#@the-great-and-powerful-zim

[skeptykall]

Hey so I'm gonna finish The Plot Thickens. If anyone knows that story or cares.

This one's for you, Milo. And a little bit for me, too. Still miss you, baby.

There's only a chapter or so left. I think I can do it.

[poobletoods]

Many, many, many, many, many hours later, my capstone project is complete: a mall full of my favorite guys!

Not gonna wax too poetic about my creative process because that's what the artist statement is for, but I will say that this was the most involved, ambitious, and creatively fulfilling piece I've ever gotten to do. OCs, cartoon characters, video game protagonists, DnD player characters, we've got it all here! Each of these characters is special to me in one way or another, and I had an absolute blast cramming them all into one canvas.

Tumblr got nowhere near displaying the full image so I had to condense the hell out of it to get the whole thing on there. If you want a closeup of any character in full resolution just sent me an ask! I would love to hold my little guys up to the camera for you :)

And yeah I'm gonna tag every piece of media represented. If you're seeing this in your tag, one of your fellas is in here somewhere!

[vixxven]

OLD ART THAT I LIKE IN MY SKETCHBOOK (MOSTLY UNAMED OCS) TW: SOME GORE BUT ITS NOT COLORED

all drawn throughout my junior year in highschool <3

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

Cringe ass zadr drawings under the cut:

All these drawings are really really old by now, but like I said in the last post, I wanna share as an act of pseudo backwards self care, because although I love sharing this stuff and seeing your reaction, I'm also horrifically embarrassed and mortified with myself for actually posting these. If you follow my tumblr you're a real one. You see the stuff other people don't. But with great power comes great responsibility so BE NICE 2 MEEEE!!!! 😭 pleas don't tease me

Also I hate the fact that I need to say this, but the iz fandom has such a weird fucking climate, and to hopefully prevent 30% of the anons I get from feeling like they need to say something, please know that anytime I draw dib as an adult, zim is also an adult and vice versa, and anytime I draw dib as a kid, so is zim, and vice versa.

[inbarfink]

So the thing about Tak’s Holo-Disguise is that it specifically might not be an example of Tak using more advanced technology than Zim.

The implication in “The Nightmare Begins” is that Zim maybe also have access to Perfectly Realistic Human Disguises, probably similar to Tak’s Hologram - but he intentionally rejected them because he saw them as too ugly. He deliberately chose his shitty little costume because he thought that was the only one that looked ‘good’.

And these terrible disguises are also pretty consistent with how the actual official Invaders disguise themselves. If anything, Zim’s got the best costume of the lot!

So with Zim dismissing the more realistic disguises as being ‘ugly’ and ‘stinky’ and those being… basically the most common insults he throws at humans. ..I think the implication here is pretty clearly that Zim’s (and the actual Irken Invaders’) disguises are bad because he doesn’t want to look too human because Irken Imperial Indoctrination has taught him every other species in the universe is revolting and so he cannot stand the idea of looking too match like the people he is trying to infiltrate.

So it is interesting that the one Irken who actually uses their advanced technology to actually look like another species is Tak. Maybe she’s just being a bit of a show-off overachiever. So driven by the need to prove how competent of an Invader she can be she decided to suffer through the indignity of Using a Competent Disguise. 

Or maybe there’s sort of an implication that Tak doesn’t really buy into Irken Ideology that much?

Like, obviously, she’s not, like,  some sort of anti-Imperial pro-alien advocate or anything. She’s still trying to gain the respect of the Tallest, she still wants to become an Invader, she is still willing to sacrifice an entire planet in order to achieve her goals. 

I’m thinking more, like, Zim is 100% a true believer in Irken Imperial Ideology. He wants to be an Invader at least in part so he could use his ‘amazingness’ to contribute to the conquests of the Irken Empire. And he legitimately believes the Tallests are superior beings worthy of his admiration. And he legitimately believes Irkens are superior to all other sapient beings in the universe in general and to humans especially.

Meanwhile, Tak’s main goals might just be to gain as much power and prestige as she can - no matter what or who stands in her way. If she lived in a society that valued dentists above all she would’ve become a dentist. But she was born in the Irken Empire, and the most prestigious not-height-dependent position available to her in Irken Society is the one of an Invader, so that’s what she dedicated her life to. Not out of any ideological commitment to help the Empire's conquests.

She tries to gain the Tallests’ favor because she knows she needs them to get ahead in life, not necessarily because she craves their tall, superior approval the way Zim does. She can kill a lot of non-Irkens on her way to ‘greatness’, but it’s more of a general callousness towards other people - rather than loyalty to the superiority of the Irken people. 

That might also explain why she’s the one Irken with the sense of individuality to customize her uniform

And design her own version of the Irken Empire Flag, based on her own look.

Because maybe she’s not trying to serve the Irken Empire, maybe she’s just trying to serve Tak.

[donutdrawsthings]

Do you have any art tips?

I've given it a lot of thought, and here are what my art tips are!

Enjoy yourself! this is a hobby, after all! I've found that drawing from emotion makes it easier to enjoy the art making process, and that emotion can literally be ANY emotion. Sadness, Joy, Rage, Desire,,, they are all great motivators to start drawing and when you're so full of emotion, you might find yourself feeling relieved after a drawing session!

Get Inspired and REPLICATE!

The way I learned how to draw most things is by looking closely at my favourite shows/movies and picking apart what I like about them so much! Make fanart! Redraw one of your favourite scenes! Care very little about what others will think and focus purely on enjoying yourself! Oh and also tracing is a perfectly fine thing to do too. That's a way to train steadying your hand with certain curves!

No art style? no problem!

An art style is really just a word for the way you draw. You've ALREADY got a style! It doesn't need to be eccentric looking to be unique. That being said, you'll find your art style developing naturally as you get more inspired and learn to draw certain things through fanart. What people will look at as Iconically You is really just a big compilation of all the things YOU love and got inspired by, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. It's normal and how it works in professional mediums like film making, too!

