🌟 im just a "baby meatball"🌟

yall look... ik it has been mentioned 100x but a hundred other people, BUT i just have to point it out more cuz it makes me sad... but like can we plz talk about how in Dib’s Wonderful Life of Doom, zim flinches? (and look ik it was a simulation, but it still gives a peek into what the possibility of zim captured would look like)

he’s like “AH YES THE INVASION” all haughty like he’s used to cuz thats all he knows.. taunting dib

but then dib gets just a lil too close and immediately he’s flinching and doing the classic, instinctual curling up on himself in defense, like he knows very well dib CAN harm him.. (like look at his body language man, creatures are known to curl up instinctively like that when threatened to protect vital organs) 

and then when he realizes dib is just closer and not attacking him, his body relaxes more but still kinda got that hand up in defense 

and then his reaction in general to dib just being like “i didnt ask you about the invasion” 

LIKE THAT SPLIT OF DISAPPOINTMENT.... and zims all just like “oh you were supposed to...” like zim the whole time was probably just thinking about how him and dibs next interaction was supposed to go and how it USUALLY went when they were kids, but nope. dib moved on. which brings me to my saddest theory/conclusions that zim is so much more dependent on dib than dib is zim.

as shown in mopiness of doom, without dib, zim is depressed and has no muse to keep going because to him they’re just... playing. essentially. most things zim does isnt even “conquering” its just to get dibs attention... like in gaz taster of pork. he acts all menacing about destroying the world that day until dib mentions that its the least of his worries at the moment and zim is just

like he looked so OFFENDED and surprised in that scene and when dib put it off, he dismissed that plan altogether and retreated back inside... but if dib catches zim and/or he now knows 100% that irkens and zim aren’t a threat anymore, he’d just move onto the next paranormal thing. he’s only so focused on zim because right now to him zim is a threat.

so i really do think zim does most things for dib and that he actually is pretty scared of him when things turn more serious than just their usual back and forth nonsense ( another example of zim showing fear of dib when things are actually serious is in ETF )

me: