A fantastically, beautifully crafted, over used cliché.
Some authors have prophecies they call ‘ambiguous’ which are really classed in the ‘obvious’ section. The Belgariad/Mallorean series (David Eddings) are a good example of this, although some also accuse Robert Jordan of the big no.1 worst prophecy. Harry Potter’s prophecy is totally clear, and meant to be.
“Often the very effort undertaken to avert them bring them about, and drive the story. It is very rare for a prophecy in fantasy to be simply false, although usually their significance is clear only with hindsight” ~ Wikipedia.
Prophecies are generally ‘ambiguous’ in the way that rather than using names, they use titles (Instead of, say, Greg, they say “the child of darkness and blight”). Generally its the good versus evil, but they always claim in prophecies that there’s either equal chance of winning/losing or that it’s on the bad guys side and the good guy ends up winning. The usual thing is that good guy is (skip forward past orphaned farm boy who doesn’t know his true destiny because he’s kept in the dark to save him from the guys who want to keep him from his rightful throne….) humble and accepts help from friends and travelling companions, where the baddie is proud and all righteous “It’s all about me!”, and rather than friends has minions or slaves coerced into service. In the end, the two face each other alone. It’s typical that the hero, when he finds out about the prophecy, he rejects it because he’s oh so humble and happy being a farm boy and such.
Brian Ruckley (Godless world trilogy) wrote in an interview:
“I was going through a brief bout of grumpiness about the prevalence of fantasy heroes whose sole function in the plot is to embody some ancient prophecy or other, since that didn’t seem to leave very much room for free will and choice, so I thought I’d do a story where the closest thing to a prophecy was actually on the side of the bad guys (though I don’t really think of anyone in the book as bad guys, to be honest). And I thought, instead of having a dark lord or something similar, I’d have the key villain emerge, and change, as the story progressed.”
In books it’s not usual to have it all written out at once. Sometimes the Wise Old Mentor(TM) gives out bits and pieces, very rarely it’s a part of the prologue, but mostly it’s implied.
Jennifer Fallon (Demon child trilogy, Second Sons trilogy, the Tide Lords and other books including SG-1) wrote on her blog:
“I think, if you want to use a prophecy, you have to ask yourself the following questions:
1. Do I mind that everyone will know how the book is going to end from the moment the prophet opens his/her mouth?
2. Can I write poetry badly enough to invent something that sounds suitable prophetic?
3. How will I cope with the bright idea I have halfway through book 2, that changes the entire nature of the story, which I can’t use because it flies in the face of my prophecy in the already published book 1? (Answer - do what Eddings did. Discover even more prophecies that contradict the first one. That won’t look contrived. Really. It won’t.)
4. Can I write characters who grow and develop through the tough choices and decisions they are forced to make, when they don’t have free will?
5. By it’s very nature, the prophecy has to come true. Otherwise it’s not really a prophecy, is it? So, even if my hero denies the prophecy and refuses to go along with it, how will I convince my readers this is anything but a delaying tactic to pad out the story because they know, as well as I do, that eventually he’s going to have cave?“
There is a certain charm about prophecies and chosen ones, and although there are more books coming out without them it is more a reflection of a growing society with more unique ideas rather than it becoming unpopular.
