Basic Trope: Mentor Bob has a hard time training his student Alice.
- Straight: Bob teaches Alice, who turns out to be difficult to teach, or does things in the training that endanger Bob, Alice or bystanders.
- Exaggerated:
- Just about everything Alice tries in her training seriously endangers her or the people around her. Bob is completely exhausted from running after her trying to stop her.
- No matter whom Bob tries to train in what, he‘s always the one getting hurt.
- Downplayed: Like all work, training a student can be tiring from time to time, but overall, it goes well.
- Justified:
- The training includes exercises like Hand-to-Hand-combat and therefore is physically exhausting for both of them and Bob is not as young as he used to be.
- Alice is untrained, but strong.
- Alice hates Bob, and training gives her a convenient excuse to harm him.
- Inverted:
- Training from Hell
- Alice always has to take care that Bob doesn't hurt or endanger anyone during the training.
- Bob has had enough and they switch roles: He lets Alice teach him, since she knows everything already.
- Subverted:
- It turns out that yes, the magic he teaches is dangerous, but Bob knows that and has safety measures to avoid anyone getting hit.
- Alice claims she is so strong she could hurt Bob if she wasn't careful with her training, but he defeats her easily in their first sparring match.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice is stronger than he thought and tears the safety measures to shreds.
- But only because Alice knows her strength and was holding back. It's when she stops doing that that things get difficult for Bob.
- Parodied:
- Bob finishes the training session, nearly out of his mind, commenting how he never wants to teach again and how Alice nearly drove him to insanity and one day, he‘s going to die from this job. Then, it turns out the subject he was supposed to teach Alice was basic math.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice starts out so badly that there's a real danger she can hurt herself, Bob or someone else, forcing him to constantly watch out for her. As she improves, she learns more by herself and doesn't cause as many accidents anymore, so the training gets easier for him. Until she sets it to her mind to prove him her skills by defeating him, ignoring possible risks involved.
- Averted:
- Bob refuses to teach Alice anything because he finds teaching people to be too hard. Instead, he gives her a book and demands that she should become self-taught.
- Enforced:
- Bob has to train someone to fight the Evil Overlord; naturally, he‘d pick a person which is already strong and experienced and therefore, not as easy to train.
- Bob makes a point in only training people he considers sufficiently strong. He got what he asked for.
- Lampshaded: „Learning can be hard, but so can teaching – just ask Bob!“
- Invoked:
- Alice is supposed to kill Bob to get his position, that is part of the training.
- Bob is expected put a lot of effort into training Alice, since people think that only then, the training will be effective.
- Exploited:
- Charlie hates Bob, so he convinces Alice she should be trained by him because he knows how difficult this will make life for Bob.
- Defied:
- Alice is aware that Bob‘s health is not the best, so she is careful not to hurt or endanger him during the exercises.
- Both are aware how dangerous some exercises can be, they settle for the less dangerous ones or take appropriate safety measures.
- Discussed: "Either Alice is extremely good at this thing or very bad. I'm not sure which one it is, but I certainly don't envy Bob right now…" "Don't get me wrong, I know teaching can be hard, but Bob has been in this field for a while: Shouldn't he have a plan by now in case Alice tries that very dangerous thing?"
- Conversed: "There is a saying that teaching something is always harder than doing it yourself".
- Implied: It is never shown outright, but ever since Bob started to train Alice, he's much more frequently tired than he used to be.
- Played For Laughs: Bob keeps getting Amusing Injuries from his training sessions with Alice.
- Played For Drama: One of their dangerous exercises gets both Alice and Bob seriously wounded. Now, there's no one left who can fight the Evil Overlord.
- Deconstructed:
- It turns out that since Alice is already stronger than Bob, he can't teach her anything and any attempt would be a needless risk.
- Alice is so bad at what she's doing and Bob is so occupied by ensuring she doesn't create major safety hazards that he doesn't really find opportunities to teach her.
- Bob dies because of a training accident. Now Alice will have to live with the guilt of having killed a person that tried to help her learning new skills.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice attended the training with Bob because she wanted him as an ally, but was unsure if she could trust him. Since he tried to help her, even though it was difficult for him, she knows she can trust him now, and they can still learn from each other in other aspects.
- Alice and Bob agree to start over with some theoretical lectures for her. Once Alice understands the theory better, she can start practical exercises without endangering someone.
- It turns out that Bob was secretly an evil mentor, so Alice is better off without him anyway.
Back to Trainee from Hell
