Fanfic / Invaders of Irk

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Invaders of Irk is an Invader Zim fanfic series on Archive of Our Own by AnimationFan2006, which is dedicated to Worldbuilding the IZ universe, especially in regards to the Irken Empire, its Invaders and its enemies.

The series is ongoing and can be found here. Additional information can also be found here.

Tropes in this series

• Absolute Xenophobe: Downplayed with the Irken Empire as while they enslave nearly all races they encounter and have killed tons of innocent people, they don't go out of their way to wipe out the races they do conquer, instead putting them to work for whatever the Irken Empire decides their purpose to be.
• Act of Sabotage:
  • The Irken Resistance cell on Breakerius has been doing this ever since the first few target worlds of Operation: Impending Doom 2, making equipment malfunction or break down while stealing weapons and armour from the captured enemy ships in preparation for when the wider Irken Resistance would arrive to rescue the ships.
  • It's also revealed that the Devastis blackout was not entirely Zim's fault and was an act of deliberate sabotage by rebels hiding out on Devastis.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Not much is known about Tak's backstory before the blackout and the events of her episode. Here, she hails from an Irken world that once tried to rebel against the Empire, only for it to be put down brutally and it to tarnish the reputation of all Irkens from that planet, even centuries later.
• Adaptation Expansion: A major theme of the series is going into more detail about the structure and culture of the Irken Empire than canon did, and later doing the same for other species in the setting:
  • While the Tallest are the leaders of the Empire, they delegate a lot of their duties to a High Council composed of the leaders of the various branches of their military, ministers for the departments of the civilian government, and the Prime Control Brain.
  • It's clarified that while Invaders are selected from the Irken Elite, they're considered a separate corps among the military, to the point that they have their own representative on the Council (the Grand Invader, the tallest member of their current number) separate from the Elite's Supreme Commander.
  • More Invaders get their missions shown in detail.
  • While most Irkens are born in tubes, as per canon, there's a small minority who are born the natural way, referred to as Nat-Borns.
  • There are several more ships of the same class as the Massive, which were built as backups just in case anything happened to it.
  • Canonically, little is known about the Vortians beyond their past alliance with the Irkens. Here, much about how their government and society was set up is explained further.
  • It's mentioned how Irkens have developed unique sub-cultures based on the purposes of the various specialized worlds where they live. For instance, Judgementia's Irkens have built their culture around dedication to the Control Brains, dressing like them and serving as their guards and retainers.
  • Sizz-Lorr is given a bit of a backstory lacking from canon, as a former Elite General who was transferred to Foodcourtia after his PAK was damaged too badly to keep serving as a soldier.
  • Rise Of The Hideous New Girl expands on Tak's canon backstory, showing her time on Devastis before the blackout and what she got up to in the years spent trying to find Zim to get her revenge. It also shows the Tallest sending her to Moo-Ping 10 after her plan fails, and includes the deleted scene from Enter the Florpus of her ship freeing her and smuggling her back to Earth.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: The Blobs (like the Resisty member named Cassie here), the Gellaxis (from the comics and movie), and the grey-skinned brutes from Zim's virtual simulation in "Door to Door" (called Grutes here) are revealed to have all been created by the Irkens to serve as vassal races of the Empire.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • Canonically, there are a lot more Invaders in existence than the small number shown at the Great Assigning in "The Nightmare Begins". Here, it's explained that those were only the top members, who were getting the honor of being publicly assigned. The rest were sent to a Second Assigning to get their missions in a more private setting.
  • Canonically, Skoodge gets an Unexplained Recovery from having been fired from orbit into Blorch. Here, the fact that Irkens are functionally immortal as long as their PAKs remain intact is used to Hand Wave it.
  • Canonically, it is unknown why the Irken Empire and Meekrob are arch-enemies. Here, it's explained that long ago, the Meekrob once drove the Irkens to the point of near-extinction and the Irkens had to become the Empire to survive.
  • Canonically, we don't get an explanation for how Lard Nar got his hands on a Vortian ship nor how he recruited his crew in the first place. Here, particularly in Rise of the Resisty, it's explained and shown.
  • Sizz-Lorr is stated to be part of a Heavyworlder subspecies of Irkens called Birkens, which is why he's so big.
  • It's stated that Miyuki designed the Massive to be a tool for peace and to keep the Irkens safe and Spork co-opted it into the planet-destroying battleship it is.
  • We're told about which Invaders conquered which of the Resisty members' worlds, something that canon never touched on beyond Larb having conquered Vort.
  • Rise Of The Hideous New Girl gives quick backstories to the various people from the comics that Zim had locked up in Moo-Ping 10.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In canon, not much is known about the Meekrob and why they are considered enemies of the Irkens. Here, Meekrob is mentioned to have attacked the Irkens, massacring them in droves all across their home galaxy and eventually besieging Irk itself, resulting in the rise of the Empire. This makes them, in a way, responsible for the Irken Empire's obsession with conquest.
  • In canon, not much is known about the Vortians' activities while working with the Irkens besides them developing weapons. Here, it's mentioned that the Vortians had a habit of trespassing in other races' territory in hunts for new forms of technology with the Irken Empire being forced to intervene in the inevitable wars enough to the point where Lady Miyuki was reportedly threatening to withdraw military support from Vort's expeditions shortly before her death.
• Alien Among Us: Same as canon with Zim, Skoodge, Tak and Zee infiltrating Earth for various reasons, along with the mentions of human "cultural artifact" smugglers
• Aliens Are Bastards:
  • The Irkens who conquer or vassalise nearly every race they encounter, subjugating their cultures and destroying any and all signs of religion. Justified as the Irkens became this way to survive the Meekrob who were this to them.
  • The Planet Jackers throw countless worlds to feed their dying sun even though they have the technology to move their homeworld to another sun just because they love watching things burn.
  • The Vortians, while not as bad as the other two, did engage in trespassing in other races and not caring if the Irkens conquered them or not as long as they got new technology back when they were still allies of the Irken Empire.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: There's a black market for human "cultural artifacts" smuggled from Earth in the Irken Empire.
• Aliens Steal Cable: Like Zim, Tak learns about the humans from their movies and TV shows.
• Alien Invasion: The Irken Empire is fond of combining both tactics, sending in Irken Invaders to weaken defences to make the planets more vulnerable to the actual invasion force who proceed to conquer most worlds in days or weeks at most with only a few exceptions.
• The Alliance:
  • The Resisty is revealed to be part of a much larger anti-Irken alliance called the United Response Coalition, which is composed of both species that have avoided being conquered (i.e. the Meekrob) and the remnants of those who have been (i.e. the Vortians). Notably, this also includes anti-imperialist Irkens as well, though only thanks to Lard Nar's negotiations and with a lot of tension with the rest of the URC.
  • The Anti-Planet Jacking Alliance is a coalition of survivors from planets that the Planet Jackers have destroyed, who have banded together to stop them from doing so to others.
  • The Hammer Response Force is a coalition of Milky Way powers that the Dissenter/Shroud has been building up in preparation for war with the Helix Cabal and New Ethereal Empire, as well as any other exterior threats to the galaxy.
• All for Nothing: The Imperial High Council orchestrated a massive cover-up to keep the true cause of Tallest Miyuki's death from being known to the public to keep the Empire stable, framing their former allies, making a deal with Tenn not to say anything, trying to purge the Consulars, and exiling Miyuki's ex-guards...only for Red and Purple's actions in subjecting Zim to an Evaluation filmed live in front of the entire Empire to undo that, resulting in days-long riots on countless Imperial worlds and the Irken Resistance gaining strength and support.
• All There in the Manual: The author's Tumblr account is used for a lot of world-building that doesn't come up in the stories themselves.
• Alternative Calendar: The Irken dating system for Tallest Miyuki's reign is divided into B.M (Before Miyuki) for before her rule and A.M (After Miyuki) for once she'd taken the throne.
• Ambition Is Evil: Captain Brunson, one of the Ninth Fleet's captains leading the assault on Barsoom's orbital defences, becomes this when she spots the S.S Resistor trying to flee, wanting to capture it so she and her crew can be promoted. They fail, obviously.
• Anachronic Order: The first story published in the series, A Conversation Between A Vortian Rebel And An Irken Invader, is set at some point after the events of Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus. The second published story, Invaders of Irk, spans time periods from years before canon to during canon to after ETF, all depending on which Invader's POV it is. The third story, Fall of the Planet Jackers, takes place during the canon show. The fourth story, Rise of the Resisty, serves as an origin story for the titular group and is thus set during canon but before their debut in "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars", though its back third is set post-canon. The fifth story, Twilight, is set tens of thousands of years before the rest of the story. The sixth story, Array, is according to Word of God set at some point during Rise of the Resisty. The seventh story, Judgementia Day, is an adaptation of the unproduced episode "The Trial", and thus is set after the end of the canon show but before Enter the Florpus. The eighth story, Apprenticeship, takes place pre-canon. The ninth story, Accelerate, takes place roughly 3 months before Enter the Florpus. The tenth story, Fractured/Alliance, starts off at some point before Fall of the Planet Jackers before jumping ahead to a point before Enter the Florpus. The eleventh story, Rise Of The Hideous New Girl, covers Tak's backstory and thus takes place years before canon.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • During his confrontation with the future Resisty, Skoo loses both a leg and an arm to Emerald and Ixane before making his escape. Due to being able to regenerate them, it doesn't do much to faze him.
  • Sizz-Lorr is mentioned to have lost his legs during some battle. Unlike the above example, it's treated a bit more seriously as in that same battle, he suffered damage to his PAK's regeneration factor, rendering him unable to regenerate his legs and forcing him to retire.
• Ancient Evil: On an information post on Tumblr, the author reveals that the War Council are this to varying degrees with the oldest among them (Creed and Erebus) being 750 years old. So do the Control Brains to even a greater degree with Arbiter mentioning them to have been around shortly before the Empire was officially created tens of thousands of years ago.
• Antagonistic Governor: Once Irkens conquer planets, officials called Planetary Governors are installed to oversee the occupation. Depending on the size of the conquered civilization, then the appointed Imperial Governor might actually be in charge of multiple systems or even entire Space Sectors. Governor Elsbeth serves as the most obvious example of this to date, her being the main villain for the last three chapters of Rise of the Resisty Arc 1 as she oversees the crushing of the last remaining La Résistance in the Shadran system.
