#cobra bubbles

He probably was fuming by the time he got into his car after his shades became a casualty of the attack.

He's trying to conduct a home visit. It's not going well. The last visit didn't go well. It's becoming more and more clear that he's probably going to have to separate this little girl from her only living relative, which he doesn't want to do. Nani's not helping her own case, and he's coming down pretty hard on her. And then suddenly this bizarre little blue creature pops up and flings a heavy book directly at his face. The sisters insist it's a dog, but it doesn't look, sound, or behave like any dog.

The thing is, Agent Bubbles knows about aliens. He knows for a fact that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists and that it knows about Earth. And yet he doesn't challenge the idea that Stitch is a dog or try to either immediately remove Lilo or demand that Stitch be sent away. He does specifically tell Lilo that the next time he sees Stitch he expects Stitch to be "a model citizen." Not under control or well trained, a model citizen.

Besides all of the racial representation, Lilo herself is very much a neurodivergent icon, and her portrayal as the protagonist is amazing considering how characters like her are typically either sidelined or depicted in ways to make them less sympathetic/human (modern media does at least a slightly better job at adressing that kind of thing tho).

So all of that is great, but to anyone that hasn’t seen Lilo & Stitch: The Series, it also does some extremely refreshing stuff.

Pleakley gets tons of validation to dress in drag, everyone always referring to Pleakley as “she” when dressed up as “aunt Pleakley.” There’s even an episode that tackles Pleakley dealing with the pressures of his family that wants him to marry a girl and settle down to have a “normal life.” After the episode's shenanigans, there's a realistic depiction of the misunderstanding of a heteronormative/traditional parent with their non-traditional child: Pleakley's mom says that she just wants her children to be happy, but when Pleakley says that he is happy, she thinks he's only trying to console her as she insists, "How can you be happy? You aren't even married." But Pleakley finally gets it through to his mom when he says, "I don't want to be married, mother! I'm happy just as I am."

After getting to meet all of Pleakley's ohana throughout the episode and hearing from Pleakley himself -after all of the previous misunderstandings- that he really, truly, is happy, she's finally starting to understand.

Even though his mom comments as they leave that she wants him to “try wearing men’s clothes more often,” she still does walk away accepting that she simply doesn’t understand her son's way of thinking. It’ll definitely be hard for her since she’s so much more “traditional,” but she’s finally coming to grips with the fact that her son is who he is, and likes being that way, so she’ll love him regardless. She's trying her best.

The portrayal of people with physical disabilities is also great. It’s not because there’s one recurring character with some condition, but almost because there are non-recurring characters. It isn’t in every episode, but here’s an example: they want to show someone at the park playing fetch with their dog for just one shot. They could very easily have it be any a random person, but they decided to make it a lady in a wheelchair. There's another episode where Nani's friends from highschool show up and one has forearm crutches, but not just because she had some recent accident. No one in the episode questions her condition or feels the need to point it out, the only comment on it being that the friend will use the crutches to lightly bonk the others' arms, and Nani jokes, "You are still deadly with that thing."

The fact that they include characters with disabilities when they "don't have to" makes it that much more normal. These people aren't some special case or the main highlight of the episode, they're just another person. They're normal.

...

Disney, lemme tell ya something. Past the racist part of that (WILD they were so open about it) even if race wasn't part of this, KIDS WOULDNT FEAR COBRA BUBBLES! THEY REALLY DONT!

Oftentimes, children look for who is safe to be around, and they flock to the most intimidating looking person for that. (That's why everyones got that one grandpa that's grumpy 24/7 yet all the little relatives sit on his knee)

A social worker makes perfect sense for him. When children feel like someone "scary" is on their side, it can help give them courage to stand up to issues they face. Don't believe me? Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) use this tactic to help child victims testify in court against their guardians. Link to that below:

So I find it entirely believable that Cobra Bubbles would make a great social worker, because children would feel protected by him, and he is VERY good with kids. Sorry Disney, but I feel like there's only one real reason you kicked him from the reboot, and it's not because of his tattoos

I'm sorry but...

There is just no way they're gonna do that like that would be so fucking bad man

He's obviously an antagonist in the sense that he's going separate Lilo and Nani

But a straight up villain? That would be one of the worst decisions a live action remake has made since the casting of Gal Gadot in Snow White.

Big Dump of Sketches I made after watching the ORIGINAL Lilo and Stitch movie