#competent zim AU

[zharizard666]

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MAN O_O

An entire year passed by and I didn't update this comic, I'm so sorry!

I'm a bit busy today with work but next two pages should be finished this weekend :3

[reynaruina]

🦇 🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃 🦇 from the CZ Boys! Dib kept his costume a secret until now...Silly Dib! He should know he can't keep secrets from Zim!!

[valexombie123]

Un dibujo que no termine que quería hacer de zim y mini alce y el que empecé después

A drawing that I did not finish that I wanted to do of zim and mini moose and the one that I started later

[catmaraudersfan]

I finally re-found this and I'm not losing it again.

Fanart of @reynaruina's Competent Zim AU

I fell in love with this AU and couldn’t stop thinking of it. It's very interesting how you've made different ways the story could go 🖤

Thanks for making this AU, I love everything about it ❤️

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was made fanfiction to it! The person made it so good! ❤️

I thought we were friends - Duelkittens - Invader Zim [Archive of Our Own]

I'M SCREAMING!!!

[abrthephantomq]

Chapters: 19/? Fandom: Invader Zim Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim), Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim), GIR & Zim (Invader Zim) Characters: Dib (Invader Zim), Gaz (Invader Zim), Zim (Invader Zim), GIR (Invader Zim), Gretchen (Invader Zim), Torque Smackey Additional Tags: Competent Zim (Invader Zim), Non-Linear Narrative, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, Older Dib (Invader Zim), Tall Zim (Invader Zim), tall is relative -- but Zim isn't like 3ft tall, Enemies to Lovers, competent Dib (Invader Zim), the author plays with punctuation in Zim POVs, I have done my best to be consistent Series: Part 1 of System Works (Firsts) Chapter 19 Summary:

2024 - Dib confronts Zim on just how many times Zim has fucked with his memories -- which, of course, just leads to more questions.

(Also can I just be like holy hell I’ve written nearly 40k words of this? I’m so proud of me. <3)

[v1p0]

My Universe...

ZADR/TAGR Alien Stage AU

Upon Zim's betrayal on his truce with humanity and the Irken armada conquering Earth, Tak was assigned as Gaz Membrane's guard. She knew that the human had talent, but she also knew that the competition was harsh and competent. With a worry that she wouldn't recognise of having, she disguised herself as human to participate against the ones who could erase her happiness from existence.

When the turn of each other to participate together came, she wasn't worried at all. She never feared death, nor did she think she would really die, her pak could always bring her back as new. What she didn't expect was for her life to collapse, for her love to be returned, or for her heart to be found, only to be broke.

AU made between me and @red-roka <3

[whumping-valentine]

Aliens + Whump 👽

Alien whumpee who gets captured by a scientist who wants to study them.

Alien whumpee who crash lands in the woods, and is found by a crazed conspiracy theorist who wants to keep them trapped in their home all for themself, scared the government is going to take them away.

Alien whumpee who crash lands in the woods, and is found by an alien enthusiast. They help tend to their wounds while learning all about alien biology. Maybe caretaker is also a mechanic and tries to help repair their ship to get them home.

Alien whumpee who's the size of an apple. A group of immature teens put it in a shoe box and take it home. Maybe there's multiple. You know that Hamster Hell YouTube video? Yeah, basically that but with small aliens. (TW: claymation animal abuse if you click the link)

Alien whumpee who's a part of an invasion program that's incredibly taxing. The training program treats them like living weapons, who's only goal is to compete the invasion for their leaders. They're nothing more than discardable drones. Perhaps the alien successfully infiltrates human culture, and in the midst of their deception they get a little too lost in the role. Is this still a part of the act, or have they come to care for these humans they're supposed to be invading? Perhaps the humans are much more thoughtful than their own. Perhaps Earth has become their home... (I'm absolutely obsessed with an Invader Zim AU of this idea you guys)

Alien whumper who kidnaps one person from each planet they invade, collecting various species like they're trophies.

Alien whumper who gets obsessed with a particular person from their recent invasion, deciding to take them back to their home planet to keep them as a pet.

Alien whumper who's job it is to travel space and study planets' most intelligent species. They're do this in less than ethical ways, and, unbeknownst to their boss, may smuggle one back to continue their studies off the clock.

Alien caretaker who finds themself having to care for a creature (be it human or otherwise) that they aren't too sure of. There's a language barrier, and they have no idea what biology the creature has. But they have to try.

[lethal-spaceship]

About your Invader Zim AU (which I loved, by the way), what would the Talests and Mr. Menbrana be like? (Can you draw please? ) (⁠���⁠⸝⁠⸝⁠´⁠꒳⁠`⁠⸝⁠⸝⁠⸝⁠)

THANK YOU!! And totally! I actually already drew Dib's family yesterday so this post was also motivation for me to do The Tallest as well!! I'm also gonna do a bit of a lore dump as well bc it's funny. Let's start with Dib's family then.

I actually had Gaz's design for 5 years now and she mostly was left unchanged except for a couple of palette tweaks. Also kept her alt pizza gamer hoodie.

Facts of DOOM 1. Membrane family are mexican. Prof. Membrane is himself a mexican immigrant while his kids were born in the US. All of the family members are bilingual and switch between Spanish and English at home. Gaz struggles a bit with her English tho but nothing too bad. 2. Prof. Membrane lost his arms AND wings to sharks. He really thought they were his friends... 3. Dib and Gaz are genetic clones of their father. They don't know it and don't really question where their non-existent mother is. 4. Prof. Membrane loves his kids even tho he is a very busy man. He might sometimes be an abscent father and be a little bit goofy silly but he always tries to make time for his kids and likes to organize family gatherings from time to time and lets either Dib or Gaz choose where they will eat and catch up that day. When it's Gaz's turn she chooses a crappy pizzeria place, when it's Dib's turn he prefers to stay at home with everyone to cook and eat mexican food together.

And, of course, The Tallest.

They are the new designs actually! Wanted to make them look... menacing and kinda have that ying yang energy sorta.

Facts of DOOM 1. The tallest leaders could be considered their own irken sub-species. It's rare to produce "the tallest" naturally but if needed then it could be done forcefully. The "tall irkens" which are not the current acting leaders are also considered to be really important members of irken society and treated like celebrities. 2. The Tallest are slightly more competent in this au. Red takes on the role of leading irken military and dealing with military related issues, while Purple is responsible for dealing with social issues. Both are giant gluttons and Purple is a bit more goofy than Red is. They also low-key act like a married gay couple. 3. The Tallest despise Zim. Obvious one, but they preferred Zim before he went on his insane murder-crime rampage. They see him as a crazy annoying child (which he is tbh) which they have a really hard time getting rid of.

[paulkleestan]

I’m usually not a fan of Invader ZIM roleswap AUs bc I think ZIM and Dib’s personalities and motivations are very intrinsically connected to their respective race/role but realistically if one were to happen I think both would actually end up being COMPETENT in their roles.

Hear me out.

ZIM mostly fails as an Invader not just because he doesn’t think things through but because he’s not subtle enough to sneak under the radar and effectively gain the trust of the humans/quality information because he’s too busy fighting Dib. Remember that his role as an Invader is not to destroy Earth but to exploit weaknesses and gather intel - something Tallest Red reminds him of. // But if he was a human that wanted to expose someone he would be loud and persistent and sadistic enough to get the attention needed to expose the alien and would probably use underhanded tactics such as planting “evidence” and setting traps to capture the creature. He is also self assured and arrogant enough to gain confidence from his fellow humans and manipulating them into believing what he says (as seen in FBI Warning of Doom and Hobo 13)

Meanwhile Dib is a lot less self confident and loud than ZIM and is dismissed by most of his peers because he lacks the blind confidence and manipulative nature that ZIM has. // But he is an effective spy as shown in Rise of Zitboy where he finds a break in ZIM’s security system and is quiet enough to go unnoticed to the point that ZIM takes him in as an intern in the comics and doesn’t figure it out until he exposes himself intentionally. He would probably make an excellent invader.

[flight-of-the-sacred-eagle]

Invader Zim except it’s a rodeo au. Which means the Membranes are actually a rodeo family who compete in rodeos all over the country.

They’re world famous, with Professor, or I guess in this case something different (Rancher Membrane? Cowboy Membrane? Just Membrane?) being a multi time national rodeo champion bull rider. He was forced to retire after a bull gored and crushed his arms to the point of needing amputations. He now lives vicariously through his children, specifically Dib, while managing the ranch and doing sketchy science (because he’s still insanely good at it). Said sketchy science is possible due to him becoming friends with an even more sketchy scientist with even less regard for people. The horse he rides the most is a very sweet and caring quarter horse mare named Clementine, who is a bay with a white blaze.

Gaz is a barrel racer and a damn good one. She’s won first in a couple big rodeos, with her quarter horse named Shadowhog. Shadowhog is a black mare with a white blaze and socks and is just as standoffish and angry as she in. Gaz still enjoys video games, but not as much. She also is the best trick roper in the family, and has experience in break away roping. She’s really good at it, but prefer barrel racing since she thinks it takes more skill. Dib thinks she’s making fun of him, but she really isn’t. She’s dabbled with bronc riding but is too lightweight. She is using in charge of herding on the ranch. She also is still one of Membrane’s creations.

Dib is a tie down roper who desperately wants to get into team roping but like. He has no friends. He’s fairly good at tie down roping, though hasn’t won anything. Membrane wants him to be a bull rider. Dib would rather die. He has a curious, playful dappled gray quarter horse mare named Mothman, and is still in love with the paranormal and would rather explore it than compete. Membrane hates this. Dib kinda loves horses and spends a lot of time with not only Mothman, but the other horses on the ranch like Shadowhog, Phoenix, Megera, ET, and Professor. Dib is also still a clone because Membrane is still stupid smart and has access to less than ethical equipment.

Zim is still an alien. He still wants to take over the earth. He was still banished. The only difference is that he lands in the country when Dib is about 15. Membrane happened to have a flyer for a ranch hand up and Zim decides the human thing to do is take a job. His base is in the shape of a barn that’s right outside of Membrane Ranches. Membrane gives him the job and a cowboy hat and Dib is immediately like “that’s an alien Wtf” but Membrane ignores him. And then proceeds to insist on having Zim trained as a steer wrestler due to his strength and gives him a palomino quarter horse gelding named ET (Dib finds the irony hilarious), who is irritable and must be bribed with treats.

The ranch is named Membrane Ranches and has thirteen horses (four ranch horses- Clementine, Peggy (Appaloosa mare), Foodie (paint quarter horse gelding), and Generator (bay quarter horse gelding); two barrel horses- Shadowhog and Megara (chestnut quarter horse mare with white socks); one tie down roping horse- Chupacabra (paint quarter horse stallion); one steer wrestling horse- Covenant (buckskin quarter horse mare); four generic roping horses- ET, Mothman, Phoenix (nearly white quarter horse gelding), and Doppler (black quarter horse gelding); and one bronc- Wildfire (bright chestnut mustang with a white blaze and socks); as well as sixty head of cattle.

Dib gets tasked with teaching Zim the ropes of steer wrestling and ranch work. They try to kill each other between the very much forced lessons.

Zim is a shit ranch hand at first hates it because of germs. Dib uses this as an opportunity to lie and say all humans are fine with germs and Zim very reluctantly agrees. He does eventually start to get used to it, eventually becoming a fairly good ranch hand. He gets surprisingly protective of ET. ET gets surprisingly close to Zim, always nickering when he comes in.

Zim eventually gets told his mission is fake and Dib awkwardly comforts him. The next week he’s dragged to a rodeo (a massive one) and immediately starts getting very overwhelmed by the extremely loud noises and scents and the bumping. He’s not competing but Gaz and Dib are. Dib completely missed the tie down roping because he’s taken Zim away from the crowds and noise to decompress. (Not because he cares but because he’s not gonna let the alien do something stupid clearly).

Membrane is very annoyed.

A couple years later and more rodeos later Dib is nineteen and wins first at one of the largest rodeos in the country. Zim also competes and gets second. Dib (and Gaz who gets first in a lot of big rodeos) are invited to another big event. Zim comes with.

The night before the competition, Dib and Zim notice a runaway steer. Dib gets it around the head and Zim gets it by a hind leg. Dib realizes that holy shit they could be a roping team. At the same time a roping team is forced to drop out so the pair sign up.

They wind up getting forth. Gaz is thrilled that Dib is able to do what he’s wanted to do. Membrane is angry because he wanted to get Dib to bull riding after tie down roping inevitably wore him out.

Dib and Zim eventually become world champion team ropers. And they eventually make their own ranch. And maybe kiss.

[zharizard666]

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I'm having fun with the colors of this one :3c

[reynaruina]

Beneath The Mask

[awesome-normal-heroes]

ZADF Headcanons in the Irken Dib AU:

*Zim is basically the same as in canon.

*But Irken Dib is quite different from Canon Dib; since supernatural stuff doesn't exist on Irk, Irken Dib focused on the path of alien science and didn't become an outcast like Canon Dib did.

*Professor Membrane is the Irken Tallest Blue.

*Gaz is the Massive's Main Pilot and she's well respect by Tallest Blue.

*Dib and Gaz used to be training partners together, before Dib and Zim meet.

*Dib became a successful scientist that Tallest Blue respected, but despite this Dib was very bored with his life.

*Then Dib met Zim and sees how chaotic/interesting/fun Zim is.

*Zim's quirks amuse Irken Dib and make Dib feel alive.

*Although Dib does get annoyed with Zim sometimes, when Zim goes too far...

*The Tallest (especially Tallest Blue) are shocked and disappointed that Dib is wasting his genius potential on such a small and insanely defective irken.

*The giant robot Zim used to ruin the first invasion plan was Dib's creation that Dib gave to Zim as a gift, so they were both banished to Foodcourtia.

*Zim and Dib escape the planet then Dib tries to convince Zim that they should fly away to a different world to live on, but Zim insists to return to Irk.

*The duo get the fake mission (with Dib knowing it's fake from the start, but not saying anything cause it's better then being executed) and when they get Gir, Dib somewhat fixes Gir, so the robot would be more competent (but still childish sometimes)...

*When they arrive on Earth, Dib is frustrated at how lazy Zim's human disguise is and still can't believe that most humans fall for it...

*When they meet a genius kid named Louie, Louie is one of the few that sees through Zim's disguise...

*Louie's parents are older sibling are all brilliant scientists and they're all too busy to be with Louie; they also think that Louie's dream is silly (Louie dreams of being a gadget-filled superhero like Batman or Ironman).

*Louie is calmer and humbler then Canon Dib, so he doesn't shout that Zim is an alien to the whole class and the class doesn't think Louie is crazy.

*But Louie does follow the aliens to their house.

*Zim hates Louie, but also sees him as a worthy foe (similar to how he feels for Canon Dib).

*Dib respects Louie a bit more then Zim, but he's still willing to destroy Louie if necessary.

*Dib LOVES the supernatural stuff on Earth; Irken Dib has a fondness for weird, strange and unusual things.

*Skoodge likes both of them.

*Tak hates Zim, but surprisingly respects Dib.

*Sizz Lorr hates both of them, but hates Zim much more.

[inbarfink]

Okay, this is probably just me being Very Silly but… I think Roleswap AUs are a lot of fun, not just like… as a character design exercise thingy, but as a character exploration and analysis exercise… thingy.

Like, you know, it’s a game of ‘what would this character do if they were in that situation that this other character was in?’, ‘how much would change if those were the circumstances of this character’s life?’, ‘how much do you have to change about a character to make them work in this specific narrative role - and how much you just cannot change without making the character unrecognizable?’

So I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with my Adventure Time Roleswap AUs (you can get a better look at them with the AT Roleswap Tag on my blog). 

And I’ve been thinking if I could do a similar thing for Invader Zim - both because IZ has these clear Four Leads that you can swap around very neatly (actually much more than AT does lol) and… mostly because I’ve been going through yet another of my Literally Can’t Think of Anything but Invader Zim Phases and Roleswap AUs offer an exciting new opportunity to Rotate These Characters in My Head.

(For the sake of clarity, I’ll be using ‘the Alien’, ‘the Kid’, ‘the Robot’ and ‘the Sibling’ when referring to the Narrative Roles of Zim, Dib, GIR and Gaz respectively. So if I’m talking about a Dib-Zim Roleswap I’ll be talking about Zim-as-the-Kid and Dib-as-the-Alien. It might lead to weird turns-of-phrase later down the line, like Sibling!Dib when Dib is obviously always a sibling - but at least I hope it’ll be less clunky and more clear that way lol)

So, yeah, I had some Thoughts and Considerations about the idea of a Zim-Dib GIR-Gaz Roleswap, but all-in-all things fall into place pretty easily. Playing on Dib’s relatively-more-heroic role and his only-sane-man shtick by having him as a kinda Irken Rebel - he might still have the interest in magic and supernatural things that Mainstream Irken Science does not acknowledge, but mostly he’s seeing as ‘crazy’ for such ridiculous concepts as ‘conquering the galaxy just for the sake of it is Bad Actually’ and ‘maybe it’s kinda stupid to pick our leaders based entirely on how tall they are’ and ‘the Tallest are obviously blatantly figureheads and the Control Brains are running the show’. 

And to add insult to injury, it’s not just that his fellow Irkens don’t listen to his ideas - it’s that they don’t even have enough respect to treat him as an actual dangerous enemy of the state. Instead he’s seen as a crackpot and a joke. He’s basically constantly avoiding the obvious Existence Evaluation he deserves because the Tallests keep procrastinating it and pushing it back in favor of more ‘important things’. And, like, it’s not like Dib wants to be executed by the state for the crime of free thought… but it’ll be nice to know that he’s seen as a real threat. 

And of course while he’s better than most Irkens at the whole ‘Space Imperialism is Bad Actually’ thing, he still hasn’t unlearned all of the Irken propaganda about their own superiority (he’s got a Green Savior Complex basically) … and also he's got his own complex about his own superiority. Like, yeah, he’s infuriated by his people’s obsession with height because it’s a stupid illogical prejudice… but also specifically because it makes people disrespect him. When his two lazy and stupid smeethood bullies were made supreme leaders of the empire that was kinda the last straw for him.

Oh, in this AU the Tallests are basically the Same except their colors are switched. So now Red is the sillier and dumber one and Purple is the relatively more competent one. And on one hand Dib is the only Irken who seems to understand how thoroughly unfit to rule these two clowns are but he is also kinda obsessed with making them acknowledge his superiority even though he knows their opinion shouldn’t matter and thus making him the biggest clown of them all, in a way.

I’m still ironing out the details of how he gets to Earth. Something about using his hacking skills to infiltrate Operation Impending Doom 2 to try and sabotage it from within. Then, like, maybe the Earth ‘assignment’ was a trap laid by the Control Brains to get him out of the way. Or maybe he picked Earth because although the Empire sees it as unimportant - Dib thinks it has powerful arcane significance that makes it the perfect foundation for his resistance against the Empire or something like that.

I’m mostly thinking which of these is the snappiest and easiest to explain, but I do enjoy the idea of it being a trap cause it creates the possibility of a “the Alien discovers their plan is a big fat lie” scenario like in ETF, but rather than being utterly despondent and depressed like Canon Zim - Alien!Dib will be joyous and jubilantly validated at the idea that he was considered a notable enough threat to get out of the way with such an elaborate trick.

And Zim as the son of Professor Membrane is also a fun concept to consider. It’s very funny to think of him as still a megalomaniac trying to take over the world while also being just a human kid. He wants to defeat Dib because he sees him as a threat for his world domination plans (maybe not even understanding that Dib is not actually a world-conquering rival) and cause he believes that if he exposes or kills Dib he can get his hands on the advanced alien tech, which is the edge he needs in order to take over the world.

You can justify his world-conquering-obsession as, like, him growing up under the pressure of living up to his father’s legacy and he figured the only way to escape Membrane’s shadow is to go totally against everything he stands for, or that he’s subconsciously seeking revenge against the world and humanity for taking away his father's love and attention, or that he’s hoping that if he becomes an Actual Threat to the world, his dad will have to pay attention to him for a change ,or maybe it’s just ‘Zim is Just Weird Like That’. Or probably some combination of all of the above.

GIR and Gaz slot pretty effortlessly into their new roles. Sibling!GIR could be literally Zim’s little brother, or like, some genetically engineered dog monster Professor Membrane made in an afternoon. But personality-wise there’s no need to change much outside of maybe needing to tone a human version of GIR down just a tad because a human child has some biological, legal and physical limitations that GIR would otherwise lack.

Robot Gaz is basically like ‘Dib stole and reprogrammed a SIR Unit to have Free Will, still somehow struggles with the idea that Free Will means she can disobey him as well’. Pretty much as soon as they landed on Earth she acclimated better than Dib did and developed a fondness for Earth’s junk food and video games. She generally does her own thing and doesn’t really listen to Dib’s schemes to develop Earth’s defenses or harness some sort of supernatural forces against the Irken Empire or foil Zim’s plans or whatever - but mostly because disagrees with Dib’s methods and attitude rather than his goals. 

She does prefer the Earth over the Irken Empire and she does have some affection for Dib despite also finding him so annoying. She just refuses to cooperate with plans she thinks are frivolous or stupid or plainly just for Dib’s ego. When push really comes to shove, when she actually believes Dib and/or the Earth is in danger, she would come to help… usually.

So yeah, that Roleswap works pretty smoothly, but the problem starts if I try to do the two other sides of this Roleswap cube. the 'Invader GIR' and 'Invader Gaz' scenarios. This is where I get stuck... And the thing isn’t that the characters aren’t complex and versatile enough - I actually think the IZ characters are pretty multidimensional in their ridiculousness. 

It’s just that Dib and Zim’s psychology are really designed for them to play the roles of Protagonist and Antagonist - they’re very much defined to their very core by how driven and motivated they are and how much they want to take center stage. Zim's so self-obsessed he pretty much has to take over any narrative you place him in. And like 50% of Dib’s psyche can be summarized as a terminal case of Main Character Syndrome. Meanwhile, while GIR and Gaz have their own motivations - but GIR’s are generally too wild, capricious and frivolous to actually motivate a Plot, while Gaz’s very much defined by how mundane all of her motivations are. So you really have to work extra hard to make sure Zim and Dib, even when relegated to the sidekick role, don’t still find a way to steal the show.

Honestly, doing Zim as the Robot is actually something I think I can make work. If you just play up a few of Zim’s wackier elements - and especially his blind obedience and dedication to his superiors (which in this case would be Alien GIR), I think you can get a version of Zim that is recognizably Zim while still sticking mainly to the Wacky Comic Relief role.

(And for the record, Robot Zim is a modified SIM Unit, which is a Standard Issue Minion. What does the Z stand for? The Z stands for ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM, obviously!)

Sibling Dib was kind of a weird journey for me because at first I thought I had an easy solution for it - just Bill-fy Dib! Keep all of Dib’s bolster and UFO obsession stuff, but minus the fact that he can actually recognize an alien standing in front of his face. Probably because he just doesn’t want to admit his sister found an alien before he did - he just refuses to believe GIR is an alien and going off his wild-goose chases against his own phony conspiracy theories.

But… I think that idea is, like, too effective at keeping Dib away from the limelight? I mean, that would basically relegate him exclusively to Comic Relief and someone Gaz could have conversations with and very little plot relevancy. And I think we should be able to do better by Sibling Dib. Some way to keep him away from the Main Character Role, but still have him as a relevant and useful character from time-to-time?

Putting GIR in any sort of lead role is the much bigger problem. Like I said - GIR just too deranged and too uncontrollable to hold most plotlines, even on Invader Zim. And I can imagine grounding him just a tad, you can do, like ‘alien Invader comes to earth in order to conquer it - realizes he likes junk food and stupid TV so much that he doesn’t want to do it anymore, but still lacks any real concerns for human life or morality’. You know, I’m imagining wacky misadventures that are basically in the spirit of ‘what if SpongeBob SquarePants lacked any sense of right and wrong’ - and that will be a viable narrative, but I’m worried it’s getting too far away from the sheer id-like essence of GIR.

