39,327
edits
Clone Degeneration: Difference between revisions
update links
m (clean up) |
(update links) |
||
Line 8:
When dealing with a character who has the ability to [[Respawning Enemies|create clones apparently out of thin air]], this weakness is usually the only thing holding them back from whatever it is they're trying to do.
Uses very similar logic to [[Super Prototype]] and [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]. The [[Super Prototype]], when it is a one-of-a-kind machine, is awesome and unstoppable. Clones, likewise, seem really great at first—but the more of them you get, the more common and boring the idea of a clone is in the first place. As a result, they inevitably lose effectiveness because several copies of the same thing just wouldn't be all that interesting.
In some instances it may be a [[Justified Trope]]: the creator may "program" a shortened lifespan into the clone to protect their property from getting away. Relatedly, the degeneration may be because the process used to make the clone resulted in a [[Flawed Prototype]], making all the clones a form of [[Keystone Army]] that will croak on some future date or circumstance. If the hero has [[Expendable Clone|qualms about killing clones]], their degeneration lays them to rest. Whether out of being a [[Mercy Kill]] or making them seem ''less real'' varies.
See also [[Power Degeneration]], which also applies to clones designed with powers.
Note that this trope does have some grounding in [[Real Life]]: Cloning isn't a fully documented science yet, and genetic kinks in the cloning process, such as shortened telomeres and genomic imprinting, remain factors that may lead to clones having shorter life expectancies than their originals. Clones of clones tend to be even worse off.
Line 23:
** In the "Adeventures of the Mini-Goddesses'' manga, one of the goddesses is able to make a duplicate of herself, which can make a duplicate of herself, etc, each of which is a bit shorter and squishier than its parent. In the main series, goddesses and demons can also divide themselves into avatars—smaller, less powerful versions of themselves. Before leaving, Hild splits off a 1/1000 avatar of herself in the form of a child to keep track of things on Earth. In chapter 248, her 1/1000 avatar then splits off a 1/1000 avatar which takes the form of a small crystal.
** The main manga and series feature a clone of Urd. The Urd clone can use all the same magic as Urd, but her inferior body can't handle the stress.
* Clones in ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' tend to have physical or mental problems. Case in Point: {{spoiler|Rau Le Cruset}}.
** Another example would be Prayer Reverie in the [[Gundam SEED Astray|Astray mangas]], who was okay in the head, but was basically an [[Ill Girl]] for most of the Astray X series, {{spoiler|and was able to convincingly fake a death of "natural causes" at the apparent age of nine}}
* This is the reason why {{spoiler|Zest Grangaitz}} of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' was considered an imperfect [[Super Soldier|Artificial Mage]]. He got the memories, abilities, and personality of the original, but his body was suffering from severe health problems.
Line 47:
* ''[[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.
Line 57:
*** Five years from his diagnosis with cancer, mind you, closer to ''sixty-five'' years after his production.
** In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] comic series ''[[Dark Empire]]'', The Emperor died with the second Death Star, but had clones stashed away somewhere, and about ten years later he reemerged as head of [[The Empire]]. Since he was skilled with the Dark Side and all, he could [[Body Surf]] through the clones, [[Cloning Gambit|taking up from where he left off]]. However, his stored genes had been sabotaged, making it so that none of the clone bodies could last very long. And it got worse for him when some traitorous [[Mooks]] killed most of the stored clones.
* The Michael Keaton film ''[[Multiplicity]]'', about a man who has himself cloned, has one of the clones cloned, and he came out rather... [[The Ditz|special]].
* "GEFs", clone bodies used for hazardous occupations in the movie ''[[Body Surf|XChange]]'', have a life span of only three days, after which they begin rapidly decomposing. Naturally, the protagonist gets stuck in one that's already been alive for two days. {{spoiler|The villain ends up in this body just as its time runs out--then appears not to dying at first because its timer is a few minutes off.}}
** Same with the clones in the original novel ''[[Mindswap]]'' by [[Robert Sheckley]], on which the movie is ''very'' loosely based.
Line 67:
* In David Brin's novel, ''Kiln People'', humans are able to create duplicates of themselves that are fashioned from a type of clay. The duplicates, called golems or "dittoes", possess the memories of their original from the time of their creation, but degrade after a day. Before this happens, golems are able to reintegrate their accumulated memories with their original using a special device.
* Invoked in F.M. Busby's ''Rissa Kerguelen'' series. The Hulzein clan learns through painful experience that they have to alternate cloned generations with ones produced the normal way, or else they wind up with mentally unstable kids—which, given the resources and intelligence levels that all the Hulzeins possess, is just a bad idea for ''everyone''.
* In [[William Sleator]]'s ''[[The Duplicate]]'', the duplicates are less sane the farther they are from the original. They also get black markings on their hands shortly before they die, but they tend to go crazy and get themselves killed before that step occurs.
* 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}}
Line 78:
== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', this is what will inevitably doom one planet. The founders, reduced to five in number because of a spacecraft accident, had to resort to cloning themselves in order to have a sustainable population. When they try to "solve" (ultimately, just delay) the problem by getting clones of Riker and Doctor Pulaski, the Starfleet officers are not particularly happy with it. (Episode: "Up the Long Ladder")
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' love this trope. The Asgard, O'Neills clone, Beckett's clone, take whatever you want.
** Though Beckett's cellular degeneration issues {{spoiler|were eventually solved, effectively making him the original [[Back
** Also note that in the case of O'Neill's clone, the degeneration is a case of having [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]] literally encoded in his genes. In fact, he's overcome with pain within ''minutes'' of being recovered by Loki.
** Kull Warriors are created in nonliving form and animated via Ancient technology They live for several days or weeks, though they're [[Super Soldier|extremely hard to kill]] before their time.
Line 88:
== Tabletop Games ==
* The fetches of ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' are ''always'' missing something of the personality they were meant to replace. It could be a negative trait (quickness to anger) or a positive trait (dedication to a task), but there's always going to be something missing.
* ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]] XP'' has this as a mechanic in order to convince characters to try not to get killed ''quite'' as much (if the GM is letting the [[Player Character|PCs]] buy clones rather than simply going through a 6-pack and then handing out new sheets.) After the first seven or so, things start to go south in a hurry, with extra fingers, hideous deformity, and (worst of all in Alpha Complex) colour blindness. Luckily, BLUE-clearance PCs can pay to have the template cleaned up. Others have to depend upon secret societies and underhanded business that may well result in termination for treason.
** The reason that bit about colour blindness isn't potholed to [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]? In Alpha Complexing, social rank is [[
Line 96:
* This is the reason you don't make copies of AIs in the ''[[Halo]]'' universe. In the ''First Strike'' novel, Cortana used alien technology to create new (slightly flawed) instances of herself in a Covenant warship so she could be in two places at once. The copies made copies. The copies of the copies made copies. The quickly-growing swarm of AIs started forking off copies for specialized tasks, having those copies be overwhelmed by Covvie AIs, and spinning off more copies. Eventually the alien ship filled its computers to the roof with Cortana clones, segfaulted, and blew up. It was pretty awesome.
** Though the "blowing up" part was entirely deliberate. Even as flawed as the copies were, they still managed to complete their mission.
** This also applies to human clones. Individual organs can be cloned and used for transplants without a problem, it's when you clone the whole body do things go south. The flash clones (which are the only method of cloning seen in the Halo universe) is where the clones are aged up to the person who supplied the DNA. The clone will have the mind of an infant, given that it has zero memories, and the body will deteriorate and quickly die within a couple months. Apparently the cloned body's metabolism just can't stabilize itself correctly. The procedure is highly illegal.
*** Clones are used to cover up the Spartan II project. ONI took the children, and gave the parents flash clones. As far as any of the parents could guess, their children inexplicably went into a vegetative state and died from an unknown disease.
*** Flash-cloned brains are the only way of making "smart" AIs. Cortana, for example, was created by scanning the cloned brain of Dr. Halsey, the creator of the Spartans. This gets a little weird in one novel when Cortana mentions to Halsey that she thinks John-117 (Master Chief) is cute. Halsey knows that this must be what she thinks as well, even though she is the Spartans' mother figure. Of course, since he never takes off his helmet, we'll never know.
