#I love them they're so opposite of each other despite making them the same species

[olligociarts]

I don't have enough actual finished pieces of either StarProv gijinkas of Machina or Chaosgod, so I colored this one cause it showcased them in a not shippy situation

[zzthekaiju]

Best of the Reptiles in Media - 04 - Sislo

Hello again! Today, we're going to focus on a very special scaly character. One that pretty much nicks all of my boxes as to what I look for when I see reptilian protagonists. A guy who's story is one of bloodshed, love, heartache, and above all, redemption.

I'm of course talking about the protagonist of indie comic book artist Marcel Rocha AKA @rochasaurusrex 's magnum opus, Flowers of Etrea. Namely, Sislo Haeos.

(All art here is by the man himself, BTW)

Sislo here is what happens when we take what would typically be a member of a bad guy race in a fantasy world, flip the script, and make him the main character. That alone is a pitch that I'm going to take, hook line and sinker. I cannot emphasize how much of a power move it is to make the hero of a story the sort of being you'd expect to be, at best, the minion of the main villain or something. After all, lizard folk can't be heroes, right? They're too icky and gnarly and scary, right?

WRONG...sort of. Sislo may be a good guy lizard, but there's an aspect of his character that puts him above a simple case of wish fulfillment:

But I digress for now, time for an introduction.

Sislo is a Cherufe, a reptilian humanoid species native to the lands of Etrea. His past is muddy, but what we do know is that he was a former slave to the Iron Industry, which is basically the Empire, currently making everyone's lives worse by taking far more than they give. Currently, he lives with his wife, a kindly and optimistic dryad named Tetheril. However, duty comes knocking when her father falls ill, and only a specific flower (a rose, that is) can cure him. Said flower can only be found within the Iron Industry's walls, forcing Sislo to confront his former masters...and so much more.

So, we have a huge burly and only slightly surly lizardman who's in a healthy interspecies relationship with an adorable woman out to go on a humble goal that naturally snowballs into an epic full of friends and foes both new and old. And it is equal parts compelling and awesome!

Sislo as a character, at least within one's first impression, is a fairly standard protagonist of a gritty fantasy story, albeit a lot of the rougher aspects are toned down a bit so that nothing's a total downer. Yes, he has his hang-ups (ooooh, boy does he ever), but he's not a total stick in the mud. In fact, he can be an amusing doofus at times. It's nice to see a lead like that. One capable of feeling emotional weight while being able to actually crack a smile every so often.

The biggest highlight of Sislo's character is his relationship with his wife. Unsurprisingly, it's mostly based on Rocha's relationship with his own real-life wife. So little surprise that the Cherufe and the dryad have perhaps the most wholesome thing you'll ever see a big scary lizardman be a part of in media (at least for now). Despite being complete opposites in terms of personality, they couldn't be a better fit for one another. What makes it work is how they compliment each other. Sislo is the muscle, but at the same time he provides Tetheril a source of confidence and protection for the journey (granted, both can kick serious ass, but he's especially eager to jump into a fight when the opportunity presents itself). Tetheril, meanwhile, offers him a rock, a means of knowing that for all of his faults, he's a very good person at heart, and he'll always have her to remind him. Really, most of the reason I read this story to the end was to see them just being relationship goals over and over again.

But then comes the twist. And this is where the layers thing comes into play.

ALSO, I'M ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT SOME MAJOR SPOILERS RIGHT NOW! SPOILERS DOWN BELOW!

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You remember that part about Sislo being a slave to the Iron Industry? Well, the finale of part 2 has a rather, ahem, shocking revelation about that. Main antagonist Ondiox points out to Tetheril (while poor Sislo is forced to watch, no less) that there was no slavery. The sob story that was the Cherufe's backstory is a fabrication.

Sislo didn't suffer under the Iron Industry. He helped found it.

Ondiox freed him as a child from an actual state of slavery before they and a couple others basically tore the old order apart, making way for a brand new empire. And Sislo not only butchered and ate Ondiox's enemies alongside his half-brother Zama (who's basically Sislo if he had no reservations to speak of), he RELISHED in it. For creatures like him, eating fresh meat and blood is akin to having a major drug addiction, and Sislo had one Hell of a supply.

Then one day, Ondiox had him attack an innocent village, and all it took was one gesture of feeble protest from a kid for Sislo to realize that he had not only brought upon an even worse regime by helping his rescuer/father figure, but he had become the very monster anyone would peg him as just by a glance. In that moment, he disowned Ondiox and the Iron Industry...and nearly got killed for it before striking out on his own and finding Tetheril one day.

.....yeesh.

So yeah, Sislo may be a subversion of the Evil Reptile trope, but that's only because he played it straight for the longest time, and it horrified him. But really, while they say that he lied about being a slave…the way I read it, he was technically telling the truth. Yeah, he didn't actually kill anyone against his own will, he clearly enjoyed feasting on people as per his primal nature, but he was still a puppet of an ego-maniacal dictator. The chain of oppression wasn't there, but it was THERE. It's just that Ondiox was very good at hiding it.

