This is why I loved Morrowind. You “become the chosen one” by fulfilling peoples’ expectations of what the chosen one is supposed to do; doing becomes being. But ultimately, you are an ex-convict press-ganged into an imperial spy network taking advantage of the fact that you fit the only criterion no one could change: date of birth and starsign in accordance with an ancient prophesy believed by the autochthonous peoples of the land where the Big Bad is amassing his power (posing a threat to imperialization).
The actions you take to convince people of your chosen one status include: bribing politicians, killing politicians for other politicians over petty grievances, contracting an incurable disease and then being a guinea pig for a dangerous alternative medicine, sex trafficking (with a non-sex-trafficking option made available by the modding community), grave robbing, and aiding a religious schism.
But this is just the quests you complete and the conversations you have that point you in the direction of the end goal. You don’t have to actually fulfil any prophetic criteria or convince anyone to anoint you savior to kill the Big Bad. You just need to find the two magical artefacts to counteract his doomsday machine–and you can stumble upon the in-game texts that describe their locations and significance.
new chosen one stories and anything about restoring a monarchy should be banned for 30 years
I want to make a story, where you can chose between supporting a rightful heir (inbred dumbfuck) and an lowborn imposter (smart, cunning, willing to reform the kingdom).
Fire Emblem fans in shambles
Just in time for the PS6.
I don’t mind being exceptional in RPG’s, but I HATE being “the only one who can save the world”.
Same, like The Chosen Commander is FINALLY coming to osrs and I hope Zanik lands the final blow against the Bandos Avatar. This is her story, not the player’s.
For the most part Runescape felt like you really were just a nosy adventurer sticking their noses into everybody’s business and it ranged from simple quests like ingredients for a cake or catching fish. To unveiling a big conspiracy in a kingdom and doing cool shit. But it never felt like you were the chosen one. I think Runescape3 started to feel like that a lot later on though.
You weren’t the chosen one in Runescape the same way Brian isn’t in Monty Python.
My favourite runescape quests are where doing the quest is clearly a bad idea but the player character is completely oblivous to the obviously evil e.g. lucien
So true. I don’t want to be the hero. I want to be the lowly maid that gets constantly scolded by the noblewomen she is serving. And getting slapped, and verbally abused, and stepped on, and…
Of course just until I’ve levelled up enough and start a revolution against them, which will definitely succeed and not end up with me in a dungeon with all those torture instruments, and shackles, and… That’s what he meant with adult games, right?
Alternatively, the Gothic and Risen games were nice to play. You really start from the absolute bottom and have to work your way up, while everyone treats you accordingly. Peak Euro jank
certified transfem post of all times
Please don’t perpetuate the transphobic stereotype
the hateful and cruel stereotype that transfems have fun sex
I did not fight to get to where I am to have underwhelming sex tyvm
“Please be a good little assimilationist without kinks” is kinda cringe tbh.
deleted by creator
Where did I even remotely say that?
Fucking 🤡
(HYG for your smart-assery tho: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/28494754)
Like
certified transfem post of all times
is certified cyclejerk r/MtF shit
Awwwwww no am i embarassing you in front of the cissies?#
To clarify, i haven’t been on reddit in about 4 years or so and i’ve never set foot into r/MtF because it was obvious at first sight it’s full of truscums like basically all trans subs on reddit.
Removed by mod
OH WAIT now i remember you, you’re that stupid trot who admins the 4tran comms on dbzer0. Go fuck your transmed ass you brainwormed piece of terfshit.
I kinda am just a stereotype on two legs. Can’t help it, sorry
But to be more serious: I had suppressed my sexuality for a very long time. My first memory of experiencing dysphoria, which was at 4, was related to the one single fetish I have and it took 25 years until I finally managed to be at ease with something that I should’ve never been ashamed of in the first place. I fully understand the fear of being judged by cis supremacists and branded as perverts for being openly kinky, but honestly, overcoming your own self-hatred and insecurities to finally being able to enjoy the things you were always dreaming of enjoying is a very beautiful thing that even asexual trans peeps can hopefully appreciate
I don’t have an issue with you being like that or you writing that here, sry if it came across like that.
Like I’m kinky and chronically online myself, OFC in a different form and with different interest (potato potato tho).
But I am not defined by that, it’s not at the core of my being.
And I will not let myself and other trans women be defined by that, which is what I take issue with here…sry if it came across like that.
To me it didn’t come across like that at all. I fully understood what you wanted to say, which is why I told you my little story.
