When starting this month, I asked some friends and family for topics, and Mike Baltar suggested this one. Thanks, Mike!

The trope of “The Chosen One” is usually one found in Fantasy, though there are a couple of notable instances in SciFi. Dune and Star Wars both have their chosen ones, for example. “The Chosen One” centers around a prophecy, decree of the gods, or a specific set of created circumstances that singles out a specific individual as the only possible savior.

“The Chosen One” has its problems. Let’s talk about them.

Fate or Free Will?

As soon as the writer decides to use a Chosen One type of narrative, they need to make some decisions how to deal with fate and free will as part of how the world functions. If our protagonist is The Chosen One and their future is fated, do they actually have agency? Where does their free will come into play? If the story respects the choices the protagonist makes, and their choices lead to being the savior everyone hoped, did the prophecy really matter and were they really The Chosen One? Could someone else have made the same choices in their place?

I’m going to point out an example where Fate came into play in a Chosen One narrative, but I don’t want it to ruin your experience of the movie. It’s a plot point that came up in The Matrix. If you’re worried I might ruin The Matrix, skip the next paragraph.

Cypher blasts Tank and Dozer, gets on a call with Trinity, and starts killing the crew one by one. He gets to Neo, our Chosen One, and says, “If this really is The One, it’ll take a miracle to keep me from pulling his plug.” Or words to that effect. At that moment, a critically injured Tank comes out of nowhere, shoots and kills Cypher, delivering the miracle Cypher just taunted. Note that this prophecy is one cooked up by programs within The Matrix, and describes Neo as an anomaly that can disregard the rules of The Matrix. But the miracle happens in the real world. How does that work? Luck? Does God listen to the programs?

When you see things like that in a story, it scratches at the walls of the narrative and can be really unsatisfying. It wasn’t a choice or an action on the part of any of the protagonists that resolved that situation. They got lucky that the antagonist failed to do what they thought they did, and they got lucky that someone recovered just in time to save the hero. Fate narratives often wind up looking like luck, which can be unsatisfying.

Who Can Be a Chosen One?

The Chosen One is almost always a young, straight, white man. Neo, Anakin, Rand al’Thor, Harry Potter, King Arthur… the list of young, straight, white, male saviors is pretty long. Occasionally we get a young woman, like Aloy in the game Horizon Forbidden West. Aloy and King Arthur both fall under nepotism, which might change them from being true Chosen Ones. I don’t know. I do know that the list of young, straight, white, male Chosen Ones is really long, and I think we can do better.

If you’re thinking about writing a Chosen One narrative, consider making your Chosen One a middle-aged black lesbian that’s fresh out of fucks to give. Make her interesting. Remember that characters are more than a collection of intersectionalities.

To be fair to The Matrix and The Wachowskis, Neo was almost played by Will Smith. That would have made for a very different movie. I’m not sure it would have been as successful since Keanu Reeves brought so much to the role.

The Trouble with Prophesies

Beyond the Fate or Free Will consideration, prophesies setup a promise with the reader/viewer. The more of the prophesy you expose, or the more specific the prophesy, the bigger the promise.

Once you have a Chosen One narrative going, you as the writer are locked in to a specific kind of story. How are you going to subvert the prophesy so as to keep the story fresh and unpredictable? At the same time, how are you going to fulfill the prophesy in such a way that it is surprising yet inevitable?

When it’s pulled off well, it’s very satisfying for all involved. When it’s not done all that well, it becomes inconsequential baggage holding the story back. For example, I don’t think the “He will bring balance to The Force” actually did much for Star Wars. I honestly think it would have been a better story without it.

Concluding Thoughts

Chosen One/Prophesy stories really demand a writer that is willing to do a lot of planning. This means outlining. Pantsers can give it a try, but I think they’re going to wind up rewriting large chunks of the story in order to make the prophecy portion satisfying.

What are some really good Chosen One narratives that I’m leaving out? What are some problems with Chosen One stories that I’m forgetting? Let me know!