blog Mythic Guide to Heroes & Villains — Destined and Wounded Heroes

[Black Dragon]

Black Dragon submitted a new blog post:

Mythic Guide to Heroes & Villains — Destined and Wounded Heroes
by Antonio del Drago

This is Part 5 of the Mythic Guide to Heroes & Villains.

The hero is sometimes selected for a special task by the hand of fate itself. This characteristic is primarily found in fantasy and religious settings, which are well-suited for narratives with a mystical element. In order for destiny to play a hand, some supernatural force must be acknowledged within the hero’s world. Outside of supernatural phenomenon, “fate” is just the simple coincidence of being in the right place at the right time.

Here's an important tip to remember when including a prophecy in your story: for narrative effect, the prophecy should be vague or doubted within your world. A hero with an all-too-clear destiny is boring. We know he will win, we know how we will win, and we know whether or not he will survive... all before the events even take place. There's no suspense, and without suspense the reader will lose interest.

Feel free to make the hero doubt the prophecy. In fact, the character who takes the prophecy most seriously is usually the villain. The fruition of the prophecy would mean the villain's demise, after all. This often serves as a handy plot device in driving conflict between the hero and the villain. The villain is compelled to track the hero down and kill him, or else the...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[Krissy]

what if fate plays no part in the hero's journey? The hero is not the "chosen one" and there is no prophecy about "a hero coming to save the world?"

 

[pmmg]

I would imagine questions like that would poke holes all through what the article is about.

I think you might get more traction asking these questions out in the forum and not so much on the articles section.

 

[Prince of Spires]

what if fate plays no part in the hero's journey? The hero is not the "chosen one" and there is no prophecy about "a hero coming to save the world?"

Then you are simply writing a different story. Plenty of fantasy stories don't have a chosen one and do just fine. Some have one, but they don't really dig into what it means. And some don't have one, but it feels like they do anyway.

Frodo in Lord of the Rings for instance isn't a destined hero in the sense that there's a prophecy or anything that concrete. But the whole story sort of hints that "he's meant to have the ring".