Trickster Mentor: Difference between revisions

* Sometimes, the blacksmith Totosai towards ''[[Inuyasha]]''. Though other times Inuyasha just misunderstands what the blacksmith asks of him as training.

* It has been argued that [[Sink or Swim Mentor|Genma Saotome]] and [[Fair Weather Mentor|Happosai]] from ''[[Ranma ½]]'' are this sort of mentor - putting Ranma through humiliation and hell for the express purpose of teaching him to be a superior martial artist. Genma steals Ranma's food? Defense training. Happosai tries to make Ranma wear lingerie? Teaching spiritual detachment. Or it could be that they're both dicks, which is the general view of the other characters.

* [[Boisterous Bruiser|Jack Rakan]] of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' is like this. His training techniques include things like "Make a really ugly face and do 100 punches!" and "Punch me as hard as you can!". Yet, Negi still manages to {{spoiler|learn [[Black Magic]]}} under his guidance.

** It should also be noted that Rakan trains ''himself'' like this, too. After demonstrating said {{spoiler|[[Black Magic]]}}, he reveals he had ''never actually tried it before'', instead just being sure it'd work, and that he {{spoiler|wouldn't be killed as a result of using it}}.

* ''[[Initial D]]'' has Bunta Fujiwara, who secretly trains his son Takumi's road racing skill through years of tofu delivery runs on Mount Akina. And these aren't just any tofu delivery runs; Takumi is also given a cup of water to put in his car's cup holder, and must complete his run without spilling a drop of water. And then in ''Initial D Second Stage'', {{spoiler|Bunta invests in a new engine for the Trueno, but deliberately waits for the Trueno's original engine to break down in the middle of a race so that Takumi would be more accepting of the swap.}}

* The masters of Ryouzanpakou do this to [[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple|Kenichi]] all the time. Their favorite technique is to focus training on one main task that is completely impossible, so that Kenichi will be so focused on that failure that he doesn't notice any of the progress he's made.

** This is ''the'' preferred method of Hayato Furinji (a.k.a. The Elder). Akisame also often uses it. Other masters not so often, especially not Apachai who teaches ''very directly''.

* In ''[[The Grifters]]'', Roy Dillon (John Cusack) finds a [[Con Man]] and asks to be taught how to be a grifter. The man agrees and gives him some advice. At the end of their conversation the man asks Dillon for $10. After Dillon gives it to him, the man says "Come around tomorrow, I'll take you again."

* "The Old Man", of ''[[The Golden Child]]'', played by none other than Victor Wong, who would later go on to play Egg Chen in ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]''. His first appearance to Eddie Murphy's Chandler Jarrell has him pretending to be a Tibetan street vendor selling junk jewelry, and scamming Jarrell out of money as a [[Secret Test of Character]].

** "If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball!"

* Buddy in ''[[Anger Management]]''.

[[Category:Cryptic Conversation]]

[[Category:The Trickster]]