Milo the Goat Is the Best 'Shadow and Bone' Character

If only there was an acronym to describe how we feel about this goat.

shadow and bone jesper goat
Netflix
Netflix

Like everyone who loves The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, every fan of Leigh Bardugo's "Grishaverse" novels, on which Netflix's Shadow and Bone is based, has a favorite character. Do you identify most with Alina Starkov, the headstrong Sun Summoner who hid her powers from the world? Or Inej Ghafa, small yet powerful, with a dangerous streak? Or maybe you're more of a Kaz Brekker, always thinking up new schemes to solve your problems, or even a Jesper, wishing everyone would just shut up and get along. As soon as the first season of Shadow and Bone dropped on Netflix, fans of the books were mostly delighted by the creative liberties taken with the source material, which remixed and combined aspects of a few different novels into one. The best change, by far, was the introduction of Milo, the emotional support goat.

Milo enters the story a few episodes in, when the Crow Club (the characters from the book Six of Crows, who have been added to the narrative of the first book) crosses the deadly Shadow Fold in a steam engine that runs on an unfinished track. They bring the goat along seemingly as a distraction for the volcra, winged terrors that populate the Fold and pick off anyone who enters it. As it turns out, the goat wasn't sacrificial bait, but a comfort creature for the characters to hold and calm themselves when they reached the most dangerous part of their journey.

When sharpshooter Jesper is overcome by panic as the volcra are closing in, the Conductor, who agreed to take the Crows across the Fold using his secret way, yells at him to hold the goat and settle down while he works out how the rest of them are going to survive. Jesper, obviously, develops an emotional attachment to the sweet goat, and makes sure that when they send him on his way he goes to a nice home, a plot decision that was clearly well received by fans.

Twitter users are rightly singing the praises of Milo the goat, claiming him as an honorary member of Kaz Brekker's crew of criminals and clamoring for his return in subsequent seasons. Milo does reappear towards the season finale, helping Alina's friend Mal out of a tight spot, so it looks like he's just everywhere. It would be a hilarious ongoing bit to have Milo keep popping up to get all the Shadow and Bone characters out of trouble. We just hope that someday he and Jesper are reunited at last. 

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Emma Stefansky is a staff entertainment writer at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @stefabsky.