In Dungeons and Dragons, there’s a creature called a Nimblewright. Basically, it’s an animated suit of armor with intelligence and personality. In year three of Girl in Red, Rose made two of them to guard Gryffindor Tower against Sirius Black. Their names were Taltria and Alavel (“Blade Dancer” and “Knight Sword” in Elven). After third year, they continued to patrol Hogwarts and look after the students. Alavel was terse, serious, and kind, while his sister Taltria was more carefree. Following Rose’s orders, Alavel looked after Harry.

At first, Harry didn’t get along with Alavel. Alavel was just the latest in a long line of adults telling him what to do and how to live his life. While Alavel tried to connect with Harry, Harry was having none of it. It wasn’t until Harry broke up with his then girlfriend Ellie, breaking down himself, that he opened up to Alavel. Harry cracked, and Alavel happened to be there as someone to whom he could vent. Harry finally wanted help from someone, and Alavel knew just what to say. That was the end of fourth year.

Throughout fifth year, Harry went to Alavel for help and advice. On paper, Alavel was working as an assistant to Filch, but he functioned as a guiding hand to the students. Harry talked to him about everything: Quidditch, school, dating, Voldemort, his friends. When Harry started teaching younger students Defence Against the Dark Arts, Alavel was there to support him, and lent them some credibility by having a staff member present. When Harry saw Sally-Anne slipping away into Umbridge’s clutches, Alavel was there to put things into perspective so he didn’t come to hate her. That lasted until Umbridge took over Hogwarts and sacked Alavel. This was one approach to removing Alavel and allowing Harry to grow on his own, although it didn’t go well for Harry. He blamed Sally-Anne for Alavel being sacked (it was in part her fault, and that wasn’t the only reason he was angry at her). Under different circumstances, Harry might have grown, but with everything else happening, he couldn’t.

Later that year when the main characters escaped Umbridge’s clutches and ran into the Forbidden Forest, there were Death Eaters waiting for them. Despite their best efforts, the main characters were only students, ill-prepared to handle twenty and change trained killers. That’s when Alavel stepped back into play. He brought a few others with him, and together, they were able to fight back the Death Eaters until Voldemort himself arrived. Even then, Alavel stood against him, determined to stop him from hurting Harry. For a while, he was winning, until another Death Eater stepped in and killed him.

I made the decision to kill off Alavel for a few reasons. First, to allow Harry to grow without him. Unfortunately, I’d made him too responsible and wise, able to solve Harry’s emotional problems too quickly. Second, I wanted to cement that specific Death Eater as a threat, because in reality, that Death Eater was Rose. Due to Slytherin’s influence, she’d had to join the Death Eaters, and she had to convince them she was against them. Killing one of her own creations, something she’d already been dead set against in previous years, would convince them (and my readers) that she’d changed.

Even after Alavel’s death, he was never forgotten. Harry worked to be like him, becoming the primary source of emotional support for his friends, as Alavel had done for him. He always asked himself what Alavel would do when faced with a problem. It’s because of this that he’s able to rehabilitate Ginny when she loses her mind in sixth year, and stand by her as she recovers in seventh year. Despite having to kill off Alavel to make this happen, it gave me the opportunity to see Harry grow in a way that wouldn’t have happened with Alavel alive. This also provided the inspiration for the poem I Know I Can Fly.

An effective mentor is tricky to write. I had to ensure that Alavel was there as needed, thus staying in character. Harry couldn’t open up to him immediately because it wasn’t in Harry’s character. Sacrificing himself for Harry was exactly the way Alavel would’ve wanted to die, if he’d had to die at all. I like how it turned out, and I hope other people can learn from my work.

#Essay #GirlInRed #Mentors

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Despite the story focusing around the hero, sometimes, the entire world’s in danger. The kingdom is collapsing. The entire town is in trouble, and it’s too much for them, or maybe they just aren’t ready yet. Either way, they need help. They need backup. They need the people that taught them everything they know. The teachers, the elders, the wise people. It’s time for them to step in. If this happens in the finale, it can’t be the fight against the big bad; it will be a fight elsewhere, against the big bad’s minions. Otherwise, it won’t be the final fight, because that’s for the main character to handle.

In the show RWBY, the main characters are taught to fight. But at the end of volume III, the entire city was under attack, and the main characters were still only students. So it was time for everyone to pitch in and help. Even their headmaster, whom we’d never seen fight before, got involved. While this was the finale of that volume, it was far from the series finale. It made sense for the teachers to step in, since the main characters couldn’t be expected to handle it all alone. It shows that not only are they a force to be reckoned with, but they are responsible(ish) as well.

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, there is a secret society made up of all of their teachers. People wise enough to see that the war plaguing the world was pointless and had to be stopped. But the only one powerful enough to take down the big bad was the main character. So while he fought the big bad, that society took back the capital city of one of the nations. It gave something for many of the most popular characters in the show to do, and allowed us to see what they could do when put to the test, all without interfering with the final fight between the main character and the big bad.

