SideQuested - TV Tropes

Peony: Feels like you cheated.
Charlie: I told you, this isn't my quest.

SideQuested is a fantasy Webcomic by Ale Presser and K.B. Spangler of A Girl and Her Fed.

Charlie is the adopted daughter of a woodcarver, in training to be a librarian, whose life is suddenly turned upside-down when her birth father, the King's Blade, arrives to bring her to the King's court. She meets Prince Leopold, who falls for her despite being betrothed to Princess Robin. So Charlie decides to sneak into the tower holding Robin to tell her the news, only to learn that things go much, much deeper than she expects.

The comic is available at https://sidequested.com/, and updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Print books will be published by Andrews McMeel in 2026.

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Tropes found in SideQuested include:

• Action Girl: Chloé first appears wrestling a roc to bring it along to help John and Boopsie in their quest.
• Agony of the Feet: When Leopold is startled and stops playing music, causing him to stop floating, he lands on Charlie's foot.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Charlie asks why Boopsie can't do anything about the Weavers, only for Boopsie to respond with exactly what she's already done.

  Boopsie: What would you suggest? Purging all Weavers and their noble supporters from a corrupt kingdom and then rebuilding it from the ground up, free of their influence?
  Charlie: Yes! Wait.

• Arranged Marriage: Between Robin and Leopold. Robin doesn't want it after she decides Leopold is a jerk, and Leopold doesn't want it after he falls for Charlie, but there will be war between their kingdoms if it doesn't go through. Robin's mother wants it to legitimize her rule; it's not known yet why Leopold's father wants it. (Possibly to keep Robin's mother, the Witch-Queen, from invading.)

  Robin: If Mom wants me to become a real princess, she can go marry a king herself and leave me out of it.

• Bag of Holding: Charlie's biological father gives her a satchel containing an extradimensional space, which was made by her mother. Charlie ends up with her entire body above her waist inside it when she first receives it.
• Because Destiny Says So: Clotho de Montagud (Chloé) arrives to meet John and Boopsie because she cast her own fate and it said that she was to be there at that time to help them in their quest.
• Birdcaged: When Robin and Charlie arrive at the Witch-Queen's castle, Leopold is trapped in a bird cage above the dining room.
• Book Burning: In backstory. About a hundred years ago, the Weavers burned every book they could find about magic in an attempt to gain a monopoly on it.
• CamelCase: The title of the comic is in camel case. Three of the four kingdoms we've heard of at this point use it, BearWoods, DeepSea, and RiverFall, with Aurora (mentioned as the first place Charlie should go to) as the only exception. It's hard to tell in the comics because most speech bubbles are all-caps, but the chapter title pages show them this way.
• Catlike Dragons: Molly, a baby dragon, is the size of a large cat and tends to act like one.
• Crazy-Prepared: Charlie brought along a full, fancy dinner from the royal kitchen, complete with dessert and tea, in case she ran across a monster that could be bribed with food. She also tracked down details on the architect of the tower in order to find an alternate way in.
• Deadly Decadent Court: Charlie's opinion of the royal court. Given that she's challenged to a duel within minutes after being presented, she's probably not wrong.

  Charlie: I understand I'm about to be dropped straight into a pit of vipers.

• Death by Childbirth: Leopold's mother died eight years ago, giving birth to his younger sister.
• Didn't Think This Through: Leopold lives by this trope. He's rash and impetuous, and has poor control of his emotions. He develops a crush on Charlie despite being betrothed to Robin, and tries to challenge the Witch-Queen to get out of the marriage contract. Charlie and Robin point out that he's never had to do anything real, so he's never had to worry about the consequences of his actions.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Peony, the talking vulture.

  Peony: All right, all right. Don't bite my head off. That's my job. Get it?
  Charlie: I got it.
  Peony: See, I'm a vulture...
  Charlie: I said I got it.

• Dungeon Bypass: Charlie avoids the labyrinth entirely, going around to find the secret entrance to the tower.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Charlie gets one of these when her father sees her through a portal. Made especially impressive from her Overly Long Name, and lampshaded by the page title: "Dad calling by full name. Oh no."

  John: Charlotte Marie Suzanna Moira Goldskin! How dare you disobey me!

• Fictional Disability: Weavers have a scar on their etheric body - they can gather magic from others but not use it. It seems likely that this is inflicted on them when the Loom Masters 'attune' them to be able to perceive conflict magic.
• Fictional Document:
  • Dutchess Haberdash's Rules for Courtly Conduct, Sixth Edition is an etiquette guide that Charlie studied.
  • Patricia Finds Her Magic is a children's book from before when the Weavers burned books about other magic. A Defictionalized version was made and sold on Ko-Fi.
• Functional Magic: Magic is produced from conflict - the winner of a fight gathers a small amount of magic from wherever it comes from; they can use it or trade it to the weavers. Magic is in some way alive, and its source is unknown. There is a greater "True Magic" that the dragons know; they consider weaver magic a "beginner's magic", and say that the magic in the world right now feels "cruel".
• Gasp!: When Charlie contradicts the king in front of the entire court, everybody gasps. When she refuses to fight back in a duel, they all do it again.
• Generation Xerox: Boopsie, John, and Chloé went on a quest together to find the source of magic, and failed. Now Boopsie's daughter, John and Chloé's daughter, and Prince Leopold are being sent on the same quest. The gender mix is the same, but John and Chloé's daughter seems to be taking on the role that Boopsie did in the earlier trio (the smart one).
• Giant Eye of Doom: When Robin decides she's done with Leopold and wants to go home, she blows a hole in the wall and calls for Babs. Babs (a dragon) appears as a giant eyeball peering in through the hole.
• Gilded Cage: Subverted. Robin's "prison" is extremely nice, but she can actually leave if she wants.
• Girl in the Tower: Princess Robin. Played with: she could leave at any time she wanted to, but being there is part of the betrothal contract with Prince Leopold, who needs to prove that he can rescue her; it's explicitly referred to as a "starter quest". It's traditional for young royals to be given quests to prove themselves.
• Glomp: Robin likes doing this to Charlie. It seems to be innocent on her end, but Charlie has a crush on her...
• Go to the Euphemism: The Weaver that Boopsie and John have tied to a tree says he has to use "the little Weaver's room".
• Heartfelt Apology: Leo apologizes to Robin over what he's done, commenting while he does so that she doesn't owe him an apology for thinking he was a jerk because she was right.

  Leopold: I insulted you, your mother, your entire kingdom. I put everyone who lives in both BearWoods and DeepSea at risk. But worst of all, this all started because I treated you like you didn't exist, because...because you weren't convenient. I am such a jerk!

• Helpless with Laughter: When Charlie finds out that the Witch-Queen is called "Boopsie", she rushes out of the room so she can double over laughing.
• It Was with You All Along: The ultimate resolution of Patricia Finds Her Magic is that the magic was inside her all along.
• Kiss Diss: Leopold tries to kiss Robin's hand as part of them declaring a truce, but she is having none of it. She demands they clasp arms "like normal people" on the grounds that they're going to be traveling together and need to deal with each other at a less formal level.
• The Lady's Favor: Inverted. Leopold leaves the cloth he used to heal Charlie's wound with her. When she offers to return it, he asks what her books on courtly manners say about such small tokens.
• Lessons in Sophistication: Charlie is self-taught, from Dutchess Haberdash's Rules for Courtly Conduct, Sixth Edition. The Witch-Queen recognizes her training immediately, subtly emphasizing that 'Dutchess' is misspelled and implying that the book is written by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.
• Love at First Sight:
  • Charlie falls for Robin as soon as she crashes through the door of Robin's tower and lands at her feet.
  • Leopold falls for Charlie as soon as she stands firm while he draws first blood; when he goes to heal her afterwards, he's clearly smitten.
• Love Triangle: Leopold is in love with Charlie. Charlie is in love with Robin. Robin seems interested in both of them.

  Robin: (to Charlie) I want to get to know you better! And Leopold's a doofus, but you're right, he is nice. And he's really cute!

• Magic Music: After reading a children's book about non-Weaver magic, Leopold plays a song on a guitar-like instrument that makes him float in mid-air.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Inverted. Leopold promised to be the best big brother ever to his younger sister after their mother died in childbirth.
• Meet Cute: Charlie bursts through the door of the tower and falls at Robin's feet.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Charlie lives this trope.
  • She arrives at the royal court, offends the King, and causes Prince Leopold to develop a crush on her. Every attempt of hers to deal with him makes matters worse.
  • Leopold is betrothed to Robin, but doesn't seem to be preparing to rescue her. So, Charlie decides to go let Robin know that he isn't coming, causing Robin to decide Leopold is a jerk.
• Nightmare Hands: Creepy hands reach out from the walls on the tower staircase, attempting to grab Charlie and Peony.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Exactly what happened to cause Charlie to swear not to fight. She did something with Weaver magic as a child, and another child got hurt, but Charlie refuses to give details.
  • Exactly how Charlie's hair ended up blue. She won a staring contest, and the weaver offered to fix it, but exactly what happened between those isn't known.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Robin's reaction to seeing a young man in a birdcage above the dinner table is, "Oh, Mom, not again," implying that this is something her mother has done before, possibly multiple times.
• Pass the Popcorn: After the first night in the Witch-Queen's castle Leopold and John are arguing. Robin and Peony are watching and eating popcorn.

  Charlie: Who's winning?
  Peony: Us.

• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Robin has pink hair and was first seen wearing a pink skirt. Leopold is almost always seen in a blue uniform. Played with; blue also appears to be Charlie's color, and Charlie is a tomboy with a masculine nickname who has a crush on Robin.
• Portal Cut: Discussed. After John passes out coming through the portal, Boopsie asks Charlie to help pull him all the way through so that he doesn't leave his foot behind in BearWoods.
• Power Incontinence: When Charlie first tries magic out of Boopsie's children's book, she can't make it stop; she starts glowing and it keeps getting brighter until Robin manages to calm her down. This apparently isn't the first time it's happened.
• The Purge: When the Witch-Queen took over DeepSea kingdom, the previous ruling family was so unpopular the commoners took it upon themselves to "do some serious cleaning."
• The Quest:
  • It's traditional for young royals to prove themselves with a quest. Leopold was supposed to rescue Robin from the tower, although it turns out that Charlie did it instead.
  • The Witch-Queen sends Robin, Charlie, and Leopold on a quest to find the source of magic. She had previously attempted this quest with John and Chloé (Charlie's birth parents) and failed.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Charlie goes on the quest to talk to Robin because she doesn't want her to be forced to stay there forever after Leopold decides he likes Charlie better.
• Shipper on Deck: One of the servants tells Charlie that she's been a good influence on Leopold, and that she'll make a good queen. Charlie's reaction in the moment isn't seen, but her reaction when she gets to that point of telling her story to Robin is to suddenly change the subject.
• Signature Style: In-universe. The architect for the tower that Robin is being held in always includes a secret utility door for easy access.
• Speech-Bubbles Interruption:
  • When Peony startles Charlie while she's climbing under the rope bridge, Charlie curses her out, but the text bubble is conveniently covered by the boards of the bridge.
  • When Charlie hits a point in the story of her dealing with Leopold that she doesn't want to tell Robin, she suddenly starts talking about how tired she is, with that speech bubble covering the one where a servant is talking about how good a queen Charlie will be for Leopold.
• Suddenly Shouting: Charlie bursts out shouting when Peony tells her about Leopold's plans to rescue her and carry her back on white steeds to be his queen, interrupting Robin's conversation with her mother.
• Sworn Brothers: The King's Blade is a title that the King can only give once, to the knight who is fiercest in battle. The knight takes the King's last name and becomes his brother in all but blood.
• There Is Only One Bed: When Robin and Charlie camp for the night, there's only one bedroll. Robin happily snuggles up to Charlie, who is unable to sleep due to her crush on Robin.
• Thinking Up Portals: Boopsie and John are talking through a magic portal when Charlie walks in on them. John then travels through the portal so he can yell at Charlie in person, but passes out because he didn't wait long enough for the mind-cushioning spells to take full effect.
• Toilet Humour: Implied. Robin appears to be lactose-intolerant and points out to Leo that there are no privies on a road trip.

  Robin: There will be nothing 'beneath my station' once you learn what dairy does to me.

• The Unintelligible: John, after he rushes through the portal without waiting for the mind-cushioning spells. Boopsie can sort of understand him, it seems.

  John: Aaahpleb cabba-cabba. Meb heb badda-poop snrrrrrph! Bamble fambedeh!
  Boopsie: Love, pieces of your language skills are still eighty kilometers northwest.
  John: Blorp.

• Unlimited Wardrobe: Robin's tower has a magic closet that can make whatever outfit she wants; she uses it to let Charlie pick a new outfit. She seems to have something similar at home in DeepSea Kingdom, which Charlie uses to make trousers.
• Unwanted Assistance: Leopold tries to make himself useful by, for example, washing the dishes...and breaking most of them in the process.
• Victory by First Blood: Leopold barely nicks Charlie's chin and the collar of her blouse. This shows both her will - she didn't even flinch - and his skill.

  Charlie: My King, Your son is gifted with the blade. He has barely scratched me. But may I have your leave to attend to my wound? I don't wish to stain the floor of your beautiful court.

• Wham Line: "Mom saves books written before the Burning."
• What Were You Thinking?: Charlie asks herself this ("What was I thinking?!") after she realizes how badly things have gone awry due to her "rescuing" Robin.
• Would Hit a Girl: Justified and downplayed. Leopold gave Charlie a tiny cut on the chin to satisfy first blood, and to make sure she didn't have to fight someone who might seriously hurt her.
• Written by the Winners: The Weavers say that before they took over, it was war, all the time. People would attack each other to trap whatever magic they could. And since they burned every book they could find about any other kind of magic, who is to say they're wrong?

  Charlie: I've read that before the Weavers came, we were always at war to lure magic to us, so they created a magic system that encouraged peace.
  Boopsie: And doesn't that sound like a history the Weavers would write?

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