History Main / MentorOccupationalHazard

* Agent 355 in ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' is both recruited into the Culper Ring and trained by the previous Agent 355. One of the techniques she passes on is that the jaw is the most powerful muscle, so when the ex-mentor goes insane and tries to assassinate the President of the United States, her successor bites her neck open.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** Averted with Professor Xavier, who dies once but gets better (it was never him). Like any mentor, he set a precedent that his students followed ''[[ComicBookDeath time and time again]].'' However, because he's too smart and helpful, most plots especially adaptations will take him out of the story through coma or kidnapping or something until the problem is resolved. He's just not killed by them. In ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', Professor X dies again. This time it ''is'' him, but he still gets better again (eventually).
** Inverted by Emma Frost, who outlives most of her ''students.''
* Stick, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'s teacher, who dies protecting him, Elektra and his other pupils (The Chaste) from The Hand. Averted with Master Izo, who outlived all of his pupils. Although, Daredevil: Ninja seems to indicate that Stick got better...
* ComicBook/DoctorStrange's mentor, the Ancient One, dies and becomes [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence one with all reality]]. A subversion, he deliberately trained Strange as his successor, he asked Strange to kill him, and he's not "gone" in any strong sense.

* Professor Trevor Bruttenholm is killed at the very first ComicBook/HellBoy story.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersDrift'', Wing takes Deadlock in, argues with the council to include an outsider, and teaches him the ways of the Circle of Light. At the story's end, he's killed by the BigBad, Braid, and Drift takes his Great Sword to carry on the fight and lead them all to victory.
* In ''ComicBook/RedHoodTheLostDays'' Jason ends up killing about half of the murderous mentors Talia finds for him himself, and his whole journey started out with his desire to beat his first one to the death.
* The Doctor Strange example is spoofed with [[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Radioactive Man]], where Plasmo the Mystic's mentor was killed by his student, and like the Ancient One, lingers on as a spirit... haunting Plasmo's spare bedroom and moaning about Plasmo's crappy TV. And that's why Plasmo has sworn vengeance.
* In ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi'', Vima Sunrider was trained by Ulic Qel-Droma, former [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord]] who realized the error of his ways and became TheAtoner. After finding success through his tutelage of Sunrider, he [[RedemptionEqualsDeath goes on to make peace with himself and the people he hurt]] before getting shot by a HeroicWannabe and becoming one with the Force.

** ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Alcippe's demise forces Diana to realize that there is a conspiracy on Themyscira and that truths have been hidden from her by those she trusts out of necessity due to the close watch of the gods. It also starts Diana's friendship and acceptance of ComicBook/SteveTrevor whose unexpected arrival on the island was caused by said conspiracy and who needs Diana's protection and aid to survive.

!!Since this is a DeathTrope, expect plenty of unmarked spoilers.

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'':

** Subverted with Master Shifu at the end. He not only survives the first movie, but the whole trilogy.

* ''Manhwa/{{Veritas}}'': The main character's mentor, Lightning Tiger, is killed right at the beginning of the story (and his pupil receives his skeletal arm in a box as a very creepy TragicKeepsake). However, LT wasn't old, and he'd only been training the kid for about 2 months. A character attempts to justify it later by saying the he didn't die because he was a mentor; he took on an apprentice because he knew he was going to die.

* In ''WebVideo/PokemonApokelypse'', after Ash walks out on fighting, Team Rocket kills Professor Oak.

* At some point in this VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror-[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/52457182?view_full_work=true based story]], this ends up happening to Meta Knight, who preforms a Main/HeroicSacrifice to stop Dark Mind from killing the others, but ends up getting hit by his beam and freezing into solid ice. However, thanks to an Main/ActOfTrueLove from his fellow soldiers, Blade Knight and Sword Knight, [[Main/SubvertedTrope he gets better]].

* At some point in this VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror-[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/52457182?view_full_work=true based story]], this ends up happening to Meta Knight, who preforms a Main/HeroicSacrifice to stop Dark Mind from killing the others, but ends up getting hit by his beam and freezing into solid ice. However, thanks to an Main/ActOfTrueLove from his fellow soldiers, Blade Knight and Sword Knight, he gets better.

