Writing Blog - Stakes (Patreon)

If a chess champion loses in rock paper scissors, does that matter to anyone?

It won't matter to the one who won because it is not any different from beating anyone else at rock paper scissors, and it won't matter to the chess champion because it is just not his field. He has no reason to care about the result. Nothing is riding on it. 

Perhaps one of the most important things in writing is setting up the stakes. What happens if a character overcomes Obstacle X? What happens if they fail to do so? What do they win, and what do they lose? 

Most important of all, why should the audience care about it?

Going back to the chess champion example, imagine if it isn't rock papers and scissors he's playing but a chess match to defend his title. Just like that, there is something on the line now. The chess champion's reputation, his pride in his ability to play chess, and maybe even his livelihood. 

When it comes to more action-heavy works, the thing that's on the line more often than not is the main character's life. If the bad guy wins, the good guy dies. There's also usually a whole host of other bad things that happen when the bad guy wins, but the loss of the main character's life tends to be the most immediate one.

When it comes to tournament arcs, however, that tends not to be the case. Tournaments create a space where the characters can fight without having to worry about death (which isn't to say death doesn't happen, but it tends to be less of a concern). You can even call them a safe environment. 

You ever wonder why you're in the middle of a tournament arc, and suddenly the whole thing gets hijacked by some evil plot? That's why. The writer often feels the stakes are not high enough, so he goes out of his way to raise them to keep the readers engaged. This is something that happens pretty often.

I'm not going to say doing something like that is wrong, but I am going to say, it is not always entirely necessary. The whole genre of sports shows is an example of that. To be honest, one of the reasons I like tournament arcs is because they create a space where you can have your main character lose. When things are always life-or-death, you sometimes don't get that chance, and that can lead to its own set of problems.

Well, even though I say all that, for Liu Jin winning or losing in the tournament didn't really matter much. His sense of pride is not really tied to his skills as a fighter. 

Of course, that doesn't mean nothing is riding on the Eastern Port City Tournament, and even if Liu Jin doesn't care whether he wins or loses, there are a bunch of other people who do care if they win or lose.