I Just Want to Have Friends: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Friendless 7634.jpg|frame|Not everyone enjoys [[I Work Alone|being a loner....]]]]

 

{{quote|''Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.''|'''[[Aristotle]]'''}}

{{quote|''Even a beautiful scenery, even a beautiful flower is meaningless when you see it alone...''|''Misao's Song'', ''[[Magical Project S]]''}}

 

See also [[Wish Fulfillment]], [[I Just Want to Be Beautiful]], [[The Four Loves]], [[I Just Want to Be Normal]], [[I Just Want to Be Special]], [[Friendless Background]], [[You Are Not Alone]], [[Et Tu, Brute?]], [[False Friend]], [[Imaginary Friend]].

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* Gohan in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. He spent much of his childhood being home-schooled, and mostly interacted with people his parents knew. In his first day of high school, he got friends very easily and some dates.

* This is the wish [[Yu-Gi-Oh!|Yugi Mutou]] made on the Millennium Puzzle.

 

 

* There are probably too many fanfics to list that appeal to this wish. The appeal of the [[Black Hole Sue]] and The [[Purity Sue]] are arguably derived from this wish (as well as the specific desire to have certain characters as friends, including characters that in canon are normally distrustful).

 

 

* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' fulfills this wish. Despite not lifting a finger to gain friends, Bella being the [[Audience Surrogate|audience avatar]] gets friends in high school remarkably easy. Even when she forgets her [[Muggle]] friends for Edward Cullen or Jacob Black (ignoring them for months in ''[[New Moon]]'') these friends are always there for her regardless.

** Both the Cullens and the werewolves look out for her despite the risk she brought to them. They happily accept her in their group of [[True Companions]] as a friend without an effort on her part despite the fact that both factions are normally not very open to [[Muggle|average humans]].

* ''[[Foundation|Foundation and Empire]]:'' The Mule goes through childhood and adolescence without ''anyone '''ever''''' liking him "naturally" (as opposed to being forced to do so by his psychic powers). Not until he's well into his twenties does he meet Bayta Darell, who has genuine affection for him (possibly because he's [[The Woobie]]--Yes, a Woobie who is also the [[Big Bad]] is an unusual combination). He's so overwhelmed by the feeling of just being ''liked'' that he {{spoiler|inadvertantly, carelessly, lets her ruin his plans for conquering the Second Foundation}}.

 

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', Clark himself fulfills this wish as he easily befriends "exotic" people all the time. Not only are his close friends loyal to him but also their lives are also centered towards him (Cloe Sullivan, Pete Ross, Lana Lang, etc.).

* In ''[[iCarly]]'', Freddie and Sam's lives are centered towards [[Escapist Character|Carly]]. Without Carly there wouldn't be a friendship between them because Sam and Freddie dislike each other. However, neither of the two will hesitate to please her.

 

 

* ''[[The Sims]]''

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]''

* ''[[Second Life]]''

* Subverted by most [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]] as you almost always end as a [[One-Man Army]] Lone Wolf. 90% of the time you do have people helping you, they're [[Redshirt Army|generic soldiers that die just as easily as your enemies]].

 

 

* Ron Stoppable from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is both Type A and B, in that he wants to be popular. However, though he doesn't have many friends, the ones he has ''are'' very close.

** Actually, as [[The Movie|'So The Drama']] pointed out at the end, both Kim and Ron have a lot of friends - as the [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|crowd at the dance broke out in cheers for them]] when [[Alpha Bitch|Bonnie]] [[Insult Backfire|tries to embarrass them by announcing that they're a couple]].

** The "bully" himself is this. He's not very good at relating to people, which makes him lonely and bored, both of which cause him to act like a fairly stereotypical bully. And no, not in the sense that he's "jealous of you." Some episodes make it clear that he's actually a subversion, though.

* In ''[[Winx Club]]'', Bloom fulfils this desire because at the beginning of the show she was not very popular until she suddenly found she was actually a [[Magical Girl]] and quickly became the leader and center of attention of her [[True Companions]].

 

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* Misao Amano from ''[[Magical Project S]]'' is very timid, though she desires to be more social like her friend Sasami and tried in the 1st episode to befriend a boy. She was ultimately very shy to even say hello but at the end of the series she got more confident.

* Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' were both very timid and people (wrongfully) avoided them (Mercury because people thought she was arrogant, and Jupiter for being tall and strong) until they got deep true friends in their [[True Companions]].

{{quote|'''[[Anti-Hero|Akemi Homura]]''': "{{spoiler|I'll repeat it. I'll continue to repeat it over and over. Visiting the same time again and again, searching for the single exit out}}. Searching for the path to save you from a fate of despair." "Madoka... my one and [[Only Friend]]. If it's... If it's for you, I have no problem {{spoiler|[[Groundhog Day Loop|being trapped eternally in this maze]]}}."}}

 

* Eddie Bloomberg aka Kid Devil had very few friends his age throughout his early history, the closest people being his aunt Marla and the hero Blue Devil. His later efforts to gain super powers and joining the Teen Titans were partly from [[I Just Want to Be Special]], but also because he desperately needed some kind of family unit. When he fears he's losing his friends, he ends up inviting fans of his over to the tower, which ends up in disaster and causes him to become even more alienated. This is used against Eddie by Clock King when he brainwashes him into a violent monster, and Miss Martian has to remind him that he does have friends in order to bring him back to sanity.

 

* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', Tsuruya used to be one of these.

 

* Toby from the film ''[[Shorts]]'' wants friends so badly he makes a wish on a wishing stone for friends "as interesting and unique as I am" and gets a bunch of extraterrestrials for friends.

* The eponymous main character from the horror movie ''[[May]]'' is a strange girl who doesn't have any friends, but ends up [[Frankenstein's Monster|making one...]]

* Chip Douglas from ''[[The Cable Guy]]'' is a villainous twist on this trope, as his desperate attempts to become the main character's friend gradually shift from mere social awkwardness to obsessive stalking.

 

* The King in ''[[The Little Prince]]'' is implied to be this. Note how desperately he tries to get the Little Prince to stay.

* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'':

 

 

* In ''[[Smallville]]'' while Lex Luthor genuinely wants to trust people, his position in power plus the fact that he tends to be overprotective leads to him losing the few friends he has, making him fall into this. Tess Mercer too , according to her actress Cassidy Fremman: http://www.kryptonsite.com/season10-cassidyfreeman.htm

* Ned from ''Ned's Declassified Survival Guide'' wants to be a popular kid and manages to be in the popular table, but at the end he realizes that the popular table is where his friends are. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* In the ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S2/E09 Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design|Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design]]" this is Dean Pelton's reason for conspiring with anyone who offers.

 

* [[Tear Jerker|"You Light Up My Life"]]. Probably the theme song for all the lonely people out there. http://www.romantic-lyrics.com/ly6.shtml

 

* Voldemort in ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'': "You think killing people might make them like you, but it doesn't. It just makes people dead."

 

* [[Ill Girl]] Marion from ''[[Dragon Quest IX]]'' is like this.

* In the ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'' series, Seriri the Siren ''desperately'' want friends, but her paranoia that people may want to eat her flesh so they become immortal prevents her from achieving her wish.

* In the [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' {{spoiler|This is revealed to be major motivation for Shizune late in her path. Due to a combination of her deafness and her [[Abusive Parents|upbringing]], she found it very hard hard to make friends and form relationships with others, resulting in her becoming a [[Lonely Rich Kid]]. When she came to Yamaku, she turned her efforts towards making other people happy in the hopes that would make them like her, which is the main reason why she joined the Student Council. However her drive combined with her [[Spirited Competitor|competitiveness]] eventually caused her to drive nearly everyone else in the Council away accept for her only friend and interpretor, Misha.}}

* In ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'' and its sequels, this is really the driving force behind everything the insane, apocalyptically powerful Alma does: she wants a family. {{spoiler|In the first game, she's calling her long-lost sons to her, unaware that she'd kill them if she touched them, due to her overwhelming psychic power. In the second, she constantly pursues Beckett out of a desire to have a child with him, again unaware that he wouldn't survive contact with her. Throughout both games, she continually makes anguished cries, wondering why everyone, even those she loves, run from her and try to harm her.}}

 

 

* The eponymous character of ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]'' desperately wants to have friends, something hard for him as everyone is scared of him because he is a ghost.

* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' has Jeff the Spider and Nergal.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]''

** Danny himself. Although he already has two best friends, he constantly has needs to fit in with the popular crowd. This becomes more apparent in the episode "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale". In "My Brother's Keeper", Jazz [[Lampshades]] this. He eventually gets better.

* Surprising as it may seem, Eddy from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' has this. Despite the fact he is a megalomaniac con-artist, it's actually a [[Jerkass Facade]], as he thought if he acted like his {{spoiler|older brother}}, people would like him, when it actually has the opposite effect, although he does eventually realise this.

** [[Word of God]] is that she was just sort of jealous that everyone took one look at the night and went, "Well, I can't see a thing. Time to sleep," and spent all their time doing stuff during the day, but she could kind of deal with it at the end of the day, only then [[Ass Pull|some evil power that conveniently hasn't been seen or mentioned since]] took advantage of that jealousy to [[Demonic Possession|barge in]] and [[Not Himself|wreck up the place]].

* This has become [[Porky Pig]]'s main character trait in ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]''—he's so lonely that he puts up with constant abuse from [[Daffy Duck]] just because Daffy calls him a "friend". He even untied Daffy, after Daffy had bankrupted him completely and bought a yacht with his money, simply because he was sweet-talked and promised a hug.

 

* In ''[[Questionable Content]]'' Hannelore's initial attempt to befriend Marten came across as awkward and forced due to her limited social skills (since she grew up on a space station), and took a bad turn when Marten found out she'd been stalking him for some time. It turned out fairly well in the end though, and she's genuinely glad to have friends (it helps her deal with her OCD).