The Unchosen One

""But being chosen doesn't make you a hero; what you choose does.""

- Batman

Where The Chosen One is the ultimate victim of Because Destiny Says So, the Unchosen One is the ultimate perpetrator of Screw Destiny. This is the hero or heroine who stands up, not because of a prophecy, but because they feel the need or desire to stop the Big Bad (sometimes doing so in spite of a prophecy). The Unchosen One is, in essence, a Chosen One who Chooses themselves.

The reasons for this can vary. Perhaps the Chosen One Missed the Call, or was killed or incapacitated by a Destiny Screwing villain. Or, in a twist, the Chosen One is the villain and the Unchosen One decides to stop them. If all the prophecies say evil will triumph, the Unchosen One's reply would be "screw that." It could also be nothing more than a simple chance encounter allowing them to intercept the Call to Adventure in place of the real Chosen One. Every so often, the Unchosen is also a Chosen One who's decided to save the world of their own will, regardless of Fate.

Of course, because they aren't The Chosen One, things won't be laid out on a silver platter like a proper Chosen Hero often gets. They'll more often have to earn their place as The Hero. If there is a being or force doing the Choosing, they'll eventually have to acknowledge the Hero even if he wasn't the Chosen One. They may also have to deal with the possibility that The Chosen One will get the credit for all of their hard work.

An Unchosen One has high odds of being a Heroic Wannabe, a Determinator, or any other hero type that is likely to jump at the call. There's also the possibility of the Unchosen One being a Badass Unintentional, someone who actually doesn't want to save the world but may be the only one in a position to do so. A possible fate for those who Missed the Call.

Some writers can't escape from this frame of thinking, though, and they occasionally write in that the character really was the Chosen One after all.

Compare Anti-Anti-Christ where someone is the Dark Messiah for the bad guys and tells them to take a hike.

Anime and Manga
"Light: Why did you choose me? Ryuk: I didn't choose you. The notebook just happened to fall around here and you just happened to pick it up."
 * Corrector Yui desired to become a hero so much that she was able to overcome learning she was not The Chosen One and  Afterward, she remains The Heroine of the story.
 * Subverted later on the 1st season's finale, she was, indeed, the chosen one.
 * Flame of Recca - is the cursed one destined to end the Hokage clan and  was meant to be the Hokage clan leader.
 * Subverted.
 * Death Note, Light Yagami: "The world is rotting and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Somebody's got to do it because the world can't go on like this. And if somebody's got to do it, why not me? In fact, I'm the only one who can..."
 * Also explicitly stated by Ryuk, when Light asks him why Ryuk chose him.


 * It's worth noting, though, that Light never acknowledges that he wasn't chosen; all through the plot, events fall into place for him, and at the very end he swears blind that he was chosen. Ryuk may not have chosen him, but that doesn't mean destiny didn't.
 * Sugimoto from The Twelve Kingdoms was not chosen—indeed it was her friend Youko whose destiny was to rule as a Queen. That doesn't stop Sugimoto from and insisting that she is the chosen Queen, and trying to usurp the position from Youko.
 * Ahiru of Princess Tutu, oh so very much.
 * Well, halfway. Drosselmeyer did personally select her for the part of Princess Tutu. She just decided what to do with it.
 * Much of the cast of Princess Tutu are an interesting example of this: Drosselmeyer picks specific roles for them, but they eventually grow strong enough to pick different roles. Duck, Fakir, and Kraehe are perhaps the best examples.
 * Basara, the main character is the twin sister of the nominal Chosen One everyone has their hopes on. When he dies still young, she crossdresses to take his place.
 * Actually it's rather a subversion, as Sarasa was always the one the prophecy revered to and her brother was proclaimed The Chosen One to protect her.
 * Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a rather good example. He was just a kid with the right stuff who was lucky enough to stumble across the right mecha at the right time.
 * In Dragon Ball Son Goku is a fine example. For numerous reasons, such as being the son of a low class warrior, being labeled as such himself, but moving on to become one of Earth's finest heroes (Despite being sent there to destroy it).
 * Averted with his father, who thought he could pull this off after being able to see visions of the future, he failed.
 * Same aversion goes for Vegeta, the prince of the Saiyans.
 * In contrast to the Chosen Children of Digimon Adventure and 02, the cast of Digimon Tamers were not specifically chosen to save the Digital World. They're just kids with Digimon, and for the bulk of the series, it's not clear that they even have anything to save. Digimon Frontier returned to a Chosen Children model, but Digimon Savers and Hunters also had unchosen leads. Digimon Xros Wars falls somewhere in the grey area.

Comic Books

 * In every prophecy that describes him, Hellboy is the bringer of the Apocalypse. However, he chooses to fight for the good guys and routinely save the world, once responding to a lecture on his "true" destiny with an actual "Screw you!"
 * Marvel Comics' Daimon Hellstrom aka Son Of Satan not only rejected his destiny as the Antichrist, not only worked as a superhero, but was actually ordained as a Christian priest!
 * Cross Gen loved this trope.
 * Sephie of Meridian. The Sigil was given to her father, who between the stress of receiving the Sigil and being poisoned by his brother, had a heart attack and died, passing the mark and its power on to her.
 * The Path has another example of "inheriting the Sigil from a dead relative", in this case Obo-san's samurai brother who was killed in battle with one of the First.
 * X-Men foe Juggernaut, a.k.a. Cain Marko, was not Cyttorak's first choice of being the avatar of his evil power. Xavier was the one Cyttorak wanted. Cyttorak didn't mind though, since Cain was a natural sociopath who didn't need much encouragement to wreck havoc with Cyttorak's power. It's only when Cain had a brief Heel Face Turn that Cyttorak started to regret the situation.

Film

 * While The Matrix plays The Chosen One fairly straight, Reloaded and Revolutions reveal . Thus, when Neo continues to fight on against the Machines he has made himself an Unchosen One.
 * The script/art book reveals that originally Neo is the sixth Chosen One by Morpheus, whose poor track record is part of the reason why
 * An alternate interpretation suggests that The Matrix subverts this one, zig zagging the entire messianic concept: The prophecy was intended by the Architect to be a Xanatos Gambit aimed at a continued recycling of the Matrix as a means of keeping the system in place. He is Out-Gambitted by the Oracle, however, who actually intended for Neo to evolve slightly with each rebooting until he'd eventually  that she believed was necessary for the Machines to evolve. This is possible because Neo was the only one who could beat , who was otherwise poised to bring down the entire machine network (whew!). One hell of a Chessmaster, that Oracle.
 * Actually, its played straight, but in a rather different way.  Previous Matrixes always failed for various reasons because humanity's collective consciousness rejected the virtual world, and The One is supposed to be either an outgrowth of that, or the equations underlying the structure of the Matrix. In any case, the reason it's played straight is that The Machines keep on forcing him to replay the role they set out for him—reboot the Matrix or risk the annihilation of the human race. , the other side effect (who presumably shows up in some form for each Neo), is also unintentional or unwanted, and at the end of the day neither he nor Neo were chosen or created by The Machines; rather, The Machines keep on hijacking them for their own ends.
 * In Willow, the then-infant princess Elora Danan is prophesied to destroy the evil queen Bavmorda. However, it is Willow and others striving to protect the princess who stop her. On the other hand, novels that continue the story after the movie play The Chosen One straight, as Bavmorda returns and now-grown Elora Danan must fulfill her original destiny.
 * Bavmorda isn't the Big Bad of the series,  is.
 * Elora did indirectly fulfill the prophecy at the end of Willow: it was because of Elora that Bavmorda accidentally killed/exiled herself. Elora was the cause of the incident.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze the Turtles are disappointed when Professor Perry reveals that the formation of the ooze that mutated them and the accident that led to the canister finding its way into the sewer was simply one large accident.
 * No Turtle was more disappointed than Donatello. He believes there's got to be more to the accident.
 * For Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is very much The Unchosen One. He had to work hard to get what he had. There is also the fact that he went up against his father Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader and The Chosen One. A number of people out there think that Luke is just a whiny little farm kid. However, what they need to know is that while the villains and the mentors were forever prattling on about Because Destiny Says So, Luke ended up pulling a big Screw Destiny in front of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious. Luke demonstrates why it is better to be The Unchosen One than it is to be The Chosen One.
 * However, seeing Luke tortured led Vader to Heel Face Turn and kill the Emperor, helping bring peace to the galaxy. Thus, fulfilling the prophecy of the "one who will bring balance to the Force", all thanks to Luke.

Literature
"I said you weren't born with a talent for witchcraft: it didn't come easily; you worked hard at it because you wanted it. You forced the world to give it to you, no matter the price, and the price is and will always be, high. [ ... ] People say you don't find witchcraft; witchcraft finds you. But you've found it, even if at the time you didn't know what it was you were finding, and you grabbed it by its scrawny neck and made it work for you."
 * The Trope Namer is China Mieville's Un Lun Dun, in which the heroine Deeba was listed in the Book of Prophecy as the "Funny Sidekick" to Zanna, the real Chosen One. When Zanna is injured and sent home, Deeba returns to unite UnLondon against the Smog and gets named The Unchosen One by UnLondon's residents.
 * The odd thing about this is that the Book always turned out to be right about the things it claimed were wrong. It later realises this, and is pleased.
 * Subverted in Sir Apropos of Nothing, where Apropos thinks he is this and hijacks the call, only to find... he was the Chosen One after all. It's complicated.
 * Johnny Maxwell Trilogy: Johnny.
 * Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy just loves to play with this trope. Kelsier, Vin, and Elend were just the people around who were able to do the job. In fact, just about every good guy in the trilogy could be said to be an Unchosen One with the exception of.
 * is in fact not the hero he had heard in the prophecy in Percy Jackson. Instead, the prophecy was referring to
 * However,.
 * Taran, the protagonist of the Chronicles of Prydain becomes involved in a war for control of his homeland because he went chasing after a runaway pig and came face to face with the series' resident Supporting Leader, Prince Gwydion. He slowly works his way up from being a Tagalong Kid to a Badass Normal warrior and the equivalent of a general and eventually because he heeds the advice of his mentors and refuses to give up on causes he believes in.
 * I Shall Wear Midnight : Tiffany is told that apparently the only thing she was born with was a natural gift for making cheese. Seeing old Mrs. Snapperly cast out of her home and allowed to freeze and starve to death by people who thought she was a witch made Tiffany determined to make sure it never happened again; what better way to do that than by becoming a real one?


 * This seems like something of a Retcon, considering that A Hat Full of Sky and The Wee Free Men both implied that Tiffany inherited the post and powers of witchcraft directly from her Granny Aching.
 * Arguable, as witchcraft is never seen to be hereditary. The books imply that Granny Aching was a witch but that's about it. Granny Aching seems to be a mentor of sorts to Tiffany, but has never taught Tiffany anything having to do with witchcraft. However, she taught her how to raise sheep, which is arguably more important.
 * Making Harry into an Unchosen One is a large part of the plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Once educated about the source of Voldemort's near-immortality, Dumbledore makes a point of making Harry realize that the Prophecy doesn't need to be fulfilled, that only Voldemort's insistence on it makes it worth anything, and Harry is free to choose his path. Harry, thinking about all that Voldemort had done by that time, chooses to fight.
 * Neville also applies - though he was one of two possible candidates, he'd never heard the prophecy, nor was he marked as Voldemort's equal, but he still manages to turn Dumbledore's Army into a pretty badass rebellion force, openly defy Voldemort even when it appeared all hope was lost, and.
 * Tad William's novel The War of the Flowers features Mud Bug Button, the unassuming sage who explains carefully to the hero that he was not chosen, his family was not killed by The Big Bad, and he did not have a heroic epiphany after seeing an innocent child killed. He just thought carefully about the situation and decided that leading a revolution was something that needed to be done.
 * In the Bionicle Adventures books, this is Subverted. All this time, the Toa Metru believed they were the chosen Matoran of Metru Nui, hence why the former Toa, Lhikan, had arranged for their transformation into Toa. Then, they found evidence that six other Matoran were meant to take on the role, and their becoming Toa was only due to Makuta's tampering with Lhikan's mind. This chimed with their initial failings as Toa heroes. In reality, Mata Nui anticipated Makuta's trickery, so he re-arranged the stars over Metru Nui, thereby changing the prophecies about who should become Toa. Thus, when Makuta tried to foretell these prophecies, and then attempted to prevent their fulfillment, he deliberately planted the names of the most unlikely Toa candidates into Lhikan's brain. That is to say, the names of those exact Matoran that were supposed to become Toa.
 * Kavi and Jiaan both from the Farsala Trilogy operate under the name Sorahb, who is supposed to be reborn in a time of need acording to their country's legend. There is no Sorahb reborn, and if the legend they create is anything to go by, there probably never was an original.

