The Chooser of the One

"The universe has brought us the Dragon Warrior!''

Lana: So how is it that you're important enough to know about this prophecy, huh?!
Turrick: I wrote it.

— anti-HEROES

Like the name says, The Chooser of The One is the character who finds and chooses The Chosen One. The Chooser can go about this a few different ways. They may possess a book or prophecy that describes The Chosen One, or a means of picking them out of a crowd, or they may be a prophet or seer of some kind who can sense the One. Once found or selected, the chooser may take on the role of Mentor and start training them, tell them of their destiny, or simply deliver the Call to Adventure and hope they accept it.

Sometimes, the Chooser isn't charged with finding the One, so much as finding a One. The Chooser essentially looks for someone with the skills to fill a job description (defeating the Big Bad, saving the world, etc) and goes with their gut rather than on divine mandate. A knight searching for someone to Take Up My Sword may simply look for anyone who has the right amount (get it?) of pluck and decency. In these cases the person picked may be more of an Unchosen One who chooses to create their destiny rather than sit by passively.

If the Chooser is a god or Enigmatic Empowering Entity they may do the designating themselves rather than via prophecy, Super-Empowering the chosen from a complete random Muggle into the One. Other possible Choosers are Sentient Phlebotinum, an Empathic Weapon, or God(s).

A common variation on this is a Prophecy Twist where the antagonist tries to make it impossible for a prophecy about their downfall to be fulfilled and in the process accidentally creates an opposing Chosen One.

Because of this potential for plot induced randomness, there can be an exploration of the true nature of heroism as something innate or vocational, and destiny as immutable or malleable. It's possible that the Chooser could invoke a sort of Koan and claim that the mere act of choosing someone is meaningless, rather the faith and trust of the chosen paves their path... or that there is no randomness, only destiny.

Compare and contrast The Presents Were Never from Santa, which is when a character thinks they have supernatural aid or a helper, but don't.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The Godhand of Berserk are malevolent examples, as they choose people to become demons through the process of Causality.
• In Cardcaptor Sakura, Clow Reed knew that Kero and Yue would have trouble accepting a new master after he died, so to make sure they ended up with one they could both approve of, he split the task of appointing his successor between them. Kero would nominate a likely candidate, and Yue would test their worthiness once they had gathered all of the Clow Cards.
• In Chobits, Chii is responsible for choosing The One Just For Me which beyond simple happiness for her and that one, activates a potentially dangerous program.
• Devils and Realist: The protagonist William Twining is the elector, the one to choose a demon to rule hell once Lucifer dies. He has no interest in this, but the demons keep finding him anyway.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Phantom Blood: Zeppeli is a master of Hamon and trains Jonathan into a hardened Hamon user in a matter of days after choosing him to be the one who will defeat Dio.
  • Golden Wind: Polpo presents all potential Passione members with a lighter and orders them to keep it continuously lit for 24 hours. The flame is very weak, so it's likely to go out if not guarded carefully at all times. If the person relights it after it goes out, Black Sabbath appears, stabs them with the Stand Arrow, and says:
  Black Sabbath: You relit the lighter, didn't you? I'll give you one more chance. You have two possible paths. The first path is to live and become a chosen one. Your only other path is death.
• Magi: Labyrinth of Magic is strange in that being The Chooser of the One is like being The Chosen One. The Chooser, the Magi, is meant to select the next king who will lead the people to greatness. Aladdin, the main character, is one of four Magi. The others are Judar, Scheherazade, and Yunan.
• Moriarty the Patriot, William pulled a Create Your Own Hero on Sherlock Holmes and chose him specifically to be the hero to his villain.
• In Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation the Holy Beast is born when the world will soon face a great disaster. Once matured it seeks out the one destined to fight against the disaster and accompanies them. Its choice is not set, as it chose Lara Greyrate in this timeline but a different individual in previous iterations where she did not exist.
• My Hero Academia:
  • All Might aka Toshinori Yagi is the current user of a transferable quirk, One For All, that stockpiles the force of all previous users when given to the next one. He chooses the protagonist, Midoriya, to be the one to receive his power and the next one in the Master-Apprentice Chain that exists with the power.
  • All Might's own predecessor and master, Nana Shimura, also chose and trained him to be her successor. Notably, she was technically the first holder of One For All to succeed in doing this. The other bearers before her simply passed on the quirk to one of their remaining surviving companions in their dying moments before All For One finished them off. There wasn't much of a "choice" there aside from ensuring the Quirk could continue on and hopefully grow stronger with each new bearer.
• Naruto: Jiraiya was destined to train the "Child of Prophecy" who would bring a great revolution to the shinobi world. Considering all of his other candidates/trainees are now dead and neither has happened yet, the titular character is now the one by default. Though he did consider Naruto The Chosen One anyway even when one of his students, Nagato, who wielded the Rinnegan, was still alive.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, plays around with this on several levels. The protagonist, Shinji Ikari starts out being choosen to pilot one of the Humongous Mecha known as the "Evangelions". However, it is very quickly established that Shinji has the title of the "Third Child", and is just one of The Chosen Many and that the Chooser in this instance is the Marduk Institute, an organisation under the UN that picks potential Evangelion pilots. However, it is later revealed that the Marduk Institute doesn't actually exist, but is a front organization for NERV, and by extension SEELE, set up to cover for the fact that there is actually no real selection process for the pilots. As it turns out, every single one of Shinji's classmates are potential pilots, and they all are either explicitly said or at the very least heavily implied to have a Missing Mom. It turns out that it is the later that makes them potential Evangelion pilots, as the Evangelions are controlled by the strong bound between mother and child, by having the soul of said mother placed in an Evangelion to properly power it. The ultimate truth, however, is that Shinji actually is the Chosen One, and it was his mother, Yui Ikari, that was the Chooser. By willingly letting her soul get absorbed into an Evangelion, and thereby arranging for Shinji to be an Evangelion pilot, she threw the proverbial wrench in SEELE's Assimilation Plot, by making sure it was Shinji, and not them who would be in the place to be the final arbiter of humanity's fate.
• In Pokémon Adventures, the regional Professors are this, as anyone who ends up with a Pokedex is practically guaranteed a life of danger and fighting against evil. Humorously, a couple of the Pokedexes don't end up with the ones the professors originally intended (theft, loss, mixups), but things wind up working out eventually. Frankly, it doesn't matter who the professors choose; the Dexes will end up in the hands of exceptional trainers.
• Many of the heroines in the Pretty Cure series are chosen by the fairy companions. Of course, there are a number of exceptions:
  • Nozomi of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 chose her teammates and events conspired to make sure they did join in.
  • The Pickrun Akarun couldn't choose its user because Eas was still evil.
  • Potpourri, being a baby fairy, kept choosing other people before ultimately finding his true partner.
  • Hime was given an item to find her next partner. But, she didn't know how to work it, so she threw it randomly and chose the first person it hit.
• Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a rare malevolent example, as they deliberately set the heroes they choose onto a path that will inevitably lead to their destruction.
• In The Rising of the Shield Hero it is eventually revealed that while a ritual must be performed to summon wielders of the Legendary Weapons, the Weapons themselves choose their wielder. The reason Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu perform so poorly is that summoning all the Heroes in a single ritual interfered with the selection process. While the Shield was able to choose its ideal wielder, the other Weapons had to make due with lesser candidates.
• The Slayers TRY plays with it when Lina is approached by the dragon priestess Filia to save the world from destruction. Lina brags about how OF COURSE she'd come to her first, but at this point, the priestess announces that Lina was actually their second choice... with the first one being her much feared big sister Luna, who told Filia to go to Lina and tell her to take the "job".
• Directly invoked in Sword Art Online — Akihiko, who programmed the titular VR-MMO and turned it into a deathtrap also programmed the system to automatically assign the unique Dual Wielding skill to whatever player had the highest reaction-speed rating — making them The Chosen One by default, since they'd stand a much better chance of reaching the Final Boss (himself) than any other player. Kirito — the main character and The Chosen One — eventually becomes aware of this, and in a later arc, uses it to deduce that a fearsome fighter in the Alfheim Online VR-MMO isn't one of the survivors of SAO like many assumed — since her reaction-speed is faster than his, she would have been designated as The Chosen One if she'd been there, instead of him.
• Tweeny Witches: Sigma chooses Arusu to be the one who fulfills his father's prophecy by saving the Magical Realm.
• Kirin in The Twelve Kingdoms choose each nation's king. The real deciders are gods, but the kirin never make a mistake, even if they think they did.
• In The World God Only Knows, a devil named Dokuro Skull needed to find a way to save New Hell from a cult of evil demons. The odds were very bad, so she set-up events so that out of all the possible futures, ones where the world was saved would send back a messenger to help her make that particular future come true by creating a Stable Time Loop. Just in case the messenger turned out to be evil, she created an Alternate Self to act as a watchman, judging the messenger's trustworthiness. The alternate Dokuro ultimately chose Keima to be the one to save New Hell.

Comic Books

• This is Sunspot's role in the All-New, All-Different Marvel reboot of New Avengers (2015) — through the reformed (and hopefully good) A.I.M. Corporation, he seeks out people he feel is ready to carry the title of "Avenger" No more initiatives, no more academies, just people who have done the hero thing long enough to step it up.
• In Birthright, the Chooser is Rook, a Token Heroic Orc who plucks young Mikey Rhodes from his life on Earth according to an ancient prophecy that he will one day free the land of Terrenos from God-King Lore. Unfortunately, Rook was unaware that the prophecy was just recycled from an older version that placed Lore himself as the hero who saved Terrenos before he turned evil. And even the updated version only says that the summoning of the Chosen One will "lead to" Lore's defeat, not necessarily that he will do it himself.
• The incumbent Sorcerer Supreme has at least some say in who becomes the next to hold the office. In Doctor Strange stories, the Ancient One guards the office and determines who is worthy to hold it, despite having died and become one with Eternity many years before.
• Green Lanterns are chosen by their ring for their ability to overcome great fear. Usually the living planet Mogo adds in a moral component to the criteria so villains who can overcome great fear aren't chosen. Later Hal Jordan destroyed the corps and all but one of the Guardians of the Universe, Ganthet. He forged one last ring and chose the next, last Lantern on his own and almost seemingly at random with a glib "You'll have to do." Years later, after Kyle relit the Central Power Battery and resurrected the Guardians, Ganthet had this to say:
  Ganthet: You, my boy, my last lantern ... you have always been my greatest hope.
  Kyle Rayner: No kidding? When you gave me that ring you said "you shall have to do."
  Ganthet: I don't remember anything like that — I have always had the greatest faith in you.
  Kyle Rayner: Sounding like a parent already.
• PS238 has a Chooser who is a Chosen One himself—apparently, whoever gets the Time Travel superpower is destined to discover the Castle Outside of Time and Space, and whoever does that gets to pick out the person who will decide whether or not to make superpowers permanent. Tom, the current Chooser, picks Tyler.
• Shazam!:
  • In Shazam!, the Wizard (aka, Shazam) chooses which Champion to give his powers to. His first choice, Black Adam, went rather badly. He spent the next 5,000 years looking for someone who was completely pure of heart, and wound up with Billy Batson, who was a much better choice.
  • In the New 52, Billy is decidedly not pure of heart, but convinces Shazam that someone like that can't really exist; in this case, Billy is chosen for being "pure enough."
• Ultimate Marvel: In Ultimate Origins the Watchers of the Universe announce that Vagueness Is Coming and that they have chosen a herald to help with the upcoming crisis. It is Rick Jones. He helped during the "Ultimate Enemy" arc.

