1. What do you think of the “chosen one” narrative device? I like it. It's definitely a good way to force the narrative into an orderly story. I liked what you did with it, those poor lads were definitely worked up.
2. What’s your favorite fantasy story you’ve read on substack? It changes. Right now it's Nick Winney's "The Legacy."
3. If you were at a viking-style banquet, what dish would you reach for first? I'm a vegetarian, so I suspect that a big 'ol chunk of bread would be the only thing there I could eat. 😁
The Chosen Hero is a classic trope, and like many classic tropes, can get cliched; but like most cliches, there's a reason it's popular.
There's also a subtler, more Catholic variation on the theme, relating more to Divine Providence. Consider:
You. are. The One! You are The Big Screaming Deal! You're the Most Important Person in the world because it is Your Destiny to save the whole world! You are Jesus without the humility, you're Neo, you're totally unique and even better than them because you are You!
vs.
"My heart tells me Gollum still has some part to play. For good or ill." When Frodo is chosen by Eru Iluvitar, it isn't spelled out for him with writing on the wall or signs in the heavens. It was all by design from the beginning and that becomes very apparent by the end, but you don't know what the design is as you carry it out – it's different being in the story, than telling it – all the chosen ones can do is, like Bilbo, stick to your duty however painful, and Providence becomes clear in hindsight (or in a pinch when you really, truly need it). Also: it's not just one, we're all chosen for a definite purpose. "He knows what He is about," as Cardinal Newman said.
All that being said, as a storytelling trope…
I heard an interesting take on it, once, in a videogame fanfiction of all things. The hero "wants to be the one who fights for justice, wants to be the one who" stops the big bad, etc. But in the sequel, it turns out that he has a long lost older brother, who was supposed to be "the one" before him only to be forgotten… Until the antagonist finds and rehabilitates him, leading to a rivalry between the brothers, resent of their father on the older brother's part, anger on the father's part against the antagonist for his influence on his "dead" son, and pressure on the younger brother to carry out his father's vengeance. In the end, when the younger son has stopped the antagonist but is grappling with whether to go through with his father's murderous wish, the older brother rescues him and – seeing the younger brother's moral peril – comes to an epiphany: that their father is flawed and human, and that he must forgive him for that, and that it's okay that his younger brother is "the one" so long as they both remember not to blame others.
(Now, the downside to all that is it would probably be challenging to follow the fanfic without already knowing the characters and plots of the couple of games in question. It's easier to retell it in the abstract, although in context there are some fascinating little tidbits like the older brother contrasting the broken promises of how he would save everyone and be looked up to etc. with how "now I know what I would have become" instead.)
For my part, off and on over the years I've kicked around an idea, a question: What if the Chosen Hero went rogue and sided with the forces of darkness? Not so much in a gritty, there are no real heroes, modern superhero comics sort of way. More like, would the legendary mystical sword of ambiguous sentience have to decide between the hero-who-wasn't and some ordinary guy who has to try to stop him and save the world from him (or maybe even save him)? Would it turn out that the enemy's lieutenant who dogs the protagonist at every turn was meant to be the hero, and that you're nobody (except that you're the person in the right place and the right time to try to make a difference)? I feel like that kind of plot would work great if, granting the premise, it was played as straight as possible. Not a deconstruction of heroism, but an illumination of what's really important in heroism.
(Now that I think about it though Star Wars also kinda-sorta did something like that, with the prequels turning out that Anakin is "the chosen one" but Anakin ending up becoming Darth Vader and all. But it played out so slowly I don't even really think of it as a reversal of the Chosen Hero trope. Luke is already established as the hero and the "Darth Vader is Luke's Father" hero-villain connection trope is already established, by the time we get to discover the minor side point that Darth Vader / Anakin was supposed to be oh so Special, buried somewhere under all the villain's Dark Side scheming to conspiracize his way into control of the galaxy.)
Anyhow – I had a particular story idea I drafted that concept into, but, it's one of my more overwrought story ideas from when I was younger and had different struggles in life than now, and I may or may not decide to revisit it someday. It's certainly a premise I'd like to see a good writer play with.
