It's not a stretch to say that the idea of an experienced person in the community guiding the younger generation in the ways of life is probably as old as human culture. Gets a bit more complicated when you start applying it as a fictional concept.
We likely get the narrative concept of the mentor from the Greek mythological character called, surprise surprise, Mentor.
Mentor is canonically the son of Heracles and Asopis, giving him something of a pedigree in the Greek mythological world. He's mostly known for his role in The Odyssey. When the hero Odysseus left Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War, Mentor is left in charge of Odysseus's household and his young son, Telemachus. However, it's actually Athena (taking on the guise of Mentor) who propels Telemachus into the plot and sets him on course for his development into a man. But that’s mythology for you.
The Role of The Mentor
Common to all mentors is they’re usually exposition fountains. They are our way into the narrative. As they teach the ways of the world to the hero, they’re also teaching us. Filling us in on all the background we need to understand the story in a more engaging way than dumping it into a prologue no one reads. And, like parents in a Disney movie, or a night security guard in a horror movie, mentors have one of the highest death rates in all fiction.
Importantly, the function of the mentor is to inspire the development of the hero. In the words of K.M. Weiland:
The hero “is harbouring some deeply held misconception about either himself, they world, or probably, both… your character may not even realise he has a problem.” K.M Weiland, Creating Character Arcs, 2016
The mentor is in possession of the ‘truth’ that the hero must learn. For example, in Avatar the Last Airbender, Zuko believes that honour must come through obeying his father without question. This is the lie which Iroh, his uncle and mentor, spends the series struggling to disabuse him of.
Mentor Types
There are several different mentor types and here's just a few you're probably familiar with. There’s your Classical Mentor like Albus Dumbledore or Obi-wan Kenobi. They’re supportive guides, often on the older side and are the most likely mentor to come back from the dead as a sympathetic spirit. Then you have your Trickster Mentor, like Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. Like Yoda, are usually introduced pretending NOT to be the mentor character. Possibly in an attempt to avoid the narrative killing them.
The Sink-or-Swim Mentor tends to put their heroes in life-and-death situations in order them to learn a possibly terminal lesson. Think the Ancient One abandoning Doctor Strange on Mount Everst, forcing him to embrace his abilities or die. There’s also the Evil Mentors who aren’t so much interested in developing the hero than creating useful minions, like Shadow Weaver from She-Ra or Ra's Al-Gul from Batman Begins. The truth the Evil Mentor holds is one that the hero must reject to gain their ultimate goal, or accept and turn to the dark side.
A mentor type which has made a comeback over recent years is the Reluctant Mentor. Arguably, this character has been with us for centuries, but became really popular in the age of the post-Western. For example, the Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven depicts the key defining aspects of this character:
A hero roped back into action
A disillusioned hero
A hero who eventually shows desire to protect/mentor the next generation
We’ve seen this with Luke in The Last Jedi, Peter B. Parker from Into The Spiderverse and Master Shifu from Kung-Fu Panda. My personal reading is this is symptomatic of evitable swings and roundabouts in popular fiction. If you grow up on holy pure heroes, there will be a resurgence of media depicting these once commanding figures now old and bitter. If you're a gamer, look no further than God of War. These once heroes are predictably brought back into the fold by becoming the reluctant mentor of the next generation.
Mentor Death Rate
We laugh about it, but really - what’s with the statistically high death rate of mentor characters? The mentor’s arc is entirely based on the hero. In the same way a poorly developed love interest only exists to give the hero someone to care about, a mentor is only there to teach the hero. Once the hero has learnt everything they can from the mentor, the mentor is suddenly in the way.
Some narratives will have the mentor absent themselves; perhaps they have their own quest to accomplish, or they actively understand their presence will hinder their the hero, or, like Iroh in Avatar the Last Airbender, they're separated from their hero through circumstances beyond their control. However, you will find a lot of creators would rather kill off the mentor because of the emotional gut-punch, to both the hero and the audience.
Once the mentor is removed, terminally or otherwise, the hero has to put what they’ve learnt into practice. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy’s mentor Giles – who manages to survive all seven series, encapsulates this in the musical episode, in the song Standing in the Way:
The cries around you, you don't hear at all 'Cuz you know I'm here to take that call So you just lie there when you should be standing tall
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More, with Feeling
Side Note...
While writing this post, it occurred to me that the vast majority of my examples are male mentors. With the exception of Shadow Weaver from She-Ra (an animation which has a heavily female cast) and The Ancient One from Doctor Strange (played by Tilda Swinton, but who is actually male in the comics) I found myself wracking my brains to think of other examples.
Again, from Avatar the Last Airbender we have the incomparable Toph who takes on a mentor role for a series. Then there's Izumi Curtis, one of my favourite characters from Fullmetal Alchemist. So far, that's two for anime, one for Western animation and a gender-swapped character from Marvel.
But, this post is long enough without pulling at that thread right now! But please, please drop me the names of any female mentors you know in the comments as I will be coming back to this!
And if you want to read another stunning piece about mentors, this time with a focus on fantasy mentors, you should check out Steven Thiele's post on his site Riftsinger Press!
Other ‘Mentor’ Examples:
Merlin (in almost every iteration of this character) Iron Man: Ho Yinsen - you can read my post about how important this mentor is for Tony by clicking here! Star Trek Into Darkness: Christopher Pike The Hunger Games: Haymitch Abernathy Kung-Fu Panda: Kung Fu Panda Lord of the Rings: Gandalf Doctor Who: The Doctor himself calls it out, "I’m like a Space Gandalf. Or the little green one from Star Wars." X-Men: Charles "Professor X" Xavier
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