Invader Zim's ending plan

^^^ me too. on all of that.

I think the icing-on-the-cake was The Tallest's face, with the expression of "What."

Also, Walk Of Doom's ending.

Um.....that post about the original ending of "Gaz, Taster of Prok" is a lie.

But yeah, I've gained an interest of this series. Been watching the Volume 1, 2, & 3 DVDs.

Also, there's this one fanfic series that is more or less a retelling of the series with added content and an actual ending.

edited 14th Aug '10 6:25:03 AM by Daionusthe23rd

I think the ep "Germs" is hilarious, mainly because I'm a germaphobe myself .

->GIR: " I still have a hug in me!"

-> *Pans to house, followed by distant screaming by Zim, slowly getting louder as he exits the house*

edited 14th Aug '10 6:51:10 PM by shadowgirl_13_chaos

Um.....that post about the original ending of "Gaz, Taster of Prok" is a lie.

Please tell me you're referring to the satirical nature of Mr. Vasquez's blog, which I'm quoting, and not calling me personally a liar. 'Cause I really wouldn't appreciate that.

How about this: When I wrote the script for Gaz: Taster of Pork, I had it originally end with Dib defeating the Porklord in hand-to-hand combat, saving Gaz and ending it up with the two of them eating pizza. Pretty boring, huh?

I thought that sounded cute ("suspiciously like a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming") — especially compared to the ending we actually got.

edited 15th Aug '10 3:05:56 PM by Tyoria

Yes, Jhonen was making shit up. That whole "Invader Zim facts" thing was a mockery of the high quantity of God Never Said That regarding the show.

I was always dissapointed the in the fact the series didn't have an ending. The guy that plays Zim also played Pox in Destroy All Humans!, so you could blow stuff up with Zims' voice telling you how to do it! T'was awesome.

Yes, Jhonen was making shit up. That whole "Invader Zim facts" thing was a mockery of the high quantity of God Never Said That regarding the show.

Thanks for the clarification. Well, I understand that much of that was mockery (...it'd be hard to MISS), but as I saw it the entries did contain actual information surrounded by a bunch of what was obviously farce. For example I certainly don't think Jhonen's lying about the fact that he doesn't make money off of merchandise sales. And the entry regarding the cancellation had this paragraph, which summed it up about as well as I've seen:

I could go on and on with variations of the most fantastic reasons for why the show was cancelled, but in the end, even I couldn’t give you the whole and accurate truth for why the show got pulled. The most likely culprits are simply ratings and the sheer expense of the show, which was monstrously expensive at the time, especially when compared to more modern, flash-based savings fests.

Sounds legit. In short, I wouldn't say the Invader Zim entries are 100% lies or just about mockery. He was having fun with the topic, not completely bullshitting it.

People, this is Jhonen Vasquez we're talking about. Of coarse he was being sarcastic. A happy ending with any of his works is an utter hoax.

By this logic "A Room with a Moose" must have been an All Just a Dream ending. For that matter "I Feel Sick" was somewhat bittersweet, but not a downer. This refrain of "it's Jhonen Vasquez! Of course he's [pathologically opposed to anything that isn't dark and/or misanthropic]" just makes him sound one-dimensional, and it reeks of fanon stereotyping. How much of him do you know from his work, and how much do you "know" because "everyone knows [jack shit, as far as I'm concerned]"?

woah, woah woah, simmer down there. I'm not trying to say I know everything, and I'm not trying to start a fire. I just meant that, when it came to Invader Zim, there really wasn't many happy endings and was usually sarcastic about most of it, and that most of it is fans speculating things and saying that it came from Vasquez himself. That's all. No more. Please, keep the peace.

It's nothing personal against you, Shadowgirl. It's the stereotype whose neck I wanna wring.

Fans saying shit and attributing it to Vasquez is one thing, but Vasquez actually saying something and me stating, you know, I don't think he was being sarcastic here, especially when his point was that he hadn't liked the original ending and was trying to give Eric Trueheart credit for "punching it up" — I think is a little different.

edited 16th Aug '10 1:28:40 PM by Tyoria

you're right though. Vasquez does have his moments, but with comics and cartoons about sociopathic murderers killing a mindless public, most people would think he's "Emo". It bugs me too. You can make a cartoon that isn't about bunnies and babies and happy families saying stupid puns, and still be entertaining.

It's less that they think he's depressing than that they think he's a cynic. Yeah, it's blasphemy to suggest otherwise, I know, but I don't get that vibe of outright misanthropy I associate with pure cynicism. I'd call it the difference between Crapsack World and Humans Are Bastards. Obviously, there's a lot of overlap. But the one without the other can have a great deal of pathos to it. Characters may be denied their happy ending but not necessarily because they didn't "deserve it".

