Leroy

Leroy, also known as Experiment 629, is an illegal genetic experiment appearing as the titular secondary antagonist of Leroy & Stitch and the last known experiment to be created by Jumba Jookiba. Hämsterviel forced Jumba to create Leroy and design him as an improved version of Stitch with extra destructive capabilities and less fluffy. Thus, Hämsterviel could use Leroy to take control of the Galactic Federation and finally capture all of the other experiments. Leroy has an army of clones and is a near-unstoppable monster that is impossible to be rehabilitated. His one true place is in prison.
==Background==
===Personality===
Leroy is an antagonistic, conceited, and ruthless experiment created to serve as Hämsterviel's enforcer, and thus obeys the evil scientist without question. Despite his loyalty to Hämsterviel, Leroy seems to enjoy seeing him suffer, as he is shown laughing sadistically at Hämsterviel when the latter falls to the ground after their cannon is destroyed. Nevertheless, Leroy is completely loyal to Hämsterviel, as he never once tried to betray him.
Like Stitch, Leroy is shown to be very destructive, but in a more vicious than mischievous way. He is also revealed to be a physical, sadistic, cruel, and disgusting slob. Despite this, he also possesses some of Stitch's habits, including holding soda cans in his mouth, picking his nose with his tongue, and sharing Stitch's love for Elvis Presley's music (though "Aloha ʻOe" would be an exception due to his fail-safe), as Leroy and his clones were seen dancing to "Jailhouse Rock" in their prison cells.
Leroy is very cunning and hyperactive like Stitch, though he is not quite as immature despite the "age" difference. Where the similarities end in Leroy is how brutal he is in comparison to Stitch. Leroy isn't above using violence to get things accomplished and enjoys tormenting his foes whenever possible. He will more often than not rely on brute force in battle and tends to not show mercy to his opponents, though he is capable of planning out his attacks and is quite smart. While his English is not perfect, Leroy can speak it a bit better than most other experiments.
===Physical appearance===
Leroy resembles an exact duplicate of Stitch with rougher red fur, a mahogany nose, black claws, toes, and tips of antennae, a light tan/pinkish-orange stomach from his chin down and around his eyes, crimson markings on the back of his head and on his back, frilly, jagged ears with light purple inside, yellow teeth, a fluffy tail, and a slightly deeper voice. He also has two extra, retractable arms, two bent retractable antennae on his head, three bent retractable spines tipped with white and a dark mahogany on his back, and retractable claws on his front and back paws. When his mouth is closed, his canine fangs stick out.
When impersonating Stitch, Leroy dons the same black spacesuit that Stitch wore when he was the captain of the B.R.B. 9000. Leroy's suit is a black shirt with thick red brims on his shoulders, wrist-length sleeves with red cuffs, along with matching vertical linings on both sides of the shirt and trousers. He also wore a gray belt with a light gray "V" on the front, along with a small gray mark on the upper left chest that resembles a tear drop with a black dot on it. After Leroy and his clones were defeated, the suit was removed.
===Powers and abilities===
Leroy possesses all of the same powers as Stitch, with an extra boost of strength and speed. He can curl into a ball and roll at very high speeds, dealing heavy damage to anything he hits. He is incredibly durable, being immune to fire, bullets, electricity, and other hazards. He is also smart and can think faster than a supercomputer, and can also absorb electric and fire powers. He is normally very physical, but also good with a plasma gun. He also has the ability to disguise himself as Stitch by changing his fur color from red to blue and can instantly regrow his fur. Additionally, Leroy is immune to some of the other experiments' powers; since he is created after Angel, her song has no effect on him.
===Weaknesses===
During his creation, Leroy was programmed with a fail-safe that causes him and his clones to shut down when they hear the song "Aloha ʻOe".
Like Stitch, Leroy is not immune to all the other experiments' powers, evident as some of his clones are affected by Spike and Babyfier.
It is unknown whether or not Leroy shares Stitch's weakness of water.
==Role in the film==
Experiment 629 was the 629th and last known genetic experiment created by Jumba with Hämsterviel's funding. He was designed to have all of Stitch's powers, with an extra boost of strength and speed. He was named Leroy by Dr. Hämsterviel.
While spending a few years on Earth, Jumba had an unfinished experiment at his laboratory in deep space. After Lilo and Stitch had successfully captured and rehabilitated all 625 of Jumba's experiments, he regained access to his lab. During this time, Jumba's evil former partner Dr. Hämsterviel escaped prison with Gantu's help.
