In the wrong castle

More of a story idea than an actual narrative here for a change. Imagine a traditional fantasy adventure. Trying to rescue the princess or save the kingdom or whatever cliche plot catches your fancy. Now as our magnetic yet jaded by the world protagonist with a hidden hope of a better future (a soft side that they keep secret) is adventuring, they’re gonna encounter signs of our villain’s… villainy. Things that they’ve done beyond just whatever directly caused our protagonist to start their quest that continue to propel our narrative forward.

This is all just cliches so far, nothing very interesting. But imagine if one of the people that it seemed as though was going to join our protagonist (they’re fairly heroic, they have a grudge against a despotic ruler, etc.) ends up not joining, because they’re actually in the middle of another narrative of their own, one that follows all the same structures, all the same problems are being faced. But the bad guy at the end? Yeah they’re not after the same guy, and their sister has also been kidnapped or whatever, so they won’t join our hero.

Or what if they were the first person that our hero encountered, and the protagonist assumed that they must be after the same villain, goes through the entire adventure, and finds that they stormed the wrong castle.

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