Invader Zim is the villainous main protagonist of the 2001-2006 television series Invader Zim, and the main antagonist of the 2019 Netflix film Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus.
Zim is a member of the alien Irken race and a former Irken Invader; however, since his actions usually lead to disaster (having nearly destroyed the Irken homeworld during Operation Impending Doom) his leaders, the Almighty Tallest, banished him to Foodcourtia. While there, however, Zim heard of Operation Impending Doom II, and - obviously not understanding the purpose of his previous exile - "quit being banished" and ventured to Conventia in the hope of getting an assignment. Chagrined, the Almighty Tallest sent him on a "secret mission" to Earth, in order to keep him occupied and away from the real Operation Impending Doom II.
After arriving on Earth, Zim enrolled in the nearest elementary skool to begin his infiltration and gather information about the indigenous races. There, he became quick rivals with Dib Membrane. Zim's primary desire is to conquer Earth, mostly to prove his superiority and impress his leaders.
However, as mentioned by Dib's younger sister Gaz in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", "He's so bad at it." As the protagonist, he often has much more screen time than GIR, Dib and especially Gaz. Despite this, Zim is considered a villain morally and ethically.
The debate about him being a sympathetic villain is ambiguous because he is seen as evil due his "job" as an Invader, but has been mistreated and ridiculed by his species for almost his entire life, though he is oblivious to their hatred and considers his actions "good for the Empire", despite evidence to the contrary such as obliviously almost annihilating their entire civilization.
He usually only causes chaos and destruction for either himself, his own race, or Earth. Despite all this, he occasionally shows some kindness towards certain characters (such as GIR in "Walk of Doom" and "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy") and Minimoose in "The Dookie Loop Horror", suggesting some affection for his minions.
The viewer knows that Zim is an alien, but in the IZ world humans are very blind to this with the exception of Dib and Gaz, as well as a few others, who are the only ones that know that he is not from this world.
Zim, like most of the Irken race, seems to be based on the typical "little green men from outer space" stereotype. Many Irkens are about the size of a preteen schoolchild, but Zim is exceptionally short, earning him ridicule from his fellow Irkens, who are respected only if they are tall in height, as confirmed by Dib.
In "The Nightmare Begins", Zim was shown to be even shorter than the notoriously diminutive Skoodge. In addition to his short stature and green skin, he also has round teeth (resembling gums more than actual teeth), and a long, worm-like tongue.
Zim also has ruby-colored eyes; a very common trait in Irkens. It was also mentioned in "Walk of Doom" that Zim's eyes contain ocular implants.
As he considers himself to still be an Invader, he continues to wear the standard uniform: a red tunic-like garment with three black stripes and a triangular pink collar and sleeves, as well as black boots, leggings, and gloves. His PAK is light gray with pink spots.
He also possesses a pair of antennae, however, their exact function is unclear. His antennae visibly pick up vibrations in "Battle of the Planets". In Enter the Florpus, Zim's antennae convey emotion by either standing alert or drooping while he "schmoops".
Personality
Blursed image
While most Irkens are expected to be ruthlessly loyal to the Empire, Zim is considered overzealous even by their standards: Brash, arrogant, and overconfident, Zim's tendency to cause wanton destruction makes him a danger to himself and his own people, yet he still considers himself a mighty Irken warrior. In addition, he is acutely narcissistic and megalomaniacal, congratulating himself on even the smallest of successes; these, however, are few and far between. However, the pride he feels for his planet and its culture, as well as its people, is to be admired.
Despite his self-proclaimed greatness, Zim rarely succeeds in his attempts and is sadly held up as a complete laughingstock, a scapegoat, or a figure of contempt by his own species, a fact that he is either oblivious to, knows about but keeps a brave face, or simply chooses not to notice; this is hinted at by the fact that due to his self-absorbed nature, it prevents Zim from seeing his failures, past and present. He claims to be proud of all the past disasters he has caused (as revealed in "The Nightmare Begins" and in the unproduced episode "The Trial", and rarely acknowledges his defeats in his present mission on Earth (often blaming them on other characters like other supervillains do, or other factors, or completely changing the subject). When he is told by Tak in "Tak: The Hideous New Girl" that his "mission" was really an attempt to get rid of him, he simply rejects her statement as a lie. It is not entirely clear whether Zim is aware of his failings in the eyes of his leaders and is desperately trying to compensate for them, or whether he really is just completely oblivious to the opinions of others, as he had deluded himself into thinking he's "amazing" and can do no wrong.
Despite this, Zim is innocently loyal and obedient to the Tallest, the Irken Empire, his planet and his people, and is willing to go to ridiculous lengths to please his leaders, to the point that he is zealously willing to endure pain or hardship in order to gain their respect. In the episode "Planet Jackers", Zim even undergoes a rather severe beating in the name of protecting his mission and Irken interests.
Zim and GIR exercising in Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus
Zim's laugh and mannerisms are overly theatrical, which is fitting for his dramatic personality. As seen in "Future Dib" and "Bolognius Maximus", he can let his maniacal laugh linger for too long and be unaware of the disturbance he causes.
By turns this would-be Invader can be petulant, critical, paranoid, humorous, sarcastic, pretentious, pedantic, depressive, melodramatic, and even occasionally whimsical. He is often curiously attached to random objects, such as his robot bee ("Tak: The Hideous New Girl") or Li'l Meat Man. He is immensely proud of anything he creates, yet is often frustrated when his devices fail to live up to his grandiose expectations.
It's clear that Zim is highly intelligent (in his own crafty sort of way) and is a keen manipulator of tools and devices, but has absolutely no apparent interest in thinking things through to their logical conclusion. The fact that creating and unleashing a giant water balloon on the city from orbit in "The Wettening" will also destroy his house (but not his base) doesn't seem to enter his mind; when he hijacks the Massive in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars" he only considers (incorrectly) that the Tallest will be appreciative of his efforts. Nor does he really consider the consequence of restoring the natural time-flow of a city-leveling explosion in "Walk For Your Lives", despite being warned several times, by GIR no less, until his base was coming down around him. An alternative explanation is that he is aware of the consequences of his actions, but believes that they are worth reaching his goals and is willing to amend them after he does so.
Zim clearly is more than capable of destroying Earth, but he hardly ever uses this capability correctly. For instance, when he is accidentally sent a Megadoomer robot, he decides to use it to kill Dib, when the robot obviously has the destructive power to do better things. He has often come very close to taking over the planet, only to be thwarted by Dib or Gaz, Jhonen Vasquez has gone on record by saying that Zim has a "horrible sense of direction" and he is so preoccupied with unimportant "threats" that he doesn't get anything done, this may be a result of his paranoia.
One of Zim's abilities is his somewhat inconsistent skills at piloting; while in a tense situation he flies masterfully but seems to crash on most other occasions, and his skills pale in comparison to opponents adept at hand-eye coordination or overall agility (such as Gaz). Zim also has admirable engineering ability; in "Walk of Doom" he singlehandedly improved the SIR Unitguidance system chip, and in "Walk for Your Lives" he hand-built a variable time stasis field capable of altering individual time-fields. He is immensely proud of anything he creates, yet is often frustrated when his devices fail to live up to his grandiose expectations.
Smeet Zim hugging the "cold, unfeeling robot arm"
Even though Zim often affirms that he wishes to conquer Earth, it has been hinted that he would not actually want to enslave humanity or rule the planet himself. In "Attack of the Saucer Morons", Zim gained a group of human worshippers who would be willing to do his bidding, Zim, however, panics and tries to escape from them, believing that they are trying to capture him for dissection and study. In the Nickelodeon Magazine Special, in which Zim somehow finally takes over the world, he doesn't stay to rule for very long, instead leaving Earth forever (along with Dib, GIR and Minimoose) to ride alien bunny rabbits and drink soda.
