Expendable Clone: Difference between revisions

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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]].

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.

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.

Contrast [[Clones Are People Too]].

Contrast [[Clones Are People, Too]].

== Anime and Manga ==

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* 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).

* Found in [[Afterschool Charisma]]. Rockswell thinks 'redundant' clones are unnecessary. After {{spoiler|his suicide attempt}}, Mozart becomes bitter when he realizes this. [[Clones Are People Too|Shiro and Mr. Kuroe disagree]].

* Found in [[Afterschool Charisma]]. Rockswell thinks 'redundant' clones are unnecessary. After {{spoiler|his suicide attempt}}, Mozart becomes bitter when he realizes this. [[Clones Are People, Too|Shiro and Mr. Kuroe disagree]].

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' usually follows the [[Clones Are People Too]] route, but ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S (Anime)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S]]'' has an inversion of this in [[Mad Scientist|Doctor]] [[Big Bad|Jail Scaglietti]]. He considers even himself to be expendable as long as one of the Jail clones {{spoiler|that he had implanted in the wombs of the [[Amazon Brigade|Numbers]]}} gets away.

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' usually follows the [[Clones Are People, Too]] route, but ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S (Anime)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S]]'' has an inversion of this in [[Mad Scientist|Doctor]] [[Big Bad|Jail Scaglietti]]. He considers even himself to be expendable as long as one of the Jail clones {{spoiler|that he had implanted in the wombs of the [[Amazon Brigade|Numbers]]}} gets away.

* Played straight in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': Rei has several dozen clones ready to swap her out if she dies or decides to not play along with her superiors' [[Assimilation Plot]]. All three of her superiors who know about it ([[The Chessmaster|Gendo]], [[Number Two|Fuyutsuki]], [[Evilutionary Biologist|Ritsuko]]) treat her like a tool and she lets them because she knows her replaceability too and [[Extreme Doormat|considers resistance useless]]. Really, only Shinji treats her nicely with genuine intentions - which later comes back to [[Apocalypse Maiden|bite everyone else in the ass]] [[The End of the World As We Know It|in a MAJOR way]].

* [[Puella Magi Kazumi Magica]] has Nico during her combat with Kazumi against the Soujus.

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== Comic Books ==

* [[MODOK]] creates clones of himself in order to generate a steady supply of backup organs.

* Usually but not always averted with Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. His mutant power is [[~~Mes~~ a Crowd|creating duplicates of himself]], which become more independent the longer they are separate. In the current series of ''[[X-Factor (Comic Book)|X-Factor]]'', in which Madrox is the lead character, the duplicates embody aspects of Jamie's personality at random. Jamie usually regards the duplicates as extensions of himself, but occasionally as independent people depending on circumstances. The duplicates themselves, however, are all over the map on how they think of him, themselves and each other.

* Usually but not always averted with Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. His mutant power is [[Me's a Crowd|creating duplicates of himself]], which become more independent the longer they are separate. In the current series of ''[[X-Factor (Comic Book)|X-Factor]]'', in which Madrox is the lead character, the duplicates embody aspects of Jamie's personality at random. Jamie usually regards the duplicates as extensions of himself, but occasionally as independent people depending on circumstances. The duplicates themselves, however, are all over the map on how they think of him, themselves and each other.

* [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin]] intentionally created a duplicate to do tasks that he doesn't want to do, like clean his room. Predictably, the duplicate doesn't want to do them either, and runs off to misbehave, knowing the original will get all the blame. A few clones later, it turns out Calvin ''really'' doesn't get along with himself, and ends up turning them all into worms (but, as Calvin knows, this makes them happy, because now they're gross). Later, Calvin creates a ''good'' duplicate of himself that doesn't mind doing his chores, but ends up driving Calvin crazy anyway by trying to be nice to Suzie. Calvin and his good copy get so mad at each other that they get into a fight, since fighting is bad, the good duplicate self-destructs in a [[Logic Bomb]]. Hobbes comments on the irony that even Calvin's ''good'' version is prone to doing bad. Later still, Calvin meets "duplicates" of himself through time travel, and of course gets into a fight with those past and future selves as well, because none of them want to do a creative writing homework assignment, but each of them has "good" excuses for not being the one to do it. Meanwhile Hobbes gets along perfectly well with his past version, and they actually work together to complete the homework themselves by basically writing a story about how foolish Calvin's time-travel scheme is.