Live-Action TV

 * Arguably the protagonist of The Greatest American Hero was a definition of this trope.
 * He was meant to receive the costume; his alien mentor just happened to have other possible replacements, just in case.
 * And the only reason he was a klutz who couldn't Shot Web was that he lost the instructions, which is only evidence that he drops things.
 * Chuck, as of the end of Season 2, has graduated to actively being the Not-Chosen One after being The Woobie since the beginning.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Potentials, sort of... they don't have much choice on whether or not they'll join Buffy in the fight against The First for much of season 7, because if they don't, they'll probably end up dead... but in the series finale Buffy gives them a choice - . They choose the first option.
 * Also Spike, when he chose himself to fulfill the destiny that had seemingly been planned for Angel.
 * The BtVS RPG includes the "Slayer Poseur" template, who is not even a Potential Slayer, but fights vampires anyway.
 * Firefly's Malcolm Reynolds was not chosen in any way to be a hero...he just happened to be the one whose boat Simon Tam booked passage on, and possessed a brutally honorable streak. On the other hand, River Tam was chosen, but she damn well didn't want to be chosen and fought against it as best she could.
 * Sam and Dean of Supernatural dive very heavily into this, particularly Dean who is even more stubborn about not embracing his destiny, and not letting Sam embrace his. Considering their destinies, this is probably for the best.

Music
"And they say that a hero can save us, I'm not gonna stand here and wait I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles, watch as we all fly away"
 * One interpretation of Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott's Hero.

