Immortal relationships

16 September 2023

I saw a beautiful meme yesterday that said that from the perspective of a cat or dog, humans are like elves who live for five hundred years and yet aren't afraid to bond with them for their whole life. And it is depicted as beautiful and wholesome.

It's so different from all those stories of immortals, think of Vampires or Highlander or the Sandman, where the immortals get bitter, or live in misery and loss, or become aloof and uncaring about human lives and their short life spans, and where it hurts them more than it does them good.

There seem to be more stories exploring the friendship of immortals with short-lived creatures, be it in Rings of Power with the relationship of Elrond and Durin, be it the relation of Star Trek's Zora with the crew of the Discovery or especially with Craft in the short movie Calypso, or between the Eternal Sersi and Dane Whitman. All these relations seem to be depicted more positively and less tragic.

In my opinion that's a good thing. It highlights the good parts in us that we should aspire to. It shows us what we can be, based in a very common perception, the relationship to our cats and dogs. Stories are magic, in it's truest sense. Stories have an influence on the world, they help us understand the world, imagine the impact we can have, explore us who we can be. That's why I'm happy to see these more positive takes on that trope compared to the tragic takes of the past.

(I don't know if any of this is true. I think it would require at least some work to actually capture instances of such stories, classify and tally them, to see if that really is the case. I'm not claiming I've done that groundwork, but just capture an observation that I'd like to be true, but can't really vouch for it.)

Simia

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