Cloning Blues/Playing With
Basic Trope: Clones in fiction inevitably complain about "not being real" and/or are treated as expendable by others.
- Straight: Dr. Evilstein creates a clone of our hero, Victor. The clone takes issue with the fact that he's not the real thing.
- Exaggerated: Victor's clone starts spouting pseudo-Nietzschean tripe the second he pops out of a cloning vat.
- Justified: Clones get depressed because they're treated by everyone as expendable, or they age by several years per year ( a clone of a 20-year-old is the genetic equivalent of a 40-year-old by age 2, 60 by 3, and dead by 4).
- Inverted:
- Dr. Evilstein is an Ineffectual Loner, so he makes a clone of himself to be his friend.
- Hundreds of identical clones have quite a lot of fun with Me's a Crowd and I Am Legion tropes.
- The original of Evilstein's clones is frightened to have copies of himself running around.
- Subverted:
- Dr. Evilstein initially treats Victor's clone as a mere tool to further his world domination schemes, but later develops an attachment to him.
- Victor's clone realizes he's a clone, but, once Dr. Evilstein is done with him, he's going to have the good time he's always wanted.
- Victor's clone does not know he's a clone.
- Double Subverted:
- And then work becomes more and more tragic as Clone Degeneration sets in.
- Victor's clone is a Stepford Smiler.
- Parodied: Dr. Evilstein uses Victor for casual supervillain practice and keeps re-cloning him while Victor whines incessantly in between comedic deaths.
- Deconstructed: Victor's clone angst becomes a passion for revenge towards Dr. Evilstein and he secretly clones an army of himself to destroy the doctor, proving that he's not expendable to both himself and his creator.
- Reconstructed: Once Evilstein is dead, the clone army begins to bitch and moan about their uselessness and lack of individuality.
- Zig Zagged: Whether clones get whiny and whether being one actually sucks depends on a clone in question.
- Averted:
- Clones are just like normal people, living ordinary lives and not thinking twice about their origins.
- No clones are involved in the story.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "You can make a million of me, how'd you expect me to feel?"
- Invoked: Dr. Evilstein seeks to get even with the hero Victor by creating clones of him, so that the clones would be depressed in place of the hero.
- Defied: Dr. Evilstein programs out any sense of self-awareness in his clones to keep them from whining.
- Discussed: "And now you'll whine about 'not being real' and such, huh?" "Nope, i don't see any reason to. Having hundreds of me run around is kinda fun."
- Conversed: "Dr. Evilstein's next project should have been to clone a goddamn therapist for Victor."
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