Another reason to unholster the big guns is to show how much of a threat one of the villains can be. I did this in Girl in Red, in year six when Dumbledore faced off against Rose. This was one of my favorite fight scenes to write, showing just how clever Dumbledore was in his choice of spells. When he ultimately failed to stop her, the four house heads took their shot at her in another of my favorite scenes. There is something that must be considered when going with this approach: if the teachers couldn’t do it, why can the students? In this case, Hermione was able to beat Rose because Hermione knew how to fight Rose’s unique magic.

It’s a tricky business letting the mentors fight. You don’t want them to fight all the time, otherwise the main characters wouldn’t do anything. But sometimes it makes sense for them to fight, so they have to get involved. Balancing the two sides is something that must be learned.

#Essay #Mentors #Characters

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We’ve seen it in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. The wise mentor sacrifices himself to allow the hero to grow to their full potential. While this creates drama and gives the hero a reason to fight, there are plenty of other ways to do both of those. But without that sacrifice, the question comes up about the mentor handling the forces of evil himself. If not that, then the hero hides behind the mentor, falling back on him when he can’t do it himself. But is it necessary?

As I often do, I’ll look at Animorphs, specifically for the reason of the heroes handling the problem when there’s a more capable entity available. Specifically, the Ellimist, the all-powerful being that helps them out with his patented brand of non-interfering interference. Near the end of the series, his battle with the being Crayak is explained, and with that, the rules of their “game”. Instead of fighting each other directly, as they reasoned they’d only destroy and remake the universe over and over again, they use pieces, such as the Animorphs themselves. This provides a way for the heroes to handle the Yeerks (who are one of Crayak’s pieces) despite the fact that the Ellimist is more capable (being all-powerful and all).

Instead of killing the mentor, he can be removed from the story for other reasons. It could be that he recognizes the hero’s need to go it alone, finding his own way. In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged returns to his teacher, Ogion, while trying to escape the shadow he unleashed onto the world. Fearing for his teacher’s safety, he leaves, and Ogion lets him go, recognizing that only Ged can face the evil he let loose on the world. There was no need to kill Ogion to get him out of the way.

The show RWBY takes another approach. The main characters are all being taught to fight monsters, as monsters plague their world. When the controlling force behind those monsters goes on the offensive, the main characters have to leave their homes to fight back. Their teachers show up to help them from time to time, but the heroes all have to fight, and that’s what the teachers are teaching them to do. The heroes have to grow and learn because they know they have to go into battle.

It’s easy to simply kill off the mentor when preparing a hero, but it’s done so often that it’s predictable. There are other approaches to doing it, and I’d recommend finding a different one. It’s easy to look at one of the big names in science fiction or fantasy and want to do it their way, but the problem with that is that everyone else already has. When making a story, it should be yours, so do it your way, and trust yourself.

#Essay #Mentors

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The wise old mentor. The responsible parent. They exist almost entirely to provide guidance and advice to the hero, but what happens when the hero doesn’t want it? What happens when the hero pushes away their mentor? A hero arguing with the adults for the sake of arguing, or to force the hero to deal with the problem alone, should be avoided. At the very least, they should eventually come to realize the adults had a point. This can provide necessary conflict and growth for the hero, but when this becomes the hero’s defining characteristic, it gets old fast.

As I’ve written about before, sometimes it’s necessary for adults to step back so the children or teenagers can save the world. Sometimes, this takes the form of rebellious teenagers that know better than the adults because they’re teenagers. This is to be expected of teenage characters, because it’s common among teenagers. I was no exception at that age, but when it defines the character, it gets old. The fifth Harry Potter book is my least favorite of the bunch because that’s how it felt, like Harry was whining about his life the whole time. Adults make mistakes too, but the heroes should eventually come to an understanding with them.

The previous books fall into this trap as well. Harry refuses to listen to the adults, assuming he knows better, or they wouldn’t understand, or other reasons that are there to ensure Harry has to do everything on his own. While the adults are as much to blame as Harry, it never goes anywhere. Neither side seems to learn anything, making it conflict for the sake of conflict.

Heroes did this rather well. The character Claire Bennet, who could heal from anything, and her father, who tracked down and captured people with powers, had conflict throughout the series. While her father knows what he’s doing (mostly), Claire wants to live her life as normally as she can. They butt heads throughout the first season, but when Claire sees what the people for whom her father works are like, she realizes he’s been trying to protect her from them. At the same time, her father realizes that she’s more capable of taking care of herself than he’d been giving her credit for. Their understanding of one another gives the conflict a satisfying conclusion, instead of existing for the sake of killing time.

Creating conflict between characters is fine, but it should have some sort of resolution. The same goes for heroes not getting along with their mentors and the adults in general. Refusing to get along only so they can see the clarity of each other’s viewpoint later is good, but pointlessly arguing so the hero can go it alone isn’t. Eventually, it has to end, preferably with them seeing eye to eye.

#Essay #Characters #Mentors #Heroes

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