#Retirement arc

[canonicallyobserving911]

Bathena: First argument from season 4 resurfaces in season 7

Unpopular opinion: Bathena's arc in season 7 seems to be related to their future as retirees and it's a repeat of the argument they had in season 4.

Please understand, I'm not saying they will retire at the end of season 7 but I am saying it's possible they're being setup to start thinking about it so they can prepare in advance. If they are then Bobby will have to pick someone to train to be the next captain of the 118 and Athena may have to train someone to take over the region/territory she covers as a field sergeant.

Based solely on the conversation they had with Norman and Lola during their first dinner on the ship, along with Athena's fear of being alone with Bobby because she's not sure what they'll have to discuss when there's "no chaos" (her words to Frank), it appears their first argument that began in 4x12 and carried over into 4x13 and 4x14 has resurfaced in 7x1.

In 4x12, when Bobby was hyped about finding the treasure, Athena asked him where his interest in it came from and the last answer that he gave her was "We can even decide to retire". She looked at him and replied, "Retire? I thought you loved your job." He said, "I do but jobs like ours... nobody does them forever." He was correct because their jobs as a captain and a sergeant are demanding and they won't last forever. People can age out of them and sometimes employees are forced out for ReAsOnS.

To make a long story short, she said she planned to be on those streets (being a sergeant) until they forced her off them and Bobby was taken aback by her response then replied, "Somebody almost did" and he was talking about Jeffrey. They continued to talk but Bobby learned from the things she said that she had been offered retirement after 3x17 but she turned it down. He went on to explain that he didn't know about it and well... their communications or lack thereof, continued until it turned into a huge argument in 4x13 that went into 4x14. The only thing that stopped them from continuing was Hen's call to Bobby about Eddie getting shot.

They made up in 4x14 and they didn't discuss it again.

Fast forward three years and here they are again, faced with the real possibility that the day is coming when they'll have to retire. This is NOT about ageism or anything like that but it is about them being realistic. Everyone at the 118, Maddie and Athena are all seven years older than they were back in season 1 (Eddie and Maddie didn't join the cast until a year later but they're all older than they were) and Bobby had a point when he told his wife that jobs like theirs don't go on forever. Most LAFD and LAPD civil servants have the option to retire and collect their pensions at the age of 55 so it's an option.

Athena's explanation to Frank illustrated how she's afraid of the way their communications will be after they don't have their jobs to discuss anymore and she also mentioned how she's afraid to talk to Bobby about it.

Bobby believes she's avoiding him (she was) and it affected him so much he went to an AA meeting.

IMO, Norman and Lola are on the ship too as a way to show Bobby and Athena that retirement can be a good thing but they'll have to plan for it like Norman and Lola did. Reminder, they just kept popping up everywhere they went and Athena said she didn't like them. It could be because they remind her of their future. (TM is a genius for establishing their retirement arc this way.) Norman and Lola are happy and enjoying their lives while living on a cruise ship. While Bobby and Athena don't have to do what they did, their storylines do parallel especially since Norman specifically said he was a retired dry cleaner from Encino, CA and he wasn't a rich guy who had lots of bitcoin and he doesn't have a dongle. That was a direct callback to 4x12 when Bobby wanted to find the treasure so they could setup trusts for the kids, remodel their kitchen and guess what else? Retire!

After Lola finally got Norman's attention in 2x8, they've been inseparable. Also, don't forget Lola said she spent 18 years raising their kids and then Norman stopped seeing her. He really didn't because he was just going on with life but she thought he did. She explained that he came to see her everyday while she was in jail and they've continued to communicate ever since and now they can't stay away from each other.

Bobby and Athena spent most of 7x1 not communicating but when they got into their "crime fighting mode" after assuming Norman had killed Lola, like they've done before when they were investigating the owner who burned down his restaurant in season 2 and the casino heist in season 5, they were unstoppable. He's a fire captain so he knows fires and she's a field sergeant which means she knows crime and investigations, therefore, they're an awesome duo who could combine their skillsets and build an empire. IMO, they would make an awesome private investigations team but I digress.

