There are illithids who retain some semblance of self after being tadpole'd because the process is imperfect (and elder brains don't want anyone to know about that because there were dangerous precedents in the past). Some who escape even become liches to make themselves immune to elder brains' mind control. The one in the OP pic is just a faggy lib millenial way to portray them, but the real problem is that OP cares as much about the lore as the developers: he likes culture war ragebait and gargling dicks way too much.