I Work Alone

"Once upon a time, I had somebody that I cared about...It was a partner. Somebody I had to look after. And in this world, that sort of shit's good for one thing: Gettin' you killed. So you know what I did? I wisened the fuck up, and realized it's got to be just me out there."

— Bill, The Last of Us

This is a character who is defined by their insistence on, well, working alone. They refuse partnerships or offers to join teams, and even if they do end up allying with the heroes, they will prefer to operate by themselves.

Sometimes, this lone wolf attitude arose because of some past trauma. They may have had partners, sidekicks, love interests, or other teammates die on them and wound up thinking that working alone won't get anybody else killed. This type of I Work Alone usually comes with a bitter and cynical personality that defrosts as they get to know the other characters.

Other times, this attitude is meant to portray a character as badass: they prefer to work alone because they really don't need others' help. After all, someone who can take down a whole army by themselves usually doesn't need someone watching their six. Cowboy Cops and heroes that actually enjoy their solitude count in this type. However, saying "I work alone" can sometimes be Tempting Fate, and in this particular instance, the usually competent hero might for once find himself in way over his head. They will, often reluctantly, accept the offer of help.

Alternatively, this can be due to their cultural beliefs that stems from values of self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and personal growth, these individualists view working solo as being more efficient than working with a group (whom they view as collectivists). A more arrogant take on this are people who think they're the only competent guy out of the whole lot of everyone else they meet, adhering to the philosphy of "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

Someone who espouses I Work Alone could turn out to be an Ineffectual Loner (their attempts at working alone just end up with them getting beat, and they learn The Power of Friendship and join the team). However, this type of character can function as an independent ally who cooperates from the get-go and befriends the others, but chooses to work by themselves if given the chance.

Can overlap with Aloof Ally, who has teammates and allies but is distant from them. See also Informed Loner, who claims to always be alone but is actually surrounded by people, and Ineffectual Loner, whose attempts to work alone are not effective; those guys usually end up embracing The Power of Friendship. Contrast with I Just Want to Have Friends, True Companions, Team Spirit, or You Are Not Alone. Not to be confused with Leave Me Alone!, a Stock Phrase for when you reject others' attempts at companionship, although someone who works alone may occasionally say it.

See Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup, where why working solo is generally a good idea.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Cassandra from Claymore always preferred to work alone during her lifetime, secretly self-conscious about the "ugliness" of the Dust Eater technique that propelled her to the top rank of the Organization's warriors. When she let other people get closer to her, it did not end well at all: one of them let the other be brutally murdered, copied Cassandra's technique, and had her executed, as well.
• In the Dragon Ball series, Vegeta always wants to train alone, even though he could potentially become stronger if he trained with a sparring buddy. Perhaps justified given that the only potential sparring partner who'd be able to keep up with him is the guy he desperately wants to surpass; Vegeta wants training that he alone will benefit from.
• Food Wars!: Akira Hayama has this as his Fatal Flaw. While he's legitimately talented and can work pretty well on his own, his pride prevented him from asking for help when Azami Nakiri took over the academy and threatened to shut down the Shiomi Seminar, even using Jun's lifelong research as a bargaining chip to get him to join Central. When Soma faces him again, he rightfully calls him out on jumping ship so quickly, pointing out that he and the others would have gladly come to his aid had he just asked them.
• This was actually the Fatal Flaw of Heart Catch Pretty Cure's Yuri Tsukikage. She was so confident in her abilities as Cure Moonlight, that she ignored her partner, Cologne, in finding allies. End result? A massive Curb-Stomp Battle leading to Cologne's death and her temporary depowerment.
• Maria no Danzai: Deconstruction. Kiritaka Nagare was horribly bullied at school; his bullies were satanic thugs who liked to torture him and his classmates. He chose to endure the torture alone for months without asking for help while he gathered evidence to turn in his bullies. It's unknown why he didn't go to his teachers or if they would have been any help, but it is known that he was isolated from his classmates because of a frame-up from one of the bullies. The reason he didn't tell his parents is because he did not want to bury his mother, who he loved greatly. This backfired greatly when, after months of torture and gathering evidence and when he needed evidence on the leader, his bullies blackmailed him into jumping into a street, and he was killed by a truck. His mother, who witnessed his death, was broken and discovered the evidence he gathered on his bullies. His mother, Mari, discovered the evidence; realizing the instant of her son's torture and angry at losing him, she snapped, swore revenge for her son, threw away her life, divorced her husband, changed her name to Maria Akeboshi, had plastic surgery, and two years later became the nurse at the bullies' school to exact revenge. It would've been better if he had asked for help because his trying to defeat his bullies alone caused his death and destroyed his family.
• This is Chang Wufei's attitude throughout Mobile Suit Gundam Wing until an encounter with the ZERO System convinces him that teaming up with the other pilots is the best course of action. He goes right back to being a loner in the post-series manga, culminating in Endless Waltz where he does a Face–Heel Turn because he refuses to change his way of thinking.
• My Hero Academia: Mirko is a high-ranking pro hero who never takes on sidekicks and dislikes teaming up with other pros, only doing so when the government orders her to. This is because she's a Blood Knight who feels that teaming up would make her fights too easy.
  • Midoriya tries this out of fear of All for One targeting his friends. But Class 1-A teams up to talk sense into him.
• In PandoraHearts Sharon calls Break "Mr. One-Man-Show" because of his tendency to refuse help and go off on his own. He even says himself that he doesn't know how to fight as a team. He's actually pretty good at taking care of business by himself, but due to his recent blindness and deteriorating overall physical condition, his willingness to rely on others, however slightly, is part of his character development.
• Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica is so engrossed in this that she's a mysterious, antisocial weirdo to nearly everyone around her and initially, even to the audience, until her backstory gets explained in episode 10. This gets to a point that the nature of her witch form Homulilly is self-sufficience.
• Rebuild World: Played with. While Akira is definitely an anti-social Anti-Hero and The Paranoiac, with him being a general Defrosting Ice King, as well as the influence of others, Akira spends a large percentage of his fights teamed up with The Squad of some kind. Nonetheless, he has said this statement multiple times. As for the motivation behind that attitude, it's that Akira's life before the story began was a Trauma Conga Line of being used and betrayed by pretty much everyone he ever met in the dog-eat-dog environment of the slums.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Seto Kaiba actually despises the idea of teamwork because he hates relying on others, especially his rivals. At one point, he declares that if he succeeds with somebody else's help, his victory is meaningless.