Focus on your own progress I see a lot of beginner artists beating themselves up over not yet being able to draw what they envision, and for that my biggest tip is to not see your latest drawing as your last. It's healthy to analyse what you do and don't like about what you've just drawn, but be kind to yourself about it. instead of telling yourself "I can't draw [thing]", try telling yourself "I don't like how I drew [thing], because of [reason]. Next time I'll try it differently". That next time can be immediately after, but don't underestimate the power of a good nap either! Not worrying about it and sleeping on it will get you closer to where you want to go, rather than getting more and more upset with yourself!

Art is knowledge, study it! Being ABLE to draw doesn't make you 21st century Da Vinci, knowing HOW THINGS LOOK and HOW TO MAKE IT are where the real power lies! Look around and really study how things are. The glow from a lit jack-o-lantern, the colour of the fluffy mold that starts growing on it, the way paint starts to chip off the wooden porch, the colours of the sky at any time of day... Look at all of it and ask yourself, how would I go about drawing that? How many layers would I use or what brush do I need? What colour is that on the digital colour wheel of my art programme? And then once you get your gear and draw you can re-evaluate again what you've made and ask yourself if you captured what you saw the way you want it or if you'd do something differently next time!

Don't listen to online content creators Now you might start looking at me funny, because that'd just contradict everything you just read LMAO, but I still think it's an important thing to say. Online there are a lot of artists who tell you to NEVER EVER do something because if you DO draw this way your art is BAD and you're doing it WRONG. However, I believe it's impossible to do art "wrong", because art by its very nature is purely subjective. A point I see in a lot of tutorials is to NEVER EVER shade with black. And while I don't shade with pure black either, shading with black doesn't make your art impossible to love... Invader Zim is an example of that!

As you can see, Invader Zim has an extremely unique style that's loved by many, yet it does feature a shading technique a lot of people say you shouldn't ever do... It is, subjective! And part of the style!

Anyways, sorry this got so long! I hope it was of any help or what you were looking for :'oD

[alanaartdream]

I think @cubbihue and @katescribblesabit are some of my favourite fairy Timmy aus out there atm (heck giving ideas to my own fairy Timmy au (although mine I’m adding in more to do with Jimmy Tommy power hour and nicktoons unite games (I use to love watching YouTubes of those games like crazy heck I managed to get the 1st to to play with my siblings but it was 2nd hand glitch copy of the first in the series of games that series did so it would take forever to load at times but was fun game)

If they ever bring those games to the switch I’d play them for sure; thanks to the jimmy Timmy power hour series doing so well the games were a great hit and the games were so popular that quite a few were created and more characters would get added in the more popular the games got the last in the series was the one we’re Invader zim & dib or was it globs of doom one? Not sure ended up watching YouTubers do those (was more watching for the cut scenes of those games at the time)

Anywho back to my own fairy Timmy Au I could see Wanda’s sister Blonda coming over to patch up her relationship with Wanda and being a fun aunt to Peri/poof and Timmy once Timmy gets fairy adopted

But schnozmo not sure how good of a uncle he’ll be being he’s a bit of a conman

(Timmy wouldn’t forget how he tried to trick Cosmo out of a lot of things the last time they met aaannnddd I know Jimmy and the nicktoons gang wouldn’t trust him too much either

I feel like now that Timmy is a fairy would hang out at Jimmy’s a lot when not in fairyworld being as Timmy as a fairy wouldn’t see anything from his old life in the human realm part of his own universe but being as the nicktoons unite characters are all from different universes Timmy can still hang out with them;; although Jimmy has met the people in Timmy’s old human life and to be honest they didn’t appreciate Timmy when they had him so they kinda deserve to suffer a little now that they’ve lost him (Timmy’s birth parents most of all) because before he found out Timmy was turned into a fairy he did get to see how ignorant Timmy’s friends AJ & Chester seem to be to the neglect & abuse Timmy was going through from his parents/ babysitter and cocker but just seem to ignore it heck didn’t even try to help out when Timmy was getting bullied on top of that; think the only one Jimmy would feel mostly sorry for is maybe Toothie (although he had to admit her love of Timmy kinda bothered on creepy at times) it was only when Timmy was truly gone from their lives do any of them realise what they’ve lost so he’s not gonna let anyone from Timmy’s old life know what happened to him for sure;; Jimmy doesn’t trust them anymore

Think it’s not until years later when poof becomes Peri and he and Timmy have grown up a bit themselves and Hazel and Dev show up does he even get curious about the humans in Timmy’s universe

[chellodello]

I’ve been thinking about a possible Invader Zim episode where Tak’s ship is out of fuel so Dib breaks into Zim’s base and siphons fuel out of the Voot. He thinks he’s gotten away with it but Mini Moose catches him when he’s trying to leave and Zim quickly discovers what’s happened. The two fight over the fuel and end up dropping it out over the lawn which immediately shrivels up and dies. The B-plot of this episode is Membrane using his one day off a year to clean the garage. 

Dib, unable to not be smug about Zim losing, even if he’s also lost, remarks that Zim’s stuck on earth and the only person who might be able to make more is his dad, but he would never tell alien scum like Zim. Zim thinks that Membrane would absolutely tell him if he asked nicely and bee-lines it to the Membrane house. 

Back at the garage Membrane is dusting the belt sander when Dib and Zim crash in and both try to get the recipe from him, speaking over each other and clambering at his knees like little puppies. “Kids, kids settle down. There’s no such thing as ‘alien space gas’. Although… When I was around your age I did go through an astronomy phase where I prototyped an advanced super fuel that could theoretically power alien space ships. But it was so long ago now, I’ve forgotten the recipe.” He goes back to dusting.

Zim quickly uses Mini Moose to open a portal to the past.  Mini Moose Nyahs that he can only keep the portal open for a few hours. Dib follows immediately. Membrane sighs and complains about kids always leaving a mess. He dusts the portal.

