#iz larb

[annonymouslyannoying]

My personal take on Irken heights and designs! More insight into my process under the cut.

I exagerrated the heights of most Irkens to further pronounce Zim's lackingness- As well as make it make more sense in universe for the Almighty Tallest to single out Zim and Skoodge specifically for being short.

Larb in particular regularly recieves favoritism due to his height, so I made him taller to make it more fitting.

I also gave Spleen hideous veins because I hate you all personally. (There is definitely something wrong with him)

As for Tak I kept her height relatively the same in comparison to Zim which would make her pretty short by typical Irken standards.

I also removed her cross hatched mouth because it just confuses me and I don't really like it.

Tenn is popular amongst the fandom for some reason so I included her since I needed more female Irkens.

Although I took more inspiration from her first appearance than her more prominent role in Megadoomer because she looked too similar to Zim.

And of course there's Zim himself. I made sure he was the shortest- Even moreso than Skoodge because that's hilarious.

Pint isn't a real Invader moreso just an extra Irken I added to showcase traits that other potential candidates weren't able to- Such as the brownish eyes and chubbier build on a female Irken.

I refrained from drawing Sizz-Lorr's hat because I wanted to show off his antennae.

I also changed the logo on his metal sleeve things to have two eyes instead of one- Since the one eye symbol is supposed to be for Invaders only.

As for the Tallest without the suit, I took inspiration from this concept art from The Trial- Which depicts the young Tallest as Irken Elite.

I do think it looks pretty cursed with that awful huge head on that tiny stick body. I made Red TALL, tall enough to be the tallest living Irken (tied with purple) but the height is greatly exagerrated by the suit.

Since I buffed the Irken race so hard size wise JUST to screw over Zim, naturally Dib (who is even smaller) got screwed over even harder

[ms-scarletwings]

Like nah you’re right and you should say it. I’ll die mad and ever curious about how a single invader managed to pull such a fast one over the literal most intelligent species in the universe. Irkens are virtually NOTHING without their Vortian-appropriated technology. It’s already tragically ironic enough that the spearhead ship of their conquesting Armada was majority-designed by the very people it would turn right back around and point its canons at one day. From what Purple once mentioned, Vort-original spacecrafts have all but been eradicated. All remaining Vortians live as either fugitives or slaves on their own home world. Like, I highly doubt at all it was an easy assignment, the couch was just a very enticing bonus reward to think about. The vortians were at least a civilized opponent to blend in with and live beside while the slaughtering rat people…. were the slaughtering rat people.

The Vortians’ history is so tied into Irk’s own and we’ve never as much as confirmed what their ball of rock even looks like. No cityscapes, no intact family units (it’s still an open question whether or not they even have females), and nothing between the A and B of how Larb single handedly brought them from a fortress holding their own to heeling before the Tallests. Did he and Lard Nar ever go toe to toe when shit really hit the fan? Did they interact at all, maybe not in a hostile manner? Hell, are Larb’s actions at all connected to the fact that Lard Nar is a free but very vigilante individual while prisoner 777 isn’t? I voted for Larb and it was near completely biased from how I’m begging to know more about the planet he was assigned for too.

But I’m equally curious to know what he’s been up to since then. We haven’t really checked in on any invader that has completed their mission except for Skoodge. And Skoodge was fired for his success, title and glory handed off to some nobody. But what of that guy? Do invaders return back into the elite draw pile once they’ve completed their assignment? I was going to assume maybe in the case of a sentient species left alive, the conquer could stay behind to keep running their operation with an iron fist. After all, Zim’s fantasy happy ending so often involves ruling the humans himself, but I think Zim might be really off… conquered goods belong to the empire, and invaders are just the means of taking.

Control Brains instead are the shown mechanism for running planet-scale faculties. So like,,? Yeah what’s Larb going to be up to then? Where next for probably the single most respected soldier of the entire fleet?

Skoodge has been excluded in the name of actually underrated characters. Had the series not been canceled, he was already on schedule to join the main cast on Earth anyway.

