Lilo & Stitch – The Titular Duo / Characters

This is the character sheet for the namesake human-alien duo of Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise.

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Shared tropes

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Despite being completely different species, both title characters are very much alike in more ways than one.

The Atoners: Despite their temper issues and penchant for mischief, neither of them truly wants to hurt anyone in any way, shape, or form. If one or both of them realize that they've done so, they will go out of their way to correct it.
Badass Adorable: Stitch is the more obvious of the two, being super strong, smarter than a supercomputer, yet also cute and fluffy! However, Lilo herself is one as well in The Series, as her job is catching and rehabilitating alien bio-weapons (albeit with help from her own alien bio-weapon and occasionally their creator). She even impressed Kim Possible during their crossover episode.
Badass and Child Duo: Both are relatively young, and badass as all get out; they also serve as a Parody of the trope.
Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Lilo always calls Gantu insults like “Big Dummy” or “Big Stinky Head”.
Character Catchphrase:
- Besides the ʻohana motto that you can find on the top of her folder, in The Series Lilo also says "(Let's) Rock-A-Hula!" (as in Elvis Presley's "Rock-A-Hula Baby" from Blue Hawaii).
- Stitch has his famous first line, "Meega, nala kweesta!" which he usually speaks at least once in every work he appears in. In The Series, he says "Aloha, cousin!" when he meets a new experiment that he tries to get friendly with shortly after capturing or rehabilitating them, and occasionally "I'm okay! I'm fluffy!" (sometimes overlapped with his Third-Person Person) when he gets hurt. He's also known for his Tantalog-based Blunt "Yes" "Ih" and for saying "OK" quite a bit.
  - In the English dub of the Madhouse-produced seasons of Stitch!, he often says, "Ring me up (again), baby!" when he gets a good deed.
Companion Cube: Lilo's rag doll, Scrump, serves as this for both of them. However, "she" is only this to Stitch in merchandise and promotional material; in the actual canon, he doesn't really seem to care for Scrump that much.
Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity: They, especially Lilo, are both big fans of Elvis Presley.
Flanderization: Both of them receive this in The Series. Lilo's weirdness and naïvete were emphasized more, occasionally at the expense of her implied intelligence. Stitch's destructive tendencies stuck around, although it could be justified that he's still somewhat tied to his original programming. There's also his huge omnivorous appetite in the TV shows and merchandise; he even has a merchandise collection in 2024 dedicated to his love of food involving snacks sold at the Disney Theme Parks (aptly named Stitch Attacks Snacks).
A Girl and Her X: A girl and her artificial alien legally adopted as (and pretending to be) a "dog". Through their bonding and understanding of each other, their "badness levels" reduce and they truly learn to care for each other. See also Heal the Cutie below.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Both of them have this problem.
- Lilo is shown with anger issues and outbursts occasionally, but she does get better.
- Stitch is not as readily apparent as most examples, but he is quick to take his frustration out on any perceived aggressor. The Series episode "Bad Stitch" is based on this part of his characterization.
Heal the Cutie: Neither were exactly straight examples of The Cutie at first; the former was a bit too bratty, and the latter far too destructive. However, much of this is born out of the former's naivete and emotional trauma, and the latter's instinctive programming. As the two realize the consequences of their actions and the gravity of their situation, they become quite saddened and broken indeed. In the end, they nevertheless find their happy ending together, to become a caring, loving, adorable family.
Iconic Outfit:
- For Lilo, it's her red muʻumuʻu with a white leaf pattern, as well as her hula outfit. That said, she does not have a Limited Wardrobe—she's worn other colored muʻumuʻus with similar leaf patterns^note and some typical casual outfits—but she just likes wearing that red dress most of all.
- While Stitch does not wear clothes much throughout the franchise, the red-orange spacesuit he wears during the first act (when he hasn't met Lilo yet and was still Experiment 626) is still recognizable.
Interspecies Friendship: With each other. A human being is best friends with an artificial alien lifeform.
Like Brother and Sister: Again, with each other. He's supposed to be her pet, but their relationship is very much like that of loving siblings, and she sometimes seems almost like a mother to him.
Meaningful Name:
- Lilo is a Polynesian name meaning "generous one", "curious one" or "lost one", all three of which fit her. (She is a Nice Girl interested in strange things who is usually lost in her own world.)
- As for the alien, if something is ripped apart (like Lilo's life), you fix it with a stitch. "Stitch" is also an informal term for a surgical suture, so Lilo was looking towards him to close those psychological wounds left by the deaths of her parents.
The Not-Love Interest: They are each others' first friend, they have a lot of deep bonding moments, they do nearly everything together, and Lilo is the one who helps Stitch learn to be more than a destructive monster. However, The Series showed that they have romantic interests elsewhere; Lilo has a crush on a skateboarding boy, while Stitch is in love with a fellow experiment.
Platonic Life-Partners: Once again, with each other. Lilo is his first and closest friend, while Stitch is her pet and initially Only Friend. They do a terrific amount of bonding in the first movie and later. That said, this trope didn't stop Disney from separating him from her three times between Leroy & Stitch and Agent Stitch.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- In "Spooky", it's revealed Lilo is afraid of clowns despite her love of scary things. Spooky takes advantage of this by turning into a clown which freaks her out.
- For Stitch, water has been repeatedly established to be his worst fear, and as such he refuses to take baths. It's justified because he is too dense to float.

Lilo Pelekai

"ʻOhana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten."

Voiced in English by: Daveigh Chase (2002–2006), Dakota Fanning (Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch), Tara Strong (adult Lilo in Lilo & Stitch: The Series), Melissa Fahn (child Lilo in Stitch!), Gwendoline Yeo (adult Lilo in Stitch!), Micah Aliling (Cookie Run: Kingdom, Disney Speedstorm)

Voiced in Japanese by: Natsuki Yamashita (Lilo & Stitch, Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch: The Series season one), Yume Miyamoto (Lilo & Stitch: The Series season two and Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch), Sumire Morohoshi (Leroy & Stitch and child Lilo in Stitch!), Tomoe Hanba (adult Lilo in Stitch!)

Voiced in Spanish by: Leire Martínez, Olivia Caneda, Andrea Rius

A young, orphaned Hawaiian girl who lives with her sister Nani and is Stitch's owner and best friend. She is the co-protagonist during the main Western continuity of the franchise.

In the original film, she and Nani had lost their parents in a relatively recent car accident. Lilo is a social outcast among her peers by the time the film begins, and her relationship with Nani has become strained. After becoming at risk of being separated from her only remaining family member, Lilo wishes for a friend on a "shooting star".^note At the shelter Nani takes her to, Lilo finds an unusual blue "dog" and adopts him as "Stitch". Despite his bad behavior, Lilo sees Stitch as a friend and, under social worker Cobra Bubbles's orders, tries to make him a "model citizen", though her efforts don't seem to work. It gets worse for her when Stitch and Jumba get into a fight that destroys her house. Rejecting Stitch (who reveals his true alien form to her) for ruining everything, the two are taken by Gantu, though Stitch escapes. She gets rescued by Stitch afterward, then saves him from being taken away from her by showing her adoption paper to the Grand Councilwoman, who puts him under "exile" and makes Lilo his warden. This allows Lilo to stay with her sister and their new family with Jumba, Pleakley, and Stitch.

In Lilo & Stitch: The Series and its two films, she helps Stitch to find all 625 of his experiment "cousins", name them, and find them a "one true place" where they use their abilities for good.

After the 2006 end of the original parts of the franchise, Lilo's role has been greatly reduced from a main character to merely "someone from Stitch's past". She does not appear in the Stitch! anime except for a third season episode where she reunites with Stitch as an adult with a daughter named Ani that looks exactly like her when she was younger. She also only appears in flashbacks in Stitch & Ai, which shows that she and Stitch were forcibly separated when he was kidnapped by space criminals. She doesn't appear at all in Stitch & the Samurai, since that takes place in an Alternate Universe set in Earth's past long before her time. She finally returns in the book series Agent Stitch, which is set not long after the first film.

Absurd Phobia: In "Spooky" Lilo mentions she has a fear of broccoli.
Affectionate Nickname: "Little Girl" by Jumba.
All of the Other Reindeer: Lilo is continually shunned by her classmates.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Sometimes she causes trouble for Nani, like the "Turn Stitch into Elvis on the beach" thing.
Badass Normal: A normal, human girl up against numerous aliens. She wins with the help of Stitch.
Badass Pacifist: Lilo's main job is turning Jumba's experiments from bad to good. And it works.
Befriending the Enemy:
- Even though Jumba destroyed her house and is facing jail time, she still manages to befriend him, and he leads a mission to rescue her in the first movie.
- She reaches out to 625 and names him "Reuben" as well as helping Gantu once Hämsterviel fires him in Leroy & Stitch, and they join the good guys to take on Hämsterviel and his legion of Leroy clones.
Berserk Button: Never call her crazy.
Beware the Nice Ones: Lilo's a sweet girl, but as Mertle learned the hard way, she will kick your ass if pushed too far.
Big Sister Instinct: She plays this role to Stitch when he joins the ʻohana.
Bizarre Taste in Food: Lilo has a strange taste in food; in "Yin-Yang", for example, she says that doughnuts and mustard go together. Fitting for someone as odd as her.
Brainy Brunette: Lilo has black hair and is also Wise Beyond Her Years.
Bratty Half-Pint: At her worst, she can act annoying, mischievous, cocky, and/or selfish.
Break the Cutie: This happens to her when her original house is destroyed in the battle resulting from Jumba's pursuit of Stitch.
Broken Bird: In the first film and Stitch Has a Glitch, she has a great deal of anguish over her parents' deaths and this reflects in her behavior. She's learned to cope with it by the start of The Series proper.
The Bus Came Back: She finally returns as a main character and Stitch's main companion in the Agent Stitch book series, the first book of which was released sixteen years after Leroy & Stitch and eleven-and-a-half years after her last animated appearance (not counting recreated flashbacks in Stitch & Ai) in the anime episode "Lilo".
Camera Fiend: Loves to take photos, especially of overweight tourists. "Aren't they beautiful?"
Chewing the Scenery: Bonus points for doing it on an actual stage.
Lilo: If I fed Pudge tuna, I'd be an abomination!
Cloudcuckoolander: Elvis, tourists (especially fat ones), mummies, vampires, werewolves, peanut butter-sandwich-eating clownfish, superspies, and aliens — they all exist in the world she lives in. Thanks to some Canon Welding with, among other Disney favorites, American Dragon: Jake Long and Kim Possible, all of them are real.
Collector of the Strange: Lilo collects pictures of fat tourists and has them pasted all over her bedroom.
Companion Cube: Scrump, her hand-made doll, partially fulfills this role for her.
Creepy Child: Sometimes crosses over into this with her strange interests, like voodoo.
Cute Bruiser: Not a major heavy hitter, but she's not afraid to get physical, as Mertle finds out the hard way in the (chronologically) first two movies. Even Played for Laughs at one point in The Series.
Keoni Jameson: [after Lilo throws him out of her house for trying to invite Pleakley to the Lonoʻiʻkeaweawe Festival] Wow, that Lilo is stronger than she looks.
Damsel in Distress: She is (accidentally) captured by Gantu in the first movie, setting the events of the climax in motion when Stitch, Jumba, Nani, and Pleakley go to rescue her.
Demoted to Extra: In any subsequent material outside the movies or The Series, Stitch is far more likely to appear than Lilo; funny as the title of the movie is Lilo & Stitch. This gets to the point where two shows outright removed her as a main character and an Alternate Universe manga removed her entirely. It's also bad in the merchandising and marketing front, as Scrump—her rag doll—tends to get more attention than she does, to the point that it becomes Stitch's closest "companion".
Does Not Like Spam: She feels this towards broccoli, but it's more of a fear than disgust.
Fangirl: She's a big Elvis Presley fan. This is also a case of Author Appeal, as this is based on Chris Sanders's interests in Presley.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric: Idealistic, imaginative, relaxed and sociable.
First-Name Basis: Lilo is given this treatment by Disney, as they rarely acknowledge her surname Pelekai. There are a few instances in the franchise where one would expect her family name to be mentioned, but they don't do so. In fact, "Pelekai" has been either shown or spoken just twice in the whole franchise.^note Then again, family names are not important to the main theme of the franchise.
Fluffy Tamer: The point of both the movie and The Series is for her to tame Stitch and his cousins, who were created to be horrendous and evil monsters. She even befriends Jumba since he leads a rescue expedition for her in the first movie, and X-625/Reuben and Gantu in Leroy & Stitch.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Zigzagged. Lilo is initially seen as the Foolish to Nani's Responsible as she's more impulsive and immature than the latter but has shown to be mature on occasion and helps protect the Earth.
Friendless Background: Before meeting Stitch she had no friends. Her prayer in the movie is "I Just Want to Have Friends".
Friend to All Living Things: Her friendly nature lands her right in the middle of this territory, befriending most of the experiments she meets.
Giver of Lame Names: Some of the names Lilo gives to the experiments are... pretty bland descriptors of what they do. In fact, Lilo was going to name Experiment 316 "Changer", but Trixie complained about the name not being unique enough, which lead to Spud naming the experiment "Morpholomew". Then there are the times that she comes up with a good fitting name for an experiment, but her reasoning is absurd. For example, Experiment 113 was named "Shoe"; not because of the horseshoe-shaped horn on his head, but because she thinks he needs shoes, despite that none of the experiments wear shoes.
The Heart: She's the one brandishing ʻohana like a weapon and the one provoking Heel-Face Turns in the experiments, but she's still a kid so she messes up sometimes.
Hidden Depths:
- Considering her vocabulary (uses "abomination" correctly) and reading material, this is to be expected.
- In a fully-animated deleted scene, it's revealed her photography serves as a satire of the tourist mentality and dehumanization of native Hawaiians. Deep stuff for such a tiny girl.
Hollywood Voodoo: She makes voodoo dolls of her "friends" out of spoons and dunks them in a pickle jar. As far as we know, it doesn't work.
"My friends need to be punished."
Hypocritical Humor: After Nani does the "gravity is increasing on me" bit and falls on her, Lilo yells, "Why do you act so weird!?" This from the girl who thinks a fish controls the weather and pretends a bug laid eggs in her doll's ears.
I Just Want to Have Friends: At the beginning of the first movie, all she wants is to be liked by someone, but is unpopular with the other children.
Innocent Prodigy: Lilo can use the word "abomination" in the proper context, and reads books that not only contain atypical material for a child to read but are far above her grade level as well. Despite this, she seems to have very little idea of what the consequences of her and Stitch's actions are.
Kid Hero: Six to nine years old, and the deuteragonist of the franchise.
Living Emotional Crutch: Since Lilo is the love of Nani's life, her worst fear, in fact, is Lilo being taken away from her or losing Lilo in any way possible.
Mood-Swinger: Justified, as she is a very young child still dealing with the emotional fallout and other consequences of her parents' unexpected deaths, which are implied to have occurred shortly before the first movie.
Morality Pet: Acts as one to Stitch, before he learns how to behave himself. It's ironic, since technically he's her pet; she has a legal certificate and everything.
Music/Age Dissonance: She loves listening to Elvis Presley, who died well before her time. This is one of many things to show just how odd she is compared to her peers.
Nice Girl: Usually friendly and accepting. She's still liable to make some silly mistakes like most children.
The Nicknamer: She loves doing this to the experiments. In fact, she does this in order to defy Jumba's numbering of them, as a means to show that they should be treated more like family and friends instead of just experimental creatures.
Nightmare Fetishist: "My friends need to be punished..." Notably, this is why Lilo takes a liking to Stitch in the first place — he is the only "dog" in the pound that is capable of speech, and all the other animals are terrified of him.
No Social Skills: In the first film and Stitch Has a Glitch, Lilo does not play well with others. Lilo is implied to have gotten in a lot of trouble — and ran through a lot of social workers — before Cobra hit the scene, and she doesn't quite comprehend that Mertle and her friends don't consider her to be one of their chums. A subplot in Stitch Has a Glitch features her struggling with, and gaining hold of, her temper.
Not So Above It All: She may be a nice girl who tamed the incredibly mischievous experiments, but she's not completely well-behaved herself and still gets into mischief from time to time, especially in The Series.
Parental Abandonment: Her and Nani's parents died in a car crash before the events of the first film.
Plucky Girl: Zigzagged, but Lilo's the most consistently optimistic of the family. However, she will get sad if she knows she's failing to socialize with others or if her best friend gets taken away from here.
Precious Photo:
- The first film shows a photograph of her, Nani, and their late parents enjoying a day at the beach, and Lilo is very sensitive about others touching it. It gets slightly scorched after Jumba and Stitch destroy her house. After Stitch returns it to her, she rejects him and tells him to go away.
- In Stitch Has a Glitch, she has one of her mother as a young girl, winning the 1973 May Day hula competition.
Puppy Love: Lilo & Stitch: The Series features a boy a few years older than her named Keoni Jameson whom she crushes on.
The Redeemer: A majority of the experiments throughout the series are reformed thanks to her, including Stitch. She even motivates Gantu to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
Red Is Heroic: She tames the experiments made for evil and her most iconic outfit is a red muʻumuʻu. Her hula outfit is also partly red and her swimsuit has red stripes.
Riddle for the Ages: It's not ever explained why Lilo is such a huge fan of Elvis Presley to begin with, which is incongruent to her interests in horror, sci-fi, and Hawaiian traditions. There's not even an implication that she could have gotten it from her parents; she just is an Elvis fangirl.
Shipper on Deck: For Nani and David. The first movie has her comforting David after Nani states she can't date anyone and one episode of The Series has her react with anger at Nani when she thinks that she's insulting David.
Socially Awkward Hero: Try as she might, Lilo has extreme difficulty socializing with her peers.
Mertle: Ew, she bit me!
Strong Family Resemblance: As a teen and young adult, Lilo looks almost exactly like her big sister, with the only differences aside from clothing being that Lilo maintains her straight hair and somehow never develops full lips (which lots of Fan Art like to "correct"). In the Stitch! anime, her daughter looks exactly like her younger self.
Tame His Anger: Has anger management issues, though she eventually learns to take control of her temper.
Toy-Based Characterization: Lilo is a Cloudcuckoolander and a mild Nightmare Fetishist who has strange thought processes and doesn't fit in with the other girls in her hula class. While they have Barbie-style fashion dolls, she has a creepy-looking, handmade rag doll named Scrump with button eyes and a stitched-up mouth. The other girls are noticeably creeped out by it, especially when Lilo explains, "I made her, but her head is too big, so I pretend a bug laid eggs in her ears and she's upset because she only has a few more days to—"
Tranquil Fury: In the first film, after Stitch and Jumba destroy the house while fighting, Lilo says to Stitch in a tone full of quiet rage, "You ruined everything."
True Companions: Her most central belief is in ʻohana, which is closely related to this trope.
"ʻOhana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind—or forgotten."
Unabashed B-Movie Fan: A major fan of B-movies and watches them with Stitch marathon-style.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: In the interquel, she aims to win the hula contest to make her deceased mother proud.

