#irken technology

[random-iz-stuff]

Zim’s base:

Irken invader bases are very complicated pieces of machinery meant to serve as a home, laboratory and military base for the assigned invader, and in Zim’s case, it’s the most advanced technology he was sent to earth with, being actual OID2 equipment instead of the rest of his equipment, which is outdated OID1 technology.

Bases are designed to be confusing and maze-like to prevent intruders from being able to find their way around, while the invader that calls the base home can find their way around just fine due to their PAK providing a map of their own base. Bases are also armed to the teeth with security, with cameras and motion detectors in every room and automatic defence systems like laser walls and turrets hidden in almost every room.

Invader bases also have the ability to reconfigure themselves. Adjusting the entire base and suddenly making one room connect to a different one, or cutting off a room from the rest of the base entirety. In most bases, the base computer is the only thing able to do this, with the invader giving it a command and it rearranging the base as it’s told to.

Zim’s base, however, is not most bases, and after Zim got locked out of his own base twice, once when Gir became the base computer and once when he was turning into a weenie and his base was unable to recognize him, he added in a failsafe that lets him adjust and control his base using his PAK, overriding his computer when doing so. So Zim is capable of reconfiguring his base himself without his computer doing it for him.

Dib has only managed to break into Zim’s proper base a few times, and although his original plan was to map it out, he quickly gave up after he realized that the base randomly changes its floor plan every few days.

Dib also vividly remembers a time when he managed to successfully break into Zim’s proper base, wandered through dozens of twisting hallways, and then turned around to see the entire base behind him straightening itself out and creating a straight path from Dib’s current location to the entrance that he originally came through, where Zim was standing.

What happened there was Zim learning that Dib was in his base due to the many security systems, especially silent alarms that he triggered, and deciding that the fastest way to catch up to him and throw him out was manually reconfiguring the base and making it go from this:

To this:

Allowing Zim to find and catch up to Dib, capture him, destroy all of his gathered evidence, and throw him out of his base in near record time.

Zim also reconfigures his base in the show. When he took Dib and Gaz into his base during Tak: The Hideous New Girl, he made the elevator down to the central computer complex (called the CCC for simplicity by most invaders) self contained, making it look like his entire underground base was just made up of one single elevator that led to the CCC, with no other rooms. This didn’t fool Dib, as he’s seen Zim’s base before, but it did prevent him from seeing anything important. But it did fool Gaz, who’s never been in Zim’s base before. Making her believe that Zim’s whole “underground base” that Dib kept rambling about was literally just an elevator shaft connected to a single room (and also that other single (almost completely empty) room she saw in Bloaty’s Pizza Hog). She asks “This is your base?” In that uninterested tone because as far as she knows, this is Zim’s entire base, and Dib is a massive liar.

There are only three rooms that the base’s owner can’t move, the first being the Central Computer Complex (CCC), aka this room:

Just like the name suggests, it’s the central computer room, being used for long distance communications, complex calculations and programming complicated machinery (like SIR units, explaining why it has a receptacle for a SIR unit’s memory drive.). It’s located at the very bottom of invader bases, and due to the delicate machinery inside, the room cannot be moved, although the base can still be easily reconfigured AROUND it, connecting to it from multiple different angles.

The second unmovable room is the Main AI core, which is this room right here:

It contains the core and main drive of the base’s AI, making it nearly essential for parts of the base to function properly, and once again, due to the fragility and importance of the objects inside it, it cannot move, requiring that the rest of the base move around it. Just like the CCC, the AI core is always located at the bottom of the invader’s base.

When the base detaches from its foundation and starts moving around in Invasion Of The Idiot Dog Brain, Gir controls it, through the use of a bunch of backup AI cores that the main core is wirelessly connected to.

The third room hasn’t been seen in the show, but it’s the base’s main generator room.

Invader bases have many different ways of collecting power, and the main generator room isn’t the only generator room, far from it in fact, but it is the largest and most powerful one, along with being the main source of power in most bases. It’s too large, heavy, and downright dangerous to move, so it can’t. It’s located at the bottom and the base needs to reconfigure itself around it.

In Zim’s base however, the main generator doesn’t run at maximum power, unlike other bases, where it is the main source of power production and is constantly running at full. This is because Zim managed to get his base to work with geothermal energy, heated straight from the earth’s core and the magma around it. He only needs the main generator to run at a fraction of its normal capacity because of this.

