December Meme: Valdemar & Companion Soulbonds

[krait]

Starting this meme off the right way by completely forgetting I had a prompt for the 1st, heh. Oh, well; I have a prompt for today, so I'll move the missed one to the 3rd.


Well. My love for Valdemar and its Companions goes back - as I imagine most people's does - to Krait at circa 14 years old. They had an even bigger impact on me, however, as they were my first "real" fantasy novels; all my life I've been drawn to fantastical elements in storytelling (The Last Unicorn was my favourite movie from pretty much whenever I first saw it), but I'd never read an actual genre paperback "fantasy novel" before the day my best friend showed up with a book featuring a white horse on the cover and Lackey's name on it. Being a typical horse-crazy girl, I asked her what it was about; and "telepathic talking horses" was an answer guaranteed to hit every weak spot. :D

Naturally, I loved it; I don't even remember which one of the series I read first, though I suspect it was one of the "Winds" trilogy. The Most Important Thing was definitely the Companions! I think it's probably pretty telling that there seems to be an age range wherein "magical talking/telepathic animal companion" is the most awesome story idea ever. (Insert some thoughtful conclusions about puberty and a tween's changing emotional footing making the idea of deep yet safely nonsexual intimacy deeply appealing.)

Anyway, that was very much true for me, too; I wanted to write ALL the fanfiction about Heralds and Companions, even back then when fanfiction wasn't something I knew about as a wider phenomenon. And then I discovered the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, and the whole fascinating concept of a Companion being able to reject her Chosen, and the circumstances involved in that, and that was even better - because nothing makes an already-interesting concept more intriguing than encountering an exception! (The same thing applies to my reaction to human-human soulbonds, e.g. Vanyel's reborn love and Firefox's unhealthy obsession; my favourite stories in the soulbond genre are the ones that go: "But what if that didn't work out that way in somebody's experience?")

As I got older, Lackey's more frustrating habits with regard to writing/Valdemar become more notable and irksome to me (as I grew out of their target demographic, and became familiar with them and began to yearn for variations on the theme), so I don't still have the immediate connection to them that I once had. Nonetheless, as my first exposure to the Telepathic Animal Friend and the fantasy genre as a whole, they'll always be very special to me and will probably always be the underlying foundation on which my further explorations of soulbond tropes are based!

Comments

[edenfalling]

Interesting! I didn't read any of Lackey's work until I was, I think, a little bit past the ideal target age for Valdemar, so while I thought the earlier trilogies were okay, I never particularly imprinted on them. And I find the idea of telepathic soulbonds kind of... creepy isn't the right word. Exhausting, maybe? Just, the idea that you have to constantly be "on" for somebody, even within the supposed privacy of your own head and heart, sounds like it would eat all my mental/emotional spoons in an hour flat and leave me incapable of doing anything beyond merely existing and trying to keep up barriers. I realize that the bond is generally taken to mean that you won't care about being "on" since they "know you perfectly" or whatever, but I am strongly introverted and the idea of a connection you can't turn off makes me terribly twitchy.

[krait]

I'm strongly introverted, too; and I think that maybe that's why it's so intriguing to me as a trope/concept.

It's less of a "I have to interact" feeling and more of a "wow, I don't have to interact" - a very introvert-friendly way of conducting relationships. :D Part of this may be a side effect of readership (for instance, unlike a Herald, I know what Companions are, and it's kind of hard to be afraid of a connection with something so deeply benevolent!) but of course it could just be individual variance, too!

And to give the world of Valdemar credit: Companion bonds and lifebonds are two different things, with subtle and unsubtle differences, so you get twice the trope for your money. :D Plus, there's some variety in the level/depth/"on"-ness of the Herald-Companion bonds, which I enjoy a lot because of what you mention. (Nothing that intense should be one-style-fits-all!)

Heralds without Mindspeech seem to have less intrusive bonds with their Companions; at least one just gives her Companion a name, rather than the Companion telling her the name she was foaled with. (And, given we-the-readers know that Companions can Mindspeak those without the Gift, that is really something to think about!) And there's quite a difference between the bonds that Elspeth & Gwena have (which reminds me a lot of siblings; they're both young and headstrong and neither is necessarily right most of the time) compared to, say, Talia & Rolan's (which feels more parental - Rolan is older and wiser and far more experienced in many ways than his partner), or to Sayvil & Kero's (who ping me as BFFs, teasing and venting). ...And then there's Lavan, who was lifebonded to his Companion as well as soulbonded!

Lifebonds don't seem to have any active component for most people, so I don't think there would be any particular issue for you there? (Kero & her lifebonded do dream of each other while apart - shared dreams, not that she knows it - and Vanyel's managed to draw on his magical energy for a spell, but neither is what I think of when you talk of "being on" or lacking privacy.)

Whether because I'm ace or for other reasons, lifebonds aren't my Huge Thing; I like seeing them and their complexities, but it's more of an intellectual thing than a this trope is Exactly My Thing. Like soulmate-AU fanfics, it's something I don't mind reading if interesting things are being done with it, but if it's being played straight I'm hit-or-miss on it.

[edenfalling]

Ha. I actually really liked Lavan's story, precisely because it's a study in all the ways bonds and magic can go horribly, terribly WRONG. I like bonding tropes much more when they go awry than when they're accepted as perfect romantic fluff -- which may, as you say, have something to do with being ace, or may just be a manifestation of more general cynicism and an interest in how things break. *wry*

Also, bonding tropes tend to be logistically absurd and/or really problematic when it comes to free will, and I like when people notice and try to resolve those issues instead of handwaving them aside with "but true love (and really hot sex)!!!"

[krait]

I... wanted to like Lavan's story! Bonds-gone-wrong, or at least, bonds-gone-really-weird, is EXACTLY what I want out of stories that feature them, and, well. I think at this point nobody's surprised when I say that cross-species romances are totally something I'm into. In a big way. I would absolutely read a story featuring romance between a sapient horse and a human set in a universe where that has never happened before!

But Lavan's story let me down. I felt like it skipped too lightly over all the potential for craziness (and crazy-hotness) that it had set up. And because we already know the ending, that drained all the tension out of it. If I know going in that the main character dies, then you need to hook me with some other kind of tension if you want to keep me emotionally tied to him. Every time something looked interesting, it got tidied away or faded out of sight, and I couldn't make myself care.

Part of it might be the age factor - Lavan's tale didn't come out till I was well out of the age range that Valdemar is targeted for, and particularly Lavan's own age range. I have a harder time investing in teen protagonists facing Typical Modern Teenage Trauma: my parents don't understand me, I hate school, and the other kids hate me! (I hadn't read Twilight at that point, of course, but "Lavan Hates His New School" sure read like "Bella's First Day At Forks High" to me when I look back.) Especially in a fantasy novel; I'm here for awesome pyrokinesis and dramatic last stands with pyrrhic victories, not Middle School Whining.

I wanted a bunch of Heralds finding that their casual, tolerant libertine souls were just a little shocked after all at the idea of a Herald-Companion lifebond, and if there had to be a love triangle I was hoping for something more along the lines of "His Wife? A Horse" than "I guess I'll step aside for the One True Love". :D

[edenfalling]

I think Brightly Burning was actually one of the earlier Valdemar books I read -- I sort of vaguely recall starting with Kerowyn? -- so I did NOT know how it was going to end and was quite surprised because based on her Victorian elemental magic fairy-tale retellings, I thought of Lackey as a writer who goes for the happy ending rather than Greek tragedy. But yeah, there should have been less school stuff and more uncomfortable interspecies love story.

[krait]

I thought of Lackey as a writer who goes for the happy ending rather than Greek tragedy

I suspect this was part of the problem. Lackey does do Happy Endings, but she'd already set up Lavan as a tragedy before she ever thought she'd write his story. (He's a brief background mention in much earlier books - no personality at all, just somebody's throwaway mention in a history book.) So she reacts a lot like I do when trying to plot fanfiction - she tries to minimise the tragedy and make Lavan as happy as possible as he trots along to his doom.

Which does not result in a compelling narrative, unfortunately. Especially for readers who already know the ending - I think that's probably where you had an advantage, because I knew going in what was going to happen to this guy, thanks to that historical mention. Unlike with Vanyel, where I didn't know the specifics of his death, with Lavan I was already expecting the Heraldic Self-Sacrifice play.

(I think it's worth noting, too, that Van gets three whole books in which to develop, grow, and endear himself to the reader before he self-immolates; we see him go from a petulant, ignorant teenager to a haunted twentysomething to a self-possessed, fairly-happy man in his 30s. Lavan? Lavan gets one book, a far shorter span of maturation, and a lot less total page-time.)