FINE LIKE THIS

people in the comments will be like "okay but we could at least get rid of ticks and mosquitos because those spread disease."

we actually CANNOT get rid of ticks and mosquitos. not only do we plain lack the technology to lead a pointed extermination effort against them specifically without taking a score of other species down with them, but if we developed that technology and did eradicate mosquitos and ticks, it would be the catalyst of utter ecological collapse the likes of which i think people are not quite comprehending.

the problem is not the existence of bugs. the problem is that our current global systems ensure that specific Peoples in specific places are disproportionately impacted by zoonoses (illness spread between animals and humans).

those same populations also disproportionately lack access to preventative tools & PPE (down to things many of us take for granted so simply as effective bug spray), and crucially access to medical treatment.

the goal should not be an eradicating effort against bugs which would quite literally collapse entire ecosystems, but equitable access to healthcare, investment in medical research to improve preventative and acute treatment for zoonoses, and the destruction of systems which are currently rapidly increasing the threat of zoonoses worldwide (climate change!)

i am not defending the existence of bugs because i think they're cute and because i don't care about the devastating suffering zoonoses cause millions and millions of people.

something something dykes on bikes 🏍️🌈💨 (because it's not pride without some l e a t h e r)

Spotted the inspiration for this comic at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Fisherman’s Cottage, by Harold Sohlberg, 1906

at least lae'zel's duty-bound ending acknowledges that this is the task she has to do before she feels free to pursue her own life, and it may not make her happy, but there are reasons it's still right. astarion no longer feels trapped by vampirism, he's learned how to live freely within the constraints and acknowledges it took him some time to figure out how to do that.

duke wyll does not exist within any of the political or social logic that the game establishes for baldur's gate, even setting aside that there is no way wyll would be happy in politics, and it's also an example of his world shrinking down to exclude all the things he used to care about and somehow that's supposed to make him happy.