Zim shows no remorse for the people that are harmed due to his actions and almost never takes responsibility for his mistakes, priding himself on causing destruction in the name of the Irken Empire, even when said destruction is aimed towards other Irkens. However, he is capable of forming temporary alliances with others, such as Gaz in both Issue 16 of the comics and in the cancelled episode "Ten Minutes to Doom". In the former, by agreeing to take Gaz to Arcadikon, it is shown that he understands her wants and values her interests, showing a level of understanding with her.
More or less he considers everyone else but himself (even members of his own race) expendable for his own plans, often exploiting them to reach his own goals with apparent disregard for their safety or well-being. For example, in "Hobo 13", Zim sends the soldiers under his command to their dooms when other, safer methods could be taken (even using Throbulator, the last soldier in his unit, as a battering ram), causing Sergeant Hobo 678 to fail him automatically despite the fact that Zim manages to survive the obstacle course. Another example is when Zim destroys a candy machine in "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", ending Tak's mission to become an Invader and he either doesn't realize that she's trapped or, more likely, he doesn't care. His behavior and unawareness of his actions are most likely the result of him being Defective, as revealed in the cancelled episode "The Trial".
Zim is most comfortable in ensuring destruction rather than gaining power and when he does gain power, he seems not to care much for it, treating it more like a means to an end since it has been heavily implied that he only seeks to take control of the planet to mainly earn the praise and respect of his leaders. An example of this was seen in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", where he easily got the entire human race to worship him when he disguised himself as Santa Claus, but rather than to build an empire for himself, he cared more about sending the humans away to the Tallest and thus, their own doom. Towards the end of Enter the Florpus, Zim grows bored of the humans' panicking at the Florpus Hole, saying "why don't you bow down before me or something?".
Zim usually shows little to no affection, often claiming to "need no one", but he occasionally lets a softer side of him slip by accident. In "Parent Teacher Night", when Zim thought back to when he was born, he remembered the first thing he ever said was that he loved the "cold, unfeeling robot arm" that "hatched" him from his incubation capsule and activated his PAK. In "Walk of Doom", he yells at GIR for leaving behind his guidance chip and stranding them in the middle of the city but when GIR starts to cry, he forgives GIR (despite the fact that he was crying because he missed the cupcake he ate).
Zim and Dib fighting.
Strangely, it would seem that Zim also relies on the presence of his mortal enemy, Dib, for motivation. He said in "A Room with a Moose" that his mission might not be as "exciting" without Dib around to "annoy him", but also seems to dwell on the big-headed human quite a bit, sometimes more so than his actual mission.
In fact, Zim enjoys tormenting and humiliating Dib even if it is unprovoked that he would just do it for the fun of it, making Dib's hatred for him real and his efforts to beat the Invader all the more personal. This importance was particularly highlighted in "Mopiness of Doom": When Dib briefly decided to give up his pursuit of Zim, the Irken lost all motivation to take over Earth or do anything in general.
Zim's plan begins.
In Enter the Florpus, it was shown that Zim has the potential to be an actual threat if he puts his mind to it, as he successfully hijacked Professor Membrane's Peace Day ceremony, but only after Dib unintentionally inspired him (and he even rubs it in his face about it).
Zim has won!
Earth was moments away from being destroyed and taking humanity with it, Zim showing a complete indifference towards his own life because his mission, even if it was his last one, would've been complete.
Zim sounding so triumphant while stepping into his own doom is quite fanatical because his loyalty to the Irken Empire knows no bounds and he is no doubt willing to go out like a soldier doing his duty.
Zim's PAK
Zim's PAK prior to his banishment
Zim, like all Irkens, was fused at birth with a mechanical device called a PAK. Zim's PAK provides him with life support, all the necessary nutrients for survival, and an array of different weapons and tools.
These tools include a set of four spider-like mechanical legs, an organ harvester, scanner pads, hand-held communicators, memory drive, charging cell, atmospheric processor, high tech infrared/night vision binoculars, holographic transmitters, and four rocket boosters, as well as a sort of biomechanical rebreather mask used in environments without air or with polluted air. It can also be 'rebooted' and revive Zim after a sudden shock to the system (like the wave of raw stupidity in "Plague of Babies").
As said by Tallest Purple in the canceled episode "The Trial", an Irken PAK contains all of a single Irken's memories, personality, and high scores. An Irken assigned to a specific task has their PAK 'encoded' for that task by an Irken Control Brain, similar to formatting a hard drive.
In the same episode, Zim's true status was determined to be "Defective". Although a Defective is supposed to be an individual with a flawed PAK, and Zim's PAK was undoubtedly as the most defective as Smeet Zim stated that it had "40 shmillion mistakes" and the unawareness of his destructive actions is most likely the result of him being a "defect", however, it can be seen in the episode that the process of determining an Irken's 'defectiveness' is highly subjective.
Zim's PAK getting re-attached.
In another scripted, but never completed episode by Rob Hummel, "Ten Minutes to Doom", Zim accidentally loses his PAK, which is then stolen by Dib. Zim himself begins to quickly deteriorate and it is revealed that Irkens can only survive ten minutes without their PAK.
The PAK attaches itself to Dib and begins to assert Zim's personality in Dib. Although Zim is almost dead by the time he retrieves his PAK, once he has it back on he is very quickly rejuvenated. As Dib states in the episode, "This device... it IS ZIM. It's his brain and his life support. That means his body is just... something to carry his PAK around."
It should be noted that only Irken biology is compatible with the PAK. When Dib wears the PAK the madness of Zim's personality is far more overstated than usual. Zim later states that the PAK would have destroyed Dib if he had worn it for more than ten minutes. However, this is contradicted in the comics by the existence of Zib, a version of Dib who has his universe's Zim's PAK fused to his head, and has survived with it attached for months.
In a deleted scene from the episode "Abducted", Zim is falls through a hole with fire, knocking him unconscious. His PAK automatically releases its spider legs and catches on to a railing. It then carries his body to another room and places him safely on the ground. This reveals that Irken PAKs are sentient and will work even when the Irken is unconscious. In "Ten Minutes to Doom", Zim's PAK attempts to find and re-attach itself to Zim (although it was most likely programmed to).
Existence Evaluation
In the unfinished and unaired episode "The Trial", it would have been shown that Zim is essentially the cause of most of the planet Irk's disasters: a few minutes after his birth he jammed up a chute with another baby Irken that created a blackout (Horrible Painful Overload Day) plunging Irk into darkness for five years. Later, an accident with a security robot caused another blackout (Horrible Painful Overload Day Part II), this one lasting for four years.
Trying to channel Zim's destructive tendencies, the then-Tallest reassigned Zim to the military station on the Planet Vort, where he dismissed the design of the Massive as unworkable and then created an energy-absorbing monster that ingested an infinite energy source which proceeded to eat then-Tallest Miyuki. Years later, it returned to get its collar and devoured Miyuki's successor Tallest Spork.
Zim plunged half of the military planet Devastis into darkness when he used a maim bot on a malfunctioning snack machine, as seen in "Tak, the Hideous New Girl". During Operation Impending Doom I, Zim was placed in a small circle and told to watch it, but the will to destroy was too great and deciding that the "Empire needed him" he stole a Frontline BattleMech and, out of overzealous excitement, proceeded to destroy half of Irk without realizing that he was still on his own planet - as seen briefly in a flashback during "The Nightmare Begins". Sometime after this, he scratches his butt, causing the planet he's on to explode.
Incredibly, Zim is proud of all these "achievements" and mistakes his Existence Evaluation for a party thrown in his honor, though soon realizes his mistake. When he is finally declared defective, the Control Brains attempting to delete his PAK's data are themselves corrupted by Zim and go insane themselves. Zim is rewarded with ten free minutes of piloting the Massive and declared 'the most incredible Irken ever' by the insane Control Brains.
Powers and Abilities
Despite his incompetence, Zim is actually shown to be intelligent. He is an excellent engineer, being able to tool with many devices and equipment. He has a very impressive arsenal, and he was able to fix GIR's behavior using a behavioral modulator and enhance his guidance chip. He also created Minimoose, who has been known to be very powerful and dangerous (although Zim doesn't know how to use him properly).
Zim is a very skilled pilot. However, in some episodes, he is shown crashing and his ship in flames, which hints at the possibility that while he can pilot certain ships, he is prone to accidents.
Throughout the show, there are subtle but noticeable hints about Zim's biology. He is shown to do many things that no human could do, hinting that he might have powers or inhuman abilities of some sort. Zim has been shown to have super strength - in "Attack of the Saucer Morons", he body slammed a woman who was twice his size and overweight and knocked her over, while in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars", he is shown throwing a child into another person hard enough to knock them off their feet. However, Dib was easily able to pin him down for a short moment in "Megadoomer", though this could have been because he was caught off guard.
He is shown to be very fast and agile. In "FBI Warning of Doom", he is able to evade most of the booby traps set in the mall, in "The Frycook What Came From All That Space", Zim was able to outrun Sizz-Lorr, and he was also able to outrun Dib in "The Nightmare Begins".
He also seems to have inhuman stamina as he doesn't need to sleep (thanks to his PAK). And while he still eats food, Zim is seen to have the ability to go a substantial amount of time without eating as he (supposedly) didn't have any food on his six month trip from Conventia to Earth.
Zim is also shown to have incredible durability, as he is shown taking hits from stronger enemies such as Oog-Ah, Sizz-Lorr, and Sergeant Hobo 678. In many episodes, GIR has been shown falling directly on his head, but he's usually fine afterwards. He has also survived falls from heights, such as in "Battle of the Planets" and "Walk of Doom". He also has been seen surviving crashes; in "Attack of the Saucer Morons", Zim survives two crashes (the first in his Voot Runner, the second in the Voot Carrier) and he also survived an even more disastrous crash in "Hamstergeddon". In "Zim Eats Waffles", Zim was attacked by a demon flesh eating squid and zombie soldiers and was only covered in bruises. In "Tak the Hideous New Girl", he and GIR are thrown into the Voot Runner, causing it to fall from the sky, and he walks away unharmed. In "Battle of the Planets", Zim is shown to be impervious to fire (or at least physically resistant to it).
At the end of Enter the Florpus, Zim's head is caved in by a puppy GIR had recently shot into space. While not shown, he most likely survived this and was only knocked unconscious, this evidently showed that Zim is extremely lucky, as he has survived countless incidents that would have ended in certain death, as exampled above.
Zim has been shown to have regenerative powers, as he's been shown to heal from bruises, broken skin (or skin deformities), and broken bones. He has healed from a popped zit, meat fused to his head, and his skin torn off his head and body ("Rise of the Zitboy", "Bolognius Maximus", and "Lice"). In "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom", Zim is left with a broken spine, and implies it will heal soon. It is unknown how powerful Zim's regeneration powers really are, it should be noted however that this is all possible as a result of his people's genetic engineering, so these abilities are more than likely common among the Irkens.
Weaknesses and Immunities
During the events of the series, Zim is severely allergic to several Earth substances, including meat, barbecue sauce, beans, pizza, and most school lunches. The last item may not be considered a weakness exclusively to Zim, as the food in the cafeteria has been shown to be harmful to humans as well. Exposure to excessive grease leads to the creation of an enormous transparent, semi-permeable, hypnotic pimple, known first as Pustulio.
It's unclear whether these effects are due to Zim's alien biochemistry or because the Earth itself appears to be, in the timeframe of Invader Zim, excessively polluted. The episode "Bolognius Maximus" offers an additional suggestion that the Irken body may be physiologically and biochemically much more delicate than a human's. Zim's genetic structure breaks down and turns into bologna much faster than Dib's after exposure to an identical infusion of bologna-DNA.
However, for each weakness Zim has found a compensatory mechanism, he discovered that germs could be repelled by covering his body in "space meat" and using conventional Earth disinfectant sprays (despite the meat then fusing to his flesh). He also discovered his pimples have hypnotic properties over humans. In the episode "Zim Eats Waffles", he thinks that eating enough Earth food will allow him to build up an immunity to it. Whether it has or not wasn't seen; however, the cancelled episode "It Feeds on Noodles" would have confirmed that Zim would have indeed become immune to Earth's food.
Zim burning because of the rain
In addition, in "The Wettening" after Zim found out about bathing in the school glue, he could be protected against water, at first it appears that he developed a layer of glue that permanently fused to his outer epidermal layer, but it was revealed that Jhonen Vasquez planned to have more scenes where Zim would be seen bathing in paste to have the viewer remember that he needs protection against water but couldn't due to time constraints.
It is first seen in "Door to Door" that Zim can withstand a large amount of water (when the character who Zim asked sprays him with a hose). This was seen in "The Frycook What Came From All That Space", where Zim crashes and has a small splash of water from a hose. In the DVD, Jhonen commentates that "Zim is resistant to water, but he's exposed to polluted water only."
A very over-reactive Irken.
If we are to believe Jhonen's words, what he is saying is that water can only affect Zim and his people if it is heavily polluted.
Zim also has an intense fear of germs and anything "filthy". In the episode "Germs", Zim orders a pair of "microgoggles" that allow him to see germs, portrayed in the usual cartoonish fashion of large, pulsating green blobs. Zim panics when he realizes that germs are almost everywhere and begins to spray them with disinfectant. In "Rise of the Zitboy", Zim obsessively rubs his face with soap after being hugged by a grease-soaked GIR.
An undocumented substance secreted by his skin kills lice almost instantly, this could mean that he is also immune to other pests on Earth.
His biggest weakness, however, would be his immense ego as it makes Zim do incredibly reckless things almost all the time. This is best shown by Issue 12, as in the future a more competent Zim has conquered Earth.
To blend in with the inhabitants of Earth, Zim has made a series of creative disguises. Zim often wears disguises to try to conceal his identity from the "earth-monkeys" that he plans to eventually conquer; they are often unconvincing and hastily constructed, but he knows that the humans are too oblivious to recognize that he is an extraterrestrial visitor anyway.
Zim's school disguise consists of some contact lenses and a bouffant wig. The contacts give his eyes a human appearance, and the wig covers his antennae; however, everything else about him, including his uniform and green skin, is left unchanged.
He explains away his skin color and lack of ears as a skin condition in the "The Nightmare Begins", and has passed off being caught without his contact lenses as a bad case of pinkeye. It was discovered in the first episode that the sleeve of his right glove can become a self-destruct device, most likely to get rid of an Irken soldier if they believe their mission has been compromised.
Zim in his old man disguise.
He occasionally wears an old man disguise, such as in "Walk of Doom" and other episodes, which he used throughout the first season. This disguise consists of a flowered hat and a white fake beard. It makes him resemble a short, crazy old man; in the same episode, he was mistaken for a hobo and later for a bank robber. Ironically, this is the only disguise Zim wore that nearly got him arrested and even discovered, as was the case in "Attack of the Saucer Morons".
Human?
In the second season of the show, Zim added another disguise to his arsenal: a floppy, huge-headed human suit with a cape, a sewed-on handbag and stuffed puppy, and a name tag reading 'human'. His face was undisguised, but no one saw through it as it was revealed humans saw a human face. This disguise was first seen in "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" and briefly during "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever".
Professor Zim.
A similar disguise was seen in Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, where Zim kidnaps Professor Membrane and takes over his labs for his new evil plan. The only differences from the above human disguise were that Zim was dressed as a scientist of sorts and was using his contact lenses.
The Pilot also featured an over-sized robotic battle-suit shaped like Zim's school disguise for use in the food-fight that occurred.
Brief on-screen appearances of other Invaders in "Walk for Your Lives" and "Planet Jackers" showed that almost all other Invaders use even shoddier disguises, so Zim's ineptitude in this regard is not unique.
Zim in his various disguises and outfits by Aaron Alexovich.