Fan Works

• The Bridge sets the Gaea Everfree in this role. For generations they acted as retainers for the Equestria Girl World's equivilent to the Elements of Harmony until a generation or time would come that the rightful Bearers of the Elements could be found. Their connection allowed the Retainers to use some of the Element's magic, but never as much as the Bearers could.
• Child of the Storm has Doctor Strange function as this, thanks to his abilities as time-traveller, enormously powerful Seer, and world class Magnificent Bastard, all as part of his grand plan to stop Thanos. He explicitly notes in the sequel that he could have arranged the powers and even the friends/relations that Harry has for more or less anyone, but he chose Harry specifically, on the grounds that he's The Hero in spite of his powers, not because of them. It's also made very clear that while Harry is his main focus, far from the only, and certainly not the first, example of this trope, because Strange has been doing this for a very long time.
• Cyberpunk: Another Daybreak: Aruto picks David as the Kamen Rider of Night City and passes the Cyclone Rider on to him under the pretense of it being a mislabeled shipment.
• In Glowworm, Shazam selects Taylor as a worthy champion after she offers him her umbrella and some company despite him being a perfect stranger to her.
• Honoka's Bizarre Adventure: A pink-and-black automatic Stand carrying a Stand Arrow travels across Tokyo, locating people with strong fighting spirit and piercing them with the arrow to give them Stands. The choice of who gets the Stand is regardless of the person's age, gender, and morality, so alongside the heroic girls from µ's like Honoka, Hanayo, Rin, and Eli, most of their antagonists also received their powers in the same way.
• Justice League of the Rebellion: Kallen Kouzuki is selected by the wizard to weild the power of Shazam at the recommendation of the Spectre, whose current host is her dead brother Naoto.
• In Kur and the Crown, the Crown of Fire selects who will be the next Ghost King. Its selection is ultimately based upon how Danny wasn't tempted by its powers during his battle with Pariah, tossing it aside without even considering trying to use it.
• Of Snowflakes And Dragons Fire: Lyarra not only has the responsibility of selecting the next ruler of Albion, but of ensuring their survival.
• In Once Upon A Handplate, Noelle's children Sam and Piper are the ones who learn what happened and deliver the Call to Adventure to their mother.
• Parallel Legends: When Link fully embraces his destiny as The Chosen One, he cites Zelda as the one who selected him, describing her as the "incarnation of wisdom, living legend of this world".
• There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: Unlike canon, where Master Fu was responsible for choosing who would become a Miraculous holder, here, the Kwamis choose who is worthy of wielding them. Though as Hawk Moth shows, they can apparently still make mistakes or get captured by villains, whichever happened here. The Guardians still existed in the past, but are seemingly not around anymore in the present. The last time that Tikki can confirm that they were active as when her last bearer before Marinette, Jeann d'Arc, died, but that's still a 600-year time gap where they could have died.
• A Moth to a Flame: The Core wanted the best and brightest for its potential host, and selected Marcy after she defeated King Andrias at Flipwart. Unlike canon, Marcy is all on board with it.
  Andrias: Our lord has craved [a host] for so long, and it wanted the best, the smartest... and then you, a Wu, arrived in Amphibia. When you beat me in Flipwart, that sealed the deal.
• Code Geass: Reverse: The Code Bearer VV in the Role Swap AU is an ancient former king of the Holy Britannian Empire, who left Brittiania out of disgust from his successors and seeks to find a worthy new ruler. A commoner descendant named Charles and a Chinese man implied to be Xing Ke were each chosen, but VV found Charles to be just as unworthy as the original royals while Xing Ke was deemed not worthy enough. However, he manages to find potential success with the vi Britannian siblings in Tokyo and gives the eldest, Nunnally, her own Geass.
• In Mortified, the Core selects who has "the right to rule" and potentially become the next Ghost King/Queen. Earning this regard typically means completing at least one great deed in service of the Ghost Zone, impressing the Core enough to earn their approval. This can also be revoked by the Core at any time, should they decide that the Ghost Zone needs a new leader.
• In Blindness, after learning that Harry is disabled, Dumbledore decides that Neville must be the chosen one, and begins testing him by providing him with many clues about the Philosopher's Stone.
• Dreamland University Redux: Bikaia is a Royal Bastard and fourth in line for the throne of Dreamland. Galacta Knight sets out to put him on the throne with the aid of the goddess Nova.
• In Break it down, Butterfly, Nooroo manages to escape from Hawkmoth and selects Nino as his new bearer, remarking on how long it's been since he got to choose his own wielder.
• Cheshire picks this apart by showing how much research and observation is required to make a good selection. Master Fu's choices tend to go awry because he's basing his picks on superficial observations; he doesn't know what they're truly like as individuals.
• Nymph and the Corrupted Miraculous: Instead of being located and used by Hawkmoth, Nooroo was able to send out butterflies to find somebody and lead them to his brooch, with Marinette being the one who found him.
• Rise of Paonne and Renard Rouge: Gabriel used to be a Kid Hero himself, and selects Marinette as his successor, acting as her mentor long before passing on the Peacock Pin to her.
• Scarlet Lady:
  • Master Fu's status as such bites him in the butt thanks to Chloé swiping the Earrings from Marinette's purse before she discovered them. When Adrien finally gets a chance to meet Fu, he immediately berates him for supposedly selecting Scarlet Lady before Fu has the chance to clear things up.
  • At the end of "Mr. Pigeon", Marinette Lenore reflects that one of the Miraculous — specifically, the Rooster — might be a good fit for Xavier Ramier.
• Thanks, but no has a Decon-Recon Switch of this trope. Master Fu sees Marinette as both a potential hero and a future Guardian, and constantly sends Miraculouses her way, despite the fact that Marinette doesn't want the stress of being a hero added to her life. On the opposite end, Marinette ends up passing them to heroes that will either make the best use of them^note Alya, Alix, and Max, who would benefit from the freedom brought by their Miraculous^note Adrien and Kagami, or to help set up a healthy hero romance^note Nino to set him up with Adrien.
• Erased Potential: Nedzu toys with this by pointing Toshinori towards Izuku, despite knowing that Izuku is trying to prove himself as a Quirkless Hero. Eventually, Toshinori settles on Kaminari Denki as the next bearer of One for All.
• Arceus is this in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, by virtue of being the one who saves Ash from the reality crash and sends him back in time with his memories intact, tasking him with the mission of stopping Cyrus from destroying the world.
• In Power Rangers Wing Force, Commander Gordon picks Mark, Carrie and Steven as three members of the titular team. Wayne nominates himself and Lulu as the other members.
• Downplayed in RWBY Wild Hunt: Ozpin selects Ruby as The Chosen One because she's one of the only Silver-Eyed Warriors left.
• Played With in Cat-Ra, where it's eventually revealed that the sword possesses a special feature called the Finder's Protocol, enabling the holder to tap into a fraction of its abilities so that they can find whomever the sword is meant to go to. This is why Catra was able to use it in the first place; she was intended to give it to Adora... but by the time she figures this out, the sword has already transferred full ownership to her, having deemed her worthy.
• In Different Roads, Milisandre becomes convinced that Jon Snow is The Prince that was Promised, while the majority of Essos' Red Priests and Priestesses believe that Daenerys Targaryen is Azor Ahai reborn.
• Dragons Of Ice And Fire has the three-eyed raven, Bloodraven, who proves very adept at selecting those who have the right skillsets (and/or supernatural abilities) and are in the right locations to complete important tasks. However, many of these are actually decoy and stalling missions meant to obfuscate their true goals and intentions, as well as whom they actually require.
• In Flames in the Dark, Milisandre selects and promotes a yet-unnamed man as being the reborn Azor Ahai.
• Becoming the Mask: The Amulet's status as such gets Discussed when Vendel is trying to understand why it selected a Changeling to become a Trollhunter. Vendel suspects that this might be a case of Hijacked Destiny, given how Jim had stolen James Lake Junior's name; however, the Amulet called for "Jim Lake", not James, suggesting it deliberately picked the Changeling.

Film — Animated

• In Epic (2013) it's Queen Tara's duty to pick her successor. Later, she picks MK to carry the pod to Nim Galuu.
• The wise turtle Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda is the one who chooses Po the panda as the next "Dragon Warrior".
• Rise of the Guardians: The Man in the Moon picks the titular guardians, but don't give them a clue on what they are supposed to be, leaving them to figure it out themselves. This drives much of the plot, since Jack Frost only realizes in the end that, as a Friend to All Children, he is supposed to become the Guardian of Fun.
• Rare non-living partial example in the form of The Matrix of Leadership in Transformers: The Movie, in which the Matrix, a talisman of extraordinary power, and containing the soul of countless Autobot leaders, chooses Hot Rod to become the next Prime, and at the same time choosing him to defeat Unicron, an Omnicidal Maniac who threatens to eat everything in existence.

