History Main / TheChosenWannabe

* In ''[[Film/Shazam2019 SHAZAM!]]'', [[BigBad Dr. Thaddeus Sivana]] was summoned as a child to the Rock of Eternity as a contender to be the Wizard Shazam's Champion, but was [[RefusedByTheCall rejected]] and sent away after being tempted by and nearly releasing the SevenDeadlySins. As an adult, even after Sivana gains powers by becoming the Sins' vessel, he's still so bitter about his rejection and DrivenByEnvy that, when the Sins inform him that the Wizard ended up choosing and bestowing his powers onto a different Champion ([[TheHero Billy Batson), Sivana spends the rest of the movie antagonizing Billy and trying to force him to give up his powers to him, simply because [[EntitledBastard he feels entitled to them]].

* In ''VideoGame/Destiny2'', Dominous Gaul believed that he alone was worthy to wield the Traveler’s light. At first, he interrogated the Speaker to try to learn how to prove himself, [[spoiler: but when the Speaker revealed that he spoke ''for'' the Traveler, and that it never spoke ''to'' him, Gaul decides to steal the Traveler’s light. Which ends up being his downfall, as the Traveler awakens and destroys Gaul.]]

* The Lord Commander in ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'' is a rare villainous example, as he thinks he was "chosen" by the Titans to receive his powers and eventually free them so they could reward him by making him a Titan God across all dimensions. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that he ''was'' technically chosen by [[BigBad Invictus]]... As an UnwittingPawn of the latter's plans.]]

* ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': As soon as Kazuki finds the Vassal Katana, he declares it is its chosen wielder and tries to remove it from the stone. However, it [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield rejects him and teleports into Raphtalia's hands]]. Kazuki angrily attacks her while continuing to claim he is worthy of the sword.

* Syaoran Li of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' believes himself worthy of being Master of the Cards due to being a descendant of Clow Reed and seemingly being more competent than Sakura when they start off. He is never officially deemed a Cardcaptor like Sakura however and the cards' guardian, Keroberus clearly roots for Sakura and [[SitcomArchNemesis sees Syaoran as an interfering brat most of the time]]. This makes him TheRival for most of the early run (especially in the anime where he manages to capture cards regardless) however by the time of final judgement, Syaoran has become Sakura's close friend and accepts her as official master rather nonchalantly.

* In ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDoomThatCameToGotham'', Oliver Queen believes he is the one destined to stop Ra's al Ghul, having trained himself and procured the arrows that had slain St. Sebastian to do it. He is then killed by Poison Ivy, Batman taking the arrows and finishing his mission for him.

[[folder:Fanfic]]
* One of the most popular [[FandomSpecificPlot Fandom Specific Plots]] of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' franchise would be the "Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived" plot, where Harry has an OriginalCharacter twin who, for some reason, is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wrongly named the "Boy/Girl-Who-Lived"]]. Most stories usually have the twin in question be a SpoiledBrat and/or a DirtyCoward who will flee at the first sign of danger while still arrogantly wearing the title of TheChosenOne.

* In ''Fanfic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'', a {{flashback}} reveals that Storm Blade, a member of the Cult of Shadow, was once known as Swift Wind, and he believed that he should have become a Royal Knight, but his impulsiveness caused him to get assigned to guard duty, [[spoiler:and another flashback revealed that he killed Noble Banner, who was supposed to get the Celestic Gear that Storm Blade named himself after, when the mission they went onto in the Badlands went south, and he faked his death so that he could keep the Celestic Gear.]]
* In ''Fanfic/PokemonHarmonyAndChaos'', when Lightning Blitz learns of how [[OlympusMons Pegasoar, Horsearth, and Mysticorn]] had appeared before Flash Sentry, Time Turner, and Twilight Sparkle respectively, he is completely baffled as to why they chose to appear themselves before a group of “losers”, and insist that they made a mistake of choosing them to be the Equestria Regions’ protectors, and believe that they should have chosen him, the so-called “strongest trainer in Equestria” as the regions’ protector.

* Subtly present with [[GeneralRipper General]] [[KillerGorilla Aldo]], the villain of ''Film/BattleForThePlanetOfTheApes''. Earlier in the series, in ''Film/EscapeFromThePlanetOfTheApes'', Dr. Cornelius says that in the history of his timeline, it was Aldo who lead the ape uprising against human slavery. However, Cornelius and his wife Dr. Zira have travelled back in time to before this happened, and in the next film, ''Film/ConquestOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', we see that uprising happening ''very'' differently from how Cornelius described, [[AlternateTimeline mostly because]] of the presence of his and Zira's son, Caesar, who ends up leading the revolt instead of Aldo. None of the characters ever figure this out, but it's clear to the viewer that Caesar has inadvertently usurped Aldo's role in history, leading to Aldo's [[TheResenter great resentment of Caesar]] that pushes him to violate [[ApeShallNotKillApe ape society's most sacred laws]].

* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', Clip introduces himself as the Mortal Sword of the Black-Winged Lord in ''Literature/ReapersGale'', a status he claims has been sanctioned by the Wizards of the Andara. A rather ambiguous claim, considering the Black-Winged Lord denies his worshippers, never mind appointing anyone to anything. On the other hand, he ''is'' able to open gates into Darkness, something not even his god's brother, Silchas Ruin, is able to do anymore. Nonetheless, when it becomes obvious that nobody is buying his claim, he switches locations and proceeds to introduce himself as the Herald of Mother Dark to Nimander and his followers. It goes down roughly as well as his previous claim. Still, there's his ability to open gates, and Silchas Ruin himself asserts that Clip is the Mortal Sword of Darkness, neither confirming nor disproving Clip's claims entirely. He clearly has some affinity to Darkness, and possibly a role to play in the bigger picture, yet his constant, insistent claims of being TheChosenOne come off as IJustWantToBeSpecial.
* ''Literature/MyBrotherIsASuperhero:'' Luke, an obsessive fan of comic books, left his tree house for ''five minutes'' in order to go to the bathroom. During that time, an interdimensional alien showed up to give his nerdy older brother superpowers. [[spoiler:And at the end of the first book it happens ''again,'' with his friend Lara lucking out this time]]. That said, his GenreSavvy abilities turn out to be valuable.

* In the final "Hell" sequence in ''Videogame/BaldursGateII: Shadows of Amn'', the shade of Sarevok is really pissed that he's not the one who gained the ability to turn into the Slayer (or something). "It should have been I! '''It should have been I! ATTACK ME, WORM, IF YOU DARE!'''" On the other hand, this is {{averted}} in ''Throne of Bhaal'' when he's resurrected and offers to join the player's party. He thought that he was the centre of the prophecy of Alaundo, but now that he knows he's not, he's willing to fight alongside the one who really is.
* In ''VideoGame/Destiny2'', Dominous Gaul believed that he alone was worthy to wield the Traveler’s light. At first, he interrogated the Speaker to try to learn how to prove himself, [[spoiler: but when the Speaker revealed that he spoke ''for'' the Traveler, and that it never spoke ''to'' him, Gaul decides to steal the Traveler’s light. Which ends up being his downfall, as the Traveler awakens and destroys Gaul.]]

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': Riku in the first game declares that Sora isn't worthy to be the keyblade wielder. It looks like this is the case when he seems to take it from Sora [[spoiler:but then it seems the keyblade was just giving Sora a SecretTestOfCharacter and returned to Sora after he passed it. This is well before it turns out there are many keyblades, and Riku does become a keyblade master a few games later]].

* In ''Fanfic/TheAssassinationOfTwilightSparkle'', Prince Blueblood insisted that he was more worthy to become an alicorn than Twilight Sparkle was, because he was a direct descendant of Princess Celestia.

