Invader Zim Rewatch Thoughts
Battle Dib/A Room With a Moose/Hamstergeddon:
Battle Dib:
“Kid here” what?
Dude Dib getting electrocuted this whole opening scene??? They make sure you know it hurts too
3d Zim head so bizarre. I’m pretty sure 3d Zim in The Planet Jackers looked a lot different than this but we’ll see
I’m curious what findings Dib even has by this episode
The alien-hunting brief case?
“I can’t believe I don’t have handcuffs to lock this thing to my wrist.” Foreshadowing?
Why would he steal Gaz’s pizza? Is it a sense of entitlement??? This attitude about himself and the importance of what he’s doing/disregard for others is something that I have more on in this batch of episodes
The impact sounds from Dib are so over the top while he’s getting pulled up into that tube, and then again when the brief case falls on him
I think it’s hilarious how fast this Membrane fangirl starts screaming before they wheel her desk out of the room
It satisfies me that Dib chooses the dropper tool, because that’s what I would’ve done
“I don’t know what kind of test this is Gaz, but I seem to be doing okay.” So did Dib genuinely decided to change his mind about trying to get a tie just because he accidentally got a point? So overly confident and for what lol
The spider robots look very cool, but we’ve seen Zim’s PAK legs, so we already know things like that will be very cool and well-animated.
Like when Dib kinda stumbles here and catches himself?? People underestimate the animation on this show.
“All losers leave the arena. Now.” It’s so fast and mean I love it
“I’m sorry about your tacos or whatever-” so Dib has caught on to Gaz having ulterior motives, but he doesn’t pay enough attention in general to be able to figure out or remember what he did wrong, and that’s why he probably deserves it lol
Dib forging a signature on a copy of his self-destructing permission slip as a distraction is actually a very clever use of something that you expect to be a one-off joke from the beginning
Dib talks about “when the aliens have won and we’re all slaves to their alien evil-“ and I think that establishes that Dib still does not know that Zim is specifically an Irken. So once again I’m curious what “findings” he was gonna show off.
Dib’s role and impact: despite that this is one of 3 episodes where Zim doesn’t appear (unless you count his 3d hologram head) Dib is actually posing a threat to Zim by hoping to present his findings on him. We just don’t know how extensive these findings actually are, or how convincing they would be, even to the Swollen Eyeball Network. It still means something though.
Dib probably posed more of a threat here than in previous episodes, but twice (and maybe 3 times) in this episode his unawareness was his own downfall.
I’m gonna assume unawareness of others is what caused him to take that pizza from Gaz?? And then when he realizes that Gaz was mad at him he either cant remember that instance or didn’t see anything wrong with it?
Then he again sabotages himself by managing to forget his briefcase was on the ground. I guess he just got distracted because he finally did what he had technically sought out to do, in getting the permission slip signed.
I’m sensing a pattern wherein Dib gets so focused on one thing that he tunes everything else out.
A Room With a Moose:
[Drops the ball after catching it] Nobody taught him how to play earth sports </3
Did Zim and Dib specifically challenge each other to play tetherball? If that is the case, it was probably Dib who issued the challenge
Dib kicking Zim and then just standing there smiling at the camera
I can’t help it this montage is kinda hilarious. The humor is compounded by Zim being a fully grown adult alien soldier, who could easily have been doing something better than attending school, and thus wouldn’t be getting bullied lol
Zim finally has both his rounded “teeth” and 3-fingered hands :]!! I’ll watch out for animation errors though
It’s always funny when Gir gets to speak for a long time at once, you’d think Zim would’ve disguised Gir’s voice in the intercom like when he was operating the Government Man mech suit
‘Oooo Dib, you can’t call the new kid an alien just because he looks different!!’ [treats him like this later]:
“It hurts me to see all you.. dirty monsters go off to have so much fun.” Do not blame Zim at all for saying this
So Zim and Gir are using a teleporter here to get from the Skool to Zim’s base, and you’d think Zim would use those more often.
I remember later there are some in his base that seem to just have set locations, at least one of them being just for going to and from his inexplicable space station. I’m pretty sure the only other time was when he was building those giant teleporters while posing as Santa
Never noticed Melvin with a lollipop (no this isn’t cornplating, this is analysis)
I can tell Richard Horvitz is the robot bus driver
I also never noticed Gir eating a bag of walnuts, a background gag which you could argue is plot-relevant
“Your fellow bus-mates all smelled their fates the moment they stood in the way of my mission of doom,” Zim equates bullying to standing in the way of his mission.