Tak was never officially an invader to begin with.

And Tenn’s unfortunately failed in her mission, as far as implications go.

[t-hal-mothman]

I remembered that moment from Brooklyn Nine-Nine again, and while I was watching it, I made a very big joke in my head.... SO THIS VIDEO GOT A LIFE

this is all a big reference to the episode with Tak (but with a bunch of background invaders to fill the places)

[miniimoose]

A Secret Meeting in the Dead of Night Feat. The Tallest looming over Invader Tenn, Larb and Flobee

-

I finished reading a great fic, A Parade of Indignities by @rissynicole and loved it!

I especially loved seeing little pieces of fanart at the bottom of some chapters, and wanted to contribute a piece of my own.

The secret meeting at the end of Chapter 3 created such a strong visual in my mind, I was surprised no one had tackled it yet - So heres my attempt at capturing it. Hopefully its still completely readable on some darker monitors.

Sketch thumbnails under the cut for those interested in that kinda stuff!

I love the shot in the opening of the tallest in that pitch black silhouette shape.... theyre so evil looking :)

[sycoraxophone]

hate this mf

[vortship]

Eneska “Eni” Rolo

Adopted at birth by her fathers, the inventors of a famous brand of “instant popcorn”, Eni was spoiled rotten her entire life. Top of her class, along with Niri, Eni is power hungry, competitive and extremely insecure. Her popularity at school was mostly the result of fear. Naturally, her family falls into a higher social circle, hers and Niri’s parents always did their best to make sure the two girls were friends. Although Niri had other plans when she instead began to hang around the poverty-stricken rebel Halinor Nima. 

In spite of Vort’s takeover, her family’s managed to live a fairly cushy life in the Tallests’ favor due to her fathers’ invention. However, it wasn’t enough. Hearing about Niri and Hal’s rivalry escapades, and also the fact Invader Larb was looking for a Vortian tech himself, Eni decided she wanted in. Being educated and studious, she qualified even in spite of her age. Now she wants to either win Niri back as a friend, or surpass her. Either way she’s bent on beating both Hal and Niri at this little game she believes they’ve started. 

TL;DR: now we have THREE soldiers involved in petty little girl drama they didn’t ask for. 

[irkendogma]

can i be so honest. i understand and i embrace the idea that within irken society the "defective" label is less an actual concrete descriptor based on any well-defined qualifications than a convenient excuse to separate and punish problem individuals from the general populace, but i just can't get behind the "because [character] acted out against what was strictly, to-the-letter expected of them, it means they're secretly defective and a tragic victim of the cruel society around them" tendency of the IZ fandom

i've seen this applied to tak, skoodge, tenn, both red and purple (usually at the same time), and probably more that i'm not remembering, and while i think there's something to be said for the principle that technically all irkens have potential to be classed as defective in the event their inherent traits manifest serving against rather than for the empire, i feel like the idea that this strictly outcasts and exonerates them from the environment in which they've spent their whole life is just kind of cheap on a writing level. mismatched traits or not, all of these characters act in service of the empire, often enthusiastically, and i truly don't think they consider themselves separate from it - hell, actual defective zim refuses any degree of separation at all, which i would be willing to consider as a coping mechanism if it weren't for the fact he brandishes that coping mechanism and goes in swinging on the empire's usual victims just the same as any non-defective would

like, i feel like people focus too hard on specific characters they like as "exceptions" to the irken empire rather than acknowledging the empire as a whole is a rotten concept mantled by everyone who contributes to it no matter how sympathetic - nearly every irken shown exhibits behavior i've seen used as some evidence for defectiveness or another. larb cries openly, skoodge is unnecessarily pleasant to others, tak places herself above the empire's rulings, tenn loses track of her mission and freaks out on camera, red and purple are openly casually affectionate to each other, sizz-lorr apologizes to a class of human children for interrupting them, bob outright snaps at the tallest repeatedly and ultimately talks back to them so loudly it's more like yelling back, and even background characters like the unseen irken purple commands to be thrown out of an airlock pipe up against authority when they're really not supposed to

any irken could potentially be defective and the reason i don't label them as such is for the same principle i mentioned initially on why the empire hasn't officially given them that label itself: it's used for individuals who cause problems for the empire, and as it is, sympathetic traits or not, these guys aren't doing that

[rissynicole]

The End of an Era

Hello Invader Zim folks! 

