"Stop it! Leave me alone! You're the one who's going to get hurt!"
— Haruka Kotoura, Kotoura-san
Anyone who refuses help with this phrase is convinced that they need to keep their problems secret and solve them on their own. This can only end one way: learning An Aesop about pride. Unless they say "leave me alone" and then add, "nothing's wrong", "I can take care of myself", or "it's none of your business". In that case, they've screwed up even more badly, and may get themselves killed before they can learn their valuable lesson. The character will eventually learn that doing things alone causes problems and accepts The Power of Friendship.
Of course, every now and then there's a character who is so badass that they really can handle everything themselves. They never say "Leave Me Alone". They say "you'll have to trust me", "don't help me when I don't want to be helped", or something that sounds equally high-minded. Unless, of course, they resort to the classic "Stay out of my way," in which case An Aesop about teamwork may not be far off.
Compare Don't You Dare Pity Me! and Think Nothing of It, both of which can express this in certain situations, I Work Alone if it's characters who reject an offer to work with a team, The Only One and Only I Can Kill Him if the character doesn't want help because the would-be helpers would be ineffectual at best or get themselves killed at worst, and Get Out! for a similar phrase someone would say for others to leave them be. Also see Declaration of Personal Independence.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Kotoura-san: In the first episode, Haruka requested this from Manabe at the end of episode 1, as she thought his being close to her would eventually hurt him. Manabe talked her out of it, at least to try to be friends with him.
Comic Books
- Be Prepared: Vera yells that she doesn't need anyone at her camp counselor Natasha after being shunned by the older kids, saying she's going home soon and she won't need to see any of the mean kids that have been picking on her ever again. She ends up at camp for two more weeks, and during that time makes a friend, showing this was just a boast after feeling friendless yet again.
- The Incredible Hulk: Inverted numerous times and alternatingly becomes Mugging the Monster and/or Bullying the Dragon when the Hulk, and later Banner, tell the other heroes to leave him alone, and it turns out that they should have left him alone. One of Banner's few friends, Doc Samson even told them "The Hulk keeps telling you to leave him alone. I suggest you do exactly that." It's a given that if the Hulk was left to his own devices, he'd wander into a wilderness area far from any human encroachment and just stay there.
- Watchmen: Said by Dr. Manhattan when he is mobbed by reporters.
- Batman usually adds a "you'll have to trust me" to the line.
- Kingdom Come: Uttered by the Parasite who attempts to surrender from Magog and his Justice Battalion. But as the Justice Battalion is made up of Blood Knight Nineties Anti Heroes, his cries for mercy are ignored, which kick-starts the plot of the story as he lashes out in fear, ripping through Captain Atom's suit, nuking the American Midwest. One reporter even points out that Magog could have averted tragedy if he had just listened to Parasite.
- Contagion: The Urchin eventually starts shouting this at the heroes whenever they confront it.
- Supergirl:
- In Supergirl (1982) #22, Joan notices her friend Linda is upset and attempts to reach out. Linda reacts badly:
Linda: Joan! I said I didn't want to talk... and I mean it! Leave me alone!
- The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): At one point, Kara gets angry when Bruce shadows her as she strolls about in the Fortress' Intergalactic Zoo and demands to know why he cannot leave her alone.
Kara: Why can't you leave me alone?
- Supergirl (2005): Deconstructed. Shortly after showing up on Earth, Kara asked her cousin, Batman and Wonder Woman leave her alone for a while as she figured her new life out. Unfortunately she spent one whole year completely aimless and screwing around due to Kryptonite poisoning altering her personality until she understood she needed help.
- In Supergirl (2011) #8, the USA Army tries to corral Supergirl when she is weakened. Kara just shouts "Leave me ALONE!!!" and flies away.
- Supergirl kept this attitude for a long while in the Post-Flashpoint universe. When Superman and Supergirl argue in the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline, he reminds his cousin that she wanted him to leave her alone to live her own life since she showed up on Earth.
- In Supergirl (2016), the DEO troops attack Lar-On -a Kryptonian werewolf- due to a misunderstanding. Lar-On screamed "Leave [me] alone!" and tried to get away.
