The Chosen One is a trope that predates the genre of fantasy and even literature itself. It certainly pops up in just about every religious scripture, Arthurian legend, most mythologies, and seems to permeate our modern day media, from fantasy books to anime, video games, and popular TV shows. You could even say that this trope occurs in the real world, when we hold up some politician or leader as the one that’s going to solve all our problems and save the world. Chosen Ones can be chosen by another person or entity, their lineage, a prophecy, some particular trait they possess (i.e. being “pure of heart”), or some action that they themselves take.
It’s become such a staple of the fantasy genre in particular that nearly all fantasy stories incorporate or invoke the trope in some manner. It can also be pretty lazy storytelling. It can override the hero’s agency. The plot of a Chosen One story tends to bend to this trope, along with just about every other character in the story. So what if this random person doesn’t seem like the best choice to defeat the forces of darkness? He’s the chosen one! The hero’s connection to the main conflict in the story is manufactured. It’s not personal, it’s just dictated by the nature of the trope. It’s an excuse to involve an everyman type of character in a huge, world-spanning conflict that they otherwise would have no connection to. But that is also part of the trope’s strength—that it makes a hero out of a character the audience can fully relate to, be it a high school cheerleader in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or a young son of a slave in The Phantom Menace.
Honestly, I love a good Chosen One trope. I mean sure, it’s potentially elitist, and it can certainly be done badly, but it works as a narrative device because it immediately gives the protagonist a huge burden to bear, that they can either fail or succeed at. We immediately grasp the stakes the story, and what the character stands to lose. It’s not an inherently bad trope—some of my favorite series certainly utilize it, such as Sailor Moon, the Harry Potter series, and Avatar: the Last Airbender.
What these, and most successful uses of this trope, have in common is that there is some inherent struggle within the “chosen” character about their role. For Harry, the question of why he’s the Chosen One hangs over the series until the end of the fifth book when it’s revealed that, in fact, Harry was not the only boy who could have been chosen, and that the only reason Harry is the one who can beat the Dark Lord is because the Dark Lord himself chose him. Both Harry and his schoolmate Neville fit the terms of the prophecy, but it is in Harry that Voldemort sees a threat—because Harry is a half-blood like him. Voldemort chooses Harry and kills his parents, thus both creating the protection that Harry later uses against him (his mother’s love which drove her to shield Harry from Voldemort’s attack) and giving Harry the motivation to fight Voldemort, prophecy or no prophecy.
In Avatar: the Last Airbender, Aang is so distraught at the fact that he’s the Avatar, he winds up burying himself in ice for one hundred years and prolonging a devastating war rather than stopping it. It is only later, once Aang has been awoken and witnesses the Fire Nation’s devastation of the Northern Water tribe, that Aang decides to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar. And along the way he is continually shown to be in conflict between his role as avatar, and his identity as a twelve year old boy. In particular, Aang struggles with a conflict between the philosophy of his people, the Air Nomads, which are peace-loving and violence averse, and the reality of what it will take to defeat the Fire Lord. These conflicts continually push him to choose between the things that are important to him as a person, and the things that are expected of him as the Avatar.
Usagi, the titular character and alter ego of Sailor Moon, is another example of a chosen one—although despite her chosen status, she’s just honestly not a very good leader! Whiny, not very smart, and pretty selfish, she’s thrust into a role she is nowhere near capable of handling and the series constantly reminds us of that. In the very first episode, after being told of her destiny and true identity as Sailor Moon, Usagi faces off against an evil creature of the Negaverse and breaks down into tears, only managing to finish the fight when Tuxedo Mask appears. Throughout the series, people frequently express their disbelief that Usagi—known to be lazy, obsessed with boys and food, and often selfish—is the legendary Sailor Moon, including her own daughter from the future, Chibi Usa. While Usagi is able to demonstrate her strength and determination when it truly counts, she never truly stops being a deeply flawed hero.
Because it’s such a ubiquitous trope, there are also a lot of ways in which writers can subvert and play with your expectations. For instance, while almost all of the Star Wars trilogies center around some kind of Chosen One, the prequel series (while certainly not the most beloved) twists that idea with Anakin Skywalker, prophesied to bring balance to the force…and ends up turning evil and killing most of the remaining Jedi. This sets him up as a primary villain in the original series, and though he is eventually (to some extent) redeemed and does end up technically fulfilling the prophecy, it is only after his evilness has caused irreparable harm to the Jedi Order and the galaxy.
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Then there’s the trope of the mistaken Chosen One—illustrated beautifully in Jessica Cluess’s A Shadow Bright and Burning series, where the protagonist, Henrietta, is believed to be a prophecized sorcerer who can defeat the Ancients—except it turns out she isn’t, at all. Through learning more about her lineage, Henrietta finds out she is actually descended from a line of magicians (which in this world are distinct from, and much less respected than, sorcerers) and is not the chosen sorcerer at all. In the first book of the series at least, it seems as though the Chosen One is a girl who was taken over by the Ancients and turned into a servant for them, and thus there is no one left to defeat them. Henrietta eventually decides she doesn’t need to be a Chosen One in order to fight, and thus she and her friends resolve to fight the Ancients themselves. I love the way that this series continually twists our expectations about not only who the Chosen One is, but what it even means to be Chosen.
Another common twist on the Chosen One trope is when the prophecy (or whatever identifies the character as a Chosen One) turns out to be a lie and there really is no chosen one, as in the Matrix sequels. In the first Matrix film, we are told that Neo is The One (to the point where even his name is just the letters for One rearranged). He is, we are told, an anomaly within the Matrix that has the ability to destroy it for good. But later, in the convoluted sequels, Neo finds out that this prophecy, and thus The One, was actually fabricated in order to ensure the continuation of the Matrix. Ultimately Neo does wind up more-or-less fulfilling the terms of this possibly fake prophecy, ultimately sacrificing himself to destroy the Matrix.
There are many ways that writers have taken the trappings of a Chosen One story and twisted it around to surprise the reader. At this point, deconstructions, subversions, and twisted versions of this trope are almost as common as the trope itself. But whether the trope is subverted or played straight, what these successful Chosen One stories have in common is that these characters are interesting even without their status as the Chosen One. Aang isn’t interesting because he’s the avatar—he’s interesting because he’s seemingly a carefree kid who nonetheless must deal with the horrors of war and figure out how he can remain true to his beliefs and still fight. Harry Potter is interesting not because he’s destined to defeat the Dark Lord, but because he’s a neglected kid discovering the wonders of the magical world and finding a place for himself in it. Henrietta is interesting not because she’s a would-be Chosen One, but because she’s smart and scrappy and is willing to do what must be done, prophecy or not. We are drawn to these characters because they are human, and no matter how big their destinies are or aren’t, we want to see them succeed because we like them. They retain their agency and want things beyond simply saving the world, and we want to see them get those things.
It’s safe to say the Chosen One trope isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Whether they’re pointing out the flaws of this trope or enthusiastically employing it, fantasy writers seem to be drawn to the questions that the Chosen One trope grapples with. Fate versus free-will. Whether or not we can ever rise above our circumstances. What it means to find our own individual purpose. How the weight of responsibility can destroy a person. How we can choose to fight even if no one told us we must. How we can choose not to. Chosen One stories are just one way to explore these ideas, but it’s one that, for good or for ill, fantasy writers can’t seem to let go of.
Katy Rose Pool was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in history, Katy spent a few years building websites by day and dreaming up prophecies by night. Currently, she resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she can be found eating breakfast sandwiches, rooting for the Golden State Warriors, and reading books that set her on fire. There Will Come a Darkness is her first novel.
<cough, cough> Rand al’Thor….
Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade, due out in November, plays with this trope really well, to the point that subverting it is the primary reason for its being. “Hey it’s chapter 3 aaaand the Chosen One died, whoops.” And so everyone else has to deal with a post-Chosen-One world and do their best.
China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun has a nice twist on the Chosen One trope, where the Chosen One falls ill and the scrappy UnChosen ends up saving the day. Though Mieville’s first novel, King Rat, plays with the trope in a different way.
And Ursula Le Guin did it before, with a feminist twist, in The Eye of the Heron.
Sanderson’s Mistborn series has fun with this trope, too.
I like the Chosen One story in Good Omens
One of my favorite subversions of the Chosen One trope is in The Crooked Kingdom, when Inej is facing down Dunyasha. Dunyasha is a talented assassin, trained since birth in an isolated monastery to eventually take her rightful place as the heir to the Lantsov throne. And as we’re reading about Inej facing off with her, we realize — if this were any other book, we’d have been reading Dunyasha’s story all along, instead of Inej’s, instead of that of any of the other Dregs, either. She’s a Chosen One if ever there was one, but… she is not our protag.
Terry Pratchett has some fun with it too in a bunch of the Discworld books from Rincewind the inept wizard who continually saves the world by running away to Carrot Ironfounderson, the adopted by dwarves returned King who just wants to be a cop.
In Dune, Paul and his Mother take advantage of the Bene Geserit’s plot to plant “prophecies” on developing worlds so that they may pose as that world’s “chosen one” and take refuge on that planet.
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness tells the story of the regular kids living in that town where the Chosen Ones do heroic stuff (and destroy the high school, again).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22910900-the-rest-of-us-just-live-here
This is from a jrpg game not a book, but one of my favorite twists on the Chosen One is in the 2003 game Tales of Symphonia where it turns out the mythos of the Chosen One is all a ploy set up by the main bad guy and all the quests the Chosen One has been doing to “save the world” are actually part of the bad guy’s plans.
In the old days, the sci fi version of the Chosen One trope was the Guy Who Knows Something. Perhaps because he was visiting from another planet, or traveled back or sideways in time, he knew how to make gunpowder, or build a dam, or whatever, which caused all the locals to proclaim him their leader, push their prettiest daughters to marry him, and let him command their troops as they defeated their mortal enemies.
There was a fantasy series I read in the eighties that I just can’t recall the name or author. There was a strong Norse flavour to it and big bad was an evil god.
Anyway, the main character had taken over the space of the Chosen One by sheer force of will. Without the backing of fate he had trained constantly and continually, dedicating himself to winning the ‘proof of champion’ type competitions. He only just beat the prophesied one; who had the talent but not the same drive.
Throughout the series he had a massive insecurity complex, believing he did not belong in the role and had stolen it from the rightful leader. Everyone else thought that he had simply proven that no-one knows what Fate really intends.
In the old days, the sci fi version of the Chosen One trope was the Guy Who Knows Something.
That goes back a long way, to Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (military tactics, solar eclipses etc) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (the visitors have repeating rifles; though, interestingly, Challenger’s lunatic idea of escaping by leather hydrogen balloon is sensibly discarded, and they end up escaping with the help of the locals instead.)
And it’s still around in the apparently endless Family Trade series by Charlie Stross in which a large and sophisticated interdimensional merchant family apparently needs basic economics Yanksplained to them by a visiting journalist.
I suppose The Hunger Games is a slightly different look at a Chosen One, where the story explores quite how artificial the choice is and how it was made behind the scenes, along with the effects of being just a PR figurehead.
I liked The LEGO Movie take on it. It’s everybody.
‘Round everyone up. My study. Ten minutes,’ said Ridcully. He was a great believer in this approach. A less direct Archchancellor would have wandered around looking for everyone. His policy was to find one person and make their life difficult until everything happened the way he wanted it to.*
*A policy adopted by almost all managers and several notable gods.
Another Pterry perspective on the idea of the Chosen One…
@15 – I love that movie :)
I was going to mention both Rand/Wheel of Time and Mistborn as interesting takes on the whole ‘chosen one’ topic – and what it might mean to struggle with it. I also do like what Harry Potter did with it with the twist that in a way, Voldemort chose his own chosen one and it could have been somebody else.
The game Morrowind had an interesting take on the Chosen One. At the beginning, it’s the standard “the chosen one will do this, and this and this…” Much later, you find out that those are the requirements to be the chosen one. Do all those things, and the Goddess/Diedra will give you her blessings. She just wants a champion that can win.
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There are three things that I’ve grown to detest in fantasy literature: Chosen ones, prophecies, and ‘fate’. Four: I’m bloody exhausted with the insistence that protagonists must become romantically involved.
I’m almost at the point of writing a piece where the Chosen One gives the world both middle fingers and tells it to deal with things itself.
Try the movie “Ring of Iron” written by Bruce Lee. The hero is more of an anti-hero. He is disqualified from the tournament and told he is not chosen. He decides he will be Chosen and ends up facing trials and tribulations that bring him enlightenment. Moral: anyone can be chosen, if they choose themself and work for it.
Kill the Farm Boy had a great “Chosen One” story!
Let’s not forget Lord of the Rings. Tolkien builds up Frodo as the chosen one to destroy the Ring and eventually employs a brilliant twist. Where the ring is destroyed without Frodo but unintentionally by Gollum. One of the greatest conclusions because it fulfills the promises made early in the trilogy but in an unexpected way. It’s unpredictable yet inevitable. Perfect.
I quite like the version in Dune, where the Chosen One prophecy only exists because it is manufactured by the Bene Gesserit as a failsafe, and then Jessica turns it against the Empire thereby making it true. This is social science advanced enough so as to be indistinguishable from magic.
Or the version in Wheel of Time, where being Chosen One is as disastrous as it is helpful. And not at all enviable.
Hasn’t every reincarnation of the Dalai Lama been/will be a Chosen One.
Mercedes Lackey did a short story about the reincarnation of Arthur who gets the sword and decides, knowing Arthur’s myth from being in modern times, decides he wants no part of it and pawns the sword and gets on with his life.
@@@@@ Lisamarie
Voldemort also could have decided to just ignore the prophecy all together, and no one would have been a chosen one.
I’ve always wanted to ask this question: is there a story that is a ‘chosen one’ troupe…except we experience the story from the perspective of his loyal companion?
There’s also Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On. Simon is actually called The Chosen One and it is believed that he will fulfill the prophecy “one will come to end us and one will bring his fall.” At the end of the novel he assumes he has failed: he deliberately loses all of his magic to defeat a source of destruction caused by his own power, inadvertently has caused the death of his beloved mentor, and not surprisingly is suffering from PTSD. It is the reader, and the reader only, who realizes that Simon has fulfilled the prophecy, as it is the crazed mentor would have eventually “ended” everything in his mad scheming.
Can we agree that Samwise was the true Chosen One, and not Frodo? If anything, Frodo was a false Chosen One, and only Samwise truly had the strength to bear the ring and make his way back home.
@28, Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville is from the PoV of the chosen one’s (‘The Schwazzy’ think French) BFF.
Po, the title character in Kung Fu Panda, is or is not a Chosen One, depending on which ten minutes of the move you’re watching.
Longtime blogger and speculative fiction author John Michael Greer, in a blog post dated five days prior to this one, offers a somewhat different take on the Chosen One trope that readers might be interested in.
@22 I bought Kill the Farm Boy because of goofy pun on the cover copy, and enjoyed it from beginning to end. And in addition to being full of great little jokes, it flips all sorts of epic fantasy tropes on their heads, including the Chosen One trope. There is a sequel out I haven’t picked up yet, but if it is even half as good as the first book, it will be a good read.
@Ashgrove
Came here for this. The Chosen One goes down in the first round, and the comic relief becomes the hero. I loved it.
Another one I am currently enjoying is the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons. Our heroine is only part of the action by accident. The boyfriend she is searching for has been Chosen. But the glimpses we have of him are of a damp young man completely lacking feck, gorm, hap, spine, and huevos. At the point where the story is right now she is well on her way to becoming heroic and just brimming over with agency, not because a wannabe-god Chose her but because she had to.
A very early deconstruction of the chosen one trope is found d in the Bible in Exodus, where a desperate Moses tries to talk his way out of becoming God’s first Prophet: “But they, the Israelites, won’t believe me! ” “I can’t speak the language!” It’s hilarious. I imagine Moses telling Aaron and Miriam, “Don’t blame me, this wasn’t my idea!”
I think people are either misremembering or misunderstanding Un Lun Dun. The French Choisis is specifically explained in the book as “You, plural, have chosen.” They were both the chosen one, because they chose to be!
@@@@@ 36: Huh. There is also Jonah, and the whole “take away this cup from me” bit. And that’s off the top of my head. Apparently the Bible is teeming with this…
Jews from Abraham down have never hesitated to argue with the Lord Our God. Of course we always lose the arguments. Or usually, there’s a rabbinic story of the early interpreters of the Talmud telling the Lord to butt out and He does!
@@@@@ 40 Pray tell. Where can I find it?
@Ashgrove
It’s a story from the Talmud about Rabbi Eliezer. The Sages were discussing an obscure point of Law about ritual impurity and specific kinds of ovens. Rabbi Eliezer insisted on one interpretation. The other four had the other opinion. He produced three miracles to support his point – making a stream run backwards, causing the Sun to stop and finally the Heavenly Voice proclaiming him correct.
Each time the four rabbis responded “The Torah is on Earth, not in Heaven. It is for us to determine the meaning of the Law on Earth.” In more popular versions, after the last miracle they say “Alright. The vote is now four to two.”
Or, as my wife says “Your People….”
Thanks Tellner.
Not the One!
Thanks, Tellner! That is priceless.