What Makes The Chosen One Special Anyway?

an analysis of a spectrum

"The Chosen One" is a common plot hook, especially in SF/F and adventure stories. While they may run from their role at first, in all but the most subversive uses of the trope the Chosen One will eventually step up and Do The Thing. But beyond that, the creators need to decide whether anything makes the Chosen One special other than their willingness to put themselves in the situation where they need to Do The Thing. Of course, it's not just a yes/no answer, or I wouldn't bother writing even a short essay on the subject.

Yes, The Chosen One is intrinsically Special

This is sometimes called a lazy choice, because there doesn't need to be any other real work to get the plot going. The Chosen One is Special, either because of heritage (secret heirs to royalty, offspring of the Big Bad, etc), because they have powers that are rare or even unique (magical talent, superpowers, psychic powers, or even just a talent at the very edge of what's humanly possible), or some combination of the two. For instance, Luke Skywalker was Special because his family is strong in the Force in general, and because he's specifically Darth Vader's son and one of the few people in the galaxy who could get Vader to turn away from darkness.

The Specialness doesn't have to be revealed right away, or even decided on right away (retcons are a thing, after all), but it was something present in the Chosen One before the story begins. Even had there been no prophecy, their Special nature would eventually have emerged and they would have been important in some way, if not on the level of the Chosen One.

(Sometimes the story will set up a fake Chosen One, who has something obviously Special about them from the start. Then the real Chosen One emerges later on, their position as Chosen One having been obscured by their humble origins or whatever. This is not the same as the Mentor Who Dies, because the story at least acts like the false Chosen One is the real deal for a little while, and the viewpoint character is simply trying to survive proximity to the Prophecy.)

No, The Chosen One is not Special, and the Prophecy is bunk

This is the other end of the spectrum. The Chosen One has nothing special about them save a willingness to be the sharp end of the spear. The Prophecy is revealed at or near the end of the story to have been total garbage, either a Dumbo's Feather crutch or even a scam. Fake Prophecies may even be thought real by everyone involved until the end, when they turn out to have been only as real as any self-fulfilling prophecy is. But regardless of the motives and knowledge of those promoting the Prophecy, its only real power is to give the protagonist confidence in the rightness of what they're doing. Even if it was a knowing scam, the protagonist surprises the scammers by being the first one to survive and Do The Thing.

This is not to say that the protagonist won't become Special along the way. The trials they undergo are often of the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" variety, and their willingness to follow the path may lead them to Specialness. Perhaps it's a power anyone can gain if they go through the same trials and survive, maybe it's pure luck, maybe they get it from someone who was Special but didn't fall for the Chosen One scam.

Milder versions of "no" can involve latent abilities that would never have been revealed or unlocked unless The Chosen One went through with their trials. Dumbo needed that feather and probably never would have flown without it. The protagonist of Kung Fu Hustle had to get beaten almost to death to unlock his inner power. But at this end of the spectrum, it takes a lot more than just telling someone they have a Special power or background, they need to have already accepted the call and risked their life before the latent Specialness could be unlocked. Even a legacy sort of Specialness needs to be reaffirmed through some sort of trial that the protagonist would never have been able to undergo without accepting the quest first. ("Yeah, you say you're the lost Prince, so do those five guys over there. Prove it.")

The Chosen One is Special because of the Prophecy

Once the Prophecy has come to pass or been prevented, the protagonist goes back to being a relatively normal person, usually, aside from the things they learned along the way. Mystical powers fade (and if they don't it's usually foreshadowing that the Prophecy hasn't really come to pass, time for a sequel). Support organizations and their gear often get smashed in the penultimate chapter, leaving only enough hidden resources to give The Chosen One a single shot at saving the world. The giant robot explodes while grappling the monster, having ejected The Chosen One at the last second. The army of followers has been winnowed down to a single squad, who suffer mightily in the final fight. Financial resources are all spent. Magical reserves husbanded over generations are depleted. And so forth. Everything was aiming at the Prophecy, and once The Chosen One has Done The Thing the resources are all used up.

Of course, sometimes The Chosen One retains all their power and resources even after the Prophecy has been dealt with. Then the story is about whether they can return to a normal life with all that power, seeing if there's something else the power can be used for, wondering why the power didn't go away, and so forth. Thus, while it was the Prophecy that made them Special, they stay Special even after the Prophecy has been dealt with. If there are more stories to come, they need to find something other than The Chosen One narrative to hang their plot on, though.

Yeah, what about sequels?

As an epilogue to the essay, it's worth considering the limitations of The Chosen One plot hook. Sure, sometimes you can get away with an open-ended Prophecy, and focus on the journey rather than making the Prophecy's resolution the plot of the first story. But eventually the Prophecy needs to be addressed, or everyone will get bored of the plot-teasing and stop reading or watching.

As noted in the previous section, if the protagonist remains Special, you can certainly come up with other challenges for them. Perhaps they lost the top end of their power in the aftermath of the final fight of the Prophecy, so future challenges don't need to be as prophecy-worthy. Like, the support agency got blown up a lot, but the core members are still there and aren't completely without resources, so they'd like to help the protagonist meet these new challenges. Or the locus of Fate is gone, but one touched by Fate will always be Special to some extent. A Magical Girl who has broken the cycle of Prophecy may still need to face lesser (or even greater) threats than the eternal foe she'd been reincarnated to oppose over and over. A space hero who saves the galaxy still has a lot of space criminals and leftover warlords to deal with. The farmboy who becomes King now has a realm to rule and some problems can't be solved with a magic sword. And so forth. Put them into some sort of plot where they're challenged, but leave Prophecy behind.

Probably the worst way to go about it, though, is to go back and undo the victory. Say that it wasn't the TRUE Prophecy, but a false "foreshock" of some sort. A false Gathering, for instance, or revealing that somehow, Palpatine lived. Unless the original Prophecy is established as somehow cyclical, it's really hard to follow a Chosen One plot with a new Chosen One plot in the same setting. Saying as part of the sequel that, oh, it's actually an unending cycle...that's cheating.

Dave's Philosophical Natterings

Dave's Online Nest.