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Clone Degeneration (view source)

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{{quote|''"You know how when you make a copy of a copy, it's not as sharp as, well, the original?"''|'''Doug Kinney #3''', ''[[Multiplicity]]''}}
 
{{quote|''"Like a bad photocopy, each one is a little darker than the last."''|'''Batman''', referring to the Everywhere Man, ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]''}}
 
When dealing with fiction that [[Cloning Blues|clones]] things, the assumption is often made that clones must, after time, decay. That is, with each copy you make whatever [[Applied Phlebotinum]] you are using to create the clones will either decrease in effectiveness, or the clones themselves become less coherent since eventually everything is just a copy of a copy. This goes double for dead clones, who [[Everything Fades|tend to dissolve]] because they're "[[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|less than human]]" rather than leave a proper corpse.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]'':
** 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.
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** Averted with {{spoiler|Fate Testarossa}}, who appears completely healthy over a decade and a half after her creation, as well as {{spoiler|Erio Mondial}}, who has been alive for at least a decade as of Force.
*** {{spoiler|Fate}} is an interesting example. Although she has none of the issues seen in this trope, she isn't a perfect clone, either. Changes in personality, eye color, and other small details mark her as a distinctly unique individual, which led to her ultimate classification as 'failed clone' despite the fact that her incredible raw magical aptitude perhaps make her even better than the original.
* In ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'', {{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.
* The Sisters in [[To Aru Majutsu no Index (Anime)|To Aru Majutsu no Index]] have to go through body adjustments specifically to prevent this. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] because they were only made so that {{spoiler|Accelerator could kill them}}.
* In the [[Ghost in Thethe Shell]] universe, it is possible for people to 'clone' their ghosts (what amounts to their souls) by copying the memory data of their cyberbrains, however this process leads to the eventual corruption of both the original and the copies created, and ultimately leads to the death of the original. As a result, the process, known as "ghost dubbing," is highly illegal, punishable by life in prison or brain-wipe.
* In the fifth ''[[Kara noKarano Kyoukai (Literature)|Kara no Kyoukai]]'' movie, {{spoiler|<s>[[Fate/stay Stay Night (Visual Novel)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...
** This trope may be the reason of [[We Hardly Knew Ye|Quartum's and Quintum's]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomping]].
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* 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 (Comic Book)|Spider-Girl]]'', passed it onto his kid.)
* Slo-Bo from ''[[Young Justice (Comic Bookcomics)|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.
 
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* "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.
* ''[[Moon (Film)|Moon]]'' (2009). {{spoiler|Each Sam Bell clone begins to break down physically and emotionally after three years. It's not clear whether this is a limitation of the cloning process or a built-in fail-safe in case the clones discover their true nature. Either way each clone believes they're the real Sam Bell, and after putting themselves in the hibernation chamber for return to Earth are painlessly incinerated and replaced by another Sam Bell who believes he's at the beginning of his three-year contract on the Moon.}}
* [[Word of God]] for ''[[Primer]]'' states that doubles created via [[Time Travel]] are imperfect copies. This is the reason for Aaron and Abe's earbleeds and the degradation of their handwriting when they begin altering their past.
 
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* 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 (Literature)|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}}
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== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Star Trek: theThe 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 From the Dead]]}}.
** 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.
** There is a bit of [[Fridge Logic]] there, as the Asgard should've anticipated that their clones would degrade after millennia of copying copies. Apparently, in a case of [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]], they did not keep an original DNA somewhere. This is actually a plot point in a later episode, where they recover an original Asgard and try to gain his DNA. {{spoiler|This fails spectacularly.}}
* The single-clone degeneration is addressed but ultimately averted in ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]''. When Crichton is "twinned" during season three, the [[Mad Scientist]] Kaarvok claims that the resulting duplicates are "equal and original," with no defects or imperfections. However, in a later episode, one of the two Crichtons experiences spontaneous bleeding and blackouts, leading him to believe that [[Clone Degeneration]] is at work: fortunately, it's just the [[Villain of the Week]] causing chaos across Moya. As {{spoiler|one of the Crichtons has died in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and the other has suffered no ill effects}} it can be assumed that Kaarvok was correct. However, the multiple-clone degeneration is used in the episode Kaarvok was introduced in, specifically in the form of the feral, degenerate remains of the crew of the ship he'd been imprisoned aboard. Apparently after "twinning" the twin of a twin and so on a certain amount of error did emerge.
* In an episode of the ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]'' TV series that seems to have been losely based on ''Multiplicity'', Wayne creates a molecular duplication machine that has the side effect of making the target's molecules unstable, causing them to create more duplicates whenever they are bumped hard against something or jolted. This results in a good number of extra Waynes, nearly all of which are a bit dense. "Why are my clones such ''dorks''?"
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* The fetches of ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|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 (Tabletop Gamegame)|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 [[Colour-Coded for Your Convenience]]. Social rank is also taken ''very'' seriously - if you're Red clearance and step into an Orange-rank area, that's treason.
 
