who so pulleth out this sword from this Stone and Anvil is duly born king of all England
I don't need to tell you where that's from right you've heard this story you know King Arthur
Camelot Merlin the quest for the Holy Grail it's one of the oldest stories of its kind an
enduring Legend with a touch of Destiny in every version Arthur or his analog is the rightful King
and with his sword Excalibur he leads his Brave Knights on countless adventures all as it should
be as fate foretold Arthur is after all the chosen one the prophesied hero The Once and Future King
he's more than just a hero fate is on his side Achilles was also a chosen hero as was Beowulf
and Harry Potter and Neo from The Matrix and Jesus Christ and the Dalai Lama you'll get
the point this is a pretty popular idea it's got staying power it sticks in the mind sounds
throughout the centuries appears and works as far distant as the Norse poetic era and Percy Jackson
why then does it leave such a bad taste in the mind when you realize that a character
in a story you're reading is the chosen one it's a little difficult not to roll your eyes right
it's just too easy too tired too simple but put yourself in that character's shoes for a
moment imagine yourself the chosen one and you'll quickly realize that it's a
lot more complex and interesting than you might want to give it credit for
thank you [Music] okay really quick I just want to say that our next video is actually out already
you can watch it right now for free over on our streaming platform nebula in fact we release all
our content there way before we release it here there are actually a lot of things over there
that will probably never release Here on YouTube like this video about why artists depict angels
in the way that they do or this one about one of the weirdest Epic Fantasy stories ever written
we even have a whole series over there about some of our favorite authors and
why they make the things that they do to see all the rest of hail Foundry that isn't here
on YouTube go check out our nebula Channel at nebula.tv tale Foundry go ahead and watch our
next video long before it comes out here on YouTube right now and get a leg up on
the conversation the first video you watch on nebula is freeze so why not
okay you are the chosen one your Mentor figure just revealed the prophecy to you and now it's
time to embark on your predestined path fabulous just don't forget your inscrutable magical
artifact that you'll know what to do with when the time is right oh and of course you can go anywhere
without a trusty animal companion can you and here just to cross our T's and Dot our eyes you should
probably take this map that'll guide you right to the dark overlords Tower where you'll finally
satisfy the prophecy all right you're set now off on your adventure fulfill your great Destiny as
no one else in the world could or wait actually you know this is looking oddly familiar isn't it
yeah this is basically the same great Destiny I've seen every other hero try to fulfill
huh I mean I'd tell you to ditch the map and just Chase your own MacGuffin but Destiny you
don't really get that choice do you most of your journey has already been decided for you
you're just kind of part of the machine at this point right it can certainly feel that way the
pevency children are destined to take the throne from the White Witch and Rule Narnia peacefully
Luke will restore balance to the force link time and time again is called on to be the hero of
every Zelda game certainly there will be some unforeseen hardships along the way but I mean
Victory is pretty much a foregone conclusion for you right which makes it very likely that part
of your heroic Arsenal is going to be the Beloved infallible much coveted plot armor
unless the story is a tragedy or a clever subversion the chosen one is you know chosen
it's a cosmic dictate if the thing is going to get done and we can trust the alignment of the
stars and the visions of the oracles or whatever it is then we can assume our chosen hero is going
to be the one to do it somehow and okay great for you as a hero but it makes the tale just a little
less riveting for us on the outside the Assumption of success can undercut a lot of the tension we
might otherwise experience at the very least it's going to make your long-term goals a moot point
and force our Focus onto more short-term conflicts and even during those there can be an underlying
sense that everything is going to be okay in the end again comforting for you but I want to see a
genuine struggle I want there to be a legitimate room for failure it makes your effort feel somehow
nobler more well spent there are real Stakes that way and while we're at it there's something else
I need to address why you Achilles Beowulf Arthur even Neo to a certain extent I understand all of
them I can see why they stand out why they were chosen for this task but chosen doesn't always
mean appropriate right especially when the method of choice is very hand wavy and Cosmic sometimes
it just feels completely arbitrary I guess this is how we end up with so many Teenage Heroes for
the chosen task Katniss Everdeen can shoot arrows good I guess but every major conflict
in the world continuously revolving around her benefits of being a main character I guess and
Harry Potter congrats on becoming the Nexus of a complete accident of combined magical circumstance
now I guess you the most unremarkable person in the cosmos are the best candidate to challenge a
genocidal evil that not even the most powerful Wizards have been able to confront wonderful
