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Follow TV Tropes

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

Following

Mentor Ship

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When a character has a very close and intimate relationship with their 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, but it could just as easily be a No Yay. It is more likely to happen if it involves a Sexy Mentor.

Subtrope of Unequal Pairing. Teacher/Student Romance is for the canon version. See also Merlin and Nimue and Lover and Beloved.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Nanoha and Subaru from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, thanks to the latter's squeeing and blushing over the former.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka has an insane crush on her first guardian Kaji. Then there's the interesting relationship between Shinji and his trainer/captain/guardian Misato... and implied relationship between Rei and her boss Gendo... On second thought, let's not get into this.
    • Maya's crush on Ritsuko.
      • And Fuyutsuki's feelings for his former intern Yui.
  • Bleach: Yoruichi has been the Sexy Mentor for Byakuya, Soifon and Ichigo. Byakuya and Ichigo were equally horrified by her teasing personality whereas Soifon comically adored the attention. The fandom adores all three examples.
  • D.Gray-Man:
    • If For can count as Allen's mentor (at least for that section where they were sparring together every single day), their relationship is definitely shipped by quite a few fans. Quite a bit of their chemistry was obviously on purpose, however, including a rather tender moment where she acts like a very shy and flustered Tsundere around him. And then there's how the dialogue and actions of her Heroic Sacrifice played it like they were lovers...
    • There's also General Cross and Allen, but considering that Cross is a Trickster Mentor so tricky that he qualifies Allen for an honorary mention on the page for Abusive Parents, that falls into deeply, deeply creepy areas. If the one scene where he displays parental affection for him qualifies them for a ship, it would be a No Yay one.
  • Guts and Farnese from Berserk. With Farnese crushing majorly on Guts, who is her role model, "savior," and the person who will "guide her." Except... she can't help but feel jealous when Guts has romantic moments with his canon love interest Casca.
  • Hellsing has Alucard/Seras as a popular in the English fandom thanks mostly to the influence of the Gonzo anime that changed the dynamics between Integra, Alucard and Seras and omitted Pip Bernadotte's existence. There's some hints of it in the beginning and towards the end with Alucard's motive to turn her being her eyes reminding him to Integra's when she was younger according to the Word of God, whereas in the original manga there's absolutely nothing to support them as a pair in a romantic or sexual way.
    • In the OVAs, there is actually support for them as a pair, though it's just in the beginning, where Alucard transforms Seras into a vampire and acts like a predator to her... Yes, that kind of predator.
  • Lal Mirch and Tsuna in Reborn! (2004). Of course, since Tsuna is paired with everyone, this should come to little surprise.
    • Though one pairing (which is actually more common) that falls into far creepier areas is Reborn/Tsuna.
    • Dino and Hibari...It doesn't help that their weapons are a whip and a pair of handcuffs respectively, and that their training sessions are always very physical. Make of that what you will.
  • In Full Metal Panic!, there's the shipping of Kalinin with Sousuke. A bit unnerving, considering that he actually held Sousuke when Sousuke was a baby. And he's around 40-50 years old. And he legally adopted Sousuke. But since many people tend to see Ho Yay in close bonds, there's definitely an abundance that can be found between them.
  • In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, it's been revealed Negi's martial arts master, Ku Fei, has grown to like him in that way (this example inverts the implied Unequal Pairing though; Negi rapidly outstrips Ku-Fei in martial arts skill and by the end of the series is hilariously more powerful than her). Eva, his magic training mentor, also frequently seduces him, (or at least tries to), though it's presumably due mostly to his bearing a strong resemblance to the his father, the man she loves. On the flip side, Negi is the teacher of a class of 31 girls, enough of whom have shown interest in him that Chamo-kun keeps a running tally of the various dimensions of their affection for him.
