#invader zim mind control brains

[zootzar]

The Almighty Mind Control Brains.

[ms-scarletwings]

So there was a note under my post about Zim hovering a finger over the self destruct switch on his first day on Earth that just cracked open something in my mind.

Cause…Oh. Oh hecc you, @murhuedur. You actually touched on like, my favorite thing about this character, period. I really like this take, I do. It’s a good one. I ponder, still,

In my own opinion, it’s actually genuine confidence and arrogance, but Zim’s delusions of grandeur are as a thin rubber band. They can stretch out to wild lengths and remain malleable enough to bend around truth as he wills,

But there’s a hard limit out there eventually, and should reality require him to stretch his cognitive dissonance just too far, it’s a violent snap-back to full clarity. I don’t think he’s faking it or always lying to everyone else about what hot shit he is, because I think he fully believes those lies about as fast as he can speak them, even if he will later realize he was wrong after a cosmic punch to the face.

Like, Zim’s smart, but smart people aren’t inherently rational ones. Within Zim, the tallest, hell, maybe even Skoodge, there’s sometimes this very short-sighted flippancy about what is objectively true/false that peeks out every now and again in their psychology. I mean, humans sometimes do this too when it’s convenient to their interests, just, obviously not to goofy cartoon character levels if they want to function in society.

Zim has whatever this flaw is and cranked up to 11, maybe as a side effect of his PAK defects. Sometimes it gets him into DEEP shit, but it’s also his biggest mental shield. Zim has like no fortitude against spiraling into a full on depression or a justifiable panic attack over the smallest concession of being an absolute failure to his race. That weaponized denial that makes him so dangerous to himself and others also keeps him together and motivated forward. But it’s not largely a conscious lie he’s telling himself. It’s genuine faith he’s trying to manifest into matter through sheer force of his will.

His dogmatic mantra, “I am Zim” and what it means to him is a statement he holds on such conviction it overpowered and hijacked the ego of 3 control brains at once.

If I were inserting him into DnD he’d have the wisdom stat of a stale poptart and a 20+ thrown into charisma. He’s faking it without even understanding he’s faking it.

But were he completely detached from reality, he’d be WAY more likely than even now to accidentally get himself killed. While a narcissistic level of self esteem is what lets him ignore and selectively unhear inconvenient truths, the adrenaline of immediate life or death danger is what grounds him back in the real world. You notice over time that as self-sabotaging as he normally is, he seems to act his most rational and competent when he’s suddenly put against the grindstone and self preservation HAS to jump into the driver’s seat. He basically survives his day to day on a tightrope between a falsely glorious narrative of himself, and his perceptive anxiety both tugging him to land on either side of the fence when something big happens.

In “The Trial”, he wastes very little time on his expected bullshit or his confidence in being able to just win over the approval of his judges.. by virtue of being his awesome self. He spent most of that ordeal on the verge of a heart attack, squirmed to find an escape, and actually tried to DENY causing the death of two Almighty Tallests (reminder that he usually owns up to his atrocities with downright offensive pride). He understood the full gravity of an existence evaluation and how cooked his goose was. As soon as the situation resolves and he’s no longer in that danger, it’s right back to full trust of his status as an invader, and in Red and Purple as his biggest fans. When his disguise starts to slip in front of Skool kids he knows are dumb as a bag of rocks, he can silver tongue his way around that without skipping a beat. Losing his disguise in front of a bunch of alien-obsessed adults? Uh oh, pants-shitting terror, this is potentially game-over levels of bad, immediately gtfo of here. Stand there, chest beat, and scold the obviously rogue duty-mode Gir all day until the second it actually tries to kill you and you suddenly have to realize you’re not the one holding the cards anymore to save your own life.

The other way this quirk of his really shows through is in his selective memory. Zim has this skill to repress down and push away unpleasant experiences that I think some of us can only dream we had. I love it because it’s equal parts a comedic and analytical goldmine.

Tak, who actually posed a legit threat to his entire mission and tried herself to chip through that massive wall of denial he’s shielded in- same Tak who’s powerful af ship was stolen and desecrated by Zim’s arch nemesis… she’s not just an afterthought in his mind after that mess. He’s literally pushed that one out of his thoughts altogether in the comics. Like she, and Skoodge, who he can’t fucking stand, might as well have never even existed, even while GIR’s trying to remind him. That time he played around with time travel and it was one of the biggest clusterfucks he quickly lost control of? The bologna incident he stooped so low as to ask dib to help him with? You must be thinking of someone else. Nope. Not a thing. Lalala, can’t even hear you. This is also what makes it no wonder he deeply struggles with actually learning from certain mistakes.

From an outsider’s eye this behavior of his is baffling. It makes him look actually insane or at least obnoxiously obstinate. And I think both assumptions are half right, because this is clearly not the result of mere stupidity. Those truths are simply wayyyy too discordant with his view of himself to devote surface memory to, or too uncomfortable, unless and until, of course, you confront him with them in a fashion where that rubber band has to snap, that bubble pops, and he instantly sobers out of that complacency.

Literally god forbid he ever stops being defective in this way or is given the ability to reckon with the reality of his situation and his history all at once. I’m not even just talking about his job or banishment. I’m talking about his entire life. This chaotic, flexible, incoherent mindstate is the only branch he’s holding onto from dropping into a much more horrifying chasm beneath himself, the depth of which we can only guess. I straight up have no idea what he would do or what could happen to him if he could, even for a moment, rationally comprehend his every action, memory, and empirical truth all at the same time. Seriously, leave that Pak’s Gordian Knot be, or I imagine there could be an HP Lovecraft type of breakdown in the making.

#By the way this is probably one of the most important differences between him and Dib, and what makes Zib so… way he is.

[emeraldspiral]

A venn diagram of the queer/neurodiverse content depicted in Invader Zim. I've already talked about the inherent queerness of Zim and mentioned a few times that there’s a big overlap with autism/neurodiversity but I thought this would make a handy reference. Note that “neurodiversity” isn’t just autism/ADD/ADHD but also includes mental illness, personality disorders, mood disorders, learning disabilities, and anything else that isn’t “neurotypical”.

On the queer side there is actual canon queer rep in the show and comics:

Irkens are canonically aroace and intersex.

Groyna from the comics was confirmed by Eric Trueheart to be a lesbian.

Commander Poki from the comics may be trans, as she has eyelashes normally only seen on female Irkens, but lacks the curled antenna every other female Irken is shown to possess.

Recap Kid's gender is deliberately ambiguous.

There are also many instances of queer-coding that can be seen throughout the show such as:

The homoerotic rivalry between Zim and Dib.

Red and Purple basically being Zim's two gay dads.

Zim and several other characters having campy and dramatic mannerisms.

Zim using Keef and Tak as beards.

Zim and GIR wearing make-up/cross-dressing and generally not concerning themselves with or even being aware of gender conformity.

That time Dib's personality was copied into the body of a female ship which became very distressed at being told it wasn't really a boy and changed its physical appearance to match its brain.

Other queer elements featured in the show include:

Female characters who aren't love interests/show no interest in romance.

Most characters showing a general lack of visible interest in the opposite sex or romance.

The Membranes being a non-traditional family (single dad with no mom, later acquiring two more dads in the form of Foodio and Clembrane). Irken society not being structured around family units at all.

Satirical depictions of nuclear family units (Zim’s roboparents).

Transhumanism.

Kink/Fetish content including tentacles, bondage, domination, tongues, sadism, mind-control, body morphing, gore, food/eating, bodily fluids/fluids in general, Giger-esque designs, etc…

On the Neurodiverse side we have:

Zim’s food sensitivity.