* The ''Franchise/{{AceAttorney}} RoleSwapAU ''Fanfic/IrisHawthorneAceAttorney'' has Diege Armando taking Mia's role as TheMentor, this time to rookie attorney Irs Hawthorne after he cleared her name for [[DeathByAdaptation Phoenix's murder]]. And like Mia in [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney the first game]], he is killed in the second turnabout.

* Terciel, father, in Creator/GarthNix's ''Literature/{{Sabriel}}''.

** Allison's main mentor archetype, Zoss, is decapitated on the sixth page of the comic, well before Allison has any idea who he is or before he's become her mentor. Being a NonLinearCharacter he's able to appear to Allison ''post-mortem'' while still in his prime, acting as a SpiritAdvisor that gives her short motivational speeches that inevitably involve a TitleDrop of the current book. In ''Breaker of Infinities'' it is instead Zaid who delivers the title drop speech -- but Zaid is also implied to possibly be a past version of Zoss, before the latter gained godlike powers and became non-linear.
** Zoss turns out to have a long history of being the mentor: The universe is stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop where Zoss chooses a new TheChosenOne to undergo TheHerosJourney where he always serves as the mentor. In every repetition, this trope is enforced upon him by [[TheHeavy 6 Juggernaut Star Scours the Universe]], whose job every cycle is to kill Zoss to motivate the Chosen. Zoss seems mostly unaffected by being repeatedly killed because of his nonlinearity -- 6 Juggernaut Star, meanwhile, [[TimeLoopFatigue remembers every single cycle and every single time it has decapitated Zoss, and how it never sticks]]. Zoss' predicament in the current cycle is because 6 Juggernaut Star jumped the gun and chopped his head off before he could fully play his role, out of sheer hatred for its eternal enemy.

** ''Film/BlackAdam'': Doctor Fate, who acts as a mentor figure to both Cyclone and Atom-Smasher and tries to get Black Adam to see the light, ends up being ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by Sabbac. That being said, he foresaw his demise thanks to the Helm of Nabu, and he managed to buy enough time for Black Adam to break free from his confinement.

** Happens again (and again with a Zeppeli) with the death of Gyro Zeppeli in ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]''.

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Most of Ala Rubra is in some way incapacitated or made incapable of helping Ala Alba out, but this trope in particular hits [[spoiler:Jack Rakan]] ''hard''. Gets an ObiWanMoment trying to take out TheDragon and everything. Of course, like everything else about him, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome it's awesome]].
** Ends up averted by the fact he can WILL HIMSELF BACK INTO EXISTENCE, once, twice and apparently permanently (although he needs an artifical body to walk around the real world).

* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Daitokouji-sensei stuck around as a SpiritAdvisor. He actually proved to be more trustworthy ''after'' his death, since he was a DoubleAgent while he was still alive.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Dark Glass[=/=]Bruno, who gets swallowed up by a black hole after he teaches Yusei the technique that'll allow him to beat the BigBad.

* ''Fanfic/TheTwilightMan'': In ''Blood Obligation'', [[Manga/BattleTendency Wamuu]] takes on the role of teaching [[Manga/PhantomBlood Jonathan, Speedwagon, and Erina]] to unlock or improve their Hamon while hunting the various vampires. He dies holding off the Pillar Man Santana so the others can escape.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Happens to Lt.Col. Thomas Knowlton in ''Webcomic/TheDreamer''.

* Grandpa Max in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' until he [[UnexplainedRecovery got better]].

* Splinter from ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012''. Twice.

* Merlin in ''WesternAnimation/Wizards2020.'' And Lancelot. Arguably Morgana, too.

