Competition Quotes in The Paladin Prophecy

As soon as he sets foot into the Center, Will feels like he is competing against other boys—in this case Todd—for Brooke's affections.

Will is a match for Lyle unlike any Lyle has seen before. What's really at stake, perhaps, is the fragile male ego—at its most fragile when you're fifteen.

The consequence of Will feeling like he needs to compete for Brooke is that Brooke kind of ends up being more of a trophy than an actual person. Surprisingly, this is part of Dad's rules. Will gets his chauvinism from his father—though perhaps Will is misunderstanding part of what his father was trying to tell him.

The boys all puff up their chests around Brooke as if they're a bunch of monkeys fighting for territory. Well, which is kinda sorta what's actually going on, so you've got to laugh a bit at it.

Okay, we've finally moved on to to a different sort of competition: sports. Rourke knows that the training will pay off for Will, making him a valuable asset to the track team. But where does the track team of a super-secret academy actually compete?

Considering the fact that Will has been accused of taking steroids right before this line is spoken by the doctor, the Lance Armstrong comparison is an appropriate one. But the more important thing to pick up on here is that Will has superhuman strength, endurance, and health. It's not steroids; Will is just that amazing.

Once again, we see how Will is physically almost superhuman. It's something he's never quite processed before; it doesn't seem like he's every really compared himself to others in these terms before. But make no mistake: Will is essentially an unbreakable superhero.

Meritocracies force students to compete against one another in a scramble to the top. They also don't really work, for a variety of reasons. The Center sends mixed messages, wanting students to compete with one another but also wanting them to ally with one another. They can't have it both ways, right?

This is a big moment for Will: he's finally able to show off his super speed and use it to win a race. We bet the Center is watching very closely as he does this—just by the way.

They're supposed to be on the same team, but the other racers are jealous of Will's speed and resort to dirty tricks to defeat him. It's shady, but that's why they're bad guys. They play dirty.