Asian Animation

• Balala the Fairies: In Ocean Magic, Azure initially refuses to work with Kaylynn and Finn and prefers to go solo. However, as they start working together, she starts to mellow out of this as she becomes their friend.

Comic Books

• Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl: Batgirl admits to Supergirl that she's not a good partner because she's used to working alone.
• Mr. Beaver: In his first appearance, the titular character rejects a handshake from Detective Kage and says "I don't do partners, kid."
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Fleetway's Sonic the Comic has a downplayed example in Shortfuse the Cybernik, who doesn't have any specific issues with working alongside the Freedom Fighters against Robotnik's forces; he even joined them for a time while Sonic was trapped in the Special Zone. However, his Hair-Trigger Temper and his tendency to prioritize attacking the enemy over assisting his allies makes him something of a poor team player, and, for the most part, he prefers taking the fight to Robotnik in his own way.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) introduces Whisper the Wolf, an ally to the Resistance who'd saved a number of their members during Robotnik's take-over, but declined to work with the rebels in any kind of formal capacity. Whisper only works with her Wisps and prefers to stay out of the spotlight per her "lone wolf" persona and because in reality, she's actually very shy.

Fan Works

• Cheshire (Miraculous Ladybug): Played With. Actually, for Cheshire is more "I need to work alone", since every other Miraculous Holder is after her Miraculous, and they give fighting her priority over defeating the Akumas.
• A Game of Cat and Cat: The Epigraph of "Make Friends, not Corpses" is about how just because someone travels alone, doesn't mean they have to work alone, and how it's best to know how to be personable:
  "A wandering vampire hunter might travel alone, but he is not a lone wolf. No matter how powerful the hunter may be, he can accomplish nothing without the help of strangers. The locals will always know the surrounding area, the latest gossip, and the strange old drunk who's been around longer than the elders can remember. Be polite, be sympathetic, and keep your pursestrings loose."
  -Diary of Leon Belmont
• Honoka's Bizarre Adventure: Ayase Eli originally believes this, believing herself the only one capable of fighting off the antagonistic Stand users, acquiring the arrow, and preventing Otonokizaka from closing down. This is even reflected in her Stand, which is an armor-type that let's her fight Stands directly. She finally accepts Honoka's help in the final fight against Yanigihori's gang, and like in canon joins µ's so they can save their school together.
• Skylanders: Return to the Ruins: Crestfeather initially declines Cali's offer to team up on the basis that she works alone.
• Despite Son of the Sannin having a significantly higher focus on team combat compared to canon, Zabuza stands out as someone who usually fights without anyone backing him up (despite stressing the importance of teamwork to his subordinates) because the large reach of his sword makes him just as much a threat to his allies as it does to his enemies. In fact the only time he truly fights with a parter is when he teams up with Mei against Kisame, and that's only because she is significantly more powerful than him and has increased situational awareness thanks to Sage Mode.

