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alt title(s): Chosen One "It's one thing to think that you're the center of the universe — it's another thing entirely to have this confirmed by an ancient prophecy."
—Douglas Adams
The ultimate victim of Because Destiny Says So. The oldest and most common Super Hero Origin. The easiest way to turn an Ordinary High School Student into the only thing preventing The End Of The World As We Know It. Take it for granted that they are the Only One. Villains can just as easily be "chosen," too.
One would think that the title implies some superior intelligent being or force actually had to make the Choice, but it's not common practice to expect a corresponding Chooser of the Chosen One. Other human beings have a lot of trouble just finding the Chosen One. And don't even get started on when they're wrong...
Bonus points if the character is actually called "The One" or "The Chosen One."
Examples
Anime
- Sailor Moon: the titular character, and to a lesser extent, all the other "Sailor" characters... the non-evil ones, at any rate.
- In Tokyo Mew Mew, the creation of the titular Magical Girls is initially presented as an accident, but even with Lego Genetics in place, the whole thing seems too convenient. Near the end, Mission Control reveals that they were lying and had actually gone and tracked down five girls that were perfect matches for the DNA they had lying around. It's explicitly stated as the Earth itself having chosen the five of them to protect it.
- Magic Knight Rayearth: Three schoolgirls are dropped into an alternate reality where they are declared to be "the legendary Magic Knights" and are set off on a journey to become said legendary Magic Knights.
- Naruto : It is revealed in part 2 that Jiraiya was told one of his students would be the one who would either destroy the world or save it. He originally thought it might be Pein, but before he dies he thinks it might be Naruto instead. Later Tsunade also refers to Naruto as the child of prophecy. Goes against the big speech Naruto gave Neji in part 1 about not believing in fate and destiny at least.
- Kamui in X1999, as well as the rest of the Dragons of Heaven and Earth.
- Recently Luffy from One Piece has been said to posses the best form of Haki that only one in a million is born with.
- Ash in the second Pokemon movie. His reaction to being the chosen one seesaws between general disenchantment and wholehearted acceptance.
Comic Books
- In the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip "The Glorious Dead", the power behind the Omniversal Spectrum intends to pass its power to one of two adveraries, representing good and evil. The Master believes the Chosen Ones are the Doctor and himself; they're actually the renegade Cyberman Kroton and the Master's Dragon, Cardinal Morningstar.
- In the Ultimate Marvel reboot of the X-Men, Jean Grey is believed to be the reincarnated Phoenix God and is being fought over by two cults. It's deliberately ambiguous whether she is, or is just a very powerful mutant with a lot of mental problems.
Film
- The main character in Kung Pow: Enter The Fist is literally called "Chosen One". He's important because he has a sentient, talking tongue.
- Neo in The Matrix. In Reloaded, Neo discovers that the One is a byproduct of the Matrix, anticipated and manipulated by the same artificial minds. Neo is just the latest of a long line. What makes him unique is his refusal to serve the function of the One. Note that Neo is the anagram of One.
- As this editor recalls it, at the end of the third movie, it is implied that Agent Smith is a virus in the Matrix, while Neo is the device that puts him in quarantine, so to speak. Both had been created by the Oracle, essentially to divert the evil robots' attention. (?)
- Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker. Though he goes through three movies of being the villain before fulfilling this.
- In the second Pokemon movie, Ash gets roped into playing the role of the Chosen One in an island's festival/ritual celebrating an ancient prophecy. And guess what? He is the Chosen One. It's even more obvious in the English dub, where his name is stated in the prophecy!
- Kung Fu Panda has the fat panda Po chosen as the Dragon Warrior by Master Oogway, seemingly just for bursting into the arena via fireworks. Seen as a decision marked by senility and coincidence by his disciple Shifu, Oogway nonetheless genuinely believes Po is more worthy than any of the highly trained Furious Five.
- In The Never Ending Story, Bastian is the one chosen to stop The Nothing. It seems this calling was given to him the moment he opened the book and began reading.
