Okay, I can definitely say that Bob's right in that destiny is an overplayed, overused trope. I'd say not only Hollywood does it too much, a lot of entertainment does it too much. I also think he's got an insightful idea that the Star Wars prequels can be considered an example of how the "destiny" concept and belief can have disastrous results. HOWEVER, I can't agree with the finer points of his analysis in HOW the Star Wars prequels show that. First of all, he says that it's everybody's insistent belief in "The Prophecy" that leads to someone unfit for taking up the role of The Chosen One receiving it. But that's not true; if you think back to the way the Jedi behaved about Anakin, they weren't revering him and celebrating him as The Chosen One. From the very start, they were trying to question, doubt, undermine, second-guess and hamper him every step of the way of him becoming a Jedi. First they try to deny him training as a child under incredibly flimsy-ass reasons. Next, they neglect his emotional well-being while he's going through that angsty teenage period we all go through when our emotions are all fucked up due to hormones and what not. Remember the scene when he goes to Yoda for counseling about his concerns about his mother? Yeah, little green wart just tells him, in so many words, "die, people do, so over it, get." That leads him to turn to the only person offering a sympathetic answer; the bad guy, who puts poison in his ear and seeds of temptation in his mind. Finally, in the end, the Jedi break their own code using the "ends justify the means" excuse and as a result, Anakin just snaps.
I'd say this shows how the "destiny" idea doesn't work, but not in the way Bob showed. It shows that "destiny" is not going to work not simply due to the fact that Anakin wasn't fit for it, but because he wasn't MADE FIT for it. Looking back on the events of the prequel trilogy, I can't help but wonder how Anakin would have turned out if the Jedi had actually been accepting of him and supported him and his training. Yes, he became a whiny, selfish, self-entitled twit, but that might have been because the Jedi seemed determined to undermine his progress at every turn. They had to get his apprenticeship under duress, the council never trusted him, they gave him a seat on the council but not the title that traditionally went with it.
I think the way the Star Wars Prequels show the weakness of Hollywood-style "destiny" plotlines is because it shows just how perfectly circumstances and people would have to fall into place for this particular form of "destiny" to work. People, by their nature, aren't guaranteed to go along with what everyone says HAS to happen. As Bob said, Kung Fu Hustle did a good job of turning the "destiny" idea on its head by having the hero find out his path to destiny wasn't exactly what he expected it to be, so he turns away from it, only to instead discover the true path to the destiny he wanted. And again, as Bob said, the original Star Wars movies showed how Luke became a true Jedi by DEFYING what everybody said was his destiny; he refused to follow Yoda and Obi Wan's path and went to save his friends and he defied the Emperor when the Emperor told him it was his destiny to strike down his father and replace him as the Emperor's majordomo. Also, I can't help but point out another mistake: Luke did, in fact, beat Vader in a duel, but he refused to kill him while he was down, instead drawing out the good in Vader to overthrow the Emperor.
Destiny plotlines seem to work best when the characters don't actively know about any sort of prophecy that they're supposed to be bringing about. When they do, you get, well, like Bob said, characters who come across as these perfect snowflakes with no flaws, because every choice they make is the "right" one. If I can be honest, I find the concept of destiny period a rather questionable one at best. But done right, it can make for interesting storylines. But the number of times Hollywood has managed to make that happen, as of late, could probably be counted on one hand.
