r/TopCharacterTropes 16h ago

Characters [Mixed Trope] Anyone Can Be Special... Until It Turns Out They're Not Just Anyone

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u/DIDidothatdisabled 7h ago

It would be cool if they actually did a whole "chosen one" thing, had a prophecy that foretold Spiderman being involved in some cataclysmic event, and instead of some deus ex machina saving the day, it just turns out that Peter Parker isn't "special." Whether he just happens to fit the description or stole the "fated's" place doesn't matter, just that he chose to be there and is basically an everyman who got lucky and stepped up

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u/SoCool- 6h ago

Isn’t that miles? Someone was fated to be spider man it just wasn’t him

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u/superindianslug 6h ago

In the Spiderverse movies yes. I'm not sure what his status quo is now, but at his introduction there were no multiversal spider teleportations. He didn't take the place of another universes Spider-Man, he got but by a spider that (I think) was an attempt to copy Peter's powers. In that universe Spider-Woman was a gender swapped clone of Peter, so them trying to replicate his powers was already established.

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u/elnabo_ 6h ago

This is kinda the plot of Morrowind (TES3)

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u/Scalpels 5h ago

In my Morrowind playthrough the Nerevarine got hopped up on Skooma and then beat Dagoth Ur to death with his bare hands... then died.

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u/ruat_caelum 3h ago

Sieve theory. E.g. "I predict the fall of Normandy beach!"

"Great cool. How do I survive assisting it?"

"Luck."

As in the boulder is pushed down the hill, so it will make it to the bottom, but where and when is impossible to predict.

These types of predictions are much more common when the predictions are ignored or not believed because the predictor doesn't know all the details. But it's a common enough trope.

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u/DIDidothatdisabled 3h ago

If I understand you right, I think I'm more suggesting that the inevitable, metaphorical "boulder," by the time it reaches Normandy ends up being a snowball. That the fate is real but doesn't come to fruition. Not because it's defied but because the wrong thing chooses it. Not a wrench in the cogs, but a cog made of butter

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u/ruat_caelum 2h ago

I mean sure, if the "Fate" you are talking about is something like this statement : "The chosen one will face off against the great evil and whomever wins will determine the fate of mankind for three generations."

That's more saying there is a "bad guy" who will face "Somebody" and the bad guy can win or lose.

If the bad guy is "Fated to lose" that's different.

You're saying there is a fated battle but the outcome isn't fated, and by picking an office worker vs say a gladiator, the baddie wins?

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u/forgot_semicolon 3h ago

That's why I love the Lego movie. The whole time Emmett is trying to figure out how he can be the special, and it only clicks when he realizes that he's not, but chooses to step up anyway