Loners Are Freaks: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]] and perhaps [[Intelligence Equals Isolation]]. Contrast [[You Are Not Alone]]. See also [[No Social Skills]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'': The protagonist has an ever-growing [[Team Spirit|team of friends to support him]], and not do much else. [[The Rival]] doesn't have any, doesn't want any, and consistently fluctuates between bona fide antagonist and intolerable rich snob.

** Kagami in particular sees Konata as the stereotypical [[Otaku]] and/or [[Hikikomori]], and considers Konata as a ''potential criminal''. (To be fair, Konata lacks most stereotypical otaku and hikikomori traits.)

* Tenshi/{{spoiler|Kanade Tachibana}} of ''[[Angel Beats!]]'' is placed in this category, but is rather a [[Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold|Boo Radley]]. She's seen as a freak because she doesn't have any friends, but that's only because {{spoiler|She's ''actively'' trying to ''graduate'' those around her, and thus is never really seen with anyone for any length of time.}}

* In ''[[The Weatherman Is My Lover]]'' the cheerful but [[Stepford Smiler|emotionally detached]] Amasawa considers himself to fall under this. His lover [[Lonely Together|Koganei]] convinces him neither of them needs to be that way.

* All over the place in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. Homura doesn't have any friends because {{spoiler|she was hospitalized for a long time}}, Mami doesn't have any friends because she must distance herself from others due to her job, Kyouko doesn't give a damn about humans after all she went through, and Sayaka actually become freaks, {{spoiler|[[And Then John Was a Zombie|in so many ways]],}} when she decides to be a loner. In contrast, Madoka try to connect with them all.

* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', [[Stalker with a Crush|Shiva]] doesn't want to get close to anyone except Judas and also has a habit of putting down others. He gets treated with suspicion by other angels for his lack of community values.

* Anthy of ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]''.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** It's implied in his back-story that Dr Manhattan wasn't the most gregarious man in the world even before becoming omnipotent, omniscient and probably omnipresent if he felt like it.

* In many [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] continuities, [[Psycho Electro|Lightning Lord]]'s misanthropy is at least partially attributed to this. His homeowrld, Winath, has a population composed mostly of twins. As a single birth, he was apparently treated with pity, disdain and suspicion, and didn't take it well.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[About a Boy]]'' features Hugh Grant in the loner role. Over the course of the film he learns {{spoiler|how to be a decent human being by making some friends. (starting with a 12 year old boy, no less!)}}

* ''[[WarGames]]'' is driven by the fact that the hero is a lone geek (apart from a highly unlikely girlfriend for dramatic purposes.) Which is one of the things that dates the film, since today he would have a whole cyber-community "World_Destroying_Online_PC_Games.net".

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Speak]]'': This is the reason Melinda is spurned by her classmates at school, other than the police-calling incident.

* [[Everworld|Senna Wales]]. The first book, ''Search for Senna'' notes that she "[[Understatement|was not the most popular girl at school.]]" She doesn't allow anyone to know anything about her personality or motives at first, not even her <s> minion</s> boyfriend, David Levin. Later in the book it becomes apparent that she is an antisocial, scheming [[Witch Species|witch]] who is running her own plans. And that's the ''first'' thing we learn about her.

{{quote|It was said later that he came under bad influences at this stage. But the secret of the history of Edward d'Eath was that he came under no outside influences at all, unless you count all those dead kings. He just came under the influence of himself.

* [[Sherlock Holmes]], arguably embodies the loner trope, with the exception of Dr. John Watson.

* [[Frankenstein's Monster]]. Obviously.

* Tobias has a lot of this in ''[[Animorphs]]'' after he gets [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|trapped in morph]]. He does spend a lot of time with the other Animorphs, but he also has periods as a loner because he struggles with his triple hawk/human/Andalite nature and figuring out where he fits in in the world. It gets taken [[Up to Eleven]] at least twice when he retreats from everyone and sometimes even lets the hawk take over-right after he gets trapped and after Rachel's death.

 

* ''[[7th Heaven]]'': When Lucy Camden tells her mother about a girl in Habitat For Humanity who's a loner, Annie actually says she believes nobody really enjoys being "alone," and that there always must be some problem behind it. Sure enough, the withdrawn girl had been molested by her mother's ex-boyfriend.

* An interesting inversion of the trope can be found in the British spy series ''[[The Prisoner]]'', which features an unrepentant, mildly misanthropic loner as its protagonist. Instead of being seen as a liability, the character's "loner-ness" and drive towards individualism is the ''only'' thing keeping him sane. It's also the only weapon he has against the shady government officials who want to brainwash him and turn him into an obedient and conformist government servant.

* [[The X-Files|Mulder]] is a loner, due to his crazy ideas about aliens and government conspiracy. He's a joke to the FBI and is mocked by his peers, nicknamed "Spooky". He doesn't seem to mind too much, though. He doesn't go out of his way to make friends and likes to work alone; the first half of the first season is him just messing with Scully to try and annoy her enough to get her to leave. It doesn't work, and she ends up being his defender of sorts to others in the FBI. He has exactly four friends, including her, three of which are just as odd as he is. His loner tendency may stem back to his childhood, in which his parents emotionally abandoned him after the abduction of his sister. He noted that it "tore the family apart", and he is never seen to have a close relationship with his parents, who divorced soon after the incident.

* Toyed with in ''[[Dark Oracle]]''. Lance is an antisocial gaming geek, but is one of the main protagonists. His [[Cloudcuckoolander]] girlfriend Sage is similarly weird and isolated, but a very pleasant girl. [[Big Bad Wannabe|Vern]], [[Evil Counterpart|Blaze]], and [[Evil Twin|comic!Sage]] on the other hand, cross in [[Psycho Loner]] territory and stay there.

 

== Music ==

People always bored me anyway }}

* [[Harry Chapin]]'s "Sniper". The titular sniper is described throughout the song as a strange loner, according to those who knew him. [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] as, according to the sniper's thoughts, everyone treating him as a freak is what sent him on his rampage.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Same with [[Changeling: The Lost|changelings]], but that's because they have ''issues''.

* A [[Discussed Trope]] in ''[[GURPS]] [[Transhuman Space]]: High Frontier'': In describing "Virts", people who do all their interaction through virtuality, it notes "Many Virts are somewhat secretive about their true nature,especially since several popular InVids depict Virts as either [[Lack of Empathy|dangerous sociopaths]], [[The Cracker|criminal hackers]], or as pathetic and terrified losers.

 

== Toys ==

{{quote|'''Kopaka''': [[I Work Alone]].

'''Pohatu''': What, by choice? Or just because nobody else can stand you? }}

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'': [[Shrinking Violet|Hanako's]] classmates see her as this, thinking of her as a strange hermit who never talks to anyone. In reality she's a very kind and intelligent girl who is just very uncomfortable around people she doesn't know every well. Becoming closer to Hisao reveals this, but doesn't really make her less of a loner - she becomes less anxious, but still tells Hisao matter-of-factly that she doesn't really like most other people, and Hisao doesn't really press her on that.

* In an old commercial for [[Zelda II: The Adventure of Link]], Link apparently goes through the dungeons yelling for Zelda like he's looking for her. Despite the fact that the first thing you see in the game is the ancient sleeping Zelda, and the point of the dungeons is to ultimately get the third Triforce.

 

== Web Original ==

* Parodied in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130724165641/http://www.theonion.com/video/potential-school-shooter-gunned-down-by-popular-jo,20877/ this] video of [[The Onion|Onion News]].

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] has often admitted to being lonely, and her well-meaning but clueless friends believe her causticness is a result of her hating ''[[The Little Mermaid]]''.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Mr Freeze from ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' is another example: where Batman has Robin, who he treats as a teammate, Mr Freeze is completely ruthless when one of his henchmen gets accidentally frozen. This is also true of The Joker, and especially evident in how he treats Harley Quinn. It's subtle, but Batman isn't really a true loner. It's okay to be a loner when you cooperate with the system and have a sidekick!

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' live in a clan structure, and gargoyles within a clan are very close and protective of each other. Losing her clan and being alone for centuries is part of what drove [[Big Bad|Demona]] to go from disliking humans to actively trying to wipe out the species.

 

== Real Life ==

 

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[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Popularity Food Chain]]

[[Category:Stock Aesops]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]