Zim’s germophobia.

Zim’s dislike of being touched or hugged.

Zim seeming to suffer from sensory issues in general.

Zim getting overstimulated on the bus in Walk of Doom.

Zim and Dib infodumping.

Zim’s idiosyncratic speech mannerisms.

Characters having high intellect paired with poor social skills/low emotional intelligence.

Hyperfixations and special interests.

Zim’s struggles with multi-tasking and keeping his priorities straight.

GIR being easily distracted and unable to focus on anything that doesn’t immediately interest him.

Characters having poor volume control.

Characters having mood swings or trouble regulating their emotions.

Zim’s issues with memory.

Dib hyperfocusing to the point of neglecting hygiene.

Zim’s “problem with listening”.

And in the middle where they overlap there’s:

Zim and Dib being outcasts, misunderstood by everyone around them, and only able to connect with other misfits like Gaz, GIR, Keef, each other, and random hobos.

Zim masking his otherness and putting on performative displays of “normalcy” and having a well-founded fear of the consequences of being discovered.

Dib being open about his otherness and looking for respect and acceptance in the face of overwhelming ridicule and contempt.

Dib being pressured by his father to conform in order to please him.

Dib finding that the social benefits of conformity aren’t enough to outweigh the pain of not being his authentic self in Mopiness of Doom.

Dib’s experiences and perspectives being trivialized, dismissed and medicalized as indicators of mental illness.

Dib actually being mentally ill, but only as a result of not being accepted or supported for being different.

The eugenicist dystopia of the Irken Empire, where Zim is labeled “defective” and sentenced to death rather than treated for the mental health issues caused by the society that created him.

Daddy issues/familial rejection/non-acceptance.

Zim and Dib’s struggles with depression.

Zim and Dib’s need to prove themselves to gain validation and acceptance.

Zim and Dib being victims of bullying and in turn bullying others to feel a sense of power.

Dib’s self-loathing.

Zim’s default state being paranoia and anxiety.

Zim and Dib’s self-image issues.

And of course the one thing that binds us all: alternative fashion.

[tokasan]

UNFAIR .: TAK

An Invader Zim Short Fic

I wrote this as a study on TAK’ s character Although she only appears in one episode, her past did have a lot more substance than many other characters.

Part of this is based on the unfinished episode: The Trial, where ZIM is convicted for his crimes against the Irken empire.

You can watch a fanmade version animated with the scrapped voice lines here:

Onto the short fic:

Warnings: none

Word count: 407

Characters:

TAK (Invader Zim),

Mentioned Zim (Invader Zim)

Mentioned Tallest (Invader Zim)

Unfair, a word TAK had learned the meaning of all too well. Unfair. She was meant to be an invader, it was rooted deep within her Irken purpose. She was supposed to bring honor to her people, to the tallest, serving the empire that had built itself up from the void-laden space that they call the universe. But life was unfair.

ZIM. It was all his fault, it always was. That faulty scum of a drone should have been eradicated the moment his very existence had caused the Horrible Painful Overload Day, halting the Irken empire’s growth for five years. He was a mistake, a parasite, a pesky flea with too much power in his hands. A virulent organism that infected everything it touched with its corrupted RNA.

ZIM. He was the reason TAK was cast aside like nothing more than a replaceable item found on the deepest shelves of an overcrowded supermarket. The stupid, inpatient trainee had blasted the power grid offline through half of Irk just to get a snack. A snack!

The purple-clad Irken had been trapped in her training cell, unable to continue her examination. She pleaded her case to the Control Brains, hoping for some kind of compassion for her unfortunate situation. But of course, Irkens are never known for their sympathy.

Janitor duty. They had discarded her complaint as if she were nothing more than a fly that was too insignificant to deal with. Seventy years on planet dirt had met her anger and hatred fester for the Irken that had caused it all.

ZIM. How come he got to become an invader? Sent to another planet far away. That was meant to be her. She wasn’t the one who messed up. Why does she have to pay for that defective product's mistakes?

Hate. A concept so simple, yet powerful enough to shape someone’s mind. After a while, the burning that represented that hate deep in her squedly-splooch froze over into an icy coldness that made her resentment turn into understanding. Life is unfair. She was better than him, she would not let her emotions get the best of her.

TAK will show ZIM what a true Invader is supposed to be. Just wait ZIM, you’re about to witness the entirety of what you wished to be, but never will.

The world is unfair, ZIM didn’t choose a defective PAK. The universe had chosen him to fail from the start.

[abrthephantomq]

'Encoder' Zim AU Idea Thingy

ie, Cas is Trying to World Build this Invader Zim AU he wants Alicia and Steven to Write and the whole process has got him like this:

Putting the idea behind a cut but also tagging @paynomindtotheinsanity because this was heavily inspired by a conversation we had a few days about competent!Zim but also because her characterization of Zim is *chef's kiss* in Your Eyes Are Red.

So the real concept is that instead of “Invading” planets, Irkens are sent to various alien planets throughout the universe in order to study them. And then they “assimilate” them into the Irken Empire’s vast galactic Empire. 

The Irken Race are being guided by the “Control Brains” still – the Control Brains can do all the things that they can totally do in like – The Trial episode. But also note that Red (Savin) and Purple (Jazz) (like 00 version J&S where they are very, very sexually compatible but not necessarily compatible-compatible, especially as leaders, not that it matters because –) are basically puppet dictators – they know their role is just to be the public face for the Control Brains. 

The thing is – the Control Brains aren’t actually Irken. They’re humans who achieved immortality. I want to say two of them but honestly? I think they’re supposed to be the 8 richest human beings from this earth. They had so much wealth and power that they basically other humans into something unrecognizable…

Well, they turned them into Irkens.

Irkens are basically the like, Worker Bees of the giant Hive Mind the Control Brains worked really hard to create, and have been creating, for the past millennia. Irkens are used to MAINTAIN the hive. They go to planets and figure out what sorts of things its societies are doing “wrong” and how fractured each world is etc and learn the history / record the issues down and then pass the information to The Tallests. The Tallests then report this information to the Control Brains, who then decide the fate of those planets. 

(Read: The Control Brains then tell the Tallests that yes, these planets should be assimilated and that they need sooooo much help and guidance to learn how to have the besttttt livessssss ever and like…. the Encoders are supposed to facilitate that whole process, as well. Irkens live for many many years, they effectively don’t age because they’re genetically perfect, thanks to the cloning process, and the Paks make sure that everyone stays in LINE)

So rly – Paks keep Irkens Alive, they keep them In Line, and they essentially act as fucking thought police. 

Now – here’s where it’s gonna get a bit loopy. 

Irkens are Humans, right? The first race that the Control Brains assimilated into the Hive Mind? The same Hive Mind that essentially continues to feed the Control Brains desire to control EVERYTHING across the galaxy and continue to pile more and more money etc??? 

What happens if an Irken Encoder is sent, purposely, to Earth? 

Humans shouldn’t still exist, right? 

Yeah, tell that to planet Earth, circa year 2001. Humans are still there. Still “thriving.” 

Professor Membrane is studying Human Genetic Manipulation. He’s made two clones of himself – a boy, and a girl. They’re both him, they’re his kids, they’re fucked up. As all families are. 

Professor Membrane is also splicing Human Genetic Material with Other Species’ Genetic Material. 

Except he can’t test this shit on HUMAN subjects, because that shit’s unethical. 

Well… 

Except he can, though. 

He proved that he could clone himself, after all. Who’s to say he can’t just…. try to clone humans and manipulate their DNA that way? No one. He’s given free fucking rein because Dib and Gaz were the only “successful” human clones he’d produced, according to his research and the grants etc he was given to conduct this research, etc. 

