Miz
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One of the Best Cartoons Ever! (and also one of my most favorite cartoons)
Based off of a Graphic Novel and is declared Amerime (American Anime)
Invader Zim revolves around the life of its title character, Zim, and the humans who are aware of him. Zim, an invader from the imperialistic Irken race, an extraterrestrial species whose social hierarchy is based on height.
Zim in the first episode, ("The Nightmare Begins") escapes from his banishment (or quits as he calls it) on Foodcourtia and arrives at the Great Assigning for Operation Impending Doom II. Here elite Irken soldiers are chosen to become Invaders; special soldiers whose mission it is to blend in with the indigenous life forms of their assigned planet, collect intelligence, and prepare the planet for conquest by the Irken Armada.
Zim, who was bannished to work in Foodcourtia because of his overzealously attacking his own planet and allies during Operation Impending Doom I; pleads with the Tallest to assign him a planet, and in a desperate act to get Zim as far away as possible, they assign him to a presumed planet on the outskirts of their known universe that has never been explored. This "Mystery Planet" is Earth, and Zim's erratic attempts at world domination and/or the eradication of the human race begin.
Format for Episodes
Invader Zim follows a mostly self-contained episode format, the only continuity being the main storyline for each episode: Zim tries a new method to conquer the Earth while his human arch-nemesis Dib tries to stop him, with much lack of interest from the rest of the characters at large.
According to the DVD commentaries, Invader Zim takes place in an alternate universe of its own, with a present-day Earth more technologically advanced than the real Earth (though most of its inhabitants seem to be even less intelligent). The most common setting of the show is where Zim spends most of his time "infiltrating" the human race: a school (spelled "Skool" in the show).
Many of the extraterrestrial planets in Invader Zim seem to operate on a similar level to earth, sharing the concepts of fast food, vending machines, gift shops, and convention centers.
Main Characters
(Invader) Zim
Race: Irken
Class: Invader (Banished)
Age: Unknown
Zim is an alien from the planet Irk. He is a narcissistic megalomaniac who engages in histrionic outbursts proclaiming either his normality (for a human, while in disguise) or his innate personal and Irken superiority. He is constantly trying to conquer the Earth or destroy the human race, and is generally unsuccessful. Zim wears at least three disguises when in public, the most used one consisting of contact lenses and a wig, claiming that his green skin and noticeable lack of ears are part of a "skin condition". Another disguise he wears consists of contact lenses, a pinkish hat, a "hobo-like" beard, and a tattered shirt. The last is a simple human suit with a hole where his normal face pokes out.
GIR
Constructed by: Irken
Class: SIR (Standard Issue Information Retrieval) [Dysfunctional]
GIR is a dysfunctional version of the Irken SIR (Standard Issue Information Retrieval) units given to Irken invaders. In order to avoid wasting a functional SIR unit on Zim, GIR's mind was constructed from junk parts found in the Almighty Tallest's garbage can. He is almost always completely insane. Zim blames him for most of the problems on the mission, regardless of whether or not it is his fault. GIR takes a highly carefree approach to life, mostly concerned with his squeaky toys, food, the Scary Monkey Show, pigs, and television. He, unlike Zim, has adjusted to Earth life and food/snacks, and enjoys waffles, cupcakes, burgers, tacos, burritos, taquitos, sandwiches, and slushies--especially chocolate bubblegum flavor. He doesn't know what the 'G' in 'GIR' stands for, but most think it stands for garbage. GIR also adores mongooses, rubber piggys, and dancing in circles like a monkey. GIR is very obedient, even jumping off a ship when Dib told him to get off, or being told to get away from an ordering counter when Zim said no. Otherwise, in desperate situations, he generally does something other than what he is told to. His features change from blue to red when being obedient. G in Gir could stand for general.
Dib
Race: Human
Class: Student
Age: 11
Dib is one of Zim's classmates at school. Dib is the only human that attempts to stop Zim's mission to conquer the earth. He has been obsessed with the paranormal and supernatural since an early age. An avid paranormalist, Dib is often criticised by his classmates for being "crazy" or mentally unstable due to his outlandish theories. He apparently is the only human to recognize or care that Zim is an alien, other than Gaz, who thinks Zim is too dumb to take over the earth. Dib has devoted himself to stopping Zim's plans of conquest.
Almost every being he comes into contact with remarks that Dib has an abnormally large head, even though his head looks no more disproportionate than any one else's.
Gaz
Race: Human
Class: Student
Age: 10-11
Gaz is Dib's younger sister, who is often described as "Dib's scary sister." She has a penchant for video games and a fixation with pizza. She is hardly ever seen without her Gameslave (2) videogame. She loves Bloaty's Pizza Hog and drawing piggies. She knows and admits that Zim is an alien, but doesn't care because she is aware of his overwhelming ineptitude and incompetence when it comes to World Domination. She herself even said: "Yeah Zim's an alien, but who cares- he's too dumb to take over the world." she also sleeps with overall pajamas thats probably a pig- that has wings on the back. she once was seen to have demon powers- in gaz taster of pork when dib came to save her- a cilinder of purple surrounded her and she floated. she also is in a class with an overly happy teacher- which drives her mad...
Secondary Characters
The Almighty Tallests
The Irken Empire has a hierarchal class structure, where shorter individuals are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. The tallest Irken alive takes command of the Empire as "the Tallest", but since Red and Purple, the two current Tallest, are the exact same height, they share equal (and high-supreme) power, though their primary activities seem to be flying around in their spaceship, The Massive, inspecting the current invasion plans.
Both share a literal disdain for Zim, as do the rest of the Irken race, and gave him his "secret mission" as a means of getting rid of him. This proved unsuccessful as Zim still contacts them to update them on his mission's "progress", which is usually met with annoyance, humor, or a patronizing attitude. The only time the two have ever shown an interest in Zim is when he told them how tall the human race was, and how stupid they are, in the episode Abducted. Neither could believe that anything tall could be stupid.
The Tallests are generally lazy, sitting around eating snacks all day, and sometimes appear a bit foolish, though both seem to be at least less delusional than Zim. Red seems to be the smarter of the two, though both have their share of intelligent and silly moments. In the unfinished episode "The Trial," some backstory is given on the Tallests, who are apparently around the same age as Zim, having attending training with him; even then, they seemed to have always been together. The two were successful, as opposed to Zim, and developed exasperation with his antics fairly early; indeed, Red was already contemplating putting him on trial years before it happened.
Professor Membrane
Professor Membrane is father of Dib and Gaz. He is also the world's smartest man, host of the popular television show "Probing the Membrane of Science" and inventor of SuperToast. Membrane's scientific abilities are offset by incredibly poor parenting: his primary method of managing his children is by way of a floating digital projection screen - and his messages to them are often not only prerecorded but out of date. Also, he rarely calls Dib and Gaz by their names, instead calling them 'son' and 'daughter'. Contrary to popular belief, "Membrane" is his given name, not his last name; many fans incorrectly assume that Dib and Gaz's last name is "Membrane," when in fact the family's surname is unknown.
Ms. Bitters
Ms. Bitters is the teacher for Dib and Zim's class. Devoid of any compassionate emotion and having a very demonic hatred for children and life in general, she is a tall, slender, aged woman of unknown origin. She has a habit of telling stories that begin with "I was a ____ once", that show her doing whatever it was that she is talking about, and also showing how it went "Horribly wrong!". Such examples of this are her being an astronaut and a Fairy Princess, ending with her ship imploding, and her flying into a bug zapper, respectively. Another noticeable habit is her snake-like qualities, as it seems she can "slither" around 3-dimensional space similarly, and sticks out a forked tongue while hissing. She also has the ability to emerge out of other people's shadows as seen in "the rise of zitboy." The character is directly pulled from Vasquez's earlier comic book series Squee! where she was Todd's teacher. She also holds to the theory that the universe will eventually implode in on itself and we are therefore all doomed, and makes mention of this on various occasions
Tak
Tak is a female Irken with a grudge against Zim. In the episode Tak: The Hideous New Girl, she comes to Earth to conquer it before Zim can (and stuff its core with snack foods) to impress the Almighty Tallest.
Episodes
List of Episodes
This is a list of episodes for Nickelodeon's animated television series Invader Zim. The list is comprised of a pilot episode, 27 completed episodes and at least seven episodes that were in production at the time of the series' cancellation.
It makes me sad, because they would have made funny episodes
Cancellation
Many reasons have been said and discussed for Invader Zim's Cancellation. One is that Nickelodeon canceled the show citing low ratings, over-budget production, and lack of interest in continuation of the series. In season two, the animation style became slightly more stylized and pronounced in motion than season one. The majority of the completed season two episodes were never aired on Nickelodeon in the North American territories, although they were all eventually aired on Nicktoons Network in the summer of 2006.
Though also some say its because of the dark nature of the show, and was never a good example for children to watch. (But I highly disagree, speaking I was in the 1st-2nd grade when the show was on XD)
Extras
Irken Alphabet Chart
Irken Symbols
Military Symbol -| Invader Symbol - | Tak's Symbol --| --Irken Seal
Opening and Ending
Invader Zim Intro
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Invader Zim Closing (Theme)
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