Fantasy with Friends is a meme hosted at Pages Unbound that poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.
Feb 23rd: “The Chosen One” is an often-mocked trope in fantasy literature. Do you frequently run across this trope in the books you read, or has it been a while since you encountered it? Do you dislike it, or do you think it can be done well? Are there any interesting twists on the Chosen One you’ve seen?
The Chosen One is not a trope that I read very often so I tend to enjoy it when I do read it. I can't think of any that I have read recently but Percy Jackson (from Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and Simon Snow (from the Simon Snow series) are two that come to mind for past reads. I can understand why the trope could be mocked as it can be overdone and I think the idea of just one person being special enough to be "The Chosen One" is what gets hate, especially if the author doesn't do a good job at building the character up to be special enough to be "The Chosen One".
Yes, sometimes I think it's so overdone that authors have largely stopped doing it! I struggle to think of a lot of examples of Chosen Ones off the top of my head, though I do think what actually annoys me most is a prophecy that SAYS someone is a Chosen One. Particularly if it's not really clear why and they're not remarkable. I mean they don't need to be a Mary Sue with crazy unique abilities, but as a reader you would like to think there's some kind of reason they're fit for the role.
ReplyDeleteI do think the author needs to explain why a character is uniquely positioned to defeat the villain for the Chosen One to work. They need to have some sort of special ability or characteristics that others lack. Otherwise, I am wondering why a twelve-year-old, for instance, is prophesied to be the hero when others with more experience and training have failed.
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