeing the battle. Every minion that went down, two more would take its place. Nonetheless, the Skylanders kept pushing forward. They couldn’t give up, not when they were so close. Spyro briefly looked at the base. He felt this overwhelming need to go in, to sneak on through while the Doom Raiders were occupied. Then he paused, spotting a small light near where the sun was. He shook his head, forcing the instinct to go in as far as he could. He can’t go in, not yet. There was an additional plan in place and he couldn’t interfere with it. He just needed to trust it, just as Master Eon did. With that in mind, Spyro spoke one last thing before he swooped down to launch another attack:
every now and then I realize that when I was like, younger, I was shipping myself with Spyro from Skylanders academy and that that was the beginning of my yumeshipping journey
A THE NEW MASTERS/ECHOES OF THE CORE BAD ENDING AFTERMATH AU FOLLOWING A VESSEL ON A QUEST TO DESTROY THE DARKNESS AFTER THE SKYLANDERS HAVE FALLEN!
HERE TO CONFIRM THIS IS PIPER'S FAULT (no u don't need context embrace the funi)
We start as a customizeable Vessel. We don't know who the protag is, those who do don't know how they got to Skylands, only that they have a nail and a dream.
There are no mask shards or Soul vessel fragments to collect, all upgrades must be claimed by consuming Legendary Treasures. Every 3 of them gives a Soul vessel, or you can save 4 for a mask, but you can only change your loadout at Portals of Power, many of which are destroyed after whatever wiped out the Skylanders.
They can be repaired, but the items needed increase in higher level areas. The specific stones and mechanical parts can only be gained from elite enemies, only one of which will be available near the start as a miniboss that won't respawn to reward players who overcome the odds early (similar to Elden Ring's first Tree Sentinel).
Maybe the Treasures can be removed and equipped for different buffs, but you only get the Soul/mask upgrade when you first get them. Some can act as tools, others are just passives.
The Mabu and other peaceful civs seem a bit weary of you, compared to their Skylanders series counterparts. There are references to seven Portal Masters; one deceased, the other six banished to their home realms with little explanation.
You can complete wishes (usually to hunt monsters of the Darkness, but there will be some quests to find hunters/gatherers/merchants and bring them home or gather materials to upgrade their villages) to gain individual villagers' trust, generally doing chores and defending their homes from monsters and villains.
Eventually they'll be comfortable leaving their doors open around you, letting you chat with other members of the family and their bookshelves.
By reading their books, using Focus to heal their family, or just sitting by the elderly while they chatter and pour you tea, you'll get tales of the Skylanders. Progressing different villages will give you details on Skylanders of different Elements, each with at least one NPC giving lore on their fall and one telling about a specific fallen Skylander, including the location of a memorial.
Many will uncomfortably mull over one who fell to the Darkness.
It's implied all the Skylanders were given significant monuments after their fall, just not all of them will be discoverable.
Notably, the older NPCs will comment that they're grateful you listened to their stories, even though the Vessel seemed familiar with them.
There will be special Boss fights in these villages when certain villains figure out you've been helping these civilians/random Darkness monster attacks, likely getting some of your friends killed.
More aggressive people like the Lava Elementals, ninja clans, and frost elves will not let you in, and are violent combatants to the Vessel. Fortunately, in areas where there was a large battle, your character becomes stronger in the Darkness and it becomes easier to break into their lands to get their special items.
Defeating villains and Darkness monsters gives you items to leave as sacrifices to the Skylanders' statues, if you can figure out which goes where (there are riddles at the bases of the statue about what monsters they were overwhelmed by, no doubt leading to in and out of universe discourse on the strongest/weakest, but there's nothing stopping you from brute forcing it).
If you get it right on the first try, someone will comment how the character seemed to know what went where immediately.
Making these sacrifices grants you access to one of the aggressive civs. Lava Elementals and Frost Elves might sell you hot and cold resistance items, the ninja clans might sell you a book on signs that lets you 'speak' the Skylands' sign language, earning new interactions and chatting options that reveal more of what the Vessel knows.
