25 minutes out-of-universe, mind you. In-universe, he was off for a whole couple days.
"Really? I retired for, what, five minutes, and it all goes to shit."
— Hawkeye, Captain America: Civil War
In the middle of a crisis, calamity, or unadulterated apocalypse, something terrible happens (but not, typically, any more terrible than happens in any given episode) and The Hero completely and utterly gives up. Common lines that go with the phenomenon are "I'm too old for this," "I can't do it," "There is nothing I can do," "The best thing to do is get out of here," "I'm only making things worse," or "Somebody else can handle this." May even be the follow-up to a Heroic BSoD, Heroic Fatigue, Villainous BSoD, or Villainous Fatigue.
After some kind of epiphany, often accompanied by a "No More Holding Back" Speech, the character comes out of retirement and announces that they are back on the job, typically via some equivalent of a Foe-Tossing Charge — anything from actual foe-tossing to nailing the school spelling bee. (See also Look What I Can Do Now!, which is similar but involves a character leaving and returning much badder than before.)
Sometimes, the hero tries to pass the mantle down to another person, only for them to abuse their newfound power and force the hero to replace their supposed successor.
It's also a common Romantic Comedy trope where one of the leads is working with or for the other, quits their job during the Second-Act Breakup, only to return a few scenes later.
See also: Achilles in His Tent, Back in the Saddle, Conscience Makes You Go Back, Changed My Mind, Kid, Going Home Again, and We Used to Be Friends.
Opposite of Passing the Torch, where The Hero seriously hands on the responsibility to someone else. He's Back! is what happens when the character returns to action. Breaking the Fellowship is the equivalent for a whole group rather than a mere individual.
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- "American Honda Presents DC Comics' Supergirl": Kara is feeling so guilty about her boyfriend getting hurt in a road accident as she was busy saving lives elsewhere that she declares she is through being Supergirl, believing her powers cannot even save people who she loves. One page later, though, Superman talks her into using the Fortress of Solitude machines to snap Stever out of his coma.
Anime & Manga
- BanG Dream! has had a couple of these in the four seasons and few movies there are.
- In the original series, Reona and Masuki both quit Raise A Suilen briefly, though in Masuki's case, it was only an excuse to get some fresh air.
- In Episode of Roselia, after the band fails to evaluate what they need to improve, Yukina quits the band that she started. The other members also end up splitting up into two groups, with Sayo and Lisa being the only ones to still bother to show up for rehearsals, and Ako and Rinko being the only ones to actually try to think of a way to get the band back together.
- In It's MyGO!!!!!, Soyo quits after the band performs "Haruhikage" live at their first concert. In the very next episode, Raana follows suit, when Tomori can't decide if she wants to do a rehearsal without a bassist or try to get Soyo back. And in the episode after that, Anon leaves after being told by the blunt Taki that she was never needed and was just being used by Soyo. It's only after Tomori has a chance encounter with the pop-idol Uika, that she gets the band back together.
- In the mobile game, both Rui and Mashiro quit Morfonica in the second band story, but both return without too much persuasion.
- In Code Geass R2, Lelouch Lamperouge goes into one of these after he learns that Nunnally, his sister, has been reinstated as a Britannian Princess and wants to settle the conflict in Area 11 diplomatically, just like Euphemia in the first season. At first, he wants to stop being the Dark Messiah and Well-Intentioned Extremist Zero, since he started fighting for Nunnally's sake and wouldn't want to cause any problems for her now that she has a major political role as Area 11's viceroy. Eventually, he finds a way to move the fight somewhere else, making things easier for Nunnally without abandoning his team.
- Cowboy Bebop: At the end of "Hard Luck Woman", it seems like Faye has left the Bebop crew for real this time to return to Earth alongside Ed and Ein. However, a chance encounter with Julia in the following episode ends up bringing her back into the fold.
- In Detroit Metal City, Souichi Negishi tries to quit being Demon King Johannes Krauser II, only to be disgusted with his replacement and come back and abuse him on stage.
- Digimon:
- Digimon Adventure: Happens to Mimi Tachikawa after the death of Whamon. She declares she's had enough of fighting due to the number of friends she's lost. Fortunately she recovers in the next episode and even stares down three Garbagemon without flinching.
- Digimon Tamers: Rika Nonaka quits on being a Tamer after being captured by IceDevimon.
- Dominion Tank Police: Leona Ozaki spends most of episode 2 of the second series officially off the police rolls. She's bent on figuring out who killed her once-partner Channon Ishihara, so she requests a leave of absence. The Chief instead makes it look like she'd been sacked. Turns out they wanted her as a loose cannon so she could get a needed lead to crack the case; others of the Tank Police keep tabs on her during her search and help bail her out of trouble towards the end.
- Kurita has one of these in Eyeshield 21 when Gaou breaks Hiruma's arm in the middle of a game. It's only the possibility that Gaou will do worse to Komusubi and fill-in quarterback Sena that brings Kurita around.
- Fist of the North Star: After Yulia passes away from her radiation poisoning, Kenshiro is in a long state of mourning and retires, causing the grown up Bat and Lyn to try, and rather unsuccessfully, deal with a new generation of tyrants. Only when Juza's son is killed and Ken's horse Kokuoh is partially blinded, does Ken get back to work.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Edward Elric is fairly broken up about what happened to Nina, but doesn't resign.
- He does have what amounts to a ten second retirement later on though. He turns in his pocket watch (the token of all state alchemists) to King Bradley, and then gives a long speech about how he won't work for the corrupt higher ups any longer or take part in their evil schemes. Bradley counters this speech by threatening his childhood friend and Love Interest, Winry, and Ed angrily takes the watch back and continues working.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Ed once briefly resigned his position as a state alchemist. He went back not long afterwards, but the 10-Minute Retirement probably saved his life; he ran into Scar, a serial killer targeting state alchemists, and Scar would have killed him if Edward hadn't said he had retired.
- In Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, Sousuke admits he can't focus anymore and abandons the mission, leaving Mao behind. He eventually does come back to save the day. Though even more interestingly, from the novel's short story "Golden Days with Captain Amigo," it's implied that Sousuke, given a choice, actually would hightail it out of Mithril and retire and go off somewhere to live where he can leisurely fish. The idea appealed to him greatly, and he was shown to get excited at the very thought of the possibility. It makes one wonder how different the series would be if he and Kurz managed to become filthy rich, and both decided to quit while they're ahead and retire.
- Future GPX Cyber Formula:
- This happens to Hayato Kazami a lot, especially after the first race in the TV series, but then he came back after he met a former racer and he learned some more racing skills (from Bleed Kaga).
- In the second OVA sequel, ZERO, Hayato interacts with the titular Zero Zone and ends up crashing horribly with his rival Randoll. Both are then absent for the rest of the racing season since they are hospitalized. Bonus point for Hayato, since he also suffers a Heroic BSoD.
- In Glass Mask, Maya Kitajima decided to give up on being a professional actress after the death of her mother and the role Masumi Hayami had in keeping her whereabouts from her. As she was still under contract with Daito Entertainment, she agreed to do one final performance for them. The role was a minor one, but the scene in question was pivotal to the play's story. The scene caused her to rediscover her passion for acting, but she had no means of working as a professional again and the scandal had blacklisted her name. Maya chose to find a different way back into the world of professional acting.
