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So, I'm riffling through our archives of this magazine... and realized that out of all those fantasy tropes, we haven't done the Quest. The quintessential (okay, there's a lot of those, okay) fantasy trope! Can you believe it?
*counts again* Yep, we've done magic artifact, mentor, planet of the hats, evil overlord, even the Chosen One – but no Quest. It's time to remedy this neglect.
So what's the Quest trope? It's, quite simply, what happens when you get the mentor, the chosen one, the sidekick, and the magic artifact together to defeat the evil overlord. Or, to put it more generally, when the hero sets out with one or more companions to defeat the conflict. And it means lots of fun (read: angst) for everyone involved.
Take the Lord of the Rings as a classic example of the quest trope. Without getting too spoilery (do I need to worry about that with this group?), a band of companions marches out to destroy Sauron's evil ring in the fires where it was forged. People get separated. People die (no, I DIDN'T say who!). People stick their mission through to the very end to destroy evil and see peace restored.
But quests are extraordinarily versatile things. They don't have to be about good vs. evil; they can be almost anything, really. Quests can be small and personal, like an apprentice seeking to prove himself to his master, or vast and vital, like a hunt to retrieve a magical jewel from the belly of a savage mammoth wolf (despite my best attempts, that one doesn't sound vital unless you get the reference).
Quests can fail. Maybe the characters realize at the end that what they were pursuing wasn't worth it – or doesn't compare to what they've learned in the process. Maybe they come to understand that they didn't have to win the fight they thought they did. Quests can be hidden within quests, and one quest may displace another.
Quests don't have to have companions. They can be a secret wish within the heart of one person, or a common goal shared by many. They can be the flame of a revolutionary army or the yearning of a soldier who wants to go home to his beloved.
So what's wrong with the quest trope?
Did I say anything was wrong with the quest trope?
Come on, Verity, you always find something wrong with the trope!
Thing is... the quest's main trope aspect is that it serves to channel the other tropes. That's right, channel them. The quest is barely its own thing. Pinpoint one "typical" aspect of the quest and you've only pinpointed one of the tropes it channels.
However, one thing a quest in fantasy does seem to favor is its own special questing group, full of randomly acquired members and skeleton backstories. Anywhere from three to seven people, this group includes the protagonist by default, and may also incorporate a mentor, a love interest(s), a sidekick, and a traitor. *kicks my epic fantasy subtly under the rug* A-HEM. This core group bonds to one another through hardship and mildly inappropriate jokes, though let's face it, the chosen one is probably off being moody.
