Behold: the Beholder

prokopetz says "I kind of love that D&D's most iconic monster is this giant floating ball of eyes and teeth from a realm of inchoate madness beyond time and space that brings low entire kingdoms with its merest gaze, but rather than being unfathomably alien in its mentality, it's just really racist. It's like the game's designers came up with the most Lovecraftian monster they could possibly imagine, then gave it the personality of the actual HP Lovecraft."

Like today's review said, the Beholder is the most parodied of D&D's classic creations. For instance, here's Big Trouble in Little China's "Defender":

a creature that is blatantly a Beholder, no matter what it's called

Here, from the card game Munchkin, is the dreaded Level 10 Floating Nose:

And of course, even the nerds at Futurama got in on it:

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5 Responses to Behold: the Beholder

  1. Ai Muhao says:

    On that note, I wonder if the upcoming blue Beholder repaint in wave 2 of the Dicelings is a reference to something? I always thought Beholders were kind of a shade of orange, so I don't recognise the blue version. Is it supposed to be a variant like a Death Tyrant?

    • ridureyu says:

      Beholders have some color variety, but Xanathar has been drawn as blue-purple consistently in the latest edition.

      • Ai Muhao says:

        Ah, so it's entirely possible the blue Beholder is meant to be Xanathar, the same way the Owlbear Diceling is meant to be the one from the upcoming film. Or at least a reference to Xanathar.

        Thank you for enlightening me.

        • ridureyu says:

          What's funny is that about a year before the Xanathar mini (the first one. There are two now), they made a "beholder" mini that is clearly meant to just be Xanathar.

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