Film — Animated

• In The Boss Baby: Family Business, Theodore "Ted" Templeton Jr. is determined to go through with Baby Corp's latest mission solo...or at least without his big brother Tim's help. He maintains this attitude during the mission despite being overruled by his youngest niece and fellow boss baby Tina.
• Used (word for word) in The Incredibles: Buddy Pine, Mr. Incredible's self-proclaimed "biggest fan", invites himself on the hero's adventures, only to be rejected on the grounds that he's a kid in way over his head and that Mr. Incredible prefers to do his heroics alone. Buddy grows up to become the supervillain Syndrome and embarks on a decades-long revenge quest against not only Mr. Incredible, but all superheroes everywhere. He even brings this up after (seemingly) murdering Mr. Incredible's entire family.
  Syndrome: Ah, you'll get over it. I seem to recall you prefer to..."work alone?"
• In both Spider Man Into The Spiderverse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
  • The Spider-Men are established to work solo in their respective home universes and don't usually work in teams, which shows when they do team up; they each operate individually rather than as a team, and do not coordinate their attacks to better defeat their adversaries.
  • When Miles is chased by hundreds of Spider-Men at Nueva York, these pursuers share the same "operate individually" problem; during their pursuit, they do not employ tactics, do not strategize and coordinate as a team, and, in some cases, may get in each other's way. The only Spider-Men to keep up with Miles is Peter B (his mentor, and the one who know his movements best), and Miguel (who has a much better understanding of his city compared to the non-native Spider-Men, since Nueva York is his home dimension).

Film — Live Action

• Eraser: Kruger refuses to work with other agents in the Witness Protection program to prevent the possibility of a leak. (It turns out his caution is more than justified).
  Kruger: I work alone. If anyone comes to you and claims that I sent them... (hands witness a revolver)...use this.
• Arnie says the same in Predator, but in this case he says his team works alone, when told CIA agent Dillon is not only coming in with them, but is being placed in charge of the mission. Even though Dillon is an old war buddy, he's not used to working with Dutch's team (and it turns out Dutch can't trust Dillon either).
• Black Hawk Down: At the end of the movie, Hoot tells Eversman "I'm faster on my own" before he goes out again to search for the missing pilot.
• The Hunter: Martin refuses to let another hunter accompany him as backup and sends away his local guide as soon as he has a basic understanding of the new terrain.
• One of the first things Gadgetmobile says in Inspector Gadget (1999) after being activated.
• Kung Fury: The title character insists he works alone because on the night he got his powers, his partner was killed.
• An ongoing theme in Major Grom: Plague Doctor is how Grom has no love life and hates working with a partner, as he doesn't trust anyone. By the end of the movie he accepts Eager Rookie Dubin and Intrepid Reporter Yulia as True Companions, and it's implied Yulia will become a Love Interest as well.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe: Starting off, Tony Stark has a serious problem with this, refusing to join the Avengers Initiative and hiding his palladium poisoning because he believes he's the only one who can solve what the problem is. Iron Man 2 has him starting to move out of this a little, but by The Avengers (2012) he's right back in it, albeit now willing to (sarcastically) acknowledge the problems, and learns how to work with a unit.
  Iron Man: I told you, I don't wanna join your super-secret boyband.
  Fury: Yeah, I remember. You do everything yourself. How's that workin' out?

  Iron Man: Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, narcissistic, don't play well with others.
  Pepper Potts: That I did know.
• Enola Holmes 2: Sherlock grunts to Enola that he doesn't like having people in his quarters and prefers working alone. However, he is aware that his aloofness is offputting and tells Enola not to be like him. In the end, he offers for her to live and work with him. She turns him down, but tells him that she doesn't want him to be alone all the time and sets him up for a meeting with a potential flatmate, Dr. Watson.