- The book makes it clear this happens all the time.
Literature
- Harry Potter is even given the "chosen one" title by the general wizarding public, though this is based on a correct guess anyway. In a slight subversion of this trope, Harry is not chosen by destiny but instead by his nemesis - who, in his ignorant paranoia, makes a rod for his own back.
- Brutha from Small Gods. The trick here is that Brutha wants to become the prophet, but that's because he is actually the Only One that believes in Om...
- In the Wheel Of Time fantasy series, Rand al'Thor is chosen by destiny to be the Dragon Reborn. The first Dragon was Lews Therin Telamon/Kinslayer.
- All the other main characters have their own role to play in prophecy, so he really shouldn't feel so alone.
- Also, thanks to the nature of time on the Wheel, it's arguable as to whether there is a first anything. But Lews Therin immediately precedes Rand al'Thor.
- In L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, Johnny Goodboy Tyler is recognized as the one, the individual who almost single handedly defeated an empire of billions of beings on thousands of planets. He is even introduced to the alien ambassadors as a force majeure, an unpredictable and unstoppable factor whose coming changes the whole Multiverse.
- Un Lun Dun by China Mieville subverts this. A book of prophecies says that Zanna is supposed to be the Shwazzi, the one who will save the world from Smog, the Evil Overlord. But when Zanna is injured, her friend Deeba must take up the fight against Smog, even though she's in the prophecies as the Plucky Comic Relief.
- Subverted twice in Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. First, the Antichrist (who is the Chosen One in this case) is accidentally Switched At Birth one too many times, leaving the forces of Heaven and Hell to prepare the wrong boy for Armageddon for 11 years. Second, when they both finally track the real Antichrist down, he reveals he doesn't want to destroy the world or Take Over The World, plus he manages to convince both sides to just forget the whole thing. There are strong hints that the Powers That Be intended all of it to happen from the start.
- Subverted in Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell where there is a prophecy about the two bringing magic back to England and they think of themselves as chosen ones, restoring magic to its peak, except that they don't match the Messianic Archetype at all (especially the unsympathetic Norrell). Additionally, their skills pale in comparison to those of earlier magicians, and in essence, they are pawns setting events in motion to hasten the Raven King.
- In The Belgariad and The Malloreon, Garion (or Belgarion, his adult name) is the Chosen One (his actual prophetic title) who has to save the universe, kill the bad god, raise the new one, and keep control of his wife. And that is no mean feat. Then he has to do it all again in the sequel series.
- George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series seems littered with people who believe they are or who might be the Chosen One. So far, Prince Rhaegar, Rhaegar's children, Lord Stanis, and Queen Daenerys have all declared themselves or been declared by others to fit the prophecy. Fans also name Bran and Jon as possible candidates based on everything from their actions to possible parentage.
- In a subversion of the trope, Daenerys and Khal Drogo's son is prophecised to be 'the stallion who mounts the world', who will unite the Dothraki tribes and lead them to domination over the eastern continent. However, instead the child is killed in childbirth by an evil witch and the prophecy thwarted.
- In The Naming by Alison Croggon, Maerad is specifically mentioned in the dream of a seer centuries ago and is foretold to destroy the Nameless One in his greatest uprising of evilness and save the world. She's also known as The One, The Fated One, and The Foretold.
- In the Whateley Universe, every once in a long, long while, the Tao requires that a mortal take up a magical jade sword known as Destiny's Wave, and become the Handmaid Of The Tao, to restore whatever imbalance is facing the world. The Handmaid has always been a teenaged Oriental female.. up until now. Chou, who uses the codename Bladedancer at Super Hero School Whateley Academy, is chosen by the sword back when she was a chubby white boy living in Knoxville Tennessee. Only the Tao requires balance. Not justice, truth, righteousness, but balance. There's no guarantee that the enormous feats she must someday perform will not be against the good guys.
- Torak in The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness. It's not exactly easy for him, but it does get him a wolf friend.