Film — Live-Action

• Dodgers manager Branch Rickey in 42, who declares that somehow he's going to find an African-American baseball player to integrate into his baseball team.
  "I don't know who he is or where he is, but he's coming."
• In the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, Merrick is essentially this, being the one who finds Buffy and tells her she is the chosen one.
• In Captain America: The First Avenger, Dr. Erskine overhears a conversation between Steve Rogers and Bucky, and realizes that Steve is the perfect candidate for the Super Serum.
• The Matrix: Morpheus discovered and mentored Neo.
  • The Oracle, as the full story plays out, is the one that created the whole prophecy to begin with. Neo could have very well been chosen by the Oracle, although it requires a nudge to Morpheus to find him. Once that's done, she offers Neo a cookie, saying that, after he eats it, he'll be "right as rain." What are "cookies" in the computer world? They add information to a program. All that Neo needed was a push to act more than what he felt. Remember that the Oracle didn't tell Neo that he wasn't the One — he drew his own conclusion. The Oracle is rooting for the humans, so helping Neo ultimately choose himself is part of her plan. Remember the sign above her kitchen: "Know Thyself" in Latin? That's what she does to people.
  • The Architect cannot be the Chooser. The One is an anomaly of the choice programming that the Oracle helped to add to make the first stable Matrix. It stabilized the system, save for the One, "The Anomaly," who keeps reappearing every 100 years or so when the Matrix must be rebooted, or reloaded. The Architect noted he'd been trying to get rid of the Ones for a long time with no success (the Ones are Choice Incarnate and presumably can't be removed without removing choice from the Matrix and hosing the system). The Architect settles on using the Oracle's prophecy to force the One to come to him, presenting Neo with a Morton's Fork to save humanity.
• The Side Kick in The Pumaman is also the one charged with finding the chosen one to become the eponymous hero. This involves throwing him out a window to see if he has a cat's ability to survive long falls.
• In Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn discovered Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one of an ancient Jedi prophecy.
• Tomorrowland: Athena sees in Casey a dreamer who hasn't stopped dreaming yet and gives her the pin that leads her to Tomorrowland, so she can stop the impending disaster.