Jumba started creating an experiment with explosive saliva from a template similar to Stitch until he was ordered by Hämsterviel, who paid Jumba a visit, to instead make the latter "a new version of 626." Forced to comply after being threatened by Gantu, Jumba created a red, destructive replica of Stitch.
Hämsterviel decided to mimic Lilo by naming the experiment, just like she did with the other experiments. After trying several failed experiment names, due to Gantu pointing out that each one was already taken, Hämsterviel christened the newly-created experiment Leroy (much to Jumba and Gantu's amusement).
Shortly after, Stitch attacked the lab to apprehend Hämsterviel, and Leroy was released to battle Stitch. After a long fight ensued between the twin experiments, Stitch eventually had Leroy pinned down, but Pleakley's untimely arrival distracted Stitch long enough for Leroy to bat him into a containment orb.
After Leroy proved to be more powerful than Stitch (though he had technically won unfairly), the former was cloned into a huge army by Hämsterviel. The original Leroy then took over the B.R.B. by posing as Stitch, the captain, and ordered that the pilots take him, Hämsterviel, and the Leroy army to Turo.
En route, Leroy received a telecommunication from Lilo and, resuming his Stitch disguise, attempted to pose as Stitch. However, he was quickly discovered by Lilo to be an impostor, as he was not wearing the tiki necklace that she had given Stitch earlier, prompting Hämsterviel to order Leroy to "hang up" (namely, by blasting the communicator). Upon arriving on planet Turo, the Leroy army was able to overthrow the council and gain galactic domination.
Meanwhile, a Leroy clone arrived on Earth, where, using Lilo's stolen experiment logbook, he rounded up all of the first 624 experiments there (along with Mertle while capturing Gigi) and brought them to a stadium to be destroyed.
Shortly after, Hämsterviel and the entire Leroy army arrived at the stadium on Earth in the B.R.B. to destroy the captured experiments. Before they could, however, Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, Reuben, and a reformed Gantu arrived, and a battle ensued between the experiments and the Leroy clones.
Though the experiments were able to overpower the Leroys at first, the Leroys soon gained the upper hand. However, as the Leroys came close to winning the battle, Lilo, Stitch, Reuben, and several other experiments performed the song "Aloha ʻOe", which caused all the Leroys (including the original one) to shut down due to the original's fail-safe.
Afterwards, all of the Leroys, along with Hämsterviel, were sent to prison on Asteroid K-37, where they were seen happily dancing to the song "Jailhouse Rock" with an angry Dr. Hämsterviel tapping his foot.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Until June 2020, Leroy was not officially called Experiment 629. Prior to this month, in promotional material for the film and on some Japanese and Disneyland Paris merchandise, Leroy was also referred to as Experiment 628, although this number was not used for his initial appearance in either the Japanese or global versions of Disney Tsum Tsum. Regardless, Leroy being X-628 is false, as he was only called Leroy in the film and is the evil doppelgänger of Experiment 626. Also, the real Experiment 628 (albeit in pod form) was shown in the episode "627".
**Leroy was officially referred to in media as Experiment 629 on June 4, 2020, via a limited-time side story of the manga Stitch & the Samurai that was released exclusively via the Japanese version of LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum.Tweet from the Japanese LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum account written on June 4, 2020. In the manga, a caption box appears under Leroy, referring to him as "試作品629ルロイ" or "Prototype 629 Leroy". ("Prototype", written as 試作品, is the franchise's Japanese terminology for "Experiment"; ルロイ translates to "Leroy".)
**Leroy's chapter in the side story was not published in English; he did not get numbered as 629 in English until an officially-licensed sticker book, The Ultimate Disney Stitch Sticker Book, was published in 2021.
*Leroy is the only experiment to have not been created by Jumba out of his own free will, as Hämsterviel forced him to create the experiment, though he had originally intended Leroy to be a different experiment.
**In fact, Leroy is the first and only illegal genetic experiment since Stitch to be created by Jumba at his own laboratory with Hämsterviel's funding.
*Hämsterviel wanted Leroy's fur color to be red instead of blue so as to match his cape, and that he doesn't like the color blue.
**Ironically, Leroy can change his fur color to look like Stitch's.
**It is unknown if he can change his fur color to other colors.
*Leroy's color scheme and attitude seem to be derived from Experiment 627. Much like 627, Leroy could not be rehabilitated.