Legacy
Zim's plan had a lasting impression on Earth and Christmas.
Zim's name is still remembered two million years after the events of "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", in which he created a Santa Suit in hopes of finally conquering the Earth and enslaving the inhabitants in the name of the Irken Empire. Even though he was not successful, the consequences of his actions had a profound effect on the planet for centuries to come as his desire to destroy humanity became a yearly event taking place on Christmas, as people tried to keep the feral Santa at bay, ruining the holiday forever.
Meanwhile on Irk, in the cancelled episode "The Trial", Zim would be said to be remembered for several atrocities, including the deaths of two Tallest (albeit by accident), creating monsters, and even his birthday would have been remembered as "Horrible Painful Overload Day" due to the planetwide blackout he caused a few minutes after activation. Thus, he would have been viewed as a figure of contempt in Irken History.
Criminal Record
Throughout his life before and after he arrived on Earth, Zim has been shown to disregard laws set by the Irken Empire or any other world for that matter as he most likely is ignorant of them or they don't apply to him as he believes himself to be "amazing" and to a degree he is right as it has been shown he's so dangerous that no prison or jailer has been able to contain him.
Bellow is a list of all the crimes he has committed or would have committed, it should be noted however that in real life because of his insanity, he couldn't he held responsible for his actions.
Infiltration: As part of his "mission" Zim has to disguise himself as a "normal" human skoolboy to blend in with the people he eventually plans to either conquer or destroy.
Assault: It has been shown that Zim views humans and other races, even members of his own race as expendable, its for this reason that he has physically abused Skoodge since smeethood and even put an unnamed smeet in a chute when he was born and while on Earth humans such as Keef and Dib has suffered at his hands.
Child Abuse: Zim has endangered the lives of Dib and to minor extent Gaz and his classmates several times, as they get in the way of "his mission of doom."
Human Cloning: In Enter the Florpus, Zim created a failed clone of Professor Membrane called Clembrane.
Human experimentation: Several times Zim has experimented on humans such as with Nick which he labeled as "Neural experiment number 231" and Dib as seen in "Bolognius Maximus" in which was slowly mutated into a talking bologna.
Kidnapping and False Imprisonment: in "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff" it was shown that Zim kidnapped a kid named Nick and Officer Squidman while in the TV movie, he incarcerated Dib and Gaz so they wouldn't get in the way of his plans and sent Professor Membrane to Moo-Ping 10 as he knew that without him no human was smart enough to put the Earth back in his original place in the universe and in "Issue 34" it was revealed that Zim pays to have people he disliked incarcerated in the same space prison.
Time Manipulation: In "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy" Zim created a Temporal Object Displacement Device for the sole purpose of eliminating Dib from the timeline, which he eventually succeeded during "The Dookie Loop Horror" issue.
Slavery: In the first episode it was stated that Zim looked forward to having a "robot slave" of his own while in the Christmas Special he said he wanted to deliver humanity to the Tallest as slaves.
Impersonation: In "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" Zim impersonated Santa Claus to fool humanity to their doom while in "Enter the Florpus" he disguised himself as "Professor Zim" for the same reason, while in "Gir Goes Crazy and Stuff" he impersonated a police officer.
False Advertising: in the episode "Door to Door", Zim used some mind control helmets to make humans believe that if they don't buy his candy it would cause the collapse of human civilization while in TV movie Zim advertised the Membracelets to help with "world peace" when in actuality it was to move the planet to an unknown part of the universe.
Genocide: Since Zim has arrived on Earth he has repeatedly tried to cause the extinction of humanity and very nearly caused the destruction of his own civilization (albeit by accident) when he stole and went on a rampage on a Frontline BattleMech IV while in the unmade episode "The Trial" he caused the destruction of a planet simply by scratching his butt and in Issue 7 he destroyed a planet inhabited by advanced evolved beings.
Theft: Zim has stolen several times throughout the show's run going from human organs to some of Professor Membrane's inventions and Irken technology meant for other Invaders.
Grand Theft Auto: Zim has stolen several vehicles such as the Maim Bot, Tak's ship, a Weenie bus and even took control of the Massive.
Destruction of Property: Unsurprisingly Zim has caused a lot of destruction such as when he pulled Irk into darkness twice during "Painful Overload Day Part I and 2, the destruction of a large portion of Irk and Vort Research Station 9, the plenty of planetary disaster as documented in his existence evaluation and the destruction of the city twice like in "The Wettening" in which he used a giant water balloon or in "Walk for your Lives" with a slow explosion.
Murder: In the cancelled episode "The Trial", Zim would have been held responsible of the deaths of the previous Tallest Miyuki and Spork as well as killing Dib several times during "The Dookie Loop Horror" issue.
Animal Cruelty: Zim has caught animals and experimented on them like with the chickens he sent to the sun for whatever reason and the Robot Gopher which he presumably uses to intercept and presumably destroy oncoming trespassers, switched the brains of a squid and a cop and created a Giant Flesh-Eating Demon Squid and claimed that after he took care of humanity he intended to start a war with the bees.
Public Intoxication: In the unmade episode Plastimart Rising it was going to be revealed that the Slurpee-like Slushbuckets can get Irkens drunk.
Dib is Zim's mortal enemy during his "mission" on Earth. It's quite evident that the two hate each other, but because Dib is the only one (aside from Gaz) to know he's an Irken Invader, Dib has made it his mission to expose Zim for the "evil menace he is". The two enemies have spent a lot of time together due to them trying to stop the other from their goal of saving/destroying Earth, and as a result they know each other rather well, and have even teamed up on several occasions for the same goal, making them reluctant allies at best and willing to betray the other at worst when a situation goes south.
People have often mistook them for friends, much to their shared disgust, but ironically because they rely on each other to have a meaning in their lives, this would make the two adversaries "frenemies" of sorts. It is also quite evident that they share a few traits, such as both being outcasts in their respective societies, intelligence and height, as well as the fact that they have a grudging respect for each other, makes their rivalry all the more complex.
Although they hardly ever speak to each other, Gaz is not afraid of Zim and knows his identity as an alien visitor, but unlike her brother who sees Zim as an actual threat, Gaz doesn't care as she quickly realized that Zim is too stupid to conquer Earth. However, she underestimated the Irken in Enter the Florpus ,as he successfully teleported the Earth towards the path of the Irken Armada and for the first time, she understood how dangerous Zim could be and even began to hate him, as he was responsible for her father's disappearance. Interestingly, in early episodes she didn't care if he tried to kill all human life, opening the possibility that there are some lines she's not willing to let Zim cross.
On Zim's end, early on he viewed Gaz as nothing more than "Dib's scary little sister" and repeatedly made the mistake of overlooking that she is far craftier and more dangerous than Dib; however, there are hints that he is intimidated by her and has tried to prevent her wrath.
Zim eventually grew used to her and must have at some point realized that she will stay to her own devices unless provoked; this was later proven in Enter the Florpus, in which he saw her as a legitimate enemy to his plans and had her in house arrest alongside Dib to keep her out of the way and even taunted her, something he wouldn't have done early in the series.
Interestingly, Gaz has saved Zim's life at least three times as seen in "Battle-Dib", "Mysterious Mysteries" and the unmade episode "Ten Minutes to Doom", the last one of which would have been their longest interaction to date. And Zim unknowingly returned the favor a few times as well. However, these events go unmentioned in Enter the Florpus.
Curiously, it was intended for the two to be allies in the pilot for the series, as well as be potential romantic interests.
GIR is apparently Zim's only true friend, although in reality he is his faulty servant robot. The two of them get along, GIR is like his insane and hilarious younger brother, or perhaps his disobedient young son. Although they sometimes can't agree on certain things, they still try to make Zim's plans work, but they don't always go as expected. It's quite evident that GIR loves his master and is very loyal to Zim, however that loyalty doesn't always last as GIR is known to disobey Zim or sometimes ignore him, when something else grabs his attention as seen in "Attack of the Saucer Morons" and "The Frycook What Came From All That Space", while in "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff" he almost murdered Zim after being locked in Duty Mode, showing some possible resentment from the usually insane SIR Unit.
