Basic Trope: A mentor poses as an antagonist to force the hero to become stronger.
- Straight: Olivia is a mentor who tortures Alice throughout the story under the guise of real conflict, only to reveal in the end that this was the only way to teach the hero the necessary skills to fight the real Big Bad.
- Exaggerated:
- Olivia not only physically injures Alice in the course of her action but also allows great collateral damage to occur just to torture her more.
- Every hardship Alice had experienced up to that point was a simulation to prepare her for her eventual release into reality.
- Downplayed: Olivia gives a few helpful tips under the disguise of taunts.
- Justified:
- The stakes are so high the only way to ensure the hero's performance is to put her through Training from Hell and never let her relax for a single second.
- Olivia was Forced into Evil and can't outright join Alice and the heroes but still wants to help them as best she can under the circumstances.
- Inverted:
- Olivia is as nice to the hero as possible, basically coddling her in order to make her loyal to the cause.
- An antagonist poses as a mentor to sabotage the hero.
- Subverted: When finally cornered, Olivia claims to have been training Alice all along, but was only deceiving her.
- Double Subverted: Said deception turns out to be Olivia's "final lesson".
- Parodied: Olivia puts Alice through a Trauma Conga Line for her own amusement.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes Olivia acts as a mentor, sometimes he just follows his own schemes, depending on what mood he is in during the day.
- Averted: The heroes never learn.
- Enforced: Olivia becomes so much of an Ensemble Dark Horse that the writers are forced to change her motivations.
- Lampshaded: "So is this whole putting-me-through-hell thing meant to make me better at this, or are you just an asshole?"
- Invoked: "I don't want you to be nice to me. I need an enemy. Someone who forces me to get better."
- Exploited: The heroes deliberately put themselves in harm's way with Olivia to study her technique.
- Defied: "Look, I don't care if you're some freakish mentor secretly plotting to train me. I only care about getting what I came here for and seeing to it that all of my REAL allies stay alive. So if you ever cross me again, I will kill you. Understand?"
- Discussed: "Only the enemy can teach you how to destroy and conquer. From now on, I am your enemy."
- Conversed: "Don't worry, Alice. In the end it will turn out that Evil Doctor Stricticus is only attacking them in each area to get them to learn the essential spells to kill Lord Dedstroke, but in the epilogue, it'll turn out that HE'S actually-" "Dude! Spoilers!"
- Deconstructed:
- The Stealth Mentor training method is effective, but at an incredible personal loss to Alice, who ends up being a Broken Ace or Shell-Shocked Veteran and will never have a normal life.
- Olivia is doing this because she herself is a Shell-Shocked Veteran or just plain hates Alice's guts, not because this is the most effective method.
- Olivia's efforts end up working a little too well and Alice's newfound 'lessons' end up killing Olivia before she can explain her motivations.
- Reconstructed:
- In the end, the training method proves to be effective after all and the student forgives the mentor. Both are celebrated for saving mankind.
- Olivia knew going into this that her reputation and any possible good relationship with Alice may well be shot to hell, but considers such a Zero-Approval Gambit a worthwhile sacrifice.
- Implied: When Olivia is defeated, she gives a knowing smirk to the protagonists and simply says "Good luck."
Back to Stealth Mentor
