Basic Trope: A third party unexpectedly wins in a competition that one or two people really wanted and/or were expected to win.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are participating in the T. Roper High School Talent Show, and both are bitter rivals. At the end of the night, though, Charlie, who neither of them knew, wins the grand prize.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob and Alice have been training for the talent show for months, while Charlie just showed up at the last minute, but still wins.
- Charlie is the announcer, or the guy who opens the stage's curtains, the caterer or even the valet — whatever role he is fulfilling at the event, he is not a contestant at all and may not even be eligible. He still wins by a landslide.
- Downplayed:
- Alice, Bob, and Charlie have all been training; Alice and Bob are focused on each other, but Charlie is shown to be a contender, and when he wins his victory doesn't come out of left field.
- Everyone expects Alice will come in first and Bob second, or vice versa, and one of them does come in first but Charlie unexpectedly comes in second.
- Justified:
- The judges were split on Bob's and Alice's fairly similar routines, but Charlie's was different enough to win the lion's share of votes. Alternatively, if there was a runoff in place, only one of Alice or Bob placed ahead of Charlie, and the judges who voted for the eliminated player transferred their votes to him.
- Charlie being an unknown meant neither Alice nor Bob had any clue what to expect when going up against him.
- Alice and Bob are wealthy enough to hire coaches, while poor Charlie must learn however he can. Charlie's "education" ends up giving him more flexibility as a performer than Alice or Bob.
- Alice and Bob's routines were that much of a disaster.
- The judges (and/or voters) have various reasons to hate Alice and Bob and absolutely refuse to let them win, even if that means doing some twisting of the rules.
- Alice and Bob spend too much time sabotaging each other and forget to actually do their thing; Charlie wins by simply focusing on what he's doing.
- Alice and Bob cheated and got disqualified, giving Charlie an automatic win.
- Inverted:
- Charlie has trained for months and months, but the trophy goes to Alice or Bob.
- Alternatively, Alice and Bob both want to lose the competition. Both try to lose purposely and try to make the other one win. In the end Charlie wins, satisfying all three of them.
- Subverted: When the award-giving ceremony comes around, the announcer says, "Charlie! YOU ... didn't win," making the viewer think that Charlie was about to be awarded the prize.
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied:
- Bob's and Alice's respective skits were lavishly produced and Charlie's was clearly thrown together in the eleventh hour. He still wins, though.
- Charlie does not prepare at all. He is put into the competition and stands there on the stage doing nothing and still wins, because he is the heronote .
- Charlie is declared the grand-prize winner despite not even entering the competition.
- The grand prize is awarded based on the most unexpected production.
- A horse breeder sponsors the talent show and the grand prize is a black Friesian horse.
- ”Charlie" is the school's black horse cheerleading mascot costume.
- Zig-Zagged:
- The judges are going to nominate Charlie for the win. But then, the judges realize that Alice's routine had some good points that they missed at first glance. But then, after some thinking, they agree that Charlie's routine is best. But here comes Bob, at the last minute...
- Every other year, one of the expected winners and someone who was overlooked wins the contest.
- Averted: Either Bob or Alice wins the trophy.
- Enforced:
- "We need to put the rivalry into perspective by having a third party win everything!"
- "Having either win would answer the show's driving question of who is better, and we don't want that."
- Lampshaded: "Wait ... he won? But ... I trained for so long..."
- Invoked: The judges, noticing how angry Alice and Bob are at each other, conspire to give Charlie the trophy to teach them a lesson.
- Exploited: Other characters see their rivalry distracting them from other competition and bet on the third party, who ultimately wins.
- Defied:
- "However, despite what lessons we may want to teach, the winner is..."
- "To those who stuffed the ballots with Charlie's name: ha, ha, very funny, but he is not a contestant, so he does not count."
- "This is a dog show, not a sock puppet show. We did not kicked out Charlie immediately because we did not wanted to look overly cruel, but sorry, he is not eligible for winning."
- Discussed:Alice: Who's this Charlie?Bob: How did he win?Charlie: [Shrug] Practice, practice, practice.Bob: That doesn't answer Alice's question, but okay...
- Conversed: "That's certainly a plot twist, but it doesn't make sense in the story. Alice and Bob were gonna go on to nationals! That would have added so much story potential."
- Deconstructed:
- Bob and Alice don't resolve anything by losing; both are as bitter as they were before.
- Bob and Alice do end up forgetting about their rivalry, but only because they've turned their animosity for each other onto Charlie.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice and Bob's intense focus on each other ends up getting in their way next year, when Charlie beats them again.
- Next year, Charlie joins the conversation as one of the favorites along with Alice and Bob, but the now three-way rivalry distracts all of them and Dave becomes the new out-of-nowhere winner.
- Implied: The whole competition takes place offscreen; the most we see from it is the end, with both Bob and Alice looking confused and disappointed.
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob and Alice react to Charlie's win in goofy ways.
- The reason why Charlie won is utterly dumb — ex. the grand prize is a trip to Paris and he is the only member of the cast who is not in the DHS "No Fly" list. Or it's an exchange program and the people running it wanted a guy (something Roberta a.k.a. "Bob" and Alice protest against). Or Charlie is the son of the sponsors (the fact that this is an obvious conflict of interest is only feebly touched on).
- Alice and/or Bob accept Charlie's win graciously… because it means the other did not win.
- Played for Drama:
- Charlie's win shoots Bob's and Alice's self-confidence in the foot and they spend the next day in a funk.
- Charlie's win becomes an Apple of Discord that demolishes Alice, Bob's and maybe Charlie's friendship.
- Alice and/or Bob protest Charlie's win, which leads to revelations about the judges being corrupt or at least incompetent.
- Played for Horror:
- Congratulations on your victory, Charlie. Too bad Alice and Bob are going to murder you, your entire family, and anybody who had any part of the chain of events that led to your victory.
- The reason Charlie won the prize despite not even being a contestant is much more insidious than it first seemed: he either somehow made everybody forget that little detail all of a sudden or he holds power over the judges that they dare not defy.
Back to Dark Horse Victory.
