Grrl Power #1086 – Befuddle a beholder
There’s definitely some wires crossed in Sydney’s brain, right?
So yeah. Cthillia is an anthropomorphic beholder of some flavor. That’s “beholder” not “Beholder(C)” because Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/D&D owns the copyright on “Beholders(C).” I thought they also held the copyright on Drow, but I looked it up but couldn’t find anything to back that up. Not sure about Lolth. They’ve definitely (C)ed Carrion Crawlers, Displacer Beasts, Mind Flayers, and a few others. But as Cthillia is humanoid, I’m probably in the clear. All this isn’t to say that she’s a chaotic evil bipolar agoraphobe necessarily. She has eyestalks with powers and moderate budget for scale polish for sure, but her mental state and interpersonal skills are a little more up in the air.
Anyway. I had actually planned a far more dramatic reveal for her at some point in the near-ish future, but I couldn’t really see how the current storyline would lead to what I’d originally imagined. Plus it’s also super funny to me that Sydney just badgered it out of her.
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Thank you guys so much for your patience. I hope it was worth it. It took a lot of research online to find just the right references for this piece. Toil toil. :D
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It’s like that episode of Doctor Who and the ‘Human Dalek’, except ‘Human Beholder”
Dalek Sek a proofs
Am I the only one noticing that the eyes are the same colors as Sydney’s orbs?
They have coloured orbs to bond over. Not that this seems like someone seeking to bond.
Close, but not quite:
C: Red, Yellow, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
S: Pink, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
S has 7 orbs
C: pink yellow yellow green blue red
S: Purp purp orange yellow blue green and (brown? the unknown one)
umm, Cthillia has 8 eye stocks so the two facing backwards could match
You’re only the 14th person to start a comment thread on the topic.
First thing I noticed. I’m wondering if there is a connetion.
I noticed that and thought there might be a relation, but there’s only six eyes compared to seven orbs.
My thought was maybe some form of inspiration for the Nth orbs in the first place (the Nth-tech users saw what the holders of the eyes could do and made their own orb version), or maybe a distant cousin/descendant/etc. where they didn’t achieve Nth level technology but did get some nifty biological powers.
“Rainbow Eyes”.
Actually not that scary.
Yes, too many eye, but mostly humanoid look.
If I was to run into this guy in real life, I might be surprised, but I don’t think I’d be scared, not if he was just chillin’.
Girl, Lia is female, always has been
I think a lot of us only found this out today by reading the author commentary.
Not really anything about her that conveys a feminine impression up to this p–… actually even including this page.
“nothing really about her conveys a feminine impression”
I’m sure lizard people think the same thing about us… Actually, that’d be a pretty neat idea for Dave to do… You see… with reptiles and birds, the males are the pretty, more aesthetically pleasing ones. If you had a culture of say lizard people and they were a mirror of human society, you’d have big females would be like “I’m not wearing a skirt, that’s manly” and their drill sergeants would go up to the trainees in boot camp and be like “we’re going for a little walk today” and then one of them complains about the fact that it’s like a 30 mile route and the drill sergeant’s like “it’s only this far on the map” and holds up her thumb and index finger a tiny distance “don’t be such a pansy boy about it.”
Anyway, what I’m saying here is that Cthillia is clearly not a mammal, and we should not make assume gender of non-mammals based on mammalian standards. Nor should as assume gender roles are directly analog to our gender roles based solely on gender… assuming of course that they even have the same genders…
And what I mean about assuming they even have the same genders… Could be they’re all hermaphrodites, like annelids. Or maybe Cthillia’s Species is like the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila which has 7 distinct sexes which can all swap genes with each other. SEVEN BIOLOGICAL SEXES… And who knows, maybe Chullia’s species has 47 sexes, and only 1 gender. Or maybe they have 1 sex and 23 genders. WE DON’T KNOW!
“I’m sure lizard people think the same thing about us…”
I’m fairly certain Garamm would disagree with that.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-925-star-crossed-mercs/
Although a nice tail might add to the attraction.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-932-designing-women/
I have liked the idea that large intelligent avians could think humans dress primarily in drag because of how their sexual dimorphism works with their plumage.
I once came up with a humanoid lizard species once where the male had large breasts, it was a mating display feature, something high up on the torso to show off for a biped. This was a premise for an erotica story, it was going to be written but the commission client changed their mind and wanted Harpies instead, liking the plumage idea and the two genders not being told apart easily by the human character.
