Being Chosen Means Never Having to Choose

And other thoughts on the popularity of chosen heroes in fiction.

As you may know, I'm not a big fan of the Chosen One or even lower-key chosen heroes, like Mercedes Lackey's Heralds or Kristin Britain's Riders, though I sometimes enjoy stories with chosen heroes of one sort or the other anyway. I think there are a lot of problems with the idea that only certain people can be heroes, even if the certain people are supposedly chosen because they have the right heart. When the chosen person - the Chosen One - is special because of other people's deeds or their bloodline or anything else that boils down to what they are rather than who they are, the problems are gigantic.

I’m really not sure what message authors think they’re sending when they write about Chosen Ones who have done nothing to warrant being chosen. In The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the kids are Chosen because they are “sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.” In the Harry Potter books, Harry is only special because his mother saved his life (somehow) and because he became an accidental horcrux (can’t explain that one either). In both of these instances, the character(s) specialness has nothing at all to do with who they are. Any humans would have provided what Narnia needed. And Harry, well, he really was only valuable as an object. He could have died at any time in the books and fulfilled his role.

What message is the reader supposed to take away? Was C. S. Lewis just telling us that humans are special? I suppose that fits in with Christianity, so perhaps he was. But J. K. Rowling’s message completely escapes me. Why literally turn your hero into an object? Did she not notice what she’d done?

Even when not taken to that extreme, the idea of chosen heroes divides the world sharply into inherent heroes and everyone else. You either are a hero, whether because of your blood or your heart, or you are not. This robs everyone of choice. A person can’t rise above their failings and become a hero, and its rare that a chosen hero ever fails. (In fact Chosen Ones can’t – by definition.)

This predestination by external forces strikes me as a problematic message. Not only does it suggest that people have proper “places” in the world (which they really shouldn’t argue with or attempt to change), but it denies the reality that most people must make choices about who they are and what they do with their lives. If your heroes are chosen, then their choice to be a hero is automatically the right one. These heroes may struggle with that choice, but only because there was something else they wanted to do, never because they aren’t sure whether heroing is the right option.

At heart, the chosen hero story is really about embracing your duty, not deciding what you, personally, want to do with your life. A duty, of course, imposed from outside, not whatever an individual defines their duty as. It really is a very conservative fantasy. Considering how many of these stories are about preserving the status quo (or returning the world to a previous ideal state), I shouldn’t be surprised.

I do, in a way, understand the appeal of chosen heroes. They are safe heroes. They don’t challenge one’s own choices or beliefs in the way that non-chosen heroes can. And fantasizing about them is safe, not just because they’re fictional, but because the choice remains external. You can’t choose to become a chosen hero. Of course, the very thing that makes chosen heroes safe makes them less inspiring than non-chosen heroes. You can’t choose to become a chosen hero.

Perhaps this is especially important to me because I struggle continually with what to do with my life. I don’t know if following my dreams will lead to success. I don’t even know which of my dreams I really want to follow. And I’m not going to find inspiration in a story of a chosen hero; it won’t show me how a person (albeit a fictional one) weighed their options and made a choice. And somehow, I really doubt that any of my dreams are going to be prompted to choose me.

But, as I said, I do see the appeal of that. It would take the weight off my shoulders, after all. I’m just not sure that’s a weight that should be lifted.