** Before she starts attending Xyrus Academy, Tessia is taken under the tutelage of the academy's director, Cynthia Goodsky, who has her on-campus for over a year beforehand and makes her the StudentCouncilPresident. However, Goodsky is in fact a [[TokenHeroicOrc rogue Alacryan spy]] who has turned against her people, and in the leadup to the Alacryan invasion of Dicathen, the Alacryans instigate an attack on the academy with the intent to frame Goodsky for it. While she is ultimately acquitted of the charges by the Council, their attempts to extract any information about Alacrya from her trigger a {{Geas}} placed upon her that prevents her from divulging any information and causes her to fall into a ConvenientComa. Goodsky is found dead in her sickbed the moment the Alacryan armada arrives at the shores of Dicathen, with the telltale black spikes of the Vritra perforating her body.
** During the WarArc, Arthur comes under the tutelage of Buhndemog Lonuid, the representative of the dwarves on the Council following Rahdeas's treason, who helps him hone his skills in earth magic. At the end of the arc, when the Alacryans invade the Council Castle, Buhnd is burned from the inside out by the very same Cadell.
** Following Goodsky going into her coma, Tessia is taken under the wing of the Asuran general Aldir, who has been sent from Epheotus to act as a strategic advisor to the Dicathians. However, after a major strategic blunder by the Asuras in which the Vritra were able to revoke Epheotus's involvement in the invasion of Dicathen, Aldir ends up returning to Epheotus. After being [[GodzillThreshold ordered to destroy Elenoir]] in a futile bid to kill off the Legacy, a PersonOfMassDestruction who had possessed Tessia, Aldir becomes a DefectorFromDecadence and departs Epheotus. In order to atone for the atrocities he committed, Aldir ends up sacrificing his life to allow Arthur to bring Sylvie BackFromTheDead.

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Antiope, Diana's combat trainer, is killed during the Germans' attack on Themyscira. This spurs Diana to find Ares and stop the war.

** Before she starts attending Xyrus Academy, Tessia is taken under the tutelage of the academy's director, Cynthia Goodsky, who has her on-campus for over a year beforehand and makes her the StudentCouncilPresident. However, Goodsky is in fact a rogue Alacryan spy who has turned against her people, and in the leadup to the Alacryan invasion of Dicathen, the Alacryans instigate an attack on the academy with the intent to frame Goodsky for it. While she is ultimately acquitted of the charges by the Council, their attempts to extract any information about Alacrya from her trigger a {{Geas}} placed upon her that prevents her from divulging any information and causes her to fall into a ConvenientComa. Goodsky is found dead in her sickbed the moment the Alacryan armada arrives at the shores of Dicathen, with the telltale black spikes of the Vritra perforating her body.

** Following Goodsky going into her coma, Tessia is taken under the wing of the Asuran general Aldir, who has been sent from Epheotus to act as a strategic advisor to the Dicathians. However, after a major strategic blunder by the Asuras, Aldir ends up returning to Epheotus as the Vritra were able to revoke Epheotus's involvement in the invasion of Dicathen. After being ordered to destroy Elenoir in a futile bid to kill off the Legacy, a PersonOfMassDestruction who had possessed Tessia, Aldir becomes a DefectorFromDecadence and departs Epheotus. In order to atone for the atrocities he committed, Aldir ends up sacrificing his life to allow Arthur to bring Sylvie BackFromTheDead.
** Rinia Darcassian had been an on-and-off mentor to Arthur and Tessia thanks to her powers as a diviner allowing her to see the future and letting her advise them on what course of action they should take. After Arthur's presumed death, she takes his sister Eleanor under her wing and mentors her on her family's unique magic as descendants of the Djinn. However, her divination powers, plus her connection to a faction of Asuras who were exiled from Epheotus in the distant past, puts a target on her back.

-->-- '''Julio Scoundrèl''' (to Elan), ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''

* ''Anime/GAROTheAnimation'': Germán. After raising ''his son'' León to inherit the armor of Golden Knight GARO, he and his lovable old man shenanigans were around from the very beginning - and not only does he get offed in the most agonizingly plain way imaginable in the final battle, but he leaves his son to be responsible for his ''yet-unborn half-brother'' - presumably to repeat the cycle of this devilish trope all over again.

* In ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'', TheMentor Gojo was the WorldsStrongestMan and the BigGood of the setting. Despite having [[SpaceMaster possibly the most broken]] StoryBreakerPower in all of shōnen, he ends up suffering a SurprisinglySuddenDeath at the hands of the SealedEvilInASixPack BigBad who was the only being stronger than him.

* Applies to Beleg in Tolkien's ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'' as well, though he's more of a [[BigBrotherMentor big brother figure]]. He is unintentionally killed by his fosterling Túrin.

* Angélica is Gail's trainer in ''Literature/SuperheroesAnonymous''. At the end of the first book, she dies TakingTheBullet for Gail. She gets better in the second book, though.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'': Towards the end of his campaign, Chris Redfield begins to consider retiring from the B.S.A.A. and pass command to his protegé, Piers Nivans. It ends up being inverted during the final battle, as Piers is the one who makes a HeroicSacrifice to ensure that Chris survives, first by injecting himself with the C-Virus to defeat the HAOS bioweapon, and then staying behind in the collapsing underwater facility [[DyingAsYourself before the infection destroys his humanity]]. In the end, Chris chooses to forego his retirement to honor Piers' memory.

