—Gwendolyn in a support conversation with Lilina
Gwendolyn is a playable character in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. She is a knight of Ostia and is the younger sister of Bors. She first appears on turn 5 of Chapter 8 of The Binding Blade, along with Ogier and Barthe, in the northwest corner of the castle. The group assists the Lycia Alliance Army in retaking Castle Ostia. She then joins Roy's group for the rest of his journey. It is notable she can perform a Triangle Attack with Bors and Barthe.
She makes a brief cameo appearance in chapter 18 of the Fire Emblem: Hasha no Tsurugi manga.
Profile
Growing up, there were no girls of Gwendolyn's age near where she lived, save for Lilina, the daughter of Marquess Hector. The two became acquainted with each other as a result. Later in life, Gwendolyn joined the Ostian Armor Knights, a notably strong sector of Ostia's military, serving alongside her older brother, Bors. During her time as a knight she befriended Barthe, another Ostian Armor Knight who acts as her mentor, Ogier, also part of the Ostian Armor Knights, and Astolfo, an Ostian spy.
When a rebellion in Ostia headed by the well-respected general Leygance and a former lieutenant named Devias broke out, Gwendolyn, alongside Barthe and Ogier, were apparently absent from Castle Ostia. They returned, however, to save Lilina, who had been imprisoned and used by the revolutionaries. Upon their arrival, they met up with Roy and his army, who were engaged in a battle with Leygance to stop the rebellion. Under Roy's command, they helped to defeat Leygance, ending the revolution and saving Lilina. Afterwards, Gwendolyn, along with Barthe and Ogier, joined Roy's army on a journey to stop King Zephiel of Bern from eradicating the humans of Elibe.
After the war, she continued to serve as an Ostian Armor Knight, rising through the ranks to become their first female captain.
Personality
Strong willed and straightforward, Gwendolyn sticks to her convictions, even if she neglects the self-disciplining that is required of a heavy knight.
Having lost her parents, Bors is the only family she can rely on. Due to being raised in those circumstances, Wendy deeply respects her older brother, and aims to be a heavy knight herself, as it can even be said that she unmistakably personifies the spirit of one, training daily the best she can.
On the other hand, despite being proud of being a heavy knight, she has been developing a “girl’s consciousness”, as she worries that people will see her as much larger than she actually is due to the armor she wears.
In-Game
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Base Stats
| Starting Class | Affinity | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Knight |  Fire | ||||||||
| Level | HP | Str | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res | Con | Mov |
| 1 | 19 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 4 |
| Weapon | Starting Items | ||||||||
 Lance - D |  Iron Lance Javelin Vulnerary | ||||||||
Growth Rates
| HP | S/M | Skl | Spd | Lck | Def | Res |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85% | 40% | 40% | 40% | 45% | 30% | 10% |
Promotional Gains
| Item Required | Promoted Class | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Knight Crest
|
 General
| |||||||
| 1 | +4 | +4 | +2 | +4 | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 |
| Weapon Levels | ||||||||
+1  E
| ||||||||
Supports
- See also: Gwendolyn/Supports
Overall
Gwendolyn suffers from a huge number of severe issues: not only she joins a lot later than her brother Bors, posessing a terribly low base level as well as worse base stats and weapon ranks compared to him, her growth rates are only slightly, but not significantly better than his ones. Together with the low movement of the Knight class, the rather shaky hitrates of lances and the high number of axe wielding enemies during the upcoming chapters, Gwendolyn's situation couldn't possibly look more grim.
While this make her look unusable at first, it is possible to feed her experience to the point where she can become a servicable combat unit, especially if you also decide to promote her to benefit from the decent General promotion gains (though her class caps are somewhat limiting to her growths, especially Speed). The Knight Crest she requires in order to promote is also demanded by your cavaliers, who will usually end up being more appealing targets for promotion due to their higher movement, access to Canto and perfect weapon triangle control. Luckily, you can buy Knight Crests during Chapter 16, making this less of an issue for her if you saved up some gold.
Together with Bors and Barthe, the other 2 armored Knights in this game besides the later joining General Douglas, Gwendolyn can be used to initiate the Triangle Attack. While the Knight's Triangle Attack is harder to use than the Pegasus Knight's one since armored unit's movement is very limited, it can be used quite early in the game, and might prove useful against some bosses or other strong enemies thanks to the generally good strength of your Knights and the fact it guarantees you a hit, no matter how high your opponent's avoidance might be. You don't even need to train Gwendolyn for this cause, since her constitution is low enough to allow her getting rescued rather by quite some of your units, making it possible to just rescue-drop her quickly at the spot you want her to be, or to rescue her out of enemy range after being used on player phase. However, most situations the Triangle Attack proves to be useful for can also be solved by using one of your powerful pre-promotes/player-phase units without forcing you to deploy sub-par units.