And after all of that is revealed, after that atomic bomb of a revelation, you bet your back scales I was expecting Tetheril to leave the man who had spend countless years feeding her a false narrative due to how much the actual one left him broken and traumatized at himself. I mean, come one, the "liar revealed" trope was just rearing its ugly head in that moment...

..BUT NO.

Real talk, this was what happened in the original story, back when it was a novel. But I think I know why it's now out of print. Tetheril isn't going to just abandon her husband and the love of her life. It's clear as day to her that there is nothing she could say or do to him that he hasn't already said or done to himself. The man who made her life Heaven on Earth very clearly DESPISES the monster he once was, and for that, she thinks he more than deserves a chance to show how much he's changed.

I could have not have read this part of the story at a better time in my life. Flowers of Etrea was my wake-up call that I've made my mistakes, but the only awful people in this world are the ones who look back on their ill deeds and don't reflect on them at all. Those who actively choose to be better, to learn and grow, they can find redemption no matter what. And they'll find it doubly so when we are there to give them a chance. Now, I'm not saying I've ever done anything as awful as assist a dictator in taking over the world, but there have always been times when I've felt that I've made careless decisions in which I did wrong by those I loved.

Sislo is proof that if I really care about being a good person now, there's nothing I've done in the past that I can't overcome.

Oh, and the final confrontation between him and Ondiox is just one awesome moment after another. I won't talk about it too much, but it does contain the most badass exchange ever, and this time in the context of something NOT directed by Michael Bay.

If you want to see how it all ends and/or just more of this amazing protagonist, GO BUY "FLOWERS OF ETREA"! All three parts are available on Amazon, and there's an Omnibus coming out very soon if you're willing to wait!

But yeah, that's Sislo for you. Just a perfect fantasy lizardman whose story has been incredibly inspiring for me. He taught me to forgive myself for the mistakes of my past, he's just a super charming and cool creature to begin with, and the love he and his wife have for each other might as well have "RELATIONSHIP GOALS" emblazoned on every panel featuring them.

[sol-consort]

I know my dumb ass would think nothing bad would actually happen to me if I swallowed turian cum (prolly cause I have like the opposite of self-importance, like if somethings gonna happen why would it happen to me?) and that's how I would find out if it's toxic or not, do or die and I'm probably gonna die but at least I would die while getting play 🤷‍♀️

You're describing cognitive bias, it's a normal human instinct. Much like how most people think they'll never get into a car accident yet are optimistic about winning the lottery despite the statistics claiming otherwise.

I thought the negative health consequences for staying up for more than 72 hours were made up...because they sounded made up. So I stayed up for almost 4 days, thinking nothing important would happen. Surprise, surprise, the hallucinations and delusion visions kicked in, and I ran to bed. Permanently fucked my brain and lost the ability to stay up for more than 24 hours afterwards, I just pass out.

I don't think you'd die—even then, isn't death what any quarian risks all the time for even less? A simple kiss is more than enough to spell their doom, yet they presist nonetheless—but you'd have to get a very uncomfortable doctor visit afterwards.

Same for turians tbh, our food, bacteria, microbes, and everything is kinda of deadly to them. Smooched a turian after you just had lunch? Emergency Blue Talon Hospital visit. Bit them during sex? They need an allergy shot immediately.

And this goes for so many species. It's what makes the asari so special. I absolutely adore how incompatible so many of the species are with each other, yet they still fall in love and have sex all the same. It makes sense. It's very realistic for species evolved on different planets to cause all sorts of problems and false immune systems alarms to each other's biology.

But would I ever include it in my smut? Nah. Realism isn't my goal, fun is. I don't want to worry about logistics or take them into consideration for more than a passing quirk. Bioware does the same in its Mass Effect sex scenes, and I respect them for that. They do understand the importance of sweeping lore under the rug when it's time for indulgence.

This is a story at the end. All the species are just puppets, fictional dolls we get to play with. I want it to be entertaining. The toxicity and deadlines aspects of each species only become relevant when they're plot points. Otherwise, do kindly cast a blind eye to them.

Aka I will go down on a drell anywhere anytime

[loominggaia]

I love Harpys I kinda wish they were pepoles same with drau what made u make them monsters instead of people's

Harpies and drau were originally considered people in the old Fairy Tale Rejects comics, but they became monsters when I overhauled the series.

I did this because I already had so many sentient species, I felt like I needed to organize them into some kind of hierarchy. There were some creatures that felt unnatural and "plague-ish" upon Gaia, and I needed to explain their hostility/incompatibility with other lifeforms.

My solution: These are not natural beings created by Gaia, they are the result of her peoples playing God. They are like invasive species being clumsily thrown into an ecosystem where they don't belong, which explains how they don't quite "fit in". It explains why their natural behavior is so incompatible with other species around them.

It also explains why some monsters are more problematic than others. Skorpius, for example, are hostile to absolutely everything around them. Their existence is a plague in every situation; there is no scenario where they benefit Gaia or her ecosystem at all. That's because Gaia didn't create them, they were created by the Divine of Hate for his own selfish purposes, with no consideration for Gaia.

