One Hundred Fantasy Clichés That Really Need To Rest In Peace

#58: The Chosen One

  Note:  This section of the editorial is especially important for me, due to the person who suggested I cover this particular cliché.  That person was Secretive_Magician , a Watt Pad writer who I highly look up to.  Their book about existing problems within anime magical girl stories was a great read, and I highly recommend you guys all check it out for yourselves.  Thank you so much Secretive_Magician for helping contribute to this editorial.  I promise, you will not be disappointed with what I have to say.

  I do not know about how any of you feel about this, but why is it still okay to have a chosen one storyline?  After iconic stories such as Warriors covered this storyline beautifully, the trope has been done to death in multiple other fantasy novels.  Always it is the main character whom the prophecy is centered around.  Always the prophecy gives away vital plot information that would have served a bigger purpose as a potential plot twist later on.  And always the prophecy comes true, never once being proven to be the ramblings of some crazy old lady or something.  Why do these plots still happen?

By now, almost all stories connected to some type of prophecy are cliché. Adding a prophecy nine times out of ten is going to kill the story, unless you are an excellent writer who can get around these types of clichés. Worse of all, they taint the fantasy genre inside of a lot of manga. Sailor Moon, as popular and as well received as it may be, suffers from this cliché badly. It suffered the worst in its Black Kingdom storyline, which had used the chosen one cliché immensely.  This series also caused every magical girl storyline apart from gems such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica to suffer from repetitive stories time and time again.  It then spread to other great manga series, such as Fairy Tale and even somehow One Punch Man, which has in a way effected their quality. 

  The chosen one storyline after being recycled again and again is starting to not only be a story killing cliché, but complete old news.  It is time to move on to other types of fantasy plots or adjust the cliché in a way that does not reveal the entire setup in the first few pages.  Writers as of today have slowly but surely erased certain clichés over time that had become outdated.  The damsel in distress cliché has almost completely faded in most fictional stories, with focus instead being put on creating complex female characters that can even save the male characters from time to time.  With the feminist movement growing ever so stronger, the damsel in distress cliché had started to be presented to many as completely sexist.  The brave knight storyline has additionally faded out in fiction.  People grew bored of the basic premise of the knight always going to slay the dragon and by some luck end up getting hitched to the princess they had to save.  Now people primarily use it for parody or to set up a much more complex story that has almost nothing to do with the original cliché.  They evolved over time as taste changed.  The same can be said about there needing to be a chosen one.

  The main character can be a hero all on their own merit.  They do not need to be told to jump into action.  All they need is the drive to make a change and have a refined taste for adventure.  A prophecy is not needed.  We are in charge of our own destinies.  The same can be said for the basic fantasy character.