Ineffectual Loner: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

He's [[Badass]]. He has cool clothes. He's a little less idealistic than the hero. He makes a grand entrance. And does it in half the time the hero does. Why's he a loner? Generally it turns out to be some kind of betrayal, or maybe they lost friends or family and now they just want to be alone.

Unfortunately, he'll win battles but never win the war. If he's lucky, he might not get killed by [[The Dragon]]. He's also obnoxiously condescending because all [[Loners Are Freaks]], and, if written badly, has only an [[Informed Ability]].

 

 

 

 

In short, an isolationist kind of [[Grumpy Bear]]. If he's lucky, he'll be upgraded to [[The Rival|Rival]] or [[Sixth Ranger]]. If not, he gets served as a testimonial to going against the series [[Aesop]]. Some writers take the middle ground to be more fair, but that usually results in conveniently being [[Put on a Bus]] until the writers need them again.

On the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], these characters only appear in idealistic stories or when the main cast isn't a team. In a cynical story they might be the [[Anti-Hero|main character]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Fakir in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' certainly starts off this way. As soon as the main heroine figures out he's [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|not really that bad of a guy]] she tries to convince him to team up with her, but it takes until near the end of the season until he finally does, and even then it's reluctantly. In the second season he doesn't mind quite as much, but he still maintains a bad habit of trying to do things on his own.

** Natsuki Kuga from the same series is a by the numbers case of this. Pretty much every solo action we see her undertake onscreen doesn't work, or blows up in her face. Her attempt to dissuade any Hime from showing up to Fuuka in the first episode really sets the stage for this. From there, there's her plan to deal with the {{spoiler|panty thief orphan}}, her discovering and attacking {{spoiler|Alyssa Searrs}}, and her attempts to deal with {{spoiler|the seemingly traitorous Nao}}. Ironically, this all leads up to her final confrontation with {{spoiler|Shizuru}}, which she only wins because she acknowledges that she's not alone in the world, and thus {{spoiler|super-powers up Duran to the same level as Shizuru's Kiyohime}}, allowing her to carry out her plan: {{spoiler|eliminate Shizuru (and by extension, herself) in order to give Mai a clear shot at ending the entire Festival, thus sacrificing herself for the good of others.}} Quite the full circle of [[Character Development]]. Her special in the 25th episode even has her acknowledging the power of [[Power of Friendship|friendship]] and [[Power of Love|love]].

{{quote|"The feelings Shizuru had for me and the feelings Mai and Tate had for each other made me realize people can't live alone. It might seem obvious to anyone else, but it was an important truth I discovered only recently."}}

** He has every reason to stay away from other people though: He is a magnet for megalomaniacs who plot world domination and evil supernatural beings and holds both a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] and Season 3's main villain within his body. And after the hell he went through for three whole years, who can blame him for being a little more mopey than before?

* Caren in ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]''. [[Good Is Dumb]] eventually gets her.

* Jung Freud from ''[[Gunbuster]]'' is introduced early on as [[The Rival]] hot "foreign" mecha pilot. She hangs around the edges of the main two characters, never quite getting to be the big heroine, or to save the day. To her credit, she gives up her seat in ''Buster Machine'', to allow the classic pair to team for the final mission. She is left behind near the climax, not even allowed to make the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] made by the two leads.

** {{spoiler|Or an ancient apocalyptic force will cause you to turn all of humanity into a vat of orange primoridal ooze.}} Let's face it, Shinji's also an ineffectual loner despite being the main character. He beats more Angels than Rei or Asuka, but just gets more traumatized each time.

** To make the trio complete, Rei is also rather ineffectual whenever she fights alone.

** Actually, it was never implied Gary wasn't close to his Pokemon, merely that he just wasn't as idealistic about the bond as Ash was. But then again, who is?

** Also in the anime; Charizard, Sceptile, Buizel, and Croagunk. However, they've all proven at some point that they do care for their trainers...it just took a while to open up.

** He heads back towards being a straight example from about {{spoiler|his fight with Itachi}} onwards, as he only got out of that because {{spoiler|the fight was thrown}}, he goes back to being bailed out by his ''new'' team in his next fight, and it generally seems as if he's never going to achieve anything he aims for.

** Except then he promptly {{spoiler|owns and kills Danzo, ditches his team, and gets ''another'' [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|power upgrade.]]}} As with just about every other trope, Sasuke keeps us guessing on this one.

** A lot of the loners are this way because of their [[Broken Bird]] origins.

* Angel Salvia from ''[[Wedding Peach]]'' is this at first. Because of the nature of their powers and the enemies they fight, the four Love Angels aren't able to use the full power of the Saint Something Four until they all work together. Also, the part that made me think of this trope was where Salvia kept cutting a snow demon in her angry desire to get revenge, and even though cutting it was making the demon grow more each time, she wouldn't stop cutting it until Peach made her stop. Making that a rather literal example because her method (which she wanted to do by herself) was worse than just ineffectual, it was making the enemy stronger!

* Kai Hiwatari, from [[Beyblade]] is this massively all the way through season 1 ("There's no Kai in team!", anyone?), is less obnoxiously so in V-Force (re. goes off to fight wind Weasel thing alone), reverts back to season 1 persona in G-Rev. And never beats Tyson. Bless.

** Partially subverted at the end of G-Rev, when he scares to death, defeats and drives into madness the apparently invincible [[Person of Mass Destruction|Brooklyn]] through [[The Determinator|determination alone]].

