Webcomic / SideQuested

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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 the main site, https://sidequested.com/👁 Image
, and also on Tapas👁 Image
, and updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Print books will be published by Andrews McMeel in 2026.

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.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Nose: Leo boops Rosie's nose through the portal to reassure her that he'll still be there for her even while he's on his quest.
• Agony of the Feet: When Leopold is startled and stops playing music, causing him to stop floating, he lands on Charlie's foot.
• Almost Kiss: Robin is leaning in close to kiss Charlie when Leo bursts in with Charlie's dessert.
• 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.
• Blunt "No": Leopold's response to Boopsie telling him to call her Boopsie.
  Leopold: Queen Bernadette Red Rose of Thorns Glassclaw—
  Boopsie: Boopsie.
  Leopold: No.
• 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. Most of the kingdoms we've heard of at this point use it: BearWoods, DeepSea, RiverFall, and HardShell, 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 and the map 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.
• Family of Choice: Peony says she doesn't have any family due to her time working for an immortal god. Charlie gives her a hug and says that she does, indeed, have family.
• Fantasy World Map: A map of the region is shown on page 271👁 Image
  . It avoids most of the common tropes - it's not a Left-Justified Fantasy Map, and it clearly does not show the entire world; it is centered on the island/continent that BearWoods, HardShell, RiverFall, and Aurora are on, and also shows the lands surrounding it, including DeepSea.
• 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.
• Flipping the Table: Robin gets mad enough that she flips the table that she and Charlie are sitting at right through a stone wall.
• 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!
  • Leopold gets one later, from his father, through another portal...and, just like John had, Leopold's father tries to climb through the portal.
• 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", Babs comments 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 throws a table through the wall and calls for Babs. Babs (a dragon) appears as a giant eyeball peering in through the hole.

  Charlie: Peony... I found an eyeball... for you...

• 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...
• God Turned Mortal: Chloé de Montagud turns out to be the former God of Fate. She gave up being divine to live in the mortal world.
• 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".
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In chapter 3, when Robin asks Chloe and John to train her in combat and Chloe tells Robin to choose a weapon from a nearby rack, Robin chooses a park bench with one of Chloe's (huge) retainers resting on it. Said retainer is rather startled by suddenly being lifted into the air.
• 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 nicknamed "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.
  • Subverted when Boopsie gives the book to Charlie the next morning. Charlie says she'll treasure it as a reminder that the magic was inside her all along, only for Boopsie to annoyedly explains that she has enchanted it to be Charlie's new spellbook instead.
• 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.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Leopold is describing things that Chloé taught him, including (presumably) how to pluck a dead bird, but he swaps the last word when Peony gives him a Death Glare.
  Leopold: She taught me the spear, and how to hunt wild chimera, and how to pluck a dead... (Peony glares at him) ...lute. How to pluck a lute.
• 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 magical mandolin that makes him float in mid-air.
• The Maker: Proteus is the God of Creation. His power can be used to perform magic spells, such as Boopsie's wish for Robin to be very strong. But such enchantments apparently don't last, because the only consistent aspect of Proteus' magic is that it is always changing. For example, Chloe has said she expected Robin to "grow out of" the strength enchantment Boopsie wished for her.
• Meet Cute: Charlie bursts through the door of the tower and falls at Robin's feet.
• Moment Killer:
  • Leo bursts into the room with Charlie's dessert just at the right time to keep Robin from kissing Charlie.
  • As Charlie and Robin begin to discuss what happened earlier, Boopsie sends Leopold in with them, saying, "Time for the grown-ups to talk."
• 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 declare she will not marry Leopold because he is a jerk.
  • She gets separated from Robin and Leopold in RiverFall, and decides to start asking a Weaver about magic without realizing what she's getting into. When her mother arrives, she thinks Charlie is being threatened by the Weaver and splits the table in two with a very large axe; this appears to have broken some truce between the Weavers and Chloé's family, and the party is told to get out of RiverFall so that tempers can cool down.
• 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.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons are extra-dimensional travelers from another plane of existence who come to this world for various personal reasons. For example, Babs came because this world is, or rather could be, a nice peaceful place to raise her child. Dragons also have a non-linear view of time. Babs has said she owes Boopsie a debt she can never repay, but it's for something that hasn't actually happened yet.
• Our Humans Are Different: Everybody seems to have access to magical power, though the extent to which everyone can actually use it has not been made clear. It's been noted that some people (Charlie in particular) are "born mages", implying that other people aren't. So there does appear to be some kind of hierarchy of power and/or skill. All that being said, everyone can at least manifest magical power by engaging in combat, and the Weavers can then take the manifested power and make use of it.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Played with: Charlie's just fine with her parents having sex, and thinks it's cute that they're still in love. Leopold, however, considers them his aunt and uncle, and he knows them much better than Charlie does at this point. Leopold is completely squicked by the idea, turning bright red and saying, "ew ew ew".
• 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 due to them sidetracked by life.
• Right Behind Me: Charlie is trying to avoid discussing her interest in shirtless Leo, who is (unbeknownst to her) right behind her getting a drink.
  Boopsie: Would you like to learn a spell to tell if a half naked boy is standing right behind you?
  Charlie: H-how easy is this spell?
  Boopsie: Extremely!
• 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.
• Shirtless Scene: In preparation to spar, Leo takes off his shirt, revealing a cut six-pack. Robin and Charlie hang back to watch.
• 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.
• Three-Point Landing: When the group arrives in RiverFall, John leaps down from Babs's back and makes a three-point landing in the courtyard.
• 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, probably because she just knows him so well she knows exactly what he's saying.
  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.
• Wall of Weapons: The walls of Chloé's sitting room are covered with axes, spears, bows, swords, daggers, and more weapons, covering everything except the windows, doors, and one bookcase, which holds books...and another dagger.
• 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?
  • After the war between BearWoods and HardShell, the histories in BearWoods say that HardShell surrendered because they knew they would inevitably lose. In actuality, no one knows why they surrendered - they were winning. John explicitly says "We were writing the history we wanted."