History Main / ChallengeSeeker

* Franchise/SherlockHolmes, in all his various forms. Holmes ''despises'' being idle, resulting in all manner of quirky behaviors like indoor pistol practice, conducting arcane experiments, or just getting wasted on whatever substance he can find (in the [[Film/SherlockHolmes Guy Ritchie movie]] from 2009, Watson catches Holmes ingesting ''embalming fluid''). Furthermore Holmes often rejects cases that don't tease his intellect enough and, conversely, accepts cases that do purely for the sport of it, often turning down material or monetary compensations in the process. Some adaptations suggest this nature is due to his PowerIncontinence that often manifests itself as hyper-senstivity to his surroundings (his infamous SherlockScan can never be shut off, causing him to be constantly distracted by the world around him unless he can focus himself on a mystery and put his ability to notice and derive meaning from the mundane towards a goal).

Usually driven and ambitious, this character aims to constantly hone his skills by tackling challenges that push his abilities to the limit, and enjoys every minute of it. The harder the challenge, the better; they may even become bored with easy tasks or disappointed if something turns out to be easier than they expected.

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* ''WebComic/OnePunchMan'': The driving motivation for the main character. The protagonist Saitama is a superhero who wants nothing more then to meet an opponent worthy of a good fight. [[BlessedWithSuck The problem is]]... anyone and anything he delivers a single punch to is a OneHitKill.
* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'': A lot of the stronger characters. Cynthia in particular is now at the point where she automatically identifies determined-looking ten-year-olds as godly powerful, which for her is reason enough to single them out for a challenge.

* Averted with Yami Yugi in ''Manga/YuGiOh'' - we never see him go actively looking for opponents, and plays and has magical duels only when challenged or as a means of defending others. Played straight with Kaiba and Joey - the former wants to beat Yami Yugi and sets up a tournament so he can win all the Gods cards and prove himself the best, and the latter is initially hot headed and challenges Kaiba to a duel at one point despite having incredibly little experience.

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-->'''The Champion''': ''No, my friend...I could never beat you! I know that now! I could crush your bones and break your body...but I would never conquer your spirit!''
* [[http://marvel.com/universe/Grandmaster the Grandmaster]] from Marvel:

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[[AC:Live Action TV]]

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[[AC:Video Games]]

-->[[spoiler:I proved my superiority. I have already won. {{I regret nothing}}.]]
* Minamoto no Hiromasa from ''[[VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}} Onmyōji]]'' is this in spades. When he's first introduced, he [[EstablishingCharacterMoment instantly challenges the protagonist to a duel]] thinking him a WorthyOpponent ''before he even knows his name''. Since then, Hiromasa has always displayed a desire to fight powerful enemies, at one point even severely injuring himself.
* Vyse fits certainly the bill. In ''VideoGame/{{Skies of Arcadia}}'', he repeatedly tackles challenges others deem impossible: such as escaping the Grand Fortress and crossing the Dark Rift. He even has a special ability called "challenge lover" in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''. Vyse is not only made of this Trope, he eats it for breakfast.
-->'''Vyse (to Marco):''' "Impossible" is a word people use as an excuse when they want to give up. Whenever someone says something's impossible, it makes me want to prove them wrong.

* [=Zer0=] of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' seeks a challenge above all else, with his personal ECHO entry telling one of his targets to make him work for it. He becomes a Vault Hunter because he sees it as the ultimate challenge. Unfortunately, he sometimes takes this a bit too far as he'll assume that the "challenge" of shutting up an idiot means that he can chop someone's head off. Axton and Salvador have similar motivations, though they also really want the fame and loot (respectively).

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* Scrooge [=McDuck=], from {{Ducktales}}, and possibly even moreso in its [[Ducktales2017 update]], who earned his fortune being "Smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies", is always up for a bit of globe-trotting adventure. Don't let the big mansion and bin full of money fool you. Scrooge is never happier than when he's getting his hands dirty on his latest death-defying adventure.

