: Re: How can I handle a powerful mentor character without killing them off? I'm writing a book series that involves people with various superpowers. One of these characters and is more or less the

@Megan928

Three ideas that may serve to make your world a bit harsher:
Your protagonist and their mentor aren't always on the same side
Maybe the mentor's been given incomplete information. Maybe there's a genuine difference of opinions regarding how to handle a morally grey situation. Maybe whatever's going on touches on a past trauma of theirs that they are really not rational about. Or maybe the mentor is a less of a benevolent force than described so far. Whatever the reason, your protagonist and the mentor have different opinions on how to handle the situation, the mentor is proclaiming how disappointed they are in them, the mentor is starting to actively move against them. Oh no! What can the protagonist do?
Your mentor is facing threats on their level... and now the protagonist is facing them too
The mentor might have a nemesis, or have several opposing figures of similar power levels. The protagonist is absolutely not in their weight class, but due to their relationship with the mentor they're getting dragged into the fights anyway. Maybe some of these people are threatening him to get the mentor to do what they want! Whatever the reason, striking up that relationship means your protagonist is suddenly in waaaay over his head.
There's a massive negative change to the mentor's circumstances
Maybe they lose control of the "good guy" faction. They get betrayed, their power gets undermined, their reputation ruined. They become ill in a way that negates their power. This change might be permanent, or maybe it's temporary - but if so the protagonist has to help them fix things, and it's going to be risky.
Your ideas are good, and could easily be combined with the above. The reason I think you're having trouble making them work on their own is that they still leave the mentor as an overall figure representing safety, you're just putting obstacles in the way of them showing up. But the fact that that safety net is there in the background, that your readers know the mentor could deus ex machina save the day at any point, can serve to diffuse the tension if you're not careful. The suggestions above go deeper and mean the mentor can also bring danger to the protagonist. Having the mentor's situation change for the negative also automatically makes the world more dynamic and more dangerous, since it becomes clear this powerful figure isn't safe either.

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