Mentor Ship

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

When The Hero (or sometimes another member of the cast) has a very close and intimate relationship with their mentor, especially if it's a Sexy Mentor, they might have very hot chemistry together, and Shipping ensues. This can be greatly helped by a Hands-On Approach.

Depending on the characters' respective age, this could be a popular pairing or a No Yay for the majority of the fandom.

Subtrope of Unequal Pairing. See also Merlin and Nimue, Hot for Student.

Examples of Mentor Ship include:


Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Maybe you've heard of a book called Seduction of the Innocent.
  • When introduced, Mia Dearden (the new Speedy) had a fairly obvious crush on her mentor Green Arrow. And on his son, Green Arrow.
  • It's a fairly common plot device in comics when a hero and a sidekick are opposite genders. During Nightwing's fake Face Heel Turn, Ravager had a crush on him, and in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Strikes Again", Catgirl and Batman ended up with some very romantic undertones.
  • Wolverine and his young female sidekicks. They aren't particularly rare ships...

Film

  • In Star Wars both Qui Gon Jin/Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan/Anakin have big followings. Their playful banter makes it very easy to see as either a father/son relationship, or this. In the Revenge of the Sith Novelization, Obi-Wan and Anakin are specifically and repeatedly stated to love each other dearly, to the point where Anakin actually has to hesitate when choosing if he loves his wife more.

"We have to stop seeing each other like this."
"I know."

"It's just so wrong, but I can't help it."
—Fate of the Jedi: Allies
  • Alfredo Linguini and his assigned haute cuisine mentor Colette Tatou in Ratatouille.
  • In Star Trek fandom, Pike/Kirk is quite popular. The interesting thing is that while Pike is Kirk's mentor in the film, he was actually Spock's mentor in TOS.
    • In the Star Trek the Original Series episode "The Menagerie", Spock willingly risked the death penalty to save Pike. One could build a case that this was out of more than pure loyalty.
  • 2 x 5 of Shane Acker's 9, anyone?

Literature

  • Harry and Dumbledore. Even Rita Skeeter thought so.
    • When you think about it, in book six, you felt it was a good thing Harry was a boy, because else, what would people have said about all the time they spend together. Then Word of Gay came... Of course we actually see Harry and Dumbledore's interactions and know it is entirely appropriate.
  • Lucy Maud Montgomery (of Anne of Green Gables fame) once wrote a story about this. So Guy A and Guy B are competing over the same woman. Guy A loses and goes away. Guy B and the woman get married, have a daughter, then the father dies. Guy A assumes godfather responsiblities for the daughter, but they fall in love. Guy A didn't want to, in fact he tried to set up his nephew with the girl, but apparently True Love conquers all, even in 19th century Canada.
  • Tamora Pierce seems to be fond of this one. Daine and Numair from the Immortals quartet are the most obvious examples.
  • The Dresden Files:
    • Donald Morgan and Anastasia Luccio are a canonical (if one-sided) example.
    • From the same (and equally one-sided), Molly and Harry. Although Harry has been under the impression that Molly's feelings were a passing adolescent crush, Susan has pointed out that Molly is genuinely in love with Harry. Harry's self-conscious awareness of Molly's attractiveness makes it all the more awkward (and imply that the ship isn't quite out of the question, either).
      • Especially, considering how long wizards live. When Molly is 40, Harry will probably have fewer issues with the fact that he taught her when she was a teenager.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, Petyr Baelish is probably hoping for things to turn out this way between him and his daughter Alayne trainee Sansa, and a good chunk of the fandom would be happy to see it as well. The rest of the fandom is too Squick'd out by his clear transference of affection for Catelyn onto her daughter, not to mention him being her uncle, semi-adoptive father, and twice her age.
  • In Havemercy, the world-weary exile Royston tries very, very hard to fight his feelings for Hal, an innocent young country boy whose interest in literature Royston fosters and promotes. He fails. But Hal doesn't mind in the slightest.
  • A lot of fans of Mistborn read a lot of subtext in Kelsier's relationship with Vin, a fact which was referenced and denied by Vin in the second book. However, Word of God says she probably did have a crush on him, even though he saw her as more of a daughter.
  • In Vampire Academy, the main ship is this trope exasctly.
  • Kvothe has a brief and non-romantic affair with his mentor in The Wise Man's Fear.
  • In Warrior Cats, Cherrytail has the kits of her mentor Sharpclaw.

