Chosen vs. Unchosen

[sistermagpie]

I've been reading a lot (or at least a few) fantasy books lately for girls and now I have feelings about Girls Who Are Special. I’m not dismissing them all with a "Mary Sue" label because they're not always written badly or as overly perfect. But there is a related wish fulfillment idea there. But I just never really related to that particular wish

Comments

[steepholm]

Have you read China Mieville's Un Lun Dun? It's fun, and it does a really neat deconstruction of the wholly 'Chosen One' idea.

Personally, I'd like to read a story about the Choosing One. I picture this person as a tired functionary of the state, sitting in a shabby office and picking names out of the phone book with a pin.

[sistermagpie]

Ha! I love it. And I have not read that book--I'll have to check the library for it. I keep trying to think about possible ways to deconstruct the idea.

[trobadora]

I'm not a fan of destiny generally, or prophecies, or anything that muddies the water about free will and inevitability. Bah. I want characters who have a real choice, not for destiny to make that choice for them.

And if you have to give me a Chosen One, give me one who fails at their chosen task. What then? Now that sounds like an intersting story! (Someone came up with that as a prompt for the Junetide exchange last year. I loved it!)

Everyone was very clear about the fact that the main character was special, but very vague about why. They were similarly vague about what bad things would happen if she did the bone-headed thing she was clearly going to do. Even when she was clearly not accepting the danger, everyone refused to get specific.

Ha, that reminds me, I'm really going to have to write that story one day where the mentor is all kinds of vague and unhelpful and never just tells the heroine what she needs to know, and then it turns out the reason for that is that the mentor was actually secretly sabotaging her. :D

[sistermagpie]

Ha! I love that idea with the mentor! Because the mentor can get very tricky. Sometimes there are mentors who are greater beings, like Gandalf was basically an angel so he's always going to be right in his universe about moral things (not always tactical things). But if it's just somebody who's older they can abuse their position terribly. In Harry Potter there were times where it seemed like Dumbledore was doing just that. Not because he was evil but because he his priority was keeping all the information for himself. But there's so much possibility in the idea of someone figuring out their mentor might not have their best interests at heart!

[trobadora]

It's actually the oldest plot bunnies for original fic that's still on my to-do list. Clearly I've been reading about too many less-than-helpful mentors! *g*

With Dumbledore, it's so easy to give it a dark twist. And I still don't know WTF he was thinking half the time, other than, "I can't tell Harry that; JKR would lynch me!" ;)

[fanaddict]

I think writers and many readers like the Chosen One trope because it gives an automatic epic angst to the character by having them thrust into a situation not of their choosing where they have to figure out what their destiny is. The whole point of the angst is the lack of choice. How do people handle their inevitable fate? That's the point of such stories.

As an example (sort of), let's take X-Men:First Class - everyone in the theater watching that movie knew that at some point Charles and Erik would become Magneto and Prof X - best frenemies. The real tension in the movie was not whether they would defeat Shaw, but when - when would the inevitable happen, because it is a prequel the same as the Star Wars trilogy is a prequel - the characters don't have different fates to choose from because we already know what will happen. The idea is to create a fascinating tale of why/how it will happen

[sistermagpie]

Oh, I can totally see the appeal of the Chosen One story. I wouldn't want to get rid of it entirely. It's an intense situation for all the reasons you mention--and I love how stories can be even more suspenseful when you know what's going to happen. It's like if you've ever seen the play 1776. You know the characters are going to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4 but as the date draws mere instead of thinking "Well, I know they're going to do it so who cares?" you feel all the more nervous: "OMG, they've only got two more days! They'll never make it!"

So yeah, I don't at all want to say the whole idea is bad. I think sometimes people might just get a little sloppy about it or use it as a shortcut instead of really doing it right. Especially since, I should say, it's not like being the Chosen One doesn't mean that the character can't make just as many choices of their own.

I have never read any GGK but I always hear about him--I'm going to run to the library site and see if it's available!

[strangemuses]

I agree with you. I'm far more interested in characters who chose to act rather than characters who 'are chosen' by destiny.

[sistermagpie]

I was really happy that as the Star Wars prequels got more and more interested in heavy destiny ideas (and people often being a bit silly about them in the ways people can get about those things) that my favorites kind of avoided it. Well, really they all avoided it because the original trilogy stayed the same.

[mildlunacy]

Hah, this is funny to me 'cause I relate to your feeling about the wrong place and/or choosing to meddle, yet I've felt Special since I was very little. Like, an Eye of the Universe sort of feeling, as if the world was secretly waiting for me, if only I can figure out how. I think it's related to extreme introversion/solipsism, not having many friends, and having an unduly wild imagination that liked mythic story arcs. Or something. To this day (though I know better), I sometimes wonder what exactly should I do to reveal my grand destiny, which is around here somewhere, if only I could activate it. Someway or other, aren't I supposed to change the world?? haha. And now, to figure out the sekrit steps

[sistermagpie]

LOL! I love that in some ways we lean different ways because of an early feeling as a kid. Like that you just felt that way and it was totally natural--and I was for some reason even more convinced that I wasn't special.

But I think you're absolutely right about it capturing a feeling like that. (I think my own feeling of not being special probably came later because kids can't really think of themselves that way.) But yeah, I mean, everyone feels special in some ways. After all, the world is made up of me and everyone else.

I have read Crystal Cave and that's a really great example of it done well, I think. He's not he really is actual Merlin all the time. Also, the whole thing of listening to people talking about him, that's another thing where in a way every kid feels at times like people are arranging their lives for them because they are! The whole destiny thing can be a metaphor for parental expectations or even better their own expectations and desires for their own life.