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Massive
The-Massive.transparent
Type Irken Technology, Vortian Designed
Use(s) Transportation of the Almighty Tallest.
Notable Facts Is made up of different parts of other ships.
First Appearance The Nightmare Begins
Users Almighty Tallest
Irken Empire

The Massive is the appropriately-named giant flagship of the Irken Armada, and is escorted by many ships at all times.

It's always surrounded by smaller ships, except in the episodes "The Nightmare Begins", where it was seen for the first time towards the end of the episode when Zim reported in to the Almighty Tallest, and in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars", where it's dragged away from its fleet through Zim hacking into its systems.

History and Design[]

Zim-15

The main chamber of the Massive after losing control.

The Massive was commissioned by Tallest Miyuki and designed and built by Vortian Engineers (particularly Prisoner 777) long before their conquering by the Irkens.

As the lead ship of the Armada, the Massive is constantly occupied by the two leaders of the Irken Empire, the Almighty Tallest. From the bridge, they monitor all of the machinations of Operation Impending Doom II.

The main chamber, where Almighty Tallest Red and Purple spend most of their time, is equipped with a large screen and with a long-distance communication system, which the numerous Invaders and Zim himself make use of, contacting the Tallest to inform them of their progress in conquering their respective planets. The ship is run by the Navigators, who are also in charge of communications.

The Massive is a gargantuan, one-of-a-kind battle cruiser, and is the largest in the Irken armada, being even larger than some planets. Its outward appearance appears to be a combination of the Viral Tank, Ring Cutter, Spittle Runner, and Ripper's designs.

The MASSIVE

The Massive drifts alone in space.

The sheer scale of the vessel itself is meant to strike fear into the hearts of those who would resist the Empire, and the thick armor, powerful weapons, and large accompanying fleet make victory all but certain.

The Massive is incredibly durable, capable of colliding with and shattering small planets head-on without so much as a scratch. However, concentrated enemy fire was capable of making dents in the armor, as seen in "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars".

The Massive's heat shielding is similarly advanced, capable of withstanding the heat of a burning star and flying directly through it without any noticeable temperature increase (however, it did take heavy damage from this event).

However, according to The Resisty and a sequence in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", the Massive possesses one structural weakness: the side pods filled with the Almighty Tallest's snack foods. With enough firepower, this side-pod can be ruptured, releasing the snacks and causing great distress to the Irken leaders. An additional weakness is witnessed in its vulnerability to long-distance hacking and hijacking.

Massive in ETF-0

The Massive as it appears in Enter the Florpus.

The Massive might have been upgraded or probably even replaced by a new more powerful vessel altogether at some point before the events of Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, as it seems to have been more heavily armoured and possibly became somewhat bigger.

Even the Irken logo was upgraded from the black two-eyed insignia to a new coloured holographic one of a smiling Irken head, which seems to be another version of the corporate logo. It has also been decorated with several decals promoting the Tallest.

In the Netflix movie, the Massive is first seen destroying several planets in its linear path before the Tallest receive a call from the still alive Zim. After the Computer remotely accessed the Massive's navigational systems (which reveals the flagship is still capable of being hacked), Zim learns that the Tallest are not coming to Earth so he enacts a plan to teleport the planet into the Massive's flight pattern.

MassiveNowArrives

The Massive prepares to destroy Earth.

As the Tallest refuse to make the minor course correction needed to avoid reaching Earth (as they feel it'd be too much work), they continue forward with the intent to destroy the planet and Zim.

When the Armada arrives at Earth however, Professor Membrane manages to teleport the planet back to its original location, leaving the Massive and the rest of the Armada to be consumed by the Florpus Hole.

This depiction of the Massive seems to measure about half of Earth's diameter, according to a shot where the flagship is adjacent to the planet entering the Florpus Hole, which would make it about 6,000 km long.

Weapons Systems[]

It is armed with at least one very powerful particle beam, dubbed the Bridge Cannon by series creator Jhonen Vasquez (though Red referred to it as "some kinda laser thingy" in "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars"). The Bridge Cannon was only ever shown being used in "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars", and its full power was never accurately stated.

In Enter the Florpus, the weapon demonstrated enough power to easily destroy whole planets in a single blow. The Massive does possess a teleporter. The Tallest used this teleporter to swap their power core (which Zim hacked) with the power core from the Resisty's Ship.

Movement Systems[]

The massives control room

The movement system of the Massive is a complete mystery, as it's never shown utilizing any visible form of thrusters or fuel known to science or science fiction. The Resisty's Ship is seen to make use of similar, if not identical, technology.

However, it's shown on the outside of the ship that there are a pair of objects shaped like thrusters found on a Ripper, so it is assumed that the Massive uses those, but not at full power, like a Ripper did in "The Nightmare Begins".

Facts of Doom[]

  • The Massive is compatible with Vortian technology, as seen in "Backseat Drivers" where the Irkens were able to switch the Massive's power core with the one in the Resisty Ship. This is unsurprising, however, as the Massive was mostly built by the Vortians as stated by Captain Lard Nar and documented in the unseen episode "The Trial".
  • There is an Invader Zim revival project released by Facebook group Operation Head Pigeons entitled: Project Massive, named after the Massive.
  • The Massive is an example of an adnoun, which is an adjective being used as a noun.
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