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Tak
Homeworld Irk
Assignment cleaning planets
Rank Janitorial Drone
Gender Female
Eye Color Purple
Equipment Modified SIR Unit, advanced ship made by modifying a Spittle Runner
Affiliation(s) Irken Empire
First appearance Tak: The Hideous New Girl
Voice Actor(s) Olivia D'Abo (English)
María Fernanda Morales (Spanish)


Tak is a female Irken and a minor antagonist in Invader Zim. Her main goal is to take Zim's "mission" because Zim had ruined her training as an Invader.

Vicious and determined, she's more focused on trying to gain for herself an honorable title as an Invader than revenge; Zim just happens to be in the way of getting it.

Despite her repeated assertions, she does show an inordinate amount of anger and bitterness toward Zim with good reason, fifty Earth years prior to Zim's arrival on Earth, Tak was going through training to become an Irken Elite, with the possibility of being chosen as an Invader.

However, Zim caused a major blackout throughout half of Devastis, when he chose to retrieve a snack from a faulty vending machine by using a large battle mech (possibly a Maim Bot, as seen in "Hobo 13") and shooting straight at it.

The resulting explosion blasted half the planet's power grid and trapped Tak in a training cell on the day of examination. Despite the catastrophic power outage, all tests continued on the other still-working side of the planet, leaving Tak stranded.

She pled her case to her assigned Control Brain in hopes for some leniency, but her request was promptly denied. She was then put into a janitorial squad to do hard labor on Planet Dirt for the duration of seventy Earth years before she could retake the examination.

Appearance

Tak on Planet Dirt (Tak, The Hideous New Girl)

Tak on Dirt.

Tak has dark purple eyes, square-curled antennae, and a light gray PAK with purple spots. However, she also has some rather distinctive features that make her stand out from ordinary Irkens.

One is an implant in her head that possesses limited mind-altering abilities, such as mind control and erasing memories. However, it only works on the simple-minded.

The other notable feature is her custom purple and magenta uniform; although it's modeled after the standard Irken uniform, it also resembles a tailcoat in the back and it has a small insignia on the front.

Tak in Disguise

Tak in her disguise.

Her boots are steel-toed and buckled, similar to another one of Jhonen Vasquez's characters, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. She also has a black beauty mark under her left eye and a crosshatched mouth, similar to GIR's.

Her human disguise, which's holographic, has short dark blue hair in a bob cut, very pale skin, black eyeliner, dark purple eye shadow, black pants, and a pair of silver stud earrings.

Her clothing is similar to her normal Irken uniform save for some differences; it contains four different shades of purple and blue, and has a backpack which covers her PAK.

She also only has three fingers, while other humans have four. This is possibly the only flaw in her disguise, though Keef and Moofy also have three fingers.

Personality

Tak-mimi

Tak with MIMI.

Despite the fact that she appeared in only one episode, Tak's personality is eminently clear. She quickly establishes herself as cunning, ruthless, and deeply vindictive. She appears to have access to an arsenal of advanced technology, which she seems to prefer over more simplistic methods. This may allude to an interest in tech, and it's possibly an unrecognized or un-utilized talent in the field. Because she was only featured in a single episode, the finer points of her personality and interests were never given attention. However, it's still abundantly obvious that she has what it takes to be an exceptionally successful Invader.

Zim and Tak terryfing 1

While not arrogant, she appears to be acutely aware of how her talents are being squandered, and resents this. She sought to redeem herself by usurping Zim's mission, reducing the Earth to a hollow shell, pumping out all its magma, and filling it with snacks instead, hoping to appeal directly to the Tallest's taste for sweets. Given Tallest Purple's disappointment with the plan's failure, the idea may not have been without legitimate merit. 

Role in Invader Zim

TOTS

Her attempt to take over Earth and thus steal Zim's mission makes Tak an antagonist toward both Zim and Dib. "Tak: The Hideous New Girl" is her first and only appearance, but if the show had gone on longer, she would have made more appearances in the series, in "Top of the Line" and possibly later on. Her role would've mainly been getting in Zim's way of world conquest, making her a main antagonist.