- Sparhawk in the David Eddings Elenium trilogy is the one destined to wield the mystical sapphire rose known as the Bhelliom. Eventually, this is explained by the fact that the Bhelliom, centuries back, actually spawned a human offspring, from whom Sparhawk is descended. Sparhawk is, essentially, a minor god and never knew it.
- A lot of the Ea Cycle revolves around finding The Chosen One.
- Maerad of the Books of Pellinor.
- In the military SF series The General Raj Whitehall is 'Chosen' by an ancient AI to save Human civilization on the planet Bellevue.
- In the Malazan Book of the Fallen, there are several possible 'Chosen Ones', such as the deathless Rhulad Sengar who is chosen by the Crippled God to be the ruler of his mortal empire (but is then brutally and unexpectedly despatched by Karsa Orlong using loopholes in the laws of magic). A better match may be Ganoes Paran, who is chosen to become the 'master of the deck', the arbiter of who will be chosen for godhood, for fairly obscure reasons. However, this power is not overused as he is only present in three of the eight published novels so far.
- In an interesting switch, Ansurimbor Kellhus deliberately sets himself up as the titular 'chosen one' of The Prince of Nothing through the manipulation of other characters, religions and factions, rising from solitary traveller to Emperor of the known world over the course of the series and its sequels.
- The Pevensies in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are a Chosen Quartet.
- If this editor had a nickel for every time someone said Richard was "the only one" who could do whatever needed to be done, he wouldn't have to worry about his student loans.
Live Action TV
- The titular character of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, as well as any other Slayer in the series (Faith Lehane, Kendra, Nikki Wood, etc). They rarely live to see their 20s, and tend to be chosen when they're extremely young, at 15-17 if they're exceptionally lucky, and didn't get discovered by the Watcher's Council particularly quickly (as appears to be the case with both Buffy and Faith and many of the Potential Slayers during season 7, but not the case with Kendra, who got an even shorter end of the stick, abandoned by her parents and raised by her Watcher). The "One" part of the Chosen One is very literal - "One girl in all the world." (At least until the end of Season One)
- It is indicated towards the end of the series that the replacement slayers are already lined up to take over when their predecessor dies, in significant numbers too. Apparently some get activated a little too early, maybe the Prophecy is incapable of distinguishing when a Slayer is going to be Back From The Dead. In the end of the series, the Good Guys do some magic to speed along the "Choosing" of the potential Slayers, essentially creating an army of girls with their Slayer activated.
- Locke on Lost appears to have been chosen for a special role. We just don't know what the role is or by whom he was chosen. Ben apparently used to be the chosen one. As he tells Locke, "Destiny is a fickle bitch."
- Clark Kent in Smallville is referred to as a sort of 'chosen one' by the local indian tribe, who call him 'Naman', the prophesied warrior who would destroy his worst enemy, Sagith. In fact this prophecy was implanted in the tribe (along with metahuman werewolf powers) by a Kryptonian visitor centuries ago.
- Power Rangers: The first series of Power Rangers definitely starts like this, with several (apparently) normal teenagers being selected to be defenders of Earth.
- Come on now, they weren't just normal teenagers, they were teenagers with attitude! Zordon's orders!
- In Babylon 5 there is not just 'One' Chosen One but three of them!
- To be fair, the trio of Chosen Ones was probably (at least partially) a Ret Con to explain how the Jonas Quinn could replace the previous Chosen One.
- The new Battlestar Galactica is swimming with them. Dr. Gaius Baltar is 'chosen' by the hallucinatory vision of the Cylon Number Six to serve the One True God, and she manipulates him to that end over the course of the entire run of the series, from scientist to political leader to champion of the downtrodden underclass to religious icon. She actually calls him 'the chosen one' on several occasions.
- In the second instance, President Laura Roslin comes to believe that she is the dying leader who will lead the people to Earth, based on her interpretation of ancient religious texts. Her role is questioned when she is cured of her supposedly terminal cancer, and reassessed when she suffers a relapse.
