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For the character in the episode of the same name, see Mortos der Soulstealer (character).

20px-Cquote1.png Men hide behind furniture! Women spit loogies of terror! Animals void their bowels at the sight OF MORTOS DER SOULSTEALER!!!
Mortos der Soulstealer
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Invader Zim Episode
Mortos der Soulstealer
Mortos der Soulstealer (Title Card)
Chronology
Previous: Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars
Next: Zim Eats Waffles
Information
Episode No: Episode 22a
Production No: 22b
Airdate: Australia:
December 20, 2003[1]
United States:
June 17, 2006
Credits
Writer(s): Eric Trueheart


"Mortos der Soulstealer" is the 1st segment in the 2nd episode of the second season of Invader Zim. It first premiered on December 20, 2003 in Australia. In the United States, it was first released as part of the Horrible Holiday Cheer DVD on October 12, 2004 and it made its TV debut on Nicktoons on June 17, 2006.

Plot Summary[]

SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!

Dib meets Mortos

Dib meets Mortos

Mortos3

"ZIM!" "WHAT?!"

A powerful and mystical being called Mortos der Soulstealer, who is released from the underworld every thousand years when the planet Taoola lines up with Chargunga, appears in an abandoned graveyard.

However, Dib knew in advance about this event and is there waiting for Mortos. Since Mortos has to grant one mortal a wish in order to go home, Dib asks Mortos to grant his wish, and steal Zim's soul. But because Mortos is so tired, Dib has to help him recharge.

This means buying lots of food for him at MacMeaties, and buying rubber pants for, before he ditches Dib. While Dib's looking for Mortos, he bumps into Zim and GIR, who're walking around the city and infecting it with mutated mice by throwing them into peoples' houses. Dib boasts to Zim that he's gonna stop him with a secret weapon, but because Mortos isn't around, Zim laughs it off as GIR launches a sandwich at him, knocking him into a building.

When Dib gets up, he finds Mortos at a carnival and he yells at him for ditching him. In response, Mortos makes up a sob story for why he ditched him, so finally, Dib gets fed up with Mortos and calls him a mooch. This insults Mortos, so he makes the carnival rides come to life and start fighting each other to prove that he's scary and isn't taking advantage of Dib. Dib's faith in Mortos is restored, and now he's excited again to get his wish granted. Unfortunately, Mortos's power has been drained again.

This time Dib takes him to a dog store, but the man working there yells at them for loitering and calls the police. When Zim walks past with GIR, Dib tries to get Mortos to hurry up, but then Mortos is distracted by a soda drink fountain. Dib decides to take matters into his own hands, and he tries to hold Zim down while Mortos finishes his soda. At last he's fully recharged, bit Dib isn't even paying attention because he's too busy fighting Zim.

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Dib unfortunately gets arrested.

Then Da' Cone walks by and then he wishes for ice cream, and Mortos hears him, so he grants his wish. Now that Mortos has granted a wish and his powers are all gone.

Dib is paying attention again, but he's too late. As the man tastes his ice cream, he finds out that it tastes like raisins and he throws it away.

Mortos disappears back to the underworld, then Zim and GIR go home, while Dib gets arrested for loitering in the dog store.

End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.

Facts of Doom[]

Cultural References[]

  • At the episode's beginning, one of the many tombs at the abandoned graveyard of The City looks similar to an iPod.
  • According to writer Eric Trueheart, Mortos der Soulstealer's voice was based on "[the crew's] in-office Mortiis impersonations".[2]

Trivia[]

  • This episode appears on the Invader Zim Volume 3: Horrible Holiday Cheer DVD.
  • This episode never aired in the US until 2006, but it has aired in other countries years earlier, like 2003 in Australia.
  • The man who works at the puppy store is named "Maurice the Puppy Man".
  • This is Jhonen Vasquez's least favourite episode, as stated in the commentary; Nickelodeon also disliked it as well, and the sentiment is even shared by fans.
    • However, Eric Trueheart likes this episode a lot, saying it is one of his favorites. It is also one of Wally Wingert's favorites.
  • This is the only episode of the series where Wally Wingert loans his voice to a character and didn't reprise his role as Tallest Red.
    Glasses
  • When Dib says that he needs to use a more supernatural tactics to destroy Zim, his pupils slowly disappear as his glasses become more noticeable, possibly to highlight the mysteriousness of the paranormal powers he needs from Mortos. This is the second time his glasses do this, the first time was in the opening of the series.
  • This is the first and only episode where Dib is arrested. Supposedly, this would have happened a second time in the unfinished episode, "Invader Poonchy".
    • Unusually, minors in real life can't get arrested, put on trial or thrown in prison, even for harmless reasons such as loitering in a store. This is likely played as a gag; similar cartoons, such as The Powerpuff Girls, have used this trope before.
  • When Lors says "A rubber jacket will make you feel fabulous!" he has an accent, but when he says "Uh, the pants aren't free!" his accent disappears.
  • One of Zim's mutant vermin from this episode makes an appearance in "The Frycook What Came from All That Space", as the little creature the monster in booth twelve eats.
  • In the DVD commentary, Vasquez said the rope GIR was using to pull the box of mice was originally an intestine, but it recolored to look like a rope upon Nickelodeon's request. However, internal organs have been shown in previous episodes without Nickelodeon's complaint, such as Dib's organs during Gaz's daydream in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", as well as the entirety of "Dark Harvest".
  • According Eric Trueheart's book, the original plot concept for this episode had Mortos eventually turn out to not be a supernatural entity, but just a failed musician pursuing a new gimmick.
  • This is one of the rare times Dib isn't wearing his trench coat and is instead wearing a hoodie, though this is only when he first meets Mortos before going after Zim.
    • Speaking of Dib's hoodie, it makes him look like the Grim Reaper because of its design.

Things You Might Have Missed[]

  • During the opening sequence, as the pipes come out of Zim's house, when one of the pipes comes towards the screen before the sequence appearance of Dib, Bloody GIR can be seen in two frames. This is the most famous instance of Bloody GIR.
  • Lors who gives Mortos the pants has earrings that resemble the skull on Gaz's necklace.
  • the teenager Sergeant Slab Rankle incarcerated in the City Mall from the episode "FBI Warning of Doom" was seen in the Carnival running away from Mortors' spooky powers.

Animation Errors[]

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  • Dib has Zim's teeth for a brief moment approximately two to three minutes into the episode, right after talking to Mortos.
  • When Zim and Dib scream at each other across a street, car sounds can be heard. However, the animators accidentally left out the cars in that scene.
  • When Dib calls across the street to Zim, his leg turns white towards the beginning of the scene.
  • When the clerk at the clothes store offers Mortos a rubber jacket, the clerk's nose keeps disappearing.
  • In the beginning when Dib is walking among the tombstones, when he stops, his cloak blows in the wind and you can see that one of his legs is missing.
  • When GIR says, "You didn't have to yell at me", look at the box. All the letters in "Mutant Vermin" are backwards, which probably means that this scene was flipped.
  • When Dib and Mortos are at a puppy store, Dib is briefly seen with a beard and then it's immediately gone.

See Also[]

Mortos der Soulstealer (Transcript)

References[]

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