Obi-Wan: If you spent as much time practicing your saber techniques as you did your wit, you'd rival Master Yoda as a swordsman.
Anakin Skywalker: I thought I already did.
Obi-Wan: Only in your mind, my very young apprentice.
A character who is
In Training for something, usually under some kind of
Mentor. Since they're still just learning, they are usually not very good, but if the show is long enough, they'll improve at least a little. Unless they're a
Butt Monkey. If they're in a movie, they'll improve after a
Gonna Fly Now Montage. Sometimes have a chance of falling and becoming a villain, sometimes
The Dragon or even the
Big Bad, and that usually causes
Redemption Equals Death.
And, of course, the life goal of some apprentices is to
To Be a Master.
For the TV Show,
go here.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Every Robin ever. Unless, of course, it's in their own comic book or until they graduate to something else (Nightwing, dead, Red Robin, Batgirl...)
Film
Literature
- Skeeve in the Myth Adventures series.
- Merrin from the Septimus Heap series.
- Ged becomes the apprentice of the mage Ogion in A Wizard of Earthsea, the first novel in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy.
- Taran Wanderer, book 4 in Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. Taran briefly becomes the apprentice of three different crafters.
- The Ranger's Apprentice series.
- Molly Carpenter in The Dresden Files. She's got talent in the finer details of magic, and like her mentor seems to have a talent for blowing things up.
- Elena in The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey ends up apprenticed to, well, a fairy godmother. Comparatively little of the book is actually devoted to her apprenticeship, however; the plot doesn't really kick in until the job has officially been handed over to her.
- Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell begins with the eponymous Strange wishing to learn under the tutelage of the eponymous Norrell.
- The obligitory Discworld examples: Mort in Mort and Tiffany in her subseries. Would-be Assassin Jocasta Wiggs in Night Watch.
- Katherine in The Privilege of the Sword, and possibly Michael Godwin as well.
- In The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, Alfred and Jack later on are Mason apprentices under Tom Builder
- Jamie ends up as an apprentice in the Clown Division of The Pilo Family Circus. Because of the mishaps that beset the clowns, he doesn't get to perform much, but he still ends up better off than the previous apprentice...
- Corbie becomes apprenticed to Felix Harrowgate in Doctrine of Labyrinths. It does good things for him.
- Shan is kidnapped into his apprenticeship in The Chronicles of Magravandias.
Live-Action TV
- Asumu in Kamen Rider Hibiki. He doesn't get the chance to be a Rider himself until Kamen Rider Decade: when the Decade crew visit the altered Hibiki world, that world's Asumu becomes a Legacy Character.
- Shintaro Gotou in Kamen Rider OOO becomes one to Akira Date/Kamen Rider Birth, eventually using a second Birth Buster to back Date up. Differs from the Movie War Core continuity, where Date does not appear and Gotou becomes Birth.
Tabletop RPG
- In early editions of Dungeons & Dragons it was customary for mages/wizards to learn by becoming apprentices of established mages/wizards. A number of wizard/apprentice relationships appeared in the Forgotten Realms setting. For example, Elminster has had many apprentices over his long life span (hundreds of years).
Video Games
Western Animation
- Spoofed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in South Park and Team America: World Police
''If you wanna, in one day, go;
from a beginner, to a pro;
You need a plan; but more than that—
You need a MONTAGE!''
- The title character of Chowder is one of these to Mung Daal; other child characters are apprenticed to other chefs.
