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The Case for a Chosen One Antidote
Apr. 6th, 2015 01:30 pmHarry Potter, Percy Jackson, the Star Wars Trilogy, the Star Wars Prequels, King Arthur, Hercules, Jesus, Moses, etc. Chosen One stories are nothing new. Neither is complaining about it, but here I go.
The Chosen One has two basic expressions. In the first, a deity or some kind of mystical force blatantly identifies one as The Chosen One who will do great things and wield great powers. In the second, a latecomer/outsider to the struggle/community comes in, quickly outstrips everybody in skill despite having only started training recently. The two are not mutually exclusive.
The chosen one always gets some adulation and always displays power. Regularly, the chosen one will make some kind of sacrifice, often a dubious sacrifice.
This is a part of our cultural Mono-myth and, therefore, not something we can excise from storytelling. To be honest, it's also an easy go-to for lazy writing that will cheaply get buts in theater seats.
With an antidote, this could be harmless entertainment. Without a strong enough or regularly applied antidote, it delivers a bad message. We are supposed to identify with the Chosen One, who's work to earn chosen status amounts to being born. Everybody else's identities and importance as people are measured only in relation to the Chosen One.
The Antidote, I believe, lies in a trope that one sometimes finds in Chosen One Stories, the resentful one. The resentful one, the one who initially doesn't like the main character, either becomes a supporter of the Chosen One or becomes a bad guy. The Antidote will see that resentful one as the main character.
Our main character's back-story includes being raised and trained to a specific skill and task from early youth. There is a specific conflict and the main character spent most-to-all of hir life preparing for just that conflict. People are even making reasonable prediction that the main character might be the Chosen One who will Fight The Evil.
The main character will try to be humble. Past Chosen Ones haven't always been the most skilled in the base skill. Some have had other skills or other mindsets that were more useful in fighting their current incarnations of The Evil. Still, odds would have it and our main character is looking forward to being The Chosen One that will Fight The Evil.
That effort at humility isn't in vain. The main character makes an internal effort and pledge to be accepting and happy if The Chosen One turns out to be any of hir peers in the possible age-group. And, the main character very possibly could meet that pledge...
... If only the Chosen One wasn't an American tourist... because of course it's an American Tourist. If the entire world was going to revolve around anybody, it would have to be an American Tourist.
Even that would be alright. Somebody has to Fight The Evil, after all. So, why not an American Tourist?
Because the Chosen American Tourist doesn't take the training seriously! Because the Chosen American Tourist doesn't take the fight to come seriously! Because the Chosen American Tourist spends more time practicing one-liners to say upon victory than taking in that there are consequences if The Evil were to win!
Of course the rest of the community rewrites their own identities around The Chosen One. The one local restaurant that has served the community for generations with good food and an understanding readiness to trade in labor rather than money when people fall on hard times is now the one local restaurant where The Chosen One was amiably rude.
Even the main character's identity is absorbed into the Chosen One. Before, the main character was known for being dedicated and courteous. Now, the main character is known as the Chosen One's love interest?!?
Just to top everything off, when the Chosen One finally figures out that this is important, the Chosen One gets Chosen Angst and the main character is stuck being the one to get them through it.
The climax comes while the Chosen One is, in the background, having the Great Battle with the Evil. Instead of focusing on that as anything but setting, the real conflict will happen when the main character is beset, mentally, by The Evil. The temptation is to turn on the Chosen One, to end the Chosen-Ness, to make it so that nobody is ever Chosen again and nobody ever has to sacrifice their identity and sense of personal importance again.
Is that more good done than the harm of letting The Evil win just this once?
The Chosen One has two basic expressions. In the first, a deity or some kind of mystical force blatantly identifies one as The Chosen One who will do great things and wield great powers. In the second, a latecomer/outsider to the struggle/community comes in, quickly outstrips everybody in skill despite having only started training recently. The two are not mutually exclusive.
The chosen one always gets some adulation and always displays power. Regularly, the chosen one will make some kind of sacrifice, often a dubious sacrifice.
This is a part of our cultural Mono-myth and, therefore, not something we can excise from storytelling. To be honest, it's also an easy go-to for lazy writing that will cheaply get buts in theater seats.
With an antidote, this could be harmless entertainment. Without a strong enough or regularly applied antidote, it delivers a bad message. We are supposed to identify with the Chosen One, who's work to earn chosen status amounts to being born. Everybody else's identities and importance as people are measured only in relation to the Chosen One.
The Antidote, I believe, lies in a trope that one sometimes finds in Chosen One Stories, the resentful one. The resentful one, the one who initially doesn't like the main character, either becomes a supporter of the Chosen One or becomes a bad guy. The Antidote will see that resentful one as the main character.
Our main character's back-story includes being raised and trained to a specific skill and task from early youth. There is a specific conflict and the main character spent most-to-all of hir life preparing for just that conflict. People are even making reasonable prediction that the main character might be the Chosen One who will Fight The Evil.
The main character will try to be humble. Past Chosen Ones haven't always been the most skilled in the base skill. Some have had other skills or other mindsets that were more useful in fighting their current incarnations of The Evil. Still, odds would have it and our main character is looking forward to being The Chosen One that will Fight The Evil.
That effort at humility isn't in vain. The main character makes an internal effort and pledge to be accepting and happy if The Chosen One turns out to be any of hir peers in the possible age-group. And, the main character very possibly could meet that pledge...
... If only the Chosen One wasn't an American tourist... because of course it's an American Tourist. If the entire world was going to revolve around anybody, it would have to be an American Tourist.
Even that would be alright. Somebody has to Fight The Evil, after all. So, why not an American Tourist?
Because the Chosen American Tourist doesn't take the training seriously! Because the Chosen American Tourist doesn't take the fight to come seriously! Because the Chosen American Tourist spends more time practicing one-liners to say upon victory than taking in that there are consequences if The Evil were to win!
Of course the rest of the community rewrites their own identities around The Chosen One. The one local restaurant that has served the community for generations with good food and an understanding readiness to trade in labor rather than money when people fall on hard times is now the one local restaurant where The Chosen One was amiably rude.
Even the main character's identity is absorbed into the Chosen One. Before, the main character was known for being dedicated and courteous. Now, the main character is known as the Chosen One's love interest?!?
Just to top everything off, when the Chosen One finally figures out that this is important, the Chosen One gets Chosen Angst and the main character is stuck being the one to get them through it.
The climax comes while the Chosen One is, in the background, having the Great Battle with the Evil. Instead of focusing on that as anything but setting, the real conflict will happen when the main character is beset, mentally, by The Evil. The temptation is to turn on the Chosen One, to end the Chosen-Ness, to make it so that nobody is ever Chosen again and nobody ever has to sacrifice their identity and sense of personal importance again.
Is that more good done than the harm of letting The Evil win just this once?
