This is arguably the most used character trope in the history of fantasy. Most stories of the genre utilise it in some way. It may be subtle or they might literally be called The Chosen One. To be clear, a chosen one is someone who is selected by a force outside themselves to become the only person who is capable of resolving the plot, usually through some extraordinary circumstance that only they can trigger.

Chosen Ones come in many different forms. We touch on some popular examples in the episode, outlining where they may be similar and different. Spoilers: they're almost always orphans. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, prophesied to destroy He Who Must Not Be Named (Voldemort). Lyra Belacqua, a subtle chosen one with subversive abilities and who never knows that the path she forged was destined to change multiple universes. Avatar Aang, a classic chosen one, belonging to a long line of predecessors, able to access enormous power and tasked with the fate of the world.

We love a chosen one story and the idea that anyone could be plucked from obscurity and thrust into greatness. But it is also easy to write the trope poorly and create a boring character who is ridiculously skilled for someone who just picked up a sword for the first time. We look at the pitfalls of the trope, where writers get caught, and what we can learn to make the Chosen One trope work for us.

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