Expendable Clone: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"If I die, I can be replaced."''|'''Rei Ayanami''', ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''}}

The tendency of characters to treat [[Cloning Blues|clones]] and identical [[Doppelganger~~|Doppelgangers~~]] as [[Unperson|expendable]], often to the point of [[Immortal Life Is Cheap|killing them casually]] because [[Good Thing You Can Heal|they can be replaced]] [[We Have Reserves|with reserves]], or, in cases where there is an "original", it is the only one that counts.

The tendency of characters to treat [[Cloning Blues|clones]] and identical [[Doppelganger]]s as [[Unperson|expendable]], often to the point of [[Immortal Life Is Cheap|killing them casually]] because [[Good Thing You Can Heal|they can be replaced]] [[We Have Reserves|with reserves]], or, in cases where there is an "original", it is the only one that counts.

Occasionally, both clone and original will have a deep seated loathing akin to [[There Can Be Only One]]. May be justified if the clones are [[Came Back Wrong|naturally]] [[Empty Shell~~|Empty Shells~~]] or [[The Soulless|soulless and psychotic]].

Occasionally, both clone and original will have a deep seated loathing akin to [[There Can Be Only One]]. May be justified if the clones are [[Came Back Wrong|naturally]] [[Empty Shell]]s or [[The Soulless|soulless and psychotic]].

Compare [[Dream Apocalypse]] and [[What Measure Is a Mook?]]. See also [[Uniqueness Value]] and [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]. Related to [[Ambiguous Clone Ending]], [[Cloning Gambit]], [[Tomato in the Mirror]], [[Evil Knockoff]], [[Screw Yourself]], and [[Teleporter Accident]]. [[All the Myriad Ways]] is when alternate ''realities'' similar to your own are given this treatment.

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== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Vandread]]'', this is revealed to be the underlying reason for the creation and maintenance of the sex-segregated planets of Meger and Talark where children are [[Designer Babies]] artificially engineered through mixed-cloning of the original ~~colonists -- majority~~ of whom still remain secretly secured in cryo-~~stasis -- as~~ the colony leaders were unwilling to sacrifice any natural-born children to the organ-harvest fleets of Earth.

* In ''[[Vandread]]'', this is revealed to be the underlying reason for the creation and maintenance of the sex-segregated planets of Meger and Talark where children are [[Designer Babies]] artificially engineered through mixed-cloning of the original colonists—majority of whom still remain secretly secured in cryo-stasis—as the colony leaders were unwilling to sacrifice any natural-born children to the organ-harvest fleets of Earth.

* In ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'', Mikoto is cloned and the clones are mass-produced in their thousands to be killed in an experiment to increase Accelerator's power. The mild discomfort she gets by discovering she is cloned [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|pales to her reaction]] when she learns they're being killed off ''en masse'' for an experiment, and she breaks down upon her clones claiming that they are simply '180 000 yen (around 2000 dollars) lab animals'.

* Inverted in ''[[Franken Fran]]'': Fran generally considers both the original and the clones equally expendable as long as there is at least one copy of the person left (though she will try to keep all involved alive).

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** Also, the reflection need only be returned to a mirror to revive it.

* In the short story ''Identity Theft'', people can opt to have their minds transferred into robot bodies. One character is copied twice (so that another character can secretly interrogate the extra one). Despite the fact that he's also technically a copy, the legal copy is horrified at the thought of an extra him running around. To keep him from demanding that the illegal copy be destroyed, the hero helps the extra copy assume a new identity.

* The hero of [[John Varley]]'s ''The Golden Globe'' ~~-- an~~ unknowing ~~clone -- gets~~ away with killing his own "father" on a technicality due to an obsolete anti-cloning law that prohibited two people from sharing identical DNA. Fortunately for him the law didn't actually specify which clone had to be killed.

* The hero of [[John Varley]]'s ''The Golden Globe''—an unknowing clone—gets away with killing his own "father" on a technicality due to an obsolete anti-cloning law that prohibited two people from sharing identical DNA. Fortunately for him the law didn't actually specify which clone had to be killed.

* First played straight, then inverted in ''Good Night, Mr. James'' by [[Clifford Simak]]. The original sends the clone on what's probably a suicide mission, with the intent of killing it anyway if it completes the mission. The clone figures it out and attempts a [[Kill and Replace]].

* Another [[Kill and Replace]] inversion is ''The Far Side of the Bell-Shaped Curve'' by [[Robert Silverberg]]. Let's just say the title doesn't indicate [[Too Dumb to Live|which far side of the curve]] the main character's on.