For those unacquainted with me, I am a fanfic writer and sometimes-artist who mainly creates for the IZ fandom. I wrote a fanfiction novel titled A Parade of Indignities, which was actively being written and published between the years of 2017 and 2021. 

After I completed the writing for it in 2021, I spent the next year doing some revising and editing for it. It was kind of on-and-off whenever I’d find the time and energy to do it. It occurred to me recently, though, that I was revising the fic indefinitely. I was just never happy with it no matter what. I needed to give my project a deadline and then lay it to rest. The enemy of “done” is “perfect.”

So, over the last few weeks, I have wrapped up my little nitpicks, and have discreetly replaced the old chapters with the new over on AO3 and FFN. What is currently posted on both those sites is the FINAL draft of the fic. All edits, revisions, and rewrites have been finished. I leave the fic as is now: a symbol of where my writing ability was at between the ages 19 and 23. I’m still immensely proud of it, and I hope others enjoy it, too!

For those who have read the fic already: none of the fic’s actual storyline or major themes changed. Even rewrites were fairly minor. Probably the most notable thing I changed was Chapter 28, in which I rewrote, added, and removed some scenes while keeping the same ending.

That said, I guess I’m making this post because I realize the fic is old at this point. (Or I guess it’s old in fandom years? It’s so weird going on Tumblr and seeing people tag IZ art and fic as “fandom classics” when they were made in, like, 2019 or something.) Anyhow, I digress. 

If you’re an old reader, a new reader, or someone who just stumbled on this post with no other context, I invite you to check out my fic if you feel so inclined! It’s ZADF, it’s hurt/comfort, it includes some minor characters with major roles (if you like Skoodge, Larb, or 777, this one’s for you), and it’s completed. 

As I say a fond farewell to this longtime project, I want to welcome 2023 with all the potential it offers me to start on new writing projects. I can’t wait to start a new adventure. 💛

Archive of Our Own Link

Fanfiction.net Link

Masterpost, in case you would like to know more about the fic.

[spacegoathours]

Hello! I'm a bit of a new follower of yours, but I've fallen in love with your account: the art, the ocs, speculation, and the friendly asks/responses! I'm an Invader Zim lover, of course, but I only really know the show (a little) and the movie (I have a poster!). I've never even seen the comics.

Anyway, would you like to use this ask to infodump a bit about the stuff that you can't exactly find in the movie/show? I'm a bit foggy about things like Vort and stuff!

I suppose I could google it, and spend a couple hours on old wiki pages, but I feel like this is a more fun way to learn (and interact with the fandom), hopefully for both of us!

Thanks! :) (And hopefully this hasn't been asked yet, haha. I won't be hurt if you leave this ask in the inbox! I know running accounts can be a bit exhausting!)

hello!! this is so sweet, thank you! i’m glad you’re enjoying my blog, i pour a lot of love into it. :)

gotta admit tho, i haven’t read the comics either!! read a few but never committed to finishing them all…someday!!! though my understanding is that there isn’t a spectacular amount of lore in them, they kinda do their own thing, but i don’t want to speak without knowing for sure. there might be PAK lore in there? and Zib came out of the comics, which is a fairly popular character in the fandom. (I might have this wrong because I haven’t read but…Zib is the result of Dib winning in one of many timelines, Zim’s PAK attaches to the back of his head and he goes insane…?)