More intelligent monsters, like harpies and drau, are just as individual as any person, they each have their own personality and experiences in life. Though the World Athenaeum considers monsters "lesser" than peoples and lower on the cosmic hierarchy, this is only their opinion, it is not the objective truth.

Some people have different ideas about that. Here's a quote from Karenza, the Divine of Love:

"...Worship me not, and worship no one, for there is no being in the whole cosmos greater or lesser than any other. All is beautiful and all is wicked."

Notice she says "being" and not "person". This includes beasts and monsters. Karenza believes that monsters are equal to peoples, despite lacking a soul.

Monsters have a reputation for being "evil", but this is rarely true, especially for the more intelligent ones. Though they can't feel love, this doesn't mean they're all walking around with malicious intentions. Most of them are just trying to survive, just like any other living creature.

Their main problem is that they are living in a world that wasn't made for them, because they were not made for the world. Each monster was made to fulfill some divine's selfish desires. Their existence is quite tragic.

Monsters get shunned in most societies, but there are other cases where they are accepted as equals. For example, there is a kobold named Tojum living in Drifter's Hollow. She works at the local clinic as a nurse, and aside from the odd prejudiced remark here and there, the villagers largely treat her the same as anyone else.

Tojum claims she doesn't understand the concept of love, yet she isn't evil or malicious. Her job is literally to help people. She doesn't do this job out of love like Dr. Che does. Rather, she's just working to earn money so she can survive in a world that wasn't made for her. She's doing what everyone else does, living just like the peoples around her.

I think this goes for most other intelligent monsters, including drau and harpies. Drau have a reputation for performing necromancy, but that's because they were created specifically to be necromancers in Titania's army. Harpies have a reputation for being thieves, because they were literally created to steal valuables for Varas.

Kobolds were created to be soldiers, but look at Tojum. She's doing the opposite of killing--she's saving lives. So, not all monsters follow the path that was drawn out for them. Many break away and forge their own path, and they can make themselves more compatible with other life on Gaia this way. Not all of them are doomed to be a plague upon the world, this can be a choice they make in some cases.

Just some food for thought, in case anyone feels like monsters are just brainless enemy-fodder for the heroes to defeat. I want to make it clear that this isn't the case! They are thinking, feeling, living beings. They just happen to have different origins than the peoples, and the World Athenaeum categorizes them differently because of this.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[randomnameless]

Also remember Jahn literally saw all of his comrades killed during the fiercest battle of the Scouring and as far as he knows from Zephiel, is the last true dragon, PERIOD. That would make someone distrustful. Imagine a Vietnam vet stranded on an island for years..whom also thinks they're the last person of their race alive and the enemy still wants to kill them, you try talking sense to them. Short version, Athos circumstances were much difference than Jahn's.

Well, so Jahn doesn't consider Idunn to be a true dragon?

Because he and his comrades destroyed her soul or because she was a divine dragon, thus not a "regular" dragon like him?

I doubt a Vietnam vet could send illusions from his stranded island to look for someone, but supposing he can because he drank some sort of radioactive Dr Pepper -

He thinks he is the last person of his race alive, save for the mute and recluse old woman living near, whom he and his division, uh, abused to the point where she lost her soul.

Roy, a young vietnamese man, asks him to tell him his story. Jahn doesn't see why not, and accepts if Roy proves himself worthy, that is manages to survive and capture 6 flags.

If Jahn thinks Roy is out to kill him, he would not be bothering with this farce and would have killed him before telling him his story, but maybe he is really bored - the old broken woman sadly doesn't talk a lot. Also, earlier, Jahn met Zephiel, an older vietnamese man, who didn't want to kill him on spot. So he knows they're not all trying to kill him.

-Roy listens to the vet's story, and the vet even manages to explain that everything he was taught in his highschool was bullshit. He still manages to slip some disgusting takes like "you vietnamese people are truly odd and don't think like we do".

At one point, Jahn fully embraces his nauseabond views and says "vietnamese and american people can never live together in harmony, the gap between our species is impossible to fill."

Roy, in 2021, tells him it is nonsense, everyone can live together, he went to Chuck'n'Cheese in Dubai where he met both people from those different states eat the same junk food, and in his group, one of his love interest has an american and a vietnamese parent!

Jahn pulls out his rifle gun : "Rubbish… I have no intention of listening to such nonsense."

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If you just TOLD Athos about Arcadia rather than SHOWING it to him, I'm 100% sure he'd react just like Jahn did. Note he specifically mentions trying to deny what his eyes showed him, Jahn never went to Arcadia.

This is where I disagree anon, I don't think Athos, if someone told him about Arcadia, would answer with "I refuse to hear any of this" and "Now, enter my domain. Let us see who has more power!"

Maybe he would not believe it. "I can't believe it," "It can't be real", "This must be a mirage", "Is it a trap?" or "You're lying".

Not "I don't want to hear this".

can we add to the irony that athos was traveling with a dragon fucker and didn't want to believe dragons and humans could live together? granted, i'm not sure nergal told him about his wife and kids

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For someone always talking about Edelgard's prejudice against lizards, you're remarkably pro-Scouring/Anti the sole shellshocked survivor of the war that not only destroyed his entire society, but basically wiped out his race.