Zim, for his part, is frustrated with GIR's disobedience and tried to replace him as his "evil sidekick" in "Nubs of Doom", however it should be noted that he didn't try to dismantle or get rid of GIR, suggesting he has grown attached to the robot. This could be hinted by the fact that they're both "defectives" in the eyes of the Irken Empire.
Zim has a complicated relationship with each of his minions. He seems to be fond of Minimoose as he views him as his most competent member of his "army of evil", and this shows in Enter the Florpus, where he was crucial to his plans and the purple moose even admitted to saying that he believes Zim is "cool". In his debut episode, Minimoose did what Zim asked without question, which impressed the Irken. Zim's fondness towards his creation is seen several times, like in the final issue where he was knitting Minimoose a shirt, showing clear favoritism between his "sidekicks".
By contrast, Zim is frustrated with his Computer's snarky replies, and the feeling is mutual as the AI gets easily frustrated by his master's stupidity and tendency to disregard his warnings like in "Walk for Your Lives". Despite this, the Computer is clearly Zim's second most helpful piece of technology he has available.
Zim also had several other robots at his disposal both sentient and mindless, like the Roboparents, the gnomes, and his army, with various degrees of success and failure. The Roboparents are clearly the worst as they're poorly made, have faulty programing, and don't necessarily aid in Zim's mission in any way, shape or form, and have in fact caused more problems than solutions, unlike the robot gnomes who have done their job to keep Dib at arms length in some cases and thus are some of Zim's most reliable security droids.
His army seen in Enter the Florpus were by far his best minions, as they aided him in his conquest of Earth and Zim showed affection towards them as he knew all their names and even mourned their "deaths" at the hands of Professor Membrane.
His last minion seen was Clembrane, who was made as a poorly thought out plan to clone Professor Membrane and keep Dib grounded "forever". At first, Zim had no real purpose for the failed clone, but eventually ended up using him as a jailer for Dib and Gaz. Zim didn't have a high opinion of the clone, and only saw him as Irken property, however it was this poor treatment that made Clembrane side with the Membrane family and help save the Earth from both the Irken Armada and the Florpus.
Tak is perhaps Zim's most cunning enemy. From their limited interaction, it's quite evident that they hate each other, as Zim is the reason as to why she couldn't become an Invader and Tak tried to take his "mission". She claimed not to want revenge on Zim but simply to take "what is rightfully mine", however, this didn't stop her from making his time at skool miserable. Eventually, Zim had the last laugh, as he was able to stop her plan to destroy the Earth and as a final insult, left her stranded in space with a dismantled MiMi in the remnants of her ship.
Had the series gone on, Tak would have become a regular enemy to Zim, however, it's unknown to what effect future encounters would have had in their relationship, as it's clear they won't stop until the other is defeated or dead.
Quite interestingly, Ms. Bitters is the only being in the universe (aside from the Tallest) that Zim shows any type of respect, possibly because of her height and demonic abilities. This feeling isn't mutual, however, since from their first meeting Ms. Bitters seems to already hate Zim, which is hardly surprising, as she is devoid of any positive emotions.
Several episodes seems to show her getting annoyed with Zim's shenanigans and stupid questions, but ironically this isn't the Irken's intentions, as she is his main source of information on Earth and therefore vital for his "mission of conquest", and thus he only asks certain things in hope to eventually getting something out of his teacher that will get him one step closer to conquering the planet. Though it can be said that her lessons are far from accurate, and if they are she teaches them in the worst possible light.
It can be said that because neither of them is human that there is a supernatural connection between them.
In the episode "Bestest Friend", Keef actually served as a main character. He was used by Zim as a best friend (due to his physical absorbency of liquids, shock-resistance, and ability to come out all right after an unseen incident with a toy beaver and taxi) so that Zim appears normal to the other Skoolchildren. However, Zim grew tired of Keef following him everywhere and invading his privacy. It got to such a level that Zim's paranoia gets the best of him and he decides to get rid of Keef to ensure the safety of his mission. And while he failed in killing the boy, he was successful in getting him out of his antennae. as Keef stayed away from his former best friend.
Interestingly, had the series gone on, Keef would have learned that Zim is an alien, however, it's unlikely he would use this information against him.
Skoodge and Zim are both Irken Invaders, and both are hated by their leaders, the Almighty Tallest, for various reasons (primarily, their short statures). They have seemingly formed a friendship, despite how poorly Zim treats Skoodge, which seems to have been the case since their smeethood, as Zim has used Skoodge as nothing more than a tool to get ahead, but no matter how many times he is abused, Skoodge for whatever reason stays loyal to Zim.
Zim sees Skoodge as a pitiful excuse for an Invader, and calls him gullible, and he seems to be aware that the Tallest hate him, even while being oblivious to their hate of himself. As stated above, he often abuses Skoodge, and if the series were to continue on, he would not be very welcoming when he finds him in his basement. He thinks that Skoodge was just lucky when he conquered his assigned planet Blorch, despite Skoodge being an excellent Invader. Nevertheless, they're more than likely the only friend the other has, which would explain why Zim at best tolerates having Skoodge around.
Sizz-Lorr appears to be the only Irken Zim seems to fear. This isn't without reason, as Zim was so traumatized working under Sizz-Lorr during his initial banishment on Foodcourtia to the extent that he had to block out his time on Shloogorgh's Flavor Monster. The relationship between them can best be described as jailer and prisoner. After Zim escaped the first time during the beginning of The Great Foodening, Sizz-Lorr was severely understaffed and had to do all the work by himself for twenty years, which caused him to have a personal hatred towards Zim and as a result, he was determined to bring him back to Foodcourtia to serve the rest of his banishment (apparently unaware that the Tallest simply re-banished Zim to Earth).
Sizz-Lorr's hatred towards Zim was so deep that he forced the defective to work around the clock. Zim wasn't allowed to leave the restaurant and was made to do several humiliating tasks for the amusement of the abusive costumers. However, it was this hatred (and fear) on Zim's end that out of desperation found a way to escape both the restaurant and the planet, leaving the Frylord alone to endure another Foodening by himself, with Zim gloating over his victory.
The relationship between Zim and the Almighty Tallest can best be described as tumultuous, at least from the Tallests' point of view. Although they deeply detest him and will do anything to get him out of their way, Zim remains innocently loyal and reasonably obedient to his leaders.
When Zim ruins Operation Impending Doom and destroys part of Irk as well as killing the original Invaders (as well as most likely thousands of Irkens), the Tallest respond by banishing him to Foodcourtia and reencoding his PAK from Invader to food service; their response to such a severe offense would imply that the Tallest are reluctant to actually execute their fellow Irkens.
Zim repeatedly tries to win the praise of and please his leaders and will go through great lengths to get it, and is often very oblivious to their hatred of him even when it's quite obvious as they don't put any effort in hiding their negative opinion of the would be Invader, so this would mean that Zim's efforts are in vain, as Red and Purple have nothing but contempt for him but Zim has deluded himself into thinking they're his "biggest fans".
In Enter the Florpus Zim contacted them twice and while at the beginning of the movie he was eagerly talking to them so he could tell them about "Phase two" of his most recent plan to conquer Earth in the name of the Irken Empire, and in their final moments the film, Zim witnesses the Tallest suffering in the Florpus Hole with some indifference and mistook their screams of anguish as approval for his "success".
This could either hint that Zim deluded himself into thinking they were praising him or a small part of him might have felt some resentment towards his leaders as he fell into a depression once he found out that Earth was not on their flight path and that he lost their respect (even though he never really had it in the first place).
Zim has had several voice actors before the series had officially started.
In Jhonen Vasquez's original pilot episode, Zim's voice was provided first by Mark Hamill and then by Billy West. According to his DVD commentary, Vasquez ultimately rejected him because Futurama was still on the air and he did not think there should be two sci-fi/humor cartoons with the same lead actor.