Stitch (X-626)

Stitch (Experiment 626)

"This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah. Still good."

To see his true alien "Experiment 626" form (and other forms he had over the years), click here.

Voiced in English by: Chris Sanders (2002–present), Ben Diskin (Stitch! and Stitch & Ai)

Voiced in Japanese by: Kōichi Yamadera ^note

Voiced in Mandarin Chinese for Stitch & Ai by: Li Zhengxiang

Voiced in Spanish by: Abraham Aguilar

A blue, koala-like, illegally-made, alien genetic experiment created by Dr. Jumba Jookiba who was designed to "destroy everything he touches", but ended up defying his programmed function after being adopted by Lilo as her pet "dog". He is the primary protagonist of the franchise, being the only character to appear in every major work; they all have his name in them, after all.

In the original film, he was sentenced to exile on a desert asteroid after showing himself to be irredeemable to the United Galactic Federation. He escapes from custody and crash-lands on Earth, where he is adopted by Lilo. He initially only uses her to avoid being captured by Jumba and Pleakley, but then he grows to care about Lilo after spending time with her and Nani, which left the creature designed for chaos and destruction "lost" after seeing how his primary function caused his little adopted family's problems to become worse than they already were. Eventually, he and Lilo get captured by Gantu, though Stitch manages to escape. With Nani, Jumba, and Pleakley's help, he rescues the little girl, but he finally gets arrested again by the Galactic Federation upon returning to shore. Although now a reformed creature, Stitch was ready to accept his fate this time around. However, after Lilo proves her ownership of him to the Federation, he is allowed to stay on Earth with his new family under supposed exile.

Throughout Lilo & Stitch: The Series and its two films, Stitch finds out about the 625 other experiments that Jumba made before him, and he and Lilo resolve to find all of them after the experiments' pods were scattered across Kauaʻi. Regarding the other experiments as his "cousins" (save for his significant other X-624/Angel), the two manage to find, name, and reform all of them by giving them a "one true place" where they use their abilities for good. After accomplishing their goal, he was made a captain of the Galactic Armada, but he later decides to give up the position to stay with Lilo on Earth.

His "one true place" is, of course, with Lilo as part of her ʻohana. However, a couple spin-offs made between 2006 and 2022 separate him from Lilo.

In the anime Stitch!, he leaves Lilo during her college years over a misunderstanding and ends up on Izayoi Island in the Okinawa Prefecture in Japan, getting a new human friend named Yuna Kamihara. There, he learns about and sees a stone that can grant wishes, but only if he does 43 good deeds (which can be lost), so with help from Yuna, he tries to do good deeds to get his wish of "ultimate power" (i.e. to be the strongest being in the universe). However, at the end of the second season, he decides that staying with Yuna is better than being the strongest being in the universe, and uses his wish to stay with her forever. The third season has him and Yuna continuing to live their lives together in a city called Okinawa New Town, which also reveals that he has an inert power cell within him called the "Neo-PowerChip" that can energize him and increase his strength, and an evil alien woman named Delia wants this.

In the Chinese animated series Stitch & Ai, which takes place on a different timeline from the anime, he instead gets taken from Lilo by a warring alien race called the Jaboodies, who want to forcibly use him to win their space war with a rival race called the Woolagongs. Thanks to the latter, though, Stitch escapes and falls back to Earth, landing in the Huangshan mountains of China. He gets taken in by a human girl from there named Wang Ai Ling. Having lost part of his memory thanks to mysterious qi energy that surrounded and protected him during his re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, he and Ai seek out a shrine that he saw in dreams or visions he's been having. However, the Jaboodies and the Woolagongs are still going after him, each side hoping to make use of his powers to win their war whether he wants to or not.

