History Main / InformedLoner

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''Series/{{Angel}}'':

* Duke Evans from ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' inverts this. His bio describes him as a popular playboy who can easily win other people's affections thanks to his social expertise. However, he's almost always seen hanging out by himself when he's not working, spending most of his time either in the secluded corner behind the school yard, the beach, the library, or his room. He never interacts with the other townspeople during parties and events either, being too busy performing. In fact, one of the few regular interactions he used to have with Jessie Morris is removed after an update.

* Being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, ''Manga/MutekiKanbanMusume'' deconstructs this trope with Megumi, who sincerely believes she has no friends even when she hangs out with her LimitedSocialCircle. FridgeBrilliance when you realize that Megumi is TheBully[=/=]SchoolYardBullyAllGrownUp, and her definition of friend is: ''someone who Megumi can manipulate into beating Miki''. Since nobody wants to do that, Megumi feels she has no friends.

* Duke Evans from ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' inverts this. His bio describes him as a popular playboy who can easily win other people's affections thanks to his social expertise. However, he's almost always seen hanging out by himself when he's not working, spending most of his time either in the secluded corner behind the school yard, the beach, the library, or his room. He never interacts with the other townspeople during parties and events either, being too busy performing.

* Raven in ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'' tells you that she doesn't have any friends ([[spoiler:because she is afraid that her "curse" will make them disappear]]). However, on every Holiday and Festival you see her walking around with Karina and Sofia. One of her heart events will acknowledge this: She makes gifts for Karina and Sofia, thanking them for being her friends. They both express surprise this was ever in question.

* In ''VideoGame/Dota2'', the Lone Druid is one of the least lonely heroes in the game, despite his name, as his signature skill is ''Summon Spirit Bear'', which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, summoning a bear {{familiar}} to his side. The bear is even forced to stay in close proximity to him, since it can't attack unless the Lone Druid is nearby (or if it has Aghanim's Scepter). And that's without getting into the fact that the gameplay of a {{MOBA}} means you have to cooperate with four other people.
* Duke Evans from ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' inverts this. His bio describes him as a popular playboy who can easily win other people's affections thanks to his social expertise. However, he's almost always seen hanging out by himself when he's not working, spending most of his time either in the secluded corner behind the school yard, the beach, the library, or his room. He never interacts with the other townspeople during parties and events either, being too busy performing.
* This was one of the many criticisms of ''VideoGame/SonicBoomRiseOfLyric''. The story is supposed to be about Sonic developing from an IneffectualLoner to one who respects ThePowerOfFriendship, but he spends the whole game with Tails, Knuckles and Amy from the beginning and has no problems working with them.

* Duke Evans from ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' inverts this. His bio describes him as a popular playboy whom all the girls are crazy over, and he is supposedly best friends with the bar owner, Andy. However, he's almost always seen hanging out by himself when he's not working, and he's never seen interacting with Andy even when they're at the same location. Even in the Saturday pot luck party, he's playing his guitar at the back of the crowd, and no one else seem to pay attention to him, or his music. In fact, the only indicator of his popularity is that the school kids prefer his music class than Lee Yau's boring lecture.

* [[TheGrimReaper Death]] from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Again, he's got his own supporting cast.

* Dangeresque from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' works alone, except when he works with Renaldo. Which is all the time.

->''"I've always been curious as to why Batman -- who has such a reputation for being a lone wolf -- would surround himself with children..."''
-->-- '''Lex Luthor''', ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanPublicEnemies''

** In fact, the Bat-Family is probably the largest in the DCU. There's at least currently a Batman, a Robin, a ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}, a ComicBook/RedRobin, a ComicBook/RedHood, ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}, ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}, [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Orphan]], [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Spoiler]], Duke Thomas, and Alfred in this loner's gang. And that's just the ''central'' Bat-Family, never mind the other, wider Bat-Family which includes an ''army'' of Batmen from around the world! Though to be fair, he does mostly work alone where feasible and leaves the others to their own devices.

* Chris Thorndyke in ''Anime/SonicX'' is written as a LonelyRichKid whose parents are often neglectful due to being [[{{Workaholic}} workaholics]] who barely have time for their only son. However, he's hardly considered lonely when he lives with a butler, a maid, and even a grandfather who acts as a surrogate parent to Chris, and all three of them collaborate to work around the mansion. On top of all that, Chris is actually shown to have three friends, which renders his relationship with Sonic and the other main characters rather redundant to say the least.

* Duke Evans from ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' inverts this. His bio describes him as a popular playboy whom all the girls are crazy over, and he is supposedly best friends with the bar owner, Andy. But he's almost always seen hanging out by himself when he's not working. Even in the Saturday pot luck party, he's playing his guitar at the back of the crowd, and no one else seem to pay attention to him, or his music. In fact, the only indicator of his popularity is that the school kids prefer his music class than Lee Yau's boring lecture.

** For a guy who is torn by emotional isolation living eternally in the darkness, the guy has a ridiculously long [[Characters/{{Batman}} character page]] full of his constant allies. This is hardly even mentioning that his relationship with Robin was so close during UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} that you didn't need to be part of a [[MoralGuardians censor board]] to interpret some HoYay going on there.
** In fact, the Bat Family is probably the largest in the DCU. There's at least currently a Batman, a Robin, a ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}, a ComicBook/RedRobin, a ComicBook/RedHood, ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}, ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}, [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Orphan]], [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Spoiler]], Duke Thomas and Alfred in this loner's gang. And that's just the ''central'' Bat-family, never mind the other, wider Bat-family which includes an ''army'' of Batmen from around the world! Though to be fair, he does mostly work alone where feasible and leaves the others to their own devices.
** For ''17 years'' this supposed loner starred in a book whose premise was to team him up with ''everyone else in the DC Universe''. Now with Batman Inc, (Loads and Loads of Batmen!) the writers might as well stop kidding themselves. Ever since Grant Morrison started writing Batman regularly, they have. Bruce even specifically calls ''himself'' out on it.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} claims to be a loner, and does honestly seem to attempt to do so, but his [[WolverinePublicity track record]] seems to prove otherwise. To a degree it works for Wolverine; by temperament he'd be a [[TheDrifter drifting]] KnightErrant [[KnightInSourArmor in Sour Armor]], which involves lots of helping people and then leaving and not seeing them again for several decades. In a slightly different genre he'd very reasonably say ButNowIMustGo. Look at that trope page; fully half the links in the description apply to him. (For example, until he regained his memories, his JourneyToFindOneself was a big part of his character.) All that being said, it becomes ridiculous to call Wolverine a loner when he is officially a member of three superhero teams at once, due to [[WolverinePublicity his publicity]]. Being a loner is in character, but the Marketing department wins, especially in a SharedUniverse. He also has had a girl sidekick following him around for most of the past thirty years. (Shadowcat, Jubilee, Armor...)

The problem with this trope is that it's difficult to write dialogue for loners, well, because they're [[CaptainObvious alone]]. So by definition, they shouldn't really be acting gabby all the time. Bear in mind, of course, that not all loners are recluses. Some are the type that [[AloneInACrowd can feel lonely even in a crowd]]. But even in that case how much of a "loner" they can really be comes into question if they're initiating half the conversations they take part in and lack any form of social awkwardness.

** In fact, the Bat Family is probably the largest in the DCU. There's at least currently a Batman, a Robin, a ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}, a ComicBook/RedRobin, a Red Hood, ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}, Batgirl, ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}, Orphan, Spoiler, Duke Thomas and Alfred in this loner's gang. And that's just the ''central'' Bat-family, never mind the other, wider Bat-family which includes an ''army'' of Batmen from around the world! Though to be fair, he does mostly work alone where feasible and leaves the others to their own devices.

* The titular character of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has a FriendlessBackground due to having the Nine-Tails Fox sealed inside him. He suffered ostrasization due to this, and his loud, ClassClown image didn't help him around the other kids. Despite this Naruto has several flashbacks showing that he lazed off with Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji while going to the ninja academy. They may not have been close friends yet but at least they bonded well enough. However, many of those flashbacks were {{Filler}}, so how much of it is actually canon is still left up in the air.

* Captain Falcon of ''VideoGame/FZero'' is a man shrouded in mystery, cast away from the common eye for their own safety. And yet, there he is, trying to enjoy a drink at a bar in Mute City ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUMMekS8Gs Chapter 3]] of ''GX''[='s=] Story Mode) in the company of ''half of the cast''. Another racer(Jack Levin) even toasts to him like they're good pals.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} claims to be a loner, and does honestly seem to attempt to do so, but his [[WolverinePublicity track record]] seems to prove otherwise. To a degree it works for Wolverine; by temperament he'd be a [[TheDrifter drifting]] KnightErrant [[KnightInSourArmor in Sour Armor]], which involves lots of helping people and then leaving and not seeing them again for several decades. In a slightly different genre he'd very reasonably say ButNowIMustGo. Look at that trope page; fully half the links in the description apply to him. (For example, until he regained his memories, his JourneyToFindOneself was a big part of his character.) All that being said, it becomes ridiculous to call Wolverine a loner when he is officially a member of three superhero teams at once, due to [[WolverinePublicity him publicity]]. Being a loner is in character, but the Marketing department wins, especially in a SharedUniverse. He also has had a girl sidekick following him around for most of the past thirty years. (Shadowcat, Jubilee, Armor...)

* From his frequent internal monologues, you would think Hachiman Hikigaya of ''LightNovel/MyTeenageRomanticComedySnafu'' is a completely friendless person who is as repulsive to others as they are to him. However, he's shown in practice to be fairly socially apt and gathers a circle of friends ([[HaremSeries most of them girls who also seem to have crushes on him]]) in short time. Some, like [[TheAce Hayama]], [[GenkiGirl Yui]], and [[DudeLooksLikeALady Saika]] can be excused because they're friendly with everyone, but even more abrasive characters like [[IceQueen Yukino]], [[WiseBeyondHisYears Saki]], [[AlphaBitch Yumiko]], [[ChristmasCake his teacher]] take an eventual liking to him, and [[SenpaiKohai Iroha]] ends up idolizing him before they even met due to his ''reputation'', a far cry from the loathed social outcast he frequently refers to himself as. By the end of the series it's pretty clear that the only thing holding Hachiman back from being a social butterfly is his own self-defeatist, cynical attitude.