#iz vindicated

[ms-scarletwings]

The meaning of “Vindicate” because I found a pretty foul potential double entendre in this episode’s title

It’s a very fun word that dances nearby the feeling of “exonerate” and “avenge”, but it can ALSO mean something closer to “justify” or “substantiate” depending on the context.

The first chop of the episode and the title implies Dwicky to be this potential vindicator, and he was- but not in the sense that he’s validating Dib’s belief in the paranormal. He doesn’t need anyone to confirm he’s right about Zim or that he’s not delusional, he already knows that. But he has been accused of such by everyone who knows his name, so, maybe that’s the real meaning, right? That Dwicky was supposed to be his advocate and absolve him in the eyes of everyone else who treated him so poorly? I’m sure that’s what he was hoping for… but we know too well how that turned out.

Dwicky did prove something by the end of this episode though, so it’s a perfectly fitting description of the conclusion. What that entire series of events actually served toward was Dib’s mistrust and low expectations of other people. A disposition that you can say has been…

Vindicated!

[piggiebonez]

vindicated goes so hard easily top5 best iz episodes

[inbarfink]

Look, the important thing about Dib being an Overdramatic Weirdo but just less of an Overdramatic Weirdo than Zim is that it doesn't just means 'Dib defaults to being the Straight Man when Zim's around but other characters (or well, maybe just Gaz) can Straight-Man Dib when he's on his own’

It ALSO means that on rare occasions, Zim can play a Straight Man to Dib

[spacebabe51]

OK I don't want to sound too angry but I have to say I honestly HATED how Dib was treated in the opening of the IZ comics (and Florpus to a lesser extent). It was just a shitty "mock what a fat gross slob this guy is" joke and I still dislike that it's how Invader Zim was reintroduced to the world. It's small but it's hard to overlook for me.

yeah no honestly thats completely fair. Im not a huge fan of the first few comics- a lot of the humor really doesnt land and the characterization in several of them feels off. at the time that they came out, the massive hype from not having any IZ content in over a decade kind of outshadowed it, but i remember when ETF sneak peaks dropped being like "oh ok they're doing the first few comic :/"

On a bigger scale, fatphobia is totally rampant in a lot of early 2000's grunge/emo/scene culture media and JV's work is no exception. It def sucks that of all the things to carry on into more modern iterations of IZ, that was one of them.

[emeraldspiral]

Another interesting thing I picked up on from looking at Vindicated again.

Dib says he yanked an alien transmitter from one of Zim's computers which is used to send encoded messages from other alien races and that his plan was to use it to call Zim names in alien languages before Dwicky suggested that they pretend to be aliens.

So other alien languages do exist in IZ, they don't just inexplicably speak English across the universe. Zim and presumably many other alien species have translators and Dib stole one from Zim, which is probably how he's able to communicate with other aliens outside of earth.

Also, per usual, instead of playing it close to the chest and trying to hide the fact that he had this thing from Zim, Dib's plan A was to use it to say slurs non-anonymously, which makes him the most realistic fictional 12-year-old ever.

[kelvintimeline]

not to still be mad about the last jedi all this time later but people expressing shock at how heinous the casting for knives out 3 rly… rly didn’t think about the implications of all the weird shit rian johnson did in that movie

the romance between a character the previous, jewish, director coded as a nazi and a teenage girl the previous director said was “mind raped” by him and like… literally was abused by him

the sidelining and idiot-izing of literallly all of his characters of color while the man who abused them is glorified

the sidelining of female characters as well, to the point of mockery, while often either abusing the characters of color themselves ooorrr sympathizing with the abusive fascist

like… yeah… you can argue it’s just fiction or the movie isn’t that deep but it’s hard to not feel this is unrelated to him casting an incel who loves andrew tate/jordan peterson, a woman who wrote a defense of her rapist friend, and a man who abused his wife and almost shot his own child... oh and another abuser

perhaps he’s been weird and my avoidance of these films has been vindicated

rian johnson is and always has been a gross person with a very skewed agenda in his stories

[partlysmith]

Hi. Continuing from my last ask I would also say a lot of IZ is just Dib getting excessively shit on and there are times where it feels mean for meaness sake. I often wonder why that doesn't get nearly as strong a reaction as something like Modern SpongeBob. Maybe I'm being oversensitive but it bothers me personally when the writers just seem to overenjoy making a character a punching bag. Kind of made Florpus' tone a bit jarring.

