Federation President: Because of certain mitigating circumstances, all charges but one are summarily dismissed. The remaining charge, disobeying orders of a superior officer, is directed solely at Admiral Kirk. I'm sure the admiral will recognize the necessity of keeping discipline in any chain of command.
Admiral James Kirk: I do, sir.
Federation President: James T. Kirk. It is the judgment of this Council that you be reduced in rank to Captain and that as a consequence of your new rank, you be given the duties for which you have repeatedly demonstrated unswerving ability: the command... of a starship.
Admiral James Kirk: I do, sir.
Federation President: James T. Kirk. It is the judgment of this Council that you be reduced in rank to Captain and that as a consequence of your new rank, you be given the duties for which you have repeatedly demonstrated unswerving ability: the command... of a starship.
A lot of people are concerned about rank and power, especially in fiction. Both heroes and villains are often driven by ambition, and since Asskicking Leads to Leadership, gaining rank can often mean that you deserve that rank- and, naturally, someone wants to keep what they've earned, so they fight against attempts to push them further down the social ladder.
Not this character. Despite having a good rank- perhaps even a leadership position- they're happy to step down if the situation calls for it. They don't have the ambition or the drive to fight for their status, and though they aren't likely to oppose being highly ranked, they also won't oppose being demoted.
Maybe they just aren't very ambitious and are happy living a simple, average life. Maybe they used to have ambition, but lost their motivation, and aren't too concerned with losing their rank as well. Maybe they don't believe themselves to be cut out for the role they're in, and will gladly leave said position if the option is granted, often so a more interested party can step up to the plate. Maybe they're being punished for something that they agree they should be punished for. Hell, they may even just want to retire altogether.
Whatever the reason, when made to lose their position, they aren't too upset about it, and leave willingly. While others may disagree, they take it in stride and humbly accept their lower rank.
Compare Humble Hero, Almighty Janitor, Celebrity Is Overrated, Unishment, and Declining Promotion. This may be a result of someone being a Reluctant Ruler or a victim of The Peter Principle, and it has heavy overlap with Cincinnatus. It can result in a Short-Lived Leadership.
Contrast Resign in Protest, Turn in Your Badge.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bunny Drop focuses on Daikichi Kawachi, a manager at a large department store, who adopts the child Rin. Rin is alleged to be the love-child of Daikichi's grandfather with a housemaid. Daikichi willingly takes a demotion to regular staff in order to forfeit mandatory overtime, and have more personal time to properly father Rin.
- In One Piece
- Garp asks for a demotion after the events of Marineford, where he ultimately allows for his adoptive grandson, Ace, to be killed by Akainu. He's reduced to a mere Marine instructor and is perfectly happy in his new role, but his reputation remains untarnished and he's still important enough to be assigned as an escort to the royals at the Reverie.
- Sengoku resigns from the position of fleet admiral. Free from the burden of commanding the entirety of the Marines (and given the post of Inspector General), Sengoku becomes a much more jovial fellow who pops in occasionally to taunt the new fleet admiral, Akainu, on how difficult a job it is.
- In Jango's side story, he gets to befriend a Marine lieutenant, Fullbody. The latter didn't realize that Jango was a pirate; when Captain Hina went to arrest Jango, Fullbody tried to make her spare the (former) pirate and make him a Marine soldier, with the lieutenant being demoted to a Seaman Recruit (a Mook, basically) as a consequence. Fullbody was cool with this, as he gets to serve alongside Jango under Hina.
- In With the Light, Sachiko's husband Masato is at first a high-ranking employee in an electronics company, and in the beginning, was set to achieve great things due to putting a lot of work into a new project. However, his relationship with his wife is strained because he's having trouble accepting that his child is autistic. At one point, he overworks himself to the point of getting sent to the hospital. He and Sachiko have a heart-to-heart, and in the end, he decides that being a father is more important, so he requests to be placed in an easier, less taxing position in his company, and although he doesn't get credit for the work he put into the project, he's okay with it now that he's gotten his priorities straight.
Comic Books
- In JLA: Year One, nobody is actually appointed leader, but Hal Jordan assumes it's him, and gets increasingly stressed that he's screwing up. When the others tell him that they all see Barry Allen as the leader, and assumed Barry was letting Hal bark orders because it seemed to be important to him, his reaction is "Thank God."
- In Justice League Europe, team leader Captain Atom was informed by the U.N. that he was being demoted to field leader, while the day-to-day team administration would be taken over by Cap's personal assistant Catherine Cobert. Cap's reaction was to happily announce, "I think my ulcer has gone into remission!"
- In X-Statix, after narrowly surviving a PR nightmare when he was revealed to have ordered the death of one of his own teammates (albeit a teammate who was a sociopathic Reality Warper) and another PR nightmare when a supervillain impersonated him and went on a rampage, Guy Smith was only too happy to step down as the leader of the X-Statix, relinquishing command to teammate Anarchist.
