These are my new favorite laws

Now I know why I like my favorite book so much. The third law is true, UNLESS the main character is so epic that they make up for the lack of dead people. Assumed dead can also work to a certain extent, but only if it utterly rips out your heart and the characters' heart for a long time, like half a book. Resurrection can be used if the character is resurrected at least half a book later.

Ha! In my book, a love interest dies, she falls for more than one guy, and it's very clear that the MC is not going to survive the war. I keep killing people off and I'm only two books in! Glad to hear I'm not ruining everything.

@@merphynapier42 Another trope I am tired off is alien invasion. When H.G. Wells wrote the grandfather of the genre War of the Wars, it was mostly an allegory of British Imperialism (aliens representing the Empire and Earth the countries it dominated at the time) as well as the losing influence of religion and invasive species. There are so many planets with resources greater than Earth in our galaxy, so what not seek out those worlds to raid, and if they are looking for a new world to inhabit, why not seek out a habitable, yet unoccupied planet to settle. Also, have each alien race with different tribes, castes and cultures and not look human, but at the same time, act human, act more than human, but not THINK like humans. Also, I would like to see a sci-fi story that focuses on characters and themes instead of advanced science and tech as the main focus. Also, no clones, hyper drives, lasers and more realistic technology. How about great space ships discovered on Mars, and a group of humans, sick of Earth's increasing environmental and social destruction, somehow took a couple and decide to head out to the cosmos. Their descendants settle on habitable planets and a few centuries later, their descendant's stories and those of the alien races are told.

No wonder I've been having a hard time. Half of my characters are immortal lol

but people die if they are killed?!

@DevilJin just because you are right it doesn't mean you are correct

Cough* apparently that’s not enough of a subversion for David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

People die when they are killed.

@@candidlyopinionated19 probably not enough people died in that war tbh.

Hahahaha same 😂👌

There is a ranobe with this exact plot. Terrible chosen one who's only capable for the task. Story's told from a side character perspective

PS. It's a "Hero is Invincible, but terribly cautious". It's writing is garbage, but the author has a very salty stance on ALL fantasy tropes, showing that from a strategic perspective they make no sense. Also hero has a ton of reasons to be a dick there. Basically, he has negative investment in the situation, but still he goes out of his way to get to the goal. PPS. It covers tropes, like hero journey: if there is a prophecy about a hero, forces of evil should 1. monitor places where hero can safely start the journey, eliminating him at the starting point. 2. Eliminate hero's party from prophecy beforehand (using overwhelming power). 3. Secure magic artifacts necessary for fulfilling prophecy. Forces of evil should hide their actual abilities at first, attack only when it's a guaranteed overkill (not sending some progressively better henchmen). etc.

I'm totally writing the one about assassins.

Hahaha Ditto!

peter Rasmussen that’s cool.

Aw dude keep it going please!

Omg write it i would read that!

Dude! please continue or someone else continue the story please ahhhh. I would read this 100%%

I would read the heck out of this

Steven Alexander What about the girl Inspector Gadget

Lol, totally. 😂

Isn’t that the plot of Harry Potter?

Shrek is love, Shrek is life

@@anadoesthings2999 I'm having war flashbacks

Isn't it also the beginning of shield hero too?

SuperDude 1236 I see you’re a man of culture as well

Idk if I'd consider Shrek "the chosen one", he more of accidentally assumed the role and just rolled with it lol

Research the history of science, you'll get the base for experiments and discovery progression, plus scientists bickering. Also interesting to think about what would be the division between science and magic and if there would be any overlap (like w alchemy based systems)

Ancient Dreams 4: Marin's Codex by Benjamin Medrano ....love this series

Yeah! I've thought about writing that one too. It's great for a bit, but then you realize the whole story can't just be one great long list of what didn't work...... Or maybe it could. Hmm

well, it's basically every Superhero-origin story

@@absurdious yeah ur right

How's it going? I would definitely read that book

Ender chapter forty seven with a sequel planned :)

Zoë Holmes ooooo good luck haha!

I’ll read it!!!

That's so cool, i'm writing something similar (just the subplot though) tell us when it's avaliable :D

[FIRST LAW SPOILERS] Okay, so like, this is quite spoilery for anyone who hasn’t read First Law. But for “The Mentor” one that trilogy is perfect.

