List of Invader Zim characters
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This is a list of characters from the animated Nickelodeon TV series Invader Zim. The recurring cast includes long-term Nickelodeon voice actors Richard Horvitz and Rodger Bumpass, with live-action television actors are Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall) and John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and the show's creator, Jhonen Vasquez, voices parts in the show. The show was cancelled early in its run and some episodes were unfinished. The show only lasted for two seasons (or one and a half since the second one of the second season was incompleted).
Main characters
Zim is voiced by Richard Horvitz[1] in the series and Billy West in the pilot. He is an incompetent Irken invader who is overzealous, impulsive, and convinced of his own greatness and dreams of regaining his leaders' trust by taking part in Operation Impending Doom II (his own incompetence led to the failure of Operation Impending Doom I), the Irkens plot to conquer the universe and enslave all races. He is assigned to Earth, a planet which the Almighty Tallest believe has little to no chance of existing. However, against all odds, Zim makes it to Earth and establishes a base on a fake mission of conquest. Because of his very small stature, Zim disguises himself as a human child using a hairpiece to cover his antennae and contact lenses to make his eyes look normal.
Despite his tendency to vociferously malign humans as a species, constantly shouting at everyone that they "LIE!" whenever things do not go his way, his undisguised green skin, a severe allergy to baloney and water, his refusal to eat human food, multiple failures in his disguise, and an occasionally blatant disregard for his own cover, no one realizes that Zim is an alien, except Dib and Gaz although the other children in his class say that he's a little weird. Zim has no friends, and physically harms other kids when they attempt to befriend him, they will always defend him when Dib calls him an alien. He is equipped with a PAK, a backpack-like piece of equipment with (among other gadgets) long, retractable arms that enable him to move about quickly and climb almost any obstacle. Zim also has a very unique way of getting around by using several of these mechanical arms that come out of his PAK when he needs to get around really fast. When moving with these extra arms he moves more like a huge spider.
Zim constantly schemes to enslave or destroy mankind, and despite his access to potent Irken technology, his plans, frequently based on misconceptions, are never successful. He serves as the main protagonist of the series, but is sometimes depicted as the antagonist when facing off against his rival Dib. He usually goes over the top with his various and ridiculous plans and they all end blowing up in his face, often quite literally, such as in the episodes "Walk for your lives", "Zim Eats Waffles" and "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff". According to the episode Germs, Zim has a very strong fear of germs and goes nuts trying to keep his home (base) clean of them. Zim also has a high tendency to call and to think of himself as a being who's amazing or ingenious and will sometimes refer to himself in third person when he is acting very prideful and excited. When feeling like so, he strongly hates being questioned by someone of a lower ranking order than him like GIR or Dib.
For the most part Zim mostly interacts with Gir, Dib, Ms. Bitters and once in a rare while Dib's younger sister Gaz. However, he also has to a lesser extent some interaction with lesser known characters like Keef, Tak (who's another Irken, but an enemy of Zim's) or in one instance Dib and Gaz's dad Professor Membrane. In The Frycook That Came From All That Space, it is shown that Zim has the ability to remember what other characters say or do even when he is not there. He doesn't know how or why he has this ability, he just does and it's never talked about in the rest of the episode or the series. In the episode "Lice", it is revealed that Zim's skin kills lice. Zim's favorite sayings are "You lie!","I am Zim!" and" You, obey the fist!" He also laughs very loudly and maniacally when feeling like his ingenious plan is going to work, at his peers misfortunes or when he's torturing someone -which would most likely be Dib and very rarely ever Gaz.
GIR is voiced by Rosearik Rikki Simons. He is a malfunctioning Irken SIR (Standard-issue Information Retrieval) Unit who was assigned to Zim in the series. He was built by The Almighty Tallest out of SIR unit remains and whatever they could find in the trash and their pockets, passing him off to Zim as a "top-secret" and "advanced model". His name is a self-applied moniker that is never explained in the show. When GIR does comply, the cyan-colored parts of his body (most notably, his eyes, shoulders, and belly) glow red like normal SIRs. He has shown glimpses of intelligence and logic, as he did in the episode Walk For Your Lives and, Bad Bad Rubber Piggy, although Zim views this as disobedience, as they usually involve poking holes in his plans. He disguises himself in public by wearing a green dog suit which fools most humans, despite looking and acting nothing like an Earth dog. As seen in Tak the Hideous New Girl, GIR can also act as good tracking device for Zim when he is looking for the location of something or someone. GIR is a proficient dancer and, while at very popular dance clubs, he is often seen with several beautiful young girls and occasionally guys. They all find GIR to be very cute in his doggy outfit. Once in a while, these girls will drive GIR home, but after dropping him off something very bad always happens to them. GIR is also the only lead character in the show who loves to cook.
Had the series gone on for another season, an episode would have been produced where Zim would have been called away to court to be judged by the Tallests and by the Control Brains. They were going to see if Zim should still exist due to all of the chaos, devastation, three five year long entire planet black-outs (all on his home planet and all in a row), one half a planet black-out that lasted for six months (again on his own home planet) and numerous unintentional deaths that he's caused- two of which were of former Almighty Tallests. However, before the Control Brains kill Zim, his PAK makes them all go really wacky and he gets labeled as "The Most Amazing Irken Ever" by the Control Brains. While in his absence, GIR would have very unintentionally saved and taken over the earth and would have been made king of the entire planet. However, GIR would have also within a day been over-thrown as king by numerous protest groups a second just before Zim got home. During a different episode, Dib would have become bored of his life of hunting Zim and other paranormal topics and would have decided to study real science. This would have caused Zim to lose his motive to conquer or destroy the world. By having Zim lose his motive he would have become lazy and would have taken over the couch and would not have been willing to share it with GIR. This would have caused GIR to become very upset because GIR would have been very attached to that couch. At one point when he couldn't stand being parted from the couch any longer, GIR would have gone all the way to Dib's house (in his doggy costume) and would have begged Dib very hard to chase his master again, but it wouldn't have worked. In the end, when Dib would have come back GIR would have been very happy because it meant that his master had his old enemy back and that GIR could have his couch back. He would have screamed-out the worlds "Yyyaaayyy!! Couch!!" while in great joy. Another unfinished episode would have seen GIR getting entered in a contest (by Zim) to being named "The Best SIR Unit Ever!" and due to Tak's meddling, would have eliminated most of the competitors with exceptions of Mimi, GIR, Invader Ten's SIR unit, and Invader Skoodge's. In the end GIR was planned to have won. One last unfinished episode was supposed to show how GIR really annoys Zim with Zim making a new side-kick called Minniemoose to replace GIR, but GIR would have not been upset by this and even though Minniemoose would have proved to be more reliable than GIR, things would still have blown-up badly in Zim's face.
GIR is one of the friendliest characters from the show. This is partly because he has no sense of who is a friend and who is an enemy. GIR rarely understands situations, but when he does it's normally very important and is often used as a clue for the viewer(s) on what's going to happen. These clues normally have to due with Zim's crazy antics or unwillingness to listen to GIR. Whenever Zim does hear GIR's prediction on such topics (which is even rarer than GIR understanding the situation at hand), he ignores them because like as mentioned before, they tend to poke holes in his plans. Despite GIR rarely understanding the results of his predicaments, GIR still shows more of an awareness of the possible outcomes than Zim does.
Zim and GIR's relationship differs and can be hard to describe. This being due to many important factors. The first of which would be Zim's often self-centered personality contrasting to GIR's upbeat, clueless, thoughtful and spacey personality. Also Zim has a deep need to please his leaders and destroy or rule all mankind while GIR couldn't care less and often enjoys taking part in earth's culture. Zim on the other hand, prefers to distance himself from human culture and human interaction in order to complete his mission. GIR does not usually obey Zim at all which often ends with Zim shouting with fury at GIR. However, it should also be said that the two do at times show a bond where they care for one another. Even though Zim would not admit to it, he on rare occasion has even spoken with care for GIR (for example, in the Halloween episode Zim hoped that GIR would be okay and could defend himself against the zombies). Even though Zim often calls GIR a horrible little robot, he has at least once said that maybe he isn't such a horrible little minion after all (when they were fighting Dib in the episode "Battle Of The Planets"). He has also in a few different episodes called GIR insane. GIR, on the other hand, shows his master a lot more care and will sometimes hug him even when all covered in germs- much to Zim's disliking, discomfort and worst nightmare. Zim in return will often help or correct GIR when he's trying to learn how to act like a normal earth dog.
However, this standpoint changes in the episode "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff," after Zim puts GIR in duty mode with an obedience chip and places GIR on a very dangerously high setting. This results in GIR becoming smart enough to question and later rebel against Zim. It also reveals GIR's true feelings on being Zim's servant. When Zim asks him if he remembered being his servant, GIR answered and said that he didn't like it, (which would explain some of the other things that he says in the series). For example, when he was saying "Wwwaaahhh! I wanted to explode" in the episode "Plague of Babies," when playing with the power amplifier (which Zim told him not to play with because it was sending out deadly waves of stupidness), or "Yea!! We're doomed!!" as in Bad, Bad, Rubber Piggy. Another point that could be argued about the episode "(GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff)" is that in the episode, GIR is more mature and has clearer thinking than in all of the other episodes. The audience can see GIR become really frustrated and livid at Zim for not using him properly and for being stupid and a threat to the mission. Because of all of the reasons mentioned before GIR is a far more threatening and more of a serious danger to Zim, but by the end of the episode is turned back (by Zim) to his old happy-go-lucky self.