To me, the thing about Dib is that he's got kind of an ego

He doesn't want to stop Zim for the good of the world (though that's part of it), he wants to prove that Zim is an alien because it would be vindicating

In his greatest fantasy, he doesn't just stop Zim and save the world from the Irkens; he becomes the world's biggest celebrity and single-handedly takes down the entire armada

I always got the vibe that they constantly shat on Dib out of personal experience. I remember being in the exact same position in middle/high school where I thought I was "above" people for perceiving myself as being smarter/more creative/more interesting than them

Dib's situation feels like the writers saying "yes, that part of your life sucked, but you weren't exactly a great person either"

[waterparksdrama]

so I don't care about this stuff in a meaningful way anymore, BUT i do feel very vindicated that Awsten/Otto is actually being recognised as a ship now. like I got into parx in 2017 when they opened for all time low and at my show Awsten called Otto the prettiest boy in the room..and 14 y/o me KNEW. but no-one else understood, it was all about gawsten then. but now people see the truth. god bless.

-iz

[sadlittledib]

my url here is actually from an IZ episode i think it was ‘vindicated’ but its been over a year since i rewatched

[monimolimnion]

hello my beloved!!! for the prompts: "Stede, mate... not that I think it's a bad idea, necessarily, but d'you mind telling me exactly _why_ Izzy is locked in the brig with two casks of rum and a seagull?" or, if you're feeling more aa inclined: "Maya Fey, you cannot seriously be proposing that my upstairs bathroom is haunted by a ghost." ty!!

i have been hoarding these last asks from the 5 sentence ask meme for a rainy day! and boy is it wet inside my brain of late. so here we go!

"Stede, mate," says Ed, coming up behind his co-captain with a bracing arm around his waist - habit, after everything that has happened, and something he can't bear to not do abovedeck even with peering eyes all around (who reminded him at regular intervals that it was 'gross' and 'like, totally grounds for a malpractice suit'. Sometimes he almost feels vindicated for the overboard thing. A little bit.)

"Yes, darling?" says Stede absently, without looking back but swaying into his touch, unconscious, even as he remains staring out over the side of the ship into the waves. He has that little pucker between his brows that means he's mulling something over, or troubled, in a way he's trying not to let fully consume him. Ed has a decent guess as to what that is, if not exactly why.

"Not that I think it's a bad idea, necessarily, but d'you mind telling me exactly why Izzy is locked in the brig with two casks of rum and a seagull?"

And there it is - the pucker deepens, worried, and yet dancing around the set of his mouth is the curl of mischief that he has hidden all this time under frippery, designed to drape over and mask it - but Ed knows better now.

"Why don't you ask him?" says Stede, a little archly.

"I did. He said to ask you. Then he fell back asleep." Not that he was really conscious to begin with...

Stede sighs, sobering. "He's adamant that Buttons be cast ashore. I wouldn't let him. Things... escalated."

"Buttons? I thought he liked Buttons."

He really had thought that. Despite a few screws being loose and rattling around audibly in there, he'd always got the impression Iz found Buttons the most capable at sailing by that far he was lonely. That he liked him the best, besides Lucius, maybe, but then that was love and hate and other things all in equal measure.

"So did I. But he got on the sauce at port, and started going on aboutwitchcraft. Said he'd hexed him."

"Well we know he does... Do that." Whether it actually works or not is another thing.

"Aye. Iz was admant Buttons'd made something not work properly... to be honest, he wasn't that coherent, so I'm not sure what it is."

Uh oh.

"I'm... sure he'll be fine."

