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The Hero sets out, in the footsteps of his Mentor, tracking him, and ultimately finding him. they have time for a brief chat, then the master dies. Whether in a noble act of self-sacrifice, or a terrible act of betrayal, it doesn't matter, so long as he's dead.
Don't ever, EVER write this story.
This is the most overdone, tedious, dismal, banal trope in the history of histories. It's been done. It's been overdone. It's gone past tradition, past archetype, past tedium, to become nothing more than a raw, anguished shriek from the throat of every reader, every time a Hero finds their mentor.
And the shriek is "HOW LONG WILL YOU LET HIM LIVE, YOU USELESS EXCUSE FOR AN AUTHOR?"
Heros: stop and think for a moment! Why is the mentor hiding from you? Because he knows your writer is a two-bit useless lazy good-for-nothing who'll take the easy way out, and he doesn't want to be killed by such a worthless author!
In only one book has the Hero ever been reunited with a mentor, after a quest to find him, and the mentor has NOT died. In the Lord of the Rings, this happened twice, when Frodo met Bilbo, and again when they re-met Gandalf. LotR did FAKE this trope in Gendalf's fight with the Balrog, though. And yet, of all the many, many things that people copy from LotR, they do not copy this one thing: the knowledge that mentors do not need to be killed between one and two thirds of the way through the book.
But no: repeatedly, writers who are otherwise respectable, repeatedly mete out the same, sad, dreary, fated doom to their mentors. Because they can't see any way of getting the person with wisdom and knowledge out of the picture other than to kill them. "Oh, but the death motivates the hero in a far more personal way than merely saving the world and the love interest and his best friend and..." Crap. Utter crap. Please, stop writing this drivel.
And the sad thing is, it's not just the BAD writers that do this. Even the very best are sucked in by the allure of killing the wise man. It's weird: they put great effort into making their characters more three dimensional than this. Stop making them get themselves killed just because they managed to meet up finally. You're not inspiring emotion, or sympathy for your hero: you're inspiring disappointment, even disgust that you'd ruin an otherwise good story with such tripe.
Like "1984", the "Hero's Journey" was not intended as an instruction manual.
You know what I'd really, REALLY like to see? A book where the Hero catches up with his mentor, and they continue the rest of their journey together, facing dangers and trials together: first with the mentor leading, then side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Finally, if you really, really must have your "crowning glory" moment, and you feel your readers are boarish enough to be unsatisfied with a successfully completed quest and a newfound maturity and equality, then fine, your stupid mentor may show himself less able in some small way, and pass on the mantle. Not because he's DEAD, but because he's PROUD, and the adventure is over.
[What inspired this rant? Fallout 3 (game), Neal Stephenson' Anathem (novel).]
Don't ever, EVER write this story.
This is the most overdone, tedious, dismal, banal trope in the history of histories. It's been done. It's been overdone. It's gone past tradition, past archetype, past tedium, to become nothing more than a raw, anguished shriek from the throat of every reader, every time a Hero finds their mentor.
And the shriek is "HOW LONG WILL YOU LET HIM LIVE, YOU USELESS EXCUSE FOR AN AUTHOR?"
Heros: stop and think for a moment! Why is the mentor hiding from you? Because he knows your writer is a two-bit useless lazy good-for-nothing who'll take the easy way out, and he doesn't want to be killed by such a worthless author!
In only one book has the Hero ever been reunited with a mentor, after a quest to find him, and the mentor has NOT died. In the Lord of the Rings, this happened twice, when Frodo met Bilbo, and again when they re-met Gandalf. LotR did FAKE this trope in Gendalf's fight with the Balrog, though. And yet, of all the many, many things that people copy from LotR, they do not copy this one thing: the knowledge that mentors do not need to be killed between one and two thirds of the way through the book.
But no: repeatedly, writers who are otherwise respectable, repeatedly mete out the same, sad, dreary, fated doom to their mentors. Because they can't see any way of getting the person with wisdom and knowledge out of the picture other than to kill them. "Oh, but the death motivates the hero in a far more personal way than merely saving the world and the love interest and his best friend and..." Crap. Utter crap. Please, stop writing this drivel.
And the sad thing is, it's not just the BAD writers that do this. Even the very best are sucked in by the allure of killing the wise man. It's weird: they put great effort into making their characters more three dimensional than this. Stop making them get themselves killed just because they managed to meet up finally. You're not inspiring emotion, or sympathy for your hero: you're inspiring disappointment, even disgust that you'd ruin an otherwise good story with such tripe.
Like "1984", the "Hero's Journey" was not intended as an instruction manual.
You know what I'd really, REALLY like to see? A book where the Hero catches up with his mentor, and they continue the rest of their journey together, facing dangers and trials together: first with the mentor leading, then side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Finally, if you really, really must have your "crowning glory" moment, and you feel your readers are boarish enough to be unsatisfied with a successfully completed quest and a newfound maturity and equality, then fine, your stupid mentor may show himself less able in some small way, and pass on the mantle. Not because he's DEAD, but because he's PROUD, and the adventure is over.
[What inspired this rant? Fallout 3 (game), Neal Stephenson' Anathem (novel).]