Literature

• In Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, the main character had his entire tribe destroyed when he was 9 or 10 (he doesn't know which). As a result, he swears to never depend on other people, and will not work with anything that has two legs. He does have a pet wolf, though.
• Lisbeth Salander in the Millennium Series:
  • From the beginning of the first book, it is known that she works as a private investigator, and never comes into the office unless to deliver a report. She talks to people only when necessary and cuts off all contact with Blomkvist in the second book because she has fallen in love with him, then loses contact with the few friends she has when she travels around the world in the second book. When she comes home after more than a year she remembers that she had a casual girlfriend, Miriam Wu, who she didn't say goodbye to.
  • When Blomkvist repeatedly offers her help in the second book when Lisbeth becomes the Prime Suspect of a murder investigation Lisbeth denies him, because she looks out for herself, never trusting anyone to help her. This leads to her taking on Zalachenko and Niedermann by herself, and getting shot in the head. The reason she survives is that Blomkvist finds her in time to call an ambulance, and duct tapes the wounds on her body, to which she responds "Kalle Fucking Blomkvist"
• In The Girl from the Miracles District, Nikita has been refusing or getting rid of her assigned partners for the last three years, partly because she's bad at working with others, partly because she has too many secrets to be comfortable with people getting close to her, and partly because she worries that they're her mother's spies. Robin is the seventeenth attempt at having her team up with someone, and the first one that sticks.
• John Rain: The title character would prefer to work alone, but as he gets older and the world changes post-9/11, it's just not practical or even safe. Mossad agent Boaz tells Rain that no one works alone anymore, and Rain is the only operator he knows who still insists on doing so (implying he's Too Dumb to Live). Even Dox wonders if their skills have become meaningless in an increasingly surveillance-heavy world, where the only way to keep working is when Big Brother Is Employing You.
• Quiller series: Quiller refuses to work with "shields" (bodyguards) or even his fellow shadow executives because he doesn't want to let his guard down by depending on someone else.
• A Master of Djinn: Fatma prefers to work alone, which is why she's unpleasantly surprised to learn the Ministry has assigned her Hadia as a partner.
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: Painter insists on working alone rather than in a pair because he thinks he's a lonely dark hero who no one appreciates. Hoid lampshades that this mostly just means he's socially awkward and won't talk to his peers.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • The Illustrated Star Wars Universe: Senior Anthropologist Hoole openly states that his expeditions are best conducted alone, partly because he's a shapeshifter who can get better results working in secret than he ever does working in a group, but mostly because he's shy and asocial. Reference books like The Essential Guide To Alien Species reveal that on the one occasion he was forced to bring a research assistant along, the poor kid couldn't keep up and was killed in action.
  • Galaxy of Fear features Hoole as one of the main characters alongside his human niece and nephew, and before he warms up to them, he spends the early books trying to get Zak and Tash to stay safe while he works alone - after all, they are just kids and Hoole isn't exactly parental material.

Live-Action TV

• Parodied (like everything else) in Angie Tribeca: Angie constantly asserts that she doesn't need help or a partner. Not even when moving a sofa.
• Batwoman (2019). In "Drink Me", Batwoman is fighting Nocturna who is clearly turned on by the experience and suggests they team up instead. Batwoman replies that she works alone, causing Luke Fox who is listening in on her earpiece to take offense.
• The Boys (2019). In "Cherry", rookie superhero Starlight isn't happy to be teamed-up with Deep, not least because Deep's Establishing Character Moment was coercing her into having sex with him. Starlight tries to argue this trope, but her Vought corporate minders won't let her because team-ups are good for ratings, (but also because they're worried that she might make a mistake, which does in fact happen once she's by herself).
• Burn Notice: Jesse has this problem. He used to be out in the field but got put behind a desk mainly because he didn't work well with others.
• Doctor Who:
  • After having lost two companions in tragic ways, the Tenth Doctor insisted on travelling alone, claiming that he didn't want to have his hearts broken again.
    • Deconstructed in "The Waters of Mars", where after having spent too much time traveling without companions, the Doctor goes mad over his inability to change a fixed point in time, and adopts an A God Am I persona, claiming that since he's the last Time Lord, then the laws of time are his to command. He refers to humans as "little people" and is only brought back when a woman whose life he saved committed suicide in order to preserve the timeline.
    • Then subverted with "The End of Time":
      Wilf: Have you got anyone?
      The Doctor: No. Travelling alone. I thought it was better, I thought... but I did some things, they went wrong... I need... [voice breaks]
  • The Eleventh Doctor went into this mode for a while after losing Amy and Rory Pond (who weren't just companions, but actually his in-laws and the only thing close to a family he had left). It takes meeting (and basically falling for) Clara Oswin Oswald in "The Snowmen" to snap him out of it.
  • "The Ghost Monument": Epzo believes that being alone is the natural state of every sentient being, and refuses to rely on anyone. The events of the episode are hinted to have begun to change his viewpoint.
  • In his portrayal in the Big Finish audios, the War Doctor never took a companion, precisely because they serve as a Morality Pet - and the War Doctor, a character defined entirely by the Godzilla Threshold, needed to go without that kind of restraint.
  • Attempted, but failed, by the Fourth Doctor. Tom Baker famously didn't like having a companion on the show, and this ended up injected into the scripts, usually shortly before someone - up to and including the White Guardian - dropped one on him anyway and told him to make nice.
• Forever Knight. Nick Knight has a good reason to do so, given that he's trying to hide the fact that he's a Vampire Detective. However pressure to solve the 'Vampire Killer' murders means he's forced to take a partner who can work the day shift (Nick ostensibly has an allergy to sunlight). This is Don Schanke, whom he's previously been shown butting heads with, who then becomes his partner.
• Parodied on Good Eats. Alton is explaining how, for some people, making pasta sauce is nostalgic, reminding them of a loving mother or Granny Classic stirring sauce on the stove...and for others, it brings to mind witches adding Eye of Newt to cauldrons. While he's talking, the loving grandmother is stirring sauce, and a witch keeps adding her ingredients, getting into an Escalating War with her. Alton informs the women that he cooks alone and goes into his pasta sauce recipe.
• Frank Pembleton from Homicide: Life on the Street starts off as the only detective in the Homicide unit without a partner, and is outraged when Giardello assigns him to work with rookie detective Bayliss. He gradually grows out of it, and winds up deeply hurt when Bayliss temporarily ends their partnership.
• Hunter (1984). This is why detectives Rick Hunter and Dee Dee McCall team up in the first place. In the pilot episode Captain Cain demands that Hunter work with a partner to keep his Cowboy Cop tendencies under control, so Hunter makes a deal with McCall (whom he already knows, but apparently hasn't been partnered with before) to pretend to be his partner while they work their separate cases. However Cain quickly gets wise to this trick and threatens to call them on the radio and if they both can't answer to show they're working together ("In the car, or in the can"), Hunter will be in trouble. However our heroes quickly find they like working together anyway.
• Knight Rider
  • In The Pilot Michael is still smarting over the death of his partner and doesn't want to work with another one. Wilton, as it turned out, wanted Michael specifically for the job primarily due to his loner streak ("One man can make a difference."). So he's given a Talking Appliance Sidekick in KITT instead.
  • Michael and KITT once encountered a government agent who was Working the Same Case as they were. He stated this literally word-for-word.
    Michael: Well me too but I don't make a religion out of it!
• Abby of NCIS. Her bosses occasionally forced her to take on lab assistants, but she drove them away. After one of them tried to stab her, management decided to leave well enough alone.
• Person of Interest. When government assassin Hersh captures John Reese and demands to know who his boss is, Reese tries this trope but Hersh knows he's lying as they're the same; more comfortable with carrying out orders than giving them.
• Andros from Power Rangers in Space is portrayed this way, especially when he's introduced. He's not thrilled to run into the former Turbo Rangers, and fully intends to send them back to Earth and out of his way. Part of his Character Development is learning the value of working with a team. He does have Freudian Excuse though - his former partner, Zhane (the Silver Ranger), was severely injured in a fight a few years ago and is now in a coma, and according to his actor, the morphers he gave to the others may have belonged to a previous team of Rangers who died in the line of duty, leaving him the Sole Survivor.
• Titans (2018). When Dick Grayson gives the cold shoulder to a Fair Cop assigned to work as his partner, everyone thinks it's because he's an ex-Gotham cop whose partner probably was gassed by the Joker or something. They don't know it's because he's working nights as a costumed vigilante who's broken up with his last partner, Batman.
• On The X-Files, Mulder is originally portrayed this way. He hates the fact that he's been partnered with Scully (not least because he thinks she's been sent to spy on him so his superiors can find an excuse to shut down his work) and spends most of the first season alternating between annoying the hell out of her and being nice to her. By season two, though, he doesn't work alone... he just works with Scully. And if he can't work with Scully, he wants to work alone. He doesn't like to be partnered with anyone else even for a short time. Scully does the same thing in season 8 when partnered with John Doggett.

Tabletop Games

• In Nomine: The Archangel Blandine has been isolating herself from other angels, even her own servitors, for a very long time, and has been managing her own campaigns and business in the Dream Land of the Marchs effectively solo for millennia. Even with those few people she talks to, she tends to be polite but detached.
• Leviathan: The Tempest has this as the core mission statement of the School of the Reef. Beloved, posessions, allies, all these can be lost or taken. The only things a Leviathan can always count on having are his own body, skills, and Channels, and so the School of the Reef focuses on honing these things.
• Princess: The Hopeful:
  • Downplayed by the Court of Swords. While Swords has nothing against friendship and working with allies, its values strongly emphasize autonomy and self-sufficiency. A Princess of Swords should never let herself become truly dependent on another, lest that other tempt her away from the Light.
  • The Court of Mirrors, meanwhile, has this as their Fatal Flaw. Each Princess of Mirrors is told that she is the True Heir, the one destined to cast down the Darkness and restore the Kingdoms of Light. The problem is that a key part of Mirrors philosophy is that the True Heir must stand alone. She may have followers and lieutenants, but never peers or equals.