Dib and Gaz may get to live long, happy lives (as they are human beings born with Privillege – Professor Membrane’s rich as fucking hell, obvs) – but they have an untold number of “siblings” they know nothing about. 

I can’t remember if it was Enter the Florpus that had Membrane working on a perpetual motion / energy machine? I think it was Enter the Florpus. 

Anyway, EtF more or less proves that the Earth IZ takes place on is part of a series of different AUs. Remember, there are other dimensions, too – A Room With A Moose, for example. So this isn’t all that weird of a thing. 

Thing is, these AUs exist together and overlap one another and Zim is sent to Encode Earth. Zim is a competent Irken Encoder; he has yet to fail at properly folding various planets in. He’s good at it. It essentially requires him to just conduct experiments on different races all day long and see how they work etc. 

He’s so good at it, he starts to notice weird shit about the Human Race, and about the planet in general. Features of it look familiar; bits of history sound familiar, etc. 

btw, he and Dib more or less have the SAME weird rival situationship happening – because Dib recognizes Zim as not a human being (“Does…. nobody see the alien sitting in class?”), and since Zim is competent at blending in and shit (and honestly? Yeah, he kinda IS in the show – at least with middle schoolers? he was REAL GOOD at getting the other kids to be on his side and not Dib’s). 

So Dib grew up the same fucking pariah in his class, with Zim like – falling into the “preps” – Drumline Captain for the marching band, etc. Like, Zim is popular. The girls want to date him. The boys want to be him, etc. Prom King material, right there.

They graduate. 

They go their separate ways. Dib becomes a paranormal investigator with the CIA (Swollen Eyeballs - Agent Mothman) and… 

Well, he’s given a mission to assassinate a certain scientist / researcher. Someone who’s putting too many puzzle pieces together and therefore threatens to completely collapse the human race and, quite honestly, the planet – especially if he ever gets his research published. Because this scientist / researcher has been working independently for at least a decade, and every single time he releases findings, Things Happen. 

The researcher / scientist / historian (lol) is Zim. 

Chaos ensues. 

[topdisease]

Johnny propaganda. Johnny's iconic to goth culture and he's made by the guy who made Invader Zim.

As for disease, Johnny's mind starts to be taken away from him by the Wall Monster via his headvoices, the doughboys.

After their date Devi catches this insanity that takes control of parts of your brain you're not using.

But she catches it early because she's badass.

Also, she has a dream which might show the purpose of this disease.

We also see how it starts to affect how you and how you see the world, even early on.

There's also Johnny's neighbor, Squee. Supposedly he's being protected by Shmee, his 'trauma sponge'...

but I'm not so sure that he's really good. He could just be trying to gain Squee's trust.

Oh, also, newer lore! Eff, one of the doughboys, can possess Johnny.

So that's very concerning.

most normal jhonen vasquez character

[nichiperi]

MWAHAHAHAHAHA I DID IT!! Look at my terrible fail-children! (⁠✷⁠‿⁠✷⁠)

An aggregious amount of MORE information about them under the cut lol.

Here's everyone's basic timelines. But keep in mind, I'm still reworking them so they could change.

BEK

• Grows up in the smeetery at the same time as Chara and former Tallest Spork. All three of them end up getting a lot of special privileges upon leaving because they're tall.

• Bek has a super brief stint being an Irken Elite soldier with Chara for some basic training.

• Takes the test to become re-encoded as Invader class and passes with flying colors.

• Meets Teira when getting a custom weapons system for his ship. The two enjoy talking about horrendously destructive weapons and cool explosions together.

• Is responsible for the take-over and/or destruction of several planets. These accomplishments combined with his height make him a prominent figure in Irken high society. He frequently meets with Tallest Miyuki directly, and is always invited to socials, which he always invites Chara and Teira to as his plus ones.

• Miyuki grants Bek the gift of a vacation. He takes the opportunity to discover a new world on the fringes of Irken-observed space: Earth.

• He arrives on Earth in the year 1989. After a having a horrible time and traumatizing a single horrible human, he returns home and reports Earth as being a garbage planet with garbage lifeforms. Upon his return, he discovers that Miyuki is dead, and Spork is now the tallest.

• Spork and Bek proceed to hate each other fervently, but are still forced to interact because the whole of Irken society expects it. It's awkward.

• Bek discovers a planet that reveals some amazing truths about ancient Irken society. Spork blows it up on orders from the Control Brains. Bek is pissed.

• Bek and a mysterious vortian botanist form an unlikely alliance, and begin holding meetings for a secret society that aims to take down Tallest Spork. However, just as their murderous plans come to a head, Spork just happens to die a horrible death due to some energy blob thing I dunno. Weird.

• New Tallests Red and Purple promote Bek to becoming an Irken Special Enforcer (Basically like a 'Secret Police' type of position, but only really tall Irkens can get it. Of course they also have to not suck at their current job.).

• Bek keeps in contact with the anti-Sporkers. They wanna know who killed him. Because of this, Bek gets involved in the trial of Zim by being one of the people to wrangle him back to Irk for the event.

• After watching that shit-show go down, Bek decides he's just sick of the Empire in general and decides to go off on his own. He invites Chara and Teira, but they refuse.

CHARA

• Raised in the smeetery with Bek and Spork. She gets along with both of them equally, and often breaks up their fights. Usually by being a violent turd and knocking them both out.

• What was supposed to be brief stint as an Irken Elite soldier turns into a decades long career when she fails the Invader-class test. She ends up really enjoying her work as a soldier, however.

• She tends to meet up with Bek a lot after he's conquered another planet for the Empire, as her squad of soldiers is often sent to do "clean-up duty" and law enforcement after a planet's been taken over.

• Chara is promoted to being a Fleet Commander.

• She meets Teira through Bek, and while she is not impressed by Teira's height, she does enjoy getting intel on the latest weapons. The two begin a lifelong, flimsy fake semblance of a friendship.

• When Bek leaves on his vacation, Chara is given a chance to re-take the Invader-class test, and passes. Teira follows suit. Chara almost begins to respect her. But not quite.

• Chara gets sent to planets which need to be subdued by force and taken over.

• After Miyuki is killed, Spork becomes the Tallest. He gives Chara everything she asks for, so of course she thinks he's a fantastic leader.

• Chara becomes enraged when Spork is killed, vowing to kill whoever was responsible.

• She is present at Zim' trial, and nearly leaps down from her seat to maim him after hearing that his blob killed Tallest Spork. Teira and Bek keep her in check.

• Chara hopes to grow taller and become a Tallest like Spork someday, but she's stopped growing decades ago. She never lets go of her anger over his death.

TEIRA

• Raised in the smeetery about 10 years after Bek and Chara, Teira is small and keeps to herself. She's extremely intelligent, and immediately becomes a scientist upon leaving.

• Teira chooses to work in weapons development because she adores the sight of explosions. It's the only thing that brings her a genuine sense of joy.

• Bek and Chara are the first Irkens that Teira almost enjoys spending time with, though she would likely rather expire than admit that.

• Teira is probably the least species-ist of the trio at this point, as she frequently worked with Vortians and other capable scientists during her time as a weapons developer.

• When Bek leaves for his vacation, Teira is inspired to try to pass the Invader-class test after Chara brags about it. She very easily passes. As an Invader, Teira is usually sent to planets that don't have much in the way of sentient life in order to blow everything up and create a clean slate.

• When Spork becomes the Tallest, Chara begins hanging around him more often, leaving Teira and their rivalry/almost friendship begins to deteriorate somewhat. When Bek returns, the two spend more time together without Chara for a while.

