I have a four year old niece, who, like most four year olds, is full of ridiculousness.
This is my niece. She’s shy.
The other day, when I was visiting, she scrawled some letters on a piece of papers and told me that what she had written was my destiny. When I asked her what my destiny was she responded:
“Your destiny is…to…get…a sticker?”
Honestly, that’s not too bad as far as destinies go. It could be worse. A lot worse. And of course, as I started thinking about destiny in general my thoughts wandered to literature and what an important place destiny serves in the world of fantasy. Destiny, kismet, fate, whatever you want to call it, is found throughout fantasy literature, from all eras of the genre. Although common, the idea of destiny is handled in multiple ways which gives us an insight to the writer’s personal thoughts on the subject.
For example, in some cases destiny is presented to the main character in the form of prophecy. A child of prophecy will do ‘x, y, z’ and their fate is bound, predetermined, and there is no way to get out of it. Sometimes this fate is marked by certain powers, and these powers are bound up with that fate and that destiny. The character knows the prophecy and knows their fate and the story is about the character either overcoming obstacles to accomplish his/her destiny, or the struggle of the character dealing with their destiny and usually a combination of both. This sort of destiny plays of the idea that the character as predetermined, inevitable end point.
In other cases, destiny is much more subtle. A character may have a strange feature or a strange power gifted to them. Strange things happen to them, perhaps they have dreams, or visions and through the course of the story they realize that they are a certain person who, if they choose, can destroy a monster, destroy a kingdom, defeat the bad guy. They usually choose to do the positive and so their destiny is sealed.
The difference between these two types of destiny is usually the matter of choice.
What is written, however, is where things get interesting. For whatever path the author chooses, and how they choose to handle this concept of destiny says a lot about their personal feelings on the matter.
An author who doesn’t feel strongly about destiny, or doesn’t want to make a point about destiny, or just doesn’t like the idea of destiny but still wants to use it, may choose the second example. Thus, instead of the focus being on destiny, the focus is on other aspects of the story the writer wants to bring out. Destiny still exists, serving as a glue and a point of interest, but it is not the biggest factor affecting the character.
Those who choose the first example, and want to deal with destiny head on, can show their personal feelings in a variety of ways and aren’t necessarily held to the final end point.
Some like destiny in its complete form. Some follow the concept completely out and use the idea of a characters’ destiny to highlight a struggle and the idea of not having a choice. Some authors simple like the idea of having a prophecy or a predetermined destiny. There is something so particularly fanciful, entrancing and so very fantasy about the idea of a prophesized person and its this idea alone, and not necessary and obsession with destiny, that draws some authors to write about it. Usually these works focus less on destiny and more on the prophecy itself.
Others can use the first example as a kind of commentary. A prophecy can be in place and a character will be destined to do something, but that something may not be what everyone is expecting. Sometimes, authors who like prophecy but believe in giving a character a bit of choice, make their prophecies forked where a character’s destiny changes based on the character’s choices. Still others use a character’s choices to show that their ‘destiny’ doesn’t truly exist. The presence of choices in destiny illustrate that the author finds that element of life important and it influence what they write and what they choose to write.
As for me, personally, I’m not a big fan of destiny. I don’t like being predetermined with no say in the matter, and I want my characters to have choices. As a result you don’t see much of it in my writing. I usually go for example two if any destiny at all. If you did see destiny in my writing, however, it would be more as a social commentary of how being ‘destined’ to do something would change a person, or allow for a person to make all sorts of excuses. But, that’s me, and I know clearly how my personal opinion on the matter affects my writing, which is an important thing for any writer to know.
How about the rest of you? Any feelings on destiny?
