How to balance a master-and-apprentice dynamic?

[Umbran]

I’m saying using power as a difference is probably not the way to go.

The master/apprentice relationship is about two things:
1) The apprentice learning from the master about the profession.
2) The master getting the service of the apprentice until it is time for them to go off on their own as journeymen.

If the student is equal to the master, or even a bit below, but still professional quality, then the apprentice should go off as a journeyman, no longer an apprentice. The justification for the relationship falls apart if they are equals.

 

[TiQuinn]

The master/apprentice relationship is about two things:
1) The apprentice learning from the master about the profession.
2) The master getting the service of the apprentice until it is time for them to go off on their own as journeymen.

If the student is equal to the master, or even a bit below, but still professional quality, then the apprentice should go off as a journeyman, no longer an apprentice. The justification for the relationship falls apart if they are equals.

But the difference may not be in power but in social standing and seniority. People defer to the master. The master has more influence. A lot of media shows the relationship at the end or the beginning, not the middle learning years. From just a practical standpoint, having an actual power or ability differential may be problematic.

 

[Umbran]

But the difference may not be in power but in social standing and seniority.

If you want to work it that way, you can, but that's not usually how apprenticeships were applied in the real world, nor is it really what we wee in most of the relevant fiction.

Typically, you don't stay an apprentice until you equal your master. You stay an apprentice until you are "professional" grade, and then they boot you out and you become a Journeyman. You then get real-world practice until you can produce your "masterwork", which would earn you a place as a master in the guild.

The equivalent pattern in the Jedi order, for example, is Padawan > Knight > Master.