Adorable Abomination: Initially designed as a super-strong, indestructible, and highly intelligent alien creature of destruction, he is otherwise "cute and fluffy" when his good side shows.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Stitch's blue coloration changes between works. This fan-made image best shows the color schemes he has gone through throughout the franchise.
Affectionate Nickname: "Boojiboo" by Angel, which is a term of endearment meaning "loved one" in Tantalog. She also calls him "Stitchie" in the anime.
Afraid of Needles: To the point where he's even willing to get wet to avoid getting an injection. Justified as in the original film, he was pricked in the ear to have his blood extracted for DNA tracking in his prison cell.
Alien Blood: Pink, as seen when extracted by the prison cell machine in the first movie.
Aliens Speaking English:
- Even though he speaks his own language more than he speaks English. That quote you see above (from the original film) is his best English, and he spoke it a bit slowly. With that said, his English is relatively good in general, but not great, which is rather odd for a creature of his intelligence. He has illeism and some form of echolalia, tends to drop or forget articles ("a", "an", and "the") and other important words sometimes, pauses briefly sometimes when speaking English (especially when he refers to himself in the third-person), and sometimes mixes up the grammatical person in verbs. Normally, he speaks English at a young child's level (almost comparable to Elmo's English), probably so he would sound "cuter". His English does seem to slightly improve when he's more serious with what he's saying (like in the aforementioned above quote; he really did say "it's little," not "is little"). And despite his flaws in his speech, he has some quite good diction—he can be just as eloquent in English as he is in Tantalog if need be. That all being said, it still doesn't make sense for a speech-capable hypercognitive creature who always hangs out with a young child with a very complex vocabulary like Lilo would somehow not become any better at speaking a non-native language over time, and the unexplained lack of "advanced language programming" like his immediate predecessor has doesn't hold up either. And that's not even getting into the fact that alien society in the franchise can speak English fluently anyway.
  - This is somewhat justified with the introduction of Experiment 625. He has all of Stitch's abilities and can speak English fluently, but he's a lazy coward who would rather make sandwiches all day than destroy anything. When making 626, Jumba apparently decided to swap out the language buff for tenacity.
- In the English dub of the Stitch! anime, while he starts out still speaking broken English, he increasingly becomes fluent in the language during the first season and is practically completely so by the second, though it's odd that his English improves in this show instead of the original, considering that this show takes place years after Leroy & Stitch and is set in Okinawa. He's even able to do impersonations (albeit still afflicted by his nasal voice) as seen in "The Blue Panther".
All There in the Manual:
- According to a bonus short at the end of the film's video release, Stitch has been wandering around the Disney Studios lot since Snow White was released and behind the scenes, thus gaining a film of his own.
- It's not known what are the purposes of his antennae, considering he has a strong-smelling nose and large, sensitive ears. According to this cover story◊ from Disney Adventures, they are microwave transceivers. Supposedly, microwave ovens annoy him when they are in use because of this.
- These style sheets and sketches Chris Sanders made for the film's production reveal some interesting facts about Stitch, especially about what his skeletal system looks like, complete with details on how he can retract his arms.^noteThey kind of act like switchblades.
Amusing Alien: Strange as he is, Stitch is one funny alien to watch, especially when he's causing mischief.
Anthropomorphic Personification: He partly represents Lilo's rage in the original film. Her becoming friends with him was a way for her to Tame Her Anger.
Anti-Hero: He starts off as an evil monster but develops into a Disney Anti-Hero. He's plenty heroic but still likes causing mischief.
Apathetic Pet: Initially, he only allows Lilo to adopt him as her pet so that he can hide from Jumba and he uses her as a shield at one point, something that even Jumba objects to. Stitch ends up ditching this trope, however, when he genuinely grows close to her.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: He is programmed to destroy buildings, back up sewers, reverse road signs, and steal everyone's left shoe.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Happens to Stitch once every TV series.
- Lilo & Stitch: The Series: In "Shortstuff", Stitch uses a Growth Ray to make himself bigger so he can ride a roller coaster, but it's overdone by accident and he becomes a giant, which in turn makes him too big to ride the coaster. He also gets into a Kaiju-esque fight with the episode's experiment, but is unable to defeat his "cousin" until he (Stitch) gets shrunk back down to normal size.
- Stitch!: Shrink (Experiment 001) zaps Stitch when he's in a pool to make him bigger. Thanks to Retro (Experiment 210) reverting Stitch back to his old destructive self before, Stitch goes on a rampage until Yuna fixes him.
- Stitch & Ai: This trope is a major plot point in this series. Turns out that—according to this series—when Jumba created Stitch, the experiment was programmed to grow into a giant monster with laser-firing tentacles when his destructive programming triggers in a large city. Lilo and later Ai's love managed to suppress this programming, but thanks to a morph creature pretending to be Stitch's new brother named "Scratch", Stitch gets coerced into becoming this giant destructive creature, causing him to become Brainwashed and Crazy and begin destroying a city under construction. Luckily, Ai manages to get through to the real Stitch before the Jaboodies take full control of him, and Stitch turns on them, destroying some of their armada, before returning to his original size and form.
Ax-Crazy: It's explicitly stated at the beginning that his only instinct is to destroy everything. He loses this status as time progresses.
Back from the Dead: In Stitch Has a Glitch, he actually dies for real, but Lilo crying over his body revives him.
Batman Can Breathe in Space: The Series episode "The Asteroid" shows that Stitch, along with his cousins, do not need to wear a suit when they are out in the vacuum of space. Both Stitch! and Stitch & Ai reaffirm this.
Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The Brawn between himself, Angel, and Reuben. Stitch does have traits of the other two; he's a cute, fun-loving alien, but he's not as attractive as Angel is and can be crude at times. And while he is very cunning thanks to his faster-than-a-supercomputer brain, he's also very brash and temperamental, which causes him to make several mistakes. Plus, Reuben (who is identical to Stitch in abilities) can speak English fluently while Stitch usually speaks broken or simplistic English. That said, Stitch uses his incredible strength and fighting abilities more often than the other two while also being incredibly durable; Angel is strong, but likely not as strong as the males, and Reuben is just as strong as Stitch, but his laziness undermines it and he's more susceptible to pain as a result.
Becoming the Mask: In the original film, he pretends to be Lilo's pet so Jumba doesn't capture him. As time goes on he grows to love Lilo. The Series sometimes focuses on Stitch learning about life on Earth.
Be the Ball: He is so flexible that he can contort himself into a ball and roll around, sometimes attacking in ball form.
Big Brother Instinct: With Lilo throughout the franchise, and to his "cousin" Sparky in Stitch! The Movie.
Big Eater: Good grief, does he have an appetite! You'd think that from watching the television shows that all he ever thinks about is food. The Stitch! anime even had an episode that shows that he even dreams about food!
Bioweapon Beast: Genetically engineered from various dangerous animals to be an ultimate weapon, though a lot cuter and fluffier than most examples.
Black Eyes of Evil: His eyes are so dark that they normally appear to be black, but this is ultimately subverted after his reformation. That said, he was made with the all-black eyes to add to his unpredictability.
Blue Is Heroic: He has blue fur and is the main character, although this trope does not apply to him until after his Character Development in the first film.
Blunt "Yes": A master of this trope in his native tongue. He says, "Ih," when he gets his point across or someone else does it for him.
Boring, but Practical: Stitch has a more limited and obvious powerset than his more specialized and fantastical cousins—super strength, speed, toughness, intelligence—but they're at a high enough level for him to match any experiment barring 627.
Born as an Adult: In the flashback of Stitch Has a Glitch, he was born the way he is in the present day. Oddly though, he turns into a baby in "Babyfier".
Borrowed Catchphrase: "Stupidhead", which he likely took from Nani.