In "Top of the Line", she would have entered a competition among the other Invaders, during which their SIR Units would be put through a series of tests (not unlike a dog show). Tak's role would have been to sabotage the other SIRs, leaving all but MiMi, Skoodge's and Tenn´s SIR Units and GIR destroyed. Because the script was never recovered, her interaction with Zim during the course of the episode is to be determined.

Sightings

Invader Zim (TV series)

Invader Zim (comic series)

Facts of Doom

In the eyes of the Control Brains
  • She speaks with something approximating an English accent, keeping mainly to a London variety but with occasional rhotic r's similar to West Country dialect.
    • Note: Her voice actress, Olivia D' Abo, is also British. Also, tending to dumb herself down when around humans, her voice sounds higher in tone when in disguise.
  • It was stated back in September 2016 by Eric Trueheart that there were no plans to feature Tak in the comic series (yet),[1] which led to speculation that she was being saved for the Invader Zim television film.
    • Additionally, her voice actress, Olivia Jane d'Abo, stated on her Twitter she was excited for the movie.[2] Later on in the summer, she confirmed that she was "working" on the Invader Zim movie, but she did not verify if she was actually recording.[3]
    • When the movie came out, it was revealed that d'Abo wasn't voicing Tak herself, but the AI copy of her aboard her ship.
  • She designed her ship by modifying a Spittle Runner, painting it red, and decorating the craft with her customized version of the Irken insignia.
    Screen Shot 2012-08-04 at 3.52

    Tak using her mind erasing abilities.

  • The purple-pink spark of light that comes out of her right eye and into her left eye has psionic properties, which she used to make Sara apologize to her and, as an added bonus, eat her eraser.
  • She tried to erase Dib and Gaz's memories, but they're apparently immune to her powers, because they are much smarter than the other Skoolchildren. This power is thought to come from an implant that's placed on the left side of her head.
  • Zim and GIR were also immune to her mind powers, which could hint that it can't be used against other Irkens or SIR Units.
  • Tak is one of the few known Irkens to have purple eyes: Others include the Almighty Tallest Purple, Sizz-Lorr, Invader Zee, and a handful of background Irkens.
  • Tak appears to have a high pain tolerance, as she reacts much less severely to Earth water than Zim.
  • While Tak is shown ejecting herself out of her ship at the end of "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", the ship that crashes in Dib's yard is whole, leaving how she escaped alive up to debate.
  • Tak mentions Zim's Roboparents during her confrontation with Dib and Gaz, although she had never actually met them, which would imply that she may have followed Zim for some time.
Tak and Zim 1
  • Despite Zim and Tak hating each other, they do have three things in common - they're not real Invaders, they both had jobs similarly found on Earth, and they left the planets the Control Brains stationed them on.
    • On that note, based on her unorthodox methods and abilities, many fans have theorized that Tak may be a "defective" like Zim. This seems to be supported by the fact that as mentioned above, she abandoned her janitorial tasks on planet Dirt, much in the way that Zim (a known defective) abandoned his station on Foodcourtia. Also, both invaders felt they were meant for something greater than what the Control Brains assigned them.
    • Her holographic human disguise could also be a clue to her defective nature, as it's far more advanced than those of her Invader peers.
  • Much to Tak's frustration, Zim's actually earned the status of an Irken Invader before being demoted to Fast Food Drone, something she hasn't been able to achieve.
  • Ironically, had she just waited, she would have had another chance to take the test to become an Invader. Instead she left her assigned planet, which might be seen as desertion by the Control Brains, which can be seen as a severe offense as Tak was meant to stay on Dirt for the duration of 70 Earth years and was not exiled like Zim.
  • When Zim claimed that Tak's plan came from him, it can be implied that he was jealous of her ingenuity as well as knowing it would have the full support from the Tallest.
  • Tak is taller than Zim, possibly by an inch or so.
  • Tak's name is also shared by an extradimensional entity in several books by Stephen King.
  • Despite only having made one appearance in the show before its cancellation, Tak is extremely popular in the fandom, with her presence among fanfiction and fan art being just as prolific as that of the main characters.
  • Tak is mentioned by Recap Kid in Issue 45, marking the first time she's been directly referenced in the comic series, as opposed to simply mentioning her indirectly through the existence of her ship.
  • In Issue 46, GIR mentions Tak twice, only for Zim to claim to not remember her (despite mentioning her by name in several previous issues).

See also

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