'''Basic Trope''': A character's mentor/role model doesn't live up to what the protégé placed upon them.
* '''Straight''':
** Bob once taught Chris noble martial arts, and Chris uses his ninja powers to catch Bob committing crimes.
** Alice meets her favorite actor, Benny and becomes disillusioned after discovering he's a huge JerkAss.
* '''Exaggerated''': Bob, once a pacifist and a lover of kittens, has crossed the MoralEventHorizon to become a CompleteMonster, and is barely recognized as Chris' original mentor, such is the atrocity of his crimes.
* '''Downplayed''':
** Chris discovers that his mentor, Bob, has sold out and started churning out useless self-help guides for a quick buck, causing Chris to feel somewhat contemptuous.
** As Chris grows under Bob's tutelage, he loses his starry-eyed admiration and comes to recognize that Bob isn’t an IdealHero. While Chris is naturally disappointed by this, Bob’s flaws aren’t very severe, and Chris recognizes that his mentor is still a good man, just imperfect.
** While Chris didn't like his SinkOrSwimMentor Bob, he begrudgingly respected him for being a powerful and charitable hero. And then Chris finds out that his mentor is a SerialKiller BeneathNotice and all that respect (it's begrudging, but still respect) gets thrown out of the window.
* '''Justified''':
** Bob is just as flawed as anyone else.
** [[FaceHeelTurn Bob was forced into a life of crime due to living in a]] CrapsackWorld.
** Bob's kindly caring mentor persona was simply an act.
** Alice had created an image of Benny based on what's known about him publicly, and had ended up LovingAShadow rather than Benny's actual character.
* '''Inverted''':
** Bob used to train villains to commit crimes, and now does good acts instead.
** Chris is the one who starts committing crimes using the training he got from Bob, [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil to Bob's deep disgust when he finds out]].
* '''Subverted''':
** Chris has misinterpreted Bob's actions; he is in fact a good person.
** Chris turns out to be a bad person himself, and is pleased to find out who Bob really is.
** Chris knew Bob was a terrible person, he valued his lessons but not his character.
** Bob wasn't [[BrainwashedAndCrazy doing those]] [[ForcedIntoEvil things willingly]]. [[BigBad Alice]] has Bob under her command, under duress, and Chris knows it. He's going to save the anger for the ones who did this to Bob.
** Alice finally meets famous actor Benny, and later furiously talks about how much of a jerk he was. It turns out Benny only treated Alice this way because Chris was [[StalkerWithoutACrush relentlessly hounding him]] until he got fed up.
** Bob didn’t do anything particularly bad, Chris just held him to ''very'' high standards. Once Chris understands this, he realizes expecting Bob to meet those standards was very unfair of him.
** RebuiltPedestal
* '''Double Subverted''':
** Then Chris learns about all the [[MoralEventHorizon downright nasty crimes]] Bob has committed.
** That is until Bob fails to live up the VillainousVirtues Chris expected him to have.
** Chris confronts [[BigBad Alice]], whom he blames for Bob's FaceHeelTurn, but it turns out Alice had nothing to do with it. Bob had willingly joined forces with her, then tries to shift all the blame on her to avoid taking responsibility of her actions because he's such a DirtyCoward.
** The reason Benny was so angry Alice was hounding him was because Alice was close to accidentally stumbling upon Bob's crimes, and Benny believed Alice put on an "adoring fangirl" disguise to investigate him.
* '''Parodied''': Chris becomes disillusioned with Bob for [[FelonyMisdemeanor horrendous crimes]] [[ImpossiblyTackyClothes against fashion]].
* '''Zig Zagged''':
** Bob appears to be committing crimes, but then it turns out he has good intentions behind them, according with his original teachings. Then Chris learns this is just a cover-up to commit horrendous acts -- it then transpires someone told him this, and it is a [[BlatantLies blatant lie]].
** Chris catches Bob in a FaceHeelRevolvingDoor.
* '''Averted''':
** Bob has always been the same noble teacher.
** Bob's always been an asshole, especially to Chris [[SadistTeacher and definitely during the time he trained him]]. Even as Bob seeks to stop him, every time he remembers him Bob chooses to do so WartsAndAll.
* '''Enforced''':
** The writers decide Bob needs some CharacterDevelopment.
** The writers believe that HumansAreFlawed and finds Bob to be too unrealistically good, so they make him a secretly villainous character who is just pretending to be virtuous.
