#somehow Zim pushing Skoodge to the Hogulus was actually the best possible option

[random-iz-stuff]

Theory:

Here’s a small detail about Hobo 13 that explains a lot:

When any trainee is put in genuine, life threatening danger, they’re teleported to a holding cell before any real damage can occur.

So the trainees on Hobo 13 are never in any truly life threatening danger. If they’re ever put in a situation like that they’re automatically teleported to a holding cell (and presumably given medical attention if they have any injuries. Can’t run a successful boot camp if no one ever survives).

But at the same time, there are people betting not on Zim’s injuries, but on his DEATH. With bets on things like whether or not he’ll be blown up, eaten, or even chopped in half.

But the thing is, with the logic of Hobo 13, none of those things can actually happen to Zim because he’ll be teleported to a holding cell before anything major happens.

So in order for these bets to be possible, Zim must be disconnected from the teleporting system. In other words, if Zim is put into life threatening danger on Hobo 13, he won’t be teleported. Zim has no actual protection, unlike every other trainee there.

And there’s a good chance that the Tallest are not just aware of this given how Purple starts the betting, but are probably the reason that Zim won’t be teleported in the first place. They’re royalty. A simple request to Sergeant Hobo 678 or whoever is in charge is all it would take.

And I think Zim is aware of this as well.

This would mean that Zim didn’t just take the position as team commander because he wanted to be in charge or because he didn’t want to have to take orders from people that he doesn’t know or respect (although those were definitely factors), but because it would keep him out of the most danger. The commander can’t decide to leave Zim behind or sacrifice him for the rest of the team (which would most likely kill him because he doesn’t have the teleporter as a failsafe) If Zim IS the commander.

Think about it some more. Zim was a part of the Irken military and his entire race views shorter Irkens as inferior to the taller ones. So following that logic, it would make sense if shorter Irkens in the military were given the most dangerous jobs, even suicide missions if the need arose. After all, they’re considered to be less valuable overall than the taller ones. Shorter Irkens are viewed as expendable. Zim is shorter than average. By cementing himself as the commander, Zim prevents whoever else would have become commander from taking advantage of his shorter height and by that logic “lower value” and sacrificing him for the good of the team.

Hell, we even see proof of shorter and lower value soldiers being seen as expendable in the Irken military in the comics, where Commander Poki sends Zim, the shortest Irken there, on a suicide mission:

Think about what Poki just said. They want Zim to sneak to the opposite side of an enemy base and set off a small explosion to lure the enemies in the area to the back while the Irkens attack the (now unprotected) front. After those explosives go off, person that goes and sets off these explosives will be surrounded and swarmed by enemy forces alone while also being completely cut off from the other irkens because they’re on the opposite side of the battlefield with enemy forces in between their current location and the Irken military camp.

In other words, whoever sets off those explosives is going to die. And Poki picks the shortest Irken there to do it because he’s seen as expendable.

So Zim has EXPERIENCED being used as an expendable soldier, and he knows that his shorter height makes him a target for that sort of thing. So he’d probably believe that it works the same way on Hobo 13 while also knowing that if he’s ever in danger, the teleporter won’t save him.

It’s just a shame that not counting Zim, there was only one other Irken in the entire team, so Zim never actually needed to take any of this into consideration. His paranoia would have been completely justified in an all-Irken environment, ie: the type of environment he’s used to, but isn’t needed in this particular scenario.