Toys

• This is the modus operandi of Kopaka, Toa of Ice from BIONICLE, who doesn't even consider himself a part of The Team at first. He even says this word-for-word to Pohatu early on. Gradually, however, Kopaka comes to realize the importance of working as a team with the other Toa, though still retaining his cold attitude.
  Kopaka: I work alone.
  Pohatu: What, by choice? Or just 'cause nobody else can stand you?

Video Games

• In Command & Conquer: Renegade, Havoc outright states that he left the Dead-6 commando unit because he works better alone. When he's forced into working with his old team again regardless, he makes sure they're all okay following a botched insertion... then basically orders them to sit on the sidelines for the rest of the game while he does all the work.
• Cyberpunk 2077 brings us "Solos," who, as their name suggests, are Edgerunners who prefer to work without a team, for various reasons. Given that Night City is a Wretched Hive where you can die in a million different ways per day, Solos who survive their contracts on their own typically become legends, and are often One-Person Armies in their own rights. One such solo is V who, after an abortive heist that left everyone but them dead, more or less is forced to become a solo because no one is crazy enough to partner up with them again; however, as a result, they build up their reputation as someone who gets shit done despite not having a team behind them.
• Fire Emblem Heroes features "Solo"-type skills, which grant stat buffs and/or other benefits to their users if they are not adjacent to a space occupied by an ally unit of theirs. Several Heroes' personal weapons and base skill sets focus on staying away from allies and fighting all by their lonesomes. The reasons for this tend to vary, whether it be because said Heroes don't have sociable personalities (like Sirius, who keeps his real identity a secret and works with Marth for his own personal reasons), are used to isolation to some degree (like Shamir, who is a sniper whose job requires her to be away from the group), are reckless and charge head first into battle (like Ephraim, who is a Blood Knight par excellence), or that they don't want allies to get caught in the crossfire of their abnormal powers (like the Fallen versions of Corrin, who constantly work to constrain their feral dragon instincts).
• Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn usually insists on trying to do everything herself, running off on her allies to save the world. This makes sense, given that she's lived most of her life as an outcast and has relied on herself. However, her allies are very devoted to her, and most of them are pretty skilled, so her behavior primarily annoys them. In Horizon Forbidden West, however, she needs to learn not to work alone and to work with her friends after facing a more significant threat.
• Bill from The Last of Us firmly believes that depending on others is stupid and that you should only count on yourself. He is extremely rude and only seems to work with you to get you out of his holdout, not because you need his help.
• Mass Effect:
  • Urdnot Wrex points out that he's never been much of one for working in an organized army, as "things get... messy." He works best alone, or "in very small groups." Fortunately, Shepard's team counts as such.
  • Previous to that, the turian Spectre Nihlus declines to accompany Commander Shepard's ground team on the mission in Eden Prime, claiming that he moves faster on his own. This ends up getting him shot in the back of the head by his colleague Saren.
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: This is the defining trait of Number One of the World Detective Organization. When he solves a case, he solves it flawlessly and he solves it by himself, always. In fact, this is his Fatal Flaw; he's so proud of his ability to do everything by himself that he's incapable of accepting help from others even when he needs it. He's aware of this though, which is why, when faced with a case he knew he couldn't solve by himself, he makes a pact with Shinigami to wipe his memories, and engineers it so that his amnesiac self would believe he was the trainee detective Yuma Kokohead, and thus be more open to both asking for and accepting help.
• Mega Man Star Force's main theme is The Power of Friendship, so it makes sense that the hero's main rival would be a character that inverts that concept. Enter Solo, whose entire character is heavily defined by his fierce insistence on working alone and opposition to the very concept of friendship, to the point that he actively gains power from his own solitude. That said, Solo is fine with working for others as long as he benefits from it (which is why he's working for the Big Bad), and despite his general misanthropy he feels a deep connection to the ancient culture he originated from.
• Spoken verbatim by White in Neon White, who rebuffs any attempt the rest of the Neons make at teaming up with him.
• In Potion Permit, Matheo refuses to let the Chemist help him find the cure for a new disease that's spreading around Moonbury because he distrusts them and is determined to discover an all-natural cure for it, in order to maintain his family's tradition of using natural remedies. He reluctantly turns to them when his medicine isn't working on the disease.
• The Walking Dead:
  • Molly from Season 1. She had been alone since she lost her sister when they left Crawford. While she enjoys her time with the group, she leaves, thinking it's for the best. She may also leave the group involuntarily if Lee accidentally shoots her in the shoulder at the school while trying to shoot walkers.
  • Jane in Season 2, who is similar to Molly except that in Jane's case, it's a Deconstructed Trope - she's introduced as a cold, pragmatic badass just like Molly was. However, as she stays and works with the group, she thaws out and it becomes apparent that she just holds this trope as her modus operandi because she's scared of losing people close to her, just like her younger sister, Jaime. With that in mind, it explains why she pulls this trope straight-up and leaves the group after Sarah is eaten alive.
  • In Season 1 Episode 4, Lee can elect to look for Clementine alone, even if the other characters beg him to let them help. Some players felt that they didn't want to put the group in danger, and that finding Clem was Lee's job alone to do.
• Subverted with a big dose of lecture at the beginning of Wild ARMs 3. After the intro sequence and all four characters were in a bar, Jet announced that he works alone. Virginia would have none of it, replying directly with "What have you achieved while you were alone?" Make no mistake, it takes a significant chunk of the game for Jet to truly have a meaningful character development, but at least the intent is there.
• Geralt repeatedly says in The Witcher that he prefers to hunt monsters alone, though (depending on the player's choice) he may make an exception for Sigfried—or refuse his help and play this trope completely straight.