Dib and Zim track young Membrane, who looks exactly like Dib, at skool in a visibly not-younger-at-all Ms.Bitter’s class. Dib and Zim announce themselves as new exchange students. No one bats an eyelash at Zim but are sus of Dib. The two corner young Membrane (teasingly called Brain by his peers) at lunch and asks for the recipe. Brain admits that he has in fact just completed a prototype recipe for a super advanced space fuel, but he won’t just give it to anyone, especially two exchange students.

Both of them trip over themselves to make friends with Brain to convince him to help them instead of the other. Zim is infinitely more interesting than Dib and he seems to be having better luck because he actually knows things about Science. Cue a montage of Zim and Brain becoming friends: In the chem lab together, playing a recess, getting ice cream in the park, etc… Dib is super annoyed and just taking L’s left and right, he tries to butt in but it always fails. 

Dejected, Dib knows their time is almost up and he has to accept that maybe his dad will never like him in any timeline. Brain plops down on the bench next to him and hands him the recipe. “I don’t understand? I thought you and Zim were besties or whatever?” Membrane tells him that Zim is great, but he whispers that he thinks Zim is a secret spy sent by NASAplace to steal his fuel recipe. That there’s no way any kid could know that much about space otherwise.

It is physically painful for Dib not to tell him that Zim is an alien but a loud NYAH booms through the air; the portal opens up beside them and starts sucking everything in the park not nailed down into the portal. Dib hangs on to the park bench and in his flailing he knocks young Membrane out. Zim returns with their ice cream, which is immediately sucked through the portal. He whines that he needs more time to get the recipe but it’s too late Dib and Zim are sucked in and the portal closes. 

Back in the future, Zim and Dib, and all the garbage from the park are dropped back into the garage. Membrane grounds Dib for getting ice cream and debris all over the garage he just finished cleaning. Zim announces that getting Dib grounded was actually his plan all along and jets out of the garage on Mini Moose. 

Scene change to night: Dib has finished cleaning the garage but more importantly he’s putting the finishing touches on his dad’s space fuel recipe. “That all really sucked, but it'll be worth it if I have unlimited fuel and Zim doesn’t!” With a grin he turns on Tak’s ship and it immediately catches on fire. Membrane walks by with a cup of tea and shakes his head, lamenting that “When I was a boy I tried to make space fuel once, luckily I lost it in the park during a freak tornado before I could test it. Who knows how dangerous it could have been!” The ship blows up. End credit roll.

Nickelodeon please hire me to write for this show you canceled 20 years ago.

[dragon-prince-6-3]

Good and bad things about season 7 of the dragon prince

Good:

- I like terry as a character a lot more now

- the kppar info about calibalism and the implications are interesting and good for theorizing

- zim power boost

- ezran actually getting angry at Runan and having trouble forgiving someone but still try’s to do what he tells others to do

- Claudia and Aaravos relationship

- Aaravos characterization ( enjoying the ride, taking advice from terry, killing Karim, talking to ezra )

- king harrow ( if he is actually captured somewhere, should it turn out he was free the whole time it is bad again )

- Larissa is not the good parent who comes back after years of neglect and gets an excuse because the other parent was evil. I hate those plots since a child is supposed to forgive bad treatment simply because the other parent has to be replaced.

- Karim death was understandable ( Aaravos hates elves ) and gruesome surprising

- Soren and Corvus

- callum coin idea

Bad:

- while aaravos character on his own makes sense. His plans are imperfect because he is no mastermind even though he is smart. He gets controlled by his emotions and protects ( Claudia, Viren ) or destroys people ( Karim, Viren ) based on them. His only destruction plan makes sense for a guy who just wants the world to burn for his pain. The problem is that the first seasons all hinted at a different kind of character. Someone who has a great plan for humanity but is still evil. It feels a little like his characterization got rewritten

- Aaravos is also to weak for the major threath he was supposed to be.

- the world itself and the conflict also feels rewritten. Like the humans got gifted magic and only Leola payed the price. They started to learn from aaravos dark magic and get banned to a Luxus live on the other side. They destroyed the land themselves because of their greed and than tried to get Back into zedia. The elves are not the monsters we make them out to be ( only sol regem and the sun elv queen and Karim are racist ) but the humans are the actuall grey characters we see them as. Karim whole excuse is that the human fears are bed time storys while his are based on real live and it is laid out as beeing a true Statement the writers want use to acnolage.

- why is rayla not understanding that Ezran is angry. He didn’t want to kill runan but only lock him away ( which he would have gotten over with after some healing ). But honestly he killed his dad ( and a lot of guards ) and now the murderer gets to go home to enjoy live. Runan didn’t even speak for himself until the end. She just gone there with runan and thought everything will be okay since Ezran has to forgive everyone and runan was locked up already. This is getting your only parent killed and than being told that the killer is out because he was imprisoned already beforehand. That makes it not better. Rayla would not have forgiven Viren so fast if she had meet the redeemed version so why should Ezran. That he forgave the dragons so fast was the unbelievable part, not that he will not do the same again.

- for the battle at the end: why were no death guys fighting ? You have hunderts of tiny dragons to help thunder win or attack the humans but you let them fly around you. They were right there.

- why do the good guys tell aaravos their plan

- Viren was underused from 4 to 6 and I just hoped for more ( meet rayla, speak to Claudia, callum, Ezran )

- why is Claudia helping aaravos. This will kill everyone she loves since a world without sun will die.

- where is kppar now

[notnights]

your gangle cosplay is really cool, do you have any tips for someone trying to make their own?

Thank you! I appreciate it. And it depends on what you're going for with it! I've seen a lot of different Gangle cosplayers with different interpretations which are creative and fun to make I imagine! So I can't really advise any specifics on crafting etc since I don't know what you're going for.

For me when I cosplay I want to get as "accurate" as I can with the character design. I unfortunately am not very good at sewing and shaping and stuff but you can see that didn't stop me, I made it as well as I could. And Gangle is obviously one of the more difficult characters I've ever decided to cosplay so wasn't ever going to be accurate with her unless I did like... a puppet method or something. (From my understanding this falls under the "creature" cosplay category?)