Breakout Character: Arguably the most popular Disney character who debuted in the 2000s decade, easily the most famous character from Walt Disney Animation Studios' Experimental Era, and unquestionably the first 21st century-debuted character from the DAC to have achieved iconic status. He even got two more TV series after the original parts of the franchise ended.
Butt-Monkey: For all the punishment Stitch doles out, he also gets knocked around a lot in the franchise, especially in Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Being a nigh indestructible creature who doesn't show signs of injury when he gets hurt does leave him very open to this trope.
The Cameo: He appears as merchandise in Treasure Planet and Big Hero 6.
Carpet of Virility: As much as a small, cute, furred creature could allow, Stitch has a tuft of fur on his chest. Some◊ Stitch plush toys◊ reference this by sewing in long fur on the stitch going up through his torso.
Character Development: Throughout the course of the first movie, he shifts from being an uncaring monster to a loving family member.
Clark Kenting: He can retract two of his arms, his antennae, and his back spines to look more like a dog. Several characters truthfully point out that he looks more like a koala and add "I think" because of the blue fur. Sometimes he can even pass as a little boy.
Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: While he often fools around, usually forcing Lilo to keep him under control, there are times when he shows to have more common sense than his best friend.
- In this scene in Lilo & Stitch 2:
Lilo: (jumps to her feet) That's it! I've got it! Elvis is trying to tell us to do a hula about a chicken!
Stitch: (gently touches her shoulder and eases her down) No, he's not. (Lilo sits back down)
- In The Series episode "Sprout", he is reluctant to help Lilo acquire the plant experiment for the orchid competition, then later tells her straight that he cannot give her any sympathy for letting the experiment grow out of control.
Cute and Psycho:
- He is adorable, but he was obsessed with destroying everything. However, that was only in the first movie.
- He can still become this if he drinks too much and/or too strong coffee.
Cute, but Cacophonic: His extremely nasal voice, combined with his gibberish-sounding alien speech and broken, childish English, doesn't sound quite as cute as he looks (though some fans disagree with this). In fact, Chris Sanders deliberately used that voice before it became the established "Stitch voice" to annoy his co-workers, and he stated in a Vulture interview that Stitch's voice was consistently the lowest-rated aspect of the film on test audience cards.
Cute Monster: Stitch is the trope illustrator, having been made from various alien creatures and designed for destructive purposes. He's unique in that he was designed to be a destructive monster, but once his Character Development is complete at the end of the first film, he doesn't want to even be seen as a monster. He even has a brief crisis when he sees his own backstory in The Origin of Stitch.
Depending on the Writer: His English-language fluency has a tendency to fluctuate between works, despite his intelligence.
- In the original film, it is somewhat proficient, but he doesn't start speaking it until after he meets Lilo, and he kept it private in public for obvious reasons. It's also usually in simple sentences or sentence fragments. As for his famous Third-Person Person, he only did it just twice in this film, both within seconds of each other in the Dénouement. ("Does Stitch have to go in the ship?" and "Can Stitch say goodbye?")
- Stitch Has a Glitch is a similar case to the original film, due to it being a direct sequel.
- In The Series and its films, he speaks his native language (called Tantalog) more often, and his English is usually more broken in this continuity.
- The anime completely reversed the above by having him speak increasingly fluent English (with occasionally mixed-in Tantalog) in the dub, which is justified considering that, as its status as a Time Skip sequel series, Stitch has been on Earth for several years by then. He also became a lot quippier than in any franchise work before or since.
- Stitch & Ai went back on what the anime did to his English speech, reverting back to a version of his classic, less-fluent speech. For example, he says, "Ai belongs in the mountains," in a stilted manner to her in the first episode. In fact, Ben Diskin adds a lot more brief pauses in Stitch's English speech than even in the original continuity.
- His later Disney video game appearances were also inconsistent. His English was heavily flawed and more childish than normal in Kinect: Disneyland Adventures. He even used incorrect first-person speech in at least one quote in the game (speaking "me" when it should have been "I"), which almost never happened in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. In Disney Infinity, he spoke in proficient-but-still-slightly-flawed English.
- On the flip side, his Disney Parks appearances probably contain his most fluent English speech apart from the anime. In Stitch's Great Escape! (and for one line heard on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover), he spoke mostly in fluent English. The non-American Disney Parks interactive show Stitch Encounter/Stitch Live! also has him speaking in fluent English,^note probably for the adults in the audience; they could have been pretty annoyed if they had to hear him speak in broken English for fifteen minutes straight.
- A TikTok video posted by Chris Sanders under the guise of Stitch has him speaking fluent English save for the illeism, more or less showing that Sanders believes that Stitch would become better at English over time.
The Dog Is an Alien: Despite looking like no dog on Earth and looking more like a blue koala instead, the humans outside of his ʻohana are blissfully unaware of his alien nature, though a lot of people do question him.
Ear Notch: This mischievous alien has two; one on the outer rim of each ear that is asymmetric to the other as depicted in the above image (right ear's notch near the tip, left ear's notch near the base). However, they are misplaced in some imagery and merchandise, as well as lots of Fan Art.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Argument: "Ih." Assessment: "He's very persuasive." Pleakley also points this out in an episode of The Series.
Empathy Pet: Sometimes acts as one for Lilo.
Lilo: The only thing I know I inherited from [my mom] is... well, Nani.
Stitch: Bleh.
Evil Laugh: Has a high-pitched cackle when performing mischief.
Exact Words: Stitch being able to lift "three thousand times his weight" is an exact number. In Stitch! The Movie, Hämsterviel keeps Stitch with a restraint of 3,001 times his weight. Then in an episode of The Series, while lifting heavy machinery during a talent show, Gantu threw his plastic backstage pass onto the pile, which was enough to tip the scales and make Stitch collapse.
The Exile: The Grand Councilwoman officially exiles him to Earth at the end of the original movie. It's apparent that it's because she was moved by Stitch's connection to his new ʻohana, since the terms of his sentence didn't say where he should be exiled to.
Extreme Omnivore: If you plan to serve him anything using open containers and dinnerware, be prepared to never see that mug and that plate again. A lot of merchandise and imagery featuring him tend to show him taking a bite out of something inedible.
Expressive Ears: His ears often droop when he feels negative emotions or when he's particularly pleased and happy (like when Angel kisses him◊).
Fluffy the Terrible: "Stitch" is a remarkably harmless-sounding name, unless you live in Iceland.
- Lampshaded by Gantu and Stitch during the confrontation:
Gantu: Ah! You're vile, you're foul, you're flawed!
Stitch: Also cute and fluffy!
Forgot About His Powers: Despite having super strength, he pretty regularly struggles to overpower anything throughout the franchise, even regular humans or animals. This applies the most often when he has to fight Gantu, with Stitch often getting knocked around with ease despite other episodes showing that Stitch has the ability to easily overpower him. Then again, Stitch is still a small enough creature to be knocked around easily, especially by a giant alien like Gantu. It's also likely that the designed-to-be-the-ultimate-destroying-monster Stitch is restraining himself to prevent causing too much harm or damage to others. (Do you think he really wanted to hurt Lilo during their fight in Lilo & Stitch 2?)
Four-Fingered Hands: He has four digits on each paw; four toes on each back paw/foot and four fingers on each front paw/hand. He's an alien, after all.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine: Fun, daring, accommodating and unpredictable.
Genius Bruiser: Along with his Super-Strength he's said to be smarter than a supercomputer. This is best shown when he escapes from prison at the start of the film despite the security measures set up to keep him busy before he is removed from the ship.
Green-Eyed Monster: Stitch can get very jealous of those he thinks are taking up Lilo's attention, most often when other experiments are—in his eyes—stealing the show away from him. Not even Angel can completely suppress this trait of his.^note This is not even getting into his competitive streak…