On the Kid corner, obviously you can make narratives in which Gaz and her motivations move the story along - Invader Zim Canon did it multiple times. It’s more of a question of how much we can keep this up. Like, okay, this is purely me and my stupid personal hang-ups. But what I’m looking for is an AU that really feels like it could be its own standalone show, and obviously it’s not going to be the same as Canon IZ - like the Invader Dib roleswap is going to have a slightly more standard heroic narrative compared to the total Villain Protagonist setup of the canon - but I want to make sure everyone fulfill their new Narrative Roles to the level you can imagine a Variety of Episode Plots that fit the 11-minutes-and-occasional-double-length format of IZ. 

And with Gaz being really defined by the fact that she cares more for being left alone or the mundane things in life or enacting terrible revenge in the name of the mundane things in life than for any of the sci-fi shit or saving the world- it kinda limits the amount of plots she should be willing to participate in and/or requires a lot of extra Set-Up to explain why she’s emotionally involved in the plot. 

I mean, I can certainly imagine a story about a hedonistic would-be Invader making a bizarre harebrained scheme to get his hands on a ridiculous amount of tacos which somehow spirals into attracting the ire of some scarily competent and spiteful little girl by, like, interrupting her Super Mario Odyssey speedrun or something and so she causally takes down his whole operation. But that sort of setup works better for a sort of hyperformulastic show like ‘Phineas and Ferb’- and ‘Phineas and Ferb’ is lovely, but Invader Zim really benefits from a wide variation of plots and episode structure. 

(That’s also the problem with a Tallests-Zim Membrane-Dib roleswap. Although the idea of an P&F style sketch starring the two lazy goofball Invaders who are just trying to get their incredibly obnoxious and megalomaniac boss off their back and are repeatedly accidently foiled by a brilliant hypercompetent child genius who also somehow remains consistently oblivious to the fact that they are aliens trying to take over the world is very Fun and I should probably do something Separate with it later)

And then there’s the idea of a Zim-Gaz GIR-Dib roleswap which is… I don’t even know where to start. That’s pretty much what that one body-switch-themed guest issue of the IZ Comics used basically because it’s the one that breaks the show’s premise the most thoroughly. The show’s most ambitious and least competent character swapped with its least ambitious and most competent and the most grounded character is swapped with the most unhinged. I am still really stuck on how to make it work?

The only real idea I have for now is maybe taking inspiration from Alien Gaz from that aforementioned comic issue’s characterization - not of Gaz-as-Zim, but of Zim-as-Gaz. Something about an Alien Invader who is genuinely invested in conquering the planet but also she keeps getting distracted? It’s hard to really say when, like I said, that’s really the only thing I have right now. 

Perhaps I need to think about all of this a bit more, or perhaps the real lesson of this Character Exploration Thingy is just that those kinda roleswaps just don’t work with the Invader Zim cast?

[thegoldfisharmy]

Was fucking around in Gacha Life and had an idea

Invader Zim AU where the Membrane Siblings swap hyperfixations.

Dib's the Gamer and Gaz is obsessed with Aliens and Cryptids but Gaz is actually really competent and respected in the Paranormal Investigators community. Dib and Zim still hate each other, but Dib either doesn't know Zim's an alien or doesn't care. Gaz is still the favorite child and Membrane still thinks Dib is crazy because you'd have to be to spend that much time on a computer yelling at strangers online.

Gacha Life Gamer Dib and Gaz with brown hair are lowkey cursed I can't believe I made this.

[abrthephantomq]

Chapters: 5/? Fandom: Invader Zim Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim), Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim), GIR & Zim (Invader Zim) Characters: Dib (Invader Zim), Gaz (Invader Zim), Zim (Invader Zim), GIR (Invader Zim), Gretchen (Invader Zim), Torque Smackey Additional Tags: Competent Zim (Invader Zim), Non-Linear Narrative, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, Older Dib (Invader Zim), Tall Zim (Invader Zim), tall is relative -- but Zim isn't like 3ft tall, Enemies to Lovers, competent Dib (Invader Zim), the author plays with punctuation in Zim POVs, I have done my best to be consistent Summary:

2004 - Dib really leans into his villain era. Zim doesn't know how to handle it.

2024 - Dib wakes up in a van and tries to figure out what the hell even happened.

2008 - Something something the fragility of the human condition...