Invader ZIM Wiki
Register
Advertisement
20px-Cquote1.png Earth? That means Zim! This is the worst news I've ever heard.
— Almighty Tallest Purple completely displeased of hearing of heading towards Earth and Zim's location, Enter the Florpus
20px-Cquote2.png


Almighty Tallest Purple
Homeworld Irk
Rank Almighty Tallest
Gender Male
Eye Color Purple
Equipment The Massive
Affiliation(s) Irken Empire
Notable facts Co-leader of the Irken Empire, before his death
First appearance The Nightmare Begins
Voice Actor(s) Kevin Hamilton McDonald (English)
Alejandro Illescas (Spanish)
Tilo Schmitz (German)

Almighty Tallest Purple is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Almighty Tallest Red) of the 2001-2006 television series Invader Zim and one of the two overarching antagonists in the 2019 Netflix film Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus.

Almighty Tallest Purple is the co-ruler of the Irken Empire. He and Red are the tallest Irkens currently alive (now deceased), thus giving them joint sovereignty over all aspects of the Irken race. Although the only way to tell Red and Purple apart is by color, Purple is better described as the "comedic relief" of the duo. He doesn't seem to work as hard as Red, but arguably has more comical lines in the show. While Red is in charge of the battles and important military decisions of their leadership duo, Purple is in charge of the social aspects.

It is assumed that like his predecessors, he has the ability to levitate by use of technology known merely as "Hover Belts", and like his co-ruler he has an addiction to junk food.

Appearance[]

Purple overview

A front and side view of Purple.

Both Purple and Red have a different design and body structure than normal Irkens. His arms are much more bulgy right before the fingers, because of the uniformal cufflinks, and he has only two thin fingers instead of the usual three.

His chest and legs are connected by a disproportionately thin torso, while his neck is also extremely thin. His feet may be different from that of an average Irken, but it is hard to tell, as he is always levitating.

This appears to be the case for all of the Tallest, as concept art of Almighty Tallest Miyuki and Spork showed similar designs. Almighty Tallest Purple has purple eyes and wears gray, purple and magenta clothing. His PAK is light gray with purple spots.

Screen Shot 2012-08-04 at 8.39

An early version of Almighty Tallest Purple.

Both Tallest were re-designed in the middle of the first season; Jhonen Vasquez decided, for unknown reasons, to make their torsos disproportionately thinner, as well as other major updates to their suits and overall physical appearance. Like Red and all previous Tallest, Purple has two fingers instead of the normal three possessed by the average Irken.

It has been stated by the Invader Zim crew that the Tallest have their thumbs chopped off in a ceremony as they become Tallest to prove that they can "rule the Empire with only two fingers", but Purple is more than likely just hiding his thumbs within his gauntlets. [citation needed]

Personality[]

About to Crash in a Star (Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars)

Purple panicking along with the rest of the Massive's crew.

Purple, as stated above, is the more comical of the two current Tallest. He was shown to be less capable than Red in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars", choosing to hover around and grab as much donuts as possibly as well as freaking out instead of taking control of the situation. Both are very lazy and petty, however, and enjoy snacking and generally ruling all of Irk.

Purple is also shown to be generally less patient than Red. He's more likely to criticize things he doesn't like: the Megadoomer and the name for the Resisty, to name a few. He is occasionally antagonized by Red, but seems to be more or less tolerant of the bullying, often simply laughing.

Unlike Red, Purple is more eloquent which is seen when he corrects on his co-ruler's lack of word-craft, showing signs of some intelligence however rare they may be.

Purple can also be quite cruel taking enjoyment in the misery of others, like Bob who was forced into a bet by the Tallest to ensure that they wouldn't lose any monies during Zim's training on Hobo 13, and ordering the Comms Officer to blow up a space ice cream van in Enter the Florpus for no reason.

Role in Invader Zim[]

Main article: Almighty Tallest
157

Tallest Purple, ruling the Irken empire along with Tallest Red.

Purple, alongside Red, has ultimate power over the Irkens. He and Red are the ones who assigned the Invaders to their respective planets, sent Zim to his exile on Earth, and created GIR. They oversee the progress of the Invaders on their chosen planets, as well as the overall Irken grip in the universe.

However, they are typically seen lounging around eating junk food and soaking up the luxury of their positions. On the other hand, Operation Impending Doom II appears to be coming along quite well under their rulership.

However, they are best described as mere figureheads, since the Control Brains are truly what have control over the Irkens.

Tallest doing Tallest things

Purple and Red place bets on whether Zim will survive or not.

