I’ve been rewatching Invader Zim recently, and I noticed a few things:
Zim is actually really fuckin smart. Like, he thinks up these crazy clever plans on the fly and has his planet’s laws and treaties memorized and makes his own tech on a whim. I mean sure he’s completely clueless about social interactions and human stuff, but he’s not an IDIOT. He’s actually kind of a genius
Dib, on the other hand, is a bit of a self-absorbed jerk. I love him, but he’s so obsessed with revealing the “truth” that he forgets to take other people and their experiences into account. This is most apparent when he interacts with those who have their own obsessions, which he oftentimes immediately dismisses - to the point of endangering others. He slowly starts to get over this, but he never really got a chance to complete his character arc.
Earth has. A suprising amount of Irken Technology. Knowledge of time displacement, machines that determine your purpose in society, lasers, wormhole prediction, transformative nanotech, specified brain scans, ocular implants, dimensional viewscopes, infinite energy conductors, even PAK legs and information injectors. And like, Earth tech and Irk tech are strangely compatible. Like they work in the same ways, from transformation moves to data input plugs to chemical engineering… Sure Earth’s tech is a bit less advanced than Irken technology, but it’s like the difference between a PDA and a Smartphone.
There is a conspiracy here and I’m a little surprised Dib hadn’t figured that out. Maybe he was so obsessed with revealing Zim that he never paused to wonder how he can hack his enemy’s files so easily, or why the Arachno-Cybernetics in his dad’s audience tests so closely resemble his enemy’s weapon of choice, or how his school utilizes brain scanners and bizarrely Irken hallpasses, or how his sister’s video games utilize the same exact command prompts as Irken spacecraft.
The Delicious Weenie Corporation existed far before Tak’s episode. So it’s highly probable that she’s been living on Earth for way longer than we’d think. Months, maybe even years.
Dib got hurt by a Tak in the Baloney episode, and needed to team up with Zim to save them both from doom by meat. That whole plot was foreshadowing for the Valentine’s day special.
This show was GOING somewhere. Like, there was a whole lot of foreshadowing and build-up to some big plot, and it all just seems like random creepy gags because the show never got to the payoff of all that foreshadowing.
GIR might be silly, but he actually does his job REALLY well. His job is to learn about Earth, and he seems to understand how Earth works a lot better than Zim. He knows what Babies are, and why they aren’t a threat. He knows the floura and fauna Suprisingly well, and even asks to be a Mongoose when he first lands. He knows human social patterns well enough to go out on his own without arousing suspicion. GIR KNOWS Earth, he just doesn’t utilize his knowledge the way Zim wants him to.
Zim was gaining a sense of posessiveness and protectiveness towards Earth, and had a habit of defying those trying to control him, to the point of protecting Earth more often than he’d try conquering it. There were even plots where he’d go through a series of tests, passing each one by breaking the rules, becoming a leader that always left his ragtag group of teammates in the dust, and completely defying the authorities that were giving him the tests in the first place. This was a common plot structure for a lot of episodes, and I thing it was all building towards his eventual defiance of the Irken Armada. Zim becomes Earth’s protector, at the expense of it’s citizens.
I think the show was building towards a big team-up between Zim and Dib. Everyone around them thinks they’re friends, and they don’t always deny it. The few times they say they’re teaming up, it hints towards some epic partnership, but always leads to them splitting up at the climax, supporting one another from afar. Zim is almost always the one who actually fights, while Dib is the one playing ground support, negotiating with authorities or debilitating machines. I think the show was building towards Zim and Dib forming a TRUE alliance. Because secretly, they both want the same thing. For Earth to be safe.
