Timeline for How can I handle a powerful mentor character without killing them off?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
34 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 17, 2022 at 1:17 | answer | added | Mary | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 13, 2020 at 1:09 | answer | added | Oleg V. Volkov | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 12, 2020 at 22:49 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | Can you first explain why anyone might want to kill off a character simply for being a powerful mentor? Why would that be a more obvious option than, for instance, marrying the powerful mentor? Either way, why might it be difficult? While you're at it, why should a powerful mentor be any more or less difficult yo handle than any other character? | |
| Sep 12, 2020 at 20:50 | answer | added | Robert Frost | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 12, 2020 at 6:09 | comment | added | Horizon | I'd probably try to write my mentor character and the mentee so that they have a sufficiently different ethical framework that you can have the mentee not want help (or vice versa). For a typical example you have: the mentor who is willing to kill his enemies, because he's learned that if you don't, you'll regret it - with the mentee who believes that doing so is still murder. Or the mentor doesn't care about breaking the law, cutting corners etc. (Or reverse these, the mentee follows a 'weaker' ethical code) | |
| Sep 12, 2020 at 4:08 | comment | added | Xavon_Wrentaile | When you say 'without killing them off', do you mean that literally? Or also avoiding other means of making them functionally indisposed, i.e. abducted by aliens, teleported forward in time, captured and put in stasis, etc. | |
| Sep 11, 2020 at 22:39 | answer | added | RAM804 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 11, 2020 at 21:45 | comment | added | Hot Licks | As they say in theatre, "Break a leg!" | |
| Sep 11, 2020 at 19:46 | answer | added | Dallium | timeline score: 2 | |
| S Sep 11, 2020 at 19:42 | history | suggested | Peter Mortensen | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Copy edited (e.g. ref. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/liaison#Noun>). Added some context. Fixed the question formation - missing auxiliary (or helping) verb - see e.g. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4yWEt0OSpg&t=1m49s> (see also <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5NfSzXfrI> (QUASM)).
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| Sep 11, 2020 at 17:18 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Sep 11, 2020 at 19:42 | |||||
| Sep 11, 2020 at 14:40 | comment | added | Ink blot | Rurouni Kenshin did a great job with making Hiko Seijuro a godlike being, while also not takeover completely; and yet at the same time, they made the story in a way that makes you wonder if Hiko could really have taken down all those enemies (I'm talking about the Shihio Makoto saga). | |
| Sep 11, 2020 at 9:05 | answer | added | John Manedrake | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 11, 2020 at 8:26 | answer | added | user7868 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 23:57 | answer | added | ciamej | timeline score: 8 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 20:52 | comment | added | Tau | I can't speak for @user2352714, but the reason I personally find this an unsatisfying answer is that it puts an upper limit on how big and dramatic the problem your characters are facing is: if the world is ending, the mentor is unlikely to swan off going "oh you can handle this one" (unless there's an even worse apocalypse happening at the same time). For some stories that's fine, but maybe you want the heroes fighting the apocalypse against nearly insurmountable odds feeling. | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 18:28 | answer | added | Zibbobz | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 15:56 | answer | added | Myles | timeline score: 1 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 15:05 | comment | added | Daniel | I remember several stories where the mentor had other important things to do so he left the heroes on their own with a problem he thought they could manage on their own. Sometimes even reappear in later stories. Why would that not work for you? | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 13:51 | answer | added | Graham | timeline score: 3 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 13:49 | comment | added | user2352714 | @Echox Not a bad example, more one that is so well-known that they die before the final act that it has made the trope seem omnipresent and a bit trite to some people, even if Dumbledore made it work. | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 11:46 | answer | added | TafT | timeline score: 1 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 10:34 | answer | added | Fnguyen | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 9:39 | comment | added | Jemox | It's weird that you cite Dumbledore as a bad example... he is a very powerful mentor but only dies in the end of the sixth book ! So you have six books to inspire you of how to leave such a character alive without spoiling the story. (He's usually either unavailable, has his hands tied, doesn't know something is happening or voluntarily leaves the hero handle things for them to grow) | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 9:18 | answer | added | Chronocidal | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 9:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackWriting/status/1303981568101437441 | ||
| Sep 10, 2020 at 8:18 | answer | added | Stig Hemmer | timeline score: 10 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 7:01 | answer | added | A.bakker | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 3:19 | answer | added | calvin_0 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 10, 2020 at 2:14 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Sep 9, 2020 at 22:42 | answer | added | DWKraus | timeline score: 9 | |
| Sep 9, 2020 at 22:08 | answer | added | Tau | timeline score: 33 | |
| Sep 9, 2020 at 19:56 | answer | added | Jedediah | timeline score: 48 | |
| Sep 9, 2020 at 18:12 | history | asked | user2352714 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |