Almighty Tallest



"If you are an Almighty Tallest, then you can command every Irken people in their empire so you can give them their laws and edicts to make them happy and well satisfied, and of course, you can keep them happy also, so if you want to be like that, take a good care of them. Zim can't wait to be an Almighty Tallest."

--Su Ji-Hoon, Operation Impending Doom III

The Almighty Tallest are the leaders of the Irken Empire. As the name suggests, he or she is the tallest known Irken alive and has virtually absolute power, besides the Control Brain.

Description
The Irken Empire has a hierarchical class structure in which shorter individuals are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. The tallest Irken born 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 will rule simultaneously, such as in the case of Red and Purple. 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. What 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 and drink.

There is no known official enthronement ceremony for the Almighty Tallests, however, and the only confirmed ceremony is that in which the thumbs of the recently ascended Tallests are amputated (though it has been implied that the current Tallest have forgone this by simply hiding their thumbs inside their massive gauntlets).

The Irken race as a whole almost religiously 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." 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 supervise Operation Impending Doom III in The Massive, the largest and most powerful ship in the Irken 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, Red and Purple are rather lazy and prefer to spend most of their time lounging around and eating junk food. Previous Tallest, such as Almighty Tallest Miyuki, seem to have been more productive.

Presumably, one might assume that this is due to complacency on account of the Empire's incredible size as well as lack of need for worry.

As in a judge/jury system, though, the Tallest can occasionally overrule a Control Brain's decision (e.g. when they alter Larb's assignment from Blorch to Vort). Although they are seen to have the ability to do anything that they please, it is likely that they really just don't want to do anything else, content with their already-leisurely condition of life.

Although they are 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 3), and their waists are unnaturally thin. Explaining the former, it was stated by the Invader Zim crew that when a Tallest is chosen, their thumbs are usually chopped off in order to prove that they can rule without them. As for the waists, it is possible that the seemingly impossible effect was achieved by an extreme form of corsets, which, while impossible to do with a human torso, is quite possible with that of an Irken, as the only organs in their midsection are their spine and their squeedly-spooch, a type of super-organ resembling a human stomach.

Role in Invader Zim
The Almighty Tallests hold near-omnipotent power in the Irken Empire, and are practically worshiped 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 as Probing Day, it is the duty of the Almighty Tallest to check up on all the Irken 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 is unknown how long this part of the tradition has been in place.