Thursday DE

[needsmoreresearch]

In honor of the Olympics...how do your characters feel about winning and losing? Is it about their own performance? Finding a challenging opponent? Where does sportsmanship--always a nebulous concept--fit in?

Comments

[have_no_mercy]

Tess needs to win. Except when she's fake losing, but then, that's sort of winning, too. So long as the job gets done, performance isn't really an issue and it's better if her opponent doesn't even know what they're in for.

Oh, and screw sportsmanship. WINNING.

[feminine_menace]

If it's an athletic contest, YT will give it her best, but can win or lose gracefully. She will also play fair, so long as her opponents do.

But in an argument or similar battle of wills, she takes a win-at-all-costs approach. And fuck sportsmanship - she will say the most hurtful or shocking thing she can think of to get the upper hand on her opponent. Fortunately she'll cool off if the other person doesn't rise to the bait, or if they seem conciliatory.

[likeroaringlions]

Hal likes to win. And he really doesn't like to lose. Sportsmanship is a lovely ornament in games where the outcome doesn't matter.

William Douglas also likes to win, though with him it's more about who he's competing with or who he's impressing. Whose attention he's getting. Sportsmanship? Nah, he's an "anything goes" kind of guy.

Djehuty doesn't mind losing, especially for diplomatic purposes, but the kinds of games he's interested in are also the kinds of games he's very good at.

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka: s1-pouts when losing and smirks when winning. S5-Is much more sanguine about such things and can actually offer a helping hand to the competition. I think she also looks more for challenging opponents since she's much more sure of herself.

Sabine is calm about winning or losing, or so it seems. Inside, she will dedicate herself to crushing whomever beats her. Winning is just a given in her pov, especially if she's going against personal of the Empire. She does relish a good challenge. (And funny enough I did sort of have an idea for an Imperial Games AU with Sabine as a gymnastics competitor from Mandalore.)

Rollo pouts when losing and gloats when winning. If the other person is of a higher station, he might hold off until he is in private.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

I have occasionally described Yamato as very competitive, and he is in that he enjoys competing with people, but he doesn't tend to be so concerned about winning or losing - instead, his pride tends to be wounded when he feels that whoever he's competing against isn't giving their all. When he does get visibly concerned about whether he's winning or losing, it tends to be a sign that there's something wrong.

Hawke isn't very competitive at all. The only thing I can think of that even comes close to qualifying is his relationship with Carver, but that's an entirely one-sided competition: Carver's competing with Hawke, but it's not mutual. Hawke seems to have negligible interest in competing with anyone.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford's a tricky one to pin down for this. He doesn't like losing, but he's got a certain amount of pride that won't let him just take advantage of resets to keep trying again and again until he wins (unless losing means he gets killed, then he'll keep trying agian and again and again until he gets it right). I think he also puts up a front of good sportsmanship, but really, he'll just stab you in the back – literally – to get what he wants.

[heatherandsteel]

Hm, mine are all over the place.

Quentin wants to be the best at what he does but that's not exactly competing. He tends to go up against his own expectations which are high though he does get annoyed when Raj does something better than him.

William is another who judges himself harder than other people do and he likes competition but in his canon, he doesn't get opportunities. That's why I put him in the rodeo AU, its a chance to work with something that he does anyway. He's hard on himself when he's not good enough though he also is aware of some of what's stacked against him. For losing, it depends on who its to and the reason why. If it feels like the other person started off with better chances or doesn't appreciate it then he'll get annoyed. If he feels its fair then he won't mind.

Charles wants to be the absolute best scientist possible and he knows to help mutants, he has to be better than the best. I know that he did team sports in school and maybe some individual ones but most of his competitive instincts get funneled into science.

Ivan is from a highly competitive culture and he is a master of figuring out how to be good enough to do what he needs to but not enough to draw attention to himself. Miles is hyper competitive and Ivan consciously doesn't do that.

Moist likes getting something over on people but he's not that competitive unless maybe there's someone who he wants to make lose.

Sameth can be competitive but he does better in team sports. At Somersby he played rugby and cricket and was good with both, but his own expectations tend to be high, he prefers a team atmosphere where its not all on him. I imagine as children and teens, he and Ellimere competed against each other to the point where it went from fun to another reason they grew apart.

Jane is rather competitive, she wants to be the wittiest and smartest but while she might get annoyed at someone who shows her up, depending on how they do it, she might end up friends with them.

Demeter can have her competitive moments, not as bad as some other members of her family but its there.

Will is definitely competitive, his relationship with Little John is built on both wanting to be the best. He doesn't mind losing to someone that he respects but he'll get angry if someone's not playing fair.

Tumnus isn't competitive at all.

[harryhotspur]

For Harry, Marius and Segundus, sportsmanship is literally all that matters. They'd rather lose honorably than win.

Viola has some instinct in that direction, but has (especially lately) come to realize that life is messier than that.

[genarti]

Enjolras is another one who's basically 100% composed of honorable sportsmanship. He really doesn't care about winning a game or match, even if it's something he cares about being good at. He cares about acquitting himself well and fairly, and secondarily about teaching the other person something if they're less experienced, and tertiarily about learning something or challenging himself.

Thor would rather lose honorably than win dishonorably... buuut he'd rather win honorably than either one. He's always a graceful loser, actually, because he had that drummed into him as a kid, but what he sometimes messes up on is being a graceful winner and remembering that the other person might mind losing.

Kazul plays to win, if it's not a game of pure chance. (If it is pure chance, or out of her control, or something she genuinely doesn't care a bit about, she'll just participate along in detached amusement.) If she loses, she'll be a good sport about it, but she'll also attempt to convince everyone including herself that she actually wasn't all that invested, well that was a fun way to pass the time, moving along. If she wins, she's... not a bad sport about it, but there's some detectable smugness.

Cosette plays for EVERYBODY TO HAVE FUN AND GO HOME HAPPY WITH THEIR PERFORMANCE. ...But she'll be tickled pink if she wins, too.

[clayforthedevil]

Bahorel plays by his own code of honor, which may or may not be evident or comprehensible to anyone else, and only occasionally involves the "rules", anyway, though he won't skip rules he's specifically agreed on. He'll happily skew things to his own advantage, if it's that sort of game (and he really has no patience for formal competitions anyway). But he'd rather have an interesting competition than anything else; he'll skew the rules to his own disadvantage to get that, if he has to. He'd rather Lose Against Impossible Odds than win easily, any day. It's so much more satisfying.

Djali is a goat, with a goat's keen sense of fair play.

Joly plays for fun. He'll cheat, if it's the kind of game where everyone's cheating for fun, but he has no real sense of competition behind it. Like Cosette, he just wants everyone to have a good time, and has no problems with quietly throwing a game if someone else really wants to win more.

Gringoire has no sense of competition at all, not in the sense of being non-competitive but in the sense of assuming every challenge will soon turn into someone trying to kill him, and he'd rather not, thanks. He will play dirty, grovel, or scrupulously follow rules if need be, whatever else seems appropriate to get out of that situation.