• After the death of Spork, the trio begins to hang out frequently again, though the dynamic is significantly different. Both Bek and Chara have drastically changed as a result of Spork's time as Tallest for vastly different reasons. Teira is the only one to notice this, but does nothing.

• Teira opts to stay with Chara out of the hope that they'll one day rekindle the horrible fake friendship they once had....but the excuse she ACTUALLY gives is that she'd prefer the stay on Irk for the time being as flying around didn't suit her well.

[messinwitheddie]

1: Do the irkens not regret destroying and concurring the lives of other planet species? Is there no punishment for them in the afterlife for this crime?

2: Arugula, what do you look like back in your training days? We’re you always tall or did you grow into it? Also, what got you into keeping the birthing drones in your chamber instead of one for themselves? What started this and how come no one tried to take them way before your death?

3:Dib how did you get from skinny to looking like your dad so quick?😅

4:Soxx you predicted that you Hitz Kii would end up the way you are as control brains. How did you bring this up to her? Did she take it seriously or a joke?

5: Zim….why are you so short?🫤

1. MANY Irken soldiers/ veterans, slave drivers, invaders and even many tallests DO feel a deep sense of guilt and remorse for the people they hurt/ enslave/ bring to extinction. They just have no socially acceptable way to express these feelings or can even find a safe place to discuss these issues.

Commander Poki and Invader Larb struggle to live with themselves after their successful invasions. I cannot find the posts I made about those two discussing this topic to save my life. (I REALLY gotta go through this blog and organize...)

Irkens are similar to humans in the sense they want to be good. Unfortunately you really can't BE good or bad, only do good or bad things. What defines an act as good and bad is subjective to the culture you're raised in.

Irkens, like humans and pretty much ALL lifeforms are also are driven by a need to survive. Irken morality doesn't always align with human morality. Human morality differs from culture to culture and across time periods. I try to keep that in mind as I develope my aus. Not to claim my drawings/ writing isn't biased in any way, it most certainly is. I'm just one human, not a worldly one at that.

ALL actions have consequences and every Irken will experience the consequences of their actions; sometimes sooner while they're alive, sometimes later after they pass on. It's a case by case basis.

2. Arugula "I was always slightly above average in height. I experienced my first massive growth spurt sometime midway between my 3rd and 4th decade. I was still working as an on-call foot soldier and a full-time sanitation drone at the time.

When I eventually was measured tallest of my hive, I started keeping birthing drones in my chambers out of tradition.

A tallest is expected to house and provide care and snacks for the hive's birthing drones during the fertility festivals until at least the day of the birthening. The tallest's chambers is supposed to be the most secured area of an Irken hive and large enough to accommodate a small legion of drones.

I grew to enjoy the company of my birthing drones via interaction. Who would not become entranced by such loveliness and primal strength? Any tallest worthy of their stature would house, protect and cherish the drones who replenish their workforce and military.

SEVERAL other tallests declared war against me and launched heavy raid attacks on my hive in an attempt to steal my birthing drones; including my sister, Jamjam.

She was experiencing an alarming population decline. Perhaps I could have... should have been more willing to give her or sell her a few of my birthing drones, but... she could have been more willing to agree to my terms of a proper alliance. Politics can be so UGLY. Power changed JamJam for the worse. She would say the same about me, I'm sure.

At the time of my second measuring, my hive had the highest population of fertile women. My personal chambers were a prize intensely sought after by my enemies and apparently my allies alike. My faithful soldiers and sentry drones bravely fought off such raids many times. It only took one successful raid to destroy everything.

At this point I can only hope present and future tallests may learn from my mistakes as a ruler.

3. Dib "Uh... I would like to blame genetics. I mean, I AM technically Dad's clone and he's a big guy. It wasn't an overnight transformation either. As a teen, I went through several HUGE growth spurts. I was well over six feet by the time I turned 17. I had, well, still have stretch marks on my hips and shoulders to prove it.

My senior year of high school is when I really started to bulk up. I played football and joined the wrestling team for a while. Dad enjoyed me playing football more than I did. I kind of miss wrestling though. Had to drop it to focus on Uni work. Then, you know, I packed on the freshman 15--"

Zim "And an additional 15 every semester after. Next he'll blame trying to quit smoking and the "medication" his "therapist" prescribed him-"

Dib "I haven't gained THAT much weight."

Zim "Your tits are bigger than Reginald's birthing monkey and the May-Bell's combined."

Dib/ Reg "ZIM!!"

Zim "WHAAAT??!"

Reg "Don't mention my mom's tits o-or ANY of those 3 sets of tits ever again, or you'll have a new mortal enemy."

Zim "Pfft!! You don't threaten me, Dab-monkey. Try again when you grow into a big meaty urth ape like the big meaty urth ape who sired you.

*coughs* Where was I? Oh! The Dib! He grew to such proportions because all he does is "work" and "study" and in between, stuff his face with disgusting Urth food instead of facing off against his greatest enemy."

Dib "I WILL choke slam you, Zim."

4. Soxx *exhales a deep, spooch-centered wheeze; the closest thing to a laugh he can muster*

Kii indeed wrote my vision off as a flight of fancy... at first. To my dismay, it took some... active convincing on my part. So much unnecessary bloodshed. BUT, she eventually shared my vision.

My predictions are NEVER wrong."

5. Zim "Why are YOU so smelly?!"

(I'm sorry for the lack of illustrations; I feel like these answers would work so much better with illustrations. I'm just dealing with some landlord drama here recently and trying to finish up some other completely un-related WIPs that desperately need finishing.

I have no idea if all these asks are from the same person or from different people because most are left anonymously. (Which is perfectly fine; I almost always leave asks anonymously.)If I'm neglecting your asks, I assure you, it's not intentional. So many good questions; I appreciate all of them. Please be patient; I'm trying.)

[giygas-bandicoot]

Tsnee Ref 2023

A high ranking Irken scientist, Tsnee Membrane came to Earth with a simple goal in mind. To find Invader Zim and use him as a weapon against the tallest. Red and Purple as they have taken to calling themselves and the control brains are leading Irk to Ruin. Initially her plan was to find and recruit him, convincing him to prove himself to the tallests by conquering all of Irk in his own name but as she spent more time it became clear she'd need more than one irken rebel on her side. She and her research assistant Tich moonwaterart find Invader Tak and after a bit of persuasion manage to convince her to turn her anger atleast in part towards the empire that shunned her. In addition, she became Zim's new mother as her cover and as part of her invasion plan, began romancing Professor Membrane to gain an in to the tech of Membrane Labs. As time went on though, a problem arose. Her cover was becoming harder to separate from the mission. Her feeliongs for Membrane became very real and she even began to care for Zim and Tak as though they were her actual children. Even her maternal facade for Dib and gaz became more and more real. Tich saw this as a weakness but Tsnee turns this into a new fire and motivation for her mission to make the galaxy better for her found family and Tich even eventually comes around. With the might of Earth's greatest mind and Irk's greatest invaders, she finds herself poised to accomplish her mission and become tallest.

Posted using PostyBirb

[abbinurmel]

Bizarrely, I totally remember this event and am glad someone else does!... but my memory of it is a bit very highly different!- and who's to say whether I'm/op is just being inaccurate about details, or Mandela bs'ing or whatnot....But MY RECOLLECTION was; while yes this alien event totally happened, I have zero idea where this Kraft macaroni n' cheese business came from that OP talks about. (Though it's entirely plausible Kraft did a sponsorship deal somehow, and forced things like this to happen, it's totally specific and batshit enough to sound exactly like a legit thing a kid's TV network would be forced reluctantly into doing back then, so I am not saying it was too silly for it to occur, because it by its own very definition is not.)

But. If *I* am recollecting it right... this wasn't on the surface level anything to do with Mac and cheese, but a seasonal October/Halloween special event. And NONE OF the episodes I recall used cheese in them as a plot point, except for Foster's who had already an established character named Cheese by that point? (Given the fact the main character is named Mac and his pal is Bloo aka like a Kraft Box and I def recall at least one joke being made about this specific fact on the show, it's probably no coincidence and maybe it is possible Cheese was created in the first place for that idea?....)

-But I thought the alien week episode for Billy and Mandy was the famous 'Lil Rock of of Horrors' musical episode, the one where Aurelio Voltaire voices a meteorite slime alien who sang "BRAINS!!!" and Mandy eventually destroys them.

-The Ed Edd n Eddy one I just very recently ago revisited and it DID NOTHING with cheese. It's an incredible episode actually, where Jimmy gets an apocalyptic, uncharacteristically morbid and cinematically horrible nightmare about aliens tearing up the ground with giant buzz saws coming out of flying saucers. It was animated with some legit disturbing trippy visuals and great moments of tense atmosphere, as Jimmy's alien prediction starts seemingly coming true in reality. And that all comes together for one of those classic typical: 'no no, it was a farce, just wacky neighbor antics was all that was going on, status quo resumed...the aliens were never really here....OR WERE THEY??' type show endings.

Actually I am surprised no EEE fans bring out any fanfiction or crazy theories regarding the strange cool mess of implications this episode leaves. The aliens according to that episode are not just real, they use a spaceship to steal the entirety of PeachCreek's neighborhood, specifically just the cul-de-sac area, Invader Zim 'Planet Jacker' or toy crane machine style, without anybody noticing, and now Peach Creek is just a satellite entity drifting blissfully unawares thru space, to some unknown destination for God knows what. Never addressed again in show canon. For obvious reasons.

-'Kids Next Door' did have an episode involving cheese but to my recall this wasn't one of them and I *think* it was actually the infamous 'Animatrix parody' episode? The one where the framing device is Numbuh One is telling during class the origin story of the great war between Kids vs. Adults, who happen to be an alien species altogether. And it devolves into an off-putting montage of hysterical ramblings about mind control conspiracies, set to bits of mixed media footage, until he reaches his peak hysteria and gets told basically to calm down and shut up by his teacher, or that he gets an F for show and tell, something like that...

'My Gym Partner's a Monkey' I barely ever watched. I couldn't tell you nothing there.

-'Camp Lazlo' is beloved by me but this one's plot I don't recall probably the most, however, I def recall loving the show to heck and back, and, while blurrily I do remember some gags and episodes with tropes about aliens, there def wasn't I recall any episode particularly fixated around CHEESE.

-And finally, I am unsure if this is any more correct or not as anything else stated above by me and op, but, my recollection is that Courage the Cowardly Dig had a stake in this themed week as well, and it too aired an episode about aliens, a theme it was never a stranger to since it's very beginnings, but yet again, still had no cheese. I know Courage like the back of my palm so I know there's definitely not any episode plot fixated around THAT. (Though there is an episode centered around consumption of *flan*, of all things!)

ANYWAY....Unless there happens to be an episode from any of/ all of these listed franchises where I just missed it, and never once saw the showing of it; and, I quite distinctly remember at least all of the bumpers and hype built up for this event and being glued to my TV during the original airing of it, in sum, I don't feel really like this entirely happened as OP either describes, or, the strange macaroni subliminal theming was SO unwillingly shoehorned that it barely makes a presence at all among these episodes to a point of non existence...and maybe that is why I never made that connection.

Or I'm just a dumbass who performs barely any research and isn't able to remember the layout of things aired on TV over three decades ago.

Sorry guys. It's 5am and I take cartoons too pointlessly seriously. What else is new.

I was today years old when I realized that weird alien invasion event that happened on Cartoon Network was all a part of a Kraft's Mac N Cheese sponsorship...For those who don't know...

Back in 2007, Cartoon Network marketed this big event where aliens invaded in five of their popular shows at the time: Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Ed, Edd, n Eddy, My Gym Partner's A Monkey, Camp Lazlo, and The Grim Adventures of Billy Mandy. Each episode had two things in common: An alien species that looked the same in each show and cheese...Just...Just cheese. Lots of cheese. Characters eating cheese and protecting cheese and even chasing after a character named Cheese.

This was stretched out for a month, and it was all sponsored by Kraft, hence the weird obsession with cheese in each episode. This was an idea that NONE of the showrunners wanted to do, but the network forced them to do it anyway. Still, some tried to make this forced idea work because...it was all for the money, I guess.

Unfortunately, Kraft would BACK OUT of this deal, and it was all thanks to the episode that Billy and Mandy had to make. Because I guess they didn't like an episode where a kid's head blew up for the sake of saving cheese or something (I barely remember that episode). But, yeah, that's the main reason why Cartoon Network did this weird event, and it was all for NOTHING. And I'm going to be honest...I wish more studios did weird shit like this.

I mean, I don't WANT showrunners to be forced into making an episode they had no desire to make, but let it be known it left an impact. Like that time Disney Channel sitcoms had characters wish upon a shooting star that caused them all to temporarily live out these weird what-if scenarios. It's frickin' weird, but it's the best kind of weird.

[ms-scarletwings]

On Defective Irkens

“It is theorized that Tak may also be an Irken defect because-“

“Say guys do you think Skoodge is defective? He did a thing he wasn’t told to do once do you suppose-“

“Service Drone Bob's contempt for the Tallest is extremely abnormal, even for most defective Irkens…”

“Hints of the comms officer being a defective are seen when-“

Ohhh mauling the fan wiki writers grr biting biting thrashing and then turning around to the rest of you before I’m done, you bet, for I have sat and listened for over 12 years of leaps and speculations of this sort and now I’m now one of the ones who gets to have what the cool kids these days call a hot take on the matter.

By the end of this I’M going to bring up and expose who I actually think may be the only other defective Irken(s) in the show besides Zim, whom I’m aghast I haven’t seen anyone suggest before.

But before anything else, I want to front one preassumption center and loud.

It took me a long time to guess at why very few people can ever seem to get on the same page of what it actually means to call an Irken defective. Implicitly, the bulk of what we are given is that something can be wrong with a member of this species, and Zim is our prime and singular clear example of that. So there’s a ton of trying to find patterns between Zim’s behavior and that of other Irken characters. Weirdly (to me), a lot of people have, in their efforts, chalked the status up to a sense of rebelliousness or insubordination- a defectiveness in the manner of D&D illithids, stomping out disloyal break-aways from the collective hive mind with punitive wrath. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool concept, and it’s definitely closer to my opinion at least than the comparisons to real life mental disorders or disabilities. Not knocking the comfort or the enthusiasm, obviously.

From my view of the canon, I hope it’s at least apparent to other fans that “defective” isn’t some empirical measurement or status to Irkens. Look at the way they determine the defects from normal society. IRL, if I have a faulty device on my hands, there’s some way out there to tell me in a clear cut fashion if there’s a problem and what exactly it is. If it’s code, it can be scanned and debugged. If it’s mechanical, something can be seen, fixed physically. Most organic health problems are only different in the complexity of the matter, but the entire purpose of medical research is to come close as we can to bridging that gap. In Irk’s people, that line is rapidly becoming one long smear of wet chalk. I’m going on like this because if defective paks were akin to hardware actually being damaged, as Purple had put it, it doesn’t make as much sense that they are neither “fixed” nor given real, concrete diagnostics. The only way we know of that the aliens are tested in a since on this merit is by existence evaluations. And existence evaluations are anything but empirical, impartial events. They’re worlds more political and cultural than clinical.

Digest the terms we keep seeing all around the concept: Innocent, justice, trial/evaluation, Judgementia, these are terms of judicial courts and moral weight and sentencing. In effective practice,

Irk labels defects by what one does, not by what one is.

Yet, defection is presented as if that’s not the case, and there are reasons for that. Reasons that reinforce the current power structures and promote what its leadership has decided is healthy for the broader society. When Zim was merely re-encoded from invader status to food service work, it was a more secluded evaluation, presumably done on Irk. His only seen witnesses then were the Tallests and the single control brain dishing the judgement. His existence evaluation, on the other hand, rings more similarly to the IRL historical practice of literal “show trials”. Show trials were something that existed way less for the actual crimes of the accused and so much more for their audience, which, show trials are always for an audience. Three main points about them off the Wikipedia cuff:

• Typically, the defendant of such has already been determined to be guilty (oftentimes of completely fabricated transgressions), and the trial serves mostly to make a massive public spectacle and warning of the accused.

• They tend to focus on retributive punishment over correction. The disproportional brutality and lack of mercy is often the point.

• Their goals are propagandistic in nature, and there’s many notable examples to be found in the history of Nazi Germany, the USSR, and in witch trials across the world (because it was never just Salem).

A formality? Well, that much they couldn’t have more brazenly admitted to. Retribution? There’s hardly a more absolute punitive sentence I could craft up over obliteration PLUS Damnatio Memoariae. And as for the degree of spectacle, I will let you make your own observation here.

Believe it or not, the part where my comparisons along this line end with Existence Evaluations is that their standard for taking place isn’t actually this cartoonishly oppressive one that some fans try to make it out to be. In “The Trial”, Zim was not having his data read for some binary is/is not determination… he was having his experiences and actions interpreted by how much damage he has done against the Armada. He said it himself, that hotseat is reserved for criminals. Likely outright traitors and maniacs. Those who have given cause to alert the brains to a genuine existential threat to their civilization and who have repeatedly failed every opportunity given to redeem themselves.

Defective doesn’t just mean “different” to Irk. We’ve hardly seen an exploration of what the median Irken example even is, because the more we see of any one of these characters, the more they show us their eccentric uniqueness and will. Yes, Irkens are authoritarian; yes they’re over-militarized; yes, they’re a supremacist breed aligned under one ruling military… but listen, they are not literally The Borg, or illithids.

The biggest victims of this government itself are those races it colonizes. Average civilians on the other hand, they get to largely enjoy all the vices and pains and indulgences of hyper-space-capitalism. The height-ocracy may limit their opportunities, but even the lowest drones among them are supposedly hired into their positions in return for wages. Irkens are pretty selfish, but in a rugged individualism sense. It’s a dystopia of atomization instead of collectivization. If everyone had agreed that “defective” had anything to do with arrogance, free will, or an ability to feel one’s sense of self worth, no one would ever be pointing to Skoodge as a possible example. That guy’s the poster boy for what it means to be a “tool” in the derogatory sense. I’m not forgetting that he technically never even left his job. He was fired and more or less forced into hiding, and he’s still not even that perturbed over the whole thing.

Moreover, it also takes some extreme acts of harm to justify such a trial. Real harm- not rebellious attitude or even disrespect to authority. The control brains and the tallests alone get to define that threshold, and neither Tak’s/Zim’s insubordination nor Bob’s audacity concerned them enough for a ticket to Judgementia. In fact, they really don’t seem that bothered at all by deserters and those that abandon their encoded function. Tak is likely to be merely the responsibility of her janitorial squadron, the same way that enforcing Zim’s banishment was the responsibility of his Frylord. Because Irk actually does have standards of justice and layers of bureaucracy to work within when it comes to dealing with true malice. Small fry problems are for the lower rungs of the ladder to handle, until they become a higher priority by necessity. Incompetency alone isn’t a crime, either. The go-to punishment for failure in one function is demotion to a lower position. These are the only Irkens formally not allowed to change jobs, making what they do a kind of communal service or forced labor sentencing. Remember how Tak’s motivation for leaving Dirt wasn’t solely dissatisfaction with the grunt labor? Remember how she kept justifying her actions by the logic of fairness and setting things right? Not to mention how she fully made the Tallest aware of what she was up to and how her plan was well crafted enough to probably work out exactly like she wanted. Tak is utterly as loyal to the empire and competent as any invader. She was genuinely just dealt a shitty hand, and her response to it is at least understandable.

She even went to great lengths to identify and specifically target Zim and to use a planet that otherwise had less than no value to the armada’s operations. She is a great foil to Zim, but I can’t see how she’s any bit defective, only full of rage that she was screwed over by the actions of a real disgrace to their species. Genuinely destructive cases like Zim are an incredible rarity. Such a rarity that I can only guess it took this long for him to go to Judgementia because his degree of dysfunction outright baffles the system. It also would appear that it’s an event of such significance that it can only be set into motion by the command of the ruling Tallest. By murdering a couple of them, and then being a clown show for a couple more, he inadvertently bought himself some time.

And the crazy thing to remember here is that Zim doesn’t even understand that his actions are an existential threat to the Empire- that he IS a whole supervillain to his planet. This is how effective Irken programming and the education plugs are. They’re supposed to do 99% of the work of setting up the population, even the lowest drones, for not turning out like traitors to their kin in the first place. ALL of them grew up on a steady diet of the same drip-fed propaganda and essentialist ideology as their most militant soldiers. So I can see the logic behind the conclusion that the only explanation for criminals in their society must be outright brain damage or corrupted data… and I’m not gonna lie I do openly headcanon that the latter case is exactly what happened to bad egg Zim.

The limits of only having the one example in him notwithstanding, I’m anything but against theorizing about who else could be “worthy” in the Irken sense to also stand before those brains, playing sweaty advocate for the worth of their continued existence and all. I just don’t see it in Bob, or the Comms officer, or any other invader. Tak, there may be some hypothetical ramp to that end, in her future, but as things are right now, I only see a candidate that has become comfortable right in the control brains’ biggest blind spot of all. See, eggs don’t always have to crack in order to go bad. Sometimes, maybe they just spoil. Sometimes, I believe just the right conditions and time can turn them downright rotten.

Dramatic musical flourish, please.

I forget whoever said the quote “Power doesn’t corrupt, It just exposes who people really are”, but I’m a huge fan of the fact that they did. In my opinion, it’s less about power itself and more about a complete lack of accountability that allows the weakest and most toxic seeds to really fester in a seat of authority. Indeed, we all know that there is something pathetic, and vapid, and cruel floating around The Massive’s bridge. I am saying I’d call Red defective, but I couldn’t be certain enough with myself to say that Purple’s largely the one carrying a lot of fault. His greatest sin is his negligence and enabling his companion. whoever we can say shoulders more of the blame, they have been running this horror show as a joint unit, so they will both bear the guilt. Without a doubt, these two are terrible- popular maybe, but terrible leaders. Like, more responsible for the near ruin of their home world and species than I can even pin on Zim at this point. By almost every measure once you hold them up to Miyuki’s and Spork’s barely few moments of would-be screen time, they’re the worst Tallests for the Empire we’ve ever known. It’s too bad that they have no one over them we know of to flag them for an existence evaluation, because I am assured that the real orchestrators of the Armada would be disgusted to look over their track records since they took power.

I mean, what can I remember just off the top of my head?

