The Chosen One

In fiction, the Chosen One is a common troupe. I am not sure which is the oldest reference about it, but we can find it in the Old Testament in the Bible in many characters. It makes sense, from that stand point. A otherwise common person discovers to be chosen by the gods, destiny or prophecy that he/she is supposed to do things of greatness. Many people dreams of this.

Games use it many times. It is common in RPGs or any game trying to be epic somehow. Start as a very common guy, then he discover he is the Dragonborn, Fateless One or other title and go to save the land from the evil forces. The appeal is there.  As many other writing cliches, this one have being over used for years. One game did a intelligent and interesting twist to this: Bioshock

Warning: If you plan to play the first Bioshock, heavy spoilers ahead!

In Bioshock, the silent main character enters the underwater city of Rapture after his plane crashes near it and them he is sucked in what survived of (and in) the city. We them discover that nothing that happened to him was coincidence. He is a clone of city's founder, Andrew Ryan, and have being brought back to the city in order to use his genetic code to help the people that created him to seize control of the city and its technology.

*End of Spoilers*

Bioshock followed the path of the Chosen One, the especial person that have something reserved by destiny to him. But did it in a very clever way. That is why I am not exactly against cliches. They existed because the audience few more comfortable with something familiar than something completely new. But it is possible to use such cliches in clever and imaginative ways.

Writing is hard, I must admit. And trying to create something completely new is the hardest part. But it is those creative twists and surprises that can make something common, special.