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* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' features this, along with everything else from the [[Cloning Blues]] vat. But since this ''is'' a Tales game, it plays around with the trope too: {{spoiler|it turns out that getting a clone made can cause just as many problems to the original as it does to the copy. In the best case, the original develops severe health problems after a while. In the worst, the original dies ''as soon as the data required to create a clone in the first place is extracted''}}.
** {{spoiler|Actually, in the best case, the replica is weaker but there is no particular degeneration in the original. In the very worst case, however, that of complete isofons, a different effect occurs. The original and replica are so entirely identical that both gradually begin to destabilize due to the interference of their matching fonon frequencies. Eventually, one or both will die, and their fonons merge, creating an individual with the memories of both the original and the replica. This is what physics says happened to Luke fon Fabre at the end of the game, according to some easily-missable sidequests with Jade.}}
* 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 ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' is [[Cloudcuckoolander|so]] [[Genki Girl|very]] [[The Ditz|odd]]. Though the rest of the Kaka clan, also clones of {{spoiler|Jubei}} seem more put together.
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* Alluded to in ''[[Republic Commando]]'' whenever the player performs some suicidally dumb action.
{{quote| '''Scorch:''' Maybe 38's a copy of a copy of a copy...}}
* Justified in the usual manner in ''[[Dystopia (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dystopia]]'', where clones are given a maximum life span of about 20 minutes, and their bodies decay very rapidly. This prevents enemies from finding any of the technology hidden in their bodies or any information hidden in their brains. In addition, combat clones are hastily assembled from cheap materials in about 15 seconds; and normal clones can take a few weeks to build but are intended for use by soldiers after they shed their combat clone bodies. At least, that's what they're promised by their [[Mega Corp|employers]].
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]] [[Crisis Core]]'' is a prequel, giving us background on stuff like why Sephiroth went crazy and destroyed Cloud's hometown. A huge part of it turns out to be the emotional blows he suffered when losing his two closest friends to [[Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal]] against [[Mega Corp|Shinra]]; the primary mistreatment in this case being that Shinra had created them via genetic hacking and then, at some point in their thirties, their bodies started to break down. And that was when they found out they weren't just naturally talented best friends from Banora, where the scientist running the project apparently retired after Hojo got all the funding in order to make [[Super Prototype|Sephiroth]].
** Genesis, the one who actually went [[Ax Crazy]], may have minded that Sephiroth was perfect and the project that wasn't abandoned as much as the dying part. Never mind that Project G being mostly-canceled meant ''he'' got a ''childhood''; he had a [[Green-Eyed Monster]] problem.
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* Meta example: any sufficiently popular webcomic will inevitably spawn imitators, which are generally not as good as the original. The more popular ones in turn will eventually spawn their own imitators, which are even worse.
* [[Lampshaded]] in [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20080621.html this] strip from ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' where Molly's [[Cloning Blues|clone]] Galatea insists on using Molly's tissues for an experiment rather than her own.
* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' {{spoiler|the doctor uses this to explain why killing off all his clones wasn't as bad as it seems, because the clones created with the old process were highly unstable. To illustrate this he shows a video where clone of Benjamin Franklin made with that technolgy accidentally kills himself by biting too hard into a sandwich. Which causes the top of his head to fall off}}
* In [[Kevin and Kell]], Corrie's clone, Dolly, begins aging rapidly as a result of being a clone. Dolly becomes concerned about how her adoptive parents, the Canids, will feel about this so Corrie (who had originally been adopted before Dolly took her place) switches with Dolly, who poses as her birth mother. An accident with a time machine results in Dolly being de-aged to a baby, which gives her a fresh start on life even if her rapid aging resumes (which is somewhat unlikely to happen, given the nature of how time progresses in the strip).
* Subverted in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', when Elliot accidentally creates a female version of himself, dubbed Ellen. Ellen realizes that the effect that led to her creation was only intended to last a month, and [[Genre Savvy|decides to become Elliot's greatest rival and villain.]] Shortly after this completely fails, she learns that she won't die after a month, and is offered a life as Elliot's twin sister, which she gladly accepts. She's been a part of the main cast ever since.
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
* One [[Treehouse of Horror]] special in ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|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 (Animation)|Griffin]].
* This seemed to be inherent to present-day cloning in '[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 (Animation)|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 (Animation)|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 From the Dead]] via implanted memory recordings}} a bit of a gamble.
* The Ring of the Nine Dragons from ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|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.
* In an episode of ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Animation)|Aqua Teen Hunger Force]],'' Frylock reveals that he's been cloning televisions every time the other Aqua Teens destroy one. Eventually the latest television they make turns evil. Later in the episode the Aqua Teens clone a dollar bill and eventually end up making George Washington out of dollar bills.
* ''[[Men in Black (Animationanimation)|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 (Animation)|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 (Animation)|Danny Phantom]]'s [[Opposite Sex Clone]] Danni Phantom melts whenever she uses her superpowers. {{spoiler|She gets better.}}
* An experiment in ''[[Lilo and Stitch: The Series (Animation)|Lilo and Stitch The Series]]'' has this when Stitch get hit by it duplicating ray making extra copies of himself. His creator, Jumba, explains that the more duplicates there are the more their strength is divided between them. Lilo uses this later against Gantu when he get a hold of the experiment and tries to create an army with the experiments hes captured. But they're all pathetically weak that the heroes easily waltz right through em.
* Drakken tried this in ''[[Kim Possible (Animation)|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 (Animation)|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.
* A very [[Squick|Squicky]] version happens in ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]''. Stewie has decided to clone himself, creating [[Eldritch Abomination]] "Bitch Stewie," a hideously deformed, moronic servant to the original. Later, Stewie makes one of Brian, which is arguably more messed up. Eventually, both clones melt into a pile of disgusting, fleshy goo, made even worse when Brian says he's not proud of it, but he ''has'' to [[Nausea Fuel|lick up the mess.]]
** Later, Stewie makes a perfect clone of himself- but this one is [[Evil Knockoff|immensely more evil]] [[Gone Horribly Right|than him]]- complete with [[Slasher Smile]].
 
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