Idk if these will help at all, but it's good to start with visualizing ideas you want to try for before hand:

Ideas for a Navi, Bill Cipher and Gir from Invader ZIM cosplays that went no where.

Thinking outside the box also helps in the sense of, other forms of crafting, skills or items, you wouldn't think to use might help with what you're making!

Examples:

I used fursuit methods to help build my NiGHTS cosplay, I also used quilting methods to help make Gangle's ribbon limbs.

When making Circus Baby I wanted an exhaust fan that actually spun, turns out there are plenty of tutorials on how to make your own fidget spinners so used that method to make a light weight one out of cardboard and pennies for that piece! When making Gangle 2.0 to keep the shape I wanted to infuse wire into the edges of the ribbon limbs. The best method for this would have been to hand sew floral wire to an extra piece of fabric with fishing wire, then sew that one in with the edges of the the limbs. I however was only 1 and a half week away from a con and still had a ton of pieces to finish so I got a bunch of cheap wired ribbon, and infused those inside the limbs. (Kept the shape well enough but I'm at the point where I want to remake them again lol.)

Instead of using traditional adhesives like hot glue, maybe something like silicon adhesive can be used and other more hardware based unities can be used. Hardware stuff in general helps. Similar stuff they sell at craft stores can often be found cheaper at hardware stores. I've had the benefit that my father is a handyman so I grew up with a lot of that tool usage, and loved going to hardware stores with him because sometimes I'd find something that would make me be like "WAIT I CAN USE THIS For that art project I've been trying to do."

This admittedly also comes from my doll customization hobby, which believe it or not, has a lot of power tool usage to make those pretty little dolls! Some of these things I used for my Gangle. Making cute ribbon outfits or bows for dolls, you have to burn the edges of the ribbon you've cut, least it fray (in Gangle 1.0. each ribbon you see has been lovely burnt by candle LOL) when Gangle 2.0's ribbon fabric it would run after getting snagged on stuff, I made a "sealer" I'd use for making doll wigs. Watered down glue (this case Modge podge because its already watery) and painted it over any places that would receive a lot of friction as the solution admitted made the satin a tiny bit duller so didn't want to paint the whole thing with it.

Sometimes you can use the methods/shapes from existing clothing to help you make what you want. When I made my NiGHTS cosplay I found a little decorative halloween jester hat which I used as a reference to make a pattern for NiGHTS' hat/horns.

Speaking of, and also in relation to that hardware thing. Thrift shops are a great way to find random pieces of stuff you think can help with your project especially if they're going to be items you cut up/modify anyways. I wanted the illusion of floating when making my NiGHTS and musing about a Tatsumaki cosplay so wanted to use tacky clear platform heels to make it happen lol. And thrift shops have a ton of used shoes. I only needed the platform part and remove the straps so didn't need anything brand new. While I didn't find clear ones at the time I did find other platforms that helped with my NiGHTS, the feet were so big on the costume it shadowed the heels anyways and kept the illusion. (bonus concept of that Tatsumaki idea)

When I needed a squeaker for a cosplay piece I just bought a 99 cent dog toy and disemboweled it for one. In the same kind of "cheat" I just got a wielding mask, removed the mask part, and attached my Gangle mask to it to make a way method to take it on and off.

Anyways that was a lot of examples, but they're times when my dumb dumb brain was like "wait!!! I don't have to do this the hard way and get what I'm looking for!!" and it saved me from said hard way of getting what I wanted.

[noirandchocolate]

I love how in Invader Zim there are multiple examples of characters oppressed by the Irken Empire actively doing things to undermine it. Like there's not only the very obvious Resisty outright attacking the Massive, there's also, off the top of my head:

The screw head guy on the shipping planet. Sure there is comedy to be found in a character ranting against the Empire and then saying that for his great act of resistance he will switch the addresses on two packages!!omg!! But also...that resulted in Invader Tenn, who was ostensibly proceeding well at infiltrating her assigned planet at that point, suffering a huge dangerous setback in the form of a dozen malfunctioning SIR units. It also resulted in the loss of the Megadoomer to the Empire. However...

The Megadoomer itself is also an example. Zim tells Gir it was created by imprisoned (filthy) Vortian scientists. And it has the very obvious design flaws of somehow cloaking itself but not its operator, and requiring batteries (which were apparently not provided along with it) or a corded power connection to operate. The Megadoomer seemed to be a very new addition to the Irken arsenal, and Tallest Red at least thought it would be very useful. Yet if it had been sent to Tenn as planned, she might not have been attacked by SIRs, but things may not have gone well for her anyway. You can't tell me the Vortians didn't do that shit on purpose.

Prisoner 777 cheerfully declaring "I designed that ship, you know," while handing over control schematics for the Massive to Zim. The unfinished episode "The Trial" includes a scene where Zim was actually working at the science facility where the Massive was being designed. Zim and 777 thus presumably know each other, which explains why Zim thought to ask him for help. It also means 777 knows not only what Zim wants to do with the Massive, but what Zim is truly capable of if given this information. And he obeys his Irken "superior" and turns over the schematics. Malicious compliance at its finest. The Tallest were flown through a star and spilled their donuts.

Feel free to add your own examples of this from the show, I just thought of this just now so it isn't an exhaustive list I'm sure!

[aquaticwolfkuri]

Y HATE Me, But I Hate YOU More: Ch.9

(sorry this took so long. A lot was happening)

Stranding before the great and mighty Tallest was invader Zim, with Minimoose and Gir by his side.

There was no one else in the room of the ship other than the pilots and such.

“Zim, we’re most grateful for your service” Red says, and Zim feels nothing but honored by this.

“Now this mission is going to be very, very VERY dangerous. But we know you can do it” Purple says, keeping close to Red.

“Yes my Tallest! I am ready to handle any mission you give to Zim!”

“Good. Now Zim, this mission is simple. We're going to give you the most dangerous and catastrophic bomb imaginable, and your going to carry it into the core of a very large and dangerous ship from an annoying group called the Resisty.” Red explains, while Purple seemed to be trying his best to stay quiet.

