Ten Minute Retirement - Television Tropes & Idioms

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.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji did this twice during the series, running away after the battle with the 4th Angel, and trying to quit in the aftermath of injuring Touji (in the TV series and manga version)/Asuka (in the Rebuild movie version.).
In Beyblade, Kai takes a Ten Minute Retirement at the beginning of season two.
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.
In the anime Trigun, Vash the Stampede runs off after losing control of his really big gun arm 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 he (kills Legato) in "Sin."
In the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, Edward Elric once briefly resigned his position as a state alchemist. He went back not long afterwards, but the Ten 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 the manga, he's 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.
In the manga version of Pretear, 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 happened in the anime version, but there it was because Himeno temporarily lost her powers.
- In the anime, Himeno only lost her powers because she was going through Heroic BSOD. She lost confidence in herself and the position of Pretear subconsciously forcing herself into retirement by sealing her powers.
In Mai-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".
In Code Geass R2, Lelouch 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.
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 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.
In the manga version of 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.
Niche of Tegami Bachi 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.
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.
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...
Hyper Police: Natsuki has one of these after tragedy happens while on a hunt.
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.

Spider Man did this in a classic storyline during the Silver Age, and since then it's become a standard part of his repertoire. (It's lampshaded in Amazing Spider-Girl #1, where he comments that he quit "more times than I can count".)
After becoming disenchanted with the US government as a result of events in the Secret Empire arc, Steve Rogers abandoned the mantle of Captain America and began freelancing under the name Nomad. He resumed his former position after eight issues (nine including the one where he quits). This trope was subverted by the statement "You thought this would be over after 3 issues, didn't you?"
- Later, he had the mantle taken away by the government, and temporarily became "The Captain".

Only put in Airplane! because the producers requested it. The Zuckers turned it into a good Ronald Reagan joke.
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 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!

MacGyver had Pete and Mac briefly retire several times each. Each of them reached their Whoopi Epiphany in one case only after subjecting the viewer to a Clip Show.
Richard Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) took several episodes to reach his Whoopi Epiphany and go back into business.
Likewise, Mr. Feeney (Boy Meets World) actually retired and moved away for several episodes. His Whoopi Epiphany was a Double Aesop when he convinced Corey to face the changes in his life rather than hide away from the world. He returned not as a teacher but as a college student, only to have another Whoopi Epiphany causing him to return to teaching (as a college professor, as which he was somehow qualified).
24; Jack Bauer quits CTU after having to kill Curtis — ten seconds later, a nuclear bomb goes off just a couple of miles away and he's back on the job.
Eric Camden retires as minister for less than a season of 7th Heaven.
