I "asked" the person who chose my Chosen One why he made that choice, and the cold bastard said, "We needed someone who had enough talent to do it without much training, and no connections to protect him; someone we hadn't invested in, because we were pretty sure we'd end up having to kill him, and that would be wasteful."
I think by the point in the WIP that I've reached, the Chosen One knows this; and it will flavor his reaction to Cold Bastard suddenly being in need of rescue.... (He will do it anyway, because he's that kind of person. But he may take the opportunity to try to extort something while he's got Cold Bastard over the barrel, and I can't blame him.)
While one could make an argument that this is what heroes do, in actuality it boils down to two things: (1) My protagonist is badly isolated by his big task, and has a psychological weakness for people who reach out to him in his isolation. Cold Bastard knows this and is exploiting it. (2) Currently both are part of a small human group in a lonely place surrounded by monsters, and in such situations human lives start looking rather precious.
I wonder if the lack of specificity in the identity of the Choser is an ambivalence towards divine authority in many a modern mindset. Safer to leave it obscure and let the reader decide whether God is real or not.
Mercedes Lackey had a character "chosen" to be a special sort of guardian and if the character "chose" not to be that guardian, then the "chosen one" became a target for the "evil ones" but lacked the special gifts that would allow the "chosen one" to win against the "evil ones". Of course, nothing in the story said "who/what" chose the character.
On the other hand, John Ringo had a person who was chosen by G*d and both realized it and accepted the calling. She also had certain "bits" of knowledge/skills that aided her in the task. Of course, she "just happened" to have learned them growing up. (Obviously, IMO G*d made sure that she "just happened" to learn these skills.) [Very Big Grin]
I let a seer chose the "chosen one". He claims that someone from a particular family will be an impediment to another character's plans. I kept it fuzzy by not naming the particular individual since there were multiple to choose from. The readers never know until the end who it is. Turns out that it is not just one of them. The reason being the seer's vision gets murkier the farther out in time the event is from the vision.
I "asked" the person who chose my Chosen One why he made that choice, and the cold bastard said, "We needed someone who had enough talent to do it without much training, and no connections to protect him; someone we hadn't invested in, because we were pretty sure we'd end up having to kill him, and that would be wasteful."
I think by the point in the WIP that I've reached, the Chosen One knows this; and it will flavor his reaction to Cold Bastard suddenly being in need of rescue.... (He will do it anyway, because he's that kind of person. But he may take the opportunity to try to extort something while he's got Cold Bastard over the barrel, and I can't blame him.)
Why not? It's not like he owes him something.
While one could make an argument that this is what heroes do, in actuality it boils down to two things: (1) My protagonist is badly isolated by his big task, and has a psychological weakness for people who reach out to him in his isolation. Cold Bastard knows this and is exploiting it. (2) Currently both are part of a small human group in a lonely place surrounded by monsters, and in such situations human lives start looking rather precious.
Being the Chosen One doesn't turn you into the Hero.
I wonder if this will blindside the CB.
I wonder if the lack of specificity in the identity of the Choser is an ambivalence towards divine authority in many a modern mindset. Safer to leave it obscure and let the reader decide whether God is real or not.
🤔
Mercedes Lackey had a character "chosen" to be a special sort of guardian and if the character "chose" not to be that guardian, then the "chosen one" became a target for the "evil ones" but lacked the special gifts that would allow the "chosen one" to win against the "evil ones". Of course, nothing in the story said "who/what" chose the character.
On the other hand, John Ringo had a person who was chosen by G*d and both realized it and accepted the calling. She also had certain "bits" of knowledge/skills that aided her in the task. Of course, she "just happened" to have learned them growing up. (Obviously, IMO G*d made sure that she "just happened" to learn these skills.) [Very Big Grin]
That sort of knowledge helps with the Choosing.
I let a seer chose the "chosen one". He claims that someone from a particular family will be an impediment to another character's plans. I kept it fuzzy by not naming the particular individual since there were multiple to choose from. The readers never know until the end who it is. Turns out that it is not just one of them. The reason being the seer's vision gets murkier the farther out in time the event is from the vision.
Ah, a reason to be wrong, even!