History Main / TheChosenOne

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'': Subverted. Sheen Estevez is called "The Chosen One" by the monks of Shangri Llama, thanks to his strange ability to put his foot behind his head. However, he isn't the ''true'' Chosen One, but merely a substitute (since the monks were sick of waiting around for the real one to show up).

* Literature/TheBible: Jesus Christ means "Jesus the Anointed One". ''Christos'' being Greek for "anointed" (and "chrism" is an old name for the anointing oil). Thus "Christ" is a title, not a given name.

* Several heroes from Myth/ClassicalMythology were chosen for specific tasks. Hercules was born to fight besides the gods in the Gigantomachy and rid the world of monsters. Perseus was chosen to complete Athena's vengeance on Medusa.

* A number of ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' games have a Chosen One, though the method of choosing differs. In [=DQ1=], the hero is chosen by virtue of being the descendant of a great hero. In [=DQ2=] is similar, but the choices are slightly on the larger scale given the larger family tree. In [=DQ3=], the same thing happens, but [[spoiler: the story is a prequel, where the hero goes on to initiate the heroic linage of the family of the first two games.]] [=DQ4=] has a chosen one philosophy, but the game rather treats all the cast as TheChosenMany. [=DQ5=], the protagonist is actually ''not'' the Chosen One, [[spoiler: but his inevitable son is]]. In [=DQ11=], you're "chosen" by virtue of being the reincarnation of a prior great hero -- but ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne because [[SuperheroParadox you're blamed as the reason the vicious monsters are appearing]].
* The VideoGame/TalesSeries often uses this trope; however given that it's the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'', you can bet that it's often played with or flat-out [[ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne deconstructed]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': In "[[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E6JackAndTheTravelingCreatures Jack and the Traveling Creatures]]", Jack reaches a time portal that could take him back to the past. The portal's Guardian denies Jack entry, boasting that only one man is destined to defeat him and use the portal, and Jack is not that man. Jack challenges the Guardian anyway... and is soundly defeated. The Guardian only spares Jack at the last moment [[spoiler:when the portal itself shows him a vision of [[FutureBadass an older Jack with a beard and a crown]]. The Guardian sends Jack off, telling him that he's not ready to use the portal now. Jack ''is'' the Chosen One after all, but he still needs to take a few more levels of badass. Sadly backfired and [[DeconstructedTrope painfully deconstructed]] as Aku easily befelled The Guardian, destroyed the portal, and subjected the future to a more hellish half-century.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': In "[[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E6JackAndTheTravelingCreatures Jack and the Traveling Creatures]]", Jack reaches a time portal that could take him back to the past. The portal's Guardian denies Jack entry, boasting that only one man is destined to defeat him and use the portal, and Jack is not that man. Jack challenges the Guardian anyway... and is soundly defeated. The Guardian only spares Jack at the last moment [[spoiler:when the portal itself shows him a vision of [[FutureBadass an older Jack with a beard and a crown]]. The Guardian sends Jack off, telling him that he's not ready to use the portal now. Jack ''is'' the Chosen One after all, but he still needs to take a few more levels of badass. Sadly backfired and deconstructed as Aku easily befelled The Guardian, destroyed the portal and subjected the future to a more hellish half-century.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': In "[[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E6JackAndTheTravelingCreatures Jack and the Traveling Creatures]]", Jack reaches a time portal that could take him back to the past. The portal's Guardian denies Jack entry, boasting that only one man is destined to defeat him and use the portal, and Jack is not that man. Jack challenges the Guardian anyway... and is soundly defeated. The Guardian only spares Jack at the last moment [[spoiler:when the portal itself shows him a vision of [[FutureBadass an older Jack with a beard and a crown]]. The Guardian sends Jack off, telling him that he's not ready to use the portal now. Jack ''is'' the Chosen One after all, but he still needs to take a few more levels of badass.]]

