Stealth Mentor: Difference between revisions

 

A lighter variant is the parent who encourages a romance by pretending to [[Parental Marriage Veto|vociferously oppose it]], as Prospero does in Shakespeare's ''The Tempest''.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Some fans of [[Ranma One Half]] might argue that Genma Saotome is one of these who hasn't gotten around to the "big reveal yet", claiming that his various "mistakes" (which include getting his son a [[Gender Bender]] [[Curse]] while under a [[Seppuku]] contract binding him to [[I Want to Be A Real Man|be a paragon of manliness]] and trapping him as part of a [[Love Dodecahedron]]) are actually very (very) tough love training exercises intended to teach Ranma more cerebral skills. Many more fans, however, would claim that Genma is just a short-sighted, impatient, impulsive, greedy nitwit of a [[Sink or Swim Mentor]] who just so happens to have a student that's learned to thrive on [[Training From Hell]] and is a born prodigy at [[Martial Arts and Crafts]].

* {{spoiler|[[Aloof Big Brother|Itachi Uchiha]]}} is/was apparently one for Sasuke Uchiha {{spoiler|and Naruto Uzumaki himself}} in ''[[Naruto]]''. He made Sasuke hate him so much that he would spend his entire life training to get strong enough to kill him, and {{spoiler|upon his death}} transferred his strongest techniques to him to protect him {{spoiler|from Madara.}} His methods were a little [[Mind Rape|harsher]] than most of the examples on this page, but he got the job done...

** {{spoiler|Things didn't go quite as planned with Naruto either. Turns out Itachi had entrusted him with an emergency genjutsu that would stop Sasuke in the event he attacked Konoha. It ended up being inadvertently used instead to free a revived Itachi from [[Necromancer|Kabuto's]] control. At least Itachi came clean about his intentions after that, though.}}

* The 'Lost Episode' of ''[[Love Hina]]'' reveals that Mokoto's older sister uses this: Initially, she appears to be downright antagonistic and unreasonable, but towards the end it's revealed that she's really just doing it to force Mokoto to grow stronger.

* During the Bount arc of ''[[Bleach]]'' {{spoiler|Urahara constructs three modsouls and has them torment the main cast to prepare them for the appearance of the Bount.}}

** Also, {{spoiler|Isshin}}, who's been teaching Ichigo his honor code and how to fight for years under the guise of being completely and violently insane.

* ''[[G Gundam]]'': {{spoiler|Master Asia is a very fitting example, Scharz Bruder probably qualifies as well, though he is hardly an antagonist most of the time.}}

* In the 2003 ''[[Astro Boy (Anime)|Astro Boy]]'' anime, [[Mad Scientist]] Dr. Tenma creates a series of ever-stronger robots to push his estranged "[[Replacement Goldfish|son]]" to his physical and ethical limits, in order to make Astro into a worthy [[We Can Rule Together|ruler]] for robot-kind.

* If the fifth arc is to be believed, {{spoiler|Beatrice}} has acted out this role for Battler in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]]''.

* Scavenger takes this role in ''[[Transformers Armada]]'': while undercover among the Decepticons, he puts on a big show of taunting Hot Shot for the latter's lack of skill. This turns out to be a way to sneak him some combat tips.

* Meta Knight in the [[Kirby]] [[Kirby of the Stars|anime]] counted as this early on (before he revealed himself to be good, of course), and was only working for King Dedede to stop the monsters ordered from Nightmare Enterprises/Holy Nightmare Company while keeping on the king's good side. Once Kirby came into the picture, Meta Knight also ended up training him. Of course, King Dedede was so stupid he didn't figure it out, even after [[The Reveal]].

 

* Albedo in ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'' {{spoiler|put Jr. (aka Rubedo) through all sorts of hell in order to force him to deal with and resolve his emotional issues and mend their tortured relationship. Though by mend, Albedo meant "provoke Jr. into killing him", since Albedo is otherwise immortal and Jr. is his only anti-existence. He basically spends the majority of ''Episodes I'' & ''II'' teaching Jr. exactly how to kill him, then prodding into a place where he's mentally-ready to kill him. And then with his dying breath he pretty much tells Jr. to go use what he's taught him against the ''real'' bad guys}}. Ah, brotherly love.

* In ''[[Castlevania Lords of Shadow]]'' {{spoiler|the Old God Pan}}, after aiding you throughout the game {{spoiler|suddenly attacks you at the gates of the Land of the Dead. Throughout the battle he tests Gabriel's prowess and shows him the proper way to fight against another wielder of Light and Shadow Magic.}} All so that Gabriel will be prepared to face the true [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|[[Satan]]}}.

* In Westwood Studio's 1997 game based on the film ''[[Blade Runner (Film)|Blade Runner]]'', Graf acts as one to the protagonist Ray McCoy.