aneonfoxtribute Posted January 25, 2020 Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 By which I mean, why is it marketed as "This is a world the chosen one failed" instead of "this is a world where the chosen one became a great evil himself"? I found it very obvious that the Lord Ruler was the chosen one, so.I imagine it's not really a spoiler, and the latter is just as marketable as the former. So I was just wondering why its marketed as the chosen one failing 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raphaborn Posted January 25, 2020 Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 13 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said: By which I mean, why is it marketed as "This is a world the chosen one failed" instead of "this is a world where the chosen one became a great evil himself"? I found it very obvious that the Lord Ruler was the chosen one, so.I imagine it's not really a spoiler, and the latter is just as marketable as the former. So I was just wondering why its marketed as the chosen one failing Did you finish reading The Final Empire? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honorless he/him Posted January 25, 2020 Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 It's marketed as "what if the Dark Lord won?", it kind of fits. It's a good marketing strategy, that phrase is a great hook 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aneonfoxtribute Posted January 25, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 41 minutes ago, Raphaborn said: Did you finish reading The Final Empire? Yes, I have read all of the cosmere books, and yes, I know TLR is actually Rashek. But the way that the book is written makes the obvious assumption that TLR is the Hero, and I thought it was very clear from early on that that was the case, and it's meant to be a twist at the end that Alendi isn't TLR. At least that's what I've always felt 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftl Posted January 25, 2020 Report Share Posted January 25, 2020 Probably marketed that way because it's a catchier phrase. And it's a good hook! I'm not sure why, but to me "what if the dark lord won" is catchier than "what if the chosen one turned evil". I think it's because of the standard tropes it plays against. In fantasy there's often a Chosen One, and the Hero has to overcome all sorts of trials, beating the odds against them many times, in order to triumph. It's a natural twist of that to ask - well, what if the hero doesn't beat the odds? The odds are stacked against them, it makes sense they'd fail! So this is a book exploring that. What if the hero turns evil just doesn't tie into the standard tropes the same way, and so isn't as catchy. And in the end, the actual plot isn't really either of those, precisely. The book explores it over time. At first it looks like an obvious dark-lord-won setting - volcanoes spitting ash everywhere, brutal slavery, an immortal dictator-god-ruler-mage. Then there's an obvious twist - actually, TLR was supposed to be the hero, but turned evil! And then there's a less obvious twist - TLR wasn't the hero, the hero did fail after all. TLR was the guy that stabbed the hero in the back. And the eventual twist that actually Alendin wasn't actually the Hero of Ages either, the Hero of Ages is Sazed. Though you can't trust anything written in prophecy because it's all been actively manipulated by an active trapped evil god, and really the whole thing is a long Gambit Pileup between two gods, and Rashek honestly probably did the best he could given the fact that he was just a random packman thrust in to a position of absolute power with an ACTUAL god of decay whispering in his ear for centuries. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of nowhere Posted January 26, 2020 Report Share Posted January 26, 2020 it's also shorter and simpler. when you have to make a quick catch phrase, words are at a premium, and something less convolute sticks better 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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