#ZIM ISNT AN ALIEN!!

[zimfanboy-keef]

i don’t think me and zim are toxic yaoi….☹️ I THINK WE ARE AWESOME YAOI!!! <3

[sapphorror]

my top controversial Zim headcanon is that Zim actually performs absurdly well at skool because

1. he's a perfectionist with a compulsive reaction to ANY system of scoring

2. I 100% believe test scores are this guy's forte because he had to become an Invader SOMEHOW and he sure as hell wasn't passing based on the practical

3. He has hyper-advanced alien AI to do his homework for him. like come on.

meanwhile Dib is really only scraping by on raw intelligence and the inherent educational advantage of having a mad scientist father. He doesn't have TIME to study, there's an evil alien he has to stalk and besides, you know what's better than a high school diploma? The Nobel Peace Prize for proving the existence of extraterrestrial life.

[ronispadez]

Rereading my call out google doc from 2020 and giggling

[neolxzr]

hey you get it its an alien stage alien au—wait a minute... this is just invader zim !!!

some more random info abt this au under the read more ^_^ open at your own risk its a lot of yapping

till makes it his mission to expose the aliens (mostly ivan. he has personal beef with him) to the rest of humanity, but he's the boy who cried wolf. no one believes him because he's been talking about aliens and bigfoot and mothman and whatever nonstop all his life.

till loves the supernatural but also fears it. it consumes most of his waking thoughts. he doesn't like how quickly the aliens grow close to mizi out of a desire to protect her from the (presumed) threat. he's kinda like if dib invader zim was some gay art kid instead of like a supergenius

this threatening feeling comes from till assuming that ivan and sua are on earth for some kind of conquest and or abduction reasons. are they actually? who knows...

mizi is a bit of a hopeless romantic and finding out that sua was an alien only served to make her fall for her more. she could think of nothing more romantic than this scenario, actually. even till screaming danger at her cannot deter her from her love

ivan fights with till and riles him up because he finds how expressive he is utterly fascinating. he says its to "learn more about humans" but mostly he just wants till's attention. he himself doesn't know why he wants this attention, though.

sua and ivan experience a range of emotions in a similar way to humans, yet their species is discouraged from acting emotionally and isnt taught about what any of their feelings mean. all they know, at the start, is that these humans draw some kind of strange feelings out of them that they've never felt before.

(it sticks with the overall theming of alnst being about trying to understand exactly what love means.)

ivan and sua's earpieces are multipurpose tools. they're connected directly to the brain and can't be taken off. they can be used to generate their disguises (its a hologram type of thing), works as a translator so they can communicate with other alien species, etc.

what looks kind of like a nose on the aliens' faces is not a nose. their antennas are used as their olfactory system (they are also quite sensitive)

till is no longer crushing on mizi at this point in his life. sometime during middle school mizi came out to him as a lesbian and so he told her he liked her and it was a whole thing and they both cried. it ended up serving to strengthen their friendship. its been about 4 years-ish since then and theyre still inseparable

till works some kind of shitty service job part time, at which he met hyuna. she's like his cool older college friend and sort of older sister. he plays with her band sometimes

this takes place in who the fuck knows where midwest united states, and the humans are korean-american. till is first generation and usually speaks korean with his mom at home

it takes a while for till to first get a glimpse of ivan and sua's undisguised forms, though when he finally does something about them seems oddly familiar to him.

mizi sees sua's undisguised form long before till does. she does not tell him this

luka is an alien too. wonder what he's up to...

ok thats all love you bye ^_^

[sporesgalaxy]

I know its already really obvious that invader zim is satire of american culture but . but isnt it neat the way that its satire of modern american culture using a reversal of the cold-war era "alien menace" story, drawing attention to how little about the core of american culture has changed since then. WHILE making fun of the absurd cruelty of fascism and imperialism and capitalism. if you even care

[verm1c1de]

me explaining pradr to screamp

v whole rant under the cut

its a guy trying to find his ((figurative))soulmate in people who are decidedly nefur going to be that and two losers who already have their respective ((figurative))soulmate and arent looking fur anofur one and yet end up finding someone who still isnt that but nonetheless ends up being impurrtant to them despite efurrything

also hes like their little attack dog they look down on but actually he is not a dog he is like a loose coyote

with rabies

but they have fun togefur,,,,,, mewsually shallow, hedonistic fun, on the tallits end, with dip trying and occasionally succeeding to get them to have His definition of fun ((petty rivalry)), but its still nefur gonna be like zim but it does feel good to "corrupt" uppity irken leaders into playing enemy tuoys with mew

so its mostly a lot of dib suffuring but mew cant say that being attracted to dib membrane isnt its own kind of misery

