Basic Trope: A mentor's student pulls a Face–Heel Turn and becomes a formidable villain.
- Straight: Alice's mentor Bob tells her the story of his first pupil, Alex, who turned against his master when his heart was corrupted by power. That Man Is, of course, the Big Bad now styling himself Lord Killfrenzy.
- Exaggerated: Bob's first pupil goes rogue after only a day of learning the technique.
- Downplayed:
- Justified: Bob is the last Master of a Dangerous Forbidden Technique — forbidden because it can drive the weak-minded mad with power. For Killfrenzy, It's Personal, and for Bob, a new student needs to be around to keep Alex in check once Bob has died.
- Inverted:
- Our hero is the best possible Foil to the villains because he was once the star pupil at the Academy of Evil before experiencing a Heel Realization and turned to the side of good. For their part, the villains want him dead because He Knows Too Much.
- Alice's mentor Bob is the one who turns evil, forcing Alice to take down her own teacher.
- Broken Pedestal
- Subverted:
- Alex isn't evil, he just disagrees with Bob's use of his powers.
- Alex is a Fake Defector.
- Bob appears to be benevolent but turns to be a vicious Knight Templar, and the reason why he considers Alex "evil" is because he had the guts to abandon him when he found out about it.
- Alex is considered evil because he killed Draco, who used to be Bob's most brilliant pupil. However, as the story progresses, we discover that Draco was a double agent sent to infiltrate Bob's dojo and murder him when he least expected it. Alex found out about his plan, and had to kill him to protect his master.
- Alex rebelled against Bob because Bob was pro-masquerade — Alex felt it was wrong that the mages were keeping their powers for themselves, and not helping the Muggles, and decided "Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!"
- What Bob describes as rebellion was a case of Alex making a project related to the fundamentals and/or applications of his training.
- Double Subverted:
- ...because Alex thinks they should be used to Take Over the World.
- At some point, he started Becoming the Mask.
- Bob is a Knight Templar, but the lengths to which Alex had to go to survive after leaving Bob have caused him to suffer Motive Decay, and he's now even worse than Bob. Or Bob may have come back from the edge in the meantime and Alex either didn't know or didn't care.
- Alex framed Draco as an inflitrator so he would have an excuse to kill him. Victor Gains Loser's Powers is in effect and he wanted Draco's skill and mana for himself.
- Alex lied about wanting to help the Muggles, or his supposition that he'd be helping them was simply erroneous.
- Alex pursued his project even after Bob told him to stop it and knowing he would be punished for doing it. He blames Bob for his having been punished.
- Parodied:
- Bob acts this way about the fact that his now-professional rival and Sitcom Arch-Nemesis once worked for him. Alice wonders if owning a competing restaurant can really be described as "evil".
- Bob's apprentices invariably turn evil—Alex, Alice, and all those before and after them—for no good reason, but Bob keeps taking in apprentices hoping that eventually, one of them won't turn into a world-conquering villain.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bob tells Alice about his former pupil ... but when she tracks the guy down, he's perfectly friendly, and laments the fact that Bob took his branching out on his own so badly. It's later revealed that he's a Rival Turned Affably Evil and really is plotting Bob's destruction! He describes it as self-defense against Bob's selfish refusal to accept Alex's independence; this is what has created such hate between them. Then Alice learns that Alex is practicing The Dark Arts and Bob tried to rein him in.
- After a bit of tough love from Alice, Alex realizes he's strayed down the wrong path and mends his ways, eventually making peace with Bob.
- Averted:
- Good and Evil are two entirely different sides, nobody on either of which has ever been friends with anyone on the other.
- Despite the bitterness with which he abandoned his mentor, Alex still has good intentions. He simply no longer shares Bob's views on how to best serve the greater good.
- Alex doesn't leave Bob.
- Enforced: The Big Bad is meant as a Shadow Archetype to The Hero, and having them share a mentor shows their opposite reactions to the same upbringing.
- Lampshaded:
- "Ohhh, you guys have an Obi-Wan and Darth Vader thing goin' on? Well, I, for one, am much more invested in this conflict now that It's Personal."
- "Alex ... I wondered when we'd meet again." "I'm not Alex. I'm Lord Killfrenzy."
- Invoked: The Big Bad deliberately turned one of his rival's closest allies as a Xanatos Gambit: whichever of them won, Bob would be killed, emotionally devastated, or at least, one ally short.
- Exploited: After Alex turns away from Bob, the bad guys recruit him because his connection to Bob could become useful.
- Defied: Resignations Not Accepted — whenever a student of Bob's tries to rebel, he kills him immediately because He Knows Too Much.
- Discussed: "And this year's award for Most Likely to Turn Evil and Become a Nemesis Feared All the More Because You Were Once a Friend goes to ... Alex!"
- Conversed: "Why did Alex cross over to The Dark Side?" "I'm sure they'll do an episode about that."
- Played for Horror: Killfrenzy shows how far gone he is from idealistic young Alex when he Mind Rapes Bob.
- Played for Drama: Bob remembers he saw Alex as Like a Son to Me, Alex remembers he saw Bob as a Parental Substitute, or both, and they now angst about having to fight each other eventually.
- Played for Laughs: Bob and Alex's pre-battle banter plays on their old relationship:Bob: So, we meet again. I see you still can't keep your wrist straight...Alex/Killfrenzy: Shut up! You're not my teacher any more!Bob: Watch that mouth, or I'll have you writing lines.Alex/Killfrenzy: Wh—You can't ... Aaargh!
- Implied: Alex's origins are never revealed, but he seems to be very familiar with Bob and has a very similar fighting style.
- Deconstructed: Because Bob trained Alex/Killfrenzy, the Powers That Be at the Academy of Adventure suspect him of having given him the ideas that made him evil.
- Reconstructed: Bob is exonerated after due process and allowed to stay on because they also figure he might have insight into Alex's/Killfrenzy's psychology.
Back to the main page. I taught him once, you know, until he turned to The Dark Side.