Fan Works
- In Kimberly T's Gargoyles series, plans for the unwritten future fics reveal that Gabriel would have basically accepted this after the Avalon clan all relocated to Manhattan. While Gabriel was the clan leader back on Avalon, he accepts Goliath and Brooklyn's position as Leader and Second respectively of their new combined clan, but Goliath appoints Gabriel Master-At-Arms to make the transition easier. With this title, Gabriel is just below Brooklyn in authority and is basically responsible for keeping the peace and dealing with minor problems before they can escalate to a level that would need Goliath and Brooklyn's attention.
Films — Live-Action
- In Starship Troopers, the Drill Sergeant Nasty is shown wanting to fight the Bugs rather than train cadets. There's a minor background moment where a commanding officer tells him there's no way he's fighting the bugs unless he busts his ass down to private. This turns out to be a Brick Joke, as said character wound up doing just that, and winds up capturing the Brain Bug and possibly turning the tide of the war.
- Star Trek had a couple examples:
- In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Captain Spock returns command of the Enterprise to Admiral Kirk once they receive a garbled communication from Regula I. Kirk says it is not necessary, but Spock insists that while he's capable of commanding a crew of cadets on a training cruise, Kirk should take command if they are going on actual duty.
Spock: Jim, you proceed from a false assumption. I am a Vulcan. I have no ego to bruise.
- After leading his deserter crew in saving Earth from the Whale Probe (and delivering an intel gold mine in the form of the captured Klingon Bird of Prey), James Kirk willingly accepts demotion from Admiral to Captain at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as it takes him from his boring desk job and puts him back in the Big Chair. This also gives the Federation the ability to look like they've punished Kirk and admonish his cavalier regard for the chain of command while giving him what he really wanted and placing him back in a position where he can do the most good. As a further honor to his deeds, the ship he was given was rechristened Enterprise, NCC-1701-A, beginning the Starfleet tradition of registering later ships named ''Enterprise'' with the same registry number and a progressive serial letter suffix.
- In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Captain Spock returns command of the Enterprise to Admiral Kirk once they receive a garbled communication from Regula I. Kirk says it is not necessary, but Spock insists that while he's capable of commanding a crew of cadets on a training cruise, Kirk should take command if they are going on actual duty.
Literature
- The Belgariad:
- Played for Drama when the Rightful King Returns to Riva after a millennium. The Regent for Life Brand is happy to yield the throne to Belgarion, but Brand's son sees Belgarion as The Usurper and tries to assassinate him. Belgarion forgives the attempt, but when the son makes a Deathbed Confession later, Brand rejects him.
- Played straighter with Porenn, Regent of Drasnia for her son Kheva after her husband, King Rhodar, passes away. It's noted that, unlike the stereotypical regent, she goes out of her way to prepare her son for the throne with the full intention of stepping down once he comes of age.
- Ciaphas Cain: At the end of the short story "Sector Thirteen", the band of Military Mavericks Cain usually drags out of Arbites custody after overenthusiastic R&R have been promoted for their aid in defending against a genestealer cult. One of them comments that he finds the uniform uncomfortable, Cain reassures him by commenting he'll probably get demoted soon enough, which cheers him up.
- In Heralds Of Rhimn, Atevia is demoted from Civility Commander and has her silver hairjeweling stripped away after letting Knight Jeidhe die and losing the Shadow Herald again. She considers herself lucky that Regent Ilaina kept her as a knight, and didn’t give her a worse punishment.
- In The Horse and His Boy, younger prince Corin is fine with losing his heirship when his older brother is finally found. Aside from being a genuinely good person, Corin is also an adventurous, Hot-Blooded soul whose attempts to escape the palace constantly cause trouble for his father. In the epilogue, it's mentioned that he travels around subduing enemies of the kingdom, winning both happiness and glory.
- In the J.A. Johnstone western Matt Jensen: The Last Mountain Man: The Great Train Massacre, Honest Corporate Executive John Gillespie is targeted by assassins. Gillespie suspects that the assassins are working for one of three business owners (Morris, Mitchell, and Keaton), who Gillespie bought out (but kept on as managers) when they experienced crippling financial difficulties. All three men are red herrings. While Keaton feels that he made a mistake selling his company and wishes it was still his to pass on to his son, he doesn't seem to blame Gillespie. Morris and Mitchell are perfectly content with the way things turned out and credit Gillespie for saving their businesses while letting them draw lucrative salaries and continue to run the day-to-day operations.
Mitchell: The truth is, I would never have been able to afford the investments necessary to make [[the stockyard he now works for]] the success it is today. If I still owned it... If I still owned it, I wouldn't own it. I would have already lost it by now.
- Millennium Series: In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Blomkvist resigned in order to protect Millenium against reprisals from Wennerstrom, whether in term of ads (Wennerstrom could frighten clients into not buying ads in the newspaper) or in term of image, since a newspaper led by a convicted libeller might lose readers.
- In the Warrior Cats novella Tawnypelt's Clan, Tawnypelt, who is the deputy of ShadowClan, clashes several times with her son, the Clan leader Tigerstar. Upon returning to the Clan after taking her daughter-in-law and grandson away on a quest without Tigerstar's permission, she steps down from the deputy role, feeling that she's no longer the best cat for the job (because she's aging and thinks the Clan needs someone younger, someone who isn't the leader's mother).
- At the beginning of Temeraire, the British Royal Navy captain Laurence's crew capture the egg of a dragon, which hatches while they're still at sea and imprints on Laurence, requiring his transfer to the disreputable Aerial Corps. Laurence immediately surrenders command to his first lieutenant Riley with deliberate good cheer, both to preserve morale and to ensure that the Admiralty can't cheat Riley out of the promotion.
Live-Action TV
- In BUGS, when Beckett has a 10-Minute Retirement after Resigning in Protest at the search for Ros being abandoned, Ed is made the new Bureau chief. He lasts in the role for three episodes (even though Beckett's retirement only lasted for one), before deciding Beckett is more suited to the job and stepping down in his favour.
- House of Anubis: After Nina left, Fabian took over as the leader of Sibuna. After Eddie and KT joined the team and Sibuna was "officially" reformed, Amber tried to suggest he remain the leader, but he voluntarily stepped down in favor of promoting Eddie, the Osirian, claiming to be a "better wingman".
- NUMB3RS: In Don's backstory, he was the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Field Office in Albuquerque but took a demotion when his mother got sick from cancer and returned to LA.
- In the second-season finale of Lodge 49, having accepted that he was a terrible Sovereign Protector, Scott willingly hands over the title to his longtime rival Ernie.
- M*A*S*H: Radar actually begs to be demoted after the episode where he's promoted to Lieutenant. At first he takes pride in the promotion but finds he's not the same one-of-the-guys as he was as corporal.
- In Star Trek: Discovery, when Burnham recruits Rayner to be her new first officer on Discovery following Saru's retirement instead of forced early retirement, he accepts a demotion to Commander to do this. However, he's clearly chaffed at this happening and he takes it out on the rest of the crew until Tilly calls him out on it.
- Star Trek: Picard: When Picard goes to see Admiral Clancy, C-in-C of Starfleet, to request to be reinstated and given a ship so he can track down a lead on Data's possible daughter, he offers, if an admiral is too much for such a mission, to be downgraded to captain. Clancy, however, is not happy with him, both for an interview on the news in which he was highly critical of Starfleet as well as lingering resentment for how he left the fleet in the first place, and turns him down. Even with the demotion.
- However, it's Played for Laughs in the penultimate episode of the series. When Picard and the rest of his former Command Crew return to the Enterprise-D to battle the Borg one more time, Picard activates the computer to bring up its systems. However, since its ship manifest is 30 years out of date, it still lists him as Captain. Bemused, he declares that he accepts this field demotion.
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", once they get the Jenolan up and running Scotty tells Geordi to take the conn. When Geordi protests that Scotty is the senior officer, Scotty humbly refuses.
Scotty: Oh, I may be captain by rank — but I never wanted to be anything else but an engineer.
- The Wire:
- Bumbling detective Michael Santangelo is demoted from the Homicide Department to a patrol officer after he refuses to help Major Rawls spy on and kick fellow detective (and the closest thing the show has to a main character) Jimmy McNulty off the force. Santangelo later admits that despite the fact that the reassignment is supposed to be a punishment, he actually prefers the position, as he keeps his old pay rate, it gets him away from Rawls and others like him, and Santangelo is much more competent at being a beat cop than he ever was as a detective.
- Santangelo's story also gives Jimmy the impetus to ask for a demotion to patrol, as Jimmy realizes that his obsession with solving cases as a detective exacerbates all his worst traits. Between this epiphany and forging a new relationship, Jimmy steps away from investigative work to try to get his life in order. It works... for one season.
Video Games
- Seen in the Dragon Age games. During Dragon Age II, Bran is the seneschal of the Viscount of Kirkwall. Somewhere between the end of that game and the start of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the upheaval in the city-state becomes such that Bran is basically the only person left in Kirkwall who knows how to run the place, and he reluctantly accepts the post of Provisional Viscount. By the time of the Trespasser DLC for Inquisition, which is set a few years later, a new Viscount has been selected and Bran has (quite joyfully) stepped down and returned to his duties as seneschal.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: At the end of the Republic Trooper prologue, the entire Havoc squad except you as the newest recruit and your sergeant Aric Jorgan defects to the Empire. While it's mostly a failure of the brass, they must make an example of someone and decide to demote Jorgan, resulting in a situation where you outrank him and must thus take command of (the remains of) Havoc. Jorgan takes it rather stoically, both because he blames himself for not spotting the traitors in his squad earlier, and because he never actually wanted to lead the squad himself.
Web Videos
- Played for Drama in The Call of Warr. When Gravesite became obsessed with creating his film script, he began to completely neglect his leadership duties, up to the point of becoming close friends with the group's prisoner. His second-in-command, Prince, forced him to step down so that he could take command, an entirely legal action so long as Gravesite agreed. He agreed, barely caring about the situation. However, Prince soon proved to be a bad leader, and Gravesite had to step up to the post, following a lot of character development and self-reflection.
