Originally Posted by
grampagen
Context is important with Chosen One Narratives.
Obviously it's a bit obnoxious if a character just rolls up and by virtue of being is simply better and framed as an untouchable hero without much more reason or nuance than that.
A couple examples of the convention done well, off the top of my head:
Aragorn was 'born better', spent some 80 years training and plotting in the aftermath of Isildur's blunder. Hero King, yes. Red Herring for Sauron, also yes, Frodo's over there.
Paul Atreides was the literal product of eugenics and took advantage of cultural programming. Took his place as a prescient Emperor. Then in the second book spends it wallowing in the weight of his guilt and despair from the sheer number of human lives his wars have cost - he compares himself to Genghis Khan and Hitler - until he's ejected from the same people whose Chosen One he became as Muad'dib.
...as an aside I do like it when the Chosen One is the product of a loophole in the phrasing of a prophecy. Like MacDuff.