insanity last updated 2024/4/2
well, i don't HAVE to explain myself. but i am choosing to do so (at least partially) because i love them that much ^_^
this is pretty rambley and not all that easy to read, the links below are for skipping around the headers :D
it feels best to go in chronological order here. ely was originally like, a half self-insert. their name starts with an e because MY name starts with an e. they very quickly abandoned this role and design, so don't ever draw them like this, thanks! i look nothing like them at all, they are a son to me. they were supposed to be more calm and reserved back then, more focused on the stars and woods. this is actually still their personality in fallen star, the prequel to shooting star, until they develop into the more outgoing ely now :D
i very quickly made them friends with dib. he was always my favorite, i'm really fond of characters who deal with and seek out the paranormal (because IM OBSESSED WITH THE PARANORMAL TOO!! founder of my hs paranormal club what up!!) i'm honestly not even sure WHY i'm so attached to him out of EVERY CHARACTER EVER... it's his autism. his rambles. his search for approval. his hatred for zim. you'd probably get the gist of it through this site. actually, i have a drawing EXPLAINING this here :0! ANYWAY have you seen the shit he goes through in the show? i'm all for hurting my blorbos, but he DESPERATELY needs friends. so i made him one ^_^
eadr was the original ship, and the first iteration of their relationship is this, as quoted from my 2019 notes:
" And what's with that green kid (that's probably an alien! finally!!) and that big-headed kid who seems to be smarter than everyone else? You can see where I'm going with this. They also definitely have tabs on the Swollen Eyeball Network. One of my story ideas was that they were in the network and contacted Agent Mothman in desperation/curiosity about aliens. They become one of the agents that Mothman has a positive relationship with. Later, they move over to their aunt's and Dib immediately accuses them of being an alien by the logic that every new kid turns out to be an alien. Dib, stop being so paranoid. Chaos ensues!"
the whole concept was the "double mistaken identity" trope: dib doesn't know ely is crows bane, ely doesn't know dib is mothman, etc. i dropped this pretty early on but it's kinda cute still.
so like, where does zim come in? ok well. you have to understand that as a kid i've always loved love webs. so yes he was the standard love rival, it's OVERDONE i KNOW XD thats why it's fun! i very much initially made zim try to win over ely because of the Drama, but i found that i actually really liked the sides zim and ely (and also dib) brought out in each other. i now SUPER love zim as a character cuz that alien can fit so much EVIL and TERRIBLE COPING MECHANISMS in himself!!! and also he's FUN TO WRITE and i want to PUNT HIM ACROSS A PARKING LOT!!!!!!!
they're like a spot of shared loneliness in a world that's really dumb and stupid to them. frustratingly, they see each other as their only equals right now. so you can see that the three of them are selfish people in different ways! this is a small part of why i find them so interesting, and this is a ship that, in the main universe, works to develop this selfishness out of them. ik that sounds a little ignorant, theres nuance here, but HEY this isn't even the main thing that's interesting about them to me!
ely moves into the city (following many complicated circumstances) and meets a big headed boy in the woods. he rambles and accuses them of being fae, ely saves him from a crow, they investigate a weird cult pit, and somehow become friends over lemon demon.
it's just as dumb and way more cute than it sounds. ely is instantly fascinated, because this is the first human who's ever been this interesting, let alone wants to hang out with them again. dib is very unsure if this friend is gonna be any different from tak or dwicky... but after everything ely said about admiring his conviction, he finds that he wants to believe that they mean it.
later, on ely's first day of 8th grade, they find a weird green kid and dog being bothered by these dumb bullies way older than the both of them. naturally (annoyed how they were picking on his skin,) ely helped him out of the situation. zim's not impressed, but GIR on the other hand ABSOLUTELY LOVES ELY. "the pretty spotty human gave us a FUN BIKE RIDE and AWESOME HEADPATS!!"
they find out that they both go to the same school, and zim quickly brushes ely off. as he turns around ely immediately lets it slip that they're SHOCKED that zim's an irken. "IRKEN? HOW DO YOU KNOW I'M IRKEN??" gir's fondness of ely saves them from getting killed on the spot, but they ARE roped into being zim's servant under the justification of "i can't let you go now that you know about the great irken armada... and if you want to help me so bad, you might as well WORK FOR ME!" (gir gave him this idea he's too dumb to use his resources like this)
anyways, this is great because once ely arrives in homeroom this happens.
