Basic Trope: The enemy kills The Chosen One's loved ones and/or destroys their hometown, to make it clear that You Can't Fight Fate.
- Straight: Ruby's destiny pits her against Queen Sangria. Ruby decides to head out of town to avoid said destiny, but The Queen attacks Ruby's Doomed Hometown. She then proceeds to brutally murder all of Ruby's friends and relatives.
- Exaggerated: The Queen attacks Ruby's Doomed Hometown and captures every survivor except Ruby. Over the next several months, she has them tortured, both to gain any information on Ruby that she can and simply because she can. Eventually, they're slaughtered, butchered, and publicly displayed so that everyone can see their corpses — especially Ruby, who was getting closer to tracking down and rescuing them. Ironically, in spite of all the atrocities and war crimes, they never got Ruby herself.
- Downplayed:
- When Queen Sangria's forces attack the town, Ruby's family and friends escape, but their old livelihood is ruined.
- A few of Ruby's friends die in the attack, but her family survives. Also, the damage to the town is fairly minor and the survivors can go on with their lives.
- Justified:
- Queen Sangria learned of the prophecy and was trying to take Ruby out before she could accomplish anything. She missed.
- Queen Sangria is a Jerkass and wants Ruby to suffer as much as possible.
- Inverted:
- The Queen ignores the ancient prophecy about this destiny, until Ruby infiltrates her castle and kills her heir to the throne, Draco.
- Ruby Jumped at the Call, and the attack on her hometown is the point where she first realizes how serious things actually are.
- Queen Sangria resurrects Ruby's parents from the dead and repairs the damages to her hometown, in order to convince her that she isn't The Chosen One.
- Queen Sangria feigns being on Ruby's side, giving her a secure and comfortable existence that she won't want to fight back against while Sangria acts on her real intentions behind closed doors.
- Subverted:
- Ruby, not wanting to fight the powerful enemy the old crazy guy claimed she would have to, moves herself and her entire family to another country where they live under assumed names. Queen Sangria finds herself unable to track them down.
- It turns out it wasn't Queen Sangria who destroyed Ruby's hometown. The real villain, James, placed the blame on her.
- Ruby thinks that this is going to happen, but Queen Sangria decides to directly attack her instead.
- Sangria isn't targeting Ruby; she's targeting everybody. Many towns have shared the same fate as Ruby's, and many more will continue to unless the now-very-motivated Ruby stops her.
- Double Subverted:
- Until Queen Sangria's army razes Ruby's new hometown, killing her family, for entirely unrelated reasons.
- This is a lie; Queen Sangria really is the main villain, and James is only a mook.
- Ruby actually accounted for herself, which is why she Jumped at the Call in case that would happen.
- The queen's mooks accidentally destroy Ruby's hometown.
- Someone defeating Sangria was prophesized, but the prophecy wasn't specific. Sangria reasons that killing everybody is the only way to be sure.
- Parodied: Ruby comes home to find the evil army tickling her family and toilet papering her home. She reacts as if the army has murdered them and destroyed their hometown.
- Zig Zagged: Ruby diverts the call to Jade, her best friend. While Jade is on a mission, her entire family is slaughtered by a third party not related to Queen Sangria or simply acting against her orders. Jade blames Ruby for the entire incident and decides to ally herself with Queen Sangria in revenge. Ruby must decide whether to bring her dear friend back to her side or Duel to the Death.
- Averted:
- Nothing bad happens to Ruby's hometown because of her adventures.
- There is no prophecy or chosen one.
- Enforced: "Ruby needs that really defining element of tragedy to make the audience care about her. Let's kill off her folks!" "As long as we're doing something like that, why not make it another sign that she's The Chosen One? You know, for all the new fans."
- Lampshaded:
- "Did destiny really have to kill my family to get me to go along? Why couldn't she just turn them into gerbils or something?"
- "Now, I must warn all of you about the consequences of heroism. You can run from the Call to Adventure, but you can't hide forever. Boy or girl, the call will find you."
- Invoked: As part of her evil plan, Queen Sangria decides to bully Ruby before killing her.
- Exploited: Ruby scores pity with her tragic backstory, and gains allies this way.
- Defied:
- Queen Sangria fights Ruby directly, without hesitation.
- The rules of engagement between Ruby and Sangria prevent them from targeting each others' families unless they deliberately join the fight, so Ruby could Screw Destiny if she wanted to.
- Ruby's family realizes that they will be targeted because of Ruby's destiny, so they decide to Take a Level in Badass to defend themselves.
- Ruby makes it clear that she will accept being The Chosen One and follow any rules regarding that as long as her family is safe. When Queen Sangria tries to kill Ruby's family as an attempt at psychological warfare, Ruby's brutal, nearly Empire-shattering retaliation leaves a (very blood-soaked) message for the Queen to never try that shit again.
- Discussed: "No, I won't try to fight Queen Sangria. If I were really The Chosen One, she would have ruined my life long ago."
- Conversed: "Why is Ruby just beginning to figure out that maybe, just maybe, she's The Chosen One? It's been three seasons since Queen Sangria killed Ruby's parents and trashed her beautiful town."
- Implied: Some time after Ruby is stated to be The Chosen One, her town is destroyed for no apparent reason.
- Deconstructed:
- Erik feels that the advantage of having Ruby on the side of La Résistance is more important than the inhabitants of her hometown, so he destroys the village and tells her that the Queen was responsible for it instead. When Ruby finds out later, she leaves the resistance effort.
- Having lost her entire hometown leaves Ruby a bitter and vengeful person who wants to exact Misplaced Retribution on Queen Sangria's whole people.
- Upon realizing that she's The Chosen One and that fate will have her kill Queen Sangria, Ruby decides to Rage Against the Heavens for engineering the whole prophecy as well as Queen Sangria. Once the Queen is overthrown Ruby becomes as bad a tyrant as the Queen trying to stamp out religion or gain the power needed to kill the gods.
- After Ruby refuses the call, Queen Sangria breifly considers destroying her hometown, but realizes that doing so would cause Ruby to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, so she waits for her to be alone before silently assassinating her, leaving the world without The Chosen One and the rest of her conquest goes smoothly.
- Reconstructed: ...But when the rest of La Résistance learn of Erik's treachery, they oust him from his position as leader of the force and replace him with Ruby, who has now become an incredibly skilled fighter in the time she's spent rebelling against the Queen's reign. With a renewed dedication to more heroic ideals, the resistance fighters earn the respect and trust of the oppressed citizens and finally are able to depose of the Queen for good.
- Played For Laughs: Ruby tells her future sidekick that she can't be the heroine because she has a life at home. Seconds later, a meteorite destroys her Doomed Hometown, and she says, "Okay, I'm in."
- Played For Drama: Ruby's little sister Garnet was the only other survivor of the assault, but was left horribly traumatized by the experience. Ruby also gets blamed for the attack by other people, especially by Jade, who was in love with Ruby's older sister Sapphire.
I guess The Call Knows Where You Live, because the Big Bad just destroyed the main page.