Buffy of BtVS hangs up her stake when she overhears the prophecy that she is about to be killed. A year later, after being forced to send her lover to hell, she almost succeeds in retiring for an entire episode.
General Hammond leaves the SGC in one episode of Stargate SG-1, presenting an exceptionally lame excuse about "sending people into danger". When Jack goes to confront him about it, he reveals that he didn't want to retire but someone threatened his grandchildren; finding out the origin of the threat means he can come back to work. A justified Ten-Minute Retirement!
- About ten minutes into the episode 3x18 "Shades of Grey", O'Neill is discharged for aiding a corrupt SG team to steal alien equipment. Of course, it was all a ploy to help find those who were really guilty, and he is back at work by the end of the show.
- In the Episode "2010", everything seems to be perfect on Earth until the former SG-1-Team discovers the threat from the Aschen. O'Neill has already retired and refuses to help because he "told you so!" He changes his mind in time to save the mission.
In the Supernatural episode What Is and What Should Never Be, Dean wants so badly to stay in his Wish!Verse, even after he realises that Alt!Sam can't stand him. But the call knows where he lives and after a heartbreaking scene at his father's grave, he's back in as the Tragic Hero.
- In another episode Dean and Sam split up and Sam takes a job as a bartender. Some other hunters find him and try to talk him into helping on their current job, but he says he's retired, to get his head together. One of the other hunters says, "What is so important that you can't come back to prevent the apocolypse!?"
At the beginning of the West Wing episode "Ellie", CJ declares that she's going to quit three times, but never actually goes through with it.
In the Doctor Who episode "Father's Day," the Doctor calls Rose a "stupid ape" and leaves her behind after she rescued her father, Pete Tyler, from his pre-ordained death. He returns a few minutes later when the consequences of her actions prove more complicated than originally expected, and makes a Heroic Sacrifice that inspires Pete to do the same, thus repairing the timeline.
Early in the third season of Criminal Minds, Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss both retire for about ten minutes. Luckily, Garcia gets Hotch's transfer request and Prentiss's resignation stuck in the system long enough for them to get drawn back into the BAU's most recent case. Gideon's retirement in the same episode is more permanent, however.
Helena/Huntress does this in the last episode of Birds Of Prey—and it was pretty damn annoying, considering they were in the middle of a city-wide crisis. Her Cop Boyfriend convinces her to stop downing shots and confront the Big Bad.
Wataru, the titular Kamen Rider Kiva, begins the series as a Hikikomori, but gets some Character Development and improves. However, late in the series when everything starts going badly for him (culminating in an attempt to kill a friend while under Mind Control), he shuts himself in worse than before, refusing to fight as Kiva and even locking his living Transformation Trinkets in a birdcage. Only after a dream-vision of his mother does he snap out of it.
Hercules does this in the pilot episode of Hercules The Legendary Journeys; given that the impetus was the murder of his wife and young children, it's hard to blame him. It takes his sidekick getting turned to stone to snap him out of it.
- Xena follows suit in the pilot of her series, briefly burying her armor and weapons before rising to rescue captive villagers.
In an episode of Merlin, Gaius, Merlin's old mentor and the court physician, is fired by the arrogant King Uther and replaced by a new and "better" specialist who, obviously turns out to be the villain of said episode. Later Gaius comes back because Status Quo Is God.

