Basic Trope: A character who was once a badass decides to retire.
- Straight: General Bob, the most powerful general in Troperia, decides to settle down.
- Exaggerated: General Bob, the most powerful general in Troperia, decides to settle down, as does his entire group.
- Downplayed: General Bob, the most powerful general in Troperia, decides simply to take it easy for a while.
- Justified:
- The General might feel that A) he's done enough good, or B) he's too old for this.
- Between his advanced age and combat-related injuries adding up, the General simply can no longer be as badass as he used to be, and continuing to do his job would only worsen his physical condition further.
- Inverted: Private Millstone, the weakest soldier in Troperia, decides take the lead.
- Subverted: Good Lord, Bob is bored with his retirement! He un-retires the next day.
- Double Subverted: Bob goes back to work... as a volunteer one day a week. He gives advice to the new General but does nothing else.
- Parodied: General Bob retires, and treats his retirement like a military operation, with intense battle planning to his bowls game.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob was never a badass
- Bob never retires during the course of the story.
- Enforced: "We need a character who's not as badass as everyone else, but still pretty badass, like someone who was more badass!"
- Lampshaded: "Dude, you're the most powerful general in Troperia. Are you really just going to settle down and retire?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: While Bob is on his retirement, his enemies attack his considerably less badass forces, knowing that Bob will not be there to stop them.
- Defied: Bob decides he'd rather be a general till he dies.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The General's no longer around. However, the menaces he fought during his glory days still are.
- Alternately, Bob retired because of a Career-Ending Injury and is no longer at his former fighting capacity.
- The General might have settled down, but he's still afflicted by the trauma he experienced on the battlefield over the years.
- Reconstructed:
- That's why there are other badasses around. They shouldn't be concerned just because one of them has retired, they still got other badasses to rely on. In fact, Bob might even teach them because he's Older and Wiser than them.
- Bob is given extensive therapy to make up for the trauma he's experienced on the battlefield. He's now living peacefully in his retirement home back in some tropical timeshare.
- Implied: Bob is a Cool Old Guy who gives the hero fighting advice but has no actual backstory.
- Played For Laughs: Alice and rest of her squad arrive to the bunker where Bob was captured by enemy forces. When they arrive, Bob is making a cup of coffee. He turns, and asks "What took you all so long? These idiots don't even have acceptable coffee, let alone good" in a rather cranky tone of voice. The soldiers who captured him are unconscious and strewn about the room. Bob then complains about wanting to get back to his easy-chair, and walks past his allies who quickly follow him in bewilderment.
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