Mrs Robinson
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I was a young un at 'Oogli,
Shy as a girl to begin;
Aggie de Castrer she made me,
- An' Aggie was clever as sin;
Older than me, but my first un -
More like a mother she were
Showed me the way to promotion an' pay,
An' I learned about women from 'er !

(from) The Ladies Rudyard Kipling

Basic Information

Named after the eponymous character from The Graduate, Mrs. Robinson is an older, female character who serves the protagonist as both a love interest and a mentor. Although not particularly well represented in traditional myth, this character crops up from time to time in a lot of more demotic literature, especially in the sort of coming of age narrative that involves a young man's transition from knave to knight. There is, generally, a strong whiff of illegitimacy about these relationships (as many of them involve adultery, unless the older lady is a widow) and, given that the knight must, at some stage, become a king, an expectation that they will not end well. There are also homosexual versions of this in the classical (predominately the classical Greek) tradition, albeit different in detail and context.

The cool big sis provides a non-sexual version of this trope.

Sources

Bibliography
1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

  • Possibly Mrs. Stiffler to a younger generation.
  • Speaking of the classics, it appears that even as great a character as L. Cornelius Sulla may have lived for a while in a qualifying relationship with an older widow.
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