- Gundam:
- In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Amuro quits being a pilot for about two days after his superiors discuss forcing him to retire. Just to show them, he takes the Gundam with him and buries it in the desert until they need him again.
- Happens twice in After War Gundam X. First, Garrod tries to sell the Gundam after he's responsible for injuring a crewmate and then The Captain (thanks to his inexperience in being part of an actual crew). He gets back in when his new friends are in danger. Later, Roybea quits the Freeden because they're taking sides in a war, which he disapproves of, but he ends up falling for a member of the local resistance and she's shot dead in front of him. He comes back in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and has to be talked down from attacking the entire Federation army.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Wufei goes through a phase in which he feels unfit to pilot his Gundam after Treize swiftly defeated him in a sword fight.
- Hyper Police: Natsuki has one of these after tragedy happens while on a hunt.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, after Link discovers that the island and its inhabitants are part of the Wind Fish's dream he abandons his quest, not wanting to cause a Dream Apocalypse, and instead tries to leave the island with Marin on a raft. The epiphanies come when they find they can't get away, Marin tells him that she wanted to leave because of a recurring dream of hers, and "you have to wake up from dreams". Later he speaks to the owl who tells him that the island won't really be destroyed, but will continue to live in his memory- Link's island won't be completed until the Wind Fish's island is gone. This finally gets Link back on track.
- Macross Frontier, Sheryl Nome takes one after various plot points leaves her confidence shot, most notably the one that says Your Days Are Numbered, which had a large effect on all of her actions for the rest of the series. She announces to Alto that she's going to quit being an Idol Singer and do something else. Alto practically chews her out on it, implying it effectively the same as saying she quits being herself, because she loves singing. The next episode (chronologically later the same day), an attack leaves her in a bomb shelter filled with people who have been rushed into these shelters constantly since the beginning of the series, and having just been celebrating their escape from it, the worst attack happens. The Despair Event Horizon looms ominously... and then Sheryl sings.
- In the Mazinger saga:
- Mazinger Z: In episode seven several mobs had expressed their displeasure at Humongous Mecha stomping on their houses and them by harassing and assailing the heroes. Prof. Yumi had been hurt when a mob had thrown stones at him, Sayaka was so upset at her father hurt and protesters yelling at the gates of the Home Base she was thinking of quitting, and Kouji also decided just doing it after a big fight with her. Their retirement lasted until another Mechanical Beast attacked.
- Great Mazinger: From all possible times, The Hero did this during the Grand Finale. Tetsuya had grown so jealous of Kouji, falsely believing everyone were going to replace him with Kouji and forget about him (for all his bluster, he has issues). Saying that his attitude came back to bite him was quite the understatement.
- UFO Robo Grendizer: Duke Fleed was doing this at the beginning of the series. He was planet Fleed's Crown Prince. After Vegan Alliance invaded his homeworld, murdered his family but his little sister, decimated his planet's army and turned the place into a radioactive wasteland, he ran away and settled on Earth, planning leading a peaceful life like a farmer and trying to ferget what happened. Then the Vegans Alliance found Earth, a friend of his was in danger, and he started his Super Robot and marched to the battle again.
- In My-Otome, after watching everything around her crumble, Arika starts to lose heart about becoming an Otome, and decides to stay in exile with the Aswad. Her mind is quickly changed when the cave she and Mashiro are hiding in decides to play a real-life version of "The floor is lava".
- Shinji does this twice in three installments of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise: running away after the battle with the 4th Angel, and trying to quit in the aftermath of accidentally killing (in the manga)/injuring Touji (in the TV series)/Asuka (in the Rebuild movie version).
- A musical example occurs in Nodame Cantabile, where Nodame seems to give up totally on the piano after she messes up the piano competition.
- In Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Ririka goes into a Heroic BSoD and temporarily quits being a Magical Girl after her crush Kanou's death.
- Parodied (like everything else) in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. After Panty loses her powers after re-growing her hymen, Garterbelt banishes her from the church. A Time Skip shows that she's become a farm-hand. When the farm is beset by bandits, the dying landlady's Rousing Final Speech rekindles Panty's resolve. This entire arc doesn't even take five minutes and was all a setup by Garterbelt to get Panty back on track.
- Otaku Elf has a very short example. Koito and Elda have an argument about Elda's hikikomori tendencies, causing Koito to announce that she no longer weishes to be Elda's Miko. A few pages later, Elda goes outside to find her and convinces her to come back, then earns some of Koito's trademark snark when she gets back.
- In Prétear, Mannen announces that he is going to quit being a Leafe Knight after his actions led to the escape of the monster they were trying to kill. The problem is — the Knights are all born to protect Leafe, all have different powers, so there are no replacements. He eventually returns, having realised that quitting is not the way to show one's "coolness". Later, Himeno breaks down and runs away, after she kills Shin — she can be replaced as Pretear... but not as Himeno Awayuki: she changes her mind when Hayate threatens to quit as well because he doesn't want another Pretear.
- Something similar happens in the anime version, but there it's because Himeno goes through a Heroic BSoD and temporarily loses her powers when she loses confidence in herself after learning the Awful Truth. Once again, Hayate helps her through it by telling her that it's okay if she quits as Pretear, and that whether she quits or not there is no replacement for her as a person.
- Psycho Busters had Xiao Long quit fighting with the other psychics when the others decide to strengthen themselves so they can defeat The Greenhouse and free the other psychics trapped inside because he hated his powers and wanted to get rid of them. Seeing as that because of his powers, his family fell apart and resulted in the death of his parents, it's pretty understandable. By the end of volume 3, he's back and ready to fight, deciding that he'll find a way to get rid of his powers after they stop The Greenhouse.
- This happens for an episode in Revolutionary Girl Utena when Touga defeats Utena in a duel and claims Anthy as the Rose Bride and Utena decides to live her life like an ordinary school girl. Fortunately, she is talked out of it by Wakaba.
- In the original Sailor Moon anime, Ami decides to follow her dream of being a doctor and leave the other Sailors as she goes abroad. However, when only Mamoru and Chibiusa arrive to see her off and give her her farewell present (her new Transformation Trinket and a new communicator watch), that and their letter to her is enough to convince her to stay, realizing something is wrong.
- Likewise, at one point in the prequel Codename: Sailor V, Minako (well before she developed her unshakeable sense of duty) actually decided to quit. Less than ten minutes later a youma attack on herself (and Ace saving her life) made her change her mind, though she'll still consider retiring until the final chapter.
- Saint Seiya has this in the manga only when all the bronze Saints quit after finding out who their father is and how many siblings they really have. It ended the moment Saori gets kidnapped.
- In Slam Dunk Hanamichi quits the team after the captain insists he practice the basics first, but ashamed after being called a "gutless coward" by the captain, comes back soon afterward. This example is different from most others in which it happens at the very start of the series (the end of the first manga volume), instead of around the climax.
- Niche of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee temporarily steps down as Lag's "dingo" partner after feeling as though she failed him for drinking the "honey water" and becoming temporarily paralyzed and not of any use to him. She comes back to help him save a man from falling from a tightrope.
- Both Kotetsu and Barnaby retire from the hero business at the end of Tiger & Bunny... only to come back less than a year later.
Kotetsu: I thought you retired.
Barnaby: I should be asking you the same thing. - In Trigun, Vash the Stampede runs off after losing control of his BFG in the episode "Fifth Moon". Several months later (the next episode, "Goodbye For Now"), Wolfwood finds him hiding under an assumed name and talks him back into his old life.
- And then he does it again after (Legato forces Vash to kill him) in "Sin."
- Yet the BSOD is somewhat justified, as he's been living by his Thou Shalt Not Kill pledge for over 100 years. The sudden return to action is more of a jolt, honestly.
- And then he does it again after (Legato forces Vash to kill him) in "Sin."
- In Trinity Blood, Father Abel Nightroad temporarily resigns from the AX (Vatican foreign affairs special agent) after failing to stop Isaac von Kampfer, who dropped a building on his partner Sister Noelle and destroyed half of Barcelona. Leads to an interesting situation in the light novels: Abel insults Archbishop d'Este by implicitly accusing him of terrorism, but since Abel technically no longer works for AX, his boss Caterina has the opportunity to stay clear of the whole mess. (She still stands up for him.)
- Venus Versus Virus had Sumire temporarily quit the team, saying that none of her teammates understood what it was like to go into Beserker Mode. Unfortunately, viruses (demons) are attracted to those who can see them...
- In Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Tamaki has a tendency to quit in Rika's arc, being less keen than Yamada in believing that people's memories can really be returned. First time he is convinced to come back when Yamada offers him a way to make friends, and second time he would have given up if Odagiri hadn’t appeared and shown that she had indeed gotten her memory back.
Audio Plays
- Sonic the Hedgehog Presents: The Chaotix Casefiles: Charmy very briefly leaves the group in Episode 3 when he's horrified to realize that he never checked the walkie-talkie batteries—allowing the thief to get the drop on them—and leaves in a sad, guilty huff, blaming himself for the situation. Espio is able to get him to come back, though Vector narrates that it "took some doing".
Fan Works
- All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if Eva was never a Controller?", Marco goes through with his plan to ‘retire’ from the Animorphs after the failed mission to call the Andalite homeworld, but after he confirms that his parents aren’t Controllers during a holiday and returns to learn that Jake spent three days as a Controller, he returns to the team.
- Ant-Man & Spider-Man: Earth's Mightiest Scientists
- As in canon, Peter briefly quits as Spider-Man after his first battle with Doctor Octopus, but a pep talk the Human Torch gave his school inspires Peter to get back into action.
- He briefly walks out of the team because he resents Janet's attempt to create a new image for him rather than letting him be himself, but he returns in time to receive the diverted message that leads to the formation of the Avengers.
- In The Assassination of Twilight Sparkle, Celestia throws down her crown and declares it's somepony else's problem in her grief. Luna slaps her on the cheek and gives a blunt What the Hell, Hero? speech that snaps her out of it.
- Auditors, Contracts, and Social Worker: Technically speaking, Kobeni retired from Public Safety after her first mission, and took up the non-combat social liaison job. Except, as Kishibe says repeatedly, there's no such thing as a "non-combat job" this close to the Devil Hunters. All the retirement really does is give Kobeni a few weeks to relax and get trained by Kishibe in a less stressful environment.
- In A Colder War, Steve essentially resigns in "Arctic Front" after Bucky’s death and Peggy’s confession that she at least suspected the Winter Soldier’s identity, but returns to action after a couple of months as an independent operative.
- The Coming of the First Ones: At the end of the third chapter, Nozomi gets almost killed by an Angel during her first sortie, causing Shinji to quit his work in the Ground Self-Defense Force because he refuses to be part of the system which will destroy another pilot. Shinji spends one whole week holed up in his home, unwilling to speak to anybody, until Nozomi and later Rei convince him to go back to the work.
- Evangelion 303: In Part 2 Asuka was put through the wringer: her war plane crashed during a flight test, her best friend died and she blamed herself for her death and the failure of the mission, spent several months in coma, abused Shinji, crashed another war plane making nearly everyone thinking that she was now an useless, unreliable burn-out, attempted to commit suicide... In chapter 13 she is so sick of everything that she runs away because she thinks she is a miserable failure that has made huge messes, is good only for hurting people and is standing in the everyone's path and holding the project back, and she wants to find a place where nobody knows her and nobody cares about her.
- Higher Learning (Strike-Fiss): Unusual example because Shinji did not quit because he was bitter but because he was hopeful. When NERV developed the dummy plug system Shinji thought they did not need him anymore. So that he decided to leave in order to start a new life. When he was ready to leave, though, Zeruel came along and proved the dummy plugs were useless, so that Shinji returned hurriedly to kiss its butt.
- Infinity Train: Wake Me Up: Trip has been on a self-imposed retirement from training after a Noodle Incident involving a Zangoose and Seviper lead to his Serperior being severely damaged. When he actually appears in the story, he sticks to it for a few chapters before meeting Rosa, who convinces him to get back into training with his Seviper with some encouraging words.
- Lady Luck (Miraculous Ladybug): Gabriel briefly resolves to put Hawk Moth to rest permanently when he inadvertently causes Adrien to become a victim of Style Queen's rampage. After Chloé calls Emilie a better mother than Audrey ever was in front of him during her Calling the Old Man Out moment, he immediately goes back to trying to get the Miraculous, now justifying his actions by claiming that he's trying to revive Emilie for the sake of those who miss her like Adrien, Chloé, and Nathalie.
- In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, in episode 11 Rock quits being Mega Man for about 1 chapter. It's played very well, and he himself notes that he may have been hasty.
- Looker in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, after working with new International Police agents (who are barely old enough to be trainers) is shown questioning whether he's good enough for his job and considers retirement, but Nanu talks him out of it.
- Carol Danvers from A Prize for Three Empires, quits the Avengers twice in order to lead a normal life. The first time, her retirement was disrupted by Rogue. The second time, she put her costume back on to help Iron Man out.
- In The Return-Remixed
, Kelly Kelly takes one after the Diva Army's Drill Sergeant Nasty, Jazz, gives her a hands-on lesson as to why one shouldn't do the Stinkface during a match. In her absence, Eve Torres took her place in a match against DEAR and wound up taking three triple power-bombs on the concrete floor. Kelly felt responsible for what happened to her, returned to the Diva Army and Took a Level in Badass.
- Scar Tissue: After hearing that Unit-02 had reawakened Misato quit her job in Nerv. She returned the next day after finding out that Gendo had returned from the Red Sea.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: After being mind-raped by an Eldritch Abomination, Asuka quit super-heroing because she had convinced herself that she was an unworthy, stupid child playing hero. However she became Supergirl again to save Rei from an alien monster.
Films — Animation
- In Cars 3, Lightning goes through one for four months after losing his championship title because of a near fatal crash. He spends most the time in Doc's old garage watching his mentor's crash and thinking that the same is going to happen to him. Thankfully, Sally reminds him that he still has a chance and that he can try something new to give him an edge to beat Jackson Storm.
- Flint has one of these in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, after the FLDSMDFR's satellite dish is broken, and the world is about to be destroyed by a giant food. Flint literally throws himself away, but when his dad brings him his labcoat (and makes it clear he believes in him), he is back in the game!
- Played for Laughs in Despicable Me 4 with the Mega Minions: After a desastrous training mission they are pushed into retirement by the Anti Villain League - just to be reactivated to assist Gru in the finale fight.
- In GOAT, the Thorns split up after they found out Flo sold the team, leading to Jett hogging the game too much. Jett winning the game results in two injured (Archie and Will) and three emotionally hurt (Olivia, Modo, and Lenny). They later get together and take on the Magnums for the last game to win the Claw.
- The Wolf in Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil gets upset when he thinks Red Riding Hood doesn’t need him as a partner anymore. He retires from HEA to sulk in his trailer then returns just in time to rescue Red.
- Violet in Incredibles 2, after her father accidentally reveals Dicker erased Tony's memories of her, she "renounces superheroes" and unsuccessfully attempts to destroy her supersuit. Bob is later able to reconcile with her, helping her mood against the situation. Later she learns her mother is in danger and her father left to rescue her. She then "renounces her renunciation" and leaves with her brothers to rescue their parents.
- KPop Demon Hunters: After the Idol Awards betrayal, Zoey and Mira fall into despair and give up on fighting Gwi-Ma, even joining the herd of humans trying to sacrifice themselves to him. (His telepathy was involved in that last one.) But later that night the friend they betrayed returns to fight Gwi-Ma, despite everything, and knowing that someone is fighting alone for you is a hell of a motivator to join them...
"How It's Done" lyrics: I was born for this / There ain't no point in avoiding it...
- The Loud House Movie: Worried his sisters might overshadow him again, Lincoln attempts to gain more attention by doing an air show on Lela the dragon; unfortunately, she flies out of his control and destroys most of Loch Loud, causing the whole town to turn against Lincoln and shun him for his reckless stunt. Feeling he was never meant to be special, a disappointed Lincoln decides to give up his title of Duke of Loch Loud and return to Royal Woods, leaving Morag to become Dutchess in his place. However, once Lucy's ghostly Scottish ancestor Lucille comes over to reveal Lela's rampage was not Lincoln's fault and she was being mind controlled by Morag, he snaps back into action and becomes determined to defeat her.
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: After being told he's on his last life and having a harrowing encounter with the Wolf, Puss retires to the life of a lap cat for a Crazy Cat Lady at the doctor’s suggestion. He doesn’t enjoy it but remains there long enough to grow a beard. It all ends once Goldilocks and her goons come barging in.
- Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats: At the start of the film, Dibble gets the news that his retirement has been approved. He soon gets another job as a security guard at the Vandergelt mansion, and by the end of the film, he's gone back to working for the police of his own free will (he doesn't explain how, saying only "Now that I got my job back").
- Judy in Zootopia (2016) gets hit with several My God, What Have I Done? moments after her comments at the press conference inflame predator/prey tension and Nick breaks his friendship with her because of it. This causes her to quit the police force and return home until she has a "Eureka!" Moment about the cause of predators going savage and returns to Zootopia to make things right.
Films — Live-Action
- The Four Days of Naples: The captain is introduced brusquely deserting his post with news of the surrender, saying he was a fool to fight before, and calling anyone who stays a fool and doesn't immediately make his position on the occupation clear. Within a few days, he shows himself to be a brave and caring patriot who was simply done with fighting after so much war at the beginning but has to accept that the city needs him to drive out the occupiers.
- Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer), at some point in Batman Forever, decides to give up crimefighting and settle with Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) (somewhat odd, since Meridian clearly seemed to be quite attracted to both Wayne and Batman). He says "Batman is no more," a line that serves as an unofficial tagline for the film. Batman returns when Two-Face and the Riddler find out about his secret identity and then attack Wayne manor and kidnap Chase, and remembered why he became Batman in the first place.
- In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Clark has one due to a Heroic BSoD brought about by Lex Luthor's bombing of the Capitol Building, which Clark was present for but unable to prevent. Also, Diana is introduced the middle of one - having been active during World War I, by the time of the movie she's abandoned her heroic identity. Bruce reaching out in friendship (and recovering a photo of her during WWI that she'd lost) helps remind her of who she once was, and when Luthor unleashes Doomsday onto Metropolis, she becomes Wonder Woman once more to help Superman and Batman.
- Calvary: After a parishioner threatens to kill him next Sunday, his church gets set on fire and it becomes clear that no one in town cares about their Catholicism anymore, Father James quits the priesthood and is about ready to board a plane for London when he spots the coffin of a man he'd performed last rites for. He changes his mind and returns to face the murderous parishioner.
- The events of Captain America: Civil War brings Iron Man and Hawkeye out of retirement to help the Avengers.
- Dylan in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle when she worries about endangering her friends. Jaclyn Smith provides the pep talk.
- R.O.T.O.R.: Coldyron retires from his job after an argument with Buglar. He rejoins the force shortly after when R.O.T.O.R. goes berserk.
- In The Color of Money, after Eddie Felson has his Heroic BSoD and breaks up with Vincent and Carmen, he snaps out of his funk and begins rebuilding his pool-playing skills.
- Peter near the end of DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. He's back following an enlightening celebrity cameo.
- In Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai, it was revealed via Retcon that Takumi Irui, Kamen Rider 555, went into this after Masato Kusaka, Kamen Rider Kaixa, is killed, suffering a Heroic BSoD that takes ten years and a talking to by Keisuke Jin, Kamen Rider X, to snap him out of.
- Subverted in Mad Max 1. Fifi says, "Again?" when Max hands in his notice, but on realizing he's serious tells him to take a couple of weeks holiday instead. Max does return, but only to steal his car for a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- John Wick 1 starts off with the titular Anti-Hero retiring from his assassin profession to live a simpler life. However, on one fatal night, his former Boss’s son, a few days after the love of his life dies, decides to steal his car, beat him up , and murder the puppy his wife gifted him for grieving. Since then, John Wick returned to enact revenge on the criminal underworld. Unfortunately, it makes him dig his roots deeper into it because of his rampage.
- In O'Dessa, after Neon Dion threatens them, O'Dessa briefly gives up on her love for Euri and being a rambler, even giving her banjo away. This lasts until she finds Euri bought her guitar back and left a note to encourage her to leave, which instead galvanizes her to stay and fight for their future.
- Robot designer Tak Mashido in Real Steel went into retirement after his robot Noisy Boy, the top contender of his time, lost to the current world champion. Two years later, he was hired by the Lemkovas —- the same people who he lost to —- to design a new robot for them, the result being the film's current champion, Zeus.
- In She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Nathan Brittles (John Wayne) has to leave the cavalry because he has reached the age of retirement, but at the end of the film the government returns him to service as a (nominally civilian) scout.
- Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2 gave up being a superhero after going through a series of unfortunate events in the beginning of the film. He realizes it doesn't pay to save the day and will only continue to ruin his daily life. His powers even briefly become unusable as his inner conflict hits its peak, which finally prompts him to throw his suit into the trash. Soon, however, he realizes the people needed Spider-Man and gets back to it, complete with both his powers coming back and him nabbing his suit which had been acquired by J. Jonah Jameson.
- In Starship Troopers (1997), Rico tries to quit after he is demoted (due to getting a fellow trainee killed because of his desire to win), but just as he is walking out of the base, news comes in that the enemy destroyed his hometown and he promptly forces his way back into the Infantry.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: Generations: It's revealed that Kirk had retired from Starfleet sometime between the events of The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan. Feeling the need to make a difference Kirk returns to Starfleet around 2284 and takes up a position at the Academy, working with command track candidates.
- Star Trek Into Darkness:
- Kirk gets demoted to First Officer of the Enterprise under Pike for violating the Prime Directive at the start of the film, only to regain his command a few scenes later when Pike is killed and Marcus decides to use Kirk as an Unwitting Pawn.
- Scotty resigns from the Enterprise near the beginning of the film thanks to Kirk's sudden bout of obstruction regarding the special torpedoes. He shows up again halfway through the film, and is instrumental in sabotaging the Vengeance.
- Gary in Team America: World Police. He's back on track after a montage.
- In the 2025 documentary film Mr Nobody Against Putin, Russian dissident schoolteacher Pavel Talankin initially resigned from his job at the Karabash Primary School as he could not bear the idea of indoctrinating children with mandatory school curricula framing their country's invasion of Ukraine in a favourable light (and consequently grooming kids into becoming future soldiers for Putin's cause). Talankin handed over his resignation paper to the school's staff, but a chance encounter with a producer forced him to walk back on his resignation when it dawned on him that he could just play along and document the ideological abuse he and his colleagues were forced to partake in.
Literature
- Jake, briefly, toward the end of Animorphs, although it might make just as much sense to put it under Heroic BSOD.
- Marco in book 5, and Cassie in book 19, also qualify.
- Jared Black from Stephen Hunt's The Court of the Air series wishes to settle down and give up adventuring for retirement; though as fate would have it, he keeps getting dragged along in every adventure the protagonists have, and he is not happy about it.
- Death has tried to retire several times in the Discworld novels (once in Mort, again in Soul Music, and maybe others). It doesn't stick.
- Death is forced to retire in Reaper Man, but this also doesn't stick.
- Vimes in Men at Arms, after he's told to turn in his badge one too many times. Ironically, he was supposed to be retiring anyway, and it still didn't stick.
- Lord Vetinari has himself been subjected to the occasional ten minute retirement, usually by being arrested. Vetinari never fights these, since he knows they'll never stick. None have to date, and he's usually welcomed back with at least tacit relief.
- Sergeant Jack Jackrum in Monstrous Regiment, and he circumvents the 'retirement' part in the most hilarious way imaginable.
- In The Last Continent, after spending an extended period of time stranded on an island with the rest of the Unseen University facility, Ponder Stibbons decides he's had enough of their Insane Troll Logic and stubborn-old-man foolishness. He decides to stay on the island with the God of Evolution who runs the island and hopefully make the universe a more organized place. Ponder quickly rethinks this when the "big project" the God is working on turns out to be the cockroach.
- The heroine of The Dragonslaying Maiden, Dana, is a member of a mercenary band in the Scandinavia of myth and legend. However, her teammates accept an evil queen's offer of employment in her legions of trolls and Dana is the only holdout. In response, the queen commands them to attack her as a test of loyalty. They do. She survives by the skin of her teeth, but the experience is so traumatic that she finds a remote location in the woods, curls up, and wishes for death for a few months while her old friends and their new master start to Take Over the World. While trying to sleep, she overhears cries for help and, both out of altruism and a desire for the noise to go away, intervenes. It turns out that the one calling for help is Desire, one of Odin’s two ravens, who'd been snared by dark elves. Odin decides to repay the favor by restoring Dana's strength with enchanted food and drink, and then telling her of a village nearby being oppressed by a dragon, knowing that she can't ignore her conscience and let the innocent die. It works: she goes back into action, slays the dragon, and integrates into the thankful community. This gives her a new purpose in life, and sets into motion events that will see her eventually confront her old comrades and defeat the evil queen's machinations.
- "Officer Buckle and Gloria": Officer Buckle refuses to come to the school for another safety talk after he's found out that Gloria's performances have been the reason people have been paying attention. Gloria gets dropped off at the school by herself, but without her partner, she just sits there and then falls asleep. Officer Buckle returns to safety-talk duty after the accident that follows (and a note from one of the students).
- In The Pendragon Adventure, the eponymous protagonist tries to escape the whole conflict by trapping himself with Saint Dane on Ibara. It doesn't work.
- The Queen of Attolia: After getting caught and having his right hand chopped off, Eugenides spends a large portion of the book angsting before returning as an even more badass thief.
- During The Ship Who... Sings, in the story Dramatic Mission, a diplomatic assignment involves putting on a performance of Shakespeare on for aliens that live in a methane-ammonia atmosphere. Chadress Turo, a recently retired brawn who was a classics buff and knows Shakespeare as a hobby, is informed of this and leaps to get back to work. He also tells Helva that he should be allowed to "die in harness".
- Agent Lucsly in Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. His faith that the DTI will protect the timeline's integrity is shattered when, on advice from a future agency, he is refused permission to prosecute Janeway for her actions in Endgame. He announces his retirement on the spot, but after a short period of drinking and despairing, his partner Dulmur pulls him out of it and talks him into returning.
- Temeraire: The main characters Laurence and Temeraire decide to settle down in a peaceful, pastoral retirement at the end of Book 6, having lost their My Country, Right or Wrong convictions, been Court-Martialed and convicted of treason, been transported to Australia, and gotten roped into an adventure there. Book 7 begins with them rejoining their old colleagues for a job only they can do, winning their old ranks back in the process.
- D'Artagnan in The Vicomte de Bragelonne, twice. The first time to help reinstate Charles II of England, the second time because King Louis XIV has imprisoned Athos in the Bastille.
Manhwa
- Yureka: For Lotto, twice. Once, after the Lost Saga they've been playing is revealed to have been a Beta, he feels betrayed by the game makers and swears never to play again. He cracks almost immediately, but manages to refrain from playing as his own character or interacting with his party members in order to save face, keeping it up until the situation absolutely forces him resume use of his character and chance results in a facedown between the protagonists. His second really lasts about ten minutes, or days story-wise, when he and his friends nearly die at the hands of Jaeha and he withdraws from life entirely, though unannounced. This one ends when his mother gets sick of listening to the phone ring for him.
