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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deltora-quest-episode-anime_5567.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:300:''Three steps, fight an honest fight\
3Two hearts, they can start a fire\
4One love is all I need in this life!'']]
5
6''Deltora Quest'' is a [[HighFantasy fantasy]] series that also has as a mix of [[GenreBusting mystery, interactivity, horror, romance, action and adventure]]. The anime is an [[TheShowOfTheBooks adaptation]] of the [[Literature/DeltoraQuest novels]] written by [[AustralianLiterature Australian author]] Creator/EmilyRodda. Like the books, it is quite {{Troperiffic}}.
7
8The series has aired around the world, on Creator/TheHub in the US, on Creator/{{ABC3}} in Australia, on Creator/ToonamiAsia in Asian territories, as well as on TV in Italy, Pakistan, Turkey and New Zealand among other countries.
9----
10!!The anime exhibits the following tropes:
11%%* ActionGirl: Take a ''[[{{Pun}} wild]]'' guess [[spoiler:([[DontExplainTheJoke It's Jasmine]].)]]
12* AdaptationDyeJob: Jasmine having green hair in the anime (she has black hair in the books), while Lief turned blond in ''all'' the adaptations and Barda is rocking a sweet black beard.
13* AlasPoorVillain:
14** The fate of [[spoiler:Thaegan and her children]] in the anime; in the books, it's usually more a case of AndIMustScream when a villain becomes sympathetic.
15** Despite the fact that he is both cold and cruel, the anime-only character Sorcerer Oacus's death is surprisingly emotional, even if his last words are to curse the heroes. It seems he may have been as much a victim of the Shadow Lord's machinations (if not more so) as everybody else.
16** [[spoiler: Dain pretends to be this to get jump on Lief, even after he's proven he is a evil lying monster- twice]].
17* AnimatedAdaptation: Of the novels.
18* AnimeThemeSong: Only in the original version. The dub (predictably) uses an original instrumental theme with scenes from the original opening. Furthermore, the ending has been replaced completely.
19* AscendedExtra: Neridah, Thaegan, Fallow, Dain and the Enigmatic... Bird.
20* AvengersAssemble: All seven tribes are united again even the ones that are near extinct like Glock or were precious hostile like the Dread Gnomes.
21* BagOfKidnapping: In episode 24 the Grey Guards kidnap Prin the Kin with this method, planning to eat her later, but Lief Barda and Jasmine get bagged after the Rithmere games.
22%%* BloodKnight: Glock (and his entire race) Doom, Barda and every Vaarl.
23%%** and Jasmine and Lief to lesser extent
24* CanonForeigner: The sorcerer Oacus.
25%%* CaptainObvious:
26%%** Jasmine,
27%%** Barda in the dub of the anime.
28* AChildShallLeadThem: Well, the heir takes the throne at about seventeen years of age.
29%%* CrossingTheDesert: The Shifting Sands, nuff said.
30* CrapsackWorld:
31** Deltora. "It's like Deltora is [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou the fictional equivalent of Australia or something]]".
32** Made even worse by several years of [[BigBad the Shadow Lord's]] rule, as well as the fact that the [[MacGuffin gems]] are deliberately hidden in the most dangerous parts of the country.
33%%* CrazyPrepared: Doom.
34* DamselInDistress: Jasmine can look after herself for the most part and saves Lief and Barda a few times, but gets captured frequently in the later part of the series. Mostly giving Lief a invective to [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl chase after her]] but that makes her a FauxActionGirl at worst.
35** Neridah literally gets [[BoundAndGagged roped and bound]] in the Valley of the Lost but since she stole the diamond gem from the heroes, they aren't too fussed to save her.
36** To be fair everybody gets captured at least once in the story.
37* DevilInPlainSight: Prandine, the chief adviser to the king, who is tall, pale, high-voiced and a long-fingered black robed creep. But young King Endon would never suspect his trusted adviser would do him in, much to his best friend, Jarred's, frustration. By the time Endon does believe his friend it's too late and the Shadow Lord has scattered the gems.
38** Everyone thinks this of Doom (his name doesn't help), but he's a subversion as he truly is on the right side [[spoiler: and father to Jasmine]].
39** [[spoiler: Dain is pale, has no visible nose and has a backstory that sounds suspiciously made up. Plus when they enter [[ShiningCity Tora]] which dispels those with evil intentions the heroes fail to notice Dain is almost dying, and are actually shocked when he betrays them later.]]
40* DoomedHometown: The anime tried its damnedest to play this straight, ''utterly demolishing'' the palace and much of the surrounding city in the climactic battle. It also gets rebuilt very quickly.
41* EldritchAbomination: The Shadow Lord's appearance in the anime can best be described as "[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon Darkrai]] seen through the eyes of Creator/GuillermoDelToro."
42** ALL of Thaegan's children and a few of the Guardians.
43* FarmBoy: Lief is a black smith's son from the slums of Del.
44* FaceHeelTurn:
45** Neridah acts sweet and innocent to Lief, so she can get the jump on him when they're fighting in the Rithmere games.
46** Everyone suspects Doom to pull this (especially Jasmine), but after he proves to the heroes that he's completely innocent by the city of Tora, he soon becomes a trusted and close ally to our heroes.
47** [[spoiler: Dain, who acts sweet to the trio (especially to Jasmine) and is always hopeful and optimistic, even tricking Lief himself who wrongfully suspects he may be the heir to throne. But as soon as they hand the Belt to him... Dain lets out some [[EvilLaughter cold laughter]] and reveals he's been a DoubleAgent, whom Lief is forced to kill in a surprisingly dark (yet awesome) fight with the Ol]].
48* FillerArc: The anime (which adapted the first series) ran for sixty-five episodes. The books' plot finally ran out at episode ''fifty''-two, and that included enough filler to make Thaegan into a recurring "boss"! Interestingly enough, Anime News Network reported that the Australian broadcast of the anime will consist of ''fifty-five'' episodes (52, plus the first three filler episodes). Meanwhile, only the first fifty-two have been seen in the U.S.. One wonders why they didn't just adapt the other two series.
49* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a minor way in the anime, occasionally during bits of narration the show will cut to a picture of the belt [[spoiler:as it ''should'' be, with the gems in the proper order.]] Pay enough attention and you might work out [[spoiler:the whole use the gems to spell "Deltora" twist before the characters do.]]
50** Also the fact that both Jasmine and Doom both have green hair, tan skin and fight with daggers should tip off the audience exactly the connection they have... [[spoiler: '''They're father and daughter, duh!!!''']].
51* HeelFaceTurn: Glock is a loud, violent jerk, but when they gather the seven tribes and seek his help, Glock lightens up and becomes a [[FireForgedFriends strong and valuable friend]].
52* HostageHandlerHuddle: One episode is about when Barda, Lief and Jasmine are captured by [[EldritchAbomination Thaegan's]] [[EnfantTerrible Children]]. They decide to eat the trio, but (as Lief quickly points out) there are eleven of them and it would be pretty hard to divide three people with that many to feed. Two of the children knock out two others making the present company an nine. Through much talking, Lief manages to convince them that each child could have more food if there were only three of them. The Children quarrel and eventually it's decided that it would only be fair if there were three of them so each child could have one. A huge fight ensues, and when only three are left, they are easily convinced that it would be easier if there was only one of them, so they all fight to see who gets everything while the heroes escape.
53* InterestingSituationDuel: Let's see, a battle atop some stairs, with an enormous drop on either side, a battle while standing on one of the Shadow Lord's Ak-Baba while being divebombed by another (while fighting Fallow), fighting while spelunking in a [[spoiler: giant hive]], not to mention some of Thaegan's duels.
54* LampshadeHanging: During one of their encounters, Jasmine [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall leans on the fourth wall]] when she notes she's grown a bit tired of dueling with Thaegan.
55--> '''Jasmine''': How many times do we have to fight her?
56* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Lief and Jasmine bicker and fight like cats and dogs, failing to notice they have strong feelings for each other. Literally EveryoneCanSeeIt.
57* LiteralCliffhanger: Neridah uses this as a ''fighting style'' or when Lief is fighting Dain and Fallow in the climax.
58* LoveTriangle: Lief, Jasmine and Dain, and Neridah when Dain isn't around. [[spoiler: Thankfully it's put to a end when Dain turns out to be an evil shape shifting spy AKA an Ol, who subsequently melts after a fatal stab wound. Neridah dies later on in the books]].
59%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * MasterSwordsman: Multiple:
60%% ** Barda
61%% ** Lief
62%% ** Doom
63%% ** Endon
64%% ** Glock was a swordsman in the books but is [[BareFistedMonk melee fighter]] in the anime.
65* {{Mooks}}: Grey Guards, who are a legitimate threat in the books but sliced up easily by the heroes in anime (almost to easy-mode degree).
66* OnlySaneMan: Jasmine in the episode involving Francoise and Barda the rest of the time.
67* PlayingWithFire: Oacus mainly uses fire-based spells.
68* PowerCrystal: All the gems, hell when monsters touch them they vaporize.
69* TheQuest: To find the seven gems and put them on the Belt of Deltora and give the Belt to heir to throne, this last part is harder than it needed to be since the heir is closer than you think.
70%%* RebelLeader: Doom, with some TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized throw in.
71* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Kree is a lovable black crow and Fili could pass as a Pokemon.
72* {{Shapeshifting}}: The Ols can be anybody and Grade 3 Ols can be anything and are the top spies if the Shadow lords. The Ols are just non-threatening looking misty blobs with evil eyes, [[spoiler: except Dain who is disturbingly fleshy and muddy-like]].
73%%* RomanticFalseLead:
74%%** Dain for Jasmine.
75%%** Neridah flirts with Lief, as does [[ChestMonster monster in disguise Francoise]].
76* RunningGag: Barda at least has to be hit by the monster, get up dramatically, and beat them after some self-empowerment, Lief and Jasmine regularly argue with each other to disguise the fact they have feelings they can't express.
77* SadisticChoice: In the anime: [[spoiler: Thaegan has captured our heroes and transported them into her Mirror of Fear. Lief fights with his EvilTwin, Barda fights against what he thought was Prandine, and a caged Jasmine is forced to solve a difficult puzzle or she will be dipped into searing hot water for the monsters' stew. Luckily, the Belt's Ruby shows him the way out of the mirror.]]
78* SignificantAnagram:
79** [[spoiler:Deltora is spelled with the first letters of the gems on the Belt of Deltora, arranged in the order King Adin the blacksmith managed to convince the Tribes to give him their Gems.]]
80** [[spoiler: Dain]] deliberately chose his name to trick everyone else into thinking [[spoiler:he's the heir]], since [[spoiler:the name's an anagram of Adin.]] [[spoiler:He]] also claims [[spoiler:his]] mother's name was [[spoiler:Rhans, which is an anagram of Sharn, queen at the time the Shadow Lord took over.]]
81%%* ShiningCity: Tora, at least compared to Del.
82* SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler:Anna]] says this to Jasmine when her spirit is momentarily drawn back by the topaz. Lief makes his father proud [[spoiler: just before he dies]] and Barda see his mom again thanks to Topaz and gives him strength to do some badass beheading.
83* SorcerousOverlord: The Shadow lord fits this better than EvilOverlord alone since he is also a powerful sorcerer and infact derives much of his power from that fact.
84* SparedByTheAdaptation: Neridah [[spoiler:at least until the filler episodes]] many fans wish she had died sooner like in the books.
85* SwappedRoles: [[spoiler:King Endon and Queen Sharn become Jarred and Anna of the Forge. While Jarred and Anna pretend to be Endon and Sharn and go into exile (doesn't end well)]].
86* TournamentArc: Rithmere games, expanded and up-sized from the books.
87* TookALevelinBadass Lief started off as cocky street kid and became monster slaying badass [[spoiler: king]]. Jasmine was a lost little forest girl and ends up battle champion. And Barda in his youth failed to stop the Ak-Baba from taking the castle, but cut to sixteen years later and some Ak-Baba with missing heads.
88* {{Tsundere}} Jasmine to Lief, Doom and Glock to everyone.
89* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Lief, Barda and Jasmine work so well together slaying monsters and grabbing gems, The Shadow Lord hunts down any traveling trio.
90* VillainousCrush:
91** Thaegan has a soft spot for Lief.
92** Neridah is a very downplayed version, she does try to get close to Lief, but it's always to get something from him.
93** [[spoiler:Dain, after he is proven to be evil his previous romantic encounters with Jasmine are suspect]].
94%%* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Gorl comes across as such. Still evil, though.
95%%* WorldOfHam: Hamminess galore.
96%%* XanatosGambit: "I have many plans"/"The Shadow Lord has many plans" - recurring.

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