The Chosen One Cliche

I'm anti-chosen one. I prefer my characters to create their own destinies and lives--which might be a more valuable lesson for a children's book anyways

I think a thing you want to be aware of is how much your main character takes an active role in their destiny. If things just happen because prophecy says they have to happen or it isn't made to feel like your character has earned their destiny, that's the kind of thing that turns people off Chosen One stories. To bring Harry Potter back into it; it was made clear that Harry could chose to walk away from the fight and the prophesy (and given what the book had just put him through at that point you'd understand if he wanted to). But he'd seen enough of the evils Voldimort perpetrated that there's no way his conscience would have let him. In the end he also takes it on himself to make a huge sacrifice without knowing if he'll make it out alive on the other side.

To try to put it succinctly, don't make them the hero because they're the Chosen One, make them earn the mantle of Chosen One because they are a hero.

I struggle a bit with this trope myself. Most of my characters are Chosen Ones in a sense. It's kind of difficult to explain. They're all important in the grand scheme of things, but they can ignore the paths they should follow. The world will just suffer greatly if they do. They're usually not very happy about what they have to do, but they know they have to do it.

I'll add one more thing. Whenever you're dealing with any kind of prophecy, it becomes much more interesting if you change the word "will" to "can."

The hero will defeat the dark lord. *yawn*

The hero can defeat the dark lord. (a bit more interesting)

Only the hero can defeat the dark lord. (much more interesting)

The hero may rise to defeat the dark lord or end up serving the dark lord instead. (getting better)

You can keep going. Any time prophecies show up, you should work on complicating them. A simple prophecy is a boring prophecy. The more complex you make your prophecy, the more doubt that gives the reader, and the more likely it is the reader will read on.

I never liked the 'Chosen One' trope. My agnostic/atheist background might even have something to do with it, but it could just be my literary sensibilities and preferences.

That is why in my novel, my main character is the exact opposite:

- He's in the story because the government transfers him to the right unit at the wrong time to help the new marine branch of the military establish itself (He's in the reserves of the army).

- His squadmates/friends/peers did a good chunk of the work, the only notable thing is that he's a valuable member of his squad, and did his fair share (maybe at most a little more).

- He 'stopped' the cosmic deity not because he won, but only because she decided to stop, but not after taking a good chunk of his soul away (not literally). He's just a victim, one of many. His only distinction is that he was personally victimised by the cosmic deity. EDIT: Okay, this is not quite fair to him. He did nudge her into deciding to stop, but in the prose, it's purposely not clear if he caused her to make that decision. What is clear though is that he couldn't physically fight a deity to put an end to the local apocalypse, and he had to resort to his, urm, limited masculine wiles and cunning to do it. Needless to say, he was burnt hard for that too.

- He barely survived the ordeal but he made it out because of pure luck. A bullet grazed him in the shoulder instead of punching through his heart. A bullet went through a friend (who died) to put a dent in his helmet, rather than killing him instantly. The same helmet cushioned the blow to his head (his poor noggins'!) when he rolled down a slope after a misstep.

Basically, it's real life plus a Lovecraftian nightmare. I tried to make it so you wouldn't want to be the main character, but reading about him is fun and sometimes in weird ways. It is weird fiction, after all.

"The Chosen One" concept is a staple of fairy tales and fantasy as a backlash against social immobility. In that era, a common lowly peasant could never hope to rise to the level of royalty or nobility. However, being a "chosen one" bypasses all the social norms and catapults the character to the top of the heap from the lowest beginnings. Psychologically, it appeals to all of us as "we" could each be a chosen one destined to achieve greatness with little or no work to do so. Who or where we are at the current moment is irrelevant, as destiny is coming tomorrow to pluck us away.

I would find it far more interesting to make a whole host of potential "chosen ones" vying for the top rung, but force your character to be the one to get their simply because they believed in the prophecy and worked harder than everyone else to make it come true for themselves.

AKA The NFL... every player drafted to play is a "chosen one" compared to the millions of people who only dream of playing in the NFL, sometimes getting there because of being born with the right physical DNA, but only a select few put in the work and sustained effort for many years to join the Hall of Fame.

Everyone wants to be the Chosen One. At least I do. For that reason alone, I like the trope. It works for me because I can already relate to the MC due to the fact that I want to be in their shoes. It also doesn't have to be some sort of cosmic powers type of a chosen one. It can be just some normal dude that was appointed to save the world or the princess or the kingdom. Whatevs. My main MC in my novel is called the Promised One, or Edaeo, in the language of their god. Their is a prophecy, but its not so cut and dry. All the prophecy says is that, "hey, a big bady is coming to set the world on fire, but have hope in Edaeo despite all the evil and death." The prophecy does not state if the hero will triumph, or if he will fall. It just says to have hope. I think in my trilogy, I am going to use this as a plot device. Like two groups of thought begin to develop as the world falls to chaos. Those that think Edaeo will defeat the evil, and those that think they should only have hope in him because then if they die, they will be sent to their god (these people will think the end of the world is like a test from their god). It could create some interesting conflict.

#givingmyselfideas

tylermarab1987 said:

I wrote a middle grade fantasy novel four years ago. The main character finds out he's half-elf half-human (a halfling). According to prophecy a halfling will become king of the land. Is this too cliche? If so how can I put a twist on it? Will my entire story be rejected by agents and editors because of the "chosen one" cliche?

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hi sorry my first impression when reading is tired,
1 - make a story outline
2 - go and study mythology and get some hooks that are appealing
3 - do a visual search of images that excite you about what you have written and incorporate that into your story
4 - their are only about 14 stories so its not about every story being clichéd, its about how you grab the audience
5 - its how you write that matters

Piers Anthony's Blue Adept series has a magical Oracle which delivers a single prophecy to each individual who asks, only once per life. In one of his novels the prophecies are magically obscured by an outside source, leading to lots of tension. For example, his MC is attacked by a group who were told "let MC pass, half your number will die". The truth was "let MC pass, half your number will die; stop him, ALL your number will die." In another example, in the movie Conan the Destroyer the FMC is told she's the only one who can recover the magical artifact. What she's not told is that she will then be sacrificed upon its return.

The point being just because a prophecy proclaims a MC to be the chosen one, the truth may be quite different if the facts are obscured, either lost in time or hidden for nefarious purposes.

One reason the "Chosen one" is a popular theme, is because people like prophecies. They're a fun literary device. Essentially, they're a riddle, often with unsuspected consequences as nossmf points out*. And if you're doing a "fetch quest" type story, a prophecy explains nicely why you have to find the exact stable boy, take him to the exact ruined temple to find the exact Shard of Power to bring down the Big Bad. Otherwise, you'd wonder why the Grizzled Mentor is bothering.

*The classic case being in Return of the King. I first read it in the 70s. People who find themselves up to the eyeballs nowadays in feisty princesses with unexpected martial arts prowess have no idea the impact then of the words "But I am no man!" I remember my jaw actually dropping.

Twick said:

One reason the "Chosen one" is a popular theme, is because people like prophecies. They're a fun literary device. Essentially, they're a riddle, often with unsuspected consequences as nossmf points out*. And if you're doing a "fetch quest" type story, a prophecy explains nicely why you have to find the exact stable boy, take him to the exact ruined temple to find the exact Shard of Power to bring down the Big Bad. Otherwise, you'd wonder why the Grizzled Mentor is bothering.

*The classic case being in Return of the King. I first read it in the 70s. People who find themselves up to the eyeballs nowadays in feisty princesses with unexpected martial arts prowess have no idea the impact then of the words "But I am no man!" I remember my jaw actually dropping.

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I also loved this line, but what I never really understood is, was it an actual power that the Witch King had that prevented males from being able to kill him? Or was it just because some prophecy said that no man would ever be able to kill him? While a clever literary device, I really don't see why a woman could kill him when a man couldn't.
***No being with male genitalia can slay me...***
***Eowyn shifts uneasily. "But I have no male genitalia??? Now die!"*** haha

tylermarab1987 said:

He actually is half-elf, half-human. His mother was a drow; his father was human. His mother was murdered during the purge because she had slept with a human, and his father died in combat fighting the elven king. The MC knows nothing of his parents. He was adopted by two lesbians in the Outer Realm.

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Would actually calling him a drow possibly be impinging on the D&D universe and Salvatore's licensed work set in the same? Even if the word isn't trademarked, using it might give the story a fan fiction vibe.

Jinnambex, the stricture isn't against the male gender, but rather against human males. The Witch King began life as a human man who became corrupted by the magic of the ring of power given to him by Sauron through an agent. Remember the line, "7 rings for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone, 3 for the elf kings, 9 for the race of man, and one ring to rule them all."

Incidentally, in that same battle when Eowyn slew him, he was hindered by Pippin, a male hobbit, who stabbed him in the back of the knee and hurt/distracted him long enough to allow Eowyn to deliver the killing stroke. Pippin wasn't a human male, so also avoided the stricture against men.

nossmf said:

Jinnambex, the stricture isn't against the male gender, but rather against human males. The Witch King began life as a human man who became corrupted by the magic of the ring of power given to him by Sauron through an agent. Remember the line, "7 rings for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone, 3 for the elf kings, 9 for the race of man, and one ring to rule them all."

Incidentally, in that same battle when Eowyn slew him, he was hindered by Pippin, a male hobbit, who stabbed him in the back of the knee and hurt/distracted him long enough to allow Eowyn to deliver the killing stroke. Pippin wasn't a human male, so also avoided the stricture against men.

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I understand that. I guess what I am asking is WHY couldn't human men kill him? Saying that he used to be a king of men doesn't explain why human men cannot kill him.

Jinnambex said:

I understand that. I guess what I am asking is WHY couldn't human men kill him? Saying that he used to be a king of men doesn't explain why human men cannot kill him.

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https://www.quora.com/How-did-Merry-and-%C3%89owyn-kill-the-Witch-King-of-Angmar-if-the-Nazg%C3%BBl-live-and-die-by-their-masters-power

nevermind... I found it here. Cool article by the way in case anyone is interested.

Jinnambex said:

I also loved this line, but what I never really understood is, was it an actual power that the Witch King had that prevented males from being able to kill him? Or was it just because some prophecy said that no man would ever be able to kill him? While a clever literary device, I really don't see why a woman could kill him when a man couldn't.

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Glorfindel's Prophecy was "not by the hand of man will he fall." Not "not by the hand of man can he fall." So the Witch-King could certainly be killed (or at least disembodied) by a man - it's just he wasn't going to be.

Note also that there is some delightful ambiguity going on here. Eowyn is a Man (human) but not man (female), whereas Merry is not a Man (hobbit) but a man (male).

This is also Tolkien taking a potshot at Shakespeare's handling of the prophecies in Macbeth - he thought the caeserian section thing was a cop-out, as was the forest not moving.

When things are heating up, throw a spanner in the works: hero - now fully committed and with hope of victory - finds out that he's NOT a halfling.

A fun twisting of the Trope might be having the MC promote himself as the "Chosen One", rather than it be a prophecy. Or have the person ~telling~ the MC that s/he is the Chosen One convince everyone that's the case but it's actually just propoganda by the person doing the telling, simply to get the job done (i.e., killing the evil overload, putting down a revolt, etc.).

I just realized this discussion needed a mention of "The Life of Brian" by Monty Python, where a normal guy is believed by the masses to be the Messiah when he's really just an average Joe. The more he tries to deny his involvement, the more everybody else believes.

Or "Don Quixote" where a normal Joe truly believes himself to be a hero, so he sets out to act in heroic ways (at least, he tries to do so).

This idea of false-chosen-one gives all sorts of story possibilities. Somebody is presented as the chosen one as a decoy to draw attention from the real chosen one, giving time to save the world; in a world of oppressed commoners, the evil leaders select a person at random to be made example of as a fake "chosen one" to keep the others in line, only to inadvertently drive the populace to revolt; etc.

It could depend (only "could") on how closely you follow the cliche. If you write a standard "chosen one" story, then a large proportion of your readers will be turned off because they've heard it all before. Another large proportion will be turned on because they like "chosen one" stories.

I liken it to burgers. No, really. If you're feeling hungry, sometimes you just want a big mac. You know it will be virtually identical to the last big mac that you had, but that doesn't matter. It's comfort food and part of the comfort is the familiarity.

Then again sometimes you get bored of same-old same-old and you want something different. How about a Hawaiian burger? Insert film quotes to taste here and wash down with some sprite.

A straight-down-the-line big mac chosen one would be something like this - an ancient prophecy (probably described in a not entirely necessary prologue), a farm boy who dreams of having adventures, a damsel in distress, a nasty villain, a magical doohickey (ring, sword, glayve, whatever), the farm boy does something heroic, wizened and grey-bearded exposition character informs him that he is the chosen one, more heroics, he gets the girl. Or boy. Nasty villain gets his comeuppance. And they all live happily ever after.

A Big Kahuna burger would put a twist in there somewhere. You almost certainly wouldn't call your hero/ heroine "the chosen one". George Lucas probably has a copyright on that phrase. Maybe you don't have a neatly laid out prophecy - perhaps your story is set in a time when more emphasis is placed on everyone having a destiny? You might switch around the roles. Why can't the damsel rescue the prince for a change? Do we have to have a greybeard exposition character? Does the villain have to be cartoony boo-hiss bad? Perhaps you don't need the magical sword or (yawn) ring?

It's still a burger. It's just not a plain old burger.

Once! said:

Perhaps you don't need the magical sword or (yawn) ring?

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*gasp* Sacrilege!

Hey, enjoyed the discussion enough to add my two-cents. I think the telling of the tale is more important than whether someone else wrote about the same subject. You can have a "chosen" one, but the core of your fantasy centers on the world you create and the problems your characters solve.

I say this with over 500,000 words of unedited manuscript in my computer about conflicts between half-elves and humans. Did sell one novella [long short story] which reviewers thought was different.

Just thought of something - what if the "Chosen One" prophecy was only set up to steer people's attention (including the villain's) away from the people who will actually kill said villain? How would the "Chosen One" react to being used?

dirtsider said:

Just thought of something - what if the "Chosen One" prophecy was only set up to steer people's attention (including the villain's) away from the people who will actually kill said villain? How would the "Chosen One" react to being used?

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Ooh, I'd love to read that with the decoy Chosen One as the MC. Especially if they end up saving the day anyway- not because the (fake) prophecy said so, but because they decided to go on after finding out about it out of their own volition.