    • Asuna loves Takahata-sensei, whom Negi replaced. His supplanting of Takahata was a major source of tension between Negi and Asuna in the early chapters.
  • In Peacemaker Kurogane, there's the shipping of Tetsunosuke with Hijikata. Looking past the disturbing aspect of how Tetsunosuke looks like he's six years old and Hijikata looks to be in his late 20s-30s, the pairing isn't exactly unfounded. They love digging at each other, and are constantly bickering over petty things. Yet it's made clear that they both have a deep (albeit grudging) affection for each other. It's definitely helped that both are incredibly good looking.
  • In Naruto, Kakashi/Sakura has gained quite a fan following, despite the fact that it has no evidence whatsoever from the manga or anime to support it.
    • To say nothing of the Kakashi/Naruto or the Kakashi/Sasuke shippings.
    • ...or the Gai/Rock Lee, Kurenai/Hinata, and Kurenai/Shikamaru shippings
    • Orochimaru has this with just about everyone of his many disciples. Especially Anko and Kimimaro.
    • Chojuro and Mei Terumi.
    • On the other hand, Neji/Hinata has become this in the moment Neji started mentoring and training her, when she requested him to, right after his Heel–Face Turn. Despite having no support (or slight support, if it's taken into account that Neji seemed to have a child crush on her when they were little) in the official manga, they do have subtext in spin-offs and alternate movies like Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth and Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja.
  • In ×××HOLiC, there's a small but dedicated fan following for the pairing of Yuko and Watanuki. It definitely helps that Watanuki is cute and Yuko is incredibly sexy. And the official art of them together certainly◊ teases◊ at◊ it◊.
    • And CLAMP is certainly making this pairing more and more anvilicious as time goes on, to the point where Haruka pretty much comes out and gives Watanuki a little speech that remarkably resembles an If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... talk ( "If you truly believe you and she will meet again, then you must not do anything that will make her cry."). To this, Watanuki promptly angsts and reminisces over her while saying her name and holding her precious pipe.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: Meta Knight is a mentor to both Kirby and Fumu. Guess what two of the series' most popular ships are.
  • In Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple we have Kenichi and Shigure
  • There are a surprising number of people in Dragon Ball Z fandom who ship Piccolo with Gohan in spite of the fact that Piccolo is an adoptive father to Gohan, not to mention canonically sexless.
  • Maka Albarn of Soul Eater is paired with her teacher (and mad scientist) Dr Stein.
  • Attack on Titan: A very popular ship in the fandom is Erwin/Levi. Erwin is Levi's commanding officer as well as being one of the few people he really trusts - even if none of them display that many outward signs of it.
    • There's also Eren/Annie, though this really only applies to their manga relationship; while they were still implied to be friends in the anime, in the manga Annie actually trains Eren in hand-to-hand combat and is his constant sparring partner. (In the anime, it seems to be limited to Annie demonstrating her signature take-down. Which makes it somewhat less reasonable that Mikasa expects Eren to recognize that the Female Titan has the same fighting style as Annie.)
  • In Kyo Kara Maoh!, Yuuri and his favorite of his mentors, Conrad, have a relationship that can be taken several different ways, but there's enough subtext to make them the most popular ship in the Japanese fanbase. More blatantly, Yuuri's teacher Gunter has an over-the-top one-sided crush on him that is frequently played for laughs.
  • In Little Witch Academia (2017), Akko's fangirling over her idol Shiny Chariot, who is disguised as a teacher in Luna Nova, lead to some people shipping the two.
  • My Hero Academia is no stranger to Teacher X Student, or even Pro Hero x Student ships, given the nature of the show.
  • In Pokémon: The Series, two of the most popular shippings are Advanceshipping and Pearlshipping, that pair Ash Ketchum with May and Dawn, two girls he mentored during his travels. They both get several moments of Ship Tease with him.
  • One of the main premises of The Ancient Magus' Bride to the point that it's not only the main couple that has this dynamic, but a secondary mentor-student pair as well. Although it is one-sided as the mentor in that relationship sees her as a daughter, considering he picked her up when she was 12-13 and suffering from drug withdrawal.