Visual Novels

• Collar × Malice:
  • In the common route Bad Ending, Ichika rightfully realizes that no one in Yanagi's group trusts her and decides to attempt to pursue the X-Day Incidents alone. However neither her or the group can do it without working together and this leads to the occurrence of X-Day and the bad ending.
  • Enomoto initially tries to solve the April/May X-Day incident on his own and brushes off Ichika's attempts to work with him, despite everyone noticing he was not making any progress. Ichika's stubbornly deciding to be his partner eventually helps him face his guilt from what happened between Enomoto and his mentor, the first police victim, and find his will to pursue the investigation seriously again.
  • When Yanagi first became a cop, he cut off ties with his family so they wouldn't be caught up in his line of work. He also initially pushes Ichika away from getting too personal with him in his route because of this, as well as out of guilt due to their Forgotten First Meeting where he saved her as a child but traumatized her due to his excessive violence against her captor.
• Akira from Spirit Hunter: NG believes that his problems are his own and that he doesn't need to get anyone else involved with him, especially after one of his acquaintances is killed by the spirits he's fighting. While his friend Seiji applauds his independence, he also still insists on tagging along, as do the other companion characters.

Webcomics

• Benjamin Prester of A Miracle of Science. Justified, as it turns out: His Science-Related Memetic Disorder is under sufficient control to enable him to hold down a job in the police taskforce dedicated to handling Mad Scientists, but the emotional trauma he suffers when his new partner is attacked and apparently killed pushes him into a relapse. And in fact, back in his mad scientist days, he not only didn't work alone but was the only mad scientist to build a true alliance with other mad scientists, his friends.
• Pacific Rim: Amara: Headhunter's sole pilot, Riya Khatri, claims to race alone.
  Amara's narration: Said she didn't need a navigator. Wasn't big on teamwork.
• Lalli from Stand Still, Stay Silent always performs his primary duty, night scouting, alone. In this case, Lalli just doesn't want to have to deal with anyone else breaking his groove when he's trying to sneak in the woods at night. When it comes to his other duties, Lalli is friendly enough, even though his social skills are... lacking.
• Heartful Punch of Sleepless Domain is known for going on nightly monster patrols alone when teams of three or more are the norm. When asked about it, HP acknowledges that doing so is scary, but "there's just lots of things that scare [her] more." After spending time with Undine, HP changes her mindset some, wondering if going solo was simply her own way of being a coward, and offers to become an unofficial pair with Undine.
• Jake Ji from Weak Hero was taught by his brother that real men only rely on themselves, and so he often tries to fight alone both to prove himself and so that his friends won't be put in danger by him. His closest buddy, Dean, is constantly frustrated by this tendency of his, and it's partially responsible for his loss at Ben's hands, as Ben has the lived experience of fighting to the death for someone he cares about.

