psychic bonds/partnerships

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sunandshadow

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I'm toying with the idea of writing a story showing humans (more or less) pairing off with some sort of sentient nonhuman partners, so I'm looking for examples of this in novels and anime. Ones where the bond is actually talked about and preferably shown forming (bonus points if there is a magical/military school involved), not ones where it's just mentioned. Here are the ones I know of so far:

Novels:
Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders of Pern series, bond between dragon and rider, arguably also The Ship Who... books with bond between brain and brawn.
Mercedes Lackey - Valdemar series, bonds between humans and animals, some of which are reincarnations of humans or avatars of a deity.
David Weber - Honor Harrington series, bond between human and treecat.

TV/Movies:
Farscape - bond between an organic spaceship and its pilot.

Mecha Anime:
Evangelion - typical of all mecha-pilot bonds in various animes, the mecha is usually incapable of speaking, and can only show it's preference for a particular pilot by refusing to operate for others and operating on its own to protect a pilot.
Idolmaster Xenoglossia (same as above)
Described this way but I haven't seen them myself: RahXephon, Mai HIME (rather than humans and nonhumans its male keys and female himes), Sousei no Aquarion

Other Anime:
Bleach - bond between zampaktou and shinigami, also between doll and bounto. Zampaktou seem to be a human soul's power solidified into a sword, their personality seems to be a facet of the wielder's personality. Dolls on the other hand seem to be elementals.
Soul Eater - bond between demon weapon and weapon technician (much like shinigami in Bleach). Demon weapons seem to be like therianthropes only instead of changing into a wolf or other animal they can shift to one or more weapon forms from their normal human form. They gain power by eating and digesting souls, but also seem to eat normal food.
Shamanic Princess - the 'partners' in this miniseries border on being summoned demons or witches' familiars.
 
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JimmyB27

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I'm toying with the idea of writing a story showing humans (more or less) pairing off with some sort of sentient nonhuman partners, so I'm looking for examples of this in novels and anime. Ones where the bond is actually talked about and preferably shown forming (bonus points if there is a magical/military school involved), not ones where it's just mentioned. Here are the ones I know of so far:
There's Robin Hobb's excellent Farseer trilogy, in which the main character bonds with a wolf.
TV/Movies:
Firefly - bond between an organic spaceship and its pilot.
You're thinking of Farscape. Firefly is the space-western by Joss Whedon.
 

HeronW

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There's often bonds between tribal peoples and the creatures around them: wolves, hawks, coyotes, eagles, ravens, etc. Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake is a bond between a woman healer and her several snakes.
The movie Joe's Apartment has the MC talking to cockroaches.
 

waylander

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Moorcock's Elric and his sword Stormbringer
 

Bartholomew

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The Wheel of Time - The Aes Sedae (sp) have a mental bond with their Warders, and vice versa.
 

Smiling Ted

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The classic is an SF short story by Cordwainer Smith: The Game of Rat and Dragon

You can find it in The Best of Cordwainer Smith and The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Stories of Cordwainer Smith

The premise is that there are predators that exist in deep space; to defend against them, the defense officers bond psychically with cats and use them as weapons.
 

sunandshadow

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sunandshadow

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The classic is an SF short story by Cordwainer Smith: The Game of Rat and Dragon

You can find it in The Best of Cordwainer Smith and The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Stories of Cordwainer Smith

The premise is that there are predators that exist in deep space; to defend against them, the defense officers bond psychically with cats and use them as weapons.

Oh yeah, I remember that one now that you mention it - read that for a class in college. :)
 

AnnieColleen

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Jennifer Roberson's Cheysuli series. Bond between Cheysuli warriors and intelligent animals (one to one). Mentions the bond being formed (and one character's actions mess with it, causing changes that weren't supposed to be possible), and shows it in operation.
 

Richard White

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Beyond stuff already mentioned, here's some other stuff that popped into my mind:

SF/Fantasy:

Tara Harper's Books (links between main protagonist and wolves)
Alan Dean Foster (link between Flinx and Pip)
"The Ghatti's Tale" (don't remember who wrote it - Human and Ghatti (cat-like creatures) team up)


Movies/TV:
Beastmaster (lots of critters, but especially ferrets)

Anime/Manga:
Tenchi Muyo! (Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki)
Divergence Eve (Sentient AI in the suits linking with the pilots)
Elemental Gelade (The Eidel and their pleasures (humans))
Angel Links (Mei Fon and Taffy)
 

slcboston

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Outlaw Star - I think there was some kind of bond between Gene & Melfina (the AI).

Well, I'm pretty sure Gene and Melfina *bonded* but I don't think it was in the way intended here. ;)

I presume you're looking for something friendly and co-supportive, rather than parasitic?

I'd have to say that a number of sci-fi have gone with the whole pilot/ship routine. I think you need some sort of reason for the symbiotic partnership to form in the first place, which means detailing the benefit each sides receives from the partnership.
 

sunandshadow

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I presume you're looking for something friendly and co-supportive, rather than parasitic?

I'd have to say that a number of sci-fi have gone with the whole pilot/ship routine. I think you need some sort of reason for the symbiotic partnership to form in the first place, which means detailing the benefit each sides receives from the partnership.

I agree that I need to figure out a reason for the bonding and what benefits each side gets. As a side complication I'd like a human from the real world to somehow wind up transformed into one of these creatures that bond with the fantasy world's people.

Co-supportive rather than parasitic - yeah I want the bond to be positive, although I want it to be slightly unequal so that I can have some of the creatures reasonably arguing that they are better off not bonding to people, and particular people taking their creatures for granted.
 

Polenth

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'Moon of Three Rings' by Andre Norton. It has animal tamers with psychic abilities and an outsider human ending up in the body of one of the animals. It's not the sort of one-on-one bond as the others mentioned, but it's similar territory in terms of story.
 

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"The Ghatti's Tale" author is Gayle Greeno :)
I might know of others but I'm thinking.
 

C.M. Daniels

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The Children Star by Joan Slonczewski. One of the elements of the story is how people on a planet adapt to the sentient microorganisms that have moved into their bodies.
 
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