#*blows up*

Draw This In Your Style challenge!! ❤️✨

Yayy I finally get to do one!

I’ve been meaning to do a draw this in your style challenge for a while, but holy moly-! I did not realize how big the family has gotten! When I started this account 2-3 years ago I had no idea what I was in for and the hundreds of amazing people I’d meet. Genuinely, if it weren’t for you all I don’t believe I could ever find as much enjoyment in art as I do now, and for that i am infinitely grateful. I don’t know how long I’ll remain an artist, but for now I’ll enjoy every minute that I am one.

synergy 🌕 🎶

deep inhale

It’s been very clearly stated in the show that aliens, more specifically Irkens, get allergic reactions from many common things from Earth, including, but not limited to beans, meat, peas and, most importantly, water. It was a theme that was consistently brought up on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS even outside of episodes centered around those themes. The allergic reactions are mostly compared to getting a painful burn. In "Tak, the hideous new girl" Zim was shown to get severe injuries from staying in contact with his allergens for a prolonged period of time, from which his skin was literally smoking.

GIR: "You’re on fire!"

Zim: "Am I?" looks at the smoke coming from his burns. "Ah, well."

Keep all of that in mind. We’ll get back to that.

Now, a bit of nitpicking. Not many occasions of Zim (or any characters) crying were shown on screen, but a few scenes did sparkle in, whether it be from intense emotions or an automatic response. The tears look pretty alike to normal human ones.

The last piece of the puzzle is that all Irkens are heavily implied to be clones and/or manually created organisms, while with different sets of DNA (resulting in different heights, eye colors, skills, etc.), still with some matching characteristics that are always (unless the Irken is a defect one) transferred to them (green skin, antennae, general body structure with limbs and a head, etc.). And as far as we were shown, Zim isn’t a defect; he’s just really small and a bit gullible.

And here comes the punchline.

What if, just what if, Irkens’ bodies were specifically modified for their organisms to react negatively to water and, therefore, tears? It’s a stretch, but sounds plausible enough. The Tallest are the kind of rulers to expect zero emotions from their soldiers, considering how they treat their subordinates and how much they’re focused on world domination. The Irken Empire may be a community where the slightest emotional weakness is considered an anomaly, something to be punished for. Eyes isn’t the part of body you can fully cover with paste to prevent them from being affected by water (at least not without pain, potentially stronger than getting water in the eyes in the first place).

The Irkens, from the moment they’re born, are taught that they were born to serve The Empire, the Pak system only furthers the idea. The rules are literally embodied in them. Their own skin isn’t something that they can rebel against. Irkens are taught that emotion is pathetic. That it’s forbidden. That it’s looked down upon. That it’s painful and it’s punishable.

The Tallest basically just prohibit crying.