It’s a staple of western literature.

Luke, the farm boy, is driven to heroism by the death of his family, turns out to be the bad guy’s son. He’s the hero because The Force Says So.

Frodo, our hobbit friend, inherits heroism from an uncle who was a hero because Gandalf Said So. (It really is all Gandalf’s fault).

Buffy is the one girl in each generation.

Superman is the guy with the powers. Spider-Man is the hero because The Radioactive Spider Says So.

It’s so embedded in our way of storytelling that we can’t escape it. Arthur was the hero because The Sword Said So.

Either our heroes are chosen by some kind of external power…whether it’s the field that holds the universe together, a powerful wizard or…a spider. Or they are Driven To Heroism by hardship.

In Luke Skywalker’s case it’s both.

Frodo and Sam

I recently read a social media post that made this argument, and I think quite legitimately.

The protagonist of Lord of the Rings isn’t Frodo.

It’s Sam.

It’s Samwise Gamgee.

Because there is a key difference between Frodo and Sam.

Frodo becomes the ringbearer because he inherits the ring. Bilbo chooses him as Gandalf chose Bilbo.

Sam becomes the ringbearer because he loves Frodo and chooses to go with him.

(Note, I don’t ship Sam and Frodo. But they clearly do love each other).

Ergo, Sam is the one with the true agency. Ergo, Sam is the protagonist.

I’m not necessarily saying that this person was right. (I’d give credit, but I managed to forget who said it. Maybe somebody on my feed can help).

But this person had a point.

The chosen one inherently and absolutely lacks agency.

Buffy, the One in a Generation

Buffy is absolutely the epitome of the chosen one hero without agency. Wow.

(Knowing what we know about Whedon, maybe it makes more sense).

I loved the show. I still love the show.

But Buffy is the hero because the First Slayer chooses her. Or something. And the First Slayer was forced to be the hero. Coerced. Created.

And then she dies.

And she is forced back to life to keep fighting. She makes the choice to sacrifice herself for Dawn, but her friends won’t let her stay dead. Won’t let her make the choice to stop being the hero.

Buffy never gets to choose. She can’t walk away. There’s no mechanism whereby the Slayer can say “I’m done, can we pass it on to the next girl?”

In Once More, With Feeling, the famous (rightly) musical episode the cast are under the influence of a demon who forces them to sing what they mean. Buffy sings the song “Going Through the Motions,” of which the full lyrics are here. The song reveals that she’s actually depressed, but she still has to do it. And a second song, “Something to Sing About” (here) also says it all.

Buffy has to die to quit and they won’t even let her do that.

The entire concept of the Chosen One is cruel, if you think about it too much, and it’s hard not to think about it too much.

Moving Away From the Chosen One

The quick pitch for my book Firewing is “High fantasy, but the chosen one is a twenty something lesbian alchemist.”

Cat is still the chosen one. She can’t quit. She can only decide whether she’s going to be a hero or a villain. Much like Superman. And I love her. I love Laura, in one of my other books, who is…well, let’s just say it’s kind of in part a Buffy homage.

But the more I think about Frodo, Buffy…and Luke, and Garion from the Belgariad, and…

…the more I think we have let the Chosen One rule in a way which isn’t honestly healthy.

There’s more talk about the chosen one being a twenty something lesbian alchemist, or a Black girl (Tomi Adeyemi’s wonderful Children of Blood and Bone), or somebody’s grandma, than there is talk critiquing the very concept of the chosen one.

So I am thinking it is time for me personally to move on. I’m not saying I won’t write another book about a Chosen One…but I’m thinking that there is more power in writing about a hero who chooses their power.

Heroes Who Choose Their Power

Examples of this are very thin on the ground. The fantasy and superhero genres in general are particularly prone to the Chosen One narrative and also to the Driven To It Narrative. Superman and Wonder Woman are Chosen Ones. Batman is Driven To It. Driven To It holds another problem; it inevitably leads to somebody being fridged. Usually mom. Not always. But usually mom. I’m not averse to ironic fridging, and am in fact guilty of it myself. But not of mom. I don’t kill moms, generally.

So finding really good examples of heroes who choose their power is easier in science fiction. (Which can also be guilty, although sometimes in a more subversive way. C.J. Cherryh’s Cyteen very much subverts the Chosen One concept as it explores identity and the role of nature and nurture. It asks the question of whether you can create the Chosen One with science. The answer is “Kind of, but you might not like the results”).

But I did manage to come up with a few.

Miles Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan Saga)— a disabled nobleman who could just as easily sit back and let the world pass him by, but who chooses to become Admiral Naismith.

Bren Cameron (Foreigner series) — who fights and works very hard to become a diplomat. He gives up a lot for it, too.

Paksenarrion (The Deed of Paksenarrion) — her story starts when she storms out of her home to run off to become a soldier. She becomes the Chosen One as the result of her own choices. She’s also asexual.

I’m not saying by this at all that there is anything wrong with writing a Chosen One or even a Driven To It. Superheroes really can’t exist without it unless you create a world in which you have to actively seek out powers to get it. (Wally West in his original form is a good example of a superhero who chooses power, as is Steel/John Henry Irons, who dons the suit because somebody has to be Superman and he feels he’s up to the task, but any world in which people have powers by accident of birth is Chosen One Central).

I’m saying that all of us should think about whether it is what we want to write and what kinds of other stories we could tell. Can we tell a story about a professional diplomat who volunteers for a difficult assignment? A farmgirl who decides to become an adventurer because, well, it’s what she wants to do, and farming sheep is boring.

About a wizard who is a wizard because she spent years studying magic even though her family wanted her to be a merchant (one of my D&D characters, and I love her).

Chosen One stories speak to the desire we all have to be special.

Heroes who choose their power tell us that we can choose to be special. Even if we’re disabled. Even if we’re somebody’s grandmother. We don’t need to be the Chosen One.

So how about we tell more stories about heroes who have the basic agency of truly and freely choosing their path?