Gaz, Taster of Pork (Invader Zim)
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.png) Wasted potential at its finest.
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Gaz, Taster of Pork is the 5th episode of the second season of Invader Zim and the 25th episode in the series overall. It first premiered on December 27, 2003, in Australia. In the United States, it was first released as part of the Horrible Holiday Cheer DVD on October 12, 2004, and it made its TV debut on Nicktoons on August 12, 2006.
Many fans consider this as the worst episode of ' Invader Zim', besides 'Bolognius Maximus".
Bad Qualities
- Dib and Gaz are somewhat flanderized in this episode.
- Sure, Gaz's rage is justifiable, but it is pretty over-the-top for her quiet yet mischievous personality. She's also sympathetic because having a pig-taste curse is pretty horrible.
- Dib is somewhat of a coward and a butt-monkey in this episode, but he's also sympathetic since he tries his best to cure Gaz.
- Gaz's speech to Dib is graphic as she actually threatens to kill Dib, she says: "I've never missed a new pizza day at Bloaty's. If this next one is ruined by your magical stupidity, I would make you wish you had rabid weasels teleported into your skull instead of having a sister! I'll wait until you sleep and stuff all of your paranormal junk into your big, giant, paranormal head and chew on your eyeballs after I pluck them out!". Sure, she can be cruel, but she wasn't THIS cruel!
- Professor Membrane is unlikable as he starts observing Gaz as the pig-girl, it started a merchandise of her, such as experiment tours, plush dolls, storybooks, and even a theatrical film! In other words, 'he's using his daughter as his cash cow! And even though he did apologize to her in the end, it still doesn't make up how cruel it was to Gaz.
- Plot holes:
- How did Gaz program her robot toys to feed on human flesh?
- When Dib and Gaz try to escape the Membrane-Lab from the security and they are surrounded, it just cuts to the siblings driving to Mystical Hill. It’s never explained how they'actually escaped the laboratory once they made it out.
- Also, how are they able to drive a car even though they're too young to drive?
- Like "Bolognius Maximus", the episode's disturbing and gross-out nature isn't that good. Such as:
- Gaz belching out a foul-smelling pig breath which knocks out Dib.
- Gaz fantasizes about herself as a disgustingly fat woman with hotdogs surrounding her and still has the pig-tasting curse only for her to explode.
- Dib imagining her as a pig monster.
- Bloaty belching out bubbles and farting after eating a slice of pizza.
- A disgusting and infamous scene where Dib screams in horror when he looks down in the toilet.
- Zim and GIR only appear in this episode for a small amount of time and are wasted potential for the episode.
- Filler scene featuring a drunk hobo, which doesn't even fit into the episode.
- Bad ending: Gaz leaves Dib in the pig dimension while Dib's punished to clean the pig dookie with his entire head. We know it's his fault that he cursed Gaz with the pig-tasting curse, but this isn't the punishment he deserves!
- Even worse, Gaz ignores his crying guilt and leaves him to his fate. Gaz replies to Professor Membrane that Dib is still in the Pig Realm cleaning out toilets with his head, only for Membrane laughs saying, "You're my funny child!". Then we hear Dib’s pleading of guilt as the toilet burns down to the ground, and it's unknown what happened to Dib or whether he made it out or not.
- This and the aforementioned threat Gaz made to him, made this episode a brutal and undeserved Dib torture episode.
- To add salt to the wound, there was a scrapped ending where Dib defeated the Shadowhog in hand-to-hand combat, thus saving Gaz and ending this episode with the two Membranes eating pizza together. However, when Vasquez considered this ending "pretty boring," only for Eric Truehart to come up with the ending that made it into the finished version of the episode.
- Even worse, Gaz ignores his crying guilt and leaves him to his fate. Gaz replies to Professor Membrane that Dib is still in the Pig Realm cleaning out toilets with his head, only for Membrane laughs saying, "You're my funny child!". Then we hear Dib’s pleading of guilt as the toilet burns down to the ground, and it's unknown what happened to Dib or whether he made it out or not.
Good Qualities
- Dib and Gaz having their episode instead of focusing on Zim are pretty interesting.
- The animation, art, and color palette are still beautiful to watch.
- Gaz's robot toys have neat designs.
- The Piggy Dimension looks amazing.
- Funny moment where Professor Membrane laughs maniacally and returns to normal immediately after saying, "There are no curses, son!".
- Dib is the Most Likable Character here despite his Slight Flanderzation.
- The part of the Bloaty's Pizza Hog commercial in which the baby sinks into Bloaty's fat, then emerges out seconds later, while somewhat gross, is quite hilarious.
- The first couple of minutes of the episode was decent.
- Dib's squee at the beginning of the episode is adorable.
- The concept of a Spelldrive is interesting; if the show was continued and never cancelled, we could see more of the Spelldrives. Also, Dib thinking of giving Gaz powers after claiming the drives is very nice.
- In fact, this pig curse situation wouldn't have happened if Dib would've read the entire spell if the Spelldrive didn't go static or if he cast the spell onto someone else or Zim instead of Gaz.
Reception
Despite positive reviews and ratings for giving Dib and Gaz bigger roles and its Spelldrive concept, it was disliked by many Invader Zim fans for making Dib and Gaz out of character and its ending.
In a commentary, Steve Ressel (the director of the series) has admittedly stated this episode that it's his least favourite in the series. Even Nickelodeon disliked this episode.