In the ninja clans, you can see them stalking you from the trees. After you make the sacrifice to get let into their village, though, you can still see one with a long ponytail jumping between the trees.
All of them will teach you some cool abilities you can switch and swap like heavy attacks, dash attacks, or short teleports that let you outmatch higher level areas for bigger bosses and get to more isolated villages that need you help. Complete with a late-game village in a spot overrun by/strong in the Darkness, letting you fight previous boss monsters with all your new powers and an Elemental bonus for a power trip before the final stretch.
This village has memorials to some Light and Dark Skylanders with some of the last pieces to the puzzle of what happened to the Skylanders and why the Darkness is suddenly reemerging.
None of the characters or villages have the complete story of which Skylander fell to the Darkness and why, but the final village gives the name:
"Spyro"
NO PIPERS ALLOWED PAST THIS POINT, MASSIVE HOLLOW KNIGHT SPOILERS!
PIPER PROOFING...
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..
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beep boop
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..
...
DO
YOU
SEE
THE
VISION
You as the player still don't know anything about the Vessel, don't know why or how they appeared in Skylands with a fascination with the Skylanders, or why they were headed for Spyro.
Clouds of purple surround the arena, preventing the Vessel's friends (or those you managed to save) from trying to stop them from facing such Darkness, but clear enough for them to see the fight and Spyro... who isn't as terrifying as they'd imagined all their lives. The area is strongest in all Elements but Darkness, despite all the shadows and Dark monsters coming from him. Eventually, their older family members get to the scene by phase 2, watching with much sadder expressions than those who grew up with the story of a fallen Skylander embracing the Darkness.
And they start to stagger back when the stabbing starts.
^^^AND THE CHORUS IS THE SPIRITS OF ALL THE DEAD SKYLANDERS^^^
Ending 1 - THE DARK SKYLANDER
Defeat Spyro normally. He shouts in pain and crumples to the ground. All the villagers you've saved and the civs you've visited scream as the Darkness starts breaking free from his scales, finally understanding how and why Spyro fell to the Darkness.
The Vessel calmly walks into Spyro without the player's input and cradles him.
The prompt to focus appears. All the dark clouds and red lightning blasting out of Spyro recollect. Your allies along the way lean closer to watch the Vessel consume the Darkness. Claws and tendrils grasp the clouds as the shriek and try to escape, ending with Spyro's body disappearing in a red flash of Kaos and Eon's marking like Hollow does with the image of the Radiance when they explode.
The old Skylanders bow and disappear as the Vessel takes in the Darkness, looks up to their friends, and walks to the center of the arena with clouds swirling around and into them. Their eyes are bright red dots with purple smog being sucked into them.
Monsters of the Darkness are appearing, but ignore the villagers and soldiers in a desperate attempt to destroy the Vessel, but they all keel over and are pulled into it before landing any blows.
Each monster's liquified/smoky body being pulled into the Vessel triggers the transition to the ending cutscene. They nod to the villagers and warriors, looking all around the arena, and pointing to various small spots. Six dots of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Life, and Tech create powerful rifts that bind Spyro at the beginning of the fight, and now chain the Vessel.
Ending 2 - THE LAST SKYLANDER
There are plenty of secret areas you can encounter, giving you access to events even earlier in the timeline of the Skylands' fall. They might have unique items, weird upgrades, and generally a lot of stuff with item descriptions pointing you in specific directions.
One by one, you start discovering and fighting the last Skylanders, one of each Element except Magic. Eruptor, JV, and Roller Brawl are among them. Defeating them each grants access to one area of that Element where you can get an upgrade for the nail dealing damage of that Element and some cool spells to switch between. They are noticeably better than those you get from the rest of the game/intended areas.
In these areas, you finally get some confirmable, unbiased, non-story based information on the Skylanders' fall against the Darkness. You get to play through flashbacks of their fall, fighting monsters with overpowered kits and thrashing Kaos and co's asses at the top of their game, until fighting an unbeatable boss. The strength of the Darkness lets you know what order the Elements were beaten, as it gets stronger with every fallen Element.
