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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Current Writing Trend Issue (The Chosen One Trope) This came up in a discussion about films and books with my daughter. Not many of her friends go to the movies – statistics indicate that in Australia less and less younger people are going to the movies all up – and the books she and her friends have started reading are older, not as many new releases. Which made me ask the question: Why? She struggled to put it into words, but then she sent me a copy of a message from Instagram she found. YA Book Premise: I used to be a no-friends loser dork, until I discovered I had a sixth finger on my foot and that gave me the power to be the coolest person ever! What this means is that recently every single YA – and nearly every single fantasy – hero/heroine is a ‘chosen one’ who is a special snowflake who the world revolves around. They have special powers, a special destiny, and are “not like other girls/boys.” My daughter said she asked her friends and the wider social media circle, and, yes, that is why they are sick of it. She says it was fine with Harry Potter because he might have been special, but he was also not the only powerful one, and he had to learn how to use his power, but now every single character is powerful from birth and that separates them from normal people. So, after some discussion, I saw where she was coming from, and, I have to say, I agree. Let me explain. Lord Of the Rings by Tolkien has spoken to readers (and latterly, movie go-ers) for a few generations. The main character, the one who destroys the ring and really brings an end to the evil, is a hobbit, an ordinary being, nothing special. No Chosen One. He just destroys the ring because it is the right thing to do. It was not his “destiny”. It was not foretold that a hobbit would do it. He had no special hobbit-magic. One ordinary being going against the odds and succeeding. The ‘Everyman’ character. Why did Batman resonate with readers and continue to do so? Because he is an ordinary man. Yes, he’s rich, but he has no super-powers. He is just really smart – he is the modern day version of Sherlock Holmes. People got bored with Superman because he just felt over-powered, and so they had to kill him and then bring him back, and then split him in two (the 1990s were weird); Batman was a rich guy who got trained and decided to dress as a bat and belt the bejeezus out of bad guys. No magic rings, no super-strength, nothing else. In the Justice League film, Flash asks him what his super-power is. “I’m rich,” he replies. That’s it. That whole thing can be translated to Iron Man. It was why that character managed to strike a chord with viewers, and was an ideal first MCU hero – he was just a rich, smart guy. He was one of us. And then we have The Hunger Games. Katniss was not a Chosen One. In fact, she volunteered to enter the Games in order to save her sister. Yes, she had some skill, but was not destined to bring down the government or anything else. Right person, right time, and a character that readers could relate to. In other cases, the main character had to learn what to do, by reading or learning, and not just have these powers bestowed upon them. This is where Harry Potter comes in – he might have been the Chosen One, but he had to learn, and we, the reader, watched him learn and get his powers. And what do we have now? The Fourth Wing, Lightlark, Rey PalpatineSkywalker… Modern popular media is populated by main characters who are born special and the stories revolve around them being special snowflakes. There are very few stakes because the main character is Chosen and special. Even the MCU. Captain Marvel is over-powered to a Superman level, but without the humanity; she was given her power, and didn’t have to work for it at all. The Eternals are OP, born with magic earth-changing power. Echo might have some disabilities, but she was born with powers that make her disabilities a moot point. It is boring and it is tedious and it seems younger media consumers are moving away from these characters. Readers, it seems, just want characters who are ordinary, but then find a strange book in a library and read it and learn some powers that they cannot automatically control and master, or who are put in a situation that they are not really ready to cope with, but have to. Picking up a sword and becoming the greatest swords-person as a teenager is the sort of thing being rejected by YA readers (not adults who read YA, who are a different kettle of fish); kids understand how much b/s that is. And too many people do not write children realistically as it is ("20241218 Children Characters"  ).A lot of this is down to more and more Mary Sue("20240215 Mary Sue/Marty Stu (Gary Stu)" ) and self-insert ("20241009 Self-Insert Characters" ) characters appearing. It is now regarded that Rey PalpatineSkywalker is a Mary Sue for Kathleen Kennedy, who is in charge of the Lucasfilm division, imposing her will upon those beneath her. A woman greater than the men, and especially the men who came before her (Luke Skywalker/ George Lucas). Why is it happening? It depends on who you ask. Some say it is DEI gone mad, some say it is because of a lack of representation, some say it is because fan-fiction is becoming mainstream, and some say it is because of lazy writing (I am more inclined towards that last one).The Chosen One trope is over-used and is being more and more over-used. Give the hero a book or a magic amulet or something to give them power, and then it would only be temporary. Or, better yet, just make them have to use their own resources to cope and survive. Write interesting characters! It seems to be what readers/viewers want. |
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