#Invader Zim episode 13
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Found my newest Invader Zim banner, look at that little guy go. Like anime closing credits
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I shipped sanscest when I was younger (specifically cherryberry) and when I went on holiday to turkey at the ripe age of 13 I wrote the ship name in the sand on a beach and I think about it all the time. I even took a photo 😭
#we don’t talk about 13 year old me.#THE ONLY QUESTIONABLE THING I SHIPPED WAS CHERRYBERRY BECAUSE I HAD AN UNDERSWAP SANS RP ACC AND I EDATED AN UNDERFELL SANS ONE 😭💀#fun fact that’s the reason I use the name blue online#people called me it outside of rp and it stuck#anyway#I actively hated frans and fontcest and all those gross things#so at least I wasn’t that far gone#also fun fact my fell gf liked invader zim and I watched the first episode on youtube for her but wasn’t interested at the time#well look at me now!#blue moments
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Professor Membrane: Good or Bad Father?
I've decided to scientifically argue weather or not Professor Membrane from Invader Zim father of Dib Membrane and gasoline the other one by going through EVERY EPISODE of Invader Zim (that he appears in) and making a point counter of every good and bad action he does.
Episode 1 The Nightmare Begins
Ignores Dib -1 point
Episode 2B NanoZim
Just gives him the tiny ship when he needs help even though what he says is insane. Proffy doesn't even call him insane just tells him to run along + 1 point
Episode 3A Parent Teacher Night
He tried to show up for the meeting,,, even if it resulted in the lab exploding. + 1 dad point - 1 scientist point
Episode 6B Battle Dib
Didn't recognize his son - 1 point
Too hard to contact - 1 point
Gave Dib the permission slip + 1 point
Episode 8B Bad Bad Rubber Piggy
MADE HIS SON INTO A COOL ASS BATTLE ROBOT TO PREVENT HIM FROM DYING + 1 point
10B Bloatys Pizza Hog
Only one annual family night out - 1 point
Lets Gaz choose wherever she wants + 1 point
Made sure Dib also came + 1 point
If Dib doesn't show up, he'll put it off for next year - 1 point
12B Game Slave 2
One of the best lines in the show + 1 point
13 Battle of the Planets
Told his son aliens were fake and said he had a big head as a baby. The iconic line "my poor insane son" debuts this episode. - 1 point
14 Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom
said "It was only a matter of time" for Dib going to HIS INSANE ASYLUM THAT HE OWNS. - 1 point
Did not consider Dib's opinion for a second. - 1 point
Sent Dib to the asylum. For the rest of his life. - 1 point
And an extra bad point, because that's really bad, and the worst thing he's done in the show and what most people remember him for. - 1 point
Another bad point for apparently experimenting on baby Dib so much he has subconscious trauma over it. - 1 point
15B Future Dib
Neglects his children (hasn't shown up for weeks) - 1 point
However he makes prerecorded messages for them so he's not totally abandoning them. + 1 point
Inviting his kids to the infinite energy thingy. + 1 point
Pat Gaz on the head + 1 point
Noticed Dib was missing immedietely + 1 point
He told Gaz to make sure Dib doesn't do anything embarrassing. - 1 point
Waited for his kids despite jeers from the audience + 1 point
DOESN'T GIVE EVERYONE PERPETUAL ENERGY BECAUSE THEY DISRESPECTED HIS KIDS + 1 dad point - 1 scientist point
Membrane doesn't realize the robot dib is fake - 1 point
18B The Sad Sad Tale of Chickenfoot
Invasion of privacy by letting randoms in the house. - 1 point
Calls his son insane to everyone there. - 1 point
Insisting what his son's future is as I'm assuming he does that a lot offscreen. - 1 point
Not defending Dib when everyone starts laughing at him - 1 point
20 Tak The Hideous New Girl
Trying to make friends with Dib's friend :) + 1 point
21 Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars
Tells Gaz to be nice to his brother and helps her out with her problem. + 1 point
Calls Dib insane behind his back - 1 point
23b Dibship Rising
He LIED about the can of beans wiping out ALL HUMAN LIFE - 1 point?
25 Gaz Taster of Pork
Always keeps the fridge stocked with good food + 1 point
Stopped what he was doing immedietely to help Gaz with her problem + 1 point
Put his kid on public TV without consent - 1 point
Turned his kid into an experiment - 1 point
Makes his children have to do an escape sequence at all - 1 point
Apologizes + 1 point
27 The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever
Trusted Dib with his anti-santa arsenal + 1 point
DELETED EPISODES!
Mopiness of Doom
Listened to Dib + 1 point
Told Dib to give up on his dreams - 1 point
Very encouraging to Dib + 1 point
Constantly checking in on Dib + 1 point
Very tuned into Dib's emotions and be able to tell when something is bothering him + 1 point
Professor Membrane's love is conditional - 1 point
Complaining about Dib to Gaz - 1 point
10 Minutes to Doom
Did not recognize his son - 1 point
Did not want to get involved with Dib's fashion matters - 1 point
Deciding to take a look anyways + 1 point
Didn't to his son and now insisting that they have to stop him - 1 point
Day of Da Spookies
Calls his son insane - 1 point
Stopping work to help him anyways + 1 point
TOTAL SCORE
Good Points - 25
Bad Points - 30
ENTER THE FLORPUS
Making his kids a food robot + 1 point
Waiting for Dib + 1 point
Calling his son insane to Gaz - 1 point
Telling Gaz to be supportive, even using metaphors + 1 point
BEHOLD MY BOY CHILD + 1 point
Mean to Dib about his interests - 1 point
Arguing - 1 point
Calling Dib's spaceship fake - 1 point
Wishing isn't very scientific son - 1 point
Patting his son on the head + 1 point
Unprovoked calling Dib's ideas imaginary - 1 point
Confirming he knows aliens exist, thus meaning that he's just saying they don't to be mean to his son specifically - 1 point
Insisting it's a hallucinations so hard - 1 point
Saying he'll always be proud of his son before he thinks he's going to die + 1 point
Saved his son from a pit! + 1 point
Helped fight off robots with Dib + 1 point
Saying "great work honey" to Gaz + 1 point
Using the moose without arguing + 1 point
Pretending like all of it was a hallucination - 1 point
Convincing everyone else it was a hallucination too - 1 point
10 Good point
10 Bad points
TOTAL SCORE
Good Points - 35
Bad Points - 40
RESULTS ARE IN!!!! Professor Membrane, SCIENTIFICALLY, is a BAD DADDYO!!!!!!
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I mean, the thing about Zim is that despite what he might say, he is absolutely capable of love and affection. It’s just that he only expresses it to a very select assortment of people.
First and most obvious one is probably his relationship with the Tallests. Which tends to be a lot less just a ‘loyal soldier duty bound to serve his leaders” and is coded a lot more like…. “Child overeager to please his neglectful parents”. I mean, the entire emotional crux of ‘Enter the Florpus’ is built on this.
Zim isn’t just motivated by a pure ideological belief in the Irken Empire’s conquest, or by the desire for the fame and accolades that come with being a successful Invader. I mean, those ARE factors. Zim is both a true believer in Irk’s imperialist ideology and very interested in feeding his ego. But he’s also looking for a more personal sort of emotional validation specifically from the Tallests. One that he’s desperate for, but we know that he’s never gonna get.
(And that’s not just because Zim sucks. Even if he could somehow stop being a walking disaster area and a giant millstone around the Empire’s neck, that desire for the Tallests’ love would still be a fool’s errand. We’ve all seen how they treat poor Skoodge.)
In addition to that doomed attempt at an emotional connection, Zim can sometimes be kinda affectionate with his various robotic minions, which obviously goes back to the whole…
Yeah, that.
And that same episode ends with him having a very similar sort of response to Robo-Dad and Robo-Mom picking him up.
And then there’s, of course, his M-Lab Robot Minions in 'Enter the Florpus'. All named - and all grieved by him.
His extreme reaction to Lawrence specifically dying shows he did apparently see them as individuals.
But as far as we can tell both the Roboparents and the Robot Army are not, like, sapient? I mean, AIs like GIR or the Computer are characterized as basically Machine People - but these robots barely seem more sapient than my laptop. And as much as I love my laptop it’s not gonna, like, love me back.
Speaking of GIR, he’s another example of someone Zim shows genuine care for. I mean… he can absolutely be pretty mean to him at times…
But any sort of kindness from Zim has to be graded on a Curve because he’s so terrible. ‘Hobo 13’ demonstrated to us very well just how horrible Zim can be to his subordinates - rude, inconsiderate, pretty much deliberately sacrificing them not just for his personal gain but also just for his own petty amusement.
And it’s notable that’s not how he treats GIR. Who he expresses actual concern for…
And he pretty easily acquiesces to GIR’s capricious desires even when he clearly sees them as Stupid and frivolous.
This scene is especially notable. I mean, this is Zim actually feeling bad about the fact that he made someone cry and trying to de-escalate the situation. Maybe for other characters a moment like that would be no big deal, but this basically the softest Zim has been through… all official IZ media. And it was a scene with GIR.
And meanwhile GIR himself… didn’t really register any of this - either Zim’s frustration or his attempts at sort-of comforting him, because he was only sad about having eaten his cupcake and not being able to eat it more.
Because that’s the thing, while GIR does have some level of affection towards Zim at times…
He doesn’t really show that same level of care. I mean, in pretty much all of these examples, GIR puts his own desire to give Zim physical affection over Zim’s clear discomfort and disgust. And in general, while GIR vaguely acknowledges that Zim is his master - he often disregards or ignores Zim’s orders and requests. And not just when it comes to being ordered around in yet another evil scheme -
But also when the situation is just clearly basically hazardous to Zim’s very life.
(Which is very much in contrast to Zim, who, again, is actually emotionally invested in GIR’s safety)
While some of GIR’s inability to fulfill Zim’s commands can be attributed to his lack of mental focus and general stupidity - his absolute lack of care and regret about these situations seem to imply that, like, GIR might follow some of Zim’s orders when they seem fun, and he might like Zim in the sense that GIR is generally incapable of genuine malice. But GIR is never going to care about Zim, as a ‘Master’ or as a friend, as much as he cares about his own hedonism.
And of course, we all know that if GIR was capable of actually focusing on anything and remaining grounded in reality - he would very quickly realize that he actually hates Zim quite a bit.
And that’s, like, the whole Tragedy of Zim. He is a being capable of kindness and friendship - but he always ends up only caring about beings who will never care about him back.
Due to Irken indoctrination and also self-inflicted due to his own ego (like, it is no coincidence that the People Zim Actually Cares About are the two beings Irken ideology obliges him to acknowledge as his superiors and then a bunch of robotic minions who are supposed to be 100% obedient to him.) Zim only loves those who will not love him back.
Except for Minimoose. That relationship is 100% wholesome.
#invader zim#zim#zim iz#iz zim#iz#the tallest#almighty tallest#invader zim tallest#the almighty tallest#GIR#iz gir#gir iz#gir invader zim#minimoose
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Invader Zim Episode Poll Tournament
THERE ARE 46 EPISODES OF INVADER ZIM! ONLY ONE WILL WIN!!!
The bracket was randomly generated! Round 1 will have 23 winners + 1 revival, Round 2 will have 12 winners, Round 3 will have 6 winners, Round 4 will have 2 winners, and (FINAL) Round 5 will have 1 winner!
WINNER: Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars
MORE INFO BELOW THE CUT:
Tag: #invader zim episode poll tournament
The Invader Zim Poll Tournament was hosted February 20th-February 26th, 2023
ROUND 1 (FEBRUARY 20, 8PM EST)
Germs (S1E06) v. Walk for Your Lives (S1E29) - WINNER: Germs
Vindicated! (S2E06) v. The Wettening (S1E09) - WINNER: The Wettening
Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom (S1E25) v. The Frycook What Came From All That Space (S2E09) - WINNER: Halloween Spectacular of Doom
Bestest Friend (S1E02) v. The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot (S1E33) - WINNER: Bestest Friend
Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars (S2E01) v. Gaz, Taster of the Pork (S2E08) - WINNER: Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars
Game Slave 2 (S1E23) v. Dibship Rising (S2E05) - WINNER: Dibship Rising
The Girl Who Cried Gnome (S2E04) v. Bolognius Maximus (S1E22) - WINNER: Bolognius Maximus
Megadoomer (S1E30) v. Bad, Bag Rubber Piggy (S1E15) - WINNER: Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy
Rise of the Zitboy (S1E13) v. The Nightmare Begins (S1E01) - WINNER: The Nightmare Begins
Battle-Dib (S1E11) v. Planet Jackers (S1E12) - WINNER: Planet Jackers
Mortos Der Soulstealer (S2E02) v. GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff (S1E34) - WINNER: GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff
Hamstergeddeon (S1E17) v. Dib’s Wonderful Life of Doom (S1E35) - WINNER: Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom
Lice (S1E31) v. FBI Warning of Doom (S1E21) - WINNER: FBI Warning of Doom
Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain (S1E14) v. Battle of the Planets (S1E24) - WINNER: Battle of the Planets
Mysterious Mysteries (S1E26) v. Future Dib (S1E27) - WINNER: Mysterious Mysteries
Zim Eats Waffles (S2E03) v. Door to Door (S1E20) - WINNER: Zim Eats Waffles
Walk of Doom (S1E05) v. Dark Harvest (S1E07) - WINNER: Dark Harvest
Nanozim (S1E03) v. Plague of Babies (S1E18) - WINNER: NanoZim
Attack of the Saucer Morons (S1E08) v. Bloaty’s Pizza Hog (S1E19) - WINNER: Bloaty's Pizza Hog
The Most Horrible X-mas Ever (S2E10) v. A Room with a Moose (S1E16) - WINNER: A Room with a Moose
The Voting of the Doomed (S2E07) v. Parent Teacher Night (S1E04) - WINNER: Parent Teacher Night
Career Day (S1E10) v. Abducted (S1E32) - WINNER: Career Day
Hobo 13 (S1E28) v. Tak, The Hideous New Girl (S1E36) - WINNER: Tak, The Hideous New Girl
REVIVAL ROUND (FEBRUARY 21, 8PM EST)
Revival round consists of the two episodes that were closest to winning in their respective matches.
Walk For Your Lives (S1E29) v. Megadoomer (S1E30) - WINNER: Megadoomer
ROUND 2 (FEBRUARY 22, 8PM EST)
Germs (S1E06) v. The Wettening (S1E09) - WINNER: The Wettening
Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom (S1E25) v. Bestest Friend (S1E02) - WINNER: Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom
Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars (S2E01) v. Dibship Rising (S2E05) - WINNER: Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars
Bolognius Maximus (S1E22) v. Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy (S1E15) - WINNER: Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy
The Nightmare Begins (S1E01) v. Planet Jackers (S1E12) - WINNER: The Nightmare Begins
GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff (S1E34) v. Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom (S1E35) - WINNER: Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom
FBI Warning of Doom (S1E21) v. Battle of the Planets (S1E24) - WINNER: Battle of the Planets
Mysterious Mysteries (S1E26) v. Zim Eats Waffles (S2E03) - WINNER: Zim Eats Waffles
Tak, The Hideous New Girl (S1E36) v. Megadoomer (S1E30) - WINNER: Tak, The Hideous New Girl
Dark Harvest (S1E07) v. NanoZim (S1E03) - WINNER: Dark Harvest
Bloaty's Pizza Hog (S1E19) v. A Room with a Moose (S1E16) - WINNER: A Room with a Moose
Parent Teacher Night (S1E04) v. Career Day (S1E10) - WINNER: Parent Teacher Night
ROUND 3 (FEBRUARY 23, 8PM EST)
Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom (S1E25) v. The Wettening (S1E09) - WINNER: Halloween Spectacular of Doom
Parent Teacher Night (S1E04) v. Tak, The Hideous New Girl (S1E36) - WINNER: Tak, The Hideous New Girl
Dark Harvest (S1E07) v. A Room with a Moose (S1E16) - WINNER: Dark Harvest
Battle of the Planets (S1E24) v. Zim Eats Waffles (S2E03) - WINNER: Zim Eats Waffles
The Nightmare Begins (S1E01) v. Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom (S1E35) - WINNER: The Nightmare Begins
Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars (S2E01) v. Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy (S1E15) - WINNER: Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars
ROUND 4 (FEBRUARY 24, 8PM EST)
Halloween Spectacular of Doom (S1E25) v. Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars (S2E01) v. The Nightmare Begins (S1E01) - WINNER: Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars
Zim Eats Waffles (S2E03) v. Dark Harvest (S1E07) v. Tak, The Hideous New Girl (S1E36) - WINNER: Tak, The Hideous New Girl
ROUND 5 (FEBRUARY 25, 8 PM EST)
Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars (S2E01) v. Tak, The Hideous New Girl (S1E36) - WINNER: Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars
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Here's some notes from episode 1
Episode 1:
-irkens wiggle their antennae in salute
-18~ Irken soldiers are picked for operation impending doom 2 (not including Zim)
-an invader's job is to stay under cover to gather info until the armada comes, rather than conquer it themself
-zim was banished to foodcourtia after attacking his own planet and killing all the other invaders
-on the tallest's map Irk (presumably, could also be conventionia) is depicted as blue with pink rings, though most planets on the map are shown as the same blue
-skoodge is called out for being short and Zim is smaller and it's stated that "no invader has ever been so small"
-earth is just a footnote on the map and the tallests don't even know if there actually was a planet there
-Dib is able to hear the tallest's all the way from earth
-Dib says he doesn't know who is coming which implies that they were speaking Irken and Dib couldn't understand them
-S.I.R. unit stands for "standard information retrieval" unit
-the trip to earth takes 6 months
-zim has saliva
-zim's antennae perk up and face forward when curious
-zim refers to Earth's native inhabitants as "urthaniods"
-zim knows what a dog is
-it takes 1:13 seconds to design and build zim's base using the Irken drill thing he used
-zim's house uses the neighbor's electricity
-the robo parents use a track from 2 closets to the front door to move
-zim nervously taps his fingers together
-zim asks a lot of questions and is actively participating in class
-all the school kids think Dib is a racist fuck who bullies the foreign sickly kid on his first day
-zim was prepared to self destruct if he was exposed as an alien
-zim sweats when nervous and is genuinely scared of humans
-Dib draws Zim undisguised even though that's something he hasn't seen yet
-Dib can draw semi realistic and depicts Zim with 3 fingers and a thumb, as well as a slightly rounder and softer head
-Dib assume (correctly) that Zim is here to conquer even though Zim has only acted kind from what Dib had seen
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here hold on im gonna make a thing no one besides me is gonna care about
skoodgeisms dependent on company:
skoodge with zim:
fully open and way too eager (genuinely has fun, silly business)
doesnt actually salute to zim, ive noticed. he respects him but i think that respect is the kind that puts them around the same level as each other. (doesnt mean skoodge Doesn't put zim on a figurative pedestal -- just that he sees him as more 'equal' than, say, the hobo sergeant or the tallest)
funny little guy with funny little words :3
(added the entire danceghost segment here because i love it dearly. look at him. panic boy ultimate. supreme.)
skoodge with irkens/irken-adjacent (squad sergeants/commanders/figures of authority):
quick to salute
fun words (hoo-ah) and out of place body/hand motions happen only when he gets in over his head/too excited.
feels a lot more plain and "conformed" (as though attempting to fit in?)
even with zim involved, skoodge is... kinda dramatic throughout hobo-13 in a way that he isnt in any of the unfinished episodes. like. serious-dramatic. trying too hard to be a stone-faced irken brute that he thinks everyone else thinks he should be.
(Yes sir! I am your loyal- [gets his ass punted and sent careening down a cliff])
... kinda like how he is with the tallest during battle of the planets!
(the dialogue is wrong in this transcript... anger >:( )
So Zim involvement does not override other-irken-company involvement, but it does override other-not-irken-company. so say, skoodge is with the other invaders on conventia during the assigning and zim walks up next to him -- he quickly and quietly backs away because that is a public space, and doing anything to imply that he might have somewhat of a cordial relationship with zim would put him on... hot burning coals. to put it lightly.
and when skoodge is with the hobos, he treats zim with respect, but that's because zim is the leader of the group -- skoodge is probably at least somewhat aware of the fact that the tallest (and others) are watching him right now. he is treating zim... a lot like a stranger. curt words and mostly not talking to him directly unless addressed or thinking his skillset might be useful to zim.
... at the end, though, you see some of his actual personality start to leak through!
(Zim -- I escaped from the canyon -- I made it! I'm aLiiive! [immediately gets crushed by the sergeant])
(seeking validation -- he didnt need to come all the way out here, to say that to zim, specifically. he was still doing the test for the tallest the same as zim was, yes, but youd think if anyone knew to keep their mouth shut around zim for the sake of their own luck/lives/whatever, it would be skoodge. and yet! he doesnt!)
im feeling like... the adrenaline high from running through the entirety of the hobo-13 course, with a hogulus still chasing after him, probably made him a little excitable and lose his cool composure.
anyways that was a tangent. uh.
when skoodge is with other company. he is. awkward. (see: ghost scientist scene). though this is undoubtedly because of the situation (undercover during a supposed mission) hes still noticeably different from how he behaves on hobo-13! i think maybe this is just because earth is foreign territory that hes yet to learn. still thinks of it as a hazardous filthy wasteland of a planet with threats he hasnt properly assessed.
i think... if he were with company, not irken, and without the looming threat of being discovered and dissected (earth, humans, blorch, rats) then he would still be plain and awkward, honestly? kinda like sizzy when he fails to match zim's energy ('i wasnt laughing?') lots of ums and awkward silences and coughs and flies buzzing and crickets chirping.
hmmmm. yeah. good stuff <3
#there is no conclusion i just wanted to talk about him#skoodge rant#skoodge#invader skoodge#fuck you. main tags him
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So I had this random thought "Was Battle of the Planets a mid-season finale? Because it feels like it was. It was the first episode since Nightmare Begins to run a full half-hour. It was the first time we saw some clear story progression with Skoodge finishing his mission, setting up for his future appearances as an ex-Invader. The stakes were higher, there was more action than normal, and the tone was slightly more optimistic with Dib receiving help for the first time."
But then I started thinking, "Was that actually the first time Zim attempted to conquer the earth, or just the first time he actually came close to succeeding? How often does he actually try to conquer earth?"
So I looked at the list of Zim episodes to find the answers.
Zim's first attempt at any actual conquering was Hamstergeddon, where his plan was to harness the class hamster's cuteness to make people worship him. But that plan quickly went awry and he had to spend most of the episode trying to get rid of Peepi instead. This was episode 9b. Prior to that, Zim had only ever done reconnaissance, petty vengeance, or dealt with external threats. He even saved the world once in Planet Jackers before his first attempt at destroying it.
Battle of the Planets, episode 13, was his second attempt, and it was a plan that actually would've succeeded if not for Dib, and only because someone actually believed him and provided assistance for once.
Zim tries again in 15b, Future Dib, which arguably would've also worked if not for Dib. But given that Membrane was wrong about the beans wiping out all human life in Dipship Rising, it's possible that PEG failing would've also not had the disastrous consequences Membrane predicted.
In episode 19a, GIR Goes Crazy, Zim briefly attempts a plan to make humans sick at the beginning of the episode before the plot shifts to Zim trying to lock GIR into duty mode.