Invader bases don’t usually work with geothermal energy like Zim’s base. They go deep underground, but not THAT deep. The CCC, AI core and main generator room are the deepest points in all invader bases, and they don’t even get close to the depths that are required for Zim’s geothermal energy system to work, so why is Zim able to do it?

Because Zim made a few small changes to his base.

Well, I say a few changes when I should be saying HE PRACTICALLY BUILT A SECOND BASE UNDERNEATH HIS FIRST ONE.

Underneath the three immovable rooms in Zim’s base is a massive set of extra chambers, all built by Zim, containing stuff that he deemed important, but wasn’t included in the base’s regular set of rooms. A massive laboratory, extra storage rooms, weapon storages around every corner, Zim even built a massive water purifier and is attempting to set up a sugarcane farm, as the sugar harvested from it could easily make his base self sufficient, not even requiring that the empire send occasional rations. The entire section goes deep enough for geothermal energy to be not only viable, but extremely effective.

This part of Zim’s base also contains several rooms that he considers too important or too dangerous to be left on the upper floors, such as his invention hall, where he keeps all of his inventions and world domination machines that aren’t completely destroyed after the initial plan for them fails. Most of the stuff in the invention hall still works, and Zim refuses to just destroy his hard work, so he stores it down here. Mimi’s memory chip is located in here as well, as Zim set it down here and forgot about it. Other rooms include a strange room filled with weapons, medical supplies, dozens of written plans and a map of a planet that doesn’t seem to be earth, and the room where he keeps Prisoner 777’s children, in suspended animation where they’re safe from all harm. Zim keeps his collection of remote detonators down here as well.

Zim’s self constructed chambers have a distinct look when compared to the rest of his base. Military grade bases are designed for peak efficiency, and things like the ventilation and the machinery that moves objects and equipment through the base are hidden inside the walls, only having a few small areas where they’re visible. Zim’s personal chambers don’t care about that, and many areas are still under construction, meaning that the base is much more disorganized and you can see things being moved from room to room everywhere via tubes and robots on rails. Automatic robotic systems like robot arms and machines Zim designed to build and repair parts of his personal chambers can also be seen moving from room to room, attached to rails on the ceiling and walls. The entire place has a sort of Aperture Science vibe to it.

Zim’s personal chambers also don’t look completely like Irken architecture, almost looking like a mix between the wires, tubes and irregular shapes of irken architecture and the boxes, squares and symmetrical shapes of Vortian architecture. Given how Zim looks so fondly on his time working in Research Station 13, ie: a Vortian space station with Vortian architecture, he may have done this on purpose.

Zim’s personal chambers also have another thing that sets them apart from everything else, that being the gravity. When Zim originally started building his personal chambers, his original plan was to hook the whole place up to a bunch of artificial gravity generators so he could make the gravity in his personal chambers closer to the gravity of Irk, which is almost twice as strong as Earth’s gravity. Zim ended up not being able to do so, but he still put artificial gravity generators in several dozen rooms, and he managed to get them to work, just not in the ways he originally envisioned.

The gravity in Zim’s personal chambers is weird. In some rooms it goes downwards like it’s supposed to, in some rooms it goes upwards and you’re walking on the ceiling, in some areas the entire room is in zero gravity and you float around, and in some rooms the gravity changes in different parts of the same room, creating walls that you can run straight up or bridges that twist all the way around several times, while still being perfectly walkable. Zim designed his personal chambers around this, and he’s still capable of rearranging parts of his base down here, sometimes even flipping rooms onto their sides or completely upside down and letting the artificial gravity take care of things. It makes Zim’s personal chambers even harder to navigate than his normal base.

There’s also the security of Zim’s personal chambers.

First of all, getting into Zim’s personal chambers is a feat in and of itself because in between the main base and Zim’s extra base is a massive industrial door, easily the size of the entire CCC or the AI core. Massive. This door is the only way in, the only way out, and can only be opened by Zim, Gir, Minimoose and Zim’s computer, with Zim having priority. And good luck just brute forcing your way in because that door is strong enough to shrug off the military grade weapons on Zim’s Voot Cruiser. Nothing short of an organic sweep is getting through that door.

Once inside, Zim’s personal chambers have all the same security systems as the rest of his base like laser grids, cameras, motion detectors and turrets, but keep in mind that this part of Zim’s base was constructed completely by him, so expect a lot more less traditional defence systems. Trapdoors, crushing walls, robot arms, spikes, traps and more can be found guarding Zim’s self constructed base.

