The Chosen One: A Dead Trope?

who so pulleth out this sword from this Stone  and Anvil is duly born king of all England   I don't need to tell you where that's from right  you've heard this story you know King Arthur   Camelot Merlin the quest for the Holy Grail  it's one of the oldest stories of its kind an   enduring Legend with a touch of Destiny in every  version Arthur or his analog is the rightful King   and with his sword Excalibur he leads his Brave  Knights on countless adventures all as it should   be as fate foretold Arthur is after all the chosen  one the prophesied hero The Once and Future King   he's more than just a hero fate is on his side  Achilles was also a chosen hero as was Beowulf   and Harry Potter and Neo from The Matrix and  Jesus Christ and the Dalai Lama you'll get   the point this is a pretty popular idea it's  got staying power it sticks in the mind sounds   throughout the centuries appears and works as far  distant as the Norse poetic era and Percy Jackson   why then does it leave such a bad taste in  the mind when you realize that a character   in a story you're reading is the chosen one it's  a little difficult not to roll your eyes right   it's just too easy too tired too simple but  put yourself in that character's shoes for a   moment imagine yourself the chosen one  and you'll quickly realize that it's a   lot more complex and interesting than  you might want to give it credit for thank you [Music] okay really quick I just want  to say that our next video is actually out already   you can watch it right now for free over on our  streaming platform nebula in fact we release all   our content there way before we release it here  there are actually a lot of things over there   that will probably never release Here on YouTube  like this video about why artists depict angels   in the way that they do or this one about one of  the weirdest Epic Fantasy stories ever written   we even have a whole series over there  about some of our favorite authors and   why they make the things that they do to see  all the rest of hail Foundry that isn't here   on YouTube go check out our nebula Channel at  nebula.tv tale Foundry go ahead and watch our   next video long before it comes out here  on YouTube right now and get a leg up on   the conversation the first video you  watch on nebula is freeze so why not   okay you are the chosen one your Mentor figure  just revealed the prophecy to you and now it's   time to embark on your predestined path fabulous  just don't forget your inscrutable magical   artifact that you'll know what to do with when the  time is right oh and of course you can go anywhere   without a trusty animal companion can you and here  just to cross our T's and Dot our eyes you should   probably take this map that'll guide you right  to the dark overlords Tower where you'll finally   satisfy the prophecy all right you're set now off  on your adventure fulfill your great Destiny as   no one else in the world could or wait actually  you know this is looking oddly familiar isn't it   yeah this is basically the same great Destiny  I've seen every other hero try to fulfill   huh I mean I'd tell you to ditch the map and  just Chase your own MacGuffin but Destiny you   don't really get that choice do you most of  your journey has already been decided for you   you're just kind of part of the machine at this  point right it can certainly feel that way the   pevency children are destined to take the throne  from the White Witch and Rule Narnia peacefully   Luke will restore balance to the force link time  and time again is called on to be the hero of   every Zelda game certainly there will be some  unforeseen hardships along the way but I mean   Victory is pretty much a foregone conclusion for  you right which makes it very likely that part   of your heroic Arsenal is going to be the  Beloved infallible much coveted plot armor   unless the story is a tragedy or a clever  subversion the chosen one is you know chosen   it's a cosmic dictate if the thing is going to  get done and we can trust the alignment of the   stars and the visions of the oracles or whatever  it is then we can assume our chosen hero is going   to be the one to do it somehow and okay great for  you as a hero but it makes the tale just a little   less riveting for us on the outside the Assumption  of success can undercut a lot of the tension we   might otherwise experience at the very least it's  going to make your long-term goals a moot point   and force our Focus onto more short-term conflicts  and even during those there can be an underlying   sense that everything is going to be okay in the  end again comforting for you but I want to see a   genuine struggle I want there to be a legitimate  room for failure it makes your effort feel somehow   nobler more well spent there are real Stakes that  way and while we're at it there's something else   I need to address why you Achilles Beowulf Arthur  even Neo to a certain extent I understand all of   them I can see why they stand out why they were  chosen for this task but chosen doesn't always   mean appropriate right especially when the method  of choice is very hand wavy and Cosmic sometimes   it just feels completely arbitrary I guess this  is how we end up with so many Teenage Heroes for   the chosen task Katniss Everdeen can shoot  arrows good I guess but every major conflict   in the world continuously revolving around her  benefits of being a main character I guess and   Harry Potter congrats on becoming the Nexus of a  complete accident of combined magical circumstance   now I guess you the most unremarkable person in  the cosmos are the best candidate to challenge a   genocidal evil that not even the most powerful  Wizards have been able to confront wonderful   I guess there's a bit of fantasy to this idea  making a hero out of someone who's more or   less a blank slate can definitely be sort of  sympathetic that might be how you feel right   now standing here in the chosen one's shoes  it can feel like anyone can change the world   which is a nice idea best-selling author and comic  illustrator Scott McLeod describes this phenomenon   with the phrase neutral mask which is essentially  a way to convey a character which leaves who they   are somewhat open to interpretation readers  he says want to see themselves in other things   but the more realistic or detailed the drawing  of a character gets the fewer people can project   themselves in that character this even works with  Mary Sue characters who have a chronically hard   time failing even when they do nothing at all  if a character is just generally good at stuff   and fortunate and attractive they're still kind  of empty they have few defining features except   that things come easily for them the reader may  not be like that but the mask is still neutral   and it's easy enough to write oneself over the  top of their blaring blankness but honestly hero   I don't think that I would recommend trying  to be either of these things whether you're   unremarkable or Flawless one thing is likely  to be true here you're going to be boring   probably that's the risk you take in being a  character so scantly defined that people can   simply plaster their own face over yours don't you  want to be more than an allegory for the every man   don't you want this journey to matter well the  good news is that despite everything I've said   so far I really think it can infallible Heroes  blank slates generic nobodies glorified by Fate   through a series of unbelievable chances these do  read like the markers along a rather boring path   but perhaps with the right treatment these very  flaws can make for a surprisingly interesting   Journey admittedly heroics in general can get  a little archetypal a lot of people look to   Joseph Campbell's critical framework the hero's  journey as a sort of model for what this looks   like the hero leaves the world of the familiar  goes off into the unknown experiences all kinds   of challenges and at last returns home forever  changed and Laden with precious Treasures simple   familiar and the Beautiful part is that there's so  much room for deviation this model is sort of just   a reflection of what usually happens in stories  for most Heroes and most people I suspect the old   idiom Rings true it's more about the journey than  the destination I mean there must be some reason   we've continued to tell the chosen one stories for  thousands of years right there has to be something   more than simple convenience that's driving  people to keep writing and reading these things   okay so now imagine yourself not only in the  hero's shoes but in their armor too that's sweet   shiny plot armor a bit heavy maybe but boy is it  about to do you some good so maybe your prophecy   gives you a bit of an insurance policy and maybe  that can be a bit boring from the outside but you   can absolutely turn that into an advantage  for us your audience rather than stumbling   haphazard through your adventure coming out of  every predicament unscathed because you simply   ought to you can capitalize on your Cosmic  indispensability in the 2003 movie Big Fish   A young Edward Bloom sees his own death in the  eye of a witch not quite the same as a chosen   hero but the knowledge of how and when he's going  to die certainly gives him a similar guarantee   throughout the movie he continuously takes  riskier more dangerous paths because he knows   they won't be the cause of his death the knowledge  enables him to have a far grander Adventure than   he otherwise would have on this subject there's a  quote I love from the Norse myth Skinner's Journey   in the story The God Fair calls his servant  skearner to embark on an Epic Journey on his   behalf at one point when denied the help of a  herdsman skerner says to him fearlessness is   better than a faint heart for any man who puts  his nose out of doors the length of my life and   the day of my death were faded long ago this is  obviously a reference to the Old Norse concepts   of fate in predestination where the events in span  of all lives have already been measured out by the   norns the sisters of fate but I think the idea  applies nicely to you as well hero rather than   boring the plot armor provided by this kind of  predestination can actually Empower you to try   more interesting unexpected things it can enrich  your journey after all if you know your fate what   is there to fear okay you know what that question  is reductive fun good but reductive because   Destiny has plot armor or not we really can't just  treat being the chosen one is a blessing can we   although it might be cleared the Storyteller in  the audience maybe you don't quite see it hero   not every chosen one is aware  of their relative infallibility   they may not have the chance to see whether a  journey ends like Edward Bloom and even if they   do that doesn't mean hardship and loss won't meet  them on the way perhaps sometimes being Fortune's   special pet is not all sunshine and rainbows that  shiny shiny plot armor begins to weigh on you   not everyone wants the chosen one's mantle  not everyone wants to Bear the weight of that   distinction some Heroes even reject the call  or at least they try to which I understand   it's a pretty big responsibility to do anything  at all because the cosmos demanded of you right   there's a lot of conflict inherent to the  weight of a prophecy I mean look at you hero   you didn't ask for this but here you are the  one person who can save the day where do you   start what if you want to do other things with  your life what if you don't want to do the thing   you're supposed to do I mean what if your prophecy  isn't exactly a good one evil is relative isn't it   one person's hero can just as easily be someone  else's villain I think of palatraides from Dune   who is prophesied to set his people free but  also to bring immense Bloodshed to mankind   and even despite his resistance he feels himself  ever tugged Along by the threads of Fate we talked   earlier about how the assumption of success can  undercut the tension of the story if we're rooting   for you to fulfill your destiny the assurance that  you will sort of remove some of the drama whittles   away at the stakes on the flip side if you don't  want to fulfill your destiny or the audience is   hoping you'll fail that prophecy can actually turn  out to be more of a curse a terrible impending   thing that seems to draw nearer and nearer  no matter what you do tragic interesting far   more compelling than we tend to expect from The  Chosen One perhaps this tragic unwillingness this   reluctance in the face of Fate itself makes the  exalted and often off-puttingly lustrous Chosen   One seem just a little more like us the audience  just a person facing unimaginable responsibility   we talked earlier about the problems that  can arise out of using generic nobodies   as a chosen hero but from the perspective of the  audience hungry for a good story a worthy Journey   perhaps there is no one better qualified to be the  chosen hero than then the least qualified person   imagine the difficulty of being selected for a  task to which you know you are not equal imagine   the anxiety of trying to figure out how you can  possibly measure up imagine asking why me imagine   the immense sense of imposter syndrome you would  experience do you lack skill do you lack strength   do that courage confidence wisdom these flaws of  the nobody counter-intuitively turn you into an   individual instead of a faceless Mary Sue the  ways that you gravel with them strip away that   neutral mask and make you your own hero not just  a surrogate for us not so easy being the chosen   one is it I think it can get a little ridiculous  when authors use this concept as an easy out for   making their characters special or compelling  them to action but look how full of intrigue   the Dynamics of this concept can be if you pay  attention to the person experiencing the prophecy   it's rough being the tool of the cosmos rough  with a few Silver Linings as easy as tired as   simple as this archetype can be I think it still  deserves respect and I think it still deserves to   be taken advantage of where appropriate the cosmos  is calling you hero no guarantee the journey will   be a good one no guarantee you're worthy of  the mantle no guarantee you'll want any of this   but have hope somehow under the watchful eyes of  Fate those very Faults Are what will make your   story memorable [Music] sadly that's just about  all the advice I can offer you on your journey   right now because usually we only upload about  one video a weekend this is it but if you don't   want to wait if you want to see our next video  right now you can it's already out over on nebula   actually we've got a bunch of stuff over there  that will never come out here on YouTube like   this video about why artists depict angels in  the way that they do or this one about one of   the weirdest Epic Fantasy stories ever written  we even have a whole series over there about   some of our favorite authors and why they make the  things that they do you can watch it all over on   our streaming platform nebula and if you're not  familiar honestly nebula is just a paradise for   video creators they don't just pass some one-time  bounty to mention them like a sponsor does we get   paid every time someone watches our content over  there we even get paid part of the subscription   when people sign up while they're watching our  stuff watching nebula is supporting the creators   you love which is why so many of us have flocked  to it we have friends like extra credits low spec   gamer and legal eagle over there all of whom have  their own original content on nebula just like us   it's a little like YouTube If YouTube had zero ads  a guarantee of high quality content more 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Channel: Tale Foundry

Views: 684,878

Keywords: Tale Foundry, Talefoundry, Writing, Fiction, Literature, Storytelling, Stories, Writers, Write, Fiction Writing, lore, tale foundry, story time, creativity, inspiration, storytelling, writing advice, writing tips, writertube, writer tube, writing tube, worldbuilding, writing and worldbuilding, trope, the hero's journey, harry potter, heroes, hero, the chosen one, destiny, fate, mary sue, trope talk, analysis, big fish, fantasy, how to write

Id: Uqmmhr6pYAE

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023