    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.
  • Robin: Due to Tim's frequent absences and missing an entire year of High School, when he returns he's paired with an older student tutor named Zoanne in order for him to be allowed back into class with his own age group. He and Zoanne go on two dates, but Stephanie's return puts an end to any canonical romance between Tim and Zo.
  • Wolverine and his young female sidekicks, particularly Rogue. They aren't particularly rare ships...
    • Although Wolverine/Rogue shipping is mostly due to the first X-Men movie, since in the comics Wolverine tended to mentor Kitty Pryde and Jubilee (the latter being practically defined as a character by her run as Wolvie's sidekick) a lot more and there were few scenes where Rogue appeared in situations that could be interpreted as her acting as his sidekick.

    Fan Works 
  • This Vaarsuvius x Aarindarius fic on the Crack Pairing thread. It's not very happy.
  • Child of the Storm firmly nixes this between Harry and Betsy Braddock when she's teaching him about his Psychic Powers. While it sometimes necessitates a Hands-On Approach, she's relatively young, being in her early 20s, and very attractive (which, to Harry, who's mostly just realising he's attracted to girls, is very distracting), she's also about ten years older than he is. Accordingly, she's very much against it, and as an Ethical Slut, sees the concept as wrong. Instead, she sees him as more of a little brother type figure, and is fondly amused by his earnestness and absolute mortification at his, ahem, thoughts and his crush on her (she grew up with a psychic link to her twin brother, so has pretty much Seen It All), gently teasing him about them, but emphatically no more.
    • In the sequel, a year later (in real time - Harry's body, thanks to a stint in another dimension, has aged 18 months overall), when he looks older than he is (he can usually pass for 18 quite easily) and is starting to actively seek out romance, she steps back on the mentoring precisely because a) she thinks that people will start to get this impression, when that is emphatically not the case, and b) she doesn't want to 'get in his way', so to speak.
  • Miss Alice Band (teacher) and Jocasta Wiggs (former pupil) in a significant strand of Discworld fiction. Although Alice only took Jocasta as both mentoree and lover after she graduated from the School and ceased to be a pupil.
  • TRON: Endgame Scenario: Jet Bradley and Mercury. Complicating matters is that while she is the mentor, he is technically a deity over her (albeit an incredibly reluctant one).
  • For We Should Grow Too Fond Of It (part of the Masterverse) has a Double Subversion: After Admiral Alcott takes Commander Kanril Eleya on as something of a protege, Captain Sandra Pickens asks him out of nowhere if they're sleeping together. Alcott is aghast at the question and points out Kanril is young enough to be his daughter. Satisfied, Sandra, an old shipmate who is nearly his age, propositions him herself.
  • The MLP Loops: Discussed but subverted in Loop 194.5. Twilight herself states that she finds the idea of a romantic relationship between herself and Princess Celestia to be odd, since she normally views Celestia as a second mother to her.

    Films — Animated 
  • Alfredo Linguini and his assigned haute cuisine mentor Colette Tatou in Ratatouille.
  • 2 x 5 of Shane Acker's 9, anyone?

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 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.
  • "Kiss Tahiri for me."—Anakin to Jacen. In Allies, we learn that Jacen obliged, and more.
  • Jaina and Kyp are canon!
"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
  • Kyp Durron. Kyp is regularly described as handsome by everyone, suggesting Stupid Sexy Flanders.
  • Tionne, just because of KJA's Epic Fail in implying Luke's dating her in Young Jedi Knights.
  • Prince Isolder. They were in a polyandrous marriage, and Isolder did reflect on the possibility of Luke having sex with his mom.
  • Callista. Not exactly the mentor part, but fits this in spirit, and is canon.
  • Jem Ysanna, in Dark Empire. Though she was almost immediately assassinated.
  • In some fans' eyes, The New Rebellion suggests this with Brakiss. Certainly Brakiss is obsessively emotional over his old master, with his new master once dryly telling him "You don't hate Skywalker. You hate the way he makes you feel." And Luke does mention finding Brakiss attractive.
  • Looking at the Star Wars EU page for Ho Yay, nearly everyone obsessed with Thrawn is or has, at some point, been his underling and unofficial student.
  • In Star Trek (2009) 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.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: There has been a small, but noticeable increase in "Xavierine" (Xavier/Wolverine◊) shippers thanks to James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman sharing a lot of screentime together. It's a ship that works both ways because Logan counsels the younger Charles in this movie, but Professor X is Wolverine's mentor in the original trilogy.
  • A canon example in A Million Ways to Die in the West, where Anna trains Albert in how to shoot properly.
  • Kill Bill: Bill has struck up relationships with several of the female assassins he's trained, including Elle Driver and the Bride herself.
  • Hannie Caulder: It's implied that Hannie and Price fall in love with each other (see: the scene where they walk on the beach holding hands), Price being the one who teaches Hannie to handle a gun. Price dies before this can go anywhere.

    Literature 
  • Codex Alera touches on this in the first book, with Amara embarrassedly admitting that she had had feelings for her patriserus, Fidelias (who's at least 30 years older than she is), and would have done something if he had ever allowed it. Bernard, who she reveals this to, remarks on the power dynamic and trust, as well as Fidelias' refusal to exploit it - while Fidelias is a traitor and a deadly threat, he can respect that kind of integrity. It helps that he also correctly identifies Fidelias as someone who turned traitor not out of self-interest but genuine belief that it was the right thing to do for the sake of the realm.
  • Harry Potter: None known, but some believe that Harry and Dumbledore were this, with Rita Skeeter happily stirring the pot. 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 that while Dumbledore was teaching him how to defeat Voldemort (which given his age and circumstances is both a tad questionable and entirely necessary) is at least not sexually inappropriate.
  • 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 responsibilities 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. He loved her, but she'd grown past all that by the time he was of an age to express an interest, and when she ended up in a young body thanks to an incident with a body-surfing necromancer, with the attendant sexual interest, he'd modelled himself so much on the all-business person that she had been that he wasn't able to give her what she'd be looking for.
    • Another, equally one-sided, example is 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 (though he does tend to observe that he's someone who can "enjoy the countryside without particularly wanting to go camping in it"), not to mention that she's the daughter of Michael, Harry's best friend. Yet as Murphy points out in Cold Days, with a wizard's lifespan, that age gap is only going to become proportionately smaller, and Harry finally concedes that it isn't out of the question at some point, since enough time has passed in-universe that Molly's an adult, and a peer in magical power.
    • Further events ( Molly becoming the Winter Lady to Harry's Winter Knight, making him her boss) in the same book seem to make it more plausible - however, Harry's problems with authority figures complicate things, as does the effect that their respective Mantles are having on them. Cold Case seems to finally nix this, when it's revealed that being the Winter Lady, Molly Can't Have Sex, Ever, as the Mantle can't risk her becoming a mother (which would destroy it), meaning it will override her and lash out violently at whoever she's having sex with.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, Petyr Baelish is hoping for things to turn out this way between him and his trainee Sansa, and a small 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 his childhood crush Catelyn onto her daughter, not to mention him being her uncle by (a short-lasting) marriage, posing as her father, and twice her age. Plus his being partially responsible for her father's death, a resultant nationwide civil war, and numerous other murders, as well as Jeyne Poole's terrible fate.
  • 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, Rose and Dimitri are this trope. He returns Rose's feelings, but doesn't act on them because she's a minor. (And they're both Lissa's bodyguards- he and Rose becoming a couple would interfere with their duty to protect Lissa.) The first book's Big Bad actually taunts him about this. They eventually become a couple and earn their happy ending years after that. An unusually realistic example in that both characters act their age, and have arguments based on this.
  • Kvothe has a brief and platonic affair with his mentor in The Wise Man's Fear.
  • In Warrior Cats, Cherrytail has the kits of her mentor Sharpclaw, though this is long after she becomes a warrior and is no longer mentored by him.
  • In Elminster: The Making of a Mage Elminster and his teacher Myrjala Darkeyes end up in a relationship after she comes after him and rescues him from a more experienced wizard. This relationship continues for a short time after he finds out she's really an avatar of the goddess of magic.
  • In Home from the Sea, Mari Prothero falls in love with the Selch man sent to be her magic teacher instead of the four men sent to court her.
  • In The Lark and the Wren, Rune/Lark gradually falls in love with Talaysen/Wren, the head and founder of the Free Bards, after he becomes her teacher/mentor.
