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This trope is not about people who can't stand to live apart from each other but are still physically able to do so; for those, head over to either [[Living Emotional Crutch]] or [[If I Can't Have You]]. See also [[Soul Jar]] when it also gives a form of immortality.
{{examples}}
== Anime
* [[Sailor Moon]]: if the Maijuku dies, Al and En go down as well. Or as En's dub counterpart explains, "if the Tree ''dies'', ALAN, ''we'' die!"
* {{spoiler|Fai and Kurogane}} in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]''; the former can't live without the latter, since, {{spoiler|as a vampire, Fai's dependant on blood for feeding, and can only feed on Kurogane.}}
* Arthur and Shalott in ''[[
* In a ''[[Naruto]]'' filler arc, the title character finds himself deep within one of [[Big Bad|Orochimaru]]'s hideouts facing [[The Dragon]], Kabuto Yakushi. Kabuto proceeds to use a Secret Technique of the Fuuma clan (who are mostly loyal to Orochimaru at this point) which connects the hearts of the user, Kabuto and the victim, Naruto, through chakra strings. He then proceeds to remove his own still-beating heart from his chest and squeeze it, causing Naruto's heart to take damage as well.
* Elraine and Kiri of ''[[Double Arts]]'', must always be physically touching (normally holding hands) or Elraine will die of the disease she's infected with but he's immune to and staves off.
* Charlie in ''[[Vassalord]]'' is a vampire who is dependent on blood from his master Rayflo because, due to Charlie's religious views, he refuses to drink from humans since he sees it as a cardinal sin. (Drinking from Rayflo is also a sin, but in Charlie's eyes it's the lesser of two evils.)
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', one character, {{spoiler|Chrome Dokuro}} can live only because {{spoiler|her organs, the originals of which have been removed, are physical illusions cast by Mukuro Rokudo}}.
* In one chapter of ''[[
* ''[[Ah!
* In ''[[
* ''Sequence'', by Saenagi Ryou, starts out with the main character, [[Ordinary High School Student|Kanata]], accidentally freeing a [[Badass Adorable|young imprisoned vampire]], and getting his heart ripped out for his trouble. The vampire, who isn't actually a bad [[Ambiguous Gender|person]], ties their life forces together to keep Kanata alive.
* This is the case for Eureka in the ''[[Eureka Seven]]'' movie ending when she {{spoiler|was reborn as a human being}}. She stated that she could only exist as long as Renton lives and dreams.
* In ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'', Elsie and Keima share collars/chokers that dictate that if one dies, the other will as well, no matter what they die from.
* In ''[[Princess Resurrection]]'', protagonist Hiro needs infusions of chi/blood from Hime (depending on anime or manga) to continue his existence or he dies within days. Okay, he's ''technically'' already dead, but it still works in context.
▲== Comics -- Books ==
* In the [[Marvel Universe]] villainous duo Hammer and Anvil were linked by an alien device that gave them superpowers but also linked their life force. When one was shot in the head, the other also died.
* [[Cloak and Dagger (
== Films -- Animation ==
* In ''[[
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* In ''[[Battle Royale]] II'' the students are paired up so that if one of them dies the [[Explosive Leash|exploding collar]] of their partner also goes off.
== Literature ==
* In ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'', the dragons are symbiotes who literally can't face life without their rider: a dragon who fails to find a compatible rider upon hatching will die. If they bond to a rider and the rider dies, the psychological trauma causes the dragon to cross the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and commit suicide. The only exception is a queen dragon whose rider dies while the dragon is waiting for eggs to
* In ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (
* Inverted in ''[[Harry Potter (
* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]''
** Aes Sedai and their Warders have this type of bond. If a Warder kicks it, the Aes Sedai will be hit with pretty fierce depression, occasionally bordering on suicidal. Warders who lose their Aes Sedai generally go whole hog, becoming [[Death Seeker
** The Aiel also seem to have a toned down version.
** Also, there seems to be some sort of link between Rand and {{spoiler|Moridin}} that has had all sorts of weird effects ever since {{spoiler|their [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|balefire]] crossed paths in ''A Crown of Swords''}}.
* Inverted in ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'': {{spoiler|Instead of a person being dependent on an object, it's the other way around -- the Labyrinth can't survive without Daedalus.}}
* Due to plot complications involving the source of his agelessness, the eponymous protagonist of the German pulp series ''[[Professor Zamorra]]'' has recently (as of this writing) become dependent on his friend Rhett Saris not so much to stay alive as to keep his ''youth''; without him, he would revert to his actual chronological age, which while not actually enough to kill
* In the [[Honor Harrington]] novels, it is common for bonded treecats to suicide after their human partner dies. Since the natural lifespan of a treecat is considerably longer than that of a (pre-prolong) human, the bonding pretty much meant that bonding with a human meant that the treecat would sacrifice several decades of their lifespan.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'':
** The Jaffa race in the [[Stargate Verse]] can't live for long without having a Goa'uld larva inside their pouch, until a medicine that has the same effect is discovered in one of the later seasons.
** In one story arc, Daniel and Vala put on bracelets that create a link between them, so that to be any more than a few feet away from each other can cause them extreme physical discomfort and eventually death.
* ''[[
** The same thing happened to Picard and Dr. Crusher on ''[[Star Trek:
** The Trill and their symbionts in the ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[
* This trope was intentionally invoked in the now-rare Hindu practice of ''sati''
▲== Myths & Religion ==
▲* This trope was intentionally invoked in the now-rare Hindu practice of ''sati'' -- when a man died, his wife burned herself to death on his funeral pyre.
* Truth in Television for some cultures - Yanomamo rainforest Indians believe that everybody has a kind of animal doppelgänger called a noreshi, which takes the form of aerial or arboreal animals for men or ground-dwelling animals for women. They say that to kill one's noreshi would cause the person drop dead and vice versa. Many intentionally try to find their rivals' noreshi for this reason, as outright murder is a pretty damn stupid idea in a culture where inter-village alliances are about as sturdy as damp tissue.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** Some races in ''D&D'' have their [[Life Force]] linked to an item, plant or place, mostly nature spirits or descendants of some such, with direct inspiration from folklore or mythology. Nereids carry a shawl that contains their soul, and someone seizing it and threatening to destroy it can control the creature. Dryads and Hamadryads are linked to a single tree in the forest. Bamboo and River Spirit Folks, from the ''Oriental Adventures'', are synchronized with a specific bamboo grove or river, respectively. Damaging a linked tree or place will weaken or wound those spirits, and destroying it will kill them.
** 4th Edition actually has an entire race built on this
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'': Wynne is dependent on a friendly Fade spirit to keep her alive.
* In the second ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'' game, the protagonist Dingo is critically injured and linked to [[Giant Robot|Jehuty]] so he can live, at the expense of not being able to survive outside of Jehuty.
* Similar but opposite to ''Pern'' cycle, the Bond in ''[[Drakan]]'' series connects the dragon and his rider in such way that if the dragon dies, so does the rider, but not vice-versa (justified by the fact that dragons are just that much more powerful). Arokh, for example, has outlived at least one rider already.
* In ''[[Enslaved:
* Prominent in the Nasuverse. In the ''[[
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' the player character and his mentor are linked by a Force Bond, gaining each other strengths and weaknesses. This isn't exactly convenient, so getting rid of it is one of the major plot points.
* In ''[[
* In the ending for ''[[
* Alcatraz in ''Crysis2'' is only kept alive by the Nanosuit, and even then, just barely. At a couple of points in the game the player has to use the suits defribillator system to revive him. Though the suit ends up being less of a life support system and more of a symbiote over the course of the game.
* Late in ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]'' Dark Pit discovers that if anything serious happens to Pit he's affected by it too, and makes keeping Pit alive his top priority.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
* After Fry is critically injured in a car crash in ''[[
* Likewise to the above ''[[Futurama]]'' entry, in a "Treehouse of Horror" episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Mr. Burns' head was attached to Homer's body.
* In one episode of ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'', K'Nuckles angers off a plague rat who Flapjack befriends. All of Stormalong Harbor contracts the Plague, and Flapjack thinks he is the cause, so he sails away to plague island to live the rest of his life. A boat with K'nuckles and many other citizens show up, and he tells Flapjack that they can't live without him. Flap thinks it's a sentimental statement, but then K'nuckles clarifies that they literally can't live without him. His blood contains the antidote.
* ''[[
* This, along with traits of [[Synchronization]], is the case between Demona and Macbeth in ''[[
== Real Life ==
* Invoked in a thought experiment often brought up about the abortion debate, where you are asked to be connected to a concert pianist or rocket scientist for nine months because they need your blood supply to live.
* Biological examples:
** Mitochondria in eukaryotic
** Many flowering plant relies heavily on insects in process of breeding.
** Most hight plants can built hightly beneficial symbiotic link with fungus. However, some plants literally cannot live without one.
** Lichens are another example of tight symbiotic link. They consist of fungus and a photosynthetic partner.
** BTW, humans are example as well. Human body is a host for some amount of microflora. Most of it located in digestive system, but skin and most mucous membrane have normal microflora as well. Removing this guests may result in problems with digestion or vulnerabilities to some diseases, which must be considered when doctor decides to give you antibiotic treatment.
** Legions of parasitic lifeforms cannot survive without a host. Different forms of symbiosis, ranging from straight parasitism to hightly tied true symbiosis, are very common in nature.
** Certain nastier forms of plasmids have developed addiction systems to keep them safe inside their hosts. Basically, the plasmid produces a toxin that will kill its host, as well as an antidote to that toxin that degrades faster. If the plasmid is removed, the toxin will kill the host once the antidote degrades beyond usefulness.
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[[Category:One With the Index]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
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