#some RaPR

[neolxzr]

OK so heres some of my favorite things that were talked about during the enter the florpus commentary thing yesterday:

one of jhonen's favorite things in the whole movie is the writing in zim's kitchen that says "do anything is real?"

they clarified specifically that gir was not lying and he did in fact eat a baby at the crazy taco

gir smells REALLY bad. theres like rotting organic matter in his body at all times. he stinks

zim's human suit is made out of actual human skin

zim is acting drunk on nacho cheese during that scene in his house because richard horvitz recorded it while drunk

they planned to have this whole thing with tak's ship only agreeing to go to moo-ping 10 because it knows tak is there. they wouldve shown her in silhouette during that brief explosion and she wouldve stowed away on the ship without anyone knowing and then wouldve shown up towards the end of the movie, but they decided to cut it out

zim did not need to frame membrane for a crime in order to get him into space prison and likely just tossed the guards like 5 bucks for it. its a shady place. they did specify though that if he did frame him for something, it would have been jaywalking

they pointed out during that scene where zim is celebrating peace day on dib's lawn that zim's reaction to seeing dib was very much genuine and that's just how his brain works. he is genuinely surprised to see him pop out of his own house. (they also described his reaction as like "being surprised to see your best friend")

the ham joke was ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to the film and at some point jhonen remembered it and was like GUYS. WE ALMOST FORGOT THE HAM

there was supposed to be this joke where it cuts to and from gaz and dib in tak's ship and they would've had to stop at like a warp station or something and theyd be waiting in a long queue of spaceships and the radio is broken in the ship so theyre stuck listening to that one song. then itd cut to them like totally braindead drooling from listening to it for so long. and then a little later itd cut back a FINAL time and theyd know all of the words and both be singing along to it. but this was also cut out so only the last bit remained

when asked "who would win: minimoose or mrs. bitters?" the answer was along the lines of "neither, i think all of us lose in that scenario"

the tallest are just two dudes who happen to be the same height and therefore have to share the same job. they are not brothers and they are also not gay lovers ("as much as you want them to be, they are not. there is no love in this universe")

skooge is in fact alive and lives in zim's basement. they wanted to keep the number of "hey remember this thing from the tv show!" moments to a minimum so he was not mentioned in the movie. but he is there

[thebigchips]

(Tom Cardy ft. Montaigne "Red flags")

[tallest-bathwater]

[noxeorn]

Happy valentines day, have some good looking sketch with RAPR :3c

There's a timelapse as a sweet bonus under the cut!

[deathskrang]

reminder that zims canonical gender is ASSHOLE.

[lemonhemlock]

honestly it’s a bit annoying how people are bending themselves into a pretzel to justify this writing but are claiming that they’re somehow smarter for getting it like dude you can’t flipflop like if you think Alicent should be allowed to resent her child and get him beheaded cuz he was the result of marital rapr but somehow when it’s brought up of Alicent not the narrative acknowledges viserys being somebody that did that then it’s that oh Alicent is a character of that time so obviously she has buried that resentment deep inside but it’s the resentment conveniently reaches the surface when it’s time to press forward the rhaenicent ship.

I’m trying to be understanding but honestly what I’ve personally observed is that the only people that seem to love this are rhaenicent shippers and that’s it cuz how come oh all of this war was pointless and that’s the point all along but it’s like dude come on a character not acknowledging their grandchild was beheaded in their sleep is not an example of how well it shows the war is pointless cuz how is the mother of that beheaded child helping the man that got him murdered. How come the narrative doesn’t acknowledge that daemon did that and rhaenyra is still allowing that man back into her team like yeah let her do that but let the narrative acknowledge that she’s selfish for it and that she doesn’t truly care about what happened and what happened to helaena either.

I was willing to think people just have different interpretations and leave it at that before but the writing has become so blatantly biased that when people don’t even acknowledge that I genuinely feel like I’m being gaslit here like excuse me what

no, i totally get it and it is SO frustrating. bending themselves into a pretzel is such a good way of saying it. people love the IP and the asoiaf universe so much that they are willing to gaslit themselves that it's not bad.

but what's the point? it's bad execution after bad execution, a whole continuous string of them. you can't fundamentally change characters like that without making huge adjustments to the plot and to their fate as well - they won't naturally hit the same story beats! a character with show!alicent's personality would never do the things book!alicent did! a character with show!rhaenyra's personality is never going to do the things book!rhaenyra did!

they want to reconstruct these characters from the ground up, shove their dumbass life philosophies and first wave understanding of feminism in there, then NOT do any of the work that might allow them to depict an organic character arc. they still have to hit the same plot points, so ofc it's going to be circus-level flip-floping bc the motivations will not make sense if you change their core self so much.

this is especially evident with how the show REFUSES to admit viserys was a rapist. but at the same time implying so badly that alicent didn't want these children and is shackled by them. if she didn't want them, how did she manage to produce 4?? of them? who put those children into her body? if she didn't want them, then it was done against her will, no? can we examine that before we get to the point of gleefully handing them over to be executed bc you want to "be free"? no, ofc not, bc that would make viserys look bad 🙄 so how can you accept that supposed motivation of alicent's if it so half-baked? i hate it so much. and i hate it that people are going "fans are triggered by bad mother characters, but that's not feminist, women should be allowed to be villains and unpalatable on screen REEEEEE"

and another thing i find frustrating is this (mistaken IMO) attempt at a distinction between wanting explicit media vs media where things are left open to interpretation, and how hotd is supposedly the latter and we just don't understand that some people prefer having to fill in the gaps themselves. i don't want media with neon signs pointing if something is """"bad""""" or """""""good"""""". i am not asking for the booktokification of asoiaf!

no one in Succession is looking at the camera and saying "i am doing X thing bc of Y" and there are enough points where the show supports multiple interpretations, but the character work and attention to detail is stellar with similar amounts of screen time. i wish i could word this better but hotd does this annoying ass thing where it skips the fallout of important moments and then never addresses them, then pretends that's subtle character work instead of what it actually is: a lazy hack job.

i mean, honestly, i can't believe we ever complained about season 8 in the first place if these are the new standards. genuinely, i would encourage everyone to go back and re-watch those last episodes and make a bullet-point list about what's actually bad about them while trying to defend hotd s2 with the same arguments. because at least dany has a very clear, if rushed, progression there: she has a clear goal, an obstacle, suffers some losses she considers harrowing (an escalation), she is shown to be depressed and getting paranoid, there's a trigger point, she gives into violence and finishes off fanatical about her own self. where is the problem?

[iz-rarepair-tournament]

Rarepair Nominations are Now Open!

Alright everyone, it is time! I realize I'm posting this at what is likely an inopportune time, as it's the middle of the week and my posts aren't even showing up in tags yet, but that's okay! I just wanna go ahead and make this form available. I will leave this open until Sunday (May 5th) so get your choices in there.

Invader Zim Rarepair Nominations

Rules:

Do not nominate ZaDR (Zim/Dib), ZaGR (Zim/Gaz), ZaTR (Zim/Tak), ZaSR (Zim/Skoodge), DaTR (Dib/Tak), TaGR (Tak/Gaz), or RaPR (Red/Purple). These are all big ships in the fandom, whether we take into account past or present shipping trends, and so they are the ones I am disqualifying. Everything else, I will take.

What is considered a "rarepair" is totally at your discretion! It could be two characters who literally only showed up once, or it could be two major characters who nonetheless don't have near as many fanworks as one of the big ships I listed above. I will not be policing what ships are nominated. If it's not one of the above, I'll take it!

Only nominate pairings (two characters), no OT3s or more, please! Perhaps if this goes well we can do a special OT3 bracket later on.

When writing in a pairing, please actually write their names, for example Zim/Keef instead of just ZaKR. This is so I can know for sure exactly which pairing is getting nominated. If you just say ZaZR, I have no way of knowing if you mean Zim/Zim or Zim/Zita, as a random example. So just use the names, please.

You have to nominate at least one pairing, but you can send in up to five different pairs! One pairing per line.

Do not spam the form! I won't be requiring logins because I want people to have their anonymity, so I am requesting that you be reasonable, please. Only fill it out once, and if you happen to have more pairs you want to send, then I can't stop anyone from sending in a new form with those different pairings. But please don't use it as a way to duplicate ones you've already sent in. I intend to seed the bracket so I want the numbers to be accurate to what's actually being nominated.

No ships are off limits! If it's two Invader Zim characters who have appeared at some point in the show, movie, or comics, you can send it in! I understand this may mean some unpleasant or disturbing ships could be nominated and become part of the bracket. It comes with the territory. But Invader Zim is a dark show and the fandom has always embraced more twisted, grotesque themes. I will embrace it as well. So please do not send me requests that (insert badwrong pairing) be disqualified. If the presence of problematic ships in this bracket will bother you, please do not take part in the tournament.

You're more than welcome to start a good clean wholesome rarepair tournament of your own if you like :)

But yes, I think that's it! Go ahead and send in your nominations, and please share this far and wide. We can get wild but ultimately I want us to have fun here.

[emeraldspiral]

So per Jhonen, Irkens don’t really have friends because they’re so focused on their own gratification they just see each other in terms of whether they’re someone they can cooperate with to achieve their goals or someone they’d trample on the way to the snack table.

And I think that’s an interesting angle to consider when writing Red and Purple’s relationship. Like, the two of them bicker a little, but mostly seem to get along and enjoy being co-rulers together. They don’t seem to resent having to share their power or esteem, neither appears to have any desire to be rid of the other in order to have all the glory to themselves. But does that mean they actually care about each other?

I remember when I was a kid on the Nicktoons message board someone once wrote a fanfic or “Zim Zode” as they were called, where one of the Tallest grows slightly taller, and the other one instantly loses their position and the newly solo Tallest immediately drops them like a hot stone. No pity, no regret. Just “Lol, sucks 2 b u” and yeets them off to crash at Zim’s place because they're no longer an equal, just another lowly peasant. And that might not be what RAPR shippers wanna hear, but that feels very on-brand for the show’s cynical tone. Like, Jhonen did a whole episode about how GIR isn’t cute or nice and would turn on Zim in a heartbeat if he weren’t always distracted by food and stray animals. You think he wouldn’t do an episode about how the Tallest are Not Real Friends and have no loyalty to each other whatsoever? Especially since as leaders of the Irken Empire they're supposed to represent everything that's wrong with Irken Society? It's superficial social hierarchy, selfishness, hedonism, sloth, gluttony, entitled elitism, and complete disregard for others?

I know some people get around the "Irkens aren't supposed to love" thing by saying RAPR are just hypocrites who get to ignore the social rules because of their position. But does anybody ever do stories that deal with the idea of what happens when the relationship is no longer easy and convenient? Like how a lot of people leave school or a job or move away and their friendships/romances just completely fizzle out because one or both parties weren't willing to put in the work to maintain it when they weren't already in proximity to each other by circumstance? Or how two people can hang out and enjoy each other's company, but when one person goes through a rough time the other person doesn't want to be there for them, they're only there for the fun times? Or how so-called friends can backstab each other the moment their interests are in conflict and won't lift a finger for one another if it requires any sacrifice or compromise?

What about stories where they betray and abandon each other because that's what they think they're supposed to do. It'd be considered aberrant to not put their own interests ahead of anyone else's. And yet, they feel unpleasant. But these feelings are so foreign and confusing and contradictory to Irken nature they can't even recognize them as guilt and regret.

[hermajestytak]

I don't normally post about ships, but eh screw it, I'll tell y'all the ones that my brain especially likes and the superficial ass reasons why

Feel free to reblog this with your own ships and superficial reasons :>

ZaSr (Zim/Skoodge): "They were ROOMMATES"

GaMr (GIR/MiMi): It would give Zim and Tak a Lord Montague vs Lord Capulet dynamic and that's really funny

RaPr (Red/Purple): These two might as well be stapled together

Zim -> The Tallest: In a celebrity crush kinda way where if they, for some reason, did kiss him, he'd enjoy it.

TaTr (Tak/Tenn): Space lesbians vs the world ✨️

Ms Bitters/Countess von Verminstrasser: Wtf Ms Bitters called someone nice??

Mr Dwicky/Mr Elliot: They never met but they're coworkers who both give me 🌈 vibes

And crossovers!

Dibper (Dib/Dipper): MYSTERY BOYS

Gazdy/GazMandy: "Finally, someone else who understands how stupid the world is"

[verm1c1de]

have some rapr mew hooligans. see! i draw them too!

[neolxzr]

moar sketchbook pages

[thebigchips]

Nothing can stop us, not now, I love you

(t.A.T.u. "Not gonna get us")

[fanboyvini]

there are two types of rapr shippers

those who draw them identical, the only difference being color of the clothes and eyes

and those who do their best to give some more distinct characteristic to differentiate who is who

[noxeorn]

Uhm 👉👈 You can have a lil RAPR sketch as a treat

They're playing their fun and pleasant secret favourite game with each other behind the closed doors of their room, while they have some free time after the work.

I genuinely can't draw kisses and such stuff, but this thing was living in my head rent free for the last couple of days and prevented me sometimes from falling asleep so I had to

Also I had a lot of troubles posting this as tumblr didn’t show it anywhere so now there’s no crop where it was supposed to be

[zifey]

is there any invader zim ships you like? it is a bit hard to find enjoyable ships in the fandom, since most of the popular ones are pretty gross. Tatr (tak and tenn) is a pretty interesting, underrated crackship that ive seen before, some pretty nice artpieces are out there!

hmmmmmmmm i like red x purple or RAPR (but i fucking hate the spelling of that) cuz they’re canon in my mind :3 those mfs are best friends to lovers that’s like my favorite trope ever PLUS they rule an entire nation together that’s insane to me (ignore that they’re tyrannical dictators)

everything else idk, i don’t mind a lot of shit. i dont rlly enjoy shipping zim with anyone (personally) bc i cant see him in anyyyy relationship but if i had to choose ships with him i don’t have much of a problem with, it would be him and tak, or him and skoodge lol (but canonically they obviously both have their issues on both sides)

as for what you said abt tak x tenn i do know abt that, i don’t have a problem with it! i just personally don’t ship it because i need some sort of basis for my ships or i’ll explode but thas just me maybe i should become more of a crackship fan ʅ(◞‿◟)ʃ

all in all, don’t care for invader zim ships very much LOL (and i’m usually an avid shipper but i just can’t bring myself to shorrehhh)! you’ll only ever catch me drawin tallest ship art :P as for friendship art IM CRAZY!!! I WANT EVERYONE TO BE FRIENDS!!!! call me chammy bru cuz i crackship but with friendships not romantic relationships THERE SHOULD BE A WORD FOR THAT!!! that’s me

[messinwitheddie]

Since Red died, did Purple keep any of his belongings? Wore any of his cloths or armor?

What was he like at the funeral? Did any other Irken feel his pain or was Purple the only one mourning?

Yeet "Oooh... The Tallest really isn't fond of answering questions about late Red's death. I'll answer any questions as best I can.

"My tallest mourned late Red longer and harder than I have ever seen any drone mourn another drone. They knew each other since smeethood. They were linked in spirit, not just in their title. I think it was brave and sweet how openly Tallest Purple grieved, but he worries the empire might see his grief as a weakness.

Tallest funerals are never recorded or broadcasted on live stream. I remember watching the news segment announcing Late Red's passing. Tallest Purple looked like a shell of himself when he addressed the empire. His wardrobe staff told me he was inconsolable at Red's funeral. He could barely keep it together long enough to carry Red into the Colossus's right hand and read his rites before lighting his body aflame. They told me his grieving screams echoed clear across no drone's land... Poor tallest Purple.

Usually when a tallest passes the empire goes into lockdown until a tallest is measured. There is a period of recognition and manditory honorable mourning by the empire, but because late Red and Tallest Purple ruled as one unit, there was no lock down. Purple just took over the full title and us shorter drones were instructed to carry on as normal.

I think that really distressed Purple that the empire didn't seem to mourn his loss as he did. I'm sure SOMEONE besides Tallest Purple must have been devastated when late Red passed.

To be fair, my generation have only been alive long enough to salute late Red and Tallest Purple. Most of the empire is still nostalgic about late Miyuki, which is understandable. She's a hero of mine too. Late Red didn't rule long enough for the general public to be deeply invested in his passing. He's convinced no one will mourn him when he passes. I, personally, imprinted on Purple as a smeet, so I take comfort in knowing he's still with us. I would be devastated if we lost Purple, even if he doesn't believe me.

Purple wore his funerary robes for YEARS after Red's passing. He was still wearing his white robes and vail when he hired me as his coordinator. He snapped out of that eventually, but went through a fase where EVERYONE on the massive had to wear late Red's shade of red. I was even instructed to wear contacts to alter my eye color for his first century jubilee. Luckily he moved past that too.

Late Red's formal robes are on display at the Tallests' memorial museum on the massive, but Tallest Purple has kept all of late Red's other robes in his chambers. He kept nearly all of late Red's possessions, including the puppets he crafted, his old battle ballad choir helmet from his cadet days and even the bag from the last box of donuts he ate.

I made another silk doll of Red in formal robes for Tallest Purple. He talks to it regularly. It's a little strange, but whatever brings him confort.

Threw in some old posts on the subject. Again, couldn't find the exact post I was thinking of In reference to this ask ^^; This reminds me; I never really touched on the side plot, but frylady Soo-Garr was actually in love with tallest Red; which was her biggest motivation to try to become the next frylord of the Massive's grand mess hall.

I REALLY wish I knew how to find my tumblr archive. I forget half the crap I come up with. ><