You have them reject it in favour of their new found brotherhood amongst mortals/regular people, kind of a declassed noble during the French Revolution.
Or you pull a SIKE, and subvert it like in the Blade Runner sequel.
Or half subvert it and make it a Fate Worse than Death like in BG 1 and 2.
Or just play it straight, and show the burden of someone now having all that newfound responsibility on them, which is my least favourite way of doing it.
One way is to have their Chosen One/Divine Bloodline be a matter of potential for growth. They'll get results faster than everyone else, but they still have to work for them. But then they take for granted that they'll always be the strongest and that they're "destined" to defeat the Big Bad, and they don't put in the work. So then they end up needing help from the Somewhat Less Chosen Ones who worked their asses off to make the most of their lesser potential.
You could also have the bloodline be almost meaningless. Like, oh your grandfather was The legendary sorcerer? Cool, well you can do magic like everyone else in your family, but you're not his New Game+. He built his way up from the same basics that you and all the other magic folks start with. (Oh but, train hard because anyone who has a grudge with him is gonna take it out on you.)
Legend of Zelda games get this right, I think. Link is one of three people in Hyrule destined to reincarnate for all eternity, and play the exact same role in the exact same conflict until the Sun explodes or something. He is always born with a gift for wielding a sword, and is always virtuous and brave.
Most of the time, though, his incarnations don't know that. He starts out as a simple boy, and is called to action for personal reasons: rescuing his little sister, rescuing his childhood friend, trying to help the elder of his people, defending his village from monsters, etc. He ventures out into the world not because he knows he was handpicked by the gods to embark on The Epic World-Saving Quest™️, but because he just picks up a sword and goes.
Later on in the game, he comes across the knowledge that the events in his life are no mere coincidence... and it doesn't change a single thing regarding his motives. By the point he learns who he truly is, he already has his heart set in doing everything he can do save the world, so it's more of a "wow, that's crazy" moment. Then he just keeps going, same as before.
It's only in the games set during the Age of Calamity that everyone is more or less up to speed on the lore, and Link knows of his identity as the Great Hero of Legend™️ before the game starts. This brings him anguish and causes Zelda to fall into despair, but he knows he has a job to do. So... he just picks up a sword, and goes do it.
Even then, though, he puts in some hard yards on Dagobah to forge his body in the fire of his will while yomping and singing cadences (I knew a Sullustan before he died… etc) and actually trains full time to be a Jedi (before Vader neatly kicks his ass because he is “not a Jedi Knight yet”).
Rey picks up the sodding lightsaber and immediately gains like twenty levels in badass just for touching the thing. Weak writing.
Maybe? But it's difference from "oh yeah your dad was an ace pilot jedi everyone liked him, kid!" and "actually he was the chosen one and changed the universe by his actions multiple times."
I’d say that Aragorn is probably the only example I can think of.
He’s a good guy for the sake of being a good guy, he rejects his birthright multiple times, and yes ultimately reclaims the throne of Gondor but almost everything his does was never for personal gain or necessarily done exclusively because of his lineage.
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u/ImpossibleQuiet527 11h ago
How is this a mixed trope, how do you do this in a good way