The Apprentice (trope)

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    It was the best of times, then it was the worst of times. In the end, their greatest achievement manages to mend their friendship.

    Obi-Wan: If you spent as much time practicing your saber techniques as you did your wit, you'd rival Master Yoda as a swordsman.
    Anakin Skywalker: I thought I already did.

    Obi-Wan: Only in your mind, my very young apprentice.
    —Attack of the Clones

    A character who is In Training for something, usually under some kind of Mentor. Since they're still just learning, they are usually not very good, but if the show is long enough, they'll improve at least a little. Unless they're a Butt Monkey. If they're in a movie, they'll improve after a Training Montage. Sometimes have a chance of falling and becoming a villain, sometimes The Dragon or even the Big Bad, and that usually causes Redemption Equals Death.

    And, of course, the life goal of some apprentices is to To Be a Master.

    For the TV Show, go here.

    Examples of The Apprentice (trope) include:

    Anime and Manga

    • Doremi and her friends from Ojamajo Doremi.
    • Sugar from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar.
    • Schierke and Flora
    • Shi Woon to Chun Woo in The Breaker
    • Akari, Aika and Alice from Aria
    • Mana to Mahad in Yu-Gi-Oh!
    • Kenichi. Take a guess on how much a teenager can learn about martial arts in 39 volumes and counting.
    • Yahiko in Rurouni Kenshin. He does progress, although rather slowly over the course of the many volumes of the manga and accompanying TV series. At the beginning of the series, Yahiko is most useful to the heroes as a thrown weapon (it happens). At the end of the series he has become a master swordsman in his own right.

    Comic Books

    • Every Robin ever. Unless, of course, it's in their own comic book or until they graduate to something else (Nightwing, dead, Red Robin, Batgirl...)


    Film

    Literature

    Live Action TV

    • Asumu in Kamen Rider Hibiki. He doesn't get the chance to be a Rider himself until Kamen Rider Decade: when the Decade crew visit the altered Hibiki world, that world's Asumu becomes a Legacy Character.
    • Shintaro Gotou in Kamen Rider OOO becomes one to Akira Date/Kamen Rider Birth, eventually using a second Birth Buster to back Date up. Differs from the Movie War Core continuity, where Date does not appear and Gotou becomes Birth.

    Tabletop RPG

    • In early editions of Dungeons & Dragons it was customary for mages/wizards to learn by becoming apprentices of established mages/wizards. A number of wizard/apprentice relationships appeared in the Forgotten Realms setting. For example, Elminster has had many apprentices over his long life span (hundreds of years).
    • In Warhammer 40,000 Interrogators are apprentices to Inquisitors. They are slightly more experienced than is usual for the trope; by the time you are even considered for the rank of Interrogator you have probably been serving as a Throne Agent for several decades.

    Video Games

    Western Animation

    • In The Incredibles, Buddy is a perfect example of the Apprentice becoming the Big Bad. He idolizes Mr. Incredible and attempts to force his way into a role as his sidekick. When he is spurned by the hero, he becomes bitter and attempts to play a hero by causing catastrophes that only he can fix.
    • Spoofed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in South Park and Team America: World Police

    If you wanna, in one day, go;
     from a beginner, to a pro;
    You need a plan; but more than that--
    You need a MONTAGE!

    • The title character of Chowder is one of these to Mung Daal; other child characters are apprenticed to other chefs.
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