- In Last Daughter of Krypton, Superman wants to help his cousin when he meets her, but Kara -who cannot be even sure that man whom she has just met is really her baby cousin- asks him to leave her alone and flies away.
- Day of the Dollmaker: Although Catherine Grant blackmails Supergirl into helping her solve a case of missing kids, she cannot stop herself from constantly belittling the young hero. Eventually, Kara becomes fed up with her bullying, declares she will work on the case on her own, and tells Cat off.
Catherine Grant: "But — But WAIT! I need—"
Supergirl: "You need to leave me alone, is what you NEED to do." - When the Symbioship Strikes!: After spending several decades in suspended animation, Kara is unable to deal with crowds, getting easily anxious, flustered, and above all angry. So, when she is accosted by a mob of reporters, Kara yells them to stay out of her way, and jumps away and out of the city just to be alone.
- Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom: Three days after Supergirl has lost to a Darkseid's minion, Superman finds his cousin sitting on the Moon, visibly extraordinarily upset. Superman says they are going on a vacation to another planet so she can clear her head and he can train her properly, but Supergirl says she only wants to be left alone. Resignedly, Superman states it was not a suggestion.
- In Supergirl (1982) #22, Joan notices her friend Linda is upset and attempts to reach out. Linda reacts badly:
Fan Works
- Child of the Storm has Harry occasionally slide into this line of thinking out of a mixture of trauma and desire to protect his friends and loved ones from the fallout of his adventures. Usually, this leads to him getting smacked around the head and told that he's being an idiot.
- The Coming of the First Ones: After the Third Impact, Shinji has become a celebrity, much to his regret. He daily gets calls and dozens of letters of people asking for guidance and counsel after the Third Impact, lambasting him for setting Instrumentality off, thanking him for stopping and reverting Instrumentality, condemning him for stopping and reverting Instrumentality, asking why he has isolated himself, wanting him to denounce SEELE publicly or speak out against whatever they want to protest...and Shinji only wants them to leave him and Asuka alone as they rebuild their lives.
- Evangelion: A New Awakening: In chapter 6, Shinji and Asuka are dancing during Misato and Kaji's wedding, when Shinji obeys a sudden impulse to Kiss her. Unfortunately, Asuka isn't yet ready to open up to someone, so she freaks out, slaps him and runs away, as Shinji pleads with her to not leave him, shouting he loves her. As Shinji chases after her, Asuka, who is feeling terrified of and unable to deal with her own feelings, shouts him to leave her alone.
- Maybe Then He'll Chill Again
: Vox demands Velvette and Valentino to leave him alone when he has a falling out with them when they tried to apologize after he declared he's not going to be friends with them anymore and he's going to redeem himself.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: That Which Could (Not) Happen: In chapter 13, Shinji tries to reach Asuka out upon realizing that she has become more unstable while he was merged into his Evangelion, but Asuka angrily growls she doesn't want help, but being left alone.
- The One I Love Is...: In chapter 4 Shinji hurts Asuka and she runs away. Shinji looks for her and when he finds her, she is sitting under a tree and sobbing. As soon as he approaches, she screams for him to leave her alone.
"Go away..."
Her voice had barely been stronger than a whisper. It got definitely louder as I continued, as if I hadn't heard her.
"Go away!"
I continued to ignore her.
"You're hurt, Asuka..."
"LEAVE ME ALONE!"
What stopped me was the look on her face, rather than the words. I had seen her angry before. I had seen her mad before. I had seen her sad before. But this... It was a look of pure hatred.
"I don't need you! I don't need anyone! Go away!"
This said, she pulled her legs up to her chest, let her chin rest on her knees and then closed her eyes.
"Leave me alone... just... leave me alone..."
This time, she had said the words between sobs. - Strike a Match: In Chapter 58, this trope occurs in a desperate attempt to stall Naruto from potentially destroying Soul Society in vengeance for his wife's death. Kyoraku sends in Rangiku to try and seduce the arrancar, hoping that Naruto's nature as a Chick Magnet could work in their favor. Naruto, who's not in the mood, tries to ignore her. Unfortunately for him, Rangiku isn't one to give up easily.
He sat up, lifted Rangiku up by the waist as though she weighed no more than a leaf, then set her down opposite him.
"Eh?"