And that’s not considering the completely unique defence systems that Zim created down there. A good example of one of these things is a room where gravity is reversed, so you’re walking on the ceiling while the floor below you is electrified. If an intruder ever enters this room, Zim shuts off the artificial gravity in the room and everything on the ceiling falls down to the electrified floor, killing anything that touches it. Meanwhile, if Zim ever falls, his PAK legs can shield him from the impact of the fall while simultaneously keeping him from directly touching the dangerous floor.

At the very bottom of Zim’s self constructed base are three small rooms that were originally parts of Zim’s main base, but were brought down here when he started construction. Those three rooms are Zim’s bedroom, medical bay and exercise room.

Starting with Zim’s bedroom, all invader bases come with bedrooms. Irkens don’t sleep for very long compared to humans, only two or three hours a day, but they do sleep and it would be stupid to send an invader to a foreign planet without a proper place to sleep.

That being said, base bedrooms are designed with the military in mind, not comfort and quality like the bedrooms you’d find in a house. Invader bedrooms are simple, containing a bed that can fold up into the wall to become a couch, a proper irken TV (not the computer screens found all over Zim’s base, including the “TV” he uses to call the Tallest, but a proper irken TV that is built with the explicit purpose of playing irken TV shows), a closet for holding clothing and armour, and a desk and chair. That’s all the room comes with, but the invader is free to decorate as they deem fit.

In Zim’s case, various things from his past and present can be found in this room, including some pictures of Gir and Minimoose, one old picture of Zim in some fancy irken clothing next to a free Prisoner 777, also dressed up for the occasion, a few pictures of a young Zim with a young Skoodge, a few pictures of a young Zim with a young Tenn, one framed picture showing the three of them together and his old labcoat from his scientist job in a small box, still kept in good condition after all this time.

The medical bay found here isn’t the only medical bay, most invader bases have several, and that’s before you consider Zim’s hand built chambers, but it is the most advanced one, containing just about every medical device under the sun. It even has equipment designed for the creation of vaccines and cures, since alien planet means alien diseases, and even if it’s extremely unlikely that a disease can survive in the body of something that comes from a whole other planet, it’s good to have options because the chance is still above zero.

And finally, the exercise room. It’s a gym. That’s it. Invaders need to exercise frequently if they’re staying on planets with lower gravity than irk to keep their muscles from atrophying, just like how astronauts in the ISS need to exercise frequently for the same reasons. Lower gravity means the muscles do less work than they’re used to, leading to muscle and bone atrophy. Irk’s gravity is twice that of Earth, so Zim needs that exercise room and uses it frequently. Plus it’s just good for your health.

There’s just one more thing about these three rooms that makes them special. They’re all what irkens call “Pressurized Environments”.

Pressurized environments are areas that use very advanced irken technology, the spinal implants that irkens have where their PAK’s connect to their bodies and a very carefully designed artificial atmosphere to make it so that irkens can safely remove their PAKs without having 10 minutes to live. They’ll still die if their PAK gets too far away from them, but as long as the PAK stays close and both the PAK and the irken are in a pressurized environment, they can remove their PAKs and still live, which is required if the irken needs to repair their PAK for any reason.

Pressurized environments are extremely expensive and difficult to set up and maintain, so not every irken-made thing has a pressurized environment in it. For an example of this, the interior of Zim’s Voot Cruiser IS pressurized since Voot Cruisers are designed for long distance travel and cargo hauling. The drivers of long distance cargo ships like Voots can sometimes be light years away from the nearest pressurized area for long periods of time, so if the interior of the Voot wasn’t pressurized, they’d be screwed if something were to happen to their PAK that requires them to remove it to properly repair it. However, the interior of Spittle Runners and Tak’s modified Spittle Runner AREN’T pressurized since they’re designed for high speed dogfighting, not long distance travel, meaning that there’s no reason to pressurize the interior.

Other examples include certain parts of invader bases, including but not limited to that part of Zim’s base where he could be seen working on his PAK, most irken medical bays, parts of Hobo-13’s surface, the interior of the Massive, which is the second largest pressurized environment in existence, and all of Irk’s underground, which is the single largest pressurized environment in existence.

#invader zim #headcanons #irken technology #zim #i really want to make a whole bunch of posts where I put my headcanons for irken ships #because I really want to talk about my headcanons about irken ships

[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.

#amyisherenowansweringyou #i shall get to your follow-up question as soon as possible kind reader #re:mhny1 #mhny series #invader zim #iz headcanons #irken technology #irken #zim

[zootzar]

Dib stop tweeting about zim

OG listed below

#invader zim #iz #invader zim meme #iz fanart #dib membrane #iz zim #iz dib #iz zadr #zadr #stupid dumb bugs get posted on twitter at bag angles for clout #irkens look like little insects yet they have ships the size of Volkswagen beetles that have the power to obliterate the entire earth #if they so please #they literally choose their rulers based on fucking height like lil ants yet they have the technology of GODS #I both love and am infuriated by irken civilization can you tell #anyways #silly art #my art

[legofemme]

Beez propoganda

#vani draws #idk if anyone cares abt the lore i wrote for her species but the tldr #is that they make REALLY GOOD honey. and u know irkens love snacks. and starting wars. #the beeple are physically stronger and are able to hold their own. but nnnot by much. irkens outnumber them and have higher powered weapons #not to say the beeple are less technologically advanced. but they arent going around decimating planets for resources like irkens are #beez is a retired war-drone who now does ambassadorial work for other planets #reaching out first once said planet is on the irken hitlist to provide the natives with weapons and information

[iz-florplanz]

Irken Probe photos

#Location: Planet Mars #Mars: Interior #Invader technology #Irken Probe

[inbarfink]

So the thing about Tak’s Holo-Disguise is that it specifically might not be an example of Tak using more advanced technology than Zim.

The implication in “The Nightmare Begins” is that Zim maybe also have access to Perfectly Realistic Human Disguises, probably similar to Tak’s Hologram - but he intentionally rejected them because he saw them as too ugly. He deliberately chose his shitty little costume because he thought that was the only one that looked ‘good’.

And these terrible disguises are also pretty consistent with how the actual official Invaders disguise themselves. If anything, Zim’s got the best costume of the lot!

So with Zim dismissing the more realistic disguises as being ‘ugly’ and ‘stinky’ and those being… basically the most common insults he throws at humans. ..I think the implication here is pretty clearly that Zim’s (and the actual Irken Invaders’) disguises are bad because he doesn’t want to look too human because Irken Imperial Indoctrination has taught him every other species in the universe is revolting and so he cannot stand the idea of looking too match like the people he is trying to infiltrate.

So it is interesting that the one Irken who actually uses their advanced technology to actually look like another species is Tak. Maybe she’s just being a bit of a show-off overachiever. So driven by the need to prove how competent of an Invader she can be she decided to suffer through the indignity of Using a Competent Disguise. 

Or maybe there’s sort of an implication that Tak doesn’t really buy into Irken Ideology that much?

Like, obviously, she’s not, like,  some sort of anti-Imperial pro-alien advocate or anything. She’s still trying to gain the respect of the Tallest, she still wants to become an Invader, she is still willing to sacrifice an entire planet in order to achieve her goals. 

I’m thinking more, like, Zim is 100% a true believer in Irken Imperial Ideology. He wants to be an Invader at least in part so he could use his ‘amazingness’ to contribute to the conquests of the Irken Empire. And he legitimately believes the Tallests are superior beings worthy of his admiration. And he legitimately believes Irkens are superior to all other sapient beings in the universe in general and to humans especially.

Meanwhile, Tak’s main goals might just be to gain as much power and prestige as she can - no matter what or who stands in her way. If she lived in a society that valued dentists above all she would’ve become a dentist. But she was born in the Irken Empire, and the most prestigious not-height-dependent position available to her in Irken Society is the one of an Invader, so that’s what she dedicated her life to. Not out of any ideological commitment to help the Empire's conquests.

She tries to gain the Tallests’ favor because she knows she needs them to get ahead in life, not necessarily because she craves their tall, superior approval the way Zim does. She can kill a lot of non-Irkens on her way to ‘greatness’, but it’s more of a general callousness towards other people - rather than loyalty to the superiority of the Irken people. 

That might also explain why she’s the one Irken with the sense of individuality to customize her uniform

And design her own version of the Irken Empire Flag, based on her own look.

Because maybe she’s not trying to serve the Irken Empire, maybe she’s just trying to serve Tak.

#invader zim #iz #zim #zim iz #iz zim #iz analysis #irken #zim invader zim #tak invader zim #tak iz #invader tak #iz tak

[leravat-lat]

The plot is as follows, Zim is a human spy who works for the "human coalition", they learned about Irken technology and sent Zim to join their team and steal their technology to conquer the universe.

Invader Dib, the only one who understands that zim is not an Irken and tries to stop him

#invader zim #invader zim fanart #zim #human zim #art #Gir dog #iz zim #iz gir #iz dib #alternative history #iz #digital #humanization

[ms-scarletwings]

Frightsome realization brought to me by the beginning of the Planetjackers episode.