Grew Beyond Their Programming: Jumba gave him an instinctive genetic drive to destroy everything he came in contact with, and never gave him a "higher purpose", as he puts it, but over the course of the movie Stitch learns the concepts of family and empathy. He's a much more developed character by the end.
Hates Baths: Due to his aquaphobia (see Super Drowning Skills below for why he has a fear of water). In The Series episode "Phantasmo", Lilo almost got Stitch in the bathtub, until Nani loudly asked her if she'd given him a bath yet. Cue Stitch running away wearing a kiddie inner tube.
Heel–Face Turn: The original movie's whole story is his redemption from an evil monster.
Heel Realization: After he sees how his actions have ruined things for Lilo and Nani he starts to have a problem with his default programming.
Heinz Hybrid: The Origin of Stitch reveals that Stitch's body is comprised of elements from other aliens that Jumba tracked down and used to create him.
The Hero: In the TV shows, he gets the opportunity to use his talents for good.
Hidden Depths: He has shown several times throughout the franchise that he actually enjoys building and creating things more than he enjoys destroying things, and he's quite good (and often fast) at doing so, as best seen with his sand creations save for his first "sandcastle" in the original film's "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" sequence.
Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Only in the anime episode "Stitch Sings!" where he tries to overcome his terrible singing, which is enough to disrupt nature.
I Am a Monster: Goes through this trope in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch and its short film tie-in, The Origin of Stitch. Regardless, he definitely doesn't like to be seen as one.
I Am Not a Gun: Not at first, since he was involuntarily removed from any meaningful things to destroy. Once he spends enough time with Lilo, he willingly stops pursuing his primary function.
I Just Want to Be Loved:
- He first comes to Earth after a prison breakout. Later on, in Lilo's bedroom, Lilo mentions that her parents died in a car wreck and that his mischievous behavior, wrecking things, and shoving Lilo probably comes from Stitch dreaming about his parents. Later on, after Lilo offers him the chance to leave if he wants, he goes to the forest and laments that he's lost.
- Early on when camped outside Lilo's house, Jumba notices that Stitch has nothing to destroy because he never gave him a greater purpose, and Stitch has no memories to look back upon.
"I'm Okay! I'm fluffy!" This is one of his catchphrases in Lilo & Stitch: The Series, often saying it whenever he gets hurt.
In a Single Bound: Don't let those short legs fool you; his Super-Strength allows him to jump several times his height.
Informed Attribute: He can be pretty clever occasionally, but he's far from ever doing anything even close to exhibiting that he has a brain faster and more powerful than a supercomputer. In fact, more often than not he's pretty slow on the uptake and often has trouble grasping even the most basic concepts at times. He does sometimes come up with plans, there's a tiny handful of one-off scenes showing him to be good at math and puzzles, and is quick to learn new skills (e.g. becomes a very good guitar player after only a few notes in the first film, becomes a master bull rider after only a couple days training in "Sprout"), but nothing that displays any real true supercomputer-level thinking. That said, this is all likely to avoid making him OP in the television shows; otherwise, he would win or overcome things on his own much too often (that was even a plot point in one episode when Stitch becomes egotistical from catching experiments so easily).
Informed Flaw: In one episode of The Series, Lilo says that Stitch is allergic to sauerkraut. We never see Stitch eat sauerkraut or anything made with it (like, coincidentally, the sandwich 625 is named after) at any point in the franchise, so we don't get to see what kind of allergic reaction he has towards it.
Instant Expert: His hypercognition provided by his supercomputer brain allows him to learn new skills very quickly, like becoming skilled at playing guitar/ukulele after seeing and hearing Lilo play a few notes and then playing a few notes himself.
Iron Butt Monkey: Since he was built to be extremely durable, he can easily shrug off most slapstick that is thrown his way.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Most displayed in the TV series. After he reformed as Stitch; he is still mischievous, still somewhat self-centered, and can still get egotistical at times. And sometimes even gets a little too rough on his "cousins". Nevertheless, Stitch is genuinely a sweetie to those who do not mistreat him and he loves his ʻohana dearly.
The Juggernaut: "I designed this creature for it to be unstoppable." Unfortunately for Dr. Jumba, he unwittingly introduced a design flaw; Stitch can't swim and so he is easily stopped by large bodies of water.
Killer Rabbit: He is just as adorable as a Disney character should be, resembling a blue koala, but then he curses a room out in an alien language, escapes from a heavily-guarded starship using Super-Strength and his vicious cunning and has the urge to wipe out major cities programmed into him.
Leitmotif: One that pops up infrequently in American media, but "Stitch to the Rescue" generally appears to help demonstrate Stitch's Heroic Spirit.
Like a Son to Me:
- The relationship starts off as dysfunctional when Jumba tells Stitch that he can never belong to a family because Jumba created Stitch. After a battle that destroys Nani's and Lilo's house when Stitch is captured afterward, he persuades Jumba to reluctantly go on a rescue mission to rescue Lilo so Stitch can become the hero that he was meant to be even after he had made such great efforts to capture him.
- Even when trying to track Stitch down, Jumba even shows moments of concern for Stitch's greater purpose when camped outside the Pelekai house on a surveillance mission:
Jumba: 626 was designed to be a monster, but now he has nothing to destroy. You see, I never gave him a greater purpose. What must it be like to have nothing, not even memories to visit in the middle of the night?
- In Lilo & Stitch 2, Jumba is willing to do whatever it takes to make a fusion chamber out of household appliances to re-charge Stitch's molecules, even though the chamber fails and Lilo's love for Stitch brings him Back from the Dead.
- In The Origin of Stitch, when Stitch enters Jumba's secret lair, he discovers a video that shows the various monster parts that comprise him and show his destructive nature. Jumba enters the lab and mentions that his plans changed when Stitch found a family, and Jumba mentions that out of all his experiments, Stitch is his greatest success and he is very proud of Stitch for surpassing his expectations.
Make My Monster Grow: Every series has involved at least one episode where Stitch either inadvertently, or desires to become, a massive monster. Stitch & Ai expanded upon the concept that—at least in the continuity of that series—this is all part of his destructive programming that triggers in large cities. Coupled with the fact that he can grow large laser-firing tentacles out of his back, Stitch resembles a cute and fluffy mix of Godzilla and the Iron Giant. Thank goodness he grew a conscience.
Messy Male, Fancy Female: The Messy Male to Angel's Fancy Female. Stitch has spiked tufts of fur on his head and chest, while Angel's fur is smooth, with a white V-shaped marking on her chest. In addition, Stitch has notches in his slightly pointed ears and his retractable antennae are short and budded at the tips, while Angel's slightly rounder ears lack notches and her non-retractable antennae are long, curved and smooth with rounded tips.
The Millstone: In the first movie, he repeatedly foils Nani's chances of getting a job with Lilo's attempts to turn him into a model citizen. However, Stitch decides to stop it when he finds out that his mischief cost Nani the chance of staying with Lilo.
A Mistake Is Born:
- When hunting for Stitch, Jumba tells him "I'll put you back together again... I'll make you taller, and not so fluffy!"
  Stitch: I like fluffy.
- Later on, when Stitch goes to rescue Lilo, Gantu tells him "You're vile! You're foul! You're flawed!"
  Stitch: Also cute and fluffy!
Mistaken for Dog: He is an interesting case of this trope in which he looks like a very strange dog to those who are not aware of his alien nature. He still has to put up the facade of a dog anyway to avoid completely freaking out the local populace on Earth.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: He has four arms in his natural state, but can retract two to blend in.
Multiple-Choice Past: Stitch's "birth" and life before the events of the original film have varied between spin-offs and sequels.
- In the prequel comics, Stitch was created when Jumba fired an energizing laser at a blob of matter. The blob was in a sealed chamber and his creation was witnessed by Experiment 625 (a.k.a. Reuben). Stitch was also responsible for Jumba getting arrested by leading him on a wild goose chase on Turo, leading to their arrest back his lab.
- The prequel PS2 game Stitch: Experiment 626 doesn't depict Stitch's "birth", but it contradicted the comics by showing that Stitch collected DNA for Jumba for a while, dealing with a rival scientist called Dr. Habbitrale (whose design would provide the template for the later Dr. Hämsterviel), fighting against his fellow experiment who was jealous of him (Experiment 621/Chopsuey), and rescuing Jumba from Captain Gantu and escaping with him using a spaceship with hyperdrive (Jumba and Stitch would be arrested again not long after).
- Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch showed a similar depiction of Stitch's "birth" as the comics, but the blob was floating in a glass energizing chamber that had no lasers prior to Stitch being fully formed, Jumba was alone in his lab when he was creating 626, and Stitch wasn't fully charged yet (leading to the film's conflict) as he and Jumba were arrested just one or two minutes after 626 came into existence. This scene is regarded as the canonical depiction of Stitch's "birth", retconning the game out of the canon.
- However, in The Series episode "Kixx"—which first aired almost two years before Lilo & Stitch 2—Jumba mentions having previously trained Stitch before their arrest, contradicting the sequel film.
- The Stitch! ~Best Friends Forever~ (the third season of the anime) two-parter "Stitch's Birthday" has Stitch, along with Yuna and Pleakley, going back in time using Jumba's new Time Machine to discover Jumba and Stitch's past, but nearly mess up the timeline in the process and almost causing Stitch's "birth" to never happen.
Must Have Caffeine: Stitch's favorite beverages (which are also the first two beverages he ever had on Earth) are coffee and soda, and he usually gets more hyperactive than usual after drinking caffeinated drinks. He will also not take kindly to being denied them, such as in "Phantasmo" when Pleakley doesn't pour him some soda.^noteAnd this is after Lilo told Stitch to wait his turn, to which Stitch complied, only for Pleakley to not pour any soda for Stitch after pouring some for Lilo. He will get his caffeine no matter what.
- Averted in the anime, where it's more "Must Not Have Caffeine"; drinking any coffee in that show causes him to go full-on 626 mode and sends him into a destructive rampage.
New Powers as the Plot Demands:
- Happens in the Stitch! anime and in Stitch & Ai, neither of which had Chris Sanders in any level of participation. Both shows use this trope as a major plot point:
  - Stitch! has, in its third season, an inert power cell (called the "Neo-PowerChip" in the Japanese version) that increases Stitch's strength when he's in dire straits, which that season's main villainess wants.
  - Stitch & Ai has the metamorphosis program, which causes him to grow into a giant Kaiju-like monster with large laser-firing tentacles when his full destructive programming is triggered in a large city. He also has the ability to sprout quills around his head and grow a patagium (like those of flying squirrels) to glide through the air.
- That said, Lilo & Stitch: The Series and its films also introduced a few more minor abilities for Stitch that he used in a few instances, most of which were vision-related (night vision, infrared vision, magnifying vision).
Nigh-Invulnerability: This is arguably Stitch's greatest power; in the words of his creator, he's "practically indestructible". Nothing that he's endured has ever led to any permanent injury; he got run over by three trucks and was only knocked unconscious for a couple of hours, exposed point-blank to the extreme heat of an interstellar ship's thrusters, was at ground-zero of a gasoline truck exploding on top of a volcano and was not only uninjured but used the resulting explosion to rocket through the air to reach Gantu's ship and punch through the cockpit window to fight him, can survive the vacuum of space without a spacesuit, and so on. Jumba even says what essentially amounts to a Wave Motion Hand Cannon might stun him (at best), and it turns out he can catch and handle the energy shots. The only downside of this ability is that Stitch cannot swim since his molecular density is too great, and even then he's survived near-drowning experiences.
No Name Given: Before he was legally adopted by Lilo, Stitch was technically a nameless creature known only by his "species name" Experiment 626. Likewise, the same goes for his cousins save for 627 and 628 (both of whom remain truly nameless), although in almost all those other instances they are more like nicknames or aliases than actual legal names.
Now What?: The movie's plot is about Stitch finding himself faced with this very question. Fortunately for him, Lilo and (though reluctantly) Nani help him in finding an answer by showing him the value of family and friendship.
One Head Taller: Gender-inverted, platonic, interspecies example; Stitch is one head shorter than Yuna and Ai in their shows, and Lilo—the shortest of Stitch's three human companions—has been portrayed as being a head taller than him at times.
Only One Name: Ignoring his "birth"/species name, this is Justified for Stitch as he was legally adopted as a "dog"; pets normally do not receive their owners' last names.^note
Overly-Long Tongue: He has a tongue so long he can pick his nose with it.
Pardon My Klingon: "Meega, nala kweesta!" A phrase in his native Tantalog that is so offensive to alien society that a robot vomits.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: With Angel, he's a textbook example.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Tiny, but can lift three thousand times his own weight. However, that is the literal cap.
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
Gantu: You're vile! You're foul! You're flawed!
Stitch: Also cute! AND FLUFFY! (hurls Gantu through the glass of the cockpit)
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted; if his eyes are red, that means he's using infrared vision.
- It's green eyes that you have to worry about as seen in the sequel.
- However, Stitch & Ai plays this straight with his metamorphosis program.
Reformed, but Not Tamed: He's completely on the side of good ever since he broke through his destructive programming, but he's unable to hold back all of his mischievous tendencies, as well as a few selfish ones.
Reluctant Monster: Not at first, but he comes around once he feels love for the first time. Then he doesn't want to be a monster anymore. All together now... Awww...
Retractable Appendages: His antennae, claws, back spines, and extra arms. The scene when he first does this in the animal shelter provides the page image.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Stitch is easily one of Disney's cutest characters. After his Character Development Heel–Face Turn, he really is cute and fluffy. Good thing he likes it that way.
Sealed Evil in Another World: The destructive Experiment 626 is sentenced to be imprisoned on an asteroid, but he escapes and crashes on Earth. The Galactic Federation pursues and arrests him again, but discovers that in his time with Lilo's family "Stitch" has greatly reformed his behavior. With the aid of a legal loophole by Lilo, the Federation thus decides to change Stitch's sentence to exile on Earth, allowing him to continue living with Lilo and Nani.
Single Specimen Species: He was introduced as the first of a new species by Jumba in the original film's prologue, but since Jumba only made one Experiment 626,^note and that all of the experiments each have their own unique genetic structure, Stitch is the only member of the Experiment 626 species. This plays a role in the original film into him becoming "lost" after the "Aloha ʻOe" scene and later Jumba telling Stitch that he has no family, as in the immediate sense of the word. This trope is also partially why he became unhappy with himself in Stitch! The Movie until he found out about and met his "cousins".
Sixth Ranger: Not within his own franchise, but rather among all of Disney's animated characters. During the franchise's heyday in the 2000s, Stitch was frequently promoted by Disney alongside Mickey Mouse and his friends among the company's merchandise and promotional material. This died down in the West after the older Disney fans got sick of him and the franchise lost much of its popularity, but Stitch remains so popular (see also the below trope) that he still appears alongside them in certain non-American regions, and in the U.S. he is still frequently included in many new and seasonal product lines alongside Mickey and his pals.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: A rare instance of a title protagonist getting this trope.^note As The Protagonist above has stated, whenever Lilo & Stitch get any representation in Disney's marketing and crossover material, it's usually either just Stitch and Stitch alone or he gets more focus than any other character from his franchise. This has gotten to the point that from The New '20s onward, Disney is now promoting the franchise as just Stitch (or Disney Stitch) and has further increased its already-high focus on the popular alien.
Super Drowning Skills: Because his "molecular density is too great," he's like a piece of lead in water. He probably can't keep himself afloat without help. Lilo, in contrast, is an excellent swimmer.
Super-Speed: Although not one of his major powers and certainly not reaching The Flash or Sonic the Hedgehog levels of speed, he is able to move much faster than a human can, as noticed in a few instances in the franchise:
- In The Series episode "Yin-Yang", he outruns Lilo while chasing down the episode's two experiments, with Jumba proudly boasting about his experiment's running capabilities.
- In "Heckler", after Gantu—who broke down the halau hula's main doorway—leaves with the episode's experiment, Stitch runs off-screen to grab tools and supplies, runs across the screen carrying said tools and supplies, then perfectly reconstructs the doorway off-screen in just a few seconds.
- Then there are his fast, gecko-like movements when climbing on walls and ceilings.
Terse Talker: Most of Stitch's spoken lines are brief, especially when speaking English. This was enforced by Sanders doing the voice of his own creation during the production of the first film, as he and DeBlois were concerned that Disney would force Stitch to speak more than he needed to if they hired a professional voice actor. Some episodes of The Series seemingly go out of their way to make sure Stitch's lines are minimal, such as "Topper"^note and "Spike".^note Averted in the English dub of the Stitch! anime, where Stitch becomes more fluent in human speech and a lot more talkative, and in Stitch Encounter/Stitch Live!, since that whole show is about giving park guests a chance to talk with Stitch.
Third-Person Person:
- After he accepts the name "Stitch", it becomes an oddly recurring trait for him to refer to himself by his name. He does use proper first-person terms at times, however, so he's not completely enveloped in this trope.
- A few video games, including Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Disney Getaway Blast, and Disney Dreamlight Valley, sometimes even go as far as having him use third-person pronouns to refer to himself, which he never does in the actual canon (save for one little speech he makes at the end of Leroy & Stitch, but that was an exception, not the rule).
Took a Level in Kindness: Throughout the first movie, Stitch becomes progressively more understanding, caring, and empathetic, mostly thanks to Lilo's influence.
Trademark Favorite Food: Coconut cake and coffee, which happen to be the first Earth-based food and drink he ever ate. He often also eats the plate and mug they came in. Soda is a second-favorite beverage since it's the second he ever had on Earth and it's full of sugar and caffeine, respectively much like the first two foodstuffs. Stitch & Ai, which features neither coconut cake nor coffee, changes this to bingtanghulu.
Tragic Monster: Lampshaded by his creator:
Jumba Jookiba: 626 was designed to be a monster, but now he has nothing to destroy. You see, I never gave him a greater purpose. What must it be like to have nothing, not even memories to visit in the middle of the night?
The Trickster: He's designed by Jumba to be this and still maintains this personality trait after he reformed. He frequently uses his strength and cunning to pull off a bit of mischief.
Tuft of Head Fur: Stitch has a small tuft of fur on his head as a small sign showing how rough he is.
Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: He spends part of the first movie in that state due to ending up on an island with no large cities, which are required for his programming to kick in.
The Unintelligible: He speaks some kind of weird alien language, which is strange considering that the others... don't. It's called Tantalog, which is said to be a cross between native Hawaiian, Chinese, and "Chezcreekian", the last supposedly being an obscure language spoken by a minority of people in the rural parts of Chesterfield in North Derbyshire, England.
Universal Driver's License: Thanks to his super-intelligence, he can operate a multitude of vehicles from as simple as a tricycle (which thanks to his strength he can accelerate to speeds much faster than a human can accomplish) to as complex as an intergalactic spaceship. Throughout The Series, he drives Lilo around in a modified dune buggy, even though (as Nani points out) he doesn't have an actual driver's license (though he does have a dog license).
Unstoppable Rage: In the Stitch! anime, he'll go on a rampage if he drinks coffee.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The dog/koala with blue fur doesn't get a lot of attention from the local humans. Sometimes, he even gets mistaken for being a(n "ugly") child.
Vague Age: He acts immature, but it's hard to tell if he's a kid or an adult in experiment years. It's lampshaded in "Skip"; when Lilo skips ahead in time she's a teenager and later an adult, but Stitch looks the same. Lilo says experiments probably age differently. Averted in the English dub of Stitch!, however; the "Stitch's Birthday" two-parter explicitly states that he was created eighteen years before the present time of that episode.
Verbal Tic: He says "okay" (or its Tantalog equivalent, "Okie-taka") quite often. It's possible that he really desires the approval of others for many of his actions to show that he's not bad.
Villain Protagonist: For a good part of the first movie, he's a vicious, destructive monster who's only pretending to be Lilo's pet so Jumba can't attack him. Though Lilo's influence, he gradually sheds the "villain" part.
Vocal Evolution: Chris Sanders' Stitch voice has gotten higher as he's gotten older, as heard in Disney Infinity 2.0, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Disney Speedstorm, and Sanders' own TikTok videos when he uses the voice.
Wall Crawl: He can climb up walls and ceilings like a gecko, and uses this ability often in the franchise's TV shows. This makes him Disney's Spider-Man. (Before they bought Marvel, no less!)
Weaksauce Weakness: Stitch can't swim at all because his body is too dense.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: In the first movie, Jumba expresses initial disappointment when he tells him he can never belong to a family because he was built to destroy; he even threatens to reassemble Stitch as taller and not so fluffy. In The Origin of Stitch short film, when Stitch discovers his file record in Jumba's lab that reveals he was constructed using the parts of other alien beasts, Jumba finds him and discusses how that, in spite of how he was originally created for destructive purposes, everything changed for the better when Stitch discovered his ʻohana, and Jumba says that out of all his 600+ experiments, Stitch is his greatest success and he is very proud of him.
Wild Child: It's never specified whether Stitch has an age, but his behavior and manners are not unlike those of an extremely hyperactive little boy. In Stitch Has a Glitch he is created moments before Jumba's lab is raided by the authorities. Director's commentary on the "Big Wave Edition" DVD for the original film says that Jumba and Stitch's trial was held approximately two months after Stitch's creation, so Lilo may have been absolutely correct in calling him a "new baby".
Would Hit a Girl: Has gotten into physical fights with Lilo and has fought female experiments such as Yin.
X-Ray Vision: One of his abilities. His eyes glow green when he's using this mode.
You Are Number 6: Jumba usually calls him by his experiment number, even though "Experiment 626" stopped being his name when he was adopted. After all, Lilo's adoption of him was legal under State of Hawaii law, so his legal name is indeed Stitch.^note Then again, Jumba usually calls Lilo, "Little Girl". It's just his quirk.
Youngest Child Wins: Stitch was the last of the experiments created by Jumba before the scientist was arrested. Compared to his older "cousins", Stitch is the smartest, the strongest, and their ringleader.
You No Take Candle: Sometimes, at least in Western-produced media, to help play up his childishness. Played straighter in Japanese dubs and productions, using the Japanese equivalent of this trope for his speech, which is best seen in the English translations of the Disney Magical World games and Stitch & the Samurai, and English subtitles for the original Japanese version of the Stitch! anime on Disney+.
Your Mom: Based on Jumba's reaction to his alien talk, Stitch manages to deliver one of these to Jumba:
Jumba (after Stitch's previous remark in Tantalog): Leave my mother out of this!
Your Size May Vary: We know that Stitch is a short guy, but his size has varied from appearing about two feet tall to three feet tall. This is more noticeable when he's compared to one of the other main characters; for example, with Lilo, he's normally about half a head shorter than her (with his ears making up the difference), but sometimes she's One Head Taller than him, and sometimes they appear nearly equal in height (such as when he hugs her when they first meet each other).

Characters / Lilo & Stitch – The Titular Duo
aka: Lilo And Stitch Stitch

Lilo Pelekai

Stitch (Experiment 626)

Video Example(s):

"Aloha, e Komo Mai"

Alternative Title(s): Lilo And Stitch Lilo Pelekai, Lilo And Stitch Stitch

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"Aloha, e Komo Mai"

Characters / Lilo & Stitch – The Titular Duo aka: Lilo And Stitch Stitch

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Lilo Pelekai

Stitch (Experiment 626)

Video Example(s):

"Aloha, e Komo Mai"

Alternative Title(s): Lilo And Stitch Lilo Pelekai, Lilo And Stitch Stitch

Previous

Index

Next

"Aloha, e Komo Mai"

Characters / Lilo & Stitch – The Titular Duo
aka: Lilo And Stitch Stitch