• The Apprentice:
  • Zim served as this to Miyuki when she was alive, with her having been the one to personally arrange his transfer to Research Station 9 in order to improve his promising scientific skills. Red and Purple were also apprentices of Miyuki as well.
  • Tenn is mentioned to have become Spork's apprentice following the battle on Dooq that impressed both Tallest.
• Artifact Name: Emerald/Ulaz is mentioned to be part of the Treacherous Three Thousand, Emerald Legion members that went rogue and joined the Sapphire Legion in their rebellion. In the present-day, Ulaz notes that the name doesn't apply as much as it did anymore since there's only a few hundred members following the Sapphire Rebellion's defeat and Spork taking his anger out on them.
• Ascended Extra: Some of Irk's Invaders and the members of the Resisty are given this treatment with the series expanding their characters and histories before and during the events of Invader Zim.
• Assassination Attempt:
  • Tallest Miyuki was the intended target of such a plot with someone (implied to be Fence who was mentioned to have been absent the day of the incident) sabotaging the orb Zim kept his Blob to ensure it would break out and devour Miyuki whole. It failed since Miyuki was warned and faked her death but in the end, the damage was done and while Miyuki was trapped in her clone body, Spork took control and declared war on the Vortians, Trigorians and Nubulors.
  • It's also mentioned that in the early years of Miyuki and Spork's rule, Zelda's predecessor, High Marshal Sraak, also attempted to assassinate her but failed with Miyuki killing him herself and earning the Council's respect in the process.
• Asshole Victim: Red justifies his sneak attack to wipe out the Planet Jackers by pointing out how everyone hates them for their practices.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • The ruler of the Brawlstar system, the Battle-Royal (Battle-King or Battle-Queen, depending on gender), is chosen by being the champion of their Gladiator Games. Anyone who reaches the highest levels of their ranking system can challenge the Battle-Royal, and replace them if they win. El's entire strategy for when she's sent to conquer Brawlstar is to just enter the games and rapidly work her way up the ranks until she's become Battle-Queen, at which point she orders the system to join the Irken Empire.
  • The Plasticles have a variation on this, as they don't pick their leader based on strength but rather on speed, with the position of Speed-Royal going to whoever wins a race called the Leadership 500. Larb enters and wins, becoming Speed-King and promptly turning Plast into a vassal of the Irken Empire.
• Attack Drone: The Swarmer-type Irken robots are this, winged drones that are used to overwhelm enemy forces, using their mechanical pincers and claws to tear into enemies.
• Awesome McCoolname: While bemoaning the stupid name of "Resisty" that their group got stuck with, Lard Nar and Ixane mention other resistance groups called the "Darthvegan Guns of Freedom" and the "Forter Freedom Jumpers", both of which they agree sound really cool.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Zelda, High Marshal of the Imperial Troopers, is the youngest member of the War Council, being barely a hundred years old (99 to be exact) with the second-youngest (Sneakyonfoota) more than roughly three times her age (being exactly 221 years older than her).
• Bad Guys Have Better Budgets: The Irken Empire is mentioned to be much more powerful than the Coalition and its allies, having a vast amount of territory and resources at their disposal. The whole point of the future Resisty's mission to Barsoom was to try and get an advantage over the Empire by enlisting the aid of Barsoom and its Forge-Worlds.
• Basement Dweller: As per the unproduced canon episode "Day of da Spookies", Skoodge has been living in Zim's basement ever since the events of "Hobo 13". Furthermore, Bob the former Service Drone has been living there too, preferring it to going back to working for the Tallest.
• Being Evil Sucks: Larb certainly thinks so after stabbing the Vortians in the back to conquer them and learning about how Tallest Miyuki really died. And so do the rest of the Invaders after the truth of Tallest Miyuki's death is revealed to them.
• Betrayal by Inaction: The Tallest refuse to sanction a rescue mission on Tenn, leaving her to languish in captivity so they can be free to punish Zim. They later do the same to Theen's team, which results in the furious and desperate commander going to the Irken Resistance joining them.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Just when the Sapphire Legion member trying to capture El and Larb is overpowering them, Zee shows up to fight him off, managing to knock off his mask. The only reason the Sapphire Legion member is able to escape is due to a sniper providing covering fire for him.
  • As the future Resisty is about to be captured by an Irken Ring Cutter, a Barsoomian warship that was previously engaging said Ring Cutter appears and shoots down the boarding craft and then rams straight into the Ring Cutter, disabling the tractor beam and allowing the future Resisty to escape.
• Big "WHAT?!": El's reaction when Larb expresses guilt over conquering the Vortians.
• Blackmail: Tenn apparently uncovered some Dark Secret of Red and Purple's that she’s using her knowledge of to keep them from just outright killing Zim.
• Blood on the Debate Floor: Arguments in the Barsoomian Parliament are apparently known to get so bad that maiming is a possibility that should be expected. The meeting of Parliament that the future Resisty attend doesn't quite reach that level, but it's just barely averted by Kane-Zag putting his foot down and stopping the meeting before people can start shooting at each other. Becomes literal when Skoo and several Irken Elites gun down the religious members of the pro-Imperial faction after Barsoom itself falls under Irken control.
• Boarding Party: During the escape from Barsoom, the Resistor is caught in a Tractor Beam and nearly subjected to this by a Ring Cutter. Thankfully, a Barsoomian ship comes to the future Resisty's aid and rams straight into the Ring Cutter with the Barsoomian captain intending to take the ship or die trying.
• Board to Death: The religious zealots of the Barsoomian Parliament are subjected to this after Barsoom falls under Irken control.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: At one point in Chapter 12 of Rise of the Resisty, Invaders Gooch and Skuld are dismissively discussing the concept of religion, when a lightning bolt suddenly comes down out of the clear sky and zaps Skuld, much to Gooch's confusion.
• Brain Uploading: The Control Brains were created by uploading the minds of Irkens. Downplayed, in that while this provided the Brains with consciousness, the Irkens' own minds and personalities didn't survive the transition, essentially creating something new.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Lard Nar wets himself when Ixane holds him at spearpoint in their first meeting.
• Broken Pedestal: Learning the truth of how Tallest Miyuki really died, and how it was covered up, shakes El and Larb's faith in the Empire, especially Larb, who only learned after conquering the Vortians (the ones who took the fall for her death). Despite this, they stay loyal, if only because they see no other viable options.
• Burning the Flag: The rioters on the Irken city planet of Polius Prime (and other worlds) do this to flags of the Irken Empire before being shut down forcibly by Imperial Security enforcers.
• Burnout by Traumatic Job: Most of the Invaders are suffering this due to how many civilisations they've destroyed and how many people they've had to kill and betray in order to conquer or vassalise their assigned planets. It doesn't help that the majority of them were only sixteen when they were first assigned to their planets.
• Bystander Syndrome: Red and Purple refuse to do anything about the growing Irken Resistance due to seeing it as a problem for Irken Security to handle instead of them. The High Council is very much not happy with them about that attitude.
• The Caligula: As per canon, Red and Purple lead the Irken Empire entirely by their childish and petty whims. Unlike canon, it's shown how much this irritates the rest of the Empire's government, with the High Council and the Control Brains very much not happy with their laziness and other antics, the Invaders despising them and has resulted in higher amounts of anti-Imperial activity. And their actions during Enter the Florpus (flying only in straight lines, blowing up every planet in their way, etc.) are viewed in-universe as them outright descending into insanity.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • When El learns the truth of how Tallest Miyuki actually died, the Prime Control Brain notes that if she weren't a valuable asset due to being a highly-trained Invader and new ruler of an important Voluntary Vassal, she'd be executed for knowing too much. Even so, she's warned that if she tells anyone what she's learned, that won't save her.
  • By the time of Enter the Florpus, the High Council and Control Brains are all so sick of Red and Purple's childish leadership that they'd happily get rid of them and select a new Tallest, except that they can't be certain that any replacement candidates wouldn't be a secret Resistance agent or collaborator.
• Captain's Log: Lard Nar starts keeping one at Hank's insistence after being put in charge of the future Resisty.
• Career-Ending Injury: Sizz-Lorr is mentioned to have suffered damage to his PAK's regeneration factor and as a result, was forcibly retired from military service, which is implied to be standard practice with a rebel former Birken general on Breakerius having a similar backstory.
• Casting a Shadow: Shadrans have the ability to manipulate shadows, using them as weapons.
• Catapult Nightmare: In Chapter 6 of Rise of the Resisty, Lard Nar has a dream remembering how he first met Zim, only for Zim to suddenly turn into the Infinite Absorbing Blob and attack him, at which point he bolts awake in bed.
• Choosing Neutrality: The Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance agrees to stay out of the way of the Irkens' conquests, in gratitude for having eliminated the Planet Jackers for them.
• City on the Water: Plast is mentioned to have cities built on the water, along with ones on the landmasses and ones in the oceans themselves.
• Civil War:
  • The Month of Everlasting Shame was an Irken civil war early in the days of the Empire, fought between the central authority and rebel groups who didn't want to accept their people's new warmongering ways towards the rest of the universe. Obviously, the rebels lost.
  • The Sapphire Legion's attempted coup against Tallest Spork to preserve the late Tallest Miyuki's reforms, known as the Sapphire Rebellion, is officially considered another civil war by the Irkens.
  • The Irkens' strategy for dealing with the Barsoomians is to exploit their culture's Machine Worship by letting them learn about the existence of the Control Brains and assuming that these are their foretold Machine Gods. This creates a schism between those who believe so and those who don't, which the Invaders are quick to provoke with propaganda in order to push it towards an open conflict.
  • In Arc 3 of Rise of the Resisty, the tail-end of a civil war between the Blarg caused by Invader Chin is depicted, having raged for months by the time of the war's end.
• Cloning Gambit: It's eventually revealed in Rise of the Resisty that Tallest Miyuki was warned of how Zim's blob would be set up to try to kill her, but that trying to stop it by not visiting Station 9 would result in Zim's death. So, she decided to let it happen, but set it up so that her mind would be transferred to a cloned body elsewhere; this works, but something goes wrong and leaves her in a coma for years until the Sapphire Legion finds her and wakes her up to take over leading the Irken Resistance.
• Cloudcuckoolander: It turns out that Shloonktapooxis' people, the Coneheads, have this as their hat, all of them being so out there that they just accept being conquered without a fight, with the confused Irkens deciding to just put them to work as comedians and jesters.s
• Combat Pragmatist: How the Irken Empire operates, using Invaders to weaken enemy targets by targeting their defences, communication systems and leadership to keep enemy forces isolated and easy pickings for the actual invasion force. Sometimes, they enlist the help of locals interested in joining the Empire to fight their battles for them.
• Cosmopolitan Council: The Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance Security Council's members hail from the different member races of the Alliance, each one being the current leader of them.
• The Coup:
  • After Miyuki's death, the Sapphire Legion attempted this with the help of other Irkens and some rogue person (whose identity has been redacted) in what would be known as the Sapphire Rebellion. They didn't succeed and they, along with their supporters, were sent into exile by Tallest Spork. Years after their exile, they have returned with the same goals and this time, they are trying to recruit the Invaders for their rebellion.
  • The Whunks are mentioned to face this from a pro-Irken faction with the support of Invader Larb.
  • The pro-Irken faction of the Barsoomians stage a power grab when their Parliament votes to support the Coalition, leading to a brief Civil War that the Irkens intervene in to assure it ends in their favor, allowing their collaborators to take over the new Puppet State. Sergeant Khao of the Resisty mentions that a similar thing is happening on many different worlds with pro-Irken groups trying to make their worlds join the Empire.
• Crapsack World: Same as canon, Earth is this with the human population being very stupid and foolish with Tak outright calling it a rotting polluted shithole. It's mentioned that entire cities, even entire countries have been abandoned. The same goes for most of the universe with Planet Jackers, crime syndicates, warring empires and other such organisations running amok and wreaking havoc. The Irken Empire has been slowly spreading across the universe, conquering countless worlds and enslaving their inhabitants, destroying their culture and forbidding practice of their local religions, killing anyone who dares to keep practicing religion as an example. Many worlds and civilisations join up with the Empire willingly through as allies or vassals. There are places relatively untouched by the devastation that are free and thriving but with the Irken Empire's advance, they might not last long..
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • The Irken Resistance is mentioned to be prepared if the Coalition decides to wipe out the entire Irken race, having contingencies in place to ensure that the Coalition is stopped in its tracks and if those contingencies fail, then the Irken Resistance has the Irk's Fall Protocol to fall back on.
  • It's mentioned at one point that in the month or so leading up to the Consulars' purge at the hands of Imperial Security, that the Consulars' intruder prevention budget was slashed. It's implied that the Council anticipated the Consulars finding out about the truth behind Miyuki's death and they would have to silence them to keep them from spreading the truth and ensured that the Consulars' defences would be crippled in advance if that came to pass.
• Cryptic Background Reference: Mention is made of a group called "The Raging Raiders" that were one of the threats that Irk protected Vort (and its other allies) from.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In a subversion of Rock Beats Laser, the highly-advanced Irkens easily overpower and defeat the medieval-level Boggobians, crushing a massive army of their allied tribes in only a few minutes.
• Dark Secret: Red and Purple apparently have one that could devastate the Empire if it got out, which Tenn is using to blackmail them into not just outright killing Zim.
• Data Drive MacGuffin: In Fractured/Alliance, it's revealed that there was another reason for the Irken Empire helping the Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance destroy their enemies; they wanted access to a database the Planet Jackers had that contained valuable information on the Milky Way Galaxy.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Rise Of The Hideous New Girl is all about Tak's backstory.
  • Gift focuses on the Dissenter/Shroud, exploring his motives and what he's been up to on the sidelines of the main story.
• Dead Guy on Display:
  • The Shadrans on Umbra make a point of hanging up the bodies of Irken soldiers that they kill in order to intimidate the ones who are still alive.
  • According to Zetheriel, the Irken Empire is fond of using this trope when it comes to religion-dominated societies, using the bodies of cardinals and priests as an example to the rest of the population.
• Death Faked for You: Apprenticeship reveals that Spork wasn't killed by the Blob; instead, the High Council ensured that he survived, but that he was locked away in a remote base to keep him out of the way, but accessible if they still needed his information.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • The Sapphire Legion and the wider Irken Resistance are this, being comprised of ex-Empire members who are sick of the current way of government and seek to restore Tallest Miyuki's reforms and the Irken Republic.
  • The "Treacherous Three Thousand" were members of the Emerald Legion who defected to join the Sapphire Legion in their rebellion due to being disgusted by Spork's actions.
  • The redacted person who aided the Sapphire Legion in their rebellion is eventually revealed to have been a Control Brain called Blue Eyes who turned on its cohorts to act as The Mole before eventually being forced to flee with the rebels.
  • It's mentioned that there is an organisation called the Free Whunk Gunnery Battalions who refused to support the new pro-Irken regime and defected to join the greater resistance against the Empire.
• Defiant Stone Throw: Several of the rioters on Polius Prime do this to Imperial Security enforcers when several of them show up to shut down their riot.
• Depopulation Bomb: It's mentioned that during its rebellion, the smeetries on Machinerus were heavily damaged by the Irken Elite, lessening the amount of Smeets born on Machinerus.
• Destination Defenestration: Erebus at one point happily recalls the several times that he's thrown priests out windows while eliminating the religions of conquered civilizations... and the one time that a warrior-priest threw him out a window.
• Didn't Think This Through: During a flashback to the circumstances of Miyuki's death, Zim shoots the rampaging Infinite Energy Absorbing Blob in the eye to try and stop it, which just makes it mad at him, causing Zim to admit that he didn't think this plan through before he's attacked.
• The Dog Bites Back: The Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance manages to avenge their homeworlds and wipe out the majority of the Planet Jackers. Albeit with the help of the Irken Empire, making this a Pyrrhic Victory for the rest of the universe.
• Downer Beginning:
  • By the time Rise of The Resisty starts, the Vortians are in dire straits; the Irken Empire has conquered their homeworld and most of their colony worlds, enslaved many of the Vortians, their civilian leadership has been wiped out, their remaining worlds are under siege, their military has been subjected to purges by paranoid commanders and what elements remain of the Vortian Federation are desperately trying to hold out, along with their allies and other enemies of the Empire who are suffering the same fate as well.
  • For that matter, the Time Skip that starts up Arc 3 of the story also has a downer start, as it picks up with a montage of the Irkens conquering numerous planets, while the Resisty are currently stranded on Foodcourtia.
• Dragon Ascendant: Warmaster Creed is the supreme commander of the Irken Empire's military, second only to the Tallest themselves. And with them now missing thanks to the Florpus, that makes him the de facto ruler of the Empire.
• Dramatic Irony: During his first meeting with the future Resisty, Kane-Zag theorizes to Lard Nar that the Vortian leadership was behind Miyuki's death and are telling everyone they were framed to garner more sympathy before he finishes by stating that neither of them were there that day so they don't know for sure. Unaware that Lard Nar indeed was there that day.
• The Dreaded: The Shadrans quickly gain this reputation among the Irkens, as their sheer skill at guerrilla warfare makes defeating them in combat almost impossible, to the point that the Irkens had to resort to a planet-wide Organic Sweep just to be able to beat them on their homeworld. And the surviving enclaves on their colony worlds are proving just as difficult to defeat.
• Driven to Suicide: It's mentioned by Word of God that Vasquez, the last Consul of the Irken Republic, committed suicide after the Reclamation and the destruction of the Meekrob worlds out of guilt.
• Dying Race: The Jeljellians were this. Invader Pesto mentions that when he arrived, there was only 32 of them left and after some suicide attack by them, there's supposedly none left as far as the Empire knows.
• Dyson Sphere: In Irk's Solar System, it's mentioned the closest planet to the sun has been turned into a massive dyson sphere production facility called Dysonius Prime, which is also the homeworld of two of Tak's squadmates on Devastis.
• Electric Torture: The Meekrob repeatedly subjected Tenn to this while she was their captive, until she was handed over to the URC as part of their alliance.
• Elite Army: The Irken military is this with smaller groups of Irkens being able to hold their own and even overwhelm larger forces in most cases. And that's only the grunts of the army. The Elites are more obvious examples, being deployed as very effective shock troops against enemy forces.
• The Empire:
  • Same as canon, the Irken Empire is this and, by the time of the first story in the series, has conquered much of its home galaxy with footholds in nearby galaxies as well.
  • The Planet Jackers were considered to be this before their defeat.
  • Mention is also made of an Arlatan Empire that was an enemy of the Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance before the former's destruction at the hands of the latter and the Irken Empire.
• Empire with a Dark Secret:
  • The High Council covered up the actual circumstances of Tallest Miyuki's death (namely that it was Zim's fault) and let the general public believe that it was a betrayal and assassination by their Vortian, Trigonian and Nebulonian allies, which led to those species eventually being conquered during Impending Doom II. When the truth is revealed during Zim’s Existence Evaluation, it leads to widespread rioting across the Empire as Irkens lash out at their government for lying to them, while the Invaders are horrified that they helped betray and conquer their allies for no reason.
  • And then there's why the Council covered up the truth in the first place – Tenn knows some other dark secret that they don't want getting out, and is threatening to expose it if they ever try to lethally punish Zim for Miyuki's death or any of his other actions.
• Encyclopedia Exposita: Most chapters/oneshots end with excerpts from a "Galactic Glossary" explaining terms and concepts that came up in the story but otherwise not gone into detail on.
• Enemy Civil War: By Arc 3 of Rise of the Resisty, the Irken Empire is facing internal unrest and uprisings by its own population due to the truth of Tallest Miyuki's death having been exposed by Zim's trial.
• Enigmatic Minion: Emerald is a heroic example. He's the Resisty's resident intelligence agent, with mysterious contacts that provide him with vital information for actions against the Irkens, but he refuses to divulge them and the other Resisty members don't know much about him. It's eventually revealed that he's an undercover Irken Resistance operative.
• Even Evil Has Standards: It's mentioned that the Planet Jackers and their actions genuinely sickened the Irken Empire even way before Miyuki ever came to power and the only reason they didn't declare war on them right there and then is because of the Planet Jackers' capabilities.
• Evil Stole My Faith: The Irken Empire, back when it was the Republic, was very tolerant of religion and worshipped its own set of gods. But when the Meekrob began genociding them and their gods remained silent despite how much they prayed, while the Republic's allies turned their backs on them in their hour of need, this slowly turned the Irkens against religion as a whole, and when the Empire was founded one of their first decrees was that religion had to be "thrown out a window", and they made it a policy to exterminate all signs of religion in any civilizations they conquer or vassalize.
• The Exile:
  • The Sapphire Legion were exiled by Tallest Spork for trying to stage a coup against him in order to preserve the late Tallest Miyuki's progressive reforms of the Empire that he was rolling back.
  • El's trainer on Brawlstar, Mephisto, turns out to be an Irken who's been living there ever since being banished. No details are given on why, except for his claim that he was blamed for something that wasn't his fault.
• Faking the Dead: As revealed in Chapter 18 of Rise of the Resisty, this is the case with Tallest Miyuki. Having been forewarned of the Blob being prepared to assassinate her but that it would kill Zim instead if she didn’t let it, she sacrificed herself by letting it take her, but took steps to have her mind uploaded to a clone body... unfortunately, something went wrong and she didn't wake up until years later, when it was too late to stop the negative consequences of her "death" on the Empire. As such, she's stayed in hiding since then to build up the Irken Resistance while letting everyone outside it think that she's dead.
• Fate Worse than Death: Spork wasn't killed by the Blob, as the High Council ensured he survived. However, they made sure that his resulting injuries were patched up with inferior mechanical parts that cause him constant pain and mean that he can't risk straying far from the remote facility that they keep him locked up in, keeping him alive but powerless so they can pump him for information if necessary.
• Final Solution: Some members of Coalition High Command are mentioned to have the desire to wipe out the entire Irken race to put an end to the Irken Empire. Something that Lard Nar, some members of the Resisty and the Irken Resistance are against. In the latter group's case, they have plans in case the Coalition decides to commit fully to this.
• Flat "What": Lard Nar's mental reaction when first informed that he's being chosen as a leader of the planned resistance against the Irkens.
• Flipping the Bird: Red does this to the Planet Jacker Grand Admiral right before ordering the launching of a sneak attack to devastate them.
• Footnote Fever: Every story in the series makes use of footnotes, as the author clarifies and expands on details that the narration doesn’t have time to.
• The Fundamentalist: The pro-Irken Empire faction of the Barsoomian Priesthood is composed primarily of Machine Worship zealots, who have been manipulated into believing that the Control Brains are their long-lost "Machine Gods", and that joining the Empire is their will.
• Galactic Conqueror: Same as canon, the Irken Invaders are this, being able to bring down entire worlds by themselves with proper equipment, either through conquering the planet or vassalising them as part of the Irken Empire's greater plans for universal conquest.
• Genocide Backfire: For unknown reasons, tens of thousands of years ago, the Meekrob attempted to wipe out the entire Irken species and nearly succeeded in doing so before the Irken Republic became more aggressive to survive, retaking their worlds and then attempting to do the same to the Meekrob, destroying the Meekrob worlds and forcing the Meekrob to flee to a new homeworld while the Irken Republic became the Empire and began focusing on conquest and warfare, driven to conquer the entire known universe.
• Gladiator Games:
  • The culture of the Brawlstar system is built around these, not just as a form of entertainment but as a means of selecting their ruler. After they become a Voluntary Vassal for the Irkens, the Empire starts sending POWs to them to fight in the arenas.
  • Irkens also have gladiatorial matches, although to a much lesser extent, as it's just a form of entertainment left over from their pre-spacefaring days.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • The High Council consider asking for Zim's help in rescuing Tenn to be this due to how dangerous and unpredictable he is, but they figure that he can give them a needed edge against their enemies.
  • Irk's Fall Protocol is an ultimate failsafe that was created by the High Council in case Irk itself is ever at risk of falling and the rest of the universe is considered unsafe for the Irkens. Whatever it is hasn't been revealed yet, but it is apparently considered an absolute last resort.
• Government Conspiracy: The Control Brains and the High Council are keeping the truth of how Tallest Miyuki died a closely-guarded secret to keep the Empire stable, scapegoating the Vortians for it as a coverup and convenient reason to conquer them. Even Red and Purple don't know despite being the current Tallest, since the Council figure they'd overreact and make a mess of things if they did.
• Great Offscreen War:
  • It's mentioned in the beginning of Rise of the Resisty that in the five years between Miyuki's death and Vort's conquest, the Vortians found themselves engaged in a war against enemy races that suffered at the hands of the Vortians' creations. Some of them presumably being races that the Vortians had fought against in their hunts for technology.
  • The Irken-Genken war against the Gene-Lords isn't shown at all, only mentioned to have been a nightmare for the Gene-Lords and their civilization.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Later stories in the series introduce the concept of a Renegade Splinter Faction of Irkens known as the Helix Cabal, who have been working with the Ethereals to engineer more dangerous forms of their species, which according to the Dissenter makes them a worse threat than the Empire, though they've been held at bay for now.
• The Great Exterminator: It's revealed that Sneakyonfoota has the title of Executioner of the Ethereals, revealing that he's the one who conquered and destroyed the Ethereal Empire on behalf of Tallest Maxon all those centuries ago.
• Headbutting Heroes: The Coalition and Irken Resistance are mentioned to have a tense working relationship for many reasons, not fully trusting each other with some of the Coalition's leaders being supportive of exacting a Final Solution on the Irken race for all they have done and the Irken Resistance not being onboard with the Meekrob's involvement due to nearly genociding them in the past and secretly having plans to essentially betray the Coalition if it decides to go ahead with a Final Solution.
• Healing Factor: Irkens are functionally immortal as long as their PAKs aren't damaged, as they can heal from just about anything given enough time.
• Heavyworlder: Sizz-Lor is revealed to be part of a type of Irkens called 'Birkens', Irkens who grew up on high-gravity worlds. The Birkens are mentioned to serve as heavy weapons specialists and war drummers among other things.
• Henchmen Race: The Genkens were an attempt at this by a collective known as the Gene Lords but it backfired horribly as when they met their "cousins", it took the Genkens only a few moments to turn on their masters and help wipe them out.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • It's mentioned that Lard Nar's cell (the future Resisty) isn't the only one started by the Coalition with another such group being said to have hijacked some Irken freighters and stolen their supplies.
  • Brief snippets are shown throughout the series of different rebel cells fighting back against the Irken forces invading their homeworlds and there are other rebel groups mentioned but not seen yet.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Due to having until recently been among the Irkens' closest allies, the Vortians are distrusted by a lot of other species.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Lard Nar and the Irken Resistance both fear the Coalition slipping into this territory in its war against the Irken Empire with some of its leaders being mentioned to be advocating for the death of every last Irken alive and the total destruction of the Irken race, regardless of any good Irkens. Which is worse than what the Empire does as while it does conquer races and isn't afraid to kill tons of innocent people, it tends to avoid committing genocide.
• High Priest: As leader of the Barsoomian Priesthood, Grand Fabricator-General Kane-Zag serves this role for his people as well as being head of state.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Lard Nar tells Ixane about the Gene Lords, a collective that stole Irken DNA and PAK schematics to create their own Henchmen Race called the "Genkens" to conquer the universe with. However, upon meeting their "cousins" the original Irkens, the Genkens Turned Against Their Masters and helped wipe them out.
• Homeworld Evacuation:
  • The Wappsy Exodus Fleet is composed of those who managed to escape their homeworld when the Irken Empire invaded. One of those ships, the Nephrite Salvlation, ended up joining the Resisty Fleet and becoming its new flagship following the destruction of the S.S. Resistor.
  • The Vortians living on their homeworld at the time it was invaded attempted this, only to have the Irken Empire surround the spaceports, keeping them unable to take off without being shot down and making it much easier for the Irkens to round up and enslave them.
• Hopeless War: Implied to be the case with the Siege of Meekrob. While the Irkens have suffered horrendous losses, they are still slowly taking over the planet, reducing vast swathes of it to nothing but wastelands and dealing heavy losses to the defenders who can't replace their losses. It gets worse when Warmaster Creed takes control and begins preparing for a massive assault on Meekrob to end the siege once and for all.
• Hypocrite: Following the meeting with Spork, Zelda calls Warmaster Creed and Commander Erebus out for refusing to kill their old friend and the previous High Marshal, Sraak, when he tried to kill Tallest Miyuki, even though they have killed a lot of people without problems over the hundreds of years they've been alive for.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: When Emerald is revealed to be an undercover Irken Resistance operative named Ulaz, the Resisty initially assume that he was sent by the Empire to be The Mole and betray them, only for him to point out that he's been with them for years at this point and could have led them into a trap at any time that he wanted.
• Illegal Religion: The practice of religion is banned in the Irken Empire and its conquered and vassalized territories with any signs of religion in a recently-conquered/vassalized civilisation destroyed and buried and those who refuse to give up religion executed. This practice comes from when the highly-religious Meekrob nearly wiped them out in their Republic-era days and their own Gods refused to help them for whatever reason.
• Impeded Communication: As part of the raid on Breakerius, Irken resistance agents hack into the systems and deactivate the communication systems all across the planet-sized shipbreaking yard, keeping the local garrison in the dark and unable to coordinate before it's too late.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Sneakyonfoota declares that he needs a strong drink after learning that the Tallest are sending Tenn to Meekrob, which is considered a suicide mission.
  • He and Creed share a drink once they accept that they have to convince the other Invaders to ask for Zim's help in rescuing Tenn and that they have a war to un-mismanage.
  • Years earlier, after Spork reveals his plan to charge the Irken Empire's enemies without the use of Invaders, Sneakyonfoota and Zelda share one.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Warmaster Creed mentions that when the Irken Empire and the Planet Jackers allied, both factions knew that it was only a matter of time before they would be at war once the Planet Jackers have thrown every non-Irken world into the fire of their sun or the Irken Empire had conquered every planet.
• Insectoid Aliens: Same as canon with the Irkens.
• Insufficiently Advanced Alien: Downplayed with the Irken Empire who, while one of the most advanced races in the universe with superior tech, have one glaring weakness; their PAKs. It's mentioned that PAKs can't be repaired after they're damaged so at the very least, it results in retirement or in the very worst-case situations, becoming Defective or death. The reason for this is currently unknown as it's been tens of thousands years since PAKs were first introduced and yet... no one has found a way to repair them after they suffer damage.
• It's All My Fault: Lard Nar blames himself for everything that the Irkens have done with the Massive because he helped build it, which he treats as a Dark Secret that he needs to keep in order to prevent The Alliance from falling apart.
• It's Personal:
  • The Irken Empire is shown to hold massive grudges against those who have wronged them, the primary example being the Meekrobians who once nearly wiped out the Irken Empire back in the days of the Republic for implied religious reasons and forced the Republic to become aggressive and militant in order to retake the territory they lost and return the favour, nearly wiping out the entire Meekrobian species and driving the surviving Meekrobians away from their homeworld and forcing them to settle in another part of the galaxy entirely. Vort also suffers this trope with them being framed for killing the benevolent Tallest Miyuki.
  • Aside from being opposed to the Irkens in general, Lard Nar despises Invader Larb in particular for having conquered Vort.
• I've Come Too Far: Despite the truth about Tallest Miyuki's death shaking their faith in the Empire, El and Larb refuse to accept the Sapphire Legion member's offer to join them in rebelling, declaring that after all the conquering that they've done, their people can't just turn away from imperialism and go back to peaceful coexistence with the rest of the universe.
• I Warned You: Two times, throughout the series by High Marshal Zelda.
  • When Tallest Red tries to paint the raid on Breakerius as 'unexpected', Zelda immediately calls him out and says that they warned him that this would happen.
  • Years earlier, during the Sapphire Rebellion, Zelda wanted to sell out Spork as soon as the Sapphire Legion revolted but the rest of the Council voted against it. When Spork reveals his plans to engage the rest of the unconquered universe in a full-out assault, Zelda bitterly reminds them of this.
• Join or Die: Invader Groot's strategy for conquering Boggob is to simply tell the Boggobians' assembled chieftains that they can either become a Voluntary Vassal and take part in the Irkens' conquests of the universe, or be wiped out for resisting. A group of them accept, but the rest try to fight back and get wiped out.
• Just the First Citizen: Miyuki preferred to just be referred to as "Lady" rather than her proper title of Almighty Tallest.
• Keystone Army: Heavily averted as Lard Nar notes in regards to the Irken Empire. Even with the disappearance of the Tallest and the First Fleet, the Irken Empire is still not stopping its conquest with Warmaster Creed taking control as the de-facto leader of the Empire and continuing the Empire's war.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Governor Sarkar has the captured rebel on Devastis killed and the witnesses sworn to silence to ensure Spork doesn't come down hard on Devastis for missing the rebel presence.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The Shadrans reluctantly agree to abandon their holdout positions in their home system when Lard Nar helps them realize that the Irkens will soon be able to overwhelm them through sheer force.
• La Résistance:
  • In addition to the canonical Resisty, there's the larger URC that they're part of, as well as the allied Irken Resistance, which is opposed to their species' imperialistic ways.
  • The Caviousian Free Brigade is a more incompetent example of this trope, being wiped out without inflicting any losses on the enemy due to a single grenade.
  • The Plasticine rebels don't fair well either. They are lured into a trap and slaughtered by Larb, El and several other Irkens just a small while after Plast joins the Empire.
  • The Puigian Liberation Front fairs a bit better, putting up a relatively strong resistance before they're overwhelmed and destroyed.
  • Mention is made of other resistance groups called the Darthvegan Guns of Freedom and the Forter Freedom Jumpers.
• Laughing Mad: Zim does this at the end of Judgementia Day as he tries to process being declared Defective.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Tallest Spork is revealed to have been a variant of this, wanting to forgo using Invaders and instead engage the enemy races in a full-frontal assault as soon as the Grand Testing on Devastis was completed. The Council took exception to this and had him get injured by the Blob and sent to a remote outpost with subpar cybernetics while they faked his death and took control.
• Les Collaborateurs: A group of Boggobian chieftains and their tribes are swayed by Invader Groot's offer to be a Voluntary Vassal of the Irken Empire, swearing fealty while the rest of their people are wiped out.
• Lesser of Two Evils: The Prime Control Brain states that eliminating Spork and letting the incompetent Red and Purple become Tallest was this trope in their opinion, as Spork's own leadership was seen as worse.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: After Zim's encounter with the Planet Jackers gets their leadership threatening war with the Irkens, Red uses it as an excuse to launch a sneak attack to destroy them before they can become a real threat.
• Let's You and Him Fight: A cutaway in Rise of the Resisty shows a couple of Vortian soldiers from different units fighting as they each accuse the other of being Irkens in disguise, so the onlooking actual Irkens decide to just let them do it in order to save them the trouble of attacking.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • While Red knows that Zim is neither a real Invader nor on a legitimate mission to Earth, and thus not actually protected by their treaty with the Planet Jackers, he still uses Zim's presence on the planet to claim it as protected, and thus giving him an excuse to attack the Planet Jackers like he's been wanting to.
  • Larb enters the Leadership 500, the race which determines who rules the speed-obsessed Plasticles, by exploiting the fact that the rules of the race don't say that you have to actually be a Plasticle to compete.
• Look, a Distraction!: In order to get out of a potentially awkward conversation about how she's clearly shipping them, Zee pretends that there's a Meekrob behind El and Larb, and then runs off when they turn to face it.
• Love at First Sight: Skoodge developed a crush on Tenn when they first met as smeets.
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: Erebus gripes that due to the Elites' losses on Meekrob, mentioned to be tens of thousands by the time the Resisty are assigned to join the battle, and possibly on other worlds, they're going to need to lower the Elite Corps' standards just to fill in the gaps. This is mentioned to be standard practice whenever the Elites suffer heavy losses for one reason or another.
• Machine Worship: The Barsoomian civilization is built around a religion venerating "Machine Gods". The Irkens, despite their own contempt for religion as a whole, are quick to take advantage of this by letting the Barsoomians know about the existence of the Control Brains, causing a schism as many come to believe that they are the Machine Gods.
• Martial Pacifist: It's noted that while the Iphorians as a whole are mostly dedicated to art and culture, they're still more than capable of fighting if necessary.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Irken Empire makes frequent use of varying types of robots in their wars against the rest of the universe, such as Swarmers for overwhelming entrenched enemy positions and Brutes for burning or crushing their enemies.
• Minor Major Character: In Rise of the Resisty, it's frequently mentioned that there's a Coalition High Command, composed of the military leaders of the U.R.C's member races and the same goes for the Vortian Federation but besides the Director, any other members have yet to make any appearances or be given names.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In Accelerate, Commander Theen goes rogue after the Tallest refuse to rescue his stranded research team, willingly accepting help from the Irken Resistance to do so. After the team's been rescued, they all agree to join the Resistance rather than return to an Empire that left them for dead.
• Monster Progenitor: Tiresias was the first ever Irken to be successfully turned into a Control Brain, becoming the Prime Control Brain.
• Mook Depletion: Due to how badly the Siege of Meekrob is going with the Meekrob allying with the Coalition and Tenn's other targets finding out about the Empire targeting them as well and joining the fight, the Irken military takes heavy losses, mentioned to be hundreds of millions with the Vengeance Division mentioned to have been crippled as a result.
• Multinational Team: Same as canon, the Resisty and to a greater extent, the U.R.C are this, being composed of various races that have been targeted by the Irken Empire.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Larb is revealed to have deep regrets and guilt over having to betray the Vortians for the sake of his mission. Especially since he learned that they weren't actually responsible for killing Tallest Miyuki, as the propaganda claimed.
  • A flashback shows Zim having this reaction when his Infinite Energy Absorbing Blob got free and into the Infinite Energy Generating Thingy, realizing what this is about to cause.
  • All the Invaders react like this when they learn the truth of Miyuki's death and realize that they conquered innocent planets for no reason.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The Sapphire Legion and the Irken Resistance are opposed to the Irken Empire's imperialistic ways, and want to restore the republic that they used to have.
• Mysterious Backer: Later stories introduce a masked Irken called "the Dissenter", also known as Shroud, who has been spending centuries providing aide and guidance to anti-Empire factions, for the sake of preparing for a separate war against the Helix Cabal and the New Ethereal Empire.
• Mythology Gag: Larb's conquests include the Whunks and the Plasticles, both of which are mentioned among his list of earned titles in one issue of the comic series.
• Named After Somebody Famous:
  • El names her SIR "Rexy", after an ancient Irken gladiator called Rex the Digestor-Slayer.
  • Sagan, the Head of Operations for the Planetary Conversion Team, is named after Carl Sagan.
  • The reigning Speed-King of the turtle/tortoise-like Plasticles when Larb arrives is named George after Lonesome George.
  • During the invasion of Barsoom, there's a brief POV scene from an Irken sergeant named Knutzen after Matthias Knutzen, a famed German philosopher regarded as the first modern atheist.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • The Irken Announcer is given the name Aaron.
  • All the canonically unnamed members of the Resisty are given names here — such as Hank (the three-headed guy), Cassie (the female blob) Emerald (the alien with green bug eyes and shoulder pads), Ainiac (the floating head guy), and Alcon (the guy with four legs and no arms) — along with all of their unnamed species, with Hank's species being Trigorians, Spleenk's being Iphorians, and Ixane's being Shadrans.
  • The grey-skinned brutes from Zim's virtual simulation in "Door to Door" are given the species name Grutes here.
  • The Resisty's unnamed ship is christened the S.S. Resistor by Spleenk.
  • The Xilactian Historian goes by Xylene.
• Neutral No Longer: It's confirmed that when the Tallest start destroying worlds in the lead-up to Enter the Florpus, the Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance ceases being neutral and turns against the Empire.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: As called out by the Prime Control Brain, Red and Purple's efforts to eliminate Zim have not just risked triggering the release of Tenn's revenge blackmail against the Empire, but have kept having direct negative effects on them, with the events of his trial exposing the truth of Miyuki's death and thus undermining their entire system of government by emboldening the Irken Resistance. Other examples include;
  • Sending Malfunctioning SIR Units to Zim and not doing anything to help Tenn when they got sent to her base instead. This ends up getting Tenn caught by the Meekrob and starting a years-long gruelling siege with the Irken Empire losing hundreds of millions over the course of it. It's pointed out that even if the addresses weren't switched, Zim would've been captured and his tech would fall into human hands.