Zim's next attempt at conquering the earth happens in episode 21, Backseat Drivers, where the plan fails due to Zim being too distracted to maintain the brain parasite that was supposed to destroy the humans.
Episode 22a Mortos der Soulstealer has Zim going around town trying to infect people with vermin. He appears to lose all the vermin when Dib tackles him at the end, so I guess he did actually stop his scheme that time.
Episode 24b Voting of the Doomed is a questionable example. I doubt even if he was vastly overestimating how much power being class president would've given him that he really thought it was a direct path to world conquest. I think it was more like the Burrito King comic where he was looking for a small victory and hoping to gradually expand his power. I think I'll say it counts only because it was Zim actually trying to make some progress on his mission vs every other episode where he's just doing experiments or research or dealing with outside threats or getting into slap-fights with Dib.
Zim's final attempt at conquering earth before the comics/ETF was the last episode, The Most Horrible Xmas Ever, episode 27. Like Hamstergeddon, Zim lost control of this plan, so it wouldn't have worked without Dib's interference, but Dib was still needed to resolve things and save humanity.
So Zim only ever actually tried to conquer the earth eight times in 46 episodes. Twice he lost control of the situation and needed Dib's help to fix it (Hamstergeddon & Xmas). Twice he was stopped by Dib from an attempt that would've actually succeeded (Battle of the Planets & Future Dib). Once he was stopped by Dib from an attempt that wouldn't have succeeded anyway (Voting of the Doomed). Once he failed all on his own (Backseat Drivers, although arguably Dib adding to the pile-up of distractions did ultimately contribute to that plan failing). And twice he attempted to infect humans, once being thwarted by GIR and once by Dib, but it's inconclusive whether or not either of those plans would've succeeded without interference.
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Did season 5 even have a finale? From how messy and mushed up it was and how the episodes released out of order it was hard to figure out what was and what wasn't cannon at all. Especially from the stuff some have said or talked about how some arcs are left for the fans to decided or whatever. The main problem for season 5 is because when season 4 was over Nickelodeon cancelled it for being too dark and wanted to rebrand immediately. The show was supposed to have more seasons but because it got cancelled the writers had to unfortunately smash everything together before the show ended which explains why season 5 kind of sucks and a big jumble of mess.
I wanna clarify that the supposed reason for why Nickelodeon ended TMNT 2012 is because of low toy sales, not because it was “too dark” considering they allowed shows like Invader Zim and ATLA to be under their name despite the dark and graphic themes they had in their shows.
You are right, they did have 13 more episodes planned, one actually being about the Dream Beavers returning and Raph and Casey team up to take them down, but due to Nickelodeon rushing production and supposedly wanting to start fresh with new toys to sell (money, the answer is always money), the 13 eps were cut and the final season was turned into short story arcs instead of it being a continuations season like the others. But in the end, I think 5 seasons where always planned from the start, they just didn’t have time to do the 5th season any justice.
Btw I’m not saying Rottmnt is to blame, it’s not, Nickelodeon has been fucking over ALL versions of TMNT that they own since they bought the franchise. I mean, they’ve made FOUR tmnt iterations in under a decade. Why? Answer, MONEY!
Now, to my knowledge the original plan for S5 was for it to end with Mutant Apocalypse, that was supposed to be the finale considering how that arc ended with a thank you to the creators of the franchise, but Nickelodeon apparently didn’t like how depressing it was so they rearranged the arc orders in what would air first on TV so Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady became the show’s official “series finale” and instead said Mutant Apocalypse was one of many “alternate futures”, which is something I’ll accept as canon cause I HATED Mutant Apocalypse.
I remember Nick had this racing event going on that they were airing on their channel during commercials, so they made Mutant Apocalypse be the eps airing during that event since they also had a racing theme going on in those arcs cause MA is supposed to be a Mad Max Fury Road parody (so fucking stupid). That was their way of rearranging the arcs without suspicion from fans.
#most of this is my theory#specifically the second half#my-name-is-bunnyfoxy#asks#answered#tmnt 2012#tmnt#teenage mutant ninja turtles#tmnt season 5#tales of the tmnt
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Invader Zim Deathmatch:
ROUND 3, FIGHT 4:
ZIB VS INVADER SKOODGE!
The rules are as follows:
1. We’re assuming that both participants actively want and are willing to kill each other unless actively specified otherwise (for example: Chammy Wamboo).
2. The fight must be one on one so no outside help is allowed, but prep time is allowed.
3. The rule for prep time is that if one contestant gets prep time, the other contestant gets an equal amount of prep time as well.
4. The Zib Clause: “In any fight between Zib and an irken, we are assuming that either Zib does not have access to his dib virus or that the irken he’s fighting is immune to said virus”
[Masterpost]
Information about both contestants (who they are, powers and abilities, etc) can be found under the cut.
Contestant Stats:
Zib:
“Number 1”
Appearances:
Zib is the main villain of the Zimvoid Arc, spanning Issues 46-49 of the comics
Powers and abilities:
Enhanced strength (Dib shows various feats of superhuman strength throughout the series, like smashing through a wall for example (possibly because he’s a clone that’s been genetically modified). As an alternate Dib, Zib has the same abilities, possibly more so due to his stolen PAK)
Enhanced agility and stamina (Dib also shows various feats of superhuman agility, stamina and acrobatic skills throughout the series (once again possibly because he’s a clone that’s been genetically modified). As an alternate Dib, Zib has the same abilities, possibly more so due to his stolen PAK)
Enabled Durability (Dib consistently shows throughout the series that he’s remarkably durable, surviving getting blown up, thrown through walls, etc (Try to guess why that may be). As an alternate Dib, Zib has the same abilities, possibly more so due to his stolen PAK)
Increased Intelligence (Dib is one of, if not the smartest humans in the show. He’s cunning, crafty, able to find and capitalize of his opponent’s weaknesses, has shown himself to be able to modify and use pre-existing alien tech for his own purposes and knows how to make his own devices from scratch. Zib not only has Dib’s regular intelligence, but shows that he also has some of Zim’s extreme intelligence due to his stolen PAK, managing to build a scaled up replica of one of Zim’s old inventions from (stolen) memory)
Stolen training (as Zib has access to Zim’s memories, he may also have access to some of Zim’s military training. Elite level fighting capability)
Supernatural knowledge (Dib is extremely knowledgeable on all things supernatural and has successfully used at least two magic devices (a Spelldrive in Gaz; Taster Of Pork and a (faulty) Freezing Talisman in one of the unfinished episodes, showing that he generally knows how to operate them)
PAK (PAK legs, PAK lasers, shield generator, all the things an Irken PAK can do)
Fun Fact:
Zib may or may not be a reference to the Fake Episode “Invader Dib” and a reference to the Unmade Episode “10 Minutes To Doom”.
Skoodge:
“The Almighty Smallest”
Appearances:
Skoodge appears in “The Nightmare Begins”, “Battle Of The Planets” and “Hobo 13”. He also has a cameo appearance in “Dookie Loop Horror”
Powers and abilities:
Irken physiology (can lift over 3 times their body weight and is extremely durable)
PAK (PAK legs, PAK lasers, shield generator, all the things an Irken PAK can do)
Elite military training (Skoodge is an Invader, meaning that he went through irken military training and became an elite soldier before going through Invader training. This means that Skoodge has the combat skills of an elite soldier)
Superior Invader training (as an Invader, Skoodge is trained in espionage, stealth, sabotage, and other invader-related things. Skoodge is also the single best Invader the Empire has, taking over his planet the fastest out of everyone and being seen conquering another planet in Dookie Loop Horror)
Fun Fact:
If the series continued, Skoodge would have begun living in Zim’s base. More specifically his ventilation system.
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pardon me, but speaking of Dib again I can't help but dislike the way the series and Fandom treats him. JV seems to enjoy torturing him far too much, and it irks me because while he can be an annoying jerk it doesn't warrant the constant humiliation and suffering, especially since Zim has done worse. It's why I especially disliked certain comic issues.
Sorry if this is too negative but it's something I feel isn't discussed that much.
It’s okay! I get where you’re coming from, but they did seem to tone it down in Florpus which was nice. Dib is actually Jhonen’s favourite character! He based Dib on parts of himself as well…he did the same for Zim, but with his “worst traits”.
Invader Zim is just kind of…like that. It’s hard to explain, but it’s very different to, say, Gravity Falls or The Owl House, which I include because those seem to cater to mostly teens just like Zim. You have to also remember that it was a very different time…2001 is quite a long time ago at this point! Cartoons were different, while nowadays most cartoons seem to have a running storyline and a plot (serialised), Zim was episodic, and while it did progress slowly (take Tak’s ship, for example), it was mostly just. Silly fun and then a new episode. Like in Hobo-13 where the Tallest flew Zim into the sun, and he’s fine in the next episode. Or in the Star Donkey issue where the earth is kicked into the sun and is fine the next issue. Invader Zim is a kid’s cartoon, and the bullying and making fun of characters was just part of it. It was the joke. Zim isn’t treated nicely either! People also seem to forget that Dib isn’t “the good guy”. In the first episode he chased Zim down and threatened to have him dissected before he even knew he was a threat! You feel for Dib AND you feel for Zim. Some episodes you’re supposed to root for Dib, and some episodes you’re supposed to root for Zim. Zim suffers a lot too! He gets bullied at skool, he gets bullied by the Tallest, he’s hated by his peers and he doesn’t know it…and it’s all supposed to be funny. The joke is that he doesn’t know everyone hates him. Dib and Zim are similar in the sense that everyone hates them, but Dib knows and doesn’t let it bother him much, which is then what leads to the joke of him being bullied even more.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this anymore. It’s really hard to explain! But I like talking about it because I think people take Invader Zim WAYYYY too seriously sometimes. Not to say you CAN’T take it seriously, I do it all the time! It’s just when people get angry about aspects of the original series that made it…what it is. Not directed at you! Just a general observation. Thank you for the ask! I like talking about stuff like this! :)
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My dad has now watched every Invader Zim episode as well as Enter the Florpus. Here are his takeaways:
Dib is his #1 favorite character, and might just be one of his favorite animated characters in general. Zim is also very high on the list. Right underneath them are Gaz and the Tallests.
He didn't really like GIR at first but I think he grew on him. He also said "I thought GIR was annoying but then Iggins showed up".
Favorite episodes are "FBI Warning of Doom", "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff", "Battle-Dib", "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", "Mysterious Mysteries", "Hamstergeddon", "The Voting of the Doomed", "The Nightmare Begins", "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", "Hobo 13", and "The Girl Who Cried Gnome".
Frequently refers to Dib as "Dibs". At the end of several episodes, he'd be all "Awwww poor Dibs".
Part of why he loves Dib? Because in his words "he's like Wile E. Coyote. He just tries so hard..."
Was ABOUT to compare Ms. Bitters to a really bad teacher I had as a kid but then said "No...Ms. Bitters doesn't deserve that".
Bloaty's Pizza Hog is now a running gag between us.
I have never seen my dad that disappointed at a show's cancellation before, and this is a show that was cancelled before my younger brother was born.
#really though i love how invested he got with zim#it was like when my mom watched all of daria with me#invader zim#cutie explains it all
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I decided to share these two characters on my Instagram about a week ago. They belong to this extremely obscure Italian cartoon called “Orrendi Per Sempre” which is basically about four kids who defy society’s norms with their unique appearances and abilities.
The entire series (except episode 5) is on YouTube and the show has 52 episodes with each one being around 12-13 minutes. I could honestly go on and on about this series along with the books of the same name that were written in like 2009.
Again, this series is extremely obscure and doesn’t even have a Wiki page, but I still hope you all love these sculptures of two of the main characters.
The one on the left is named Kripta (Morta in the books) and is literally a reanimated corpse and can remove her body parts kinda like Frankie Stein from Monster High. She’s described as having a dark and sarcastic sense of humor and sort of reminds me of a mix between Daria and Gaz from Invader Zim.