Ignoring her, he rose to his feet and walked past, leaving her behind. "Not now."
She raced around him.
"Now wait just a second!"
He kept walking. "I said no, damnit."
She grabbed at him. "Aww, don't be so stingy-"
He rounded on her with a hiss, eyes burning. "TAKE A HINT!" - In Thousand Shinji, as Asuka fights Gaghiel and goes berserker, she mentally screams that she wants everybody to leave her alone.
Everything has to die! Die for your sins! Die! Die like momma died! Die and leave me alone! Always alone! Die!
- At the beginning of chapter 4 of The Second Try, Asuka tries to drive Shinji away, so she repeatedly screams “Leave me alone!”. When Shinji refuses, though, she stops trying to push him away.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide:
- When a classmate teases Asuka about her relationship with Shinji -a very sensitive topic to her-, Asuka lashes out screaming “Leave me alone!”
"Shut up! I hate boys! I hate him! Leave me alone or I swear I will hurt you!"
- After accidentally hurting a fellow pilot, Asuka tells Shinji that he should leave her before she hurts him, too.
"Leave me alone," the voice that replied was weak, unrecognizable. It was quickly followed by a series of choked whimpers that let Shinji know she trying not to cry. "Please, just go away. It's better that way."
- When a classmate teases Asuka about her relationship with Shinji -a very sensitive topic to her-, Asuka lashes out screaming “Leave me alone!”
- Done briefly in the fanfic The Dimension Hoppers with Cassie who is suffering from guilt due to an alternate Kendrix's death
Film — Animation
- Anastasia (1997): Dmitri tries to make Anya listen by telling her she is the actual Anastasia and he was the one who helped her and her grandmother escape, but she shouts this when she has had enough.
Dmitri: Anya, please. When you spoke about the hidden door on the wall opening and the little boy. Listen to me. That was-
Anya: No! I don't want to hear about anything that I said or remembered! You just leave me alone! - The Hunchback of Notre Dame: After Frollo has Quasimodo chained up in the cathedral after tricking him into bringing Esmerelda and Phoebus into his trap, the gargoyles urge their friend to break himself free and save them from the stake. But Quasi, ashamed over what he did refuses to listen and tells them to leave him alone.
Hugo: So, that's it? You're giving up?!
Laverne: These chains aren't what's holding you back, Quasimodo!
Quasimodo: Leave me alone!
Hugo: (stricken) Okay. Okay, Quasi. We'll leave you alone.
Victor: After all, we're only made out of stone.
Laverne: We just thought, maybe, you were made of something stronger. - The Little Mermaid: Ariel says this when Sebastian tries to apologize for inadvertently telling her father about her grotto, which indirectly led him to destroy it.
Sebastian: Ariel, I...
Ariel: Just go away. - My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): Pinkie says this to Twilight after she snaps at her and the others when they call her out for trying to steal the seaponies' Pearl of Transformation.
Twilight: (ashamed) Pinkie... I...
Pinkie: I just can't talk to you right now. - NIMONA (2023): Ambrosius's attempt to reach out to Ballister and reason with him ends with Ballister snapping "Why can't you just leave me alone?" Ambrosius's response is "Because I love you." Despite being upset with him, Ballister decides to give him the benefit of the doubt, which unfortunately leads to Nimona having a breakdown and nearly committing suicide.
- In Trolls, Branch says this to Poppy after he tells her his reason for not singing.
Branch: Now leave me alone.
- In Turning Red, Mei is alone in her room, struggling with her newly-awakened red panda transformation, when her friends come to see if she's okay. They try to comfort her, but she believes nothing can help, so she tells them to "go away and leave me alone".
Literature
- Shep from Dogs of the Drowned City says this to Callie when she worries for him and even calls her and the other dogs "yappers". He stews around for a while until he witnesses Frizzle's death, snapping him out of his funk and deciding to help the others from now on.
- RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant: In The Warrior in the Woods, the Warrior keeps telling the hero to leave her alone and stay out of the forest, to no avail. Because her clothes are torn, old, and falling apart, he brings clothes his mother no longer wears to give to her. She initially rejects his gift, claiming she doesn't need anything and can't accept them anyway. She eventually accepts them just to get him to leave, but she is wearing them the next time he sees her.
