“ | Red: Welcome mighty Irken soldiers! You are the finest examples of military training the Irken army has to offer! Good for you. Standing behind us, however, are the soldiers we've chosen for roles in one of the most crucial parts in Operation Impending Doom II! ...You in the audience just get to sit and watch. Purple: You should have tried harder! |
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~ Red and Purple to their army. |
“ | Purple: Hey... remember Invader Zim? Red: Who? Purple: Zim! Tiny? Screamed a lot? Red: The guy that sends us the donuts? Purple: No, that's Invader Jim. He's great! Red: Oh, wait! Zim! We hate him! Purple: Yeah, that's him! Remember the time we lied and told him we were sending him on a secret mission to Earth, but really we were just getting rid of him because he's awful? Red: Yeah. We're hilarious. |
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~ Red and Purple joking about how they tricked Zim. |
The Almighty Tallest Red and Purple are the secondary antagonists of the 2001-2006 television series Invader Zim.
They are the leaders of the Irken Empire that are chosen for their height. In truth, they are really figureheads for the Control Brains, who are the actual leaders of the Empire.
In the show, they both despise Zim, a young and ambitious Irken whom they sent to "a mystery planet" which was in reality nothing in order to get rid of him, however, six months later, zim does end up on a planet (Earth). They often appear in episodes where they reluctantly check up on Zim and his "mission". They first appeared in "The Nightmare Begins."
Red was voiced by Wally Wingert in the English verison, Paco Mauri in the Spanish version and Jan Spitzer in the German version. Purple was voiced by Kevin McDonald in the English version, Alejandro Illescas in the Spanish version and Tilo Schmitz in the German version.
Biography[]
Before Red and Purple became the Tallest, Almighty Tallest Miyuki and Spork were the leaders before getting killed by one of Zim's experiments, according to an unfinished episode.
In the series, the Almighty Tallest make occassional appearances, usually being contacted by Zim. Some episodes including them even have the Tallest play a major role.
In the 2019 Netflix film Invader ZIM: Enter the Florpus, the Tallest are first seen standing in the steering room of The Massive, Purple carelessly eating donuts and Red carelessly drinking a soft drink, as the ship destroys many planets. Purple recalls Zim, to which Red recalls how they sent Zim to Earth to get rid of him. Purple claims that life has been great since Zim vanished, moments before opening a transmission from Zim, revealing he is alive, to the Tallest's fury. Zim tries to explain the second phase of his plan, but he has forgotten. Upon realizing the Tallest aren't on hold, Zim blasts lasers from his PAK, ending the transmission. After retrieving their flight plan, Zim becomes distraught upon learning that the Tallest weren't going to come anywhere near Earth. Dib shows up to stop Zim for good, and finds the alien has surrendered. After Dib accidentally inspires Zim to formulate another plan to take over Earth, the planet is soon teleported into the flight path of the Irken Armada while Dib and his sister, Gaz, are held prisoner by a failed clone of their father, which Gaz has nicknamed "Clembrane". However, this opens a "Florpus hole", a black hole-like anomaly that will suck in all nearby planets and cause them to clash with alternate realities. When Zim declines their worries, Dib and Gaz escape from Clembrane on Tak's ship to save their real father from Moo-Ping 10.
Upon hearing about the Florpus hole, the Tallest dismiss it entirely, though they freak out when they hear that Earth, and thus, Zim, is in their path. They refuse to change course, claiming that "turning's no fun", and ultimately decide to just blow up Earth. The driver of the ship warns them of the Florpus, only for the Tallest to mock him. When they get to Earth, Professor Membrane uses Minimoose to teleport Earth back where it belongs. The Tallest then cheerfully allow the Irken Armada to fly straight into the Florpus, with their final transmission from Zim implicating that they were burning in a hell-like dimension as puppets for eternity, thus ending their conquering of worlds for good and killing them in the process.
Appearance[]
Purple and Red's diagrams and body structures are much different from that of a normal Irken: they both haves narrow builds.
Their arms end in surprisingly bulgy gauntlets, they have only two thin fingers (instead of the regular three for an Irken), and an unusually thin waist and neck.
Their toes may also be special from that of an average Irken, but it is difficult to tell since they constantly levitating. This appears to be the case for all of the Tallest, as concept artwork of the cancelled characters Almighty Tallest Miyuki and Almighty Tallest Spork showed them as having the same design.
Both Tallest have been re-designed in the middle of the first season; Jhonen Vasquez decided for unknown motives to make their torsos disproportionately thinner, as well as other primary updates to their suits and overall bodily appearance.
Before the middle of season one, Red sported a pink, purple, and white outfit instead of darkish red, black, and gray-white, as well as pink eyes. The torso is additionally remarkably thicker. His PAK is also light grey with pink spots prior to the change, after which it is light grey with dark gray spots. Almighty Tallest Purple has crimson eyes and wears gray, purple and magenta clothing. His PAK is light grey with purple spots.
Personality[]
The Red Tallest is very cunning and calculating, with good intelligence, tricking Zim into going to Earth in the first place. The Purple Tallest is rather idiotic and slow. They both love to eat junk food and like sending young Irkens on missions to other planets without any regard for what type of planet and so what dangers that planet may hold.
Quotes[]
“ | Red: Invader Zim, you were once our best, most amazing Invader, but now, you're dumb. Purple: Also stupid. As punishment, you will be stripped of your Invader rank, re-encoded as NOTHING! |
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~ Red and Purple to Zim in his imagined trial. |
“ | Earth? That means Zim! This is the worst news I've ever heard. | „ |
~ Almighty Tallest Purple completely displeased of hearing of heading towards Earth and Zim's location. |
“ | Forward cannons now at full power! | „ |
~ Almighty Tallest Red giving the order to destroy Earth and Zim for good. |
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- It was revealed in an interview with Wally Wingert that there was going to be an episode where it was revealed that the Tallest weren't actually tall, but were smaller Irkens wearing robot suits to make them appear taller. While Wingert's claims have never been proven as canon, both the show and its TV movie had heavy implications about it.
- Despite being the overarching antagonists of the show, the Almighty Tallests are far more dangerous than Zim, as they have all the power of the Irken Empire on their hands and an immense military armada which they can use to ravage and conquer multiple worlds. Indeed, the Tallests are more evil than Zim, who just wants to prove his worthy as a better invader.
- Almighty Purple talked more than Red did.
- While most antagonists of Nickelodeon Movies have received punishments for their actions (Plankton getting arrested, King Goobot being left alongside the League of Villains in the prehistory and Lasombra falling to his death), the Almighty Tallest received the worst punishment of all: not only being sucked into the black Florpus Hole, but remaining there to suffer in agony in a full-fire dimension, likely for all eternity, burning them to death.
- According to Jhonen Vasquez, he had confirmed that both Red and Purple are dead, having died in the Florpus Hole in the dimension of fire, and eventually met their end shortly after Zim's transmission with them disconnected.
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Villains | ||
Irken Empire Humans Zita | Zib Others |