Tak The Hideous New Girl - Tumblr Posts
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.
“You can't do this! People will know something's up. I mean, look at this place. It's enormous!”
“The great thing about your people, Dib, is that most of them don't notice. All they see is another faceless corporate venture, not a plan for world conquest.”
“Wait… is there really a difference?”
Let them know you really care this Valentine’s Day
Tak’s laughter appreciation post
Another thing to love about “Tak, the Hideous New Girl” was
Every one of the core main characters playing an equally necessary and coordinated role in saving the Earth,
Zim leading Tak and Mimi away from the magma pump as a diversion,
allowing Dib (who would have been bodied had he tried to square with them head-on) to single handedly shut down the building before the planet was irreversibly cleaned out.
Meanwhile Gaz remains at the base in order to utilize GIR (who if left alone is not able to keep himself on task or come up with a smart way to help) as a way to remotely sabotage Tak,
Which allowed Zim (who was almost certainly going to lose that aerial fight otherwise, not up for debate) to deal the finishing blow and give Tak the boot.
If any one of them had stood by or failed in what part they decided to play, this entire thing would have been a bust, and Tak’s plan would have succeeded. It elevates the episode by involving the whole main character group successfully working together to accomplish something AND it demonstrates just how much of a threat Tak herself was that this was what was needed to take her down. Absolutely season finale worthy.
Bombs away!
IZ Gif of the Day - From ‘Tak: The Hideous New Girl’
Your honor she’s not even salty she’s actually so normal and well and stable in the mind if you would just listen to me
Tak Fact again: she wasn't initially wearing her disguise during the scene where dib sneaks into the magma pump! she only activates it in the split-second she comes into view on the lift
She’s fine.
No issues at all.