**627 was suggested as a name by Jumba before Gantu reminded him that 627 was already created.
*Like 627, Leroy's primary color is red to symbolize evil in contrast to Stitch's blue fur.
**Ironically, at the start of the first film, Stitch's spacesuit is red to symbolize Stitch's original evil and destructive nature before being adopted by Lilo.
*When Hämsterviel christened the newly-created experiment Leroy, everyone, for whatever reason, laughed at the name except Lilo, who considered Leroy to be a fine name, to which Hämsterviel was pleased with Lilo's approval.
**Hämsterviel initially tried to name him Spike, Kixx, Slugger, and Cannonball, but Gantu pointed out that they were already taken.
*Leroy is one of the ten known experiments named by someone other than Lilo, the other nine being Gigi, Elastico, Yaarp, Hammerface, Heat, Thresher, Plasmoid, Morpholomew, and Shrink.
**Leroy, in particular, was named by Hämsterviel, who is also implied to have named Shrink.
**It can also be said that Hämsterviel opened and closed Jumba's career of creating genetic experiments, having named the first and last experiment he funded (Shrink and Leroy, respectively).
*Technically speaking, Leroy is the youngest of all the known experiments, having only come into existence during the events of Leroy & Stitch.
*Leroy is the third experiment shown to share Stitch's habit of picking his nose with his tongue, the first being Sparky and the second being Angel.
**He is also the first experiment shown to share Stitch's habit of obtaining and enjoying soda.
*Although Leroy is the secondary antagonist, he turned out to be more dangerous than Hämsterviel.
*According to the DVD scene selection, Leroy has about 50,000 clones.
*The scene where a Leroy clone crash-lands on Earth in Mertle's backyard is the same animation when Stitch first crash-landed on Earth in Lilo & Stitch.
*When Leroy was defeated, his eyes glowed green as Stitch's eyes did in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch.
*Leroy is a dark reflection of Stitch, similar but not different from 627, Zero, and Dark End.
**While both Leroy and Stitch are clearly designed to be violent and destructive monsters from the start, the difference is that while Stitch was initially an aggressive, bad-tempered, rude and destructive monster in Lilo & Stitch, he learns to change his negative ways thanks to Lilo's influence, while Leroy, on the other hand, remains a complete monster all the way through and is incapable of rehabilitation or reformation. In fact, Leroy can be seen as representing the sort of monster that Stitch would have become if he had never met Lilo and her ʻohana and been introduced to the meaning of family in the original film.
**Coincidentally, the scene where Leroy took over the B.R.B. by posing as Stitch, the captain, and ordered that the pilots take him, Hämsterviel, and the Leroy army to Turo is very reminiscent of the deleted original opening scene from the original film, which depicted Stitch as the leader of an intergalactic gang and Jumba as one of his former cronies sent after Stitch by the Intergalactic Council to capture him. Ironically, however, it is the long-reformed Stitch himself that is sent after Leroy by the Intergalactic Council to capture him.
**Similarly, both Stitch and Leroy's respective owners, Lilo and Hämsterviel, are complete antitheses of each other; while Lilo influences Stitch to give up his destructive ways and reform into a good experiment, Hämsterviel, on the other hand, feeds into Leroy's destructive nature and intentionally uses the experiment for his own evil purpose of world domination.
*Leroy can be considered to be one of the only successful prototypes for Jumba's "ultimate monster" experiment, since Jumba deliberately programmed Leroy's weakness to the song "Aloha ʻOe", and no actual failure has been observed. Other notable attempts for such a prototype experiment are 000, 262, 600, 625, 626, and 627, and each failed for its own reason: 000 is uncontrollable, 262 is good, 600 is clumsy, 625 is lazy, 626 wanted a family, and 627 is weak to laughter.
*He is one of the few experiments that are actually villains, along with Leroy's clones, Zero, Chopsuey, 627, and Dark End, while all the other experiments were following their primary function.
==References==
pt-br:Leroy (Leroy & Stitch)
Category:Villains
Category:Disney characters
Category:Lilo & Stitch characters
Category:Characters in Disney parks
Category:Males
Category:Monsters
Category:Aliens
Category:Animated characters
Category:Shapeshifters
Category:Lilo & Stitch Experiments
Category:Creatures
Category:Characters in video games
Category:Tsum Tsum characters