Misused: Mes A Crowd

I can't find any resources on what the "Deadlock Clock" is for, but since noone has done anything to the page, here's my advice for settling this:

Self-Duplication is a superpower, which is the reason it was decided that it should be split off (if not why the subject came up in the first place). I've looked at the Our Clones Are Identical index and there is nothing about the number of clones (mischievous or not) being a part of the plot, or even that there is more than one clone.

Scorpion has the right idea. Tropes Are Not Narrow, but if they're getting big enough that some people are uncomfortable with it, that's what creating a new page is for. "Me's a Crowd has 843 wicks and 1000+ inbounds though, so I doubt a rename is really feasible." "I personally always thought this was a ton of clones, like a crowd of them." ...But the tip of the iceberg in showing how conducive this title isn't towards what whoever originally created the page had in mind. Instead of picking every strand of the haystack out of a couple of needles, let's magnet-grab the needles to be put in their own container. The community has spoken on this trope, and to go against them would not only be of course absurdly arduous, but just plain not work in the long term, and have surprisingly disastrous effect too in the short term (which can still be a really long time for a lot of the less often tended pages).

This page needs a new description, this page's slot in the Plots index needs to be given to the new page, and the mention of Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot needs to be moved to the new page's description. The remaining question is, what should the "new" trope be called?

The Deadlock Clock is a timer to lock threads if no progress is made. It can be reset and removed by mods.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

So basically, a note-to-self, eh? But, one that anyone can see, given that any good wiki should be a hive-mind. Cool. ...But, locking a thread purely for how much time as passed (as opposed to legitimate concerns such as flamewars) is enforcing a particular trend that, on this wiki's forum, isn't a rule; to quote the rules page, "On thread necromancy versus the creation of new threads: Neither one is de facto 'bad form' here. Either is acceptable, depending on the thread and why it's being brought up again.". Isn't the creation of the Deadlock Clock mechanic, then, itself a step in the wrong direction?

Oh, and because I don't think I made it clear enough before: those saying this trope is misused are wanting a trope where "Person gets clones, uses them for chores/stuff, but things don't work out as planned.", as per countless Western Animation examples, hence the "Stock Plots" index entry. Some of the proposed names like "Clone Hijinx" or "Doppelganger Antics" are closer, but I feel they're not close enough, given the reason for starting the new page.

Just a few copies is Self-Duplication. So many copies that people can't find the original, or that the copies are out of the original's control, is a different trope.

The Clone Wars Saga of Spider-Man got to the point where the writers weren't collectively agreed on if Ben Reilly or "Peter Parker" were the original.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Where would the hundreds and hundreds of misuse examples go if the page became a redirect? Would we just hastily slap them on the other page?

I mean, I'd be all for a rename/redirect but it just seems a little impractical. A rewrite would probably be the best idea, perhaps with the non-misuse examples put in a separate trope page?

edited 3rd Jun '15 7:16:54 PM by MercuryPenny1

Somebody brought an interesting point of "clones having different personalities" vs "clones which are extensions of the original's mind", like a Hive Mind.

The former is what Me's a Crowd (currently at least) is trying to convey while the latter is the backbone of Self-Duplication.

MAX POWER KILL JEEEEEEEEWWWWW

Perhaps that's what we need to note in order to differentiate the two. But how...?

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

Use a computer analogy? like Clone Network? (kind of sounds like a "cloned" network though) Mental Mesh? (works for Self-duplication and Hive Mind a la Mental Fusion) etc.

also wouldn't Hijinks from self cloning be covered under Rogue Drone?

No, Clones do not necessarily have a Hive Mind, most tend to NOT have a Hive Mind until they re-fuse if they can do that at all.

Clone hijinx could come from time travel, forced duplication, magic spells that create illusions that only act like the real thing, be literal physical clones. Or spells that clone but have a specific objective and that is all they do, be dumb as rocks, or be suggestible.

Negima for example had a chapter where Negi created a clone via writing his name on magic paper but screwed it up 5 or so then threw them away. Those clones got out of the trash and started wandering around looking for what they needed to do, which started to roll out of control since they got strange ideas and no one else knew about the clones or knew magic existed.

(never mind)

Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!

Locking per New Year Purge.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman