History WesternAnimation / LiloAndStitchTheSeries

* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: All of the experiments are capable of doing this, as seen in "The Asteroid", whether they have been specifically designed to survive in vacuum or just can hold their breath a long time is debatable.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Played very, ''very'' straight. "Good" and "bad/evil" are portrayed as extremely simple concepts that can be switched back on forth on a dime, and there's never any middle ground, expect for maybe 625, later named Reuben, who lands more in the grey area of the morality chain due to his laziness as an EvilMinion.

** The episode "Heckler" falls under this. The problem is that [[AnAesop the aesop]] is all over the place. It says laughing at others' looks is wrong, [[{{Hypocrite}} yet it does this throughout.]] It says you shouldn't laugh at others' expense, yet does this and, for the most part, [[PlayedForLaughs plays it for laughs.]] It also seems to imply that comedians should only make fun of themselves and not others, yet ends with Heckler getting a job at doing this, anyway.

* CaninesGamblingInACardGame: Stitch (who was adopted by Lilo as a "dog") plays poker with Cannonball, Richter, Yin and Yang (who all honestly don't look canine at all) in "Finder" with cookies in place of poker chips. The round that we see is won by Yang.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[GottaCatchEmAll Gotta find the one true place for 'em all!]]]]

* TastesLikeDiabetes: Mr. Stenchy (254) was [[InvokedTrope designed]] this way, in order to get people to let their guard down before he releases his foul odor.

* DefeatingTheCheatingOpponent: In "Spike", Lilo and Mertle's families face off in a family quiz game where Mertle's family have been winning the first half. Thanks to Stitch, Lilo finds out that Mertle's been cheating by having Teresa, one of her friends, look up answers online and feed them through an earpiece. So Lilo stops this by having Spike "hug" Teresa, since Stitch's quills make his victim lose their intelligence. Come the second round, Teresa's acting too loopy to give proper answers and leaves Mertle without any advantages, allowing Lilo's family to catch up and win in a fair contest.

* AudienceSurrogate: [[WordOfGod According to Jess Winfield]], Keoni is this and the entire writing staff hated him for it.

** "Melty": Lilo attempts to use Jumba's time machine to change an embarrassing incident in front of Keoni, but it just makes things progressively worse for the entire family, culminating in the house being destroyed and Nani losing her new job. A trip to the future looks like one dreary place; Hawaii has become a desolate wasteland (ruled by Mertle as dictator according to a picture on the now prison-like Birds of Paradise Hotel), the Jumba of this time says the entire family ultimately broke apart, and he lost two of his eyes. [[note]]"[[NoodleIncident Don't even ask what happened to Pleakley.]]"[[/note]] Only by redoing the embarrassing incident will everything be set right.
** "Skip": Lilo uses the titular experiment to become a teenager, but the process causes her and Stitch to be missing for ten years while time proceeds normally for everyone else. This, of course, makes it much easier for Gantu to acquire experiments. When the duo jumps ahead another ten years after that, they see the world has been conquered by Hämsterviel and all the experiments (save Stitch and Skip) are under his control, despite some eluding capture long enough to warrant WantedPoster-like displays (Sparky, Finder and Shoe). The house got repossessed to pay off a huge pile of parking tickets the buggy has accumulated since Lilo parked it, and when that proved insufficient, Nani started working directly under Hämsterviel as his personal water bottle carrier. Jumba still lives in the house, becoming a hermit in the attic to hide from the authorities and Hämsterviel, living off of canned rutabegas and rainwater. On the upside, Pleakley has become an intergalactic fashion icon, which proved instrumental in SettingRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

* ClipShow: "Ace" is about Jumba showing footage of his experiments doing evil things to the head of the Evil Genius Organization. This is to convince the head of E.G.O. that Jumba is still evil and his membership should not be revoked. Notably, the segment shows nearly the entirety of Slushy (523) and Splodyhead (619)'s epic fight from the former experiment's episode, and in that episode Jumba stated that he forgot to bring his camera. It should also be noted that "Ace" was originally supposed to have [[http://www.ersoz.com/storyboard/sb_pages/ls_ace.htm a much more substantial plot]] and not be a clip show, but it was changed following the Indian Ocean tsunami.

** In "Angel", while Stitch is sitting with 624[[note]]who Lilo would name her Angel in just a couple minutes[[/note]] on the hammock, he picks his nose with his tongue, which he previously did when he was adopted in the original film. On a side note, his nose-picking intrigues 624 enough that ''she'' picks her own nose with her tongue.

** Stitch (and in some cases the other experiments) seem to be immune to the powers of other experiments only when it's convenient for the plot. For example, Stitch and the other experiments were immune to Checkers's brainwashing ability and as such were able to defeat Gantu, and Stitch (along with 625) just so happened to be immune to Angel's siren song because they were made after her. Of course, it just so happens that Stitch ''can'' be affected by Swirly's HypnoticEyes or Spike's [[StupidityInducingAttack stupidity-inducing spikes]], because watching him make a fool of himself is hilarious.

** The series is the nexus of the Franchise/DisneyChannelAnimatedUniverse, which was largely abandoned after it ended. Thus, the universe is basically the extended ''ʻohana''.

* DrunkWithPower: One episode features "Checkers", a crown-shaped experiment which sits upon its user's head and makes others cater to them like royalty. Naturally, an under-appreciated feeling Lilo puts it on, takes over the town and goes power mad immediately, passing insane laws and condoning her friends getting locked in a dungeon when they don't follow. She ultimately realizes how far she's been going and how poorly she's been acting, but right after she realizes this Gantu gets his hands on Checkers and everything gets ten times worse. Luckily, the other experiments are unaffected by Checkers' mind control and can do something about it.

* ElementalPowers: Several of the experiments, most notably Yin (501) and Yang (502). In fact, the entire 5-series of experiments have been stated to have some form of elemental abilities.

** Stitch's destructive tendencies and omnivorous eating habits, as well as his own broken English (including his ThirdPersonPerson) and increased preference for his native Tantalog language. (Mind you that in the third act of the original film and in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch'', he does show signs that he is capable of speaking English quite well.)

** Justified with Spike as it's literally his function to make people 99% goofier than they already are.

* MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: Although the authorities ''think'' that Hämsterviel is perpetually trapped in the ceiling of his holding cell unable to do anything destructive, he's actually somehow managed to trick out the prison cell with various gadgets, contacts Gantu frequently, and even has objects teleported between his cell and Gantu's ship... all while the prison guards aren't looking.

** Snafu (120) and Woops (600) have this as their entire function.
*** In fact, the events of the latter experiment's episode leads into the former's episode. Woops nearly blows Hämsterviel's cover, forcing Hämsterviel to send all the experiments he had in prison back to Gantu on Earth. This immediately leads to Woops breaking open Nosy's container, allowing him to escape. Nosy goes directly to Lilo and Stitch in the next episode to tell them that all of the experiments Gantu and Hämsterviel have are now on Earth, thus leading the duo to form a rescue party and free the experiments.

* TeamRocketWins: A handful of episodes ended with Gantu in possession of the new Experiment(s) of the day, though [[PyrrhicVictory they were generally ones with useless/embarrassing powers]]. This is {{Deconstructed}} in the SeriesFinale "Snafu", where Nosy manages to escape and calls out Lilo for essentially abandoning him and a dozen others to Gantu.

* TheBadGuyWins: If an episode ends with Gantu capturing the featured experiment, meaning Lilo and Stitch failed to find a place where they belong.

* {{Meganekko}}: Inverted in Mertle's case. She wears glasses, but she's a bully. Her mom and aunt also wear glasses, as does Dr. Oprah.

* AdultFear: The Halloween episode featured an experiment that could transform into a person's worst fear. For Nani, it turned into Social Services agent Cobra Bubbles telling her that he had to take Lilo away because she was an unsuitable guardian, which almost happened in the original movie.

* DefeatingTheCheatingOpponent: In "Spike", Lilo and Mertle's families face off in a family quiz game where Mertle's family have been winning the first half. Stitch find outs that Mertle's been cheating by having Teresa, one of her friends, look up answers online and feed them through an earpiece. So Lilo stops this by having Spike "hug" Teresa, since Stitch's quills make his victim lose their intelligence. Come the second round, Teresa's acting too loopy to give proper answers and leaves Mertle without any advantages, allowing Lilo's family to catch up and win in a fair contest.

* AnAesop: It's one of those cartoons that go over one of these in each episode.

* HiddenHeartOfHold: Elena, Teresa and Yuki. They only act like a GirlPosse whenever Mertle is around, and once she's gone, they show Lilo and Stitch their soft side. They secretly despise Mertle.

* AnAesop: It's one of those cartoons that goes over one of these in each episode.

** Night marchers [[https://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/night-marchers.php are actually based on]] [[Myth/PacificMythology Hawaiian mythology]]; they are not something that was made up by the mainland-based writing staff when they were working on "Belle".

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Experiment 627's weakness is that [[spoiler:laughing too hard makes him suffocate. This is a real condition, cataplexy]].

** This also happens with Sprout (509) after he unleashes a devastation of plants across the Kokaua Town Fair.

** Inverted in Leroy from the GrandFinale - he is given a name but no number.

* AnimationBump: Several episodes of the show are much more intricately drawn and more fluidly animated than many of the others -- particularly episodes closer to the beginning of their respective seasons, like "Cannonball" (which is a exceptionally good example), though they aren't limited to that and pop up across the board.