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 that droop at the corners. She has long and wavy strawberry-blonde hair reaching the middle of her back. She is also sometimes seen having pink nail polish.

She sports a pair of round framed glasses and a black wide-brimmed hat with a dark red-purple ribbon. She also wears an elegant black dress with a low-cut square neckline over a white collared shirt, along with a large black ribbon under the collar. The back of the dress is long, reaching below her knees, while the front of her dress reaches mid-thigh. She wears dark 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
While not much has been shown to get an understanding of Sylvia's personality, she appears similar to Twilight in that she is dedicated, skilled, and logical with her approach to ideas but still is a somewhat impatient person albeit the target, Donovan Desmond has been doing some suspicious activity, willing to artificially make it so Anya would get more Stella Stars, only to be told that it would expose the agents and put Anya under scrutiny. It can be assumed that she does not understand kids as much as Loid, as seen when she told him to just bribe Anya with candy as motivation.

She has mentioned once about having a daughter of a similar age to Anya but possibly lost her in a war. It can be assumed that, based on previous actions, Sylvia had her daughter quite some time ago and, as a result, no longer knows how to handle children. However, she appears to have some motherly instinct left in her when she allows Anya to keep Bond. She comforts Anya about what they will do with the bomb dogs and promises to treat them with care.

Sylvia has an extreme distaste and hatred for war. This is evident in her words to the terrorist group when they planned on using bomb dogs to instigate a war based on nationalist pride and propaganda. Her anger and cold dismissive words decrying the atrocities and horrors of war seem to indicate that she suffered from a great deal of trauma incurred from the war.

Despite keeping an otherwise immaculate physical appearance in public, Sylvia's home is a complete mess. Compared to memories of her past, her home was previously well-kept and tidy. This slovenly state in her present is reflective of her traumatized state due to the loss of her partner and daughter during the war.

Abilities and Skills
Disguise: Sylvia can disguise herself pretty well, having repeatedly disguised herself to contact Twilight.

Handler: As a handler, Sylvia is the agency's main contact between them and the agents in Ostania and is responsible for managing them and their missions. Despite the strict surveillance of the nation's secret police, she manages to evade notice while competently handling her agents, even earning her the nickname "Fullmetal Lady."

Fighting Skills: Sylvia is shown to have abilities for fight and defense, as she quickly attacked and immobilized Pance Karmer with a belt when he tried to kill Jonas Wellman, though she later had some serious shoulder pain due to her age.

Loid Forger
Loid Forger, as Twilight, is one of the intelligence agents under her command. She is extremely demanding of his spy abilities, frequently sending him on missions without rest due to the lack of manpower, but has been shown to worry for his well-being, since she uncharacteristically let him go on vacation since WISE was scolding her for overexploiting her agents, accepting that it was Loid's moment to rest from work (which surprises him because he expected her to refuse) and also allowed him a break after hearing how he collapsed in his home. Though their relationship is largely professional, the two appear to empathize with each other due to their shared experiences of the war.

When Twilight first joined Westalian Intelligence, Sylvia was his new commanding officer and was responsible for training him into a first-rate spy. Her extremely strict practices have resulted in Loid having a fear of her, to the point of having nightmares of her.

WISE Agent
Sylvia appears to have a good relationship with him, as she occasionally assigns him on missions with Twilight. Knowing that Twilight is her best-managed spy, she trusts the Agent to support him. Although their relationship is professional, they are shown to get along pretty well, as the Agent is not as frightened of her as her other subordinates, making causal conversation and jokes and chastising her for her slovenliness.

Anya Forger
According to Sylvia, she used to have a daughter of the same age as Anya; therefore, she is kind to her and proves to have a maternal side with her, allowing Anya to keep Bond as her pet and comforting her while promising to treat the bomb dogs well. When she saw Anya at the dog park during her briefing with Loid, Sylvia accepted the little girl's competition to see who has the best dog.

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.

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