Literature

• Isaac Asimov:
  • "Dreaming is a Private Thing": Joe Dooley is a talent scout who looks for kids with the potential to become Creators of dreams. Jesse Weill is willing to risk his company's money on training a kid in storytelling for years on Joe's recommendation.
  • Franchise: The massive computer, Multivac, chooses the perfectly average Norman Millar to represent the opinions and views of the entire American people in this year's election. Data about his opinions will be used to extrapolate everyone's votes in every city/county of the country.
• In the The Adventures of Tom Rynosseros a rogue AI, for reasons of its own, grants seven sandship captains "Coloured" status, making them living legends in the dominant Aboriginal culture, and free rein to pilot their ships across the Australian continent. The last of these captains, Tom Tyson/Rynosseros, is given the most important color, Blue, which signifies Unity.
• Riven from Blue Rabbit has dedicated his entire life to finding a Dark Human who can become Illuminated and save his world. Once he discovers Erika is a Dark Human, she becomes pretty much the only thing he cares about.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Aslan chose the children. Not just the first four, but Eustace and Jill as well.
• In The Dresden Files:
  • The titular wizard Harry is given two Swords of the Cross, Amoracchius and Fidelacchius. These are holy swords whose hilts each contain one of the nails that pierced Christ to the Cross. He is told by the retiring Knights that they wish him to pick their successors, and he will know who the proper persons are when the time is right.
  • After Harry is presumed dead and has taken the mantle of Winter Knight, serving as the personal hitman to Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness, and the two other Winter Queens, Karrin Murphy becomes the next Chooser as she holds onto the Swords for their protection. When Harry returns, she refuses to hand them over to him because he is now the Winter Knight.
  • In Skin Game, Murphy proves herself incapable of being the Chooser: she uses Fidelacchius to fight and kill an enemy—which causes the Sword to shatter. She later gives Amoracchius back to Harry, acknowledging that she doesn't have enough discipline to refrain from using it.
  • Previously in the series the Merlin of Arthurian Lore, who was a real wizard here, was possibly a Chooser of the Chosen One as the Sword Amoracchius was in his possession. This sword's other name? Excalibur.
• In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the sword of the king of the Enchanted Forest decides who gets to be the next king, though it usually goes to the eldest child anyway.
• Ender's Game:
  • Colonel Graff, as he is responsible for choosing Ender as the kid that will be able to lead the army and defeat the Formics.
  • Sister Carlotta in the Ender's Shadow series is the one who finds and chooses Bean. Graff later recognizes Bean as a potential replacement for Ender, should Ender break down under the stress. However, while Bean may be infinitely smarter than Ender (or anyone else, for that matter), he lacks any leadership skills.
• In Harry Potter, Voldemort was unknowingly the Chooser, since whoever he decided to mark "as his equal" would be the one with the power to defeat him. Technically, it could have been either Harry or Neville — or even nobody at all, as Potterverse prophecies don't necessarily come true — but Voldemort made it final. Such are the perils of trying subvert a prophecy when you've only heard half of it. Voldemort never does learn of his mistake. Plus, Voldemort's ego and sociopathy would never have allowed him to make the "correct" choice for subverting the prophecy by simply doing nothing even if he had heard the whole thing rather than just half of it. The very concept that someone even might become powerful enough to defeat him meant that he had to kill them.
• Heralds of Valdemar:
  • The Companions are the Choosers of The Many. Each Companion sets out to find a Herald to bond to when the time is right (often around puberty), Because Destiny Says So. Criteria include the potential for Psychic Powers and Incorruptible Pure Pureness. Once the Herald is Chosen, the Companion acts as a mentor until the Herald is trained, and a partner (and mount) for the rest of both of their lives. The Companions also choose Valdemar's rulers, since only a member of the royal family who is also a Herald can be king or queen.
  • Valdemar's southern neighbor, Rethwellen, also has a supernatural means of choosing a good ruler, a magical sword that glows and "sings" when the proper heir approaches it.
  • Their other southern neighbor, Karse, quite abruptly gets in on the fun later in the series. Their very deity steps in to Choose the next ruler (after visiting His divine wrath on the corrupt former office-holder) and sends Firecats to guide certain heroic individuals in much the same way^note  Well, a very feline version of the same way. Companions guide their Heralds.
  • From Lackey's older books (the Vows and Honor series) is Need, a Clingy MacGuffin enchanted sword which chooses its bearer, granting all sorts of magical bonuses and obligations. She is eventually revealed to be a living woman who sealed her soul in the blade eons ago — but even when Need is 'awake,' she decides who is going to carry her.
• In the epic fantasy The Jasmine Throne, concerning a succession struggle between siblings in a crumbling empire, the royal family of the client kingdom Alor all have prophetic true names that they are only to reveal when the time is right. These range from Mundane Utility (a princess several generations back had a name that was three pages of advice on how to handle a drought), to predicting the person in question's death, to this. A certain character's name prophesies that Malini, the imperial princess, is fated to rule. All the lords she recruited to fight for her compassionate-but-useless brother Aditya against their sadistic, fanatical emperor Chandra already know Malini is the real brains of the operation, but the prophecy helps her overcome the ingrained prejudice against a woman ruling in her own right.
• In the Malloreon series by David Eddings
  • The two opposing Prophecies cannot meet directly, lest the universe be destroyed (or worse, a third Prophecy be created), so they each choose a human champion to act on their behalf, the Child of Light and The Child of Dark. The Children generally are allowed to step down once they've accomplished a specific goal.
  • Cyradis the Blind Seer is responsible for choosing between The Child of Light and the Child Of Dark at the final showdown.
  • At the end of The Malloreon, The Children of Light (Garion) and Dark (Zandramas) have to choose their successors, whom Cyradis will choose to become the new God That Should Have Been.
• Nowhere Stars: The Messengers are a family of six Mentor Mascots that seek out those with the potential to become Keepers and offer them the choice to do so. What actually qualifies someone for becoming a Keeper in the first place is a major mystery in-universe, or if the Messengers themselves are actually responsible for choosing at all. When asked, the Messengers don't seem able to understand the question, aside from it being "the wrong question."
• The Messenger Series: As a hero in his own right, Favour's mystical purpose is to choose a rider who will become the Messenger, a hero that can right the wrongs of the past and save lives in the present.
• Vatra from Of Fear and Faith travels around recruiting various people at the behest of her Emperor to end the thirty year Demon War. Unlike Noble, who was given specific directions who to find, Vatra chooses her recruits personally with her own judgement.
• The Stormlight Archive: The Stormfather, the unfathomably powerful entity that sends the highstorms, is the one behind Dalinar's visions. Honor, the creature called the Almighty, gave them to him and told them to send them when the time was right. Following the Almighty's death at Odium's hands, the Stormfather wanted nothing to do with any of it, but he kept his promise regardless, giving them to a variety of people, including Gavilar Kholin, possibly Szeth-son-Neturo, and of course Dalinar. However, that was the exact minimum he was required to do, and he refused to help any further by speaking to the people involved or allowing his children, the honorspren, to return to humanity and make new bonds. Quite a few problems in the first two books arise because the visions make very little sense to someone without the proper context—context which no one alive today has.
• Sword of the Rightful King is transparent about Merlinnus' role in placing Arthur on the throne of Britain. Merlinnus fabricates a mystical destiny for Arthur by creating the sword in the stone and passing it off as a genuine ancient prophecy. In short, destiny did not choose Arthur, Merlinnus did. Although he does indicate that he is following the directives of a greater force.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • In The Hobbit, Gandalf chooses Bilbo to be the group's burglar, even though Bilbo has never been on an adventure before and doesn't want to go on one now. It turns out to be a good choice.
  • In Gandalf's backstory given in Unfinished Tales, Gandalf (or Olórin) was in turn chosen by Manwë, being the only one of the five Istari to be so chosen rather than volunteering.
  • As Gandalf himself puts it: "I dare say he was 'chosen' and I was only chosen to choose him; but I picked out Bilbo."
• Deconstructed in "Child of Prophecy" by Jeffrey Wells, written from the perspective of the Chooser, telling a young man toiling in the Dark Lord's pitchblend mine that it's possible he's the Chosen One then heading back to his time machine to mock up a prophecy, go back in time to hide it somewhere it'll be found shortly, and move on to the next kid. One of them's bound to manage something. And then the second twist is that the Chooser was also Chosen, and vaguely suspects there may be something dodgy about that as well.

Live-Action TV

• Doyle, on Angel, sent by the powers to tell Angel he was a chosen one, while also complaining that the Chosen One doesn't stock beer in his fridge.
• Cleverman: Uncle Jimmy identified Koen as the Cleverman.
• Game of Thrones: Melisandre identifies Stannis as the Lord of Light's chosen one.
• In Legend of the Seeker:
  • Zedd names Richard as the Seeker. There's some bias here, given that he is a relative. Later on, though, he chooses Leo to be the next Seeker while Richard is in the Palace of the Prophets. Later yet, he names himself as the Seeker, although at the time he wasn't quite himself.
  • Presumably, any wizard of the First Order can do that, but there are only two left, and the other one is in the employ of the first season's Big Bad.
• Nirvana in Fire: Langya Hall, run by Lin Chen. Langya Hall compiles the prestigious Langya List every year that lists the greatest talents in the world in each discipline. Most people seem to regard them as a divine oracle, but they are actually just an extremely well run nigh-omniscient Knowledge Broker.
• In Once Upon a Time, Prince Charming chose Emma by placing her in Gepetto's machine, but she had to be re-chosen by Henry in order to receive the Call to Adventure.
• In Robin of Sherwood, Herne the Hunter, a pagan god/spirit of some kind, chooses who will become the Hooded Man, which is quite handy because if one dies, Herne can simply choose another. There seems to be some kind of prophecy involved, that "The Hooded Man will come to the forest, there to meet with Herne the Hunter, to be his son and do his bidding", but it's hard to tell if it's the prophecy choosing Herne's Sons, or Herne doing it, or both.
• This was basically Azazel's role in Supernatural. First, he chose a variety of kids who were possible candidates. Out of this group, one of them would be chosen ultimately. The idea was that the chosen one would not only free Lilith from hell, but also be instrumental in releasing Lucifer as well as become Lucifer's vessel.

