“An entire planet of enemies waiting for us to drop our guard” Again, Zim seems to think that most humans are aware of the possibility of an alien invader, when in fact, they are not. The average human wouldn’t be wondering if someone’s an alien, because the average human doesn’t believe in aliens of this sort
Bugs when you lift up a rock:
“Your Zim-guts” this isn’t the only episode where Dib doesn’t know what Zim’s race is called yet, but we know he knows later, so I’m curious to see if I’ll be able to tell when he found out or if it’s just an off-screen discovery
You’d think Zim’s house would have the ability to close the windows and door on it’s own but I think that’s an oversight on Zim’s part lol he seems to have manual windows and a manual door in order to blend in
At this point I don’t think Gaz knew that Zim was an alien? And I’m not sure she was paying enough attention to notice later in the episode either? I like that very quickly in the show it becomes “Gaz knows Zim’s an alien, but she doesn’t care”
How can Zim see Dib through the tv? Does it double as a monitor that they can make video calls with?
Actually “what are you doing in my tv?” Might imply that it is not normal to make video calls on there? Maybe?? So I’m back to confused
“Humans don’t have arm control nerves” well clearly he is controlling your arms somehow Dib. But once again, Dib is taunting the alien that he still doesn’t know much about
Normal-colored Zim error :(
Why does he look so cute here?
Also that whole cafeteria sequence and all the microscopic zooming in and out is very impressive imo
Sure Dib, brag to the alien while he’s still in your body.
“Delete the knowledge” more of Zim being an artificial, somewhat-mechanical little guy
Maybe Dib could’ve asked Membrane to come look at the tv so he’d see Zim out of disguise. Although I’m sure either he wouldn’t be able to pry him from his work, or Membrane would think it was some impressive special effects or something lol
The way planting microscopic Irken flags inside Dib’s body does quite literally nothing, like Zim expected to be the only one to see it. Maybe he would’ve bragged about planting flags inside the enemy, I dunno. And anyway it doesn’t look like they get removed, so maybe that’s still something Zim could brag about. I’d love to see Zim bring it up sometime like “yeah but I marked your organs as conquered one time” (unless of course Dib took the nanoship and went in to remove them, which I can absolutely see him doing literally only because of the very idea of Zim planting flags in his body)
“With Dib turned into a drooling moron, nothing will stand in my way-“ I mean so far the most threatening thing Dib’s done was take one picture of Zim out of costume
“My piloting skills are unmatched” we have many examples that show that he’s legit just saying that (he’s saying it based on his own opinion of himself, but still)
“I’ve been flying ships since before you were born” I like when there’s sort of an acknowledgment of Zim’s age
Zim suddenly knows what things like a trachea are
Maybe it’s because it’s the only part where it’s 2d animated, but Zim’s ship thing looks so cool when it’s trying to grab on with the little claws
Not much more to say about it, so here is;
Dib’s role and impact: he got into Zim’s base for the first time and it was because of Gir’s incompetency, then immediately gave himself away during and after taking a picture of Zim. He was able to dodge the defenses, but it was still ultimately Gir’s fault that he was able to escape. Dib went on to give vital information to the enemy, essentially because he wanted to let Zim know that he hadn’t won yet. We don’t know for sure if it was already Zim’s plan to wipe Dib’s brain? So there’s at least a tiny chance that that part was Dib’s fault too. Grabbing the nanoship was a good idea, however Dib is not a real gamer, and thus fails to save himself from Zim. I do understand why he didn’t wanna trust someone else with the controls tho.
This probably comes off a little unfair since it’s just assessing Dib, but that’s what I’m doing.
Should I be scoring him?? 4/10. He got lucky and made a lot of fatal errors.
Germs:
Obviously the aliens in the move are based on the xenomorph but to me they actually look a little creepier just because their limbs are so insect/spider-y and VERY long
“Stupid human propaganda” “do they really believe that could happen” and he says the idea of this happening is “sheer fantasy.” Ive already said this again and again, but Zim thinks most humans are aware of the possibility of an alien invader. He doesn’t realize how fictional this movie is supposed to be, like it’s not “propaganda” it IS fantasy lol
Technically the ad says “invading lifeform” and not specifically “Irken,” I’m not sure what I think of the idea of Irkens being able to get sick, in the dvd commentary for Dib’s Wonerful Life of Doom JV says “Zim’s body is mostly artificial” so I don’t even know. This is still early on so not everything is gonna be 100% accurate to later lore
“Mighty human threat” I always love how he slaps “human” on any Earth thing, the same way we would describe anything from planet “Irk” as “Irken”
Why does the “thank you” voice sound so creepy?
I only just noticed the little Irken symbol next to planet Callnowia’s name, I guess to indicate it’s an Irken-controlled planet, and not just any alien shipping planet
The package is labeled Earth, I would’ve called that into question earlier, but again, Zim’s probably uploaded the info he’s getting somewhere, right?
I love how the mist from the cleaning spray is drawn all sharp like everything else
For some reason after Zim’s got all his anti-germ garb on they often miscolor his sleeves to be the same as his uniform color instead of the light pink
Is that supposed to be the sound of a cow being slaughtered????
The horrible eating sounds inside macmeaties pleaseeee nooooo my headphones are so amazing it’s making this a very unpleasant experience
I really love in this shot how Gir’s reflection moves into view in Zim’s goggles
Why are the burgers like the size of Zim’s head?
You know the cow slaughtering(?) sound effects are a little less fitting when you find out the meat is made of napkins
I know sometimes they use this power for evil, but this show really does have a lot of amazing sound design, like the little rubber sound of Zim dramatically tensing his gloved hands lol
At least one of these scientists in this past-scene was already used in the alien movie from the beginning
Later on meat always burns Zim and fuses to his flesh, so I like that we can take the loophole that this specific meat is made out of napkins. Although later on (in Battle of the Planets, I’m pretty sure) the tallest start talking about an incident that sounds pretty similar to this and how the meat all fused to his flesh? So I don’t knowwww, did he do it again but with REAL meat???? Did macmeaties switch to real meat? Probably not.
Dib’s not in this one so he gets no assessment, we can’t even see him in the classroom at the end lol
Dark Harvest:
The title at some point was “The Heart and Lungs of Zim.” I like that better and I honestly think it’s a little less scary, basically because it’s kinda funny
Painfully obvious Richard Horvitz as delivery man
“To defeat my enemy I must study my enemy, then become my enemy, then move in with my enemy, then wear my enemy’s clothes, then-“ I managed to completely forget about Dib’s tangent here WHAT is he talking about????
The one single window panel out of many, conveniently open for that pigeon to fly in
I really love the music when Zim’s walking out of the classroom
I absolutely HATE the corridor Zim’s in here, It looks cramped and nasty like a prison with horrible colors. It’s like way dingier than their classroom somehow. Also technically these rooms are an architectural impossibility. If they were all this close together, then there wouldn’t be space inside. Zim peeks in the biology room, so we can actually see that these rooms are breaking the laws of physics. This setting is what’s bothering me, not the rest of the episode.
While Zim’s talking to the hall monitor there’s like scary banging sounds in the background that I never noticed??
You know it gets pushed aside what with all the organ harvesting, but one of the worst things Zim actually does here is probably teleporting into someone’s body something that will explode if they leave the skool???? He should be rushed to the hospital but that’s gonna kill him faster
Dib’s freaking drawing bro
“Nobody’s come in with head pigeons” how acknowledged is head pigeons as a disease? Especially when the nurse just shoos it away at the end?? Doesn’t really matter because all it truly is is an amazing way to have an unsettling noise follow Zim (and subsequently Dib) during his horror-movie-esque misdeeds
Really just spectacular music this whole episode
I think it’s a little sad how everyone only talks about how “this episode is so messed up” when it’s also just a VERY good episode. I think it’s funny, and there’s a lot of quick scenes that are VERY well done. For example:
Would it have been better if Zim just didn’t replace what he stole?? Because a lot of these “replacements” seem pretty detrimental. It’s actually insanely funny that he thinks they won’t be missed if they’re replaced, and then he goes on to choose the worst replacements possible
Alright when I wrote that note I forgot that he uses DIBS HALL PASS. Idk what I was talking about, and we already went over the horrors of the OTHER hall pass. So yes, of course, obviously it would’ve been better to not replace them. You could argue for some of these kids that replacing the organ was worse than stealing it in the first place.
Speaking of scenes that are incredibly well done: the reveal of Zim is FANTASTIC. It catches you off guard as you expect to just see more and more afflicted children
The line delivery and Zim’s confidence here??
“you think you can fool a trained medical professional?” “Yes.”
This interaction alone is what makes this a funny episode to me, it’s PERFECT
Dib stop asking him these questions pleaseeee you’re giving him more information
It’s a pretty funny (but also horrific) detail that Zim is able to recognize human organs by name, but he doesn’t know enough to make sure he has the right amount of each. Six hearts? SIX????
I know Dib is a main character, but MAN does he have main character syndrome. He’s not even paying attention to Torque bruh. Is he aware the vents, which he saw Zim go into, are on the ceiling???
Anyway it sounds like Dib thinks he got his smarts from some aliens instead of his brilliant scientist dad
X-ray scene is another part that is SPECTACULARLY done, so cool, and it’s impressive for them to draw out all those organs yet again
Are those barrels of toxic waste? In the taxidermy room?
Zim doesn’t actually utilize his PAK legs that often. It’s creepy enough for him to use them to get around this whole episode, but him using one to turn off the light switch is yet another amazing scene. I also love the music/sound cue they use on that part
Along with needing a second lung, I think it’s pretty clear Zim is also just enjoying terrorizing Dib at this point. Which is just a teeny bit understandable considering all the fear and paranoia Dib’s instilled in Zim, not even just in this episode
For some reason I haven’t questioned the mammoth taxidermy until now
The swinging door casting light on Zim and then him disappearing before the light is on him again???
The horrifically lowering gigantic blob that is Zim, and then the weight that comes across as he falls to the ground onto his PAK legs?????
“The other one is just annoying. Fix it.” See this episode’s funny
This isn’t important but the episode description I’m seeing on Paramount says “Zim is sent to the nurse when a teacher thinks he is ill” which feels inaccurate. It comes off like something about him being an alien causes someone to think he’s sick, when that’s not what happened. It also says “thinks” he is ill but according to the receptionist it sounds like head pigeons is treated like a real disease lol
Dib’s role and impact: is this Dib’s worst episode yet? Should we cut him some slack since he’s a child???
He taunted Zim in the first place, almost certainly being one of the main things to put this idea in his head. He does good in figuring out what’s happening, and then once Zim seems satisfied with his amount of stolen organs, and confident in his plan, Dib lets him know that he forgot one. What was the plan here? Why are we giving the alien information that’s gonna make him continue his organ-harvesting spree????
Dib deduces Zim’s next target in Torque Smackey, a small accomplishment.
Dib proceeds to follow him around, info-dump to him about himself and his interests, all while almost never looking back at him.
So to recap; Dib did what he often does and went in without a plan. This instance in particular was way worse, because he couldn’t even see Zim a majority of the time. I really don’t know what he could’ve done, but I think poking the bear was probably the worst option. I think another consistency across a lot of these is Dib horrifically underestimating Zim. Like yes, Zim is incompetent, but he’s also willing to do way worse things than the average human, and his incompetency tends to specifically lead to destruction and suffering for others. (Including but not at ALL limited to; Zim’s very own allies.)
In this week's episode, @featheredcartoonist and I discuss NANOZIM! I also got to show off how bad I am at the tie-in nearly lost Flash game Dib's Nanochase
Can we talk about the absolute pettiness of planting these Irken flags inside of Dib’s stomach? I mean, Zim didn’t even know about the remote-controlled nano ship at that point - as far as he knew, Dib will never see these. He has just really wanted to claim the Earth Boy’s lungs in the name of the Irken Empire.
September stickers for SFW Patreon! Sign up by SEPTEMBER 30th at $5 or more to nab these suckers! >:)
ALSO: I have some leftover vampire!Dib with the vampire!bee dangly keychains so if you sign up for the keychain tier, you can choose that one or this month's keychain (which is going to be a vampire Zim theme~)
