The Guardian Archetypes

The Mentor, or Guardian is the “guiding” character that will advise or arm the protagonist to help the Protagonist with its goal.

 

The Source of Advice and Tools

The Guardian is that player (or players) that represents the motivations of Conscience and Help

This Archetypal character acts as teacher/helper to the Protagonist.

As Conscience, he provides the audience with the story’s assessment of what is good and bad in the world it describes.

They might teach the protagonist something they need to know, or even serve as the character’s conscience. In most cases, the mentor will help motivate and guide the protagonist.

In his Dynamic Pair relationship, the Guardian counterbalances the efforts of the Contagonist to hinder progress and tempt the Protagonist from the proper path.

Since, according to Archetypal convention, the Protagonist must ultimately face the Antagonist without assistance, both the Guardian and Contagonist must be dramatically nullified before the climax of the story so that they cannot interfere.

This situation often occurs as a separate confrontation between them, just before the Protagonist meeting the Antagonist or it may occur concurrently, but concludes before the actual climax of the story is reached.

 

Examples of the mentor are Tori from Divergent, Dumbledore from Harry Potter, the Fairy Godmother from “Cinderella,” or Haymitch from The Hunger Games.

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