Purple's opinion of Zim ranges anywhere from irritation to gleeful mockery. In "The Nightmare Begins" for example, Purple was exasperated to see Zim, whereas in "Battle of the Planets" he could barely keep from laughing. However, Purple and Red were also seen having a somewhat friendly conversation with Zim in the episode "Abducted", discussing the bizarre fact that humans are tall yet unintelligent.

Purple holding in his laughing

Purple holding in an outburst while hearing Zim's words.

Aside from this one occasion, Purple habitually expresses his disdain for Zim at every opportunity. More than once he has attempted to get Zim killed, for example by sending him to military training on Hobo 13. Unfortunately, these attempts occasionally lead to disaster.

in "Megadoomer", the Tallest tried to send Zim a package full of dangerously malfunctioning SIR Units, in the hope that he would be killed. However, a disgruntled worker deliberately switched the labels of Zim's package and another one for Invader Tenn, causing an unfortunate Tenn's base to be destroyed by the maniacal SIR Units. As a result, her cover was blown and Tenn was captured by the Meekrob, endangering the Irken Empire.

Shock from discovery

The two Tallest express their shock upon realizing that Zim is alive.

Purple often lies to, and tries to trick Zim. An example is in "The Nightmare Begins", when he presents him a malfunctioning SIR unit claiming it to be "advanced". Another is in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars", when he joined Red in pretending that they were being attacked by an enemy vessel. It should be noted that Purple's lies tend to be much more obvious than Red's, and he sometimes has trouble remembering to maintain said lies, often blurting out the uncensored truth in excitement.

Purple and Red underestimate the harm that Zim can cause from time to time. Even though Zim is far away from Operation Impending Doom II, he still frequently manages to impede it, once by hijacking theMassive in "Backseat Drivers".

During the events of Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, in a surprising turn of events Purple remembered Zim despite how much he hates him and most likely brought him up because he was both pleased at the thought that he was most likely dead because he hadn't contact them in a very long time and was going back down memory lane at the thought that they were "hilarious" for lying to him and send him to Earth to get rid of him only for moments later for Zim to call the Tallest and crushing Purple's hopes that Zim was dead. He even commented that he liked Zim better when he thought he was dead.

Forward Canons at full power

The Tallest getting ready to blow up the Earth simply to get rid of Zim once and for all.

Purple and Red are both extremely upset when Zim teleports Earth into the Armada's path, as they don't want to be anywhere near him. Ignoring the Comms Officer's advice that they can just change course to go around Earth (as they don't want to break their straight line), they instead decide to blow up Earth to finally get rid of Zim.

When Earth is teleported back where it came from at the last minute, the Tallest are relieved, to the point of not caring about the Florpus Hole that the Armada is flying into. Later, they're both shown to have been turned into puppets and left screaming in a dimension of fire.

Facts of Doom[]

  • Purple is never referred to by name in the actual show (except in the end credits), he and Red being collectively referred to as The Tallest by everybody else, despite the previous Tallest being referred to by name just like any other king, queen, emperor or empress. Both the fans and the Invader Zim voice actors and production crew have taken to calling Red and Purple by these names (although, in the script of "The Trial", a young Irken smeet named Timmy openly referred to Purple as such). However, Purple's name was finally confirmed in the opening of Issue 4 of the comic series, which would also imply that his partner is also indeed named Red.
  • The voice of Almighty Tallest Purple was done by Kevin McDonald, previous star of Kids in the Hall and the voice actor as the character "Waffle" of Catscratch, also on Nickelodeon. Kevin McDonald also voiced another alien (with a similar personality to Purple's), Pleakley, from Lilo & Stitch. He has also voiced various characters in What's New, Scooby-Doo?. He also voiced Mr. Duckweed from Amphibia.
  • Originally, Wally Wingert was going to be cast in the role until later on when Kevin was available. As Kevin was unavailable for the InvaderCon reading of "The Trial", Wally performed as both Red and Purple in his absence.
  • TallestInFlorpusHell

    The Tallest in the Florpus

    Jhonen Vasquez confirmed that both Purple and Red died in the movie, presumably shortly after Zim's transmission with them cut out.
  • Ironically, despite Zim's total obedience to them, Red and Purple are arguably bigger antagonists to him than Dib is.
  • According to Steve Ressel, if the Tallest were to tell Zim the truth about his mission, he wouldn't believe them, as he is too arrogant.
  • Despite the fact that the Tallest presumably had their thumbs cut off [citation needed], in Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, they have them again.

See also[]

Advertisement