Edited: The following was removed on the 11th February 2022 after the Is This An Example? deemed Cinder and the Maidens to not be the trope, and an example of Power Parasite instead. She was already troped there, so this entry was removed.
Regarding the following entry:
RWBY: Cinder Fall uses a Power Parasite Grimm to steal part of Amber's Fall Maiden powers. While Cinder is mostly just after the power, the Maidens have a key role in the fight against the Big Bad Salem. Since Cinder is working for Salem, this lets Salem undermine the efforts against her. Pyrrha Nikos was supposed to get the rest of Amber's power, but Cinder brutally murders her to claim it for herself, then kills Pyrrha. Cinder even has the gall to claim that the power was hers by right the entire time, and Pyrrha was promised something that was never hers. It's later revealed that Cinder wants the power of all four Maidens, and she seeks out the Spring and Winter Maidens to consume their power. The Spring Maiden, Raven, is able to fight her off and nearly kills her. The Winter Maiden, Fria, is able to repel her and gift the powers to Penny, who later gives them to Winter. Cinder is so obsessed with becoming the true Maiden that she'll prioritize gaining the power over Salem's plans, something that nearly gets her killed more than once.
This has been removed once for misusing the trope (it's a shoehorned entry based on the fact that someone does "choose" a Maiden, but it's not a The Chosen One scenario. It was added back under the argument that tropes are flexible and Pyrrha felt it was her "destiny".
The problem is that, while tropes are flexible, this is a trope about stealing The Chosen One status away from that character. Pyrrha was never that character, despite being "chosen" to artificially force-transfer the Fall Maiden's remaining power to her to prevent Cinder from stealing the remaining power (she'd already stolen half of it by then).
In this work, The Chosen One is the Big Good, who was chosen by the God of Light to save the world... the person who has taken his role is The Unchosen One (Ruby Rose). While he did give magic to four sisters so that they could carrying on helping people the way they'd helped him (the first Maidens), he did not pass on what makes him The Chosen One (in fact, his refusal to share that very responsibility ended up being the reason why The Unchosen One has assumed command of the mission).
Pyrrha made it clear what her vision of destiny was: she explicitly rejects the very concept of The Chosen One (a fate placed upon a person that they cannot escape), and states her belief is that "destiny" is a final goal that you spend your life working towards. For her, that goal is to protect the world by becoming a Huntress. When she's offered the chance to save the Fall Maiden's remaining power from Cinder, it sends her into a personal crisis because she feels torn between the idea of something standing between her and her destiny or being able to achieve it in a single instance.
The concept of "destiny" that Pyrrha is talking about is actually more aligned with The Unchosen One trope, and (to Oscar, who is the current Chosen One) Ruby explicitly cites Pyrrha as one of the reasons why she's The Unchosen One.
Pyrrha's role is also a reaction to Cinder. She's actually recruited to stand in Cinder's way. Cinder is trying to take Amber's power, and has stolen half of it by the time her protectors approach Pyrrha to ask for her help in thwarting Cinder's ambition. Cinder doesn't care about chosen ones, she's only interested in gaining power, and she plans on stealing all four Maiden powers — but she was recruited by Salem to do this because Salem needed the Maidens for a different reason. When Pyrrha asks Cinder if she believes in destiny, Cinder says "yes", but we don't know what Cinder's concept of destiny is — we only know what Pyrrha's is. The next time Cinder refers to believing in destiny, it's in response to seeing Neo using her Semblance to disguise their airship so that they can sneak into Atlas. By the end of Volume 8, it's very strongly implied that Cinder doesn't even know there's a Chosen One floating about in the setting — she doesn't know the truth about what Ozma's doing, and she doesn't know the truth about what Salem's doing.
In short, Cinder isn't trying to steal The Chosen One's status, and has given no indication she even knows that's a thing. All she wants is power so that she can strong and feared, and she sees the Maidens as her route to achieving that power.
I think there may be some blurring of the line going on between the idea of choosing someone to be The Chosen One and choosing someone to Super Empower. While a Chosen One can be created through Super-Empowering, that doesn't mean every example of Super-Empowering will be the Chosen One — and that's the case for the Maidens.
Edited by WyldchyldIf my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Edited: The following was removed on the 11th February 2022 after the Is This An Example? deemed Cinder and the Maidens to not be the trope, and an example of Power Parasite instead. She was already troped there, so this entry was removed.
Regarding the following entry:
This has been removed once for misusing the trope (it's a shoehorned entry based on the fact that someone does "choose" a Maiden, but it's not a The Chosen One scenario. It was added back under the argument that tropes are flexible and Pyrrha felt it was her "destiny".
The problem is that, while tropes are flexible, this is a trope about stealing The Chosen One status away from that character. Pyrrha was never that character, despite being "chosen" to artificially force-transfer the Fall Maiden's remaining power to her to prevent Cinder from stealing the remaining power (she'd already stolen half of it by then).
In this work, The Chosen One is the Big Good, who was chosen by the God of Light to save the world... the person who has taken his role is The Unchosen One (Ruby Rose). While he did give magic to four sisters so that they could carrying on helping people the way they'd helped him (the first Maidens), he did not pass on what makes him The Chosen One (in fact, his refusal to share that very responsibility ended up being the reason why The Unchosen One has assumed command of the mission).
Pyrrha made it clear what her vision of destiny was: she explicitly rejects the very concept of The Chosen One (a fate placed upon a person that they cannot escape), and states her belief is that "destiny" is a final goal that you spend your life working towards. For her, that goal is to protect the world by becoming a Huntress. When she's offered the chance to save the Fall Maiden's remaining power from Cinder, it sends her into a personal crisis because she feels torn between the idea of something standing between her and her destiny or being able to achieve it in a single instance.
The concept of "destiny" that Pyrrha is talking about is actually more aligned with The Unchosen One trope, and (to Oscar, who is the current Chosen One) Ruby explicitly cites Pyrrha as one of the reasons why she's The Unchosen One.
Pyrrha's role is also a reaction to Cinder. She's actually recruited to stand in Cinder's way. Cinder is trying to take Amber's power, and has stolen half of it by the time her protectors approach Pyrrha to ask for her help in thwarting Cinder's ambition. Cinder doesn't care about chosen ones, she's only interested in gaining power, and she plans on stealing all four Maiden powers — but she was recruited by Salem to do this because Salem needed the Maidens for a different reason. When Pyrrha asks Cinder if she believes in destiny, Cinder says "yes", but we don't know what Cinder's concept of destiny is — we only know what Pyrrha's is. The next time Cinder refers to believing in destiny, it's in response to seeing Neo using her Semblance to disguise their airship so that they can sneak into Atlas. By the end of Volume 8, it's very strongly implied that Cinder doesn't even know there's a Chosen One floating about in the setting — she doesn't know the truth about what Ozma's doing, and she doesn't know the truth about what Salem's doing.
In short, Cinder isn't trying to steal The Chosen One's status, and has given no indication she even knows that's a thing. All she wants is power so that she can strong and feared, and she sees the Maidens as her route to achieving that power.
I think there may be some blurring of the line going on between the idea of choosing someone to be The Chosen One and choosing someone to Super Empower. While a Chosen One can be created through Super-Empowering, that doesn't mean every example of Super-Empowering will be the Chosen One — and that's the case for the Maidens.
Edited by Wyldchyld If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.