Pros and Cons of the Chosen One

Disclaimer: The ideas in these pieces are purely my opinion. I am not an authority in storytelling or the genres of Sci-fi and Fantasy, nor will I ever see myself as one. You are free to have your own opinions and message me if you wish to talk further about the subjects I address.

The concept of the chosen one is one of the concepts of fantasy that will probably never die. That isn’t really a bad thing, but it is definitely a trope that many writers of the genre should be aware of. Like many aspects of storytelling, how well a trope is used is generally dependent on how well the author executes its role in the story. Now I’ll just start off and say that I am not a fan of the chosen one trope, so this article is definitely fueled by some bias, but I do understand its appeal and uses in a storytelling setting. To start off, I’ll list off the positives of the trope.

Pros

It establishes importance-

The chosen one is something that is an all-encompassing reason as to why a character is important. Why is so and so targeted by the big bad? Because they’re the chosen one. Why are gods and divine beings talking to this person? Because they’re the chosen one. It’s a good tool that cuts out the fluff and makes things simple for the reader, and the writer, to comprehend. Generally when a reader picks up a book the first thing they ask is, “Why is this person I’m reading about important and why should I care?” When you make a character a chosen one, that immediately puts them into the forefront of the reader’s mind and establishes that this is someone that the reader should focus on. It’s a big flashing sign that points the readers where you want them to look.

It adds scale and depth to your world-

When you include the idea of a chosen one into your story, there are many things that come with it. Usually a chosen one is selected by prophecy, and that prophecy was written by some ancient race, gods, or person of immense power. These elements make the world larger beyond just what the hero is doing and what the reader is looking at. It also creates conflict without needing to outright state that there is conflict. When a chosen one is introduced there needs to be a reason for them to exist. You could have them fight a darkness corroding the land, which establishes a villain. You have them right the wrongs in the world, which establishes that there is corruption that needs to be fixed. All of these points build off into other points which only expand more. The chosen one is a great tool for those that want to quickly establish that the world is big, and that there are problems to be solved.

It’s convenient-

I could go and write a bunch more points about how the chosen one trope makes things easier for a particular point, but really I should just say that on the whole, the trope is just so easy to use. With one thing single sentence you can change the dynamics of your story:

“They are the Chosen One.”

And there you go. Much like the “A wizard did it” trope in storytelling, establishing that someone is the chosen one is just a simple explanation for everything. This allows the writer to cut out the “fluff” and get to the real meat of the story. Why have the character train for books on end if you could just make them blessed by the Gods and give them immense power from the get go? Why does one lone person from a small town arrive in a city and is instantly important? Because they are the chosen one. With this tool the writer can keep their own plot moving and accelerate events that, realistically, would make it impossible for an average person to deal with. 

However, this is where I have a problem with the trope.

Cons

It’s lazy-

Writing takes time and effort. Establishing characters and character dynamics is no easy task if everyone is equal in the mind of the reader and writer, so when you say that a character is the chosen one it creates an excuse as to why that character should be talked about more. “Yes. Person A has the much more interesting personality but I want to write about Person B. Oh, I know! He’s the chosen one! That’ll make them stick out more.” Rather that having a character build themselves up and makes themselves important through their actions, they are slapped with a label that makes them important. Yes, you can make them unwilling to accept label, which leads into the “Reluctant Hero” trope, but you can also make a character deal with responsibility without also making them a chosen one. Writing is about delivery, and delivery takes a lot of time and energy, which makes this trope so tempting to use. “Why should I spend pages and pages to tell the reader that this person is someone they should care about when I could just put down this one sentence and get to my plot?” I’ll be honest, I’ve fallen victim to this more often than I care to count.  It’s a tool that makes everything easy in the beginning, but the further along in your story you get the more problems it generates, most notably…

It makes your side characters unimportant-

“They are side characters right? They are not supposed to be as important as the main character. Otherwise I would make them the main character.” Of course, there are already many stories that don’t make the protagonist the most important part of the plot, but generally the first instinct of a writer is to make the character they are writing about the most important person in the story. The chosen one is one of many ways to do that, and the easiest. But, it comes at a cost. When you establish one character as a chosen one it lowers all the other characters around them to roles that aren’t as important as that character. Yes, you could make the side characters do impressive things that leave a lasting impression to the reader, but in the end they will never be the chosen one. It kills their agency in the story. What they do, or what they say has to be in relation to the chosen one. If it is not in relation to the chosen one it’s unimportant and doesn’t fit with the plot anymore. To the average reader, this makes them not care about that character, and could actually end up making them resent every time this side character pops up. You could have a whole story about a bunch of different chosen ones, and that way you have a bunch of characters that are equally important, but then another problem pops up.

It makes the actions of the hero not their own-

Now what exactly does this mean? It means that no matter what the chosen one does or what they accomplish, because they have the label of the chosen one their strength is only attributed to the fact that they were chosen by divine providence. It wasn’t because the character was smart or strong in a situation, it was because they were the chosen one that they succeeded. This friend that they just made isn’t due to their chemistry with that other person, it’s because they’re the chosen one. In some cases it creates this detachment to the character because it makes them unrelatable to an extent. No one is the chosen one in real life, what we do is a result of our own actions and ambitions. That has weight behind it, giving the person more drive or reason to continue or quit. When you create a character that is important because you arbitrarily decide they are rather than letting them make themselves important through their own actions, the reader will stop identifying with the character past a certain point because their importance detaches them from their own actions. The character’s actions are no longer their own, but the result of something else guiding them down a path. It makes the character move in a linear and somewhat predictable path, and as a result can make them boring to read. I am no master wordsmith, nor do I think that I will ever be one, but one thing I try to do is make the character someone that the reader cares about not about what they are, but who they are. The concept of the chosen one kills this sentiment.

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Now, all of these points can be remedied by one thing, good writing. I'll say it again, I am not the person to tell you what you should put in your story. You yourself decides what goes in your story and what it’s about, and that includes chosen ones. These are just the risks that are associated with the trope. It is also entirely my opinion. I could be entirely off the mark with this one, and if I am I want to know. Am I overthinking this too much or do you agree with my statements?

Please, share your own opinions in the comments below.