Gaz (Invader Zim)

Invader Zim Character
name = Gaz


Caption = Gaz, Dib's brother.
race = Human
gender = Female
relatives = Dib (brother), Professor Membrane (Father)
appearance = Pilot
voiceactor = Melissa Fahn

Gaz is a fictional character from the Nickelodeon cartoon, "Invader Zim". She is the sister of Dib and daughter of Professor Membrane. Other than Dib, Gaz is the only human character who is fully aware that Zim is an alien; however, she doesn't care. Gaz is voiced by Melissa Fahn.

Appearance and Background

Gaz has a gothic style of dress — black dress, purple/pink leggings, grey sleeves, purple hair, and skull necklace, although Jhonen Vasquez claims she is just a normal kid and the clothing comes from his own style. Her hair vaguely resembles a claw or toothy mouth. Her clothes are also the same in design as Jhonen's other character Pepito, the devil's son from his comic Squee!, the only difference being her necklace which is a skull while Pepito's is a lock. She also has noticeably squinty eyes that rarely open up except in moments of total enrapturement, great rage and/or agitation.

Her father is Professor Membrane, a world-renowned scientist who is famous for his Science TV show, "Probing the Membrane of Science", and for inventions like cold fusion and Super Toast. Her brother is Dib, an amateur paranormal investigator who she constantly sneers at, just like she does to everyone and everything else. In fact, she seems to care little about anything besides video games, pizza, drawing pigs, and soda, though she helps Dib for self gain.

Had "Invader Zim" not been prematurely cancelled, staff member Eric Trueheart has said that a potential story may have involved Dib finding out that he was a science experiment created by Professor Membrane. It is not clear what this might have meant about Gaz's background, or if she, too, was created by her father rather than being born naturally. Notably no mother for either Dib or Gaz is ever seen or even mentioned.

Personality

Gaz is very antisocial and high-tempered. She usually prefers to be alone, playing her video game consoles rather than dealing with people. In the first season of "Invader Zim", most of her on-screen time showed her playing her Game Slave, and she had very few lines. One first season exception is episode 2.B, "NanoZim", where Gaz uses her video game prowess to defeat Zim and his nano-chip micro-suit, thinking she is playing a video game.

Gaz has a tendency towards sudden, decisive action, especially sworn acts of violence against those who cross her, which she can pursue with monomaniacal focus. She also has a great hatred for her brother, and if he annoys her too much she is prone to attack him, claiming his very voice sends her into a rage. For instance, she once cautioned Dib that he would "suffer horribly" were he to interfere with a ceremony that she was conducting. However, an unfinished episode implies that she may be used to him annoying her as well as his carrying on about the paranormal because in one scene she asks "Why aren't you downstairs irritating me or trying to watch Mysterious Mysteries?" While it is uncertain if Gaz has any level of affection for her brother, she seems to be very close to her father; Professor Membrane seems to favor Gaz as his cuter, less-insane child, and in return Gaz seems to desire his attention, as in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog," where she goes on a daring rescue mission to save Dib just so the Professor will take them out for dinner.

Gaz is considerably smarter than most "Invader Zim" characters, who, as a rule, are idiots. Other than Dib, she is also the only human who knows that Zim is an alien, but, while Dib has dedicated his life to stopping Zim, she merely shrugs off the knowledge of Zim's identity and treats him with the same level of misanthropy as she does everyone else. She has actually stopped Zim's evil plans several times, such as in "NanoZim" and another time "rescuing" Dib from his clutches in the episode "Future Dib;" however, unlike Dib, who is motivated by hatred of Zim and an honest desire to save the world, Gaz only fights Zim if she has her own reason for doing so, or from mere boredom, as in "TAK: the Hideous New Girl," where she only agrees to save the world upon finding out that Zim's computer did not have any video games to play.

Episodes featured in

As the first season went on, Gaz's character developed further with the episode "Game Slave 2". Here, Gaz has her first solo adventure at the City Center Mall waiting to buy the Game Slave 2 handheld, only to see the last of the stock unfairly taken from her by the child accompanying her, who introduces himself as Iggins. She is also the primary character in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog," where Professor Membrane instructs her to "pick Dib up from Zim's house" (which in this case means saving him from horrible experimentation) so the family can have their annual dinner together. In the second season episode, "Gaz, Taster of Pork", she was again to take center stage after her brother Dib accidentally curses her with "enhanced piggy senses" by the usage of a "spell drive."

ee also

*List of characters in Invader Zim