Gwendolyn

**Princess Gwendolyn of the Pastel Kingdom**, **Gwen** for short, is the main protagonist of Cursed Princess Club. She is the youngest daughter of King Jack of the Pastel Kingdom, and is known for her strikingly different appearance from the rest of her conventionally beautiful family.

Gwendolyn is the most creative of all her siblings. As mentioned in Episode 4, Gwen states that she loves making things, whether they're paintings, dresses, or desserts, and her sister, Princess Lorena, has said she's the "crafty one". She's shown to be talented in various fields, including sewing (as she makes uniforms for the Cursed Princess Club and her sisters at the Bippity Bop Gala), cooking (having hosted a dinner party) and mending accessories.

## Appearance

Gwendolyn has wavy, palace green hair that goes down to her shoulders, which is sometimes tied or braided. She has very short, wavy bangs, and a warm, pale olive skin tone. Gwen has elf-like ears, a snake-like nose, bulging, round gray eyes with small irises, and little sharp teeth that look like fangs. She is petite and the shortest among all of her siblings. She is described as having hair like "dried seaweed" and skin that is both oily and scaly.

Gwendolyn is the only Pastel sibling who takes after their mother's appearance. Most people find her appearance to be scary or creepy when they first see her, often mistaking her for a witch, a goblin, or sometimes even a house elf.

## Personality

Gwendolyn is an altruistic and sympathetic person; she tries to be kind to everyone, even if they don't return the favor, and she is open to understanding people's feelings. She is very forgiving and seems to be unable to hold a grudge, and when people hurt her, she generally ends up feeling more empathy for them than resentment. Gwen always prioritizes other people's happiness, especially her family's. Because of this, she tends to bottle up her emotions so that people don't have to worry about her. An example of this is what she did when she found out that Frederick, her fiancée, thought she was ugly. This upset Gwendolyn, but she didn't let her sisters know. Why? Gwen knew they were selfless, like her, and would most likely call off their engagement with the princes if they found out about Frederick's words. Gwen wanted her sisters to stay with their princes because, when they were together, her sisters were the happiest she had seen them in a while. So, she said nothing.

Despite her kindness towards others, Gwendolyn has low self-esteem. Before Episode 10, she apparently thought she was beautiful by the standards of other people - *not* including her family, the only other people she'd been with for her entire life - and didn't mind people commenting on or being scared by her appearance. She also apparently believed she would fall in love with her prince quickly and have a happily-ever-after with him, like in fairy tales. However, after Gwen overheard her fiancée saying she was ugly, she ran away from home while crying and abandoned all her former beliefs.

Gwendolyn has a particular affection for her family, and an especially close bond with her brother, Jamie. As with her sisters, Gwen developed a passion in her childhood containment, becoming extremely adept at various kinds of craft-work, including cooking, sewing, and painting. Her baking in particular was shown several times to be amazing, Jamie explicitly says it's the best he's ever had, and several other characters are shown to share this opinion.

## History

Gwendolyn is the daughter of the Pastel King. She has two other sisters, Maria and Lorena, and a twin brother, Jamie. Her mother, Lilyth, died when Gwen was very young, and all she can remember of her was a "warm, glowy feeling". She and her siblings were home-schooled within their palace, each taking up an interest: Gwendolyn took up baking.

After she was called ugly at Jamie's wake, she ran into the Haunted Forest in despair and met the Cursed Princess Club, a club that would support her many times in the series. Gwendolyn evolves in the series, but still suffers from the trauma of thinking she's ugly, and every time she glances in a mirror, she sees it crack over her face.

## Relationships

#### Frederick

*Main article: Gwendolyn/Frederick Relationship*

Gwendolyn is engaged to Prince Frederick, but they decided they would simply remain friends and instead support their siblings' relationships. Gwendolyn may have hinted to have slight feelings for Frederick, but she said that she would never allow herself to have feelings for him. Gwendolyn was also oblivious to Frederick having feelings for her when Frederick presented the gala ticket, thinking it was simply an important bookmark.

When Frederick helped Gwendolyn plan her dinner party, Gwendolyn was grateful for him. She also felt guilty because he was stuck in the forest, frightened and injured. Despite Gwen feeling like she had burdened him with all of the Cursed Princess Club's conflicts, and him helping her with spreadsheets and contingency budgets, she requested for him to promise to keep the club and the forest a secret. When Frederick finally asked Gwendolyn to the gala, she told him that she would like to go with him. Frederick also desired to attend the dinner party because he found Gwendolyn's cooking to be amazing, and Gwendolyn was willing to invite him, too. However, he told her it was best to keep the guest list as small as possible, which meant not inviting Frederick - but in a twist of plans, Gwendolyn's father revealed that the Plaid Princes would also be joining them for the dinner. Still, Gwendolyn felt scared to believe that her reflection was healing and that Frederick had asked her out to the gala. When Frederick tried to give her flowers at her dinner party, her father intercepted the gift, shocking both of them. She seemed to be grateful for him after he slightly helped her with her dinner party and saved Monika in crow form, helping her realize she should let go of perfection and enjoy herself too, but she remained nervous around him whenever they interacted and was confused as to why he was sweet to her that night. Frederick then proceeded to show his good-luck charm to her and told her that he appreciated the charm, which caused her to give him a weird look and a polite but perplexed smile. Later, in Gwendolyn's bedroom, she opened up about her situation with him. She said that she could barely look him in the eye that night and that she had been feeling uneasy around him for some reason, like something was trying to burst out to her.

At the 124th Annual Artgyle Festival, Gwendolyn got Frederick's attention. She told him she was surprised that his family would be at Prince Jamie's art show, too, and accepted his offer to go into the exhibit with him. Later, in the Sugar Crystal Room, Gwendolyn decided to give Frederick his actual gift, but he decided to keep the newt eyeballs, much to her shock. After Frederick called Gwendolyn beautiful, her stomach started lurching again and she remarked that it was happening like in a fairy tale. She also thought the lurching was based on romantic feelings, based on what Syrah told her, and traced those feelings back to when they first met. However, after he inquired her about what he had done wrong, she realized that the lurching wasn't based on romantic feelings - they were from the time Frederick insulted her appearance. Although Gwendolyn knew that she was supposed to answer him honestly, she decided to be "selfish" based on the advice of Frederick and her friends, and skip forward to her happily ever after. That only caused her reflection in the crystals to become more cracked, so she screamed in terror and backed away.

Throughout the weeks, it was revealed Gwen had developed a somewhat unhealthy attachment to Frederick and believed she didn't need to talk to him about how she was truly feeling about him calling her ugly. During the Bippity Boppidy Gala, the two spent time together and enjoy each-other's company as well as the gala. At the end of the night, along with their siblings, Gwen officially became engaged to him and expressed her love to him. The engagement was short lived, however, when one of Blaine's fangirls drops papers, revealing Frederick calling Gwen ugly the first night they met filled the room.

This led to a fight between the Pastel Princesses and the Plaid Princes, also accidentally revealing that Frederick had to pretend to be interested in Gwen at first in the beginning. Frederick also learned that Gwen overheard him and his words, which caused great emotional damage to her, to the point where her reflection is now shattered. He entered an anxiety attack because of this, and the princesses soon broke off the engagements. When Frederick snapped out of it, he realizes the girls were gone, and tried to convince his brothers to go after them with him to make things right, only to learn the engagements were part of a vindictive plan made by their father.

#### Maria

Princess Maria is Gwendolyn's eldest sister. Maria and Gwendolyn are quite close, and Maria thinks Gwendolyn is beautiful inside and out. Whenever Maria feels sad, Gwendolyn attempts to comfort her and listen to her if she wants to talk about her situation. Their bond was why, at first, Maria was willing to cut ties with the Plaid Princes for Gwendolyn's sake. However, it was also the reason Gwendolyn didn't tell her sisters Prince Frederick called her "ugly". Gwendolyn had never seen Maria so happy before meeting Prince Blaine, so she put their happiness before her own.

Gwendolyn appreciated Maria and her other sister, Princess Lorena, for doing her makeup for her at Prince Lance's birthday party. When they looked in the mirror to see how Gwendolyn appeared, Gwen didn't see any cracks in it like usual, because she could feel the love and support from her sisters. Later, when Maria attempted to drink from Prince Blaine's glass as their "first kiss", Gwendolyn took it away from her because she knew there was alcohol in it. After Frederick took back the gala ticket, Maria conveyed her message in a gentle manner, in the form of the message from Gwendolyn's fortune cookie, and Gwendolyn was astounded as to how Maria could possibly know what her fortune cookie said.

#### Lorena

Princess Lorena is Gwendolyn's elder sister, and they're quite close. Lorena thinks Gwen is awesome and has called her the "crafty one". Along with Maria, Lorena was willing to cut ties with the Plaid Princes at first for her sake (along with Maria). However, Gwendolyn had never seen Lorena so happy before meeting Prince Lance. So, she decided not to tell Lorena or Maria that Prince Frederick called her ugly in order for Lorena to stay with her fiancée.

Gwendolyn appreciated Lorena and Princess Maria for doing her makeup for her at Prince Lance's birthday party. After it was done, when they looked in the mirror to see how Gwendolyn appeared, there were no cracks in it because she could feel the love and support from her sisters.

#### Jamie

Prince Jamie is Princess Gwendolyn's twin brother. It has been shown that Jamie and Gwendolyn are very close, and she always talks to him when she confronts troubles she can't understand. Jamie tries his best to improve Prince Frederick and Gwendolyn's relationship through many trials and errors and does his best to support Gwendolyn at many costs. The two of them seem to have opposite food-related abilities: Jamie has the ability to taste cooks' emotions in their food and Gwendolyn puts her own emotions into the food she makes so much so that almost anyone can taste it. Because of Jamie's ability, he can tell when Gwendolyn is having a difficult experience, so she can't really hide anything from him. Also, Gwendolyn tends to bring Jamie a "familiar snack" between his food tastings because it "refreshes" him to recognize her cooking.

At Lance’s Birthday Party, when Gwendolyn didn't want people to stare at her, Jamie promised her that it would be okay, told her that she could walk behind him and stare at the back of his head, and remarked that she would realize that there would be nothing to be scared of because she's great. While he was walking into the party, he thought to himself that he was proud of Gwen. Some time later at the party, he saw her alone and felt bad for her; later, when he barely saw Lord Leopold with her, he was worried, but then thought it was fine after he saw her with Frederick again as the party ended. When Gwen needed to go to the Cursed Princess Club to give Aurelia back her favorite pearl necklace but couldn't tell Jamie the truth, he was still willing to run outside naked in order to distract the guards. Like their father, Jamie can be quite overprotective of Gwendolyn and her relationship with Frederick, as he terrorized Leopold while he was painting Gwen in fear of him attempting to get closer to her. However, he later realized that he should have faith that Gwendolyn would do what was best for her. Later, Jamie helped Gwendolyn with her dinner party by tasting her food, and gave her revised apple pie extremely high praise. He was happy for Gwendolyn when he saw the gala ticket that Frederick gave her.

#### Jack

As with his other children, King Jack is very sweet towards Princess Gwendolyn. It's implied that this could be because she resembles her mother very much. Along with his other daughters, he is also overprotective to her, because he wants to keep his promise to Queen Lilyth that he would fulfill her three wishes, one of them being to protect their daughters' beauty from the outside world. Gwendolyn's whole family, including Jack, dotes on Gwen the most, her being the youngest. When Prince Frederick falls asleep on Gwen in Episode 28, Jack is baffled and infuriated. Later, in Episode 30, when he presents his decrees to the children, he specifies to Gwen "no physical contact or letting any princes put their face really close to yours".

#### Prez (Calpernia)

Prez first met Princess Gwendolyn when she wandered into the Haunted Forest. The CPC was suspicious of Gwendolyn when she wandered into the forest, so they gave her a scare, causing her to faint. When they caught up, though, Prez realized that she wasn't a threat. She felt bad for making Gwen faint; so, she took her to the CPC. During the slumber party, Gwen's test to officially join the CPC, Prez, along with the rest of the club, was upset with Prince Frederick when she heard that he had called Gwen "ugly". The entire club was delighted when Gwendolyn became an official member of the CPC, and Prez was quite empathetic towards her, letting her choose lecture themes and giving her advice. After Aurelia was discovered to be the one intentionally leading Gwendolyn to the barn for those reasons, Prez was extremely infuriated at either Aurelia or herself (because she could've killed Gwendolyn, and she already repented "killing" Whitney at that time). So, she let Gwendolyn remain in the club, but banished Aurelia.