  • Telling Zim to stay put during Impending Doom 1. Even though, as the Council points out, the Tallest knew that he would disobey orders if it meant he would be able to prove himself. The resulting rampage delays the Irken Empire's plans for universal conquest and giving their enemies more time to prepare.
  • Refusing to sanction a rescue mission for Commander Theen's team out of sheer laziness results in Theen going to the Irken Resistance who help him rescue his team, who decide to join the Resistance out of gratitude and to avoid being punished, and destroy the Time Accelerator so that no one can ever abuse it's power.
  • To make up for the destruction of the Accelerator, the Tallest send their personal guards to Savali to plunder the Interdimensional Archives, attacking the local Savali Monks and pissing off the Thugs, who are the same species of them. This in turn results in the Thugs turning against the Empire and joining the greater resistance.
• Not Always Evil: While the majority of the Irken species support the Irken Empire's plans for universal conquest and subjugation of nearly every other race, they only do so due to seeing no other option and wanting to get payback for the universe turning a blind eye to the Meekrobians' genocide of them and more recently, Tallest Miyuki's death. Even then, there are still those who rebel against the Empire and want to genuinely change it for the better. When the truth of Tallest Miyuki's death is revealed, riots erupt all across the Empire's territory and countless Irkens start supporting the Irken Resistance.
• Nothing Is Scarier: How the Gene-Lords were destroyed isn't exactly described, other than being implied to have been bad even by the present war's standards, judging from Lard Nar calling it a living nightmare.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Mephisto doesn't give details on what caused him to be exiled from the Empire, just saying that he was punished for something that wasn't his fault.
  • The exact circumstances surrounding how Tenn became Spork's apprentice are unclear. How she became his apprentice is later shown in Apprenticeship.
  • Apparently, the first time that Ixane tried spicy food, it didn't go well for her, though she refuses to let Lard Nar discuss the incident in detail.
  • Invader Gooch mentions that before the Assigning, he had an encounter with the Tallest that went badly.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In Chapter 9 of Rise of the Resisty, it's mentioned how the Planet Jackers enacted The Purge on all of their architects. A footnote in the chapter then clarifies that this was not the author's idea, but something taken from the limited Invader Zim e-cards, one of which explains that one of the canonical Planet Jackers wanted to be an architect when he was a child but had to switch careers after the "Great Architect Purge".
• Oh, My Gods!:
  • Vortian characters like Lard Nar tend to use this trope name when swearing.
  • Spleenk's species, the Iphorians, swear by a god named Ropollo.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The rebellion of Tak's home-planet (Machinerius) has left a negative reputation on the planet and all Irkens from it to the point where it's become increasingly rare for Machinerius Irkens to join the Elite and those who do are separated from their fellows.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: No one remembers the real name of the species now known only as the Planet Jackers, since they've been stealing planets and throwing them into their sun for so long, it's all anyone knows them for.
• Operation: [Blank]:
  • The mission to rescue Tenn is called Operation: Rescue From Doom.
  • The conquest of Vort and its colony worlds was creatively named Operation: Vort's Doom.
  • The mission to instigate a Civil War in the Barsoomian Priesthood so that the Irkens can take it over via Unwitting Pawns is called Operation: Religious Doom.
• Origins Episode: Rise of the Resisty reveals how said group was created to fight back against the Irkens.
• Outcast Refuge: During their meeting, the Dissenter's associate, D-9, mentions that if Theen and his team refuse to join the resistance against the Empire, they'll drop them off somewhere implied to be this for Irkens sick of the Empire but not willing to actually resist against it.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: The Irkens view religion as primitive superstition and propaganda that needs to be ignored in favor of science and galactic conquest, and make a point of destroying the religious aspects of any conquered civilizations.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Irken Empire becomes an example of this for Chairman Drek of the Blarg and his cronies; none of them were expecting Invader Chin to show up and ruin Drek's plans to create and pollute a new homeworld for the Blarg by revealing them to the Blarg population and inciting a months-long Civil War.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Lard Nar has these repeatedly, related to the events surrounding Tallest Miyuki's death. They tend to start as flashbacks to what actually happened, before being warped by his guilt about his indirect role in things.
• Pet the Dog: The Control Brains are mentioned to have overrode the Tallest's decision to have Grapa take the credit for conquering Blorch and during the Massive Control Brains' meeting with Grapa, the middle one apologies for overwhelming Grapa.
• Planet Looters: Same as canon, the Planet Jackers are this, towing worlds away and feeding them and their local lifeforms to their dying sun. Unlike canon, though, it's shown how many enemies their practices have made across the centuries with there being an alliance of races that have or nearly lost their homeworlds to them that are just itching to bring them down for good.
• Planet of Hats:
  • Brawlstar, where El is assigned, is more like an entire star system of hats, as the civilization inhabiting its planets is built around their Gladiator Games, to the point that their leader is selected by being the best combatant in the fighting leagues.
  • The Plasticles of planet Plast have their entire society built around an obsession with speed, to the point that their leader is chosen by seeing who can win a massive race.
• Praetorian Guard:
  • The Sapphire Legion were Tallest Miyuki's personal bodyguards, and remain loyal to her memory.
  • Tallest Spork is mentioned to have had his own guard, the Emerald Legion.
  • Red and Purple are mentioned to have their own guard, the Crimson and Amethyst Legions, who members (or at least the majority of them) are mentioned to have disappeared with their Tallest into the Florpus.
  • The Imperial Legions appear to have been an evolution of the Republican Guard, which served as bodyguards for the Consuls who ruled the Irken Republic in the pre-imperial days.
  • It's later clarified that while the Legions serve as the Tallest's personal armies and enforcers, they each contain a subset literally called Praetorians who serve as their direct bodyguards.
• Private Military Contractors: The Thugs of the Bogon Galaxy served as this as the Irken Empire paid them a fortune to conquer their home galaxy for them. At first, the Thugs went along with this until Savali got attacked. As a result, the Thugs turned against the Empire and joined the greater resistance.
• Precision F-Strike: In Chapter 4 of Rise of the Resisty, Lard Nar and his crew all yell this as part of a Mass "Oh, Crap!" reaction to learning that the Massive is in the system that they're about to drop out of hyperspace into.
• Proud Merchant Race: The centipede-like aliens with ram horns (known as the Cil here) are mentioned to be this, being a race of merchants and traders allied with the Irken Empire.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy:
  • The Boggobians evolved on a Death World, and so evolved into a race of brutal warriors. Invader Groot appeals to this to convince them to become a Voluntary Vassal in exchange for being able to join the Irkens' conquest of the universe.
  • It's mentioned that the Irkens of Devastis (referred to as Devastastians) are this in general, owning to the military-aligned purpose of their homeworld.
• The Purge:
  • After Vort was conquered, the remaining Vortian military forces, along with their allies, were overwhelmed by paranoia of Irken infiltrators and collaborators, leading to huge purges that just left them more vulnerable to conquest.
  • It's mentioned that decades before the start of the series, the Planet Jackers purged all of their architects because some of them protested their species' official policy of stealing planets and throwing them into their sun.
  • The Barsoomian Parliament is subjected to this when the Civil War begins. Its pro-Coalition members either escape, go missing or are killed. The religious members of the pro-Irken faction are also slaughtered when they refuse to give up religion. Afterwards, the rest of the Priesthood is subjected to this with anyone refusing to give up religion executed.
  • The Imperial Consulars were mentioned to have faced this from the Irken Empire when they found out about what truly led to Tallest Miyuki's death with only some of them escaping.
  • In Arc 3 of Rise of the Resisty, Sergeant Khao mentions that many worlds not under Irken control yet are facing witch-hunts and purges from their own citizens in attempts to flush out Irken infiltrators.
  • After the Council's meeting with Spork and the Devastis trainers to discuss the cadets' training, it's mentioned that after the Sapphire Rebellion, Spork purged the Emerald Legion's remaining members, killing a few hundred of them at least. This, along with the losses sustained in the rebellion, result in the Emerald Legion's numbers going down to half of its total strength.
• The Quisling:
  • El's trainer on Brawlstar, Mephisto, turns out to be an Irken who was exiled years ago and has been living there ever since. He makes a deal with her to help her take over the system in exchange for being named her regent to keep things in line when she's eventually reassigned elsewhere afterwards. El and the Tallest see his logic and agree to the deal.
  • Bor-Hal is a Cardinal Prime of the Barsoomian Priesthood who becomes leader of the pro-Irken faction of their Parliament, leading the charge to become a Voluntary Vassal of the Empire because he believes that the Control Brains are his people's long-lost "Machine Gods". Invader Skoo happily adds fuel to this by promising to make Bor-Hal the new Grand Fabricator-General, the High Priest and leader of the Barsoomians, once he's brought his people into the Empire's fold, which Bor-Hal eagerly agrees to. But since the Irkens have a species-wide disdain of religion, Skoo has no intention of honoring this, instead planning to kill Bor-Hal once he's no longer needed, while dismantling the Barsoomians' entire culture.
• Rank Up: Lard Nar started the war as just a Corporal, but ends up promoted straight to Captain when he's appointed to lead one of the Coalition-backed up rebel cells, which later grows into the Resisty. With the Coalition eventually getting an entire fleet by the end of the story, Lard Nar gets promoted to Admiral.
• Regime Change:
  • When Larb is assigned to invade the Whunks after conquering Vort, he decides to just take advantage of their current political situation — the reigning Czar and his followers are opposed to joining the Irkens, but a growing faction wants to do just that, so he plans to offer them aid in taking over in order to save him and the Empire the effort of an invasion. Rise of the Resisty would offhandedly reveal that this strategy succeeded.
  • On planet Quartu, Invader Chin convinces the Blarg to rise up against their corrupt leadership with promises of fixing their homeworld's pollution, leading to a Civil War that topples their government and allows the Irkens to take over.