The one on the right is Macabro. You all have probably seen him in my post showing all of my sculptures I made in 2022, but he’s basically a melancholic gothic poet whose name literally translates to “Macabre,” so it kind of speaks for itself. In all seriousness, though, I love his character design and I think he’s one of the more “popular” characters, if you can call it that.
But yeah, sorry about the whole novel of me rambling about this largely unknown series, but I can’t wait to sculpt the other two main characters!
Here’s a picture of these two just for the hell of it.
#orrendi per sempre#I’m gonna be surprised if anyone else uses this tag#obscure media#sculpture#my art#not my character#3d#3d printing#zbrush#3dtumblr#3dfigure#3dart#3dartist#digital sculpting#2d to 3d
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The interpersonal conflicts between the two Membrane siblings is an incredibly important part of Invader Zim’s comedy, and also its emotional core and the characterization of these two kids. With Gaz, this tends to be, like, the primary way she interacts with episode plots. For Dib, his interactions with Gaz tend to bring out his more Zim-like traits and are the main refutation for his Terminal Case of Main Character Syndrome.
But, also, I see a lot of assertions about their dynamic in the show that are often… kinda not very accurate? Anything from ‘Gaz beats up Dib on a regular basis’, to ‘all of Gaz’s actions are Perfectly Reasonable' to 'Gaz used to be Perfectly Reasonable and then Season 2 Flanderized her'. So, I think I want to do something a bit more… comprehensive for them.
So here is...
My Big Overview of Dib and Gaz!!
I’m going to try and go over each and every one of their conflicts in the show, go over who was most likely (the most) in the wrong, how the other reacted to it, if there’s an escalation, if it feels consistent with other episodes, how I personally see their motivations… obviously like every analysis of a piece of media it’s going to be at least kinda subjective, so I would love to hear how your view of The Siblings differ from my own - but I’m going to try and be as comprehensive and well-reasoned and balanced as I can be.
"The Nightmare Begins"
Gaz doesn’t get a lot in the first IZ episode, but she does get this!
Gaz: Dib drank the last soda. He will pay!
So, okay, it’s not entirely clear if Gaz has a good reason to be mad at Dib or not. Like, yeah, as we’re going to get to with other episodes - Dib might have a Problem of eating things that belong to Gaz. But the implication here is that this was everyone’s Soda, and she’s just mad that Dib finished it. But like, someone had to drink that last soda at some point, right?
Gaz’s anger could be justified, if, for example, she explicitly asked Dib to leave one last soda for her or if Dib already drank the majority of it… but that's all speculation. From what actually exists in canon (which is just this one line), it seems rather unfair.
But also it doesn’t matter that much, because while Gaz expresses frustration and, like, a desire for horrible vengeance - she (as far as we know, at least) doesn’t really do anything about it. She just gets herself a juice and once Dib comes home she’s just talking to him like normal (that is to say, somewhat derisively, but not openly hostile).
So really, regardless of whether drinking the last soda is a legitimate grievance or not - all Gaz did was express a minor and petty frustration in a kinda melodramatic way without doing anything about it. She didn't even do it to Dib's face!
"Nanozim"
The first proper Gaz episode! And with it, a lot more Dib-Gaz interactions! And the introduction of one of Gaz’s major grievances with her brother… that she finds him annoying.
Dib: Maybe they'll let me host the show. My own episode!
Gaz: I'm only 13 levels away from finishing this game so I either finish the game or make you wish I was never born.
Now, Dib should have the right to be as Weird as he damn pleases. Buuut… Gaz also should have the right to be left alone and Not be Bothered by people she finds grating. So while getting mad at Dib for just existing and doing his thing near her would be unfair, Dib is explicitly trying to talk to her - and she’s got the right to not want to participate in the conversation. Especially if she’s also trying to do her own Thing at the same time.
Note that she only really speaks out when the conversation really turns into stroking Dib’s own ego, that’s when she decides that talking to him is not worth risking her Gamer Time. And, much like with ‘the Nightmare Begins’, despite the harshness of her words - she doesn’t really do anything and Dib doesn’t really react. Making it seem like Gaz is prone to over-dramatic proclamations of vengeance but she doesn’t have much bite.
Hell, when Dib starts shoving his hands in her face while she plays. She’s not aware, or at least she doesn't acknowledge, that his behavior is legitimately out of his control. But all that leads too is… another empty threat and her leaving the living room to get away from him.
Gaz: I'm letting you live this time, Dib, but only because I'm still getting through this last level.
And when she shows up again, we have a bit of a Turnabout! This time, Gaz is the one trying to initiate a conversation and Dib is the one brushing her off so he can focus.
Gaz: Is that Zim? Is this an online game?
Dib: Gaz, please. I need to concentrate.
And actually, in that case, both of them were more ‘justified’. In the sense that at least Gaz was trying to talk to Dib on what she thought was a shared interest - a game he likes and she thinks looks interesting. In contrast to Dib only wanting to talk about something only he is interested in and how great he is and all the praise he’s going to get. And Dib obviously had very good reasons to take the ‘game’ very seriously and choosing to focus over small-talk with his sister.
The problem being that Dib's pride blinds him to the obvious solution of letting his über-gamer sister who can’t be hurt from the inside by Zim take the wheel. From Gaz’s perspective he is actually more reasonable than reality, because she thinks he’s not sharing a cool game he found with her because he want to play it, rather than risking his own life because he feels the need to be the one who best Zim.
And she’s being a bit of a pushy backseat gamer herself, but not really, like, more than standards for lil gaming kids. And she doesn’t actually do anything but ask to play up until Dib is literally unable too. Although she does push him aside.
Then she unknowingly saved his life, and knowingly helped him humiliate Zim. And… should we count Gaz calling the game ‘stupid’ when she thought it was actually very important to Dib as another example of her insulting him? I dunno, all-in-all both Membrane Siblings acted relatively grounded and reasonable in IZ Character Standards. Like, this is pretty standard Mildly Jerkish Sibling Behavior from both of them.
"Parent Teacher Night"
Gaz laughed at Dib when Zim splashed him with punch
Although she also laughed at Dib splashing Zim with punch.
So really, this isn’t really specific antagonism against Dib - she just really finds petty minor acts of assholery funny regardless of who's doing them. Although I guess you can argue that she should 'side' with her brother.
"Dark Harvest"
Yet another classic example of ‘Dib bothers Gaz by ranting about something she doesn’t care about, and Gaz retaliate by being uninterested’
Dib: Incredible! You see Gaz, to defeat my enemy I must study my enemy, then become my enemy, then move in with my enemy, then wear my enemy's clothes then-
Gaz: You're in my light.
There’s not even, like a toothless violent threat here this time, she’s just making it clear that she’s not interested in a way that's kinda rude.
"The Wettening"
Since I am here to discuss the antagonism between Gaz and Dib, I won’t go into much detail into this iconic scene
Outside of it being yet another demonstration of how often Gaz’s threats of physical violence usually seem more like toothless edgelordism than anything you should take seriously.
Gaz: If you wanna keep all your limbs, Zim, you will put me down, you will put me down NOW!
Our actual main focus here (outside of some mild snark from Gaz that Dib didn’t even pay much mind to)
Gaz: I'm leaving with or without you, Dib. Preferably without you.
Is what happens right after that Zim Umbrella Situation - Gaz is all set to actually make her threat a bit more than just talk
And then Dib splashes Zim and Gaz is caught in the ‘crossfire’.
And, y’know, Gaz doesn’t give a shit about Zim and Dib’s rivalry - she doesn’t see Zim as a threat and just sees Dib’s ‘fate of the world’ work as a selfish way to stroke his own ego. So while being splashed by a puddle is a relatively small slight (at least if you’re not Zim), it’s the reasoning and the fact that Dib shows no remorse or even really acknowledges what he did to Gaz that, I think, is what really sets her off.
Gaz: THAT was your fate of the world work!?! Jumping in a puddle!?! You do realize I'm gonna have to destroy you now.
Dib: It was worth it. Score one for the human race! Score nothing for the Zim... thingy race.
Gaz: I will destroy you.
So after this little threat, we don't really see much more antagonism from her outside of the usual snarky comments and general hostility to Dib trying to share his interests with her.
Until after Zim has delivered his ultimate defeat. That is when Gaz also unleashes her revenge.
Throwing a single water balloon at Dib.
This is really one of my favorite Gaz Revenge Moments of the entire show, because on one hand her anger is understandable and her way of getting back at Dib is technically perfectly proportional. He splashed her, she splashed him back. But the timing of when she does it just adds this angle of rubbing salt on Dib’s wounds that just makes it hurts so much more without her actually having to do anything extra.
"Battle-Dib"
Now, this is actually where you can say that there was a shift in Gaz’s character. Because while Dib eating her pizza right out of her hands was undeniably a Dick Move. I think that he clearly knew what he was doing since he did guess at that was what Gaz was upset about (he just couldn’t remember the food right)
Dib: Gaz! Help me! I'm sorry about your tacos or whatever, just help me...
It just feels like Dib thinks that being a ‘hero saving the world from the alien menace’ entitles him to his sister’s pizza, and Gaz - who refuses to see Zim as a legitimate threat to Earth’s existence and/or humanity's freedom - would obviously be enraged by this mindset.
And like, if you frame it as “Dib stole Gaz’s pizza, so she ruined his chances to get a permission slip from their dad”, it wouldn’t actually be all that bad. Again, Gaz doesn’t see Zim as a meaningful threat, and thus she sees Dib’s battles against him not as a heroic duty but a self-indulgent hobby. So she’s just screwing with the stupid thing he does for fun (and his own ego), not anything actually important.
But… the problem is that ‘ruining Dib’s permission slip’ wasn’t a one-and-done thing. In the process of ruining Dib’s attempt to get his permission slip signed, Gaz also got him tasered
And beat up in a variety of interesting ways
And dragged off forcibly by security.
So, like, even from Gaz’s perspective where Dib’s conflicts with Zim just Do Not Matter, this is way past the point that Pizza Vengeance can justify any of this. This is the first time we’ve got not just angry and snarky Gaz who makes a lot of threats but generally acts mean but proportionally so - but legit a ‘will destroy you over the slightest provocation’ Gaz.
Since this is still pretty early in the show's run, I wonder if this shift is just, like, what was always intended for Gaz’s characterization. Like, that from the get-go they wanted her to be this disproportionally vengeful and they just couldn't incorporate her actually fulfilling any of her threats into an episode's plot until then. OR if was an attempt to just make her more involved in episode plots and ‘wackier’ and more flawed (especially since this is a very rare occasion where Gaz doesn’t just deliver a Karmic Punishment, but also suffers one).
Especially, since this ‘change’ doesn’t necessarily stick to all, or even most, or her subsequent appearances.
"Planet Jackers"
Dib: Gaz, there's an alien in the house!
Gaz: You mean besides you?
Really just a tiny and pretty standard interaction, between these two. A snarky and mean-spirited comment against Dib when he bothers her about something she doesn’t see as important and doesn’t want to get involved in. Pretty much the baseline for these two.
"Rise of the Zitboy"
With this one it’s really clear that we’re back to the ‘classic’ Dib-Gaz dynamic despite the 'shift' in 'Battle-Dib'. Like, Gaz is trying to do her own thing, Dib is trying to initiate a conversation about the Thing She Doesn’t Care About (Zim) and she’s just trying her best to Not Engage. Only now, instead of her usual Game Slave, it’s a book!
If anything this is toned-down from her baseline, since she doesn’t even say anything mean or threatening, she just tries as hard as possible to ignore him and hopes he gets the hint (he does not).
"Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy"
Gaz is shown exacerbated by her brother’s actions during the first flashback, but outside of a light snarky comment to herself she doesn’t really do anything.
