Trope Breakdown | The Chosen One
Welcome back to another Trope Breakdown! This edition will be about my thoughts on the “Chosen One” trope and whether I think it’s been played out or deserves another chance.
Every protagonist is the hero (or anti-hero) of their own story, but sometimes a protagonist is the “Chosen One,” the one who will save everyone else in the book from the threat they’re facing. Some narratives subvert the idea that only the protagonist can be the Chosen One (The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness is a good example of this), but many of them choose to follow tradition.
The premier example of the Chosen One trope for the modern era is the Harry Potter series by a certain transphobe, in which Harry Potter discovers that he is a wizard and the boy prophesied to defeat Lord Voldemort, ultimately freeing the Wizarding World from the villain’s reign of terror. While it did break literary records, the way the series uses the trope is pretty standard – Harry is the One, and he must come to terms with it.
The main issue I have with this trope is that many authors tell the readers that the protagonist is the Chosen One and then hope that they go along with it, as seen with Tris Prior’s story arc in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. Tris is special because she’s a rare Divergent, but the first book especially does not go into what that means or why a Divergent person is so dangerous. The author opting to reveal more later in the series is a valid decision, but it left me more confused than curious at first.
Photo courtesy of Amazon
One interpretation of the trope I did enjoy was The Blood of Stars series by Elizabeth Lim. The main character Maia is an unsuspecting tailor who enters a competition hosted by the emperor to represent her family and show off her own craftsmanship, but when she finally wins, she learns that she must perform seemingly impossible tasks to keep her new job. She accepts her fate with grace and poise, even though the circumstances are against her. I sympathized with her character throughout the book, and she rose to the occasion in a way that was still believable.
Photo courtesy of The Great Book Wyrm
Final Verdict: It’s not bad – a solid literary staple when done well.
What do you think? Do you agree with me about this trope? Comment down below and feel free to add your own examples!