“What is that? A bad mojo spirit? A tiki cave demon?”

NOPE! It’s Splody! Happy SPLODYHEAD DAY!

As I’ve told Lullaby of the Lost and Doverstar, Splodes was my very first-ever favorite Experiment. (Not counting Stitch, he’s in his own class.)
Here’s why, in honor of his day:

Splodyhead has one of the most unique personalities of all the Experiments. You’ve got your goofball Experiments who are blissfully ignorant of their mischief, like Sample. You’ve got your willfully naughty ones, like Clip, Yaarp, and many more. Then you have your incredibly aggressive, just plain mean ones, like Kixx, Sprout, and Spooky. Splodyhead fits almost into this category, with one exception.

He’s a hunter!

Kixx goes around looking for somebody to pummel when he’s activated, and he has to prove he’s the best when Stitch challenges him. Sprout snaps at anything that moves, no strategy involved at all. Spooky is something of an attack artist, only he doesn’t weigh the risks of trying to spook Stitch and get’s socked in the slimy jaw for his lack of restraint. But SPLODYHEAD. SPLODYHEAD, guys. Splodyhead gets activated, immediately finds the most strategic spot, and waits until he’s got prey to blast without risking himself. Just like how a cheetah or a falcon will carefully pick their prey based on how likely they are to succeed, so they don’t waste valuable energy or safety. Jumba calls Splody, “singleminded and relentless.” He also has a nasty touch of gloating in him, before he’s reformed. Jumba made lots of fire-shooting, plasma-blasting, heat-causing Experiments. But Splodyhead is in the 600-series for his cunning brain, clearly. He’s a sniper with a frightening sense of strategy. Even his design is simple, but efficient: lots of legs for climbing and clinging to vantage points, big eyes to hone in on prey, and a seemingly unlimited amount of firepower in that big head.
You can also see, in the quick character development most Experiments got in the show, that he turned good, not because Stitch beat him (he was fighting till the bitter end) but because the group wouldn’t let him fall to his death. Therefore it’s my theory that it was the concept of mercy that the little predator had to learn in order to open himself up to being good.
When Slushy’s episode rolls around we see Splodyhead return and get his head fixed by Jumba (cool character traits; he likes his food well done and he can, actually, overheat in the sun. Makes sense that he picked that shady spot in his own episode, then, too! Strategic little scuttler.) And what does he do when Jumba finishes? He salutes! A sweet, cute little salute nodding back at what he was programmed for: a “doomsday and battlefield “ series Experiment. He’s more than happy to risk life and limb, and show off some creativity in using his powers to fight Slushy. He’s gone from predator to little soldier...and I bet he learned how to sculpt golems out of fire and such by working with David at the tiki torch show!
In my headcanon involving 621’s antics, Splodyhead is, at first, stoically committed to helping Lilo and Stitch fight the Experiments that are naughty. He can’t take an insult well (he was all too happy to start fighting Slushy again at the EARWAX meetings with Pleakley in Spike’s episode) and the Experiments who abandon the Ohana are doing nothing if not insulting the family Splody has come to know and love. But he also remembers mercy, and the way that Gantu, though still evil at the time, caught him when he was falling after his activation. So he knows that evil can become good.
When a certain other Experiment (to be revealed later) becomes obsessed with trying to “rescue” the others, even though they joined up with 621 willingly and are now dangerous, Splodyhead is his ally.
I LOVE Splodyhead! Happy Stitch Month, everybody!