The Unachievable Heights of The Chosen One
The Unachievable Heights of The Chosen One
Ah, The Chosen One. That staple of the fantasy world. Destiny’sChild, born under an auspicious star, with a unique birthmark foretelling theirglorious fate, generally blessed with a stunning or striking appearance, an unusualeye colour and unexpectedly modest origins for their impressively regalheritage, watched over at a distance by a guardian just waiting for the rightmoment to reveal their secret power and fated purpose in saving their realmsfrom a lurking evil. Step forward all you fantastical Eriks out there, for youare legion.
But as anyone who has read my novels may have guessed, Ihave a few issues with the trope of The Chosen One. Because as the father ofmodern fantasy, JRR Tolkien himself dictated, fantasy is escapist but alsoaspirational. And although his work does have a Chosen One – Aragorn, I’mlooking at you – who does his bit extremely well, he isn’t the one who savesthe day. That role falls to a couple of very ordinary little hobbits. And ultimately,it is Sam with his very ordinariness and lack of ambition that makes the wholething work.
And that, to me, is a far better story than a person markedby destiny standing up and saving the day as they were always meant to. For isn’tit far more inspiring to the rest of us to see someone as ordinary as we arecoming good for us all? Ordinary people standing up for what they believe inagainst the wrongs of the world is something anybody can achieve if they arecalled on to do so – the Resistance in Europe during the Second World War forexample or even just the British Home Guard, straightforward people who’d livedstraightforward lives now willing to protect their homes against a looming evil.These are people we can aspire to – though one would hope we never have to. Unlikea Chosen One, they are people we could be.
I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I am shockinglylacking in flashing eyes of a special hue or magical gifts or impressivelyregal heritage. And so, if one extracts Pleasance from the equation, are myheroes. But, I do hope at least, they are people my audience can see themselvesin. At the end of the day, we can all support our friends and do the rightthing in spite of ourselves like Shoulders. We can all rail against theimpressions other have of us and show them what we can do like Flirt. We canall fight against who we are supposed to be and be who we are like Pleasance.We can all embrace learning and teach ourselves new skills like Dullard andmost importantly, we can be kind like him. And like Fodder, we can all stand upfor what we feel is right against ridiculous odds.
Because ultimately, it should not be up to some flashy,unachievable hero to save the world on our behalf - it should be ordinarypeople who see injustice, stand up and say no more. And, unlike a Chosen One, thatis something we can all aspire to.