* Played straight, subverted as part of [[Character Development]], and then sort of zig-zagged with Piccolo from [[Dragonball Z]]. He ''always'' lives alone, constantly training himself mentally and physically. Even when he starts getting some concept of [[The Power of Friendship]], he still prefers to do things his own way. Often times being the only one who can even remotely stand up to the [[Big Bad]] of the arc, up until around the time Cell finishes up becoming Perfect, but the only finishing blow he gets against a serious fighter requires a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by his then-[[Worthy Opponent]]. The zig-zag comes around because, even though he (eventually) openly admits that some threats are simply too big to fight alone, the only time he's shown spending any time with anyone else is when they're in the middle of training to combat said big threat.

* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', Kira's loner behaviour is largely due to [[Fantastic Racism]], but never became good with people even after meeting angels who accepted him. However, the heroes aren't the kind of angels to leave him alone and his aloof behaviour ''never'' helps him.

 

{{quote|'''Batman''': I want to thank you all for coming on such short notice... and... Before we get into ''why'' you're here, I wanted to say... well, I just... I... I ''know'' that I'm not an ''easy person'' to know. That's all.}}

* The titular [[Sandman]] gives off the impression that he's quite the loner, but he's often got a lover or a raven to keep him company.

 

== Literature ==

* Elizabeth Bathory in ''[[Count and Countess]]''.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Dr. Foreman on ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. He's quit and gone to work for other hospitals, and attempted to run a drug trial, but pretty much always gets kicked back to working under House.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]''

** Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger of ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' consistently thought himself superior to the other rangers (and, on paper, he ''was'') and never actually joined the team in any real sense. He only actively works with the others in the finale, and then it's only by giving his powers to the Red Ranger, Wes, when he is incapacitated. (In [[Mirai Sentai Timeranger|the parallel]] ''[[Super Sentai]]'', the equivalent character, Naoto Takizawa, actually experiences [[Redemption Equals Death]]).

** Will, the Black Ranger of ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' also starts out this way, going to ridiculous extremes to keep the team from helping out. He learns his lesson early into the series, at the end of the third episode ("The Underwater World")... [[Aesop Amnesia|and spends the rest of the season acting on his own in many episodes with everyone's blessing and being quite successful at it]].

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':

** Buffy falls into this, at least once a season, before coming back to her friends for support.

** The Slayers before Buffy would usually fall into this which tended to get them killed. Averting this trope is often lampshaded as the reason for Buffy's survival and success.

 

== Toys ==

* Kopaka starts out like this in ''[[Bionicle]]''. It doesn't last long, though because Destiny [[Because Destiny Says So|has other ideas]]. He's still [[The Stoic]], but he's not as opposed to teamwork as he once was.

 

== Video Games ==

* Subverted in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]. Through Nils Daerden and Marina Wulfstan, who actually get stat bonuses for being alone and penalties for being with others. In short, they actually DO work better alone. The latter is also considered by many to be the best sniper in the game.

** But it could also be considered to be played straight anyways; {{spoiler|for all his effectiveness, Delita never really gets what he was looking for and ends up alone and unhappy, while Ramza gets what he was looking for and lives his life free, with his sister.}}

* Squall Leonhart is a hero version in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII|FFVIII]]'', and he never wanted to be the hero anyway.

* Neku, main character of the video game ''[[The World Ends With You]]''. He wants to find his way out of the Game by himself, however, the rules of the game make this extremely difficult if not impossible.

* ''[[Touhou]]'''s Fujiwara no Mokou fits perfectly into this type. Shortly after she killed somebody and then tasted the [[Immortality|elixir of eternal life]], she spent the rest of her life in a form of solitude at a bamboo forest because she couldn't fit into society because she [[Why Won't You Die?|couldn't die]]. Nowadays she spends her time taking on her rival's assassins and saving people's lives.

* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'', that guy who wants a make a world where people can't interact with each other cause he doesn't believe in relying on people sure relies on you a lot for emotional support and dungeon crawling.

* Arlin, the loner swordsman from ''[[Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana]]'', leaves the party midgame to go hunting down his [[Evil Counterpart]] and [[Big Bad]] Mull on his own because the party doesn't make a quick progress in finding him. It doesn't go well. {{spoiler|He's turned in a stone by his nemesis, and he can't be cured until you beat the game once.}}

* Solo in the ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' games, thanks to his [[Freudian Excuse]], believes wholeheartedly that only weak people form groups and develop friendships. He maintains this belief despite a huge number of inconvenient facts, such as his homeland of Mu being destroyed because nobody trusted anyone else, or the way [[The Hero]] uses [[The Power of Friendship]] to kick him around like a soccer ball on a regular basis.

 

== Visual Novels ==

* Subversion: In ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', the Archer character is the Ineffectual Loner; this is a subversion as he is {{spoiler|actually the disillusioned future self of [[The Messiah]] who realized at the end of his life that trying to save everyone was an impossible goal. Plus he's far from ineffectual.}}

 

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Dimension Heroes]]'': Wyn from the web fiction serial is unwilling to join with the other Dimensional Guardians until he finds himself in over his head.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Raphael of the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', during his [[Achilles in His Tent]] moments.

* Peppermint Fizz from the 2002 ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'' series. She generally only shows up when the [[An Aesop|lesson of the day]] is something the nicer characters don't need to learn (like "don't be a xenophobe"), and is usually depicted as looking down on the others.

 

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[[Category:Archetypal Character]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]