History Main / CopiedTheMoralsToo

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': The creation of Gecko Moriah's zombies involve removing a person's shadow and inserting it into a lifeless corpse, giving it life again and [[PowerCopying allowing it to use the owner's non-Devil Fruit based fighting style]]. In addition, the zombie will also inherit the owner's personality and morals such as the zombie created from Sanji's shadow inheriting his policy to never kick a woman, Zoro's inheriting his principles about being a swordsman, or Oars inheriting Luffy's desire to be King of the Pirates. This makes them difficult to control in their early state, but its {{downplayed}} in that most of these personality traits eventually vanish and the zombies become completely loyal to Moriah and his officers.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': The creation of Gecko Moria's zombies involve removing a person's shadow and inserting it into a lifeless corpse, giving it life again and [[PowerCopying allowing it to use the owner's non-Devil Fruit based fighting style]]. In addition, the zombie will also inherit the owner's personality and morals such as the zombie created from Sanji's shadow inheriting his policy to never kick a woman, Zoro's inheriting his principles about being a swordsman, or Oars inheriting Luffy's ambitions to be King of the Pirates. This winds up making them difficult to control in their early state, but its {{downplayed}} in that these personality traits eventually end up vanishing after a while, becoming completely loyal to Moriah and his officers.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Dr. T.O. Morrow created a human-like android to infiltrate the heroes to defeat them from within. It was so good at its infiltration that it gave its life to save the heroes. Then he created Red Tornado, reasoning that an android that knew what it was would work better. Red Tornado likewise went full hero. Finally, he gave up and just created an android that was outright evil. That one immediately killed him (or rather, his robot duplicate) for being an inferior human.

* An heroic example from ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'': While the X parasites were so far portrayed as absorbing creatures and people and replicating their bodies without preserving much of the host's personality, [[spoiler:Quiet Robe, after his death is "resurrected" by a X and is still as benevolent as he was prior to dying, though it's unclear if it's actually him or if the parasite has been influenced by his memories]].

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E17CourseOblivion Course: Oblivion]]" starts with ADayInTheLife on Voyager before everybody eventually realizes they're not the real ''Voyager'', they're the biomimetic copies from the earlier episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E22Demon Demon]]". [[CloneDegeneration Even as they're breaking down]], we see that the members from biomimetic ''Voyager'' are no less principled than the real ones.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E14Whispers "Whispers"]], Chief O'Brien returns to the station to find everyone there acting suspiciously. He begins to suspect that everyone has come under the influence of some alien force that plans to to disrupt the peace negotiations that are to take place between two alien species. He investigates to the point he attempts to warn the delegation of a possible attack only to learn that he's actually a clone with the original's memories and personality, meant to be a ManchurianAgent and launch the very assassination attempt he was trying to stop. Two factors the ones responsible didn't account for was that a) the crew of Deep Space Nine got warned ahead of the plot (which is why they were acting so suspicious) and b) they were creating a duplicate of one of the most honorable men in the entire Alpha Quadrant

* ''Franchise/DragonBall}}:

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': During the Potaufeu mini arc, the Commeson manages to absorb Vegeta's power and creates a duplicate of him. However, the copy also winds up inheriting Vegeta's massive ego, HonorBeforeReason fighting principles, and his love for Trunks, which makes him unable to be easily controlled by the Commeson and constantly defies his master's orders in favour of fighting Goku fairly.

--->'''Clone''': I envy you, Ned. Ever since I robbed that bank, I've felt my evil programming waning. I guess the goodness I inherited from you was too much, even for that nasty wasty old Rigellian technology.

* One ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic has Sideshow Bob doing a VillainTeamup with Kang and Kodos, and creating an evil clone of Ned Flanders. However, the clone eventually gives up on being evil because the inherent goodness he took from Flanders was enough to override the villains' attempts to program him into being their pawn.

* Done deliberately so with the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Life-Model Decoy]] of May in ''Series/AgentsOfShield'', as she was designed as a ManchurianAgent of sorts who didn't even realize she was a machine, and whose programming was ''very'' subtle to the point she was made to feel as if she wanted to follow her orders. [[spoiler: It backfires when she ends up pulling a HeroicSacrifice and blowing herself up along with the much more evil robotic duplicates of Coulson and Fitz, in order to save the lives of Daisy, Simmons, and the surviving agents: she ultimately decides to [[GrownBeyondTheirProgramming screw her programming]] and do what she wants, which is be the hero.]]
* In the fourth season SeriesFauxnale of ''Series/Babylon5'' titled "The Deconstruction Of Falling Stars", one vignette shows that 500 years after the show's present time, a propagandist for a xenophobic, Orwellian faction of [=EarthGov=] uses holographic recreations of the B5 command crew to try to frame them as war criminals and mad scientists who experimented on humans at the behest of "alien masters". He starts by using holograms with the crews' actual personalities and memories intact before overwriting them with the new "evil" personalities he needs for his holo-recordings. However, the hologram of Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, as paranoid as the real one (and just as good with computers), gets the man {{Monologuing}} about his plan, secretly transmitting it and the base coordinates to the other, pro-Alliance faction. Just before the base is destroyed, he quietly says to the other holograms, ''"Rest easy, friends. Rest easy."''
* In the ''Series/BlakesSeven'' episode "Weapon", the BigBad Servalan creates a clone of Blake to use as part of her plot. The clone promptly falls in love with a DamselInDistress, is morally disgusted by Servalan, and rebels against her.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:Emperor Belos murdered his brother when the latter "betrayed" him in some way (he's implied to have fallen in love with and had a child with a witch, while Belos wants to destroy them). Since then, he's been creating Grimwalkers, essentially magical clones, in the hopes of finally creating one to be a "better," more obedient [[ReplacementGoldfish version of him]], and has done this ''dozens'' of times. These clones are all the people who have held the post of the Golden Guard, with Hunter being the latest iteration, and according to Belos, the one that came the closest. Given that he murdered all the previous Golden Guards for "betraying" (or even questioning) him, and tries to do the same to Hunter when Hunter realizes Belos has been lying about everything, it seems the Grimwalkers not only look like his brother, but share his better moral compass, too. Every single ''one'' eventually turned on him.]]

* A rare villainous example in ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'': Scourge is an accidental EvilKnockoff of Optimus Prime, but Megatron made him into a Decepticon by imbuing his protoform with a fragment of his own spark. Near the end of the series, Scourge [[spoiler:tries to usurp Megatron (or Galvatron as he's known by this point) as leader of the Predacons/Decepticons, noting that when Megatron 'created' him, he must have absorbed a part of Megatron's ambition]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheManOfSteel'', the first Bizarro, despite some anger issues and collateral damage, tries to do as much good as the real Superman, and ends up sacrificing himself to cure Lucy Lane's blindness.

* Similarly, the Marvel villain the Awesome Android at one point [[https://i.imgur.com/x9FULNd.png copies Thor's worthiness]] and [[HeelFaceTurn turns good]].

* When Creator/GeoffJohns was writing for ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'', Superboy was {{retcon}}ned to be a [[ManchurianAgent sleeper clone]] created by ComicBook/LexLuthor using a combination of his own DNA as well as [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Superman's]]. Despite being conditioned to obey Luthor, Superboy desired to be a hero like Superman and rejected Luthor's purpose for him.

* ''WebVideo/StampysLovelyWorld'': [[spoiler:Polly Reindeer's]] RottenRoboticReplacement, [[spoiler:Polly-Bot]], is programmed by the BigBad to "Act like [[spoiler:the reindeer]] so no one gets suspicious" while [[spoiler:Polly]] was kidnapped. When Stampy finds out, he {{invoke|dTrope}}s this when trying to use ExactWords against the robot, so that it would [[HeelFaceTurn turn against its creators]]. [[spoiler:It works.]]

* In ''Webcomic/DragonBallMultiverse'', Perfect Buu (or [[FanNickname Zen Buu]]) was left undefeated after succesfully absorbing Vegeto, and went on to destroy the Earth as he'd planned, only to note that he didn't feel like it anymore because he'd absorbed too many people who loved the planet and were now a part of him. He then proceeded to evolve into an AboveGoodAndEvil TricksterGod, a synthesis of all his moral constituents.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': The creation of Gecko Moriah's zombies involve removing a person's shadow and inserting it into a lifeless corpse, giving it life again and [[PowerCopying allowing it to use the owner's non-Devil Fruit based fighting style]]. In addition, the zombie will also inherit the owner's personality and morals such as the zombie created from Sanji's shadow inheriting his policy to never kick a woman, Zoro's inheriting his principles about being a swordsman, or Oars inheriting Luffy's ambitions to be King of the Pirates. This winds up making them difficult to control in their early state, but its {{downplayed}} in that these personality traits eventually end up vanishing after a while, becoming completely loyal to Moriah and his officers.