That was, actually, what I was originally talking about, this sense that these fan-written endings often have an element of Dib losing not because he's the Butt-Monkey but because he's a jerk who's earned it (...by virtue of opposing Zim. Riiight.) Most of the time, when that happens in the show, whether he suffers due to ineptitude or sheer bad luck it's not really supposed to be "fair." I mean, that's Comedic Sociopathy for you. The only episode where it kind of does imply it (by way of Disproportionate Retribution, but still) is "Gaz: Taster of Pork," which is why I brought it up and why I mentioned that wasn't the original ending.

Which I still think. This idea that Vasquez was making the whole thing up... I can't convince you, if you're determined to believe otherwise. But he did allow a few happy — or at least quasi-happy — endings in that vein such as "NanoZim", so it doesn't seem that far out of whack.

^ Didn't Zim get peed out in Nano Zim? I guess that's a better ending that, let's say, Dark Harvest. But, yeah, you make a very good point.

Look, Room with a Moose had a neutral ending at best. Dib escapes the wormhole with the other classmates. Said classmates fail to acknowledge the fact that Dib did anything at all, and Dib only suceeded by sitting next to them, which naturally caused them to go to the other side, as he had wanted them to do. Nanozim had a quasi-happy ending. Dib more or less defeats Zim in battle, albiet mostly through Gaz, and loses the memory of the location of the master disk. (Though personally, I think the briefcase in Battledib contained said disc.)

Also, some endings are sort-of happy. Like The Frycook What Came from all that Space. Zim escapes Foodcourtia before The Foodening can begin. Dib sort of wasn't the protagonist, and besides his brief mental breakdown at the beginning, he doesn't really suffer much.

And they're only 'happy' endings because it's a Nick show and he has to generally keep making episodes with the vague possibility of continuing. Usually.

About the only time Zim ever really 'won' was The Wettening. Which he kinda earned.

Look, Room with a Moose had a neutral ending at best. Dib escapes the wormhole with the other classmates. Said classmates fail to acknowledge the fact that Dib did anything at all, and Dib only suceeded by sitting next to them, which naturally caused them to go to the other side, as he had wanted them to do.

Dib looked pretty satisfied (and Zim pretty defeated) with the outcome as it was.

Nanozim had a quasi-happy ending. Dib more or less defeats Zim in battle, albiet mostly through Gaz, and loses the memory of the location of the master disk. (Though personally, I think the briefcase in Battledib contained said disc.)

True, he lost the disk.

Also, some endings are sort-of happy. Like The Frycook What Came from all that Space. Zim escapes Foodcourtia before The Foodening can begin. Dib sort of wasn't the protagonist, and besides his brief mental breakdown at the beginning, he doesn't really suffer much.

I love Frycook's ending. More of an explicit return to status quo, except said status quo is looking decidedly amusing at the moment, so why not call that happy, sure.

And they're only 'happy' endings because it's a Nick show and he has to generally keep making episodes with the vague possibility of continuing. Usually.

You might as well suggest the only reason Gaz is in the show is because Nick dictated they needed a female regular. AFAIK, Executive Meddling only touched two episodes in this fashion — Iggins surviving "Game Slave 2", and the unproduced "Ten Minutes to Doom," which was an episode they'd proposed could end the series with Zim's death.

The only time Zim ever really 'won' was The Wettening. Which he kinda earned.

"Rise of the Zitboy", "Dark Harvest", "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom". "The Voting of the Doomed" and "Parent-Teacher Night" were happy endings as far as he was concerned. He didn't get to conquer the world in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", but he still got to manipulate humans into beating the tar out of Dib.

And that's just when he's pitted against Dib.

Making horrible things happen to Dib isn't exactly hard.

So... What about GIR's status? It sorta irks me that he was suppose to be an insane robot, but then everyone thought he was cute in his puppy suit, then Viacom slapped his face all over Hot Topic, hogging so much attention that the public doesn't even know who Dib is.

• Don't get me wrong, I love GIR. He's my second favorite character, right after Zim, but he's sort of the poster boy of the series now, and getting a lot of Wolverine Publicity. I like GIR as a cute robot AND the lunatic, unstable maniac that Vasquez intended him to be.

Most of those people aparrantly never got around to watching "GIR goes crazy and stuff".

^ some did. For the Zim in the Police Hat pic's. They're everywhere.....

edited 17th Aug '10 5:43:06 PM by shadowgirl_13_chaos

That's....that's just stupid.

Two key elements: Fangirls, and Authority Fetishes.

I remember one episode where Dib was trapped in a room getting beat up by a monkey while Zim & Gir watched in amusement in one episode.

Which one was it?