Obsessing over a sudden insight about Schmendrick and his genre savviness about fairy tales.
Per canon, in within The Last Unicorn lore and universe Schmendrick is the one who seems to possess the deepest awareness of being in a fairy tale (if one of its kind) and who is confirmed to know himself a lot of stories and fairy tales (The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon, if you haven’t read it I encourage you to do so, but be warned it is a tear jerker and deals with very uncomfortable and sensitive themes).
From The Green-Eyed Boy the reader learns Schmendrick is the youngest of three brothers and is considered by is family the lesser capable and the less smart, to the point of being given the cruel nickname he is known by everyone... He literally is one of the most widespread archetypal character of fairy tales, the youngest sibling (very often the third child) everyone mocks and scorns but who tends up living happily ever after once the hardships have been won.
So Schmendrick, knowledgeable as he is about fairy tales, might be aware of this and, at least at a youngest age, during his apprenticeship, and soon after that, might probably be holding on to the hope he will turn out victorious in the end, dearly believing everything will turn out fine for him in the end, as they should, as they always do after the protagonist has passed every test thanks to their skills and smarts... Of course, it does not work as he expected, and this frustrates and hinders him even further, delaying the "happy ever after" he is struggling so much to reach.
