Rage Against the Mentor: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|'''Harry:''' Do you - do you think I want to - do you think I give a - I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY! I don't want to hear ''anything'' you've got to say!

 

Curse that [[Cryptic Conversation]]-loving [[Trickster Mentor]]! His insistence on being vague and mysterious to look "cool" is costing lives because [[Poor Communication Kills]]. Well, the hero isn't going to stand for it! He's [[Calling the Old Man Out]] on his vagueness with cries of "I want answers ''now''!" or "You lied to me!"

When the Mentor does this to their protégé, it's [[What the Hell, Hero?]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'': The new [[Darker and Edgier]] Judai threatens to flush his [[Spirit Advisor]]'s, er, spirit down the toilet unless he gets some straight, concrete answers.

* [[Samurai 7]]'s Katsushiro does this after having been disillusioned by his mentor, who he had previously been holding up as a paragon of samurai virtues.

**** Really, it was a result of the same thing as most conflicts in Nanoha; [[Poor Communication Kills|the failure of those involved to talk it out.]]

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' C.C. does this quite a bit in regards to the nature of Geass and her own past. Then again, Lelouch doesn't try hard to crack her most of the time, since he's busy with other things. When he does try to make her talk, C.C. usually gets out of it by reminding Lelouch she's his trustworthy co-conspirator. {{spoiler|In reality she's trying to use him to get out of her [[Blessed with Suck|curse]] of [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortality]].}}

* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', a villainous example is found with Xanxus towards the Ninth. Being an extremely violent and ill-tempered [[Spoiled Brat]], he overreacted to the discovery of the Ninth not telling him that {{spoiler|he's actually ''not'' the Ninth's child, and therefore can't become the next Vongola boss}}. To the point where he readily {{spoiler|tricks Tsuna into accidentally killing the Ninth}} with little remorse or regret.

* In ''[[Monochrome Factor]]'', Akira's attempts to find out more about the Shin and kokuchi are frequently rebuffed by Shirogane until {{spoiler|Lulu reveals to Akira that Shirogane is a King of the Shadow. He then forces Shirogane to reveal that Akira is the reincarnation of the King of the Rei, or light.}}

 

* The four in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' are not pleased when the Fans (mostly Jeft) refuse to tell them important things, like, for example, why did George's ring [[Phlebotinum Breakdown|stop working for a while?]] They do a fair bit of protesting against this behavior. Luckily for them, Shag takes their side and overrules Jeft's attempts to be mysterious.

** Of course, he's being mysterious because {{spoiler|mystery makes for a better game}}.

* Happens in the third film of the [[Transformers Film Series]]. {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime, Optimus' mentor and father figure, turns out to be a traitor in league with the Decepticons and trying to enslave humanity to rebuild Cybertron, going against everything he taught Optimus. Optimus confronts him about it, but Sentinel merely replies with his [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] beliefs that rebuilding Cybertron is more important than humanity's freedom. Optimus doesn't accept that and ultimately executes Sentinel for what he's done, [[Tear Jerker|though it's not easy for him]].}}

 

* Thorn has a very violent reaction to Gran'ma Ben's explanation of her past in ''[[Bone]]'', culminating in a two-and-a-half book suicidal streak that was only halted by Fone Bone and Smiley Bone's [[You Are Not Alone]] speech.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** In ''Proven Guilty'', Harry and Ebenezer take steps towards a reconciliation a couple days after {{spoiler|Molly's trial}}, when Harry realizes that ''someone'' had to have spoken on his behalf during his own trial, despite the fact that Ebenezer claimed not to have been present.

* [[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]] tries this on Dumbledore a few times.

*** More so during the exposition scene in the last book, when Harry confronts him with the fact that ''even then'', there were still things being kept from him. Harry doesn't need to scream here; Dumbledore's guilt is written plainly on his face, to the point where he {{spoiler|breaks down and cries.}}

* Fairly early on in David Eddings' ''[[Belgariad]]'', Garion rages against his 'Aunt' Polgara, whom he's recently discovered to actually be a centuries-old sorceress of nigh-unsurpassed wisdom and power, who quite clearly isn't ''actually'' his aunt... Granted, there really IS a lot of rathersignificant things she isn't telling him, for reasons that aren't really explained anywhere in the series itself (it's [[All There in the Manual]], though, or in this case, the stand-alone ''Polgara The Sorceress'' faux-biographical tome), but he was still somewhat out of line, claiming that lives of 'ordinary people' like him were mere pawns and playthings to her. Especially considering that she's spend the last several centuries personally safeguarding [[Royal Blood|his line]]...

* ''[[Deus Ex Machina]]'' Mentor the Arisian is the target of wails of angst from one of his advanced students in ''Children of the Lens'', when she's told that the breeding programme she's the ultimate expression of makes her "...in some ways, even less human than I am myself...".

* In ''[[Quantum Gravity]]'', {{spoiler|Lila}} gets a bit of this against {{spoiler|Sarasilien}}, when she finds out that he was lying to her about quite a lot, the tipping point being the fact that he lied about his ''name''. She gets over it as much as she can when he readily admits to lying to her and says that, though he cannot tell her everything, he can tell her when there is something he can't tell her.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** Arhra's rebellion against the other Asur was also strongly implied to be inspired by this trope.

 

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', after doing some research into a mysterious explosion at their school ten years prior to the game's setting, Yukari Takeba calls Mitsuru Kirijo, a fellow member of SEES and resident [[Ojou]], on knowing more than she's letting on about the Shadows. Mitsuru reveals that {{spoiler|the Kirijo Group, her family's corporation, had been conducting secret experiments on Shadows using the school as a secret laboratory. The experiment went out of control, and the resulting explosion dispersed the Shadows across the city.}} Mitsuru tries to justify her withholding of this information by saying that it "never seemed relevant."

* In the ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' games, and other accompanying media, this is pretty much the catalyst for Jedi involvement in the Mandalorian War- and thus, the reason for the Jedi Civil War.

** Done again in [[Birth By Sleep]]: {{spoiler|if Master Eraqus had simply told Terra that "Xehanort is evil and he's using Ven to further his plot" instead of outright attacking Ven while Terra watched, the two of them might not have had to fight each other, and unfortunately, this Rage Against the Mentor went a bit farther than most did.}} To his credit, he ''does'' seem to realize he's made a mistake and both of them are immediately [[My God, What Have I Done?|regretful]].

 

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Dialogue]]

[[Category:A Failure to Communicate]]