MistyMountainHop

That reminds me of twentysevenseconds's fanfic Drops of Jupiter, where Eric is a novelist (her story is based on the show October Road, and she does a great job putting the T7S characters into that scenario).

Donna K.

stlavin95

Thanks for that

MistyMountainHop

You're welcome!

Donna K.

MistyMountainHop

Donna, I don't think that fanfic is going anywhere (at least, I hope not ), so if you ever want to read it, you can.

Donna K.

MistyMountainHop

It is a good read.

Donna K.

CarouselUnique

I don’t see it as his passion so much as I see it being something he would be good at that he does because not everyone gets to work at their passion in every area. And I think he would find passion within it, especially if he’s an English teacher and can work his interests into his lessons. It’s a reasonable path for him to have ended up on.

I’d say one of his passion careers would be a movie director which is what he ends up being in Jessieverse Alt!Continuity when he and Jackie stay together, move the family up to California for their daughter’s career and his on-set tutoring of her leads to connections that lead to him being a director someday.

But generally speaking I’m okay with his canon path being teaching, like, it wouldn’t have been my first choice for him (I would have had him maybe run a hobby shop/comic book shop/hangout for nerds and nerd adjacents that would become the place the next generation of Point Place kids hang out because it’s always got a free table for them) but that’s something that’s not so out of the realm of character that I can’t live with it. There’s plenty of things I would have changed in the sixth and seventh season before I even blink at Eric’s career choice.

MistyMountainHop

He'd bring up Star Wars every chance he gets, no matter what he's teaching.

Eric: If Luke is holding one light saber, and Dark Vader cuts off his hand, how many light sabers will Luke be holding afterward?

Student #1: It depends on which hand Luke held his lightsaber in and what hand Darth Vader cut off.

Student #2: Who says Luke is holding a lightsaber in his hand? He could b holding it under his arm --

Eric: Zero! The answer is zero lightsabers!

I like his idea.

I agree that he could start his own business -- Both Red and Bob did that, so he has examples and might get help, at least from Bob -- and it would be a comic book shop (that also sold baseball cards and other comic book merchandise).

Donna K.

MistyMountainHop

Eric could fit several careers, considering the show gave him no career ambitions.

CarouselUnique

I enjoy writing him as a teacher (even though I don’t think it’s what I would have picked for Eric if I had any sort of say over it, as like, a five year old at the time-) for a few reasons:

- I enjoy characters who are teachers because I find teaching interesting and I enjoy how different character types fit into a teacher role. Thinking about the type of teacher Eric would be from canon and from how my post-canon speculative timeline changed him is a good way to understand how he works in some key ways.

- I’ve got a fun reoccurring within some of my drafted stories where Eric has some dorky fan paraphernalia that a teachers salary can’t afford and when it comes up how he can afford it he gets to joke about the truly ridiculous amount of alimony Jackie pays and I find the jokes that a very friendly divorced couple can make about their divorce funny and I will never let anyone forget that Jackie and Eric were married in my story.

- His wife Maggie is an editor at a publishing house and a writer/illustrator herself and I find it cute that the English Teacher married the Writer/Editor.

- I always enjoy teachers who put their niche interests into the lesson plans and Eric is exactly that type of person at least imo.

Mostly though, I enjoy it because when he takes primary custody of Jessie, Lucas and Diana from Jackie and Hyde they’re high school aged, so that means not only do the kids have to adjust at the house, they also adjust have to adjust at a new school to their father being a teacher and teaching them. It’s an interesting dynamic! I think him being a teacher to any of the groups kids, especially his own, would be very interesting. It would inform so much about their school and home lives. Sometimes it’s hard being both because you can be a bit too much of one or the other at the wrong time. Being a teacher when you need to be a father and being a father when you need to be a teacher.

And it’s fun when the kids (mostly Luke and Di) haze him at home for being their teacher. Finals week is Hell at the Forman-O’Conner household.

MistyMountainHop

This.