Zim’s telescope, all the way from Earth, mind you, couldn’t just search for and fix onto other known planets in the Empire’s range, couldn’t just find the base of the local irken spy, but was in fact able to lock onto the current, exact position of other invaders themselves.

Every single one of them is wired into a database to the point of being able to immediately check one’s encoded job and identity from a quick scan. Of course they’d have the technology and the foresight to have PAKs constantly log and update intergalactic GPS data to their fleet databanks. That’s how Sizz Lorr dropped in on Zim at the Skool. That’s how the guards black-bagged him in order to bring him to Judgementia for his trial. Hell, it probably might even be part of how Tak found him.

Every irken invader, if not every Irken soldier, can be tracked and observed at any time by the empire. Some form of cracking this network may even be the method through which Zim obsessively checks in on the Tallests and where The Massive’s been lately.

But more worryingly, for Irkens at least, this would mean that permanently deserting and evading the empire is effectively impossible so long as there exists some Irken authority willing to put in the effort to chase you down. There is no corner of the universe where their criminals could find a lasting peace of mind. It also adds some more potential context behind their ubiquitous loyalty to their leadership, or why to Zim’s perception, there is no third option after success or being as good as a dead man.

#iz #invader zim #Planet Jackers #iz headcanons #what if the reason we haven’t seen Tak come back yet is because she’s literally dodging janitor duty across the cosmos #this changes SO MUCH about my own ocs holy crap #scarlet talks about things

[verm1c1de]

Zims entire personality is completely fabricated

Let me explain.

Zim, as we know him, is just a mask made up by.. well, Zim.

Zim doesn’t exist.

Because Zim, at his most genuine, loves.

And Zim is not supposed to love.

It’s been thrown around throughout the entire course of the series that Zim is, in fact, a very intelligent individual. Moreso than irkens, renowned technology-thieves, are known to be. It’s for this fact, that it would make sense, that Zim would not be completely ignorant of how the rest of Irken society views him.

The defect, the worst irken to ever exist, et cetera.

There’s no way to be that obtuse about your own infamy, and if there is, there’s enough hints and clues in the series to allow viewers to come to the conclusion that Zim isn’t unaware of it all.

And no, this is not a “Zim is a genius and knows absolutely everything” post. He’s definitely gullible. He absolutely has the worst priorities, he doesn’t know when to quit, too stubborn and set in his own beliefs, but he does Know a lot more than he lets on.

Multiple instances of Tallest Purple nearly revealing the truth about Zim’s mission or being too careless with his words are brushed away, either spoken over by Red or ignored completely by Zim, as if he didn’t hear it at all. Similarly, Sizz-Lorr exists as tangible evidence of everything wrong with Zim’s falsified identity as an invader. He shows up for one episode and that episode introduces some of the most important building on Zim’s coding and the consequences derived from his destructive actions on Irk. And his response to this, is to flat out deny it. Because with Purple, he has the expectation to not be aware. With Sizz-Lorr, everything he’s done is laid out in front of him, forcing him to acknowledge it. He won’t.

Zim, at his most genuine, is paranoid.

Paranoid enough to fabricate an entire personality from nothing after having the entirety of Irken knowledge downloaded into his PAK, only minutes after having been freed from his tube.

Zim is a bootlicker. Zim couldn’t care less about the Tallest. Zim seeks absolution from the Tallest because he knows that he was Made Wrong and that the things he’s done are unforgivable, but he can’t help himself. Zim only goes out of his way to gain their attention because he knows that’s what the average irken desires. All of these are true.

Zim is only drawn to invading in the most superficial way possible for an irken. He enjoys the idea of invading, not because it is personally "appealing" to him in any sense of the word, but because he knows that it is for others. It's an esteemed title. An invader gets to have respect. An invader gets to be addressed directly by the Tallest.

Being an invader is the best thing. Not for him, but for his act.

He needs the act. The act will save him from his imperialistic society. The act is the worst thing to ever happen to him.

Zim is nothing without it. He’s nothing with it.

He hates the act.

(“Hey, you’re a worse flier than I am!”)

And it’s very, very likely that he hates himself because of it. Much more than anyone else could ever hate him, because their hate for him is as superficial as his allegiance to the Empire is.

Zim does not fit in on Irk because Irk doesn’t need a Zim. Irk doesn’t need an irken soldier whose sole identity is to destroy.

Which is why Zim fits in so much better on Earth as its villain. On Earth, he gets to be a part of the story, not a fool that has to force himself on stage to even have some semblance of a spotlight.

