Day 3: Parenthood 🎏

@zutaraweek day 3: union

a little follow up to this comic i did last year. i really liked the idea of union in a political context and this was a very round about way of that. like, a little tongue in cheek with all the different kids from different nations just sort of talking and gossiping together. teens doing teen stuff despite their high profile roles in society, that type of thing.

initially this comic was a lot more ambitious but some complications happened in my life which made me have to chip away at a lot of it. such as having it in full color, with backgrounds. there's been a lot of thought put into the world of the chief kya au, though! particularly related to yue that is not featured at all asdfghjk.

the more i worked on it, the more i got worried zuko might be a little ooc. but i was a bit inspired by crystal catacombs and the softness he had there. whenever i try to write him in this au, he's just usually just happy to be around katara so i'm just going to let him do what he wants.

Anyway, a transcript along with brief image descriptions is beneath the cut under my obligatory art links as well as in the alt text of the art!

art only blog - insta - inprnt - redbubble

Page 1: Zuko and Katara are at a gathering for those invited to the peace accords which seems to be more packed then usual.

Katara: Wow, there’s a lot of people here Zuko: Yeah. There’s a lot of people this year. K: I don’t recognize anyone yet. Z: Oh! I can help you. Z: That’s Mai. Her father is an official. Z: She’s Suki. Leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. Z: And next to her is- K: Yue!

Page 2: Katara and Yue hug and the teens (Zuko, Yue, Katara, and Suki) all chat.

Yue: Katara! K: I missed you! Y: I’m so happy to see you! have never spoken more than hellos was just trying to chat with Yue awkward turtle duck Z: So you do know someone. K: We’ve known each other since we were kids. Lu Ten: Prince Zuko?

Page 3: Lu Ten appears, Yue and Suki gossip, and Katara's a bit sad as Zuko leaves with Lu Ten to handle business elsewhere.

Z: Lu Ten? L: Sorry to interrupt, but can I steal you? Z: Is it important? L: Unfortunately. L: They seem nice. I’m happy you’re making friends.

Page 4: The girls gossip and Mai overhears.

Y: I didn’t know you knew Zuko. Suki: Yeah. Do you know anything about the scar? K: I don’t really know him. We just met. What do you guys know? Mai: No one actually knows. M: About the scar. They kept it quiet.

Page 5: There's a small flashback to Zuko at 14 after receiving his scar, the girls continue to talk, and there's a final panel of Ozai, alluding to a family secret.

M: He just went away for a while. And then he came back and there it was. M: That’s all anyone knows. Except Zuko. K: That’s awful. There has to be more. M: Well…people have some suspicions.

Me: *likes a musical or period drama*

Everyone: But aren’t you mad that it’s not historically accurate?!

Me, just trying to enjoy things:

Percy Jackson episode 6 + text posts

draw women in post-apocalyptic world settings with armpit hair, leg hair, bushy brows and pubic hair ya cowards,, draw brown women/women with dark thick hair with arm hair and happy trails and sideburns and mustaches i’m sick of seeing silky smooth soapy clean make up wearing post apocalyptic dolled up women next to stinky sweaty crusty men with dirty nails and sweaty clothes and sweaty greasy hair and 3m long ugly beards

real quick rant

i think genuinely that the worst ending for stranger things except the one where all the main characters die or the one where the bad guys win, is the ending where main characters achieve the life they inadvertently worked so hard against in the series.

in so many shows the ending is the exact opposite of the prominent ground morals so many characters are shown to have throughout the entire show. where a characters innermost desires and freedoms are shown through their actions and wants, and yet their entire ending is shown to be just that fear. the fear that they’re gonna end up just like the ones before them, and that none of their actions truly had any impact.

it shows that the cycle continues.

an example of this would be say if nancy ended up like her mom. if she settled down in a suburb with a husband she didn’t care much about and kids she wanted better for, she would end up exactly like karen. not only with the life nancy didn’t want for herself, but also the life karen didn’t want for her kids.

this is a very real possibility with some of the main characters in the show. if we look at the reasoning behind their original choices, we can see why they do what they do. which is exactly why this is so dangerous, and such an easy trap to fall into.

the safest choice is always the easiest.

the duffer brothers have been shown to be bold at times, but they’re resorting more and more to the default as the show’s popularity expands. the true quality of the final ending will not be about the ending itself, but about how bold they are willing to be when addressing these issues and the protagonists feelings.

they can have the cinematography down to the dot and still completely mess up the ending if they decide to take the safe route.

if will never addresses his feelings openly, if max ends up dead, or worse, wakes up unharmed. if steve ends up at his dad’s company, if dustin never gets to grieve properly, if el doesn’t find the path she herself chooses, and not the ones others choose for her.

it is because of these character’s faults and ability to love openly that we like them. that they still have some relevancy to this day even if the show takes place in the 80’s. we are able to relate to them and connect to them as human beings, as outcasts throughout, and it will be the lack of this spark that could be the potential downfall of stranger things.

rice fills me with joy and happiness, but more importantly it fills me with rice

As for the fanfic where Thalia is sent to the school of mortals - very interesting!! Tell everything! You can ask for it somewhere

So the synopsis goes something like this: After the war and so many dead or dying, the camp needs to find more demigods, to keep them protected and out of the way of Kronos’s followers who survived the war. So Artemis enlists some of her hunters to go into the mortal world- more specifically their schools- and find those demigods. 

It would take place in Manhattan/Washington Heights, and Thalia has to blend in with the other students. What she doesn’t count for is people being interested in her past, and she needs to protect her identity and her past- which is quickly catching up to her.

Thalia soon falls for a girl, and she deals with the emotions of both liking someone, and the wrath she will face if Artemis finds out.

She makes new friends and makes amends with old ones. But the real question is, who should she trust? When the war has just finished, there are those who seek to relight the match and make the fire burn even brighter. 

It is Thalia’s job to stop that from happening.

hug

a dysfunctional found family with dark pasts and no brain cells who saved the day with the power of friendship can be so personal