Ah.

First of all, Edel's prejudice reeks of racism, and I am in no way defending of being pro anyone who says "X must be erased because of their race".

Jahn's side lost the war, yes, in a way, he is a victim of the Scouring.

On the other hand, clinging to his old prejudiced beliefs and refusing to listen to someone telling you that maybe everyone can live together, to the point of using force against him by making six altars with illusions before asking him to fight is... being too stubborn, to put it lightly.

Also, the war didn't destroy Idunn.

Jahn and his comrades did.

He know Idunn is still alive, and knows Divine Dragons ran away - so he knows he is not, technically, the Last Dragon. But Idunn isn't a Dragon anymore, because Jahn and his comrades destroyed her soul.

If you want to compare to FE16, Rhea, despite being a survivor from a human led genocide, still believes in them and cares about them. She might have doubts that they can all live together, but she doesn't want to eradicate them.

Macuil is the closest dragon, he is sour and hates humans for what they did. He doesn't tell his story to Claude and pals - he tells them to fig off his lawn, and when they don't, he becomes violent.

But Macuil wasn't seen attacking a human who said "humans and nabateans were both brought to this world, they can understand each other". Macuil didn't crush Rhea's crest stone to turn her in a mindless beast to birth infinite White Beasts to fight against humans.

Edel and Roy are complete opposites - both Edel and Jahn are prejudiced and don't want to change, Roy wants everyone to live together.

Yes, Jahn might be justified in thinking Roland wants to kill him, thus react negatively to his words, but Roy isn't Roland.

Rhea, Seteth, Flayn and Indech all know Catherine isn't Charon, and don't want to kill her for what her ancestor did, nor fear that she will transform them in a portable knife like Charon did with their sibling.

In short : I'm not dissing on Jahn because he is a dragon and a victim of a war that saw a majority of his race disappear -

I am dissing on Jahn because he is prejudiced and refuses to reconsider that dragons and humans can live together, to the point of killing (if he could) the naive idiot who came to his lair, listened to his story and came up with this answer.

I am also dissing on him because while he thinks dragons don't have emotions, save for very specific ones, he does not seem to regret or mocks the pity given to Idunn, another naive idiot he and his allies destroyed, to the point where Jahn himself doesn't consider her a dragon anymore.

[kaypeace21]

Do you have any meta/theory on the significance of the cleric/paladin d&d characters vs wizard/dungeon master. Is maybe one more Will and Mike's relationship and the other their role in the story as a whole? Sorry if you already mentioned this and this is redundant

Yeah, I’ve talked about it before. But why not talk about it again? It’s been a while- and Will’s recently published journal (plus st tweets) added more to this symbolism

The Duffers used Will and Mike’s d&d classes to say they’re soulmates! XD

Will in all 3 seasons identifies as a wizard- he even writes on the mixtape he makes “will the wise- wizard mix” (which is a different class than clerics). Even in s1 Will’s castle byer’s password was “rhadaghast” a lothr wizard.

But in s2 Mike (the paladin) says that Will is a cleric. Meaning this reflects how Mike (alone) actually feels about Will. In d&d, they have similar moral values, powers, and generally need and depend on each other in the lore of d&d.  Mike says Will is a cleric,despite Will still identifying as a wizard in s3, since it shows how deeply Mike actually feels about Will.

It shows he views Will as one of the only people who understands him and views him as a his moral compass 

“ strength of conviction gave many paladins a sense of common fellowship but did not always endear them to others. In many cases, paladins did not get along quite as well with other non-paladin adventurers, with the exception of clerics with similar beliefs.”

“A Paladin tries to hold to the highest standards of conduct, but even the most virtuous Paladin is fallible. Sometimes the heat of emotion causes a Paladin to transgress his or her oath (of honesty, courage, compassion, honor ,and duty). A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric who shares his or her faith or from another paladin of the same order…

“The paladin might spend an all-night vigil in prayer as a sign of penitence, or undertake a fast or similar act of self-denial.”

“After a rite of confession and forgiveness, the paladin starts fresh.”

“Using the ‘lay on hands’ power, paladins can grant their comrades (or themselves) additional resilience with a touch of their hands and a short prayer, though they must give their own strength to do so.”

And Mike calls El a “mage” which wasn’t even a class in D&D (in the 80s)- A line he says to Max about zoomer (who he doesn’t like) …so… how much do you want to bet Mike was the one who made him and Will matching by giving him and Will “lawful good” (since this is writen in his starter kit). And he already ignored the fact Will is a wizard. 

But in Will’s recently published cannon journal he also does this- he keeps Lucas (Ranger) , Dustin (Bard) and his own character (a wizard) …but he changes Mike to a cleric !!!

Because Clerics have the strongest of healing abilities

Mike thinks Will brings out the best in him. And Will thinks Mike as someone who helps him heal. So they both call each other clerics.

