One thing that’s interesting about the Web’s plan is that, when it comes down to it, Jon’s fate is still random bad luck. Sure, it’s not quite as random as Elias thought/made it seem, but in a lot of ways, it’s worse.
Think about what qualities the web might have seen in eight year old Jon. I’d say it saw that he was incredibly curious, stubborn, impulsive, smart, and not too caring for other people, which all show potential as an Eye avatar/archivist. This also made him easy to manipulate. He was close to alone in the world, which always seems to make things with the Fears easier, and he was in a situation where it would be easy to mark him with a Leitner. Plus, he lived on the same little island as the man who was most likely to figure out how to do a ritual.
But, how unique are any of these traits? How many other children in England, in the world, had all those same qualities? Jon, as far as I can tell, must have simply been the most convenient. Maybe he was the first fitting child that the web found, or the one in the easiest location to work with, or the one that was the simplest to mark when the time came. Maybe it just liked the fact that he was eight years old. But none of that is fate.
Jon is a chosen one in the sense that the web chose him for this task from an early age, but that doesn’t mean some element of chance was not involved. Jonah’s statement in 160 was chilling because he said that Jon wasn’t special, just unlucky. He appeared at the wrong institute at the wrong time, with just the wrong collection of traits, so Elias grabbed him, ruined his life, and ended the world. The randomness is tragic and awful; this could have happened to anyone, and nothing has a reason.
Now look at what the web did: it’s just the same. Jon appeared at the wrong charity shop at the wrong time, with just the wrong collection of traits, so the Web grabbed him, ruined his life, and ended the world. That awful, spine chilling randomness is still there, but now with an extra layer of tragedy sprinkled on top. Maybe Jon, if he made different choices, could have outwitted Elias, but there is no outwitting the Mother of puppets, especially not for somebody that’s been caught in the web for over twenty years. The Web picked a random unlucky child from a sleepy English beach town to become a conduit of horror, and Jon, poor Jon, never ever stood a chance.
There is still no grand reason for his awful fate, and he has no choice but to suffer through it anyway.