There’s just something about the fact that Zim reads as So Autistic. Like, both in the sense that it’s easy to map his experiences as an alien secretly living on earth to Autistic experiences:
A lack of understanding of social cues and conventions
The Anxieties of feeling like you have to fit in some arbitrary social standards or Something Bad will happen
Unusual sensory sensitivities
Even the whole ‘fully grown alien disguised as a human child but he’s so immature he basically acts like a child’ shtick can really resonate with a sort of Growing Up Autistic Feeling of… being both far too mature and childish for your age at the same time.
And also in the sense that even in the context of comparing him to other Irkens...
He has problems with volume control
And possibly audio processing
And definitely with emotional regulation
And is extremely impulsive
And uses very unusual wordings and turn-of-phrases
And experiences sensory overloads.
And these aren't even Alien Things. That's just Zim being Zim. So he can be read as a metaphor for being Autistic and also as just having the Irken Equivalent of Autism
His human arch-enemy Dib also has SO MUCH AUTISM VIBES
Like being single-mindedly obsessed with a special interest from a young age
(The part where his interests alienate him from his peers at school and he only finds companionship with an assortment of fellow weirdos of various ages he met online is something I find especially relatable for my own experiences)
Also having problems with reading social cues
And a tendency to rant and info-dump
Who is ALSO single-mindedly obsessed with a singular subject
And it’s something that always gives her something to do with her hands
Which she generally prefers to avoid
And also seems to dislike any sort of physical touch
And either expresses her emotions in a way that is terribly understated or overstated
And it could also apply to their dad too, who’s been obsessed with science stuff from a young age
And also doesn’t seem to do so well with social interactions
Outside of just, like, me looking back at my Autistic-but-unaware-of-it middle-school ass imprinting on this show and being like “oh yeah, That Makes Sense” - it’s also kinda darkly hilarious how this show is basically about two autistic boys who just fucking hate each other to death (plus one of the boys' extremely autistic and extremely dysfunctional family). I mean, in the real world Autistic Solidarity is so incredibly important, obviously. But Invader Zim, a show that was everything to me as a lil autistic teenager is all about that sweet sweet Autistic Hostility.
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