“The Resisty??? I've never-”

“-It doesn't matter who they are Zim. They're annoying and they're becoming a threat to the Irken empire.” Red says, leaving now room for anymore questions.

“Yes sirs! I will not fail you.” Zim says before being handed the small black box. Before returning to his ship, he's told the bomb will automatically begin the countdown to detonate once it gets into close proximity with the enemy's ship power core. Once activated, he would only have 10 minutes to escape the ship before the whole thing would explode.

Inside the Voot Cruiser, Zim navigates towards the Resisty’s ship, feeling oh so proud that the Tallest recognized his greatness for such an important mission.

The Resisty's ship seemed to be swarming with patrol units, so getting in wouldn't be easy and there weren't many floating asteroids to hide behind to get close enough. He would need some kind of divergence.

He looks towards the large and squirming sack that he had Gir retrieve for him, grinning clinically at it.

“Yes, you will make for the perfect tool…. Gir! I'm going to take out new friend to the enemy ship,  you stay in the Voot Cruiser with Minmose and cause a minor disturbance until I call for you.” Zim says, and the small robot obays.

Zim gets into his space gear and grabs the sack before flying off, and Gir launches a mass of weenies as the surrounding enemy ships before flying off as they pursue him.

Aboard the Risity’s ship, Zim empties the sack, reveleaving the ginger haired girl from earth, Plotty Dev. She looked scared, frightened… but almost amazed by her surroundings. She was bound by her arms and left, her mouth covered by some device.

“Hello Plotty” Zim says, grinning.

“....!!!” Plotty couldn't believe it, she had been kidnapped by an alien who oddly sounded like her classmate Zim! obviously that must just be a coincidence, because she knew Zim was still back on earth at Prom with Dib.

“Yes, yes, I'm an alien. Now, you're going to make it up to me for all the times you STOLE the-Dib from me…! And no one steals from the GREAT ZIM!” Zim's face and tone quickly become grim. He pulls out some kind of remote control, pushing one of the buttons. The metal rope binding her legs came undone before shrinking and turning into a collar around her neck.

“You're going to be a good little human and run around this ship, and keep the enemy off my trail, and if you don't keep running, that collar will explode. “ Zim says, amused and disgusted by the girl's tears.

“Now GOOO! ZIM commands you!” Zim says, shoving her before activating the device. The girl panics and just keeps running.

Zim!? That alien was ACTUALLY Zim??? So Dib wasn't actually racist?? and what did Zim mean by taking Dib from him??? All these questions race through her mind as she continues to run.

Zim watches for a moment, feeling victorious, and ever so pleased that she would never be able to mind control Dib again.

“That's right, no one will be allowed to steal Dib from Zim, because the Dib-human belongs to me and only me! B-But that has absolutely nothing to do with being in love with the Dib-beast!!” Zim shouts out loud, feeling his face heat up. But he quickly begins running off, hoping he hadn't been noticed. 

He quietly tries to navigate towards the ship's core, using his pack legs to his advantage to maneuver around through the ship.

He can hear the guards quickly become alerted to an intruder, watching some of the guards run off, clearing Zim’s path. They must have noticed the human girl.

But just ahead was the ship's power core. Zim pulls out the small black box and brings it closer, activating it, but he panics when he realizes the timer on it wasn't set for 10 minutes, but was actually set for 10 seconds. He tossed the box and quickly makes a run for it, calling Gir to hopefully pick him up in the Vootcrusier.

He runs past a few of the guards, but just as Gir and Minimoose blast a hole through the ship to meet up with their master, the bomb goes off.

Zim jumps into the Vootcrusier before the bomb goes off, but instead of just blowing up, it begins to suck them and everything in before imploding, leaving a black hole behind.

Every Irken from the armada cheered, as the great and mighty Tallest had finally rid them of the dangerous and defensive invader Zim, once and for all…

[awesome-normal-heroes]

The True Reason Why The Tallest Won't Tell Zim The Truth About His Mission...

They're Secretly Afraid Of Him!

Think about it...

Zim not only caused their invasion plan to fail, but he also destroyed a great chunk of their home world and blew up all the other invaders as well...

Zim also shuts down their home world's power as a toddler, then later does the same thing to another planet when he got older...

Zim also destroyed and blew up a lot of things over the years...

Zim is even responsible for the deaths of the two Tallests before Red and Purple, thanks to his deadly creation...

But that's not even the scariest part...

The scariest part is that Zim did all those things by ACCIDENT...

Imagine what Zim would do to the current Tallest ON PURPOSE, if Zim learns the truth and possibly gets all revenge crazy...

The Tallest probably try not to think about it...

[emeraldspiral]

So having just seen Wicked I feel obligated to give you all my pitch for an Invader Zim musical. It would be called "Doomed", and not just because it's a word that was used a lot on the show. It actually has thematic significance.

So trying to reframe Zim as a misunderstood anti-hero or scapegoated good guy just inherently sounds like a parody that could never be done in earnest, which is why that's not how I'd try to present the show initially. I would start it off with Zim appearing to be the same old remorseless war criminal we all know and love.

So we're not starting off with Zim's birth and childhood innocence before something happened to embitter him or Zim actually being just a kid with a skin condition or a peaceful scientist with Dib as the villain unfairly targeting him.

The introductory number would be about the Great Assigning, ending with Red and Purple's introduction, which is then interrupted by Zim's arrival. Then Red and Purple would have a little song about their scheme to deceive Zim with a fake mission. Then GIR's introduction would get a little number. Then the Great Assigning set-piece would conclude with Zim setting out for earth singing an "I Want" song about his ambition to conquer the planet and win the approval of the Tallest. This number would end with "doom" as the last word, prompting GIR to sing the doom song. But it wouldn't be an actual number, it'd be exactly like the original; no musical accompaniment or anything, just GIR singing "doom" over and over as the curtain closes for a scene transition.

