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Loners Will Stay Alone

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This person is trapped in a vicious cycle of loneliness and asociality. Being alone makes it hard for them to hone their social skills, it also makes them either desperate for friendship, love, and sex, or completely jaded and bitter about the entire matter. Either way, this will be noticed by those who interact with them, who will instinctively deem it too much trouble to help them out and will stay the hell away from them. So the cycle feeds on itself, and the person may feel like they are trapped in that situation for the rest of their lives. Those who haven't entirely given up will be very glad for any opportunity to make new friends, and will probably go to extreme lengths of loyalty for those who accepted them. Those who have given up and perhaps even given in to the Dark Side, might have to be beaten into it, but they'll come to enjoy friendship as soon as they taste it, usually.

The reasons they were alone in the first place may vary. Geekiness, being handicapped, racial or cultural isolation, being non-heteronormal... They might end up so freaking lonely they make themselves imaginary friends out of puppets, and act out their fantasies of happiness through them. They might also engulf themselves in online social lives, or, failing that, Video Games such as The Sims. The principle is the same: they are alone, and they are stuck there for the time being, whether they accept it or not.

Their storylines will usually include a lucky escape from the cycle into a stable circle of friends or more. Usually.

May overlap with Intelligence Equals Isolation, at least until the character figures out how to use their intelligence for social manipulation. Even then, despite achieving shallow popularity, the lack of equals to share meaningful interactions with, even antagonistic ones, might doom them to Broken Ace status.

Truth in Television.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Several characters in Bleach have rather bad cases of this. One of them (Kon) is simply The Chew Toy, and it's Played for Laughs. Another (AIZEN) becomes a Magnificent Bastard Young Conqueror (by Shinigami standards) because of this. Another (Starrk) becomes an underling of the latter guy because anyone else simply died in his mere presence, so powerful he is.
  • In Chainsaw Man, Part 2's Loser Protagonist Asa is a misanthropic grouch and her lack of friends is as much their fault as it is hers. It is true that she's surrounded by some serious jackasses, but a lot of her later interactions reveal that she has absolutely No Social Skills and is a bit of a Control Freak with a slight narcissistic streak. Yuko alone befriended her with what can only be described as social brute force.
  • In Code Geass, the Tyke Bomb (Rolo) is all too happy to be rescued from that state by his supposed target, whom he becomes an underling of.
  • Angel Densetsu: Kitano-kun starts off like this because of his fearsome appearance, but then someone finds out his true nature, and things sort of snowball from there.
  • In Naruto, there is a sort of theme about overcoming this sort of situation with The Power of Friendship... there's also a theme about those unable to do this becoming a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
    • The Jinchuuriki tend to suffer from this from their earliest childhoods.
      • Gaara of the Sand is a prime example. None of the kids would play with him at first because he was the host of the Ichibi and they were scared. He got more and more desperate, and eventually started using his sand powers to try to stop them from getting away, scaring them even more. Then his dad decided he was more trouble than he was worth and had his trusted uncle try to assassinate him, at which point he broke completely and became an Omnicidal Maniac.
      • This example is directly pitted against that of Naruto in-story: the Fourth Hokage, who was beloved by all, had died sealing the Nine Tails Demon Fox, who had gone in a murderous, destructive rampage, into Naruto. Despite the express wishes of the Kage, the villagers decided to blame the kid for it, and despite the extreme law-enforced taboo on talking about the subject, their children picked up on their attitudes and nonverbal cues, and Naruto grew up hated and isolated, and coped with it by making lots of pranks and stupid stuff to attract much needed attention. The entire point of the manga could be said to be to explain is how he slowly overcomes this situation. By the time he meets Gaara, Naruto knows about the redeeming power of friendship, and ends up befriending Gaara and getting him out of his funk.
    • Haku was born from an infamous bloodline, inheriting their special powers. They had been genocided, and he was hated and persecuted throughout his childhood. When he found a man who would accept him for what he was, even if it was apparently only to use him as a disposable tool and weapon, he was so glad he swore undying loyalty to the man, making his value to him as a tool his sole source of self-esteem as a person, and lived up to his promise.
    • Zabuza had this enforced on him when, during the final exam of his village's ninja school, which involved killing your comrades, he single-handedly killed all the other candidates. Since then he was treated as a freak and an outcast by damn near everyone. Except Haku.
  • The Name of the Flower has Mizushima Kei, who is a famous writer of depressing, nihilistic works and won two very prestigious awards for them. He himself has a tragic past and struggles with deep depression, and before the start of the story pretty much has one, singular, friend who he 'claims' to hate. The story resolves around him and the distant relative he took in, Chouko, and her desire to love and save him from his depression and his feeling that he doesn't deserve it, or can never bring himself out of it enough to do anything but drag her down with him.
  • Chaos;Head is about a guy who is the stereotype for this, complete with an obsession for online gaming, and imaginary wives. He is forced out of it, in circumstances he really really won't enjoy at all.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, loneliness is a serious problem for magical girls, one of whom, Mami, is implied to specifically wish to avoid Dying Alone. Homura was this before Madoka became her first friend, but because of certain circumstances by the start of the series she is alone again. Kyouko has lost her family and lives alone in the ruins of her father's church. Estrangement from loved ones and the inability to reach out to them is a common theme in the series.
  • In No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, this is a big problem for Tomoko - the more time she spends alone the worse she gets at interacting with people, as she becomes more anxious and more in a different world than the other people around her. Seeing how happy everyone else seems also fuels her bitterness, making her more mean and difficult. Sadly, what we see of the people around her seems to indicate that while they can be self-centered, they're generally decent people who sometimes do really want to be friends, but any attempted conversations tend to not work out well for anyone involved. Over time, this gets averted as Tomoko eventually does manage to forge a number of friendships that ensure she seldom ever stays alone for long.