Reminder, they're empty nesters now and when they're not at work, they spend most of their time talking about it. All of their friends are at work too and we never see them hanging out with other couples like Norman and Lola so maybe this is a good thing. Also, if they don't plan now, what are they going to do when they actually do retire?

Only they can answer that question or they'll end up like the first couple in the episode who had the fighter jet land inside of their home, onery, frustrated and angry.

Disclaimer: facing retirement is a real fear for some people because they didn't/don't prepare or discuss what they want to do after their jobs end. Some people make their jobs their life and when it's over, they don't know what to do with themselves. That's why work/life balance is important along with setting boundaries with an employer.

There's an old saying, "I work to live, I don't live to work" and it's true.

[kestrius]

What's another way to say day 5 of the @first-try-techno-challenge? It's feeling a little repetitive.

Who knows, I just do this for fun.

30-min version below the cut.

[feathered-moths-ablaze]

I want to talk about the Retirement Arc (no not in a negative way calm down plz-)

Ok this will be a very different interpretation of it since I.. didn't watch the arc. My autistic ass saw the thumbnail of Ghost's Retirement and somehow got to the conclusion of "oh they're not making P.I.E videos anymore. :(" I don't know how I got to that but I did. Oops. Alot of what I know is from second hand sources, so if I miss out on anything important, I just didn't know it existed.

Anyways, Arc Time Yippee!

Ghost has had enough. He can feel his mental health hanging on by a thread, feel the drop coming closer day by day and he knows he needs a break. Problem is: he does not want to open up about his feelings to the others, including Toast. It'll lead to having to confront things he would rather not confront and he is not doing that with them! So he kinda just... Leaves in the middle of the night and doesn't tell anyone. He just needs to go now; can't stop or hesitate - he's going to collapse if he does.

Of course the next morning after he wakes up he opens his phone and sees the text from Toast asking where he is. Ghost can't bring himself to answer right now (still a bit eepy) so he doesn't, then forgets to reply until like a week later. shit.

He spends the next 10 months getting his shit back together while avoiding the others because he can't exactly give an answer to why he's been off the grid for this long. He knows he has to face them at some point but he... he just can't right now.

This is when I divert course to Headcannon Town

Of course he does come back at some point. It doesn't go well

Spooker is relieved but a little iffy and Colin is annoyed, but Toast? Oh he is pissed, and its not a surprise as to why. He's been gone for nearly a year, ghosted them throughout, and now expects him to be happy to see his face again? With no explanation in the first place?!

Toast chews him out for basically ditching all of them, and leaves Ghost feeling very much like he's been punched in the chest. Yeah they both have a bit of a cry later.

The next day he finally tells them why he did it. It doesn't exactly smooth everything over, but it does relieve some tension. He's not at speaking level with Toast though. Toast feels... complicated.

He is still angry, don't get me wrong, but how he just feels betrayed: yeah it explains why he left, but why didn't he tell him, the one closest to him, until now? Did he not trust them after everything they've been though? There's also some hints of sadness. He misses him, as much as he currently doesn't want to admit it.

Ghost also misses their bond, so he starts working to try to make up for it. Of course, it isn't easy to make up for nearly a year.

Spooker is the first to 'forgive' him (idk if forgive is the right word) and kept Ghost motivated to try and make amends. Yes I am giving Ghost and Spooker a positive relationship why not?

Next is Toast. Yep we're jumping straight to him they're both lonely and want their bond again

Ghost tell him why he kept quiet until now. He didn't feel strong enough to tell anyone at that moment, and as the months went on and he got the help he needed, he didn't feel ready to face them again after leaving so suddenly. So he didn't, and it builded and builded until he couldn't take it anymore.