D&D also represents their romantic relationship

when they fight in s3 Mike says “I’m not trying to be a jerk. We’re not kids anymore. I mean…what did you think? That we’d never get girlfriends. Play games for the rest of our lives?” And the truth is that’s actually what Mike wants- which is why he was upset about Will trying to give away the d&d game . And why he still has all of Will’s d&d pictures on his basement’s wall (which he’s kept on his wall for years- despite removing the old poster from the wall). And during Hopper’s speech, when it pans to Mike , Hopper says “I miss playing games every night.”

* He also caresses Will’s  d&d drawing- when he thinks he’s dead- and has a binder filled with every d&d drawing Will has ever given him.

 In the first ep - Will  admits he rolls a 7 (since he couldn’t lie to Mike)-  and in the last ep of s1 (they show us Mike smiling at Will right before Will rolls a 14- since they’re 7s together.) Mike even apologizes to EL saying “sorry I sound like a 7 year old.” When talking about how all 3 can play with toys & right after talking about Will visiting to play. and mentions Will’s rolls as a way to convince Lucas to help him look for him.And Mike even mentions Will rolls as a way to convince Lucas to help him look for him in the first ep.

Mike in the last ep in s1 ,writes a d&d story for Will.  in ep one Will tells Mike “it was a 7, the demogorgan it got me.”At the end of the season Mike writes a whole story of him and his friends killing a 7 headed monster, and showing the decapitated head of the monster to king Tristan (Will). Similar to how at the hospital he tells Will to not worry cause “it’s dead now”. This is right after Will rolls a 14 (cause Mike and Will are 7s together). And Mike who is a fan of starwars has King Tristan give them medals after killing the monster. Cause he wants Will/king tristan (instead of Leia -a girl) to present him with medals and be his romantic love interest (and praise him for being a hero)…

In the pilot, they even say Will uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about his sexuality “like mike” & Mike uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about not having a gf.  * And no, dustin & Lucas didn’t use d&d to “escape” anything- in the pilot script.

Mike angrily yells “El’s not stupid. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” to himself- cause Will hit a nerve when saying mileven was ruining their friendship - because a part of Mike is trying to use El to put distance between him and Will . Dustin in s1 foreshadows the fight, saying “all you want to do is spent time with her… and you know it and he knows it. And nobody says anything until you’re yelling at eachother like goblins with intelligence scores of zero.” (Another  d&d ref/ ‘love makes you stupid’ ref.).

And also, maybe a part of him resents how Will is making him feel. So he says this whole speech , in the garage, to himself - to keep his romantic feelings for Will under control ( expecting Will to agree with the heteronormative statement). Which is why he was so shocked when Will (who he assumes is straight) and he expects would agree -  instead says “yeah, I guess I did. I really did.” (about never getting gfs but instead being together for the rest of their lives). 

And the  “crazy together” scene (which is romantic since both Mike & Flo both equate love making you ‘crazy’. Flo says “ only love makes you crazy and that damn stupid”). And the ‘crazy together’ scene also has a zoom-in on Mike’s d&d game.

(x)(x)

Mike and Will both love each other (and El is just confused). He wants to be with Will- but he’s scared. The Hopper dialogue even says “Lately, I feel like you’re pulling away from me or something? I miss playing board games every night.” Mike was upset when Will gives the game up- but Will says “I’ll just play with yours when I come back… if we still want to play?” In other words- the ball is in Mike’s court- if he wants Will, he has to initiate it. Because Will assumes he was “stupid” to think he had a chance. Mike is also acting “stupid” because he’s pushing away Will despite loving him, and hurting him in the process (the opposite of a cleric).

But Mike in s4 will admit his feelings to Will… since after Will says this line, Mike asks

“Yeah, but what happens if you want to join another party? ” (find someone else (‘another’) before that- the other ‘species’, or just someone else: girl, guy or otherwise?”

But Will decides to make himself vulnerable and just be honest,  and shyly admits “Not possible” (much to Mike’s happiness)

so yes- this tweet is about byler

They even answered the question of ‘what makes Mike crazy’ with one’ joke’ response - of Will asking about d&d. And in a separate post made fun of mileven by ending it with “can we just play d&d?”

And when, Mike and Will open up to each other about their mental-health issues,  that’s when they both agree that no matter what they’ll be together- “crazy together”. It’s a double entendre - they’re crazy cause they’re in love- but also “crazy” and will be “together” to help each other through their issues.  This theme is double-downed on in Will’s cannon journal (where it’s established “crazy together” is shown to be Mike & Will’s thing- not mileven’s). As Mike tells Will to tell him when he’s having ptsd episodes since- they're “crazy together”.

*Will draws Mike’s d&d character next to the sticky-note. And we also see throughout Will’s whole journal- Mike’s d&d character is always by Will’s (d&d character’s side). And on the cover of his journal Will ONLY draws his and Mike’s character- cause they’re “crazy together”.

Mike specifically says to get him when he’s having ptsd episodes about the mf (which represent Will’s se*ually abusive father- theory here/ here).

