MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Saving Everrealm: Medieval Reality and Medieval Fiction in The Quest In the Summer of 2014, medieval fantasy met reality television in The Quest, a part-scripted, part-contest show in which a group of contemporary contestants were “transported” into the past to save the fictional world of Everrealm, a medievalist fantasy land whose subjects were being terrorized by Verlox, the Darkness. Each week the contestants, called Paladins, were tasked with helping to drive back the forces of darkness in a scripted narrative which included a real challenge at its center. At the end of each episode, the Paladins would go before the Fates, where three would be pitted against each other in another contest; the winner would be saved, while the rest of the Paladins voted off one of the other two. In the end, the final Paladin standing was named the “One True Hero.”
One major interests of *The Quest *was its treatment of the Middle Ages as both fantasy and reality. Much medievalism is constructed out of this tension and The Quest brought this to the fore as it presented a visually and narratively authentic Middle Ages in which the Paladins, despite a diversity of relationships to medievalist fantasy ranging from gamers to MMA fighters, all quickly adopted what might be called a chivalric mindset and set of values which governed their behavior, decisions, and values throughout the show. Paladins who embodied these values (of valor, bravery, commitment, and honesty) often survived elimination against competitors with more successful showings in the challenges. Consequently, the blurring of reality and fiction showed how much medievalism and reality television are constituted out of this tension. In examining this relationship, it is possible to see both essential elements of the genre and of the enduring fascination with the fantasy Middle Ages.