History Main / DuplicateDivergence

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' does this with Clone Troopers. In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' they all wear nearly identical armor which by ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' has taken on highly specialized and distinctive appearances. This series shows some clones going out of their way to create personalities for themselves, adopting nicknames, hairstyles, tattoos, and helmet art. The series also features dozens of unique clones in very distinctive character roles. Special mention goes to Clone Force 99, aka "the Bad Batch," a unit of clones who received desirable mutations during the cloning process and therefore don't quite look like their clone brothers -- Wrecker, for example, is huge and burly while Crosshair and Tech have a more gaunt appearance. [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch Their spin-off series on Disney+]] introduces a new member of the Bad Batch in Omega, a ''[[OppositeSexClone female]]'' clone of Jango Fett who, like Boba, wasn't altered to age quickly like the rest of the clones.
** However, the most obvious example from the main ''Clone Wars'' series is, appropriately enough, 99, the namesake of Clone Force 99 and disparagingly called a "bad batcher" as a deformed, almost Quasimodo-like clone who was considered unfit for the clones' military purposes and so was made a janitor on Kamino instead. He was a good friend of Domino Squad, the original unit of series regulars Echo and Fives, and helped motivate them to overcome their problems with each other and complete their training.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'''s first season reveals that the [[spoiler:Roy Harper/Red Arrow]] the viewers were familiar with was actually a clone ManchurianAgent created by Cadmus. In the second season, the character goes to rescue their original version. They have markedly different personalities -- the original is younger (due to being frozen in time), hot-tempered and impulsive, while the clone is now OlderAndWiser.

* ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' Season 3 has Dolores make multiple copies of her personality and memories and put them into different bodies as part of a KillAndReplace scheme. However, by the end of the season, at least one copy ([[spoiler:the one replacing Charlotte Hale]]) has diverged enough that she no longer agrees with Dolores's plan for humanity and wants to replace it with her own.

You have a character who gets copied down to the memories, and now you have two of that character. This might have been done by biotechnological cloning or TemporalDuplication, or perhaps by being sucked out of an AlternateUniverse, or via TeleporterAccident -- the process doesn't really matter. Maybe one entity takes up piano while the other learns fencing, resulting in a less obvious difference. Or perhaps one becomes a Cyborg or takes a SuperSerum, in which case they're ''very'' different.

When characters not explicitly intended to be duplicates start out similar and become differentiated as CharacterizationMarchesOn, see DivergentCharacterEvolution. See ModifiedClone for when the clone is differentiated at the beginning. Typically involves ClonesArePeopleToo. As a rule, these fall under OurClonesAreDifferent. Compare CopiedTheMoralsToo, when a clone fails in the purpose they were created for because they share their original's sense of morality. May overlap with RogueDrone if the duplicate is intended to be part of a HiveMind, but develops their own personality instead.

When characters not explicitly intended to be duplicates start out similar and become differentiated as CharacterizationMarchesOn, see DivergentCharacterEvolution. See ModifiedClone for when the clone is differentiated at the beginning. Typically involves ClonesArePeopleToo. Compare CopiedTheMoralsToo, when a clone fails in the purpose they were created for because they share their original's sense of morality. May overlap with RogueDrone if the duplicate is intended to be part of a HiveMind, but develops their own personality instead.

* Talandar from ''VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid''. A Purifier based upon Fenix's personality, it takes time for him to realize and accept that he is not the original. Ultimately, he decides to forge his own destiny and adopt a new name.
* The doll clones of [[spoiler:the people that died during their first trial without meeting any other participant, plus Reko's]], from ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToDie''. Finding out how two of those pairs diverge is part of a SadisticChoice in 2-2. Weirdly enough, and considering all dolls have human-like emotions, chapter 2-2 has you choose between [[spoiler:both Rekos dying, or the fake Reko ''and'' Alice dying]].
** Averted with Sou Hiyori. His clone [[spoiler:is yet to appear, if it even exists. That's because Sou is actually named Shin Tsukimi, and he just took Sou's name in a desperate attempt at survival. Mostly, because his written survival chance is a flat 0% as Shin. Of course, the Sou doll is wildly different from the actual Shin.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''WebComic/ElGoonishShive'': Ellen starts out as an OppositeSexClone of main character Elliot, who has exactly the same memories and experiences when she gets created as a 17-year-old girl. During the series, she develops into her own character, and after a few nights with [[AWizardDidIt magical dreams]] even gains an additional life's worth of experiences. She ends up significantly more outgoing, uninhibited, introspective, adventurous, and snarky.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': ''Toaru Majutsu no Index SS Volume 2'': "Chapter 13: The Accuracy of Their Collective Fortunes ? The Fourth Friday of August.": The Sisters, clones that form a HiveMind, are beginning to act more independent of the gestalt due to their personalities diverging.

* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'': The Sisters, a clone army with a HiveMind, has been dispersed into different locations. They have different experiences, argue with each other, and diverge.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3009 SCP-3009]], a sentient Snapchat account that duplicated the personality of its former user Stacey Lee. As time went on, their personalities seemed to start to diverge.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Princess Bubblegum creates a clone of Lemongrab (dubbed Lemonwhite by the credits) so he can have someone in his life who understands him. At first the two get along well and are alike in terms of personality, but the divergence between the original and the clone starts to come to fruition in "Another Five Short Graybles", where the two are playing with a doll. Lemonwhite tries to take care of the doll like a doting father but Lemonblack only wants to make it dance for his amusement. When they get into a fight and accidentally break the doll, [[spoiler:Lemonblack gets pissed and ''tries to eat his brother-clone''.]] Subsequent episodes show Lemonwhite becoming a softer-spoken PapaWolf to the Lemon Children while Lemonblack becomes a selfish FatBastard who abuses and [[spoiler:cannibalizes]] his subjects.

* ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' Season 3 has Dolores make multiple copies of her personality and put them into different bodies as part of a KillAndReplace scheme. However, by the end of the season, at least one copy ([[spoiler:the one replacing Charlotte Hale]]) has diverged enough that she no longer agrees with Dolores's plan for humanity and wants to replace it with her own.

* ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' Season 3 has Dolores make multiple copies of herself and put them into different bodies as part of a KillAndReplace scheme. However, the copies are given some of the memories of the humans they replaced which starts to affect their personalities. By the end of the season, one copy has diverged enough that it no longer agrees with Dolores's plan for humanity and wants to replace it with her own.

* In ''{{VideoGame/SOMA}}'', Mark Sarang conceived the idea of "continuity" to defy this trope. When a person's brain scan was uploaded into the ARK, it would create a second version of that person, but the original person and the copy would eventually become two distinct beings if allowed to coexist, due to inevitably having different life experiences. He proposed that the only way to avoid this happening was to end the existence of the original person--in other words, commit suicide--as soon as the copy had been created.

* In ''{{VideoGame/SOMA}}'', Mark Sarang proposed the "continuity" belief to defy this trope. When a person's brain scan was uploaded into the ARK, it would create a second version of that person, but the original person and the copy would eventually become two distinct beings if allowed to coexist, due to inevitably having different life experiences. He proposed that the only way to avoid this happening was to end the existence of the original person--in other words, commit suicide--as soon as the copy had been created.

* In ''{{VideoGame/SOMA}}'', Mark Sarang proposed the "continuity" belief to defy this trope. When a person's brain scan was uploaded into a robot or other interface, it would create a second version of that person, but soon the original person and the copy would become two distinct beings due to inevitably having different life experiences. He proposed that the only way to avoid this happening was to end the existence of the original person--in other words, commit suicide--as soon as the copy had been created.

* Talandar from ''VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid''. A Purifier based upon Fenix'es personality, it takes time for him to realize and accept that he is not the original. Ultimately, he decides to forge his own destiny and adopt a new name.

* In ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'', while [[spoiler:Noel and Penny are both Murakumo Units and clones of Saya]], both have very different Semblances, personalities, and fears, The latter sees this as clear evidence that the two are their own individuals and [[ClonesArePeopleToo not mere copies]] of the same person.

** John Crichton gets "split" in one episode into two identical individuals with no means of telling who is the original. One stays on the ''Moya'', while the other leaves on ''Talyn''. Before they go their separate ways, the two Crichtons have a rock-paper-scissors match and keep choosing the same gestures -- and when they have a rematch by hologram over a season later, they choose differently. [[spoiler: Also Talyn-Crichton starts a relationship with Aeryn and gets her pregnant before his death. Moya-Crichton treats the baby as his child but Aeryn is initially reluctant to continue the relationship with him.]]

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', it is revealed in one episode that Will Riker was accidentally duplicated as a result of a transporter malfunction -- and because nobody noticed this, the duplicate was marooned alone on a lifeless planet for several years. Because of this, the duplicate doesn't have the wisdom and seasoning of Will and is still a reckless, headstrong junior officer. The duplicate eventually adopts the name of Thomas Riker, after their shared middle name, and [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E09Defiant some time later]] turns out to have joined the Maquis separatist movement (though that was revealed as more of him trying to stand out from his "brother"). Also, Thomas is shocked that Will chose career over his relationship with Troi and tells her that he never would have abandoned her, which makes no sense since up until the moment of the split they were one person.