Discussion Main / DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest

Dumb question, but would this trope apply in cases where a character explicitly gets together with a clone of their love interest?

Definition expanded per TRS:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16820864940.00362500&page=2#comment-27

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Unclear Description, started by arromdee on May 20th 2014 at 12:14:59 AM

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

The description appears to contradict itself. It says "Usually it's never explained why this person looks exactly the same", but it also says "If there's a mundane explanation (or none) for the Suspiciously Similar Substitute, that's plain old Replacement Love Interest."

(Also, Replacement Love Interest says "Note that this trope is specifically for situations where the character is an obvious replacement, but not the exact same person in a new body. That's Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest", which doesn't fit the description here at all.)

Edited by 86.138.212.171

There seems to be a lot of confusion between this and Replacement Love Interest. I've edited the description to emphasize that this is just for magic, and if no one objects, I'll move the following examples to RLI:

Anime

• Toyed with a bit, and subverted in Full Metal Panic during The Second Raid. Sousuke is separated from Kaname by Mithril, and goes into his huge Heroic BSoD. He ends up meeting a Chinese prostitute who looks exactly like Kaname, and decides to hire her to chat with him. The subversion comes in that, as soon as she starts making advances on him and attempts to kiss him, he completely freaks out and runs away.
• Fist Of The North Star played around this trope when Mamiya was first introduced, whose resemblance to Yuria (Kenshiro's supposedly dead fiancee) was the first thing he noticed about her. Subverted in that even though Mamiya is in love with Kenshiro at first, his feelings are not mutual. Also, Yuria is later revealed to be Not Quite Dead yet.
• Another one from the Bleach movie, Memories of Nobody: After Senna sacrifices herself, Ichigo sees a girl who looks and sounds just like her run past on the bridge.

Comics:

• In The Incal, John Difool meets, falls in love and loses a beautiful "Aristro" (she goes off with another guy.) Later he meets Animah, who exactly resembles her. (Strangely, given the metaphysical manipulation that occur in reference to John, this seems to have happened by accident.

Film:

• Given a dark twist in Vertigo.

TV: • Daytime soaps do this a lot. Most of the time it's not supernatural, just a way to bring back an actor who has been killed off, such as when Angie Hubbard of All My Children and The City met and married a man who looked exactly like her late husband Jesse. An example of the supernatural sort was on General Hospital when Anna's alien friend Casey had to return to his home planet, and then Anna met a lookalike human, Shep Casey. • * In one episode of Friends, we meet Russ, Rachael's latest boyfriend who has the same face, voice and mannerisms as Ross but has a slightly different haircut. Theater:

• As a method of apologizing to his roommate Rod, Nicky in Avenue Q finds a boyfriend for Rod. Ricky, who other than being muscle-bound, is an exact copy of Nicky.

There may be other examples that should go, but I'm not familiar enough with the works in question.