* The [[Spider-Man]] [[The Clone Saga|Clone Saga]] went out of its way to avert this: Ben Reilly - and Peter Parker - whichever one was convinced [[Flip Flop of God|at any given moment]] that he wasn't the original - couldn't go for more than two seconds without [[Wangst|crying]] about how he was nothing more than a clone, even though almost everyone around him repeatedly insisted he was just as much of a man as the original.

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** That goes throughout the [[Wor Ship]] series; clones will be sent on the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs, and if there's ever a shortage in supplies or necessities, clones will be the first to suffer.

* In Hannu Rajaniemi's ''[[The Quantum Thief]]'' the Sobornost Founders have uploaded their minds to millions of artificial bodies. These collectives are called copyclans, and their members synchronize their memories and brainpower whenever they are together, allowing them to be everywhere in their massive empire at once. It doesn't matter if a few die, since there's always backups. Although their interests don't always coincide, and some of the Founders are said to be in war against themselves. Also, the main protagonist, Jean le Flambeur has millions of copies of himself trapped forever in the Dilemma Prison, but he's just happy that he was the one that got away.

* The [[Vorkosigan Saga]] is all over the place on this trope. Betans think that [[Clones Are People Too]], but one of the big industries on Jackson's Whole is to clone a rich person and surgically transfer the brain of the original into the clone, which restores the client to his/her late teens/early twenties at the cost of the life of the clone (Assuming the surgery is successful). One of Mark's main goals in life is to shut that industry down.

* The [[Vorkosigan Saga]] is all over the place on this trope. Betans think that [[Clones Are People, Too]], but one of the big industries on Jackson's Whole is to clone a rich person and surgically transfer the brain of the original into the clone, which restores the client to his/her late teens/early twenties at the cost of the life of the clone (Assuming the surgery is successful). One of Mark's main goals in life is to shut that industry down.

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* [[Wizards of Waverly Place]] (yes a ''[[Disney]]'' show) where it's implied in an episode that Alex does this to her own magic copy.

* Surprisingly averted in ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]''. The main character is duplicated for the greater part of Season Three, but neither duplicate is actually a fake, and neither is the original (the original was somehow just split into two, and each half made whole). Neither Chrichton is treated as expendable, and in fact, when one does die later in the season, it's played with just as much drama and residual emotional trauma as if there hadn't been a spare Chrichton. This is probably helped by the fact that they spent most of their time apart from each other. Unsurprisingly, though, they [[Status Quo Is God|killed off the one who had progressed in his relationship with Aeryn and figured out the all-important control of wormholes]].

* An episode of ''[[Earth Final Conflict|Earth: Final Conflict]]'' had [[Half Human Hybrid|Liam]] split in two using a side-effect of quantum teleportation, although Street notes that the duplicate will be erased out of existence at some point in the future. For the rest of the episode, the duplicate assumes the role of Liam, while the original is in an induced coma to fool [[The Dragon|Sandoval]] and [[Big Bad|Zo'or]]. The duplicate is treated no differently than the original, but chooses to sacrifice himself in the end to save [[Action Girl|Renée]]. The duplicate is [[Status Quo Is God|not mentioned after that]].

* An episode of ''[[Earth Final Conflict|Earth: Final Conflict]]'' had [[Half-Human Hybrid|Liam]] split in two using a side-effect of quantum teleportation, although Street notes that the duplicate will be erased out of existence at some point in the future. For the rest of the episode, the duplicate assumes the role of Liam, while the original is in an induced coma to fool [[The Dragon|Sandoval]] and [[Big Bad|Zo'or]]. The duplicate is treated no differently than the original, but chooses to sacrifice himself in the end to save [[Action Girl|Renée]]. The duplicate is [[Status Quo Is God|not mentioned after that]].

* Seen several times in the [[Stargate Verse]]. Once with [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Teal'c]] when he shot his [[Alternate Universe]] [[Doppelganger]], saying that theirs was "the only reality of consequence.". Inverted with an alternate universe SG-1, who try to steal "our" universe's [[Applied Phlebotinum|ZPM]] in order to save their reality. Also inverted with alternate Woolsey in "Vegas", who doesn't care that their failure to find a [[Our Vampires Are Different|Wraith]] threatens other Earths. Additionally, Ba'al does this with his own clones at the end. Slightly subverted with the clone of Jack O'Neill, though his two other doubles weren't so lucky.

* An episode of ''[[Sliders]]'' has the protagonists land [[In a World]] where human cloning is real, and clones are grown for spare parts. When the real Quinn is grabbed because the locals think he's a clone of this world's Quinn (who is in need of new eyes), his friends break into the cloning building and rescue him. Except they really took the clone, who was kept in a vegetative state. Then the clone starts developing a personality of his own. In the end, this world's Quinn chooses to remain blind rather than take the eyes of his clone. [[Acting for Two|Acting For Three]].

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== Radio ==

* Happens in the [[CBC]] Radio program Canadia 2056. When the crew of the Canadia find a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] that leads to another universe, they meet themselves, who save them from being destroyed by said "anomaly", and send one of them over to help repair the damage. The Canadia's Captain and Max Anderson repay the Alternate Canadia by stealing their engines (theirs were destroyed escaping the anomaly), kidnapping the Alternate's Skip Conners so they could steal her body (so they could put their Skip's brain in it) and causing the American Warship accompanying them to destroy the alternate Canadia. They also [[Arson Murder and Jaywalking|accidentally kidnap]] one of the Alternate Canadia's Crew. The reason? The Alternate Crew must have been evil, because the Main Crew [[Evil Twin|were not]].

* Happens in the [[CBC]] Radio program Canadia 2056. When the crew of the Canadia find a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] that leads to another universe, they meet themselves, who save them from being destroyed by said "anomaly", and send one of them over to help repair the damage. The Canadia's Captain and Max Anderson repay the Alternate Canadia by stealing their engines (theirs were destroyed escaping the anomaly), kidnapping the Alternate's Skip Conners so they could steal her body (so they could put their Skip's brain in it) and causing the American Warship accompanying them to destroy the alternate Canadia. They also [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|accidentally kidnap]] one of the Alternate Canadia's Crew. The reason? The Alternate Crew must have been evil, because the Main Crew [[Evil Twin|were not]].

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== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Used in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. No one, least of all Danny, seems particularly bothered when Danny destroys the less-human looking clones. Only the human-looking Danielle gains his sympathy. This is subverted, however, by the fact that Danny also doesn't seem to be bothered when he destroys the so-called "perfect clone" of himself, which would be, in theory, at least as "human" as his [[Opposite Sex Clone]] Dani. Vlad himself only considered the "perfect clone" human, even rejecting the only person who probably loved him. [[Nice Job Fixing It Villain]].

* Used in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. No one, least of all Danny, seems particularly bothered when Danny destroys the less-human looking clones. Only the human-looking Danielle gains his sympathy. This is subverted, however, by the fact that Danny also doesn't seem to be bothered when he destroys the so-called "perfect clone" of himself, which would be, in theory, at least as "human" as his [[Opposite Sex Clone]] Dani. Vlad himself only considered the "perfect clone" human, even rejecting the only person who probably loved him. [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]].

** Danny probably had no problem eliminating Vlad's prime clone because if it had been completed, it probably would've been his [[Evil Twin]] and after the trouble he had with [[Future Me Scares Me|Dark Danny]], the last thing he probably wants is to deal with an evil version of himself.

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Bender's Big Score'', not only can you kill yourself in another time without messing up your life history, but there's actually a plot point that time duplicates are always doomed and will die in some random accident shortly after they are created. {{spoiler|Note that "random" and "shortly" can extend up to "suicide" and "one thousand years later."}}