Mertle Edmonds

**Mildren "Mertle" Pearl Edmonds** is one of the recurring characters on the Lilo & Stitch Franchise.

## Background

### Personality

Mertle is an incredibly spoiled little girl. She is the leader of the clique of girls who follow her every command. She strongly dislikes Lilo and calls her mean nicknames, such as "Weirdlo" and "Freaklo", as well as always getting her in trouble for what she did. She is shown to be unforgiving and holds grudges against people, even when they apologise, as shown when Lilo apologises for tackling and biting her earlier, she does not forgive her and only says rudely, "Apology not accepted."

It is shown in the TV series that her "friends" aren't too fond of Mertle's mean and bossy attitude, implying that, despite the fact that they hang out with her, they don't actually like her, in fact, they sometimes leave her (but then, come back eventually, for continuity's sake). Mertle takes great pleasure in putting down, insulting, bullying and making fun of Lilo. Mertle also tends not to take responsibility for her actions; she blamed Lilo for beating her up in hula class, even though she was being cruel to Lilo, which provoked her into beating her up. Mertle is even cold enough to tease Lilo about being an oprhan, which is Lilo's weak spot. She also blames Lilo for things that were her own fault, such as the time Mertle got an experiment pod on her charm bracelet and the experiment was a black hole and Mertle didn't listen to Lilo's warnings. When Holio's pod was activated, Mertle blamed Lilo for everything when she did not take Lilo seriously. Just like the other humans, she is too ignorant to tell Stitch, Reuben and the other experiments are aliens and usually mistakes them for disfigured and ugly Earth animals.

In addition to being ignorant, Mertle also seems to have a bad memory, as she doesn't recognise Reuben, whom she had met in a few episodes but the forgotten about. This is made worse by the fact that they can't read either, as shown during "Spike" when Mertle had Teresa to cheat for her during the Ohana-Rama. Then after Spike caused Teresa to lose her intelligence, Mertle couldn't answer a single question right.

In the TV series, it has been shown that Mertle's reason for mocking Lilo comes from her bigoted view of normality that causes her to disregard anyone different from her or anything who disagrees with her. In Leroy & Stitch, it is hinted that Mertle's unseen father who she holds a great deal of respect for is the main influence of this view. Mertle has also been shown to be extremely dishonest as she had no qualms about cheating in contests and framing people for her wrong doings. However, it is shown that Mertle isn't totally heartless and dishonest, in the episode "Yapper", she cheated to win the dog show but then gave Lilo and Stitch the trophy because they played fair and saved her "dog" Gigi (who turned out to be an experiment) from Gantu. She also loves Gigi. It has also been hinted how she might have had some respect or admiration for Lilo's mother as she told her she'll never be a great dancer like her. At the end of Leroy & Stitch, even though Mertle still hates Lilo, she ultimately decides to join the family picture because Gigi insisted, which shows she loves her pet more than she hates Lilo.

While it was not confirmed in the shows of movies, it is likely that Mertle's mother and father are separated or divorced. This is hinted at in Leroy & Stitch where when Mertle cruelly states to Lilo that Stitch "ran away and is never coming back," to which Yuki says "just like Mertle's dad", to which she snaps angrily for her to be quiet. This separation could be one of the reasons why she is a bully and has a poor attitude. Mertle could possibly hold respect for her father in order to bond with him and she adopted his views so she could see him more. The once-common (not anymore) view that divorce is not "normal" could be why Mertle is so mean to people who don't have traditional families, like Lilo. This would make her a hypocrite because she herself does not have the "traditional" nuclear family and likely tries to hide it from everyone, even her friends. This is again implied when Mertle mentions her father in Leroy & Stitch and Yuki is surprised that she has one. This would also make her similar to Lilo in the sense that the both have only a mother figure in their lives and have "broken" families.

Her poor attitude and bullying behaviour could possibly and partially to be attributed to her reaction to her parents' separation and her inability to see her father all the time. Her spoiled personality could also be from her mother spoiling her daughter to keep her happy and mask the struggles they endure as a family. Another likely reason that she is so mean to Lilo is that she is jealous of the love and happiness her rival has with her family, something she cannot get with her father away.

## Appearances

### Film

* Lilo & Stitch
* Stitch! The Movie
* Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch
* Leroy & Stitch