Brett Favre has announced his retirement from American Football the last two years, only to unretire twice.
- As have Michael Jordan and Roger Clemens, the latter being derided by Stephen A. Smith as a "part-timer" for unretiring in the middle of the season.
H. Ross Perot in the 1992 campaign quit twice, and reentered twice. As did John Mc Cain in the 2008 campaign (that one was a literal 10 minute retirement.
Happens a lot for female players in pretty much any full contact sport. A lot of doctors, being older men, really don't like the idea of women getting knocked around on the field and will tell them any given injury means they won't be able to play ever again. Most of them come back shortly after seeking a second or third opinion.
Jay Leno will reprise his role as host of The Tonight Show, starting on March 1st.
University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer announced that he was stepping down from his position, only to announce the next day that he would be keeping it, though he would take a leave of absence.

X starts off Mega Man ~~Axl~~ X7 in retirement. (Not 'retirement.')
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 face. 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.
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 Ten 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.
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.

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. The reasons are unknown as This Troper hasn't read the comic in several months (he has memory issues and forgets a lot of things).
The Devil, to be fair, quit his job for around a year and a half.

A rather mundane example of how it works, from All Grown Up!, "Susie Sings The Blues":
Susie: "I let someone talk me into thinking I had talent, but what she was actually trying to do was talk me out of a thousand dollars. Which she did! No one showed up! No one! There was never any record deal. I got conned okay!"
Kimi: "Oh no."
Susie (crying): "She picked the perfect person. I was just talented enough for her to trick me into thinking I actually had what it took to make it big."
Kimi: "You still do. She took enough money for one serious shopping spree but she didn't take your talent. You'll feel better when you sing tonight."
Susie: "I'm not singing tonight! Maybe not ever again!"
...
Alisa: "Well, at least you learned your lesson before this singing thing messed you up. Now you can get on with the important things in life."
Susie: "But singing is an important thing in my life."
Alisa: "I know, and it's a great hobby."
Susie: "Hobby? Singing isn't just some knitting needle book clubbing thing I do in my spare time. It's who I am. It's what I want. And still do. And I'm not gonna let some con-artist in a fake designer suit stop me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a gig. Dig."
Timmy's favorite comic superhero, the Crimson Chin, retired for about a few minutes in an episode of The Fairly OddParents, and was shown in a fetal position for an entire comic book.
In the Grand Finale of Danny Phantom, Danny calls off his duty as a superhero when Vlad's team of ghostbusters easily outclasses him. He returns in time to save the world from an Ecto-induced asteroid and is subsequently celebrated as a hero over the world.
Teen Titans: Cyborg in the very first episode, and again in the third season finale. Starfire also intends to leave the team for an arranged marriage at one point.
In the Batman The Animated Series episode "I Am the Night", Batman messes up a stakeout, and Commissioner Gordon is shot as a result. In the wake of this, he goes into a deep, irrational depression and nearly gives up the cape and cowl, even when he hears that the gangster has broken out of jail and plans to finish the job. Only when Robin tries to save Gordon on his own does he finally snap out of it.
In the spinoff, Justice League Europe, Captain Atom leaves the team. Everyone thinks it is for good. He comes back about an hour later, having had a drink and thought things through.
In Kim Possible's "So the Drama" movie, Kim has one of these near the end when it looks like Drakken won, saying that she "should have stuck to babysitting." It takes a pep talk and a confession of love from her sidekick to snap her out of it.
- This also occurred in the episode 'Team Impossible' after Team Impossible put Kim out of business.
In WITCH, Cornelia briefly quits the team after Elyon goes to Meridian to be with Phobos, blaming Will for not letting her tell Elyon her true identity until Phobos got to her first. Half an episode later, Cornelia returns to help the team fight off a giant Meridian Mudslug.
He-Man goes through a Ten Minute Retirement in "The Problem With Power", an episode of the 80's series, after Skeletor tricks him into thinking his actions during a local crisis have resulted in the death of a villager. He-Man even goes so far as to throw away the Sword of Grayskull. Naturally, Skelly takes this opportunity to swoop in and be evil. Also, it turns out that He-Man didn't really hurt anybody, and the whole incident was a Xanatos Gambit that Skeletor devised to demoralize He-Man and trick him into giving up his powers.
- Thank you, Captain Obvious. You are the light of reason in a dark world.
The Swat Kats episode "Razor's Edge" has a similar plot to the He Man episode cited above. Razor thinks he's injured two elderly civilians, feels guilty, and quits the Swat Kats, but the whole incident was a Xanatos Gambit that Dark Kat devised to demoralize Razor and trick him into giving up crimefighting.
- The same writer who scripted "Razor's Edge" reused the idea on Biker Mice From Mars (in the episode "Modo Hangs It Up") a couple of years later. Talk about a Recycled Script ...
Nicely toyed with in the unproduced "Mopiness of Doom" script for Invader Zim: Dib, tired of his pariah status, stops hunting Zim to pursue "real science" with his father Professor Membrane. With no one to chase him — or take him seriously — Zim falls into a despair, thus largely ceasing to be a threat. However, Dib eventually gets bored with real science and, after a pep talk from his father Gone Horribly Wrong, starts chasing Zim again... which cheers Zim up enough to try and kill him and take over the earth once more.
Strawberry Shortcake has a Three Minute Retirement in The Sweet Dreams Movie. She blames herself for The Sandman getting captured by the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak and gives up, saying, "Don't know why I thought I could do it, I'm Just A Kid." But in the span of one song, she's suddenly back to her usual can-do self.

Shawn Michaels' "I've lost my smile" speech on a special Thursday Raw Thursday in 1997, in which he said that he was coming down with a knee injury. This was controversial to some fans, because it was rumored that Michaels refused to drop the WWF Title to Bret Hart in a proposed rematch at Wrestle Mania 13.
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. 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."

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Examples: