Writing an Evil Mentor and Reluctant Apprentice
okay so this dynamic has SO MUCH potential but also so many ways to go completely wrong and end up feeling like a bad Wattpad fic (no shade to Wattpad, I LOVE WATTPAD, but you know what I mean)
⤳ first of all: why is the apprentice even THERE
This is the thing everyone forgets. If your apprentice is SO reluctant, why haven't they just... left? You need a actual reason they're stuck in this situation that isn't just "well the plot needs them to be."
Maybe they're learning something they CAN'T learn anywhere else and they hate that they need this person. Maybe there's blackmail involved. Maybe they made a deal they can't break. Maybe leaving means something worse happens, to them, to someone they love, to the world, whatever. Maybe they're trapped physically or magically or socially.
Or, and this is interesting, maybe they're MORE reluctant about being reluctant than they are about the actual apprenticeship. Like they KNOW they should want to leave, they know this is bad, but there's a part of them that's curious or ambitious or hungry for power and they're disgusted with themselves for it. That internal conflict is WAY more interesting than just "I don't wanna be here" on repeat.
⤳ the mentor can't just be Evil they need layers
If your evil mentor is just cackling and monologuing about their Evil Plans, I'm gonna be honest, that's boring. Evil people don't think they're evil. They think they're RIGHT.
Your mentor should believe completely in what they're doing. They should have reasons. Maybe even good reasons that got twisted somewhere along the way. They're not teaching the apprentice to be evil, they're teaching them to be "realistic" or "strong" or "free from sentiment" or whatever rationalization they've built.
And they should genuinely CARE about the apprentice in their own twisted way. Not in a healthy way obviously, but they're invested. Maybe they see potential. Maybe they see themselves. Maybe the apprentice is their legacy project. Maybe they're lonely and don't even realize it.
The worst mentors are the ones who think they're HELPING. Who get genuinely hurt or frustrated when the apprentice resists. "I'm doing this FOR you, why can't you see that?" That's so much more unsettling than just "I'm evil deal with it."
⤳ the teaching scenes need to be actually uncomfortable
Don't just tell us the apprentice is reluctant, SHOW the grinding tension of every lesson. The apprentice should be trying to take what they need while maintaining their boundaries, and the mentor should be constantly pushing those boundaries in ways that feel invasive.
Maybe the mentor teaches through psychological manipulation, like giving praise and validation when the apprentice does something morally questionable, withdrawing affection when they resist. Classical conditioning but make it sinister.
Maybe the lessons start out seeming reasonable or even helpful and then there's this slow creep into darker territory. The apprentice doesn't even notice they've crossed a line until they're already on the other side of it. That gradual corruption is SO much more effective than dramatic heel-turn moments.
The apprentice should be learning things that are genuinely useful, because that's what makes it complicated. If everything the mentor taught was obviously bad, it'd be easy to reject. But what if some of it actually WORKS? What if the morally grey techniques are MORE effective than the "right" way? Now you've got a real dilemma.
⤳ the power dynamic is everything
This relationship is inherently unbalanced and you need to FEEL that in every interaction. The mentor holds all the cards (knowledge, power, resources) whatever. The apprentice is dependent and they hate it.
ANDlet the apprentice find small ways to resist or maintain agency. They comply on the surface but sabotage in tiny ways. They learn what the mentor teaches but refuse to internalize the philosophy. They're playing a long game, gathering what they need to eventually break free.
Or maybe they're TOO good at what the mentor teaches and that becomes its own problem. The mentor gets possessive or threatened. Or the apprentice starts to scare themselves with how easily this comes to them.
The push-pull is constant. The mentor pulls them closer, the apprentice pulls away. Sometimes the apprentice moves toward the mentor for strategic reasons and hates themselves for it. It's this exhausting dance and both of them are trying to lead.
⤳ dialogue that's like a chess game
Their conversations shouldn't be straightforward. The mentor is always teaching, always testing, always maneuvering. The apprentice is always defending, always trying to give nothing away.
Subtext is EVERYTHING. They're having two conversations, the surface one and the real one underneath.
"You're doing well." (You're becoming what I want you to be.) "Thank you." (I hate that your approval matters to me.)
"You hesitated." (You're still weak.) "I was being thorough." (I'm not like you.)
"You remind me of myself at your age." (You're mine.) "I'm nothing like you." (Please let that be true.)
Let the mentor ask questions that seem innocent but are actually traps. Let the apprentice give answers that seem compliant but have hidden barbs. Every conversation is a battle and someone's always losing ground.
⤳ the apprentice needs their own agenda
A reluctant apprentice who's JUST reluctant gets boring fast. They need to be DOING something with this situation beyond just enduring it.
Maybe they're gathering information to take the mentor down eventually. Maybe they're learning these skills for a completely different purpose than the mentor thinks. Maybe they're protecting someone and this is the price. Maybe they're playing double agent.
Give them secrets the mentor doesn't know about. Give them small victories. Let them be smart and strategic even while they're trapped. The best reluctant apprentices aren't passive victims, they're people in a bad situation making the best moves they can with limited options.
⤳ the corruption question (THIS IS THE BIG ONE)
Is your apprentice going to be corrupted or not? You need to decide this and commit.
If they ARE going to fall: make it gradual, make it believable, make it tragic. Show the small compromises that lead to bigger ones. Show them justifying things they would have been horrified by six months ago. Let them notice what's happening and be unable or unwilling to stop it. The best corruption arcs are the ones where the character SEES the cliff and walks off it anyway.
If they're NOT going to fall: you need to show what's keeping them anchored. What's their north star? What line won't they cross no matter what? And it can't just be abstract goodness, it needs to be concrete. A person they love. A promise they made. A memory they're protecting. Something SPECIFIC that they come back to when they're tempted.
Or secret third option, they come out of this changed in ways that aren't cleanly good or bad. They've learned things they can't unlearn. They've done things they can't undo. They survived but they're different now and they're not sure if that's okay.
At some point this relationship has to SHIFT. The apprentice can't just be reluctant forever, something has to give.
Maybe they finally escape and now the mentor becomes an antagonist actively hunting them. Maybe they turn the tables and trap the mentor somehow. Maybe the mentor does something that crosses a line even they didn't know they had. Maybe the apprentice does something that makes them realize they've already become what they feared.
Whatever happens, there needs to be a moment where the dynamic fundamentally changes. All that tension you've been building? It has to snap eventually.
⤳ the complicated feelings (because humans are messy)
Your apprentice can hate the mentor AND be attached to them. They can be grateful for what they learned AND horrified by the cost. They can miss the mentorship AND be glad it's over. They can love and loathe the same person.
Don't shy away from that complexity. Some of the most interesting reluctant apprentice characters are the ones who have big messy contradictory feelings about their evil mentor. Who dream about destroying them and also dream about making them proud. Who know intellectually that this person is terrible but emotionally are still seeking their approval.
Let your apprentice be angry that they care. Let them feel guilty for the moments when the reluctance fades and they're actually INTO what they're learning. Let them grieve the relationship even though it was toxic, because grief doesn't care about logic.
⤳ what NOT to do (please i'm begging)
Don't make the mentor comically evil for no reason. Don't make every interaction a dramatic confrontation. Don't have the apprentice constantly announcing how reluctant they are, SHOW it through their actions and choices and internal conflict.
Don't make the apprentice completely helpless and passive. Don't resolve the tension too quickly. Don't forget that learning (even dark things) would realistically be interesting and compelling sometimes.
And for the love of god don't do the "secretly they were good all along" twist with the mentor unless you've REALLY set it up well. That's almost always a cop-out that undermines the whole dynamic.
⤳ the real question you should be asking
What is this relationship DOING to your apprentice? How are they different because of it? What do they learn about themselves, not just about magic or fighting or whatever the mentor teaches, but about their own capacity for darkness, for survival, for compromise?
The evil mentor/reluctant apprentice dynamic is really about TESTING your character. It's about putting them in an impossible situation and seeing what they do. It's about the price of power and the cost of knowledge and how people maintain their sense of self when everything's working against it.
okay i'm done now gonna go think about fictional toxic mentorships and feel things about them (and eat pizza after my apple juice)
REQUEST: @orderdchaosthings2 I hope it helps <3
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