To a point, Zim also trusts GIR as with little jobs like guarding the house, or bringing the vootcrusier around to catch him in the episode "Planet Jackers" (which he did, but forgot to open the top- thus resulting in Zim landing face down on the top of the vootcrusier) or annoying Dib in the episode "Battle of the Planets" (the later of which he had some success with and even earned him a little praise from Zim - although Zim did not say the praise with GIR around).
Unlike Zim, GIR loves many different types of earth foods like pizza, tacos, burritos, chicken, waffles, biscuits, hamburgers and more. To add his love of earth culture he also loves to cook and will make a very big deal out of it if Zim won't eat any of the food that he makes. He also loves to dance and is good at it. When seen at dance clubs, sexy and hot women often crowd around GIR just to be with him, however it should be mentioned that he's always wearing his dog costume when he's out at these clubs. Sometimes these women will drive GIR home, however something terrible always happens to them after they've dropped him off.
GIR is also the only character to steal an on screen kiss on the lips. It happened in the episode "Tak, The Hideous New Girl" when he and Gaz were trying to remote control Mimi so Mimi would make Tak's ship flip-out of control. GIR was attached to the computer which was connected to the remote that controlled Tak's ship. GIR would only agree to make the ship go crazy if Gaz danced with him and she had to, but she didn't like it. At the end of the dance GIR took Gaz's face in his little robot hands and kissed her on the lips. This resulted in Gaz running away, spitting and screaming. Another factor to point-out is that in the episode Bloaty's Pizza Hog when GIR was taking Gaz down to where the escape pods were he kept staring at Gaz and wowing at her with big eyes and she kept turning to him with an angry face every time he did it. Like Gaz, GIR also loves piggies. He also likes other animals and is kind to animals.
GIR and Dib's relationship is like that of Zim and Gaz's; however, its main difference is that it's a nicer relationship because the two characters have kinder personalities, GIR sees everyone as a friend and Dib underestimating GIR's capabilities. This relationship is seen a little more often than that of Zim and Gaz's and is elaborated on some more than that of Zim and Gaz's relationship. GIR unlike Gaz and Zim, is one of the few characters and the only main character in the show who thinks that Dib is nice and even says so at one point-though Dib's not around when he does. On the other hand, there have been a few times when Dib has taken advantage of this relationship and has used GIR as a way to inveterate Zim's house (also called the base). In return, GIR will sometimes carry-out orders from Zim when it involves Dib like annoying him in Planet Jackers or being made to hold Dib like a sacrificing object that's about to hit something that's really big and very bad as shown in Walk For Your Lives. Also when Zim called GIR for back-up in the episode Mysterious Mysteries, GIR said that Dib was mean to his master and that he was bad (but this could be viewed from the perspective that Zim called him before he appeared and possibly told him what to say). In GIR's fantasy of what happened in that episode, he pretended that he was a "chubby lady hiding in the bushes", and clearly was more focused on a really big squirrel than he was with what was going on between Zim, Dib and Gaz. In GIR's version of what happened that night (in Mysterious Mysteries), he had the squirrel attack Dib and eat his crazy head and as GIR's version ended, he had the squirrel fly back to his home plant and beat-up all of the bad guys. When asked about what his story had to do with anything, GIR replied that he and the squirrel were friends. Then he got called "crazy" by the show's host. Unlike Gaz and Zim, Dib will happily dance with GIR as exampled in The Frycook That Came From All That Space. Whenever Zim wants to fallow Dib or find the location of something important, GIR can act as a good tracking device that Zim can operate as seen in the episode "Tak the Hideous New Girl". While GIR does for the most part play either a small role or a side-kick role in most episodes, there have been a few episodes where GIR takes center-stage. Those two episodes were "Invasion Of The Idiot Dog Brain" and "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff".
Dib is voiced by Andy Berman.[2] He is a young paranormal investigator and Zim's worst enemy who spends his days studying the supernatural and trying to thwart Zim in his schemes to take over the world. Dib is generally hated by his classmates because they see his efforts to help them as annoying and crazy. His classmates also tend to bully him a lot, but Dib is determined to save them anyway. Zim and Dib often fight because one is trying to destroy the planet and the other is trying to save it. While they are often portrayed as enemies, they have at least once been forced to work as reluctant teammates. They normally both hate each other with a passion and would like nothing better than to destroy each other.Despite the both of them hating each other, they actually both need each other because Zim wishes to please his leaders and Dib wishes to gain respect from his peers and his dad. In an unfinished episode of the series it is reveled that when either Zim or Dib becomes bored with their position in their battle and loses interest, than the other one is affected too and no longer has a drive.
Dib is extremely sensitive about the size of his head and usually overreacts when people point out its largeness; however, there have been a few times when he started to acknowledged this factor such as in the episodes "Gaz, Taster Of Pork" and the Halloween episode. As revealed in the Halloween episode, Dib's head is actually a portal that under very special circumstances can be used between this world and the supernatural world. He has a talkative nature and finds that he talks to himself frequently. Sometimes Dib and other characters on the show find his talking out-loud habit to be stupid, but according to Invader Zim disc commentaries about this habit of his, it is usually used when Dib needs dialog, to provide an explanation. Dib is often alone when he talks to himself, but has on rare occasions been seen with other characters (like his sister Gaz) when talking like this. Despite his loud, annoying nature, Dib is actually a very misunderstood genius and visionary and he knows it. During the series Dib gets annoyed often and hardly ever laughs. In "Gaz, Taster Of Pork", when he notices that he missed a few spell bars on his spell drive, he refers to himself as being obsessive-compulsive, and in the unfinished episode titled "Return Of Keef", the character of Keef realizes that Dib is happy with his life when dealing with the paranormal, but is depressed by just about everything else. Dib's classmates (including Zim) for the most part don't like him because they think that he's crazy, mean, disruptive and very annoying. They also see him picking on Zim and other students who are different. By seeing this, they might also consider him a bully. Because of the way he acts in school he is considered to be an outcast along with Zim and Gaz. Zim is one because the other students just think he's weird (and they will take Zim's side or defend Zim when Dib picks on him) and Gaz is one because she's considered to be scary and mean. According to Jhonen Vasquez, had Invader Zim continued, there would've been a possibility that Dib and his sister Gaz are not even natural humans, and are instead male and female clones of their father Professor Membrane.
Gaz and Dib's relationship is often viewed as very strenuous and lukewarm (sometimes completely cold). This is mostly due to their almost completely opposite personalities and the to the fact that Gaz can just barely tolerate Dib because of his overly obsessive, highly annoying, overly talkative personality and his strange obsessive interests and hobby to "flush-out" the paranormal. It could also be argued that Gaz could find Dib's antics to be very embarrassing because his actions often end up being publicized on TV (mostly on the show Mysterious Mysteries-where in one episode she even had to appear once and talk to the host of the show with Dib, Zim and GIR). Other evidence of this is shown in the episode Bad, Bad, Rubber Piggy where as seen when Dib and Gaz were preschoolers and Dib goes after a dummy that looks like an alien and Gaz looks down in embarrassment and says "Not again" in a low voice. In addition to this Gaz also often threatens Dib and often comes through on those threats. Oftentimes the threats and their consequences are very physical and harmful to Dib (or to anyone else who makes her angry). In turn, Dib often sees Gaz's personality and lack of love for the paranormal as negative and will sometimes respond to her reactions with an annoyed attitude. Unlike Gaz, Dib has a more positive out-look on most subjects and is much more friendly.
However, in rare instances they do act civil like when arguing about who ate the last of the cereal, giving each other pieces of advice or holding hands when crossing the street. It should also be known that Gaz has shown that she does have a little bit of an interest in what her brother does. The only reference to this came in the Christmas episode when he was fixing Tak's ship. Dib does the same for her in return. This side of their relationship would have been shown more in an unfinished episode of the series called The Mopiness of Doom where Dib has grown tired of how pathetic his life is and decides to pursue real science instead. It was later reveled in the same unfinished episode that Gaz was curious (and to a limited extent was worried) to see why her brother wasn't bugging her and watching Mysterious Mysteries and she even tried to tempt him to go back to his old ways. However, since this episode was never finished the only moment in the series itself that's really of any evidence of this side of their relationship is in the Christmas special as mentioned before. In the episode Nanozim, when Dib is fighting Zim by using a very small spaceship inside of his body, Gaz gave him a bit of advice on what on how to use the transformation unit which helped.
It is never made clear what Dib's last name is and it is even shown that he seems to have forgotten it as seen in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom." Professor Membrane and Dib's relationship is more distant than that of the Professor and Gaz's. Dib and his father seem to like each other and Dib wants badly to make his father proud of him, but their relationship is estranged by these facts: The professor believes in and is strongly dictated to scientific research, and that there's no such thing as the paranormal. He also believes that Dib is insane. Also, Dib embarrasses him in front of his peers with his lunatic ideas and beliefs. The professor seems to very strongly hate and is very angry at the idea of his own son resurrecting the living dead and he won't let Dib live it down even though Dib did apologize for it. Despite their differences on their perspectives both father and son seem to want to help mankind and are more-alike than they think. The professor also hopes that someday that Dib will see the light about studying real science and hopes that with Gaz being with Dib might steer him in this direction, but it never does (mainly because she never does anything to steer it that way). The professor really wants Dib to give up his insane antics and join him in the field of real science. Unlike Gaz, Dib actually looks a lot more like his dad, only much younger and much shorter.
