MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2584 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Re: LifeBonds by "Layla Voll" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 00:42:41 From: "Layla Voll" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: LifeBonds Message-ID: Angie writes: >... lifebonds occur because of a need to keep each other balanced >especially if they have a Gift that could cause a lot of damage if left >unchecked. Because without their lifebonded they could lose control(such as >Lavan and Kalira) or they have such volatile personalities that they could >become suicidal and such. and Li'nia Stormdancer writes: >one reason for the LifeBond is to help two beings find a >balance between themselves. and Barbara writes: >The next thing I got, I think from Brightly Burning.... is that a LifeBond >usually occurs when one person with an exceptionally strong Gift needs help >to cope with that Gift- Elspeth being the first of the New Herald-Mages, >Lavan being the Firestarter, Vanyel being >the Last Herald-Mage, etc. All of this is very interesting, and it ties into something that I've been thinking about recently: Selenay's stability. A number of the lifebonds are the kind that are meant to stabilize someone with a strong Gift (Lavan/Kalira, Vanyel/Tylendal). The other ones we see are meant to stabilize someone (or two people) who by themselves are insecure and perhaps unstable (Talia/Dirk, Keren/Ylsa/Sherrill). Which leads me to believe that Selenay is not as calm and centered as she might appear. I've been thinking about it, and most of her formative relationships end somewhat suddenly and disastrously. Her father dies suddenly and unexpectedly, while she's on her intership year. We hear very little about her mother, but there's every indication that she died when Selenay was pretty young (before they could have The Talk about boys, for instance). She herself says that she always felt that she and Talamir were reaching out across a gulf of years, never quite connecting. Her first husband, whom she loved very much, turns out to be a deceitful, cruel man who tries to kill her, and her marriage to him sows the seeds for all kinds of treachery and sedition. She botches her relationship with her only child, and needs Talia to rebuild it for her. Talia herself, her second Queen's Own, is a girl that she likes very much, but is, all during Arrows, still a child who has plenty of her own problems. What I mean is this: I imagine that Selenay might feel immensely insecure about her judgement on a personal level, and very little faith in her own feelings, which is why an apparently stable person like herself might need the added assistance of an affirmed lifebond to reassure her that, yes, this time she was making the right decision in marrying Daren. By the way: Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy is being re-released right now in a special anniversary edition (read: more expensive). However, I would also say that it is absolutely worth it: these are some of the few books that I re-read on a regular basis. Although I tend to reread them backwards. Layla _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2584 **********************************