'''Basic Trope''': A character declines to work with others when offered.
* '''Straight''': Captain [[MeaningfulName Lonestar]] is offered to join the team, but declines because he always works alone.
* '''Exagerrated''':
** Captain Lonestar refuses to save the people from the EvilOverlord because it might attract the attention of other good guys who might try to help him.
** Captain Lonestar takes on an entire army all by himself, while not having [[OneManArmy the required qualifications]].
* '''Downplayed''': Captain Lonestar sometimes works with the group, but usually works alone.
* '''Justified''':
** Captain Lonestar always works alone because [[TheOnlyOne everyone else is incompetent]].
** Captain Lonestar is a {{Jerkass}} who hates working with other people.
** Captain Lonestar just prefers doing things alone, no malice involved.
** His abilities work better when alone. When you can go invisible at will anyone else near the site just becomes a liability.
** As a corollary to the above, Captain Lonestar is a PersonOfMassDestruction; teaming up with someone [[DestructiveSaviour would put them in serious danger]].
** Captain Lonestar has lived most of a life where he had to do everything by himself and thus isn't accustomed to working with others.
** Captain Lonestar gains power from an inverse form of the PowerOfFriendship, thus he refuses to need companions.
** Captain Lonestar had a partner who was killed, and he never got over it.
*** Alternatively, while he hasn't lost anyone he is afraid of worrying about a teammate and the psychological pressure of keeping someone other than himself alive, preferring to work with the ease of mind that only he is in danger.
** Captain Lonestar has a history of being betrayed by his allies, and [[NeverBeHurtAgain is not in the mood to extend his streak]].
** Captain Lonestar is a {{Death Seeker}} who doesn't want someone to keep him from getting himself killed (or miss him when he's gone).
* '''Inverted''': Captain Lonestar suggests that the team should disband and their members should each go off on their separate paths, but they decline because they always work together.
* '''Subverted''': Captain Lonestar declines to join the team when offered, but later it turns out that he had been working with a ''different'' team all along.
* '''Double Subverted''': ...But this is actually a ruse to get the original team off his back by continually pestering him about the benefits of working together.
* '''Parodied''': Captain Lonestar has invented a special radar that will alert him to the presence of anyone in the vicinity who might be of help to him so he can avoid working with them at all times.
* '''Zig Zagged''': Captain Lonestar clearly prefers to work alone, and will often refuse help. But he will sometimes reluctantly accept it if the job looks particularly tough, and once in a great while will even ask for help in advance.
* '''Averted''': Everyone works in groups.
* '''Enforced''': The writer considered making Lonestar join but [[ExecutiveMeddling he was considered most marketable when aloof]].
* '''Lampshaded''': "Looks like Captain Lonestar is going off on the mission on his own again."
* '''Invoked''': Having pledged to always work alone, Captain Lonestar recognizes that he can't break tradition just because the situation is grim.
* '''Exploited''': Because he doesn't work with anyone, the other heroes tend to view Captain Lonestar with suspicion and distrust; it's remarkably easy for the villain to frame him for some heinous crime, and sit back and watch while the other heroes take him out.
* '''Defied''':
** Captain Lonestar normally works alone, but recognizes that continuing to do this may cost him his life, and joins the team.
** Admiral Bob walk up to Captain Lonestar during team assignment duty and makes clear that the "lone ranger" crap is over and done -- he '''will''' become part of a team and he '''will''' function perfectly as a member of said team or he will spend the rest of his days in a stockade as a result of dereliction of duty.
* '''Discussed''': "Why does the brooding loner in these types of situations always refuse help even though he’d beat the bad guy in five minutes flat if he did?"
* '''Conversed''': "Why is Captain Lonestar such a loner? Does he have a DarkSecret?"
* '''Deconstructed''':
** [[IneffectualLoner Captain Lonestar ends up failing more often than not due his insistence on always working alone]].
** No one really trusts or likes Captain Lonestar; on the one occasion when he really, truly needs an ally, there's no one to help him.
* '''Reconstructed''': ...But all those missions were nigh-impossible to accomplish with a team. Those he did he only succeeded at specifically ''because'' he was working alone.
* '''Played For Laughs''': Captain Lonestar always works alone because in reality he's a bumbling idiot.
* '''Played For Drama''':
** Captain Lonestar always works alone because [[NoSocialSkills he can't connect to other people]].
** Captain Lonestar works alone because he has self-esteem issues, and believes that accepting any help makes his accomplishments less valuable because he didn't "really" do it.
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Go back to the main page, buddy. IWorkAlone.
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%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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%%* '''Implied''': ???
%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???