When dealing with people like the police, the F.B.I., NASA Place or the secret society that he belongs to called The Swollen Eyeballs, they all find Dib pretty annoying and get really mad whenever he calls or swings-bye. Very few of these people realize just how sane Dib is and are kind enough to help him. The Swollen Eyeballs are a secret society dedicated to discovering the paranormal and separating the fake superstitions from the real ones. They cover all different topics from ghosts, to vampires, to Chicken Foot (who as it turns out is just a man dressed in a big chicken costume), to aliens. They all have secret code names and some of them are Dib's heroes. Dib's secret codename is Agent Mothman. Late in the series Dib is actually seen arguing with some of these people and gets pretty irritated when many of them decide not to help him or remind him of a situation of where he got no help when he really needed it. An example of his relationship with the Swollen Eyeball and the F.B.I. is in the episode "Zim Eats Waffles", where Dib is seen spying on Zim by using hidden a video camera in his kitchen. As Dib talks to another member of The Sollwen Eyeballs, the F.B.I. asks him if he ever got that ghost ninja out of his toilet. To which Dib replies angrily "Yes! No thanks to you!". Because he's cried wolf so many times Dib finds it very hard for other people to believe him and is thrilled on the rare occasion he when finds someone who does. Nonetheless he's willing and prepared to strongly defend the paranormal field of study whenever someone makes fun of it or says it's not a real field of study.
In one episode it is revealed (by Dib himself) that he's had an obsession with the paranormal (espically aliens) ever since he was a little baby. He mentions that he has vague memories of being taken on an alien ship as a baby. He believes that the aliens were trying to do tests on him, but does not know the exact reason why though he suspects that they were trying to create a genius super baby. In another episode his father says that Dib has been watching satellite monitors ever since he was a baby with a really big head. Another episode shows that Dib was able to even spell the word "aliens" correctly in block-formation very shortly after he started walking. One finale piece of evidence came when he attacked an alien like dummy at a birthday party and then said "An alien, I'll stop him!" after which he charged on his trike after the alien which turns out to be a look alike dummy of an alien.
Gaz is voiced by Melissa Fahn.[3] She is Dib's psychotic, antisocial, and apathetic younger sister, often described as "Dib's scary sister", who has a penchant for video games, a fixation with pizza, particularly from her favorite restaurant Bloaty's Pizza Hog (satirical of Chuck E. Cheese's) and loves soda. If and when someone or something stands in the way of her getting those things, she will not hesitate to thrust them into "a nightmare world from which there is no awakening." She knows and admits that Zim is an alien, but does not care because she also knows he's too stupid to take over the world, making her quite possibly one of the smartest characters in the series. Because Gaz is very rarely ever seen to be happy most viewers believe that she is humorless, but in the episode Parent Teacher Night she chuckles twice at Zim and Dib's misfortunes.
In the series Gaz has either a lukewarm relationship with most of the other characters or a cold one. Like as mentioned before, her brother Dib is one of these people. The only exception to all of these people might be her famous father Professor Membrane. He seems to have a warm relationship with Gaz even though it's not shown all that often. Professor Membrane is very rarely ever home due to the world always needing his help. However, he does make it a point to once a year have a family night with his kids and spends Christmas with them. Whenever, he's home Gaz seems to strongly prefer to spend time with her father over listening to her brother's constantly annoyingly enthusiastically ongoing crazed rants. Because she has a closer relationship with her father, the professor tends to call Gaz "honey" or on occasion by her name which he never does to Dib. She often spends time with him by going down to his lab to talk with him whenever he's home. She has made it known to her father that Dib greatly irritates her and that just the sound of his voice alone, sends her into a very deep rage. Other people who Gaz seems to strongly hate are Zim, a video game-crazed boy named Iggins and her teacher Mr. Eliot (she seems to be embarrassed by Mr. Eliot).
Gaz's relationship with Zim can be described as distant, cold and unfriendly as the two very rarely interact with one another and whenever they do interact they mostly say very mean one liners with the exception of the episodes Bloaty's Pizza Hog and Future Dib. Those are the two episodes where the two characters have had the most interaction even though in one episode Zim was speaking to Gaz through a robot. Zim also looks at Gaz as a very minor threat (however, he often overlooks or does not know her ability to easily defeat him). This could be due to the fact that he interacts with Dib a lot more and knows Dib's reactions a lot better than Gaz's. However, it should also be made known that Zim thinks that Gaz is very scary and even he (even as overly obsessive and power crazed as he is) does not wish to provoke her wrath. Whenever Gaz is questioned about her opinion on Zim, she admits that he's an alien, but also says that he's too dumb to take over the earth and that he's so bad at it and she also hates Dib's constant rambling about it. Furthermore in the episode Mysterious Mysteries, when talking about Zim she calls him "stupid Zim", however she also calls Dib her "stupid brother" when talking to the show's host. It is also made known that in the episode Dark Harvest that Gaz can take a great amount of pain while in the episode Lice, it is seen that Zim can not. Therefore, in the same episode (Lice) Gaz gets annoyed and shouts at him while calling him a whiner. In return Zim often refers to her as either Little Gaz or Dib's Little Sister because she's even smaller than him (and he himself is very small). This is mainly because only tall Irkens get respect in his race.
What Zim thinks of Gaz's usefulness is very unknown as this opinion and their relationship is hardly ever seen or expressed, so it might vary depending upon if he needs her and what for or if he doesn't need her. However, in one episode he did use her as an umbrella to protect himself from the rain, which in turn made her so angry that she almost hit him with her actual umbrella, but was stopped just in time by Dib. Zim also used her again when his Dib robot had to sneak by Professor Membrane's security guards in order to reach P.E.G.'s main genterator. In order for everybody to think that the robot was Dib, Zim had to make the robot interact with Gaz so as to not draw any unwanted attention to his latest evil plot. However, in the episode Bloaty's Pizza Hog, when Gaz had to go rescue Dib from Zim's clutches Zim doubted her ability to rescue her brother. In an unfinished episode called Ten Minutes Till Doom, Dib would have stolen Zim's PAK (which he needs to live and can only survive for ten minutes without it) and Zim would have had to seek Gaz's help in order to retrieve it. Only after convincing her that Dib stole her Game-Slave Two would Gaz have helped him. They would have eventually tracked him down to her father's lab and retrieved the PAK with a lot of success and thus having saved Zim's life. Then however, the game device would have then fallen from Zim's pocket and Gaz would have seen it. She was then supposed to have chased and beaten Zim up, thus supporting the idea that he thinks she's scary. However, because of the unfinished episode, it cannot be considered canon.
Despite their differences it should be made known that both Gaz and Zim do have somethings in common like for instance hating Dib, being considered to be scary, being theatrical, both having a withdrawal personality from most human social encounters, both having dark personalities, both loving destruction, both being stubborn, short tempered and both hating being made to dance by GIR (but at the same time it should also be noted that GIR can easily bend both to his will when he really wants something). They also both go to the same school and both are outcasts amongst their peers. A good factor to point-out is that the hero of the vampire piggies games looks a lot like a much taller version of Zim, therefore it could be argued that there might be a bit more of a connection to Gaz actually liking Zim in a very quiet, dormant and subconscious manner. However, other than the hero looking like Zim there are no other facts to support this theory.
Gaz has an okay relationship with GIR and seems to tolerate him better than Dib (although their relationship is only seen in two episodes- Tak the Hideous New Girl and Bloaty's Pizza Hog). While it is noted that the two characters were both involved in the episode Mysterious Mysteries, they never actually spoke or interacted with one another, however they did sit next to each other. It should also be noted that while Dib, GIR and Zim all got called crazy on the show Mysterious Mysteries, Gaz is the only main character who did not get called crazy by the TV show's host. In an episode called The Voting Of the Doomed, Gaz was seen with GIR again, but again there was no verbal contact and she just ate peanuts out of his head. Gaz is the only character in the TV show that's ever gotten an onscreen kiss on the lips from GIR. Gaz and GIR also share a love for piggies and like Dib, Gaz has used GIR to enter Zim's base. However, her reason was not to expose Zim's true purpose and identity, but to go get Dib so they could spend a night out with their dad.
Unlike most characters in the rest of the series Gaz has some very special powers, but they are rarely ever demonstrated and the only other people who know about them are Dib and Iggins (although Iggins is only seen in one episode with Gaz which is Game Slave Two). These special powers are just as special as Dib's head opening up into a portal as mentioned before. According to what's seen in the series, Gaz can levitate herself very high while in a fit of having a really deep rage and a very strong sense of hate as seen in Gaz Taster Of Pork, control the weather as seen in Game Slave Two and control electricity as seen in Dibship Rising. Please note that these powers are only seen in the three episodes as mentioned above and that when she levitates the background becomes purple and her eyes (which are rarely ever open) turn from a pretty and light shade of hazel into a deep and sinister shade of red. She also has a very strange and creepy way and ability of stalking people who have really messed with or upset her immensely like Dib or the video game crazed boy named Iggins. This strange ability has appeared in only two episodes which were Battle Dib and Game Slave Two.