UGH I COULD TALK ABOUT VORT FOREVER AND NEVER GET BORED!! the Irken/Vortian alliance is fascinating, and canonically we only get bits and pieces that the fandom has taken and ran with. we know that at some point they were allied, and that the building/planning of the Massive (Irken Armada flagship) occurred on Vort. we know that Vort was marked for conquest in Operation Impending Doom II and was successful taken over by Invader Larb. we know that it’s now a military research prison and that the Vortians were enslaved.

what we DON’T know but can assume: the alliance ended because the Vortians were blamed for Tallest Miyuki’s death - being eaten by an energy-consuming blob made by Zim. this is hard to determine because i mean. a bunch of people were there. Zim was boasting about it. bruh. but Irkens are dumb, actually everyone is dumb in this show. but we all have brainrot here and we take things too far and we love it. anyway. we don’t get to see a lot of Vortians so how many are enslaved? how many died in the organic sweep? how did Lard Nar escape and start the Resisty (speculation from Frycook explains some technology that helped some Vortians escape prison but again that’s assumption)? what does Vort even look like? we may have gotten more had the series not been cancelled before shit got real but!!! alas…..

not knowing the exact extent of your current IZ knowledge, I might have just spoken in a totally different language LOL. but thank you for letting me infodump!! my brain doesn’t work well for remembering details or speculating very deep, so I often end up repeating myself, but it’s fun nonetheless. I appreciate you 💜✨

[amyisherenowitsokay]

Here's an interesting one. How do you balance and deal with the deus ex machina situation of Irken technology? Even in the show, said technology is ridiculous. Seems like it'd be far too easy to shoot plot in the foot if there's absurdly simple (even if they're ''but wait, what if'' or something) solutions.

Both how do you muse, plan and construct it in your writing but also how did you figure it out for re:mhny 1? Additionally, any personal headcannons you brewed up? Favourite canon or personal technologies?

I enjoy answering these, tysm for sending them in.

(Long answer under the cut)

My general attitude towards Irken technology is to make sure everything either has a purpose or a punchline.

For example, in re:mhny1 I totally could have had Zim be able to whip out some magic space-crowbar that's regularly used to pop off malfunctioning PAKs, or have it exist but have him have trouble trying to get his hands on it, etc.

The easiest route I take and/or my headcannon is that Irken technology is by and for IRKENS, not people, and therefore cannot be used for people. Irken technology is much more advanced in the IZ universe, even with Membrane's contributions to humanity. They're extremely adept at war, fighting, infiltration, and anything that could cause general harm (such as giant water balloons to throw at your enemies' heads from space). But re:mhny1 didn't need weapons of war, it needed medical aid. And not just any medical aid, but medical aid to a human. It's the reason Zim struggled to monitor Gaz's vitals, but was able to tear through Valkian security.

The only things Irkens build for other species is shock collars, chains, etc. Everything else is for them and them only. In the same way some of our medicine is lethal to animals, so is Irken medicine, but unlike people, Irkens would never see a point to trying to make accommodations or equivalently-effective technology or medicine. If Zim had been faced with let's say Skoodge with a broken PAK, even excluding the expertise I gave Skoodge in this fic, Zim probably would've been able to pop it off in a couple hours. Maybe a day, max.

I sort of touched on this explicit theme in re:mhny1, but essentially the way I handle it is keeping that theme of compatibility and usefulness in mind. Zim had plenty of ways to monitor and x-ray Gaz, but sometimes they were finicky and insufficient, such as in chapter 6. Chapter 6 was basically me wanting to sip on that good fanservice juice, but it's also got a perfect example of justifiable technological limitations when utilized for cross-species application.

"Her monitoring bracelet was sending only the bare minimum signals. It was a wonder he hadn't noticed sooner how insufficient the data was. The device was calibrated to the much more simplistic, refined information of an Irken. Humans, unfortunately, had so many squishy bits and thumping bobs that it was impossible to evaluate their well-being. Not with this little data, anyways.

So that really covers the 'purpose' section of 'purpose and punchline.' For punchline, chapter 4 has a good example and also has one of my favorite pointless gags with Zim's weird chair:

". . . Do you mean a seesaw?"

