Pelekai Sisters

Pelekai Sisters is the family ship between Nani Pelekai and Lilo Pelekai from the Lilo & Stitch fandom.

Lilo & Stitch (2001)
Nani ended up being forced to take care of her younger sister Lilo after the untimely death of their parents via car crash. They used to get along swimmingly, but the stress of having to take care of Lilo put a strain on their relationship.

The movie starts with Lilo running late for her hula class, but when she explains why she is called "crazy" by her bully Mertle. In response, Lilo attacks Mertle and bites her, leading to their teacher being forced to call Nani to pick Lilo up. She is told to wait on the porch of the school, but Lilo doesn't want to see Nani and runs home by herself. When Nani arrives at school, she hopes that Lilo had run home, but when she arrives, she finds the door not only locked, but also fixed to the wall with nails. When she uses the dog door to spy inside, she finds Lilo lying depressedly on the floor while listening to Elvis, Nani begs her to open the door because the social worker coming to check on them could show at any minute. When Lilo refuses, Nani starts to threaten her, only to quickly eat her words when she finds the social worker standing right behind her. She tells him that she can't let him in through the front door, but takes him in through the back and shows him around the house. None of Nani's attempts to impress him work, since the food she was preparing had burned to a crisp while she was going to pick Lilo up and the social worker is far more concerned about Lilo being left alone at home. The social worker has no problem with Lilo referring to him as "Cobra Bubbles", but he does remind Nani that he's the guy they call when things have gone really wrong, which they did in his eyes. Once he is out of earshot, Nani pulls Lilo by the arm and tells her off for running away and locking herself in. In response, Lilo accuses her of thinking that she would rather take care of a rabbit than her. As Lilo runs to her room, with Nani yelling at her to go there anyway, they each scream into a pillow to blow off steam.

Later on the same day, Nani feels sorry for yelling at Lilo and tries to cheer her up by giving her a slice of pizza to eat. Lilo admits that she liked Nani better as a sister than a mom, Nani apologizes for her rude comment about the rabbit earlier. But just as they start to get along again, a meteor (actually 626's stolen spaceship) crashes into a nearby road, with Lilo thinking it's a shooting star and chasing Nani out of her room to make a wish. Nani presses her ear against the door and listens in on Lilo wishing for "a friend, someone who won't run away". This gives Nani an idea.

The next day, Nani is taking Lilo to a dog pound to grant her wish and tells her to pick out a puppy to take home. Lilo comes back with a strange, long-eared, articulate, blue "dog" (626) and watches the lady working at the dog pound panic at Lilo's choice. Lilo however insists on taking her new friend "Stitch" home and Nani realizes that it's no use arguing with her and goes along with it. The lady ends up selling Stitch to the sisters for only two dollars.

That evening, Lilo takes Stitch to Nani's workplace the "Luau", which Nani agrees with, but she still scolds Lilo for allowing to sit at the tabling while she's waiting for them. As two bounty hunters named Jumba and Pleakley try to lure Stitch away to capture him, Stitch ends up having his teeth locked on Pleakley's head as he's chewing on him. Nani immediately takes action and pulls Stitch away, but her boss is not too happy about Nani's dog attacking "customers" so he fires her on the spot. As Nani takes Lilo home, she does not blame her for Stitch's behavior.

The next day, Nani gets another visit from Cobra Bubbles which leads to Stitch attacking him, Bubbles reminds Nani that she's on thin ice and expects Stitch to be a "model citizen" the next time he visits. Nani drills that into Lilo's head, which leads to her trying to teach Stitch how to be a model citizen by using her idol Elvis Presley as an example. However, as Nani takes Lilo to all her job interviews to keep an eye on her, Lilo and Stitch inadvertently ruin every last one by having Stitch's attempts to act like Elvis backfire horribly.

In the end, Lilo and Nani sit defeated at the destroyed beach, with their friend David coming by to cheer them up by taking them surfing. They take Stitch with them and actually end up having fun with each other for the first time in days. However, Jumba and Pleakley take a more active role in Stitch’s capture and try to snatch him from them while they’re surfing, incidentally taking Lilo with him. Nani panics and David ends up saving both of them, but Cobra Bubbles saw the whole thing and it was the last straw for him, though he acknowledges that Nani means well.

On the third day, Nani sits at the kitchen table, counting the seconds until Cobra Bubbles arrives to take Lilo away. When Lilo enters the kitchen, Nani asks her where Stitch is, to which Lilo confesses that she let him go. As the door finally knocks, it’s not Bubbles, but David who excitedly tells her that he did find a job for Nani after all. Nani is ecstatic and tells Lilo to remain exactly where she is until she comes back. However, during that time, Stitch returns with Jumba in tow, who is done playing. During their fight, they destroy the house entirely, though Lilo ends up unharmed thanks to being rescued by Pleakley. Nani guesses that the house on fire the moment she sees firefighters turning to her street, but Cobra Bubbles beats her to the scene since Lilo had called him about “aliens trying to capture her dog”. Cobra Bubbles tries to take Lilo away right in front of Nani, who pleads him to leave her alone, saying that she’s the only one who understands Lilo. But before Bubbles could take her, Lilo runs away by herself.

When Nani chases after her, she sees a spaceship flying by, driven by Captain Gantu who came to capture Stitch. Lilo ended up being caught in the crossfire and Stitch escaped, leaving Lilo trapped in Stitch’s cage, with Nani helplessly crying out to her. When she sees Stitch, she starts beating him up with a broom to get him to tell her where Lilo is going, but he gets captured himself by the timely arrival of Jumba and Pleakley. Nani begs them to help her, but Jumba refuses, telling her that they only came for Stitch. Stitch however persuades them into helping her surprisingly easily and they end up hitching a ride on Jumba’s ship. Stitch saves Lilo and reunites her with Nani, the ship lands safely in the ocean and David ends up taking everyone to shore on his surfboard.

However, as soon as they arrive on shore, Stitch gets captured again by the aliens’ superior the Grand Councilwoman. Stitch is fine with being arrested, but he does request saying goodbye to his family. When he runs to hug Lilo and Nani, he describes them as “my family”, “small and broken, but still good”. This, combined with Lilo showing the Grand Councilwoman the legal certificate saying that she adopted him, convinces the Grand Councilwoman to “punish” Stitch by forcing him to stay on Earth with the sisters. In the end, Jumba and Pleakley are exiled on Earth and end up helping the sisters rebuilding their home better than it ever was. To show their gratitude, they allow them to move in, with David and Cobra Bubbles visiting regularly.

Fanon
Many love the way Lilo and Nani's sisterhood is written, with many fans reminding others that Lilo & Stitch depicted strained-but-loving sisters more than 10 years before Frozen.

Fans will not tolerate demonizing either side, justifying Nani's lashing out because she was under intense stress and Lilo's acting out because she's a child.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION