Sore Loser

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"You win? Aaugghh! You won last time! I hate it when you win! Aarrggh! Mff! Gnnk! I hate this game! I hate the whole world! Aghhh! What a stupid game! You must have cheated! You must have used some sneaky, underhanded mindmeld to make me lose! I hate you! I didn't want to play this idiotic game in the first place! I knew you'd cheat! I knew you'd win! Oh! Oh! Aarg!"

—Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

There are many ways of facing a defeat. Sometimes, some people will admit defeat, compliment the one who bested them and in case of death, Go Out with a Smile. Sometimes.... not.

The Sore Loser is a character who doesn't take defeat very well, no matter what kind of defeat was it. Unlike the graceful one, the Sore will get very snippy and bad tempered, insult his opponent, accuse him of cheating, rant about his "superior skills" and in some extreme cases even try to kill his rival himself. Depending on the setting, he could do things like Flipping the Table, throw away the cards he was using, angrily swipe all the remaining pieces from the chessboard and so on. In a fighting series, the loser will usually lose his calm behaviour, resort to cheap tricks in order to win, adopt a more ruthless and brutal strategy or unleash a Dangerous Forbidden Technique just to have a chance. Leaving in anger is also an alternative.

Of course, if the opponent engages in Unsportsmanlike Gloating, he's basically giving you a license to react this way. The winner's reaction is a good way of telling who you're actually supposed to root for.

It is often the launching pad for Villainous Breakdown, attempted "The Reason You Suck" Speech and in some extreme cases, One-Winged Angel. Contrast Graceful Loser. If I Can't Have You could be considered as the romantic version of this trope.

Examples of Sore Loser include:

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Anime and Manga

  • Gaara in the first part of Naruto start as cool and stern in battle, as nothing can virtually harm him. As Lee (and later Sasuke) start breaking through his defense, he reacts badly (namely, he ends up crushing Lee's legs and in the second battle starts turning in the Shukaku demon).
    • Madara. Just Madara.
  • Several villains from One Piece, but Don Krieg takes the cake: being pummeled several times in a row and slammed head-first in a ship didn't stop him from throwing a fierce rant about how he was supposed to be the stronger... the Gin stops him with a Megaton Punch to the gut.
  • After Vegeta from Dragon Ball loses his cool after being injured twice in a row by Goku's Kaiohken attack, he decides to blow the Earth up (what he came to do in the first place) with his Galick Gun.
  • Nnoitra Gilga from Bleach. On a second thought, also Luppi, Jirobo Ikkanzaka, Mayuri Kurotsuchi and eventually Aizen himself.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! has many, given the game-related plot. Seto Kaiba spent his whole career trying to make up for his first loss to Yugi.
    • Panik even more so. Bandit Keith too, after losing to Joey. "No one beats Bandit Keith." Rex and Weevil are even willing to join a demonic cult to get even with Joey and Yugi, and they don't even learn after that.
    • Joey proves little better in the KC Grand Prix arc. "I can't believe I lost to a guy with pink hair!" he sobs after losing to Seigfried, although at least he waits until he and his friends are alone before throwing a tantrum. Ironically, this puts him in Kaiba's cheering section in the duel between Kaiba and Seigfried.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, in the episode where the Rush Duel Club tries out for the new baseball team, Yuka (of the Goha 6) shows up to challenge Romin using her baseball themed deck. Romin eventually loses, and is so upset over it that, despite Yuka then telling her she made the team (as starting pitcher, no less) she refuses and storms off.
  • Ash Ketchum from Pokémon gets really upset at the end of the first season when his friend beats him during a tournament, causing him to be eliminated. Though this was mostly how he was defeated, his Charizard fell asleep in the middle of the match (this was during a time when Charizard refused to obey Ash's orders and would only listen if his opponents were strong). As that was his last Pokemon, Ash wound up losing by disqualification.
  • The usually cold and confident Ryuugo Daimaru from Gamaran goes apeshit on his brother Sakon when he's incapacitated in battle. It bites him in the ass later when an enraged and crazy Sakon tears his spine out.
  • Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion certainly comes across as a sore loser, though to be fair she is pretty much on a downward spiral to insanity.
  • Clotho Bauer and Muruta Azrael of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED are a dark take on this trope. The former's a Sociopathic Soldier who views fighting as a game, and in his own words, hates to lose. The latter's a Corrupt Corporate Executive who knows real people are dying but honestly, couldn't care less, and sees the entire thing in terms of winning and losing. Azrael actually dies while ranting about how "I can still win. I always win!"
  • Paptimus Scirocco from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ain't much better. The last thing he does as he dies is use his powers to Mind Rape The Hero into a coma, though given that said hero just killed him in nightmarish fashion, it's a little understandable.
  • Flare Corona from Fairy Tail. As soon as she realized that her opponent was actually beating her, she used her hair to threaten a 6-year old girl in the audience to force her opponent to step down.

Film

  • Death from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, who keeps demanding rematches every time he loses.
  • The Predator, who, once defeated, attempts to self destruct with an explosive powerful enough to destroy a sizable area around him, and judging by his Evil Laugh, he hoped to catch the person who defeated him in it too.
  • In Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, after Holmes completely checkmated Moriarty, he responded by threatening to kill Sherlock and Watson and his wife.

Literature

  • A good way to show in an Establishing Character Moment that said character is a bad guy is cruelty to animals, and in A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV adaptation, that was exactly how Ser Gregor Clegane did it. When he loses a joust in a tournament, he calls for his sword and proceeds to decapitate his steed and attempt to murder his victorious opponent in full view of the King and his court.
  • Conall Haldane loses an informal archery match to Dhugal McArdry early in The King's Justice and "all but slammed down his bow, though he did manage a stiff little bow of acknowledgment before stalking off sullenly toward the stables". This is noticed and commented upon; Kelson says his cousin "hasn't yet learned the graceful art of losing."

New Media

  • Ceraphim is the Dragon-in-Chief of the The Lord of Darkwood (the real Big Bad is a world destroying idiot god Sealed Evil in A Can). Acting through others is a point of pride for him. Normally when faced with a hero he tries to corrupt them, and if that proves impossible, tries to corrupt the hero's supporters into killing the hero. When neither of these worked against Lord Darkwood as his last act before being banished, Ceraphim killed Darkwood's Father Figure to cause Darkwood pain.

Newspaper Comics

  • Roger Fox is this on FoxTrot, mostly in regards to chess and golf, two activities he's lousy at. On the rare occasions where he wins, he's a terrible winner too, and neither Andy nor Jason are willing to play him unless they owe him for something.
  • Peanuts:
    • In one Sunday strip, after Lucy strikes out while playing baseball, she says she deserves four strikes because she's a girl. They give her one, but she misses again. Then she says she should get five because she was sick yesterday. Again, they give her one, but she misses again. Then she smarmily says she should get six because she's so cute. But they don't give her one. She storms off saying, "What kind of stupid game is this where you only get five strikes?"
    • Snoopy doesn't mind losing when he plays shortstop, but in one arc where Charlie Brown let him be manager, he threw a fit after losing, taking his anger out — physically that is — on the team and the equipment, then stormed off roaring "I hate losing!!" Which is likely why, in the last strip of the arc, he was very eager to relinquish the job back to Charlie Brown.
    • In another strip, Snoopy is playing tennis, and is upset when his serve is called out, complaining that "I hit it on the exact middle of the outer part of the edge of the front part of the back part of the line!"
      • Of course, his doubles partner Molly Volley is a tough, mean girl who is a very bad loser. The first time she was his partner, they lost and Snoopy had to run for his life!
    • Snoopy again, in one arc, he is nominated for the Daisy Hill Puppy Cup, but he does not win:

Snoopy: AAUGH!! (Runs away screaming.) I HATE THE WORLD! I HATE EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING IN THE WHOLE STUPID WORLD-WIDE WORLD!
Charlie Brown: There's nothing like a good loser.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • The Greek Gods: according to myth, Arachne, after claiming she was a better weaver than Pallas Athena, actually won a weaving contest against the goddess, and then was turned into a spider out of spite.
  • Thor from Norse Mythology. In one myth he, Loki and another guy are invited in Utgard (the capital of the giants) and are humiliated in a series of challenges (the giants were cheating). When Thor fails his task (drinking from an apparently bottomless jug) he furiously demands two more chances to prove his power.