Basically I'm much more free with technology if I think it'd make a good running joke, but otherwise I utilize Zim's tech as tools to aid or progress the storyline. I knew I wanted Gaz to get stuck with a PAK for a prolonged period of time, and I also knew I wanted Larb's memories to trickle into Gaz's consciousness. I wanted her to have understandings of Irken culture without Zim uncharacteristically revealing everything and anything, and also to late create the conflict between them in Chapter 11, when Gaz is privy to Zim's most closely guarded secret about his Defectiveness. To achieve that, I broke the PAK, and also made it possible to delete the consciousness and create an empty shell. Additionally, this further aids the story since the lack of a host personality leads to the discovery that Gaz has more control of it in emergency situations, and let's her go full fight mode in the finale chapters.

Basically, if it's not going to contribute, then I don't even bother bringing it up or mentioning its existence to keep readers from pondering "why don't they just use xyz?"

If I had to explicitly pick a favorite piece of technology, I think it'd have to be the PAK legs and/or PAktcles, when they're more flexible and prehensile. The PAK itself is cool, but the spider-crawly-laser-stabby-grabby-grip qualities of them are unparalleled in their coolness. They're so fun to work with from a narrative perspective. Those aren't really my headcannon since they ARE just cannon qualities, but I guess it could be argued that my utilizations for them are sometimes unique? Ish? Lmao.

If Irken technology can do ANYTHING, then it can also bend to my will. Hehehehe.

[d00dle-f]

Roleswap stuff i messed around with.

[zeropalart]

A couple of invaders and a couple of wannabes

[cdarkheartzero]

Inktober 2021- day 11- The Chosen Few

Collector is searching. Searching for something rare and unusual. Perhaps he will find what he’s looking for in one of these stolen youths?

[fall-out-boytoy]

Megadoomer :)

Megadoomer!!

Okay first off, this ep has SPOT ON CHARACTERIZATION for basically everyone:

- The Tallest! Purple being a childish shit and Red being a little better (but still not having much of a reaction to Tenn's plight). They just have an amazing dynamic here and I love it.

- GIR actually being halfway helpful for once!

- Zim obsessing over Dib, from ranting about him to a random kid for several minutes to INSTANTLY deciding he's gonna use the titular Megadoomer to destroy him. He also ignores good sense again, choosing to find human power outlets instead of getting a battery. Also also his patience with GIR in the beginning ("yess..chicken legs" "that means it TURNS INVISIBLE") is excellent!

- Dib! This ep is an important step on his "learning to care less" character development arc. He went from "you can't hide forever! and if you can, then I'll wait forever!" in The Nightmare Begins to "I guess this is a victory for me..or something. I'm going back to bed." in this ep to "NOOOOOO whatever" in Zim Eats Waffles. Lookit him :D

Speaking of Dib, I estimate he goes through at LEAST 5-10 cameras a month :p

Secondly/thirdly/whateverly, this ep has a TON of behind-the-scenes lore:

- The malfunctioning SIR units themselves have a lot of clues! Their EXISTENCE alone indicates that either the existing SIR units keep needing to be replaced, there are more invaders than there were at the Great Assigning, or SIR units aren't just for invaders. Also, Red and Purple's reaction to them implies malfunctioning tech is fairly common in the empire

- Zim has a throwaway line about how the titular Megadoomer was "engineered by conquered Vort scientists." This tells us a LOT. For one, Vort has apparently been conquered by Invader Larb sometime between now and Battle of the Planets (since in that ep Skoodge is said to be the first one to have conquered his assigned planet). For two, as expanded on in Backseat Drivers, Vort was turned into a military research base. And for three, the Vortians are (rather understandably) bitter about all this, as they introduced a glaring flaw into the Megadoomer's cloaking technology!

- Tenn shows us a decent amount on the other Invaders and on the Meekrob themselves!

- Smikka Smikka Smoodoo and the rest of the screwheads show how the irkens treat conquered species!

Speaking of Smikka Smikka Smoodoo, I hc that he ends up joining the resisty :D

[artistictiliqua]

awww heck whats gonna happen when the toddlers with godlike power get involved

Comic continues below the cut!

*Zim voice* This is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation.

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