Basic Trope: Characters who spend the majority of their time alone are considered to be social deviants.
- Straight: Alex spends the vast majority of his time alone, and he's considered to be an outcast and freak.
- Exaggerated: Alex spends the vast majority of his time alone, and he's considered to be a villain who schemes against others.
- Downplayed:
- Although Alex has only a few friends, he is still considered a bit weird whenever he's alone.
- Although others don't mind Alex's solitary nature, they are a bit concerned about him.
- Justified:
- Humans are social animals, and the others are naturally inclined to assume that Alex is mentally unbalanced.
- Alex is a recluse who lives off the grid in a cabin in the woods outside of town, hunts and grows his own food, has no job, and wears animal skins he made himself. He's actually a normal, friendly guy, but nobody wants to talk to him due to his bizarre lifestyle.
- The society Alex lives in puts forth value in socializing and making friends, but Alex feels so comfortable in being alone that others see this as unacceptable.
- Alex is tired of being ignored, so he acts bizarrely in order to get people to notice him. Unfortunately, his bizarre behavior drives people away, perpetuating the cycle.
- Alex is a Shrinking Violet with severe social anxiety.
- Inverted:
- Alex is admired by many people because he spends so much of his time alone.
- Alex has a lot of friends, and because of this, loners consider him weird.
- Alex becomes a loner because he was treated like a freak.
- Alex is treated like a social deviant because he spends the majority of his time with either friends or family.
- Subverted:
- Alex is just a shy eccentric who comes across as a full-blown freak because no one has got to know him.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold.
- Double Subverted: ...or so he'd seem to anyone first getting to know him. He's actually even more of a freak than anyone guessed when he still spent all his time alone.
- Parodied:
- Alex is treated as an almost imaginary figure amongst other people.
- Alex is given cold unfriendly glares from everyone because he doesn't have a Facebook page.
- The people are portrayed as ultimate paragons of virtue because they use The Power of Friendship to overcome obstacles while Alex is portrayed as a irredeemable villain because of his preference of solitude.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes, others treat Alex with disdain and suspicion whenever he's alone, and sometimes, they relent when Alex doesn't cause any trouble, although that doesn't stop others from continuously discouraging his behavior.
- Averted:
- No one thinks of Alex as a freak.
- There are no characters who prefer to be alone.
- Enforced:
- "For some reason, the producer wants us to create a stock freaky character, or else we won't get a raise. People think loners are freaks. Let's make Alex not talk to anyone."
- The producer ordered the writers to change Alex's behavior to a solitary jerk / freak for the sole sake of viewers learning a moral lesson which discourages the enjoyment of being alone and that everyone needs to make friends whether they like it or not.
- Lampshaded:
- "Look at that guy Alex. He thinks he's so good, he doesn't need anyone."
- "Something tells me you need to be around people more often."
- Invoked: Alex used to have several friends, but for various reasons the friendships all fell apart. So...
- Exploited: Mark, a villain, makes nasty rumors about a solitary Alex planning to commit genocide on the planet so that everyone can look up to him.
- Defied: "He may be a loner, but I'm pretty sure he's not some freakish monster."
- Discussed:
- "Why in the world that all of these loners in the world have such serious problems?"
- "Why does everyone think that being alone is such a bad thing?"
- Conversed: "If I was Alex, I'd stop being such a weirdo and join the heroes already."
- Deconstructed:
- The preconceptions that Alex is a freak really start to take a mental toll on him. Things eventually turn into one vicious cycle, as he starts to intentionally avoid others even more, therefore making the others spread the "freak" rumors even more. That's when he pulls a Face–Heel Turn and they still ignored him, so he pulled off a Slasher Smile and decided to kill 'em.
- Alex seems to be regarded as a freak due to the fact he has abandoned people to focus on his personal aspirations. Despite achieving everything that he wants and needs, Alex doesn't feel the need to enjoy life as he should.
- Their "humans are social" belief is so strong that they don't believe anyone could possibly enjoy being alone, and dismiss his claims that he really does enjoy being alone as a transparent case of sour grapes. Jerkasses mock Alex for being a "loser" who "failed at life", while the nicer people out there take pity on him and try to "help" him be more "normal" and sociable so that he can finally have a happy life (much to his annoyance).
- The "humans are social" propaganda got into Alex's head making him more depressed to the point of contemplating on killing himself just to escape from the scorn and antagonism of those sociable arseholes.
- The "humans are social" propaganda got into Alex's head making him feel that there really is something wrong with him, and as a result, he makes an effort to be "normal". However, he is miserable that way because he hates doing "normal" activities, and he is miserable when alone and doing things he actually likes because he feels like a loser and a freak.
- It appears that people belittle Alex's solitary nature as a way to show their jealousy of how he has it easy in being alone while they've been abandoned and betrayed by people whom they thought were their friends.
- People try to get Alex to be more social because of their belief that all loners turn out to become Serial Killers. Their constant and relentless campaign against his chosen lifestyle annoys him so much that he eventually snaps and kills them all just to have a moment's peace, and a moment is all he gets. He is arrested and jailed, and all of the news stories make a point of mentioning how it's no surprise that he killed those people because of what a freaky loner he is.
- From Alex's perspective, people who shun his asociality are basically inconsiderate Jerkasses that dislike him for having different preferences than they do.
- Reconstructed:
- Alex gets over the preconceptions that he is a freak and even if he will still live the solitary life, he tries to understand others.
- While Alex is still considered a freak by society, there are some people who are willing to accept him as a loner. Thus, Alex lives a happier life.
- But as others notice Alex's altruistic qualities, they all stop labeling him as a freak/sociopath and accept him for who he is, albeit grudgingly.
- But for some time now, those who don't mock Alex managed to get him to open up to people while not minding him in being a loner.
- Alex merely ignores what others think of him and lives his life as he wants: a loner. With that said, he acknowledges that while he prefers asociality / introversion, from a pragmatic point of view, there are scenarios where social interaction is needed / important (e.g., in the workplace). Alex realises that the two are not mutually exclusive and hence lives his own way while understanding the need to be considerate.
- Played for Drama: Alex spends most of his life alone, which garners the attention of society whom one half ridicules and criticizes him while others plot to kill him because they believe him to be a serial killer. Alex struggles for the rest of his life to survive an unkind society as well as staying alive only by himself.
Look at that guy. He's always alone. And as we all know, Loners Are Freaks.