That’s a good idea for a comic relief character! Could I use that for my book?

The Mentor one is great!!

The comic relief character is actually quite popular. Example: Leo Valdez from the hero’s of Olympus series is definitely like that

Skyllduggery pleasant kinda does a lot of that.

Surprised Char well...at least he bears the ring decently...almost...

If you think he does his work badly, you didnt understand the whole evil ring thingy...Frodo was never a chosen one, thats the point. Its a story about how much can be done by the most ordinary little person out there. He was not chosen to carry the ring, because he was special. He was chosen to carry the MacGuffin, because anyone more significant and skilled than him would probably turn out misusing the ring. Gandalf needed someone, whos complete lack of ambition and good heart would handle the thing.

@@skadi6750 Therefore, the hobbits are the only candidates. Still kind of a chosen one thing but more of the type of chosen one thing where success comes to the MC not purely because of in-world reasons but because of the author's themes. A hobbit can carry the one ring much longer than any other race because of their lack of ambition; and so Frodo is *CHOSEN* to carry it.

Well kinda. Frodo isn't _bad_ at the task. It's just that the weight of The Ring becomes next to unbearable.

Funny to me how people always say frodo is the main character. Really it’s Sam, he has the most traditional character arc

Ummmmm no

Yas

Fraser King ya. But have you seen book tube lol

I agree! I'm hear to see Merphy get totally pumped up about book ideas and stories. We can all share in the virtual squee. :D

I Love it when she gets so excited she has no more words and all she can say is "Write that book!"

Yes yes yes. I live how enthused Merph is. I am so glad I found her channel. It's given me the boost I need to take my writing from hobby to publisher. Wish me luck guys.

@@kathleenbrashier2579 That sentence very nearly went another direction.

the chosen one becoming a villain trope is done in star wars, although it's not for overworking the character but for other reasons that I don't want to spoil

@@h.arr0z Lol, I love your commitment to not spoil a series of movies that's been a huge part of Western culture for the past 46 years, and for which the plot has been common knowledge for just as long... It's like not wanting to spoil the Bible by carefully refraining from telling who gets nailed to what near the end of the book. 😂

​@EvenTheDogAgrees maybe they're referring to the 3 prequels. A lot of people know the plot of the original 3 movies without having to watch them, while the plots of the prequels aren't as well known by non-Star Wars watchers. A lot of people may not even know who Anakin is, let alone what happens to him.

androgynouvelle The Chosen One and the Mouse King.

Oh yes!

Nooooo 😂😂😂

Kenneth Branagh: The Chosen One

It's about a celebrity magician who lost his memory and now getting bits of it back, he has to rediscover himself, realized he was a jerk and he had bluffed those accomplishments. There would be a low point when he wished he never got those awful memories back, but he decided to go on a journey visiting those magicians; works he took credit. Make friends, fall in love, get his self-worth back. And realize accomplishment is not everything. To quote Hermione - "There are more important things - friendship and bravery!” :)

Gosh I loved this as a kid 😁

Is that the one with the little blue guy?

It's been a while. Which tropes were you thinking of

For some reason I only ever watched the spinoffs

Also Barbie and the 3 Muskerters

Yes.

What if they had Trelwalney teach Occulmentary

I actually had a theory while the series was still in progress of how that would turn out to be the case... See, Trelawny's prophecy says, "The Dark One will mark him as his equal," right? It never says when! The Chosen One never had to be a baby when getting this mark, it's just that Harry was! Neville could've had the same thing happen to him well into his teenage years (Maybe even the final book!), because someone else (Gran, a parent that actually recovered, or maybe even a girlfriend) sacrifices themself to protect Neville. Avada Kedavra backfires on Voldemort again, and there we go! I still feel that it was a big missed opportunity for JKR.

Like completely fully 100% snap

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

that is interesting. seriously, i would love a character that way

I'm on it. If it gets published I'll call it "Sometime Before Midnight."

Not to be a downer but I really REALLY do not like stories that paint mentally ill people as dangerous. Mentally ill people are much more likely to be the abused than the abuser, especially people who don’t have a good grip on reality. It’d be better if the story was about them thinking they’re in a dream as someone else chases them down, killing all their friends and family but the protagonists thinks they’re having an episode, until to realize at the end they weren’t and everyone they know is dead. The story ends with them dying too. A very different story from yours, I admit, but one that doesn’t play into harmful and isolating stereotypes

I love that idea! Please do write that and maybe let me know when you're done, 'cause I would for sure read it

That's awesome!