** Don't forget that Cortana got the copy program off of a heavily degraded yet "somehow familiar" Covenant AI. Along with the presence of a time-manipulation device, its insinuated that she got the program from one of her own (completely insane) [[Stable Time Loop|time-lost copies]].
Line 106:
* This is the premise of ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]''. The Blisk had mutated Furon DNA so that they can't propagate due to lack of genitalia. Fortunately, they perfected the art of cloning, rendering them virtually immortal. Unfortunately, each new clone has degraded Furon DNA, making the results more unpredictable and eventually leading to the extinction of the Furon race. Fortunately, this could be fixed via infusion of uncorrupted DNA, and a Furon mothership happened upon another planet eons earlier and frolicked with the planets' inhabitants, giving the their descendants Furon DNA. Unfortunately for us but fortunately for them, that planet is Earth.
* Not necessarily clones, but close enough: In the ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series, Kain used parts of his soul to resurrect a group of long-dead Sarafan warrior priests as his lieutenants, each receiving a smaller part of his soul than the last, which would directly affect their evolution in vampiric unlife: Raziel received the most of his soul and evolved the quickest, while Melchiah received the smallest part, making his body vulnerable to decay.
* This may explain why Taokaka from ''[[
* The God of ''[[The Neverhood]]'' eventually ended up creating the whole world's population this way. He was trying to duplicate himself, but the duplicate just assumed that he was really God, and went through the whole process all over again. This continued until eventually a duplicate was created that was not alive.
** That was just one God of one world that was not the Neverhood. The Neverhood itself was created by someone who took the opposite approach and personally crafted each thing to be completely unique and everlasting.
Line 131:
== Western Animation ==
* One [[Treehouse of Horror]] special in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has Homer with a cloning mechanism which results in him creating duplicates who are progressively dumber than he is. Eventually they get to be so stupid that one of them is [[Take That|Peter]] [[Family Guy|Griffin]].
* This seemed to be inherent to present-day cloning in '[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]''. In the fourth season of the show, it was revealed that Agent Bishop's body was slowly degenerating, and therefore needed to transfer his mind to a new one, which eventually happened, dissolving skin and all. Later on, Baxter Stockman cloned himself a new body to replace the one he had systematically lost during the course of the series, only to find it decaying as well.
* In ''[[Exo Squad]]'', Neosapiens ran a risk of contracting a disease where their bodies decompose, seeing as it's entire species is a clone race, it made {{spoiler|coming [[Back
* The Ring of the Nine Dragons from ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' can divide one person into at most nine, but their intelligence is also divided, so in the end, you have nine people with only a ninth of your intelligence... and getting them back together is really hard.
* In the rather bizarre miniseries ''House Of Cosbys'', the Bill Cosby clones get increasingly bizarre defects, however the main character keeps making them as every tenth Cosby has superpowers. Unfortunately, Cosby #100 happens to be pure evil.
Line 139:
* ''[[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]]'' the Animated Series has Quick Clones. Each clone was indistinguishable from the original, but after time, the clone would begin speaking nonsensically before melting into a pile of goo. The time until melting varied based on stress and physical exertion. Alternatively, any clone could be terminated by pushing a button located behind the ear.
* In ''[[The Jetsons]]'', George had a clone made in one episode, only to find it could do stuff far better than him. He wanted to leave his life to the clone but it turned out that the clone has a very limited lifespan.
* [[Danny Phantom]]'s [[Opposite
* An experiment in ''[[Lilo
* Drakken tried this in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' making "clones" (the show admits it isn't really cloning but called that for simplicity) of Kim, Ron, Rufus and Bonnie and modifying them to be [[Evil Knockoff|mindless attack drones]]. It works till its revealed they're [[Weaksauce Weakness|weak against soda]], dissolving into green puddles when its sprayed on them.
* In ''[[The Flintstones]]'', Fred was cloned by an alien in one episode. The clones were very much like real people, and are never seen physically degenerating, but were little more than mindless mooks, incapable of anything other than following their creator's orders, causing trouble and saying Fred's catchphrase in a very monotonous fashion.
| |||