Religion & Mythology

• In The Bible:
  • The prophet Samuel chose the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, led by God.
  • This happens often in Genesis. God chooses Abraham. He also chooses Jacob while Jacob and Esau are still in the womb and tells Rebecca about it, leading to her knowing which son to favor. Jacob favors Joseph out of his twelve sons, and Joseph ends up receiving prophetic dreams and the ability to interpret the dreams of others. In Exodus, God chooses Moses to lead the Israelites, Moses's elder brother Aaron as spokesman and later High Priest, and Moses's older sister Miriam as another prophet and third leader of the people.
  • Jesus was not truly chosen by anyone other than himself (Jesus was chosen by God, but Jesus also is God in most Christian beliefs), but there are still scenes that fit this motif arguably; The Magi presenting him gifts and his Baptism by John are often viewed this way, even though Jesus entirely initiated the latter.
• In Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people for the foremost spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Following the Buddhist belief in the principle of reincarnation, when the current Dalai Lama dies, there is a formal search conducted to identify the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama.
  • There is also the Panchen Lama, who is the second most important spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism. Each has a part to play in finding reincarnation of the next Lama. The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa. Tragically, this tradition seems to have come to a halt as the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was taken into custody by the Chinese Government when he was 6-years-old and hasn't been seen since. It's widely expected that whenever the 14th Dalai Lama dies, China will produce the Panchen Lama (or an imposter thereof) to "identify" a 15th Dalai Lama who can be raised to be loyal to the government. Possibly because of this, the Dalai Lama has hinted that he might choose not to reincarnate.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted: If you're an Exalt and not a Dragon-Blooded, then someone in Heaven, Hell, the Underworld, Autochthonia, or optionally the Wyld is vouching for you. In case of being a Sidereal, one of the Five Maidens chose you before you were born, unless your exaltation is some kind of freak accident.
  • For Solars and Lunars in Second Edition, ultimately it's the Exaltation itself that chooses the one to be precise, in a manner of speaking. The heavens might influence whom is chosen, but in the end it is the actions of the mortal that call the Exaltation to them.
  • Similarly, the optional Umbrals are chosen by their Exaltations because their patron destroyed himself in the creation of the Umbral Exaltations, and the part of him within each Exaltation is what does the choosing.
  • Dragon-Blooded are the exception because the Five Elemental Dragons chose the Dragon-Blooded's family lines back in the depths of time, but don't choose who in that family line is Exalted.
  • For mortal heroes (when they matter), the choosers are usually the Sidereal Exalted, who oversee the Loom of Fate. They use astrology to manipulate destiny, and sometimes operate in disguise on Creation to ensure that fate goes the way it's supposed to. Their "prophecies" are a mix of genuine mystical foresight, careful planing, and subtle manipulation, and they sometimes have to improvise when their predictions go awry because pushing new prophecies through Heaven's hopelessly corrupt and frequently incompetent bureaucracy is often more trouble than it's worth.
• Warhammer:
  • Sorcerers of Tzeentch can use a spell called Call to Glory to turn a normal guy into an Exalted Hero.
  • Savage Orc special character Wurrzag Ud Ura Zahubu, the Great Green Prophet, is a shaman tasked by the greenskin gods to find the Once an' Future Git, the legendary orcish hero who will pull a magical axe from the dwarf-shaped Gaffastone and lead the greenskins to glory as their Dark Messiah. After years of watching likely candidates, during the End Times campaign Wurrzag realized that as there are two greenskin deities, so must there be two champions, making him the Choser of the Two.
  • The Daemon Prince Be'lakor was cursed aeons earlier by the Chaos Gods to become this rather than The Chosen One, crowning the Everchosen of Chaos who will conquer the world for the Dark Gods. Be'lakor has gone through the process several times, and since he can only touch the Crown of Domination if it's to put it on the Anointed's head, he is very much unhappy about the whole thing.

Toys

• BIONICLE characters’ destinies are set by Mata Nui, and fate remains one of the only supernatural elements of the story to survive Doing In the Wizard. The destinies of Mata Nui himself and Makuta were set by the Great Beings, who intended for them to be “brothers” and work together to restore Spherus Magna. Makuta’s ambition to take over Mata Nui’s body inadvertently fulfilled this destiny, as during his fight with Mata Nui he pulls Spherus Magna’s moons close enough together for Mata Nui to finish the job.

