When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that.
— Gertrude Stein
Physical solitude, or mental (which can be worse in a crowd) — and its causes, and its consequences.
A total lack of human contact can leave the character isolated even if surrounded by non-humans; and sometimes they have to be specific kinds of humans (caring friends and family), and sometimes, if a character is facing depression, no one can keep them from feeling isolated.
Compare Introversion Tropes. Contrast Ensembles, Power Trio and Duo Tropes. See The Singles Index, which deals with romantic solitude.
Tropes
- All of the Other Reindeer: A character is mistreated and/or shunned by most or all other characters.
- Alone Among the Couples: A character with no loved one is surrounded by those with loved ones.
- Alone Among Families: A character with no family is surrounded by happy families.
- Alone in a Crowd: A lonesome character is surrounded by a crowd.
- The Aloner: Being alone after a catastrophe.
- Alone-with-Prisoner Ploy: A guard or "guard" pretends to want to be left alone with a prisoner for nefarious reasons in order to get a chance to pass a message or comfort the prisoner.
- Alone with the Psycho: A defenseless character is alone with a dangerous character who wants to kill them.
- Anti-Interference Lock Up: A character is locked up or restrained to keep them out of the way, often resulting in temporary isolation.
- Attractiveness Isolation: An attractive character is alone because no one dares to ask them out.
- Better with Non-Human Company: The character is just fine with other beings/lifeforms, but can't make connections with fellow humans.
- Bleak Border Base: The last place you'd want to be stuck, at the edge of civilisation with little contact.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: A character is stuck with someone against their will, but realizes they miss them when they're alone.
- City in a Bottle: A city that is sealed away from the rest of the world.
- Corner of Woe: A character retreats to a corner because they feel upset.
- Creepy Loner Girl: A female character has no friends due to her creepiness.
- Crew of One: A single person performs a duty that typically takes multiple people.
- Dark Magical Girl: They are typically lonely and jealous of the Magical Girl's relationships.
- The Drifter: A character who is Walking the Earth.
- Dying Alone: A character dies alone with no one around them.
- Eating Lunch Alone: A character is found eating by themself only.
- "Everyone Is Gone" Episode: A character (or small group of characters) finds that everyone else has unaccountably disappeared.
- Figure It Out Yourself: A character asks for help or advice and is told to figure it out for themselves.
- First Friend: A loner character manages to make one friend.
- Friendless Background: A character is presented as not having any friends.
- Friendlessness Insult: Insulting someone by claiming they have no friends.
- Friendship-Hating Antagonist: An antagonist who hates friendship and bonds, serving as an antithesis to the main hero.
- Frozen Dinner of Loneliness: Lonely characters want something easy to reheat and eat.
- "Getting My Own Room" Plot: A character wants a bedroom they don't have to share.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: When being alone causes a character lose their sanity.
- Hates Being Alone: A character hates being by themself.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: A character with headphones on pays the world no mind.
- The Hermit: A character lives in isolation and likes it like that.
- Hermit Guru: A particularly wise character who lives in a remote location.
- Heroic Neutral: A character wants to be alone and have nothing to do with anyone else.
- Hidden Elf Village: A secret location inhabited by isolationists.
- Hikikomori: A character with a strong aversion towards going outside.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: A solitary character longs for friends.
- I Work Alone: One character can do the work of five. Usually a One-Man Army.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: A contestant is focused on winning the game as opposed to making friends with other contestants.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: When a hero's allies can't follow them in the final showdown.
- Individuality Index: A list of tropes about individuality and individualistic traits and behaviors.
- Ineffectual Loner: A character's solitary nature is not enough.
- Informed Loner: The narrative implies he's a loner, but he's shown to be with friends.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Intelligent people are loners.
- Invisible Introvert: Characters with stealth powers tend to be shy or asocial.
- It's Up to You: Only the player character can accomplish the game's goal.
- Jungle Princess: A young (usually European) woman is raised alone in the jungle.
- Karmic Shunning: A character's shunned by others because of their horrible actions.
- A Kind of One: A fictional species is extrapolated from a unique, famous, mythical creature.
- Knight Errant: A heroic character who wanders the Earth helping anyone in need they come across.