The pilot episode with West's voiceover track is available as an extra feature on the second disc of the Zim DVD set. Hamill was not cast because Vasquez considered he was unsuited for the role upon hearing his recordings while Nickelodeon considered that he sounded too old.
Richard Steven Horvitz, who voiced Daggett from The Angry Beavers, revoiced Zim as a tester on the third pass of the pilot and was finally chosen to be the character's permanent voice for the remainder of the American series.
If The Angry Beavers had not ended by the time Invader Zim aired, Andy Berman, the voice of Dib, would have voiced Zim. This final version of the pilot was unavailable to the public until Christmas Eve, 2011 when the pilot aired on Nicktoons. At this point, the late Gary Coleman was considered to voice Zim, but according to his blog, Vasquez didn't want to cast a celebrity to voice the show's titular protagonist.[2]
Horvitz's style of voicing Zim was influenced heavily by Vasquez's own inflections and those of Vincent Price. Interestingly, Horvitz played a similar character (Orthopox) in the video game Destroy All Humans!, with similar inflections and personality. On behind the voice actors, it was shown that Melissa Fahn had voiced Zim as a smeet in "Parent Teacher Night"; her only line as Zim was: "I love you, cold unfeeling robot arm."
His foreign dubbers are Nao Nagasawa[3] in the Japanese dub, Magda Giner in the Latin American dub, [4] Bjorn Schalla in the German dub and Shihab Ibrahim in the Arabic dub.
Facts of Doom
Zim makes his debut.
Zim is fittingly the first Irken to appear in the series, albeit only the upper part of his face is seen in "The Nightmare Begins".
Zim by extension is the Irken/alien that makes the most appearances in both the series and the comics.
Zim could've been considered the first Nicktoon villain to have ever killed anyone onscreen (albeit by accident most of the time) had the show not been canceled, since the unfinished episode "The Trial" confirms that he doomed two previous Irken leaders by accident, and during a flashback in "The Frycook What Came from All That Space", it was shown that he blew up all the other Invaders at the beginning of Operation Impending Doom I. Considering that Sizz-Lorr said Zim nearly "destroyed their civilization" it's heavily implied that he is responsible for the death of thousands, maybe millions of Irkens, or possibly that he nearly caused the extinction of the Irken race.
Zim may have appeared in Jhonen Vasquez's comic book Squee! before the start of the series. A poster featuring an alien that looks Irken and wearing a wig like Zim's bouffant wig appears above Todd's bed. The image looks less like Zim, though, since the head is rounded and has mere stick figure hands.
In the original script for the pilot, Gaz was going to be an ally to him in his mission to conquer Earth, while also being a potential love interest to him. This was set aside in the final version of the pilot with some subtle hints of their relationship remaining, but removed almost completely from the final series for unspecified reasons.
Zim has been seen in a commercial on Nickelodeon holding a sandwich, to which he has bad allergic reactions. In it, he was knocked off a wire he was sitting on and thrown into a light, making it explode. This commercial was a crossover of other series on Nickelodeon. After the cancellation of Invader Zim, Zim was replaced with Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot, which was also canceled. However, Jenny wasn't knocked into the light.
According to a rumor, Zim is also seen in a Nicktoons bumper taking Gaz to an amusement park. The whereabouts of the clip are unknown, although the clip may be from a completed but unaired episode.
Zim's personality is based on the part of Jhonen Vasquez that refuses to listen to anybody that has ever tried to hold him back from achieving his goals, like those who told him that he would never make a living out of drawing cartoons. The only difference is that Vasquez's relentlessness benefits him while Zim's is purely self-destructive.
Vasquez also said that Zim is that version of him "highly concentrated", where his greatest superpower is his inability to understand why he might fail.
Contrary to what a handful of people have thought, the name "ZIM" wasn't inspired by the character Sergeant Charles Zim from Starship Troopers, who was portrayed by Clancy Brown (the voice of Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants). Brown came across Jhonen Vasquez during a recording session and asked if there were any connections between the Zims, but as it turns out Zim's name came from a Tamagotchi Vasquez had given to a previous girlfriend.
Zim is known to smell things and scents even though he does not have a nose, or his nostrils are so small that they're not visible, as evidenced in "Germs", when he is seen sniffing the scent saying it was the "stink of clean".
In Jhonen Vasquez's Meanwhile... comic "Jhonen Vasquez V.S. The Devil", there are aliens flying a ship similar to Zim's Voot Runner, though the aliens inside the ship look nothing like Irkens.
In one episode of Fanboy & Chum Chum called "Dollar Day", Zim can be seen on a comic cover in the background. His skin is faintly green and he is wearing his disguise, so one must be careful when looking for him.
At some point in the series, Zim had learned to read human writing, as he is seen reading the newspaper, and understanding what it says, in "Zim Eats Waffles". Similarly, Zim seems to have been able to write in English early in the series, as seen in "Career Day".
Zim is a playable character in Nicktoons MLB alongside Gaz; best used as a first base-Irken, his bat is one of the strongest in the entire game if Turbo Hit is activated and he maintains his concentration. His clothes and overall body rendering are the same as in the show, only he wears a pinkish baseball cap that transforms into a first baseman's helmet when he is in first base. He also has a collectible card that mentions that he was almost cut from the roster when it was discovered that he was pulling a prank on fellow team players (tying their shoelaces together). His 'up to bat' pose is an action movie-style jump. Everyone in the stadium cheers him on (including Gaz and Dib) when he gets a home run, as do the hundreds of Irkens in the stands when he knocks the ball out of the park.
Despite Zim being widely hated within the universe of the show, he is also quite respected by some, such as Keef, Professor Membrane, Invader Skoodge, Sergeant Slab Rankle, the Plim, Mooshy, and Spoopty among others. He is also really beloved in the fandom.
The fact that Invader Tenn looks quite a bit like Zim may hint at the possibility that the two of them may actually be related since its possible that the Control Brains used similar DNA to create them.
Ironically, Zim is the closest thing Dib has to a friend.
Only three people during the whole series have been shown to intimidate or frighten Zim: Sergeant Hobo 678, Sizz-Lorr and Gaz.
Although by the time of Enter the Florpus, Zim no longer seems to be intimidated by Gaz, which might suggest he got used to her or at the very least grew more cautious around her.
Zim's name is spelled in capital letters in the official voice scripts.
Other media forms stylize his names in the same fashion, and some people consider it the canonical way of writing his name.
Jhonen Vasquez stated that Irkens write in all caps "because they are annoying".[5]
Whenever Zim writes his name in the show, he writes it as "ZiM", capitalizing the "Z" and "M" but leaving the "i" lowercase. This is how his name appears in the show's title card as well.
In the Japanese and Latin American dubs of the show, Zim is voiced by a woman. In the latter, his Spanish voice actress' voice is pitched down to sound more male in initial episodes.
In Japanese, Zim's name is pronounced as Jim, as the language technically lacks a "zi" sound.
Zim's Latin American voice actress, Magda Giner, also dubbed Lois Wilkerson from "Malcolm in the Middle". Coincidentally, both characters are known to scream a lot.
As hinted in "Nubs of Doom" and confirmed by Jhonen Vasquez, purple is Zim's favorite color.
In some rare cases, Zim has a habit of procrastinating on his mission as seen in Issue 1, Issue 20 and the canceled episode "Mopiness of Doom".
Jhonen Vasquez, who is an avid gamer, has said that Zim likes video games. This was proven as he was seen in the pilot playing "Pain Piggy" in his base, while in "Bestest Friend" he told Keef he had video games, and in the unfinished episode "The Trial" the script had him playing video games during his existence evaluation. This makes Zim the only other character besides Gaz (on a regular basis) and the Shadowhog (in "Gaz, Taster of Pork") who is seen playing video games in the series.