  • Dreamblood Duology: In The Shadowed Sun, Hanani's perspective reveals that everyone thinks Ehiru and Nijiri were lovers. Considering Nijiri is truly in love with his mentor Ehiru during The Killing Moon and is doing his utmost to make the latter understand that without outright confessing, that's not too far off, but Ehiru never sees Nijiri as more than his apprentice whom he is very fond of.
  • A big source of angst for Seregil in the second book of the Nightrunner seriesnote , as he falls in love with his at this point probably 17-year-old thieving/spycraft apprentice Alec (whom he even introduced to society as his ward as part of their cover identities). He keeps his feelings to himself for many months precisely because he knows it would be an Unequal Pairing and he fears "corrupting" the youth the same way he was corrupted as a boy by a near-adult older "friend". It doesn't help that Seregil is also about 40 years older than Alec, and has spent all that time sexually active, even if his own people would still not consider him quite old enough to marry at 58, while Alec is still near-virginal and apparently never had a sexual thought until that year.note  However, this being a pseudo-medieval High Fantasy setting, nobody else sees a problem with this potential relationship.note  Least of all Alec, who eventually resorts to bullying Seregil into admitting his feelings because he returns them and doesn't want to wait.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Doctor Who the Doctor and any number of companions. Shipping was rife even in the Classic Series, which had a policy of No Hanky-Panky in the TARDIS; Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen joked that the Doctor and Sarah Jane were probably boinking all over the TARDIS. The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald pairing was perhaps a bit more direct in terms of relating to the trope as the Doctor was explicitly depicted as being Clara's mentor (as opposed to a travelling companion who learned stuff along the way).
  • 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 - and angry note . 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. She even says she used to have a crush on him in "Where The Wild Things Are"
  • "Young ingénue" Cameron's crush on her "gruff, older mentor" House is plain to see. His own feelings for her, though somewhat more complicated, are clear enough. This one's got a bit of Reality Subtext to it, insofar as Jennifer Morrison has stated that one of the ways she grew in her craft while working on the series was to watch Hugh Laurie (and, from the other direction, Laurie is plainly flustered when he offers his thoughts on Morrison during his appearance on Inside The Actors' Studio).
  • 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.
  • Canon example: Ziggy and Doctor K from Power Rangers RPM, although the mentor (K) is actually younger than the Ranger.
    • Power Rangers Mystic Force gave Madison and Daggeron an Adaptation Relationship Overhaul; their Super Sentai counterparts, Urara and Hikaru, did have a romance going on, which is not present in Mystic Force. However Mystic Force did adapt the plot point where Madison kisses Daggeron as a frog to turn him back into a humannote , so it's not surprising that there's quite a few fanfics out there that go with this ship anyway.
  • 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, 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.
  • Garak and Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Justified to some extent, as the relationship between mentor and student among Cardassians is extremely important and emotionally (though not necessarily romantically or sexually) intimate. And it's canon on Garak's end.
  • Kara Danvers/Supergirl and Mon-El in Supergirl, with the romance with James fizzling out, season 2 sees Kara training Mon-El, and a mutual attraction forming between the two, complete with The Big Damn Kiss by a slowly dying Mon-El due to the affects of the Medusa Virus, only for him to have forgotten the kiss between the two when cured.
  • Once Upon a Time: Following the revelation that Regina was Ivy/Drizella's magic teacher, there exist a large number of fanfics that pair Ivy/Drizella with her, helped by the fact that their backstories are very similar. Most shipping fanfics about Ivy on Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction Dot Net will pair her with Regina, even topping her canon crush on Henry. This ship is referred to as "Step Queen" in these fanfics. This also doubles as Foe Yay Shipping, as Regina spends a good portion of the final season wanting to stop/kill Ivy after she poisons Henry.

    Manhwa 
  • In Witch Hunter, Tasha and Edea's relationship was close enough that one would figure this was the case. Both had very strong feelings that teetered between platonic and romantic from the dialogue alone.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Mildred Burke and Billy Wolfe, who initially refused to train her until he saw her body slam the man he sent to get rid of her when she kept asking.
  • Beth Phoenix dated one her trainers, half of the All Knighters tag team, Joey.
  • Inverted between Micah and Tracy Taylor. He did eventually train her to wrestle, but they had been seeing each other before he became a pro wrestler.
  • Pro wrestling's hottest couple...ever, Santana Garrett going from Chayn Rance's pupil, to girlfriend to tag team partner.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder takes the Celestia/Twilight ship and plays it to a hilt, with three cards having Twilight dress up other ponies as Celestia and the one with Celestia portrayed as an incredibly sappy tango romance. Then again, there might be some author bias...

    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.
    • A slightly less popular ship, but Kristoph/Apollo.
    • Phoenix/Apollo also has its shippers, although it tends to squick more people out because Phoenix adopted Apollo’s sister.
  • Advanced V.G. II: Japanese fans often pair Yuka with her student, Tamao, due to the latter being an obsessive fangirl of her "Sempai", to the point of seeming to have a canonical girl crush on her (seen at 0:27-0:54).
  • Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book has Plachta and Sophie. They're teacher-and-student, but they show absolutely insane levels of Les Yay together, particularly after Sophie makes a doll body for Plachta, and they continue to live together afterwards. In Atelier Firis The Alchemist Of The Mysterious Journey, they're Walking the Earth together, but they get heavily lampshaded Threesome Subtext with Firis in one scenenote , and one ending has Firis join them in their journey. That would make it a Master-Apprentice Chain ship.
  • In Metal Gear, Naked Snake is sometimes paired with his mentor The Boss, despite it being implied that the latter still holds a torch for her deceased lover.
    • There's also the occasional fic involving Solid Snake and either his Big Brother Mentor Gray Fox or his sort-of-protégé Raiden.
  • Dragon Ball Xenoverse and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has the mentor system, which allows the player character to mentor under nearly all the heroes and/or villains from Dragon Ball Z and onward. This has naturally led to fans sometimes pairing their Player Character with their mentor of choice.
  • Dynasty Warriors 5 has Zhao Yun acting as something of a mentor to Xingcai, and the two are often paired despite the games themselves seeming to focus more on the latter's relationships with Guan Ping and Liu Shan.
  • Final Fantasy IV: The After Years has one between Palom and the Epopt trainee Leonora.
  • Final Fantasy VII : Playing with this trope is half of the appeal between the fangirls who pair slash parings between Cloud Strife and Sane!Sephiroth. Or less commonly, Zack and Cloud.
  • Fire Emblem fandom has some followings for these pairings (even the ones that can't actually happen in-game):
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising: Of the many characters Pit has been shipped with, the most popular by far seems to be his goddess/mentor, Paluntena. Likely because of her depiction in Uprising, so there's loads hentai art of them being together.
  • One of the biggest ships in the Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- fandom is Tamonten × General Sanshi, the former being so kind as to take the latter in as a disciple after defeating him and the latter appreciating this so much that he exhibits raving and fanatical devotion bordering on soft-core Yandere for the former.
    • Tamon himself being the disciple and right-hand man of Taishakuten gets shipped with him a couple of times.
    • Shaka is mentored by Amida, and they're one of the more popular ships. The former however is almost never shipped with his own disciple Miroku.
  • Luke and Van from Tales of the Abyss. Luke and Tear as well. Also Asch and Van.
  • In Breath of Fire III, 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.
  • Mass Effect has some rare examples of the hero being the mentor:
    • Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian]] if Shepard is female.
    • If Shepard is a male, then Shepard and Ash or Shepard and Tali could also count.
    • A Shepard of either sex can be eventually paired with Kaidan Alenko.
  • Another case of "hero as mentor" comes in the second Knights of the Old Republic, if Exile cross-classes his/her love interest. Double this with a female Exile and Mical, who was supposed to be her Padawan to begin with.
  • Occurs for every Force-using class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, if you're playing a male character:
    • Kira and the male Jedi Knight.
    • Ashara and the male Sith Inquisitor, though in this case she isn't officially his apprentice.
    • Jaesa and the male Sith Warrior, though only if she's been pushed to the Dark Side.
    • Nadia and the male Jedi Consular in the latter part of the game.
  • 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.
  • Luke/Layton of the Professor Layton series is quite popular, although it is also shota and sometimes crosses over into father figure-son territory. Plenty of people also like Flora/Layton, although she's an apprentice in the same way that Luke is, but is Layton's adopted daughter.
  • In Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, one of Shinjiro's possible romances on New Game Plus is Ratchet, who remains his direct superior until near the end of the game.
  • Ensemble Stars!: Due to the large cast and high focus on Senpai/Kōhai relationships, Enstars has a lot, but the popular ships which best fit this trope include:
    • Wataru/Tomoya, with Wataru mentoring the latter in acting and seeing Tomoya as one of the few people who can truly understand him or his process. (Wataru/Hokuto is a little less popular but has a similar feel.)
    • Leo/Tsukasa, with Leo mentoring Tsukasa generally as an idol, and with Tsukasa also life the previous example being one of the few people who ends up able to understand him.
    • Rei/Kouga, where Kouga looked up to Rei very highly during his first year and even tried to act like him; he later became disillusioned by him and their relationship in the present year is much more belligerent, but he still admires him highly as his unit leader deep down.
    • Shu/Mika, in which Mika literally refers to Shu as 'mentor' as his standard title, and feels Undying Loyalty towards him due to his mentorship.

    Webcomics 
  • Used constantly in morphE. Amical is wildly flirtacious and makes passes at his students constantly. Billy has been humoring him and leading him on to get a more powerful position in the group and Tyler is swept off his feet very easily making him a prime target for his mentor's affection. Adrestia was flattered but unreceptive to his advances and Amical would never attempt anything with the 15 year old Curio. Asia however is impervious to his advances.

    Web Original 
  • RWBY canonically teases Pyrrha/Jaune. They're the same age, but she teaches him to fight and helps him survive the minefield that is Beacon Academy. In particular, the words Pyrrha uses to unlock Jaune's magical ability sound like some sort of archaic marriage vow.

    Western Animation 

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