And I will not let myself and other trans women be defined by that, which is what I take issue with here…
It doesn’t define me either. I’m just sick right now and wanted to do a little silly posting, like I always do. Humour makes my life a lot more bearable and EatMoreMacroplastics’ comment did make me laugh quite a bit. That doesn’t mean that I let this stereotype define me, it just means that I find it funny, especially since it’s true to a degree
silly posting is fine and fun, I just hate that generalization :|
especially since it feeds into harmful stereotypes
As if trans people are responsible for harmful stereotypes and not transphobes. That’s what i mean when i say that you sound like an assimilationist loser, you’re playing the respectability politics game way too hard.
I mean Gothic is a chosen one story, it’s just that barely anyone gives a shit.
Including the player, apparently. Had to look it up: The avatar of a god? Hmm… could’ve sworn it was just a himbo who just happened to be at the right place at the right time
It comes up more in Gothic 2 and 3. In 2 it’s mostly explained in the cutscenes that are often bugged and in Gothic 3 it’s really difficult to give a shit about the story.
explained in the cutscenes that are often bugged
Classic Gothic lol
What in the holy fetish 😭
Edit: /lh (for clarification)
I wish I had all those fetishes, but I just have a single one. One that I hold very dear in my heart, don’t get me wrong, but just a single one is pretty boring, so I wish I had more. It’s not me being kinky but more like me wanting to be more kinky, I guess.
The world can be so unfair. So, so unfair
I wish I had all those fetishes
you’re in luck because this is maybe the most attainable goal ever
But how would someone as wholesome and innocent as me get those? Just keep having an open mind and experiment with all kinds of stuff, or do I have to actively call out for them, like: “Come here,
fishyfetish, fetish, fetish”?Just tell yourself you deserve to be punished and mistreated for not having those as fetishes and it should work itself out.
It’s really that easy, huh?
gotta go on a lengthy journey of self-discovery where you seek out and master increasingly bizarre and esoteric fetishes
Journey to the Fet
ahem
I’m not sure if the “😭” clearly signified the joke here, will edit the comment
It did. Don’t worry
So real. So true.
When he’s right, he’s right. It’s boring, backwards, childish nonsense that exists just as a conveyor belt of escalating power fantasy gratification that has cannibalized several different mediums but video games most of all.
“My miserable power fantasy of choice has a right to exist”
I don’t care one way or the other. What sucks is that “fantasy” as a genre has decayed so completely into “bottom of the barrel power fantasy” that it’s taking up a ridiculous volume of air. It’s so fucking sad watching writing be like isekai where there’s no real conflict, it’s just a machine to have a puppet show of a world where everything exists to jack the player/viewer/reader off with the main character being the most specialist boy ever and you never need to face an uncomfortable emotion or doubt for even a second. Every problem can be over powered by you, every woman wants to fuck you and typically only you, everyone loves you or soon will or else is a Bad Person to overpower, etc. etc. etc. It’s just depressing lotus-eating escapist bullshit that seems to radiate contempt from the devs/authors.
It would be funny if a game subverted this by telling you you’re the chosen one destined to win the war and gave you a special little hero sash or whatever, only for the tutorial to end and the player to be transported to a no-man’s-land littered with sash-wearing corpses who were also told they were special.
Morrowind does this a bit, though you are unfortunately enough of the chosen one to succeed anyway.
It’s not the main character but both ff10 and Tales of Symphonia do it to the secondary lead. Tales of Symphonia pulls it off better imo
Dark Souls 3
this…feels familar? I feel like I’ve played this game…Hollow Knight? No…but it has those elements in there.
i definitely remember a game where you run into the corpses of the people who tried before you, and failed.
Chosen one narratives make us upset because they are true to life. Look at almost every rich and powerful person alive today. They are rich and or powerful because of family connections and the birth lottery. So in this way those narratives are part of thr liberal project of validating the power structure. So it sucks for that reason as well
They tend to not be true to life for several reasons, not the least of which being that they often pivot on the “chosen one” coming from squalor before assuming their rightful place at the top because it is carved into the bones of the universe that they, individually, are to be king and no matter what disadvantage they are put at they are personally geniuses with an ability to grow in power that outstrips the rest of humanity combined, the universe bends to their narrative benefit, everyone loves them, etc.
I hate them not for it being like a rich person being born rich or because they have any realoism, but because they are about a total rejection of reality on every conceivable level.
They aren’t coming from squalor. Well to really. They aren’t poors that use the wisdom of the streets to win. That was slumdog billionair. They are temporarily embarrassed nobility. They learn that our betters are simply better than us, and do infact deserve special treatment. Harry Potter didn’t use muggle tech to solve anything. Harry Potter used his literal inheritance to solve every problem. Most of which were that people didn’t recognize he was better than them.