Video Games

• Centipede (1998): The opening cutscene of level 1-1 shows that the hero is selected by a "magic stick" — a forked rod with what appears to be a compass on it.
• Dark Souls: A complicated and spoiler-iffic example. The prophecy fortelling of the Chosen Undead specifies that s/he will ring the Bell(s) of Awakening... which are of course located beyond a long string of obstacles. Reading between the lines a bit, the prophecy may actually be an elaborate testing method to find the strongest undead possible to Link The Fire, a fact supported by the half-truths that Frampt, Kaathe and Gwynevere convey. At the end, by fighting your way to the end and Linking the Fire, you yourself choose to be the Chosen Undead. Or you may opt out.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: Deconstructed with the Seven Gods who choose the player characters as their champions to seek divinity. The trouble is, only one Godwoken can become Divine, many others have tried and failed in the attempt, and, ultimately, the Seven are exposed as predatory Jerkass Gods using the Godwoken as pawns in their power struggle.
• Dragon Age:
  • Duncan, in Dragon Age: Origins, arrives in each origin seeking new recruits for the Grey Wardens, ultimately choosing The Warden.
    • Morrigan's mother Flemeth does this, being the only reason the Warden and Alistair survive the Battle of Ostagar.
    • The Warden does this twice themselves, being the one to decide who will take the vacant thrones of both Orzammar and Ferelden.
  • In Dragon Age II, Flemeth serves as a villainous example of this, saving Hawke from the Darkspawn in exchange for delivering a trinket for her. It's heavily implied that it was no coincidence that she stumbled upon them and she's aware of Hawke's destiny.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Inquisitor is the one who determines the fate of Orlais by deciding whether or not to let Empress Celene be murdered.
• EarthBound (1994) has Buzz Buzz come from 10 years in the future to declare Ness The Chosen One.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • In Morrowind, the Daedric Prince Azura is this, as well as a sort of Big Good. Back When It All Began, following the death of her champion Nerevar and the defiance of his advisors, the Tribunal, she declared the Nerevarine Prophesy which states that Nerevar's reincarnation will one day come to throw down the "false gods" of the Tribunal.
  • In Oblivion, this is you, being sent to find Martin, who is the last remaining heir to the throne. Since you arrive at kind of a bad moment, i.e., during an attempt to assassinate Martin, you don't have time to give him much more explanation than "You're the Emperor's son, let's get out of here!" until later.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, several people are granted the Echo, the blessing of the goddess Hydaelyn, in times of great strife so that they can protect the realm from certain destruction. At least, that's what everyone believes. Shadowbringers reveals that the Echo is, as its name implies, a simple echo of the power everyone had before the world was sundered, reawakened by triggering Past-Life Memories of the final days of Amaurot. Hydaelyn's words to "hear, feel, think" are not the source of the Echo — the Echo is what allows you to hear them in the first place. Endwalker further reveals that even the Warrior of Light's status as Hydaelyn's "real" chosen hero was caused by a Stable Time Loop — she chose them because they came from the future, already chosen, and told her of the quest she would put them on.
  • Final Fantasy Mystic Quest sees a mysterious old man name Benjamin the chosen hero of the prophecy, the only one who can defeat the Dark King. Turns out, he had no idea and was just guessing. Oh, and the ancient prophecy was started by a bored Dark King long ago as a lark.
• What little we know about the G-Man in Half-Life is that he is capable of plucking people from certain doom and replacing them where they'll be more useful. He does this with Gordon at the end of Half-Life 1 and 2, and is later revealed to have done the same for Alyx and Eli Vance at Black Mesa.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Before he went to the Realm of Darkness, Mickey left Donald and Goofy a letter instructing them to find "The Key" — a Keyblade wielder. A twist is that said Key is originally supposed to be Riku, but because he turns to the dark side, the key passes to Sora.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep reveals that Keyblade wielders can turn Muggles into one of their own. Terra willingly turns Riku, while Aqua accidentally turns Kairi when the latter touches her Keyblade. Aqua also becomes a symbolic chooser of the one later on, when she advises Sora to rescue Riku if the latter falls to darkness.
• In League of Legends, Poppy assumes that this is her purpose; to find the fabled Hero of Demacia and pass the hammer she currently wields to its rightful owner. In truth, Poppy herself is The Chosen One, but she is far too much of a Humble Hero to realize it.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The goddess Hylia in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, as part of her plan to permanently destroy Demise, needed to find someone with an unbreakable spirit to help forge the Master Sword and wield the complete Triforce. No points for guessing who she picked.
  • Zigzagged in Hyrule Warriors. Zelda and Impa set out to become this, and Zelda seemingly has her sights set on Link, but then an attack happens. Link sets out on his own and proves to be the chosen one himself without Impa or Zelda coming to him. Then Impa sees this and gives him the hero's tunic, making her this trope after the fact.
• Gwonam in Link: Faces Of Evil:
  Gwonam: It is written: "Only Link can defeat Ganon."
• A unusual example occurs in Mass Effect. Nihlus was meant to be be this and joined the Normandy to assess whether Shepard was suitable for the position of first Human Spectre. However, on the first of several missions meant to decide this, Nihlus ended up with a bullet in the back of the head, courtesy of Saren. Of course, this minor setback did little to stop Shepard from eventually taking up the role of Chosen One and saving the Galaxy.
  • The prequel novel Mass Effect: Revelation describes Saren in this role for Anderson. Unfortunately, Saren has a deep-seeded hatred for humans (his brother was killed during the brief war between the turians and the humans), as well as an agenda of his own. He causes an explosion that kills many innocents and then blames it on Anderson, when it's time for the latter's evaluation. Naturally, this kills any chance for Anderson to become a Spectre.
• Master Albert in Mega Man ZX is essentially The Chooser of the Many, having been directly responsible, through donating his blood, for the creation of all of the Chosen Ones who could become Mega Men, all in the name of awakening Biometal Model W and gathering the data necessary to create "the Ultimate Mega Man". The only Mega Man who he didn't have a hand in creating, Ashe, can still do so because she's his last living descendant.
• In Mortal Kombat 3, Raiden designated several characters as his chosen during Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm, preventing their souls from being taken by Shao Kahn's Soulnado and allowing them to mount a counterattack against the invaders. This group consisted of Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage (Back from the Dead after being killed by Kahn's extermination squads due to the Soulnado preventing passage into the afterlife), Sonya Blade, Jackson "Jax" Briggs, Sub-Zero (the original's younger brother), Smoke (much to his surprise), Nightwolf, Kurtis Stryker, and Kabal. Presumably, the same applies to the Forces of Light in Mortal Kombat 9, which consisted of most of the same characters (key differences being that Kung Lao had been killed off by Kahn in the climax of the MK2 arc, Sub-Zero had been captured by the Lin Kuei and turned into a cyborg instead of Smoke, and Kitana and Jade had joined the Earthrealm heroes prior to the events of 3).
• Persona:
  • In Persona 3, Aigis ended up in this role ten years prior to the game's story when she overpowered the weakened Death Shadow. She needed a living can to seal it in, and the protagonist happened to be the only living thing on hand. This ultimately puts the protagonist in position to save the world ten years later.
  • In Persona 4, the Greater-Scope Villain, Izanami, was responsible for giving the Protagonist, Namatame and Adachi the ability to enter the TV World, so that she could determine what sort of world humanity wanted. Since Adachi was the most actively prolific of the three, she decides that what they want is oblivion.
  • Persona 5 has two examples:
    • Yaldabaoth was the one who gave the Protagonist and Akechi the ability access the Metaverse, allowing them to create the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and Shido's Conspiracy, and pits them against each other as part of a twisted "game" to determine whether or not he should remake the world. However, Yaldabaoth intentionally rigs the game so that he can enslave humanity himself.
    • Morgana, meanwhile, was created by Igor to gather "Tricksters", and guide them in his place, so that they can stop Yaldabaoth.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, the Relic Fragment chooses who's worthy to enter the Hidden Land.
• Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: In the Shijima ending, Hikawa realizes that his destiny wasn't to create the world of Shijima, but to choose the Demi-Fiend so that he could get the job done.
• In Tales of Symphonia, the Chosen Ones are members of a particular bloodline who have the potential to revive the Goddess Martel, and are selected by Cruxis, the organization of angels that runs the Church of Martel, to go on a journey to "regenerate the world", aka bring life-giving mana back to it. Cruxis is actually run by the Big Bad of the game, who is looking for a suitable vessel for the trapped soul of his sister Martel, since her body was killed long ago: the Chosen Ones are thus selected for their genetic compatibility with his sister, in order to give them the best chance of being able to "revive" her by acting as host for her soul at the expense of their own.
• Teenagent: Downplayed. A Fortune Teller randomly picks Mark Hopper on a phonebook to train him into a secret agent.
• In Vampyr (2018), the main protagonist Jonathan Reid was turned into a vampire by someone to complete an important mission: save London from the Red Queen's wrath. Turns out this wasn't the first time either, King Arthur and Sir William Marshall were also vampire heroes before Jonathan that fulfilled the same purpose. This all makes sense when it's revealed said vampire sire is pretty much Merlin.
• In Wandersong, the angel of the goddess Eya conducts a test by giving the same dream to everyone on the planet, where the sword sits at the top of a hill and must be used to defeat said angel in a monstrous form. The Bard takes this test at the very beginning of the game where they fail, but the angel still likes them and encourages them to try saving the world on their own terms with the Earthsong, making them The Unchosen One.

