10 Video Game Mentors Who Were Actually Complete Morons
These 'wise old sages' really need to retire.
Here's the thing, everyone loves a good old fashioned student-becomes-the-master story. It may have been done to death on screens of all sizes from Karate Kid to Netflix's Daredevil, but that doesn't stop gamers picking up the controls to some spunky new character, discovering their skills as tutelage is given by some wise old, mission-spouting sage. The thing with these characters in gaming is they're nearly always the quest-givers and not much more; concrete pillars that hold up the narrative but only exist to reel off a series of goals you can't discuss, explore or ruminate on approaches with. We tend to forget the act of why we're doing something in a game too (at least until Bioshock shook everything right up in 2007), as it's rare in the pursuit of a medium that thrives on setting you on your way as quickly as possible, that any alternate path could've been taken. However, like the never-ending debate around whether or not Gandalf needed Frodo and Sam to laboriously carry the rings to Mordor in Lord of the Rings (he'd left the Eagle in the garage), so too can you apply the "Hang on a minute!" post-analysis approach to the digital realm, looking at a few questionable cases of so-called 'wisdom' we just went along with. If there are any I've missed, let everyone know in the comments - otherwise, get ready to reevaluate everything you thought you knew about some of the most powerful characters in the world of gaming.