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I am ZIM!
— Zim.
Invader Zim

Undisguised form

Invader Zim is the titular main protagonist villain/anti-hero of the animated TV series by the same name, the comic book series continuation of said show, and the movie sequel Enter the Florpus.

Zim is a member of the alien Irken race, and a former Irken Invader; however, since his actions usually lead to disaster (having nearly destroyed the Irken homeworld during Operation Impending Doom I) his leaders, the Almighty Tallest, banished him to Foodcourtia. While there, however, Zim heard of Operation Impending Doom II, and - obviously not understanding the purpose of his previous exile - "quit being banished" and ventured to Conventia in the hope of getting an assignment.

Zim
Homeworld Irk
Rank Invader (formerly by the Irken Empire; now self-appointed( Please note he was never re-encoded and is still technically am invader))

Food Service Drone Defective

Race Irken
Gender Male
Eye Color Magenta
Weapons PAZ lasers
Equipment Voot Runner

PAK

Affiliation(s) Unknown

Chagrined, the Almighty Tallest sent him on a "secret mission" to Earth, in order to keep him occupied and away from the real Operation Impending Doom II. After arriving on Earth, Zim enrolled in the nearest elementary skool to begin his infiltration and gather information about the indigenous races. There, he became quick rivals with Dib.

Zim's primary desire is to conquer Earth, mostly to prove his superiority and impress his leaders. However, as mentioned by Gaz in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", "He's so bad at it."

Although he is the main protagonist, Zim is morally and ethically a villain, being an overall fairly unsympathetic character, though he occasionally shows some kindness towards certain characters (such as GIR in "Walk of Doom") and is usually only causing chaos and destruction for either himself, his own race, or Earth.


History[]

PLEASE NOTE, SEPARATION OF CANON FROM FANON IN

Screen Shot 2020-04-27 at 3.33

Disguised form

PROGRESS.

Semi-Solid WIP canon timeline:

  1. Born, receives PAK. Upon receiving his information download, complains of '40 schmillion' errors in the data received, and causes Horrible Painful Overload Day, Part One, while trying to explain this. Done by shoving Smeets in a tube.
  2. Ten years later (unspecified whether or not human or Irken), tries to escape to surface from Academy VR training with Skoodge, who he convinces to help him. Runs into Dermis Prowler security droid, reaches surface as the droid, in it's pursuit of him, causes Horrible Painful Overload Day, Part Two.
  3. Is a Scientist on a Vort Research Station. When Tallest Miyuki is visiting, he criticizes the early designs of The Massive, and in an attempt to impress the tallest, unleashes an Infinite Energy Absorbing Blob. It eats her and runs rampant, and thus Tallest Miyuki is presumed killed. Causes a rift between Irk and Vort, presumably.
  4. During Irken Elite testing, causes blackout on half of the Planet while attempting to get a snack machine to work. Traps Tak, seeding her hatred of him. Around this time, he presumably takes the test himself and passes.
  5. Zim becomes an Irken Elite. During a ceremony with the new Tallest, Spork, he finds an old toy that his Blob had always liked. Coincidentally, the Blob is drawn to it, and devours the new Almighty Tallest in the process.
  6. Somehow, Zim continues on to become an Invader, and when OID 1 comes around, he is told to stay in a circle. However, he disobeys orders due to his zealous love of the Empire, and goes on a rampage in a mech, thinking his homeworld is an enemy planet. He eventually leaves it and continues the rampage in a Plasma-Armed Battle Tank before it ends.
  7. Due to the destruction he caused before, he is demoted to Food Service Drone and sent to Foodcourtia as punishment; he erroneously believes this to be a vacation of some sort.
  8. Zim hears of Impending Doom 2 while on break on Foodcourtia, and flees, taking a Voot Runner to Conventia as the Foodening begins, trapping his boss Sizz-Lorr on the planet.
  9. The main events of Invader Zim take place.
  10. The comics. (Note: in an alternate [also canon] timeline, the Events of Enter the Florpus take place instead of the events of the comics)

Appearance[]

Zim, like most of the Irken race, seems to be based on the typical "little green men from outer space" stereotype.

Many Irkens are about the size of a preteen schoolchild, but Zim is exceptionally short, earning him ridicule from his fellow Irkens, who are respected only if they are tall in height.

In "The Nightmare Begins", Zim was shown to be even shorter than the notoriously diminutive Skoodge. In addition to his short stature and green skin, he also has round teeth (resembling gums more than actual teeth), and a long, worm-like tongue.

Zim also has ruby-colored eyes; a very common trait in Irkens. It was also mentioned in "Walk of Doom" that Zim's eyes contain ocular implants. Since the eyes he was born with are not visibly different from subsequent appearances, it can be assumed that these implants are subcutaneous.

As he considers himself to still be an Invader, he continues to wear the standard uniform: a red tunic-like garment with three black stripes and a triangular pink collar and sleeves, as well as black boots, leggings, and gloves. His PAK is light gray with pink spots.