Due to her very grumpy and often negative personality most people believe that Gaz is humorless, but in very rare instances she smiled and twice in the same episode (Parent Teacher Night) even chuckled at Zim and Dib's troubles. In Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom, when Dib throws a muffin at Zim's head and Zim reacts in an outraged and wild type of manner Gaz does addmitt that it was kind of funny to see Zim react that way. However, she said that only after he left the cafeteria in a very angry manner.In the episode Gaz Taster of Pork, at the end of the episode when she's out eating with her dad, he asks her where Dib is and Gaz says that he's in a pig-filled netherworld she makes her father laugh and he calls her his funny child.This reaction of his makes her happy.This reaction causes Gaz to look at him and simile at the fact that she made her father laugh. In Battle Dib, at the end of the episode as Dib was being shown out the door Gaz similed and waved at him because her vengeance was compelete. Lastly in Game Slave Two after getting the latest version of the game device from Iggins Gaz similed as the sun came-out after she made everything in her world right again.
Secondary characters
- Almighty Tallest (Kevin McDonald as Purple; Wally Wingert as Red): Twin leaders of the Irken race. The Irken Empire has a hierarchal class structure, where shorter individuals are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. The tallest Irken born in a specific generation takes command of the Empire as "the Tallest", but since Red and Purple, the two current Tallest, are exactly the same height, they share equal (and high-supreme) power. They are not related, as it sometimes seems, which is proved in the unaired episode "The Trial". Their main hobby is making fun of Zim. They often demonstrate an unsettling obsession with snack food and puppets.
- Professor Membrane (Rodger Bumpass): A scientist who hosts the popular television show Probing the Membrane of Science and the father of Dib and Gaz. Membrane's scientific abilities are offset by incredibly poor parenting: his primary method of managing his children is by way of a floating digital projection screen-and his messages to them are often not only prerecorded, but woefully out of date. He has sometimes urged Dib to give up on the paranormal and focus on "real science". His scientific achievements ranged from useful to bizarre, ranging from restoring power during a blackout to useful inventions like "SuperToast".
- Ms. Bitters (Lucille Bliss): The teacher of Zim and Dib's class. She is a tall, slender, and elderly woman who is devoid of any compassionate emotion and having a very demonic hatred for life, and is often shown applying the school's unreasonable rules, or applying unreasonable punishments herself for comedic purposes, often on Dib. She often slinks around to the sound of a rattlesnake and is often shown literally emerging from people's shadows. This and other factors often serve to hint Bitters as not being a human throughout the series, although this may be intended for comedic purposes rather than an actual characteristic of hers. Ms. Bitters, or at least a character highly resembling her, is also a teacher in creator Jhonen Vasquez's comic series Squee.
Recurring characters
- Tak (Olivia d'Abo): One of the seemingly rare female Irken invaders who has an unfortunate encounters with Zim. One of them includes inadvertently trapping her in a building on Devastis, the Irken military training planet, therefore missing her chance to take the test to become one of the Irken Elite Soldiers (and an Invader). In "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", she comes to Earth, digiused as a human girl, and attempts to take over Earth, but she is thwarted by Zim, GIR, Dib, and Gaz, who reluctantly work together to defeat.
- MiMi: Tak's SIR unit, built for in the planet Dirt. Her disguise is also holographic, to be generated as a black cat. Like GIR, she is easily distinguishable from other SIR units. She has no dialogue in the show and is taken over with GIR's personality and is dismembered in the process. She thinks of GIR as arrogant.
- Piggy: A live piggy that GIR has been seen having tea and watching movies with and seems to have a fascination with piggies, because he also has a large collection of rubber ones, which are thrown into a time machine by Zim to destroy Dib.
- Computer (Jhonen Vasquez): Zim's computer is normally seen talking with Zim. He is scattered around the house and base so Zim can talk to him whenever he needs to. The computer also seems to display defects, similar to GIR, in both that he lacks information on Earth and will occasionally change his voice tone to a much harsher version at usually completely unnecessary times and situation. In the episode "Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain" Computer's brain is replaced with GIR's.
- Minimoose (Jhonen Vasquez): A floating purple shape with distorted moose-like appendages (stubby legs, bloated eyes and antlers). Minimoose is introduced as Zim's other sidekick. Though it appears in The Most Horrible X-mas Ever, Zim proudly declares that it has been with him all along. This was to be followed by a series of pictures from past episodes with minimoose crudely pasted in, but that was scrapped for sake of time. Minimoose was suppose to be in the episode Nubs of Doom, but the series was cancelled before it is unfinished, with Minimoose's origins left a mystery.
