Stewart Gilligan "Stewie" Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with violence and matricide, Stewie (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg. He also has a close friendship with the family's anthropomorphic dog, Brian.
Stewie is considered to be the show's breakout character. Wizard magazine rated him the 95th greatest villain of all time.
Stewie is a one-year-old prodigy who has a very sophisticated psyche, is able to speak fluently, and is intended to have a slightly camp upper class English accent. He reaches his first birthday in the season 1 episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", and has not been referred to as being more than a year old since, despite being seen in several episodes attending Pre-school. Highly literate and able to cite pop culture references that long predate his birth, Stewie is also entranced by Raffi and the Teletubbies. Stewie succumbs to other weaknesses of children his age – he believes Peter has truly disappeared in a game of Peekaboo, talks to his teddy bear (Rupert) as if he were alive, is overcome with laughter when Lois blows on his stomach, and has no idea how to use a toilet. MacFarlane has stated that Stewie is meant to represent the general helplessness of an infant through the eyes of an adult. Per cartoon physics, his ability to move objects of greater weight than himself is not surprising to other characters, nor is his ability to retrieve firearms from hammerspace, neither is his ability to talk.
Stewie's mastery of physics and mechanical engineering are at a level of science fiction. He has constructed advanced fighter-jets, mind control devices, a weather control device, a teleportation device, robots, clones, a working Transporter device from Star Trek, time machines, a Multiverse Transporter, a shrinking pod, as well as an assortment of guns including lasers, rocket launchers, and crossbows. Stewie employs these to cope with the stresses of infant life (such as teething pain, and eating broccoli) and to murder his mother, Lois, with mixed success at best depending on the objective. As made clear in the pilot episode, Stewie's matricidal tendencies are a result of Lois constantly (and unwittingly) thwarting his schemes, and so he desires to kill her to carry out his plans without her interference.
In other, recent episodes, Stewie engages in other violent or criminal acts, including robbery, illegally owning firearms, aggravated assault, carjacking, loan sharking, forgery, and killing off many minor characters (with a tank, guns, and other assorted weaponry).
Stewie eventually realizes his dreams of matricide and world domination in the sixth season two-part episode "Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie." The events are reverted in a deus ex machina ending, where most of the story turns out to be a computer simulation. Because of the rather disastrous ending for himself in the simulation, being shot and killed by Peter, he decides to put aside his plans of matricide and world domination for the time being. However, at the end of the season nine premiere, "And Then There Were Fewer", when Diane Simmons is about to murder Lois for uncovering her murderous revenge scheme Stewie kills Diane with a sniper rifle stating: "If anyone's going to take that person [Lois] down, it's going to be me".
Other instances of family kindness include his support for Meg (whom he traditionally calls "Megan") as when he chided Brian's coke-induced hostility to her ("The Thin White Line"), retracted his joke, "I hate you too" when Meg said "I hate you all" to the family ("Untitled Griffin Family History"), and wiped her tears during a weepy moment. While, Stewie generally regards Chris as a stooge, he has encouraged him, and even helped Chris to dress when he felt too shy to date ("Extra Large Medium"). In the episode "Stewie Loves Lois," it shows Stewie can love his mom, after she recovers Rupert, fixes him, and serves a meal he likes. When he becomes too dependent on her, she deliberately takes no notice of him; when he hurts himself she tries to show notice of him again, but he then goes back to his old ways.
Stewie is considered to be the show's breakout character. Wizard magazine rated him the 95th greatest villain of all time.
Stewie is a one-year-old prodigy who has a very sophisticated psyche, is able to speak fluently, and is intended to have a slightly camp upper class English accent. He reaches his first birthday in the season 1 episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", and has not been referred to as being more than a year old since, despite being seen in several episodes attending Pre-school. Highly literate and able to cite pop culture references that long predate his birth, Stewie is also entranced by Raffi and the Teletubbies. Stewie succumbs to other weaknesses of children his age – he believes Peter has truly disappeared in a game of Peekaboo, talks to his teddy bear (Rupert) as if he were alive, is overcome with laughter when Lois blows on his stomach, and has no idea how to use a toilet. MacFarlane has stated that Stewie is meant to represent the general helplessness of an infant through the eyes of an adult. Per cartoon physics, his ability to move objects of greater weight than himself is not surprising to other characters, nor is his ability to retrieve firearms from hammerspace, neither is his ability to talk.
Stewie's mastery of physics and mechanical engineering are at a level of science fiction. He has constructed advanced fighter-jets, mind control devices, a weather control device, a teleportation device, robots, clones, a working Transporter device from Star Trek, time machines, a Multiverse Transporter, a shrinking pod, as well as an assortment of guns including lasers, rocket launchers, and crossbows. Stewie employs these to cope with the stresses of infant life (such as teething pain, and eating broccoli) and to murder his mother, Lois, with mixed success at best depending on the objective. As made clear in the pilot episode, Stewie's matricidal tendencies are a result of Lois constantly (and unwittingly) thwarting his schemes, and so he desires to kill her to carry out his plans without her interference.
In other, recent episodes, Stewie engages in other violent or criminal acts, including robbery, illegally owning firearms, aggravated assault, carjacking, loan sharking, forgery, and killing off many minor characters (with a tank, guns, and other assorted weaponry).
Stewie eventually realizes his dreams of matricide and world domination in the sixth season two-part episode "Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie." The events are reverted in a deus ex machina ending, where most of the story turns out to be a computer simulation. Because of the rather disastrous ending for himself in the simulation, being shot and killed by Peter, he decides to put aside his plans of matricide and world domination for the time being. However, at the end of the season nine premiere, "And Then There Were Fewer", when Diane Simmons is about to murder Lois for uncovering her murderous revenge scheme Stewie kills Diane with a sniper rifle stating: "If anyone's going to take that person [Lois] down, it's going to be me".
Other instances of family kindness include his support for Meg (whom he traditionally calls "Megan") as when he chided Brian's coke-induced hostility to her ("The Thin White Line"), retracted his joke, "I hate you too" when Meg said "I hate you all" to the family ("Untitled Griffin Family History"), and wiped her tears during a weepy moment. While, Stewie generally regards Chris as a stooge, he has encouraged him, and even helped Chris to dress when he felt too shy to date ("Extra Large Medium"). In the episode "Stewie Loves Lois," it shows Stewie can love his mom, after she recovers Rupert, fixes him, and serves a meal he likes. When he becomes too dependent on her, she deliberately takes no notice of him; when he hurts himself she tries to show notice of him again, but he then goes back to his old ways.