• Related in the Adaptation: In canon, there's an implication that Irkens don't have family units due to how they're born. Here, Tenn and Zee are specifically stated to be Zim's sisters.
• The Remnant:
  • After Vort was conquered by the Irkens, its civilian government was wiped out, reducing the overall Vortian Federation polity to just a handful of colonies being run under the Emergency Authority of surviving military commanders and the Secret Intelligence Service (the Vortians' equivalent of the CIA). Even these were quickly worn down by attrition, until eventually the remaining Vortian military units had to flee their planets and go into hiding.
  • Many of the other members of the URC are in a similar condition following their worlds being conquered. Examples include the Trigorians (military units hiding off-world) and the Shadrans (some clans running an insurgency on their colony world Umbra, before being driven off-planet).
• Renegade Splinter Faction:
  • The Pirate Armada is a faction of Irken pirates who have broken off from the Empire to do their own thing, not directly opposing them but not subordinate to them either.
  • Accelerate reveals that there is another, much more extreme faction known as the Helix Cabal. This one, composed of Irkens that broke off during the Irken Empire's war against the Ethereals long ago and helped surviving Ethereals escape, is dedicated in their own way to make the Empire stronger than ever, using DNA extracted from other races to modify their own. Some of the Cabal's members seek to use a special type of PAKs that mind-control enslaved aliens to keep them from revolting.
• The Republic: Irk was this at one point before the war with Meekrob forced them to become more aggressive to survive, converting to an empire afterwards.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
  • When a Sapphire Legion member shows up to try and recruit El and Larb to the rebellion, El expresses shock at his presence, as the Legion was thought to have been wiped out following their failed coup against Tallest Spork. In response, the Legion member cites this trope with a laugh.
  • As revealed later in the series, neither Tallest Miyuki nor Tallest Spork were actually killed by Zim's blob. Miyuki was warned that it would try to kill her but Zim would die if she tried to avoid it, so decided to fake her death via letting it happen and transferring her mind to a clone body, only for something to go wrong and leave her in a coma for years until the Irken Resistance found her. Meanwhile, Spork survived the attack on him but was horribly maimed, requiring cybernetic reconstruction; the High Council, sick of his leadership, made sure these were subpar enough that he can't leave the isolated facility that they tucked him away in, leaving the rest of the universe oblivious to his survival.
• Sanity Slippage: It's repeatedly noted that while Red and Purple were always childish and petty, it got noticeably worse over the course of time leading up to Enter the Florpus.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • It's revealed that after the events of "Hobo 13", Bob decided to go to Earth with Zim, finding living in his base safer than returning to the Empire and going back to working under the Tallest.
  • Spleenk is revealed to have ended up with Lard Nar's crew by crossing paths with their ship while desperately fleeing his planet as it was invaded, and flew into their open hangar bay before they could jump into hyperspace, taking his chances with them over sticking around in the conquered star system.
  • During the final chapter of Rise of the Resisty, it's mentioned by the Council that over the course of the Siege of Meekrob many of the Irken soldiers sent there have decided to desert, taking their chances over sticking around and possibly being killed or captured.
• Secret-Keeper: The only Irkens who know the truth of Miyuki's death besides the Sapphire Legion are the High Council^note who ordered and maintained the coverup, Tenn^note who was there when it happened, Zee, Skoodge^note both of whom were told by Tenn, Larb^note who figured it out while conquering Vort, and El^note who learns from the Sapphire Legion member who tries to recruit her.
• Sequel Hook: Invaders of Irk ends with Zee arriving on Earth to recruit Zim for help rescuing Tenn from Meekrob. Meanwhile, there's also a mysterious Irken ship hiding out in Earth's solar system for unclear reasons.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Zee seems to support the idea of El and Larb getting together, interpreting their interactions as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
  • Hank seems to be one for Lard Nar and Ixane, judging from his excited expressions when he sees them interacting, and how much he emphasizes on telling Ixane about Lard Nar's Dark Secret.
• Ship Tease: By the second arc of Rise of the Resisty, Lard Nar is clearly nursing a crush on Ixane.
• The Short War: Thanks to the Irkens' sheer numbers, training, weapons and Irken infiltration and sabotage beforehand, many of the Empire's enemies find themselves on the receiving end of this trope with most target planets falling in a matter of days or weeks after the actual invasion of their homeworlds begin. Spleenk's world is mentioned to have fallen in just two days. The only exception seen so far is Meekrob, mentioned to have held out during nearly the entirety of Operation Impending Doom 2 and the resulting war.
• Shout-Out:
  • The names given to Ixane's species, several other Resisty members, and Prisoner 777 are all taken from The Tenn Duology, while Shloonktapooxis' first interaction with Lard Nar and the others is also inspired by a scene in that series.
  • The appearance of the Sapphire Legion is based on the Night Troopers from Ahsoka.
  • Brawlstar's Gladiator Games setup are based on The Violet Demon.
  • The idea of there being a Control Brain leader comes from The New Adventures of Invader Zim and Invader Zim: The Doom Movie.
    • The idea of there being a black market for human cultural items, and the Massive being subjected to a search for potential rebels, also come from New Adventures.
  • The titles for the top Irken military commanders are taken from The Shadow Strikers. The structure of the Vortians' government, the SIS, and the augmented Vortian Super Soldiers also come from that story.
  • Some of the dialogue when El and Larb are meeting with the High Council comes from Star Wars Rebels.
  • The composition of the Planetary Conversion Team, as well as the idea of Skoodge using a mind control virus to take over Blorch, both come from Invader Zim: The Series.
  • The speech that Skoodge's SIR unit CHIPZ gives about how much he hates GIR is paraphrased from AM's rant about his feelings towards humanity.
  • The idea of there still being natural-born Irkens despite the present-day Empire moving away from that is taken from The Smeet Series.
  • Sneakyonfoota's POV chapter, detailing the immediate fallout from the Massive and its fleet vanishing into the Florpus, draws much inspiration from the fic Darth's Vengeance. Also, some of the dialogue comes from Poppy Playtime.
  • The Irken Swarmer robots are based on the Terror Droids from The Force Unleashed 2.
  • Birkens are stated to be similar to Ogryns from Warhammer 40,000 and Boomers from Gears of War.
  • The section of Chapter 3 of Rise of the Resisty where Invader Alexovich is sneaking into an enemy base and eliminating guards comes from Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
  • Several planets from Meteos appear or are mentioned.
  • Warlord's comment that "Even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward" comes from Nemik's manifesto.
  • The Irkens easily crushing the Boggobians was inspired by the Battle of Gaduare.
  • The first scenes set on Umbra are heavily inspired by the beginning of The Mandalorian episode "The Jedi".
  • An Irken character named Fence is based on a character of the same name in MADNESS: Project Nexus 2.
  • The final scene of Chapter 9 of Rise of the Resisty is based on a similar scene from Horus Rising.
  • The Prime Control Brain's harsh dismissal of religion is lifted from If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device.
  • The Barsoomians are based on the Adeptus Mechanicus, and take their name from John Carter of Mars.
  • The exchange comparing the fighting in the Barsoomian Parliament to madness comes from the meeting of the Brethren Court in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
  • The Irkens have war machines called Doom Tripods, based on the Martian war machines in War of the Worlds (2005).
  • The Thaldycon system where the Resisty first meet the Sapphire Legion, as well as Emerald's real name being Ulaz, come from the Voltron: Legendary Defender episode "Shiro's Escape".
  • The scene where the Resisty meet the Sapphire Legion for the first time is based on Thrawn's intro in Ahsoka.
  • The history of the Invader Corps is somewhat based on the Viltrumites' backstory in Invincible.
• The Siege:
  • When the series starts, the Irkens are laying siege to Meekrob, and are slowly taking control of the planet despite heavy casualties in the process.
  • After Vort was conquered, its colony worlds were subjected to siege as the Irkens slowly picked them off too. By the time Rise of the Resisty starts, these worlds are on their last legs as their defenders fall to attrition.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Originally, the Irken Republic became the Empire with the intention of defending the Irkens from the Meekrobian genociding them and reclaiming their territory. However, as the war went on, the Irkens became more militant and aggressive and changed their goals from just reclaiming their homeworlds to invading Meekrobian Space and returning the favour, eventually resulting in the Irken Empire gaining the desire to conquer the rest of the universe after the Meekrobian's genocide and the rest of the universe turning their backs on the Irkens.
• Skeleton Government: The Barsoomian Parliament seems to be reduced to this, following the escapes, captures or deaths of the majority of its members with only a few spared to keep Barsoom running.
• Space Station:
  • Seriphaph Station which serves as the emergency fallback point and HQ for Coalition High Command following the fall of Vort and many other worlds.
  • The Gargantis Array, a legendary gigantic space station...which is the universe's most powerful transmitter.
• The Spymaster:
  • As the head of the Special Intelligence Service, the Recruiter served this role for the Vortian government, and now does so for the resistance as a whole.
  • Emerald serves as this for the Resisty in particular, thanks to his mysterious network of informants. He turns out to actually be an Irken Resistance operative named Ulaz, who's just passing along information from his superiors.
• State Sec: Irken Security appears to serve this role for the Empire, Word of God comparing it to a mix of the FBI and the ISB from Star Wars.
• Stating the Simple Solution: It's pointed out several times that the Planet Jackers could just move their own planet to a sun that isn't dying, instead of making everyone else in the universe hate them by stealing planets to throw into their dying sun. However, they always respond with "critters burn good", indicating that they enjoy the process more than they care about the supposed benefits of it.
• Suicide Mission: Tenn being assigned to conquer Meekrob is considered this by the general Irken public and military since it has been tens of thousands of years since the Meekrob were driven out of their original territory and forced to re-settle on the other side of the galaxy and since then, the Meekrob have been preparing for when the Irkens would make their way to them. Tenn theorizes that the Tallest were banking on her being killed or captured so they could get to Zim and even if she had succeeded, they would have no desire in letting her live.
• Super-Soldier:
  • The Vortians have a group of these created by the SIS, which are highly effective but limited in number due to the amount of resources needed to make them.
  • It's also rumored that the Iphorians were developing their own super soldiers prior to their world's conquest by the Irkens, specifically ones that would be pumped full of chemicals to turn into The Berserker.
