"..this is what you wanted to show me?"

"Superior to your filthy earthan oceans, isn't it?"

"..shut up zim."

LOOK AT WHAT OUR AMAZING ART HUMANS HAVE CREATED! These human pig smellies that will be helping to make future AVTP episodes got together to draw their mighty Irken overlords (except Dib) in their own artistic likeness! They call this a "draw this in your style" event. This earthoid event is quite peculiar, but seeing all of the styles together (except Dib) is very pleasing to Zim.

Little personal thing with my sona which idea has been laying as a sketch for months.

At some point of time I just thought that IZ and irken empire in particular can work as a pretty good allusion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m rewatching the Invader Zim commentaries and here’s what they had to say about control brains!

The Frycook What Came From All That Space

Jhonen Vasquez: “The control brains were these Irkens that were basically bred- they were basically, sort of… I don’t know. Genetically engineered to not have bodies. Their bodies were just… brains. Uh, and they have actually giant versions of the backpacks that are plugged into-“

Richard Horvitz: “Who were they engineered by?”

Johnen: “The irkens!

Richard: “What I love is that they make something, hehe, that lords over them.”

Jhonen: “Yeah!”

Richard: “‘Let’s create something that’ll be in charge of us!’ Haha”

Jhonen: “no, no, no. The irken brains are created by- they’re created basically- they’re the ones that run everything. The Tallest don’t really do… the control brains are the ones that, you know, make the laws-“

Just the other week I finished up my 3rd redo of my AVTP Tallest Red and Purple models. Here they are showcased in a lil scene that might be familiar to some of you.

Back in October of 2022 I finished version 1 of Red and Purple. They were my first ever finished character models. To showcase them, I put them in a little restaurant scene.

When I finished my 3rd version of them, I decided to put the new models in that same scene to compare the differences.

And DANG! What a difference! It really blew my mind hahah. The background was barely touched, the only significant difference is the character rigs of Tallest Red and Purple from Version 1 to Version 3!

Yea, the old models are lookin a bit like handsome Squidward. You can make fun haha.

This is why I tell folks, you gotta keep pushing to get better at something. It is achievable, but it's not without perseverence and time!

Part 1 of ?

Prologue 1 | Prologue 2 | Prologue 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10

some stupid lil thing i was too excited to make LMAO

my hc for the irken empire is that it's like super fucked up and dystopian. like "wait what i didn't know you guys didn't have kids in the military" kind of fucked up dystopian. like "fym you dont engage in extreme mind control" fucked up dystopian. like "oh yeah our leaders are like 18 tops" fucked up dystopian. i can write an essay on this.

i MIGHT try to be more active here, no promises tho LOL

drove me absolutely bonkers that none of the irken empire insignias floating around the internet are accurate to the show so i went and traced a hi-res one from screencaps and from the official OST cover.

go nuts with it

I somehow forgot to post these silly things I've done for @averytallproblem april fools event

AU where Xeo is working in some fastfood LMAO

I mean the thing is that Irken Invaders’ specialty is supposed to be, like, subtle subterfuge and weakening the planet’s defenses and then the Armada deals the final blow

With the Invaders conquering the planet themselves is more like a cool extra thing they can do on the side (that Zim is determined to fulfill as evidence of his superiority)

But ALSO the Irken Armada and especially the Massive is characterized as cartoonishly incredibly powerful to the point of being to win basically every battle and even able to casually destroy planets in ‘Enter the Florpus’. It can really make one wonder how truly necessary the Invaders really are.

And that’s actually a really difficult question to answer.

Because yeah, just off the top of my head I can come up with a ton of explanations for why the role of the Invader is still necessary for Operation Impending Doom 2. I can speculate about what sort of losses the Armada can suffer even with their incredible power, or other planets with combat technology of similar power (most notably the Vortians who already built all of Irk’s damn Stuff anyway) or the value of annihilation via enslavement and strategies for controlling planets in the long term - but on the other hand…

With the general themes of the show and the way the Tallests are characterized and the way Irken Society is structured it is so very appealing to simply say that the most prestigious role in the Irken Military is an overinflated overfunded redundancy that only exists to make the Tallests’ job mildly easier.

Art Fight attack for @khaliarart I had so much fun drawing their irken ocs. They are such a great inspiration to me to be better at art and its been a while since i drew invader zim related stuff hehh