LIKE...... PLEASE.
in this chapter, ely is currently caught up with helping zim's dumb plan of spiking the skool lunches with truth serum, something that dib is horrified by. "since when were you helping the enemy?!" and ely, not wanting to lose a friend or the earth, assures dib that they're really sticking along so that they don't die, and ALSO to serve as a double agent: they'll thwart zim's plans while making it seem like they're a valuable asset to him. this convinces dib, somehow.
the chapter ends with ely convincing zim he doesn't need the opinions and plans of humans, he's IRKEN. he has bigger plans to fry! this DOES end up having bad results in the future, but for NOW it's solidified ely as a good resource for zim, and has given dib hope in more leeway against zim. ely is absolutely LOVING the drama they've been given exclusive viewership to. pretty busy first day, huh.
at a glance, it looks like ely only serves as a mediator between zim and dib, right? this is a severe misunderstanding. ely is only here to have fun, and have only accidentally made them both into better people. let's get into the dynamics.
the first phase of their relationship is that weird love triangle / middle school crush phase. dib's love for ely is overwhelming and overtly GENUINE. they're the first person to ACTUALLY be his friend. of COURSE he'd fall in love. he doesn't realize this right away, because ely's not a girl! dib's thought process is: "the only crush i've ever had in my life was on a girl, so i must be straight, right?" and this is the thing that allows their relationship to develop more genuinely rather than if he'd known he was in love from day one. it also develops really WEIRDLY. because, like, no matter how much dib wants to believe he's a good person and the savior of earth, he's pretty mean to the people around him, however unintentionally. (autism.) he learns a little more about listening to others by seeing how his actions affect ely. in turn, dib is ely's first and genuine human friend, and he's the first person that GETS their obsession with the paranormal. he gives them access to so many cool places and investigations, and he's such an easy target for teasing! an AMPLE distraction from their parent's deaths! yay!
zim, on the other hand, doesn't EVER realize an explicit crush on ely until after finding out the truth about his mission. he only tries flirting with ely JUST to mess with dib. zim's not stupid, he can see a crush (AKA: his enemy's WEAKNESS) and use it to his advantage, you know? but at the same time... there's a reason why he keeps ely around and never really treats them like a human servant. annoyingly, this human is capable and has let him pull off plans he couldn't before. he WANTS to ramble to them. gir and computer aren't the best audience, and minimoose is MINIMOOSE, you know? zim can't use up too much of their time, so it really boils down to ELY. it also doesn't help that he likes sitting on the couch and making fun of stupid earth shows with them, and going to the mall to prank random kids there with them, and seeing what THEY have to say about his plans... it's a very, very gradual thing he doesn't even realize. and when he finds out the truth about his mission and ely seeing him as a friend, it all comes crashing down on him. LOL. his affection for them stems from a similar place that dib's does: they both grow to see ely as an equal (whaat?!) and ely's the first person to truly validate them. it's fun.
anything past crush is where the ship REALLY branches off. if it isn't obvious, zadr is a big part of this ship too, though in some AUs zim, ely, and dib all end up with different people/no one at all. my own personal feelings on zadr (WHEN THEYRE THE SAME AGE) is that it's funny as hell and i completely understand why people want to put those two guys in a room together, which is why this ship is a poly triad in the main universe. tbh i'm not really fond of zadr unless it's MY specific interpretation of them?? with exceptions for my moots. i'm sorry, it's the neurodivergency, i don't have anything against anyone in particular! just a heads up!
anyways, following the main universe! dib and zim have always HAD this codependent dynamic going on, which is why ely originally misunderstood that dib had an outright unhealthy-ass crush on zim. at that point in time it WAS a genuine misunderstanding, dib mostly hates the guy even with how much of a role they serve in each others lives. it's really only until high school that they stop being so outwardly malicious to each other: this is when zim, through ely, grows ATTACHED to earth, and grapples with the truth of why he was sent to earth in the first place. (i warned you, zim goes through a domestication arc!) none of their rivalry ever dissipates, but the new circumstances gives them space to realize how they work together and contribute to each others lives, you know? i'm not going to go into detail about why zadr is super interesting, this is not the place LOL. but that's the backbone behind how they realize they like each other. they hate that they do. it's great, and that's why this exact story is so well used in the fandom LOL
so like, this is just to show context behind how they all ended up together. they all work together to go to the same university, and at this point they're in that weird mutual-flirting-but-still-friends phase. so one day they just kinda go... wait. if we all like eachother, then, like... let's just all date each other? the whole event goes down at different times and under different circumstances in different AUs, this isn't a concrete thing, but this is how i imagine the main universe going :Vc i'm not really strict about it, and i play around with different confession scenarios LOL.
no idea! i mean, it doesn't really matter as long as i'm having fun :) and that applies for everyone else, too! be kind to others and do what you want, you will be LEAGUES happier that way LOL.
i think i'm gonna use the rest of this section for my closing and miscellaneous thoughts :0c
in the future i might add more stuff here :0c i'll save further details for the blog ^_^ thx for reading!