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* Darius Walker from ''HonorableHogwarts'' has shown a strong tendency toward this. He's fine using his wand against lesser opponents (or just poisoning them and sparing himself the tedium of a quick and easy fight), but when he heard what a good swordsman Jason was he came after him with a blade instead, to test his skills against the best.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory Dial M for Monkey]]'' episode "Rasslor". [[Wrestling/RandySavage The title character]] comes to Earth and challenges its superheroes to wrestle him. He says, "For eons I have scoured the cosmos searching for the one adversary who could provide me with suitable sport." If none of the heroes can defeat him, he will destroy the planet. All of the superheroes go down to defeat except Monkey, who refuses to give up even after Rasslor beats him up.

* Zer0 of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' seeks a challenge above all else, with his personal ECHO entry telling one of his targets to make him work for it. He becomes a Vault Hunter because he sees it as the ultimate challenge. Unfortunately, he sometimes takes this a bit too far as he'll assume that the "challenge" of shutting up an idiot means that he can chop someone's head off. Axton and Salvador have similar motivations, though they also really want the fame and loot (respectively).

Often a {{Determinator}}, because the more they get beat down, the more excited and fired up they get. May overlap with HotBlooded. Likely to [[JumpedAtTheCall Jump At The Call]]. Such characters often come across TheAce and find out there's AlwaysSomeoneBetter, but rather than create a bitter rivalry, they tend to be much more friendly about it, which may lead to FoeYay.

* Minamoto no Hiromasa in ''[[VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}} Onmyōji]]'' is this in spades. When he's first introduced, he [[EstablishingCharacterMoment instantly challenges the protagonist to a duel]] thinking him a WorthyOpponent ''before he even knows his name''. Since then, Hiromasa has always displayed a desire to fight powerful enemies, at one point even severely injuring himself.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory Dial M for Monkey]]'' episode "Rasslor". The title character comes to Earth and challenges its superheroes to wrestle him. He says, "For eons I have scoured the cosmos searching for the one adversary who could provide me with suitable sport." If none of the heroes can defeat him, he will destroy the planet. All of the superheroes go down to defeat except Monkey, who refuses to give up even after Rasslor beats him up.
-->'''Rasslor:''' I could crush your body, I could smash your bones, but I could never break your spirit. You are a marvel, little monkey! Any world that could spawn one as noble as you is truly blessed. I spare your Earth!

* In MarvelComics the Champion of the Universe goes around to various worlds looking for a good boxing match. His first defeat ever comes from [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Thing]], who refuses to stay down. He can ''beat'' the Thing but he can't ''defeat'' him, so the Champion concedes.
* Also from MarvelComics, [[http://marvel.com/universe/Grandmaster the Grandmaster.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Kenpachi, of the CrazyAwesome BloodKnight variety.

* Endou in ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven''. On more than one occasion, he actually got excited from seeing the opposing team score a goal on him or otherwise getting his butt kicked, because it meant he had a chance to play against amazing opponents. Hiroto also shows bits of this mixed with SpiritedCompetitor when he seeks out Raimon (and Endou in particular) for a match.
* This is a lot of the stronger characters in the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' series. Cynthia in particular is now at the point where she automatically identifies determined-looking ten-year-olds as godly powerful, which for her is reason enough to single them out for a challenge.
* Kenpachi from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', of the CrazyAwesome BloodKnight variety.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has Roronoa Zoro, who wants to be [[CatchPhrase the world's greatest swordsman]], basically duels everyone holding a sword to prove that he's the best and improve himself.
* From ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', main character Katsuragi Keima. He plays multiple games at once to mostly save time, but partly to challenge himself.

* This is the driving motivation for the main character of ''OnePunchMan''. The protagonist Saitama is a superhero who wants nothing more then to meet an opponent worthy of a good fight. [[BlessedWithSuck The problem is]]... anyone and anything he delivers a single punch to is a OneHitKill.

* Zaroff in ''Literature/TheMostDangerousGame'', who says this is the reason why he started HuntingTheMostDangerousGame.
* Valmont in ''Literature/DangerousLiaisons'' does this as TheCasanova.
* The [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse build much of their culture and morality around this. They seek a good fight and worthy challenges, wanting to test themselves against the toughest opponents in the galaxy, whether it be [[BountyHunter hunting dangerous criminals for bounties]], building their homes in a predator-infested jungle, or declaring war on the biggest, toughest faction they can find. This often means that they're fighting against the Jedi and the Republic, but it's ''because'' the Mandalorians consider them honorable, {{Worthy Opponent}}s and the best the galaxy offers, which is a StealthInsult on their part against the Empire and the Sith.

* Franchise/SherlockHolmes, in all his various forms. Holmes ''despises'' being idle, resulting in all manner of quirky behaviors like shooting randomly into a wall, conducting arcane experiments, or just getting wasted on whatever substance he can find (in the [[Film/SherlockHolmes Guy Ritchie movie]] from 2009, Watson catches Holmes ingesting ''embalming fluid''). Furthermore Holmes often rejects cases that don't tease his intellect enough and, conversely, accepts cases that do purely for the sport of it, often turning down material or monetary compensations in the process. Some adaptations suggest this nature is due to his PowerIncontinence that often manifests itself as hyper-senstivity to his surroundings (his infamous SherlockScan can never be shut off, causing him to be constantly distracted by the world around him unless he can focus himself on a mystery and put his ability to notice and derive meaning from the mundane towards a goal).

* Despite having ulterior goals, [[TheChessmaster Augustus]] from ''VideoGame/LastScenario'' treats his striving for power like a game.

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** This is one of [[AllLovingHero Goku's]] defining features. He even rejects sensible solutions for tackling enemies (e.g. shutting down the androids) in favor of taking on strong opponents face-to-face.

* The [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse build much of their culture and morality around this. They seek a good fight and worthy challenges, wanting to test themselves against the toughest opponents in the galaxy, whether it be [[BountyHunter hunting dangerous criminals for bounties]], building their homes in a predator-infested jungle, or declaring war on the biggest, toughest faction they can find. This often means that they're fighting against the Jedi and the Republic, but it's ''because'' the Mandalorians consider them honorable, {{WorthyOpponent}}s and the best the galaxy offers, which is a StealthInsult on their part against the Empire and the Sith.

** In fact, this is partially {{Deconstructed}} with Goku & Vegeta; they seek a good challenge above any and all else, even the protection of their family and friends most of the time. One glaring example is the latest movie, Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF. Frieza returns stronger than ever to challenge Goku for revenge. Goku & Vegeta, for their part, are mostly concerned with the challenge of fighting him one on one and absolutely refuse to do the sensible thing of teaming up against. [[spoiler: Frieza nearly kills Goku through a sneak attack, and successfully blows up the Earth because Vegeta wasted too much time in finishing him off. If not for a DeusExMachina, it would have been a pretty depressing ending.]]

* Endou in ''InazumaEleven''. On more than one occasion, he actually got excited from seeing the opposing team score a goal on him or otherwise getting his butt kicked, because it meant he had a chance to play against amazing opponents. Hiroto also shows bits of this mixed with SpiritedCompetitor when he seeks out Raimon (and Endou in particular) for a match.

* One of the defining features of [[AllLovingHero Goku]] in {{Dragonball}}. He even rejects sensible solutions for tackling enemies (e.g. shutting down the androids) in favor of taking on strong opponents face-to-face.

* Franchise/SherlockHolmes, in all his various forms. Holmes ''despises'' being idle, resulting in all manner of quirky behaviors like shooting randomly into a wall, conducting arcane experiments, or just getting wasted on whatever substance he can find (in the [[Film/SherlockHolmes Guy Ritchie movie]] from 2009, Watson catches Holmes ingesting ''embalming fluid''). Furthermore Holmes often rejects cases that don't tease his intellect enough and, conversely, accepts cases that do purely for the sport of it, often turning down material or monetary compensations in the process.

->"There is no greater bore than perfection."
-->'''Zaroff''', ''Literature/TheMostDangerousGame''

* ''{{Soap}}'': Jessica's attorney E. Ronald Mallu takes her case (she's on trial for Peter Campbell's murder) because it's so difficult. If he loses, it won't harm his reputation because nobody expects him to win, and if he wins it'll be a feather in his cap. Another attorney had said that he couldn't get Jessica acquitted with a mute prosecutor, her husband as the judge, and her family as the jury.