Invader Zim - Blog Posts

One big shift I noticed in Enter the Florpus that the fandom uses a lot in fanfiction is how the Tallest talk to and about Zim.

I would like the point out, the Tallest never say anything bad about Zim when he’s in earshot.

This isn’t disqualifying the fact that they talk shit about him to each other, and to the other Irkens on the Massive. Just never in front of him. They try very hard to keep his exile a secret, correcting themselves very quickly the few times they do slip up.

For example, most prominently, Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars, where Zim calls them to show off a plan of his and annoys them for three hours straight. When trying to come up with an excuse, the Tallest (Red, at least), make up some story about an enemy ship going up against the Massive, despite knowing that to any other Irken, that would raise doubts. They know Zim’s unbridled, faulty loyalty better than anyone, and know that they need to placate him, no matter how wild those aforementioned placating words are.

Another, much larger example is Battle of the Planets. Zim calls his leaders in a bear suit for seemingly no reason. the Tallest, along with every other Irken, watch him ramble about whatever Zim-like things he talks about, trying to stay completely calm. a noteworthy detail; they were laughing at him and mocking the fact that he wasn’t around to mess Operation Impending Doom 2 just before this. It’s only when Zim calls do they stop, and even then, they’re trying to hide laughter. Zim soaks up the “praise” of his leaders and his fellow Irkens before hanging up. Then the Tallest spill into laughter again. It’s rarely ever been in front of Zim. Ever. Because I’m sure that, as oblivious as they know Zim is, they must also know there’s a point where he’s going to realize they’re not laughing with him (even if this is never the case).

They don’t seem to completely despise him as they could have simply hung up when Zim’s constant yelling of ‘my Tallest’ got too annoying, but that’s a different story entirely.

Purple seems to have less of an issue of bullying the invader to his face, and Red is obviously the more work-focused of the two (which is debatable, as both of them seem to slack off a lot), as well as the one who keeps the secret about Zim’s mission and his disdain for him under wraps.

The movie, while admittedly changing a good few things about characters, butchered the Tallest the most, in my opinion. For Purple, it made complete sense to want to fly straight. he’s been childish a few times, and a lot more open about when he doesn’t like an order or anything else (see Megadoomer). However, Red was always the one that seemed to have things under control, at least a few times. When the Massive flies out of control, his first instinct is to run a diagnostic to find the problem, while his companion tries to save the donuts (this is not to say they differ too drastically in personality, as Red also wanted to save the donuts). For him to insist on flying straight, especially when there’s a very large and dangerous rip in space some miles away that he no doubt knows could hurt him and his companion, is a bit out of character.

When Zim calls, they make no effort to hide the fact that they’re annoyed with him, with Purple outright stating he liked him better when they thought he was dead. Red yells that they really don’t care about whatever he has to say. These are minor things, the only interaction they have with him in the whole film, and admittedly isn’t that telling. But I feel that short five minute was very telling to how they interact with him. Especially for newer fans who didn’t analyze every character in the show in comparison to the movie I’ve watched 20+ times now,

And a lot of fanfictions make the Tallest unnecessarily cruel, even going as far as to tell Zim, unprompted, to his face, that his mission is fake. Understandably, it’s possible for them to reach their limit and blurt it out in anger, but even then, Zim would just laugh it off, never taking it for what it is. Hell, the best example of the Tallest I’ve seen written ever is Forced Perspective, where they stuck to expected behaviors and, even when Zim asked about the legitimacy of his mission, stopped him from finding out. Zim finding out his mission is fake would make him want to go back to Irk, after all. And they can’t have that.

They know keeping the secret of Zim’s mission is crucial for keeping him away from them and causing destruction away from them, yet I feel that’s easily forgotten.

🎁 Happy Birthday @madamsugarskull! 🎁

Zims entire personality is completely fabricated

Let me explain.

Zim, as we know him, is just a mask made up by.. well, Zim.

Zim doesn’t exist.

Because Zim, at his most genuine, loves.

And Zim is not supposed to love.

It’s been thrown around throughout the entire course of the series that Zim is, in fact, a very intelligent individual. Moreso than irkens, renowned technology-thieves, are known to be. It’s for this fact, that it would make sense, that Zim would not be completely ignorant of how the rest of Irken society views him.

The defect, the worst irken to ever exist, et cetera.

There’s no way to be that obtuse about your own infamy, and if there is, there’s enough hints and clues in the series to allow viewers to come to the conclusion that Zim isn’t unaware of it all.

And no, this is not a “Zim is a genius and knows absolutely everything” post. He’s definitely gullible. He absolutely has the worst priorities, he doesn’t know when to quit, too stubborn and set in his own beliefs, but he does Know a lot more than he lets on.

Multiple instances of Tallest Purple nearly revealing the truth about Zim’s mission or being too careless with his words are brushed away, either spoken over by Red or ignored completely by Zim, as if he didn’t hear it at all. Similarly, Sizz-Lorr exists as tangible evidence of everything wrong with Zim’s falsified identity as an invader. He shows up for one episode and that episode introduces some of the most important building on Zim’s coding and the consequences derived from his destructive actions on Irk. And his response to this, is to flat out deny it. Because with Purple, he has the expectation to not be aware. With Sizz-Lorr, everything he’s done is laid out in front of him, forcing him to acknowledge it. He won’t.

Zim, at his most genuine, is paranoid.

Paranoid enough to fabricate an entire personality from nothing after having the entirety of Irken knowledge downloaded into his PAK, only minutes after having been freed from his tube.

Zim is a bootlicker. Zim couldn’t care less about the Tallest. Zim seeks absolution from the Tallest because he knows that he was Made Wrong and that the things he’s done are unforgivable, but he can’t help himself. Zim only goes out of his way to gain their attention because he knows that’s what the average irken desires. All of these are true.