Gaz: Not again.
Now back in the present, we see a sort of inversion of the Dib-Gaz conflicts of “the Nightmare Begins” and “Battle-Dib” by having Dib complain to Gaz about her eating something he wanted to eat!
Dib: Hey Gaz, did you eat all the cereal? I was gonna have this for breakfast tomorrow, you know!
Gaz: You think you own all the cereal. Well, you know what Dib? You don't. You just don't.
Dib: Look, all I'm saying is if you're going to--
If the implication in these two previous episodes is that Dib eating Gaz’s food is a regular occurrence - then she is pretty justified by acting so appalled by his comment. It’s just plain selfish hypocrisy! Or… maybe this scene implies that the Membrane Siblings ‘stealing’ food from each other and getting angry at the other for doing this is something that they both do regularly. Which, like…okay, finishing a shared box of cereal before the second person could is still not anywhere near snatching a pizza a person was planning to eat right out of their fucking hand. But at the very least it makes both her reaction to Dib finishing the soda and her defensiveness here feel a lot less justified.
And then when the time-shift happened…Well, I’ve seen some people suggest that Gaz’s non-hostile and even, like, kinda-audibly-concerned reaction to Dib’s questions about his past accidents suggest that in this timeline Gaz is a lot kinder to her poor injured brother.
Gaz: Tricycle accident when you were 3, don't you remember?
And while this is a plausible explanation. (It’s especially consistent with her ‘Enter the Florpus’ characterization. She says she’s Mean to her brother because she knows he’s strong enough to take it, but obviously Piggy Timeline Dib is not strong enough to take it).
But I don’t actually think it’s a needed explanation. Like, even at her most extreme and petty - Gaz has always been mean in reaction to Dib. Whatever it’s just being Annoying at her or stealing her food right off her hands, and whatever this reaction is proportional to the slight or totally vengeful and unreasonable - Gaz’s meanness is almost always directed at Dib as a reaction to something. So I don’t think it’s that unthinkable for Prime Timeline Gaz to also react so amiably to Dib asking her a question that she doesn’t find horribly obnoxious.
Especially since even in the Piggy timeline, Gaz is still not beyond wanting to ignore Dib
Gaz: Dib, shhh. They're gonna show the bats eating a cow!
Or go for a snarky comment when he offers her an obvious opening.
Dib: And have my plans always been this lame?
Gaz: Ooooh yeah.
Although it is maybe notable that the second Past Sequence where she is present
Is actually the closest we see of Gaz express, like, genuine concern when her brother is bodily harmed. Which is notable compared to other episodes, including…
"Bloaty's Pizza Hog"
Now, here’s a Real Proper Gaz Focus Episode, and as such, it’s naturally very important to her characterization.
First things first, it’s the one to explicitly establish the fact that Gaz does not see Zim as a threat and therefore she sees Dib’s obsession with defeating him not as a serious world-saving undertaking, but as a frivolous hobby on kinda the same level as Dib sees her video-game obsession.
Dib: Don't you care that Zim's trying to destroy all mankind? Huh?
Gaz: But he's so bad at it.
And that perspective, of course, informs a lot of my analysis of Gaz’s behavior through the post even before we got to this episode. I think it’s actually pretty interesting because you can totally see the internal logic that justifies that perspective - Zim is often the main person throwing a wrench into his own plans, and Dib’s motivations for positioning himself as a hero standing against his evil are partially self-serving (something that’s very easy for Gaz to see since she’s lived with him trying to play out self-aggrandizing fantasies all of her life).
But from our wider perspective as the audience, we know that sometimes Zim can be a genuine threat to the people of Earth (if not legitimately dangerously close to destroying/conquering it, at least causing a lot of localized havoc and mayhem with his schemes) and that Dib’s efforts of stopping him are not entirely in-vain, and that his reasons are… not entirely just fueled by his own ego. And from Dib’s own biased perspective Zim is always a threat just one step from destroying all mankind if not for Dib's intervention which is obviously Altruistic and Heroic. So it’s very much a matter of their different perspectives and views of the Zim-Dib rivalry causing further conflicts between the two siblings.
I mean, on a smaller scale that is why Gaz is so upset whenever Dib is bothering her when she’s trying to do something for fun. You know, kinda like here-
Both of these activities, fighting aliens and drawing little piggies, are equally frivolous in her eyes. But by constantly distracting her with talks about the Stupid Shit He Does for Fun Dib is kinda putting his silly hobbies as more important than her silly hobbies and thus his own needs above her own - which is what always gets her so upset. (But again, upset, but not doing anything but be a Bit Creepy About It).
But of course, the interesting thing about this episode is that this time, Dib’s Frivolous Hobby isn’t just interrupting Gaz’s Frivolous Hobby - it’s actually interrupting something a lot more important and with much more urgent stakes. Family Dinner Night.
Gaz: You know Dad's taking us out tonight. I picked Bloaty's.
Dib: This is bigger than pizza, Gaz! This is the fate of all mankind!
Gaz: You and your mankind...
Dib: Uh-huh. Whatever. Look, if I'm not home in time, call this number and tell them the Mothman is caught in the spider's web.
Dib: They'll know what you mean. But, like I said, I'll probably be back before the Mysteries theme song starts.
Even after being told that dad is taking them to dinner… I think Gaz is very much trying to imply “this is important to me, don’t mess it up” without being directly, emotionally honest about it. And Dib’s just totally not even considering it. Like yeah, from his perspective he is going on an Important Heroic Mission that must be worth anything else he could be doing with his time, but... he is also primarily worried about not missing his favorite TV Show and reduces the idea of Family Dinner Night to just 'pizza'.
And like, this is a very complicated family situation, isn’t it? It is understandable if Dib isn’t gang-ho about having dinner with his dad, considering what their relationship is like. And maybe the fact that he couldn’t take Gaz’s hint about this being Very Important to Her isn’t, like, entirely up to his sense of self-absorption but also to his general social inaptitude (and his Autistic Swag). But I can also understand why this is so important to Gaz and why she would still read Dib’s behavior as just pure selfishness and part of a pattern of disregarding her feelings.
(There's certainly some sort of Funky Neverending Loop of, like, Dib disregards Gaz's feelings, Gaz expresses her feelings about it in the most repressed, abrasive and/or mean way possible, Dib continues to Not Get It and disregard Gaz's feelings. Like, how much is Dib Not Getting It the fault of Gaz always letting out her feelings in exclusively in the form of snarky comments and edgy threats and how much has Gaz learned to express herself in this way as a coping mechanism due to Dib always walking over her wants and needs? It's hard to say)
So when Dib ignores (from her POV of the situation. Again, maybe Dib just legit missed the subtext) her honest desire to spend time with their dad for a change, she first reacts by… trying to abandon Dib. Instead of calling the Swollen Eyeballs as backup for him, she just destroys the number and tries to go to dinner without him.
Which… okay, this can be a dick move which is kinda way out of proportions of what Dib actually did. But remember that Gaz’s perspective refuses to see Zim as a threat. So she doesn’t see it necessarily as abandoning Dib to death, but just as an inconvenience. He’ll get out eventually on his own, he’s ‘strong enough to take it’, and that means she doesn’t need to bother with lending him a hand. “Well, if he doesn’t care about Family Night Out then he doesn’t get to go. And also he doesn’t get to watch his stupid ass show!”. Like she was thinking about it as wasting his time and not necessarily leaving him to die.
But also, like, this episode goes to great lengths to establish that Gaz is only saving Dib for the sake of her getting to eat dinner with her dad for once, and not out of concern for him. And while she might not believe Zim is actually capable of killing him, she is also pretty blasé about the idea that he’ll be harmed or tortured… unless it interferes with Bloaty’s with dad, of course.
Look at her big ol’ eyes, it’s not just an ‘eh, he can get himself out on his own’ mindset - she was looking forward to seeing him suffer horribly!
Dib himself is still being kind of a Jerk throughout the episode, even in an emergency he’s still thinking about how his little sneak-in plan will affect him in the most superficial ways.
Dib: There you are, Gaz! Looks like you'll have to tape the show for me, I made it in!
Dib: Gaz, make sure you don't record over any old episodes.
Like, this isn't even a 'Dib thinks saving the world is more important than Family Dinner Night. But Gaz doesn't think the world is actually in danger so think this is just frivolous ego stroking even though we know Zim can be a genuine danger and Dib's goals are at least kinda genuinely heroic' thing when you consider these lines. Even in a dangerous situation where the world is at stake, Dib can still find the brainspace to worry about his silly TV show but not about the possibility he'd deny his sister the precious little time they have to spend with their dad.
You can argue that trying to stop Zim is actually more important than Family Dinner Night and Dib is in the right. But Dib's dialogue also puts Mysterious Mysteries as being more important than Family Dinner Night. Because that at least gets some sort of acknowledgement from him. Gaz's only chance to go to her favorite restaurant with her favorite person in the world doesn't even get a "sorry, Gaz, but I have an Important Duty to do!", he just totally ignores it.
And generally through the episode he's ignoring and understating Gaz’s desires - even after she did actually told him right to his face what she wants.
Gaz: Come home now, Dib! Your weird obsessions are not gonna mess today up for me. I just want to go out and eat with Dad, that's all! Stop playing with Zim and get back here.
Gaz: All I want is to have some pizza...hang out with Dad, and not have your weirdness mess up my day.
So at this point this stops being some sort of misunderstanding and really starts seeming more like Dib not even trying to understand his sister’s motivations.
Dib: Come on, Gaz! You'd sacrifice the entire planet just for some pizza!?!
Which… makes sense as something that will aggravate her, especially in regards to something as emotionally important as getting to hang out with her father for once. But still, letting him get tortured is, like, maybe a tad disproportionate as an outlet for these frustrations?
But I think it's still notable that while the angle of disproportionate response to technically-legitimate-grievances is similar, in contrast to her very active acts of sabotage back in “Battle-Dib”, she only really ‘gets back’ at Dib here through inaction when Zim is hurting him (and maybe being a bit abrasive to Dib during her rescue, but Dib was also a very annoying rescuee so that one I think does kinda balances out.)
"Bolognius Maximus"
Okay, back to the simpler and shorter interactions now. We once again see Dib initiate ‘conversations’ with Gaz about subjects she finds annoying and uninteresting.
Dib: They try and say it's just a regular mountain range on the Martian surface, and it's just a trick of the light, but come on! It is so a monkey face.
And this time all Gaz does is casually ignore him.
When things start getting odd with the dogs and all, she only reacts with a snarky comment. But at this point it’s not even entirely clear to Dib that something very very wrong is happening. So I dunno who would expect Gaz to be worried about this?
Now, later in the episode, when Dib is very obviously turning into a bologna, Gaz still doesn’t give a shit.
Which I think actually matches up very well with her ‘Zim is not a threat, none of the things he’s doing/planning to do will actually pan out’ outlook. Like, lowkey she is pretty sure that this new Wacky Zim Scheme is gonna go up in flames and return everything to normal so there’s no need for her concern or interest and she can just casually enjoy the free bologna. Which is actually a fun character beat because usually the show leans toward Gaz’s attitude being kinda right - but this time she was very much in the wrong.
And like, if 'Bloaty's Pizza Hog' gave me a chance to talk about how Dib's tendency to see the Inherent Importance of everything he is interested in over any of Gaz's needs and desires might not just be a difference in perspective or miscommunication but also has an element of trying to rationalize his own selfishness - I think it's only fair for me to note this can also go the other way around.
It's easy to see Gaz's total dismissal of Zim's threat potential as just her being... you know, grounded and rational enough to see things as they are. But there might be her own emotional bias in play in here motivated by her own resentment with her brother and her own selfish desire to totally ignore and disregard him. Maybe on some level, she just can't allow anything that Dib cares about to be actually worth paying attention to, even when it seems to be literally life-threatening?