After this, you challenge the Skylander one last time. Beating them gives you some special power they have and earns their trust that you can put Spyro out of his misery/might defeat the Darkness instead of replacing him.
When dueling all six survivor Skylanders (besides Magic and Life), you will unlock a section of the ninja clans where Stealth Elf ambushes you. She retreats after throwing hands and you're able to find tons of custom statuettes of countless Skylanders, showing a clear progression in skill from the first (Spyro), at the center of her hideaway, to the last, on the outskirts.
You can leave them the same offerings as the statues around the rest of Skylands, but the extra bosses you need the items from are only around the final areas where Spyro, all being in a different Elemental area with powers of that Element.
Each time you leave a sacrifice, she'll reappear in shadow to give some exposition about that Skylander and how they died, always adding something about her team. The stories are always the same, but the order you do them isn't set. She gets a little closer as you progress until she's right next to the Vessel when you finish.
Stealth Elf explains, against their wishes, Spyro devised a plan to embrace the Darkness and use the kiddos' Portals of Power as a cage for himself, becoming a pseudo Core of Light preventing the Darkness from seeping into Skylands.
She tried to stop him and threatened to deny his wish to explain what happened to him/his plan if he went through with it, but regretted it instantly. Skylands had already made up its mind that a Skylander had fallen, she eventually gave up trying to explain Spyro's plan.
But she still became far stronger and repeatedly braved the wastes around him to see Spyro. She used to talk to him and tell him about the state of Skylands, even though she wasn't sure he could hear her or was the same dragon who took care of her and Eruptor.
Recently, however, she tried to move on/resigned herself to the fact Spyro was gone for good, gave him her last goodbye, and the Darkness slowly started leaking into Skylands.
Fighting her one last time ends in a cutscene before the Knight/Little Ghost surrounded by other Vessels. They lend you the Dream Nail and you're able to fight the deceased Skylanders, releasing their Elemental essence. The Skylanders you've fought that far will help you until it's time to go to the ruined Academy to fight a memory of Spyro in his prime.
It's very Pure Vessel reminiscent and defeating him lets you talk to his spirit for a short time, hearing his explanation of the portal plan and his quest to trap the Darkness before it consumed Skylands in the Skylanders' absence.
He discourages you from trying to stop him, saying the Vessel will just fail, too, and asks them live well with their friends and the rest of the Skylanders, bringing them away from Skylands and to wherever the Vessel came from (a Hallownest conveniently needing a lot of new residents)
The player has the choice to use the Dream Nail in each village, where each Skylander of that Element will be waiting, sending them to Hallownest, where the only Darkness that can reach them is the one that needs a new civilization to be king of.
Upon finishing sending everyone to Hallownest, the ending cutscene plays. In the Ancient Basin, at the opening to the Abyss, the Vessel walks through the door. The Knight's Shade appears to take the Dream Nail back from the player character. They bow to each other and the Knight's Shade disappears back into the shadows, the player Vessel turns around to head back to the new village and Skylanders.
Or...
True ending: MARTYR OF MARTYRS
With the 8 Elemental powers released back into Skylands, Spyro stirs in his rift cage. The player Vessel may instead return to him for one more challenge, both at full power. Instead of the base boss fight, Spyro switches between using all Elemental powers, eventually many or all at once, but the area is now strong in the Dark Element (so you get all of your coolest attacks for the whole fight)
At the end, Stealth Elf pins Spyro down and cracks his head open so the Dream Nail can be used, allowing you to fight the Darkness directly.
When the fight is over, the scene clears to the villagers and surviving Skylanders gathering around a shattered mask and dark purple dragon scales.
Before them is a dark gray coil of a petrified dragon and Vessel around a bright beam of light blasting around all of Skylands. From the Portals of Power Spyro used to create his cage sprout rifts.
Six people step through them.
