I think the reason I’ve never really jived with “breaking” or “overcoming” fate/prophecy stories is, well- I think it’s how some people just can’t get over the mental barrier of “why are they singing?” in musicals (not a problem I suffer from).
My problem is that I find it difficult to make the mental jump required to fully engage with a story about characters defying fate and spitting in the eye of god(s) when they’re literally just words on a page and I (the author) am the actual god of the machine.
You’ve only defied fate if I allow you to. The prophecy only breaks because I permitted it to be so. /Fate/ is actually the plot summary of the story and you have not overcome that at all, the characters have only circumvented a false, in-universe prophecy for the sake of fulfilling my true prophecy which will be recorded in the ancient library of SparkNotes.
Even if they give the characters some in-story god or fate-maker to overcome, it never hits for me, because all I can think is- That’s still just another character. They’re still in a story. None of these little creations will ever actually meet and confront god (me).