Video Games

 * Link in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was apparently not chosen by the gods to be The Hero right away. He trudged on solely for the sake of his little sister at first, then accepted the quest as a whole later. In doing so, re-empowering the Master Sword after it was weakened, and reassembling the Triforce of Courage, the gods eventually acknowledged Link as the "Hero of Winds."
 * Groose in Skyward Sword could be seen as this. Unlike Link and Zelda, he has no real "destiny" to speak of - a fact supported by the fact that. unlike those two, he isn't reincarnated in (chronologically) future games to continue fighting Ganon. Still, he does what he can to help Link, stop Demise and save the surface world.
 * In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers, it turns out that you aren't the one chosen to go to the Hidden Land and save time after all: your partner is. However, because of The Power of Friendship, you're allowed to go too.
 * Sora of Kingdom Hearts is one through chance. Riku, his best friend, was chosen to wield the Keyblade  but because he jumped at the wrong call the Keyblade went to the closest candidate at the time (Sora), following which Sora goes off to save the worlds. He then earns his position as Keyblade Wielder by winning the Keyblade back from Riku by understanding the Power of Friendship.
 * In Birth By Sleep it's revealed that of the original trio Sora, Riku and Kairi,  was the only one incapable of wielding the Keyblade  . Granted,   wasn't intentional.
 * And it's revealed that there are three types of Keyblade:
 * Occurs frequently in the Tales (series):
 * Tales of Symphonia - Colette and Zelos are The Chosen Ones of their respective lands. However, it is Idiot Hero Lloyd Irving who rallies everyone to try and fix everything the Big Bad has done.
 * Tales of Legendia - The bad guys have a Dark Messiah who will annihilate all of humanity if Senel Coolidge and his allies don't stop her.
 * Tales of the Abyss - make it hard to determine who is and who is not The Chosen One. The most simple answer (that no-one ever seems to come up with) is that.
 * Tales of Vesperia - the hero, Yuri, is as unchosen as you get. Rather than being predestined, his involvement in almost all of the game's events is due to him suffering from severe Chronic Hero Syndrome. Which his comrades make sure to point out.
 * Mind you, this is done mostly because the Tales series loves taking all the classic RPG tropes and annihilating them. Symphonia, for example, reveals that
 * In the "R:1" .hack// games, Aura originally chose Orca of the Azure Sea to be her champion. About 5 seconds after that, Skeith the Terror of Death put his player into a coma. Fortunately Orca was showing his friend Kite the game...
 * Given she makes herself Kite's partner almost immediately after that, BlackRose could also qualify.
 * Justin, the protagonist of the first Grandia, was never The Chosen One. The spirits who do the choosing are eventually forced to accept him.
 * In City of Heroes the player can unlock the ability to play as one of the generic Arachnos mooks by getting a Supervillain character to the max level. The mook character follows a special storyline apart from the normal missions in which they repeatedly try to become a Destined supervillain, only to realize by the end that they had already done so the second they hit level 2.
 * In Last Scenario, Hilbert is initially portrayed as The Chosen One thanks to Heroic Lineage. However, This doesn't stop him from smashing the Big Bad's schemes down hard and helping to end the infighting between the 3 or 4 countries that are the focus of the game. As Alexander put it,.
 * After accidentally, the protagonists of Chrono Trigger decide that The End of the World as We Know It is not Somebody Else's Problem, even though they and their children would be long-dead when the apocalypse does occur.
 * Arguably, from Rondo of Swords. He's pretty much dragged in the whole mess by the destruction of Bretwalde in the beginning, which also results in the death of the real Chosen One, Prince Serdic, who's the only one who can properly wield the holy sword. Eventually he has to choose whether to fulfill Prince Serdic's final wish of restoring Bretwalde  or fulfill the Prince's request to protect his sister . Either way, he's pretty much just at the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time.
 * Though she's certainly The Chosen One for a lot of other legends in Arcadia,  in The Longest Journey. , which is pretty damn important in itself.
 * In Septerra Core, the Big Bad Doskias believes he's the Chosen One on account of being the direct descendant of the world's Crystal Dragon Jesus. Instead, the person who ends up saving the world is the heroine, Maya, who doesn't have any sort of special destiny or lineage, but manages to become Septerra's savior through sheer determination. Also, not being a homicidal douche, unlike Doskias.
 * Shepard of Mass Effect was a completely ordinary (though Badass - any one of the possible pasts Shepard can have involves overcoming impossible odds through sheer willpower) soldier who basically tripped into knowledge of the oncoming danger to the galaxy, and chose to dedicate him/herself to preventing it. In the sequel, this leads into Shepard becoming an actual Chosen One for a vast conspiracy group (still heroic, but working for some decidedly AntiHeroic people) and into him/her becoming a galactic legend.
 * Arguably Spyro the Dragon is this, in the reboot trilogy. Big Bad Malefor insists that it's their destiny as purple dragons to bring about the end of the world; Spyro disagrees and fights to save it even though he fears Malefor may be right.
 * In a manner of speaking, Spyro is one of the few characters who can manage to be both The Chosen One and The Unchosen One at the same time. He's The Chosen One because he's the legendary purple dragon predicted to guide the fate of the era they're born into. He's The Unchosen One because he's not really chosen to actually do something. He could leave everything well enough alone, go Malefor's way, or change the world for the better. So while he's the purple dragon of legend who is predestined to affect history, he gets to choose how he does it himself.
 * Played with in Okami—Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, is acknowledged by all the other gods and spirits as the one to restore the beauty of Nippon, but as far as the human world is concerned, the inept and lazy Susano (and Nagi, his ancestor) are the legendary heroes. Played with still further when Susano reveals that he knows he's the Fake Ultimate Hero—and then, when the chips are altogether down, summons up some heroism and delivers the final blow without any help from Ammy.
 * Zak in Evil Islands in an odd case. He is originally hailed by the villagers as The Chosen One by sheer coincidence, and most energetically by the village elder—but then it turns out that . Naturally, he becomes a hero anyway.
 * Adol Christin of Ys is an inversion: he became Badass not because he was The Chosen One, he became (or repeatedly gets picked as) The Chosen One because he's Badass. Because if your land needs a savior, it's an excellent idea to pick the guy who's already killed enough dark gods to fill a pantheon. In the sixth game's Trials of Alma sidequest, the daughter of the goddess running said trials isn't very impressed with this random guy who just showed up, but when Adol started passing the trials, apparently she went and asked around about you. She becomes much more impressed and respectful after that.
 * Subverted in the Baldur's Gate series as a whole. It is implied in the first game that your character, good or bad, is just saying Screw Destiny, and that's true enough in regards to  plans. But in the last installment, when it's time to finally put an end to the events foretold by the prophecy that's been haunting their lives, it's revealed that it
 * A rather low-key example due to her late arrival and consequent lack of character development, but Princess Himi of Yamatai in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn qualifies. Because of a prophecy, her adventurer brother Takeru is away from home  when the , and Himi takes it upon herself to join our heroes and save the day, over her father's protests.
 * In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, everything runs on You Can't Fight Fate. Except for The Fateless One, who is Immune to Fate due to being resurrected by the Well of Souls. Which is good because there is no Chosen One destined to defeat the invading Tuatha Deohn.
 * In Dragon Quest V, you are not the chosen one.

Web Comics

 * The title character of Digger. Digger is an anthropomorphic wombat, and her people usually have the good sense to steer clear of any gods or magic they may encounter. Unfortunately, Digger has gotten herself first good and lost (on account of underground hallucinogenic gas pockets), then entangled (on account of being too nice for her own good) in strange goings on in a faraway land, in which both gods and magic are involved. Prophesies of several groups speak extensively of the other characters in the story, the events that Digger participates in, and even the tunnel that Digger digs up to the surface in the beginning of the story once she decides that she is completely and utterly lost - but strangely none of the prophesies say anything about Digger herself, or mention wombats in any way. Indeed, hardly anyone in the land Digger has found herself in has even heard of them.
 * From the Crossover Wars, Scale. Her own comic starts with her creators (in story) talking of a planned story which was derailed when the Editor & his forces invaded the comic & captured them. Scale's "birth" was a side effect of the Editor reaching into the metaphorical womb (a computer) and pulling out her bracer into "reality". Afterwards she had to figure out what had happened & what to do next, which involved stumbling across dimensions and assembling an army to oppose the Evil Overlords & rescuing her creators.
 * Roy Greenhilt from The Order of the Stick fits this pretty well. Originally he took on the quest to destroy Xykon, his father's personal nemesis, out of a desire to prove himself. In the process, he discovered that Xykon represents a significant threat to the universe. After telling his father to shove it, Roy decides that he's going to take down Xykon regardless of his father's wishes, just because it needs to be done.

Western Animation

 * Jamie in an episode of Megas XLR does this, and actually does the job surprisingly well... compared to Coop himself, anyway.
 * In Ben 10, Ben is surprised, and deeply disappointed, to learn that the Omnitrix had actually been sent to Earth for his grandfather Max, and attached itself to him only by mistake. This is later weakened a little by its creator Azmuth talking about how destiny chose Ben.
 * Either way, a Tennyson was meant to have it.
 * On The Fairly OddParents "Wishology" Trilogy, Timmy is assumed to be the Chosen One who needed to defeat the Darkness, but after he (first) defeats it it turns out another guy was the real supposed savior. Of course, it's eventually revealed that this guy was chosen by a committee holding auditions, so maybe this one isn't Destiny's fault so much as poor judgement by the fairies.
 * Also, the Darkness wasn't evil at all, the fairies just assumed that because it looks like an evil entity.