You have a fan already!

Spy kids 3 vibe anyone?

@@benparrish6157 I've not watched a single Spy Kids. Maybe you're right. Thanks if that's the case. If I ever work on it, I'll change it up if it seems close.

underrated.

Yes, that how I get my most inspired ideas. I think that's why so many books sound the same, because they don't think outside the box.

This! Don't write off a whole medium, yes a medium not a genre, because you're not used to it. Everyone has preferences but writing off every anime/manga/game as bad is just like writing off all books or movies as bad. It makes no sense. You wouldn't say all movies are bad because your watched one horrible one. And if someone wrote off all books because they weren't into the genre of the first one they picked up, that'd be annoying too. Please, try new things. -Sincerely, someone who likes just about every medium.

yes! I love how they experiment with tropes like that. for every story that follows the tropes, there is something subverting or poking fun at them. like One Punch Man or Kiss Him, Not Me. I think the way they format and distribute it helps with that, because if it doesn't catch on its not that big of a deal. where here its kind of make or break

@Marie ᶘ oᴥoᶅ Depends on the anime, but yes, sometimes. I've watched some amazing anime, but also some I could barely finish due to being boared out of my mind.

@Marie ᶘ oᴥoᶅ I know exactly the noise you mean, yeah that's kind of annoying. Personally, I dislike when a story of any medium starts getting extremely predictable. I straight up dropped a show once when I realized they were recycling the same sequence of events over and over with slight changes. On a smaller scale, when an adverb doesn't make sense it seriously irks me. :)

Love this

There is a story like this already. Except hero's terrible behaviour stays unchallenged and there are reasons for it

The last two LOTR books it already is.

woah dont disrespect frodo like this. he was doing the best he could despite the circumstances

YES Sam is soooo much cooler than Frodo. Legit.

The Anti-Anti-Christ.

Like Darth Vader, who went bad and loved it

Hellboy, the half demon destined to end the world and rule Hell, also destined to rule England because his mother(a witch) is a descendant of Mordred. He rejects his destiny, even the England one. He briefly wields Excalibur to kill one monster before he abandons it at an inn.

Cliches arent bad it just depends on how they're used

You'd be surprised how few will try, how few finish and how few are good by the end

They do something similar in my book, you're never the first one to think of something. Everything has been done before you even thought of it. Write the book, nobody else will write it the exact same way as you would. A concept could be interpreted in thousands of different ways. :)

@@nennejoh Very true. There are likely hundreds of ways to write it. I've seen lots of ideas flying around here about the people who discover magic being like scientists in medieval or modern times, but I'm actually thinking of going with a story where the discoverers are early tribes of hunter-gatherers. If magic has always been around, makes sense to me people would figure out how to use it at the same time they're figuring out how to use other aspects of the natural world, like agriculture for example.

I felt the same way but, me and my friend had an idea sort of like that already

'Ideas' can't and shouldn't be owned. They aren't developed enough to be considered a plot. If undeveloped ideas are off limits, books would cease being written. There are millions more ideas never used, then there are ones developed.

@@darkwitnesslxx That. And also: not everyone has the talent to write a book. Just because you can come up with a cool concept doesn't mean you can develop it into something worth reading. I've got shittons of ideas for cool concepts. I have, however, very little actual writing talent.

She's basically a Action Girl.

Scorpia in She-ra and the Princesses of Power ! Strong and buffy, but bubbly and affectionate ^^

XD as a fellow newbie author (fantasy/comedy graphic novel) I do this too, though since I’m still in the planning stages it’s more frantic notes

@@iluvlittenanimations2.010 I just watched the death video, wrote like 3 comments and realised I could copy and paste them into my notes app and use them. I now have an idea for a story that takes place in my main world and NO ONE IS SAFE *MUAHAHAHA*

Me too! Writing my first historical fiction novel... Coming on a year now of work...

can the mystical being be Aphrodite

@@erinfulse7939 YES

Aphrodite would do that before breakfast

Actually reminds me of a movie where two people wake up without memories and kinda start having romantic feelings only for them both to realise the guy tried to kill her just before they lost their memories.