though

even if not Written Down on Paper Illegal ((though itd still purrobably be like. grounds fur punishment)) its definitely a really. really. really. really. really bad look fur them

or purrhaps Looking Fucking Cringe is enough punishment,,,

ur making the empire look bad. stop it. kicks them

well,,,,,,,,,,, i dont know what the fuck reds purroblem is but he certainly clawses most of his own purroblems. hes too much of a damn enabler,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

im not sure how to phrase this next sentence theres a lot of opinions im trying to condense into compurrehendable sentences

its,,, more interesting to me to give him the Role of figurative masochist or loser or smitten or sub etc beclaws of how hes the Cool Guy the big talker the "Competent One". or maybe thats just me and my "the stereotypical top gets topped" fetish

and furankly ourp does not give me the vibes of "guy who takes these things that seriously" or "wants to have an emotional connection guy" though to purresume red is That much better would be a mistake

hes still a jerk and an irken and a tallits

wurple,,, just likes a funny little guy. hes having a laugh. its Interesting and New even if dibs rlly gross and annoying and stupid and asks too many questions and,,, well,,,,,, at least he can still bully him at the end of the day

i think trying to connect earnestly with ourp is a struggle fur anyone even red who has the advantage of Knowing Him Since Furefur

beclaws ourp dont caaaaaaare

but if they did,,,,

((they being ourp n dip))

one of dibs main traits is being purrceptive. and noticing that purp might not be as stupid as hes been letting himself be,,,

i dont think purp is Insecure about his place in life at all. i dont think he goes "waaa people think im dumb"

its more like

"aha ur smarter than u look human. but im still not doing the dishes just bcs u noticed im not actually too stupid to do them"

and dip unintentionally getting him to Try Harder and thus have more fun than just doing explosions efurry day

dib membrane is like those brain exercises mew have to do in order to keep mewrself furom brainrotting in human furm fur gay irkens ((including zim))

as fur them to him,,,,,

its complicated. hed really fuckin hate being looked down on and being treated like some jester. but him trying to break out of that role theyve set fur him will annoy them but itd also make him more Interesting, even if not in a necessarily Good way. theres a lot of things about eachofur that they just straight up hate and its hard to say when they start being intolerable to eachofur

but Eventually,,,, getting the god-empurrors of an alien empire to Like mew? even if mew hate what they stand fur, thats Gotta be some kind of ego boost,,,

maybe they can get him to lighten the fuck up just a little

and influence him in ofur, unfurtunate ways,,,,

dib finds himself accidentally being purroud of how tall he is when he mewsed to not gaf

or "murder is ok as long as its not humans"

dib can yap at them all he wants about "maybe blowing planets up is bad actually" but what can he say? he only cares about His planet. alllll hes doin is yapping and swearing how hell take down their whole empire,,, whiner

and also trying to start fights that would really look bad fur them if they took seriously at all even if just fur fun but hes REALLY annoying and punchable and tussling sounds reaaaaallyy fun and so does winning,,,

reminds them of their elite days,,,,,,,,,,,,,

ok tl;dr purple => dib: thinks hes funny and stupid and inferior and doesnt like being insulted by his bigheaddedness but likes bullying him and ocassionally bullying WITH him. hates that dib starts taking them less seriously as a threat and calling them stupit and doesnt even like getting his weaponized incompetence called out but it does make dib more interesting fur it dib => purple: dib thinks hes stupit and stops taking the tallits seriously but thinks purp specifically is soooo mean and sadistic to him and doesnt take dib seriously eifur what a bully but riling him up is funny and sometimes bullying With him feels good and getting purp to Lock In is especially fun ((and scary)). enjoys that wurple will expawsition Irken Knowledge to him just beclaws he likes being better at remembering things than red red => dib: thinks hes funny and stupid and inferior and hey wait a minute hes been listening to dib talk about ghosts fur 5 hours now surely hell stop Eventually... red tolerates dib too much even though he still definitely loves bullying him but just like zim he foolishly thinks that Maybe enabling him a little will make him less annoying,,,, it does not. red cant help accidentally taking dib seriously sometimes and engaging and talking with him on a normal level. it makes dib even more annoying to him. but actually noticing dibs purrsonality sure does make him more new and interesting to be around,,,,,,, dib => red: oh ok theyre Both stupid and not as much of a threat as hed hoped thought. but red occasionally being Competent and not treating him like an idiot sometimes makes him want to see how fur that goes. he Will make them take him seriously. dib is a Real Threat!! mew hear him!!!! likes that red will "listen" [read: zone out] to his rants and that hell play into the "hero v villain" thing more often. purrobably the furst one he bonds with as a purrson past the tallits learned vapidity. and then swiftly reminded hes still jerkish and egotistical

ok not much of a tl;dr damn

[fizzzledout]

Ok so hear me out

Invader Zim AU where Zim comes to earth when he and Dib are younger so Dib isnt as bitter and crazy from people not believing him yet

Dib tries to befriend him because he wants to learn about aliens (and because he has no other friends) and Zim pretends to be his friend because having a friend will make him seem more human, sort of like what we see with Keef in the show

Eventually they end up genuinely enjoying each others company abd having a wholesome friendship

[frostbite-the-bat]

nay but srsly despite my wacky-all-over-the-place-because-anxiety confidence about things, taking insults as compliments has made me ten times more confident as a person Slash THING. i know i got a wacky identity but half the time someone would theoretically try to insult me theyre just stating a fact about me thats the way i am

i still understand the weight and id stand for others if said to them but like

"oh cant you just pick?! youre so confusing!" yea i am thats my whole deal i am chaos incarnate. i dont make sense. im cool like that

"youre like an ANIMAL! you dont matter!" well i am an animal creature of some sort thanks for me right . like dehumanize me? thanks thats how i am

once i was not autism/adhd masking and got Silly and my teacher called me an alien and i am reasonably mad at her for the ableism but. hey thanks. sincerely invader zim hyperfixation at the time of that being said. i am an alien critter sure

someone jokingly calling me it or some Thing? yes youre doing it right keep it up darlin

asexuality aromanticism isnt real youre just broken! well so is your mom when i-

or like "ugh youre so weird" THANKS FOR THE AFFIRMATION. I NEED TO GET WEIRDER. I APPRECIATE YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT. YOU ARE CORRECT.

this wont work for everyone but it does for me. these things may still hurt me but looking back i can just shrug and go Ya They Aint Wrong Thats What Makes Me Rad As Hell. and not in the radioactive way, but i wish.

[terrestrialextraterrestrial]

im dumb dumb stupid idiot who hyperfixated on dragons instead of aliens, how the fuck does zadr mean zim and dib??? shouldnt it be fucking zib/dim (dim witted like the zadr shippers are)

also isnt dib like 12 while zims centuries old?? just confirmation because again im Dumb Stupid and flying lizards are Funny.

Hey hey thanks for asking! For the first question, ZaDr stands for ‘Zim and Dib romance’. Odd, I know, but it’s not just the romantic ships that have this layout in the Invader Zim fandom, for example, there’s xaxf (x and x friendship) and xaxe (x and x enemies) from what I remember.

for the second question, yes, Zim is canonically over 100 years old in Earth years, maybe even 200, I’m not sure (And even if he’s below 100, he is at least definitely over 50 irk years, as confirmed in the episode ‘Tak: The hideous new girl’.) And Dib is indeed 12, as confirmed by himself during the opening narration of Enter The Florpus. Also, Zim and Dib are enemies and of different species from different planets entirely, so yeah, long story short, ZaDr is icky blegh

[gutsfics]

Top 9 Shows

i was tagged by @inlocusmads at the begining of the month and then. promptly forgot about it.

anyway i tried to do a mix of live action and animated shows even though i watch more animated shows bc i didn't want to look too much like a child

Santa Clarita Diet - this show is for the bisexuals fr. Shelia and Joel are total couple goals. Netflix is cowards for canceling it

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - there's an episode where Quark, Rom, and Nog accidentally get sent back in time and become the Roswell Aliens and Quark tries to convince the humans to do even more capitalism than they were already doing, and its called Little Green Men. Show of all time.

Rise of the TMNT - the best TMNT show (imo) soley for the fact the turtles actually have different designs for once. also its insanely beautifully animated and really funny. also fun fact but Mikey's voice in this (done by Brandon Mychal Smith) is my voice claim for Devi.

The Muppets (2015) - my favorite show about making a show, and hands down the best Muppets show to come out of the last decade. which is like an insanely low bar bc they've been doing a steady nosedive since Disney bought them. BUT. honestly this is how a modern Muppets show should be done. compared to other modren Muppets shows, theres so much energy. i wish Up Late With Miss Piggy was a real show

Gravity Falls - i love when a show has exactly enough episodes to tell the story it wants to tell and doesn't get cut short or run on for too long. also Alex Hirsch faking screenshots of Fiddleford writing the journals was genious and every showrunner should do stuff like that instead of changing the plot bc the fans found out what was going on a season early. theres this shit called forshadowing, and it's good if your audience can pick up on it

Community - one of my binge shows for when i don't feel like doing something else or watching something new. i usually stick to the first 3 seasons though. Shirley is the best character and i wish the writers knew what to do with her more often. there was so much going for her and the writers just dropped the ball so hard

Bojack Horseman - my other binge show and my second favorite show about making a show (and movies). it's not often that a character's arc ends with them gaining weight, as a sign of healing or otherwise, so Diane holds a really special place in my heart, especially bc there isnt a single joke about Diane's weight gain at her expence. also Todd is best boy.

Breaking Bad - Jesse Pinkman my beloved

Invader Zim - i was actually born the same year this. when i was old enough to actually watch the reruns, i was terrified of it. now its my favorite show. i have a gir hoodie :3

tagging @raytaku @lame-kid-on-couch @enki-ankarian @mydemonsdrivealimo

[butterscotch-brigade]

im only 5 episodes into invader zim but i feel like if zim were accused of having autism he wouldnt know what it is so he'd go home and be like "GIR!!!!!! what is this 'autism' and how can it be used to my advantage!!!!" and gir wouldnt be listening he'd just be like "WHEEEEE" bc he'd be pouring the entire contents of a cookie jar into his mouth and zim would be like "FINE i will do some more research MYSELF" and then the next day dib would be trying to convince ppl at school that zim is an alien like "guys come ON!!!! he isnt normal i swear!!!! hes not from this planet!!!" and the other kids would be like "dude come on thats insensitive as hell just bc hes autistic doesnt mean hes an alien" and gaz would be like "god dib dont be ableist you piece of shit" and dib would be like "????? *I'M* LITERALLY AUTISTIC????" and then before anyone can say anything zim would burst into the room like "hello fellow humans!!!! i, zim, have AUTISM!!!!!!!" and everyone would just kinda stare at him blankly for a moment before going back to whatever it was they were doing before and all the while zim will be thinking in his head "heh.....foolish humans. they dont know that my autism is the autism.....of DOOM!!!!!!"

[short-and-ugly]

i like this episode i think because. it shows a species (or at least two aliens) that are ACTUALLY dumb. zim isnt dumb. (well he is. but not in the same way)

they have all the same technology as him (maybe even more! even if they dont get tv. never get that good ol irken propaganda broadcasts, eh?) and yet the most theyve done with it is hold captives temporarily before they all escaped.

zim on the other hand, HAS actually captured things. and successfully experimented on them. the chickens just a couple episodes ago seemed pretty captured to me! and as for sentient things. the waffle episode. shows that he actually HAS a human experiment. that DIDNT escape. even though all he did to them awas put a big happiness probe in their head (for what reason??? why does zim need happiness, huh? huh?)

and also the tentacle monster thing. but it escaped. so that counts a little less.

[sporesgalaxy]

since i dont want an entire "zim age debate" on your blog im keeping this off anon so you can answer this privately if you want

im ALSO not trying to "convince you" to change your interpretation of zim because thats stupid and completely defeats my entire point that its up in the air. thatd also be pretty mean of me!

but my main point is that i think different writers on the show have different ideas for how they see him, considering jhonen is not the sole opinion-haver there and his favorite thing to do is make shit up. like richard and andy((zim and dibs voice actors, respectively)) im pretty sure dont think hes an old man otherwise the puppet kiss incident or the "i love you zim" wouldnt have happened. ((not that i want this to be About shipping but thats a big example)) and then theres advertisements calling zim an "alien kid" or jhonen himself calling zim a child in the old pilot bible

i understand what you mean with tak the hideous new girl however thats also the episode where he tries to Date tak under the impression that shes a human child and id rather not see my funny greenboy as a predator. i just always thought that the 60 years joke was "haha isnt it funny that were using ridiculously long periods of time and theyre still children"

not to mention mopiness of doom where it shows that zim and dib are grossly codependent enemies and i just dont really want to imagine a 60+ year old man and a child depending on eachother like that,,,,,

theres more "evidence" but i think this ask has gone on long enough

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID!!!!! theres no definitive proof either way and i find that unless youre shipping or really want to dig into the child soldier angle((which i personally find interesting)) it doesnt really matter. again this isnt supposed to be a persuasive essay just like,, idek. i like discussing this show and the characters in it! theres story benefits to either interpretation of zim and i like your art either way

uhh,, cheers and also sorry i think!!

eh. I had to write so much to respond to all this, it seems wasteful not to post.

TL; DR

There is no way for me to 100% guarantee that zadr will be read the same way by everyone, because it won't be, as is the nature of all media. That is exactly why I don't think that everyone who interprets Zim as a child necessarily has ill or manipulative intentions.

