Clone Degeneration: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', {{spoiler|Ilya}} will eventually die young because of her nature as a {{spoiler|modified homunculi Holy Grail.}}

* In her last few scenes, [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Rei Ayanami's]] limbs had a tendency to ... fall off. Her body, being a {{spoiler|1=mishmash of Lilith and Yui's DNA,}} isn't capable to holding together without Rei's AT field to counter the effects of imperfect cloning. After [[Heroic RROD|expending so much of her energy to counter Kaworu the previous day]], she can't hold herself together.

* In the fifth ''[[Kara no Kyoukai]]'' movie, {{spoiler|<s>[[Fate/stay night|Shirou]]</s> Enjoe learns of his clone status the hard way. And then his arm falls off}}.

* [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Negi]] employs several paper doll clones of himself in chapter 36, without knowing exactly how it works. This trope ensues...

'''Dying Mamo clone:''' [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|But is it not... everyone's obsession]]? }}

 

* This is how Bizarro is often depicted in the [[DCU]].

* ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'': Every clone [[The Clone Saga|created by the Jackal]] was subject to this. Some of them were almost identical to the originals but aged / disfigured, while others would last so long and then spontaneously collapse into a pile of mush - Jackal triggered this in his "mini-me", Jack, as punishment for giving Ben Reilly information. It even drove one, [[Meaningful Name|Kaine]], insane. Ben Reilly succumbed to it when he died. (And in ''[[Spider-Girl]]'', passed it onto his kid.)

* Slo-Bo from ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'' admitted to suffering from this near the end of the series. He would have died soon anyway had {{spoiler|Darkseid not Omega Beamed him. [[And I Must Scream|Might have been preferable.]]}}

* In a crossover of ''[[Simpsons]] Comics'' and ''Bartman'', Celebrity Troy McClure gained the [[I Love Nuclear Power|radiation explosion]] created identity of "The Sequelizer". His sequel-generating powers allowed him to create duplicates of himself, but each copy was only half as strong as the previous one.

 

== Film ==

* In Suzanne Weyn's ''The Bar Code Rebellion'', several clones are made of a single woman, each one with more and more bird DNA added to them. The first few are somewhat normal, though with notable strange behaviors and abilities. Once we reach the fifth clone, KM-5, it's become quite clear that the more bird DNA they possess, the crazier they are. The final clone, KM-6, is extremely weak, thin, and pale, and speaks only in bursts of birdlike noise.

* Though technically not because of being a clone, (and not actually being a "clone" in the strictest sense) Bean of the Ender's Shadow series is this because of {{spoiler|Anton's Gene being activated}} in him, which makes him smarter because his {{spoiler|brain and body never stop growing}} at the cost of becoming {{spoiler|a giant and eventual death}}

* The novel ''[[Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang]]'' centers around this, in a way. A post-apocalyptic society rendered sterile by disease discovers that, though clones do display Clone Degeneration in the form of sterility after a few generations, they actually reverse the trend after a few more. The society uses this to attempt to set up a sustaining population of fertile humans.

** The clones display a form of Clone Degeneration in another way, as well. After deciding that cloning is superior to sexual reproduction and building a society based around the health of the group and the destruction of the individual, they find that the younger clone generations lose the ability for abstract thought, to the point where the youngest generations are incapable of drawing maps or devising solutions for problems.