Irken

Irken
Homeworld	Irk
Skin	Light green, lime, green, dark green, and olive
Eyes	Ruby, pink, purple, red, green, blue, amber, and light brown
Notable Facts	Antennae, PAK, solid-color eyes, no visible nose, hair, or ears
[Source]

The Irkens are an imperialistic race of green-skinned humanoids from the planet Irk. The basic goal of the Irken race is total universal conquest. They mostly attain this feat with the use of their vast armada, which aids in planetary destruction via a sort of final attack called the Organic Sweep.

Appearance and Biology

Main article: Irken Biology

Irkens bear a similarity to the humans' archetypal concept of aliens as "little green men" - they have light green skin, sport a pair of angular antennae atop their hairless heads, and have solid-colored eyes (usually ruby, but other colors such as amber and purple are available). They resemble Earth insects such as Praying Mantises.

They are generally somewhat short in comparison to humans, usually approximately three to five feet tall. A unique aspect of Irken biology is the cybernetic PAK device that is attached to every Irken's spine at birth, and serves not only as an ever-present Swiss Army knife, but also as a backup brain. In one of the cancelled episodes, it was to be revealed that if the PAK is removed for more than 10 minutes, the Irken dies. It is also noted in "Dark Harvest" that the organs of the Irkens don't resemble human organs whatsoever, but serve similar functions.

Irken Society

Main article: Irken Society

Currently, Irken society is best described as a hierarchy based solely on height. Tall individuals are respected and usually assigned to high-ranking jobs such as the planet's ruler. Short individuals, such as Zim, Bob, and Skoodge, on the other hand, are looked down upon both figuratively and literally, and are usually assigned to menial labor or low-wage jobs. The tallest living Irken (or Irkens, should there be two of the same height) is selected to rule the Irken Empire as the Almighty Tallest.

Despite their imperialistic ways, the Irkens are capable of diplomatic relations with other species, as revealed in "Planet Jackers" when Zim mentions the Irken-Planet Jacker Treaty.

"Hobo 13" reveals that Irkens use the decimal system of numerical analysis. This is demonstrated when Bob is crunching the numbers on his calculator.

The rest of the universe that know of the Irkens consider them to be bloodthirsty, tyrannical, and dictatorial (similar to other races in many franchises such as Star Trek). However, the Irken Control Brains determine what the Irken population thinks through PAK programming. Enter the Florpus (as well as several ZAGR fan fiction) reveals that this programming can be challenged, as revealed by several lines from the Comms Officer. Despite this, Irkens do have a brain capable of independent thought.

Irkens don't seem to need sleep (see footnote on Irken Biology), though it's unknown why. However, throughout the series, it's hinted their PAK is somehow responsible for this. Still, they seem to be capable of it and are often seen resting, suggesting that they may only sleep on rare occasions.

Zim is an Irken Defective; due to "forty schmillion" errors in his PAK (as documented in the unmade episode, "The Trial"), he is not programmed like the other Irkens. However, even then he is still extremely militaristic and feels a need to conquer.

Irkens are born in cloning facilities deep under Irk's surface, and have their PAK installed seconds after. Immediately after this, the baby Irken, or smeet, gets all existing knowledge in the Irken database downloaded into their brain, and then immediately reports for duty (while also being cared for like any other baby). Until they are of age, however, young Irkens aren't permitted on Irk's surface (likely for safety reasons).

Methods of Conquering

The universal Irken insignia which serves as the Invader insignia as well as to show when a planet is under Irken rule.

The Irkens implement the Organic Sweep after one of their own, an Irken Invader, has successfully infiltrated and taken over a planet they intend to conquer and has learned of its main weaknesses.

When the intelligent inhabitants of the planet have succumbed to Irken persuasion, they are typically forced to work as slaves or servants, rarely if ever being granted freedom. If a planet's inhabitants are not intelligent or are microbial, then the planet is subjected to the Organic Sweep, in which several Shuvvers carve out the planetary symbol for Irk onto the planet with lasers and eradicate the life in those locations.

The planet is then given a single purpose: For example, Foodcourtia became an intergalactic food court, the planet Vort became Irk's top military research prison, the Screwheads' home world became the Conveyor Belt Planet and a shipping hub, and Blorch became a parking structure planet (on Red's suggestion and Purple's immediate agreement).

Facts of Doom

• It is currently unknown what the Irkens' culture was like before becoming universal conquerors, but fans have created a lot of theories as to what they were once like.
  • One such theory that is quite popular in the fandom is that the Irkens were once enslaved by another alien race in the distant past and once they became free they swore never to be a conquered race ever again but instead be the conquerors.
    • This is similar to the past of the Yautja species in the Predator movie franchise; they were once enslaved by the Amengi race of extraterrestrials, but managed to gain their freedom and turn the tables of them by acquiring their technology.
  • Another theory that isn’t as mainstream but still used by some fans is that The Green Monkey seen around in pictures on Irk and on Zim’s base may have at some point been the original rules of Irk and the Irkens were creatures they genetically created and somehow managed to gain sentience and eventually revolted, rendering the Green monkeys extinct and taking over Irk.
• The Irkens share some similarities with the Daleks, from the British show Doctor Who. Both are alien races hell-bent and biologically engineered for simple universal conquering or destruction of all races they consider "inferior" to themselves, which is pretty much all or most of them. Both are single-minded in their goal and possess complete apathy or lack of mercy for others in their pursuit of conquest.
  • The Irkens are also similar to the Gromflomites from the animated series Rick and Morty, as they’re both imperialistic, insectoid alien races capable of interstellar travel.
  • They can also be compared to the Klingons from the Star Trek franchise, as written Irken language greatly resembles the written Klingon language.
  • The Irkens could also be similar to the Empire in the Star Wars franchise, as their organizations and ideology mirrors the Nazis and other associated fascist states.
  • The Irkens could also be similar to the Viltrumites from the Invincible comics and Amazon television series.
  • The Irkens also resemble "mantid aliens", a race of insectoid aliens that are sighted across the world. They may have evolved from a similar-looking insect species in such the same way as human evolution from a primate-like species on Earth.
  • The Irkens resemble many arthropod creatures (flies, ants, mantids, brine shrimp etc.) Irkens have antenna but its unknown what purpose they serve.
    • However, the episode “Battle of the Planets” seems to suggest the antennae can pick up vibrations.
• Irkens' teeth were originally drawn as being rectangular and shaped more like human teeth. Starting with "Career Day", their teeth are drawn rounded, resembling gums.
• Irk means "to annoy", which is fitting in a sense as Zim can be quite irritating and Jhonen Vasquez stated that Irkens use all caps "because they're annoying".
  • It can be assumed that the Irkens height based society has something to do with them using all caps in their writing as lower caps may be associated with “shortness”, a trait the species as a whole literary and figurative looks down upon.
  • Interestingly, all the episode titles are written in caps.
• The Irkens have the tendency to use the word “great” for important events such as “The Great Assigning” and “The Great Foodening”, whether this is tradition, to simply a means to empathize the importance of certain occasions or another example of their height based society, it’s unknown.
• In the Invader Zim show bible, Irkens were originally referred to as "Noyngs", a play on the word "annoying", and "Irk" referred specifically to their home planet. According to The Art of Invader Zim, Jhonen Vasquez changed this for simplicity's sake.
  • "Noyng" is apparently pronounced as "nuaen-nyng"(?), similar to Curly of the Three Stooges, according to Mark Hamill's original voice recording here.
• Irkens do not appear to have reproductive organs. However, it can be implied that they used to reproduce sexually in the very, very distant past.
• During pride month, Jhonen Vasquez jokingly tweeted, "The only IRKEN gender is A**HOLE. All caps." You can see the tweet here.
• According to the late Derrick J. Wyatt, the Omnitrix from the Ben 10 franchise can accept Irken DNA. Jhonen Vasquez, however, hasn't confirmed nor denied this.
• The Irkens might be a parody of the Harvesters from Independence Day.They both have similar eyes/bodies and similar ships, although the movie was released 6 years before Invader Zim was produced.
• The Irkens are the species that has the second most appearances behind humans in the series, despite a certain defective being the the protagonist.
• It's possible, but never confirmed, that all Irkens are ambidextrous as Jhonen Vasquez jokingly said that “Zim isn’t right handed, he’s advanced”, hinting that this may be the case for the species as a whole.
• The Irkens, alongside the Meekrob and the Humanoid Slave Drivers, are one of the three alien species that Zim has used in a virtual reality program, which had the sole purpose of fooling humans.
  • Ironically by doing so, Zim made it clear to his human “customers” that alien life (and the Irken Empire in general) does exist but because most humans are oblivious and were in fact more horrified by the “horrible future” he showed in "Door to Door", this fact was largely ignored.
• As Zim and Gaz were going to be allies in the original plans for the pilot and series, this heavily implies that the Irkens can form alliances and potential love lives with other species (as long as, in some cases, one of the partners matures, as Gaz is a prepubescent 11-year-old during the events of the pilot and final series).