Sink-or-Swim Mentor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:SinkOrSwimMirrored 7328.jpg|link=JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|frame|She also doubles as a [[Sexy Mentor]].]]

 

{{quote|''"Okay, Dave, I'm gonna teach you to swim. Now don't be a wussy! (throws Dave into the lake) That's it. One arm over the other. Uh...Crap! Christopher, go save your brother. (throws Christopher in)"''|'''Ken Titus''', ''[[Titus]]''}}

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Lisa Lisa from ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' puts Joseph Joestar through a number of grueling exercises, including placing a "breathing correction" mask that forces him to either breathe in the proper manner required to use [[Ki Attacks|Hamon]] or suffocate, and kicking him down a pit and forcing him to climb up an oil-drenched pillar.

* ''[[Bleach]]'' overlaps this with [[Training from Hell]], while Ichigo trains with Urahara. The only difference is that rather than having real enemies trying to kill him, Urahara and his associates attempt to do it themselves. First lesson: defeat an opponent who will kill you if she manages to land a single punch. Second lesson: We'll separate your soul from your body, chuck you in a hole, bind your arms, and make you climb out before you turn into a Hollow. By the way, if you fail, we have to kill you for safety reasons. Third lesson: Knock my hat off with your sword. Of course, I'll be trying to kill you with my sword the whole time. Urahara's reasoning is apparently that if Ichigo fails here, he'd end up getting killed anyway, so he doesn't have anything to lose.

 

== Film ==

* Robert De Niro's character in ''[[Men of Honor]]'' is quite literally a Sink or Swim Mentor, as he is the trainer at the Navy's Deep Sea Diving School. He sets out to purposefully make Carl Brashear's (played by Cuba Gooding) life miserable and force him to quit Diving School. This makes complete sense since he's a racist. Of course, this harsh brow-beating is what makes Carl refuse to quit until he becomes a master diver.

* Denzel Washington's corrupt cop Alonzo Harris in ''[[Training Day]]'' could've been the [[Trope Namer]] considering all the many times he left Jake Hoyt (played by Ethan Hawke) out to sink or swim or get shot.

 

== Folklore ==

* A Zen parable tells of a burglar who promised to teach the trade to his son. He takes the son to a rich and well-guarded house and shows him the way into the center of the house. Then the father excused himself, went outside, and promptly raised the alarm, alerting the entire house to the intruder - and sauntered on home. At dawn his son arrived, panting and exhausted but alone. "Why did you ''do'' that to me? I had to use all of my wits to get out of there!" The father said, "And that was our ''first'' lesson on burglary."

 

== Literature ==

* In P.N. Elrod's ''Quincey Morris, Vampire'' ([[Better Than It Sounds]]), [[Dracula]] is the epitome of the Sink Or Swim Mentor when Quincey wants to know how to turn into mist like Dracula does. The Vampire simply tossed Quin off the castle. When asked why, Dracula admits to the reader that's how ''his'' father taught him how to swim as well.

{{quote|'''Dracula:''' Well, I was remembering that when I was a child my father decided to teach me how to swim by grabbing me and throwing me into the river.}}

* [[Discworld]]'s Granny Weatherwax is often the benevolent version, especially with Tiffany Aching. According to Granny "witching school" (ie the world) gives you the exam ''first'', and then you spend the rest of the time finding out whether you passed. And everything is a test.

* From [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Lensman]]'' series, the appropriately named Mentor of Arisia is an example of this trope. Though Mentor does relent and give the protagonist some training in psychic combat, he generally avoids directly aiding his students and criticizes them for asking him for help or advice when they don't really need it. And since he's effectively omniscient, he ''always'' knows whether or not they really need it.

** Mentor's psychic combat training is a perfect example of this trope. He "trains" Kinnison how to defend himself psychically by ''continuously psychically attacking him''. The justification is that every mind is unique, so each person must develop his own method of defense. And the best way to develop callouses is to hit the tender part over and over. Though he does scale his attacks to Kinnison's ability to survive them.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* The Doctor from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' tends to treat his companions like this sometimes. Especially Doctor number 1 played by William Hartnell.

* Claude, from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', while trying to teach Peter Petrelli how to use his powers, pushed him off the roof of a skyscraper to try and activate his flight ability. It didn't work, but [[Healing Factor|he got better]].

 

== Theater ==

* In the musical ''[[Camelot (theatre)|Camelot]]'', [[Merlin|Merlyn]] is taken away from [[King Arthur|Arthur]]'s fledgling throne very early in the play, leaving Arthur alone to sort out the founding of the Round Table, his impending marriage, and the general prosperity of the kingdom. As Merlyn is leaving with the nymph [[Merlin and Nimue|Nimue]], he bemoans that he cannot even remember if he warned Arthur about {{spoiler|Lancelot and Mordred}}.

 

== Video Games ==

* Suzu-sensei, in ''[[LifeSigns: Surgical Unit|Lifesigns]],'' has a nasty habit of springing operations on the player character. As if that wasn't bad enough, she's also a [[Fair Weather Mentor]] complete with [[Yandere]] traits...which raises the question of why she's still ''employed,'' never mind left in charge of other doctors.

* [[Dwarf Fortress]] - you can only learn something by doing it. Need some crucial task done, but have no qualified labourers? No problem - throw the unqualified labourers at it, until they learn, or get eaten by fish. This applies to all skills and professions, starting with mining (Here's a pick, get going.), through hunting (Chasing down prey and wrestling it to death? Sure.) to fighting. (No, the ultra-mighty champion wrestlers are under no compunction not to crush your throat in your first sparring session. Deal.)

** Kiritsugu didn't even teach Shirou he didn't need to create a new magic circuit (something that could have killed him every single time he did it) every time he wanted to use magic.

** And from the [[Spin-Off]], ''[[Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya|Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya]]'', although usually played for laughs. How should we teach Miyu how to fly? Throw her out of a helicopter and see if she can figure it out before impact!

 

== Web Comics ==

* Klaus Wulfenbach from ''[[Girl Genius]]'' shows aspects of this towards his son. It could be seen as [[Training from Hell]], but the tests aren't training; they're a blatant attempt to kill Gilgamesh if he can't take the heat. And [[Badass Bookworm]] Gilgamesh is up to the challenge.

** To be fair to Klaus, he'd...well, he'd ''probably'' be sad if Gil couldn't hold up.

* Jones of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' plainly [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=394 told her student] she's going to instruct, but not spoon-feed ready solutions. Maybe this only means she doesn't feel it's her right to, but the detached precision is so much in her style that Annie suspected Jones is a robot and some [[Wild Mass Guessing|fans suspect]] she's a ''[[Physical God|goddess]]''.

* In ''[[Panthera]]'', you could argue that this is the relationship between [[Action Girl|Tigris]] and [[Naive Newcomer|Onca]]. There's distinctly more "Sink Or Swim" than "mentor", though.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Jake the Dog in ''[[Adventure Time]]''. Played quite literately too.

* [[Xavier: Renegade Angel]], remembering his own youth, decides to alter his old childhood memories by imagining meeting his older self back then. He ends up being this to himself. It makes as little sense as it sounds.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Mentors]]

[[Category:Abuse Tropes]]