Basic Trope: Clones in fiction inevitably complain about "not being real" and/or are treated as expendable by others.
- Straight: Dr. Evilstein creates a clone of our hero, Victor. The clone takes issue with the fact that he's not the real thing.
- Exaggerated: Victor's clone becomes a Straw Nihilist and starts spouting pessimistic tripe the second he pops out of a cloning vat.
- Downplayed: Clone!Victor insists on getting a new name and dyes his hair to avoid being "just a clone."
- Justified:
- Clones get depressed because they're treated by everyone as expendable.
- They age by several years per year (a clone of a 20-year-old is the genetic equivalent of a 40-year-old by age 2, 60 by 3, and dead by 4).
- The clone is of someone who was a horrific historical figure, such as Hitler.
- Inverted:
- Dr. Evilstein is an Ineffectual Loner, so he makes a clone of himself to be his friend.
- Hundreds of identical clones have quite a lot of fun with Me's a Crowd and I Am Legion tropes. Maybe even a Twin Switch just to screw with Dr Evilstein's friends or enemies who can't tell the clones apart.
- Instead of the usual scenario where the clone feels sad and depressed because he's a clone, Dr Evilstein's clone is either perfectly okay with being a clone or he's not aware that he's a clone, while the original Dr Evilstein is depressed and angered by the fact that there's a clone of himself somewhere out there.
- The original of Evilstein's clones is frightened to have copies of himself running around.
- Clone!Victor ends up becoming a great hero in his own right, and even ends up surpassing Victor. Clone!Victor is now living his best life, however, the original Victor ends up depressed over having his own clone surpass him, making him feel like he's a screwup.
- Subverted:
- Dr. Evilstein initially treats Victor's clone as a mere tool to further his world domination schemes, but later develops an attachment to him.
- Victor's clone realizes he's a clone, but, once Dr. Evilstein is done with him, he's going to have the good time he's always wanted.
- Victor's clone does not know he's a clone.
- Double Subverted:
- And then work becomes more and more tragic as Clone Degeneration sets in.
- Victor's clone is a Stepford Smiler.
- Parodied: Dr. Evilstein uses Victor for casual supervillain practice and keeps re-cloning him while Victor whines incessantly in between comedic deaths.
- Zig Zagged: Whether clones get whiny and whether being one actually sucks depends on a clone in question.
- Averted:
- Clones are just like normal people, living ordinary lives and not thinking twice about their origins.
- No clones are involved in the story.
- Enforced: The producer is against cloning for ethical reasons, and demands that the writers make it clear that cloning is even bad for the clones themselves.
- Lampshaded: "You can make a million of me, how'd you expect me to feel?"
- Invoked: Dr. Evilstein seeks to get even with the hero Victor by creating clones of him, so that the clones would be depressed in place of the hero.
- Exploited: Dr. Evilstien knows that the Victor clone will begin angsting once it finds out it's a clone, and uses that to get the clone to do bad things for him.
- Defied:
- Dr. Evilstein programs out any sense of self-awareness in his clones to keep them from whining.
- The cloning process is made so perfect, that neither the clone nor the original would know who's which. This allows both characters to work together as a team while avoiding all the angst and resentment of being a clone, because that never ends well.
- Discussed: "And now you'll whine about 'not being real' and such, huh?" "Nope, I don't see any reason to. Having hundreds of me run around is kinda fun".
- Conversed: "Dr. Evilstein's next project should have been to clone a goddamn therapist for Victor".
- Deconstructed: Victor's clone angst becomes a passion for revenge towards Dr. Evilstein and he secretly clones an army of himself to destroy the doctor, proving that he's not expendable to both himself and his creator.
- Reconstructed: Once Evilstein is dead, the clone army begins to bitch and moan about their uselessness and lack of individuality.
Back to Clone Angst . Go on, I'm merely a clone of the page's link anyways..