Web Animation

• RWBY: To address the absence of the gods from Remnant, the God of Light chooses a single human to act as a guide that will help humanity achieve its potential. That guide also has been given the knowledge required to summon the gods back to Remnant. Ozma is brought back from death to carry out this mission, which requires him to be constantly reborn into the body of a living man. He must unite humanity in harmony then bring together four Relics to summon the gods. If they deem humanity worthy, they will restore humanity's full potential and live among them once more. If they are summoned while humanity is disunited and fractured, they will declare humanity irredeemable and destroy the entire world. As the Big Good, Ozma is locked in a Forever War with the Big Bad, who — having been cursed by the gods — is trying to make humanity irredeemable as she believes it's the only way to end her Complete Immortality.

Web Comics

• In Agents of the Realm, the part is split between two beings: Jade Blackwater searches for the Agents, but its the amulets that chose them.
• In Darths & Droids, Darth Kanata tries to offer the laser sword of destiny first to Rey because, due to her heritage, she might be the chosen one who will restore imbalance to the Force. After she refuses, she offers it to Yanni first, saying he might qualify just because he knew Luke, but changes his mind because a fresh chosen one can't be old and grey. Finally he gives it to Finn, who has absolutely no basis to be the chosen one, explaining that prophecies are rubbish anyway and someone's got to fix things.
• In Drowtales, Ariel is chosen by Quain. As of the end of chapter 32, it appears that Chrys has been chosen by Sillice.
• Housepets!: In the Cosmic Chessgame, Pete and Dragon each get to select a mortal cat or dog to be their avatar, fighting for them against the other side and the forces that would put Earth in jeopardy. While not quite The Chosen One, an Avatar's access to magic(k) and being the underling of a Celestial puts them at a pretty significant place in life.
• In Kill Six Billion Demons, Zoss is prophesied to pick a specific person to be his successor as, more or less, king of the multiverse. He shows he has a choice about this by choosing that person's girlfriend Allison instead, though this may only have been because his original choice is captured before he can hand over the MacGuffin. Anyway, it's pretty clear Zoss has made his choice, although there are others who continue to disagree and try to take the prophecy back on track.
• In Rice Boy, T-O-E is the last of a group of three searchers, given a divine mandate to find and designate the Fulfiller of an ancient prophecy. The twist is that T-O-E's word is no indication that a chosen individual will actually fulfill the prophecy. One of the other searchers, Calabash, quit the job precisely because he was tired of choosing Fulfillers who go Knight Templar or mess up just as bad in some other fashion.
  And then in the final subversion, the most recently named Fulfiller, the eponymous Rice Boy, notices at the end that T-O-E himself has also fulfilled all but the final step of the prophecy. At which point T-O-E does fulfill that final step, which is a world-saving Heroic Sacrifice. So at the very end, the two characters swap roles: T-O-E becomes the Chosen One, and Rice Boy unintentionally becomes the Chooser.
• Roommates has very few heroes because it's a small scale story and because the Chooser in it is a certifiable jerkass. The Chooser is a character known as the Scribble Person, who is the personification of the Story/Fate, so literally nobody can become a hero or defy his/her chosen (guess by whom) role without his/her consent, and (s)he loves the Rule of Drama very very very much.

Web Original

• In The Gamer's Alliance, the elven cleric Schuldich Cedheros is the sole survivor of the massacre of his order and is sent by the Gods of Order to find wielders for two special enchanted weapons, Dusk and Dawn, which the chosen ones will be destined to use to fight the forces of Chaos. Schuldich manages to deliver Dusk to its intended bearer but narrowly fails with Dawn (he did find two candidates for Dawn's intended bearer but before he could figure out which of the two women were meant to have the sword, an evil goddess appeared, killed him and stole the sword right in front of the women's noses).
  • Leon also ends up in this role when he is tasked with finding the bearer of the Silver Branch whose destiny is to stop the Landpoison of Yamato and heal the wound on the earth caused by the dark god Mardük's tainted magic.
• The Questport Chronicles: The Lord of the Supreme Council sends the eight strangers that show up at the Temple out on a quest, on the basis that if a real hero hasn't shown up by now, it's unlikely that one ever will. She takes some flak from the rest of the Supreme Council for it, but it works out.

Western Animation

• Amphibia:
  • The Calamity Guardian implicitly is the one who chose the Calamity trio to use the powers of the Gems to defeat The Core, and tries to offer Anne their God Job for passing their Secret Test of Character.
  • In a dark example, the Core chose Marcy as its human host because of her high intelligence, and that she was the only one who could beat Andrias at Flipwart.
• The Fairly OddParents! movie Wishology shows the Ancient Fairy Council holding auditions (on a stage and everything) for "the Chosen One" whom they would appoint to unite and wield the three wands needed to defeat "the Darkness," should it ever return. They chose a warrior named Turbo Thunder from a planet of people with superpowers who wanted the job so he could get revenge on the Darkness for destroying his planet. Unfortunately, after waiting thousands of years, he fell asleep when the Darkness finally returned. In the meantime, Jorgen von Strangle deduced from the prophecy's description that Timmy Turner must be the Chosen One and gave him the job.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Twilight and her friends being the Elements of Harmony are potentially this, rather a pure case of Because Destiny Says So, as the Tree of Harmony that is the origin of said elements is hinted to be sentient in later seasons.
• Miraculous Ladybug
  • Master Fu, the Great Guardian of the Miraculouses, who gave the heroes their Transformation Trinkets.
  • Marinette/Ladybug herself is generally given free rein by Master Fu to choose temporary wielders for the other Miraculouses when necessary. At the end of season 3 she fully inherits his role as the Guardian.
• The Owl House: Witches and demons originally carved their own Palismen, but since Emperor Belos took over, the trees used to make them became scarce; the Bat Queen now brings abandoned Palismen for magic users to adopt. In this case, the wielder does not choose what Palisman they want, the Palisman chooses them based on what the wielder wants to do with their life.
• Sofia the First:
  • Played with in the episode "The Princess and the Protector" when a Protector-in-training has to get their Enchantlet from the Isle of Forever Frost. What's interesting is the Protector doesn't choose their Enchantlet, the Enchantlet chooses them.
  • Played straight with the Amulet of Avalor when Princess Elena got trapped in it. It is revealed in "Elena and the Secret of Avalor" that Elena herself chose the next bearer of the amulet to see if they were young and brave enough to free her. By the time of the series, she chose Sofia, who possesses the amulet to this day, and Elena was the one blessing and cursing her to test her to see if she's ready.
• Alpha Trion seems to fill this role across various incarnations of Transformers often passing on the Matrix of Leadership or empowering pre-chosen Optimus Prime to serve as leader of the Autobots. Sometimes the Matrix itself serves this role in choosing who may wield its power and punishing the unworthy.
• In Trollhunters, it's implied that Merlin chooses the next Trollhunter, but it is also possible that the Amulet of Daylight can select them itself, independent of its creator's wishes.

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