hello_ree

This is not a kink post. Idgaf if people are into human furniture but this was about an irl coffee table shaped like baljeet from phineas and ferb.

Los prisioneros - Sticker Sheet

He’s still aesthetically and narratively such an antihero, the poor dweeb.

Observe, my magnificent Venn diagram

Only thing I didn’t want to tack on that because it bears worth of some more elaboration: Both of these two are horrible about recklessly arming their nemesis with tons of free information and striking opportunity that can only be used against them.

And Dib is worse at this, like, so… so much worse. Zim will do the classic ‘Muahahaha, now that I have you right where I want you, here’s a detailed presentation of my entire insidious plan, Batman!’ routine while at least having the class to wait until the hero is being lowered over the acid vat or tied to the train tracks. Dib, as a villain? Would start reciting that same speech while in the middle of trying to kidnap the hero, about 3 and a half steps way too early. It’s actually crazy how fast he will telegraph his next move even when he’s not in a position of having a real advantage yet.

The first time the two met and Dib stood there loudly showing himself as the most perceptive and hostile human in range? And then stood there explaining alien sleep cuffs and what he was going to do with them? And then stood there declaring war and that he’d identified Zim’s base location, swinging said cuffs around in front of the gnome brigade? Granted, he wasn’t aware of Zim’s security at the time, but the essence of that sequence was a pattern that he was more than happy to keep repeating for the next couple seasons.

Also, Zim’s brutalism, while it went to some shudder inducing places, is more expected from a genocidal maniac born from a race of colonial supremacists. It’s part of his theatrics and it’s fun for him in the same way it’s fun for his leaders to blow up innocent ice cream space-trucks and unlucky planets. Dib gets mean with their face offs in a way that’s just dripping with spite. All the time spite. Trivial, personal, petulant spite. Even more than Tak and her grudge, which, should be a lot more surprising to me. But it’s really not.

What it did do instead was remind me of a very interesting quote I once heard, from a Cracked video about online gaming behavior, of all places,

Zim isn’t even fighting alone. Dib is.

No matter what an antisocial, hazardous ally Zim makes, he STILL gets more barebones emotional support from the litany of defective machines he creates and surrounds himself with than Dib can reliably get from the very family he lives with. Zim STILL has a tool like Skoodge lining up to be his punching-bag/sidekick whether he wants that or not. He has an affectionate little companion in minimoose and an enthusiastic slave in GIR even if the latter is much less competent and even if Zim is emotionally willing to move on from them with barely a whiff of grief, thanks to the whole list of things probably wrong with his PAK.

He shoos off, mistreats, or outright destroys 99% of the beings crazy enough to team up with him, while Dib is. Freaking yearning for what Zim has and he can’t get it. He’s only some brooding works-alone antihero because he can’t get anyone else on his side. He’d love being in a whole team, he joined the Swollen Eyeballs for crying out loud. Gaz is the only close person who at least believes in Zim’s true identity, and for that she’s constantly dragged against her will into Dib’s antics. Literally refers to her as a sidekick, infodumps his updates on Zim to her, more than once contacted her for help when in a sticky situation no matter how delusional you’d have to be to assume Gaz gives one flying eff about exposing some idiot alien. Like, Dib wants them to be Dipper and Mabel Pines so badly it’s sad.

Tak shows up, shows the smallest bit of curiosity toward his hobby, and makes it clear that she has a bone to pick with Zim and it’s an entire buzzkill to Dib that Zim would barge in later and reveal that Tak is supposedly the same as him, if not a worse threat. One of the most genuinely hurt and snuffed out moments Dib has in the show was over finding out Dwicky was just humoring him at best and didn’t turn out to be a true partner in fighting the bad guy(s). Even with EVERYTHING else wrong and warped about Zib, his willingness to work with others, protect another Dib, and actively want a like-minded friend around him that isn’t a drone is not something he inherited from the parasite clinging to his skull.

There’s no “probably” about how that feeling of isolation is getting to him. “Vindicated” basically flayed that part of him open for all to see but it leaks through in every single time his eyes light up at being told by anyone that they’re here for him in this war.

Which, you know, it might be reasonable that even Zim had to eventually face the fact he’s not going to hit a growth spurt at age 500 - but that doesn’t explain why he dropped his ability to complain about the Tallest in general.

It might be that the Shift happened specifically when Red and Purple rose to power. The other Tallest barely knew who Zim was, but Red and Purple knew him for years and already detested him. And despite the thick all-encompassing cocoon of self-delusion Zim lives in, he is aware of this on some level. See Jhonen’s comparison between Zim and Dib in some of the promotional stuff to ‘Enter the Florpus’

This parallel doesn’t work unless, despite Zim’s insistence, he is aware on some level the Tallest don’t actually love him and don't think he’s amazing. He does know, at least subconsciously, that the Tallest hate his guts, and that’s what makes him uniquely obsessed with pleasing them specifically as well as doubling-down on the delusion that they love him to ludicrous degrees.

Or maybe, while the Tallest’ already existing dislike of him probably played a part, you can very much argue the biggest factor was the burning crashing failure that was Operation Impending Doom 1. Like with the Tallest’ hatred of him in general - Zim acts like he totally does not understand that he did anything wrong in ID1

But it’s clear that he has some level of understanding that he Fucked Up

The Pilot narration also seems to confirm that Zim’s obsession with conquering the earth is at least partially fueled by trying to make up for his Impending Doom 1 blunder

So his desire to both compensate for his failure and to deny that it ever happened is making him both slavishly obedient towards his leaders and obsessively insistent that they love him despite all evidence to the contrary - that’s the only way to shut down the voice in his head that knows that’s wrong. 

LMAOOOOO