Zim was already firmly set into his role before arriving to Earth; but coming there, and meeting Dib, further instills Zim with the drive to keep it up. Dib exists to be a hero, after all! And heroes need their villains. Zim fits into that role perfectly. And of course Zim, being nothing BUT a role, is drawn to it. He'll feed into Dib's alien obsession because Dib's alien obsession fits into Zim's "character". The big bad guy that needs to be fought against.

Which makes sense.

If he's the big bad that everyone hates, he doesn't have to worry about wondering if anyone loves him, because he knows they don't.

His first words were “I love you.”

The Zim we know does not love.

The Zim we know is nothing but an elaborate, one-irken act, stuck playing the same role in the same show for as long as he draws it out for.

One which would collapse if anything ever brought attention to it.

this post would not have been made without the help of @short-and-ugly and @animatorfun. seriously. like they wrote it. they were my editors.

this is NOT a headcanon post, im for realsies. this is metatextual analysis. i genuinely believe this is what zims character is supposed to be ((even if not necessarily intentionally))

#iz #invader zim #zim #iz analysis #long post #very long post #vermi.txt #Zim Larp Theory #named soafter our google doc about it

[paulkleestan]

More Random Invader ZIM facts!

Jhonen was only 22 when contacted by Nickelodeon to make a series for older children, specifically one that could recreate the success the network had with Ren and Stimpy as the network felt it was losing the “edge” it used to have

Ms. Bitters is in her 50s. She looks old because the show is supposed to be seen through the eyes of Dib/other children

ZIM, like Gaz, is a gamer but is generally terrible at them and a sore loser

ZIM was originally going to hug and kiss TAK’s hand in the “romance” montage of TAK: The Hideous New Girl but Jhonen took it out because he didn’t want viewers to think he actually liked her (sorry ZATR fans)

Jhonen had to fight with the Nickelodeon higher ups to keep Dib’s trenchcoat in after the Columbine massacre made them controversial

The PAK that Irkens have comes from Jhonen’s own habit of wearing a backpack everywhere

IRKENS TYPE IN ALL CAPS WHEN USING THE LATIN ALPHABET

Gaz was never intended to be “goth”. That’s why her outfit changed dramatically when the comics started - Jhonen wanted her to be a gamer first and foremost

ZIM’s eye color was originally purple

TAK was conceived as a parody of self-insert Irken OCs on the internet who are commonly paired with ZIM or Dib

Dib’s personality was based on Jhonen as a kid while ZIM’s personality consisted of Jhonen’s self-perceived worst personality traits as an adult

Irkens don’t need to eat as their energy source is in their PAKs. They eat snacks purely for recreation.

ZIM is ambidextrous

Most of the technology the Irkens use was developed by Vortion engineers, not Irkens

#invader zim #invaderzim #iz #jhonen vasquez #zim #gaz #dib membrane

[milky-oatmeal18]

designs for my take on a species swap au

a little short summary of it:

instead of the swollen eyeball its the "take over earth club" (dorky name but what do you expect from red and purple) instead about hunting the paranormal, its just kinda a dorky club, where people who hate everything around them team up and plan to over throw or to cause riots for fun and what not, dib is a irken scientist and comes to earth to study the materials there, and to have a safe hide out to make weapons and technology for the tallest (prof membrane) though he gets distracted by the cryptids there on earth, finding them way more interesting than his mission, zim is some rowdy kid who instead of hating things around him just wants to take over the world, he doesn’t suspect dib until dib openly uses his tech outside the skool, zim wants to take dibs weapons and take over earth with them, stuff like that, zims brother red finds zim very annoying and tries to exclude him from the club, giving him fake missions like to steal supplies from the skool or just stupid things, gir is purples brother and spends a lot of time with zim cause purple leaves gir to zim to babysit him, gaz was one of the soldiers who guarded the labs that dib worked at and was sent to “watch over” him (she doesn’t really care about him cause she knows he can do things by himself) tak is a member of the TOE club, and tries her best to do the most for red and purple and what not, sort of the same in the show

zim is 16 and dib is 17

gir is 8

gaz and tak are 15

red and purple are 18 and 19

I’ll add more to this or fix some things once I have a set story, this is just a summary to what I have right now!!!