• Tempting Fate: After sending Tak to Moo-Ping 10 for failing to eliminate Zim, the Tallest declare that the Council will never find out about how they tried to work around their deal with Tenn to get rid of him. Cut to Zim calling Zee to brag about beating Tak, with the implication that she'll pass word along to the Council.
• The Cat Came Back: After his planet was conquered by the Irkens, Shloonktapooxis became the personal jester of Planetary Governor Eggs, who along with his staff quickly got sick of him and repeatedly tried everything they could think of to get rid of him, to no avail. They eventually get so sick of him that they shoot him into space from a cannon, resulting in him flying right into Lard Nar's ship.
• The Men in Black: Tak mentions spotting such humans dressed like this and, having watched some human movies, stays away from them to avoid being discovered.
• The Scapegoat:
  • The Vortians were made the fall guys for Tallest Miyuki's death to cover up that it was Zim's fault.
  • When the Tallest green-light Tak's plan against Zim on Earth, they tell her to kill him but make it look like the humans did it so that they can't be held responsible for violating the Council's deal with Tenn.
• The Speedster: The Dissenter is implied to have one working for him as during his meeting with the A.P.J.A Security. Council, a super-fast blur comes into the room and dismantles the guns of several of the security escorts that were threatening him.
• The Theocracy:
  • The Barsoomian Priesthood is a civilization built entirely around its Machine Worship religion, and is thus led by its clerical hierarchy.
  • One of the member-races of the Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance, the Kawa, were mentioned to have joined after the alliance overthrew the corrupt Planet Jacker-worshipping theocracy that ruled them.
• The Warlord: One of the members of the Anti-Planet Jacker Alliance Security Council, Ran, has the title of Grand Warlord of the Massaikronians. Unlike most examples of this trope, he is on the side of the relative heroes.
• There Can Be Only One: Per the words of the Dissenter, the Irken Empire hates competition to their goals of becoming an universe-wide empire and destroys any rival empires they encounter through Invaders or Unwitting Pawns.
• Time Skip: The second arc of Rise of the Resisty picks up several months after the end of the first arc. That arc then ends right before "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars", with the third arc then picking up some time after "The Frycook What Came From All That Space".
• Too Dumb to Live: At one point during a cutaway in Rise of the Resisty, a member of the local La Résistance on Cavious comes out from hiding to scream at an Irken patrol about how much he hates them and how they're all going to die... and is promptly shot in the head by one of them. This action ends up exposing the rest of the resistance and allowing them to easily wiped out.
• Torture Technician: Members of the Jargonian race from the Polaris Galaxy are mentioned to have been hired by the Coalition for this purpose in regards to prisoners of war.
• Tractor Beam: During the escape from Barsoom, the Resistor and its crew are caught in this by a Irken Ring Cutter.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: It's speculated by Tenn in-universe, and confirmed by Word of God, that Zim flat out doesn't remember his time banished to Foodcourtia because of how traumatic it was for him.
• True Companions: The future Resisty have become this by the end of the second arc of Rise of the Resisty, to the point that while Lard Nar's Dark Secret of having helped build the Massive is a shock when it's revealed, it's not enough to break their bonds.
• Uncertain Doom: Kane-Zag, Zetheriel and the anti-Irken faction of Parliament are subjected to this. While mention is made of some Barsoomians managing to escape the Irken takeover, it is unclear if Kane-Zag and Zetheriel are among them.
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • Many members of the pro-Irken faction of the Barsoomian Priesthood are zealots who the Irkens have manipulated into thinking that the Control Brains are the Machine Gods that the Barsoomians worship, and that joining the Empire is a divine commandment. In fact, the Irkens hate religion in all its forms, and intend on eliminating these collaborators once they've been conquered and dismantle their whole culture. After Barsoom is conquered, the Irkens have all the zealots murdered.
  • It's later revealed that the Irken Empire helped the Anti-Planet Jacker alliance wipe out the Planet Jackers and other planet-destroying forces and empires to keep them from inspiring the rest of the universe to rise against the Irken Empire, for good PR, and to limit the amount of resistance they will face when they fully commit to conquering the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Un-person: The historical file on the Sapphire Legion's rebellion mentions a figure who aided them, whose identity is marked as [REDACTED]. It's eventually revealed to have been a Control Brain called Blue Eyes.
• Villain Reveals the Secret: During the invasion of Barsoomian space, Invader Skoo confronts the future Resisty and smugly reveals to them all how Lard Nar and Hank worked at Research Station 9 and collaborated on the creation of the Massive.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Among the species that they haven't actively tried to conquer yet, the Irkens gain a popularity boost for eliminating violent races like the Planet Jackers and Slaughtering Rat People, which makes it even more difficult for the URC to recruit aid in resisting against them. Especially considering that some of the URC's member races are ex-allies of the Irken Empire and are believed to be behind Miyuki's death due to the circumstances and the ongoing tension before the alliance fully broke apart.
• Voice of the Resistance: The Speaker of the Truth is a Sapphire Legion member who acts as a spokesperson for the Irken Resistance.
• Voice with an Internet Connection:
  • The Director of the Vortian Secret Intelligence Service, known only as "the Recruiter", only communicates with Lard Nar through an audio connection.
  • Later on, with the Recruiter busy overseeing the larger resistance, they're replaced as Lard Nar's primary contact with an SIS Section Chief codenamed "Warlord", who is also an example of this trope.
• Voluntary Vassal: As shown below, the Irken Empire doesn't just conquer every race and planet in their path. Instead, they vassalise them. Here are some notable examples;
  • Once El has taken over Brawlstar by working her way to the top of their gladiator-based power structure, she simply orders the system to join the Empire.
  • Larb turned the Whunks into one of these by helping a pro-Irken faction take power.
  • Invader Groot offers this status to the Boggobians, making them an offer to hand over their world as a training ground for the Irken military in exchange for being allowed to fight as Mooks in the Irkens' other wars. A group of their chieftains are intrigued enough by the offer to take it, while the rest try to resist and get wiped out for their efforts.
  • Larb does something similar to El's efforts in Brawlstar when he arrives on Plast. Entering the Leadership 500 race which determines who gets to be the reigning Speed-Royal, he wins and promptly pledges the planet to the Irken Empire, which most of the Plasticles peacefully go along with when the Tallest don't demand anything other than access to their resources and that they occasionally fighting in their wars.
  • The Kiusanians were targeted for this by the Empire who tried to entice them to join by promising to fix their desert world, but the Kiusanians learned about the Empire's other practices and went to war.
  • The montage at the start of Arc 3 of Rise of the Resisty offhandedly shows that the Chrichellites and Fikuns have also joined the Irkens as subordinates and enforcers.
• War Is Hell: Rise of the Resisty does not hold back on the brutality of the war with the Irkens, with violence and death given in graphic detail.
• We ARE Struggling Together: There's a lot of tension in the URC regarding the involvement of the Irken Resistance, due to anger and resentment from the other members over what the Empire's done to their own worlds, and even towards the Vortians because of their past alliance with the Empire (Lard Nar in particular gets a side eye for helping build the Massive). And for their part, the Irkens aren't happy with the involvement of the Meekrob, due to their two species having spent tens of thousands of years as archenemies, and their treatment of the captive Tenn hasn't helped the Resistance's opinion.
• We Have Reserves: Seems to be the attitude Spork has with him pointing out just how massive the Irken military is nowadays. Deconstructed slightly by the Council who, while they do see the point, they are well aware that kind of attitude will only bite the Irken Empire in the long run, especially considering just how many races they have yet to conquer.
• We Used to Be Friends: Lard Nar used to be friends with Zim when they worked together at Research Station 9, and also grew close with Tenn when she'd come to visit her brother. Then Zim's Blob Monster killed Tallest Miyuki, and Tenn stayed quiet when Tallest Spork made the Vortians into The Scapegoat even though she knew the truth, which altogether ruined his relationship with both of them.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 18 of Rise of the Resisty shows how the Resisty first meet the Irken Resistance and lay the groundwork for the latter's alliance with the URC, but also drops several major reveals in the process: Emerald, the Resisty's mysterious spymaster, is actually a disguised Irken sent by the Resistance to gain their trust; the ally of the Sapphire Legion who was redacted from the article on their rebellion was a renegade Control Brain called Blue Eyes, who is still with them; and most shocking of all, the leader of the Irken Resistance is Tallest Miyuki, still very much alive and plotting to retake control of the Empire.
• What the Romans Have Done for Us: Grannest is mentioned to have joined the Empire after the latter promised to fix their pollution problems and make the planet liveable again. And the Empire has also tamed the Slaughtering Rats and nearly wiped out the Planet Jackers, which has resulted in a positive reputation among many other races that haven't found themselves targets of the Empire yet.
• Worldbuilding: A major theme of this story is fleshing out the Irken Empire, the resistance to them, and other parts of the Invader Zim universe.
• You Are in Command Now:
  • Creed, in his capacity as Warmaster, becomes de facto ruler of the Empire following Red and Purple's vanishing into the Florpus.
  • Ixane becomes default leader of her clan of Shadrans after their Elder, her mother Sofia, stays behind to Hold the Line against the Irkens and cover the clan's evacuation off-planet.
• You Do NOT Want to Know: Lard Nar says this to Ixane when she asks what the Irkens did to the Gene Lords for creating the Genkens.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • The Prime Control Brain and the Imperial High Council have a protocol called Protocol Zero which enables them to remove or even assassinate a Tallest who has become a liability. Prime casually reveals that they did this to arrange Spork's apparent death when threatening to do the same to Red and Purple for the fiasco they make of Zim's trial.
  • Governor Sarkar of Devastis fears this happening to him and Devastis for the rebels' sabotage causing the blackout due to Spork being heavy intolerant of failure.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • After Barsoomian space falls under Irken rule, the pro-Irken religious zealots of Parliament are gathered and executed after refusing to destroy their own religion in accordance with the Empire's wishes with their remains being used as an example to the remaining pro-Irken members of Parliament.
  • To keep the Coalition from doing this to them, the Irken Resistance plans to subject the Coalition to a non-lethal version of this if the Coalition decides to exact a Final Solution against the Irken race.
• Young Conqueror: The majority of the current crop of Invaders are mentioned to be sixteen by the time Operation: Impending Doom 2 begins.