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Earth (The Nightmare Begins)
Earth
Inhabitants

Humans
Mammals
Reptiles
Birds
Insects
Fish
Irkens
Several other aliens

Moons

1

Notable Facts

This is the planet Zim was "assigned" to in exile

First Appearance

The Nightmare Begins

[Source]


Earth is a planet in the Milky Way Galaxy, the third planet from the sun of the Solar System, home to the human race, and the planet to which former Invader Zim was sent to conquer/destroy.

Almighty Tallest Red and Almighty Tallest Purple, not wanting Zim to ruin Operation Impending Doom II like he ruined Operation Impending Doom, sent Zim to Earth purely by chance. Their intentions had simply been to send Zim as far away from Irk as possible.

They didn't expect Zim to actually encounter a planet after he left, as they weren't even sure there was one in that part of space. They had hoped he would die on an airless rock, or land on "one of those exploding head planets".

Much to their chagrin, and Zim's delight, Earth turned out to be a heavily populated planet, with technology greatly inferior to the Irkens, thus ripe for conquest.

Earth is not considered valuable by the Irken Empire, explaining why no real Invaders were assigned to conquer it, even after its existence was confirmed.

Galactic location[]

Planet Earth on chart

Zim's "special" assignment, Earth.

During the Great Assigning on planet Conventia, a map is shown of all explored Irken space, which the Irkens intend to conquer in their new campaign.

Earth took the form of a small, yellow paper note taped on the extreme edge of the map. It had a crude drawing of a planet with a big question mark in the center, possibly because its existence was guessed at, based on long-range scans.

Presumably, this means that Earth is at the extreme fringe of known space, in the backwaters, away from major alien races like the Irkens, Vortians, and Meekrob.

It took Zim six months to reach Earth from Conventia. Compounded by the fact that Earth was "added" to Operation Impending Doom II at the last minute, it presumably has an extremely low priority in the Irken Empire's renewed campaign to conquer the galaxy, as none of the Irkens, including both Almighty Tallest, recognized this planet's name. Indeed, the Almighty Tallest essentially treat Zim's continued presence on Earth as an exile that Zim himself is not aware of, which keeps Zim occupied and as far away from the main Irken fleet as possible.

Uarth

Zim showing Dib the path of the Irken Armada.

After Zim fails to remember "Phase 2" of his new evil plan in Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, he worries that he might not have enough time before the Irken Armada arrives to destroy Earth.

However, after hacking the Massive to find the flight path of the Irken Armada, he's devastated to discover that Earth is "shmillions of lightyears" away from the Tallest.

Relocated

Earth relocated to another Solar System.

Earth was later briefly relocated by Zim to an unknown part of the universe and placed directly in the Armada's path so that the Tallest would have to do the organic sweep.

The Tallest decide to simply blow the planet up to get it out of their way and get rid of Zim, but before they can do so, Earth gets teleported back to its proper place by Professor Membrane.

Society[]

Citycesspool

The red sky of Earth.

The Earth society seen in the Invader Zim universe is a dark and satirical version of that in real life. This Earth is more technologically advanced, but the intelligence of most of the human race is noticeably lower. Nearly every human on the planet is dull-witted and slovenly, except for Professor Membrane, Ms. Bitters, Dib, and Gaz.

The country Invader Zim is set in appears to be an authoritarian state in which people have little control over their lives. An example of this can be found in the episode Career Day, when Ms. Bitters explains that it is compulsory to follow the career path determined for you by the aptitude test, regardless of whether or not it is your desired career.

Human society in the IZ universe displays many stereotypes and generalizations seen in the real Earth, except humorously exaggerated. Several fictional companies and franchises in the show are parodies or mockeries of similar ones seen in modern society.

It's likely that Invader Zim is set a few years into the not-so near future, as much of Earth's water appears to be vaguely polluted, the sky is crimson, and extremely advanced technology, such as antigravity and rapid space travel, exist.

Children of the future

The appearance of human children of the future.

Approximately two million years after the incident happening during "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", the appearance of humans seemed to have changed (at least for the children, who are the only humans seen in this time period).

Future Santa

The robot Santa attacking Earth each year.

These children's thick clothing made them look very plump and round, and had headgear that resembled earmuffs wrapping around their heads along with wire-like patterns on the sides of their heads.

The humans seem to have become much more intelligent during this time period, as a small child was able to criticize a story told by Mr. Sludgey with remarkable vocabulary. The humans now live within a large defensive dome to protect themselves each Christmas from the Santa Claus robot built by Zim.

Facts of Doom[]

  • This version of Earth has many restaurants that are parodies of real-life ones, such as MacMeaties (McDonald's), Krazy Taco (Taco Bell/Del Taco), Bloaty's Pizza Hog (ShowBiz Pizza Place/Chuck E Cheese's), and Burrito King (Burger King)
  • When viewing Earth from space, it always has a hurricane on it, appearing to be about to make landfall in Florida.
  • The time it takes to get from Irk to Earth in a Voot Cruiser is approximately the same as the time it takes to get to Mars from Earth in a rocket.
  • Earth is considered to be on the fringe of the Irken's explored universe, but has already been visited by Irkens like Zim, Tak, Sizz-Lorr, and Skoodge.
  • Those aliens that do know of Earth's existence seem to regard the planet as a place to ditch their outcasts, as that was the case with Zim, Inquisitous the Observer, and possibly Green and Blue as well.
  • Ironically, Zim has more freedom while on Earth than he ever did as part of the Irken Empire or even his initial banishment to Foodcourtia, where he was on forced fast food labor, while among humans he does have "free time", something he most likely never experienced since he was hatched.
  • Zim actually has expressed concern for our planet a few times before this was to occur, though usually for selfish reasons. They were:
    • "Planet Jackers" (Zim saves Earth from the Planet Jackers.)
    • "Hamstergeddon" (Zim saves the City and by extension prevents further destruction from reaching the rest of the world by launching Peepi into space.)
    • "Lice" (Zim's skin is used to destroy the Lice Queen; this is the only time he saves the Earth against his will.)
    • "Tak: The Hideous New Girl" (Zim says to Tak that the world is his to devastate, and he's promised the moon to GIR, so he helps stop her.)
    • "Invader Poonchy" (Zim realizes that Poonchy really has one of his superweapons, and hastily has to stop Poonchy before he wreaks destruction on the planet with his "new video game".)
    • "Squishy: Hugger of Worlds" (Zim and Dib team up to stop Squishy from destroying Earth by literally embracing it.)
  • Earth has been saved twice by GIR. The first was unintentionally and unknowingly in “ Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom”, as his morbid obesity horrified Nightmare Bitters so much she cancelled her invasion. The second was in "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", where he drove MiMi crazy to the point Tak had to dismantle her SIR Unit and was forced out of her ship and prevented from completing her plan.
  • During the commentary for "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", Jhonen Vasquez said that around this time, Zim had developed a soft spot for Earth (but not for the human race).
  • Earth has actually been destroyed, or been left in situations where it should end up destroyed, several times in the TV show, comics (i.e. "Planet Jackers" or Issue 3) and especially in the TV Movie but due to the series' very loose continuity, these situations are always reset.
  • Earth has actually been conquered four times by three of the four main characters. The first one was GIR who, in the cancelled episode "The Trial", ends up being worshiped by the human race after attacking them with Zim's weapons satellite. The second was Emperor Zim, a potential future version of Zim who succeeds in his mission, as shown in Issue 12. The third is Gaz, who in Issue 21 conquers the world after swapping bodies with Zim and gaining access to his technology and finally Zim himself briefly took over the planet during the events of Enter the Florpus.
  • According to Vasquez while Zim's mission to Earth is actually an exile, it was still filed by the Irken Control Brains as a possible planet for conquest that is being infiltrated by an exile.
  • Jhonen Vasquez has stated that if Zim conquered the Earth, he would rule the planet (as was the case in Issue 12) but the Irken Armada would have no interest in enslaving the human race and instead do the organic sweep and use the Earth for a parking structure planet similar to Blorch.
  • In Enter the Florpus, Earth was incorrectly spelled as "Urth" in Zim's holographic map, which similarly to the "Skool" might have been done for comedic purposes. It's also possibly that "Urth" is how Irkens would write the name of the planet, as in other episodes our planet's name is written correctly.
  • If Zim ever finds out that his mission is fake then its conceivable to think that he could make Earth his new home.
  • Despite Earth being a very unimportant place for the Irkens, the planet actually has had some crucial moments in Irken history as everyone in the Empire knows that's where Zim is currently banished to, not to mention that the human race has been catalogued as a very "tall yet dumb species", the Massive nearly cashed landed there once thanks to Zim and nearly destroyed the planet so the Tallest wouldn't have to turn.

Notes[]

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