Comments by "G L" (@gelinrefira) on "Trope Talk: Mentors" video.

@gabesd6697 That... is true to a certain extent. There is a mentor troupe in Chinese writing that is the mysterious, come in fast, leave fast mentor. The mentor is usually some powerful figure who disappeared a long time ago, and the hero either seeks him out or the mentor finds him. He teaches the hero, they trained and he kicks him out and say the hero has to move on while the mentor disappears again. The mentor usually do not die because he is almost like a repository of knowledge rather than an actual character. Or he has complex arcs of his own that doesn't revolve around the hero. I feel like this kind of troupe is useful for the writer because it keeps the mentor's mysticism and its potential for later shenanigans, usually when the hero met something he could not overcome in the real world. So he went back to seek out his mentor again for that "Final Technique(tm)" that either the hero was too impatient to learn at the time or the mentor refused to teach him because he has not "matured" enough. There is also a Chinese troupe that mentors do not teach the "Final Technique(tm)" because he fears the student will surpass him. It's usually involve an evil mentor who still wants to keep the hero subservient but useful.
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