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The Poorly Chosen One / Fan Works

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Examples of The Poorly Chosen One in Fan Works.


Crossovers
  • The Harry Potter/X-Men fic eXtra power twin sees Dumbledore fixate on the idea that Aiden Potter- Harry's twin brother- is the subject of the prophecy, to the extent that he convinces James and Lily that Harry is a squib after Voldemort's defeat when in reality Harry had just temporarily exhausted his magic. Once Harry and Aiden start at Hogwarts, it swiftly becomes clear to everyone but Dumbledore that Aiden is an average wizard at best where Harry is a more driven person even without his mutant abilities and the training he received from the X-Men, culminating in Voldemort easily killing Aiden in the Ministry while Harry rejects any of Dumbledore's attempts to establish himself as a mentor in favour of his established bonds with the X-Men.
  • Fairies of the Shattered Moon: Played With regarding Summer Rose. Ozpin believed she was the one who'd finally be able to defeat Salem. After she falls, he admits that his mistake wasn't choosing her, but the fact that he put the burden entirely upon her shoulders, rather than trusting and working with Team STRQ as a whole. He hopes to avoid making that same mistake with Ruby and Team RWBY.
  • In the Harry Potter/Stargate Atlantis/Torchwood crossover Harry Potter and the Ancient's Bane, Harry's brother Thomas is incorrectly presumed to be the subject of the prophecy even before Harry is apparently killed during Voldemort's attack on Godric's Hollow (in reality Harry was found and adopted by Torchwood operatives who assumed he was the only survivor). Due to Dumbledore and Lily pandering to his ego, Thomas grows up with an inflated opinion of himself even though he is never more than an average wizard, with Dumbledore forced to cover up such moments as Thomas's indirect role in Hermione's death. This concludes with Thomas being left in a coma after Lily tries to help him claim the prophecy to restore faith in him, with Harry ultimately finding a way to stop Voldemort himself with some help from James and the Department of Mysteries.

Amphibia

  • Watching Amphibia: Valeriana regards the Calamity Trio as having been poorly chosen, declaring that Sasha and Marcy both failed at fulfilling the roles they were meant to play when they let themselves be manipulated into giving up their powers to refuel the Calamity Box. She shows No Sympathy for the surrounding circumstances, treating them with disdain while remarking that "Strength" and "Wit" tend to be the first to fail. It's heavily implied that part of the reason why she's so dismissive is because she's convinced that History Repeats, given how Leif, Barrel and Andrias fell apart as well.

Fire Emblem

  • The Savior King, the Master Tactician and the Queen of Liberation: By the end of the big war, most of the Agarthans feel that Edelgard was a terrible choice to be their champion in their fight against the surface-dwellers and the Nabateans. Marian thinks Dimitri would have done a better job, while Thales grouses that he should have snatched up Claude instead.

Harry Potter

  • Blindness: After learning that Harry is disabled, Dumbledore decides that he can't be the child of prophecy, since teaching him magic would be next to impossible due to the wizarding world's Medieval Stasis. This spurs him to dismiss Harry as poorly chosen in favor of focusing on Neville.
  • In The Boy Who Wasn't, Dumbledore had fixated on Neville as The Boy Who Lived and the subject of the prophecy, leaving Harry to be Sorted into Slytherin and build exceptional abilities without Dumbledore's attention on him, while Neville wound up spoiled and arrogant, with poor scholastic performance, thanks to Dumbledore's fussing over him, as well as simply not being the right wizard for the role. Harry, meanwhile, winds up as part of a three-person marriage with Susan and Tracey, and the trio join an elite magical organization.
  • Dodging Prison & Stealing Witches: John Potter suffers this twice over:
    • Firstly, Dumbledore gets paranoid about Harry and selects John as a replacement Boy-Who-Lived. This results in Voldemort winning.
    • Death and Fate then decide to send John back in time and give him another chance to fulfill the prophecy... despite how it was never about him in the first place. Despite getting a four-year head start, he ultimately fails again.
  • Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin: Played With through Jim, who is widely (and incorrectly) believed to be the Boy-Who-Lived. However, this doesn't make him The Load; he still has some kind of mysterious connection with Voldemort that triggers headaches whenever he's near, and he's a martial artist who spends most of his first summer break training. He might not the ultimate hero whom everyone mistakes him for, but he's trying his best regardless.

The Hunger Games

  • Checkmate (Anla'Shok): The decision to make Katniss and Peeta joint victors is the culmination of Mags and her allies constantly trying to bring attention to duos of tributes (including Finnick and his District partner, a Tragic Bromance between Wolfe of District 2 and Sawyer of District 4, a Badass and Child Duo, and twins from District 3 who Beetee rigged the reaping for in the hopes that the Capitol would spare them both). However, all of those previous efforts ended in failure and tragedy (although they helped Finnick, Wolfe, Magister, and possibly others win), especially with the twins from 3, who were murdered by their supposed ally, Bale of District 10 (who wins and later goes on to be the only non-District 2 victor to fight for the Capitol in the Rebellion).

Miraculous Ladybug

My Hero Academia

  • In I am not Done, this is shown to be one of the main problems with Katsuki. Many of the adults and would-be authority figures surrounding him took one look at his Quirk and decided it meant he was destined for greatness, showering him with praise and giving him special treatment, such as the staff at Aldera turning a blind eye towards his Barbaric Bullying. This has given Katsuki a grossly overinflated ego and turned him into a Psychopathic Manchild who sees absolutely nothing wrong with how he blew off Izuku's arm or subjected Hatsume to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown purely because he knew they were one of Izuku's friends.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • The Negotiations-verse: In Fallen, several of the Multiple Endings involve the higher forces in Equestria making clear that Fluttershy is the only one of the Element Bearers that still has their favor, as Princess Celestia and the other members of the Mane Six have become Fallen Heroes due to waging war against humanity in an effort to force them to convert to ponies or die. This typically results in them having their powers and status revoked.
  • Vengeance of Dawn: Breaking Dawn was once Princess Celestia's personal student and potential candidate for the Element of Magic, but her laziness, spoiled attitude and delinquent behavior resulted in her losing her position to Twilight. She didn't take being replaced well, and her behavior grew worse until Celestia was forced to expel her from the School for Gifted Unicorns. At the beginning of the story, Dawn is living in a cheap apartment and working a low-end job at a clothing store, still bitter about what she could have had and blaming her failures on Twilight, who not only succeeded as the Element of Magic but has become an alicorn princess.

The Rising of the Shield Hero

  • Hope of the Shield Hero: Not only do the three non-Shield Heroes start off this way, looking through the Church's records reveals that this is far from a unique phenomenon. Their accounts are filled with tales of heroes turning against one another, declaring and holding petty grudges, fighting, even starting off wars. Then there's one who outright abandoned the job in favor of forming a harem full of catgirls.


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