Zim is only drawn to invading in the most superficial way possible for an irken. He enjoys the idea of invading, not because it is personally "appealing" to him in any sense of the word, but because he knows that it is for others. It's an esteemed title. An invader gets to have respect. An invader gets to be addressed directly by the Tallest.

Being an invader is the best thing. Not for him, but for his act.

He needs the act. The act will save him from his imperialistic society. The act is the worst thing to ever happen to him.

Zim is nothing without it. He’s nothing with it.

He hates the act.

(“Hey, you’re a worse flier than I am!”)

And it’s very, very likely that he hates himself because of it. Much more than anyone else could ever hate him, because their hate for him is as superficial as his allegiance to the Empire is.

Zim does not fit in on Irk because Irk doesn’t need a Zim. Irk doesn’t need an irken soldier whose sole identity is to destroy.

Which is why Zim fits in so much better on Earth as its villain. On Earth, he gets to be a part of the story, not a fool that has to force himself on stage to even have some semblance of a spotlight.

Zim was already firmly set into his role before arriving to Earth; but coming there, and meeting Dib, further instills Zim with the drive to keep it up. Dib exists to be a hero, after all! And heroes need their villains. Zim fits into that role perfectly. And of course Zim, being nothing BUT a role, is drawn to it. He'll feed into Dib's alien obsession because Dib's alien obsession fits into Zim's "character". The big bad guy that needs to be fought against.

Which makes sense.

If he's the big bad that everyone hates, he doesn't have to worry about wondering if anyone loves him, because he knows they don't.

His first words were “I love you.”

The Zim we know does not love.

The Zim we know is nothing but an elaborate, one-irken act, stuck playing the same role in the same show for as long as he draws it out for.

One which would collapse if anything ever brought attention to it.

this post would not have been made without the help of @short-and-ugly and @animatorfun. seriously. like they wrote it. they were my editors.

this is NOT a headcanon post, im for realsies. this is metatextual analysis. i genuinely believe this is what zims character is supposed to be ((even if not necessarily intentionally))

The very first “Twin” Anomaly.

Emperors Red and Purple. Finally took the time to finish this, now it's time for me to sleep for twelve hours straight and never open the psd files again

My blood, I'll go with you

All I can think of is Tallest Miyuki taking over a planet while in a super comfy sweater. I mean, she's the Tallest of course she can wear whatever she wants.

She's having a great time!

She looks great in everything!

Inspiration ❤️

Hello, could I ask for Dib and Gaz wearing sweaters please?

Siblings in sweaters! Doing Sibling Stuff (existing in the same space)

Meeting your younger self gone wrong

I'm pretty sure the kiddo Zim and Dib wouldn't be a fan of my older version of them, which made me a little sad in the past BUT! Finally, I decided to go full-on messiness and hatred with each other! Make them both despise each other! Make them think how much the other version is stupid! Let them be this hot mess that isn't able to have a civil conversation even with themselves! xDD

The paranormal squad! but in kindergarden xD

I like the idea of Zim and Tak coming to Earth earlier and being forced to work together despite hating it.

I see it could be like a training process and punishment for both of them. Brains sees great potential in Zim and Tak, but their continuous fights cause a lot of destruction. That's why they get sent to an unimportant planet to invade before DOOM 1 starts to check if they can manage the given task or die. Either way, it's a win-win for Armada.

zim is canonically an adult and dib canonically a child. Please stop shipping them 😭

Ah it's that time again 😊

Zim episode where Zim and Dib are assigned to debate a topic. The topic is if aliens are real. Dib has to argue against it and Zim has to argue in favor.

GIR is babysitting. Who let GIR babysit???

I made these for my friend, Mari! Her OCs: Kyz and Ember! 

Her AO3

This is my interpretation of what happens after dinosaurus_maj's fic "What's the use of feeling (blue)?"

Red has become Tallest and she eventually married and had two children. They eventually accept that neither of them would see one another ever again.

Or course, as fate would have it, Red's rash decision of humouring Zim leads to the defective landing on the very planet Red was forced to leave behind.

As Gaz waited outside for Dib, she laments on how stupid he was.

Zim experiences an earthquake for the first time in his life

Torque was the star of their high school's football team.

He was a quiet and focused and kept to himself. So none of his teammates really noticed anything was off about him.

Dib did though.

Dib never really cared much about having to wear glasses. But sometimes he really hated how terrible his vision was.

Dib was exhausted and fell asleep in class. Gretchen decided to take a chance.

Dib had once again been caught by Zim while trying to stop his evil plans...and GIR wants to feed him a taco.

Invader-in-trainings Purple and Zim were tasked with an assignment. It was supposed to be easy. But unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan.

And for the first time in his life, Purple had use for all the medical knowledge he had stored in his brainmeats.

Dib told Zim that humans were meant to live short lives, that an existence of a million years would be no life at all for a human. Zim couldn't understand it. But he was learning to live with it.

Zim wasn't afraid of anything. Then he discovered Earth...

Dib's friend was sure that his girlfriend was only using him.

 Nobody that beautiful was that down to earth! There was no way she was being genuine!

But there was no way he would ever doubt her ever again.

Red and Dib have been stuck together in that dark and musty cell for a long time, but they've learned to make the best of it. Red was really starting to like the little alien.

Of course, their captors couldn't just leave them alone...

He knew what he had to do. He didn't hesitate. He was the only one who could...

He couldn't believe it. It was like Tak all over again...

When their daughter was born, Tak and Gaz were the happiest they could be.

Then others decided they could take her away.