Professional Wrestling
This trope is almost cliché in Professional Wrestling. Very few wrestlers actually stay retired, with a "retirement" usually meaning that they are no longer performing full-time. The only times that a wrestling retirement usually sticks is if the wrestler either never made it past lowercard level (or, at worst, never made it past the independent promotions), or suffers from some medical issues that either prevents them from stepping back into the ring or will paralyze/kill them if they try (and thanks to advancements in medicine allowing wrestlers to continue performing after suffering injuries that would have been considered career-ending just a decade ago, even this is becoming less common). And even most wrestlers who do stay retired will still stick around as commentators, referees, bookers, trainers or ambassadors. Much of this is an unfortunate side effect of the fact that Wrestling Doesn't Pay, or, at least, doesn't have any retirement benefits or long-term health care. (Although in fairness, many wrestlers who made good money spent it as soon as they got it, rather than planning for the future.) And many wrestlers who have money still find it difficult to stay away from the business, missing either the art itself or the roaring crowds and recognition.
- One of the standard Gimmick Matches is the "Retirement Match," where the loser has to retire from wrestling. Lampshaded by Mick Foley in the run-up to a Retirement Match he had coming up - "Most wrestlers who lose retirement matches return six weeks later. I'm not going to do that." Foley lost the match (to Triple H), but was then invited back for a match at WrestleMania.note When he came back, he lampshaded again: "I said I wouldn't come back in six weeks, and I told the truth. I came back in four." Though the WrestleMania match was his last one for a good long while. He waited four years before he got back in the ring and even then, only on a part-time basis.
- In reality, this trope has been beaten to death in the wrestling business. Terry Funk, for example, retired many times before his passing in 2023. It's gotten to the point where nobody believes any wrestler is truly retired.
- A similar angle is when a wrestler is "fired" only for them to come back in no time at all, usually never even leaving TV. Cases include "Stone Cold" Steve Austin after Judgment Day 1998, Mick Foley at the start of the McMahon-Helmsley Era, and John Cena after refereeing the Randy Orton/Wade Barrett match at Survivor Series 2010. When a wrestler gets fired for real, it's not going to happen on TV.
- Canadian ECW wrestler Lance Storm has had several retirement matches throughout his career, yet still occasionally comes out of retirement for one more match. However, he has yet to come back full-time, and only comes back to wrestle his closest friends, or put over newer talent that impresses him.
- Hulk Hogan:
- Teased at this in 1990 during his feud with Earthquake. To allow legit injuries to heal and to tend to movie-making projects, Hogan, Jimmy Hart and John Tenta (Earthquake) conceived an angle where Earthquake would sneak attack Hogan during an interview with Brother Love, causing serious injuries to his chest. The trope kicked in when Hogan was distraught over being caught off-guard by a man that had been threatening to kill him off, and that coupled with an earlier loss to the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI were enough for him to retire. The WWF's announcers pleaded for fans to send letters and cards requesting his return and to "heal" his fighting spirit, the response was (predictably) strong ... and by the start of August, Hogan had come out of his self-imposed "retirement" to gain revenge on Earthquake.
- Done again two years later at Wrestlemania VIII, where his victory over Sid Justice was billed as his "last match". In reality, Hogan just went on hiatus for a few months, because his implication in the WWF steroid trial meant they wanted it to blow over before he came back to TV and PPV.
- TNA played with this trope in a stroke of genius when Hogan pleaded retirement in a last ditch attempt to dodge facing Sting at Bound for Glory and putting his control of the company on the line. Sting, being clever now and knowing Hogan as well as he does, had a look at surveillance cameras and was able to get footage of Hogan and Bischoff laughing at the fans for actually buying into it. This finally broke Hogan off the deep end to the point he agreed to all of Sting's conditions right then and there.
- The last WSU show of 2007 saw Becky Bayless take a literal ten-minute retirement, which was just a scam to keep the title around the waist of Alicia.
- Magnum TOKYO returned to the ring just two years after he retired due to a supposedly grave eye injury.
- Villano V had a retirement match in 2013 only to show up at a CMLL show four days later, as he lost so much money promoting his retirement to a poor turnout he was forced back to work.
- Ayako Hamada retired from pro wrestling in May of 2018 only to return in July of 2019. This case was justified, by the confines of this trope, as her retirement had been enforced after she was arrested in Tokyo for hallucinating while under the affects of snorted kakuseizai (i.e., meth) and sentenced to three years of probation. Pro Wrestling Mexico were apparently the only ones able to get her back in the ring, though AAA was happy to piggyback off of them.
- The WWE documentary series The Last Ride chronicled the final runs of The Undertaker as he tried to determine what would be his swansong from active competition. At one point he thought it was going to be a 2017 bout with Roman Reigns but his injuries prevented him from putting on a quality match, leading to several comebacks, none of which seemed to satisfy 'Taker. 'Taker's final match finally occurred at WrestleMania 36 in a controlled, taped 'cinematic' bout against AJ Styles, with 'Taker bowing out in an angle staged at that year's Survivor Series, which didn't happen to involve any wrestling.
- Vince McMahon — after reigning as the chairman and CEO of WWE for decades — abruptly announced his resignation from his positions in June 2022, followed by a definitive retirement from the industry in July, seen by many as the result of the latest sexual harassment and hush money scandals he had been indicted with, with his CEO position being split between his daughter Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan. However, he forced his way back into the company and reassumed his position as executive chairman in January 2023 ahead of upcoming media negotiations (WWE's broadcasting deals with USA and FOX were set to expire the following year) as well as a potential sale of the company, asserting that based on his position as majority shareholder, no deals of such matters could be completed without his approval (Stephanie ended up stepping down as co-CEO directly because of her father's return). Such a deal was finalized in the form of a merger with Endeavor (parent company to the UFC) in September 2023, but ironically, McMahon was forced into minority ownership, was subsequently stripped of all creative input in the company (with Triple H becoming the head of creative) as well as voting power, allowing Nick Khan to make business decisions without his input. While McMahon technically maintains a lifetime chairman position, he has virtually none of the power he used to have prior to his retirement, directly because of all the shenanigans he tried to pull off surrounding it. This ended up all for naught by January 2024, where McMahon resigned from the company once again following yet another lawsuit, accusing him of even more sexual misconduct that WWE (as well as its newly-formed parent company, TKO) really don't want to be involved with.
Theatre
- In The Book of Mormon, the end of the first act has Elder Price, having seen a warlord shoot an Ugandan man in the face, basically saying, "Screw the rules, I'm transferring to Orlando," and leaving his companion to continue the mission on his own. To make some long scenes short, Kevin reconsiders after not getting any farther than the bus station.
- Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol has Marley give up on saving Scrooge several times, but he comes around to the idea soon after.
- In She Loves Me, Georg quits working for Maraczek in the middle of the first act after venting his frustrations on Amalia. By the start of the second act, he's back.
- In The Sound of Music, Maria, without giving notice, packs her guitar, leaves Captain von Trapp and his children behind and returns to the Abbey, expressing a wish to remain there permanently. The Mother Abbess tells her "our Abbey is not to be used as an escape" and bids her to go back—and she does, much to the children's delight.
Video Games
- Ace Attorney:
- Miles Edgeworth disappears after the first game, leaving behind only a note saying "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death". He returns in the second game's final case with newfound resolve, just in time to walk Phoenix through his own Darkest Hour. Phoenix is torn between joy at seeing him alive and fury that his old friend would make him believe he was dead.