- Full awareness of Zim’s blackout-causing history before the beginning of Operation Impending Doom I and not keeping a close eye on him, removing him from his position, or keeping him away from the homeworld’s WoMDs

- Overseeing the shipment of faulty equipment to Invader Tenn (even if the packages had not been switched, the Megadoomer still had a potentially fatal flaw), and then presumably NOT giving her urgent guidance/assistance to avoid being captured by native hostiles

- Showing an egregious amount of immaturity and frivolity when making logistical decisions, such as the flight path of the Armada or how conquered planets are utilized

- Repeated abuses of their standing, trying to extra-judicially get rid of subjects over the pettiest reasons (if they had the formal authority to just vaporize Skoodge, Bob, OR Zim on the spot, they wouldn’t need to come up with convoluted and indirect methods that they only hope kill said targets)

- Upon Zim returning to them from his banishment: not sending him back to Foodcourtia and not refusing to humor his wishes to larp as an invader

- Oh yeah, also granting Zim at least some invader tech and allowing him to leave Conventia in what I assume is a ship he could have only stolen

- Still not dealing with Zim with extreme prejudice in a timely fashion after the events of Backseat Drivers from Beyond the stars, or investigating enough to find out and deal with prisoner 777

- HAVING WAITED THROUGH ALL OF THE ABOVE BEFORE SENDING FOR ZIM’S EXISTENCE EVALUATION

- Spending the bulk of their reign so far dicking around in space and gorging themselves. Seriously, Red showed us one act of proactive competence… and it was in order to fix a mess that they allowed Zim to get them into. Not to mention, the Resisty got away from that scrap after thoroughly humiliating their flagship.

Red, and by extension, Purple, are the almighty, Tallest threats to the entire Irken project of galactic conquest, as much as Zim would have loved all the credit in the universe. By what they’ve done, and who they are. He might be damaged, but them? There’s some defective moral character if I’ve ever seen.

[wedumpourlikeslikemen]

On an unrelated note, the Irken squeedlyspooch

Resembles the simplified stomach of a honey bee

While this screenshot

In particular shows a larger variety of Irken organs. The organs in question are visibly different, belonging to different systems or connecting at unseen points.

However, their uniform long and 'ropy' appearance as opposed to several smaller, denser organs (such as kidneys, pancreas, liver) suggests a simple elongated structure.

Such as that of insects.

These could have been removed from the squeedlyspooch, but that would heavily imply that the squeedlyspooch serves as a container/membrane to hold their miscellaneous organs in place, or that the squeedlyspooch directly receives stimuli from the brain and delivers these messages to direct the rest of the body's functions.

This seems unlikely, as then every organ would have to be in contact with the squeedlyspooch.

We are aware that Irkens have a society similar to that of bees:

1. The entire hive (Irkens) is devoted to the survival and bidding of the queen (Tallest).

2. The majority of bees (Irkens) are workers (food service, scientists, pilots, and, of course, Invaders).

3. Gathering resources and producing honey (products useful to the Irken Empire) is their sole reason for existing.

4. Individual autonomy is not possible. However, this seems to be something that is not strictly applicable to Irkens. The Irkens we meet in the show all have some sort of individual autonomy, but this is suppressed as much as possible by the control brains. Why? Who can say? Perhaps in the species best interests.

Unless, of course, Irkens were not originally a ‘hive-mind’ species.

This seems increasingly plausible when considering that the hive mind is, in fact, the control brains themselves which were created by the Irkens to handle the majority of decisions. Did the control brains decide that the only way to advance was to remove individuality?

(I will acknowledge that Jhonen Vasquez has said things about this, but since he frequently says whatever comes to mind and is rather notorious about his views regarding questions, fanworks, and fans of his work, I do not take what he says seriously.)

[song-birds-stuff]

Zim Was Programed To Be A Virus

So imma go off about my hc Zim was programmed DELIBERATELY to be a Defect by the Control Brains, basically made to be a virus if there’s someone in the Empire not needed, there’s an activation in Zim’s programming in his PAK to make him do whatever they want, nothing but a tool, a weapon for their big plan for the universe, when they take control Zim’s PAK panels go from pale pink to a blinding dark blue, and markings resembling glitchy microchip symbols appear all over his body and his eyes glow white, and for Zim, it’s like his memory goes blank, he disassociates up until it’s over.

The Control Brains literally wipe Zim’s memory every time they do this, it was really them who were behind Tallest Miyuki and Spork’s deaths, everything Zim is hated for and a large bit of what he hates about HIMSELF thinking deep down all he ever does is destroy and that maybe he’s not meant to be happy. But no, he’s the Control Brains little scape goat so not to ‘waste time’ with a Trial or anything, he gets all the blame, his own BODY was violated, at least usually in the Empire Irkens had orders to follow, Zim didn’t get CONSENT let alone orders of any kind, if he found out, it’d devastate him, it’d make him feel dirty and who could blame him?

Afterall, how you feel having your own body violated, Zim doesn’t get a say, at least most Irken soldiers get given orders, Zim DOESNT, he doesn’t even get so much as memories of the events.

[random-iz-stuff]

I’ve always thought of Defects being something that happens when a PAK’s monitoring and control systems start breaking down due to a problem in the organic mind.

Like for emotions different jobs would require different emotions and levels of said emotions. An Invader would be made to feel very little emotion as to not cloud their judgement in stressful situations, same goes for a doctor or PAK technician. Something like an engineer or scientist would have different emotions allowed and have different levels of said emotion available to reflect their jobs. Empathy and Sympathy also fall under this umbrella, with different amounts being required by different jobs. For example, Invaders would feel very little or no empathy or sympathy, while something like a doctor would feel far more empathy and sympathy for the purposes of understanding, empathizing with, and helping their patients.

Some emotions deemed completely unnecessary like romantic love and affection are completely removed and reduced by an extreme amount respectively, no matter the job.

Then when the monitoring and control systems in the PAK start breaking down, being overpowered by the organic brain, the emotion controllers (and the stuff that prevents thoughts that go against the empire and keeps down thoughts of true individuality) are usually the first thing to go.

I see defects as a kind of snowball effect, where once one part of the PAK stops working correctly, the other parts start getting overstressed by the sudden lack or inefficiency of a crucial component, eventually becoming defective themselves. It’s a machine getting clogged up, something getting thrown into the gears, parts slowly failing one after the other like dominoes, due to an initial problem unfixable by messing with the PAK (organic brain causing errors in PAK, not the other way around).

Having forbidden emotions or too much of an allowed emotion is a defect, but it’s viewed more as a symptom of greater defection than the real problem. Same goes for most defects. A smaller “defect” is viewed as a symptom for an incurable disease that is “defection”.

Physical things can’t be defects, if they are considered defects, they’d be considered to be curable by fixing the PAK. True defects, true defection, is a mental thing. The mind overwhelming the PAK and all the problems that brings.

Many Irkens are dumb or inefficient, but they aren’t defective. Despite their flaws, they’re perfectly loyal to the empire and their monitoring and control systems still work perfectly fine, so that loyalty thing isn’t going to change anytime soon.

The problem is when drones can truly disobey. Not argue or snap at their employers like Bob (especially since he was technically freed from drone duty), but run entirely from their duties to never return like Zim and Tak. Not buying their way out legally or being let free, but escaping illegally, something that the average drone would never consider as an option.

The problem is when Irkens that aren’t supposed to feel certain emotions depending on their job suddenly CAN and the problems that emotions can bring. When a commander makes a mistake mid-battle because he cares too much for his soldiers and isn’t willing to leave on to die, when a soldier attempts to flee the battlefield against the order of their superiors because he values his own life over the Empire, even in an impossible battle of little importance.

