Trope Talk: Chosen Ones 

Stormy Weather Which is you

Dammit...Even in commenting I'm just a side character

The Prophecy (guitar riff) has been fulfilled!

Manolis Same here my dude And in real life!

Manolis Be glad, you may get a bigger fandom then the main character!

Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"

Bloody Peasant!

Did you see him? Did you see him repressing me?

"YOU CAN'T JUST GO WAVING SUPREME EXECUTIVE POWER JUST BECAUSE SOME WATERY TART THREW A SWORD AT YOU!"

r/wooooosh Didn't understand the joke

Lmao that's mad! What's the books name?

@@abdulaziz-alharbi5437 Beyonders by Brandon Mull

I actually was wondering a while ago how that could be integrated into a story. It’s cool to see someone else thought of that already

*[MAJOR SPOILERS FOR WINGS OF FIRE BOOKS 1-5 FOR THIS]* *[READ AT YOUR OWN RISK]* Wings of Fire also did this, where the five man band were cobbled together for the sake of fulfilling the prophecy to end the war. EXCEPT one of the chosen ones died in book 1's PROLOGUE so they had to get a "new one." Now we have a team of four chosen ones and one improvised chosen one. Jump forwards to book 2 and there's a "replacement team" for the chosen ones hinted at. Jump to book 4 and as it turned out, the prophecy was actually completely fabricated by one of the tribes and the replacement team was because the original band was too heroic instead of doing what they wanted. This then leads to a subversion in book 5, where the Chosen ones, now just ordinary people, manage to stop the war, since the other tribes still believed in the prophecy.

i just finished a series where the prophecy was altered by the villain to manipulate the heroes into accomplishing his evil plan

The Dementors are to the wizarding world what the IRS is to the Joker

I ship dementors with Umbridge

Harry! This spell is the only way to hold back the government-funded soul-consuming wind socks guarding Azkaban.

@@matthewwong1552 Me too! I wish we had seen them kiss.

@@turnerthekilledgamer6995 heh heh, good one

I wonder how the fire nation kept on finding him.....hmmmmmm

@@ethanmcfarland8240 Yea it's like Aang has a specific set of clothing that nobody alive on the planet wears...

He literally has an arrow on his head.

@@RogueT-Rex8468 Cue that one scene from "The Headband": maybe we all have arrows on our heads

The mascot for the "Chosen One" that everyone knows is Anakin Skywalker though. Avatar is overrated af

The dynamic Jack (Sword of Summer) and Magnus Chase

Lol

@@salomekekelia1508 Singing 70s Rock Albums on dates with Riptide

Love it

I want more shows like that

That just made my day XD

Oooh-hooo... that is both horrible and fabulous at the same time. XD

Best backstory ever.

I will use that backstory soon

I was the 999th like. Come on people!

I think you want a d&d campaign for that. (All jokes aside, I might try writing something like that one day since it seems like an interesting challenge)

Lord of the Rings comes kinda close. Frodo is a self-chosen one, Aragorn is the One True King, and you could argue that Gandalf is a variant of the Incarnation Chosen One.

@@MadSwedishGamer And all Nine Walkers are Literally Chosen Ones, which kinda qualifies for the Chosen Many, too.

That reminds me of a kinda cringy comic a friend and I made when we were younger about a group of 5 ‘chosen ones’ that were to fulfil some prophecy and had superpowers. The main character wasn’t any of the chosen ones but the brother of one of them who despite not having any powers insisted he was also part of the prophecy

The leader: Prophecy chosen one. Lancer: Literally chosen one. The big guy: The one true king. The heart: The chosen incarnation The smart guy: The chosen wielder.

Man, rewatching a lot of these trope talks makes me realize just how great the owl house is. It subverts so many tropes in the best way possible.

Maybe include the next part where she says: “That’s why you need to choose yourself.”

​@@macayleangelina9892 tbf what they did say already implies that. But yeah. It's a powerful scene.

Then they went and made her an actual chosen one by setting up a time loop that creates Belos by Luz going back in time to help him. Meaning Belos as he existed at the start of the show and the way he treats her (not killing her) is a result of her predetermined actions in the past.

Ouch

Dang

Destiny's a bitch, so if you're a villain have your fun while it lasts.

MV: And what if it was all made up?! CO: then I've proven that anyone can stand against you

Oof isn’t the avatar the last air bender or something

Sounds Albino

Do you mean Red?

Fantasy Shadows who else is depicted in cartoons with red eyes and everything else is white

@@chocomuffin7433 albino people

I just realized that you're talking about Red

That is actually a really thought provoking statement. We often think of our actions as having eroding significance with time, but we are also fine with the idea of the butterfly effect. Those two ideas cannot coexist.

@@amirabudubai2279 what have you done to me, I wasn't ready to have to examine my entire goddamn existence wtf

@@amirabudubai2279 wait no, wait,........... The butterfly effect only applies If you know the future and changed something, there for the more time passes the more the current state of reality will deviate

@@connorschultz380 Doesn't mean what will be the future can't be changed now :)

@@thisisasupersayin376 you first must assume, the future exists before you get there

There’s a wonderful WEBTOON about a sassy magic ring that chooses the protagonist cuz it’s bored and hungry for magic, and protagonist-kun is the nearest human available

Because you have a type advantage against this gym leader!

@@saffi_taffi What is it called?

@@JaelinBezel Gym Leader Dark Lord challenges you to a battle!

@@guywhochangeshisprofilealo7163 dungeons and artifacts

Timothy McLean don't forget that my grandmothers fathers sisters cousins half sisters niece has a clam here there for I'm king

Timothy McLean CK2 in a nutshell

Not only medieval. Just politics. Check People's Republic of China

Another go one is I have more guys with pointy sticks who know how to use them.

@Kieran Brewer This is basicly explanation why we have wars.

I wonder how many Fantasy/SF writers start like this...

Oh my, I would love to watch that idea in anime form.

O_O Can I read that story?? I mean, it would be really cool and throw in astral projection that could be the cosmic guardian form!!!

Man I feel you. The shit people can make you believe when you're a kid. My cousin made me believe that at the age of twelve, men turned into women and men turned into women. As a boy, I spent like 5 years dreading it until my parents laughed and told me that it's impossible to magically switch sex. Although... Now...

Don’t feel bad, I thought I was an elf adopted by human parents for like a year just because I read a book series about it

A similar thing happens in the game oblivion, actually.

Tolkien actually said in letter 131 that he considers Sam to be 'The chief hero' of LOTR

See also: Gwydion of the Prydain Chronicles. (Although, by the end, Taran KINDA qualifies, it’s complicated, but it also works really well)

Personally I like the idea of the Chosen One being not being the protagonist, maybe a deuteragonist or a recurring character who ends up with super important in the end, a former villain(I really like to see Zuko as an example of such due to how undeniably vital he was to Aang's success) or hell, even an actual villain. In fact, now I am watching this isekai whose villains are literally killers of the Dark Lord thinking now they get to conquer the fantasy world and do as they please with it.

Red was Teh Penguin of D00M

My hero aca reference?

Hell yeah

Now that deku is unlocking all of the previous users’ quirks, he’s not just the next chosen one, but the chosen one among chosen ones, since the predecessors have just decided that he’s the guy.

*EEEY KID, EAT THIS HAIR AND YOU'L GET SOUPAPOWERS BUT DON'T TELL NOBODY*

@@prashil3k594 funnily enough this can also refer to Attack on Titan

h

Mewtwo: the bringer of good morals and slayer of middle school cringe.

Tell that to the blind, deaf, cripple.

@@bishopofeternity48 if you mean 'tell that quote to the blind, dead, and/or crippled' then, yeah, sure. As the quote says, those traits are irrelevant, it's what you do with your life that matters. Blind people can still be good artists, or debaters, or any number of things. For Deafness- Beethoven. Guy is one of the worlds most celebrated musicians and never heard most of his own music (with his ears). For cripple, I remember hearing about a girl that was born without arms. By the time she was (16? late teens I think) she was just as skilled with her feet as most others were with their hands. We all have our challenges, some are more obvious, some are more subtle, but none of that really matters, what you make of it does.

@@bishopofeternity48 Stephen Hawking literally unable to move and being one of the greatest minds of this generation: "bruh"

Mine was a turtle. So yeah..

Totally not me.

I AM A ATTACK HELICOPTER

I used to like to think I would become naturally amazing once I was done growing up. I had some reason to believe this as my father was gifted by being a very strong guy, my mother was gifted as being an exceptional long distance runner, and I was named after my great grand father who was gifted by being a Genius. Also I was raised in the knowledge that I had a massive trust fund that would pay me getting into anywhere I aimed be. I had it in my head that one day would no longer be the bottom of the food chain in popularity and success that I was. One day I would manifest into a high endurance, super strong, genius and good thing cause my ideals were the right ideals to have. So I would use my gifts to better the world however I could and rightfully enjoy life for it. I was sort of on the right track to end up somewhere around this dream but then I discovered online gaming which was a big distraction, lost my faith, started drinking, turned 18 started smoking, injured my shoulder but decided to ignore it, became fat, became regularly depressed, turned 21 started drinking way more then already was, decided to get that shoulder fixed when it got too painful to handle but it was too late to ever be a decent arm again, attempted to commit suicide while drinking(was amazing when I woke up). It was at that point I realized I would never be anything but lame at the very best. Even if I tried my very hardest from that point on I would never achieve the average persons level of happiness much less the pedestaled happiness I perceived myself achieving. Also my perception and world views I developed over this time period would prevent me from being able to appreciate the life once sought after even if I defied all odds and did achieve to create it as my value for anything in particular is almost nonexistent. While it makes me happy to be seen as useful on the occasions this actually happens, I become aware that I am just happy to be appreciated for even the most mundane things and that in its self is pathetic. I have always been told that I am rude, regardless if I realize I am rude. I have never been dear to anyone that isn't morally obligated to love me such as family. Thus when I was 16 in my fathers frustration at his 5 year grounding not being as effective as he hoped it would be he told me "IF you ever some how get married and have children's, they will not love you, they will hate you, and they will leave when they no longer need you." This has always stuck with me cause it has always felt true and consistent with my relative position in life when interacting with people. I would like to think that if I had instead known I was worthless from the start I wouldn't have had such high standards for happiness. I would have committed to working hard at being healthy, strong, and smart like I was trying to. I would've ended up more fulfilled in what ever I would have done, and all the happier for it. I quit drinking, haven't had a drop in 10 months, I haven't smoked in 8, and I am in school. I don't have the sense of looming despair I was having which makes me feel good. However I cant say I have had any lasting happiness, such the spurts of fleeting joy one gets from hearing a good joke. Moral of the story... I shoulda picked the penguin damn it!

​@@robertdicke7249 Holy shit man, that's rough. Your childhood sounds really fucked up. Only thing I can say is there's nothing pathetic about deriving your happiness from small things, though at this point, you might know that already. Nice to hear you're getting better regardless.

Lester/Apollo and the Arrow of Dodona

Jack and Magnus are hilarious. Jack literally chose his name because he heard Magnus say “jackass” but didn't hear the rest of the word

In Mercedes Lackay's By the Sword, the sword can take over the protagonist Kerowyn's body to fight. To get it to stop, she promises to drop the sword down a well and let it rot if it doesn't knock it off. It's great.

Oh I love that book

@@avisisisis Time for an 'um actually' ! Technically Magnus says "I don't know jack", and sumarbrandr latched onto the last word. (Please don't offend, this is just a good faith correction between fans, no malice intended!)

Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!! Best description ever!!!!! :D

The biggest plot hole in the whole series is that magic watch not being used ever again

ROFLOL!

I'd leave a like, but it's at exactly 500 right now and I don't wanna mess it up.

@@TheEtherny Not with the whole 'bad things happen when you mess with time' point being added.

Half right, Percy is explicitly mentioned in the Prophecy he is the child of the eldest gods that reached 16 against all odds, he did see the world in endless sleep he did make the choice that would preserve or raze olympus, it was really only two specific lines in the great prophecy that refered to Luke. The Hero's Soul being reaped and Luke dying from it.

Then in Heroes of Olympus, Percy becomes one of seven chosen ones

Percy was never the one to kill Kronos, he was just the one to SIGNAL the time when the choice would be made. “A half blood of the elder gods shall reach 16 against all odds” Percy was just an alarm clock that went off whenever the choice to save Olympus needed to be made

"Percy was just an alarm clock." That is a wonderful line that is oddly accurate.

I actually really enjoyed Annabeth’s subplot throughout both of the series where she was kind of a side character and in the Mark of Athena you got to see how she was insecure in herself because she didn’t have any wacky superpowers in a group of people who were literally just a bunch of chosen ones, and how she figured out that just because she couldn’t turn into a dragon or control water, she wasn’t any less than any of her friends. Mostly because ‘holy shit they’re fucking idiots who won’t stop arguing and I need to keep them all alive, they’d be halfway to the underworld without me,’

Help! I'm being oppressed!

I mean, if I went around saying that I was an emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

Damn right.

Oh how I love Monty Python

He's not the Messiah! He's a very naughty boy!

Not quite true, he does it to protect one of the other candidates because he wants to protect him. I think you need to reread the end of Titan's Curse

@@DavidbarZeus1 I thought he had multiple motivations. It still makes him interesting, because he still chooses to be the "Chosen One"

Since the Kane family are chosen incarnations and Magnus Chase is a chosen wielder I feel like Rick likes his chosen characters

@@jonathanvandevelde4908 Now we need a Riordanverse 'one true king' arthurian legend series.

@@jonathanvandevelde4908 honestly I think it makes quite a lot of sense coz most mythologies usually have a chosen one hero or basically some divinely ordained person....

Season 4 She-Ra

Power Rangers Samurai?

sounds like half of my triology's female protagonist's gimmick, actually

Interesting premise: The protagonist is the chosen one but no one knows and is a faceless minion for the villain while the “hero” is the chosen decoy and the protag accidentally kill the chosen decoy and learns of the prophecy by looting the “hero” and has to just complete it

Hope you picked a tank class

I actually have a character like this. Still fleshing her personality out though...

This could be especially interesting if these odd physical features are *supposed* to signify some special powers, such as being part of a family lineage, but the character doesn't have those powers for whatever reason. Could create all kinds of drama from the character being unable to live up to expectations placed on them, and either unlocking their powers somehow (power of friendship anyone?) or coming to terms with their lack of powers and realizing they're really good at something else.

@@zoro115-s6b like Zelda in BotW?

@@gavinlopez6258 Similar to that, yea. Classic chosen one angst I guess.

I have several OCs that are like: "So you're a demon, right?" "Yeah." "So you can do stuff like teleport and summon heck fire?" "No, I can turn into a tree." "Oh."

I'd do you better, still clinging to your deeply held beliefs despite all the fantastical stuff you saw in that world (for those trapped in another world moments).

Etoxiuq Nod

what a roast xD thinking about this, I actually think yes

"I'm going to go fight a dragon!" "Dude don't, you'll die." "WHAT? What is this power of prophecy you have?" "Common sense."

Rincewind has entered the chat

Dang it’s been a while since I’ve read that series, what is that thing again?

I think it’s a talking sword, I haven’t read the book.

A talking sword that, no joke, has eyes for Riptide

@what's up start of the third book I think, Annabeth, Magnus, and Percy meet up to teach Magnus ship stuff, Percy brings out riptide for some reason I can't remember, and Magnus's sword tries to hit on it.

Why do I kind of ship his sword Jack with Riptide?

A Cote Also, a bonus point to the Percy Jackson books and the follow-up series for including the stipulation that prophecies lead to quests, and all quests must be fulfilled by the person who first hears the prophecy and the group of heroes they decide to take with them. Therefore, the prophecy is guaranteed to apply to multiple people and there's no indication which hero must fulfill which part of the prophecy. And later on we find out prophecies can come from multiple sources, so that there's no single person in charge of making them.

Ah finally, I've been looking for the dreaded Percy Jackson fan. I also think that the PJO series has taken an unique twist to the "chosen one from a prophecy" as you have just stated. In the beginning of book series we are made to believe that Percy will be the one to bring about the prophecy, however throughout the series we see otherwise. (like Luke, Thalia, Nico etc.) This also applies to Rick Riordans other series. Nice commentary BTW

Riordan is beautiful in that regard. PJ remains my top favorite series.

Imagine a Riordan series without any prophesies “Wait there’s no prophesy! How are we supposed to save the world?” “Step one, wing the heck out of it.”

@@fantasyshadows3207 kinda the plot of Trials of Apollo, the villains have taken control of all the prophecy giving centres in the world and doing thing their way and since there are no prophecies, there are no quests. So Apollo and co have to free all the oracles one by one, each of the oracles giving them a prophecy after being freed which leads to the other one, ending with the Oracle Of Delphi

The reason for that is that most people seem to think that "trope" is a synonymous of "cliché" and/or "stereotype", which is not the case at all.

Of course, it's not hard to take one step further and realize that most stories with Chosen Ones don't manage to do anything in particular with their Chosen Ones, beyond use them as an excuse to kick the protagonist through Campbell's outline.

It's sorta depressing how often people who claim to understand writing just try to tell others what to do or what not to do - or worse, just repeating what they've been told - rather than actually thinking about what they're doing and encouraging others to do the same.

Yeah hate those “this is bad” or “I hate this” videos

Some things are cliches for a reason. It’s all about writing it well, whether you play the trope straight or subvert it. I do enjoy negative reviews because it explains why something sucks and how not to do it, along with some entertainment. But more unbiased videos like this are also important. If you understand the core concept, it’s easier to use it as you see fit.

Wanna check out Clash Royale then? I bet you'll love the "walking rage spell", called lumberjack.

I like how that particular stint went. "Yeah, fuck that. I'll just put killing THAT chosen one on the backburner for now. I'm going sailing for months to make sure my girlfriend isn't a vegetable anymore. PEACE OUT!"

Ultrapyre Despite his hatred how can he beat Griffith? So yeah taking on the side quest called healing his lady's broken soul is slightly more achievable. And maybe he will power up in a way that will allow him to actually beat a low key god in the process! Win/win!

The prophecy: and this MAN who wears blue will - Nausicäa, exemplifying leadership and compassion constantly (and wearing blue): oh neat story Everyone else in the valley: yeah neat story

Such a great movie. Feels like it gets overshadowed by Miyazaki's other works but it's maybe my favorite of his.

A story is loosely defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as the "space in a building between two adjacent floor levels or between a floor and the roof". Okay, so that may not give us an exact measurement, but what if we could get... an average? *Cue Music*

That would be an awesome collaboration hahaha

I don't care who, someone needs to make this video impersonating all these people, lol! They just cycle through Vsauce and then it gets into Terrible Writing Advice, then we get some Trope Talk about Love Triangles, and then it goes to like Trey the Explainer to explain how early humans dealt with love. Then it suddenly jumps to Your Movie Sucks like shitting on something that relies on the 'Power of Love' trope before going on to some form of anime youtube reviewer from there who just starts ripping on Fairy Tail which leads into Mother's Basement talking about some OP that tells a story to end it off, lol.

ExtraCredits: Who knows who could've started the love triang- it was Walpole.

dracocrusher, thanks for the video idea!! I’m totally gonna post that once my animation software is up and running!

Your name tho

Lol fuck you obi wan

Well he did...by murdering them all until both numbers equated.

I never understood why the jedi, who numbered in the hundreds if not thousands when you consider the agricorps are technically semi-trained jedi, thought "balance" was a good idea, since The Sith had just shown up again. Balance between light and dark, when you're winning, probably isn't something you should be excited about. I do wonder if Mace Windu figured that out on some level and that's why he was so reticent and unenthusiastic about Anakin getting trained. Of course in true chosen one fashion that helped Anakin feel untrusted by the council and let Palpatine manipulate him more easily and he fell. Oops.

High ground > chosen one

YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER OLD MAN

@Vice- Virgo this actually happens and you cannot tell me otherwise

Lady of the Lake: QUIT DUMPING YOUR TRASH IN MY HOME!

Mutant Cat Monster was smart

Thanks for the spoilers

Mattias Westby Sorry, it's been over 3 years, thought it was ok.

Kung Fu Panda did a variation on the whole "the prophecy is nothing" thing too. I like that kind of thing.

+pecu alex I've read a manga that's exactly like that. The hero is an asshole to the princess, the kingdom, and even random villagers.

I love how Percy Jackson played with this. We all thought Percy was the Chosen Savior of Olympus, but it turns out that the former main antagonist was the true Chosen One.

The thing I liked about it is that She-Ra was revealed to be a destructive weapon that was made to destroy a planet, rather than the hero everyone believed her to be. It was tragic.

Naruto can also arguably fit into every category

Poyo. Poy po poyo. (Yeah. But It's fun.)

Uhm... Actually, * Opens a 1000 page book titled "Kirby Lore" *

THIS IS ACTUALLY CANON IN KIRBY LORE. KIRBY IS A CHAOTIC GOOD GOD OF DESTRUCTION AND JUST DOESN'T CARE BECAUSE HE'S ESSENTIALLY A TODDLER.

Kirby is a friend. That is sort of his thing. Sure, he's a massively powerful force that is implied in Star Allies *might* be a living fragment of the Void... but the Dreamlanders, instead of treating this nascent force like a god (such as Void Termina was) or a threat, treated him like a friend. And so a friend is what he is. He loves playing with people, he spends his days eating and napping, he loves to go racing with his friends.

Friend: I AM A MAFIA BOSS Me: yah uh huh, so what did you say about last week when you jumped in the trash can at school again?

Doodle dee Gaming that would be pretty cool

I'd watch that.

Moana's grandma AND her dad. Both screwed up in their time and got unchosen.

Doodle dee Gaming that sounds awesome

I'm a writer, so done.

Isagail No we would fuse after learning about the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP and beat the bad guy all together as one person.

Or just have them be a god who inherits an object of power, but is on earth, and has a prophecy to reclaim their status and is told by another god that they must do it, and that they're the only god that can. (I think that's all of them.)

Like a Chosen One Hunger Games.

*Chosen One Battle Royal

That's how you get pantheons.

Yes, that’s what everyone seems to miss ( outlying because it was cut from the film). The running theme of the series is that it is our choices that define us e.g. Harry choosing Griffindor over slytherin in the very first book. Equally, Harry only becomes the chosen one because Voldemort chose to target him. It was the dark lord's choice that made the prophecy about Harry instead of Neville.

If I recall correctly there's actually an explicit moment where Harry and Dum8ledoor discuss how short sighted it was of Voldemort to try and kill them as children rather than w8ing to see which one grew up to 8e the 8igger threat 8efore marking either of them. Especially 8ecause marking Harry triggered everypony else to start panicking, training, and preparing him to face Voldemort. Had he left it alone, he could have offed two unprepared 8oys with no training or practice in isol8d or hushed up accidents then caught the world 8y storm when he returned after 15 + years gone dormant. 8ut classic I AM THE 8EST logic leads him to panic, he can't stand knowing that someone exists who even MIGHT 8e a8le to thwart him. The one time where procrastinating on the homework was the 8est option. XP

@@cristlesappire21why are all the b’s eights?

​@@thatfly5360they are prolly a homestuck

Tbf, he was stuck dealing with a lot of Spirit World drama because his predecesor didn’t give it enough focus. It’s part of why he died young.

Read the Kyoshi novels. They give a closer look at Kuruk's life and are really good.

Previous avatar understandably neglected their spirit world stuff so It was just up to him to fix it Dudes whole spirit got poisoned over it. It was a mistake, but understandably speaking, telling the world and especially your friends: "Hey, Kuruk here! the previous avatar you all worshipped and helped ensure these decades of peace has accidentally doomed you all, and I (the one you all hate the most and have 0 faith in) am the only one who can fix it. I've already been doIng it and it's 100% poisoned my spirit and I'm soon to die and if anyone joins in the fight, it'll probably happen to you too with the reward of less able-bodies people around to protect the living world if we actually fail :D." Kind of a hard sell ya feel me

Another: - Introduce the characters. - Establish Chosen One. - Make it seem like the plot can only be resolved by the Chosen One. - The Villain 'resolves' the problem. - The last action reveals that there was not Chosen One to being it, it was a lie made for the Mentor figure because they wanted to destroy the Villain. - Watch your readers spiral into madness as they see how the "Chosen One" kills their Mentor and joins the Villain's ranks. Optional after the last one: - Write a new saga in the same universe, and shock your readers by revealing in the first book that the Chosen One of the past saga DID killed the Villan of the past saga to stop it from destroy the world, conquer it, or stuff like that. - Throw clues of what happen with the rest of the characters of your first saga in the second saga as stories from the past, but without trasforming the second saga in an excuse to throw cameos from your first saga. Optional after that last one: - Write one or more books that reveal what happened after the "ending" of your first saga.

I LITERALLY HAVE A FULL STORY LIKE THIS

Un-London is basically this, as I recall. Halfway through, the "chosen one" becomes incapable of doing the thing they're supposed to do, so the "side kick" takes up the mantle instead.

Spy Kids 3 vibes

I don'rlt remeber the name but There is a graphic novel I read as a kid where a child falls into a fantasy land and gets dubbed the chosen one by his birthmark. when the other creatures discribe his responsibilities and possible deatg he books it out of there and the fantasy land goes to shit as the dark force takes over. he comes back as an adult so see the messed up world. It's a good read if you don't mind that dose of nilalism and grossness.

This sort of reminded me of N in a weird way. He's modelled to be the Chosen One, and you fight him through the whole game as he has Team Plasma backing him up. Then, you stop him... as a second Chosen One. The irony is delicious.

ShinigamiSparda unless the prophecy is the Chosen One dies by the hands of the Villains to save others...

Blizzic when

0:21

Best line ever made in Pokémon by the way “I see now that the circumstances of ones birth mean nothing. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”

One of the people at my job has that quote as part of his e-mail signature. It's great.

I find it strange and interesting that the first Pokemon movie keep seeping into relevance now and again, despite being totally panned by critics.

Emmet is so great. That whole movie is great.

Timmy Turner in Wishology is like that

Randos being put into the role of a chosen one is always interessting and it does not even need to be by accident, sometimes characters just lie about being the chosen one because the world needs a hero and the actual chosen one is missing. A prime example is the fanfiction-outline of a Zelda: The Windwaker prequel that the fanbase has been floating since forever ago. The backstory of TWW is that Link straight up does not exist in the timeline anymore, his soul was sent away in a timelinesplit, so the royal family of hyrule decided to request help from an unspecified group of deities to flood the land instead. So basically, the premise of this theoretical prequel game is that you play some guy who took on the identity of Link in an attempt to be a beacon of hope for the people who dread living in the era of the evil king's second invasion and rampage. Through the course of the game, the protagonist continuous crumbles under the guilt of said new hope of the people being most likely misguided in retrospect due to the hero's lack of divine aid that is said to be required to finish the job, which culminates in character development when he gets mentally and emotionally ready for the final fight. And well, disaster strikes, obviously. The canonconforming bad end is to just straight up fail the final boss fight, which turns it into a positively bittersweet ending of not having been able to make a diffrence individually, but at least having stalled Ganondorf enough and having made the events of TWW possible, which ends up with a positive result centuries later. And the noncanon good ending would be to win, only for all to be lost anyways because they already started to flood the country and the hero has no way of making it out of there in time, so he is also doomed to die regardless...which is a negatively bittersweet ending, because you fixing the problem ends up utterly demolished by the actual greater powers at play not realizing that someone actually fixed the problem.

Probably my favorite book as a kid, Randoms by David Liss, fits this very well. The premise is that a galactic civilization is deciding whether to admit Earth, and so as representatives in the application process they choose a delegation of a few highly accomplished adolescents who are meant to represent the best of humanity's future, and then one literally randomly-selected kid (who is, of course, the protagonist) to balance things out. It's a great book and trilogy.

This would be fun to explore what happens then; would probably be a political style story, where a group of people with a vested interest in the Chosen One are very angry to have their plans upset

Fairly Odd Parents did it first

So did Shrek 2.

"No man can kill me!" "I am GNOME ANN!" -xkcd

I remember one comic where there was this dude that was said to be "unable to be harmed by any weapon on Earth". The alien team member crashed his spaceship into him.

No weapon from far or near, here or away, neither man, women or another gender can harm me! *trips and plummets down the cliff*

Dang, Mew got really violent...

'No weapon forged of man can kill me!' Yea we don't forge weapons any more, have an anti-tank rocket!

Sean Murphy I love that comic! Wasn't it supposed to update this December? What's up with that?

It was supposed to start back up in December, which strictly speaking, it did, two weeks ago. There have been 2 Q&A comics uploaded.

KaedeLanyo Yeah, I also really love how LoZ handles this, especially in Wind Waker. In the game, it's specifically stated that the kid from that story isn't a reincarnation of link and he doesn't have the spirit of the hero, in contrast to most of the other links. The king of red lions basically says, "Oh, him? He's just some random kid I picked up. He seems good enough...? Look, just trust me on this one." And then you have to go through a dungeon to get the spirit of the hero and become recognized as a hero by the gods. Fun!

Heck if you read the Skyward Sword manga, the OG Link helped Hylia in the past wasn't even a Chosen One. He was just a guy who wanted to help the Goddess. It was because of her love for him that she had herself and Link reincarnate into Link and Zelda in the game. It made me feel that Link wasn't a badass because he was the Chosen One. He was the Chosen One because he was a badass.

But Funnel Rust, doesn't that make Toon Link a "literally chosen one" (3:27) as _The King of Red Lions chose him?_

Yes. 😂. I wish she'd mentioned it

Just your luck that it'll be a jury summons.

I get those emails every day, usually in the spam folder.

But only the best can be in a love dodecahedron.

Porter Rodney And the Ultimate Chosen One can enter a 4-D love tesseract

And survive you mean?

Especially if they are a plucky go-getting teenager.

Except in Harry Potter

Where?

0:25

Too many heroes....

*A V E N G E R S I N I T I A T E*

"The good news is, at least we won't fail yet".

Jorg the Mercenary Spearman I don't know this story but I have a feeling irony either comes calling or the world ends. Which is it?

Jacob Freeman Well, she only tells it to one of the two supposed chosen ones, and the crisis they were in was not world ending. The prophecy was basically a Swiss Army knife for the church to give people false hope and keep them from panicking. Invading army? Time for the chosen one! We beat the army and she didn’t appear? Then the prophecy must refer to the the next conflict! And they milked that cow for like a dozen things and the people still ducking bought it.

Jorg the Mercenary Spearman And they don't do that that irl? Tell lies about chosen ones and people buy it hook, line, sinker, and a fair bit of the rod?

Jacob Freeman Oh yeah, I agree. It just puts the whole scheme into perspective when you hear one of the hucksters admit that it’s bullshit.

That reminds me of the Wings of Fire series, the whole " Prophecy? That shit is faker than your lips" thing is so ironic, especially if the "chosen one" actually fulfills the fake prophecy

Sorta like your character in Elder Scrolls Oblivion. You're a hero in your own right of course but you have to help Martin Septim to accept his role as the ultimate destroyer of the game's villain Mehrunes Dagon

Or you can just have a girl stab him, Witch King styls

Ow

CO: somehow protagonist starts floating and gets power up

canonically you are the reincarnation but you can choose to roleplay otherwise

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a canonical thing. You have one Daedric Prince call you chosen one, but she also led a whole lot of other failed incarnates, and sure, you can put Nerevar's Ring, but we don't really know what the ring looks for in a person. The only evidence in favor of you becoming Nerevarine due to incarnation and not mantling is literally because MK said so in an In-Character answer of his. The truth is we don't really know.

The canonality is even more questionable because of later games, where people believe it *was* the Nerevarine... Because the only way that someone beating that final boss makes sense to people decades if not centuries after the fact is it being done by a chosen one. And then Skyrim comes along and straight up throws any ambiguity out of the window. You are the Dragonborn. God do I love the mod where you can choose (or randomize, I believe) wether you are the Dragonborn.

Found the memospore.

There is a similar theory floating around about Dark Souls, that being the "Chosen Undead" isn't a prerequisite for fulfilling the prophecy, it's just the title for anyone who manages to do it. Which is obviously the player character because video game. With how vague the game is, and with how many of the NPCs might be lying or telling half-truths, it's impossible to tell if that theory is correct or not, but I personally like it.

Best Elder Scrolls.

Man, I absolutely adored that in Morrowind, too bad the rest of the games didn't try to subvert more tropes or anything like that afterwards. In Oblivion it's more of a case of circumstance and the King seeing you in his dreams so its probably some kind of prophecy, while Skyrim was pretty adamant about you just being born special because you're the player character and nothing more.

YareYareJose I'm sorry to say that you're a little bit incorrect with Oblivion. In that game, there was no prophecy. Emporer Uriel Septim VII merely mentioned that he knew that you would be the last person he'll see when he died, but that you wouldn't be the one to kill him. Any other person could have been in that cell, and he would've seen their face in his dreams instead. You were simply in the right place at the right time. In fact, I thought Oblivion's storyline was also pretty great, as instead of being the Chosen One, you were the hypercompetent sidekick to the real Chosen One, Martin Septim. I have to say that you're completely correct about Skyrim, however. Skyrim had a shitty main storyline with terrible pacing.

Aedra Rising Oh no, I just wasn't too sure since I haven't played Oblivion in years, I just remembered how the emperor makes a comment about seeing you in his dreams and it felt a bit like a prophecy to me, or maybe he can just see the future or something. Either way, I wasn't too fond of the sidekick thing, and I felt pretty disappointed by the main quest, like I am with most Bethesda games nowadays now that I think of it. At least we can agree on Skyrim.

It's a dam problem is what it is.

"Oh it's bad luck to be you...."

Makes sense. Actually, if you have a really vague prophecy and pretend it's true, you could get a bunch of people to try on their own to save the world.

Celtic Hazelnut I second this!

Sometimes they're good, and other times they take the fun out of everything

Celtic Hazelnut LOVE TRIANGLES 4 LIFE

Oh my gAWD. I've seen and read so many love triangles I think I'm scarred for life. I can't stand them any more. So so sooo many of them are completely unnecassary and adds nothing to the plot

Celtic Hazelnut Not even sci-fi alien horror stories are safe from the dreaded love triangle

proofreading can help.

I chose to watch this video. Does that count?

But mewtwo said that quote

Ideally chosen ones are only going up against magical evils while normal people are managing day to day evil as well as they do

sex with a dragon....how would that work?...There's probably a vid like that somewhere on the internet.

Darek Baird ...Fire Emblem Manaketes? So in other words shape-shifting durgon ladies?

Patrick Frost Simple. They just need to make a harem of dragon furries and then slay them in their sleep. XD

IN THAT ORDER

Score- I mean what.

"I HATE YOU-"

@Vice- Virgo Balance in the force does not and has never meant that the dark side and the light side are equally influential in the galaxy.

@@zoro115-s6b I really hate that, I personally prefer to think balance means between the two sides but that’s not what it’s meant to be in Star Wars. Regardless, he technically still fulfils the prophecy by turning back to the light side and killing the Emperor.

@@SorowFame The thing is that the force is not some sort of yin/yang thing. Or, it is, but the dark side is specifically what happens when that balance is thrown off in unnatural ways. Certainly no one in their right mind would dispute that every dark side user that there's ever been has been the kind of person the galaxy would really be better off without.

@@zoro115-s6b I know, I just don’t like it. It seems like the least interesting way of doing it to me but I’m not a writer so what do I know?

Harry is a literal Chosen One - Voldy chose him by trying to kill him.

Im pretty sure that it was confirmed that Neville WAS actually suposed to be the chosen one.

I think that’s WHY she mentions that the prophecy is vague and plot twisty.

@afootineachworld Voldemort preached that purebloods were superior and pretended to be one, but he knew he was a half-blood and was convinced in his superiority, so he went after Harry, the half-blood, because he saw Harry as potentially being more dangerous to him than Neville. As Dumbledore put it to Harry, "He saw himself in you before he ever set eyes on you".

@@sumeristhefox1258 no, it isn't. The prophecy could've been referring to either Harry or Neville (so either of them COULD have been the prophecy chosen one). However, Voldemort saw a bit of himself in Harry (as he is also a half blood) and decided to go after him. By trying to kill him, he accidentally gave Harry the powers needed to fulfill the prophecy.

I saw this quote before which was something like “Destiny is an excuse for losers who want to sit around until they have to do something”

Bruh, I'm writing a book just like that.

That one moment when you realize the prophecy never specified when

Antihater135 wait how? Luke and Aniken were part of prophesied to bring balance to the force, so neither of them choosed to be the one in the prophecy, but they did accept the prophecy. Both met the criteria of the prophecy. What I'm taking about is a random person hears the prophecy and decides that they will fulfil it despite them being the one not even mention in the prophecy.

Well I have an idea, what if the chosen one is actually a prideful and stuck up asshole who now with his new powers and stuff just turns to an even worse asshole and the main character is one of the side characters

I think that's the idea in Naruto too. Nagato and Madara thought they were the saviors of the world.

Ehhhhh.....I don't really believe that to be the case since the main character was not even a side character. Those two were just more villains and didn't feel like 'Chosen One' characters to me, but honestly different strokes for different folks.

Also the Percy Jackson series where the monsters, who are hidden from the normal population by The Mist, become bloodthirsty when they smell a demigod. Whitch means you get moments like in the first book where Percy's old teacher reveals to be a winged humiod beast called a Furie (i dont know what its spelled), or new kids at his school that turn out to be Cyclopses

There's also a lot of talk in the Harry Potter fandom that Neville Longbottom (another character in the story) fills the same prophecy requirements Harry did.

"Each Event is proceeded by Prophesy. But without the Hero, there is no Event." I love Elder Scrolls lore. The hero/prophesy ambiguity isn't just in the Nerevarine, either, it's an actual metaphysical concept - "Mantling". "Mantling and incarnation are separate roads; do not mistake this. The latter is built from the cobbles of drawn-bone destiny. The former: walk like them until they must walk like you." And with the right conditions, it's entirely possible to do this intentionally... Are you really Nerevar reborn? Or, after everything that you do, could we even tell the difference?

"Welcome, Moon and Star! To this place, where destiny is made."

That's pretty much the first chosen one mentioned.

Agreed! Reminds me of NEO.

I... don't think Nick would've wanted Korra to end on a main character's suicide after a villain's murder suicide. O.O Really, Korra connecting with Aang didn't bug me because it was subtly built up via her visions of the Yakone trial. That and, well, Books 3 and 4 did it a lot better than Book 1 or 2 would've at the time.

Korra and her series were the exact opposite of Aang and the first series in so many ways and I loved almost all of it. Aang had so much trouble not only learning to bend other elements, but just coming to terms with the fact that he _was_ the Avatar; Korra, on the flip side, embraced that destiny as soon as she found out, and as you said she was basically a prodigy at three of the four elements (and of course, the one she struggled most with was the one Aang was the most natural at). Aang was easy-going and loved the idea of just being a normal kid having fun whereas Korra was hard-headed, restless, and again, as you said, defined herself through being the Avatar. ATLA took place right in an era of war, strife, and near-primitive lifestyle, while LoK was set in an era of zero world conflict and near-modern technology and progress. ATLA had one true big bad, but let's say the big bad of each season was Zhao (1), Azula (2), and Ozai (3). None of these villains had any inkling of good intentions; they were basically all pure evil villains out for their own gain or desires. Zhao wanted power, Ozai wanted to rule the world and be supreme overlord of everything, and Azula really just wanted to have fun and watch people suffer, and all three of them were willing to destroy the world or let the world be destroyed to get what they wanted. All of LoK's villains had very complex motivations and characters, because all of them had "selfless" motivations. Amon wanted equality, Unalaq wanted to bring back the spirits, Zaheer wanted freedom, and Kuvira wanted to reunite and stabilize the Earth Kingdom. Even though they wanted good things, they were all very bad people, and we know that because of their actions, not their goals. LoK did have a lot of issues (I kind of agree with HFM about the existence of Raava and Vaatu being ick), but it was still a very interesting, compelling, and thought-provoking show. ATLA, with its young protagonists, single ultimate goal, and super evil and easy-to-hate villains, was definitely geared towards children. LoK, with its complex villains, teen protagonists, numerous conflicts, and added unnecessary but still very realistic teen drama, was definitely geared towards an older audience. Maybe that's why it was so much easier to be flawed and criticized. I'm sorry if this was a waste of your time, I just have a lot of feelings about this show. I love it and hate how bad of a reputation it gets. Also don't mean to imply that ATLA doesn't have its fair share of complex storylines and characters.

inkliizii Sounds like an interesting read. Where might one go to do so?

A bookstore or a library. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Lun_Dun

Isn't that like, the entire plot of Dune?

This subversion has a darker, more tragic variant - let's call it the False-Chosen One - when the protagonist believes they are the Chosen One and takes up the responsibility and maybe does something appropriately heroic, sacrificing their private life and other commitments in favour of fulfilling the role... Only to learn that they were wrong (maybe they were misled by some sort of authority figure, or misinterpreted a prophecy, or ascribed meaning to some completely random set of circumstances). The real Chosen One has always been some other guy, and all the efforts and sacrifices of the protagonist either did not matter at all or only served to pave the path for the real Chosen One.

@@gavinattalahadiyan325 Not really? The prophecy may be an invention of the Bene Gesserit, but Paul genuinely does possess special powers, that set him apart from others, and mean that he's the only one who can see the prophecy through. On top of that, there's a lot of weirdness about the topic of predestination, which implies that Paul really does have a Destiny that he can't escape.

So like Kangaroo Jack?

Oddly enough, The Lego Movie has this version of the Chosen One trope

Fanfic Mary sues are commonly chosen ones anyway

The songs Jack sang were the chosen ones all along.

@@user-zd6cn4zw8e cheese graters gonna grate, grate, grate, grate...

Technically Harry is a special example too considering he wasn't chosen by the prophecy but by the villain who could have just as easily chosen Neville.

*Everything* about that movie *is awesome.*

To add it all up, the prophecy in Harry Potter never explicitly said who of Harry or Voldemort would actually kill the other.

ooo varietys: TCO IS the one who fulfills the prophecy at technical or face value (Ie landing a lucky last hit or finding the 'key week point' or just so happens to say the right phrase at the right moment) 8ut was only a8le to actually get that far 8ecause of P giving out step 8y step instructions and help. TCO had the chosen magic yet P 8rought everything else. There's prolly also a juicy fun option where P was meant to 8e miss picked as chosen so that P could 8e trained to train TCO on the road avatar style. All TCO had to do to win was train with P and ey would have 8een a8le to handle the whole thing no pro8lem.

@@cristlesappire21 Two months late but have you sorted out your "b" key?

Now I'm imagining a magical squad anime with fairy tale characters getting their outfit + powers from the o8jects that 'changed their fates' so like snow white powers up 8y 8iting an apple, sleeping 8eauty sta8s herself with sewing pins, Rella has her shoes, Ariel could have the flask her voice was stored in. ect. 8onus points 8ecause all of their power-ups have difficult or painful triggers trying to get the whole squad ready for a fight would 8e interesting and malua8le in its own right. As would helping new squad arrivals like prince charming or pinochio figure out how their powers even work.

I hate a very specific type, and that's the prophecy type. If the MC is just unique in some way, then that's fine. But I despise prophesies as a writing device, just saying "oh yeah, only this one guy can do the plot thing, and he's guaranteed to succeed under these circumstances." Blech, it just stinks. Nobody who writes a prophecy into a story is ever going to let us forget that it's all foretold. But just singling out the protagonist is fine. For a particularly fun example, see Elfstones of Shannara. Both of its two main leads are chosen in some way, one is selected by a magic tree to go on a pilgrimage, the other is essentially dragged out of his house by a grumpy wizard because he's the only one who can wield a particular magic artifact needed to protect the other main character. Being chosen ones is basically just a way of forcing a quest on two normal people who are both terrified of it, but they can't run away now. It serves as an unavoidable call to adventure to people who would much rather stay as far away from psychotic demons as possible, not as a way to declare a predetermined success. In Harry Potter, from the moment we learn about the prophecy, there is only one possible ending, and all that's left is for the next two and a half books to hash out the details. I like Harry Potter, but rereading Deathly Hallows, you can see just how much it's a list of chores to take care of before the climax

IKR this trope is sooo overused but I still enjoy it. I suppose it only matters if it's well executed or not because anyone can be like "My character is the chosen one and they're gonna save the world" but it takes skill to actually make the story good. So I guess it depends.

What about possibly making the prophecy confusing, such that two or more individuals could possibly be the Chosen One? Even Harry Potter played with this, since Neville Longbottom could have been the Chosen One. Both Harry and Neville were born in late July to parents who had twice defied Voldemort. While the last part (Voldemort will mark the Chosen One) does narrow it down to just Harry, J.K. Rowling did skirt along the edge of that variant.

What I would found cool is a story about a choosen one but than another Character gets the Job done before the coosen one gets the chance to takle on the task. Imagine when Ozai would have gotten owned by Iroh before Aang got the chance to fight him? I know that example is extremely dumb but if done right it could be great to subvert expectations. If its a prophecy that says the chosen can defeat the dark lord it would not even contradict the prophecy because just because someone else did it does not mean the chosen could not have done it if he ore she got the chance to do it.

I like how Avatar handles the Chosen One trope. All the prophecy means in that universe is that Aang is the only one who can master the four elements. There's nothing in the prophecy about how the Avatar is going to save the world. While of course Aang and Korra get plot armour because of their protagonist status, in-universe there is no guaranteed safety. Either one can die and the next Avatar would pick up where they left off. Even the Avatar spirit itself has no guarantee, because it disappears if the Avatar is in the Avatar State when he/she dies. Technically, it's not even a prophecy that the Avatar _will_ master the four elements, because the Avatar can simply decide not to bother, or die before completing the training. The Avatar is a Chosen One, but it doesn't come anywhere close to guaranteeing that the Avatar will succeed (in-universe of course), and in that way it handles the trope extremely well.

Blitzkrieg yeah, also being the Chosen One means you are entitled to a love interest :)

Arjus Arauis Or a love triangle, if you’re special enough

Blitzkrieg *Love triangles.*

Um, no love decahedron?

AndreDragonBorn Whoa, now: Writing a threesome is tough enough without adding *more* limbs--I mean, where would all the *elbows* go? 😁

MAKE A TREE DIE

Ooooh, that sounds really interesting. Have you considered pitching it to publishers? It'd make a really cool story for teens who like fantasy stuff and the plot twist is really awesome and is sure to shock people. I'd love to read it. Of course, that's all up to you.