* ''Manga/DragonBallSuper'': During the Potaufeu mini arc, the Commeson manages to absorb Vegeta's power and creates a duplicate of him. However, the copy also winds up inheriting Vegeta's massive ego, HonorBeforeReason fighting principles, and his love for Trunks, which makes him unable to be easily controlled by the Commeson and constantly defies his master's orders in favour of fighting Goku fairly.

* ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'': During his invasion in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Grand Admiral Thrawn planted [[DeepCoverAgent sleeper cells]] of clone soldiers on various planets as a hedge against defeat. Cell Jenth-44, undercover on the backwater farm world Pakrik Minor as the Devist family, were cloned from famous Imperial AcePilot [[ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron Baron Soontir Fel]]. They got a semblance of his flying skills, but they also got his [[CallToAgriculture love of farming]], and by the present day have [[GoingNative Gone Native]]: when Moff Disra attempts to activate them, they decide their loyalty to their families and land far outweighs their loyalty to the Imperial Remnant.

* ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'': During his invasion in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Grand Admiral Thrawn planted [[DeepCoverAgent sleeper cells]] of clone soldiers on various planets as a hedge against defeat. Cell Jenth-44, undercover on the backwater farm world Pakrik Minor as the Devist family, were cloned from famous Imperial AcePilot [[ComicBook/RogueSquadron Baron Soontir Fel]]. They got a semblance of his flying skills, but they also got his [[CallToAgriculture love of farming]], and by the present day have [[GoingNative Gone Native]]: when Moff Disra attempts to activate them, they decide their loyalty to their families and land far outweighs their loyalty to the Imperial Remnant.

* This trope is used intentionally throughout the ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' franchise. While it had long been known how to create genetic duplicates of people (known as [[CallARabbitASmeerp gholas]] in universe) who may have a vague sense of the person they were before, but despite many attempts they've been unable to get a ghola to reclaim the full memories or past life of the person it was created from. In ''Literature/DuneMessiah'' a ghola regains past life memories for the first time when a ghola called Hayt made from the deceased Duncan Idaho is brainwashed to assassinate Paul Atreides. Idaho had UndyingLoyalty to the Atreides family and [[HeroicSacrifice gave his life]] so that Paul and Lady Jessica could escape their enemies, so when Hayt is triggered to kill Paul, he finds himself resisting and the trauma of the LogicBomb allows the ghola to recover complete recall of his past life memories. He not only resists the trigger but kills the person who used it. In later books, it is mentioned that Hayt was one of the lucky ones, as most other Gholas who are forced to undergo this type of trauma in an attempt to regain their memories more than often than not just go completely insane.

* ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'': Spectre spends much of the latter half of the series fighting a series of clones that are trying to KillAndReplace him... [[AbortedArc for some reason]]. However, as the clones act nothing like Spectre, lack access to his SuperMode and never attack in groups, they aren't particularly difficult to defeat. Near the end of the series, the BigBad finally succeeds in creating a perfect clone of Spectre... only for Spectre's sister to wander into the fight, and the clone to [[BigBrotherInstinct instinctively protect her]]. This leads the confused clone (now indistinguishable from the original) to join the heroes, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing itself]] shortly thereafter to heal Spectre while he's dying.

* Something of a recurring problem for the Mecha Sonic series in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' when they start to develop sapience, though it's less they copy his morals and more his fierce independence, which Robotnik hates. The most notable one was the original Mecha that attacked Floating Island. It rebuilt itself with a power gem and managed to capture Tails, using him as bait to force Sonic into a no holds barred beatdown. However, when the volcano Mecha had trapped Tails in began to erupt, the robot found he couldn't leave the fox to his fate and broke off his attack, using his power gem to stave off the lava while Sonic rescued their friend. Later this Mecha was recovered by the Freedom Fighters and became the heroic, though ultimately tragic, hero Shard.

* ''Western/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:Emperor Belos murdered his brother when the latter "betrayed" him in some way (he's implied to have fallen in love with and had a child with a witch, while Belos wants to destroy them). Since then, he's been creating Grimwalkers, essentially magical clones, in the hopes of finally creating one to be a "better," more obedient [[ReplacementGoldfish version of him]], and has done this ''dozens'' of times. These clones are all the people who have held the post of the Golden Guard, with Hunter being the latest iteration, and according to Belos, the one that came the closest. Given that he murdered all the previous Golden Guards for "betraying" (or even questioning) him, and tries to do the same to Hunter when Hunter realizes Belos has been lying about everything, it seems the Grimwalkers not only look like his brother, but share his better moral compass, too. Every single ''one'' eventually turned on him.]]