The curtain would then reopen to Zim being introduced to his class. Dib begins a number attempting to convince his classmates that Zim's an alien and Zim then sings his counter-argument, followed by them sing-arguing back and forth, which takes us into our next big musical set-piece; a song that's basically a speedrun of season 1. Zim's greatest hits such as stealing children's organs, attempting to trap Dib and his classmates in a room with a moose, and turning the class hamster into a kaiju are referenced as part of a montage focused on the rivalry between Zim and Dib. This song would do a lot of heavy lifting to develop Zim and Dib's characters, motives, and relationships. Throughout the song, every time Dib fails to expose Zim he complains to Gaz and expresses frustration with people's inability to see the truth, talks about how he's sure to get the recognition he deserves and make his dad proud as he prepares to go out and face Zim again, and during confrontations makes excuses to justify moments of unnecessary cruelty toward Zim which he won't admit are just him venting his frustrations at an acceptable target. Zim likewise vents to GIR throughout the song about how annoying Dib is, how his next plan is sure to succeed and impress the Tallest, and makes excuses to blame everyone but himself when his plans fail, all the while oscillating between panic and anxiety and delusional overconfidence. There are also hints of Zim and Dib's gradually building begrudging respect and homoerotic tension.

By the time this song is over we're still only about 15-20 minutes in. But after that long, fast-paced intro we slow things down as Tak comes into the picture.

She's introduced with a song which hints at her hypnosis powers, her true identity, and grudge against Zim. At the end of her introductory number Tak quickly strikes up a friendship with Dib.

The plot of Zim attempting to court Tak in order to learn about human affection is dropped. Instead, Zim pays her no mind as his focus is on spying on all the other invaders' progress in order to take his mind off his string of failures. Unfortunately, he finds out that everyone else is way ahead of him and Skoodge of all people has just become the first Invader to complete his mission. Furthermore, the Tallest are on a course headed straight for earth and they're due to arrive quite soon. Zim sings a song panicking over what the Tallest will think if they see he has nothing to show for all his time spent on earth. He gets the idea for a new evil scheme and then sings about the work he's doing to get it into motion.

We cut back to Dib and Tak and Dib starts singing an "I'm not alone anymore" song with Tak deceptively playing along.

Zim starts to get his plan underway and he's feeling pretty confident about it. Dib arrives with Tak to stop him and Zim sings a song taunting Dib about how he'll never defeat him even with help and how Irkens don't need help from anyone. But Zim's plan fails.

Dib is overjoyed and begins a song reprising parts of his "I'm not alone anymore" song and the montage song, believing he's about to get everything he ever wanted thanks to the first person to finally believe him. But Tak cuts him off with a darker reprise of the the "I'm not alone" song combined with her introductory number, pulling the rug out from under Dib and revealing she only pretend to be his friend and helped him defeat Zim as part of her own plan to conquer earth. Dib is devastated as Tak runs off with some part stolen from Zim's failed scheme to go enact her own evil plan.

Dib and Zim begin a reprisal of the montage song expressing their disappointment which transitions into a new song about them deciding that just this once they'll have to team up to defeat Tak (and recruit Gaz and GIR to help out).

Tak sings another reprise of her intro song as her plan goes into action. Zim and Dib then confront her together. Dib expresses his feelings of betrayal toward Tak. Tak reveals what Zim did to piss her off and tells him his mission is fake and the Tallest were coming to see her, not him, after authorizing her to conquer earth to prove herself to them. Zim refuses to believe her and Dib doesn't know what to think.

Zim and Dib manage to defeat Tak, just in time for the Tallest to see Zim blatantly committing treason and have him arrested, and that's the end of Act 1.

Act 2 is where the sympathetic retelling elements start coming into play. We open with Zim and Dib imprisoned. The Tallest come to see them and sing a song confirming everything Tak said was true and gloating about how they're finally going to be rid of Zim. After they leave, Zim sings to himself about how it's a practical joke or a set-up for a surprise party. Dib tries to interrupt with suggestions that they look for a way out, but Zim ignores him and keeps insisting they're not in real danger.

Zim gets taken out of confinement and put on trial where his crimes are revealed in a song. He's convicted and sentenced to execution, and the crowd of spectators sings a song cheering on Zim's impending demise. But Dib has been watching the whole time and things aren't adding up and he can't just ignore it. So he raises an objection and the Control Brain judges decide to actually listen.

Dib makes the case that Zim couldn't have possibly caused the catastrophic events seen in his memories. There should be no way that clogging up one tube could knock out an entire planet's power for 4 years unless the power grids were deliberately designed to fail. The Control Brains take a recess to consider the new evidence.

Zim and Dib are returned to their holding cell. Zim shows a lack of appreciation for Dib's help and questions his motives, but Dib can tell he's just doing it to avoid acknowledging all the uncomfortable revelations that have just come about. He sings a song calling Zim out on his cowardice and warning him that burying your head in the sand to hide from the truth doesn't make it go away.

They return to the courtroom where Dib proposes recreating the infinite energy absorbing blob as part of his case to prove Zim innocent. The judges allow it, and as expected, following the process shown in Zim's memories doesn't yield the same results. Meaning Zim didn't create the blob, someone else did. Someone else comes in with data recovered from the day of Zim's birth, which reveals that his code was tampered with before his PAK was even attached. A diagnostic on his PAK also indicates that his memories have been altered throughout his life. This unfortunately proves that even if Zim was framed for his worst offenses, he's still defective and must be terminated.

They attempt to execute Zim and Dib, but Zim unexpectedly corrupts the Control Brains and destroys them. Zim and Dib are then rescued by Irken rebels who've been hiding in plain sight among the spectators the whole time.

