darkSpyro

Well we never really learned about the concept of black/dark dragons and the elements they may have. As there are no other dragons like her (both no other black dragons and no other female dragons......hm), there's no real way to tell if her powers are a result of corruption or something she was born with.

With that in mind, I can only really come to the conclusion that she was a normal dragon that was corrupted by Malefor and merely gained powers as a side effect later on. Since there is no "logical" way of proving poison, shadow, or fear as being typical elements among the not-so-corrupted dragons, the conclusion I come up with is that her original element (if she had only one to begin with) is wind.

I still think it's wind. Of all the elements she has, wind is the only one that is actually an element and not related to evilness in any way. With her most common scale color being cloudy gray/blue and her horns/claws/markings being a silvery white, that also implies a sky-related element. We can really only guess about her element, but given the way the other adult dragons have colors and body types that match theirs, that's a pretty big clue. Oh, and her horn shapes are very suggestive of a flowing breeze, as is her aerodynamic body as an adult and teenager. Her egg was also mostly gray with mottling that resembles dark patches in a storm cloud. Wind is also her first element which is a big clue to her natural inclinations (the same way Spyro's first element is fire and it's the one he seems to have the easiest mastery over in every game).

I've always bought into the Wind theory. The other 3 "elements" she get all seem very artificial, considering the universe. I know the trilogy changed development hands and DotD's universe is NOTHING like the first two games, but I agree with CAV. No back story mention of the other 3 elements. And the only thing she uses as the Big Bad in ANB is black fire, so that leaves wind. Although I wouldn't put it past this game to have just tacked shadow, poison, and fear on, with little regard for the story, as a way to make Cynder a playable character. It might have worked too well, since I found her more fun to play as than Spyro. Granted, that was 6 years ago...

Cynder was more fun to play as than Spyro; faster, better fighter.

re: wind element
I forgot that we also see a wind dragon in Malefor's backstory in TEN, so it is canon that there are wind guardians, but there is no evidence at all that there are shadow/poison/fear guardians.

Poison, shadow, and fear just seem like very unlikely elements for a dragon to have while not having been corrupted by THE DARKNESS or whatever they want to call it. Wind at least seems natural in the world the writers came up with.

Quote: Samius

Damn, we should really try to revive some of the long-dead discussion on this board.

"If Spyro and Cynder Had a Kid 2"

I also agree with the wind theory, for the same reasons already mentioned. It seems very natural and even fitting for her.

yeah, I agree on the wind theory, its the only element that doesn't have an evil connection, so its got to be wind.

Quote: theuone

yeah, I agree on the wind theory, its the only element that doesn't have an evil connection, so its got to be wind.

^This.
I've thought about this too and wind seemed like the most plausible element...

Wind. I'm sure it was wind.

Hmmm, I think this concept is good so i'm putting this out there.

Cynder had fire in the first game so whats with that?

The fire was part of her dark powers (as evidenced by it being purple and her not appearing to be a fire dragon as well as the fire never showing up again as one of her powers).

V mmm ok makes sense

I agree with the wind theory. But I have also considered Shadow to be her element too.

But I'm pretty sure the whole blue/dark purple colour going on with Cynder (which I really hate, and wish she remained black or dark grey) was just something to do with Activision, since it only happened when they got their hands on the game. Cynder was black/dark grey when Krome was in full control.

Also, considering Cynder never breathed Wind or any of the other elements in ANB or TEN and instead breathed some weird red fire in ANB, I've thought that maybe Krome just thought of Cynder breathing some form of fire or something, like what she did in ANB, but then Activision came in and changed it and tacked on a bunch of weird sounding elements (poison, fear, shadow).

In her official art for TEN by Krome, Cynder is blue-grey, so there's some precedence for her color becoming more noticeably blue in later iterations.

I can never go with the fire theory since the main dragon we know who breathes fire has orange eyes and elemental coloring/design to match (flame-like spikes down his back), while Cynder has green eyes and swept back silver-white horns/spikes (that suggests an aerodynamic physiology). Even when she's more grey, her color scheme matches with a wind theme (or at least storm clouds with white accents in the horns/claws).