This video is more of an overview and not comprehensive. There’s some stuff I could spend an entire other video on that I didn’t really get into. Such as how the “chosen one” virtually always happens to be somebody who fits the standard protagonist template of conventionally attractive, fit/thin, heterosexual, cisgender, non-disabled, and more often than not white. Or how someone being effectively the designated savior who all others must default to very easily plays into fascistic narratives of “chosen people” and the disregarding of the importance of ordinary people. So yeah, there’s more to unpack if people respond well enough.

"...Everyone wants to believe they're "chosen". But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we'd die waiting. And that's why you need to choose yourself."-Eda (The Owl House S1EP2)

The Hunger Games (I suppose mostly its sequels) might be my favorite 'chosen one' story, because Katniss was chosen

One of my biggest pet peeves about the Star Wars prequels is that we never actually learn what the Chosen One prophecy actually says beyond “he will bring balance to the force”.

The more I watch the original Matrix film, the more I believe Neo wasn’t “The One”. But stepping up to the plate anyway is what made him a hero.

One thing I like about the Star Wars prequels is the subversion of the "chosen one." Because it turns out that the "chosen one" was the "bad guy." And Anakin did bring balance to the Force. Before him, thousands of Jedi ran the galaxy. After Vader, there was balance: 2 Jedi (Yoda and Obi) and 2 Sith (Palpie and Annie). See that coming, Yoda did not.

I think Lord of the Rings did the chosen one trope well. Frodo was chosen not because he was the most competent, but because he was the least dangerous option. In fact, he tried to pass on the ring to more competent people who all refused because they knew the danger of their failure. Tolkien also described Golum's story who was like a hobbit before he got the ring, which showed Frodo's personal cost if he failed, but it wouldn't be the end for everyone else. Destroying the ring wasn't predestined, but it was a condition needed for victory. Failure was always an option in the story.

The only chosen one story that worked for me was Buffy the Vampire Slayer maybe because of the stakes (no pun intended) that came with that role that followed her throughout the show until the end

you missed the option where fulfilling prophecy makes everything way worse, or at least worse in the short or term or only has positive effect, centuries later, and the chosen one ends up starting religious war and commits genocides. Bad that's really a different can of worms.

I hate the chosen one trope so much. In my opinion, protagonists are usually the least interesting characters in their stories (Harry Potter being the perfect example) and the chosen one trope basically makes the characters in universe aware of the protagonist status. It a lame as excuse to not put any work into making me believe that the protagonists is actually worth following more than any other character. Even if you subvert it or reveal that the prophecy could apply to any one or something like that. The moment someone claims there is a chosen one or a prophecy is cited the whole story has been tainted. It just doesn't do anything for me anymore.

The best defense I’ve seen for Chosen Ones is the Trope Talk video from OSP. It’s a great discussion of what is appealing about the trope, what kinds of stories it can tell, and what elements it needs in order to tell a compelling story.

My least favorite uses of the chosen one story are when they made characters like The Doctor in The Timeless Child and Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 explaining that the spider that bit him had his father’s DNA making him the only one who could be the friendly neighborhood wall crawler pissed me off, as much as the excessive Sinister Six setup.

I think Brandon Sanderson puts some interesting spins on the 'Chosen One/Prophecy' trope in his 'Mistborn' series. As the series progresses, you find out the alleged 'Dark lord' who initially gets defeated in the first book wasn't so 'dark' after all, at one stage the 'Chosen One' actually turns out to be the person that screws everything up by doing what they were 'prophesised' to do, and that a side character ends up accidentally in a sort of 'Chosen One' role simply because the

There is something to be said about who gets to be the “Chosen One” and what the appeal is. I’ve seen the arguments that it’s a trope often reserved for white, straight characters and how it’s not fair to decry it when other types of characters have been denied the honor.

The Elder Scrolls franchise has an interestigng variant on the Chosen One trope, in Mantling and a few other related concepts. Basically, 'hero' is a metaphysical 'slot' that anyone could fall into- or possibly be pushed out of- given the right circumstances. In essence, the 'Chosen One' is whoever is the closest match to what fate demands *at that particular moment*. It is fluid. If the chosen one fails to do their job, or someone else seems like they could do the job better, the position will move.

What you said about a chosen one not needing character development kind of reminded me of Clara Oswald. Because we were all too busy trying to solve the mystery, then getting to know War, then farewelling Eleven, then getting to know Twelve, she’d been there for eleven episodes before we paid attention to her personality.

The Chosen One: Assigned Hero at birth

I suspect the Angelina Jolie first Maleficent was the most honest take on “prophesy.” Good guys, bad guys and chosen ones are written into the legend years after the events have played out.

A take on the Chosen One that I actually enjoyed was in the video game 'The Bard's Tale', and otherwise mediocre game with some funny songs. You are designated as The Chosen One and during your quest you come across the dead or dying previous Chosen Ones. The people who designated you as such just kept throwing the title at whoever to get them to fulfill their quest, in the hopes that someone lucks out and actually manages it. In pretty much every level you come across either the corpse of a predecessor or that same predecessor getting killed (and they just tend to be hapless nobodies who believed the hype). Obbviously, these are your first sign that the ones who sent you on your quest are incompetent good at best, and outright evil at worst.

A chosen one storyline won't stop me watching anything but they've definitely been causing me to roll my eyes at them for a long while now. You correctly point out that far too many writers treat them all in essentially the same way, you can see the plot points long before they arrive. Unfortunately, that's how that industry works - great new idea followed by bandwagon jumping, followed by subversion of that idea, followed by bandwagon jumping. Rinse and repeat.