Zim (Invader Zim)

Zim is the title character and anti-hero of the Nickelodeon animated series, Invader ZIM.

He is a member of the alien Irken race which is composed of little green men, who believe that status is determined by height. As Zim is one of the shortest Irkens alive, he is considered very low on his specie's social pyramid. Zim, on the other hand, believes that he is a mighty warrior and is superior to his own people. Since his actions usually lead to disaster, his leaders the Almighty Tallest sent him on a "secret mission" to Earth in order to keep him away from "Operation Impending Doom 2", not knowing that there was even a planet there. After arriving on Earth, he enrolls in the nearest elementary school to begin his infiltration and becomes quick rivals with Dib, an avid preteen paranormal investigator. Zim is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.

Characteristics

Jhonen Vasquez has stated that Zim's age is 16 Irk years and 159 Earth years . In "Tak, the Hideous New Girl", Tak, another Irken, claims that Zim had ruined her chances at becoming an Invader fifty years ago. In "NanoZim", Zim mentions that he has been flying ships since before Dib was born.

As a smeet (a baby Irken), Zim was created in an Irken incubation chamber and therefore has no siblings or parents.

In "The Nightmare Begins", Zim is shown as being even shorter than the notoriously short Invader Skoodge.

Personality and Abilities

Zim, like most of Vasquez's protagonists, gives the impression of being completely insane. He is an Irken with megalomaniacal, sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies. However, he's consistently portrayed as more of a danger to his own people, and himself, than to the human race.

Zim is dedicated to his mission to destroy the Earth. In the episode Planet Jackers, Zim undergoes a rather severe beating in the name of protecting his mission and Irken interests. Jhonen Vasquez has stated that he envisioned Zim as being unaware of his shortcomings. He trusts his own judgment despite indications not to. When he hijacks the Massive in Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars he only considers that the Tallest will be appreciative of his efforts. Nor does he really consider the consequence of detonating a huge explosion in Walk for Your Lives, despite being warned several times by GIR and his computer.

Zim possesses highly advanced technical skills on terms of a genius, albeit a mad one, often creating highly advanced technology that works a bit too "well" resulting in them backfiring. For example in Walk of Doom he successfully repairs and upgrades GIR's guidance chip. In Bolognius Maximus he creates a virus that turns Dib into bologna. He is also a skilled pilot, being able to hold his own against Tak, Dib, and Gaz. In the The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever he creates a highly sophisticated Santa suit, which he himself states worked too well to the point it supplanted his personality with the suit.

Zim has shown Machiavellian tendencies in regards to his interaction with others. He has no compassion for anyone else when it leads him to success. In FBI Warning of Doom, Zim persuaded prisoners of a cell to work together to escape, resulting only in escape for himself, leaving the remaining prisoners behind. In Hobo 13, Zim purposefully sacrifices his colleagues for his own gain. However, it cannot be assumed that Zim is completely heartless. In one episode, Walk of Doom, Zim believes he has caused GIR to cry by scolding him harshly (though unbeknownst to Zim, GIR is crying about the cupcake) and shows signs of feeling guilty about this, gruffly telling GIR that he sees he has learned his lesson. In unaired episodes, Zim shows a more sensitive side (i.e. sadly telling GIR that he has made a replacement 'sidekick')

Apparently, Zim can constantly "persuade" humans and even other aliens, except Dib and Gaz, into believing him, such as when he stated he had a skin condition or constantly covers his identity such as he did in The Frycook What Came From All That Space when he mocked Dib and convinced everyone despite the fact he was just at that moment using alien technology or in The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever when he convinces everyone to attack Dib after inventing his own holiday character after the supposed exile of Santa into space. This demonstrates he is highly manipulative of those around him and has the "charisma" to convince others of his point of views, though it may just also be the general stupidity of most of the characters around him.

He has also been shown to be highly resourceful such as when he elaborated a plan to escape Foodcourtia in The Frycook What Came From All That Space. Even though it was told to him by the fat alien, it was his resourcefulness and ability to persuade that got him out. This was also observed in Rise of the Zitboy when he uses a pimple to hypnotize everyone including Dib. In The Wettening he shows his highly advanced skills coupled with his resourcefulness by tricking Dib with a hologram of himself and then creating an enormous water balloon with his advanced machine wiping out the whole city.

Zim's PAK

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 six spider-like mechanical legs, an organ harvester, scanner pads, hand-held communicators, memory drive, charging cell, atmospheric processor, high tech infrared/nightvision binoculars and holographic transmitters. It can reanimate the user after a sudden shock (like the wave of raw stupidity in "Plague of Babies").

Zim's PAK, due to his actions after Impending Doom One, has him encoded as a Food Service Drone; this was part of his banishment to the Irken snacking planet Foodcourtia. In an unfinished episode Dib steals Zims PAK. Zim accidentally slips telling Dib that without his PAK he can only live for 10 minutes.

Weaknesses and immunities

Zim is severely allergic to several usually harmless Earth substances, including water, meat, barbecue sauce, beans, pizza and most school lunches, although humans in the series are also seen reacting similarly to the latter. In Rise of the Zitboy it is shown that exposure to excessive grease leads to the creation of enormous hypnotic pimples. In The Wettening, Zim discovered that bathing in white school glue repelled water, and that germs could be repelled by covering his body in "space meat" (hamburger made out of used paper napkins) and using conventional Earth disinfectant sprays (although it is never actually proven that Zim is allergic to germs; and the fact that he survived so long on Earth without knowing that germs were all around him suggests otherwise). In the episode Zim Eats Waffles, he thinks that eating enough Earth food will allow him to build up an immunity to it. During the episode Lice it is discovered that an unknown substance secreted by his skin kills lice almost instantly.

Disguises worn in public

Zim often wears disguises to attempt to conceal his identity from the humans that he plans to eventually conquer; they are often poorly or hastily constructed.

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; all 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, and has passed off being caught without his contact lenses as a bad case of pinkeye.

He occasionally wears an old man disguise in "Walk of Doom", which he uses throughout the first season. In the second season of the show Zim upgrades his disguise arsenal with a floppy, huge-headed human suit with a cape, a sewed-on handbag and stuffed puppy, and a nametag reading 'human'.

Other costumes worn include a fat lady outfit, used to hide the timefield explosion in Walk for Your Lives, bear suit seen when reporting to The Tallest in Battle of the Planets, 'Baby Inspector' disguise for interrogating 'Noogums' in Plague of Babies and the Santa suit and Easter Platypus disguises used to manipulate the public in The Most Horrible X-mas Ever. The Pilot episode also has an oversize robotic battle-suit shaped like Zim's school disguise for use in the food-fight that occurs.

Voice actors

Zim has had several voice actors.

In Jhonen's original pilot episode, Zim's voice was provided first by Mark Hamill and then by Futurama voice actor Billy West. Jhonen Vasquez has stated in the DVD commentaries that he felt casting West as Zim would have created a situation where there would be two comedy science fiction-based cartoons on the air at the same time with the same lead voice. The pilot episode with Billy West's voiceover track is available as an extra feature on the 2nd disk of the Zim DVD set.

Angry Beavers voice actor Richard Horvitz 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. This final version of the pilot is not currently available to the public in any form.