I guess there's a bit of fantasy to this idea making a hero out of someone who's more or
less a blank slate can definitely be sort of sympathetic that might be how you feel right
now standing here in the chosen one's shoes it can feel like anyone can change the world
which is a nice idea best-selling author and comic illustrator Scott McLeod describes this phenomenon
with the phrase neutral mask which is essentially a way to convey a character which leaves who they
are somewhat open to interpretation readers he says want to see themselves in other things
but the more realistic or detailed the drawing of a character gets the fewer people can project
themselves in that character this even works with Mary Sue characters who have a chronically hard
time failing even when they do nothing at all if a character is just generally good at stuff
and fortunate and attractive they're still kind of empty they have few defining features except
that things come easily for them the reader may not be like that but the mask is still neutral
and it's easy enough to write oneself over the top of their blaring blankness but honestly hero
I don't think that I would recommend trying to be either of these things whether you're
unremarkable or Flawless one thing is likely to be true here you're going to be boring
probably that's the risk you take in being a character so scantly defined that people can
simply plaster their own face over yours don't you want to be more than an allegory for the every man
don't you want this journey to matter well the good news is that despite everything I've said
so far I really think it can infallible Heroes blank slates generic nobodies glorified by Fate
through a series of unbelievable chances these do read like the markers along a rather boring path
but perhaps with the right treatment these very flaws can make for a surprisingly interesting
Journey admittedly heroics in general can get a little archetypal a lot of people look to
Joseph Campbell's critical framework the hero's journey as a sort of model for what this looks
like the hero leaves the world of the familiar goes off into the unknown experiences all kinds
of challenges and at last returns home forever changed and Laden with precious Treasures simple
familiar and the Beautiful part is that there's so much room for deviation this model is sort of just
a reflection of what usually happens in stories for most Heroes and most people I suspect the old
idiom Rings true it's more about the journey than the destination I mean there must be some reason
we've continued to tell the chosen one stories for thousands of years right there has to be something
more than simple convenience that's driving people to keep writing and reading these things
okay so now imagine yourself not only in the hero's shoes but in their armor too that's sweet
shiny plot armor a bit heavy maybe but boy is it about to do you some good so maybe your prophecy
gives you a bit of an insurance policy and maybe that can be a bit boring from the outside but you
can absolutely turn that into an advantage for us your audience rather than stumbling
haphazard through your adventure coming out of every predicament unscathed because you simply
ought to you can capitalize on your Cosmic indispensability in the 2003 movie Big Fish
A young Edward Bloom sees his own death in the eye of a witch not quite the same as a chosen
hero but the knowledge of how and when he's going to die certainly gives him a similar guarantee
throughout the movie he continuously takes riskier more dangerous paths because he knows
they won't be the cause of his death the knowledge enables him to have a far grander Adventure than
he otherwise would have on this subject there's a quote I love from the Norse myth Skinner's Journey
in the story The God Fair calls his servant skearner to embark on an Epic Journey on his
behalf at one point when denied the help of a herdsman skerner says to him fearlessness is
better than a faint heart for any man who puts his nose out of doors the length of my life and
the day of my death were faded long ago this is obviously a reference to the Old Norse concepts
of fate in predestination where the events in span of all lives have already been measured out by the
norns the sisters of fate but I think the idea applies nicely to you as well hero rather than
boring the plot armor provided by this kind of predestination can actually Empower you to try
more interesting unexpected things it can enrich your journey after all if you know your fate what
is there to fear okay you know what that question is reductive fun good but reductive because
Destiny has plot armor or not we really can't just treat being the chosen one is a blessing can we
although it might be cleared the Storyteller in the audience maybe you don't quite see it hero
not every chosen one is aware of their relative infallibility
they may not have the chance to see whether a journey ends like Edward Bloom and even if they
do that doesn't mean hardship and loss won't meet them on the way perhaps sometimes being Fortune's
special pet is not all sunshine and rainbows that shiny shiny plot armor begins to weigh on you
not everyone wants the chosen one's mantle not everyone wants to Bear the weight of that
distinction some Heroes even reject the call or at least they try to which I understand
it's a pretty big responsibility to do anything at all because the cosmos demanded of you right
there's a lot of conflict inherent to the weight of a prophecy I mean look at you hero
