We've seen Dib show empathy for Zim, but has Zim ever shown empathy for Dib, or, you know, anyone at all?
GIR is definitely one of his weak spots and he gives in to his insane and childish demands way too often.
I do think that Zim has a higher capacity for empathy than most other irkens. Maybe even more then Dib. Actually, yeah, way more then Dib, because Zim has more moments of Empathy then Dib ever does. Dib maybe has maybe that one moment in the movie and maybe if you count the times Dib calls Zim stupid. (but that’s not empathy, that’s more small moments of pity.)
Keep in mind this is Johnen Vasquez’s magical world of cruelty and dark comedy. A majority of his characters have really low empathy or sympathy in general. Because that’s how you make a dark comedy and that’s how you make the jokes work.
Zim has left random aliens (in abducted and Hobo 13), other irkens and even Dib to die on multiple occasions. The way he treats Skoodge is a really good indicator. He sees him as someone to use to boost himself higher and acts extremely petty when Skoodge is the first to conquer his planet, even if Skoodge doesn’t brag about it at all. Not to mention the countless experiments and human children and adults alike locked up in his basement.
Zim has been known to be cruel and isn’t above shoving others under the bus frantically to get what he wants and can be extremely selfish and self-serving because he scrambles for any single scrap of recognition he can get.
But Zim usually has a good read on reading emotions and situations by facial recognition alone. (I remember a good older post from the fandom floating around about reading facial expressions in the show awhile back but I can’t find it) And places a lot of trust in Dib when they form alliances.
Which usually comes back to bite him in the butt sooner or later. Yet he’s willing to put that trust in Dib repeatedly.
And he even has shown Empathy for Dib on two occasions.
It’s noted that in Mopiness of Doom, Zim could easily attack Dib and bring them right back into their fight, or threaten Membrane Labs or something…and maybe he did have a plan for world conquest besides spying on the Dib… But he doesn’t do that. He respects Dib’s decision that he doesn’t want to chase him anymore. And he backs off when he actually sees how Happy Dib is without him!
It hurts him, but seeing Dib happy makes him confused and scared and he doesn’t know what to do, and he leaves him alone. And I don’t doubt he can recognize the feeling of gaining approval from an authority figure.
And Zim does listen in ETF when Dib tells him that his Dad just thinks he’s crazy and won’t respect him. Zim does understand that sentiment, and it’s Dib’s motivational speech that gets him out of his schmoop.
And I talked about this at great length before
He tends to be very empathetic to robots. Probably because he associates the first bit of “parental love” he experienced was from a robotic arm and tends to crave companionship through machines as opposed to people. Probably because other irkens and other aliens are more likely to betray him or leave him or judge him. But Robots rely on him, depend on him, and follow him obediently and are less likely to betray him.
The reason Mini Moose was created in the first place (in the unreleased episode: “Nubs of Doom” ) was that he found GIR was lacking as a minion and a companion. And he wanted a more obedient robot that served him that didn’t cause his plans to blow up in his face so frequently.
I do think Zim is a very emotionally stunted little bean and has a large capacity for empathy if he lets love into his cold little heart.
Don’t get me wrong, Zim is an asshole, and will always kinda be an asshole, but I really do think he has a higher capacity for empathy for things he cares about. Like his robots, GIR and to an extent even Dib.
But like if Zim doesn’t know you, and you’re crying in front of him, he will probably throw you in a rain puddle for him to cross over.
Don’t expect Zim to show empathy for strangers or people he doesn’t really care about.