* '''Lampshaded''': "You were once the noblest man on Earth, Bob. Now, I can't hold you in the same light I used to. Look at what you've done!"
* '''Invoked''':
** Bob is a GoodIsNotNice SinkOrSwimMentor who needs Chris to fight his own battles and no longer rely on him.
** Bob does not like HeroWorship, so he does his best to ensure Chris won’t develop unrealistic views of his mentor, along with breaking down any that already exist. This results in Chris seeing Bob as a good person who still has flaws instead of an IdealHero, and Bob wouldn't have it any other way.
** Bob's enemies have caught up to him and he needs Chris to be far away when they inevitably kill him. [[ZeroApprovalGambit So he does something to destroy Chris' trust in him so that his apprentice will be safe.]]
* '''Exploited''': Bob decides to go under an alias and commit crimes in another city. The city where Chris is now policing.
* '''Defied''':
** Bob is highly disillusioned by the CrapsackWorld, but decides [[PrinciplesZealot keeping his principles is more important]], especially with all the people he influenced over his life looking up to him.
** Alice decides to never meet her hero Benny, so she won't be disappointed if he turns out to be a jerkass.
** Alice never had Bob on a pedestal to begin with, so he never disillusions her.
** There is literally nothing Bob can do or that other people will point out to Chris, no matter how awful or even horrifying, that will destroy the pedestal Chris has built.
* '''Implied''': Chris is glad to welcome Bob into his hometown one day. A few days later, however, Bob has [[PersonaNonGrata been banned]] from Chris' hometown.
* '''Discussed''': "That Bob has started [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking beating up pensioners, raping kittens, and littering]] -- how long before Chris finds him, and loses all faith in him?"
* '''Conversed''': "Chris is going to be so pissed when he finds Bob doing all this stuff."
* '''Deconstructed''':
** Chris finally realizes that Bob was always a simple asshole instead of the KnightInSourArmor he always thought he was; it's just that he (and Bob) have never let himself admit it.
** Bob is a fundamentally decent person who also has flaws and vices just like everyone else, but Chris sees him as TheParagon, holding Bob to an unrealistic standard of behavior which he’s never pretended to meet. When these illusions are finally shattered and Chris tells Bob [[DisappointedInYou how disappointed he is]], Bob [[WhatTheHellHero calls Chris out]] not just for holding such delusional standards in the first place, but also for arrogantly thinking he has the right to demand Bob meet them. Rather than plucking at the audience’s heartstrings, the scene reveals Chris’ behavior for the petulance that it is.
* '''Reconstructed''':
** Chris takes strength from his original teachings, and they allow him to call out his ex-mentor for his descent into villainy.
** Chris realizes that what Bob does doesn't really matter as long as Chris is still a good person.
* '''Played For Laughs''': Chris becomes disillusioned after finding out that his instructor, Bob, who used to be admired for his martial arts skills, is now a nobody working in a low income job.
* '''Played For Drama''':
** Chris faces off against Bob in a climactic battle using everything he learned from him in order to win, [[VillainousBSOD causing a defeated Bob to regret how]] [[GoneHorriblyRight teaching Chris]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard led to his own downfall.]] It seems the student really ''has'' SurpassedTheTeacher.
** Chris [[IRejectYourReality goes through some serious denial]] of Bob's vileness and it doesn't looks [[SanitySlippage like it will end well]] long before it actually does.
* '''Played For Horror''':
** Chris discovers Bob is a cannibalistic SerialKiller and many of the odd things that happened during Chris' training were caused by Bob's spree, not to mention that there were many times Bob felt the desire to turn Chris into one of his victims.
** Chris is so determined to keep Bob on that pedestal that he kills all that try to destroy it, [[LoonyFan even Bob himself]].
* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': When Chris encounters Bob after twenty years and there seems to be something weird going on that Bob is directly involved in, everybody else in the cast expects the "mentor gone evil" revelation to occur. Turns out the odd things Bob has done since he appeared are the result of harmless vices and the "Bob is a hitman for TheCartel" part of the revelation turns out to be [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood a huge misunderstanding]].
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A true Troper would use the link back to BrokenPedestal. You taught me that. So... why? Why did you go back through the top?
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