It’s genuinely hilarious that this isn’t a fate of the mission plot (just cause he says it is doesn’t make that true) but it’s not just a “getting rid of Dib” plot either, he hates ALL the kids in his class. This is made even better because Dib hates this entire class too, as we see later
There’s a little mistake with Zim’s eye while he’s talking here that ends up looking like a weird twitch, it stands out enough and is paired with dialogue so I always remember exactly where it is and what Zim’s saying during it
“Where are my walnuts?” I see many times where IZ successfully sets up and pays off jokes, but the setups themselves are often funny enough on their own that you can’t always tell what’s a a setup or not
Melvin still has the lollipop
Gir is still eating walnuts, so is this a continuity error?
“There, see? You can’t really tell but that stuff’s really itchy.” Very good gag
“My walnuts!!” Well if the 3d walnuts were in the bus the whole time, then now I don’t think it makes sense that they ever showed Gir eating walnuts.
Look I know in concept it’s funny, and I know the dramatic animation for the moose eating these walnuts is beautifully done for some reason, I also know it’s the basis for the episode, but I’m not entirely sold on the execution of this gag.
When a character on IZ is freaked out by something unreasonable, it’s usually either because it’s a background or side character being dumb or weird, or it’s Zim reacting to Earth things.
Dib is often more of the “straight man,” he tends to have some level of sense, so for him to go from unbothered to horrified because he’s watching the moose eat walnuts?? It kinda feels out of character and doesn’t have enough reasoning to be funny for me.
I love breaking down humor, so the joke here specifically is, I guess, that it doesn’t make sense to be afraid of a moose eating walnuts. And that can absolutely work, it just feels like it doesn’t work for Dib. And “he wasn’t afraid of it until he watched it eating walnuts” is probably a part of the joke too, but it just feels like they’re trying to have two contradicting jokes at once. (The jokes being; “Dib isn’t scared when Zim expects him to be” and Dib is scared of the nut-eating moose”)
Even further than that, maybe another subversion is that Dib of all people is afraid of the moose, but that doesn’t do it for me either.
I almost think this would’ve worked better if Dib was just scared of it from the start? Or that he’s just upset on the principal that this is Zim’s plan?? Something like that.
Disclaimer and acknowledgement that everyone has their own opinions on entertainment value, so if the moose is good enough for you then I’m happy you’re happy :)
Zim indulging Gir with “moosey fate” lol
The loud horror music that has no buildup when they show the moose again
Dib considering (technically) dying in order to make sure he’s not rescuing all his classmates in the process, he might actually hate them more than Zim does because I feel like Zim would save himself at all costs.
Or maybe Zim does hate them more, and he just cares for himself even more than that
Before Zim’s screen cuts out, you can hear Dib in the background saying “moose! moose! moose!” And that’s something I never noticed
Gir changing it to a dumb cartoon (and then getting yelled at for it) is so funny, a quick little gag like this is really helpful for still utilizing characters even when they’re supposed to be “doing nothing” (Zim’s just watching the cameras)
This last bit is amazing. Zim’s tantrum and hitting things while Gir copies him??
Comedic timing is also great because it wouldn’t have been as funny if Gir hadn’t sat in awkward silence for a second before turning on the TV
Dib’s role and impact: a definitive root-for-Dib episode. Dib is rightfully suspicious of Zim and his concerns get ignored or shamed the whole time. He still doesn’t get to make many choices in this one, but he’s definitely solidified and singled out as Zim’s archenemy by this point. (Probably before this point.)
Since the show often endears Zim to the audience, it’s hard not to be on his side when you watch the montage of Dib attacking him at the beginning, then you switch up later as they get put in distinct hero-villain roles for the conflict of the episode.
Obviously not a perfect hero, with Dib considering dooming himself so he won’t be saving his classmates, but in the end he decides himself plus the whole Earth, is worth the pain of rescuing his classmates too.
Obviously Dib knows what his classmates think of him, and maybe trying over and over is just something he does, but it seems really crazy how many times he’s still trying to convince his classmates. This feels a little like his pattern of expecting certain treatment or thinking himself more important than he actually is? Like he’s given them zero evidence to question this field-trip, he thinks his word alone should be convincing enough. (Even after seeing how often that doesn’t work.)
Anyway good for Dib in the end for being able to smile at his victory even while his classmates are glaring at him.
Was Dib a threat to Zim in this episode? Well he easily thwarted his plan thanks to what was probably an oversight on Zim’s part, a threat to Zim’s current goals, but not to Zim himself.
Hamstergeddon:
I’ll see what I think after paying intentional and detailed attention to this one, but from what I remember I think this episode is boring.
I can so distinctly hear Richard Horvitz in the crowd of concerned children
Zim seems unfamiliar with cuteness, but the crowd of Irkens in The Trial thought that one random smeet was cute (though this was before sending him to to dungeon for no reason, so that isn’t something that makes Irkens genuinely care for each other) so.. I don’t know, we can’t always have consistent lore
Zim, in his fantasy, makes these people kneel and then still kills them
One thing I do like on this one is how in Zim’s fantasy it’s just an upscaled model of Peepi, but when Zim actually enacts his plan Peepi quickly becomes a big Godzilla looking guy with different colors and proportions
Dib is suspicious of Zim. But unluckily for him, Zim doesn’t have to sleep and can go scheme during the night
This shot is really cool >:) aided by Zim’s super cool alien hands
Either Zim’s characterization is a lot different as it goes, on or he picks and chooses what to believe about situations (I’m kinda leaning towards the second option based on some ETF stuff that I’ll discuss when I get there) because in this he’s upset at first that people are clearly scared of Peepi and he wants them to be fearing him, but in ETF when he’s getting ignored in favor of the florpus and all the space-chaos, he hand-waves it away as “a show of respect.”
So does this general guy believe Dib about the “alien tampering” part?
These guys aren’t even kicking Dib out, they’re just pushing him to the ground and beating him up?? You can hear punching sound effects and everything while Dib is yelling???
ICONIC scene, so cute and funny. We all love Irken fun-dip thing
“Irken Elite” there’s a lot of things that Zim just says, but this is one that IS true
This scene is good material for those with “Irkens heal fast because alien stuff and PAK stuff” headcanons, it’s also interesting to see him knocked out considering Irkens don’t need to sleep Like what exactly does it mean in like a technical sense for an Irken to be knocked out? He sure did get back up quickly
It’s a quick shot, but Zim looks really funny riding on Gir here
They had a “crazy-bucket” on hand while on a mission to go take down a giant mutated hamster
I do love Zim adjusting his wig to show the audience that he just put it on
This wasn’t even about him he just hates Dib
“I dunno.” “Out there. In the stars.” You don’t often hear Zim speak so bored and monotone and it’s so funny here
(Why is he saying all this anyway? Was he just wanting to contradict Dib?)
I think there’s a lot that’s really great about this one, I’m just often not inclined to watch it. My current theories are: I just don’t think the joke that’s essentially “people saying Peepi a lot” is that funny? Maybe once or twice but not an entire episode (in my opinion)
This also feels pretty disjointed to me sometimes? It was hard to pay attention even for this, it’s like my brain starts shutting down in the final 3rd of the episode. (And then it tunes back in for things like Zim kicking Dib and having amazing line delivery) if I think really hard on it I may be able to figure out what the bigger issues I have with this one are.
I hadn’t checked until now but Career Day was the first episode where Zim is technically trying to enact a plan to take over Earth, the plan is just “get promoted to ruler of the planet at Macmeaties,” but it was really just circumstantial and him trying to take advantage of a convenient situation. In terms of actually using his tech and forming a plan himself, Hamstergeddon is more like the real first attempt we see from Zim. (That doesn’t mean he didn’t try anything offscreen and between episodes.)
(Paramount+ has these episode in the wrong order, I noticed that before but I didn’t realize to what extent, looking at the wiki though what I said about this being his first “conquer Earth” plan is still true.)
Dib’s role and impact: Dib is a 12 year old human child and thus has limitations in the narrative, this is one of the episodes where that’s apparent. He acts like he’s on even footing with Zim, and it only comes off that way due to Zim’s incompetency and pride. The level of what Zim could be actually doing with his resources is insane, and his flaws tend to hold him back from doing so, but from time to time we see how capable Zim is... capable of being. In episodes like this one, Zim’s choices (and tech) matter, and Dib’s really don’t.
So Dib: got suspicious of Zim but couldn’t stop him or warn people in time (not that it probably would’ve helped)
He gave the info he had to the army-whoever guys, but it was based only on stuff he observed, and thus wasn’t very helpful.
As part of breaking down Dib’s character; I’d say he often pats himself on the back for noticing small things (which you could argue is a symtom of growing up around people who don’t seem to notice anything). I’d also say he places WAY too much importance on himself. He’s more self-aware than Zim is, but this is still a trait the two have in common.
We have Dib’s dilemma of wether to kidnap Zim while he’s unconscious or save him so he can stop the hamster. It’s a pretty simple one, that turns out to not have ever been Dib’s choice in the first place. He asks for confirmation that Zim is going to take down ultra-Peepi, and he gets it, but again the things he does and says in this one seem to come from a place of importance that he just doesn’t have. If Zim says “no I’m gonna let the hamster kill everyone” then what would Dib actually be able to do about it? There are clearly episodes where Dib has an upper hand, but this isn’t one of them.
Dib, in his continuing of the role he believes himself to be in, tries to get the army guys to not attack Zim. It doesn’t work, and Zim has it handled. It’s really salt to a wound that Dib ends up in a “crazy-bucket,” that Zim then kicks over.
Was Dib a threat to Zim in this one? Absolutely not. I’m pretty sure this episode would’ve played out almost exactly the same if he wasn’t in it.
Dib was inconsequential, but at least he didn’t make anything worse.
