Basic Trope: A character reveals that another character who beat them somehow only won because they let them.
- Straight: Alice is fighting Dracone and after a long, arduous battle, she wins. He later reveals that he let her win for reasons unknown.
- Exaggerated: Alice fights Dracone several hundred times, winning each time by the skin of her teeth. Dracone reveals that he was letting her win each time.
- Downplayed: Dracone could conceivably have fought harder and maybe won, but it would cost too much even if he did, so he bowed out.
- Justified: Dracone is looking for a successor and sees great potential in Alice. By letting her win he sets up a better dragon for his employer. However, if he she didn't meet his standards he would have killed her than and there. Either outcome worked for him.
- Inverted:
- Alice gives up against Dracone.
- Alice gloats after beating Dracone, saying that defeating him was a such a breeze... When, in fact, she had a really hard time winning.
- Subverted:
- After recalling the fight, Alice realizes that Dracone couldn't have let her win...he was fighting too hard.
- Dracone plans on letting Alice win, but it turns out she's actually stronger than him and would've won anyways
- Double Subverted: He was fighting hard to further his motives.
- Parodied:
- Alice beat all kinds of pain into Dracone's sorry ass, and yet he still insists that she only won because he let her.
- Alice and Dracone are both trying to pull this trope on each-other, and end up entering a contest of Politeness Judo to in order to determine who beats on who.
- Zig Zagged: It's truly too difficult to tell whether he was letting her win or not.
- Averted: Alice won fair and square.
- Enforced: "We need to show that this villain is sinister! What better way than to tell The Hero that he let her win?"
- Lampshaded:
- "Remember when you defeated me at Death's Gulch? I let you win that time!"
- "Yeah, well, _I-I let you lose!...Jerk!"
- Invoked: Dracone, while fighting Alice and holding his own, realizes that his agenda would be better served if she won. So...he lets her win.
- Exploited:
- Alice picked a fight with Dracone knowing that she couldn't win but also knowing that he had a reason to let her win.
- Dracone got an associate to put money on his fight with Alice, as he already knew the outcome and needed to lose anyway to further his dastardly ends.
- Defied: Alice, realizing that Dracone is about to let her win, forces him to keep fighting her.
- Discussed: "So he let you win... Now we must find how that factors into his next plan..."
- Conversed: "Considering how often being beaten factors into his plans, you have to wonder if Dracone is a closet masochist..."
- Implied: Dracone is the Silent Bob, and although we obviously never hear him or anyone say this, we do notice him absolutely schooling an opponent much stronger than Alice a few minutes after his "defeat."
- Deconstructed: The revelation that he let her win causes Alice to give up and stop fighting the bad guys.
- Reconstructed: Alice realizes that Dracone might have let her win, but she needs to keep fighting.
I let you go back to the main page, you little fool!. Muahahahahahahaha!!!
