Getting Around Finally To My Rewatch Of Tak: The Hideous New Girl, And Somethings Snagged A Wrinkle In

Getting around finally to my rewatch of Tak: The Hideous New Girl, and something’s snagged a wrinkle in my head.

When I was younger, I really could not understand what was up with the first half or so of Tak’s introduction, and I honestly chalked up that entire “dating” montage between her and Zim as filler to pad a few laughs and minutes over until the big reveal. Like, she already had about all of the preparations together that she needed to get started on her revenge planet-stuffing plot.

She’d even been on Earth for a good while already, setting up and maintaining that weenie stand front, gathering resources, investing in a solid disguise, etc. if all she needed to do left was get Zim out of the way, and she had managed to track him down… I didn’t see the sense it made in her going the extra mile to enroll in the Skool rather than confront him at his base directly. I especially did not see the sense in her stalling her big master plan in order or read poetry or blow off an entire day humoring his deluded assumptions.

Well, I literally just realized- She had never actually met Zim face to face before the events of this episode. And the guy himself is probably something of a terrifying legend to the rest of his kind, for the context of his mission and banishment. This is the pipsqueak who single handedly ruined Operation Impending Doom I’s take off and recklessly massacred the previous batch of elite Invaders in the process. Said pipsqueak was also capable of knocking half the entire power grid of a planet out over some fun dip, had the balls to reject his own banishment, and still successfully convinced the Tallest somehow to return his job title.

Tak would obviously be aware of every bit of this. That’s why she went to the Skool first, and not alone straight into the lair of the most destructive and unpredictable Irken to currently exist. She was sizing up her opponent on neutral grounds, where neither of them would be able to break into an all-out, cover blowing fight yet.

The poem she read was as thinly veiled a threat/challenge as she could pass off in front of humans, but Zim was still supposed to get the intended message… if only he did not miss the painfully obvious reference to the Armada’s logo she made a part of her disguise.

And the next immediate thing she’s caught doing after pelting Zim with a set of bbq ribs?

I can vividly imagine how easy the lead up to that conversation probably was, too. Dib’s desperately liable to spill everything to the first soul that seems remotely interested in a single word he has to say when it comes to Zim. So, between that and Zim reacting to her first blow so obliviously, she already learned everything she needed to know- mostly, what an absolute fucking joke her potential rival turned out to be. From there really, it looks like it turned into a game of screwing around with him while she still had time to kill- maybe just out of amused curiosity to see how long Zim would try to keep the valentines antics up, maybe just for the sick kicks of inflicting more petty cruelty on him,

Maybe a little mix of both, actually.

Now this, this i like.

Only two critiques... well, one critique and a retracted other.

Because my first thought was to ask where Mr.milk’s cream shade fitted into this idea given how utterly whipped and docile to the system he’s become, and then I realized he’s actually pretty darn optimistic for his position. He doesn’t ever show sign of rebellion, but he still dreams of possibilities outside of Clamburg. Even though he’s shot down at almost attempt to actually do his job as a teacher, he still tries to work with what he can and cares about his students. He can barely make it past two words with Mrs.Minty, for months in end, but he still tries. His failure to change his situation isn’t from a lack of will/want, it’s just his heightened anxiety & stress overwhelming him!

The only other thing I had to know it was that I personally didn’t see any evidence that either of V’s parents are terrified of their daughter. Violetta if anything seems pretty affectionate to her.

making fiends hc because I’m hyperfixated: y’all know the way the background characters in making fiends are all grey? I think that grey is the most common ‘color’ for someone in the making fiends universe. maybe it could represent someone who has no ‘will’ in Clamberg. I don’t believe we ever see anywhere outside of it. For example…

Charlotte is joyful, loving and kind… even though she might be a bit of a troll (my headcanon.) She has the brightest, aside from Vendetta, colours. A light blue can symbolise inspiration, freedom and trust.

Vendetta on the other hand, is green, a bright green. This also, in my hc, represents a high level of determination. Green usually represents greed, discord and prosperity.

Notice how the other characters in the show have very faded palettes.

I know the reason for this: Charlotte & Vendetta are our main characters, so they need to stick out more.

However, in universe…

I think the brightness of your color represents your desire or wants. Most people in Clamberg have given into the despair of living there, and have no hope. A character like Marion is brighter than her classmates, but not as bright as Charlotte or Vendetta. She has a lot of will, and even plans on leaving for Canada. However, she is still scared of Vendetta, so she isn’t fully prepared to go through with it.

Compare this to Maggie, who is incredibly dark. She isn’t faded though, which means she still has some passion for life. She writes poems, she’s somewhat kind, and in a way, transcends the threshold from ‘hopelessness’ to ‘active despair’. Rather than just having no hope, she actively relishes in her suffering.

Marvin, Malachi and Mort all have darker colours. They probably have some desire to leave, but not as much as brighter coloured characters like Marion.

Ms. Minty is a brighter colour, and shows little fear of Vendetta too.

You might think: okay, Rubella?

However, Rubella is not a human. She is a fiend. She doesn’t have a ‘will’ or ‘desire’, so I don’t think I can count her.

What do y’all think? I think personally the only contradiction is Violeta, who is clearly terrified of Vendetta, but has a bright colour palette.

It’s a strange conundrum because for MOST of the show, Vendetta is put in the seat of a protagonist. The story is framed from her perspective first, most episodes begin with a look into what she’s up to before Charlotte kicks off the conflict of the plot. She’s more consistently goal driven than Charlotte, too.

But the assumption that Charlotte is actually the main character is kind of understandable because the first series episode started things off on the other foot. Charlotte was unquestioningly the protagonist of episode 1. Kind of like how Mr.Milk is the protagonist of his particular episode, even though he’s only a tertiary character overall.

The TV theme song is way more reflective of the show’s actual lens as a whole. Vendetta is as much the protagonist of Making Fiends as Zim is in Invader Zim.

This is the one thing I hope the devs of Subnautica never ever ever change

And YET, as I will never not think about,

he didn’t restrain himself from taking away that very thing from other people who never harmed him.

He still is an utter monster, but only because the apple didn’t fall far from the tree after all.

He, this intelligent marvel, wizened so far beyond his short years, admitted to knowing full-well the difference between right and wrong, between compassion and cruelty, and he still committed heinous atrocities out of selfish motivations.

He knew the receiving end of prejudice and still let his own view of the world, and life itself, be shaped so consumingly by his frustration with humans and his creator- By his fear over his love, the same as those who shunned him most. He knew the value of life and the innocence of the young, and then through his misplaced rage, he murdered a child, bare handed, and coldly condemned a guiltless woman to die an unjust death.

He loathed his father for the mistakes that saddled him with fumbling around in a world that set him up for constant torment, and his ultimate response was to seek his maker out, and either coerce him into fulfilling the demands of an admitted murderer, or inflict the same pain upon him while taking down many more uninvolved innocents in the process.

Yes, Victor is the single cause behind the entire tragic chain of events throughout the novel, but the monster clawed and fought to give himself the miracle of his own agency to break the cycle, and, instead? I think he has more than proven that he wasn’t exactly picking daisies since his birth either.

Because at the end of the day, Frankenstein’s creature still is a monster, but even more than that, and I think something thematically amazing

He is a living monument to his father’s worst flaws and mistakes.

And truly, appearances aside, I like to think the real reason Victor is so viscerally repulsed by his creation is because he must also realize that on some level, unconscious or otherwise.

Like Victor, his creature is a well educated prodigy, and amazingly read in many subjects…. Yet, they are both wretches not made any happier from the knowledge they craved after.

Like Victor, the creature is filled with such deep and moving passions for the beauty in the world, yet cannot help but let his instability and short-sighted impulses sabotage his every effort to find the connection with others he lacks.

Like Victor- gifted with power and ability beyond that of all other living men, only to turn that fortune into a burden and irreparable harm for others around them.

Like Victor, the creature is a hypocritical, miserable, self-hating, vindictive coward, through and through.

There’s a frighteningly likely elucidation to be made here that this poor creature could be the self-inflicted, unforgiving punishment of Frankenstein’s own guilt and making.

I often wonder if when he looks upon this son he so failed, if he sees the ugliness inside of himself. Were you a man so twisted and lost in the world too, who spent so long running from and ignoring himself, how else could you react, but to scream in terror once you were finally forced to meet your reflection?

Everytime I read Frankenstein, the same line makes me put the book down and stare at the wall. It’s my favorite line in the book; it has its own highlighter color in my annotations. The first time I read it, I literally detoured after my last class just to tell my lit teacher how much I liked the line because I couldn’t wait until second period the next day. Here’s the line:

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”

This is said by the creature. He wanted to live. He wanted to live life so badly even though he had had such a difficult one. He still loved the song of the birds and the smell of the flowers and the joy in the world even if he never got to truly experience that joy. I just. AHHHH.

He wanted to fight for a life he never got to live.

Don’t forget this was also the same gal who, after botching Lemongrab as hard as she did, decided to mess around with creating an immortal, superintelligent Sphinx that was much more dangerous, wasn’t anymore involved with its socialization/education than she was with the lemon boi, and then was somehow shocked when it went about exactly the way it did.

Princess Bubblegum really looked at Lemonhope and said "I can fix him" like girl didn't you learn anything from Lemongrab