He also possesses a pair of antennae; their exact function is unknown, but they seem to function like human eyebrows; rising and lowering to convey emotion. It is possible that they also function as an organ in place of ears, as they picked up vibrations in "Battle of the Planets".

Personality[]

While most Irkens are expected to be ruthlessly loyal to the Empire, Zim is considered overzealous even by their standards: Brash, arrogant, and overconfident, Zim's tendency to cause wanton destruction makes him a danger to himself and his own people, yet he still considers himself a mighty Irken warrior. In addition, he is acutely narcissistic and megalomaniacal, congratulating himself on even the smallest of successes; these, however, are few and far between.

Despite his self-proclaimed greatness, Zim rarely succeeds in his attempts and is held up as a complete laughingstock by his own people - a fact that he is either oblivious to or simply chooses not to notice. Zim is cluelessly loyal and obedient to the Tallest, the Irken Empire, his planet and his people, and is willing to go to ridiculous lengths to please his leaders. However, his self-absorbed nature prevents him from acknowledging any of his failures, and he chooses only to speak about the better things that came from each incident.

Zim's laugh and mannerisms can be said to be somewhat derived from a masculine equivalent to the unpleasant "rich person"/"spoiled brat" stereotypes of Western animated cartoons and movies, combined with the "overconfident alien invader" stereotype seen in sci-fi shows and movies.

Despite his frequent displays of stupidity and insanity, it is clear that Zim is highly intelligent in some respects - being a keen manipulator of tools and devices - but has absolutely no apparent interest in thinking things through, and wastes much of his time fretting about or dealing with unimportant "threats." Moreover, it is evident that he is more than capable of conquering the Earth, yet he hardly ever uses this capability properly and has often been very close to taking over the planet, only to be thwarted by his own negligence.

One of Zim's abilities is his somewhat inconsistent skills at piloting; while in a tense situation he flies masterfully but seems to crash on most other occasions, and his skills pale in comparison to opponents adept at hand-eye coordination or overall agility (such as Gaz). Zim also has admirable engineering ability; in "Walk of Doom" he singlehandedly improved the SIR Unit guidance system chip, and in "Walk for Your Lives" he hand-built a variable time stasis field capable of altering individual time-fields. He is immensely proud of anything he creates, yet is often frustrated when his devices fail to live up to his grandiose expectations.

Even though Zim often affirms that he wishes to conquer Earth, it has been hinted that he would not actually want to enslave humanity or rule the planet himself. In "Attack of the Saucer Morons", Zim gained a group of human worshippers who would be willing to do his bidding, yet his only thought was escaping them, though this may have been his paranoia as he feared being vivisected by them.

Zim seems most comfortable in ensuring destruction rather than gaining power and when he does gain power, he seems not to care much for it, treating it more like a means to an end since it has been heavily implied that he only seeks to take control of the planet to mainly earn the praise and respect of his leaders. An example of this was seen in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", where he easily got the entire human race to worship him when he disguised himself as Santa Claus, but rather than to build an empire for himself, he cared more about sending the humans away to the Tallest and thus, their own doom. Also, in the non-canon Nickelodeon Magazine Special, in which Zim finally took over the world, he did not stay to rule for very long, instead of leaving Earth forever to ride flying alien rabbits and drink soda.

Zim usually shows little to no affection, often claiming to "need no one", but he occasionally lets a softer side of him slip by accident. In "Parent Teacher Night", when Zim thought back to when he was born, he remembered the first thing he ever said was that he loved the "cold, unfeeling robot arm" that "hatched" him from his incubation capsule and activated his PAK.

Strangely, it would seem that Zim also relies on the presence of his mortal enemy, Dib, for motivation. He said in "A Room with a Moose" that his mission might not be as "exciting" without Dib around to "annoy him", but also seems to dwell on the big-headed human quite a bit, sometimes more so than his actual mission.

In fact, Zim enjoys tormenting and humiliating Dib even if it is unprovoked that he would just do it for the fun of it, making Dib's hatred for him real and his efforts to beat the Invader all the more personal. This importance was particularly highlighted in "Mopiness of Doom": When Dib briefly decided to give up his pursuit of Zim, the Irken lost all motivation to take over Earth or do anything in general.

In Enter the Florpus, it was shown that Zim has the potential to be an actual threat if he puts his mind to it, as he successfully hijacked Professor Membrane's Peace Day ceremony, but only after Dib unintentionally inspired him (and he even rubs it in his face about it).

Earth was moments away from being destroyed and taking humanity with it, Zim showing a complete indifference towards his own life because his mission, even if it was his last one, would've been complete.

Zim sounding so triumphant while stepping into his own doom is quite fanatical because his loyalty to the Irken Empire knows no bounds and he is no doubt willing to go out like a soldier doing his duty. Of course, it's also possible that Zim is so delusional that he simply didn't realize that he'd be destroyed too.

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