Act 3 begins with Zim and Dib aboard the rebel Irken ship. The Irken rebels sing a song welcoming them into the rebellion before they introduce them to their leader; Skoodge. Skoodge has a song explaining that the Irken Empire is a sham. The information uploaded into their PAKs at birth is selectively edited by the Control Brains to push their agenda. Short Irkens are told they can prove their worth by working hard to serve the Empire, but no matter what they accomplish the system still treats them like trash. And they're promised that colonizing other planets will give them a better life, but it really only enriches the Tallest while things stay the same for everyone else. Skoodge found all that out the hard way after completing his mission only for the Tallest to try to execute him so he wouldn't encourage shorter Irkens to set their ambitions too high. That's when he joined the rebellion and quickly assumed a leadership role. The rebellion has been going on since long before he and Zim were born and it was the Irken rebels who corrupted his code with a malware program designed to make him a saboteur and edited his memories to make him believe he was responsible for catastrophes caused by the rebels. Having seen that the malware is capable of destroying the Control Brains the rebels now want to bring Zim back to Irk to defeat it's central leadership and liberate the planet.

Zim is rightfully pissed off and sings about how he's tired of being lied to and manipulated and used to serve the ends of others.

He storms off with Dib following. We finally get the title song; "Doomed". It begins with him and Dib blaming one another for ruining each other's lives and wishing they'd never met, then lamenting how they were both "Doomed" from the beginning. Born to be losers, destined to fail at everything and unable to change their fate no matter how hard they try. But then the song becomes more optimistic as they build each other back up. They both think the other person is amazing even if no one else recognizes them. The fact that they've gotten up time and again after so many failures, so many beatings, and the universe itself seemingly being against them is a testament to their incredible inner strength.

Dib sympathizes with Zim and tells him to just take off if that's what he wants, he doesn't owe the Empire or the rebels anything. Zim is surprised that Dib isn't urging him to do the right thing, and Dib suggests that maybe the rebels don't deserve his help if they didn't treat him any better than the Empire. Maybe neither of them should be busting their ass for a cruel ungrateful world and it's a fool's errand to even try because they are after all, "doomed". But Zim ultimately decides he's going to try to destroy the Control Brains anyway because he doesn't want to resign himself to such a bleak outlook. And really, wouldn't giving in to hopelessness and apathy just make him part of the problem?

So Dib and the Irken rebels help Zim get into the Control Brain server room so he can plug himself in and corrupt them. But the Control Brains knew he was coming and updated themselves with some powerful firewalls. In cyberspace, an avatar of Zim interacts with the firewall, manifesting as Red and Purple attempting to convince him that he can still win them over if he surrenders and grovels for forgiveness in another reprisal of Zim's "I Want" song. But Zim rejects them.

The firewall then manifests as an army of Irken soldiers that Zim has to fight solo. Dib sees that Zim needs help and attaches an Irken PAK to himself so he can plug himself in to save Zim. Zim and Dib sing a reprise of Dib's "I'm not alone anymore" song as they battle the firewall together. Zim manages to break through and infect the Control Brains with a virus that destroys them. Dib disconnects just in time to avoid being destroyed as well, but it seems like Zim himself didn't make it.

Dib holds Zim's limp body and cries, singing a sad reprise of the "I'm not alone song". But of course Zim didn't really die and he wakes up and they hug and finish the song triumphantly together.

Zim and Dib are hailed as heroes by the liberated Irkens in a celebratory song. Zim's "I Want" song is reprised again as he's approached by Skoodge and the other rebels with a suggestion that he assume a leadership role as they help their fellow Irkens to rebuild. But Zim humbly declines. He knows he's not really fit for leadership and never really wanted the responsibility anyway, just the validation, which he doesn't need anymore.

Dib asks Zim what he intends to do now, and Zim says he doesn't know. Dib invites Zim to come back to earth with him.

The final song is a reprise of Zim's "I Want" song combined with Dib's "I finally found someone" song, combined with the montage song, showing the changes they've gone through. Dib still wants to study the paranormal, but no longer cares who else believes him as long as he has Zim, and Zim just wants to enjoy the freedom he never had with the Empire. Freedom to experience friendship and have fun goofing off, playing games, having sleepovers, hunting cryptids, and riding space bunnies and drinking space sodas with Dib.

[inbarfink]

Okay, so here’s the thing about Zim and GIR…

When talking about the idea that Zim might have some affection towards GIR - a lot of people bring up the fact that, like, GIR is even still functioning in the first place. After all, why would the Famously Sadistic and Callous Invader Zim keep around an evil minion who messes up as often as GIR does? Rather than scrap him for parts or just throw him in the trash? ….Unless he had some sort of emotional attachment to that minion in the first place?

But that’s… I’m actually not sure that argument 100% works. Because there’s one important variable that argument discards. GIR isn’t just a regular ol’ robotic minion - he is a special top-secret model SIR Unit personally gifted to Zim by the Almighty Tallests.

Zim cannot fully discard GIR as a worthless garbage robot that’s nothing but a hindrance to his mission the same way that he can’t discard Earth as a worthless garbage planet with no value to the Irken Empire - because that would be confronting and admitting that he is not actually a great and respected Invader in the eyes of his Tallests.

But I still think there are some other evidence to the idea that Zim likes GIR. Because, I mean, Zim is incredibly lenient towards him.

Zim… feels bad for yelling at GIR and making him cry. 

Zim. Feels. Bad. For. Yelling. 

This alone is incredible evidence for Zim’s affection towards GIR.

And that is absolutely not something Zim will do for just any minion. Just look at how he treats his Computer, and not to mention all those poor saps from Hobo 13. 

The fact that in his deluded world, GIR is supposed to be a top-of-the-line personal gift from the Tallests certainly plays a part. But I also think that while these delusions might explain why he doesn’t throw GIR in the trash… Zim is very good at twisting reality and logic and his own ideology for the sake of justifying his own selfish desires. 

If he actually wanted to hurt GIR, he could’ve very easily rationalized it as ‘you are supposed to be the bestest most prided minion in my army of doom and a personal gift from the Almighty Tallest themselves therefore I will hold you to a higher standard and punish you accordingly’. But instead he is incredibly lenient with GIR and his constant screw-ups and obnoxious whims.

So my read of why Zim is actually fond of GIR in his own weird way is very much tied to, like, a Big Thing about how I read Zim’s character in general. Which is, Zim’s delusion, like Ogres, has layers. Like, there are some aspects of reality that just genuinely never penetrated his thick Irken skull - and there are some things he does realize on some level even as he tries as hard as he can to convince himself otherwise. 