Live-Action TV
- Black Mirror: Cliff tries to comfort David after the death of his family. David screams at him to leave him alone.
- In Degrassi Junior High, anyone who says "leave me alone" will inevitably come crawling back to the person who offered them help.
- The Pretender: Some of the people Jarod tries to help want to be alone including a rape survivor who is too traumatised to want to be around anyone and a CIA agent with powerful enemies. Also when Jarod tries to help Miss Parker with finding answers about her various murdered loved ones he often gets this response.
- In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time", Spock spends the first part of the episode refusing help from Chapel, McCoy, Kirk, or anyone else on ship out of embarrassment about the pon farr. Eventually, Kirk wears him down.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- One episode featured an ensign from a low gravity world who needed a wheelchair to get around in what everybody else considered normal gravity. She resented being treated like she had a disability and refused all help and accommodation that wasn't absolutely necessary and also requested to operate solo on missions because she could focus and not worry about slowing anyone down. The first half of the episode was one incident after another of her refusing reasonable precautions and help and getting herself into danger because of it.
- "Hard Time" has Chief O'Brien suffering the trauma of a simulated decades-long prison sentence for alleged espionage on an alien planet. Throughout the episode he rebuffs attempts to help him, particularly his sessions with the station's counsellor, and he also pushes away his best friend Julian Bashir, continually insisting that he just wants to be left alone. Eventually his behaviour gets erratic and volatile to the point of jeopardising his work and family life, culminating in a suicide attempt, during which he finally opens up to Bashir about his experiences. From this point on he accepts his regular counselling sessions and begins the road to recovery.
- In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two" (S02, Ep22), Bobby does not want to leave Dean alone after Sam's death, but Dean insists and ends up making a deal with a crossroad demon.
- WandaVision: The fifth episode sees SWORD send a missile into the Hex to try to communicate with Wanda. When Hayward makes the mistake of firing a missile at Wanda, she exits the Hex to give him an ultimatum to leave her alone, which she emphasizes by possessing Hayward's men to turn their guns on him.
Music
- "Don't Bother Me" by The Beatles from With the Beatles is about someone who wants his former partner to leave him alone.
- From Linkin Park's album Hybrid Theory, "A Place For My Head":
You try to take the best of me
GO AWAY! - "Get Off Of My Cloud" by The Rolling Stones from Out of Our Heads.
- "Leave Me Alone" by Michael Jackson from Bad, directed at all the media frenzy around his celebrity.
Radio
- Bleak Expectations: After getting dumped by his wife Pippa, Harry Biscuit (supposedly) quotes the Bible at Pip Bin: "Leave me alone, I'm miserable!"
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: On Holtz's computer at the Flores residence, he received a message from Ryan after he had told the latter to stop getting into trouble.
Ryan's message: Leave me alone, old man! I'm looking for something very important! Stop trying to give me all these so-called life lessons, my ears hurt!
- Final Fantasy VIII's Squall Leonheart embodies this trope. He even admits he's a complete wreck later in the game, but he still won't accept anyone's help because he can't trust anyone anymore. Trying to isolate himself only makes things worse.
- In Mega Man & Bass's collectible CDs containing info about various characters from across the series, Wave Man is both quoted as saying the trope by name, and mentioned to behave like it as well.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Miles Edgeworth (a Jerkass prosecutor who has been a thorn in your side up to this point) is framed for murder. When you (as Phoenix) offer to defend him, he alternately ignores or insults you, trying to drive you away, even though it's obvious his situation is desperate and he has no one else to help him.
- In Sonic Rush, Blaze the Cat is like this at first, but she grows out of it thanks to Cream and Sonic's influence.
- In Tokimeki Memorial 2, this is the bread and butter of the Kaori events "Farewell..." and "The person I can believe in". Thankfully, the next day, the protagonist manages to find the right words to convince her not to behave like that. note Kaori's "Watashi no koto o mou, kamawanaide" (= "Don't mind about me anymore") is one of the most famous quotes of the game.