I like that you are a nobody that got transformed into Vampire for funsies in the Dawnwalker.
spoilers
It is heavily implied that you are a Dawnwalker because you have silver poisoning from working in the silver mines too much, which fuck up the vampire infection.
It could be cool to be supplemental to the success of the chosen one. Introducing the supply line rpg. The chosen one only succeeds if you are successful in maintaining the supply lines for the army. Though if the supply lines are dependable on you I suppose that would make you the chosen one for the supply lines, hero will fail without supplies.
So are we looking for like an indirect chosen one? A smaller scale chosen one? Or just a person who does not carry the fate of the world?
Wasn’t that basically the plot of TES: Oblivion? Been years since I played that game
you’re soft-prophesized but patrick stewart’s bastard son is the special bloodline guy
Supplying Sean Bean with beans so he can tip his fedora and say M’runes Dagon
tagline NOW
It was almost a major b plot of Skyrim with the whole civil war but most of that was left on the cutting room floor.
I cant think of an RPG that I’ve played aside from Skyrim where you/the player character is The Chosen One.
baldur’s gate 1
I haven’t played it
Baiscally every Fallout. Nearly every protag in the series is the chosen one in some way.
How? Aside from 2.
Vault dweller was chosen by the members of vault 13 to go get the water chip, courier 6 was the one who was supposed to deliver the platinum chip. As for F4, I dunno. And in Fallout 3, the protag is the one supposed to bring their father’s project to life.
I didn’t put much thought into it before commenting. This is basically my only rationale.
you’re very much not “the chosen one” in the first game, you lose a lottery
I mean, in a literal sense they are the one chosen to do a task for people, but I think it’s more meant to be in a cosmic sense, where the universe itself chooses them as the special hero destined to save the world. More like Skyrim or something, where your character is the literal chosen one hero who is the only one who can stop the big scary dragons.
Being assigned a job isnt the same as being a Chosen One. 1 and New Vegas are the consequences of doing what your boss tells you and 3 was i guess nepotism, I forget how 3 played out. That’s just being a protagonist. Being a chosen one requires some sort of prophetic or divine reason, real or imagined.
It’s one of the reasons I’m kind of excited about WoW Forever. Rather than being a hero of legend or a god incarnate or fighting god for the fifth time this week, you’re just a random shmuck running around doing chores for people and the power level reflects that. I know things get questionable with Ahn’Qiraj and Molten Core, but I think that’s appropriate for that Warcraft era’s advanced shmuck. I don’t even know if we’re going to see that content.
target of bds btw.
Tried writing that for years. It’s actually much more difficult to write than you’d think. Why are we following the hero? What do they have to do with anything? Everybody is special in some kind of way somewhere. I’ve actually come around and started writing a YA shonen and it’s refreshing.
As the Companion Cube has shown us, humans can attach to anything if we give ourselves a reason to. So as long as you follow “why do you care about this character?” then there ya go.
But even the companion cube got characterized. The cube futhers the theme of human experimentation. Black Mesa has this central theme in Portal 1 of hosting a sterile science factory. You’re testing the portal gun, after all. It’s actually hilarious that they think a cube is an adequate substitute for connection.
You’d likely have less fun if the companion cube was replaced by Steve who you used to solve puzzles, having clashing perspectives with Glados who talks you through the game. Why is Steve in my puzzles? How does he justify his
pagescreen time? What does he add to this experience?
I don’t mind it, as long as it’s framed as "well, you’re not the “chosen” one, your just the person who was in a place at a time, and you got to deal with it now. Like say ff14, there is some stuff that makes you special, but the world would still keep on keeping on with out you. Sure there is Shadowbringers but given some events, I think you were more just a rallying point for people then anything.
Like, space travel? People who go up into space, you could argue, are “chosen ones,” but most of them (minus fuckers like Bezos) are more the avatar of collective humanity than anything. For every person who got into space, there is thousands upon thousands of people who work together to make that happen.
The problem, IMO, is when a story treats a protagonist as the single most important being in creation. So you know, great man of history shit. A protagonist should be nothing without those around them. Hell, even LoTR did this. Frodo wasn’t chosen; theremovedhas got to be one of the most lucky/unlucky Hobbits of all time, depending on how you look at it. Hell, Gandalf wasn’t even chosen; he got to have another burden on his shoulders because “the wise” fucked up. And speaking from personal experience, this is much closer to how things work IRL lol.
What slur was removed from your comment?
I… Honestly don’t know? The only thing I can think of is a typo or Dyslexia striking again for me. Cause I can’t make heads or tails of that. The only thing I can think of that I put there was fucker?
(BTW whoever came up for the word dyslexia for the problem should be destroyed. Spent way to long on that before having to pull up a new tab)