Or... Possibly some fanfics I've read...

Sounds great! Love that premise :)

Sounds awesome! I will read that book

I'm writing something like that too lol

this sounds amazing! where can I follow you to keep up with this?

That's also the premise in "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Takes place in late 19th century England but the 2 protagonist study magic with the aim to bring it back. The magic system is also Arthurian/fairy magic and not the typical Tolkein inspired system. They also did an excellent 3 part BBC series based on it that's true to the book.

The things is, Harry is the chosen one because Voldemort chose him over Neville.

I always wanted it to be like a random muggle or muggle born who just like showed up at the last minute and does the deed. And then everyone goes wait when's your birthday have your parents fought this guy before?!

@@rvfd807 This sounds actually fun :'D

@@ghyslainabel The thing is, J.K. Rowling is the author, so she could've just written it differently. Of course the explanation makes sense (as it should in a good book), but it's her who decides who and why he is the chosen one.

4:34 Nathan Ball defines a love-triangle as being indecisive. If you were seducing someone to assassinate them, then you wouldn't be indecisive so how could all the members of the triangle be secretly assassins, including the indecisive one? There should be names for different types of love-triangle. Type 2: On a diagram, each participant is attracted to the person anticlockwise of her but must ignore him and seduce the person clockwise. This requires that two of them are bisexual. Or that one of them is bisexual and one is pretending to be. Or that one of them is a convincing transvestite. Or that all 3 are gay. Or that there are an even number of assassins greater than 3, then they can be straight and half of them can be male. Whichever of those sets of circumstances is least unlikely. An advantage of writing this with 4 straight people, is that an assassin can try to eliminate her love-rival.

Seducing someone is only a viable method of assassination if you can do it quickly. If you get caught up in a love-triangle that could last for months, you would find a different way to kill someone. So the story has to be about each agent trying to get something.

I could totally see it as all of the characters were hired by the same person but none of them or the reader knows that until the end. You could have all of the characters die at the end while trying to kill each other and then the person who hired them is happy and you find out that that person is the best assassin and was trying to get his rivals killed off in the best way possible.

Epic the comment section is just free ideas

Daniel Lins i would SO read this!

That's blasphemy only the mc should be the most talented while the other Male characters be dumb and extras

Why are all of her fans people that I want to write new books for me to reaaad Ahhhhh

MAAD TEE what if the main character was all of them.

Ahhhhh everybody is having such great ideas for books I would read this

Oh yeah! Didn't realise that!

@@ender4344 Hmm I have seen you somewhere

Tejasdeep Singh I've heard that so many times lol I need to get off youtube

@@ender4344 Lol and I remember you now you were writing some book weren't you? Then go work on it for a bit lol

@@tejasdeepsingh456 ohhhh yeah now i remember you too. Hello again!

Exactly. Positive examples of feminine qualities without 'twists' would be fantastic. I do like some tough female characters, but I think we can take a step back from the 'my eyeliner can cut a man's throat' femininity now.

Ha I was about to say "so basically Sansa Stark" and then I read the next sentence "Sansa stark"

The Winner's Trilogy does this!

Elantris has a bit of that with Sarene, I think.

Basically just write female characters as interesting characters of their own right, gender doesn’t have to come into it at all

I love your profile pic...Annabeth PJO is my favorite series and my friends can me Annabeth. She's special to me

@@sarahsmith1097 same here.... pjo forever!!!!!

Long live longbottom

I disagree

Part of the deal with Neville and Harry as I recall is that it was basically Voldemort's decision which of them became the chosen one

I also disagree i dont really get why people say that just because he killed nagini !Neville could have killed harry many times just because he is so dumb like at poa if Black was truly after harry harry would have died .Thats my point of view

the thing is neville actually could never be the chosen one. like harry lived because his mother didn't have to die, but she died FOR harry. if voldemort had chosen to kill neville, snape wouldn't care about sparing alice longbottom, so alice wouldn't die for neville so neville wouldn't be protected and he would die.

Yeah! That's legit how Harry Potter should have ended.

love that version as well, but I've also always liked how in HP the Chosen One was actually chosen by Voldemort, not just by fate or some God or whatever, which is what made the prophecy self-fulfilling

Didn't JKR say at some point that HP would die in book 7? I expected something like your headcannon after I heard that. It would've made so much sense; he would've died to protect his friends just like his mother died to protect him. I know this is dark, but as established, some people die in wars.

