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Isabella Thornton (née Gisborne) is the daughter of Sir Roger and Ghislaine of Gisborne, sister of Guy of Gisborne and wife of Thornton. She also has a half-brother, Archer.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

When Guy and Isabella were children, their parents were killed in a fire and Guy was incidentally disinherited. The two siblings grew up with little love for one another. When Isabella was thirteen, Guy sold her as a bride to Squire Thornton, a minor noble.

Later Life[]

Years later, she escapes from her abusive husband and encounters Robin in Sherwood Forest. After accompanying Robin and his outlaws for little less than a day, when the outlaws wind up in Guy of Gisborne's camp, Isabella reveals herself to be Guy's sister. She secretly continues her relationship with Robin, who is strongly attracted to her against his better judgement, for two more episodes, before a wrathful Guy discovers their relationship and Prince John orders their execution. During a heatwave, Robin and Isabella nearly drown underneath Nottingham Castle, but after escaping Isabella tries to convince Robin to run away with her. Kate convinces Robin to decline, and Isabella turns on them both. Guy, after he is caught falsely telling Prince John that Robin and Isabella died, is pronounced a traitor and forced to flee. A skirmish breaks out between them and leaves Prince John and Isabella about to drown. However, it is unseen how the two escaped from their fate. Afterwards, Isabella saves Prince John from Guy's attempt on his life, and when Prince John leaves, he appoints Isabella the new Sheriff of Nottingham.

Isabella is overseeing the execution of her brother when her husband arrives, taking her place as Sheriff. She runs to Robin to seek protection, who, wary of Isabella, demands political promises in return. Believing she cannot trust him, she waits until Robin disposes of her husband, and then turns on him. Meanwhile, the imprisoned Guy has formed an alliance with another inmate, an impressionable young girl named Meg, who seeks to free him from prison. Horrified, Isabella orders the immediate execution of both Guy and Meg, but Robin intervenes. Guy escapes with Meg, who nevertheless dies of a fatal wound sustained during the escape. In the ensuing chaos, Lord Thornton attempts to exact revenge on Isabella. Terrified, she kills him in self-defense, and Robin castigates her as a murderer, thus permanently ruining their already unstable relations.

Later, Robin and Guy form an alliance and go to rescue both their and Isabella's half-brother, Archer, at York, but Isabella intercepts the Sheriff of York and promises good money for Guy and Robin's heads. The Sheriff of York tries to have the men killed. The group later escape and Archer goes his own way; an angry Isabella swears revenge. She appears to make an alliance with Archer in Something Worth Fighting For (Part 1), but Archer betrays Isabella, and the castle is captured by the outlaws. Isabella and one officer are left standing. The officer tells her to run, and he goes and joins the old Sheriff Vaisey—who has returned from being thought dead since just after Isabella's first appearance in the series—in his battle to win back his castle. Isabella is confronted by Kate, who, in revenge for forcing Rebecca to betray her, knocks Isabella unconscious. Isabella is subsequently held hostage by her brother and Robin as they prepare to hold Nottingham against Vaisey.

In a bizarre moment of compassion, Guy gives Isabella poison she can use to commit suicide in lieu of being captured. She, however, persuades a guard to free her. Discovering her escape, Guy follows her to an underground tunnel. A spectacular battle broke out with Robin, Guy and Archer on one side, and the Sheriff, Isabella and Blamir on the other. At one point, Guy charged head on into the battle, where he is murdered by Isabella and Vaisey, with whom she is in league. Isabella also gives Robin a fatal wound with her dagger, which she poisoned with the vial given to her by her brother. Robin, in his dying moments, fires a burning arrow at the Greek fire stored in the castle, and Isabella is killed (along with Vaisey) in the ensuing explosion.

Personality[]

Isabella comes across as vulnerable, cynical, sardonic, manipulative, vengeful, and even mentally unstable. All of the men in her life have successively betrayed her in some way or another, and she has developed a strong sense of paranoia and self-reliance as a result. She has difficulty coming to terms with the fact that her brother believes he did the right thing by marrying her to Thornton, and believes that she is being generous in holding out several years for an apology.  When that apology is not forthcoming, she gives up, and leaves Guy to be outlawed. 

Although her romance with Robin Hood ends on a sour note, their relationship doesn't seriously deteriorate until the moment when he chastises her for killing her husband in self-defense. Her mental instability is clear when she addresses her half-brother Archer, declaring sincerely that she would commit murder in order to preserve her "holy mother's memory", indicating that she believes Ghislaine never had an affair and Archer is not her half-brother. After aiding in the death of her brother, Guy, she pauses for a moment to gaze at his corpse in reflection, but is chided by the sheriff for being sentimental, and hurries off.

She was, like her brother, bitter, cruel, arrogant and Machiavellian. She was quite intelligent but was outsmarted by Robin Hood's charisma. She showed herself to be cold, virtually heartless and sly, with no degree of mercy towards her enemies.

Aside from the vengeful sadism of Guy of Gisborne, the childish arrogance of Prince John and the intense, intelligent evil of the Sheriff, Isabella's evil is understood more on the terms of sociopathy. Like many sociopaths, she has no remorse and is extremely arrogant towards others. She shows extreme pride in her supposed heritage and incredibly dismissive of her mother's relationship with a leper. She is very hot tempered and elitist.

Abilities[]

Isabella is a highly skillful swordswoman. She is able to hold her own against far more experienced warriors and also able to fight with an unlit torch as well as a sword, showing that she was confident enough in her abilities to do so. She is also able to hold her own spectacularly against several opponents at once and, flanked by the Sheriff, was able to kill Guy of Gisborne. She was also incredibly proficient with a dagger and a sword, but the only shows this once.

Appearances[]

External links[]



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