Evil Mentor: Difference between revisions

[[The Hero]], or a member of the [[Five-Man Band|heroic band]], finds a [[Mentor]] with new secret techniques to teach. The student eagerly signs on, only to learn later that there's a catch—the mentor is evil, has a hidden agenda of his or her own, and those new abilities are seriously nasty (though certainly not [[Useless Superpowers|useless]]). The student may feel [[My God, What Have I Done?|"soiled"]] by having learned these [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|techniques]] and might swear off ever using them again, or they might have to [[Evil Feels Good|wrestle with temptation]] against using them regularly. Of course, the audience fully expects that there will come a time of great need, and [[Chekhov's Skill|out will come the evil technique]] because [[It's the Only Way]].

 

 

The Evil Mentor's motivation for this are similar to those of an [[Old Master]], but with a [[Zen Survivor]]'s more elitist air: they're looking for someone to carry on their legacy, warts and all, and usually ''against'' the pupil's wishes because only ''they'' are "worthy enough" to learn it. This usually entails actively [[More Than Mind Control|corrupting the hero]], not just to spread evil and [[Fallen Hero|deny good a powerful champion]], but also netting him a personal [[The Dragon|Dragon]]. The Evil Mentor is also patient enough to wait, hoping that if attempts to actively corrupt fail at forcing a [[Face Heel Turn]], then more passive temptation will do their work for them. Also, people who easily [[Face Heel Turn]] also easily [[Heel Face Turn]]. If you want quality in your minion, do it the long way.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' plays a lot with this one, with Negi becoming apprentice to Evangeline, who holds a reputation as the most powerful, evil, undead vampire mage alive. Negi is fully aware of this, but trains with her anyway after deciding that [[Anti-Villain|she's not really]] ''[[Anti-Villain|that]]'' [[Anti-Villain|evil]]. And he seems to be right, regardless of [[Noble Demon|how evil she claims to be.]]

** Her case for villainy is definitely not helped by the fact that, aside from one or two [[Hannibal Lecture]]s and an [[The Vamp|attempted seduction]], her most evil deeds have been being a [[Clingy Jealous Girl]] and [[Sink or Swim Mentor]]-ness.

* [[Code Geass]] R2 has Schneizel El Britannia playing this role, towards {{spoiler|Nina Einstein.}}

* Makoto Shishio from [[Rurouni Kenshin]], towards Soujirou Seta. And even ''then'', he was kinder towards Soujirou [[Abusive Parents|than his abusive stepsiblings]] [[The Unfavorite|ever were to him]].

* The wolf becomes this to Chirin near the end of ''[[Chirin no Suzu]]''.

* In the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', Gozaburo Kaiba was this to Seto, at least in his own mind. While he was exceptionally harsh and strict to young Seto - and even abusive at times - he was trying to mold Seto into the ruthless tycoon that he was, devoid of emotion and able to continue his military firm. Ironically, this was Gozaburo's undoing. He specifically told Seto that to succeed, he could not trust anyone, not even him, and while Seto grew to despise Gozaburo, that was a lesson he learned only too well, using it [[Deceptive Disciple|to take over KaibaCorp in a hostile takeover]] and once in charge, proceed to destroy his adoptive father's life's work.

* Divine from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]''. As leader of the Arcadia Movement, he told his students (such as Aki) that he was trying to help them control their [[Psychic Powers]]. Truthfully, he was purposely making them even ''more'' destructive, hoping to mold them into an army of psychic assassins.

* Sora becomes this to Zuzu in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V]]'', although at the time, Sora is still [[Evil All Along|hiding his true nature.]]

 

== Comic Books ==

** The ''Heart of Hush'' storyline revealed that twenty years ago Scarecrow played this to a young Tommy Elliot - better known as [[Manipulative Bastard|Hush]].

* The Taskmaster is a Marvel villain who does this ''professionally''. Occasionally working for [[The Red Skull]], he hires himself out to train mercenaries and super-villains; while some of his students have become successful super-villains - or even heroes, more or less - in their own right; examples include Crossbones and Cutthroat (also henchmen of the Skull), U.S. Agent, Hauptmann Deutschland, Diamondback, Spymaster, the original Spider-Woman, and Agent X. Most of the time, however, he just trains thugs to be low-rent henchmen and cannon fodder. When working for the Red Skull, he can often cross the line to [[Treacherous Advisor]] at times, in one case sending the more disappointing ones to be "sparring partners" for his boss, which was a death sentence. On his own, he's more by-the-book, in case one hiring other super-villains to form formal academies, like the time Anaconda worked for him as a calisthenics instructor.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

 

 

* Pai Mei to the Bride in ''[[Kill Bill]]''.

* A common interpretation of [[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lector]] is that, in at least his own mind, he is this to Clarice Starling.

 

== Literature ==

** Interestingly played with in ''[[Outbound Flight]]'', with Jorus C'baoth ([[Cloning Gambit|the original]]) and his interest in the fourteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker. The original C'baoth had a superiority complex and beliefs [[In the Blood|much like his clone's]], though slightly less obvious. Obi-Wan is uneasy about this. Anakin, in some of the most subtle this-kid-isn't-gonna-turn-out-right characterization in or out of the [[Expanded Universe]], thinks that C'baoth is awesome. He solves things so ''quickly'', and he doesn't take nonsense from anyone.

* ''The Return of the Home Run Kid'' by Matt Christopher (sequel to ''The Kid Who Only Hit Homers'') is essentially the G-rated version of this. The mentor is a former baseball player kicked out for betting against his own team, and he teaches the main character tricks like how to fake getting hit by a pitch. (It's not entirely clear [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|how this is worse]] than cheating through magic in the previous book, but it's pretty clear that we're supposed to see this as a negative development.)

** No, he just deceives him. He is an evil mentor however to the last king of Numenor.

** Morgoth was this to Feanor in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', and was reasonably successful until he implied he wanted Feanor's treasure.

* {{spoiler|[[The Master (trope)||Al Mualim]]}} in ''[[Assassin's Creed]].''

* Muttonhead in ''[[Popful Mail]]''. Before he became a notorious criminal, he used to be the mentor of Tatto, one of the heroes.

 

== Webcomics ==

 

== Western Animation ==

{{quote|'''Raven:''' It's dark magic! You've been teaching me dark magic!

'''Malchior:''' Is it dark, or is it simply misunderstood... like you? }}

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Katara meets Hama, a waterbender from their South Pole tribe, who uses her waterbending to take control of other peoples' bodies by "bending" the water inside their blood, and uses this power on innocent people in the Fire Nation town where she lives in revenge for her tribe being imprisoned by the [[The Empire|Fire Nation]]. Katara is horrified and refuses to learn, but in the end must resort to using it on the Evil Mentor in order to save Sokka and Aang. Before being sent away, Hama "congratulates" her for using it and [[Evil Laugh|laughs]]. Katara was understandably upset. Ironically she used it on a Fire Nation soldier whom she thought killed her mother, but she's likely angry at Hama for teaching her bloodbending in the first place.

* Chase Young of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' repeatedly tries to recruit Omi as his apprentice {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn|and he succeeds]]}}.

* Marathon loves this one. Diana Lombard had an evil mentor in ''[[Martin Mystery]]'' {{spoiler|which ended up with her turned into a [[Cute Monster Girl|lizard-esque creature]]}}, and a minor character became "Admiral Admirable" with the help of one in ''[[Totally Spies!]]!''

* In the finale season ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'', [[Big Bad|V.V. Argost]] offers to teach Zak how to control his {{spoiler|Kur}} powers. Being Argost, he admits to Zak right at the start that he intends to kill him in the end and {{spoiler|take his Kur Powers for himself}}. And Zak still accepts...

* In ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', Eddy acts as a downplated example to Jimmy, teaching him everything he knew about scams - enough for Jimmy to use against the Eds and one up them at least twice. {{spoiler|Eddy's Brother was also this to Eddy}}.

* In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' (and its prequel book, ''[[Transformers Exodus]]''), Megatron was this to Optimus Prime back when they were Megatronus and Orion Pax. {{spoiler|Megatron eagerly resumes this role once Optimus loses his memory of having become a Prime.}}

* In ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' the Trope is often lampooned, having Mr. Krabs act like this towards SpongeBob, treating the role of a fry cook as [[Serious Business]]. The episode "Pickles" is a good example.

 

==Real Life==

* Gilles De'Rais was this to [[Joan of Arc]]. While Joan of Arc would go down in history as a Saint, Gilles (the man who trained her combat and military tactics) would go down in history as one of the worst serial killers of all time. Which is kind of ironic in a way.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Mentors]]