I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF, SO I MADE A MAYA THE BEE OC
She’s a paper wasp, more specifically a Polistes Dominula who lives in the forest until certain things happen and she ends up living in the meadow
This is so awesome!!! I really like your OC, and I have to ramble a little now XD
Paper wasps are so cool, and I love how you designed Marcia! The pattern around her eyes is so pretty, and so are her antennas! And her hairstyle is also beautiful. And her clothes are amazing! I like that she initially hides under them, but even in her season 2 design, she wears similar clothes - this time not for hiding under them though, but because she genuinely likes them! Capes are very cool, and so is that golden helmet she's wearing!
I like it that you gave her three arms (+ one missing arm!), instead of just two arms like the wasps have in the show. Her third arm makes so many more expressive poses possible! I really like how you used her arms in the first picture, with her putting two hands on her hips and letting her third hand hang down. It makes her look both confident and a little uncertain!
Her facial expressions also look great! Her face in the season 1 design once again has this uncertain/unsure look, and it's really sweet to see how her expressions become more open and she even smiles a little in the season 2 design! I also like how you drew her expression for that doodle in the background, with her eyes are widened in shock and her antennas tilted to the sides!
And the different expressions she has in the second picture are all so cute. I gotta say, my favourite is the angry face she has for the yellowjackets and Kurt, because it looks so funny and adorable! But the different smiles she has for the other insects are also so sweet to look at.
And Marcia's personality sounds very sweet too! She is so hardworking and cares a lot for the others. The hints you gave for her backstory, as well as her different relationships with the insects sound very interesting!
DUDE WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU ARE SO SWEET OMG 😭
Unfortunately, you made me very happy so now I must ALSO ramble
I have to admit the design was the last thing I made for her and her personality + backstory came first and from there I tried to design her. Actually, the character was originally going to be a Polistes Canadensis (a red paper wasp). However, considering the series might be set in a European environment (since the original story is from Germany) and Polistes canadensis is a species found in America, I decided to switch to a species more native to Europe. It wouldn't make sense for the character to just suddenly appear on a different continent lmao
I also LOVE how you interpreted her body language and facial expressions, she IS the confident type but also has her own concerns. As for having three arms instead of two…I just really like (sorta) four-armed characters xd. Plus, it sets her apart from the wasps in the show beyond just the antennae (real life Yellowjackets have black antennae, while these kind of paper wasps have black antennae with orange tips).
That said, and I can't recall if this was the initial reason for or a result of the design, but I plan to use her missing arm to explore the issue of ableism. In the CGI show there was a bee boy, Theo, whose former hive most probably mocked him and failed to accommodate to his disability, but in the end got a motor for his wing from Kurt in the meadow. Marcia’s situation is similar but not the same: her missing arm isn't something she was born with, it was due something that happened in her old hive and now she lives in a new hive that pities her but refuses to adapt, choosing instead to cast her aside. Even though her previous job didn't strictly require four arms (she is more than able to improvise and make new strategies) and the effects her now asymmetric body had on her flying could be mitigated with enough training, they considered her unfit for the work she was passionate about; she didn’t even want, like, a prosthetic arm or anything, she simply wanted to continue doing her passion and to be considered an equal, but they excluded her from her role, not really mocking her but turning her into just a "poor brave but purposeless" wasp. I want to try and illustrate the difference between living in a society that pities you but doesn't treat you as an equal due to your disability, versus living in a community that actively adapts to and accepts you as you are despite the differences, while also showing possible consequences of past ableism.
I also wanted to touch upon the subject of not, uh, generalizing stuff about others. Like, it’s something we see a lot: if a group of people from, say, a certain country is mean, people immediately say "Of course they had to be from that country! Everyone there sucks” and then they are mean towards them and things like that. Here, I want to try to demonstrate this through their similarities to Yellowjackets and the accidental generalization the meadow has with them (a bit shown in that episode with the nice wasp), but also show the generalization HER hive has towards ants (I can't say much about this just yet but I'll show it someday hehe)
I dunno, I’m still working out the details but I like incorporating more serious themes into my OCs and the media they originated from, it’s a habit of mine tee hee
ANYWAY UUUH I WROTE TOO MUCH BUT THANK YOU, it means a lot to me that there’s another Maya the Bee fan on Tumblr, and I love all the comments/reposts you leave on these posts!! 💜