Web Animation
- In The Amazing Digital Circus episode "They All Get Guns", Jax goes on a huge Motive Rant about how rotten he is on the inside, and that Pomni shouldn't look for any Hidden Depths within him. However, based on what has been implied with his behavior throughout the show, especially more recent episodes, the rant reads less like a true rant about how bad he is and more him pleading for Pomni to leave him alone, out of fear of reliving his past trauma of losing his best friend Ribbit.
Jax: There's nothing more to me. So please... just stop looking.
Web Comics
- In Weak Hero, after his defeat by Gray's hands, Wolf comes to consciousness and immediately tells his underlings to go away, displaying the same self-reliance that landed him as their boss in the first place.
- Wilde Life: There's a plot thread in which Cliff, a mouthy, loner teenage werewolf, is befriended by another "animal person" named Raven. Except Raven is clingy and tries way too hard, and then things turn rapidly from annoying to terrifying...
- In Yokoka's Quest, after teaching Grace a few phrases in Forest language, Mao tells her "Never talk to me again, I don't owe you anything". When Mao realizes that Copycat had watched his entire dream flashback, he walks away and tells Copycat and Kalliv "Leave me alone".
Web Original
- In Mother of Learning, Zorian tends to be — at least initially — dismissive of people trying to help him out, like Byrn on the train.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Said by Zuko when the Gaang tried to help Iroh after he'd been struck by Azula's lighting.
- Later, after his failure and near death at Ba Sing Se, Aang briefly adopts this philosophy and abandons the others to go alone, but is snapped out of it when the rest of the Gaang follows.
- Also, Mai at the beach.
Mai: You want me to express myself? Leave me alone!!!
- The Beatles: The cartoon "Don't Bother Me" has John invoking the trope and the episode title as Ringo tries to alert him that two spies are following them on their taxi trip to the airport. The song itself contains the trope words.
- Calling Cat 22!: In "Sniff", after 22 is forced out of his mission by being flung around on a rocket, he leaves a note to his superior that simply says "Leave. Me. Alone." as he goes into hiding to avoid being located.
- Danny Phantom has Danny say this to Jazz in "My Brother's Keeper" when he has to leave to go fight ghosts. This causes Jazz to think he's depressed.
- The Incredible Hulk (1982): After a particularly infuriating day of being pestered by both villains and protagonists, the Hulk roars this version of this phrase. "Leave Hulk alone!!"
- Played for Laughs with King of the Hill. Hank and Boomhauer are alone in the alley after Dale and Bill got themselves stuck in a hole, and Hank asks Boomhauer if he's got any big dates. Boomhauer responds with this trope:
Boomhauer: Man, dang ol' leave me ALONE, man! I'm talmbouttem all questions man, questions, questions, questions, man, nun like my dang ol' mother, man, oh, "Boomhauer, when are ya gon' get married 'n make me a grandmother?" Dang ol'... [walks away]
- Subverted on the animated Legion of Super Heroes series. Rebellious Princess Phantom Girl tells teammate Timberwolf that she can take care of herself. Cue monster sneaking up behind her...whom she hears in time and phases straight through. Played straight with Timberwolf in the second season, with Phantom Girl and Chameleon Boy being the ones helping out.
- In the episode "Apple Buck Season" of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Applejack attempts to balance harvesting thousands of apple trees and helping her friends who each have a task for her which leads to her being exhausted. After causing several predicaments in Ponyville, she accepts assistance only after realizing that she can't harvest all the trees on her own.
- In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "The Mane Event", Blossom—in seclusion after Bubbles and Buttercup had butchered her hair—simply tells the Professor to "go away."
- In many episodes of Ready Jet Go!, Mitchell is trying to solve a case. If another character offers to help, Mitchell will usually turn them down, claiming that he works alone. Usually, this is out of shyness or overconfidence in his detective skills.
- Fred in episode 26 of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated goes on his own to search for his real parents after issuing the line "Mystery Incorporated is dead."
- In Teen Titans (2003), Raven tried dealing with several matters on her own, from heartache to the end of the world. Try as she might, she couldn't quite keep her friends from getting involved somehow.
- The later seasons in Thomas & Friends use this trope a lot. Whenever an engine refuses to let the other engines help them with their work, they end up causing an accident, prompting said engine to learn a lesson that they needed help after all.
Leave me alone, TV Tropes. I don't want you to ruin my life!