you didn't ask for this but here you are the one person who can save the day where do you
start what if you want to do other things with your life what if you don't want to do the thing
you're supposed to do I mean what if your prophecy isn't exactly a good one evil is relative isn't it
one person's hero can just as easily be someone else's villain I think of palatraides from Dune
who is prophesied to set his people free but also to bring immense Bloodshed to mankind
and even despite his resistance he feels himself ever tugged Along by the threads of Fate we talked
earlier about how the assumption of success can undercut the tension of the story if we're rooting
for you to fulfill your destiny the assurance that you will sort of remove some of the drama whittles
away at the stakes on the flip side if you don't want to fulfill your destiny or the audience is
hoping you'll fail that prophecy can actually turn out to be more of a curse a terrible impending
thing that seems to draw nearer and nearer no matter what you do tragic interesting far
more compelling than we tend to expect from The Chosen One perhaps this tragic unwillingness this
reluctance in the face of Fate itself makes the exalted and often off-puttingly lustrous Chosen
One seem just a little more like us the audience just a person facing unimaginable responsibility
we talked earlier about the problems that can arise out of using generic nobodies
as a chosen hero but from the perspective of the audience hungry for a good story a worthy Journey
perhaps there is no one better qualified to be the chosen hero than then the least qualified person
imagine the difficulty of being selected for a task to which you know you are not equal imagine
the anxiety of trying to figure out how you can possibly measure up imagine asking why me imagine
the immense sense of imposter syndrome you would experience do you lack skill do you lack strength
do that courage confidence wisdom these flaws of the nobody counter-intuitively turn you into an
individual instead of a faceless Mary Sue the ways that you gravel with them strip away that
neutral mask and make you your own hero not just a surrogate for us not so easy being the chosen
one is it I think it can get a little ridiculous when authors use this concept as an easy out for
making their characters special or compelling them to action but look how full of intrigue
the Dynamics of this concept can be if you pay attention to the person experiencing the prophecy
it's rough being the tool of the cosmos rough with a few Silver Linings as easy as tired as
simple as this archetype can be I think it still deserves respect and I think it still deserves to
be taken advantage of where appropriate the cosmos is calling you hero no guarantee the journey will
be a good one no guarantee you're worthy of the mantle no guarantee you'll want any of this
but have hope somehow under the watchful eyes of Fate those very Faults Are what will make your
story memorable [Music] sadly that's just about all the advice I can offer you on your journey
right now because usually we only upload about one video a weekend this is it but if you don't
want to wait if you want to see our next video right now you can it's already out over on nebula
actually we've got a bunch of stuff over there that will never come out here on YouTube like
this video about why artists depict angels in the way that they do or this one about one of
the weirdest Epic Fantasy stories ever written we even have a whole series over there about
some of our favorite authors and why they make the things that they do you can watch it all over on
our streaming platform nebula and if you're not familiar honestly nebula is just a paradise for
video creators they don't just pass some one-time bounty to mention them like a sponsor does we get
paid every time someone watches our content over there we even get paid part of the subscription
when people sign up while they're watching our stuff watching nebula is supporting the creators
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gamer and legal eagle over there all of whom have their own original content on nebula just like us
it's a little like YouTube If YouTube had zero ads a guarantee of high quality content more content
from the creators you love and paid its creators to make whatever they want as if all that weren't
enough nebula isn't just a streaming platform either it's also an educational platform nebula
has actually done something pretty incredible here and funded creators to make entire classes
where they tell you how to you know be a Creator Matt from extra credits talks about how to be
prepared for your dream job when the opportunity to snag it arises Alex from lowspecgamer talks
about all the fine details of running a complex project like a YouTube channel down to things
like scheduling and hiring Devin Stone from legal eagle gives you a little legal advice
which in the Minefield of YouTube can definitely come in handy we have learned so much from these
classes if you look carefully you will absolutely be able to tell how it's influenced our Channel
okay so more at Hill Foundry than you've ever seen before zero ads an entire original tail
Foundry series worldsmiths more content from other creators educational courses that could
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that's all for this video thanks for watching and keep making stuff up I'll see you next time bye
[Music] foreign
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