1. What do you think of the “chosen one” narrative device? I like it. It's definitely a good way to force the narrative into an orderly story. I liked what you did with it, those poor lads were definitely worked up.
2. What’s your favorite fantasy story you’ve read on substack? It changes. Right now it's Nick Winney's "The Legacy."
3. If you were at a viking-style banquet, what dish would you reach for first? I'm a vegetarian, so I suspect that a big 'ol chunk of bread would be the only thing there I could eat. 😁
And mead. Don't forget mead!
Oh, yeah, and honey for the bread! 🐝
The Chosen Hero is a classic trope, and like many classic tropes, can get cliched; but like most cliches, there's a reason it's popular.
There's also a subtler, more Catholic variation on the theme, relating more to Divine Providence. Consider:
You. are. The One! You are The Big Screaming Deal! You're the Most Important Person in the world because it is Your Destiny to save the whole world! You are Jesus without the humility, you're Neo, you're totally unique and even better than them because you are You!
vs.
"My heart tells me Gollum still has some part to play. For good or ill." When Frodo is chosen by Eru Iluvitar, it isn't spelled out for him with writing on the wall or signs in the heavens. It was all by design from the beginning and that becomes very apparent by the end, but you don't know what the design is as you carry it out – it's different being in the story, than telling it – all the chosen ones can do is, like Bilbo, stick to your duty however painful, and Providence becomes clear in hindsight (or in a pinch when you really, truly need it). Also: it's not just one, we're all chosen for a definite purpose. "He knows what He is about," as Cardinal Newman said.
All that being said, as a storytelling trope…
I heard an interesting take on it, once, in a videogame fanfiction of all things. The hero "wants to be the one who fights for justice, wants to be the one who" stops the big bad, etc. But in the sequel, it turns out that he has a long lost older brother, who was supposed to be "the one" before him only to be forgotten… Until the antagonist finds and rehabilitates him, leading to a rivalry between the brothers, resent of their father on the older brother's part, anger on the father's part against the antagonist for his influence on his "dead" son, and pressure on the younger brother to carry out his father's vengeance. In the end, when the younger son has stopped the antagonist but is grappling with whether to go through with his father's murderous wish, the older brother rescues him and – seeing the younger brother's moral peril – comes to an epiphany: that their father is flawed and human, and that he must forgive him for that, and that it's okay that his younger brother is "the one" so long as they both remember not to blame others.
(Now, the downside to all that is it would probably be challenging to follow the fanfic without already knowing the characters and plots of the couple of games in question. It's easier to retell it in the abstract, although in context there are some fascinating little tidbits like the older brother contrasting the broken promises of how he would save everyone and be looked up to etc. with how "now I know what I would have become" instead.)
For my part, off and on over the years I've kicked around an idea, a question: What if the Chosen Hero went rogue and sided with the forces of darkness? Not so much in a gritty, there are no real heroes, modern superhero comics sort of way. More like, would the legendary mystical sword of ambiguous sentience have to decide between the hero-who-wasn't and some ordinary guy who has to try to stop him and save the world from him (or maybe even save him)? Would it turn out that the enemy's lieutenant who dogs the protagonist at every turn was meant to be the hero, and that you're nobody (except that you're the person in the right place and the right time to try to make a difference)? I feel like that kind of plot would work great if, granting the premise, it was played as straight as possible. Not a deconstruction of heroism, but an illumination of what's really important in heroism.
(Now that I think about it though Star Wars also kinda-sorta did something like that, with the prequels turning out that Anakin is "the chosen one" but Anakin ending up becoming Darth Vader and all. But it played out so slowly I don't even really think of it as a reversal of the Chosen Hero trope. Luke is already established as the hero and the "Darth Vader is Luke's Father" hero-villain connection trope is already established, by the time we get to discover the minor side point that Darth Vader / Anakin was supposed to be oh so Special, buried somewhere under all the villain's Dark Side scheming to conspiracize his way into control of the galaxy.)
Anyhow – I had a particular story idea I drafted that concept into, but, it's one of my more overwrought story ideas from when I was younger and had different struggles in life than now, and I may or may not decide to revisit it someday. It's certainly a premise I'd like to see a good writer play with.
Here is my Chosen story,
https://billferguson.substack.com/p/the-chosen