History Main / StealthMentor

* ''{{Infamous}}'': As it would turn out, big bad Kessler was actually [[spoiler:Cole, who travelled back in time to prepare his younger self to fight an even worse villain in the future, he does this by destroying his own home city, killing the younger version of his own wife/Cole's girlfriend, and making Cole fight several post-apocalyptic factions]].

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Team Red Team]]

* It's speculated thatthis was the crux of Gendo's plan in NeonGenesisEvangelion : get Shinji to hate him so he can synchronize with Unit 01. Of course, this i heavily debated, given that much is left ambiguous by the MindScrew. A much straighter example is in RebuildOfEvangelion, as can be seen on the HighOctaneNightmareFuel for that movie.

* It's speculated thatthis was the crux of Gendo's plan in NeonGenesisEvangelion : get Shinji to hate him so he can synchronize with Unit 01. Of course, this i heavily debated, given that much is left ambiguous by the MindScrew. A much straighter example is in RebuildOfEvangelion, ascan be sen on the HighOctaneNightmareFuel for that movie.

* Meta Knight in the ''{{Kirby}}'' anime counted as this early on (before he revealed himself, 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.

->"And he said: 'Son, this world is rough/And if a man's gotta make it, he's gotta be tough/And I knew I wouldn't be there to help you along/So I give you that name and I said goodbye/I knew you'd have to get tough or die/And it's that name that helped to make you strong.'"

->"And he said: 'Son, this world is rough/And if a man's gotta make it, he's gotta be tough/And I knew I wouldn't be there to help you along/So I give you that name and I said goodbye/I knew you'd have to get tough or die/And it's that name that helped to make you strong."

* Dimentio in ''Super PaperMario''. His early monologues and actions reveal that he is trying to secretly help Mario and the other heroes become stronger in order to defeat BigBad Count Bleck. His motives, however, are less than pleasant. (Unfortunately, this is undermined by the same scene in which he pulls [[TheReveal The (fake) Reveal]] on the heroes. After explaining his intent to defeat Bleck, he asks them for their help. Agreeing repeatedly results in a NonstandardGameOver. Oops.)

* Mr. Miyagi's "training" in ''TheKarateKid''.
** Well, if Mr. Miyagi had called the police or Daniel's father in about the damaged hedges, forced Daniel to do physical labor for a week as recompense, and then revealed the whole thing had been training in blocking technique, I'd agree wholeheartedly. As it is, Miyagi's actions are inscrutable, but neither threatening nor quite villanous... and they come in response to Daniel actually ''asking'' him for training, so there isn't too high a stealth coefficient here. Borderline, though.

* [[spoiler: [[AloofBigBrother Uchiha Itachi]]]] is/was apparently one for Uchiha Sasuke [[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 [[MindRape harsher]] than most of the examples on this page, but he got the job done...

** [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Too bad what Sasuke decided to do with this power, really.]] [[spoiler:As for Naruto it is still unknown.]]

* [[spoiler: [[AloofBigBrother Uchiha Itachi]]]] is/was apparently one for Uchiha Sasuke 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 [[MindRape harsher]] than most of the examples on this page, but he got the job done...
** [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Too bad what Sasuke decided to do with this power, really.]]

** Which, invisibility or whacking Peter with a broomstick?
*** Yes.

* In ''SoulEater'' Dr. Stein is originally posed as a villain who resserected thier teacher, Sid, for experimentation. By the end its all made clear that the plot is part of a remedial lesson.

* In ''{{Lunar}} 2'', [[spoiler:Ghaleon]] plays this role. He's unable to directly oppose the BigBad himself because [[spoiler:he died 1000 years earlier, when he was the BigBad of the first game of the series. Zophar's magic restored him to life to act as his [[TheDragon Dragon]], and Zophar can withdraw that magic at any time he chooses, instantly killing Ghaleon. Thus, his only option is to go along with Zophar's plans while providing enough covert training to the heroes that they can defeat his new boss.]] Once the heroes figure out what he's up to, [[spoiler:he admits it, since they're now strong enough, happily fading away to join his long-dead best friend Dyne in death]].

* Amneal/[[spoiler:Professor Banner]] acts this way to Jaden in {{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}, dueling him to test his skill and make sure he's ready for the final battle against Kagemaru. In the dub, Yubel also acts this way to Jaden (in her/his/its own twisted way), believing Jaden tormented Yubel to make her/him/it stronger and doing the same to him. Compared to Amnael, Yubel's mentorship [[BreaktheCutie has]] [[MindRape much]] [[TeachHimAnger more]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide dramatic]] [[FaceHeelTurn consequences]].

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** 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.

* Amneal/[[spoiler:Professor Banner]] acts this way to Jaden in {{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}, dueling him to test his skill and make sure he's ready for the final battle against Kagemaru. In the dub, Yubel also acts this way to Jaden (in her/his/its own twisted way), believing Jaden tormented Yubel to make her/him/it stronger and doing the same to him. Compared to Amnael, Yubel's mentorship [[BreaktheCutie has]] [[MindRape much]] [[TeachHimAnger more]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide dramatic]] [[FaceHeelTurn consequences]].

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* This is allegedly Zoom (the second Reverse Flash)'s modus operandi. He claims that he wants to make the Flash stronger. Mostly he just goes around killing people -- which is, as luck would have it, exactly what his philosophy calls for. Zoom wants to, as he would put it, "make Walllllly abetterhero thrrrrough tragedyyyy", or by forcing him to ''deal with'' tragedy.

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* A short story based on ''MagicTheGathering'' featured a wizard who had fought a battle against another for time immemorial. When his opponent surrenders, he finds out that his opponent was his creator and had merely been training him to fight a battle that the creator found too frightening to even contemplate. The story ends with temporary peace having been found with the creator wizard's destruction, but the creation staring out and waiting for the new host to arrive...

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* ''{{Infamous}}'': As it would turn out, big bad Kessler was actually [[spoiler:Cole, who travelled back in time to prepare his younger self to fight an even worse villain in the future, he does this by destroying his own home city, killing the younger version of his own wife/Cole's girlfriend, and making Cole fight several post-apocalyptic factions]].

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* In ''SparklingGenerationValkyrieYuuki'', [[spoiler:Most of the attacking creatures turned out to have been sent by Odin as tests]].

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* Albedo in ''{{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]]. Ah, brotherly love.

* ''{{Disgaea}}'': Mid-Boss! [[spoiler:Or, rather, King Krichevoshky.]]
* In ''[[{{ptitlefjcz80qe}} Dissidia: Final Fantasy]]'', [[FinalFantasyIV Golbez]] is given this role, because it would be extremely awkward if after all that happened in his original game [[spoiler:about him making peace with Cecil in the end of the game (as well as being revealed as his brother)]], he'd willingly turn his back and smack Cecil around ForTheEvulz. He's also the only villain who has a different 'death' cutscene, in which he doesn't [[EverythingFades vanish with dark energy]], but just retreats.

* In the first ''SuperRobotWars OriginalGeneration'' game, [[spoiler:pretty much ''every'' villain]] is a StealthMentor. In particular, [[LargeHam Sanger Zonvolt]] is particularly unsubtle that this is his plan, to the extent that none of his teammates ever ''really'' think he's betrayed them.

* Protoman in the ''MegaMan'' cartoon might be considered one at few times but it's highly debatable (maybe if it would have been finished one could judge reliably.

* [[HarryPotter Severus Snape]] displays elements of this, hating Harry but ultimately being one of his best teachers. Snape taught Harry how to duel and ''Expelliarmus'', the spell he's "most famous for", saved Harry countless times, gave him the poison lesson that eventually saved Ron's life, ''tried'' to [[TrainingFromHell teach the boy how to block out Voldemort's mental influence]], [[spoiler: which if he hadn't suspected Snape of deliberately weakening him, he wouldn't have fallen for the trap that cost Sirius his life... Damn you, Harry!]], AND even [[spoiler: minutes after killing Dumbledore, he was still telling Harry that his dueling sucked and was still mentally weak]]. Let's not even get into all the things he did in the last book. How could someone be so antagonistic, yet so helpful? [[spoiler: He had the hots for Harry's mom, HATED his dad, and was responsible for both their deaths.]] SoYeah, he was torn.

** 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.