But I can provide arguments like the following for why I think zadr and kids who ship it would be a likely target for groomers, and therefore why I feel it is a good idea to discourage this ship.

As I mentioned in the previous ask, I think that said discouragement should be approached with the mindset that not everyone involved is malicious or arguing in bad faith. It is necessary to determine how best to act depending on the situation.

Personally, I'm going to continue pointing out the problems I see with the ship as much as I can in hopes of changing peoples' minds, whenever I have the time and energy to do so.

re: the VAs: This does not refute my point about Zim being easily read as an adult bc of the 50 years comment/ many other contextual implications made by the show. If anything the vagueness about Zim's age because of his alien society could make this a more useful grooming tool. I feel the same way about Bill Cipher x Dipper. Bill has just as much childish adult coding and just as little certainty about his age within the context of his alien species.

•••

re: the pilot bible: the show changes lots of things from the pilot bible so this is no more reliable than any other "word of god" (input from creators of the show rather than material within the show) from Jhonen.

That said, I think the VAs were joking around and did not put much thought into it. Joking around by making characters act the opposite of normal (hating each other -> liking each other) is common.

That said, I think the unprovable nature of the intentions behind the VAs comments is a good argument for excluding word of god from the Zim age conversation entirely. I think that zadr is still Not Good and should be Discouraged even if you only look at the show with no additional outside input, for all the reasons I explained in the first ask and have added here.

re: advertisements calling Zim an alien kid: a bunch of characters in the show call him a kid because they are genuinely convinced he is one, so it doesnt surprise me that advertisement/bumper writers who arent really paying attention would call him that.

re: trying to date Tak: in that episode it is made VERY clear that Zim does not understand romance at all, and does not care to beyond what's necessary to blend in. He clearly does not genuinely want to date her and only wants to use it to seem more socially normal. The Keef episode established a precedent for how Zim treats human relationships he's unfamiliar with, and it's by doing the bare minimum and then ditching them immediately. It's not GOOD behavior by any stretch, but he isn't acting with genuine predatory intentions.

re: 60 years joke: yeah sure that is a joke the show might make. But the additional cultural context we have for Zim's life (that he has been a soldier for a long time + that he trained to become a soldier for a long time, as we see in The Trial) gives Tak being a janitor for 50 years more potential to be taken literally.

re: mopiness of doom: yeah honestly I just personally don't like that episode script. But also, as codependant as they are and as weird as that is, nothing about it is inherently romantic. My frenemies argument from the end of the original post still stands, as do all of my arguments about the ship being potentially useful for grooming because of the lack of clarity.

re: your conclusion: The fact that Irkens HAVE child soldiers IS interesting, yes, and we see in The Trial that Zim has been trained to be a soldier basically since birth, which is also interesting to consider for Zim's character.

However, I explained in the previous ask how I think reading Zim as a child during the current events of the show weakens some of the show's core themes about incompetent, unquestioning adults. I think the whole show just makes more sense if it is centered around a socially shunned child and socially shunned adult fighting against each other. The fact that Zim is old and still a loser further highlights how futile both his and Dib's aspirations to greatness are within their respective societies-- and they are CLEARLY meant to be seen as futile.

I cannot think of a theme or character arc that would be served by Zim's age being unclear, so I do not think it comes across as intentional, even if you rule out word of god. But still, even if nothing I've read into here was intentional, what matters is that it is lends itself to being interpreted as an adult/child ship, or being interpreted as an age gap that "doesnt count" for superficial reasons. And NO I am not claiming that there is any way to conclusively determine that a ship with an unclear age gap has crossed the line into potentially harmful territory. It HAS to be considered on a case-by-case basis. And you've made it clear that there are muddling factors to sift through for this one in particular!

But I feel very strongly that these muddling factors are more circumstantial than, less intuitive than, and ultimately outweighed by, the parts of the text which contextually place Zim as an adult, and will continue providing examples supporting this conclusionc whenever I am able to.

[oury-boros]

zim was just a guy with fucked up skin. and me too man. me too

[satirn]

Heyyy bestie, I'm alive. I did a screenshot redraw!! +one without effects

Time tooken: 21:27:35

[that's right this took about a day :P]

[1nvad3rz1m]

but also dib is fumbling the bag here he has like prime alien boyfriend material and he fucks it up. everyone else bags a hot alien around him and hes like "man wtf do i have to do" like zim isnt right there

i always thought dib would hav the Big Realization that he cares about zim and has a weird hang up about it because he has Problems but zim i think is like. quiet about it. it just happens. he just kind of lets invading fall to the back of his mind in lieu of hanging around dib and wanting his attention and easy approval more than anything else. its like how cats domesticated themselves