2verse AU
Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity? Insanity is spending over a year overthinking theories about a fictional universe that isn't even yours.
Everything said below is just my own conclusions, based on my experience and knowledge. It's also an Alternate Universe called Zim №2's timeline or 2verse (further: AU). But these theories could also be applied to Jhonen Vasquez's original Invader Zim universe (further: IZ).
The main difference from the original universe lies in the philosophy and concept.
Key aspects of the Invader Zim concept as I see them:
- Everything in the universe is meant to ridicule human vices, the ones the original author, Jhonen Vasquez, deemed worthy of mockery.
- Events and character behavior are chaotic, absurd, grotesque, sometimes surreal, and aren't meant to be logically explained.
- The lore of alien races is left raw, since the author focuses on the plot rather than the everyday lives of the characters.
- Each character represents a specific archetype, and the main characters are based on the author's own personality and experiences.
Key aspects of the AU:
- Everything in this universe is meant to be a dystopian reflection of problems that I, the author, want to highlight. There's an emphasis on everyday realism and melancholy.
- Events and character behavior can be explained logically, sometimes even from a psychological or sociological point of view (at a basic high school level). Things might be exaggerated to emphasize a specific problem or to ridicule certain personality types.
- The lore of alien races, especially irkens, is fairly developed. It can be explained from a scientific perspective, but without deep expertise — just a basic level. Anthropocentrism is taken as a basis, meaning irkens can be similar to humans in many ways.
There are a few reasons for this choice:
- I believe life on other planets is unlikely without at least roughly similar conditions to Earth. Also, all planets in space are made up of basically the same elements you'd find on Earth.
- It's worth remembering that humans are currently the only known life form with consciousness. There are no other examples of "intelligent" life, and other species probably couldn't evolve the same way without going through a similar path as humans. No other such species have been discovered yet, so I see no point in reinventing the wheel for a fictional race.
- Irkens look very similar to humans, which could hint at a nature similar to humans. But I'll talk more about that in another article: Irken Biology (link coming soon).
Irken lore and maybe other races should stay a little bit raw, since IZ was never meant to be a serious sci-fi project, so I don't intend to overthink it down to the molecular level. There might be inconsistencies (for example, from a molecular biology standpoint), but that can be justified by the fact that this is just a fictional race in a stereotypically cartoony world. Also, nature on other planets could be different from Earth in non-obvious ways, and might not even follow the laws humans have developed over centuries, which are themselves just abstractions, not perfect explanations of how things work.
Also, the AU is mostly developed for my Retrograde Maleflower project, which focuses on social problems rather than alien biology research (soft sci-fi, basically).
- Usually, the main character takes center stage, has an internal conflict, and struggles with various challenges in their environment. There might also be some mockery of certain character types — "antagonists" and stereotypical minor characters who often just serve as "functional characters". The protagonist's personality is based on the author's, while the other characters represent certain types or archetypes that either help or hinder the protagonist's life.
Specific traits of the AU that aren't in the original:
- Irken culture, especially defective irkens, includes elements of everyday human life, even though they live on the other side of the universe. This is symbolic, meant to make the world easier for the reader to understand.
- Strong emphasis is placed on developing irken lore, especially their culture, politics, and the irknet.
- Watermelon is the main power in the universe, after The Room with The Moose. Why? You can read about it in Zim №2's biography article (link coming soon).
Those were the general differences between the original universe and this AU.
So what does Zim №2 have to do with all this? Zim №2 was introduced in the official IZ comics as a minor functional character, and we only know a couple of sentences about his past. I've been interested in this character for a long time, which is why I had to develop everything from scratch.
This AU is built on logical and sometimes intuitive conclusions, based on the information Vasquez gave us about irkens, the details about Zim №2 from the IZ comics, and theories from other fans that I consider authoritative.
More detailed descriptions of different parts of the AU lore:
Irken biology Irken culture Irken history and politics Zim №2 Biography(the links are coming soon)
Retrograde Maleflower project
Besides all that, this AU has gradually become more and more developed specifically for a project dedicated to my fan character Sim's biography.
Retrograde — a subculture of defective irkens who were originally generated in smeeteries for the media and entertainment sphere.
This project focuses on:
- the everyday lives of members of this subculture;
- socio-cultural problems within irken society and within this subculture;
- issues within the irknet community, especially the parts that are "densely populated" by "inferior" races;
You can read info about this specific project on the Info page.