The unfinished episode "The Trial" implies that Zim may have an actual disorder, as the titular trial amounts to a process of Zim being declared legally insane or suffering from paranoia and mania.
Zim would have been the only known Irken defective to not be deactivated seeing as the Control Brains themselves became insane from all the bad data in his PAK.
Interestingly, the Control Brains can re-encode Zim's PAK from an Irken Invader to a Fast Food Drone without any problems but as mentioned above are unable to erase his PAK.
In "The Nightmare Begins", Zim draws his base on a tablet first. If you watch closely, this shows that Zim draws it with his left hand. Yet in "Career Day" while taking the ink-blot test, he writes with his right hand. So Zim is ambidextrous.
In some earlier episodes and the intro, Zim has four fingers, but later he has only three, this was probably done so as to make him appear more alien.
Since Zim is allegedly an adult by the beginning of the series (not officially confirmed by Jhonen, as he stated that he does not know the true age of the Irkens), it's unlikely that he will grow in height unless Irkens have a growth spurt outside of their home planet, which is something fans have used in fan fictions quite a lot.
In the game "Don't Starve Together", he is shown as a character mod. He is also a model in Gmod.
Ironically despite Zim wanting to enslave or destroy the human race, he seems to have a decent amount of "popularity" among not just the Skoolchildren but with a few citizens as people often side with him rather than Dib even when it is painfully clear that he hates humanity, at least for the majority of episodes that were completed before cancellation.
Zim met President Man in "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" and again in Issue 32. This is the only time in the series and comics, respectively, that he comes across one of Earth's world leaders.
In the episode "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" it was shown that Zim can whistle, what was odd was that he knew the lyrics of "If You're Happy and You Know It" which may hint he's getting familiar with human culture.
In an interview with IGN in 2004, Jhonen Vasquez said that he "always imagined Zim as just being utterly unaware of his shortcomings, to a dangerous extent even. He's not really stupid, but he's got some problems getting priorities straight. He's this alien from an incredibly advanced race (technologically anyhow), with access to a universe of power. And yet he stays in school all day, enduring it, hating it, fearing it and freaking out about it. The thought of sneaking out or setting a robot in his place never crosses his mind. He gets so caught up with the most unimportant details, he ends up getting nothing done; He gets a giant robot, and his plan is to go beat Dib up. It was cool to remind people that he really was in control of some impressive stuff, but that his sense of control was so horrible that it didn't matter if his plans were foolproof."
It was stated by Vasquez that while Zim's mission is actually an exile, Earth was still filed by the Irken Control Brains as a possible planet for conquest that is being infiltrated by a former elite, meaning that in a way Zim is an unofficial Invader, this can be proven by the fact that the Tallest still listen to Zim's mission reports despite the fact they don't care nor do they consider Earth important enough to invade but the Control Brains might think otherwise.
Interestingly since Zim accidentally discovered Earth, other aliens may be aware of his discovery. One clue can be the fact that mail delivery services are seen sending him stuff to the planet.
In this sense, Zim could technically be considered an explorer for the Irken Empire.
Zim is the first Irken to have set foot on both Earth and Mars.
It's also implied but never shown in the series that Zim is the first Irken that has landed on Earth's moon at some point, as he promised it to GIR, probably because he saw no use for the satellite. It wasn't until Issue 21 that he eventually was seen on the moon.
Zim has the most appearances of the four main characters in both the TV series and the comics. This is unsurprising since he is the main character.
His voice actor, Richard Horvitz, claimed those episodes were his least favorite because Zim doesn't make an appearance in them.
So far, Zim is the only character to have appeared in every issue of the comics.
Recap Kid did appear in every Issue of the monthly comics until the character was retired for the Quaterly issues.
Zim's Smeet. (Awww)
In Issue 7, when Zim landed on a previously lifeless planet, the Voot Runner's leaking fluid started the fast-paced evolution of life on the planet and he accidentally created life. At one point, Zim also spits in the fluid, creating a smeet similar in appearance to him (but with the color of Gaz's eyes), that refers to Zim as "papa". This technically makes Zim a parent, which would be the first time that has happened with an Irken in hundreds, if not thousands of years, as currently, the species as a whole has no families or means of sexual reproduction.
In Issue 13, Zim admits that he has trouble telling human genders apart. He's shown making this mistake in Issue 17 when he refers to Dib as a lady. However, this could simply be a gag made just for the comic series and it's not meant to be considered canon, since several times in the series he correctly calls Dib "Earth boy" and the joke could be a possible reference to Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama since he is also an alien who makes the same mistake all too often.
Coincidentally, Billy West, who voices Dr. Zoidberg, voiced Zim in the pilot and almost voiced him for the entire series had Richard Horvitz not landed the role.
In an interesting twist, Zim actually became a human in Issue 21 when he swapped bodies with Gaz; seeing as he hates humans more than anything, as stated in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", he ironically became what he hates the most.
Zim has been able to create life from scratch, as in the above mention of Issue 7 when he accidentally terraformed a previously dead planet and even fathered a smeet for a few seconds. However, this may be a less than impressive achievement, as it has been hinted that Irkens can create blobs, which are another sentient and non-sentient lifeforms as seen in both the series and comics.
Zim has only cried twice during the duration in the series, first in "The Frycook What Came from All That Space" and then in Enter the Florpus.
Assuming that everything in the comic series is canon, Zim will eventually grow out of his "Defective" nature, finally conquering Earth and succeed in earning the Tallest respect as seen in Issue 12. This can possibly be a result of his PAK finally getting those "40 shmillion mistakes" fixed or maybe having most of it removed.
In an interview when someone asked Jhonen Vasquez if Zim would ever conquer Earth, he laughed and said yes. The episode "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", may suggest otherwise.
However, this finally happened in both an issue of the comics and Enter the Florpus. This makes Zim one of the four characters to have conquered the planet, the other three being GIR in "The Trial", Emperor Zim in Issue 12, and Gaz (in Zim's body) in Issue 21.
Issue 25 shows some of Zim's backstory as an Invader in training. Sadly no further issues of the comic depicted more of Zim's past, making this one of the rare cases within the franchise where The viewers/readers find out information about Zim prior to the start of the series/comics.
Issue 28 reveals that Zim doesn't know what hot dogs are made of and claims that "No one knows."
In Issue 34, Zim believes that he and Prisoner 777 are "old friends" despite the fact that he has his children hostage on Earth, as revealed in Issue 1.
In a twisted way, Zim is technically saving the lives of 777's children by keeping them in his base, as it's unknown what Irkens do to young Vortians after they conquered Vort.
In Issue 40, it was revealed that across the multiverse, in universes where both Zim and Dib exist, they always end up meeting and are destined to be enemies.
Also, Issues 5, 32, 46 and 47 also show that there are different versions of Zim but only the last one showed that some are more incompetent or a bit more competent than him and only one Zim was smart and ruthless enough that he has conquered the Zimvoid and possibly his version of Earth. (Although he was revealed to be a Dib disguised as another Zim).
Issue 47 also reveals that in one universe Zim is named Carl.
It was revealed in Issue 44 that Zim sometimes makes questionable business deals with other aliens. This would explain how he has monies since it's unlikely that the Tallest pay him.
Zim and Li'l Meat Man.
In Issue 45 it was shown that Zim surprisingly knows how to drive a car, as he stole a weenie mobile from the Deelishus Weenie restaurant and even more shockingly took a road trip despite hating everything about Earth.
In the same issue, it was seen that Zim is actually capable of feeling love, as he comes to care for Li'l Meat Man as if it really were his child. However, once it fully registers with him that Li'l Meat Man is just a wad of meat, he stops caring about it.
Also, as previously seen in "Parent Teacher Night" Zim has an affection for his cold unfeeling robot arm. This shows that Irkens can feel love as Jhonen Vasquez claimed.
In Issue 46, it's revealed that Zim doesn't remember Tak and Skoodge even when they're the Irkens that Zim has talked to the most next to the Tallest.