Compare and Contrast TheUnchosenOne (which is a character not chosen but takes and earns the mantle anyway), UnfitForGreatness (character is given status but blows it) and ThePoorlyChosenOne (character is destined for greatness but blows it). If the character really ''is'' the chosen one, it's just that destiny took a while to get to him, that's TheCallPutMeOnHold.

Compare and Contrast TheUnchosenOne (which is a character not chosen but takes and earns the mantle anyway), UnfitForGreatness (character is given status but blows it) and ThePoorlyChosenOne (character is destined for greatness but blows it).

A SisterTrope to HeroicWannabe, TheTeamWannabe, LeaderWannabe, IJustWantToBeSpecial, BigBadWannabe (being essentially the chosen for the bad guys).

* [[BigBad Emperor Zarkon]] from ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' is an interesting example in that [[spoiler:he used to actually be a ''legitimate'' Chosen One and is now trying to reclaim the title]]. Centuries ago, he was [[spoiler:the Black Lion's paladin, until desperation to save his dying wife led to him exposing himself to [[EldritchLocation the dimension quintessence comes from]], corrupting him into the brutal GodEmperor he is now. Consequently, he's now unworthy of being a paladin and is desperately trying to take the Black Lion back and restore his former glory. He fails to see that the only thing [[MoralEventHorizon his cruel actions]] are accomplishing is ensuring the Lion will never want to work with him again.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' has [[HerosEvilPredecessor Sunset Shimmer]], who was being groomed to become an alicorn (and presumably royalty as well) until her impatience and arrogance caused her to dismissed by her teacher, after which she [[DimensionalTraveler goes to live in the human world]]. She returns years later in order to gain the power she feels she should have received, which had since gone to series protagonist Twilight Sparkle. After being defeated, Sunset abandons this mindset to stay in the human world and devote herself to becoming TheAtoner, becoming the embodiment of a then-unknown seventh EmbodimentOfVirtue in the process.

* In ''Disney/TheSwordInTheStone'', when Wart goes to demonstrate that he can pull the Marvelous Sword from the stone and is therefore the rightful King of England, Sir Kay blocks his way and claims, "Anyone can pull it once it's been pulled." Then he tries to draw the sword and fails miserably, and Pellinore tells him to back off and let Wart try it.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' gives us [[SinisterMinister Winn Adami]], the ''Kai'' of the Bajoran faith (equivalent to the Roman Catholic Pope]], who wants to be the most favored one of the Prophets. Unfortunately, they've chosen [[TheCaptain Benjamin Sisko]] as the Emissary, and [[GreenEyedMonster Winn is not happy about it]].

Sometimes they will try to take the status of Chosen for themselves, particularly if this status is granted by a material thing (PowerGem, RingOfPower, etc.). Sometimes they will try this by force, but usually it's through other means, often allying themselves with the villains (foolishly thinking the bad guys won't simply use this opportunity to take the Chosen status for themselves instead).

Compare and Contrast TheUnchosenOne (which is a character not chosen but takes and earns the mantle anyway), UnfitForGreatness (character is given a status but blows it), ThePoorlyChosenOne.

* One of the most popular [[FandomSpecificPlot Fandom Specific Plots]] of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' franchise would be the "Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived" plot, where Harry has an OriginalCharacter twin who, for some reason, is named the "Boy/Girl-Who-Lived". Most stories usually have the twin in question be a SpoiledBrat and/or a DirtyCoward who will flee at the first sign of danger while still arrogantly wearing the title of TheChosenOne.

* One of the most popular [[FandomSpecificPlot Fandom Specific Plots]] of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' franchise would be the "Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived". The formula goes as follows: Harry has a twin. On the night of Voldemort's attack, Lily and James will (usually, but not always) survive. Harry will still be the one who reflects the killing curse back to Voldemort, but the twin will, for some reason, be named the "Boy/Girl-Who-Lived". Lily and James will become neglectful (at best) or outright abusive (at worst), though there are stories where Harry is loved just as much as his twin. And finally, the twin in question will become a SpoiledBrat.