- Edgeworth does it again in the Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit, this time actually turning in his badge when he gets fed up at how blatantly corrupt the CPE is. He technically spends the rest of the game without any legal authority, but he gets his badge back in the epilogue.
- Apollo Justice in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies says at the end of the first case that he's going to take a leave of absence. The true context of this scene plays out during the final chapter of the game. While this may seem like a long time, the timeframe he ends up being gone for is only a short few hours because of the very compressed period over which the events of the final case take place. By the end of case 5 he's right back at Phoenix's side with his motivation renewed.
- Ezio is in one of these between the ending of Assassin's Creed II and the beginning of the first act of Brotherhood. Having your villa destroyed and your beloved uncle killed is plentiful motivation to put your Assassin robes back on, though.
- The Final Prayer: Kaeros leaves the party in anger when Princess Isolde complains about small inconveniences after the kingdom and her father are wiped out. He calms down and returns near the end of the dungeon to save the party from an ambush, and reconciles with Isolde afterwards.
- In Bonfire, if you can't feed your heroes, they will eventually lose hope and leave the party (except Hildie). Fortunately, this never lasts too long, and they'll always return eventually.
- After completing Solas's personal quest "All New, Faded for Her" in Dragon Age: Inquisition, he claims he "needs to be alone" after having to Mercy Kill his friend the Wisdom Spirit who had been corrupted into a Pride Demon and leaves the party. He returns the next time you go back to Skyhold, but the Inquisitor's comments make it clear there was a Time Skip and he's been gone quite some time, perhaps weeks, long enough that they were at least a bit surprised he came back at all (Varric seems to have had a Side Bet on it).
- Dragon Quest X can be called "10-Minute Retirement: The Game" since a new problem arrives to threaten Astoltia, such as royals being kidnapped by the Hero's Sibling or Kyronos's Shock Seed being stolen from the Hero by Pujyu during celebrations between them and Anlucia.
- Most of the characters in Final Fantasy VI go through a one-year retirement after having The End of the World as We Know It go off in their faces. Although some of them at least try to save their people or get back on their feet, others either mope at a bar or even join the Big Bad's cult, and it's up to Celes to round them all up to save what little is left of the world (but not before she attempts the most permanent kind of retirement there is.)
- Only if you fail to save Cid, although his death and attempted suicide are generally considered canon, with the ability to save him just being extra flavor.
- Ser Daine from Franzen takes his leave around the first act's conclusion, just as the main heroes Franz and Lefsa started getting chummy with the otherwise-haughty knight. Daine returns to playable status with all his skills intact barely half an hour later.
- Galaxy Angel: In Milfeulle's route, she and Tact decide to retire from the military after the war against Eonia and live civilian lives for six months. Come Moonlit Lovers, they get caught in the middle of the new conflict and are forced to re-enlist to fight the new threat.
- Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!: MORE MORE JUMP! consists of Minori and three other idols who were in the midst of this before meeting her. Haruka, Airi, and Shizuku had all retired from the idol industry for various reasons, but after Minori proves how serious she is about wanting to become an idol (in particular to Airi), they return as part of the newly-formed group.
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Chitose leaves the party in Chapter 11 after she reveals that she had been Forced into Evil and was spying on Ichiban for Eiji. Later that same chapter, Ichiban's party runs into her when they confront Eiji at Club Guilty, and after Ichiban confirms he has no ill will towards Chitose, the party is back to how it was.
- X starts off Mega Man X7 in retirement, which has Zero teaming up with rookie new hero Axl. X only comes back after all eight Mavericks are destroyed or 64 Reploids are rescued (and in order to rescue that many Reploids, you've pretty much finished all the main stages anways), just in time for the final battles.
- Toward the end of Marco & the Galaxy Dragon, Gargouille gives up on opposing Astaroth after he defeats her and maims Marco. She’s eventually convinced to rejoin the fight, but Marco had to wear her down by chasing her across three continents and beating her in a fight first.
- At the beginning of Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Maegar Varn is a mercenary captain who is looking to settle down, and performs one last great adventure in exchange for his own barony in an unsettled land. By the end of the game, he has turned the land over to the Player Character and resumed his previous lifestyle, having decided that he's just not cut out for beauracracy after all.
- Potion Permit: In Dean's second Friendship Event, he quits his job as police officer after failing Osman once more. He turns in his badge and runs away crying because he believes he can't match up to his twin brother Derrek. You and Derrek then follow him to his house and convince him to return to the job, and Derrek tells him that everyone makes mistakes, even Derrek himself, and despite his prickliness, he'll always be there for him.
- In Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Ratchet retires after the death of Alister Azimuth, his sole mentor and father figure. He is inadvertently involved in the crises' in the comic and All 4 One, through which friends old and new eventually convince him to get back in the game. He is eventually convinced after enjoying the good deeds and fun experienced in the latter adventure.
- Murray suffers a massive Heroic BSoD at the end of Sly 2: Band of Thieves, brought about by the loss of his cherished van and his friend Bentley being crippled. Blaming himself for this, Murray leaves the Cooper Gang to take up a vow of pacifism and go on a spiritual walkabout. note He's pretty content to stay like this until in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves he sees Octavio about to kill Bentley:
"That does it! I'll floss my teeth with your spine! The Murray returns!"
- In Skies of Arcadia, Drachma leaves the party and comes back... many times.
- The video game adaptation of Spider-Man 2 (Activision) pragmatically inverts this trope by replacing the "Spider-Man No More" storyline with an original story wherein Peter is tempted by Black Cat to give up his civilian identity and embrace being Spider-Man at all times. Not dissimilar to the movie, he ultimately decides against it.
- In Suikoden II, at one point, the main character's sister tries to convince him to run away from his responsibilities. Accepting leads to a 10-Minute Retirement, after which the other characters catch up and try to convince him to be their leader again. Refusing here turns the temporary retirement into a permanent one, however.
- Running away will also lead the storyline to one of the Stars of Destiny, Ridley Wizen, being killed off-screen and later being replaced by his son. However, if you refuse to run away, Ridley will live.
- Uncharted 4: Nate starts out as "retired" from treasure hunting, but quickly gets back into it when he reunites with Sam.
- In Wild ARMs 3, after his curiosity nearly gets the team killed (were it not for some timely intervention by The Rival, culminating in said rival's death), team sniper Clive retires from the team. As the group scales another of the same device that nearly killed them before, we're treated to brief scenes of Clive conversing with his family, and gradually working up the courage to rejoin the team. As the team gets caught in the same trap again, Clive decides to take a separate path to the top, and after freeing the team by shooting and exploding reaches the exit and rejoins the team.
- Another self-induced Ten Minute Retirement occurs in the first game, when Rudy inflicts a crippling injury on himself in order to escape from the Metal Demons. (That is to say, he loses his goddamn left arm, and then finds out he's an Artificial Human. The poor kid.) The next four or five hours of the game involve Jack and Cecilia desperately trying to find a way to heal him, putting their whole mission to, y'know, save the world on hold in the meantime. It's okay, though, the demons are crippled just as badly and take about as long to recover.
- Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom starts off with Blair tending a farm after the Kilrathi War, mostly due to his Belgian girlfriend getting killed. He's back flying for the Confederation by the end of the opening cutscene.
