Sylvia Sherwood

"Stop waiting for easy answers to fall into your lap, Rookie. Use that head of yours to find them for yourself."

- Sylvia Sherwood in Chapter 63

Sylvia Sherwood (シルヴィア・シャーウッド), also known as Handler (管理官) or the Fullmetal Lady (鋼鉄の淑女), is a recurring character of the SPY x FAMILY series. She is Twilight's main contact at WISE.

Appearance
Sylvia is a tall woman with a slim figure and narrow blue eyes. She has wavy strawberry-blonde hair reaching the middle of her back. She is also sometimes seen having pink nail polish.

Though she disguises herself in public, she typically sports a pair of round framed glasses and a black wide-brimmed hat with a dark pink band. In her role as Handler, she most frequently wears a fitted black dress with a low-cut square neckline over a white collared shirt, along with a large black ribbon tied under the collar like a loose bow. The back of the dress is long, reaching below her knees, while the front reaches mid-thigh. She also wears fishnets over black stockings with black high heels.

As Secretary Sherwood, she ties her hair in a ponytail. She wears a black coat over a white top and a black skirt.

Personality
Little has been revealed about Sylvia's personality. She is similar to Twilight in her commitment, skill, and logical approach to her endeavors. She is extremely dedicated to her given task; preserving peace between Westalis and Estonia by inserting Twilight into Donovan Desmond's inner circle. Like Twilight, she is willing to assist Anya's acquisition of Stella Stars by any means (including deception and espionage). Despite this, her plans for ensuring Operation Strix's success - such as bribing Anya or creating scenarios where Anya can be framed positively - are dubious at best, and her suggestions for Operation Strix can unnecessarily endanger the spies she manage.

She is deeply compassionate, and has a soft spot for children and animals. She demonstrates these strengths in allowing the Anya to keep Bond after the terrorist bombing incident, and placating the child's concerns about the welfare of the other bomb dogs. She has said that she once had a daughter around Anya's age, but it is unclear how Sylvia lost her.

As shown in her speech to the terrorists of the Doggy Crisis, Sylvia has a deep-seated hatred of war. Her fervent disgust for - and knowledge of - the atrocities and horrors of war seem to indicate that she suffered a great deal in the last conflict.

Despite maintaining an immaculate appearance in public, Sylvia's home is a complete mess, though her home was previously well-kept and tidy in the past. This deterioration is reflective of the trauma she endured from the loss of her partner and daughter during the war.

Abilities and Skills
Disguise: Sylvia competently alters her appearance, as she often assumes various façades to contact Twilight, though she does make occasional mistakes.

Spy Handler: As a handler, Sylvia is the Westalian Intelligence agency's primary liason with agents in Ostania and is responsible for managing them and their missions. Despite the strict surveillance of the nation's secret police Sylvia manages to evade notice while competently handling her agents, earning her the nickname "Fullmetal Lady."

Fighting Skills: Sylvia is skilled in unarmed combat and readily makes use of makeshift weapons as shown with her quick immobilization of Pance Karmer with a belt as he tried to kill Jonas Wellman.

Weaknesses
Age: Although her precise age is unknown, she is visibly disadvantaged by it with bouts of weakness and back and shoulder pain after combat.

Chapter Appearances

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Anime Appearances

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Etymology

 * The name Sylvia means "wood/woods, forest/from the forest/of the forest" in Latin.
 * Sylvia's surname Sherwood is a habitational name from any of several places called with Old English scīr + wudu 'bright or clear (perhaps sparsely-grown) wood.'

Trivia

 * Sylvia's room is messy. After work, her appearance becomes slovenly.
 * The German Shepherd that attacked Loid was taken in by WISE and is currently under Sylvia's care.

Quotes

 * (To Student Terrorists): "Have any of you ever killed anyone before? Have you ever been killed before? Have you ever had a limb torn off by an artillery shell? Have you ever heard the sound of bones shattering? Have you ever smelled the reek of rotting flesh? Have you ever found the crushed bodies of your parents and siblings in a pile of rubble that used to be your home? Have you ever discovered a blown-off piece of your lover stuck to a wall? Have you ever been so hungry you tried to eat tree bark? have you ever stewed human flesh in a pot? have you ever convinced yourself your enemy was subhuman so you could slaughter them like animals? Have you ever been so haunted by shame and regret afterward that you cried until you puked? Have you ever had friends who did the same, and took their own lives? Did you learn nothing about war at your university?

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