If you decide to use her, her stats will wind up similar to Bors, with Gwendolyn gaining slightly more Strength and Skill over time while having lower Defense. Compared to Barthe, she gains higher Speed, Skill, and Luck, but lower HP, Strength, and Defense. She does have the highest Resistance among the four, but not by a large amount. While her bases are very low and her start is in a bad spot, she joins in a chapter with no turn limit for its gaiden chapter, making it a bit easier to train her up. Although she struggles against many axe users, after gaining enough level ups, she can have the durability to take them on and she can routinely double Steel Axe users later on due to the immense weight giving extreme penalties to generic enemies, especially Pirates.
Overall, Gwendolyn is certainly neither the easiest nor best character at the player's disposal, lacking in any area a unit can possibly be bad. It's a wise choice to only make use of her if you wish to utilize the early Triangle Attack, but it's also possible to train her up into a fine combat unit if you are willing to invest the required amount of effort in her, as most of her stats will be quite high and prove effective in their respective fields.
Fire Emblem Heroes
- Adorable Knight
- Armored knight of Ostia. Intent on mastering defense, despite feeling awkward in armor. Appears in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
Base Stats
Rarity:
 | Title | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adorable Knight | |||||
| Group | |||||
 Armored | |||||
| Level | HP | Atk | Spd | Def | Res |
| 1 40 | 21/22/23 42/45/48 | 6/7/8 23/26/29 | 3/4/5 18/21/24 | 10/11/12 31/34/37 | 4/5/6 21/24/27 |
| Skills | Weapon | ||||
 Steel Lance |  Lance | ||||
 | Title | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adorable Knight | |||||
| Group | |||||
| Armored | |||||
| Level | HP | Atk | Spd | Def | Res |
| 1 40 | 21/22/23 43/46/49 | 7/8/9 25/28/31 | 3/4/5 19/22/25 | 11/12/13 33/36/39 | 4/5/6 22/25/28 |
| Skills | Weapon | ||||
Killer Lance Buckler | Lance | ||||
Skills
| Type | Name | Prerequisite | Default | Unlocked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Iron Lance | - | - | - |
| Steel Lance | - |  | - | |
| Killer Lance | Steel Lance |  | | |
| Killer Lance+ | Killer Lance |  | | |
 | Buckler | - | | |
| Escutcheon | Buckler | - | - | |
| B |  Drag Back | - | | |
| C |  Hone Atk 1 | - | - | |
 Hone Atk 2 | Hone Atk 1 | | ||
 Hone Atk 3 | Hone Atk 2 | |
Quotes
The Binding Blade
—Gwendolyn's death quote in The Binding Blade.
—Gwendolyn's triangle attack quote in The Binding Blade
—Gwendolyn's final battle quote in The Binding Blade.
Heroes
Ending
- Gwendolyn - Beautiful Knight (可憐な重騎士 Karen na Jūkishi lit. Lovely Heavy Knight)
- "Gwendolyn chose to live her life as an Armor Knight. Her actions gave courage to many, and she is still remembered today as the first female captain of an Armor Knight squad."
Non-Canon Appearances
Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)
Gwendolyn is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:
Etymology
Gwendolyn (from Welsh gwen, meaning 'white, fair, blessed', and dolen, meaning 'loop, link of a chain, ring, bow') is a feminine given name, in general use only since the 19th century. It has come to be the standard English form of Latin Guendoloena, which was first used by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the name of a legendary British queen in his History of the Kings of Britain. He reused the name in his Life of Merlin for a different character, the wife of the titular magician "Merlinus", a counsellor to King Arthur.
Wendy, though sometimes used as a diminutive of Gwendolyn, its existence as a feminine name is owed to the character Wendy Darling from the 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelization Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie.
Trivia
- On the official Japanese website for Nintendo, Gwendolyn won 28th place out of 80 in the character popularity poll for Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. The male-female vote ratio is 5:1. The voter comments seem to focus on her brave and bold personality and her gameplay abilities as a Knight/General.
- Gwendolyn shares her English voice actress, Cherami Leigh, with Caeda, Cecilia, and Mae in Fire Emblem Heroes.
Gallery
