I’ve become a fan of your plurality essays. Interesting and thought-provoking stuff.
I honestly don’t think I would be able to handle the bookend headmate relationship for a lot of the reasons you’ve discussed. It sounds way too intense, plus Edward would be highly suspicious (I’ll get into that in a bit). I realize that we’re incredibly lucky in that the soulbonds here tend to stay in contact with their loved ones or are still involved with their own lives in some way. It’s also not uncommon for said loved ones to visit the headspace here.
It reminds me that our Ed and Al have a somewhat unique situation. I’m not sure how familiar you are with Fullmetal Alchemist (particularly the anime series released in 2003), but the FMA film Conqueror of Shamballa is essentially the process in which Ed and Al are cast out of Amestris and end up trapped in a parallel world that resembles pre-WWII Europe. The scene right before the end credits is where Ed says that this strange land is their home now, and despite missing their loved ones in Amestris, obsessing over the loss or “chasing a dream” of returning home would only cause suffering. So right away the Edward Elric soulbond I know had processed this lesson by the time I met him, as it exists as a major theme within his canon. He still misses his mother, Winry and Granny Pinako, his teacher, his coworkers from the military, etc., but all of that is a sort of previous life he knows he cannot recreate. The best he can do is cherish the memories. In recent years, he has said things like, “I miss them, but…I’ve changed.”
So now he applies this lesson to how he interacts with this world. After I became active in the soulbonding/plural communities, Ed heard about bookend headmates and soulbonds traveling between headspaces, and immediately he said, “If anyone in this world claims that they have a headmate who knows me or Al, do not trust them.” Initially, I thought he was overreacting (which is something that he does occasionally), but it has become clear to me that if he wanted to contact people from his original homeworld (Amestris), he would prefer to do the work himself. I think it’s a combination of his backstory and his tendency to be guarded against people who are super eager to get involved with us.
All of that said, he has his brother Al, at least. I’ve also read several stories of FMA soulbonds and kin who struggle with this topic, and I can’t help but be heartbroken about their loneliness. For my own part, I must remember that this is not something I can magically fix.
You’ve briefly mentioned how fictives handle celebrity (and Edward Elric is well-known amongst anime fans), but that is the topic of a post I’m planning to write in the near future.
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I honestly don’t think I would be able to handle the bookend headmate relationship for a lot of the reasons you’ve discussed. It sounds way too intense, plus Edward would be highly suspicious (I’ll get into that in a bit). I realize that we’re incredibly lucky in that the soulbonds here tend to stay in contact with their loved ones or are still involved with their own lives in some way. It’s also not uncommon for said loved ones to visit the headspace here.
It reminds me that our Ed and Al have a somewhat unique situation. I’m not sure how familiar you are with Fullmetal Alchemist (particularly the anime series released in 2003), but the FMA film Conqueror of Shamballa is essentially the process in which Ed and Al are cast out of Amestris and end up trapped in a parallel world that resembles pre-WWII Europe. The scene right before the end credits is where Ed says that this strange land is their home now, and despite missing their loved ones in Amestris, obsessing over the loss or “chasing a dream” of returning home would only cause suffering. So right away the Edward Elric soulbond I know had processed this lesson by the time I met him, as it exists as a major theme within his canon. He still misses his mother, Winry and Granny Pinako, his teacher, his coworkers from the military, etc., but all of that is a sort of previous life he knows he cannot recreate. The best he can do is cherish the memories. In recent years, he has said things like, “I miss them, but…I’ve changed.”
So now he applies this lesson to how he interacts with this world. After I became active in the soulbonding/plural communities, Ed heard about bookend headmates and soulbonds traveling between headspaces, and immediately he said, “If anyone in this world claims that they have a headmate who knows me or Al, do not trust them.” Initially, I thought he was overreacting (which is something that he does occasionally), but it has become clear to me that if he wanted to contact people from his original homeworld (Amestris), he would prefer to do the work himself. I think it’s a combination of his backstory and his tendency to be guarded against people who are super eager to get involved with us.
All of that said, he has his brother Al, at least. I’ve also read several stories of FMA soulbonds and kin who struggle with this topic, and I can’t help but be heartbroken about their loneliness. For my own part, I must remember that this is not something I can magically fix.
You’ve briefly mentioned how fictives handle celebrity (and Edward Elric is well-known amongst anime fans), but that is the topic of a post I’m planning to write in the near future.