When I read the deadly hollows, I expected Merphy's headcannon to happen. But then we had that weird limbo thing. I like her Harry Potter headcannon more.

I got a similar idea. It's about a guy who carries the burden of dying repeatedly, like the movie Happy Death Day but 1000x worse in terms of deaths since the tension isn't coming from the MC's perils but from his friends and families.

But if we tell you then it's a huuuuggggeeee spoiler....I have a rec where theres two people who think they're the chosen one and you dont know which is good or bad until the middle...does that sound interesting to you?

@@gracelingaccountant oh I'm fine with a spoiler. It just makes me excited! Yeah! That book sounds cool!

@@lostinabookcase3796 the faithful and the fallen series by John gwynne is possibly my favorite series of all time. All four books are out so you can binge them ☺️ no one is safe, everyone dies, theres awesome animal companions. Theres travel and epic battles and morally gray characters and AMAZING friendships...I just....UGH PLEASE READ IT 😭

If you're looking outside of adult fiction: The Young Elites. I loved it so much for being YA and it was an antagonist main character.

@@gracelingaccountant I second Faithful and the Fallen strongly! Epic fantasy at its best!

Best Sailor Scout is Jupiter, for this reason among others.

Jessica Saccone Well, Merlin is a sort of chosen one character, but he is chosen to help the true chosen one spread peace (Albion). Yeah, I guess the show Merlin did have us see things from the point of view of a side character, and they did make the chosen one a "royal ass" (to quote Merlin), so we have those two suggestions covered.

Loved merlin

Dwight throwing away the bobble-head was heartbreaking but effective.

It also happened in friends with phoebe

Just goes to show that a good idea doesn't necessarily make for a good product...in the end, the execution is what matters the most. I'd take a REALLY well-written tired old trope over something unique but messily done any day.

@@sleepysera yeah the execution was really poor. Carol gets over it in like, 10 minutes.

Crab lord Yeah I liked the idea, but she bounced back from that shit really quick lol.

I loved Ender's Shadow! It was so good following Bean and how he saw everything!

I loved the book but for me it felt to conflict with the original story. Beans interactions with Ender didn't feel right to me. Mostly because they were written before Beans character was fleshed our. I thought I heard Ender's Game was getting a rewrite as the universe expanded far further than originally thought so something's were being changed to help continuity.

+Merphy fangirling over assassin love triangle

+Merphy fangirling over Neville being the chosen one. Very Much fangirling haha

And if you have read Percy Jackson please review it !!! It's a great YA series also never see the movies the books are always better

I think that's just called science. ;)

@@minimumviableplayer1402 lol

I Loved that book and I would certainly recommend it, but I am not too convinced it is about magic even though it is constantly present.

@@Wats06071 Not necessarily "about magic". Rather, a main focus of the story involves Circe figuring out she has a new type of magic that is wholly different from gods and mortals. She and her siblings are the first of their kind (witches) and Circe in particular goes through a lot to figure out how to actually make her magic work & have people regard her as working magic and not just destinies coming to pass. Like when she's trapped on Aiaia trying to figure it all out: "Let me say what sorcery is not: it is not divine power, which comes with a thought and a blink. It must be made and worked, planned and searched out, dug up, dried, chopped and ground, cooked, spoken over and sung. Even after all that, it can fail, as gods do not."

Then go read shadow of the conqueror by shad m brooks. The main character in his pass life committed murder, genocide, rape and many more. He after being brought back to life he try's to change but is still a huge dick.

I thought the excact same thing😂

I read it though I felt like when they went off on that second series it was just a bit too much. I think I read three books of that second series and I didn't like it as much as I had the first.

I use to love them when I was a kid!

There's a huge following here on KZfaq mainly in the animation community. Look up some Warrior "maps" to see some awesome Warriors content.

@@thefolktalefox5960 the third and fourth one are even worse

I'm currently rereading them and am on the third season. I like them but the writing team is really doing the fans dirty

What's WoR?

@@matthewroberts198 way of kings

@@slotanchivay4810 sorry, i haven't read TSA but im gonna pick it up soon, but isn't WoR Words of radianse?

@@emiloberg2110 oh yeah thats what i meant sorry