Tropes
- All of the Other Reindeer: Not only is Zim a liability, but he's also the smallest and shortest of all the other Irkins, which is a problem in a society that judges worth by height.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Dib threatens Zim with alien sleep cuffs, Zim asks how Dib even knows whether or not it works if he's never even found an alien before. Dib replies that he's going to find out right now before giving chase.
- Bad Humor Truck: "YOU LIKE ICE CWEAM. YOU LIKE ICE CWEAM. YOU LOVE IT. YOU CANNOT RESIST ICE CWEAM. TO RESIST IS HOPELESS. YOUR EXISTENCE IS MEANINGLESS WITHOUT ICE CWEAM."
- Bait-and-Switch: Zim's flashback to Operation: Impending Doom 1 starts with him manically laughing while destroying what seems to be a different planet. Turns out he was still on Irk.
- Cassandra Truth: Dib has so often made claims about the supernatural that no one believes him when an actual alien enters their class, despite the obvious.
- The Ditz: GIR, as his brain is Tallest Purple's pocket lint.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: The Irkens are fond of this. And so is GIR when he announces that he's going to sing the Doom Song.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The Almighty Tallest are drawn with slightly thicker abdomens rather than near stick-figure thin as they would be in all future appearances. They're also lighter shades of their respective colors than they are in future appearances.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the only time any of the kids at Skool are any nicer to Zim that they are to Dib, as they sound genuinely offended by Dib's accusations that Zim is an alien.
- Establishing Character Moment
- The Almighty Tallest are introduced to both the in-universe crowd of thousands and the viewer being lowered from the ceiling on a huge platform during a laser spectacle show like pop stars, which turns out to just be a military assigning ceremony. As they're being lowered, Red tells Purple that lasers were a better idea than smoke machines. This not only establishes the relationship they have with one another, but just how shallow the Irken society is, something the Tallest are clearly aware of.
- Before Zim is even seen, he's heard yelling at other ships to get out of his way and even crashes into a few as he speeds towards the assigning ceremony, telling us right away how much he puts his own needs above all others.
- The entire Membrane family has theirs in their introductory scenes. Dib is first seen sitting on his roof, listening to signals he's picking up from the assigning ceremony and saying to himself, with a worried look, "They're coming!" Right away, we know he's both obsessed with and afraid of aliens. Shortly thereafter, Gaz threatens to make Dib pay for drinking the last soda and shows an explicit frustration when he tells her about his discovery. Their father's first scene has him telling Dib not to bother him while he's creating something (which turns out to be toast).
- Similar to Zim, we don't even see Ms. Bitters when we first hear her voice, in which she introduces Zim as "the newest hopeless addition to our school system," showing just how much she cares about the children.
- In a sense, the entire crapsack world that the characters inhabit is established quite efficiently during the chase scene when Zim and Dib run into an ice cream truck that is blaring completely unsubtle propaganda about how one's life is meaningless without it.
- Eye Scream: Almighty Tallest Purple gets hit in the eye with a stray laser during his and Red's introduction.
- From Bad to Worse: Discussed.
- The Millstone: Zim singlehandedly stopped the first Operation Impending Doom by going on a planetwide rampage in his Humongous Mecha...while he was still on his own planet.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Dib points out that Zim is an alien, the camera pans from him over to Zim, then away, then back onto Zim when Dib points him out again. Apparently, not even the camera believes Dib!
- Mundane Made Awesome: The Great Assigning, set in a huge, Madison Square Garden-like arena with a laser spectacle show in front of a crowd of thousands, feels more like a professional wrestling show or pop superstar concert than an assigning ceremony.
- The Napoleon: Zim is tiny, but his ego is massive. Much like the real Napoleon, Zim escaped (or as he said, quit) banishment to get another shot at hegemony.
- Reassigned to Antarctica:
- The Tallest didn't even think there was a planet where they were sending Zim. They just wanted him gone.
- Skoodge, the shortest Invader aside from Zim, is assigned to Blorch, Home of the Slaughtering Rat People.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: All SIR units but GIR.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Zim. He thinks that he's the best soldier the Irken army has, when he's actually a giant liability.
- Snipe Hunt: The Tallest send Zim on a "mission" to seek out a new planet for them. In truth, they just want to get rid of him so he won't risk another armada attack in motion. To their shock, Zim contacts them near the end that he found a planet they didn't know existed: Earth.
- Super Prototype: The Tallest tell Zim they are giving him a 'special' SIR unit. In fact, they are giving him a trashed one quickly assembled from the garbage can with a brain full of whatever Tallest Purple had in his pocket at the time.
- With Catlike Tread: Zim snaps at GIR that they can't afford to make a sound. Cue Zim's base assembling itself in very loud and flashy fashion.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: The Tallest banished Zim for ruining their first attack. They are shocked to see him return later, claiming that he had "finished" in time for the Assigning.Purple: You "quit" being banished?
