#whitebeard

Just as a heads up, I'll be using screenshots of the official translation. I don't know enough Japanese to read the original, so, in the end, some nuance will be lost.

In chapter 1155, she is immediately introduced (already) as the Science robber:

This is in sharp contrast to Shiki, and Whitebeard both who were introduced as simple mobsters and pirates.

Moreover, she had garnered enough of a name she was part of the original crew that Rocks gained through the Davy Back games. Everyone he chose appears to be on a) the younger side and b) already having made part of a name for themselves. So she was extremely competent at her ability to integrate herself with scientists, and then steal their information. When she originally joined, she was only 28 years old, which is quite impressive really for someone to be known as a 'robber'. I'd say Rock's original crew he only gained with Davy Back fights was the six introduced: Stussy, Whitebeard, Don Marlon, Shiki, Wang Zhi, and Ganzui.

However, for a robber, she definitely took the backseat to making any plans. All through 1156, while multiple teams are talking about the giants, whether or not they'd join, ancient giants, etc. she simply watched silently, especially when the fight broke out between Rocks and Kaido.

But, I think this is important paneling- I don't think she's in love with Newgate at this point in her life. While she's not always hanging off of him, and it isn't the color spreads, I want to continue on this thread of thinking with the next chapter. In 1157, we see her running away during the raid on the island:

This was just after Shiki tossed a bomb down the hole Newgate was down with Kaido. The only speech bubble she has is about Iron Bars- nothing about Newgate. This is in sharp contrast to her later (chapter 1165) where she does actually ask about and worry about Newgate:

She absolutely does fall in love with him within two years of beginning the raids I think.

Because It was the first two years that were their most hectic.

She definitely falls in love same chapter, because we get this famous exchange:

And I'll give Whitebeard major props. He very clearly and distinctly says he does not like Stussy, and he never has. This is even before he meets Shakky. He leaves zero room for misinterpretation. And Stussy refuses to accept that. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. Afterall, think of Luffy recruiting his own crew, and indeed, many recruitment's of Pirate Captains. Be it Ace refusing Whitebeard's offer of being a son, Rayleigh refusing Roger's invitation to sail, and then Rayleigh rejecting Shakky! Refusal itself is not a immediate death knell to what one desires. We're talking about the World of One Piece afterall. However!

God Valley is actually a history of refusals that never get broken. There is only a singular take-back. Harald refused Rocks until his death. Whitebeard refused Stussy until his death. Rocks refused Loki to his death. Roger refused Glorisa until his death. The World Government refused Harald basically until his own death, though Harald might've been okay with that. Dragon rejected his father Garp's way of thinking, and we'll probably see them on opposite sides until their deaths. Either one of them. The only people who came out without a broken dream would be Rayleigh and Shakky, who for Shakky it was a bit of a postponed dream with Rayleigh continuing to sail without her.

It does make me frustrated that all of the women's dreams except for basically Big Mom is about men but we're going to set that aside for now.

We basically don't see Stussy very much in the next few chapters, but we do get a few tidbits about her- she's attuned to man's facial expressions. She knows exactly what a happy father looks like- and she has inrods into the Navy's movement that others don't.

as she is the one gathering information and confirming that the Navy does actually have Shakky. She could've easily kept her mouth shut, so I think this is actually a fairly sweet part of her, knowing Shakky is her 'rival'.

But, in many ways, she doesn't really accept that Shakky is her rival. Whenever Newgate mentions Shakky, she's in disbelief, vs. Glorisa's full acknowledgement that Shakky is her rival whether or not she wants to be. Glorisa does not at any point hold a grudge against Shakky about this though which is nice.

We can actually see this all the nonacceptance of Shakky way back in 1096 as well when they actually land:

Stussy and Glorisa fight a bit about saving Shakky.

After this, we don't see Stussy again until 1162-

Where she's fighting with Kyo against Polo Gram. And then the next glimpse is in 1165, where she found a injured Ganzui and probably picked him up. I think she did help him out because he was knocked down by Shiki in their fight over the treasure, while abandoning Kyo who we see on his own in a few panels later Vs. 1165 where she, Gil Blaster, and Ganzui don't seem to be fighting over the treasure. Instead, they seem to of formed their own little cell to escape off the island with each other. Stussy as of God Valley, if I were to make a educated guess, is someone who does care about her original crew members. The ones who are Davy Backed into the crew, vs those who willingly joined later.

After God Valley, we don't really know what happened to her. We know she came to work with Vegapunk when he was sailing under Lu Feld's ships/money. She got cloned, and at some point 38 years ago, she had Weevile.

This is where the 'bad future' started to kick in. We know Stussy is in the end of it, her 'ugly' self is clear. Oda tends to draw the "bad future" in chunks of 20 years. I admittedly don't have officially translated versions, but if we take it from the One Piece Wiki:

The one thing I'd like to point out, is while the downfall is pretty quick, but you can see the 'younger' you fall into the bad timeline, the worse you look. Robin in just ten years starts going white- not fat, but white, and starts getting far more lines vs Ace/Zoro who definitely get fat and weak. So, the question then becomes, at what point after God Valley did Stussy fully tumble into the bad timeline, and what was the catalyst? I would say at some point, she fought with Newgate. A real fight. Why? Let's go back to the beginning of her hunt all the way back in Chapter 802-

This is where we start learning about Stussy in the 'new era'. We know under her orders, at least 600 of the people Edward Newgate had spent years protecting and calling 'his' are killed. Times that by the 16 captains/crews, we can estimate at least 9K folks are dead. All people Newgate had loved at one point, and called them his family. And, I think this is the most egregious part of her proclamation:

She flatly declares that Newgate's adopted family is not actually family.

This is in a series where oftentimes the adoptive family is far better then the birth family. Ace being adopted by Whitebeard, Sanji being adopted by Zeff. Nami adopted by Bellmere- and Nojiko! Time and time again, adoptive families in One Piece are disparaged by 'villains'. See Akainu, whose taunt drove Ace to his death back in chapter 573.

Between this statement, and the next:

She fully believes that a inheritance was left behind, and she's killed a number of Newgate's family to claim it. Well, she's cultivated Weevile to kill a lot of people to claim it. I don't think Weevile is fully clear-

We can see he also picked a fight with the crews by insisting he was the only son. Now, without Stussy, I honestly think he'd of been willing to accept having more siblings, as he very much feels filial piety towards Newgate, and actually generally aligns with him on many things. He wants to take revenge on Blackbeard, and he moved to protect Sphinx when he arrived on the island. The biggest thing he does not align, is his desire to kill and fight as seen in 956:

vs Newgate who did turn away from pointless fights with the Navy as seen in the Oden arc. Though I will give him props, he first asked his 'momma' why their allies had turned on them. He did not immediately go to fighting as his go-to. So maybe without Stussy's influence, he may have more gentle.

But, to get back to Stussy, we can see that she has just about lost most of her caring about others other then Weevile at this point. But she is on her 'Bad Future'. So what about this fight she had with Newgate?

Marco, one of the longest people on the ship, says simply "I can't comment on his history on women, but this guy seems to want a inheritance! And I don't think he'll take 'there isn't any' for an answer."

I.e. Stussy was not on the same ship as Marco and Whitebeard at any point. The only point where they seemed to of been together would have been during the Rock's pirates time. (Also, very cute that Marco didn't deny Weevile could be a memento to protect of Pops.)

And, she probably knew where Newgate was for a long time. Why?

As of Marineford, we know there were 23 navy ships watching Whitebeard. And probably event before that, there were at least 2-5 ships. At many points while Whitebeard was alive, she could've come to visit him. Whitebeard allowed people on his ship all the time. Shiki visited him after breaking out of Impel Down, and Shanks/shanks crew came too. But I think we can say Stussy undoubtedly knew where Newgate was for the vast majority of the time. Maybe in the first ten years after God Valley he may of been more difficult to track down. But she appears to have contacts in the marines still- The Marines attacked Sphinx looking for Newgate's treasure before she did! And she never caught up with Luffy to get the location of Marco from him. She had to get the location of Sphinx from somewhere else, which I theorize to be the Marines.

Sphinx was not on her list to attack naturally- because she and Newgate apparently didn't talk about it, or, Stussy didn't care to learn/remember talking about Sphinx. Never looked into where his money went either. It's a stark contrast to his kids who didn't hold a grudge over him never buying them a drink and being a cheapskate because they knew about Sphinx. Nekomamushi had only traveled with Newgate for 2 or so years with Oden, and knew immediately the most likely place Marco had probably withdrawn if he survived. And, it's a testament to them, that 16 captains she did attack never spilled the beans about Marco and Sphinx island. They're all loyal to Pops until the end.

That is why I think Stussy knew where Newgate was for a long, long time, but she did not start fighting to claim a 'inheritance' until he was dead. One thing we can see as part of the 'bad futures' is that they are all cowardly and do not fight for their futures anymore. Stussy at this point no longer cares about anything other then money and maybe to some degree her son. She was seen weeping when Weevile was taken by the marines.

The real question is, what happens next. I know people say Marco will probably go to save Weevile, but I wonder about that, as:

The very last time we've seen him (chronologically speaking) he's listening to Vegapunk with not a sign of Stussy nearby. Stussy has probably gone off to save Weevile.

But we'll find out about that in probably 2-3 years/arcs what'll happen to Weevile and get some more answers.

I just was thinking about Stussy, and how she changed from a sharp, caring woman to a woman who only cares about Weevile and money. I will give her props, she does put Weevile before money:

Which, in comparison to other bad futures- it's not actually the worst possible timeline? Robin is selling children, Chopper will eat them. The others don't mention children in their 'bad futures'. So I do think the fact that she'll consider Weevile before money to actually be a good marker in her 'bad' future.

But I would say, Stussy probably entered the dark timeline shortly after God Valley. I don't think it was during God Valley- the betrayal of the crew did not affect her. Much like Wang Zhi who doesn't show to be any uglier, the falling apart of the crew didn't fully affect her. The fact that Marco knows her only as someone "Pops used to work with her 40 years ago" means she was not on the Whitebeard ship - And he's 45 years old. He, out of everyone, would probably have memories, especially since Newgate boarded Gram's (either his father or previous reincarnation) ship.

So we have basically a few possible ways it went down: 1. Stussy and Newgate did meet off the ship, fought, and Stussy then proceeded to ignore Whitebeard until he was dead. She didn't really know about Sphinx, and thought Whitebeard had a massive treasure, which if she'd been keeping up with his stuff... she'd of realized that Newgate really did have no money. He sent it all back to Sphinx.

2. Newgate successfully avoided/blockaded/refused Stussy until she gave up. She never reached out to him again while he was alive. Instead she waited until he was dead and then went after the massive fortune she was certain he'd have with how much he scrimped and saved.

Or it could be a mix.