gayliens: pushing my silly headcanons

of course the invader zim ocxcc shipper made the characters gay. i mean, it's fun to make em gay! zaeadr has no cis characters or straight characters involved ehehehe :3c and ely and dib are t4t. i don't take criticism.

getting these headcanons was a SUPER gradual process (and these hcs will probably change a lot after this blog post.) like, i used to personally not get the trans dib hc and never adopted it, but now i'm like yeah he transed his gender. and so did gaz. that family is gay.

OKAY OKAY OKAY sorry, these hcs just make me rly happy. i'll be. MORE FOCUSED NOW. i at least want to attempt to make this understandable and organized. somehow. i go into detail abt how they present and stuff bc that kind of thing is important to me, and i'd like to have a place where i state it concretely.

i'll go in character order here, starting with the most obvious,,, ely. something not cis is going on with them.

thing is, their whole deal with gender is planned to already be dealt with in FALLEN STAR, the prequel to the main meat that is shooting star (the story where zaeadr takes place.) like, by the time they move into the city, they're completely secure in being non-binary. i created the series to be an escape from all my problems, so literally everyone accepts their gender identity (lgbtphobia isn't a big problem.) but since i'm probably never gonna get around to making and publishing fallen star, i'll ramble-explain it now.

it's basic, and i think this was me projecting back when i was 11: some of their original fears stemmed from not being androgynous enough, yk? plus the way they thought about themself and their identity was super affected by being bullied by kids bc they were a weirdo in the woods with "weird skin." tib and kua'i tiao help em thru it :3 i don't really have a want or need to explain WHY they're non-binary, it's just who they are. they bind mainly, and like mixing masc/fem outfits 🤔 in HS they also start liking silly variations of their name, like ellington and elliot LOL. they think its funny and love coming up with even more absurd extensions, like elliweiser the 3rd!

dib. dib dib dib dib. to set up some things, i want to explain that in shooting star, dib and gaz are clones. i took the "dib is a clone thing" and made it canon in my fanseries, punch me (don't LOL.) but specifically, they're like, 75% genetic clones of membrane's parents, seen in quarterly 3. they found pretty early on (like, in 4th grade for dib and 3rd for gaz) they just didn't MESH with being a girl/boy, and membrane was like "oh that's an easy fix" and got them gender affirming care immediately LOL.

of course this isn't the REASON why i hc this, just a fun thing i thought tied into the hc. i couldn't tell u exactly why i hc this, just that i think it fits him, and i slap this hc on all of my close comfort characters. with meaning! bc i think it adds to the story + his character, esp in shooting star :3 otherwise it's not really a BIG THING... just comes up when it's relevant or i feel like it 🤔 he binds then gets surgery in HS yada yada yada

zim's gender is asshole he genuinely doesn't care. he's a boything. whatever. he does what he wants, he wants to look like the most important and stunning invader at the function and that's all.

there's a couple of other non-cis characters that pop up... i'm particularly thinking abt recap kid, whose character here is super different from canon. for one, this is an au version of them that's unaware of invader zim as a fictional universe, they're just THERE. which i suppose you could say destroys the original purpose of their character, but i'd rather think of their role here as a fun theoretical for them.

ely meets them through the comic book store they work at in high school, and they are like, THE TOP employee there. their personality is basically the same as the comics, they're THAT kind of comic geek that rambles about everything they know. i love them, they are some kind of neurodivergent. ely ends up talking to them a lot because recap's the only person who knows abt the shit ely's looking for, and with ely's habit of befriending interesting people you KNOW they got connected. recap never really connected with zim and dib until COLLEGE, because recap went to a different high school than the rest of the cast. in the main universe they go to college, in others they don't.

that image up there is of the main college au, and i'll probably go into detail abt why they're there in another college-focused post. BUT NOW THEY REGULARLY SEE THE MAIN CAST!! recap is SUPER interested in zim and dib's lives through ely, and DOES partially treat it like a show for them to watch and comment on LOL. ely's always wanted to hang out with dib and recap together because they are THE TRIO that understands what it's like to be trans. so they meet up a lot and rant to eachother :3X that's the whole point of this set-up, it was for me to say that. it's fun!!! gaz sometimes comes along. as long as dib pays for pizza. and she can shove him into the closet so she can talk to everybody else without him LOL.

ely doesn't use labels for their orientation! they like whoever they like. i'm gonna write some more cuz drew a thing for this and you KNOW i'm gonna use it.

but yeah, dib and zim were the first people ely was actually attracted to. they have shitty taste in love interests. they had no idea what romantic attraction felt like so it's a VERY GRADUAL realization. they always go "ah, dib is so pretty..." and "i love spending time with zim ^_^" and the realization settles in at like, different points depending on the au. in one, their jealousy flares up in HS/college cuz dib/zim starts getting to know OTHER people, others its because dib/zim are ACTUALLY active in their love, etc etc. they're a mess.

in this series, dib thinks that he must be straight because of his very brief crush on tak. (yes he had a crush on tak here.) this belief is why he had such a painful slow burn with ely and zim.

he realizes that he likes ely after a bunch up buildup leading up to valentine's day. soda bottle. if you know, you know. i'll elaborate on this in a different post about confession scenarios, maybe. but main point it, he realizes he's demi. that's all. he's aroacespec because i'm aroacespec and i don't care.

zim is pretty complicated LOL. in this universe irkens can explicitly feel different types of affection/attraction, the control brains and empire recognizes it's value in certain scenarios, though it's very undervalued in irken society. sexualities exist, basically. i also really want to elaborate on the one-time-joke-from-the-comics squintz/zhangie/florb feelings LOL. but i think i'll do that elsewhere.

ANYWAYS. zim very much looks down upon the idea of being attracted to anyone because it goes against his whole "I AM THE BEST AND MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THIS ROOM, EVERYONE IS BENEATH ME" mindset. it's like a weakness, or a great falter in his idea of what the perfect, most formidable invader should be. he definitely forms connections, of course: he CARES about GIR and minimoose and computer. okay? i don't care how much the moments of care are played for laughs, the root of that shit is genuine. and he starts feeling this way for ely without knowing it BECAUSE he starts seeing them as an equal. he just refuses to put a label to the feeling. it'd validate that he enjoys being around them. gross.

tbh even as he DOES grow to hate the irken empire and go through a domestication arc, he doesn't like labels. he doesn't care for them. and he never likes showing affection in the way "normal people" do. that's just not who he is. bottom line is, these two humans are the only smart people here and he loves wreaking havoc and doing dumb shit with them. he doesn't need to justify it anymore after all the development he's gone through.

OKAY i BELIEVE that's all i wanted to say about these guys? for now, at least. i've been writing this for a while, i'm sleepy, and i will stop yapping. here's another cute post about ely's identity. bye.