Chosen One is the most depressing trope, change my mind.

When I say "Chosen One", I mean in the classical heroic sense: people plucked from the common masses by a higher power, and set on the path to greatness. It's a persevering trope that's made it all the way from the oldest stories when the Hero's Journey was first being developed, to today, when every so often it thankfully enjoys a healthy dose of subversion. I extend my definition of Chosen One to also include those protagonists who, even if not specifically chosen, are undeniably special simply due to the circumstances of their birth. To give an example from a book I'm currently reading, Vin from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire would fall into this definition. She is no child of prophecy a la Harry Potter, but she is one of the rarest kinds of people in the world, with basically unmatched potential for power growth.

It's a cool premise, I won't deny that. We're following a character who we know is special. We know they'll play a huge role in events that will shape history, and they will usually skyrocket in competence through the story. All great promises. But if we dig a little deeper into the implications of this trope, it becomes demoralizing very quickly, at least to me.

My core complaint is with this strange idea of being "special". What makes someone special? If these stories are to be believed, if you aren't chosen by prophecy and/or born the son of Poseidon, etc., you're sore out of luck. Have fun with your life as a side character, forever stuck in the story just to hype up or be a stepping stone for the real hero. Side characters are inevitable, but it's the implication that they have no potential beyond that, that bothers me. In a Chosen One narrative, it's rather obvious that anyone besides Mr. Hero just doesn't have what it takes to save the world. After all, if Mr. Hero was specifically chosen for the task, why should anyone else even try?

Because our protagonist is the Chosen One, and other characters are not, they lack a certain, well, je ne sais quoi, that holds them back from reaching the level of the protagonist. This is fairly egregious in most anime shows of the shonen genre. Take My Hero Academia, for example. The story literally tells you at the beginning, through a voiceover: "This is the story of how I became the greatest hero of all time," or something like that. Once again, great promise for the audience; we want to see how Deku becomes the best, especially given his underdog origins. But as it turns out, Deku is the protégé of the previous number one hero, All Might, who personally oversees his development.

On one hand, it's inspiring that Deku, a normal kid in a world full of superheroes, managed to earn the respect of the world's greatest hero, but on the other hand, what kind of message is that sending? If you're not personally being mentored by the greatest in the field, you'll never become number one? It almost has nepotistic undertones. I mean, isn't it depressing? Of course, Deku works hard and is brave and all that, but at the end of the day the only reason he amounts to anything more than a bug splat against the windshield of time is because he has the most powerful ability in the entire show. His classmates Todoroki and Bakugo arguably work just as hard as him, and are just as heroic (Bakugo is questionable from what I have seen, but he's improving). Yet, they will never beat Deku in relevance, because they weren't blessed with All Might's power. I think the show undercuts its own theme, that anyone can be a hero. Because, surprise, surprise, anyone can be a hero, but ONLY if you are granted insane superpowers and power scaling! The rest of you guys, who work just as hard, but don't have the right connections? Sorry, you're just not good enough!

It's this glass ceiling of relevance and competence that bothers me. As a reader, I sometimes get the feeling that no other character in the story has even the possibility to come close to the protagonist's level. I think that stories are far more meaningful when all the characters are on a level playing field. Specifically, the protagonist can and should be pushed to their limit; I enjoy an underdog victory. But at the same time, there should be no doubt in the audience's mind, that if any other competent character in the show tries just as hard, and the protagonist slacks off, they could be instantly replaced. Maybe that's why Sam and Frodo are so endearing to me.

Now, as a disclaimer, I'm not saying that the Chosen One trope itself is bad, or that it shouldn't be done. As I mentioned, either played straight or subverted, you can write some very fun stories with it. I grew up with Avatar: The Last Airbender, and loved every bit of it. What I'm presenting here probably falls into the realm of fridge logic, stuff that I dig out of the back of my mind long after the story's been heated and reheated and finally consumed in its entirety. And I think it can be helpful to think about the indirect consequences of our narrative choices, and how these unconscious themes can influence the audience.

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