Expendable Clone: Difference between revisions

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.

* ''[[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]].

* In [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]'s ''[[Megalex (Comic Book)|Megalex]]'', The police clones are terminated after living for four hundred days, the limit enforced by explosive control tabs implanted at the base of their skulls. This is done to prevent them being infected by dissidents. The clones are filed into a large room like a group show, made to strip, disinfected to allow more efficient recycling, and then their control tabs are detonated. The allusions to concentration camps are obvious. One of the protagonists, Ram, is an escaped police clone.

* In Duncan Jones's ''[[Moon (Film)|Moon]]'' it turns out that lunar mining technician Sam Bell is unknowingly a clone of the original {{spoiler|with a limited lifespan, destined to be replaced with another clone when his assignment is finished - i.e., when he's killed off. His company has been doing this for years in order to save on labor costs; it's implied that the original Sam was OK with the idea. The jig is finally up when one of the clones awakens prematurely, and the two Sams figure out a way to publicize the truth.}}

* In ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant (Literature)|Playing With Fire]],'' {{spoiler|Valkyrie lets Skulduggery shoot her mirror doppleganger to trick the Torment, who wants her dead.}} Slightly subverted in that she has been explicitly assured that her reflection ''cannot'' have a real mind of its own, it is compared to Skulduggery tearing up a photograph of her - even so, she still feels horribly guilty over the plan.

* It ain't a [[Tomato in The Mirror]] trope without an [[Outer Limits]] episode devoted to it.

* ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' has Will Riker being split by a transporter accident a couple years ago. They send him on his way as "Thomas" Riker once he is recovered.

** ''[[Star Trek Nemesis (Film)|Star Trek Nemesis]]:'' Data dies. However, since B-4 and he shared memories, it's strongly implied Data will 'resurrect' through B4. [[Expanded Universe]] material, such as the prequel comic to the 11th movie, outright states it to be the case.

** ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' has a man who murdered his clone to frame Odo for his murder. He is arrested in the end, Odo saying that killing one's own clone is still murder - a rarity of a clone being valued as a life form of its own in Trek.

** ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek Voyager]]'' plays with this one in "Tuvix," wherein the named hybrid makes an overwrought speech about how splitting him back into Tuvok and Neelix will be murder. Much of episode was about the moral dilemma of killing one to save the other two, and even the Doctor refused to perform the procedure, due to the Hippocratic Oath. Janeway had to do it herself, and left in a guilty mood. A lot of fans [[Moral Event Horizon|never forgave her]].

** ''[[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Star Trek Enterprise]]'' has the episode with "Sim" Tucker, in which he is made and [[Human Resources|harvested for parts]] in order to save Trip. He doesn't take it all that well at first, but comes around in the end. (He was going to die anyway in an hour or two, after all. And in their defense... harvesting him for parts wasn't the ''plan,'' they just needed the injured Trip's skills in a ''big'' hurry, and no one expected the clone would retain Trip's memories (or IIRC even be cognizant))

* 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]].

* ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: The Lost]]'' features the fetch, a clone made by [[The Fair Folk|the Gentry that abducted you]] out of stray detritus and animated by a piece of your soul. Once you break out of Faerie, you come back and find this thing living your life. The various changeling Courts are somewhat split on how to respond to fetches, but the general inclination seems to be, "Kill the impostor." Thing is, it's ''still'' something that acts human and, up until your return, thought it was you entirely. It could be a pawn of the Gentry... or it could be an innocent bystander. What you want to do with it is entirely your choice...

* A scene during the finale of ''[[Planescape Torment]]'', when the protagonist's personality is shattered and has to convince the "other hims" to merge back with him so that he can continue his quest. One is particularly persistent about making ''you'' merge with ''him''.

** The Paranoid Incarnation, who was [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]], came to the conclusion that future incarnations (who were merely new personalities assumed through [[Amnesiac Dissonance]]) were actually evil spirits looking to steal his body. He therefore spent an inordinate amount of time laying traps for people who matched his physical description, which he would know to avoid but the future incarnations wouldn't. This in turn is a plot-point and also helps convince him to merge by speaking in a language only he and the player speak (if the correct quest for this is done) thus showing him the player is someone to trust because he and TPI are the same person.

* The entire point behind the Replica in ''[[FEAR]]'' is that they're cloned soldiers {{spoiler|of Paxton Fettel}} who can be quickly grown, trained, and deployed at a substantially reduced cost when compared with normal [[Private Military Contractors]], and their training, conditioning, and psionic control turns them into fearless, highly disciplined and unswervingly loyal troops. This gets turned on its head when the psychic commander who controls the Replica goes bonkers and turns them against the corporation that created them.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' pulls this off pretty well, with the option to have one from the start of the game. (It ends up being necessary to switch the real Crono with the clone later on in order to avoid disaster)

* Inverted in [[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]. After Lucrezia gains the ability to upload her mind into multiple bodies, she doesn't mind dying as long as some copies remain elsewhere.

* Subverted in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'': An [[Opposite Sex Clone]] of Elliot is made, who has all of his memories up until that point. It's initially believed Ellen's [[Your Days Are Numbered|doomed to vanish after a certain amount of time]], which causes her to panic and briefly try to be an [[Evil Twin]]. It's quickly discovered her existence is secure, and thanks to a few pulled strings, she is now living as Elliot's "twin sister". She has since become a character rather [[Divergent Character Evolution|different from Elliot]], and is completely accepted by everyone privy to the secret.

* Gate-clones in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' are treated as sentient individuals, and the lives of most sentient individuals are often treated pretty cavalierly if they aren't protagonists. They're definitely legally unique; the problem comes from the fact that gate-clones have all the memories of the original up to the cloning. For example, if a man kills someone, then gets gate-cloned, both clones are guilty of murder.

* In [[Doppelganger (Web Video)|Doppelganger]] Vincent accuses Victor as using him as this.

* ''[[Men in Black (Animation)|Men in Black]]: The Series'' plays this [[Played for Laughs|for comedy value]] with the Quick-Clones, which are explicitly expendable clones, meant for short-term uses, and even if they aren't killed, melt into goo after a certain amount of time. They don't seem to mind their short lifespan, though; in one episode, a group of them play basketball after their job was done, saying that their lifespan is too short to worry about much.

* The Republic troopers from ''[[Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'' are treated as pretty much expendable, [[Cloning Blues|and they know it.]] You can tell who is supposed to be a good guy and who is supposed to be a jerk based on who treats them as expendable or not.