- Invader Skoodge (Ted Raimi): An failed and competent Irken Invader who was assigned to planet Blorch, home of the slaughtering rat people, due to his shortness. He was the first Invader to successfully conquer a planet in Operation Impending Doom II, but is prejudiced against by the Almighty Tallest, who proceed to launch him into the planet as the first shot of the destruction. Somehow, he survived. When Zim says "But I thought the Tallest killed you" on Hobo 13, Skoodge replies "Yeah...But I'm okay now." Skoodge is very loyal to The Almighty Tallest who hates him. He was planned to be included in future episodes of the show, but it was canceled with the ones unfinished.
- Bloaty (Rosearik Rikki Simmons): The owner and/or mascot of the Chuck E. Cheese-like restaurant, Bloaty's Pizza Hog. He is mostly seen in commercials. He was only seen out of his pig costume once, in the episode "Bloaty's Pizza Hog," and apparently has an eating disorder. He is an elderly, morbidly obese man, to the point of being fatter out of costume than in it. He is said to be depressed and hate his life, to the point of crying during one commercial.
Minor characters
- Lard Nar (Fred Tatasciore): The leader of the Resisty, a group whose goal is to defy and ultimately bring down the Irken Empire. His only appearance is in Back Seat Drivers From Beyond The Stars. He is from the planet named Vort which has since been conquered by the Irken empire.
- Roboparents and Gnomes: Zim's helpers that guard his base and help make him seem more human. The Roboparents are poorly built and have an utter lack of normal parental behavior. The Roboparents frequently act inappropriately (for instance, Robo Dad once said "C'MON, son! Let's go play in the TOILET!") or attack visitors to Zim's house, although in "Parent-Teacher Night" they actually reassured a parent about their son not making a soccer team, impressing even Zim. The gnomes protect the exterior of Zim's house when people are in the yard, with the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes and once threw Dib from Zim's yard.
- Keef (Danny Cooksey): A clingy child that attends the Skool with Zim. He is seen to be overeager to have a friend in the second episode, "Bestest Friend", where Zim befriends him to appear normal. In the episode, Zim grows tired of Keef's constant presence, and when Keef's "surprise party" for Zim jeopardizes base security, he tricks him into thinking a squirrel was Zim. He was supposed to appear in "Return of Keef" but the animation is unfinished due to the show's cancellation. He (or someone identical) is seen in the background in numerous episodes, and has a few lines in "Lice".
- President Man (Jeffrey Jones): The President of the United States who appears in the series, with his most significant role being in "The Girl Who Cried Gnome". He is essentially a figurehead, being the incompetent fool he is. The stupid things he's done include leaving the coat hanger in his suit, giving up his power to "Santa", (who was really Zim in disguise) and trading the fate of a "crisis" for Ninja Star cookies, which he is exceedingly fond of.
- Nick (Jhonen Vasquez): Excessively happy human held captive by Zim for experimentation. His most notable feature is the enormous drill-like "happiness probe" in his head. He appears in "Zim Eats Waffles", "GIR Goes Crazy And Stuff" and "The Girl Who Cried Gnome". He is a parody of Nickelodeon, and is to make fun of Nickeloden for wanting the show to be less dark and more "happier".
- The Swollen Eyeball Network (various): A group (including Dib, known within the group as "Agent Mothman") who are determined to prove the paranormal.Some Agents are Agent Mothman (Dib's alias), Agent Darkbooty (Revealed to be a NASA janitor), Agent Tunaghost, Agent Disembodied-Head, and Agent Nessie. Found in episodes "Battle of the Planets", "Battle Dib", "Zim Eats Waffles" and "Gaz, Taster of Pork"
- Bill (Adam Paul): Moronic paranormal investigator who believes that ghosts, the Loch Ness Monster,and Bigfoot are fake, while cereal box characters such as Count Chocofang and Frankenchokey are real. Seen in "Career Day" and "The Sad, Sad Tale Of Chickenfoot".
- Mr. Elliot (Simon Scott Bullock): Gaz's teacher. Appears to have a positive outlook but is not revealed to have very much intelligence. Seen in "Gir Goes Crazy And Stuff", "Gaz, Taster of Pork", "Parent-Teacher Night", and was going to appear in the unfinished episode "Simon sez Doom".
- Iggins: Gaz's enemy. An obsessed video game nerd who was prominently featured in the episode "Game Slave 2." Iggins takes the last Game Slave 2 console, (and the American version of Vampire Piggy Hunter), thus incurring the wrath of Gaz, who sends him crashing down to earth in an elevator after reclaiming the Game Slave 2. Although it appears he is dead, Iggins bursts forth from the wreckage at the very end of the episode. He is seen again in Walk For Your Lives, but has a non-speaking role. In the later episode he is seen getting arrested by a cop for just doing nothing and the cop appears to be angry.
See also
References
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