The problem is when an irken is able to think in ways that go against the empire’s values, when they’re able to look at their nation and see the flaws, see that they aren’t as superior as they’re told they are, and seek change.

The Tallest also can’t be defective, since as the leaders of the entire Empire, they have nothing holding them back. Full access to emotions because they’re above and superior to everyone else, no mental barriers or restrictions preventing them from thinking thoughts that go against The Empire because as the Leaders of the whole thing, they essentially ARE the Empire, plus in order to fix problems in the Empire, you must first be able to see those problems and admit that they are indeed problems.

I dont think its emotions that make an irken defective but it is some part of it. There are just certain emotions that arent appropriate (love and affection for one) and then individuality at the cost of the empire

[random-iz-stuff]

Headcanon regarding Zim:

Zim used to be sane.

Zim wasn’t always a super self-centred, egotistical idiot. Way back when he was a smeet in the irken academy and even when he worked as a scientist, he was a lot nicer and had much more common sense than he does now. He was still Zim and was still egotistical, defective, mean at times, impulsive, a pyromaniac and tended to speak in the third person quite a bit, but overall, he was a very different, much more likeable person. Capable of making and keeping friends, actually caring about those around him (although he did have to hide that at times because he didn’t want to be discovered as a defective) and was able to keep his more impulsive ideas and thoughts at bay by putting actual thought into them (most of the time).

Then Tallest Miyuki’s death happened.

Miyuki was basically a mother figure to Zim and watching her die from something that he made broke something in him. Him being one of the only survivors of the blob disaster and the only one that actually knew what caused it only made things worse.

His time in the military didn’t help either, as the stress of constant military training, both in controlled environments and field training combined with trying to hide the fact that he was both defective and the cause of Tallest Miyuki’s recent death continued to damage his mental health as more and more defects began appearing because of both the high stress environment overwhelming his already defective PAK and the defects that already exist damaging his PAK further and causing even more defects.

He started caring less and less about thinking through things and those around him, and as his organic brain started doing that, his PAK was regulating less and less things because of all the defects, making it harder to act like a proper irken.

Then Spork died.

If Miyuki’s death started Zim’s descent into madness, the revelation that he was responsible for the deaths of not one, but TWO Tallest launched him directly to rock bottom at Mach five. If Spork hadn’t died in front of him, Zim probably would have been sane enough to resist his urge to destroy and Operation Impending Doom 1 would have gone off without a hitch.

And Foodcourtia just put the final nail in the coffin. Being stuck on a grease covered planet, forced to work the worst parts of retail 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with basically no pay for what was supposed to be the rest of his life finally broke whatever was left of Zim’s mind.

All of Zim’s delusions about being the Tallest’s favourite invader and even still being an invader despite his banishment exist because of Foodcourtia. He was stuck there for years and relied on denial regarding his position and rank as a coping mechanism HARD, until he started truly believing the lies he was telling himself. For the majority of his time on Foodcourtia, denial was the only thing keeping him going.

Despite all of that, the old Zim isn’t completely gone. It’s rare, but occasionally you’ll see the more competent side of Zim that is much more aware of his situation. The Zim that actually thinks through what he’s doing before doing it. The Zim that acts like he’s dumber than he actually is to trick people and lure them into a false sense of security. The Zim that actually cares about some of the people in his life. The Zim that is fully aware that he’s not an invader or liked by the Tallest, or anyone else for that matter. These glimpses of the old Zim usually only last for a few minutes, but they still exist.

[irkenheretic]

Resident Minor, How do you Plead

"Do not forget." The booming voice pierced Red in his core and reverberated through his skull. "It is a mercy that we are conducting this in private." 

If Red were to be honest with himself, he almost preferred a crowd. The rows and rows of empty stands seemed to glower down at him with a ferocity only found in Red's own mind, a ferocity so vile and hate-filled that it was too much for any living creature to outwardly display.

But— it was just him and the Control Brains; larger than Red could've ever imagined them to be, their many eyes looking, looking right at Red, right into his bright red eyes, almost as bright as the Brains' illuminated ones. 

"I won't forget, Sirs." 

"Good. Now, the trial may begin." 

Red stood spear-still, looking straight at the Brains— they didn't scare him. If there was one thing he'd learned from the wannabe invader Zim, it was that anyone could believe anything, if only you said it enough times. 

"Irken Red," the left Brain spoke, "Do you know why you are here?"

"I shouldn't exist." Red said, plainly. And why should he get emotional? It was a simple fact of life. The sky is starry. Irk is mighty. Red shouldn't exist.

"Do not say it like that," the right Brain interjected. "You, as you are. I have no problem with you. The problem lies within you."

"My eyes." Red snipped back, as if he'd been talking to a fellow cadet who'd been a little too stare-y, or who had spat at him. 

"Yes," the Brains confirmed. "Your eyes." 

"What about my eyes? So they're red, so what?" 

"They are an imperfection."

Red puffed his chest out a little. "Well, Purple thinks they look nice." 

"The look of them is not the issue," the Left brain said. "It is what they imply."

"What do they imply?! What's wrong with me! Why aren't you telling me anything? What, do you expect me to just stand here and take it? How am I supposed to defend myself?" Red felt as if he were a smeet again; a tiny, insignificant thing on a far-off planet, galaxies away from the glowing lights of Irk, and directly under the bright lights of Medics upon Medics, feeling the prick of sharps on his skin and the prick of his Educator's claws digging into his sides as she picked him up and carted him off to the next doctor, treating him as little more than a small sac of blood to be punctuated and stolen from— his time, his life, his sanity. 

"Are you aware of the Irken smeet facilities?" 

"Yes. I— I am." 

Irk, and all its glorious residential outposts, had one. A fully-automated underground facility, making more and more little futures of the Empire; hundreds per second. With that kind of competition, you were lucky to make it to adulthood. 

"We work very hard to eradicate all genetic imperfections," the left Brain said, "for the future of the empire. However, there are some so rare that we have not been able to eradicate them." 

"Like yours," the right Brain clarified. 

"Mine? I— I'm not imperfect, I— I just have red eyes! It's just red eyes! Honest! N— nothing's wrong with me! I'm perfectly fine!"

"You stutter." 

"So what! So I stutter! I can shoot a gun just fine, a— and that's what I want to do! I want to be an Elite, so wh— why won't you just let me?!" 

"Even the slightest imperfections," the Left brain said, "are impermissible."

"Oh, yeah? Don't think I didn't notice, y— you said 'I' instead of 'we' that one time!" 

"That is different," the left Brain interjected, at what Red swore was a quicker tempo than it was supposed to. "We have gone through your PAK memories. As a smeet, you stuttered so horribly you could not talk at all."

"Y— yeah?" Red's entire form was shaking, his brain screaming at him to quit, quit while you're ahead, what are you doing, how could you possibly think this was a good idea? Nevertheless, Red would die— but he would not die without a fight. "Well, I learned to talk by w— watching Trial recordings. A— and you two do that, a lot. I— it's not just one time." 

The Control Brains, in their infinite wisdom, had gone silent. 

"I get it. Y— you think that just because my eyes are red and I stutter, th— that I'm defective, or something."

"You are insolent," the Left brain said. 

"A— and you're a hypocrite. You're gonna kill me anyway, f— for tainting your precious gene pool, so I'm gonna call you what you are. Hypocrites. D— defective hypocrites. No one's around to hear me, r— right?" 

Silence, once more. The Control Brains stared down at Red with infinite eyes, and even the stars themselves seemed to stare down at him, twinkling like the barrel of a gun pointed right in his face.