- The Last Man Heard a Knock...: After believing one is alone, one finds signs of another...usually not in a positive light.
- Last of His Kind: When a character is the lone member of his group.
- Leave Him to Me!: When a character tells his allies he can handle the villain on his own.
- Leave Me Alone!: A character rejects others' help because he thinks he can do it on his own.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Two characters on the verge of a romantic revelation are quickly abandoned by their friends in order to admit or confirm their feelings, often as part of a Everyone Can See It plot.
- Lonely Among People: A character who has friends or is social, but feels lonely.
- Lonely at the Top: When becoming successful leads the character to be alone.
- Lonely Doll Girl: Alice's only "friends" are dolls.
- Lonely Funeral: Few, if any, attend the funeral.
- Lonely Rich Kid: A wealthy kid who is alone.
- Lonely Together: When two characters share a common bond of loneliness.
- Loners Are Freaks: When being a loner is labeled as being weird or evil.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: A solitary character becomes a friend to someone.
- Loners Will Stay Alone: Even after temporarily connecting with a group for an adventure, a character will resume being alone.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: A character becomes a loner because he gets fed up with society.
- Minor Living Alone: When a child lives alone.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: The loner isn't bad as people make them out to be.
- Nature Hero: A hero who lives alone in the wilderness and can commune with animals and/or plants.
- No Social Skills: A character is too ignorant of social conventions to make friends.
- Off the Grid: A character has a lifestyle meant to keep them untraceable, which usually means no social connections.
- One-Person Birthday Party: A character celebrates their birthday alone because they have no friends.
- One Riot, One Ranger: A One-Man Army is sent to resolve a conflict instead of a large force.
- Only Friend: Character only has one friend.
- The Only One: The hero is the only one who can solve the problem because no one else can do it.
- Orphan's Ordeal: When being an orphan sucks.
- Parental Abandonment: A character's parents are missing or never shown.
- Parental Neglect: A character's parents are not spending time with their child or paying any interest despite their presence.
- Remember That You Trust Me: A character is reminded they have friends.
- Rich Recluse's Realm: An immensely wealthy character prefers to hide away in a domain of their own making.
- Robinsonade: The plot is about one or more characters living stranded away from civilization and having to live off the land.
- Rodent Cellmates: A character only has rats for company.
- Safely Secluded Science Center: A research laboratory is isolated for safety's sake.
- The Shut-In: A character never goes outside, or only goes out for basic necessities.
- Single Line of Descent: A lineage only has one key living descendant.
- Single Specimen Species: A being who is the only member of their species in existence.
- Small, Secluded World: The planet itself is too small to have more than a small population, meaning that many inhabitants spend much of their time isolated.
- Space Isolation Horror: Part of the horror of being trapped in space is being utterly alone and millions of miles from help.
- Sole Survivor: The character is the only survivor of a tragedy that wiped out their companions.
- Solitary Sorceress: A magical woman lives deep in the wilderness for the heroes to seek out.
- Solo Duet: Singing a duet by themselves.
- Solo Sequence: In a game where the player controls multiple characters together, for this part only one character is involved.
- Survivor Guilt: A character feels guilty for surviving a tragedy where others died.
- There Is Another: A character isn't the Last of His Kind, after all.
- They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The hero's allies choose to stay out of the fight due to it being too personal for the hero to not face it alone.
- Token Good Cop: The only good law enforcement officer in an agency full of bad ones.
- Trauma Swing: A depressed character sits alone on a swing.
- Truly Single Parent: A child has a single parent not just in the sense that their parent has no spouse, but also in the sense that they were the only parent involved in their child's conception and birth.
- Un-Duet: One person singing only part of a duet.
- Uniqueness Value: Being the only one makes you important.
- Used to Be More Social: A character used to be close with others, but is now withdrawn.
- Wandering Wizard: A magic user who usually travels by their lonesome.
- Wild Child: A character that was born and raised in the wilderness.
- The World Mocks Your Loss: After a person breaks up, they see everyone else having successful love lives to add insult to injury.
- Zen Survivor: The Sole Survivor finds peace and clarity in isolation.
Quite a crowd of them, isn't there?