Stede's mouth pulls sideways into carefully contained amusement. "Me, too. Regardless, apparently Buttons has stationed Olivia to watch over him until everything... resolves itself."

Ed tries his utmost not to burst into laughter that would absolutely spread intrigue like wildfire amongst this, the most gossipy crew on the seven seas.

"Wise," he manages to choke out, swaying closer to Stede and feeling his partner's ribcage tremble with the same effort that reverberates through his own; this, just one more of the most mundane of moments that nevertheless nestle like beach sand into every nook and cranny of his heart and body, everpresent.

He has no reason to want to wash them away anymore, either, so he lets this moment settle there like all the others; a pristine beach of memory, awash over past bedrock and open wide to the ocean spray of the future.

Never a dull day aboard the Revenge.

[prodigyxspectre]

Following the untimely death of notoriously delusional archaeologist Ryszard Minnich in 2295, the Polish government seized all assets related to his Inheritance Project. All that remained of his decades of work was a collection of hard drives filled with far-fetched theories and conspiracies of clandestine orders long-forgotten; all with nearly no comprehensive evidence. Nearly. In 2316, Ryszard’s great nephew and admirer of his controversial project, Tanek Minnich-Kapolka, became a prominent figure in eastern European politics. Tanek preached the idea of “Terra Relinquo,” which he learned from his great uncle’s ramblings. Tanek’s charisma and the controversial yet appealing nature of Terra Relinquo earned him a seat on the Eurasian Aerospace Council, where Terra Relinquo ideology would spread amongst his colleagues. As fears of an apocalyptic war between the American Continental Federation and the Union of Asian States were reaching an all-time high, the Terra Relinquo-dominated EAC pressed the Polish government to relinquish Ryszard Minnich’s research. Tanek finally had the power to reveal his great uncle’s work to the masses, hoping to find Ryszard some form of vindication in death.

Thanks to a fellow higher up in the EAC, Tanek would gain much more than vindication. Luka Aratani, a prodigious Japanese-Russian software engineer, discovered an inert anomalous device among the Minnich hard drives. Luka was quick to discern that it was some sort of storage drive, but it was clearly not of human design. While Luka worked tirelessly to devise a computer capable of interfacing with the device, his and Tanek’s actions brought a light of hope to Terra Relinquo believers. So much hope that Tanek was able to persuade the governments of eastern Europe and Eurasia to sign off on a proposition to construct colossal spacefaring vessels to his great uncle’s specifications. In 2320, the Minnich Preservation Initiative was officially enacted. Spearheaded by Poland, Ukraine, West Russia, and Latvia, massive economic and material resources were dedicated to the construction of five, 2km-long arks capable of saving millions should the worst come to pass.

The MPI would finish the construction of the arks and ships meant to accompany them in 2418, outlasting its founders but not their legacy. Minnich-Kapolka and Aratani’s investigation into Ryszard Minnich’s otherworldly artifact is a story for another time, but suffice to say that it was the last piece the MPI would need to be complete. This final piece would remain known only to those that needed the knowledge. Though, by 2422, it didn’t matter what made the arks work; the fact that they worked at all was enough. On December 21, 2422, a dormant entity living within the Earth’s mantle awoke. This entity tore the Earth apart as its parasitic offspring preyed on humanity. The MPI’s automated system mistook the tectonic shifts caused by the Creature in the Mantle for nuclear warhead detonations. This error allowed several million people to reach the arks before the Creature in the Mantle reached eastern Europe.

The arks were filled to just below capacity using a calculated demographic variation to ensure the surviving humans would have the necessary skills and variability to endure whatever the vast unknown held for them. The Russian-made ark, the IIK Risunka iz Rai, was the ark designated to receive the majority of civilian population, housing 1.4 Million within its confines. Following the arks’ escape from Earth, the Risunka iz Rai grew to become the capital of the surviving humans, used as a central hub between the arks as they sailed through the stars.

Yet, the question remains. What is the Risunka iz Rai’s secondary purpose? Other arks stored and refined fuel, grew crops and raised animals, managed power generation and distribution, and offered higher education services to Earth’s remnants. Is the Risunka iz Rai simply a residential ark, or does something darker lurk in its depths?