"Game Slave 2"
Obviously this episode has a lot of Gaz content, some that can invite a lot of discussion about how proportionate or disproportionate her reactions are - but we are going to focus specifically on her interactions with Dib, of course. Starting with…
Dib: Come on! Bigfoot would never say that!
Gaz: Why do you have to read that in here? I'm trying to play a game!
Dib: Mysterious Mysteries is on in five minutes!
This is actually really the first time where Gaz is directly, explicitly annoyed by Dib just sort of being around here. Usually her exasperation is fueled by him trying to talk to her about all kinds of Alien Stuff she just doesn’t care about, or trying to drag her into his world-saving adventures against her will, or stealing her food - but here is just doing His Own Thing in her vicinity. Like, the living room is a Shared Space, he has just as much of a right to hang out there as Gaz does.
If anything, he has more of a right to be there since he’s waiting for his show to come on while Gaz is playing her handheld video game. So if Dib reading his magazine and complaining that Bigfoot Would Not Fucking Say That is bothering her so much - then she should probably just go to her room. Then again, she doesn’t do much other than verbally complain once and it was probably more about venting out her frustrations about the game than Dib himself.
But then…
Dib: I've been waiting all night to see this! She can wait to get her stupid game!
Prof. Membrane: Son, video games develop hand eye coordination, and make kids into better human beings!
Dib: Okay... But only after the show is over.
Gaz: You stink!
So on some level this is just the same sort cycle of conflict that is always going around these two. Both of them prioritize their own hobbies (and this time it IS Dib’s hobby, there’s not much subjectivity around this. This isn’t about saving the human race from anyone’s point of view, just about a show he wants to watch) and thinks the other one is frivolous and selfish for caring about their hobbies more. But also… in this specific context Dib is the One Being a Dick.
Just like before I sided with Dib because Gaz can play the game in her room…. We know the Membranes have a way to record shows on their TV. That came up in literally the previous episode! Dib could’ve just set his VCR to record and ‘Mysterious Mysteries’ will be waiting for him when he gets back from the mall - but Gaz’s console launch is an actual time sensitive matter. (Plus ‘Mysterious Mysteries’ is aired on, like, a weekly basis. Consoles do not release in this frequency).
So Gaz had every reason to be upset with Dib when they did get to the mall and see, like Gaz and any Gamer watching could’ve predicted, that a-half-an-hour delay in getting to the big launch event can screw up a lot.
Dib: It was a… really good episode…
And maybe I’m reading too much into it, but Dib’s reaction also feels pretty telling. You know, instead of giving Gaz any sort of apology, he’s being defensive by saying that hey, at least the MM episode was worth it? Like it is still kinda centering his interests and desires over Gaz’s.
And Gaz’s retaliation for it is…honestly relatively mild?
Gaz: Hey, Dib. I think I saw a Chupacabra or something going into that parking garage.
Dib: A Chupacabra? But there isn't a goat to feed on for miles!
She just gets him out of her way so she can be left alone in line in peace, and probably hoping to waste his time on the fake Chupacabra - a tit-for-tat revenge for getting her time wasted. Which… okay, it’s unclear if she knew about how large and labyrinthine the mall’s parking lot actually was and about, you know, the colony of horrible rat people. But still, Dib was already out of the building by the time Gaz finished Murdering a Fellow Child.
At worst, he wasted like a couple of hours that he didn’t have any specific plans for anyways.
Really, since this episode gives us a glimpse into how Gaz deals with People She Finds Annoying Who Are Not Dib... it actually kinda gives the impression that Gaz... like, not just that she doesn't hate Dib specifically and will aim a similar amount of ire at any random person who annoys her in a similar way. But also maybe that she goes easy on Dib, compared to how she delt with Iggins. Which is... probably the closest we'll get in this entire journey to an indication that Gaz has any level of care towards Dib.
"Battle of the Planets"
Dib: DAD! Gaz! Come see this!
Professor Membrane: Please! No more foolishness, son!
Gaz: Your voice is stupid!
Dib tries to get Gaz involved in something she doesn’t care about, she insults him. Pretty standard.
"Mysterious Mysteries"
Okay, so, the first thing I want to note is the lil’ babies scene.
It seems like a really inconsequential gag but this is actually, like, an extremely rare occurrence of Gaz being mean to Dib without anything even resembling a provocation. Like, at least in that little scene at the start of ‘Game Slave 2’ she was venting because of her frustrations with the game and it was just a light grumble. This is really like the most classic inarguable example of Gaz bullying Dib.
Especially when compared to both her version of the Story and her general behavior in the ‘present day’ of the episode. Like, is portraying Dib in her version of the story as a barely coherent moron kind of Mean? Yeah, sure it was. But is it any more insulting to the actual person that it’s depicting than Dib depicting Gaz as his helpless adoring sidekick? Especially as her interview implies that she did find Dib’s version of events legitimately insulting in it's inaccuracy?
Gaz: My stupid brother did drag me out to look for stupid Zim. He didn't make that part up.
Maybe Gaz deliberately exaggerated Dib’s (and Zim’s) stupidity in her version of the story out of spite of how Dib framed her on national TV. Maybe just like Dib seemed to be genuinely under the belief that his version of Gaz is a decent reflection of reality, Gaz literally just thinks of Dib as this stupid and annoying. Either way, it’s a really an equally-matched kind of sibling assholery.
Also, speaking of Gaz’s version of events... obviously it’s not entirely clear what really happened - but I do think, when it comes to like characterization and the general tone of Invader Zim, Gaz's retelling is at least pretty reliable on two fronts; why she was there-
And why did the video cut out when it did.
So while Dib’s interactions with Gaz had that undercurrent of, like, him always putting his own interests above her own for a long time - this really is the most obvious example. Literally forcibly dragging her out of whatever she was doing for the sake of getting an extra ‘eyewitness’ to his video. And so she responded with a little force of her own.
Again, this is all from Gaz’s story, and she does tend to give out exaggerated threats of violence that she doesn’t always carry out - so I don’t think it’s out of the question for her to also retroactively make up/exaggerate the acts of violence she commits. But since this kick in the shins is by far the most probable cause for the video cutting out that we have, I am going to assume that it did happen in reality on some level. And it is a very notable example of Gaz actually inflicting direct physical violence on Dib - until now, her preferred methods of inflicting pain on him were a lot less direct.
And while kicking people in the shins is wrong, it was still in reaction to Dib forcibly dragging her along - which was probably a lot less painful, but also took a lot more time. You can argue this still follows a sort of tit-for-tat logic that a lot of Gaz's retaliations do... but also, with Gaz's second scene in this episode literally being the most Unambiguous Case of her being Mean to Dib for Now Reason
In this episode more than anything, it might be fair to assume Gaz just wanted to hurt Dib and humiliate him on National TV and there's nothing more to it.
(Also, of course, Gaz refusing to corroborate Dib’s story is one of the main reasons why he failed in that episode. But as I mentioned many times before, Gaz refuses to see that rivalry as anything serious or with more stakes than her video games. In her mind, this is about as bad, or maybe even less bad, then dragging her out to waste time by participating in this stupid show in the first place.)
"Future Dib"
Okay, so most of the other Gaz and “Dib” interactions in this episode kinda follow a unified-if-winding thread of thought so I want to start with the one that I have kind of a separate Point about:
While Gaz’s reaction was very disproportionate and unnecessarily violent, I think it’s also interesting to note that the thing that set her off was “Dib” putting his hand around her. It’s actually part of a recurring implied piece of characterization that Gaz hates being touched.
Dib: Everyone, hold hands again.
Gaz: Yeah! Your lives depend on it!
Poonchy: Okay! Hold my hand.
Gaz: No way! Be serious!
Since Dib very very rarely ever touches Gaz, and, y’know, has known her all of her life - avoiding physical touch is probably an established boundary between them. So while that doesn’t fully justify the intensity of Gaz’s reaction, that does explain both why that set her off so much and why that’s really the moment where she starts to notice “Dib” is really acting strangely. He was really violating a boundary that he should’ve known by now.
(Going back for a sec, actually, her ‘dramatic re-enactment’ in Mysterious Mysteries also has the Dib Actor dragging the Gaz Actor by the arm. So that’s probably another reason why Gaz reacted kinda violently then as well)
So Gaz giving out more edgelordy threats to (who she thinks is) Dib is pretty standard at this point, but there is something very unique about it in this episode. This is the first time since ‘Battle-Dib’ where she actively acts on these threats to such a literal degree. And this is also combined with the ‘Mysterious Mysteries’ trend of being much more directly violent.
Like, Gaz explicitly only realized she was dealing with a Dib Robot Replica after choking it out so hard it’s eye popped out. All of this violence and pain, she was intending to inflict it on the real Dib. This is about as bad or maybe worse than everything she put Dib through back in ‘Battle-Dib’. And she's doing it with her own two hands this time.
Plus, the reason that she’s reacting like this isn’t because Dib was stealing her Pizza or being generally inconsiderate to her - it’s really just for being weird and annoying (which, in this context, means ‘start to scream randomly and freak out’). So that feels a lot less justified.
Then, of course, her reaction to finding out that she has been beating up a robot half-to-death is to use it as a replacement for her brother. Which has several different implications going on here about Gaz’s relationship to Dib:
First things first, I want to note that this episode ends with the implication that Gaz left Dib to be stuck in that cell for, like, the rest of his life until he died of old age or something?
I mean, yeah, obviously it is a ‘non canon’ jokey ending that gets totally ignored by the next episode. But the way I always took these snapback ending is as, like, obviously they probably didn’t actually happen in whatever passes for ‘canon’ in Invader Zim - but the events are still indicative of what would’ve happened in terms of worldbuilding and character actions. So while this episode isn’t telling us that Dib has literally died of old age after spending his entire life being beat up by a monkey for Zim’s amusement. This episode is telling us that if that did happen, Gaz would make no effort to save him, ever.
This is notable because of how it contrasts with the previous episodes, or at least my interpretation of them. Like I said, my assumption has always been that Gaz doesn’t care about the Zim-Dib rivalry and sees it as frivolous nonsense because she doesn’t see Zim as a threat. And thus, her general refusal to help her brother was less about outright hatred of him and waiting to see him gone/hurt, and more about just thinking he can handle that walking joke on his own and there’s no need for her to waste her Precious Gaming Time on this.
This is very much supported by ‘Enter the Florpus’, both in what Gaz literally tells Dib right to his face and in the sense that when Zim does prove to be a credible threat to her world and to her family - she joins forces with her brother with minimal complaints. But of course, ETF Characterization don’t always apply to 2001 Series Characterization so while I prefer this reading partially because it allows ETF Gaz to feel more consistent with Main Show Gaz - I also I feel that Main Show has enough implications to point to this characterization and motivations on it’s own and I want to draw attention to it.
But here… this is Gaz theoretically ignoring Dib’s plight for literal decades. At this point this isn’t something that can be explained as ‘she doesn’t think she needs to bother with it’. Like, at some point it should’ve been clear to her that even if Zim isn’t a threat to Earth, he is certainly torturing Dib somewhere. This really seems to be direct evidence toward the idea that Gaz just doesn’t not like her brother at all and wishes that he was gone.
And also I want to discuss what exactly Gaz turned the Robot Dib into - an abusable servant. Something that fulfills her needs while passively enduring her random acts of cruelty.
So… is this what she would like Dib to be? Like, maybe I’m just looking at it from the totally wrong angle. Maybe it’s just a matter of ‘well, if you have a Robot Servant, you’d obviously want it to serve you. And if you’re an angsty preteen with anger issues, you’d like to have something vaguely human-shaped but non-sapient to take your frustrations on’. Maybe it’s got nothing to do with Dib. But… like, this Robot is still Dib-Shaped. So I feel like the implication is that she’s using Robot Dib as a proxy of what she would also do with Dib if he was, like, mind-controlled or something?
And that’s… not really the vibe I’ve gotten from Gaz’s interactions with Dib so far? I mean, maybe I won’t go as far as to say that she actually likes him - but I thought about it more in the sense that she just wanted Dib to leave her alone most of the time. That for her an ideal situation would be more if he did his own thing and she did her own thing without his ‘weirdness’ barging in and bothering her all the time.
This is just really… I think that might be the ‘Meanest’ Gaz has ever been in my book. Like I know that there’s Another Certain Episode that people often put up as “The One Where Gaz is Really Mean to Dib” but I think that it's more Complicated than some people give it credit for. So, like, I’ll get there when I get there. But here we actually have the Gaz who physically attacks Dib over the slightest provocation and, like, actively hates him.
It’s really one of those things that make me, like, kinda question my analysis so far. I mean, is this meant to be another attempt to shift Gaz’s character because meaner and more violent characters are more fun and wacky to write? Is it just a matter of the IZ writers prioritizing wacky escalation and cartoon violence and Dib suffering over giving Gaz consistent motivations? Or have I been just totally overly generous in my analysis so far? Like, maybe I was totally off the mark trying to look at which of Dib's actions seem to set Gaz off?Maybe we were supposed to understand that Gaz was always beating Dib to a pulp off-screen since the start?
But... I dwelled on these thoughts for a while and I think that my usual read of Gaz’s character is maybe not consistent with this episode, but it is consistent with a majority of the episodes she was featured in. Which is not something I can necessarily say for a reading that just centers ‘Future-Dib’ above all else. This level of physical violence here is still very unusual for her, even in episodes where she is more cruel to Dib.
(And the idea that she just legit hates her brother and wishes he was gone… honestly, yeah, that can go either way...)
"Abducted"
Especially considering this is the very next episode with any sort of Dib-Gaz interaction!
Gaz just walking off while Dib is being, well, abducted can work pretty well if you assume that Gazthinks that obviously whatever is flying this thing
Is some sort of incompetent idiot and she doesn’t need to bother with the annoyance of saving Dib because he can handle it on his own (and she would probably be right).
But… it can also work just as well if you assume she doesn’t give a shit about Dib and would be happy if he’s gone forever.
"Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom"
Dib: How I am I still the only one who sees Zim's an alien? I mean, come on! Come on! COME ON!
Gaz: Why do you have to have a head?
Dib: Gaz! I want you to see this. Today, things are gonna change. I'm gonna do… something! I'm not just gonna sit back and watch Zim get away with his… his… things he do!
Dib: I mean—
Gaz: "Things he "DO"? What's your problem?
And we’re back to Gaz not being directly violent or even threatening violence, but just being snarky in a kinda mean way. Still, there’s maybe less of the justification for her exacerbation with Dib this time. Because this time he wasn't technically bothering her at all! Dib was lecturing another kid before she started insulting him. I think the implication was that she felt he was embarrassing her, but I still feel like that's a lot less justified.
Still, it’s not like her words seem to significantly hurt Dib, and she is at least able to share a laugh about Zim’s ridiculous behavior with him. (although with ‘Parent-Teacher Night’, there is also the implication that she would’ve also laughed at Dib in any sort of inverted scenario).
"Tak: The Hideous New Girl"
So for Dib and Gaz’s first interaction in this episode, we have this:
And well, kinda like the ‘Wonderful Life of Doom’ interaction, what Gaz does here is pretty mild in the grand scheme of things- but her reasoning also feels not very justified.
I mean, yeah, she was annoyed by the sound of them yelling, that sucks. But Dib has a right to yell in the shared living space of his own house. But… also, I suspect that she sprayed him with the soda less as a punishment for being annoying and more as a direct result of what he said just before.
Dib: Thanks, Gaz. He was really…
She wanted to make it clear that she was not shooing Zim out to help him. She did it for her own sake. Because Dib keeps making this mistake of thinking of Gaz as his sidekick and that her goals and wants align with his and obviously that causes her a lot of exasperation and wasted time. So I think she was more lashing out at this hypothetical future scenario than just Dib annoying her in the present.
Next up, we have the scene by the Evil Weenie Stand.
Gaz: Be quiet. I wanted to let you know that my brother is trying to break into this building through some secret entrance.
Weenie Clerk: We... we have chili beans.
Gaz: I just though it'd be funny to see him get beaten up by security.
So, Gaz actively trying to get Dib grievously injured just because it’s funny is actually... kind of an unusual thing for her. Like, as I’ve said previously, she’s usually a very reactive character. Even when her actions are at their most disproportionate and least justifiable, they are usually at least somewhat motivated by Dib’s actions… unless the implication is that the reason why she’s here in the first place is because Dib dragged her out here to be his lookout and she's looking at a way to get back at him for that.
That scenario feels most likely to me, and obviously that wouldn't justify ratting out Dib and enjoying his pain - to me it's kinda on the same level as getting Dib tasered and dragged off by security for stealing her Pizza... But also it's notable that this time, she actually gives up on the idea pretty quickly. If you wanna be charitable to Gaz, you can say she wasn't really serious about the security thing and was just making an edgelordy joke and honestly... with her characterization, I think it could go either way...
Interestingly, once she gets a decent look at Tak and her plans, Gaz becomes a lot more cooperative. I mean, she still grumbles about the idea of saving the Earth. But, like, she doesn’t argue when Dib says the disk is ‘theirs’ when she was the one who found it and she doesn't put up any resistance about joining Dib in seeing Zim’s base. Compared to how previously she’d at best be really abrasive about it and at worst would have tried to actively sabotage Dib and/or cause him physical pain as revenge for prioritizing himself and wasting her time.
That works very well with the idea that Gaz’s whole problem with Dib’s obsession is that she just doesn’t see Zim as a threat. Obviously after coming face-to-face with Tak, she can see she is much more of a Legitimate Threat to Earth than Zim is. So even if she’s not necessarily emotionally invested in saving the world, she can tolerate it a lot better if she can see that it is indeed something more than Dib’s extremely self-indulgent ego-stroking hobby.
"Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars"
Gaz finds Dib annoying, Gaz goes to vent to her dad about it, Gaz is told to give her brother another chance, Gaz finds Dib annoying again and just leaves. This is a very Mild Gaz compared to what we had in the previous few episodes, closer to my initial read of her. Like, she doesn’t even insult Dib to his face this time. She finds him annoying, so she leaves!
"Dibship Rising"
Well, I… have made the decision to not discuss Gaz’s attempt to destroy all mankind in length, even though Dib is, in fact, technically part of ‘all mankind’. I just think this scene is more about her relationship with her dad then it is about Dib.
Gaz: That didn't wipe out all life as we know it! YOU LIED TO ME, DAD!!
The actual crux of Dib and Gaz’s interactions in this episode are once again - Dib’s obsession with halting the Irken Invasion of Earth has led him to also inconvenience Gaz (this time, by causing a lot of noise and being late to dinner), and Gaz is, like, mildly abrasive as a result and ignores him a lot.
"The Voting of the Doomed"
Dib: Willy's a drooling moron! As sole defender of Earth, I've got to do something!
Gaz: I wish Willy was my brother.
Yet another case of Gaz insulting Dib unprompted (since he was talking to himself rather than to her. She just happened to be within listening range.) And also another implication that her problem with her brother is that he’s embarrassing? I think that’s how we’re supposed to read that line? "Willy would be a better brother than you cause he's less embarrassing!"
"Gaz, Taster of Pork"
Okay, now this is the big one. This is the episode that I’ve seen a lot of people in the fandom cite as being, like, the One Where Gaz is Really Cruel to Dib. And, like, I’m not gonna pretend like Dib doesn’t suffer a Lot in this episode (maybe even past the point that I find it particularly funny to rewatch) - but also the dynamic going on is a bit more complicated than just ‘cruelty’?
Because this is also probably also the episode where Dib is at his most asshole to Gaz as well. I mean, he literally used her as a guinea pig (... pun not intended) to experiment with a spell he thought might be beneficial but was worried about the consequences for himself if it wasn’t… but apparently did not extend that worry to his sister - and thus, the entire conflict of this episode. Like Gaz is entirely in the right to be mad about being ‘blessed’ with Pig-Sense without her consent. Both with Dib’s false narrative about wanting to give her superpowers for her own sake
Dib: No! I only did it to give you super powers because you're the greatest sister ever!
And when she does actually learn the truth.
Dib: cast the spell on her because I wanted to see what it would do before trying it on myself!
Like, maybe that doesn’t perfectly justify taking and destroying Dib’s personal property, or potentially shoving mashed potatoes into his eyes, or repeatedly threatening him with her man-eating plushies, or encouraging a Pig Demon to punish him in some terrible supernatural Pig Demon way...
(While it would certainly be too much to ask Gaz to forgive Dib on the spot and advocate for him when she just found out he’s been lying about his motivations all along and used her as a guinea pig. The dialogue implications of this scene is that the Shadow Hog wouldn’t have done anything to Dib without Gaz’s encouragement.)
It's still important to remember that what Dib did to her was pretty terrible on it's own and was entirely unprovoked!
Then there are a few other factors to consider here, like Gaz’s constant violent threats towards Dib. Which I usually just chalk up to being edgelordy venting unless there is a clear indication of Gaz acting or considering acting on them (like with the mashed potatoes example above) because in most episodes Gaz is mostly all-talk and Dib usually does not take them seriously. But here… although we don’t see Gaz do even like a quarter of what she threatened to do to Dib - we do see Dib acting as if the threats are 100% real and serious.
Zim: I'm going to destroy you all, Dib! Today! I've got it all set up.
Dib: Uh huh, that's nice, Zim. It can't be worse than what my sister's gonna do.
Which does make them feel a lot more 'concrete’ than in most episodes. Like maybe she would’ve beaten him up if they did fail to cure her or if the Shadow Hog wasn’t there to offer an Alternative Punishment Method for him?
But like… I think it’s closer to a proportional response than getting him tasered for stealing pizza or literally beating (a robot she thought was) him with her own two hands because he yelled in an annoying way? Like, what Dib did was really shitty and Gaz has a right to be upset about that on some level!
Then there is the other complicating factor - Membrane. Like, while Dib was Not Having a Good Time in that episode - up until that last sequence with the Shadow Hog, Gaz was suffering a lot more for a much longer period of time. The ‘Pig Mouth’ curse has cost her not just her ability to eat most foods but also most of her hobbies, her freedom, her privacy, her dignity. And it’s clear that she blames Dib - the catalyst of this whole event - for everything that has stemmed from it.
Gaz: You will pay, Dib! You will pay!
But even though what Dib did was certainly a Dick Move… like, it is Membrane and his scientist team that really did the worst by Gaz. Dib only turned to his dad out of a sincere belief he could help, Membrane was the one who decided to announce Gaz’s condition to the world and quarantined her for life and sold the rights to make a goddam movie out of her.
So if Gaz is lashing out at the mistreatment she suffered throughout this episode, she should be at least just as mad at her father as she is with her brother, right? But instead she seems to be totally chill with him, just eating pizza together. Even though his apology for her is honestly as shitty and self-justifying as anything Dib would’ve come up with.
Professor Membrane: Sorry about imprisoning you and turning you into a media freak, honey! It was in the name of science and... hey, where's your brother?
So I think that might imply that Gaz has a massive bias against her brother, causing her to channel a lot of unrelated frustrations just at him.
…Or maybe more likely a massive bias in favor of her dad. You know, she does love him a lot - to the point that ‘getting to actually spend time with him’ is like one of the few things that can get her motivated to get Involved in an episode’s plot. And she also has some serious reasons to be frustrated with him (in this episode especially, but also outside of it). And instead of trying to, like, untangle the complicated contrasting emotions she feels about her dad (a process which would be complicated and hard for anyone, but especially for an extremely emotionally repressed 11 years old), she just channels all of the negative ones unto Dib whenever possible.
