Suggestion: Tortured Abomination

I saw this pic of Zimmy from Gunnerkrigg Court and decided to see if there was a trope which matched it and then whether or not it already had a page image. I think the pic fairly screams this trope, and the trope doesn't already have a page image.

Edit: I should point out that although Zimmy is not, in-universe, an Eldritch Abomination, in the picture she obviously looks like one and is obviously feeling tortured over it.

edited 29th May '13 10:07:17 AM by Melkior

Me likey.

EDIT: I fixed the article link, you have to put the page in CamelCase.

edited 29th May '13 6:46:36 AM by Willbyr

Thanks. I was going to check on that because the posting form doesn't say anything about formatting the trope name as a wiki word, but then I forgot after posting.

It works well. Is there a version without artifacts?

Yes, I'm looking at the version the browser is showing. And GIMP. And Win7's image viewer. But it's kind of the image you see in a browser that counts, as most people read TV Tropes in a browser.

edited 29th May '13 8:52:45 AM by AnotherDuck

I'm pretty sure your browser must be looking at the low-res version contained within the jpg (not many people know about that - I didn't until I used a graphic package which could be set to read one or the other). That said, I can probably re-extract the pic at a lower detail loss. The original is a jpg so there's going to be some loss of detail regardless.

I might see if I can get in touch with Tom (author) and find out if he has a high-res version of the panel we can use.

Edit: I found his address and sent an email request. We'll see what he says (if anything).

edited 29th May '13 7:21:07 AM by Melkior

I was thinking Beelzebub◊ from Castlevania would work, but none of the images of him make him look like he's... actually alive.

So yeah, go with suggestion.

Did a quick GIS, and there's not much fan art or concept art of him. Though I would in theory support him over Zimmy because she's still human, not an eldritch creature.

Which is my only worry about the image, after reading the trope description it doesn't mention humans as potential Tortured Abominations. Is it flexible enough to encompass reality warpers who are still quantifiably human?

I don't know that we need to be so literal. Zimmie looks like an eldritch abomination which appears superficially human, even though she's actually a reality-warping human. I'd say that pictures are all about appearances (obvious) and so the pic fits the trope.

Here's a better quality image.

edited 29th May '13 11:41:24 AM by Melkior

Well honestly, he looks more like a deformed human than anything else. The only inhuman thing about him are the burned out eyes and the font of the text, which is enough that he might be a Humanoid Abomination (the sweater doesn't help, mind you). The image isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing.

edited 29th May '13 11:46:25 AM by Larkmarn

Wrong gender. Zimmy is a she (note the hair). But I guess it's not so clear. Still, I don't think it needs to be. When I first saw Zimmy I thought that the eyes and the teeth practically screamed "abomination" (and that was the whole idea).

I was worried about the Eldritch Abomination aspect myself, but in this case if we can't find something that more closely fits the exact nature of the trope then Zimmy will be close enough.

I guess this would be under trope repair shop, but I really don't understand why this trope is limited to eldritch abominations when it's applied to a much larger variety of monsters in the examples (Nina, the minotaur, Frankenstein's monster, Godzilla, headcrab zombies, Harold, Lisa Trevor, SCP-191, the Lava Monster...), and there's really nothing about this trope that should limit it to eldritch abominations. The description just seems overly narrow for what the trope actually is. Using Zimmy really shouldn't be out of left field.

I'll try to start a thread in the repair shop about this.

Edit: Repair shop is full. I'll try again tomorrow.

edited 29th May '13 3:11:15 PM by Scardoll

I agree. It's called Tortured Abomination, not Tortured Eldritch Abomination.

edited 29th May '13 4:02:01 PM by Rethkir

Double agreed. Tortured Monster really would work best, I think.

I nth this motion.

I lean toward the rename as well, but that should probably be handled in TRS...getting a pic in place is enough for now.

In anticipation of the description changing, I approve Zimmy as the page image.

I as well.

edited 29th May '13 6:37:37 PM by Rethkir

One or two more votes for the OP and we can run with it.

Name issue aside, Zimmy works.

I'd like at least one more vote before I put the pic on the trope. Do we need a caption and if so, what should it be?

Maybe "I am not a monster! I am a human being!" (I wonder if anyone else will get the joke?)

For anyone who does get the joke, I think Zimmy's pic fits the trope better than an alternative based on the above quote.

Regarding the TRS issue, I believe that the only repair needed is within the description. It needs to be clearer that the trope applies to any monsterous "abomination", not just the "eldrich" variety. I think that the current name covers monsters too since they could also be described as abominations.

edited 30th May '13 12:56:59 AM by Melkior

I've added the second vote and executed the change.

I'm neutral on a caption.

I honestly don't think the pic needs a caption. It stands on its own merits fairly well.

I relinked the pic to the better quality version I uploaded. It's still the same pic.

edited 30th May '13 6:43:22 AM by Melkior

If we change the definition, we should change the name. Yes, the word Abomination does cover a broader spectrum of things than just Eldritch Abomination, but diluting it here would lead to confusion elsewhere on the site. There's already a serious issue of people overusing the word, leading to misuse on other tropes so the name and description should jive.

Anyhoo, this is neither here nor there. I'll bring it up at TRS if that ever gets made.

edited 30th May '13 8:53:02 AM by Larkmarn