So I think on some level, as much as he outwardly denies it, Zim is aware of how much he messed up things for the Irken Empire in ‘Impending Doom 1’ and how the Almighty Tallests really view him. This is basically how his thought process is described in the Pilot -

And it’s also supported with how Vasquez describes Zim’s similarities to Dib in some of the ‘Florpus’ interviews.

Dib is obviously painfully aware of the ways his father does not respect him - but for Zim to similarly want to prove his own amazingness to the Tallest, he has to be aware on some level that the Tallest don’t acknowledge that he’s amazing. And I think it also matches with his interactions with the various Tallests in the ‘The Trial’ Flashbacks. Because he wasn’t originally that feverishly devoted, eager to prove himself and deluded about being beloved by the Tallests as he is right now.

That’s a trait he has developed either in response to his spectacular failure in ‘Operation Impending Doom 1’ or just to Red and Purple - who already knew him beforehand and decided they can’t stand him - rising to power. He is aware on some level of how the Tallests perceive him, and while he cannot consciously acknowledge it, his behavior is him overcompensating for it.

And I think… Zim projects this aspect of himself on GIR. He sees himself in GIR. Not the self he wants to see, the hypercompetent and beloved Invader. But the self he keeps denying - a devoted and loyal minion who despite messing up sometimes (or rather, all the goddamn time), is always eager to please and driven to prove himself.

Which… is also not a fully accurate view of himself, but like I said, it’s Layers of self-delusion. But that’s subconsciously how he perceives his own relationship with the Tallests and how he perceives GIR’s relationship to himself. 

So Zim being so tolerant of GIR’s constant screw ups, never really seriously punishing him, always putting him in important positions in his schemes, always acquiesce to his stupid and annoying whims… that’s because he sees himself in GIR, and that’s how he would like the Tallests to treat him, that’s how he pretends the Tallests already treat him, and so that’s the treatment he gives GIR. He believes he deserves these infinite second chances and high-ranking roles in all of the Empire’s universe-conquering plans despite his constant failures and that’s what he keeps doing with GIR despite being just as frustrated with him as the Tallests are with Zim.

And the thing is, because of Zim’s Extreme Projection to the Max - he kinda got the entirely wrong idea about GIR. Zim is not exactly that eager-to-please loyal drone of the empire - but GIR is not that at all, not even remotely. While GIR might have some affection towards Zim, he doesn’t care at all about the mission - much less being ‘allowed’ to do Important Things Vital for the fate of the Zim’s latest scheme. He would much rather goof off and watch TV then be given any sort of responsibility.

Again, the cupcake scene is very illustrative. Zim thinks GIR is upset because he feels very bad about screwing up their mission and thus is immediately forgiving - but GIR was only sad because he ran out of Cupcake to eat.

With how distractible and chaotic and generally detached from reality GIR is, it’s… kinda hard to determine when he’s trying to obey Zim’s orders but failing and when he just never really gave much of a shit about them in the first place.

But he’s usually not even a little bit bothered or upset about the idea that his inaction has put his ‘master’ in mortal danger.

I guess the funny thing is, like, there are times where Zim needs an extra pair of arms or eyes on board - times where he needs the skills of… maybe not GIR but at least a hypothetical fully-functional SIR Unit. But there are many other occasions where GIR is nothing but a burden and annoyance to him and the thing is that they both would’ve been happier if GIR was just allowed to stay home to watch TV and eat babies but Zim keeps putting him in important positions because Zim likes GIR but he’s unable to understand what GIR is actually like beyond an image of all the projected insecurities he can't admit about himself.

And of course, as we all know, if GIR was actually driven to fulfill their mission - that turns out very bad for Zim very very quickly. 

[the-babygirl-polls]

Babygirl Polls Lineup: Week Eight

Hello everyone! It's been literal months but we've finally made it to Week Eight! Thank you to everyone who submitted their babygirls!

Chinatsu Akakura (Marriagetoxin)

Reze (Chainsaw Man)

Boa Hancock (One Piece)

Power (Chainsaw Man)

Aki Hayakawa (Chainsaw Man)

Denji (Chainsaw Man)

Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinate (One Piece)

Gerry Keay (The Magnus Archives)

Draculara (Monster High)

Bartolomeo (One Piece)

Kasane Teto (SynthV)

ASTERIAN (SynthV)

Giovanni Potage (Epithet Erased)

Ryuma (Monsters)

Senshi (Dungeon Meshi)

Charlotte Katakuri (One Piece)

Wheatley (Portal 2)

Dr. Septimus Pretorius (The Bride of Frankenstein)

Cheng Xiaoshi (Link Click)

John Rambo (First Blood)

Michael Knight (Knight Rider)

Dinobot (Transformers: Beast Wars)

Gabriel (Ultrakill)

Reinhardt Wilhelm (Overwatch)

Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age)

Alear (female) (Fire Emblem Engage)

Dimitri Alexander Blaydid (Fire Emblem 3 Houses)

Apollo Justice (Ace Attorney)

Craig Cuttlefish (Splatoon)

Malleus Draconia (Twisted Wonderland)

Ruggie Bucchi (Twisted Wonderland)

Big Man (Splatoon)

Stanley (The Stanley Parable)

Jon Snow (Game of Thrones)

Joel Fleischman (Northern Exposure)

Itsuomi Nagi (A Sign of Affection)

Daniel de Bosola (The Duchess of Malfi (John Webster))

Leporello (Don Giovanni/Don Juan)

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars)

Herlock Sholmes (The Great Ace Attorney)

Wen Ning (The Untamed)

Rui Kamishiro (Project Sekai)

Nie Huaisang (MDZS)

Danny Tanner (Full House)

Regina Mills (One Upon A Time)

Rory Williams (Doctor Who)

Dale Vandermeer (Rusty Lake/Cube Escape)

Mr. Puzzles (SMG4)

Sheldon Lee (My Life as a Teenage Robot)

Skoodge (Invader Zim)