Isn’t there a comic-book convention that anything female MUST have serious cleavage unless the absence of said cleavage is significant?
Really? Cthillia has always read as female to me, but that may be influenced by thinking that ‘Cthillia’ has a feminine sound to it. But I think she looks distinctly female in the first panel of page 530. She’s also referred to as ‘her’ in the… extra joke text at the bottom of that page. Not the author’s blog/comments, but in the page footer. But I don’t believe any of the characters in the comic have said anything that would declare her gender.
Huh. You’re quite right; female pronouns are being used in both the footer line and the author notes below the page. I wonder if I just skipped them that day. Oops.
My take-away from her name was some sort of combination of Cthulhu and Godzilla mesh… which had me thinking “reptile-like?” but again nothing flagging as feminine in my head. Both those name-sourced characters are presumed “male” (to whatever degree that matters in respect to very non-humanoid beings… We’re only asking “why did Hinoron assume Cthillia was male for years” here today.)
From her appearance though… lean, but with wide shoulders, very large hands, tallest person in the room, and dressed in sort of 18th-century-style men’s clothing. All of that was pushing my perception into a decidedly more masculine line of assumptions.
Now that I REALLY look close, I DO today notice a very slight taper of waist, and broader hips that I probably initially dismissed as being a wide-legged standing position and the draping coat flaring out confusing silhouette lines.
I missed some things and noticed others. Ah well…
i’m thinking reason everyone getting scared is some sort of psychic field that affects the part of the brain dealing in fear or maybe activates the body’s organs dealing with fear like adrenaline but is connected to sight somehow
i am guessing with sydneys adhd or her meds for it affect this. or something with her orbs. protects her. we know the flight orb stops her vertigo, maybe the true sight orb blocks such things or lets her see past the fear
Let’s also not forget that Sydney’s seen and dealt with beings far scarier than Cthillia.
Too many eyes, yes, but also I think the fact they’re on stalks might also produce some discomfort in many people, , though the author has cheated by allowing them to fit into grooves in the face that allow them to sit in more normal positions, I imagine watching those stalks separate out of their grooves and move the eyes away from the rest of the face, leaving behind a gap where they sat would be disquieting.
Since it looks like no one else has linked them:
Evolution’s Child
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-040
The Plague Doctor
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-049
The Lizard King
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-088
Finally! I thought I needed to die uneducated.
Thanks a lot!
My initial reaction would probably be “Ohhh, you have such beautiful eyes!” And THEN probably worry about sunglasses. XDDD
All this time I thought Cthillia was a guy. I guess Beholders don’t have bazonkas, and now I’m wondering if it’s better or worse that way. I’m not sure I’m a sick enough man to want to see that face on a stacked body.
Not every fracking female has Triple E’s
Among those who are named or powered/enhanced/magical in the comic, they constitute the clear majority. I can only recall three (now four) female characters of smaller bust size without trawling through the archives. We’re allowed to be surprised when it hadn’t been made clear.
Also, the font used for the Cthillia always indicated to me a deeper voice, which implies a male character default.
Nah. DaveB has said multiple times that Cthillia is female, and it’s been mentioned in the comic a few times as well.
As for the sound of her voice…. I have no idea but I suspect she has an english accent because of some words and phrases that she’s used in the past, like ‘Smashing.’ :) At least that’s how she sounds in my headcanon.
Deep voice guess is probably because she has bold letters as a font, right?
DaveB described her voice as sounding like she “gargled with a cup full of broken safety glass“, but I have no idea what that’s supposed to sound like.
Maybe Crasher from Go-Bots?
What are you talking about? Crasher has a beautiful voice ;)
Okay so cockney English then.
:)
Yeah, and there are non-powered who also have big breasts
Point is: just because one character has certain features, doesn’t mean every character with similar features has to be the same
How can you be surprised when it’s been mentioned multiple times prior to now?
Exactly. Flat chested girls exist, like my girlfriend, who’s a B cup.
As opposed to my other girlfriend who has an F cup. Or my wife who has G cups. Or me who has Double-D’s.
…
I should tell my first-mentioned girlfriend how much I love her, never thought how intimidated she must feel surounded by us.
All you need is an A, C, and E to complete the set.
I suddenly feel less awkward about my decision to go a cup up from my mother, who is a G. X’D
Really, I certainly don’t!
I mean…Yeah, I know, but Cthillia looks like she has literally nothing in the chest region. We’re dealing with an extremely unique and extremely alien character here, I’m just pointing out that she probably just doesn’t have the same secondary sex characteristics a human does, hence why I never realized she was female.
She’s not mammalian, why the fronk’n’beans would she have mammaries?
Unfortunately, people have formed such a strong association of “breasts=female” that they assume that if a character does not have very prominent breasts, they must not be female.
Sadly, you are correct
Though female, she’s not necessarily even a mammal.
“Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder… cuz the rest of it is smexy tentacles”
She’s giving him a sympathetic comforting (or at least, thatw as the intention) hug because he can’t get cool shades off the shelf. Adorably empathetic but very very scewed priorities.
She, Lia is female, always has been
lol okay Sydney has a special something that makes scaring her hard to do, of course in my case I’d say ‘Dude that is so cool!’ then give a smile before resume working.
You know, I honestly wonder if one of the orbs has an already-activated passive that regulates panic responses, to prevent freezing / fleeing during stressful encounters so as to preserve the orb-wielder’s ability to make rational responses. Normal fear responses would not be affected, just the sudden panic spikes that interfere with action. It would certainly fit why Sidney doesn’t become paralyzed with fear when presented with vampires, werewolves, demons, beholder-people, etc.
Maybe that’s what the brown orb is for, the one that apparently had no function.
She was definitely getting vertigo when not holding the fly orb originally.
@KiltedBastich Maybe one of the orbs while not held in hand has a passive ability that does that, would explain her lack of freaking out. For all we know its the brown orb that is doing that, perhaps while not held it continues to give a passive effect that needs no activation cause its always active.
@Opus the Poet Indeed and while not held the effect is still there.
@JanxSpirit I can kinda relate to that though, I mean I can handle being high up in an aircraft but not really too thrilled being high up on a building.
We’ve seen Sydney freak out often enough that she’s kind of known for it.
But also, in the list of things that have caused Sydney to freak out, Cthillia doesn’t really rate. I mean, she’s a bit more worthy of a freak-out than Dabbler, but that one was more about not knowing that aliens and demons were actually a thing. Now that she’s over that, met Twilight Council, fallen into Sciona’s left-over blood portal, been to space, and all, Cthillia’s really not that shocking.
Anyone else thinking she has a seventh eye, in the middle of her “ forehead” there, that she’s keeping closed?
Looks more likely she has two more, but they are facing backwards
Agreed on the two backward facing ones, the thing in the front center just looks like a bony anchor plate, or scale. Good setup for 360 vision. Which makes me ask, since predators have forward facing eyes, and prey have eyes set more to the sides… What kind of creature preys on her species for it to require omnidirectional vision.
That might be her prehensile nostrils. Going by where on her face they start, its likely.
They could still be eyes though.
What I want to know is, why her clothes aren’t properly tailored for her. They HAVE to be paying her enough!
Hey, Cthillia, just ’cause I’m curious, what does your orange eye do?…
I’m reminded of a species in a webnovel:
https://wanderinginn.com/
One of the many races is half-gazers, a particularly badass and brutal example being the individual Gazi Pathfinder https://thewanderinginn.fandom.com/wiki/Gazi_Pathseeker
I feel Sydney and the main character Erin would get up to… shenanigans and have a lot of world-shaking fun
Once you’ve been to space, “weird” takes on a whole new meaning.
They’re a biped with extra eyes.
Yawn.
…….The first thought in my mind was “Huh….interesting Gorgon design” :D But beholder makes more sense.
I legit thought Chtillia was a reptile based on the hands and feet
She is
Ooh, look at all the pretty colors!
Not sure if anyone has poster it but the solution is multiple monacles.
Love the SCP references!
I actually have an ancient e-mail from Gygax back in the 90’s on an old hdd in my closet somewhere. He told me very specifically that TSR took the name of drow from some obscure term for dark elves from germanic folklore. Lloth however is (or was) a TSR property and is currently being held prisoner by Wizards of the Coast.
Honestly, she looks a little scary, but really cool. I don’t feel like in a world where some non-human entities were already known, she’d be super scary to everyone.
“React like a normal person.”
Dude. Sydney’s pretty much done the impossible for this comic, but you’re asking too much here.
I mean, Sydney has been to Fracture Station. Also, she kinda killed a bunch of kaiju all at the same time, and wiped out an entire fleet of star fighters without even having to go into Death Blossom Mode… this is kind of mundane for her.
I am actually thinking Chthilla is an alien and just doesn’t know it. When Sidney was spacing Vehemence we saw an alien that looked a little like this. Not an exact match, but that alien seemed male so possible sexual dimorphism *which can be pretty different in some species*.
I’m too lazy to look it up right now… but “beholder-kin” have some humanoid beholder images in the Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual Annual Compendiums. I have volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 (second edition D&D). But also those versions are pygmy / chibi.
I fully understand how some people would be scared, but I’m only really interested in why there’s so many eyes, and why the stalks each have a groove.
Either way, unexpected! I was always thinking some kind of Frankenstein’s Monster-esque graft-person, because of their desire for the Morph Dagger-thing that’s name escapes me at the moment that she demanded, despite knowing it takes a high number of human lives to even use. Even if she has no beliefs in the inherent value of human life, killing that many people with a dagger is an extreme hassle. I’d be really irritated if I had to stab a punching bag that much, and those are easier to get than an entire fresh person for each stab.
She was really willing to put in the work for that thing. Why?
Now I really want to see the showdown of Maxima v SCP 682 (the Evil lizard), or Cthilla v SCP 173. I feel like Max would get the Lizard down to it’s last 0.001% of it’s health before she loses track of where that last bit landed in the fallout. Cthilla would have a leg up on the usual competition by having six eyes. Would she be able to blast it to bits? Freeze it in place? Murder Stare it into oblivion?
Huh. For some reason, Scillia’s build here reminds me of the Glikkons from the Oddworld games…
*Glukkons
….I only know what a beholder is because of Critical role, but my first thought was ‘six eyes… rays… oh beholder!’ Then I read. I is happy my brain made connection
On the copyright issue:
Monsters actually copyrighted by Dungeons and Dragons, important to note it is clearly the specific name with the specific design and backstory that is copyrighted. You can get really close, and some of these visually look like monsters in other series including public domain, so it really comes down to name, specific design, and backstory.
https://www.thegamer.com/dungeons-dragons-monsters-copyright/
There’s also the fair use exception to sometimes consider.
They are pretty lenient, there are several D&D parody comics and the use of monsters but with a different name.
Right. Parody and satire are two rather large categories that fit under the Fair Use Exception Rule. Also it’s pretty easy to argue.
Also many sorts of significant changes can sometimes push it out of copyright abuse as well (see the ‘beholder’ in Big Trouble in Little China’ as an example).
Also it’s a lot easier to copyright a name (Beholder) than an image because the images tend to be very specific on what the copyright covers.
Again, Big Trouble in Little China for example has a ‘beholder’ in it, that isnt actually a beholder. It has two eyes in the center (plus one in the mouth) in addition to the other eyes, instead of a guardian, it’s basically a watcher/scout, it’s tiny instead of large, etc. Also it’s never specifically CALLED a beholder.
DaveB is in the same boat. There’s nothing about Cthillia that breaches copyright whatsoever. Plus even if there had been…. fair use would cover it.
Cthilla is a girl?
Always has been
Yes but we had no way of knowing that until now so your statement’s kind of pointless.
Dave’s referred to her as she multiple times in the author comments, starting from her first speaking appearance. This statement is still somewhat pointless as the past cannot be changed, but maybe your attitude? Eh, probably not.
Wait, is he a Beholder variant?
Who, Flotilla? While beholders do float, he appears to have two rather normal looking eyes behind that visor.
She
ok but here me out
He’s kinda hot
Ok, but hear me out:
He’s a she.
(Still kinda hot)
I just noticed that his eyes are in same colors as Sydney’s orbs. And he can make water, wonder if they related? Yes, I’m slowpoke.
She maybe can not buy cool looking sunglasses., but she is the queen of cool monocles.
The name is close to the name of Cthylla, Cthulhu’s secret daughter. That and the -a ending to her name were solid clued to her being female.
So…… did Mom… or Dad fuck a beholder? Asking for a friend. I read somewhere that “if you can think it, someones made porn about it…”
Good luck finding THAT
um, just google Beholder Hentai,
There is ALOT,
Those upper front teeth remind me of an Australian Thylacoleo.
Halo would make a good SCP and I don’t mean because of the Orbs! She’d get along like a house on fire with Dr. Bright!
It must have absolutely sucked for her to have lived her life suffering like that.
No internet connection.
No chance to discover the furry/scalie fandom.
No opportunity to find herself showered with praise and adulation as a queen of the convention circuit.
The fact that she expects horror, terror, or revulsion means she doesn’t know xenophiles *exist*.
beauty is in the eye of something something