#invader zim #invader zim fanart #iz #invader zim dib #invader zim dib membrane #dib membrane #irken #irken gaz #irken dib #human zim #zadf #parr #rapr #tallest red #tallest purple #invader zim tak #iz tak #invader zim gir #gir #zim #iz gir #human gir #so many tags #sobbing #LOOK AT MY SILLIES #im actually proud of this

[emeraldspiral]

So, I've seen fics where Zim's PAK malfunctions and allows him to experience suppressed emotions, or think more clearly and become self-aware/realize his mission is fake, or get horny. But going along with that idea I had awhile ago that Irken PAKs are used to medicate them for things like depression or ADHD, what if a malfunction caused Zim to have an overdose or withdrawl? And maybe he doesn't realize that's what's happening because he doesn't know what he has or what medications he's being fed. He's never actually been to a doctor to get diagnosed and prescribed medication. The PAK just does a bioscan, determines what he needs, and feeds it to him automatically, and he never looked into it because he trusts the technology implicitly and doesn't want to know what conditions he might have.

Maybe the only reason he figures it out is because the effects of the withdrawl/OD happen at Skool. One of his classmates takes him to the nurse who calls his "parents" to come pick him up. Word spreads about Zim being sick, it gets back to Dib, and then Dib figures out it wasn't another one his allergies because he recognizes the symptoms because he takes the same medication for the same condition as Zim and the same thing happened to him once.

#invader zim #zadr #zadf

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy

Invader Zim

The zealous, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal Zim is an Irken of the Irken Empire.  The Irken's social and military hierarchy is based exclusively on physical height. The empire's leader is called The Almighty Tallest and only those who are tall are assigned positions of power whereas shorter Irkens are looked down upon as loathsome and of little use.  

Although quite short, Zim believed that he was destined for greatness and that all that he would accomplish would result in his being renowned and respected despite his small stature.  In his delusional fervor, Zim causes a number of accidents that nearly destroys all of Irken.  To be rid of this destructive irritant, The Irken high command assigned Zim the task of conquering a low-priority and underdeveloped planet far off in the cosmos.  

This planet turned out to be earth.  Aided by his madcap android minion, Gir, Zim traveled to earth and established himself there.  He posed as a student at an elementary school whilst toiling away at various plots to conquer the earth and win the favor of the Almighty Tallest. 

Although technologically savvy, Zim is quite mad and his bizarre, over-complicated schemes of conquest have always ended in extraordinary and destructive failures.  

Meanwhile, Zim’s classmate, Dib, had correctly surmised that Zim is an alien and the headstrong lad has gone to great lengths to try to prove it.  Of course Dib is just as rash and unhinged as Zim and his schemes to oust Zim as an alien invader have proven equally as harebrained and doomed to failure as those of his extraterrestrial adversary.  

Actor Richard Steven Horvitz provided the voice for Zim, with he would-be conqueror first appearing in the debut episode of Invader Zim, airing on March 30th, 2001. 

#Profiles in Villainy #Invader Zim #Zim #cut-out #paper art #Villains!

[dodgeballstuckonthegymceiling]

Hello if I could make a request

Platonic Zim,Dib,and Gaz with The Uncanny ability to attract Supernatural objects and keeps them in a Shack in the backyard be it hyper Advanced alien, technology mystical items of magical power, or weird anomalous mundane objects if it's out of the ordinary odds are the reader has come into contact with it

Goodbye I'm going to have a lovely day

YES YES YES! This made the tism go burrr :D

Zim, Dib and Gaz X Reader who attracts the supernatural

Zim

★ Understandable, you would be friends with an alien. He likes you because you don't ask to many questions. When you do it's usually on topic for the conversation, like when you asked if he could digest chicken nuggets.

★ Before he considered you a friend, his paranoia about you secretly working for Dib- or even Tak lead him to keep tabs on you. Untill he could prove that you don't work for his enemies.

★ He isn't really interested in the magical objects you keep around. Unless it can be useful to him, but that's only if the object can hurt someone or has some kind of curse that he can weaponize.

★ Gone is the master lock you use for security, he replaced it with a fingerprint lock. You bribed him into making the upgrade for you by offering him some broken alien tech in exchange.

Dib

★ You're the only person other than Gaz who believes that Zim is a alien. Be prepared for him to info dump about the irken race. You are probably the first (willing) person to hear him talk about it, so please listen.

★ Your shack in the backyard is his own personal heaven. It's not to shabby either, you installed fairy lights on the inside. He takes the initiative to catalog everything you keep in there.

★ He keeps notes on what you have and the stories behind it. Each object has its own story behind it, by now you must have plenty of good stories. He'd love to listen to you talk about your experiences.