Live Action TV

  • In Doctor Who The Doctor and any number of Companions.
  • Giles/Buffy had a number of followers. In fandom. The two times someone (a werewolf hunter and Spike) suggested such a thing on the show, Buffy was Squicked. As was Giles in the first instance. He wasn't there in the second.
    • Giles/Willow also had followers. In one scene in the episode "Faith, Hope, & Trick", when Faith describes Giles as cute, Willow has an impish grin on her face.
      • Willow says she used to have a crush on him in "Where The Wild Things Are"
  • "Young, ingénue" Dr. Cameron's crush on her "gruff, older mentor" Dr. House.
  • The Middleman:
    • There is a sizable portion of the fandom who ship the Middleman and Wendy, his protégé. Their relationship is more of a partners dynamic than a boss-employee one, but Wendy has said that since her father's disappearance, the Middleman is the closest thing she's had to a father.
    • In the Episode 13 comic, it is revealed that the love of the Middleman's life was his Middlewoman, Raveena Rao.
  • In NCIS:
    • Gibbs mentored Jenny Shepard in their early days at NCIS; they later became partners. She vanished for about a decade, and then turned up as Director in the beginning of season three, neatly reversing the dynamic (as there is still plenty of UST there).
    • Tony's rather glaring puppy-like devotion to Gibbs. It doesn't help that nobody else can control him.
      • Now that we've met Tony's playboy father it's more explicit Tony and Gibbs is more Tony DESPERATE for a "Well Done, Son" Guy from SOMEONE vaguely parental.
  • Firefly has a substantial River/Mal shipping base.
  • Canon example: Ziggy and Doctor K from Power Rangers RPM, although the mentor (K) is actually younger than the Ranger.
  • Jesse and Shelby from Glee could also count. That hug at the end of Regionals...and the hand-holding...and the kiss on the cheek. And, oh yeah, he helped her find her biological daughter and all that.
    • Also seems to be heading this way in regards to Kurt and Blaine. They're both very gay, and Blaine IS Kurt's Sexy Mentor / Big Brother Mentor...
    • Kurt/Blaine is canon as of 2.16 - but by this point, it's not really a Mentor Ship, they're on pretty equal footing.
  • Michael and Nikita from Nikita, due to the uncontrollably large amount of Unresolved Sexual Tension between them that eventually culminates in a Relationship Upgrade after "Covenants", much to the fans' delight.

Video Games

  • Ace Attorney:
    • Mia Fey and Phoenix Wright. Well, before The Plot Reaper shows up.
    • There's also Mia and her mentor Diego Armando, which is Canon.
    • Not to mention Phoenix and his assistant Maya, which even has an in-game fangirl in the form of Pearl, Maya's cousin. It's probably the most popular het ship in a fandom full of yaoi and yuri.
    • A slightly less popular ship, but Kristoph/Apollo.
  • In Metal Gear, Naked Snake and The Boss.
  • Dynasty Warriors 5 has Zhao Yun and Xing Cai, this troper knows that there ARE fans of this pairing.
  • Final Fantasy IV: The After Years has one between Palom and the Epopt trainee Leonora.
  • Fire Emblem fandom has small followings for these pairings: Saleh/Ewan and Seth/Franz in FE8, Pent/Erk and Marcus/Isadora in FE7, and Cecilia/either Roy or Lilina in FE6.
    • Don't forget Karel/Guy in FE7 and Shinon/Rolf in FE9/10.
    • Or Ike/Titania. On the subject of Roy/Cecilia, this can actually happen in the game if you get them to A level support.
    • There's also Jeorge/Gordin from FE3/FE12.
  • Luke and Van from Tales of the Abyss. Luke and Tear as well. Also Asch and Van.
  • In Breath of Fire 3, there's Ryu and Deis/Bleu (who he's heavily implied to have a crush on). She can also become a mentor that you learn spells from. Canonically, he expresses some of the most romantic interest in her (compared to others) considering how he is through the entire game (including one of the few dialogue choices, where both choices imply his attraction to her). And then there was one of the few instances that he showed extreme emotion, which involved him turning bright red when he first saw her awaken.
  • Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian if Shepard is female. This one's a rare example of the hero being the mentor.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, Lloyd/Raine can be made possible in the sequel.
  • Yuri/Nia in Infinite Space, as Nia taught Yuri many things regarding his life in space. Sadly, it was sunken by the end of Act 1 following Nia's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • In the Metroid series, Samus and her former commanding officer Adam Malcovich, who she considers a father figure (not that they care), is heading into this direction... At least that's better than Samus x Ridley.

Western Animation

Fanfic

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