Natira is a female Saltici, an intelligent bipedal creature with blue, crustaceous skin appearing in Season 2 Episodes 19-21 of the Sci Fi series Farscape. She has a "crown" of seven claw-like tendrils on her head that she used in one of her favorite pastimes: plucking out the eyes of her torture victims.
Story[]
Natira made her first appearance when Moya's crew attempted to raid her Shadow Depository in order to steal enough currency to buy Ka D'Argo's son, Ka Jothee, back from the Ketten Mines. The plan, however, went wrong from the very beginning with the arrival of Scorpius, the series' main and primary villain. Natira, hearing of the destruction of Scorpius' Gammak Base and thinking him dead, had repossessed his properties in her depository as her own, and when he arrived and demanded triple the value of his property as repayment, she procured a shipment of borinium ingots for him... borinium ingots that turned out to be Karack metallites, an attempt by Natira to assassinate Scorpius and keep his belongings as her own.
Later in the 3-parter, Natira took the Blood Tracker Rorf captive, interrogated him as to Aeryn's movements, and tore his left eye out of his head when he would not satisfy her with answers. This horrific torture quickly got her all the information she needed.
Natira ended up aiding in the protagonist's escape, but only for purely selfish reasons of self-preservation. At the end of the 3-parter a captured Crichton informed Natira that Scorpius intended to kill her as soon as she has outlived her usefulness to him. Later she discovered this to be true, and resorted to helping Crichton escape in exchange for safe passage out of the system on Moya. This alliance of convenience was a botched and short-lived one, however, as it fell apart in the very next scene once Natira saw that Crichton was too far gone due to the effects of the neural clone to be of any use in helping her escape. She abandoned Crichton and ran. Her fate was never revealed in the show, however, show creator Rockne O'Bannon has confirmed in interviews that she did survive.
Personality[]
Natira possessed a fascinatingly warped personality devoid of any inch of softness. There was nothing gentle or timid about her; she was utterly sure of herself, always completely in control, and permanently on guard against any treachery that might come her way – all necessary traits for the head of a Shadow Depository. Backstabbing came as easily to her as breathing; she would smile sweet as honey to your face even while her mind was working out a dozen different ways to kill you.
With her composure and haughtiness, she acted more like an aristocrat than a common criminal. Her speech was always high-flown, eloquent, and impeccable; she took pleasure in playing word games, using alliteration and elegant metaphors to make even a violent death sound refined. She enjoyed playing with her food before she ate it, always speaking lovingly to her victims about the beauty of their eyes before she plucked them out and added them to her collection. She was something of a packrat, as she enjoyed collecting beautiful eyeballs and, after all, ran a depository, the goal of which was to collect things and keep them safe.
Sadism[]
Natira was an extreme sexual sadist, exhibiting clear signs of sexual pleasure and arousal at the pain of others, and enjoying the act of torture for amusement rather than as a means to an end; when she initially captured and tortured D'Argo, she continued to torture him even after acknowledging there was no point, as she knew he wouldn't talk, remarking with a smile "...all of this pain and suffering has been for nothing...as it will continue to be for nothing...".
When left alone with a restrained Crichton, who taunted her that Scorpius would kill her as soon as she has outlived her usefulness to him, Natira struck Crichton hard in the face, resulting in a bloody nose and mouth. At the sight of the blood Natira's eyes widened with sadistic glee. Crichton asked "Was that good for you?" and Natira rasped "Yessss!"
The main series villain, Scorpius, bought a lot of 10,000 slaves just to secure one specific individual slave, Ka D'Argo's son, Jothee, to use as leverage. Having no interest in the other 9,999 slaves, he flippantly gave them to Natira, telling her she can do with them as she wishes. We later learn that off-screen the other 9,999 slaves were slaughtered all at once, presumably for Natira's pleasure and entertainment.
Throughout the 3-part episode Natira exhibits clear signs of sexual arousal at the suffering of others around her. In one scene she is shown engaging in an act of extreme sado-masochistic sex with Scorpius - the two appeared to be strangling each other at full force while growling like animals, and only stopped when Scorpius's coolant system failed as a result of the sex. This would indicate she may have some masochistic tendancies as well as sadistic ones.