Video Games

  • Lakhesis in the second God of War is at first polite and even flirty towards Kratos. Then the "petulant mortal they were controlling" kick her curvaceous ass, prompting her to become suddenly far harsher.
    • In the sequel, Hermes too is quite bratty.
  • Rothschild in Musashi: Samurai Legend: As he pulls a Load-Bearing Boss on Musashi after his defeat.
  • To some extent Nines Rodriguez from Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. He constantly talks about how the Anarchs are the best and the Camarilla is shit and acting cool, but if you disagree with his view he'll get awfully snippy and even refuse to talk with you. Not that Prince Lacroix and Ming Xiao are any better mind you, and ditto for Andrei.
  • Masamune Date from Samurai Warriors 1 has this attitude sometimes.
  • In one of the Crash Bandicoot race games, the Big Bad is basically this.
  • Ace Hardlight in Ratchet: Deadlocked.
  • Laharl, the protagonist of Disgaea, shows up as a Hopeless Boss Fight in Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. If you do manage to beat him, he's so upset he destroys the world. Now that's sore!
  • The King of Fighters: Rugal Bernstein. Nothing says "Waaah, I can't handle defeat!" like a Villainous Breakdown followed by blowing up your own aircraft carrier with everyone else still on it. One would think that a Blood Knight would enjoy having a strong opponent to face again at a later date...
    • His son Adelheid takes his own defeats in grace and stride. His daughter Rose however.....
    • The "Lovable" Igniz in KOF 2001 won't accept anything less then godhood. Once you beat him, his response is to send the meteor base your fighting on (long story) crashing into the Earth.
  • In Devil May Cry, after his retreat from your first boss fight with him, Phantom will chase Dante down some incredibly narrow corridors. Even Dante found this to be dickish.
    • In the third title, Beowulf is the only defeated Devil (except for Leviathan) that won't bow to Dante, and he rather flee, swearing revenge.
  • In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Riddler constantly mocks and insult Batman's intelligence as he solves his hidden riddles. However, once Batman completes over half of them, Riddler starts to get angry and accuses him of cheating and looking up the answers online.
  • Batman: Arkham Knight, Harley is even worse than the Riddler, taking being arrested by Batman with all the dignity of a kindergartner. He has to carry her as she futilely kicks, hits him, and cries like a baby.
  • Razor in Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Bad enough the guy's a cheating bastard who gyps you out of your precious ride at the start of the game by cutting the gas line. Once you rise through the ranks and beat him in a fair race (while he's in your prized ride, no less), the guy tries to sic his cronies on you after you win. Luckily your female partner who also happens to be an undercover cop is there to prevent this from happening.
  • If you beat a Slytherin at anything in one of the Harry Potter games, expect one of two responses:
    1. They declare that you cheated
    2. They declare that they didn't really try anyway.
  • Pokémon Gold and Silver has two Gym Leaders who really hate losing:
    • Whitney (the Wake Up Call Boss of the game throws a fit and bursts into tears when you defeat her. (Which by the way, will likely happen after she's flattened your Pokemon several times.) Before you can get the Plains Badge you have to talk to the trainer you battled before battling her, who tells you Whitney does this all the time.
    • Clair is worse than Whitney, and one of the of the most infamous examples in the franchise. She won't acknowledge your victory, claiming you have "lazy ideals", and that earing the Badge requires a trial that involves going through the Dragon's Den to find the elder. Even after you manage this, she won't relinquish it until Lance orders her to do so. This this humiliates Clair even more, as Lance reminds her that even she failed the trial on her first attempt.
      • Crystal and later adaptations make this worse, as the official rules in these versions say trial is not required to gain the Badge, she tells the player to undergo it in hopes they'd fail, and then throws a childish tantrum when you succeed.

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Chess Grand Master Gary Kasparov was in a foul mood after finally being defeated by the computer, Deep Blue. He claimed that IBM had a team of Chess Masters aiding the computer. IBM declined Kasparov a rematch due to the insinuations.
    • A political cartoon of the time showed the room the tournament took place in in shambles, a broken computer, and chess pieces everywhere, and Kasparov stomping out of the room in a huff. A man in the background says to another "I wonder when they'll teach a computer to do that."
  • Donald Trump. Even a casual glimpse at transcriptions of his speeches and his postings on Twitter X and Truth Social show that the man is absolutely obsessed with winning and being a winner, to the point that "loser" seems to be the absolute worst thing he can think to call someone.[1] And he routinely declared before any votes were cast that any election in which he was running was already rigged against him, to excuse his defeats -- and insisted that the Presidential election that he did win was also rigged against him, apparently because he didn't get 100% of the vote. Seriously, it's bad enough he is the only U.S. President in history to refuse to acknowledge the results of an election, even worse that his followers attacked the U.S. Capitol, but his lame accusations of widespread voter fraud and lamer attempts to prove it have bordered on the absurd. The Other Wiki has three entire entries related to this.[2]
  1. ↑ Which includes his political opponents, media outlets which do not worship him slavishly, and American soldiers who were captured, wounded or killed in action, among many, many others.
  2. ↑ The first for accusations and public activities, the second the most notorious example, the Capitol riot, and the third for lawsuits.
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