Hint: it's not just the awesome supernatural powers.
They're all mentors to the young protagonist of their respective stories. Obi-Wan is a mentor to Luke, Dumbledore to Harry Potter, and Merlin to King Arthur (unless it's the BBC TV version in which case BFFs for life!!!). They teach their respective charges important lessons and guide them in their journey to become heroes.
Mentors often represent the older generation in stories. They have the wisdom of a long life and teach the younger generation what they probably should and should not do. Mentors aren't infallible beings either. They are known for making mistakes, mistakes that the hero may have to face and rectify for the mentor.
The mentor is often known to die before the end of these stories.
I often took that trope to show how the older generation (the mentor) will eventually have to make way for the younger generation (hero) to take charge of society (narrative). This trope is seen in Harry Potter, Star Wars, Buffy, and even Lord of the Rings (though Gandalf is eventually resurrected).
Chiron is one of the most famous mythological mentors in Western culture (much like Merlin, but he lives in his story). He was responsible for teaching many of Greece's greatest heroes including, Achilles, Ajax, Jason, Theseus, and, of course, Heracles. It's Heracles who is ultimately responsible for Chiron's death with a poisoned arrow, allowing Heracles to exchange Chiron's life for Prometheus's (versions of this story vary and I'm using Wikipedia as my main source as I can't find my mythology book with this story in it).
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| Chiron and Achilles |
Mentors don't even have to be "good guys" necessarily, though this is a more modern trope. They just have to be guiding force and teacher to the protagonist. In the Anime/Manga Black Cat, the hero, Train, is trained by the man who murdered his parents. The man takes Train in with the explicit purpose of teach Train how to kill him one day. Train eventually grows up to become one of the best assassins in his organization.
Another example of this modern trope would be Littlefinger from Game of Thrones choosing to look after and mentor Sansa Stark. He mentor's Sansa in the art of The Game of Thrones so that she will survive and possibly win. He is without doubt a morally ambiguous character (even by his universe's standards), but that doesn't stop him from trying to teach and guide Sansa in the world she has found herself in. Just don't think too hard about his creepy attraction to her because she looks like her dead mother.
Even villains need mentors.
Darth Vader had Darth Sidious. Sauron had Morgoth. Light had Ryuk. Each teaching and tempting them to the ways of the villain.
Mentors are as important in mythology and folklore as they are in our modern society. Seriously, one of the first pieces of advice I was given when I joined the workforce was to find a good mentor to teach and guide me. Every few months Business Insider usually has one or two articles about how to find good mentors. Even I wrote a blog post about this in the first year of starting this blog (I'm not sure how good it is anymore, but click here if you're curious).
People can have many mentors throughout their life. Mentors can be relatives, family friends, teachers, or complete strangers who live on an island and you have to seek out because someone told you to. They pass on wisdom and knowledge, but ultimately it is up to the person to decide what they do with these lessons.
I am still at a time in my life where I still feel that I would benefit from having a mentor. I wouldn't feel comfortable being a mentor myself, but that's not often my decision to make. Mentorship is often an inevitable part of a person's life cycle. At some point I will likely have to pass on my knowledge to someone else. I will eventually be a member of the older generation.
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Until next week.
