Curse those "soul-bonds"
Oct. 10th, 2004 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swordmageRead enough fanfiction (and straight fiction, though I’ve found it less prevalent there) and you’re sure to encounter the dreaded “soul-bond.” A pair of lovers who are so deeply in love that nothing can seperate them. And, chances are, that’s it’s completely wonderful, with no troubles or anything for the lucky pair. But, at the same time, it's a bit pathetic. Instead of having the characters slowly get to know each other, they have a sudden bond that makes them rather besotted with each othe. yeah, it's a bit of an exaggeration, but still. So, what in all hells does this have to do with anything? It's just a minor pet-peeve right? Well, some people take it a bit beyond that. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
narcissusblack's entry here just goes to show that. My first thought was "sounds like a pseudo-lifebond!"
If you have no clue what a lifebond is, it's a bond between a pair of people that's unbreakable. term coined (at least as far as I know) by Mercedes Lackey and used in her Valdemar series. Now, ML and Valdemar are what I refer to as my literary guilty pleasure. I've read all the books in the series, and liked them.
It seems like all her major pairs of characters are lifebonded. Talia and Dirk, Darian and Keisha, Vanyel and Tylendel/Stefen, Daren and Selenay, and (depending on your source) Kerowyn and Eldan. But the problem these writers overlook is the fact that, as Vanyel and Stefen tell Firesong, lifebonds aren't all their cracked up to be. For example, if one partner is unhappy, the other is as well. It takes very strong people to be bonded like this, and chances are, that they need it. The best example of this is seen in Brightly Burning, which contains the only instance of a human/non-human (in this case Companion) bonding. for simplicity's sake, let's not get into the difference between this bond and a normal herald/Companion one. The reason, Lavan's got the ability to cause enormous amounts of damage and Kalira keeps his power in check. When she gets killed, his firestarter Gift ends up consuming him and the entire White Foal Pass, including everyone in it.
And yet there are plenty of couples in the series that get along just fine without a lifebond. Elspeth and Darkwind are a good start.
So where am I going with this? Simply that I'm sick of seeing people who write stuff in which two canon characters suddenly declare their undying love for each other, despite having shown no liking towards each other to ever before.
Which just brings me back tosariah_snape. This isn't just some ordinary rpg-type journal. This appears to be someone delusional. She talks about her "soulbonded" Jennifer (which is waht i was originally laughing about) and appears to claim she's the DADA teacher at Hogwarts. this gets to the point of being a bit creepy.
narcissusblack's entry here just goes to show that. My first thought was "sounds like a pseudo-lifebond!"If you have no clue what a lifebond is, it's a bond between a pair of people that's unbreakable. term coined (at least as far as I know) by Mercedes Lackey and used in her Valdemar series. Now, ML and Valdemar are what I refer to as my literary guilty pleasure. I've read all the books in the series, and liked them.
It seems like all her major pairs of characters are lifebonded. Talia and Dirk, Darian and Keisha, Vanyel and Tylendel/Stefen, Daren and Selenay, and (depending on your source) Kerowyn and Eldan. But the problem these writers overlook is the fact that, as Vanyel and Stefen tell Firesong, lifebonds aren't all their cracked up to be. For example, if one partner is unhappy, the other is as well. It takes very strong people to be bonded like this, and chances are, that they need it. The best example of this is seen in Brightly Burning, which contains the only instance of a human/non-human (in this case Companion) bonding. for simplicity's sake, let's not get into the difference between this bond and a normal herald/Companion one. The reason, Lavan's got the ability to cause enormous amounts of damage and Kalira keeps his power in check. When she gets killed, his firestarter Gift ends up consuming him and the entire White Foal Pass, including everyone in it.
And yet there are plenty of couples in the series that get along just fine without a lifebond. Elspeth and Darkwind are a good start.
So where am I going with this? Simply that I'm sick of seeing people who write stuff in which two canon characters suddenly declare their undying love for each other, despite having shown no liking towards each other to ever before.
Which just brings me back to
sariah_snape. This isn't just some ordinary rpg-type journal. This appears to be someone delusional. She talks about her "soulbonded" Jennifer (which is waht i was originally laughing about) and appears to claim she's the DADA teacher at Hogwarts. this gets to the point of being a bit creepy.
