Basic Trope: A character handles their loss with dignity.
- Straight: Alice loses to Bob in a game of chess, but congratulates him for the win.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice not only congratulates Bob for winning, but she also vows to become his best friend.
- Alice loses a Duel to the Death, but is so sporting about it you might think she'd just lost a friendly game of chess before she keels over and dies.
- Alice gives a So Proud of You speech to Bob and is genuinely happy for him to the point of crying happy tears despite the fact that she lost and every time he lost beforehand she felt sad about winning and gave him a pep talk.
- Victorious Loser
- Downplayed:
- While very begrudging about it, Alice gives a handshake to Bob.
- Outside of a brief muttering of "gosh dangit", Alice doesn't take the loss hard and compliments her opponent Bob for winning.
- While Alice doesn't handle her loss unwell, she doesn't seem particularly thrilled about it either.
- Justified:
- Alice doesn't care about winning or losing; it's all about playing the game, and in that regard, Bob has been a Worthy Opponent.
- Alice has become incredibly bored because no one could even put up a fight against her. The fact that Bob was able to not just compete with, but defeat her, makes her excited that she can face real challenges again.
- The true victory was the bond Alice struck with her teammates along the way.
- Inverted:
- Sore Loser
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating
- Alice wins against Bob and congratulates him for being one of the only opponents she had who genuinely tried to beat her, rather just giving up and leaving.
- Subverted: "You know what? You are a total fucking...
- Double Subverted: "...genius for pulling that move off. I have got to try that sometime. Good game."
- Parodied:
- A deposed queen acts like this after losing everything and suffering a Humiliation Conga. Then her new boss tells her to shove a cork in the sappiness, pick up her working pitchfork, and get on with it.
- Alice only congrats her opponent when she lose, in contrary, she will terribly taunt her losing opponent if she win against them.
- Zig Zagged: Alice gets mad after losing some games, is friendly after losing others, and appears mad but actually turns out friendly after other losses.
- Averted: Alice neither takes her loss well or complains about it.
- Enforced: The writers want to make Alice somewhat sympathetic after her earlier Jerkass tendencies.
- Lampshaded: "Man, Alice is taking the loss of her perfect undefeated record really well."
- Invoked: Bob makes sure there are people around when he plays against known bad loser Alice, so she can't throw a tantrum or lie about the results.
- Exploited: Supervillain Alice surrenders to hero Bob to prevent him from discovering a Plan that doesn't strictly require her presence,
- Defied: "I never lose, especially to the likes of you! I won't shake your hand, you loser!"
- Discussed: "That's our Alice for ya! Even when she goes down, she always gets up smiling!"
- Conversed: "Man, she's either really chill or totally doesn't give a damn. I'd have been totally flipping my lid after that."
- Deconstructed:
- Alice's positive reaction to losing an important game makes her sponsor think she isn't taking things seriously enough, and they drop her for someone else.
- Alice doesn't care about her result because she thinks she is just a participant of this game, so she perform freely and carelessly even for the team games, which makes her becomes The Load of the team.
- Reconstructed:
- ...but another sponsor picks her up because her behaviour is entirely consistent with the type of image they'd like to present, and even if she isn't getting maximum attention and displaying peak performance by rising to the very top, they think she'll be better for their image in the long run.
- The struggles of Alice's teammates make her rethinks herself as she is still an important part of the team, so she takes her game more seriously to make her friends more happy, and yes, winning is still optional for her.
- Played for Laughs: Queen Alice, an omnicidal Galactic Conqueror, loses to Bob The Hero. She congratulates him, hangs out with him, dates him and play video games with him.
- Played For Drama: ""Well done"?! That's all you have to say? Do you have any idea what was riding on this? You don't just give up with stakes like this, you win no matter what! You've brought shame to us all."
- Implied: Alice gives a small smile to Bob after losing against him.
- Played for Horror: After a gruesome battle, Queen Alice shakes hands with King Bob, considering such carnage to be a mere sport.
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