* In the [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/316541 web cartoon]] ''WebAnimation/AnimatorVsAnimation'', a sadistic Flash animator creates a little stick man called "Victim" to torment. "Victim" quickly turns around and starts tormenting ''him'', [[InterfaceScrew tearing up the Flash GUI]] and playing kickball with the mouse cursor until the harried animator manages to close the program. Things escalate in ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/368557 Animator vs. Animation 2]]'', in which the animator makes the careless mistake of naming his creation ''The Chosen One'': not only does this nightmare creature with the power of ten million stick men destroy the Flash interface, he ''[[BreakingtheFourthWall escapes to the animator's desktop]]'' and begins wreaking havoc there. The only thing that stops his rampage is the timely intervention of Avast Anti-Virus, after which the Chosen One is rehabilitated as the best pop-up blocker ever (he ''incinerates'' the bastards!). Finally in ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/576381 Animator vs, Animation 3]]'' ''The Chosen One'' escapes from his pop up blocker 'job' and begins [[InterfaceScrew wreaking havoc again on the animator's desktop.]] The animator is forced to create another stickman named ''TheDarkLord'' to try and destroy the ''The Chosen One''. Their battle reaches all across the desktop and it ends with the computer blue-screening due to the two teaming up to destroy the animator's computer. And years later, he comes back, now as a hero.

* In the ''[[Literature/NightWatch Watch]]'' books by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko, Anton and Svetlana's daughter is supposed to be the next messiah, although the ending of the second book makes it unclear as to whether she will be the actual messiah or simply an extremely-powerful Other. As of the sixth novel, we're still not sure, although it's claimed that she has the power to [[spoiler:destroy Twilight itself by killing the Tiger, its manifestation, eliminating magic from the world.]]

* In the ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' StoryArc "[[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/990704 The Storm Breaker Saga]]", Zoë is revealed to be the eponymous Storm Breaker who is destined to kill the demon K'Z'K. Since he can't permanently dies just like that, she can even invoke it more than once; another time, she shows herself able to randomly pick from among magic items the one that will hellp stop him.

* In the ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' StoryArc "[[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/990704 The Storm Breaker Saga]]" Zoe is revealed to be the eponymous Storm Breaker who is destined to kill [[BigBad K'Z'K]].

** Another case is party member Riki, the legendary Heropon. This one's PlayedForLaughs, as it quickly comes out that the main thing qualifying Riki for "Heropon" status (which itself in an annual appointment) is ''massive, crushing debt'', which gets forgiven by taking up the mantle. The Nopon Elder and ChooserOfTheOne heavily implies he's fobbing Riki off on the party because their quest is marginally less suicidal than the normal Heropon duties of hunting (and being eaten by) monsters in their forest and it would be nice for Riki's family if he came back alive.

* In the [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/316541 web cartoon]] ''WebAnimation/AnimatorVsAnimation'', a sadistic Flash animator creates a little stick man called "Victim" to torment. "Victim" quickly turns around and starts tormenting ''him'', [[InterfaceScrew tearing up the Flash GUI]] and playing kickball with the mouse cursor until the harried animator manages to close the program. Things escalate in ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/368557 Animator vs. Animation 2]]'', in which the animator makes the careless mistake of naming his creation ''The Chosen One'': not only does this nightmare creature with the power of ten million stick men destroy the Flash interface, he ''[[BreakingtheFourthWall escapes to the animator's desktop]]'' and begins wreaking havoc there. The only thing that stops his rampage is the timely intervention of Avast Anti-Virus, after which the Chosen One is rehabilitated as the best pop-up blocker ever (he ''incinerates'' the bastards!). Finally in ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/576381 Animator vs, Animation 3]]'' ''The Chosen One'' escapes from his pop up blocker 'job' and begins [[InterfaceScrew wreaking havoc again on the animator's desktop.]] The animator is forced to create another stickman named ''TheDarkLord'' to try and destroy the ''The Chosen One''. Their battle reaches all across the desktop and it ends with the computer blue-screening due to the two teaming up to destroy the animator's computer.

* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': When Aloy was born, she was found deep inside the most sacred part of Nora land--right underneath the claw of the Metal Devil that their Goddess fought. The Matriarchs couldn't agree on whether she was [[MessianicArchetype the daughter of All-Mother sent to save the Nora]], or [[AntiChrist the spawn of the Metal Devil sent to awaken it, with Teersa believing the former and Lansra adamantly believing the latter. They were able to reach a compromise in making her an outcast, keeping her away from Nora society for their protection, in Lansra's mind, but keeping open the possibility for her to earn her place. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she actually was born to save them and the rest of humanity (albeit [[{{Reconstruction}} without the religious implications]]). She is a genetic clone of Elisabet Sobek, the creator of the AI GAIA tasked with terraforming the planet. GAIA knew that she would have full administrative access to nearly all Old Ones technology, which would allow her to restore GAIA, who had to destroy herself to stop HADES.]] She notably has some typical angst about this on learning the truth but Sylens, as always mocks her:

* Troy Barnes in ''Series/{{Community}}'', whose destiny is to be....the greatest air conditioner repair-man ever. Yes, it is apparently SeriousBusiness, for the One True Repair-Man Will Repair Man.

* Akko in ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia'' is chosen to be the wielder of the powerful Shiny Rod wand much like her idol Shiny Chariot. In the original short movie, she comes across it in a treasure room of a dungeon, while in the series adaptation, she finds it in the Arcturus Forest on the outskirts of her school.

* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}''- the trope is [[Literature/DuneMessiah thoroughly deconstructed]] with Paul Atreides and [[Literature/GodEmperorOfDune his son Leto]]. Played straight with [[spoiler: Duncan Idaho]] in [[Literature/HuntersSandwormsOfDune the final book]].

* [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog's]] sidekick, Miles "Tails" Prower, was named as the Chosen One in a prophecy made by the Ancient Walkers that said he would collect the Chaos Emeralds and begin the "Great Harmony." The problem is, the prophecy was worded badly, thus what Tails had to do was incredibly blurry. He thought his fight with Master Mogul as Titan Tails was the prophecy, but he realized that he'd gotten it wrong when [[AIIsACrapshoot A.D.A.M.]] brought the entire ''universe's'' collection of Chaos Emeralds to Mobius and had Shadow's help in shunting them into the Zone of Silence, where Feist would unify them.
* The ''Comicbook/ArmyOfDarkness'' comics go into much further expositions and machinations that revolve around just how much it sucks being The Chosen One. (Aside from all your friends and loved ones going [[NotUsingTheZWord deadite]] ) Makes sense seeing as [[TomeOfEldritchLore The Necronomicon]] itself has its ties directly to each one of each generation. [[spoiler: Even going so far as to have a Werewolf [[AscendedFanboy assistant]] type with his mentor's full journal account of the last generation's Chosen One who apparently worked himself into the Jack the Ripper mythos.]]

* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': Particularly true in Alan Scott's case as he is the third Chosen One in a line with each being chosen for a different purpose. To a lesser extent, the Green Lantern Corps consist of 7200 members who are the "Chosen Ones" for their specific sectors of space (though they're chosen for worthiness, not to fulfill a prophecy.) The only true chosen one of the Corps to date is Sodam Yat who was tied to a prophecy about the ComicBook/BlackestNight.

* Subverted in the comic ''{{Chosen}}''. After a series of unusual events, Jodie discovers that he has a greater calling, and is destined for big things. After saying goodbye to all his friends, Jodie goes off to fulfill his true destiny...[[spoiler: as the Antichrist.]]
* In the comic [[Creator/CrossGen Mystic]] it is much to the shock of everyone when rather than Genevieve, a studious and hard working student who has spent her life preparing to be chosen, it is her sister Giselle, and irresponsible socialite who is chosen. No one is pleased with this. Giselle herself least of all.

* In ''ComicBook/Judas2017'', it is implied by the end that [[spoiler:Judas was sent to Hell not due to his betrayal, but rather he was sent there to act as a messiah figure to those who were already damned.]]

* The [[Fanfic/TheCalvinverse Calvinverse]] side story ''Prelude to a Season'' has ''[[spoiler:Socrates]]'' being labeled as this by the aliens. The last few episodes of ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' seem to build up to something, supporting this theory.
* In the ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'',

* ''[[Literature/SkulduggeryPleasantResurrection Skulduggery Pleasant]]'' introduces chosen one, Augur Darkly. In a twist, it's his brother, Omen, who becomes a major character.