Unfortunately it's more than just Eragon haha it's in so many fantasy novels it's sickening. I believe Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks had a variation on that theme, and Robert Jordan had like three farmboys AND two farm girls on a quest
...or Star Wars. So what? Whatever story you come up with, someone will say, "It sounds like xxx." Forget about it. What makes a story unique is not its synopsis, it is the entirety of the writing.
Ok, I should have been more clear. Not that EVERY story with a farmboy out to save the world will be cliched and terrible. A writer would just have to work harder to make it stand out from all the extraordinarily similar stories that follow that plot. The idea itself isn't terrible, but it has unfortunately become something of a trope in fantasy fiction. I read an awful lot of fantasy, and talk to an awful lot of people who do as well. All I am saying is that in order for a reader who has seen that plot a million times to not throw the book across the room, it has to be done exceptionally well, or in a very creative manner. Sure, most plots have been done to death. The farmboy one however just seems to not change from book to book, not to mention these same books often have the protagonist learn the sword in a few months, never do wrong, always get the girl, never fail in their quest etc, etc... It's a peeve of mine, nothing more. Just my opinion. Anyway it's not the topic of discussion, soooo moving on...
...and Lord of the Rings, or so I've heard. I agree with Cogito, but if you write a story about a nobody farm-boy (or girl, I don't judge) who gets unwillingly led into an epic battle with the aid of an elderly mentor (with a beard, always), you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot with the Cliche Gun, as I would say. But I do know authors classy enough to survive that, because they're wearing the Steel-Toed Boots of Writing Expertise. My protagonist is a city-boy, and there's no bearded mentor, so now all I've got to do is write well . I'll go get to that, after my computer's fixed. I'm using my mom's account right now.
The farm boy story was cliche back when Star Wars did it, but there's a reason why cliches work...they're recognizable and people love familiarity.
Not a cliche, a trope. And they recur not only because they are familiar, but because they represent timeless challenges and conflicts that hold a lot of potential.
Thing is for something to really be cliche it has to lose meaning, so as long as there's a meaning to the prophecy and it has a place within the story it will be fine. The trick is to not use the prophecy to cover up plot holes. When you're just saying "Oh the hero left his life because some cryptic paper told him he would" and the entire plot is driven by what the prophecy says, its like a cop out.
I try to avoid saying "trope", since that blasted website (TvTropes) crashed my account. But like all tropes, prophecies can be played straight, inverted, subverted, and deconstructed.
I think that Prophecies are great because it's something that exist in our world and can give readers something realistic to relate to in your fantasy world. What I love about prophecies is when the prophecy is written in a clever way. I remember as a kid I saw the movie pokemon 2000 and it had this prophecy: Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice or lightning, lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the water's great guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail, thus the earth shall turn to ash At first I though it was a prophecy of doom and later in the story you learn that the prophecy was about the earth turning to the main character to save it (His name is Ash). I thought that was a great way to give the prophecy a double meaning and even now I remember it as an excellent example of how clever writing can make any prophecy much more epic.
The thing is that prophecies are about fate. I myself do not believe in fate; man is defined by his choices, and his future is thus determined. People who follow prophecy limit their power of decision making, often even giving up their power of choice; this also applies to fantasy stories where the prophecies are true. A story can be very interesting if it's about the psychological effects of someone who believes in prophecy, and how it alters their decisions. This is true in all kinds of literature. But if the story is about how the character is helpless before the power of fate, it usually isn't worth reading; why would we want to read about a character whose struggle means nothing? Now, if the protagonist has to decide how to interpret a prophecy, that can work well, but not if the prophecy plays out exactly as scripted. I'll take an example everyone knows: Harry Potter. Toward the end of the series, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the prophecy regarding Harry Potter and Voldemort. The story's events don't happen because the prophecy states that they will happen that way; the story plays out as it does because of the ways that the prophecy alters the decisions of Voldemort and Harry; their belief in the prophecy shapes their choices, but they still have power over the story. Now imagine if the prophecy had said who would kill whom, and that there was no way to avoid this, and the two characters merely surrendered to fate--one lets the other kill him. Just as bad, what if at the end it turned out that despite all Harry had done to arrange Voldemort's demise, the prophecy predicting that Voldemort would kill Harry made it so that Harry's struggles and suffering meant nothing, and he lost? That would be terrible. But if Harry had, in the end, died to kill Voldemort, or even if Harry had led to his own failure and evil reigned, it would still be a good story, because their actions meant something. Whether prophecy is a good device or not depends on the author's view on the subject, and how he/she applies it to the story; it is not inherently a good or bad device.