- The third possibility is Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace, who is told early on by the Cylon Leoben that she is important and has a destiny. Unlike the other two, she actively denies it and works against it, before embracing it shortly before her 'death' in the atmosphere of a gas giant. Upon her return, she comes to passionately believe she is now the one destined to lead the human race to Earth, unaware of a Cylon prophecy that she will actually lead the human race to the apocalypse.
- The fourth example (is that a record?) is the Cylon Number Three, who becomes obsessed with seeing the faces of the Final Five and what lies between life and death. She declares herself to be a chosen one who will lead the Cylons into a new age, but instead her hubris kills her and leads to her entire line being boxed. It turns out her experiences were actually more important to furthering Baltar and arguably Starbuck's positions as 'chosen ones' (by putting Baltar in a position where he found his way back to the fleet, and by enabling Starbuck to find Earth).
Video Games
- Dragon Quest 4... Just Dragon Quest 4.
- In fact, a number of Dragon Quest games have a Chosen One, though the method of choosing differs. In DQ 1, the hero is chosen by virtue of being the descendant of a great hero. In DQ 2, er, ditto. In DQ 3, the same thing happens, but the hero goes on to become the great hero of legend referenced in DQ 1 and 2. DQ 4...yeah. DQ 5, the protagonist is actually not the Chosen One, but his inevitable son is.
- Colette Brunel from Tales Of Symphonia, although she's not the main character and has been fully aware of her status as the chosen one her whole life, it being due to her genetics. It is revealed that there are entire families containing the chosen bloodline spread across the world, any member of whom can be proclaimed the chosen one by the Powers That Be whenever required. And then there's the whole issue of what it turns out that the chosen is really chosen For...
- Zelos Wilder is another chosen (the chosen of a different world, to be precise), but he doesn't really want to do it — in fact, at one point he either pretends to or actually does make a deal with the villains to betray the party in exchange for getting out of his duties.
- The 2002 game The Bard's Tale parodies this rather savagely. You are told early on that your character is the chosen one on an important quest, but as you progress through the game, you encounter a number of self-proclaimed Chosen Ones who make big speeches about their destiny, only to get killed horribly by monsters or booby traps. You eventually stumble across a whole prison full of "Chosen Ones" of various ages.
- The best part, of course, being the creepy goblins that show up and sing a song about the latest Chosen One to get its ass kicked. Little bastards.
- In Fire Emblem 10 (Radiant Dawn), the characters that enter the game's final tower are classified as "Chosen Ones". The player gets to choose most of them though, rather than fate directly.
- Notable aversion in Grandia: The protagonist Justin is an ordinary boy who just wants to be an adventurer. He isn't chosen by the "Spirits" after an ancient prophecy, but is begrudgingly accepted by them after proving how awesome he is.
- Link from The Legend Of Zelda; in some of the games he's specifically referred to as "the chosen hero."
- Interestingly enough, in later games, Link actually has to earn the title of chosen hero. Most notably in Wind Waker, where simply being on a quest to defeat the Big Bad isn't enough, he also has to recover the pieces of the Triforce of Courage and show that he's courageous enough to actually receive it in his various adventures.
- The Keyblades in Kingdom Hearts tend to choose keybearers for themselves when needed. This part goes to Sora and later also to Mickey Mouse, Riku, and Kairi. Once chosen, a keybearer has to deal with a great amount of Heartless and Nobodies, who want to kill him/her because keyblades are the only true threat to them and also simply Because Destiny Says So. Additionally, Sora was also chosen to open "the door to light" with his keyblade for reasons as yet unknown.
- In the online Flash RPG, Adventure Quest, You are the Avatar of Hope, though it has been implied that the entire human race of Lore is the Avatar of Hope, in one of the stories posted by the admin Falerin on the forum.
- Gordon Freeman of Half Life is known as "the one free man", especially to the sequel's Vortigaunts.
- Even the villains recognize it: Overwatch refers to Gordon as "Anticitizen One".