Toast accepts this and they get on the path of being close again. It does take a few weeks but soon they're close again.

Colin is actually the only one who doesn't forgive Ghost. He had gotten ghosted pre- P.I.E, so having it happen again leaves a very sour taste in his mouth. While they're on alright terms now, it's not going to be like before, and Ghost is going to have to live with that.

Arc over woo!

This partly came to be because I was thinking of some Toastedghost angst about them having an argument but it's Toast who's angry instead of Ghost and the retirement arc seemed like the perfect set-up to that. But I knew jack-shit about what happened in it to bace and I am not a writer (English classes/exams killed any passion I had for writing)

Hope this turned out alright :>

[hearth4days]

Isn't he supposed to front the most though

Atm he's not supposed to front at all lmao

[welcometogrouchland]

Disgustingly messy and crusty sketch dump but I couldn't get my own terrible theory out of my head and ended up making a bunch of sketches about it. Also at the end a bonus dickbats and Damian doodle bc I was reading an issue of their Batman and Robin run (IDs in Alt)

[clonememesfrikyeah]

Teaching cadets how to round in math

Little cadet: “Seventeen how old are you?”

Alpha-17: “Twenty one.”

Little: *Doing the math*

Alpha-17: “TWO and ONE.”

Little: “Oooh…so you’re almost fifty!”

Alpha-17: “That’s right.”

Little: “And then you’ll be dead.”

Fordo: *gasps from the other side of the room* “Cadet!”

Alpha-17: “I hope so. Well don’t correct him he’s right. I yearn for the urn.”

Fordo: “NO-“

[robiniswriting]

donna noble consulting at unit is hilarious to me considering she’s got the doctor living in the tardis in her backyard and he’s actively trying to temporarily retire from the whole “saving humanity from the current existential alien threat” business.

the doctor asking about how her day went and donna just staring him down trying to decide whether or not she should let on that there’s some kind of invasion happening.

the doctor and donna having staring contests where they both know that he wants to go do something about the problem but donna is absolutely not going to let him.

rose comes home after school to find the doctor and donna sitting on the couch opposite each other forcefully drinking tea and engaging in the most intense version of small talk that has ever existed because they both know that if donna relents he will absolutely get involved in whatever unit-fuckery is going down on any given day.

but he’s committed to living life the slow way round (for the most part at least) and donna’s his best friend so she’s gonna help him goddammit, even if it means forcing him to sit on sylvia’s floral-patterned couch while he’s mentally bouncing off the walls with the desire to be useful.

poor rose, shaun, sylvia, and wilf are forced to bear witness to this battle of wills for the next ten to fifteen years before donna’s point — which is that we can manage without you sometimes, you idiot, you’re not the center of the universe and things don’t necessarily always fall apart just because you weren’t directly involved — finally sinks in and the doctor manages to find some semblance of chill.

(donna absolutely never admits to him how many of those crises were averted by other versions of him. she doesn’t want his ego to reinflate. they’ve been doing so well getting it to go down.)

[nelkcats]

The Ghost King Wants To Rest!

After years of discovering about his immortality and living through the death and reincarnation of his loved ones, Danny was tired. The world had changed: it had destroyed, rebuilt, reboot, he honestly lost the thread over the years.

Although he could admit that it was interesting to see the evolution, the arrival of heroes on his "original" dimension. And maybe he forced Technus to build him a radio that would alert him to space-related issues there...

He was thrilled when Martian Manhunter was heralded as a hero (Superman was a pretty cool alien yes, but too... human?), though that was basically all the news he had of current civilization (not that he needed further)

The years passed and at the end he decided to live out his retirement on earth out of nostalgia (and by that he means Clockwork got his ass out of the Realms for a break) in what was once Amity a long time ago, he built a nice cabin in the mountains and settled there.

His relationship with Clockwork had evolved over the years, and Danny understood that his mentor (sometimes father) was very concerned that immortality would negatively affect him.