[fall-out-boytoy]

*sighs dramatically* okAYYYY i’ll ask something normal (/t): how do you feel about Dwicky?

He is..not the best counselor. he just DESTROYED dib's trust in him instead of actually helping. then he up-and-left dib for the plookesians (taking dib's camera! that's his 15th one this month!) with him.

also i think there was a lot of simping/drawing him in an anime style/etc going on several years back? which is?? why???

having said that, i do think a fic at least partially about Dwicky In Space would be neat! what did he do after the plookesians, etc

in short:

[shadowofthelamp]

I forgot it's canon dib literally rummages through zim's garbage, even though he never actually finds anything other than 'burnt gerbils and worn down rubber piggies'.

[bam-monsterhospital]

Elder Scrolls Online in-game pronunciations are so wild you guys.

First of all, you have a lot of american voice-actors mispronouncing french-based names.  Lookin at you, Darien Gautier, who fellow bretons (who are supposed to be a french-leaning/based people) pronounce as “Gah-tea-err”.  Now, it might just be latin forever scarring my brain with the first syllable, but shouldn’t it be “Gow-tea-yay”? (Edit: after being reminded of french sound rules (at least canadian french), his name should be pronounced “Go-tee-ay”.)

Then you have a cavalcade of latin-based names with the imperials, which come with their own set of problems. But hey at least Liam O’Brian as Scipion Averno knows to pronounce his brother Iulius’s name as “Yoo-lee-uss”, so that was vindicating and relieving to hear.

You also run into problems when characters have names based on realworld mythological figures, like good ol’ Iachesis in summerset.  Iachesis is a simple misspelling of ancient greek Lachesis, the member of the three Fates who measured the thread of a human life.  So, my own mispronouncings aside (in my head i hear ‘lah-KEY-sis’ ), you might think the “Ia” of Iachesis would perhaps be latin-ized in pronunciation (”ya-kuh-sas”) to at least rhyme with the original name... but nope... instead we have “eye-ka-sis”, which just heckin threw me for a loop.

Speaking of altmer, ffffffffffffffffuck. Fuckin high elves in eso were created just to fuck with my english language expertise, personally. Just to fuck with MEEE, personally.

Now, despite the english language being an absolute clusterfuck, there actually are some rules you can bet your ass on, even for pronunciation.  One of those rules is words that begin as “Ce-” will just about always be pronounced with a soft C.  The c will morph into an s sound.  Think, cerulean, center, central, celery, celebrity. Stuff like that.

High elves apparently fuckin hate this and go out of their way to have a bunch of ‘Ce-’ words that smack you in the face with hard k sounds.  The Ceporah Tower becomes “kep-or-uh”, social signifier ‘cerum’ becomes “kair-um”.  Hell, I made a high elf and button-mashed my way to naming him Cellannian Tilsi, automatically translating the Ce- to an s sound, but APPARENTLY according high elf rules this means his name is actually “Kell-on-ee-en”.  High elves frustrate me, is what I’m saying.

tl:dr; english is a fucky flexible language for pronunciations, i am a canadian english major/classics-leaning snob about it, and the most classically ‘elven’ elves in the game were thought into existence just to fuck with me personally.

[aperfecttimeforscreaming]

10 reasons why a poorly adjusted adult Dib is a Valid headcanon

1. Dib is/was a neglected child

Dib doesn’t have a parent that he can lean on and go talk to for advice, his father is frequently out of the picture and doesn’t give a shit about the thing that Dib cares about. Dib is actively encouraged by his neglectful father to give up on it, actually. I believe this would make Dibs stubborn streak really bitter and spiteful. Most people reading this are LGBTQ+, I assume I don’t need to explain how a fucked up an isolated upbringing, or being unable to be yourself around a parent, hurts you in the long run. 

2. Dib is bullied for the things he is passionate about, and being bullied heavily colours your perception of other people 

The world of Invader Zim is not kind, Dib is frequently harassed by his classmates/superiors/family for his outbursts/lectures/overall investigator shtick. 

Now you might say “but, Screaming, wouldn’t Dib learn to tone it down as he got older?” and YEAH. Probably! But does that mean that he would just forgive all the people that made his life horrible before that point? Or who socially ostracized him for the things he’d done in the past? No. No one is under any  obligation to forgive anyone who hurt them, and I think Dib wouldn’t even try to forgive someone he saw as intellectually inferior 

3. Dib is a selfish rich kid

Dib is selfish. He wants to be the protector of earth- but he doesn’t do it for earths sake. He’s clearly doing it as a cry for attention/ a reason to eventually be vindicated for being spit on by his own kind.  I don’t think he would have genuine empathy for other people. If he did have it, it’d have to be something he had to work really hard at. However, I don’t see Dib putting much effort into understanding other humans. 

Dib is rich (probably). This one being more of a headcanon- in the series Dib wants for no material object, he wastes technology on his explorations like it’s something he can just pick up from the dollar store, his father is a world renowned scientist with access to crazy technology and the ears of world leaders. I think he’d feel entitled to one or two things 

4. Gaz is not her brothers keeper. 

She’s not responsible for his mental health, she’s not responsible for keeping him in line and “normal”. Most of the time she doesn’t want a damn thing to do with him. If we’re going by the standards of the IZ tv show, the only times that Gaz interfered with Dibs paranormal investigations were when Professor M. Was also involved. Either she wanted to see her dad and Dibs antics were getting in the way (forcing her to intervene), or she was directly ordered by their dad to keep Dib out of trouble.  Sure, you could argue that she would beat the shit out of Dib for doing something she didn’t like- but that wouldn’t “fix” the mind of a very stubborn person. It might even make them dig their heels in even deeper out of spite and bitterness as a “fuck you I’m right you’re wrong” 

Furthermore, as Gaz gets older she’s going to have her own life to worry about and might stop tolerating the way Prof. M uses her as a middle man to deal with his “poor insane son”. She’s under no obligation to fix any of the phases Dibs life might go through. If Dib was unpleasant enough, and Gaz had the resources to leave, I think she might just bail on him. 

5. Dib is arrogant 

He's gonna do what he thinks is the best course of action unless you physically stop him from doing so. He comes from a place of thinking that he is right, the opinion of anyone else is secondary. Dib will do “what needs to be done” for “the greater good”. Whatever he thinks that “good” is. He wants to play the white knight at any cost. He cannot be in the wrong, or that bravado towards being righteous in the end crumbles. I think Dib would subscribe to a “the ends justify the means” mentality

6. Dib would harm another person to get what he wanted

In a room with a moose, Dib debates letting himself die just to take his entire class down with him. In the unaired episode “return of Keef”, he co-operates with Zim in an attempt to make Keef explode, because he thinks Keef is irritating. Dib used Gaz to test out an ancient spell book, cursed Gaz to only taste pork, and then only helped fix the problem when threatened with physical violence. This could be the kind of thinking that gets worse over time as more people mock his attempts to save and protect them. Why care about people that don’t even give a shit if they live or die?  Dib is a smart fringe personality in his world, and the otherness that he feels for that could lead to a sociopathic way of thinking if things went bad enough 

7. Dib does not care about other peoples personal space

Dib hides cameras in Zims house. Dib ran right past the front gate at NASA Place, Dib chased a baby big foot up a radio tower. Dib bullied Zim physically on the playground using his known weaknesses against him. Dib would do anything to get the evidence he needed to prove what he wanted to prove, and that would get him in trouble. Repeatedly

8. Antisocial tendencies (like spending countless hours fused to a chair, or most of your young adult life spent hunched over a desk at a computer screen) make it difficult to smoothly socially integrate, and the world of Invader Zim is fuckin' mean

You know the world he comes from is mean. However, assuming Dib did find community somewhere, who’s to say they would agree with him? Or like him? Maybe one of them would cause problems for him that were bad enough he’d have to leave. I’ve always found that the IZ portrayal of earth to be like this funny cynical parody of a dystopian police state america. If we’re going by “what can go wrong will go wrong”, Dibs social integration wouldn’t get easier without a bunch of effort on Dibs part. Maybe Dib would have to pretend to be somebody unlike himself just to get by in his day to day adult life. If we see Dibs country of residence as a police state, the world Dib grows up in would encroach heavily on his personal privacy, and that might make him even stranger via paranoia 

9. Sadistic tendencies towards anything paranormal (obsessed with the act of dominating and exposing the unknown)

Dib is a fucking jerk to Zim (rightfully so), but Dib is a dick to pretty much every supernatural thing he comes across. Either out of an excess of enthusiasm, or using a supernatural being to further his own plans, or from an invasion of privacy, or being an irritant to the entity he’s dealing with. He LIKES to be mean to them.  He  wishes to have mastery over knowing how they work. (maybe it’s more fair to say Dib is a voyeur?)  

This is more headcanon than anything, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he might also want to control the paranormal for his own purposes. If Dib could say- catch a ghost in a jar so he could show it to everyone, he’d do it. If he could trick a werewolf into transforming on stage in front of a large audience? He’d do that.

10. Dib is created to be Zims equal

Dib is as “evil” as Zim is and vice versa. Neither of them is good, or pure, or morally justified. It’s a nice little grey dynamic. Both characters think they’re entirely in the right when they act. That they often aren’t in the right is fun because then you get to write/draw/ think about how they’d react to the consequences. Dib could still totally be a hero in his own mind, despite setting an apartment block on fire to flush out a coven of litches.

The reverse of this is also true, Zim can do nice things, and occasionally be good as Dib can be good. I figure the Zim/Dib dynamic changes for everyones interpretations at least somewhat. Having Zims terrible actions rub off on Dib as their battles escalate is a really fun way to go about exploring their relationship 

11. I like the it

There is no right or wrong way to enjoy a cartoon character! Live to make yourself happy in fandom! If you ever thought you needed permission to create rancid content, I’m sorry you felt pressured not to do it. 

You want to make a serial killer Dib?? You want to make a basement dwelling depressed zit covered Dib?? You want to make a Dib who struggles with his trauma through substance abuse?? Go HAM!! 

[millennialzadr]

WHY I LOVE ZADR!!!

HEY GUYS WHASSUP? LMAO

So this is a whole ass giant long post of me absolutely spewing my feelings of love for ZADR, it was the very first thing I wrote when I made this blog and I think it’s a nice, positive thing for my fellow shippers to inhale and enjoy 👌👌

it was originally a reply to mitarashiart’s post about why HE loves ZADR (link in replies) but I decided to delete that and make my own post since MY WHOLE ENTIRE TEXT WALL WAS SHOWN IN THE REPLIES and drowned out anyone else who was trying to talk (thanks tumblr mobile u fuckin idiot)

I had also posted a summary of an AU that I’m working on in the original post, but decided to remove it since it just about doubled the length (I’m thinking about posting it separately along with the wips I’ve been putting together, we’ll see 👀)

But ANYWAY, here is about a million reasons why I think ZADR is the fucking best, so if you like reading gushy gay ship feelings, please enjoy ❤️❤️❤️

[Posted June 2019][WARNING, LONG ASS THOUGHT BARF]

SOOO, holy hell y’all my journey back into this fandom has been a wild and unique experience for me, i went from adding invader zim to my bookmarks on kisscartoon, rewatching the series, finding out theres a movie coming out, finding out there was a shitload of content i’d never seen before (commentaries, lost episode scripts and audios, panels, the COMIC, episodes i’d never seen because the dvd i used to watch was scratched!! and a FUCKLOAD of quality modern fan art like oh my GOD) and finally curiously googling ‘zadr’ (which i was way into when i was maybeee 13/14) to see if there was any interesting new art, and holy hell, mita (the artist above) singlehandedly THREW me down the hole into modern zadr hell, first with his absolutely stunning IZ art (all his art is dope tho check him out yo), then reading the above explanation put the final nail in the coffin like, 100%

so i wanted to add onto his post here on why this ship got me so fucked up, both for anyone who might be wondering why on earth i’m shipping two characters from a kid’s show (i’m very aware how weird that is at first glance trust me) and also so i can get some ideas down for possible future reference (will i ever draw them? maybe)

(first of all, a disclaimer, and this is not pleasant to write but it’s important to address for clarity’s sake: I have no interest in romantic or sexual relationships between minors, and do not ship zim and dib as they are presented canonically in the show (as children). what i’m interested in is the conceptualized relationship they may have as modern adults, and i view zadr more as taking the concepts of existing characters and experimenting with them with different interpretations, which i personally think is a constructive and fun creative outlet, especially if these characters hold personal significance for you (childhood faves of course). growing up together is an important facet of their relationship, and certainly they were important to each other even as children (see: mopiness of doom) but as an adult i’m personally curious about what kind of adults they might’ve become, and that’s the focus of my interest. i’ll still be reblogging regular IZ art because it’s dope but if you see shippy looking art of them as tiny lil beans its either friendship or chibis (and i personally headcanon zim as getting taller with dib but some people stick with his canonical height when drawing them as adults, which is super short. it still doesn’t mean he’s a kid). aaand i wish i didnt have to write this and it would just be obvious but we live in a sick sad world and it is sourced from a children’s cartoon so i feel its necessary. end of disclaimer)

NOW THAT THAT’S OUT OF THE WAY

- ok, first reason’s a bit obvious - the nostalgia. holy hell, the feeling of rediscovering a ship that was popular when i was a preteen during the mid 2000s and discovering a totally new perspective on it as an adult comes with an almost totally overwhelming sense of nostalgia and comfort, as well as inspiration!! the kind of art that seems so common for zadr, these sketch pages of scenes and expressions and visual gags where artists would just scribble every idea they had and LOVE doing it, this was exactly the kind of art that made me so passionate about drawing as a kid, and it still sparks such a powerful feeling of love and admiration for me to this day. fan content of iz and zadr is simultaneously achingly familiar and totally new and fascinating, and it just makes me SO damn happy to consume, it is most definitely my new comfort content. and just, GOD. THE ART!! SO GOOD. FUCK

- now for the characters themselves: for some reason i just really love the thought of a mid twenties, modern Dib?? lanky goth dork, disaster bi, depressed as shit, uses bad sweaters and memes to cope?? when i was a kid i didn’t even LIKE Dib, but now i totally sympathize with him! he’s just a hyper obsessive nerd wishing there was more to life than the situation he got stuck with, how wildly relatable. he was a pretty big asshole as a kid (even to people besides zim) but he was also totally isolated and constantly bullied, so there’s a lot of room for growth. i feel there’s a lot of juicy character development potential for that boy, and there’s always been a special place in my heart for characters who are totally sad and screwed and hopeless, but there’s one thing, or person, that means the world to them and could possibly save them…

- aliens. Zim. i love nonhuman characters, i love monsters, i love aliens, i love characters that don’t understand human shit (and thus have much less room for shame or fear bc theyre just totally oblivious the negatives of modern society) and need guidance (bonding!!) from their human. i also love morally grey characters and characters with skewed logic, they’re always really interesting, and Zim himself just has such a unique personality and set of mannerisms, he contradicts himself a lot and you can never quite expect how he’ll behave, and i love that in a character, it makes them super versatile and fun, especially since there’s so many different possibilities for their development. Also, Zim is a gremlin, a little shit, and a disaster. I also love those traits in a character. And don’t even get me started on his character design?? big sparkly eyes? expressive antennae? monster teeth? complimenting colors? he’s adorable.

- mutual obsession. for someone like Dib, who seems almost repulsed by how boring and slow the people around him are, Zim quite literally personifies Dib’s  escapist fantasies, both as an inhuman entity from beyond the stars, and as a person who’s knowledge, charisma and mystery far exceeds that of anyone Dib has met in his entire life. (so basically what i’m saying is that for a shunned, jaded misanthropist, an actual alien is terribly alluring, even if said alien is dangerous, stupid, and possibly insane). not to mention Zim vindicates Dib’s entire life passion, the supernatural! Even when their relationship is totally negative, there is not a single inch of room for Dib to get tired of Zim. as mita explained, they validate each other. for Zim, WHO AGAIN, IS TOTALLY SHUNNED, ISOLATED, AND HATED BY EVERYONE HE KNOWS, Dib is the only person in the universe who gives a single shit about him!! he gives Zim credit as a threat, a capable invader, which if you ask me is the sole thing Zim is after (he’s hellbent on his mission because it would win him the approval of the tallest, all he’s ever wanted is recognition from the people he thinks so highly of). He literally gets depressed when Dib isn’t around to pay attention to him, not even the tallest were enough to motivate him before Dib came back. these two have no one and nothing without each other, and while lifelong nemeses is fine and dandy, i personally prefer friendship, affection and love, cause i’m a softie like that. how could they possibly get there after years of actively trying to kill each other?? well, i think under just the right circumstances it could become a possibility after a long, long time.

- growth. i. love. me. some. good. character growth. especially for characters with trauma/mental illness, bc again, relatable. these boys have issues, and as mita mentioned, their canon stories are actually INCREDIBLY sad! but the happy thought is, they could recover! they could help each other recover, for little reason other than the two are the only source of happiness for each other. now of course this also opens the gate for angst lovers, but at the same time offers potential for comforting, uplifting content of the boys supporting and inspiring each other, maybe even to the point of becoming happy and healthy enough to create the lives they want for themselves (as in appreciating life and doing things that make them actually happy instead of the delusions of grandeur they both sought when they were younger). gimme that positive shit and let the poor beans be happy  щ(ಠ益ಠщ)

- LITTLE THINGS. LITTLE THINGS THAT ONLY COME WITH CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. WITH HUMAN/NONHUMAN. WITH THE SHOW’S WEIRD LOGIC. Zim being the person Dib knows best and vice versa. Zim having an involuntary respect/admiration for Dib because he’s tall. Learning each other’s needs, limits, and communication methods, both emotionally and biologically. Sensitive antennae. Affectionate bickering. Being less insecure bc your partner literally has no idea why you see your flaws as flaws. Laughing at the flaws they do notice because they make no sense. Zim only wanting to eat waffles and chow mein. Dib being forced to overcome his depression lethargy and stay hygienic/keep the apartment clean because Zim has a sharper sense of smell and is afraid of germs. Endless conversation about anything and everything because they’re from literally different worlds, and endless intrigue. TOUCHING. TALKING. DOING EVERYTHING LIKE ITS THE VERY FIRST TIME AND ALWAYS NEEDING THE OTHER TO GUIDE THEM. HOLY HELL THERE IS SO MUCH POSSIBILITY FOR TINY LITTLE MOMENTS THAT MEAN THE WORLD. FUCK. GOT ME FUCKED UP.

so that wraps up the why. fuck man. its just such a good ship. if you read this big ass text post, thank you for indulging me, i hope you enjoyed it! because i enjoy it very much 👀 so stick around if you’d like to for a shit load of IZ and zadr content on this blog, possibly (MAYBE) even from me!! come roll around in alien hell with me why dontcha ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ its a fun time! thanks for reading!!!

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SO THAT’S MY MANIFESTO Y’ALL, FEEL FREE TO REPLY WITH YOUR OWN REASONS!! I WOULD LOVE FOR THIS POST TO JUST BECOME A BIG GIANT PILE OF LOVE AND YELLING!! GO NUTS! SCREAM ABOUT IT! INFODUMP! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! I’LL READ EVERY LAST REPLY! Y’ALL DESERVE TO ENJOY YOUR SHIP BC IT’S LITERALLY THE FUCKING BEST!!! LOVE Y’ALL!!!!!!