We all know there are a lot of common tropes in every genre of fiction. My mom is a fan of Hallmark movies, so I know there is always a misunderstanding in every romance story that causes drama, then there is a reconciliation after they resolve the misunderstanding. Boy gets the girl, all that. Wahoo. Everyone lives happily ever after. In horror there used to be a lot of a woman running away from some ax murderer who somehow keeps up with her even though he is only walking. In mystery there’s the detective with the troubled past, and in fantasy you have the chosen hero.
As for me, I’m not a huge fan of a few popular tropes, albeit I’ll admit, they have given birth to a lot of great fiction. Harry Potter uses the ‘Chosen One’ and ‘underdog who proves themselves worthy of being a hero’ trope. There’s also good versus evil trope, ancient and powerful artifact (the elder wand), and the orphan hero could even be applied. Aside from the ones I just mentioned there is also the medieval setting common to fantasy, damsels in distress, enemy turned ally, training arch, fantastical creatures, major quest, making a major sacrifice in order to achieve victory, all hope seeming lost at one point in tie, ally becoming enemy, only to sometimes become an ally again, all hope seeming lost at one point, someone swooping in to help the hero in their time of need, and much more.
There are countless numbers of tropes that we could talk about for hours. Some of them are great, others not so much. One trope in particular that I’m not fond of is the Chosen Hero trope. My reason? Because there is something abut the idea that only a single person can defeat some world ending malevolent force that doesn’t sit right with me. I know we’re talking about fiction, but that concepts seems so far from reality and unbalanced that it makes me cringe. We are talking about fantasy, magic, and stuff like that, so I can see why it has a place, and I accept its place as a popular trope. I just don’t ever plan on using this trope in my own writing. If I do, it’ll be in a very unusual way, or
I’ll just use it as a tool to mock the trope entirely.
I do appreciate the Chosen One trope when it is paired with the underdog trope. Though that is only because I am an underdog myself, and love to see a hardworking, lovable loser eventually get the recognition they deserve for all of their hard work. There is something uplifting about knowing that someone who has everything working against them being destined to succeed. In that respect it makes it feel like the hero actually earned that title, rather than being arbitrarily given it by some entity because of their position. (King Arthur and Excalibur comes to mind when I think of this). I guess the more normal and real the hero seems the more I can appreciate the Chosen One trope being used.
Another exception I have to the chosen one trope is how George Lucas did it with Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. Anakin was supposed to be the one to restore balance to the force, yet he ends up wiping out all of the Jedi instead. However, he still retains the title of being the one to restore balance to the force in Return of the Jedi by killing the Emperor. Then Disney took over the series, and kind of ruin that by bringing the Emperor back in Rise of Skywalker. That wasn’t George Lucas, though, so my point still stands.
Another reason I don’t really like the trope is, because it is like when someone is born into wealth, and is handed success on a silver platter. Sure, they might have the skills necessary to cultivate the things they were given and become even more successful. I do respect those people, think they are worthy of respect, and can appreciate that they had the skills not to mess it up (Because if we are being honest, a lot of people would mess it up, and end up failing if they were just handed everything). The reason I use this analogy isn’t because I hate those kinds of people. A lot of people do, though, which is why the popularity of the chosen hero trope sometimes baffles me. My guess is no one has ever presented the chosen hero this way. However, when you think about it, the chosen hero is often handed the key to victory at some point, even if they do have to overcome certain trials, destiny has ordained that they would overcome them.
I guess my issue is that I can’t really relate to those types of people who have a path to success laid out before them. I’m sure everyone would love to be in that position, but I’ve never been. I have always had to toil to prove myself, even when it came to doing some of the most basic tasks. I was a dental receptionist for two years, and wasn’t allowed to work the front desk for a while because I was too slow at checking people in and out. My lack of vision really slows me down when it comes to reading and using computers.. Eventually I became proficient enough to work the front desk, but again I had to work for it.
I long to see the fantasy epic about just a regular person rise to glory, not because they had some special ability grated to them, or because they had everything laid out for them. I want to see someone succeed because of hard work, choosing not to ever give up, and because they made the choice to be the hero.
As a writer I try to avoid tropes as much as possible, because I’m aiming to be original. Of course, there is no way to avoid using tropes, or be completely original. Even if I as an author thought up something in a void, it likely was already used by someone else already. Still, I wouldn’t go as far as calling originality completely dead, nor would I necessarily say that stories that rely on a lot of overused tropes unimaginative, or terrible. Even though I’m not a fan of the ‘Chosen One’ trope I have read, watched, heard, and enjoyed many stories that heavily rely on it. Even my own writing might be mistaken for using said trope at times.
Be warned, if you’ve read one of my books and thought any of the characters were some kind of chosen one, you’ll be disappointed to find out that is not the case. Someone might stand out as a hero, but they were never ‘chosen’ by anyone for that particular role. Unless you count me as the author choosing to make them a hero in the story. (LOL).
MJ Maddox