Seeing how he locked himself in his castle for the first few years after Jazz death didn't help alleviate his fears. So Danny didn't complain when the ghost threw him to Earth on that dimension (besides, it had Aliens now! and he missed Amity...even if it was not Amity anymore)

But people won't stop pestering him during his retirement! "Save us" "Help us balance the world, chosen one" "Play with me, let cause chaos!" And more ridiculous phrases. Can the horned boy and wizards leave him alone!? He just wanted to rest!

He couldn't even ask his loved ones for help because their reincarnations didn't recognize him (or did, and made fun of his situation).

On the other hand, Justice League Dark and Klarion have spent years trying to bring the powerful entity that lives in the mountains to their side but nothing works! Why is it so intent on pretending to be an old man with an appearance of 20!?

[stoat-party]

ECHO’S HAVING A PRETTY GOOD DAY

[sad-trash-hobo]

Friendly reminder that in another universe Anakin leaves the jedi order after the Umbara campaign and took the whole 501st legion with him and Ahsoka followed him and they went to Tatooine to meet up with Kitster and freed the slaves and while they were checking the freed for chips, they checked the Clones as well and got all the chips out of the 501st and killed Jabba and the rest of the slavers. And then Anakin took up podracing again and taught all the Clones how to be moisture farmers and reunited with Owen and Beru and helped fix up their farm. And when the Chancellor tried to reach out to Anakin to get him to come back Rex overhears the whole conversation and hits Anakin over the head and explains what grooming is and Anakin realizes how awful the Chancellor is. Anakin comms Padme to let her know and to tell her that he's coming back to Coruscant to clear the Clones of their chips and Fox has another scanner made and they clear out all the Clones and stage an assassination and kill the Chancellor and Padme votes Bail in as the new Chancellor. And then Dooku realizes how stupid the whole war was and pulls out to become an actual Count and just living in peace and having fun. Anakin spends his time podracing while Kix tries not to have a panic attack and lives on Naboo with Padme and spends a week or two in Tatooine to make sure everything is going ok with Kitster and making sure he has all the supplies he needs to continue freeing slaves throughout the galaxy. Just so yall know

[rowenas-megacoven]

The Khan’s are just PHENOMENAL. They’re so warm and vibrant and hysterical in all the best ways. The MCU is absent/shitty/dead/evil-parent-and-complicated-family central, theres too much familial feuding at times, whether that family is blood or adopted or found, so I am LIVING for and LOVING how the Khan’s are just so normal and ordinary and wonderful. It’s no wonder Kamala has such a can-do, confident, positive attitude. It’s no wonder she’s such a dreamer and proudly herself and so damn funny when she’s surrounded by so much love and encouragement. Kamala Khan and the fam need to be in more Marvel movies, their dynamic is just joyous and healing and I will NOT tolerate another Aunt May incident. I WILL NOT. I swear if anything happens to ANY of them-

[espighty]

I want to extend a personal heartfelt apology to the Narinder I tormented in my first save file post-game. In that playthrough I got the Leshy quest and then nothing else. But this time I got a quest for each world, and then for his (presumably) final request he asked me to revive someone. I did, and…

He’s…. he’s happy??? He’s proud of me?? Narinder is my friend????

I don’t wanna be mean to him anymore. He’s proud of me. He’s proud of me.

I don’t understand why this line specifically is having such an effect on me. It’s just. Bittersweet. I somehow feel like I must be misinterpreting this despite reading it a hundred times over.

[magnificent-winged-beast]

[ivysos2001]

You still can’t convince me that the whole ‘Steve abandons everyone in the present to go back to Peggy’ thing was a well thought out/well developed ending for his character that made any sense for his post-catfa character arc (let alone all the time travel stuff) bc wdym none of the people who made the movie can figure out the logistics of it??

[bakedbeanz]

Far Harbor gets cold as shit why did he even move there

[post-it-notes7]

will that really stop him? Garlude wishes