Gwess (グェス, Gwesu) is a side character featured in the sixth part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean. She is introduced in the "Prisoner FE40536: Jolyne Cujoh" story arc as an antagonist before she turns into a neutral character.
Gwess is introduced as Jolyne Cujoh's cellmate. She soons decides to shrink the newcomer with her Stand Goo Goo Dolls, but is defeated and becomes Jolyne's flunky.
Gwess is a young woman of average build and height, with long dark hair. She dons three dots under her left eye. Originally, Gwess wears a horizontally stripped shirt, often showing her midriff, supported by another layer of clothing over her breasts, over which she wears a typical Green Dolphin Street inmate jacket. Her pants are covered with stripes over her thighs with different colored normal pant legs behind and down to her feet. Later during Jail House Lock!, Gwess is shown wearing a full body suit, with the same patterns to her previous outfit, and no longer wears her inmate jacket. She also sports a pair of boots, decorated outside the pants by long accessories that are incrementally indented. She wears a voided hat furnished with a bird feet motif, out from which her hair sticks out, as well as a thick collar around her neck.
Gwess is a capricious inmate who can easily put on a facade of kindness but snap and reveal her moody, ferocious nature in the next moment.
When Gwess meets Jolyne, she greets her and even offers her biscuits, only to suddenly get angry and yell at Jolyne for approaching her bunk bed although there was no indication it was hers.[3] This sudden mood switch sums up Gwess's personality. Gwess will often act kind and friendly, complimenting her interlocutor on multiple occasions. This also applies to the people that she disturbingly turns into her pet.[5][6][7]
Thanks to Goo Goo Dolls's power to shrink people, Gwess has taken to shrinking people and turn them into her pets, using her crushing size advantage to maintain an abusive relationship with them. With her power, she has turned a guard into a "parakeet" and then shrunk Jolyne Cujoh and forced her to act like a mouse. She may act nice and compliment her pets, she is also overbearing and doesn't tolerate defiance. Firstly, Gwess pretends that she and her pet have a relationship of mutual trust and cooperation[8][9] but as soon as her pet behaves out of line, she gets angry and takes it as a grave betrayal from her pet's part.[10][11] She also demands that her pets act cute, such as saying things in a cute way or repeating cute little sentences such as "I love you".[12][13][14] Because she wants to use her pets to escape prison, Gwess also trains them and often orders them to perform dangerous stunts such as jumping from her breast pocket to her shoulder (since given the minuscule size of the shrunken human, any fall would be fatal)[15] and in the case of Jolyne, tried to make her lift crushingly heavy books[16]
When a pet doesn't faithfully obeys her, Gwess can snap and get extremely angry.[6] At her mildest, she threatens to deprive her pet of food is they fail her, as she did when she gave Jolyne a scouting mission.[17] In general, her mood swings are unpredictable, as while she generally is angry, she can also suddenly declares she likes how her pet shows spirit.[18] At worst, her anger can turn murderous and she sics Goo Goo Dolls on her pet to shred them because she doesn't want them anymore,[8] and throw their corpses in the toilet.[13]
Gwess's bio describes her as being cowardly.[19] Indeed, as soon as Jolyne awakens her Stand Stone Free and is able to resist her, Gwess comes to beg for mercy and forgiveness[20] in order to trick Jolyne and set her up to be shot by the guards, all the while gloating about Jolyne's impending death.[21] However, Jolyne beats her up and quickly makes her obey her instead. For the remainder of the part, Gwess will be afraid of Jolyne and tries to suck up to her, although Jolyne rejects her attempts at friendship. Gwess does offer sound advices to her about how to be respected in prison.[22]
Gwess is overtly possessive of her stuff, although it may be an intimidation tactic from her part.[23] She also expresses the belief that "everything has a name", quoting the Bible to justify this belief, and thus decides to name her Stand.[24]
Gwess's favorite food seems to be cheese-flavored penne, with mustard.[25]
Gwess's Stand, Goo Goo Dolls, grants her the ability to shrink the size of selected targets within her range to the size of a mouse.
According to her privilege card, Gwess was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being charged with arson, attempted murder, and parole violation.[2]
Prior to meeting Jolyne, Gwess bought a pendant from Ermes Costello. She also acquired her Stand ability Goo Goo Dolls several days before meeting Jolyne and it is unknown if the pendant had something to do with it, though Jolyne later speculates that she must have acquired it the same way she discovered her Stand.[26] Nonetheless, she kept the pendant. After one guard was fired for laziness on the job, Gwess shrunk said guard and hid him in a parrot's skin, making him her pet and training him.
Gwess is introduced to Jolyne Cujoh in Green Dolphin Street Prison as her new cellmate. Initially acting nice, Gwess makes Jolyne trip and yells at her the moment Jolyne tries to put her items on the bottom bunk. However, the bottom bunk is Gwess', although she's used the top bunk as a storage area. Jolyne is then intrigued to see her father's pendant and tries to take it, but Gwess snaps again. Jolyne explains that it is a personal item of hers, but Gwess offers to sell it back to her for $200, despite buying it for only $2. The next day, Gwess wakes Jolyne and apologizes for her actions by returning her pendant to her. She proceeds to show that the pendant is empty, "proving" that it isn't Jolyne's. She also maliciously soaks Jolyne's only pants with water from the sink. While Jolyne is busy drying her clothes, Gwess has breakfast and even takes two portions and throws out the surplus food. She also throws away the picture of Jolyne's parents.
Gwess then trains her pet parrot and orders him to jump from her pocket to her shoulder. Dangling a macaroni in front of her pet, Gwess is dissatisfied when he says "Good morning" instead of "I love you" and tells him to say it, handing him the macaroni when he obeys. Gwess then orders her pet to jump from her shoulder to her finger, getting angry when he hesitates. The pet manages to reach the finger but blurts out a "woah", making Gwess furious at her pet. Gwess decides to separate herself from him but senses something passing near her. Hiding her pet, Gwess then realizes that it has been replaced by a banana. However, she soon finds a shrunken Jolyne who has put her nose where it didn't belong.
Gwess takes Jolyne to their cell and decides to make Jolyne her new pet. Thus, she forces her to put on a mouse's skin and speak cutely. She also throws the body of the guard down the toilet. Wanting to escape prison, Gwess begins to train Jolyne, making her run in a wheel and putting books on her to "build up her strength." Gwess discovers that Jolyne is cheating and snaps, but then expresses her amusement at Jolyne's spirit.
Later, Gwess names her ability Goo Goo Dolls and sends Jolyne to scout the first control center of the women's ward. A guard passes and tells her to get away from the gates, which she does. Jolyne then begins to turn back to her normal size and becomes pursued by Goo Goo Dolls but awakens her Stand and beats it. Gwess reappears in front of the exit gate and apparently yields. On Jolyne's orders, Gwess shrinks and regrows Jolyne to free her. She also reveals that she bought her pendant from Ermes. Letting the pendant drop, Gwess makes Jolyne lean to take it and Gwess punches her through the bars of the gate by shrinking her a little and calls the guards.
A guard does spot Jolyne from behind and rings the alarm. Gwess gloats, expecting Jolyne to be shot down, but then Jolyne's Stone Free appears and pummels her through the fence. Gwess is tied up and Jolyne successfully threatens her into giving up. Gwess makes Jolyne shrink again to make her pass and from now on, Gwess becomes Jolyne's lackey.
While Jolyne accustoms herself to prison life, Gwess advises her to get her money back as quickly as possible after Jolyne lends $1 to a co-prisoner. Gwess explains that if Jolyne doesn't make herself respected, then she will be the victim of the prison's many bullies.
Gwess is seen again during the Jail House Lock story arc. She is disturbed by Jolyne's sudden forgetfulness after she returns from solitary confinement. Jolyne asks about "Miu Miu" and Gwess describes this new prisoner to the best of her ability, although it further confuses Jolyne. At lunch time, Jolyne unwittingly eats Gwess' lunch, especially her favorite cheese-flavored penne. Jolyne apologizes and wants to use her ticket to buy another lunch box but Gwess wisely decides to take the ticket and buy the lunch herself. Still, Jolyne eats Gwess' lunch again behind her back.
Manga Appearances
Quotes
Privilege Card
SO Chapter 5 Cover B
SO Chapter 7 Magazine Cover A
SO Chapter 101 Magazine Cover B
Weekly Shonen Jump 2002 Issue #8 (Title Page)
Gwess' first appearance in her cell
Gwess manipulating her "pet"
Gwess' drastic mood swings
Gwess beaten into submisson
Gwess intimidated by Jolyne
Gwess shouting Jolyne
Gwess feeding her parrot
Gwess' menacing face
Stone Ocean Characters | |
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| Main Characters | |
| Minor Characters | |
| Groups | |
[[Category:Part 6 Characters{{#translation:}}]] [[Category:Female Characters{{#translation:}}]] [[Category:Stand Users{{#translation:}}]] [[Category:Tertiary Antagonist{{#translation:}}]] [[Category:Part 6 Antagonists{{#translation:}}]] [[Category:Minor Allies{{#translation:}}]]