That’s what love is - like Flo said only love makes you “crazy” and “stupid” and this is only applicable to byler.  Mike and Will love and  bring out the best in each other-  heal each other. Being “crazy together” to Mike is about being selfless and wanting the best for you partner’s happiness no matter what- with mileven it was simply a way to excuse his poor behavior to El (under the guise of ‘love’).

 For all the supernatural stuff to stop , Will has to face his trauma and heal. This involves having a strong support  (of friends and family) and Will learning to not hate himself any longer, because of his past abuse and sexuality. And to stop correlating his love (for Mike) with his past abuse/trauma (represented by the monsters. And Mike and Will have to embrace their love for each other. And let go of their shame. When Will ‘dies’ in s1, Mike hugs his mom ,and  Heroes plays, and the lyrics are “and we kiss as though nothing could fall and the shame… was on the other side.” In s1 the term “other side” was used to describe the upside down. So it’s saying Will’s shame relating to Lonnie will eventually be on the other side, and so Mike and Will kiss ‘as though nothing could fall’. In Will’s journal he even draws Mike’s d&d character again with the caption “never Kenny Roggers”. This is because Jonathan asks ‘who would you rather  be friends with David bowie or Kenny roggers?”. And Heroes was originally sung by David Bowie- making the byler hint of this being ‘their song’, more apparent. The cannon Will-comic is even titled  the “other side” and Mike is on the opposite end (‘the other side’ waiting for Will who is trapped in the upside down looking up at the imposing figure of the demogorgan). The demorgogan in blue light and mike in opposing red light. The monsters Will created are based on the d&d game and his prior abuse at the hands of lonnie. But byler’s love is also represented by d&d- and thus the only way to stop it.

gif credit: cath-avery 

[xtruss]

Americans Used to Eat Pigeon All the Time—and It Could Be Making a Comeback

It’s reviled by city slickers, but revered by chefs.

— By Eleanor Cummins | February 16, 2018 | Popular Science

A vintage postcard of a pigeon plant. Wikimedia Commons

Brobson Lutz remembers his first squab with perfect clarity. It was the 1970s at the now-closed French restaurant Lutèce in New York City. “I came from North Alabama where there was a lot of dove and quail hunting and I knew how tasty little birds were,” the fast-talking Southerner recalls. “I’m not even sure if I knew then if it was a baby pigeon or not. But I became enamored with them.”

When he returned home, however, the New Orleans-based physician found pigeon meat in short supply. The bird was occasionally served in the Big Easy, but to satiate his need for squab, Lutz had to get creative. For a time, he says, he would call Palmetto Pigeon Plant, the country’s largest squab producer, and try to buy in bulk. “I pretended like I was a restaurant chef on the telephone to buy some from them, because they were only wholesale,” he says.

Eventually, Lutz decided to take matters into his own hands—and onto his own property. He bought some land along the Mississippi River, retrofitted a building into a pigeon loft, and bought a few pairs of breeding birds. “My initial plan was to go commercial, and I had a restaurant that wanted ‘em,” he says. But he’s found out he’s gotten a quarter of the production he expected. “I don’t know if it’s too hot here in the summer or if they’re not happy here or something, I’m lucky if I get from one pair six babies a year.” It’s enough to fill Lutz, but not enough to share his passion for pigeon meat with his fellow Louisianans.

Squab, once among the most common sources of protein in the United States, has fallen out of favor in the last century. The speedy, handsome, tender, and tasty pigeon of yesteryear was replaced in the hearts and minds of post-World War II Americans with the firsthand experience of the city pigeon, whose excrement encrusts our cities. It was replaced on the plate, too, by the factory-farmed chicken. But thanks to foodies like Lutz, squab is making a slow and steady comeback in French and Chinese restaurants around the country. Trouble is, the bird’s unique development needs mean farmers struggle to meet the growing demand.

A kit of passenger pigeons called for a shoot-out. Wikimedia Commons

Allen Easterly of Rendezvous Farm in Virginia sells his squabs in the Washington, D.C. area. He says most people are ignorant of the pigeon's culinary value—and that many seem to wish they could stay in the dark. "At the farmer's market, people say, 'What are squab?' And you say, 'Young pigeons.' And they go, 'Ew,'" he says. "They're thinking of the city birds pooping all over statues."

Pigeons may be reviled in the United States today, but as any squab enthusiast will tell you, for most of human history, the 310-ish species in the pigeon-dove family were revered. The little birds were a common theme for Pablo Picasso, who named his daughter Paloma, the Spanish word for dove. And physicist and futurist Nikola Tesla sought solace in his avian neighbors. One night in 1922, his favorite pigeon flew into his window looking distressed and eventually died. He reportedly said, "I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me."

Since at least ancient Egypt, domesticated pigeons have served as a messengers. Their enviable speed and pristine sense of direction made them an important communication strategy well into the 20th century. Even when telegrams and eventually phone lines criss-crossed the continent, pigeons were often more reliable. During World War I, homing pigeons were used to discreetly deliver messages across enemy lines. One bird, Cher Ami, famously delivered a life-saving note to Army headquarters, despite being shot through the breast and blinded on her flight across the battlefield. She was awarded a French military honor, the Croix de Guerre, and her one-legged body (Cher Ami's right limb was also lost in her fated journey) sits taxidermied in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

The pigeon's descent into the proverbial gutter is hard to chart, but its fate appears to have been sealed by 1914. That year, the last of the wild passenger pigeons, a little bird named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. The birds were once so plentiful in North America that a kit (that's the collective noun for a group of pigeons) in the midst of migration could black out the sun. As they traipsed across the Midwest and Eastern United States, snacking in farmer's fields along the way, hungry humans would pull the babies from the nest and cook them for a quick meal. But deforestation and overhunting—people not only stole the babies, but shot the adults from the sky—drove them to extinction in just a few centuries.

For those who remembered the passenger pigeon's prime, squab remained a popular dish. The birds merely morphed from a kitchen staple to a rare treat sourced from local farms or shipped in from faraway poultry plants. But these days, pigeon is a dish best served defensively. For the generations after World War II, who have grown up on factory-farmed chicken at the expense of other birds, the pigeon is a nuisance, not a source of nutrition. In the 1960s, prices for pigeon meat dropped as demand for pest control skyrocketed. In 1980, Woody Allen dubbed the same New York City pigeons Tesla adored "rats with wings" in his film Stardust Memories.

While it's true that city pigeons shouldn't be eaten, rumors that they are a particularly diseased bird are just that—rumors. Pigeons are no more likely to carry avian disease than any other bird, but we have made these feral birds moderately dangerous by feeding them our trash. Unlike farm breeds, which are carefully controlled and fed a special diet, city pigeons clean up our forgotten pizza crusts... and likely ingest rodenticide, battery acid, and lead along the way.

Around the same time that enterprising businessmen began putting up spikes and spreading poisons in pigeon-dense parks, the chicken, previously a fragile and finicky bird prized primarily for its eggs, became the nation's leading source of poultry. In 1916, just two years after Martha the passenger pigeon died in captivity, scientists began work to develop a "broiler" chicken, bred specifically for meat production. The hope was the bird would grow big and grow fast. After years of tinkering, the Cobb company launched its breeding program in the 1940s and other poultry producers soon followed. By 1960, the National Chicken Council reports, the per capita consumption of chicken was around 28 pounds. In 2018, the council projects we'll each consume about 92.5 pounds of the bird.

Despite the public vitriol and stiff competition from chicken, a few folks, motivated by the pigeon's gastronomic promise, have preserved the squab-eating tradition. Scott Schroeder is the owner and chef of Hungry Pigeon, a restaurant in Philadelphia. Trained in French cooking, he started eating squab early in his career, and has only become more enamored of its taste. "I really fell deeply in love with them in a way," he says of squab carcasses. "The breast in particular tastes like a mixture of duck and steak at the same time, which to me sounds really good."

There are two reasons for this unique flavor. First, pigeons are an entirely dark meat bird, meaning they have a high concentration of myoglobin, the oxygen-storing protein that gives dark meat its unique color and taste. Where myoglobin is concentrated in a chicken’s legs, it courses through a pigeon’s entire body, allowing for a more succulent, if iron-intense, eating experience. The second factor is the age at which a pigeon is killed. Like veal, the prized meat of young cows, farmers kill squab when they’re young and their meat is tender. By trapping them just days before they take their first flight—typically around four weeks old—farmers ensure that the meat around a baby pigeon’s wings are never used and therefore never hardened.

In France, squab is often pan-roasted, with a cream-colored crispy skin. In Chinese cuisine, the squab is usually fried, so it's served up whole and bronzed like Peking duck. In Morocco, squab is commonly served in a pastilla, an elaborate and pastry-centric take on the pot pie. While the first two preparations require a young, supple bird, the pastilla can use adult pigeon, too, as the slow-cooked process is enough to soften the more mature meat.

In the United States, the taste for pigeon meat remains rare, but the meat itself is rarer still. Schroeder recently had to remove squab from his menu at the Hungry Pigeon. His supplier—"a really nice Mennonite man named Joe Weaver who is the opposite of Purdue Chicken"—stopped selling the birds and the chef hasn't found another source of squab at a reasonable price. While a generic whole chicken costs around $1.50 a pound, a one-pound squab is typically 10 times that; depending on who you buy it from, prices for a whole pigeon can trend north of $25. “A hundred years ago, everyone was eating them,” Schroeder says. “Now, you can’t find them, unless you’re filthy rich.”

From the National Standard Squab Book (1921). Left page, top: "Squabs one week old." Left page, bottom: "Squabs two weeks old." Right page, top: "Squabs three weeks old." Right page, bottom: "Squabs four weeks old. Ready to be killed for market." Biodiversity Heritage Library

Tony Barwick is the owner of Palmetto Pigeon Plant, the largest squab producer in the United States. When he isn't dealing with calls from pigeon fiends like Lutz masquerading as restaurateurs, Barwick manages farm's 100,000 breeding pairs of pigeon. Each month, he says, the Sumter, South Carolina-based business aims to sell 40,000 to 50,000 squab. Barwick's birds can be found in "white tablecloth restaurants" and Chinatowns from New York to Los Angeles. "I've been backordered for 15 years," he says.

Though Palmetto's monthly output may sound big, it's nothing compared to pigeon's peers in poultry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't even track the nation's pigeon population, instead focusing primarily on chickens, chicken eggs, and turkeys. "We're a minor species," Barwick says. "I don't know how many squab are produced in the United States, but… let's say 22,000 a week. There's one chicken company in Sumter, South Carolina, they do 30,000 an hour in just that plant." After a poignant pause he adds, "In a hour what our entire industry does in a week."

Barwick acknowledges that part of the pigeon's problem is its bad reputation. But from an agricultural perspective, the real bottleneck is the bird's long babyhood. In the avian universe, most species develop quickly. Chickens, ducks, geese, and many other birds, are all precocial animals, meaning the newborns are mobile and reasonably mature from birth. While they still need to be protected, an infant chicken can start waddling—and, crucially, eating everyday food—from about the moment it cracks through its egg.

The pigeon, however, is an altricial bird, meaning the babies are helpless at birth. While it's possible that scientific manipulation could eventually turn squab into mass-produced meat, this fundamental facet of the pigeon's development makes things difficult. "A human baby is altricial," says Barwick. "So is a pigeon… It's born with its eyes shut, which means their parents have to regurgitate feed to them." Because the young are helpless, family units have to be kept relatively intact, and birds can't be forcibly fattened up. In the beginning, baby pigeons won't eat scattered bird seed, instead relying on so-called "pigeon milk," which is gurgled up from mom or dad's craw. This is why, on average, a pair of pigeons only produces two babies every 45 days. By contrast, a single female chicken in an artificially-lit environment can produce as much as one egg everyday, which, if they're inseminated and incubated, can turn into new chickens.

Pigeon problems aren't just a matter of maturity, however. They're also a matter of pure poundage: a pigeon doesn't weigh much. In four or five weeks, a squab tops out around a pound. In the same amount of time, a factory-farmed chicken will hit five pounds, thanks to selective breeding for broiler birds and other mass-production techniques like growth hormones. "It's like oysters," Schroder says of squab. "There's just not a whole lot there."

Still, it’s clear that some of squab’s inconveniences are also a part of its charm. Because it’s hard to produce and familiar primarily to foodies, it’s treated with more reverence than a chicken. While this keeps squabs out of the mouths of the masses, it’s actually great for business. After a severe decline in the 1960s and 70s, Barwick says demand for pigeon is back—even if most Americans remain oblivious to this particular source of protein.

“Most of our squab we sell into Asian markets in the United States,” he says. “They love squab.” In China, young pigeon meat pairs well with special occasions including weddings and holidays like Lunar New Year. Barwick says that the domestic squab industry started to bounce back after England and China brokered a deal to return Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong residents emigrated to the United States en masse in the 1980s, he explains, and brought their penchant for Peking duck and roast squab with them.

In more recent years, upscale restaurants have started to sell more squab, too. “We have these celebrities [like Julia Child, Alice Waters, and Emeril] who love squab and they’ve really pushed it, so we’ve seen domestic demand start to grow again and it’s that TV effect,” Barwick says. The unique taste and, of course, the relative scarcity of the bird, make it a mouth-watering menu item—for those who can afford it.

The combination of increased demand, a stagnated supply, and the bigger budgets of these white tablecloth establishments have all conspired to raise the price of the bird. While it’s easy to track down a host of midtown Manhattan restaurants, where one or six courses might be squab, finding the little bird in Chinatown is much harder. I found five Chinese restaurants in New York City that had squab on the menu, but only one actually kept it stocked—$18.95 a bird, head and all.

Arguably the worst part of city living. Pixnio

In many ways, the squab's spotty history is not unusual. At the turn of the 19th century, horse meat was all the rage. And during the Gold Rush, miners relied on turtles as a steady source of protein. What food appears unethical or unappetizing has always changed with the shifting sands of supply and demand.

What’s peculiar about the pigeon is our over-familiarity with the bird. We’ve all seen cows, pigs, and chickens, but few Americans encounter them on a daily basis, let alone share their stoops and streets with the critters. For devotees of French cuisine, the love of pigeon meat has actually enhanced their respect for the squab’s urbane cousin. “I like their resiliency and that they survive our environment,” Schroeder the chef says. “To me, they’re such an iconic bird.” But for the majority of people, negative encounters with the city bird means, even for a reasonable price, this particular meat will never make it on the menu.

Still, Barwick says Palmetto is planning to increase it production by nearly 50 percent. Over the next three years, he says, Palmetto intends to add 40,000 new breeding pairs. This increase may not be enough to substantially lower the price or convert chicken-lovers to the ways of the pigeon, but it's sure to provide pigeon devotees some relief. “Squab is perfect for one,” Lutz says, his Southern accent speeding up to deliver this final determination. “If I went with someone, I’d make them get their own. I wouldn’t share it.” If all goes well, he'll no longer have to.