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thefloatingstone · 4 years

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I’m not joking about the JV thing btw.

I’ve been in the Invader Zim fandom since 2005. And even back then JV was vocally unimpressed by his fanbase. Heck while the show was AIRING he would take things the fanbase wanted to see and actually do them but like in a monkey’s paw kind of way.

“Zim should have a love interest!” JV introduces a female Irken who Zim tries to woo when he thinks she’s a human girl just to make his disguise more believable. She ends up being someone whose life Zim ruined and her entire goal is to murder Zim. They end up hating each other’s guts.

“Zim should have a human friend!” JV introduces Keef. probably one of the most terrifying characters in the show as he obsessively follows Zim around and becomes stalkerish and possessive in a way that starts bordering on being too real to be funny.

“Zim should find out his mission is fake” Enter the Florpus happens

JV is not only against the ideas and tropes his fandom has asked for but literally gives the fandom the exact opposite in some cases. Or when he doesn’t give the exact opposite he makes fun of common tropes in the fandom. Zim and Dib being friends a big one.

And although there are fans who come and go or who many years later will still be annoyed that JV doesn’t give them what they want, it’s been going on so long now that the long time fans have reached a point of

“LOL That’s our Vasquez!”

Seeing JV make fun of his own fanbase and troll them without outright being viscous or hateful towards them is just what being in the fandom is. And it works because of the nature of IZ in the first place. It’s a cynical, dystopian dark comedy that parodies modern American culture. Every character gets the short end of the stick at some point and the humour comes from how stupid everything is, often due to the character’s own faults. So having a fanbase where the most favourite tropes are what gets turned onto its head and made fun of? That’s perfectly on brand with the entire tone of the canon itself.

And honestly? I really adore this. A fandom of “Don’t ask JV what the canon for this one idea is because he’s gonna tell you the most anti-climactic answer on the planet. Just make up your own headcanon.” or “Zim and Dib are friends in this comic/fanfic and I don’t give a fuck I just wanna write it lol. It’s not canon at all but honestly who cares.”

There’s very little argument about “how canon” something is because it’s either canon or its completely not and not even pretending to be.

Also compare this to how several shows have suffered in the age where Twitter is a thing and you can directly communicate with show creators.

You get My Little Pony. a show that started out being about friendship and lessons about inter personal relationships told through funny humour and likeable characters. It attracted an adult audience by accident, especially a young adult male audience, who then as time went by more and more and more wanted focus on the LORE. On background characters. On the MYTHOLOGY of the world. And as time went on the show devolved into a mess of memes, pandering to the fans, references to other pop culture until it just became a mess of trying to solve world shattering events and wars with “we should all be friends” type logic.

You have Steven Universe which has a lot of writing problems, and when fans point out the problems have the writers try and EXPLAIN why the problems weren’t actually problems because see there’s actually this behind the scenes thing that happened and we’re showing it in a NEW episode that completely justifies the original problem! Which as a result ends up creating a community of “Theory crafters” so obsessed with what they’re NOT getting told because what is being given to them doesn’t explain things properly. With then theories getting taken as canon and so when the actual show doesn’t MATCH the theories those who liked those theories end up pissed.

You have shows like Star Versus the Forces of Evil which actively tried to bait its audience with different ships across its seasons and actively putting shippers against each other, while yoyo-ing the characters back and forth between potential love interests just to keep a certain aspect of its own audience invested in the romance side of things until it inevitably crashed and burned in its finale.

And then you have JV. Who doesn’t give a single fuck about what his fandom wants or thinks and if you try and bother him about it he will actively do the opposite of what you want just to spite you. Resulting in a relationship of very clear distinction between what is canon, and what is not. And not being bothered if your Zim and Dib Friendship fic could happen in canon or not. Because it can’t and it won’t. And you don’t care you writing it anyway.

This is why the Invader Zim canon has managed to remain recogniseable as itself despite the internet and social media becoming what it is. Because JV has no interest in placating fans. And at this point, the fans have no expectation for him to do so.

And although there is still discourse and bullshit and arguing and antis and fights... at least Invader Zim as a cartoon, movie and comic, is still 100% Invader Zim.

And that’s why JV being such a troll to his fanbase is something I honestly love.

#Invader Zim #Unpopular opinions

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