Almighty Tallest

Almighty Tallest (Red and Purple)
Homeworld	Irk
Assignment	To rule the Irken Empire
Rank	Tallest
Gender	Male
Eye Color	Red and Purple
First appearance	The Nightmare Begins

TheAlmighty Tallest are one of the two main antagonists (along withDib Membrane) of the Nickelodeon animated Invader Zim franchise, serving as one of the three main antagonists (alongsideDib Membrane) of the 2001-2006 television seriesInvader Zim and the overarching antagonists of the 2019 Netflix filmInvader Zim: Enter the Florpus.

They are the leaders of theIrken Empire. As the name suggests, they are the tallest knownIrkens alive and they have virtually absolute power, besides the Control Brains.

Description[]

The Irken Empire has a hierarchical class structure in which shorter individuals are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. The tallest Irken alive at the time in a specific generation takes command of the entirety of the Empire.

However, in the event that two Irkens are exactly the same height, they'll rule simultaneously, such as in the case ofRed andPurple.

In such a case, which is likely rare, the two may or may not take responsibility for different aspects of the Empire, something that may be alluded to by the general attitudes of Red and Purple, with Red being more outspoken, active, and generally "in-charge", and Purple generally paying more attention to eloquence, social situations, and creature comforts such as food or drink.

There's no known official enthronement ceremony for the Almighty Tallest, however, and the onlyconfirmed ceremony's that in which the thumbs of the recently ascended Tallest are amputated (though it has been implied that the current Tallest have forgone this by simply hiding their thumbs inside their massive gauntlets.^{[citation needed]}

The Irken race as a whole almost fanatically refers to their leaders as "My Tallest", highly akin to the way humans participating in a monarchical societal structure refer to their rulers only as "Your Majesty" or "Your Highness". As a general rule of both grammar and respect, "My Tallest" is never pluralized, even when two Tallest rule in tandem.

Presently, the two current Almighty Tallest, Red and Purple, travel around to observe and superviseOperation Impending Doom II in theMassive, the largest and most powerful ship in theIrken Armada. It also serves as Red and Purple's personal vessel. While they appear to have a casual interest in expanding the Empire, as well as take great amusement from watching the process of such, the two are rather lazy and prefer to spend most of their time lounging around and/or eating junk food.

Presumably, previous Tallest were far more productive, as was hinted withTallest Miyuki who commissioned the Massive during her reign, as well as oversaw its construction while visitingVort Research Station 9, as documented on the unmade episode “The Trial”, whileTallest Spork demanded the loyalty of the Irken Elite while giving a speech meant to inspire future soldiers onDevastis. By contrast, while Red and Purple are seen to have the ability to do whatever they please without consequences, they don’t have the motivation or interest to really do their job as leaders of the Empire, as they’re content with their already-leisurely condition of life.

Although they are the same species as their subjects, the Almighty Tallest differ from their subordinates in many ways other than height: They appear to only have two fingers (as opposed to the normal Irken amount of three), and their waists are unnaturally thin. Explaining the former, it was stated by theInvader Zim crew that when a Tallest is chosen, their thumbs are usually chopped off in order to prove that they can rule without them. It’s unknown how long this tradition has been in place, but presumably since at least from the early days of Tallest Miyuki’s reign.

Role inInvader Zim[]

The Almighty Tallest hold near-omnipotent power in the Irken Empire and are practically worshipped by their subjects. They regularly appear at major events and gatherings, either playing a major role or simply providing their presence to raise morale.

For example, on an Irken holiday known asProbing Day, it's the duty of the Almighty Tallest to check up on all theIrken Invaders and ask them to conduct a presentation on how they plan to conquer their assigned planet.

However, as is to be expected, the generally-frivolous Red and Purple force the Invaders to instead do a puppet show on how they are going to conquer the planet. Failure to meet the Tallest's standards is met with punishment by whacking the individual on the head with mechanical mallets - referred to as a "pummeling". It's unknown how long this part of the tradition has been in place.

Sightings[]

List of Known Tallest[]

The following table displays every known tallest in the order they have ruled.

Facts of Doom[]

• As mentioned above there is no known official enthronement or coronation ceremony for the Almighty Tallest, but following the Irken tradition of using the word “Great” during certain events, some fans have come up with the non-canon event called “The Great Measuring” in which theControl Brains measure the height of possible Irken candidates to determine who would be the next Tallest.
  • Some fans have also given Red and Purple royal consorts and heirs, while some others (usually the ZAGR fans) have Zim be the next Tallest with Gaz as his consort.
• Chronologically, Tallest Miyuki is the earliest known Almighty Tallest and so far the only known female ruler in Irk’s history.
• InEnter the Florpus, during Zim's daydream, it was shown that the Control Brains are submissive to the will of the Almighty Tallest, rather than the other way around as would have been revealed in "The Trial". However, given Zim’s track record of getting facts wrong, this may not the the actual case.
• Spork is the only known Tallest to have two different designs, as revealed inThe Art of Invader Zim.
  • However Red and Purple were re-designed byJhonen Vasquez during the first season as their appearance changed from “The Nightmare Begins” to “Germs”.
• Despite Red and Purple being the leaders of the Irken Empire, they were hardly seen on Irk either doing their role in leading their people or working to shape morale, the only time they were actually seen on Irk was during Zim’s rampage of the planet.
• Fittingly, Red and Purple could be considered the embodiment of hedonism within the show as they’re more often than not, devoted to their pursuit of pleasure (e.g. conquest) and indulgence (e.g. lazily eating snacks).
• Red and Purple nearly died during "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars", but unlikeTallest Miyuki andTallest Spork who were killed by a blob monster that Zim created, they were almost killed by Dib who flew the Massive towards a star.
• Despite Zim being the main antagonist of the show, the comics and the film, the Almighty Tallest are far more dangerous than he is, as they have all the power of the Irken Empire in their hands and an immense military armada which they can use to ravage and conquer multiple worlds. Indeed, the Tallest are far more evil than Zim, who just wants to prove his worth as anIrken Invader.
• InEnter the Florpus, despite retaining their comedic traits, the Almighty Tallest are presented as somewhat more actively evil than in the series or comics. While in the show they disliked Zim and sometimes they didn't want to check up his "mission" to either focus on Operation Impending Doom II or eat snacks, when Zim contacts them after a long time the Tallest decide that they have had enough of him and resolve to blow up the Earth just to get rid of Zim once and for all.
• Jhonen Vasquez confirmedat Mexico Pixelatl 2019 that the Tallest are dead (for real this time), having died in the Florpus Hole in the dimension of fire, and presumably met their end shortly after Zim's transmission with them disconnected. However, sinceInvader Zim exists within a floating timeline or alternate timelines, their current status may be up for debate.

• Purple has more lines than Red in the show.
• In the Latin American dub of the show, the Tallest are never referred to as the Almighty Tallest. This is because when translated into Spanish it would be "Los Todo poderosos Más Altos", which is too long to translate; as a result, they are simply referred to as "Los Altos" (The Tallest), Mis Altos (My Tallest) or very rarely "Mis Altisimos" (My very Tallest).
  • In ther French dub, they are refred to as "Grand Rouge" and "Grande Violette", with 'Grande being French for large. In the Japanese dub, they are referred to as 二人の司令官 (futari no shirai-kan), meaning "two commanders".
• Most of the time Tallest Red has an all red uniform, but sometimes he can be seen wearing a black and red uniform.
• Wally Wingert, the voice actor for Tallest Red, has a theory that the Tallest aren't actually tall, but instead just wear suits to make them look tall, as can be seen in some fan fictions and fan art. However, this is not considered canonical as Jhonen Vasquez has not confirmed or denied this.
  • This is hinted at in one issue of the comic series, where Zim confrontsEmperor Zim over his wearing of heels to synthetically make himself taller.
• Despite the fact that as mentioned above by theInvader Zim crew that when a Tallest is chosen, their thumbs are usually chopped off in order to prove that they can rule without them, during the events ofEnter the Florpus, Red and Purple were seen with their thumbs. This can be explained “in universe” that they never had them cut off and were simply hidden the whole time under their gauntlets and decided not to hide them anymore, or just as likely that it could have been an animation error.
• It was going to be revealed in “The Trial” that Zim had aspirations to be the Tallest, but presumably that is no longer his goal, as he'd much rather be an Invader and doesn’t seem to be interested in gaining power and ruling his home planet at the moment, as hinted in a four page comic that was in a Nick magazine andEnter the Florpus. However, fans seem to want this to come to fruition for him in fan art and fan fiction, creating many unique designs for an Almighty Tallest Zim.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

References[]

See also[]

• Irken Society
• Almighty Tallest and Zim's Relationship
• Almighty Tallest and Skoodge's Relationship
• Almighty Tallest Red and Almighty Tallest Purple's Relationship
• Almighty Tallest/Images