Does Not Illustrate: Bee People

JAFAAC, actually.

But given that this trope is not about anthropomorphism but social structures, the JAFAAC is also actively misleading.

Got any ideas for a replacement?

edited 12th Mar '12 9:15:49 PM by Stratadrake

Keep After Better Image Suggested.

.... You read that right.

...Alright fine. The Borg from Star Trek fit this trope. Maybe a picture of the Borg queen and her various drones surrounding her or something.

GIS isn't giving anything good to work with. :/

edited 12th Mar '12 9:16:25 PM by DRCEQ

I vote pull. The image is overly literal and misleading. Not sure how we'd go about picturing it, though.

I can't find a picture with a queen, but these are Formians, from D&D: [1]◊

Pull.

Pull it, it's misleading.

Agree on misleading.

Another agreement that it's misleading – most of the examples seem to be closer to Insectoid Aliens than Bee People. There seems to be a lot of overlap between those two and Hive Caste System, and at the moment Bee People is often interpreted as People Who Look Like Bees And Might Or Might Not Have A Queen Even Though Having A Leader Is Incredibly Common In All Types Of Society.

So, question. What would be an example of Bee People but not one of Hive Caste System. Or vice-versa if one's supposed to be a supertrope?

7 versus 1 person agreeing to pull, image is clearly misleading and does follow only the name of the trope...

Pulled for the time being

Wow, those boobs are kinda disturbing.

[/off-topic]

What you should find disturbing is that her eyes on her face are not her eyes. It's the black things in her hair right above it.

These actually are eyes, the smaller ones, of which there is a third, presumably hidden in the hair. Otherwise, correct. (and off-topic)

(Aside) I'm attempting to compile a Wick Check on this one for TRS precisely on grounds of misuse, but I'm not finding much that's absolutely confirmable as such. A lot of Bee People (whoops, killer typo) societies use Insectoid Aliens for the whole "hive of insects" metaphor, but it's still an example, even if the focus is on the wrong part.

edited 13th Mar '12 8:45:32 AM by Stratadrake

Hive Caste System, despite the name, actually seems to be about having multiple types of specialized worker.

I'm not seeing why the trope can't just be about insectoid races, anthropomorphic or otherwise.

I like the formians.

I was thinking of the Antica◊ (mostly because I played [[FFXI that game]] for a few years and it was the first one I thought of upon seeing how Q-Bee got shot down), but there isn't much detail about their social structure other than "they are very numerous and can't swim, which is the reason they're stuck on a desert island and haven't conquered the whole world yet".

If the trope is determined to be solely about a social structure and not an insectoid body plan, and if it is deemed to be distinct from Hive Caste System, then it may not be readily imageable. "Social structure" just doesn't convey as easily in an image as Insectoid Aliens does.

If you had a picture of a queen and some workers, the imagery would be a cinch.

Unfortunately I don't think the queen is ever shown. There might be an NPC somewhere that mentions her at most.

Hmm, what about the Bugrom from El Hazard? If I remember correctly there's a scene where the massive army of giant beetles stands at attention before the inexplicably humanoid Queen Diva. There's probably even less information about their social structure, though. They're pretty much just "a faceless insectoid horde with a queen of some sort"

I am not familiar, but a cursory look at Google suggests some possibilities.

Another D&D suggestion: the Abeils [1]◊. This picture shows the queen, a large warrior, and a slightly smaller worker.

Most of the races of the Oddworld franchise are super species, with a more advanced, societal approach to eusociality. Like Communism, or something.

Ok, DP here, but I think this image sums up the attitude of eusociality nicely.

Divide and conquer...◊

So basically what we're looking for is sapient species living in a monogenous hive-like environment. Well, Googling 'Hive city' certainly yields some interesting results.

There's this pleasantly industrial-looking image◊, that would certainly fit nicely into a caption box (with cropping), plus there's some vaguely insectoid symbolism with the shuttle on the right.

If you prefer a straight-up 'slaving drones' approach, there's this◊. 40K is 40K... They just happen to have the best human hives.

edited 11th Apr '12 12:17:54 PM by flamingcarrot

None of those visually convey the concept of a race.

But it's not about the race, that's the point. It's about the societal structure they live in.