| rdfs:comment | - Friends are great. Which is why having friends is often what separates the hero from the villain. An inevitable side-effect of The Power of Friendship is if you don't have friends, there's something wrong with you. Similarly, if a writer is going to create a sympathetic Anti-Hero, they often choose to make the character a brooding loner. Although there are many other ways to make a flawed character--Pride, addiction, and lust are all sympathetic, epic flaws. No, no, instead, writers opt for just plain asocial. And, as Freaks proved, loners may be freaks, but freaks aren't loners.
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| abstract | - Friends are great. Which is why having friends is often what separates the hero from the villain. An inevitable side-effect of The Power of Friendship is if you don't have friends, there's something wrong with you. Similarly, if a writer is going to create a sympathetic Anti-Hero, they often choose to make the character a brooding loner. Although there are many other ways to make a flawed character--Pride, addiction, and lust are all sympathetic, epic flaws. No, no, instead, writers opt for just plain asocial. In fiction, introversion usually includes a raft of other problems: apathy, arrogance, selfishness, mental instability, inhumanity, or plain old evil. Loners will be shown as insulting others by implying, through their refusal to socialize, that others are not worthy of their presence. Right? This perception stems from the belief that being a loner is not a natural thing. There is something "wrong" with them. There's also the association with serial killers who tend to be loners. In Japan, Hikikomori are seen as either NEETs gone over the edge, or lazy students cutting class rather than victims of a nearly-Social Darwinist society defined by ambition and fear of shame. Rather than reaching out for help, the family is expected to isolate the weirdo from society and deal with the problem themselves. When fiction still doesn't remember the difference between being a loner by choice or being driven to it, this is the attitude at work. Even more unfortunately, there is some historic basis for this; humans are social animals. Cooperation along with the invention of language is how we survived and those who were alone often weren't able to reproduce or hand over their innovations to the next guy. Through most of human history collective action was the only practical means of survival; being extremely selfish, hiding all the time, or being shunned/banned/exiled/cast out was very often a precursor to slow death by starvation, predation, etc. Thus a person condemned to Dying Alone was almost certainly alone because of a problem he'd had in another group and so to be avoided. A loner can also become a freak through isolation. Humans learn how to be human through social interaction. And there are many social skills that can only be learnt in person -- isolation can lead to No Social Skills. When you're raised in isolation, you behave differently. Many psychological disorders originate from a deficit in human interaction. Then that person will be shunned, isolating him further in a vicious cycle, putting him closer to Despair Event Horizon..... Of course, this trope could just be the inversion of the idea that nobody could like a freak, so those freaks are loners. But this doesn't logically translate to all loners are freaks, but a lot of fiction doesn't follow logic. The Messiah will often effect a Heel Face Turn on an antagonist by trying to be their friend. Often this will work by itself, hammering home the idea that what's wrong with the villain isn't the need for revenge or a severely unbalanced psyche, it's a lack of friends. Even if The Messiah eventually accepts the Loner as a Loner, the Loner will often appreciate the effort, and begin making token attempts to be sociable with the True Companions. It's hard to determine whether this trope originated from assumptions about loners in the real world or helped cause it...or whether that's another vicious cycle. There are exceptions, as with all other tropes: the crusty old hermit or Witch Doctor who rebuffs the villains and helps out the heroes is a fairly popular stock character. And both of those are frequently portrayed at the very least as eccentric. The Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold is a subversion. The Snark Knight deliberately seeks to defy this trope. And, as Freaks proved, loners may be freaks, but freaks aren't loners. Compare The Complainer Is Always Wrong and perhaps Intelligence Equals Isolation. Contrast You Are Not Alone. See also No Social Skills. Examples of Loners Are Freaks include:
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