Star Signs - Writing Help

TIP FIVE - The Chosen One's Twin

The Chosen One's Twin

Or sibling, but I feel like twins are more popular and more when people tend to struggle. Can also be called "the second chosen one," because that's often how it's used, but you'll see why I'm not using that later one.

Forgive me if I ramble or make little sense. This is a bit of a shower thought, but one that I feel like is a lot more useful for writers here on Wattpad. Because we're talking about the "chosen one" trope, it will involve minor spoilers for the stories I mention, including: Harry Potter, the Percy Jackson series (the first books specifically), Stranger Things (specifically season 4), Wednesday (only season 1, as that was all that was out as I wrote this), His Dark Materials, and A Song of Ice and Fire (not actual spoilers, since the series isn't finished, but discussions of plot points in the books.)

Anyway, time to actually get into it. Before I forget what I even wanted to write.

The chosen one trope is immensely popular. The main character is the only one who can save the day because destiny.

There's the obvious examples: Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, all of those YA dystopia protagonists inspired by The Hunger Games (which is ironic given that Katniss really doesn't feel like a chosen one in the books. She's mostly just a figure head.) There's Lyra Silvertongue from His Dark Materials, who has to fulfill a destiny without even knowing she's doing it. The most recent example is Wednesday Addams in her titular show, where there's a whole plot about her blood being needed to resurrect Crackstone and destroy Nevermore. These are characters that are all but called chosen ones in their media. Where it's part of their story arc.

Even ensemble stories that have multiple characters and little place for "chosen ones" occasionally begin to lean into this idea, both within the media itself and in their fandoms. ASOIAF has the Azor Ahai legend, and a whole lot of debate about who will be Azor Ahai reborn and save the world. The fandom ate it up as a "chosen one" narrative (though personally I dislike the idea that whoever end up being "Azor Ahai", if anyone does, will be the only one who is important to the end game. What's the point of multiple POVs if you just choose one to be the "real" protagonist in the end? Boo.)

Hell, even Stranger Things gets shades of this, what with El being declared the only one who a defeat Vecna and all the plots slowly centering more and more on her saving the day. And pre-season 4, during the hiatus especially, the Byler/Mileven debate basically turned into an argument over if Will or El were the real chosen one protagonist.

So stories love chosen ones. Fandoms love chosen ones. Should it be any surprise that fan fiction writers often want their OCs to be the chosen one?

Enter the "second chosen one." I saw it back in my Harry Potter days with "the girl who lived" style stories. I'm seeing it again with Wednesday fics, where the OC is Wednesday's twin and takes her role in the drawing-prophecy. Hell, it was/is even popular in Percy Jackson and His Dark Materials fics...which barely fucking exist.

(Interestingly, I have seen a lot of Alina Starkov twins stories, and they often have some Uber Special Star Powers to one up her, but it never seems to be for the reason of taking her "chosen one" status. Instead it's just so they can take her plot for their Darkling fic - or at least what the author wanted her plot to be.)

Let me tell you, when I started my internet journey, these were as despised as they were loved. If you even breathed towards the idea you were flooded with Mary Sue accusations. Which is ironic because I feel like they've survived until today while the idea of a "Mary Sue" has rightfully earned a lot of criticism for this like...I don't know, lambasting female characters for things male characters are called heroes for? Spoiling the fun for new authors and character creators? Scaring away people who could be great at their craft because they made the mistake of showing you their less than perfect first tries?

As will become obvious throughout this help book, I am very against the idea that any plot is too cliche to be salvaged. Especially when it comes to fan fiction. Because even things are actually overused, they're only overused in one particularly way. People keep running over and over the same path, ignoring all the other possibilities, and soon that's all people can see.

And, truth is, I actually find the "chosen one's twin" idea interesting. All the author has to do is...not make the OC a chosen one. Not a second chosen one, not a replacement chosen one for the original. Just not the chosen one.

Now I know what you're thinking. What's the point? If your character isn't the chosen one, then why not just make them a regular person? My answer this this: proximity. Literally being related to the chosen one...is still different from being some rando. And in a particularly interesting way.

Because in someways they'd end up dismissed. They don't have this great destiny - at most they're a twin to someone chosen by their birthdate, so they're a spare just in case. There's a lot of benefits the chosen one gains just for being the chosen one, which your OC just won't get. Lots of attention, lots of forgiveness for shit behavior.

On the other, they get one benefit that the chosen one doesn't. That benefit is knowledge. Often things are kept from the chosen one, once again, because they're simply the chosen one. It was the whole subplot of a Harry Potter book and a core mechanic of Lyra's destiny. So the OC can be in the know for a lot of information that the chosen one can't. They're allowed a lot more freedom, possibly even less manipulation if they're trusted.

Enter my shower thought. As I was trying to avoid freezing to death because my stupid fucking shower refuses to go above -100 degrees, my brain combined these two thoughts, and it began to ask some interesting questions.

How does that affect these two characters' relationship? Does the OC resent their sibling for their great destiny? Do they pity them for how little control do they have in their life? And the Chosen One, how do they see the OC? Perhaps they're jealous of their freedom. Perhaps they cling to their sibling as they only person they had before their rise, the only person they knew loved them for them and not for what they would do. Perhaps they get wrapped up in their fame and eventually don't even remember the OC exists.

How do other people see the OC? I image there are some residual feelings from their sibling. For example, there are always a few characters that resent the Chosen One, but usually get slapped down because of their chosen-ness. Do these characters take it out on the OC, who doesn't have a support system built up around them? Or do they try to absorb the OC, either out of sympathy for being over shadowed or to get back at the Chosen One?

And the secrets - there's always some secrets kept from the Chosen One. Does the OC know? If they do know, because that's the more interesting route for questions, how do they feel? I can image a character who at first feels guilty for lying to their sibling, even for a good reason, but then begin to grow bitter and keep the secrets willingly because it's the one thing they have over the Chosen One. The one time they were given something their sibling wasn't, instead of the other way around. Or maybe they're just totally on the Chosen One's side, who knows. And is what they're told even the truth? Perhaps it's a double layer of manipulation - OC is manipulated to act in a way that would manipulate the Chosen One without reasoning.

There was more, but I'll admit, I sort of forgot them. Like I said, I'm writing this all very quickly before everything slips out of my head. But hopefully it's coherent enough to give you some inspiration.