** After being a mentor figure to Elan and helping him [[TookALevelInBadass Take a Level in Badass]], Julio Scoundrèl hangs a lampshade on this trope in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0392.html this comic]], saying that he intends to never see Elan again specifically to avoid this trope. However, much later in the comic, Elan does get Julio to return by challenging him to [[DefiedTrope defy the trope]] and [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrative causality]] by coming back into the story in order to help Elan against a common enemy, but without dying. [[DareToBeBadass Julio is intrigued by the challenge]], and manages to pull it off successfully. After he manages to beat the odds and avoid the typical mentor death, Julio wastes no time getting out of the story entirely, just to be safe.

* ''Frachise/BackToTheFuture'': Defied. Given his position as Marty's mentor, one might expect Doc won't survive the trilogy. Instead, Marty takes the combination of the ability to time travel and his friend's demise ([[Film/BackToTheFuture1 once by terrorists]] and [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII once by Buford Tannen]]) as incitement to go after him and make sure he remains alive, usually exercising his own cunning and courage in the process.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', this is part of Darius's backstory. The Golden Guard before Hunter was his mentor, and likely taught him to rebel against Belos's reign, but like every other [[ExpendableClone Grimwalker]], was eventually killed and replaced. As a result, Darius is quite bitter towards Hunter at first.

* In ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'', TheMentor Gojo was the WorldsStrongestMan and the BigGood of the setting. Despite having [[SpaceMaster possibly the most broken]] StoryBreakerPower in all of shōnen, he ends up suffering a SurprisinglySuddenDeath at the SealedEvilInASixPack BigBad who was the only being stronger than him.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** The title character loses ''multiple'' mentor[=/=]parent figures as the series progresses, and develops a pretty serious case of SurvivorGuilt as a result.

** Subverted by Emma Frost, who outlives most of her ''students.''

* ComicBook/DoctorStrange's mentor, the Ancient One, dies and becomes [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence one with all reality]]. A subversion, since 1) he deliberately trained Strange as his successor, 2) he asked Strange to kill him, and 3) he's not "gone" in any strong sense.

* In ''Film/IronEagle'', mentor figure and RetiredBadass Chappy Sinclair goes down early on in the assault on the enemy nation that captured TheHero's father, forcing Doug to fight the rest of the battle alone. Subverted in the end when it turns out Chappy bailed out and was rescued.
** Subverted in the sequel, where Doug is killed in the first 10 minutes and Chappy becomes the main character of the franchise.

* ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'': Harry Hart is shot in the head by Valentine after the church massacre, leaving Eggsy without his primary guidance figure just as it's become apparent what the plan of the BigBad is.
** Ultimately subverted in the sequel when it's revealed that The Statesmen found Harry in time and saved him. He ends up having amnesia for a large amount of that film, but is his old self by the end.
*** Though this is played straight with Merlin at the end with his HeroicSacrifice.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Zigzagged with All Might, mentor of Izuku Midoriya. He's already seriously injured to the point it inhibits his powers at the start of the series. Throughout the first one hundred chapters we see his condition deteriorate as he's able to maintain his HourOfPower for less and less time. He also failed to inform Midoriya that he wasn't going to be around forever when there was a clear need to do so. Then he goes up against his incredibly powerful ArchEnemy just as his power runs out and Midoriya is watching the whole thing on live television. Everything points to this being All Might's final battle, and it ''is'', but not because he's killed. He simply uses up the very last remaining bit of his power defeating the villain, but manages to survive in the end. And then the clairvoyant Sir Nighteye reveals that All Might's days are numbered anyway...

** At the end of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', Tony Stark [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to save the universe]], having served as a mentor figure to [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] throughout ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming''. Interestingly, Peter's death at the end of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' haunted Tony [[MyGreatestFailure for years to come]] even after he moved on with his life, becoming something of an inversion of this trope. Succeeding in bringing Peter back finally brought Tony some closure in his dying moments. In any case, ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' has Peter still trying to get a grip with Tony's sacrifice.