When Prez and the other members accidentally revealed themselves to be cursed to Frederick, they attacked him, both so that he wouldn't tell anyone about the club and because they were still mad at him for calling Gwendolyn "ugly". The club helped her with her dinner party as best as they could. Prez also became a part of the Cursed Princess Club's Potential Curse Provision (CPCPC), which tried to find out more about Gwendolyn and see if she was actually cursed. This was because Gwendolyn didn't look anything like the rest of her family, which Prez found peculiar.

During the dinner party, Prez decided to carry a sleeping Gwendolyn to her room. When Gwendolyn woke up after Aurelia made a racket, Prez said the club didn't mean to wake her up, and after Gwen expressed her shock of falling asleep and said she needed to go back down, Prez told her she had worked a little too hard that night but had thrown a great dinner. After bidding Gwen good night, the group went to search the King's storage room. They were mainly looking for a portrait of Gwendolyn's mother for the CPCPCP, but another reason why Prez desired to break in was because she wondered why Jack would snatch gifts away from Gwendolyn. After reading the first page of the Diary of Queen Lilyth, Prez was mortified by what it said. Therefore, she decided not to give the diary to Gwendolyn, and to "merely continue loving her just the way she is". She was a little skeptical of Frederick and Gwendolyn ending up together because she believed Gwendolyn was still in the middle of loving herself, but still chose to trust and support her.

### Leopold

Leopold fell in love at first sight when seeing Gwen at Lance’s Birthday Party as he thinks Gwen is "a rare, fine wine", and try to courting her when Gwen awaits Frederick that taking drinks for them but got halted with taking conversations with the two girls that used only to noticing Blaine and Lance. His courting cut short with Blaine's interverence that exclaiming to Frederick to have more conviction to get what he wants. At the end of Lance's birthday party where Pastel Royal families taking a potrait as souvenir, Leopold make a quick sketch to improve the look of Gwendolyn at the potrait that used to be horrifying by the hands of Pierre. This action it encourages Jack to hiring Leopold as personal artist for Pastel Royals family, with drawing potrait for Gwen as his first task which Leopold excitedly accepts as his way to courting Gwen further - although it almost always stopped by Jamie's interverences to making chaos of 'potrait bombs' that stressed Leopold so much he began to called Jamie as 'Pink Demon' and even shaking in daily lives outside doing his work as painter.

During the time of drawing the potrait, Leopold and Gwen has the talk about 'self-love' as Leopold need to ease the model of his potrait enough while passes the time, and Gwen herself that asked 'how to love and accept oneself' when Leopold asked her whatever he could help her with. When Gwen's sisters have a date with each of their fiancé while Frederick doesn't come (as he have internal dilemma of what he wants, and missed his chance to join the carriage to the Pastel Palace), it makes Gwen seems a bit down which noticed by Leopold thus makes him asking what actually the reason of it - does because Gwen can't join her sisters (the potrait work progress is halted down, and Gwen need to visits the Cursed Princess Club later) or because Frederick doesn't come. As Gwen blushing while abruptly changes the topic, Leopold sighed and telling Gwen that the first action of self-love is she need to honestly faces her feelings. Leopold also asking Gwen if she has any feelings for Frederick, and got heartbroken with the implicit answer that Gwen won't allow for 'the feeling to Frederick' to happens.

When Frederick comes the following day after getting realization what he wants, thanks to a certain mysterious stranger named Whitney, there's a misunderstanding arise between Frederick (and his brothers) and Leopold that leads to a potrait showdown duel with the prize is the right to asks Gwen out for the Bippity Bop Gala (or if Frederick lose, he shouldn't meets Gwen ever again while for Leopold is to stops courting Gwen). As Leopold sees that Frederick actually serious about what he wants and truly going through until the end of the duel, he forfeits the duel at the end exactly before Frederick's potrait deemed as the lose one by Laverne while genuinely amazed by the art piece that Frederick made over Laverne as the model. At the end of the bargain before Frederick asked Gwen out, Leopold gives advice to Frederick to have a lot more of grit to get what he wants. When the first attempt to asks Gwen out by Frederick becomes a total failure because Gwen totally didn't believes that the 'ticket bookmark' means for her, Leopold also look so dissapointed along with others (Blaine, Maria, Lorena, Lance, Jamie) that seeing it, but internally thought that Gwen'c current mindset not allowing her to thinks she's being loved romantically.

### Aurelia

Aurelia seemed to be elated to finally meet Princess Gwendolyn, and they seemed like they would be good friends. However, she secretly harbored hatred for Gwen because she wasn't actually cursed; so, she sent Gwen notes saying they knew how to make her beautiful. Aurelia planned for the notes to lead Gwendolyn to the barn so that Prez would find out and kick her out of the club. Still, she didn't know what was in the barn, and didn't mean for her to be physically harmed. After being exposed as the writer of the notes, Aurelia went on a rant about how princesses with actual curses were "relegated to the back of the club" (despite them not wanting attention), yet Gwendolyn "constantly gets advice and special parties", despite not having a curse and merely being "ugly". She furiously told Gwen that she already had everything, including ways to make herself prettier, and that Prez wasn't there to fix everything for her so she should just go back home.

Gwendolyn was the last member of the club Aurelia talked to before she left. At first, she thought that Gwen had come to rub it into her face that she had "won", but was surprised when Gwen revealed she had mended her favorite pearl necklace and gave it back to her. Later, when Aurelia received a letter from the CPC, she found that Gwendolyn had written in it that she really hoped they would get to be in the club together again.

When Aurelia came back to the CPC, she admitted that what she had done to Gwendolyn was really awful and selfish, and that she didn't get to choose who would be in the club or not. She decided to help with Gwendolyn's Dinner Party by being one of the fake princesses from the 'Cosmopolitan Princess Conservatory'. At the dinner party, when Gwendolyn approached Aurelia for the first time since she'd left the club, she thought it was because Gwen was suspicious of her. This caused her to reassure Gwen that she could trust her, even if she hadn't properly apologized to her yet. However, Gwendolyn replied that she was simply happy to see Aurelia again, which shocked her because she didn't know why she would really mean such a thing. When Syrah and Abbi were telling the Pastel King about Gwen's good traits, Aurelia added that she was all of those things, even if there was no reason for her to be. Later, after the King's rant about banning things in order to protect his daughters, Aurelia stood up to him and confronted him about his behavior on behalf of the princesses. When Gwendolyn finally fell asleep, she accompanied the CPC members to send her off to her room, and find the king's storage room.

### Nell

When Gwendolyn first joined the Cursed Princess Club, Nell did nothing but glare or hiss at her, as she had noticed the frequent physical contact between her and Jolie and thought Gwen would usurp Nell's place as Jolie's girlfriend. However, she helped save her life by reaching out to Curtis about the situation of Gwendolyn approaching the barn, and since Jolie revealed to the club that her and Nell were dating, they have been on good terms. Nell also seemed to be somewhat glad that Gwendolyn was safe after she was crushed by the materials Monika had in her room.

### Jolie

Jolie and Gwendolyn are good friends. When Gwen joined the club, Jolie gave her her nightgown and would frequently make physical contact with her. This unintentionally made Nell jealous of Gwendolyn. Otherwise, Jolie and Gwen often chat at club meetings, Jolie offering advice and support ever so often.

### Syrah

Syrah is very kind to Gwendolyn and seems to care for her a lot. At the slumber party, she comforted Gwen after she broke down crying, and reacted the most calmly and rationally out of the club members. She gave Gwen advice on how to approach Prince Frederick, even demonstrating exactly what to say with Abbi. Syrah trusts and respects Gwendolyn's feelings, particularly when learning the true nature of Gwendolyn and Frederick's relationship. While she previously despised Frederick for calling Gwen "ugly", she was the first to change her attitude towards him after seeing that the two had grown closer. Syrah became very supportive of their relationship and began nudging Gwendolyn to gradually acknowledge and understand her feelings for Frederick, acting like a big sister to her.

### Thermidora

Thermidora quickly took a liking to Gwendolyn when she joined the Cursed Princess Club. She states that Gwen is beautiful the way she is, as her hair reminds her of the seaweed from her homeland.

## Quotes

"I always thought that all princesses, by nature, are beautiful. I guess not. I always assumes that all princesses would meet their Prince Charming and fall in love instantly. Nope."

"All I can handle right now is how to face Frederick and move forward without ruining the engagement for my sisters."

"Hey Frederick... I know what you did to me... It hurt. But I want you to know I'm okay. Let's be friends, Frederick. From now on, I'll be watching you from the shadows. I hope you're happy..."

"I really hope we get to be in the club together again."

"...I should also be thankful for the way I look...?"

(mind) "How do I begin to love myself again?"

"Value...? He's wrong... The CPC has value. And not just because they've taught me a lot of things or stood up for me when I wasn't strong enough. It's because I learned from them that... we all have value exactly as we are--"

"I wanted to say thank you to everyone for coming here tonight. Throwing a big dinner party is something I would have never thought I'd be able to do. But it turns out that a lot of the tips that helped me tonight were lessons that the CPC has taught me over the last two months since I, um, enrolled. So I'd like to make a toast and share a little bit of what I'm learning and still working on. If you ever feel like something is too scary or difficult to overcome, know that nothing is impossible if you... let yourself rely on others for help, ...surround yourself with friends and family who love you, ...and if it ever feels like too much, try to let go of perfection and enjoy yourself along the way. Cheers!"

"*That's it!!* Dessert make everything better!!"

"My earliest memory is when my mom was holding me. All I can recall is feeling... warm and... *glowy*"

"I... I could barely look him in the eye tonight. I've been feeling really uneasy around him for some reason. Like something's trying to burst out of me..."

"I-it was nothing, Frederick. You've done nothing but be absolutely wonderful to me."

"*--IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE BECAUSE HE LIKES ME NOW!*"

"And if his words that started these cracks in me,... ..then there's nothing that feels more gratifying or healing than this."

(mind) "I don't care if I'm an ugly duckling like those girls said... ... because Prez was right. She doesn't transform into a beautiful swan at the end of the story. She just dicovers her own beauty. ...And my beauty exist... ...in Frederick's eyes"

"*Please.. Anything but this...* "

**"What I wanted selfishly... more than anything else... was to skip forward to my happily-ever-after."**

"*Please... Help me!! I didn't mean to....! I don't wanna--*"

"Here, I can help put you together again"

"Y-you know, maybe I'll just keep looking for other solutions--"

"That's not true so don't say that!!"

## Gallery

*See Gwendolyn/Gallery!*
or Gwendolyn's wardrobe Gallery for all the outfits she wears

## Notes & Trivia

* Gwendolyn has appeared 4 times overall on CPC's soundtrack album: the first in volume 1 together with her sisters, the second while smiling and combing her hair in volume 3, the third together with CPC members in volume 6, and the fourth in volume 10, lying somewhere surrounded by a few red rose petals and withered trees.
* Gwendolyn was portrayed by Kimiko Glenn in trailers for Cursed Princess Club uploaded to WEBTOON's official YouTube channel in 2020.
* Gwen is frequently mistaken for a witch, a house-elf, or a goblin, according to the Webtoon Facebook, due to her appearance. This mistake is even made by an actual witch.
* "Gwendolyn" most likely means "white ring", derived from Welsh *gwen* meaning "white, fair, blessed" and *dolen* meaning "ring, loop".
* Gwendolyn relates to gemstone **Peridot** by webtoon official's IG, with attributes as: sunshine, prosperity, recovery, generosity.
* Gwendolyn is very good at baking, and her brother has complimented her many times on her skills.
	+ This goes hand in hand with Jamie's ability to taste emotions.
	+ Gwen introduces herself in the beginning of the series as loving crafts such as baking, sewing, and painting.
* It's shown that Gwen is ambidextrous (both right hand and left hand are dominant)
* Gwendolyn's favorite season is autumn, and her favorite food is apple pie.
	+ This is most likely why she often bakes pies.
* As the protagonist, she's seen wearing the most outfits in the series.
	+ This goes hand in hand with her sewing hobby.

## References

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Episode 41
3. ↑ [[2]]