Web Original

• In one of Lazy Muffin's flash animations, "James and the Chief," James says, "I work alone, or with my old partner... Which is dead... So this can't be done."
• Spoofed in Homestar Runner, where Strong Bad's Cowboy Cop alter ego Dangeresque claims "I work alone! 'Cept when I work with Renaldo, which is all the time!"
• RWBY: Qrow Branwen is a Huntsman who fights without a partner, operating instead as a lone agent for the government of Vale. This is enforced by his Semblance giving everyone in proximity to him bad luck, and Qrow really does not want to be alone, but feels he has no other choice to keep the ones he loves safe.
• Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice. The cliched claymation Cowboy Cop declares this trope on being stuck with a Robot Buddy. It proves to be a nuisance.
  Da Chief: Autocop, are you OK? The boys at the lab will fix you up good as new!
  Steel blows robot's head off with his Hand Cannon.
  Steel: No-they-won't!
  Da Chief: Dammit, Steel! What the hell?!!
  Steel: (Gun Twirling) I work alone!

Western Animation

• Avengers Assemble: When Captain Marvel first appears, she has this attitude, though Captain America intimates to Falcon that it's not entirely by choice; Carol's attitude means no-one else wants to work with her.
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: In the pilot movie, Buzz takes a lone-wolf attitude after his former partner, Warp Darkmatter, was killed on a mission. It's only after Buzz finds out that Warp faked his death to return to Zurg that he manages to get over his guilt and accept his new teammates.
• In the Darkwing Duck episode "In Like Blunt", Darkwing encounters an agent who acts this way. Derek Blunt first enters opposing J. Gander's plan to send Darkwing in with him, reminding him that he doesn't like partners. When he sees Launchpad for the first time, he criticizes Darkwing for needing someone else to fly the plane and remarks contemptuously that he didn't need a sidekick during his own career.
• A Hollywood Hounds Christmas: Dude has this attitude at the start. He rejects the idea of combining his music style (Country Music), with Cuz' (Blues) and Rosie's (Salsa) on the grounds that he doesn't like those styles, describing himself as a solo act. He then attempts to go to the Mushy Chum commercial audition alone, only to be tailed by Cuz and Rosie.
• In LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers, the titular character is The Ace who is used to and good enough to work alone on missions, even when offered help. Naturally, he's given a team after a private adventure in the beginning, and quite a few problems occur because they can't coordinate their abilities.
• Ready Jet Go!: It isn't said verbatim, but Mitchell usually rejects help from other characters when trying to solve his cases, claiming that he needs to solve his mysteries himself, as shown in episodes like "What Goes Up...", "Kid-Kart Derby", and "Mindy's Mystery".
• Final Space: In episode 5, Quinn adopts this mentality after she sees the Infinity Guard is corrupt, and she still doesn’t trust Gary or Avocato. She seemingly gets over it by the episode's end, but in episode 7 it turns out she still thinks she should save the Earth alone; something Nightfall warns her against. By the end of the episode, she is finally ready to give the others another chance at helping her.
• Gravity Falls: A Deconstruction of this trope is shown in the second half of Season Two and in Gravity Falls: Journal 3: The Author aka Dr. Stanford Pines had this mindset in his youth, only working with one assistant and ignoring the townspeople. This and his arrogance resulted in being manipulated by Bill Cipher into building a portal for him and his friends to try to Take Over the World. He does stop Bill and shuts down the portal, but also loses his one friend, goes partly insane and ultimately gets sucked into the portal after a fight with his brother, Stanley. Even after thirty years missing and his experiences in the multiverse, he still goes by this mindset, trusting only Dipper with The Rift. That results in Cipher manipulating Mabel into unknowingly giving it to him, Ford getting captured trying to stop him alone and him regretting his lone wolf actions. He does get better in the end.
• Star Wars Rebels. Used for an Inadvertent Entrance Cue in "Spark of Rebellion".
  Kallus: It's over for you, Jedi! A master and an apprentice...such a rare find these days.
  Ezra: I don't know where you get your delusions, Buckethead—I work alone!
  (The Ghost flies up alongside him)
  Kanan: Not this time.
• Rick and Morty
  • Most timelines have a Rick and most Ricks have a Morty. Except for Rick Prime, who abandoned his family to go kill our Rick's original family. He was once offered to team up with a fellow nemesis, but declined.
  Rick Prime: I really don't team up anymore. Managing people? Such a headache.
  • Whenever Evil Morty schemes, he tends to prefer doing it himself. In "Close Rick-Counters Of The Rick Kind", using Evil Rick as his mouthpiece, when Rick C-137 assumes that they team up to destroy the Citadel, he claims he's pretty good doing things on his own. In "Unmortricken", Evil Morty outright refuses to Rick Prime's We Can Rule Together. Ironically, this trope is one of the only things Evil Morty shares with Rick Prime.
• OnT.O.T.S., J.P. likes to maintain that this is the case with him, though he'll often budge with persuasion.

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