Basic Trope: Treating a game like a game and playing only for fun, even if others treat it like Serious Business.
- Straight: Alice only plays for fun, and though she might win easily, she doesn't care much about winning or losing.
- Exaggerated:
- Hard Work Hardly Works
- Alice plays for fun despite the fact that the game is a Deadly Game.
- Downplayed: Spirited Competitor
- Justified: You Were Trying Too Hard - Alice might win exactly because she didn't care about it.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Technician Versus Performer - Alice only pretends to be cavalier about it for the show.
- Alice only acts this way because she's used to mopping the floor with everyone she competes against. When she faces the possibility of actually losing, it's not pretty.
- Double Subverted: But that is because the show makes it more fun.
- Parodied: "Oh, fighting aliens with giant robots? This is fun! We might all die? Pshaw, who cares."
- Zig Zagged: Alice only treats it like that to keep up appearances, but she cares actually. Or does she?
- Averted: Everybody treats the game like a game or like serious business.
- Enforced:
- Even though the story is intended to be serious, the kids need to appear to enjoy the game so toymakers can sell the game in Real Life.
- Too Quirky to Lose
- Lampshaded: "In a minute she's going to tell us that she doesn't even care about winning, you'll see."
- Invoked: "You need to take things less seriously. You can't relax and be at your best if you care about winning more than you care about the game."
- Exploited: "They think the game is important for the game itself. That is why they lose."
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: "How can you be so calm! This is Not a Game!"
- Conversed: "Wait... so how did Alice get into the competition? She doesn't even care about winning!"
Sure, you could go back to Cavalier Competitor now, but where would the fun in that be?
