Warning: Incoming Character Analysis/Rant
Everyone else probably ain’t ever gonna say it, so I’m just gonna be one to do it. People can talk about the tragedy that is Zib’s existence and how they have some pity. Me? I see this genocidal maniac on the same levels as someone like King K. Rool when it comes to true evil. Dare I say he’s the most evil character in the whole franchise. This schmuck deliberately took control, practically enslaved, his whole Earth to have his way and let his ego take full charge in ridding the Irken Empire. That all blew up in his face and resulted in nearly everything, including his own family, and ended up all alone. Think that made him realize the error of his ways? NOPE! Dude merely shrugs them off without a care upon realizing the potential of the Pandora’s Quadrangles and started all over, this time taking many Zims from across the multiverse and manipulating them into fighting each other to serve “Number 1”. Sure, there were rebels, but they were small fodder in the grand scheme to use his virus to take control of all Earths in the name of “saving them all”. Heck, when the OG Zim appears and tries to rebuttal him, Zib manages to overwhelm the insane invader about what kind of Zim is, making him break at the thought of truly being the worst. How can the best truly be the worst, something that leaves him completely stumped and broken. Zib was so close to finally quenching his delirious desires, finally getting his way with nobody to call him crazy or insane, to finally be on top of the world with everything that wronged him under his thumb, to finally be the best Dib…
Or at least, he would’ve been had it not been for the unexpected arrival of the original and best Dib Membrane himself. If Zim is Dib’s greatest rival, then Zib is Dib’s most personal obstacle. While it’s true that Dib isn’t perfect, being quite the eccentric, rash-minded, and frustrated paranormal investigator that he is, deep down he’s still just a kid that simply wants some approval in his life. More specifically (and stated in Florpus), all he really wants is his father to be proud of him. Despite his aggressive behavior towards Zim and annoyance at his peers’ stupidity, Dib truly has the best intentions at heart, not wanting to see the world he lived in destroyed and ruined. Maybe his father and his little sister aren’t everything he wants them to be, but he still loves them. His skoolmates are jerks to him and never believe him, but he would never wish a painful demise upon them all. Many times he has been unlucky to the hand of the world, yet he never gives up in his goal of exposing Zim and saving the world. Throughout every episode, throughout every comic issue, throughout one whole movie, Dib slowly but surely grows and develops more as a person to help feel grounded in his purpose of life. One step at a time, he becomes less of the kid who wants to expose the alien’s guts just to get his vindication and rub it in people’s faces and more of the kid who, despite all odds, never gives up in saving the world for a better tomorrow and to make his dad proud.
Dib was able to grow…but Zib just couldn’t. He discarded the consequences of losing his family, his home planet, everything in his timeline…and he did it without a drop of regret. Zib is Dib’s dark, twisted mirror, taking his characteristics to the extreme and violently doing what he does with vile intentions. He almost succeeded in his wicked plot, had it not been for Dib being the only Dib to arrive the Zimvoid and swallowing his pride to team up with the other Zims to fight back (while also unintentionally making Zim realized how Zib managed to construct his scheme and getting back into his usual antics). It’s through his imperfections that helped save the universe, because Dib never lost himself and never ended up like his dark reflection. Because of all that, Zib lost it all because of Dib, all because unlike him, he’s completely fallen into his delusions and cannot truly be saved. Dib managed to rise into something much more and eventually save the world while all Zib can do is fall into hysterics and madness.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the true unseen glory that is Dib VS Zib. A boy that climbs up the stairs despite the heavy weights he’s carrying surpassing a boy that lost his direction and fell down those stairs.