- Alternately, this could be analogous to the most wanted criminal, or it could have been issued sequentially, since he was the first prominent resistance member, during the original Black Mesa incident.
- Your character in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is generally assumed to be a Chosen One thanks to the prophecies of the "Nerevarine," the reincarnation of the heroic Nerevar Indoril. This trope gets subverted a ways into the storyline, when your self-appointed mentor explains that "having the spirit of Nerevar" isn't literal... you're not the reincarnation, you're just qualified to follow in his footsteps and save his people from his ancient foe. In fact, there are others qualified to become the Nerevarine as well, and you'll even meet up with a few who tried and failed. So really, you don't save the day Because Destiny Says So, but because you say so.
- There are a few hints from time to time, that the reason you're able to take up the mantle of the Nerevarine is that you really are the reincarnation of Nerevar. As this editor recalls it, at least one of the other failed Nerevarines died when trying to put on the ring "Moon and Star" which was enchanted to kill anyone who tried to wear it who wasn't Nerevar. Additionally Almalexia identifies you as Nerevar, though it's possible this was because she was trying to manipulate you.
- In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the player character is a Chosen One who is supposed to take the Emperor's mystical Mac Guffin to the his surviving son, another Chosen One. Sometimes it seems the gods spend their time just choosing people to do stuff. Of course, it is a world guided by prophecy...
- Metroid: Samus is sometimes portrayed simply as a singularly hyper-competent one-woman space police force, but in Metroid Prime, the Chozo Lore entries imply that the Tallon IV Chozo prophesied and expected Samus to come save their dying planet after the phazon meteorite strike.
- Valis: Yuko Ahso is generically thrust into the spotlight as the warrior who can wield the sword of Valis and defeat evil. (Okay, not quite generically—she's thrust into the spotlight with a big dose of Fanservice and Stripperificness. She plays the role of The Valis Warrior in the first three games, then becomes the Dream World's goddess (something like that, as much as this troper remembers), and in the fourth game, Lena takes over Yuko's prior role as the wielder of the titular legendary sword.
- Unreal has various messages (combined with your actions) that heavily suggest that you are The Messiah who will save the Nali from the tyranny of the Skaarj. This may be a subversion however, as the tournament games (said to be set after the first game) suggest that the Nali are still being hunted, although the reference is non-specific enough that you could easily assume your character at least made their situation far better.
- Fallout 2, wherein the player character is identified as the Chosen One at the very beginning. Apparently being descended from a local legend includes inheriting some pretty big expectations.
- Subverted in Arcanum Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura, where it appears that the player character is the reincarnation of the Living One, a mystical figure, but later in the game You discover that you are just a common person, that the phrophecy of the reincarnation is false, and that the Living One is in fact still alive.
- Double Subversion: The prophecy of the Living One becomes true, even without you being the reincarnation of Nasrudin, because you fill the role that was created.
- Divine Divinity has you being one of the chosen three, the Marked One, one will then be selected by the Council of Seven to serve as Divine One. You become Divine One after the enemies kill other two Marked Ones.
- The Legacy Of Kain series plays around with this, not getting around to deciding just who's The Chosen One, or what they're chosen for, until the end of the series. In Defiance, both Raziel and Kain believe they're the Champion of the vampires. Eventually, it's revealed that Raziel could be the Champion of either the Vampires or the Hylden, and as the only one with free will, he can choose. In the end, Raziel sides with Kain, who's the Scion of Balance.
Web Animation
- In the web cartoon Animator vs. Animation, a sadistic Flash animator creates a little stick man called "Victim" to torment. "Victim" quickly turns around and starts tormenting him, tearing up the Flash GUI and playing kickball with the mouse cursor until the harried animator manages to close the program. Things escalate in 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 escapes to the animator's desktop and begins wreaking havoc there. The only thing that stops his rampage is the timely intervention of AVG Anti-Virus, after which The Chosen One is rehabilitated as the best damn pop-up blocker ever (he incinerates the bastards!).
Webcomics
Western Animation
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