Basic Trope: A mage and protégée with a serious age difference, who have at least hints of being romantically involved, and one of whom eventually betrays the other for greater power.
- Straight: Bob is a great sorcerer, and he takes Alice, a young maid, as his apprentice. They become lovers, and Alice eventually betrays him for power.
- Exaggerated: ??
- Downplayed: Bob is a 40-year-old mage, while Alice is well over 20. The two flirt from time to time, but their relationship mostly comes down to a student-teacher one. In the end, Alice leaves her master and takes his book of magic.
- Justified: Alice's motives are discussed and presented sympathetically.
- Inverted: Alice is a magical expert in her youth, and Bob is an older man hoping to learn from her natural talent. They begin a romantic relationship, and Bob eventually betrays her for power.
- Gender Inverted: Bob takes Charles, a young lad, as his apprentice. They have a Lover and Beloved dynamic and still fulfill the trope.
- Subverted: Someone tries to get Alice to betray Bob, making her a good offer. Right as she's about to decide… the scene cuts away and we don't see what she says, but the implication is that she has betrayed him. Several scenes later, we come to the scene where the actual betrayal would take place... and we find out that Alice turned down the offer, and stayed loyal to Bob.
- Double Subverted: Since Alice refused to betray him, Bob trusts her more, and shares with her several of his magical secrets. Because he so trusts her, when it comes time that Alice does decide to betray him, she is able to take even more of his magic and secrets for herself.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Alice and Bob are the same age.
- Enforced: The story is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, and the characters actually are Merlin and Nimue.
- Lampshaded: "The Council of Warlocks always says you should never take an apprentice you're the slightest bit besotted with, or have the slightest inkling might betray you."
- Invoked: Alice looks for an old wizard to take her as his apprentice specifically with this plan in mind.
- Exploited: Bob knows about this trope, but he's a Dirty Old Man.
- Defied: Bob is tempted to take Alice as his apprentice, but then he thinks of this trope and decides not to.
- Implied: We never actually meet Alice's old mentor, but she mentions him a few times, in vague terms, and it sounds like something like this went down between them.
Back to Merlin and Nimue.
