Basic Trope: A character, usually a man, spends an insane amount of time (and sometimes money) seeking sex.
- Straight: Bob attends speed-dating events to meet women, in the hope of getting laid. After six months, he falls in love with Alice, and after another three weeks, they have sex.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob dates women for fifteen years just to have sex once. As far as he's concerned, the sex was worth the quest.
- Several characters each go on their own Quest for Sex, possibly as part of a Pair the Spares plot.
- Bob has sex with a different woman every night and still isn't satisfied.
- Downplayed: Sex is only part of Bob's motivation.
- Justified:
- Bob believes in Sex as Rite-of-Passage.
- Bob simply wants to have sex.
- Inverted: Bob's goal in life is to avoid women and sex.
- Subverted:
- Bob dates women for food rather than sex.
- Bob, believing All Men Are Perverts, lies to his (male) friends about craving sex when in reality, he has some seriously mushy romantic feelings towards Alice.
- Double Subverted:
- But after Alice has sex with Bob, he decides he also likes sex.
- Bob also wants to have sex with her.
- Parodied:
- Bob treats his Sex Quest like his sacred oath.
- Bob does some downright bizarre things to get sex, like performing a convoluted occult ritual that requires the planets to be aligned. He learned about it on the internet, so it must be true!
- Zig Zagged: Bob's motivations for dating women fight among themselves. He initially dates Alice for food, but realized he wanted to have sex with her after the breakup. But when he begins dating Catherine, suddenly he doesn't care about sex again. Then on the third date, he wants to have some hot, steamy... free sauna visits with her. (They don't have sex in the sauna.)
- Averted:
- Bob has no particular desire for sex.
- Bob is in a relationship and has a normal amount of sex.
- Enforced:
- "We want to show The Hero as a typical man. Let's make it so the one thing he wants in this world is sex!"
- "We need a more relatable lead for our erotic novel. Why not a hormonal guy with an unlucky sex life?"
- Lampshaded: "Why are you so desperate for sex, Bob?" "I'm a Man; I Can't Help It!"
- Invoked: Bob decides he wants sex, and will stop at nothing to get laid.
- Exploited: Alice knows about Bob's goals, and being desperate for sex herself, she asks him out.
- Defied: Bob gives up on his quest.
- Discussed: "No, I don't want to have sex with you! Do I look like I'm on some sort of Quest for Sex?"
- Conversed: "Why is Bob going to such lengths just to have sex once?"
- Implied: Bob is shown desperately dating women.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob impregnates Alice, and she makes him keep the baby.
- Bob finally has sex with Alice but because he idolized and hyped up the idea of sex so much, the actual act (including all the things porn got wrong) feels awkward and unfulfilling.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob is sterile.
- Alice has a Convenient Miscarriage.
- Alice gives birth to a live baby, but keeps it.
- Bob doesn't mind having a child to raise.
- Bob gives the baby up for adoption. If Alice visits him later and asks, "What happened to my baby?", Bob makes up a lie, either that he was deemed an unfit parent or the baby died of natural causes.
- Bob comes to terms with how sex works in the real world and even if it's not impossibly good like it is in porn, he gains a new-found appreciation for it. His sex life improves significantly after more practice and understanding of what Alice likes.
- Played For Laughs: The work is a Sex Comedy.
- Played For Drama:
- In the end, Bob resorts to adultery.
- Bob rapes a woman who rejected him.
- Bob gives Alice hepatitis and kills her.
- Bob is Driven to Suicide by constant rejection.
Go back to your Quest for Sex. The right person for you must be out there somewhere.