Vasquez confirmed that only polluted water can harm Zim (as well as other Irkens), this is most likely because realistically, there is also water in Earth's atmosphere and if Zim kept breathing the planet's oxygen, it would only be a matter of time till it killed him.
Zim has been shown to have memory lapses in many instances, such as in "Gaz, Taster of Pork", when he said that Dib was "making it up" when Dib brought up the events of "Bolognius Maximus"; in "The Frycook What Came from All That Space", when he initially didn't remember working on Foodcourtia (although he could possibly have simply blocked out his time at Shloogorgh's Flavor Monster as the abuse he received from costumers and Sizz-Lorr alike traumatized him); and in the end panel of Issue 3 where he didn't remember the events of that issue. This is often used to play with the series' floating timeline, as other characters can remember certain events, but Zim can't. Alternatively, Zim does remember but pretends not to out of pride.
Amazingly, Zim is at the same time capable of remembering things he's not even present for, as he's able to remember something Sizz-Lorr said when Zim was nowhere in sight. Additionally in "The Nightmare Begins", Zim apparently remembered something Dib did despite just arriving on Earth, though this might just be him pretending in order to make Dib look crazier.
This hints at the possibility that his damaged PAK is somehow responsible for this ability. If it (sans life support and personality components) were removed, his memory might improve a bit.
Ironically, Zim is arguably a better defender than an Invader seeing as he has saved the Earth a handful of times both in the show and the comics.
In the original script of the pilot, Gaz was going to be one of Zim's allies in his conquest of Earth, as well as be a potential love interest to him. This was largely set aside in the pilot except for some subtle hints, but kept out of the majority of the final series due to parents' concerns.
As shown in "Walk of Doom", Zim may have claustrophobia, germophobia, and agrophobia.
If Issue 16 is canon then Zim would also have a fear of clowns.
This may be a reference to Richard Horvitz other well known role, Billy from "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" who also has an extreme fear of clowns.
According to Jhonen Vasquez, Zim is older than any living human and arguably any living being on planet Earth.
Vasquez later confirmed that while he himself doesn't know Zim's exact age. He's canonically a young adult by Irken standards but quite old by human standards, and due to his enmity with the Membranes, he is forced to spend his free time fighting human children since they're the only thing getting in the way of completing his mission.[6]
There was the possibility of Zim's age originally planned to be around 160 Earth years and 16 in Irken years, but was most likely scrapped; similar to what happened to Dib's last name to be unknown but was later changed to "Membrane" in the comics.
Despite Jhonen's claims, Melissa Fahn sees Zim and Gaz both as children; she mentioned this to a fan at InvaderCON III: Final Doom.
Vasquez has stated that the four main characters aren't evil and that Zim and Dib are both "good guys" but on "different sides". This makes sense in Zim's case, as he is a "defective" and can't tell the difference between right and wrong.
However, Zim has explicitly proclaimed himself to be "evil", notably in the episode "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars" when he said, "With this, I can pilot the Massive and bring the Almighty Tallest here to witness my ingenious evil!"
Despite Zim presumably having over a century of military training he is unable to defeat or kill Dib and Gaz who are mere children or "smeets" in Irken terms and theoretically shouldn't be considered a threat to his "mission", this could be due in part to his questionable sanity or maybe that Zim himself has yet to actually reach a level of mental maturity since he has remained the same personality-wise for most of his life.
It could be argued that had Zim picked a better disguise or enrolled in another Skool, he never would have met Dib or Gaz and it's likely that he would have conquered Earth much faster without them gettIng in his way.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2018, Jhonen Vasquez said he believes that Zim is hard of hearing, which would explain why he screams so much.
Issue 34 reveals that Zim pays to have his enemies (and people he just doesn't like) locked up in the space prison Moo-Ping 10.
Curiously he never paid to have Dib incarcerated even though he had the monies and means to do so.
Zim can actually tell when other species are disguised as an Irken, unlike other Irkens, as seen in Issue 43 when he was the only one that recognized Dib even when he was wearing a terrible disguise. This is an ironic reversal of their standard dynamic, where Dib is one of the only humans who can tell Zim is an alien in an awful human disguise.
Steve Ressel once said that if the Tallest ever told Zim the truth about his "mission", he wouldn't believe them as he is too arrogant, interestingly the Tallest never told him and Zim realized the Tallest had no intention to come to Earth by himself.
In Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, it's revealed that Zim knows some Spanish, as he says "Vamonos" which translates to "Let's go", at one point (Which is what Zim says in the Latin American version of the film). This could be because he and GIR were stranded in Mexico at the end of the episode "Walk of Doom", and were stuck there presumably for some time, perhaps long enough for him to learn the language.
In the movie its also revealed that Zim's antennae resemble Johnny C's "Bunny hairstyle" when they're bent forward.
In a daydream Zim had in Enter the Florpus, it was revealed that he still believes that he holds the Invader rank despite being demoted to a Fast Food Drone. This can be inferred from the original series too.
In the film, it's shown that Zim believes that the Tallest are his "biggest fans", highlighting the extent of his delusions about how they really feel about him.
The YouTube video "Evil to Most Evil" voted Zim as the second most evil Nicktoon villain, only losing to Fire Lord Ozai from Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Zim's mechanical spider legs are similar to Spider-Man's, Iron Spider's waldoes, or Superior Spider-Man's mechanical spider legs.
"The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" Is the only episode of the series that seems to heavily imply that at one point in time, the human race did find out about Zim but his identity as an Irken Invader has apparently been forgotten to the sands of time since two million years in the future he is erroneously said to have been a "little green nuclear mole" by Mr. Sludgey.
Zim is indirectly responsible for the deaths of four Tallests; however, Miyuki's and Spork's were by accident and that he never wanted them dead.
As the protagonist, Zim has made some big impact throughout the show, both positive and negative (mostly negative). Had Zim not escaped from Foodcourtia and made his way to Conventia, GIR would never have been made, Earth and the human race wouldn't have been introduced to the rest of the universe, Dib and Gaz wouldn't know about the existence of aliens, Dib wouldn't have a purpose and would probably have grown up to be an unhappy scientist instead of a paranormal investigator (as shown in "Mopiness of Doom"), Earth would have been destroyed by the Planet Jackers, the Resisty would have been killed by the Tallest, Invader Tenn's mission wouldn't have been destroyed beyond repair, humans would have been overrun with lice, monsters from a nightmare would have destroyed the Earth, Dib wouldn't be in possession of Tak's Ship, Minimoose wouldn't have been build, Mr. Dwicky wouldn't have been taken by the Plookesians, Mars would still be in its orbit, Squidman would be a normal man, Skoodge wouldn't have a place to stay, Santa Claus wouldn't be a feral monster, Clembrane would not be around and the Florpus wouldn't have been made destroying the Irken Armada and possibly Operation Impending Doom II.
Zim is a well known misanthrope, with the only people that could rival his hatred for humanity being Gaz and Miss Bitters.
An old bumper said that Zim is around 3 feet tall. However, whether or not this is true is unconfirmed. The bumper can be watched here.
In The Dookie Loop Horror, it's revealed at one point that Zim killed and ate Dib when GIR cooked him as a pie during one iteration of the time loop, This would make Zim the first and only alien in the series or comics to have ever eaten a human, but because of the time loop, Dib did not stay dead for long.
Zim's name was the last thing spoken in the comic book series.
In Smite, Zim appears as a skin for Cupid, being set to be introduced as part of the Nickelodeon event on July 12th, 2022. He will not be voiced by Richard Horvitz.
Interestingly it turns out that Zim has the colors of the Mexican flag on his person most of the time, due to his green skin, his white contact lenses and finally his red eyes/Irken uniform which may be a subtle reference to the fact that Jhonen Vasquez is Mexican, if that's the case then it would be very ironic as those are colors that Dib, Gaz, and Professor Membrane should be wearing as the family has been confirmed to be Mexicans.
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