    Comic Books 

    Film 

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Big Bang Theory: Subverted by Sheldon Cooper: he has no interest whatsoever in making friends and no redeeming personal qualities whatsoever, yet people keep talking to him.
  • Glee: Like Naruto, Glee has sort of a theme about freaks and geeks and outcasts drawing strength from their situations and overcoming them.
    • Kurt is the only openly homosexual kid in his entire high-school. He appears to only have one friend, Mercedes, but he doesn't have much in common with her, and their friendship is true, but definitely not deep. Even his step-brother basically ignores him most of the time. At least until Wild Dapper Love Interest appears, but as the boy in question is Oblivious to Love, the battle is not won. Or is it? (DAMN THAT COCKBLOCKING PIANO) But this is just the beginning...
    • Rachel is by far the best singer and performer at her school, but thinks that entitles her to be liked by everyone, when, in fact, everyone constantly and insistently reminds her of how much they dislike her, even the nicest people on the show can't stand her. A remarkable case of this trope since the problem isn't her comrades' prejudice or anything, but her own attitude. Couple this with Aesop Amnesia and you can see why it'll take her a while before leaving the trope behind, if she ever does.
    • Santana alienates herself from everyone else by being a complete Jerkass. Even with her many, many male lovers, she never shares any meaningful interaction with them, and doesn't even look them in the eye while having sex. Her one female lover, Brittany, is also her one friend. Turns out Santana's a closeted lesbian and is head-over-heels in love with Brittany.
    • Artie had this trope, among many other disadvantages, inflicted to him by his wheelchair, which tends to scare people away on one hand and make them push him around in a literal as well as figurative sense on the other.
    • Tina inflicted this trope on herself by faking a stutter, out of sheer shyness and sociophobia. Falling in love with Artie makes her grow out of it, but when Artie finds out, he is not amused.
    • Mercedes suffers a little for being one of the very few blacks in her school. She overcompensates for it by playing to the Sassy Black Woman, in her own words "pouring tasty chocolate" into all songs she writes.
    • Quinn suffers a temporary version of this for getting pregnant. Her isolation is further intensified because she rejects the biological father of the kid and wants to have the kid be raised by her actual boyfriend, whom she thinks will make a much better father.
    • Will Shuester, their teacher and coach, is heavily implied to have been sort of a geeky, lonely kid at school, and is emotionally stunted at that stage because he married his high-school sweetheart... who does her best to bring him down. He appears to have very few friends outside of the teacher staff and the students.
    • Sue Sylvester, complete and utterly self-inflicted due to being a universe-grade Jerkass on par with the Prince from Level E. Once she thought she could escape this, but she was just being led on in revenge for her constant, over-the-top evilness.
    • Coach Tanaka: The Ugly, Boring and Overweight sort.
    • Emma: suffers from obsessive–compulsive disorder and many phobias. She's basically a neurotic freak, as well as The Ingenue. But she's genuinely nice and rather cute, so maybe there's still some hope for her.
    • Coach Bieste: In her case it's due to her large, manly frame, her deep voice, and her talent at sports. At age forty, she has still never been kissed. By a romantic partner at any rate.

