Bond Creatures: Difference between revisions

''Your life and mine are one, we two,''

''In dark, in flame, in war, in strife,''

 

'''Bond Creatures''' choose a human partner to share their power. Often they can reject an unsuitable human partner or reveal a new ability or level of power if its [[Psychic Link|Link]] and/or [[Synchronization]] with its human user is particularly high. In such cases they may form a [[Mental Fusion]] or allow the human to [[Animal Eye Spy|see through their eyes]]. They sometimes double as a [[Morality Pet]].

See also [[Psychic Link]] for similar bonds between humanoids.

 

 

* ''[[Bleach]]'': In the anime series there is a race called Bounts, a vampire variant, each of whom has a Doll, which seems to be a type of elemental familiar. Dolls will turn on and kill a weak master; this suggests that although the individual Bount's elemental affinity is an internal characteristic that determines what Doll they can summon, the Dolls come from the environment and return to the environment when their masters die. Dolls don't take mates or reproduce.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' sets the mold for spiritual/biological mecha series. While not sentient or even as independent as an animal, mechas in this series are picky about their human partners and may go crazy or refuse to work for the wrong pilot, or even the right pilot in the wrong state of mind. It is mentioned that human minds were either used as a pattern for the Evangelions' AI or were 'eaten' and partially incorporated by the Evangelions in development, and their taste in pilots is an effect of this. This series also shows a strong correspondence between the mecha's body and the pilot's body, with pilots feeling intense pain if the mecha is significantly damaged, for example by ripping off an arm.

* [[Anne McCaffrey]] is probably the archetypal example of bond creatures. Her ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' series features dragons with near-human intelligence which choose a human partner at birth (this is called Impression) and two rarely outlive each other (and certainly don't ''want'' to). Fire lizards has a mild variant of the Impression (normally it merely helps to organize their swarms, but was turned [[Up to Eleven]] for dragons). Less well known but also interesting, this author's ''[[The Ship Who...]]...'' series features spaceships powered by the human minds of people whose bodies were defective or injured, and these [[Sapient Ship]]s, also known as Brains, form partnerships with human Brawns. This bond is not permanent, it may be friendly or romantic, and the telepathic element is enabled by technology.

** Early in the series, it's indicated that romantic feelings between a Brain and his/her Brawn is grounds for the partnership being broken up, as a Brawn who becomes ''too'' attracted to his/her Brain partner may become obsessed and attempt to access what is left of their body, which will kill the Brain. They find a way around this later, using androids.

** More recent Pern books, particularly those which Todd McCaffrey worked on, establish that whers—dragons' humbler, uglier cousins—also form psychic bonds with humans. Unlike either dragons or fire lizards, whers can sever their bond voluntarily if they form a solid emotional attachment to a different human, and the death of one partner needn't provoke suicide by the other (though it can) when a wher is involved.

* Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear did a brilliant and weirdly hilarious [[Darker and Edgier]] spin on some of the less charming implications of the Pern series in ''A Companion to Wolves'', which is pretty much Pern WITH VIKINGS and giant sentient wolves replacing dragons.

 

 

* [[Limyaael's Fantasy Rants|Limyaael]] calls these types of creatures [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/180365.html telcoms], for [[Psychic Link|telepathic companion]].

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Servant Tropes]]

[[Category:Loyal Animal Companion]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]

[[Category:A Slave to the Index]]