Webcomics
- In the early strips of Bob and George, Mega Man quits, only to return when he hears Dave is playing his role. He does it again later on.
- In Girl Genius Carson had mere days in retirement enjoying time with his grandson while his son took over the family tradition of being the Heterodynes' seneschal before the Other's attack on the Castle killed his son and became a harbinger of the dark times ahead. After the attack, he arranged and led a shadow government for Mechanicsburg, essentially rendering the nominal Wulfenbach-appointed city administration impotent. He has since (semi) retired again, letting his grandson Vanamonde, now an adult, take over.
- Nixvir: Erik tries to retire from heroism after Oriel gets taken away from him. Needless to say, it doesn't work and he gets dragged back into heroism, whether he wants to or not.
- Sleepless Domain: Tessa takes just one night off, to show her teammates how much they need her, even coming back out to help them just after they've gone out to fight, and it gets all but one of her teammates killed, and Tessa depowered.
- Played with in Sluggy Freelance. The Spider maintaining the Web of Fate retired due to a nervous breakdown over how tangled the Web was getting. Father Time convinced him to return to the job... because he needs to pass the torch before he can permanently retire in good conscience, and the job is complicated enough that the replacement needs several years of on-the-job training before taking over.
Web Original
- The Angry Video Game Nerd has done this twice, both on a 10th anniversary.
- For the 10th anniversary of the show, he plays Desert Bus, and after playing it he feels as though all of his warnings about shitty games has fallen on deaf ears, so he sees no point in continuing his show. He decides to end his show on a book-end by playing a romhack of the very first game he reviewed on the show: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. This particular romhack presents itself as an Updated Re-release of the game, and to the Nerd's delight, it addresses and fixes many of his criticisms with the original. The knowledge that some people were actually listening to him after all motivates him to keep the show going.
- For the 10th anniversary of the show first being uploaded to YouTube, he reviews the Mega Man franchise, initially having a good time, but then some of the later Mega Man X games start getting too crazy with dialogue boxes, to the point that he can't even play the game for more than a few seconds before being interrupted. He's so mad that he rage quits video games entirely, shoving his whole collection into garbage bags and leaving them at the dump, then discarding his Nerd shirt in a field. Then he somehow travels backwards through time and meets some of his past selves while they are recording past episodes (including the A Nightmare on Elm Street episode, which took place in a dream, which is promptly lampshaded). When he travels all the way back to the second episode (the first time he ever appeared on camera), and that Nerd tells him how great it would be to have a web series with a huge following, the present-day Nerd realizes how good he has it, which causes him to travel back into the present... where he finds that Bugs Bunny is wearing the shirt he threw away and retrieved his game collection from the dump in order to continue the show in his place. After a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, the Nerd takes his shirt and his show back, and with renewed enthusiasm is ready to get back to playing shitty games... except that the first one he picks up is Mega Man Soccer, which is so shitty it makes him immediately jump out a window. A closed window.
- He "retires" a third time after Episode 200, which featured him trying to make his own game. He initially had big plans for it, but after running into various difficulties such as Executive Meddling, time crunch, etc., it ultimately ended up being just as shitty as the games he reviews. This caused him to have a revelation that most if not all of those games weren't shitty on purpose or even due to developer incompetence, but due to the same difficulties he faced. He thus decided to retire... from being angry. renaming himself to just "The Video Game Nerd", he's still going to review games, but with a much more positive and sympathetic outlook, giving games the benefit of the doubt rather than reflexively shitting on them (literally or figuratively). Naturally, Episode 201's game turns out to be so shitty that it makes him angry again, and he resumes business as usual going forward.
- To Boldly Go... A Starfleet Quest: When Solomon Rogers got the job as head of Starfleet, several other high-ranking Admirals immediately went on sabbatical. Naturally, this engendered plenty of speculation about what the various motives were. Some, perhaps, wished to register their displeasure or disgust in the strongest possible terms and with an unmistakable gesture. Others may have stepped away out of a healthy sense of self-preservation, realizing — rightly — that Rogers' headstrong brashness would inevitably spark a dispute with the council. We know for sure that at least two, Vitalia Kahurangi and Valentina Sousa, saw the writing on the wall and recognized it as an opportunity to return as a sort of untainted post-Rogers white knight, earning cheap political points by establishing an early and easy contrast with their predecessor. Indeed, they succeeded thoroughly enough to become TBG's first two player characters. Rogers' own remaining loyalists (the "Old Guard") were naturally displeased by this power play, which is the in-story reason for their lack of mechanical benefits.
- Deviant: After a series of unfortunate events, the main protagonist, Genesis, quits being a superhero. It doesn't last.
- When the Game Grumps discover a glitch in Sonic the Hedgehog that causes Knuckles to jump several feet into the air, then latch onto an invisible wall, Arin immediately storms out of the room while Jon begs him to come back.
- Internet Comment Etiquette briefly decided to become nice as a way to help make the internet a better place. He immediately became the target of trolls and teamkillers, realizes that his mood-altering medication was a placebo, and returns to normal.
- The Nostalgia Critic had a breakdown due to the director of My Pet Monster calling him pathetic and realizing that he has no life apart watching nostalgic crap. He gets his resolve back with a parody of "Poor Jack". Which becomes either Hilarious in Hindsight or Harsher in Hindsight after Doug Walker officially retired the Nostalgia Critic to move on to other projects. Only to return a few months later after those other projects failed to be accepted by fans.
- On Cinema: Tim "left" the show after season 5 to live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming thus leaving Gregg to host the first episode of season 6 by himself. Tim returned in the following episode however when realizing Jackson Hole wasn't as great has he thought.
- Shorts Wars: After the fiasco of Preston and Dark Danno taking over his channel, Danno announces his intention to quit Shorts Wars, saying he just wants his regular shorts back after all the chaos, to which Riggy can only say “we'll see how long that lasts”. Sure enough, Danno jumps right back into the fold just two days later after becoming aware of the Boss’ true identity. Riggy wastes no time lampshading it.
Riggy: You made it only two days without talking about Shorts Wars?Danno: Yes, because I left before I found out that the Boss was Jonny’s brother.
- In the first Todd in the Shadows video done for That Guy With the Glasses, he retires within the first five seconds of Ke$ha's "Blah Blah Blah" right after a huge thank-you speech, only for him to be self-motivated a few seconds later.
- In Welcome to Night Vale former mayor Pamela Winchell announces her retirement after being forced to step down as mayor. Unfortunately her retirement hobbies promptly threaten to destroy the town, ending only when she's convinced to accept the position of Director of Emergency Press Conferences. Calling these was mostly all she did as mayor anyway.
- Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City: In the "Peculiar Purple Partner" 2-parter, Strawberry is tricked by the Purple Pieman into signing away her bakery truck as part of a contract to hire her, then promptly fires her, effectively ending her baking career. For the first time in the series, Strawberry actually gives up and prepares to move back to Berryville, but then her friends band together to convince her to stay, kick the Pieman out of the Berryworks, and get her truck back, so she decides to stay in Big Apple City and keep pursing her dream of becoming a successful baker.