★ I can see you keeping a baseball bat inside the shack for safety reasons. Dib will always remember the time you hit Zim in the stomach with said baseball bat. It was his own fault for shouting in your ear.

Gaz

★ She might "borrow" some stuff from your shack. It comes in handy when she gets into a fight with Dib and needs something to terrorize him. Emotionally damaging people is okay when it's your sibling!

★ When you get into trouble with cursed objects or haunted dolls she only helps you if she might get to see a ghost or some other undead creature. It's the goth in her. She seemed like the kind of person to own a ouija board.

★ Naturally, you've learned differently ways to fight supernatural and paranormal things. Gaz now knows how to banish a demon and that you should never invite talking animals inside your house.

★ The talking animal incident will not be discussed. Let's just say that vampires are on your list of most hated cryptids.

#invader Zim #zim #dib #gaz #invader zim headcannon #invader zim ask #invader zim x reader #Zim x Reader #dib x reader #gaz x reader #invader zim/reader #invader zim fanfiction

[iz-florplanz]

Irken Probe

#Location: Planet Mars #Mars: Interior #Invader Technology #Irken Probe

[inbarfink]

So here is a thing that I noticed going over the sort of weird expressions that Zim uses in canon. When Zim doesn’t know the human term for something, he will make up some bizarre word combination of his own… but he will hardly ever substitute an Irken term for it. You know, when he first comes to Earth, he doesn’t call Human children ‘smeets’, he calls them ‘worm-babies’. He doesn’t assume the Earth is controlled by a Tallest, he just calls President Man ‘the Earth Leader’. 

And that… makes sense, Irk is a spacefaring empire which clearly had contact with other alien civilizations for a very long time. Zim would have some frame of reference to know that, for example, Vortians don’t call their children ‘Smeets’ and therefore he has no reason to assume the distant alien planet he just landed on would use that term either. I mean, yeah, Zim is often irrational - but that’s one point where he is surprisingly reasonable…. Well, until he needs to think up what he assumes the proper inconspicuous earth term would likely be and comes up with the most ludicrous option available.

And sometimes, and especially later on in the series, it’s clear that he does know what the Correct Earth Term is but is just looking for an excuse to insult humanity again by using a derogatory term he made up. 

And, like, you know… yeah, it is actually kinda obvious why he wouldn’t use the Irken term in that context. He thinks Irkens are inherently superior to humanity. Calling human children ‘Smeets’ would be comparing them to Irken children which would be a compliment to the ‘filthy humans’ that he would not be able to stomach. And like, I know a lot of ‘Alien Among Us’ stories get a lot of their comedy from, y’know, cultural differences and assumptions clashing. But I would argue that while IZ does that sometimes, a lot of Invader Zim’s comedy is actually based on Zim’s immediately assuming Earth Culture has to be as alien to Irken Culture as possible, when they are actually not so different. 

But also I want to take a moment to address the one time where Zim does seemingly uses an Irken term for a human, and that’s when he address the McMeaties clerk guy as ‘Burger Lord’ in ‘Germs’4

Which is probably related to the Irken title for a high-ranking frycook being ‘Frylord’.

But that actually makes sense both in the sense of, like... this term is in use on Foodcourtia, and Foodcourtia, although clearly a part of the Irken Empire, is frequented by many different alien species. So due to the planet's importance as a galactic center for fast food, the term ‘Frylord’ and its derivatives have spread beyond the Irken Empire. Or maybe it was an alien term to begin with and it spread into Foodcourtia through its non-Irken customers. Whatever it is, Zim would at least have a reason to think this might be a universal term and not an Irken-specific thing.

And also, this is a rare occasion where Zim is kinda, like, trying to genuinely get on the good graces of a human and is treating human technology (SPACE MEAT) with an unusual amount of respect - and he just doesn’t really have the mental focus to start condescending to him right now. So kinda reflexively using an unusually respectful Irken term for a mere Human Fast Food Worker makes sense considering his emotional state. He’s probably too germ-panicked to remember he’s not supposed to remember his time in Foodcourtia as well. 

Like, yes, I am aware I am probably looking too deeply into the continuity of this one line. “Germs” and “The Frycook of What Came From All That Space” are so far apart in the timeline that the actual writers probably weren’t thinking about this, right? I just think it’s Cool that one can fit this little ‘Burger Lord’ detail so neatly and so consistently into the lore and with Zim’s characterization.

#invader zim #iz #iz analysis #zim #zim iz #iz zim #invader zim iz #invader zim zim #zim invader zim #irken #iz irken #irken empire #invaderzim #irken language