    Visual Novels 
  • Dennis from Double Homework is a loner nerd who developed many habits which make him considered a loser to guys and creepy to girls. He never really had much in the way of social connections, and he has severe trouble starting now, and they seem to evade him no matter how hard he tries.

    Webcomics 
  • The Forever Alone themed Rage Comics are practically the Trope Namer: they're Black Comedy jokes that usually follow the pattern "Lonely person tries to stop being lonely, and, for reasons completely outside of their control, fails miserably." There's also "We are shown a happy moment that turns out to have been a delusion or roleplay or fiction of some sort, enacted by the lonely person to feign escape from their loneliness, highlighting it even more." They also name the facial expression itself, which is a representation of a person with a disproportionate, ugly chin, and small, beady eyes from each of which a single, thin stream of tears flows, only to stumble on their fissured, thin lips which are curved in a painful rictus that seems to be a sincere, heartfelt, but heartwrenchingly/hilariously failed attempt at a smile. There are traces of self-derision among the writers. Some can be fairly touching.

    Web Original 
  • Discussed by Bennett the Sage at the end of his review of Video Girl Ai.
    Sage: Some of you might remember me talking briefly about the documentary Otaku, and the way the rest of society views the culture. It comes as no surprise that otakudom has always been synonymous with social pariahs, even 20 years ago. [plays a clip from 1994's "Otaku"] And you know what? I'm kind of guilty of this too. I'll fully admit that I have made my fair share of jokes about the fandom and I'll even cop to the fact that a lot of them can be construed as mean spirited. If it means anything, I never meant any of my jokes to be an attack on anyone and that... I understand. I understand that being around people in general can be scary and that it's made worse when it seems like everyone around you has you pegged as a socially inept loser. I understand the need and want to make a real connection with another person, be it platonic or romantic, especially romantic. I understand that no man is an island, but when there's no one around you, you can feel like you're drowning. I understand that in this day and age where talking with someone who is thousands of miles away from you is only a keystroke away, still can't replace a friendly pat on the shoulder to help lighten the burden of life. I understand that women can seem difficult and demanding and I also understand that men can seem scary and threatening and I also understand that in the absence of this connection, what might temporarily meet this need is a figurine of your favorite character. Or a poster of your favorite character. Or even a body pillow. And I also understand that purchasing these things can make you feel ashamed. Like you're admitting that yes, you ARE a socially inept loser because who else would buy it? But I want to tell you, not just the people who purchased a body pillow or a full length figurine or even just the otakus out there, but anyone who feels like they have no friends or anyone who can feel alone in a crowded room or anyone who just wants one person to say they care about them, I want to say: you're OK. You are OK. You're not a freak, you are not worthless and you are not hopeless. You are much stronger than you think you are and nothing you can ever feel can ever stop you from being happy. But first and foremost, you have to know that you are OK.

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