Which, like, doesn’t make blaming Dib for things he didn’t actually do more justifiable, but it does make her motivations for doing so more complex than just “idk she hates Dib like everyone else does”
"The Most Horrible X-mas Ever"
And our very last Dib-Gaz conflict for the post! (I didn’t expect it to run this long I swear) Starring Bitey the Vampire!
Dib: You stare at that dog every Christmas, Gaz! Come on, already! It's creepy.
Gaz: Three Christmases ago, that dog ate the head off Bitey the Vampire! You said so yourself! I haven't forgotten.
Dib: Well, fixing an alien spaceship is hard enough without you distracting me.
The interesting thing about this conflict is how similar it is to ‘Gaz, Taster of Pork’. We once again have Dib being an inconsiderate dick to Gaz for the sake of an experiment and then lying about it to try and avoid her ire, knowing that her reaction would be both violent and extreme. Just this time instead of Gaz herself, it’s her treasured sentimental possession.
Dib: Okay, Gaz. I think it's time I told you. The dog's innocent! I used Bitey the Vampire for a teleporter experiment and switched his head onto a fly's body!
Which, you know, at least he isn't overriding Gaz's bodily anatomy this time but... like... Dib must've had so many other options for his 'Teleporter Experiment'! I guess that without specific details we can't know for sure, but I really can't think of any real justification why he would have to use his sister's doll for this experiment and not one of his own toys or even, like, buy something cheapo from the dollar store or something? Maybe you can come up with some explanation of why it had to be Bitey, but it really feels like another demonstration of Dib's thoughtlessness and inconsideration.
I almost wonder, if, y’know, the show wasn’t cut so short - if this was a deliberate attempt to emphasize this aspect of the Dib-Gaz dynamic for the episodes going forwards. You know, give some more justification and context to Gaz’s anger at Dib - even as her responses to it continue to escalate.
Although I guess beating Dib up like that in retaliation to ruining one of her beloved childhood toys and then lying about it for years isn’t like… the most disproportionate thing Gaz has done? I mean it is kinda bad, but also she has certainly done worse during the course of this list!
Also a quick shout-out to Dib complaining about Gaz distracting him by just like… standing in his vicinity quietly - when Gaz’s most common problem with Dib is him distracting her by talking at her constantly and generally being actually disruptive to her concentration.
(Some more general points in this episode are Gaz once again trying to abandon Dib at what he feels is mortal danger. Which, like most of these interactions could be read as her just underestimating Zim and thus not thinking he is in actual danger... or just legitimately not caring if her brother lives or dies. And Dib trying to take credit for Gaz repairing the ship, and threatening him with More Violence over it. First one is a pretty common sight at this point and the letter is a pretty quick interaction when they're both pretty jerky to each other.)
So… what is the main thing that I feel like I’ve learned from making such an extensive analysis? Well, I think in a way, all of those General Fandom Conceptions of Gaz that I talked about at the start… none of them were fully accurate, but also none of them are, like, entirely inaccurate either.
You know, sometimes Gaz’s reactions come off as mostly harmless edgelordisms, and sometimes they’re totally disproportionate and/or violent, sometimes her behavior comes off as reasonable or at least understandable, and sometimes she’s just another person in Dib’s life who wants to punish him for being weird. And there was an escalation in her actions over time, but it wasn’t really just in Season 2 - and it coincides with a whole lot of factors that make it more complicated than just ‘Flanderization’; the increased focus on both Dib’s negative traits and the comedy of his suffering, a general need for escalation with newer plots, and a need for her to be more involved in narratives - especially as her initial role as Someone Dib Can Talk To has become kind redundant as the writers have become more comfortable with the idea that Dib can just talk to himself like a weirdo.
The most… uncharitable reading is that Gaz’s characterization is just plain inconsistent. The writers didn’t have as clear of a vision of who she is compared to Zim or Dib, or maybe they just didn’t care enough to keep her in-line with the vision of what she was supposed to be - so her level of meanness, violence and hatred towards her brother just kinda fluctuate depending on the needs of the narrative or the joke, or what aspect of Dib's character they wanted to highlight.
Y’know, even though this was always meant to be an analysis of both Dib and Gaz’s relationship with each other - it also became a bit of a Gaz Character Analysis along the way. Because Dib’s slights against Gaz can fluctuate on levels of intensity, but they are very consistent in terms of reasoning and motivation. It is pretty much always a result of Dib’s Terminal Case of Main Character Syndrome … but also about his social isolation and general inability to communicate with others and the fact that Gaz, even at her meanest, is still more likely to tolerate him talking about his interests than basically anyone else in the world
You know, I do want to emphasize that Dib’s inconsiderate attitude can also be understandable and relatable in his own way, just like Gaz’s reactions to him. I ended up focusing on Gaz more and more as I was writing this post because I kinda assumed Dib’s motivations were more self-evident in the fandom both because he’s more of a main character and because he’s more open about his emotions compared to Gaz. And also… because it would’ve been too repetitive to go over “Yeah, Dib has a problem remembering other people have needs and interiority but he is also deeply lonely and desperate for positive attention” for basically every episode. Meanwhile, Gaz’s reasonings seem to… fluctuate a lot more.
I think my reading of the situation is a bit more positive than just ‘Gaz was written in a careless and inconsistent way’, because inconsistency… can also be a deliberate character trait. You know, a lot of people are kinda inconsistent in their reactions to things. There’s no reason why Gaz can’t just be characterized by her capriciousness. Especially when you consider the angle that she’s misdirecting some of her anger at her father or the world in general at Dib - so you’ve got maybe like a baseline of mild annoyance which is what she actually feels towards her brother in a vacuum. But every so often she is so much crueler because she is using him as a vector for a bunch of other frustrations and stress, some vaguely related to him, some not at all.
I think even the kinder Gaz we see in ‘Enter the Florpus’ can fit into that, if you take her words here not as just a statement of how she’s been all this time…
Gaz: Oh, uh, normally, you crying on the floor is hilarious, but come on.
Dib: It's all my fault, Gaz. Why aren't you saying I told you so?
Gaz: 'Cause making fun of you is no fun when you're this sad. You're my brother, man. I only torment you because I know you can handle it. I've done way worse than throwing you in a space prison. This is nothing. Get up!
And more of her, now seeing her obnoxious brother at his lowest point, suddenly coming to a realization that she doesn’t hate him as much as she thought she did.
And… okay, another challenge in analyzing all of these interactions is… I’ve been trying to look at all of the Membrane Sibling’s faults and flaws from as balanced a perspective as I can muster - but it’s also important to remember the context in which they exist. When I call out Dib or Gaz for being assholes, this is not necessarily a condemnation of their character. ‘Invader Zim’ is a show all about Flawed Messed-Up Assholes. And it’s also fundamentally a comedy show about the entertainment value in cruelty. If Dib wasn’t sometimes a selfish little egomaniac and Gaz wasn’t an asshole prone to violent acts of ‘revenge’... they just wouldn’t be good ‘Invader Zim’ characters, you know?
Really, between all the different episodes and all the times Gaz was more or less justified, more or less cruel… I think the overall picture that is painted of two very imperfect kids having understandable-but-also-shitty-reactions to the bad hand they were dealt by the world. Dib’s sometimes selfish disregard for Gaz’s interests and wants is maybe understandable considering how basically no one cares about him so… he might as well care about himself, right? And Gaz’s frustration with this disregard and constant egoism is also understandable… but also at some point it becomes kinda disproportionate. And sometimes it becomes really disproportionate.
And that’s just like… that’s just what the Membrane siblings are.
#invader zim#iz#iz analysis#dib membrane#iz dib#dib iz#dib invader zim#iz dib membrane#invader zim dib#gaz membrane#gaz iz#gaz invader zim#iz gaz#iz gaz membrane#invader zim gaz
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Might I hear your thoughts on Skoodge? His possible personality and headcanons?
I LOVE SKOODGE! He's such an interesting character, he's extremely capable, he invaded Blorch home of the slaughtering rat people before anyone else, but he also continues to fall victim to Zim's schemes, both as a smeet and a fully formed Irken soldier. At the same time, he should know better, right? He must be both extremely intelligent and resourceful to succeed on his mission, yet Zim takes advantage of him both in the past and present.
Many people have suffered because of Zim, and they all hold it against him, want revenge, want to see him suffer. But Skoodge escaped with Zim to Irk's surface and was thus involved in him causing Horrible Painful Overload Day Part 2, then he proudly stood by his side on Hobo-13, and was kicked into the den of a monster by Zim. Yet, He was supposed to return to Zim in the unaired episodes, living in his basement and occasionally showing up to help him with his plans. And it's so fascinating to wonder why, isn't it? Why does poor little Skoodge have so much more patience with Zim than all the other Irkens?
And then his relationship to his own height. Short Irkens continue to be ridiculed and punished by Irken society, but when Skoodge is called ugly by Purple, he grins and points out that he is also short. He takes pride in his shortness, and everything he's accomplished, even as that must be near taboo in his society. Short Irkens simply are not deserving, and have nothing to be proud of, they're taught that all the time. (Skoodge was especially taught this, when his height explicitly sent him to invade the worst planet marked for conquest.)
Skoodge is by far the nicest character on the show. we don't see him interacting with a huge cast of characters, but he acts friendly towards Zim, which basically no one else does. In this show where the two main characters are failures of their respective worlds, and the entire setup of the show is that Zim and Dib are both assholes, and also will both forever fail their missions, Skoodge is a friend-shaped, cheerful and nice guy, who by contrast is also one of the most successful people in the show. That's probably not on purpose by the writers, but isn't it an interesting contrast?
So yeah, Skoodge may be a slapstick comedic relief punching bag of a character, but he has so many interesting details about him that I love to see explored.
I personally think, that Skoodge is a team player. Not necessarily a leader, but he is good at and likes to cooperate. He is not naive, but he is outreaching to others, offering friendly smiles and help where other Irkens wouldn't. This is not something usual among Invader ranks, and so he is often seen as foolish by his peers, Zim included.
I think that he has misunderstood some of Irken propaganda. Where the message is to do everything for their great empire, Skoodge has always taken that to mean, do everything for the sake of other Irkens. But individual Irkens don't matter the way the whole does. So while Skoodge is a capable Invader, a nagging thought in his head is that, 'we should improve society somewhat'. And Irkens are not taught to criticize the reality they live in, so Skoodge's only tool is to maybe hope to be a good influence and inspiration to all the other short Irkens out there. He's not had much success yet.
I love his relationship with Zim. How come he decides to move into Zim's basement? Because he likes Zim? Respects him? Has nowhere else to go and is lonely? It's so interesting, I would have loved to see the dynamic of Zim having an Irken associate on earth, it would have been a new component to the 'Zim vs Dib' fight, like another Irken just seems more substantial than his robot henchmen, you know? It's someone who's known Zim since smeethood, and who knows what it was like to grow up on Irk.
Also, he looks like this:
How can you not love him!?
#invader zim#skoodge#I HAVE MANY SKOODGE THOUGHTS#funky little dude#also gotta shoutout dionysuscrysis for their characterization of skoodge in the Every Star another Sun series. thats my fav skoodge probabl#I hope I make sense!!#today it was my turn to have a fever#i actually thought about asking for asks to give me a distraction so thanks for just sending this anyway!
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One thing I often see to say Zim is an adult is that he's an invader and they wouldn't send kids to do that but like yes the tallest would send kids especially Zim who they hate. Also the invaders they send are still growing
And Zim grows throughout the show
Episode one next to skoodge
Hobo 13 next to skoodge
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