Legally distinct from the Shadow Clone Jutsu, so it's both ninja-proof and lawsuit-proof.
The ability to duplicate oneself is often a highly versatile superpower that can be written and applied to behave in a variety of ways. Specifically in combat, options include ganging up on enemies with clones, forcing opponents into a needle-in-a-haystack search for the "real" one, or the case with this trope: psyching people out.
In this case, someone creates a clone of themselves not to overwhelm opponents in the thick of a fight, but to bait them into thinking that the caster is there when in reality it's just a disposable, often harmless replica. Some examples may have more capabilities than others, but the general gist is to create an expendable copy to divert attention that can then lead to another making a surprise attack from elsewhere, or perhaps just to escape.
Often found with characters who have Self-Duplication or Master of Illusion powers, but it may also occasionally manifest in more mundane ways, such as through a crafty Trap Master or constructing actual physical dummies. Compare with Doppelgänger Spin, which also involves generating harmless clones to mislead opponents, but primarily occurs during an actual fight itself rather than before it.
Related is Expendable Clone for cases where a doppelgänger is also treated as disposable, but is given distinct characterization that makes their expendability a matter of pathos. See also Body Double for cases where the doppelgänger is another entirely different person donning a disguise, though this tends to result in them being less "disposable"... usually. This may be implemented by a villain to fake their defeat, resulting in Actually a Doombot. Contrast with Clones Are People, Too, where doppelgängers are treated (at least by the narrative) as far less expendable.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- In Dragon Ball, there is the "Afterimage Technique" which allows the user to create afterimages to confuse the opponent and hide one's own presence. These afterimages don't last long, however.
- In Gundam's Universal Century universe, Minovsky Particles have made various detection equipment useless, thus Dummies have come into play. Dummies are large-scale balloons that, at a distance, resemble ships, asteroids, or Mobile Suits. During Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Amuro uses the Re-GZ and Nu Gundam's Dummy Launchers to surround opponents with Re-GZ-styled Dummies so he can attack them.
- Interspecies Reviewers: Zel the elf mentions that many magic users can create a duplicate of themselves, but they're not very lifelike, don't travel well, and can't hold a conversation. The decoy doll will only fool really dumb adversaries and rarely lasts long since it can't fight back.
- In Naruto, ninja can use the Clone Jutsu to create non-sentient afterimages for the specific purpose of distracting opponents. Its more advanced version, the Shadow Clone Jutsu, can, be used in such a way as well, though since the Shadow Clones are sentient and can attack opponents, they are more commonly used to overwhelm enemies.
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: Ami eventually gets the ability to, given enough warning beforehand, create inanimate matter and shape it into whatever she wants it to look like. One use of it is to make decoys of herself, as seen in "Abandon Ship, Part 2".
Films — Live-Action
- In Thor, Loki conjures images of himself to distract the Frost Giants that attack him and the others while on Jotunheim. He appears to be teetering on the edge of a cliff, luring a giant to hurl itself at him - it passes through the copy and plunges over the cliff. He later uses the same trick on Thor, making it look at though he's clinging to the edge of the Bifrost - when Thor goes to help him, the images dissolves as the real Loki attacks from behind.
- In Total Recall (1990), one of the gadgets Quaid gets equipped with once he's on the run is a wrist-mounted device that lets him project a hologram of himself. Later in the film, Quaid gets seemingly gunned down by an ambush of Cohaagen's men, only for them to discover it's a hologram — cue the real Quaid blasting them all from the flank. Moments later when another group of guards come in, they come across Quaid laughing out in the open with his gun...
Quaid: You think this is the real Quaid? [the guards look around] It is! [guns the guards down]
Literature
- In Peace Talks, Harry Dresden ends up battling Ebenezer McCoy over what can charitably be described as a big misunderstanding. Ebenezer doesn't realize that Harry was using a doppelganger until it was in the process of dissolving after a lucky shot when the battle was basically already over. For bonus points: Harry was casting magic through the doppelganger, at a distance from it, across water, all of which reduced the effectiveness of his spells. He's effective enough — even with Ebenezer holding back — that Ebenezer still had no idea during the battle itself.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Rosé Mistral and Teresa Carste both have the ability to create "splinters" of themselves, illusory copies without substance used to divert attention from the real attacker. Mistral can additionally place them over top of his allies to make them look like himself, letting him mix additional real attackers into the copies. Teresa, meanwhile, suppresses her mana signature to cover up any imperfections in her splinters.
- Rhythm of War: Lezian the Pursuer can transport himself by transforming into a ribbon of light that leaves his old carapace behind as an empty husk. This often tricks people into attacking the husks rather than follow where he's actually gone, which he exploits to brutal effect when breaking troop formations.
- The short story "The Second Shield" by Robert Silverberg is about an artist named Beckermann, who can create fantastic artworks from his dreams while he sleeps. These artworks are temporary and dissolve into nothingness anywhere from a few hours to four years. A shield with Grecian motifs befitting Achilles was sold to a shipping magnate, which lasted less than three years. The magnate demands a replacement and has sent a thug named Alvarez to squeeze another shield out of Beckermann. Though he cannot dream up a second shield, he does dream up a duplicate of himself, instructs the duplicate to meet Alvarez while the real Beckermann makes a discrete dash for South America.
- Who Censored Roger Rabbit?: In sharp contrast to its more famous film adaptation, Toons in the novel lack Toon Physics and instead have the ability to clone themselves as a Dopple to take physical punishment their original selves couldn't, with the Dopple dying a few hours later. Roger uses this ability to create a Dopple with enough energy to perfectly mimic him for 48 hours, providing him a perfect alibi when he kills his boss Rocco DeGreasy. However, things go awry when the original Roger is killed, leaving the Dopple to "help" Eddie solve Rocco's murder, though Eddie does figure out the original Roger was the killer.
- In The Witches of Karres, Goth has the power to disguise herself with sensory illusions. In the second sequel, set a few years later, she's developed the ability to the point where she can confuse adversaries with multiple images of herself.
- Worm: Oni Lee's teleportation leaves behind a duplicate in the location that he leaves, without any outward visual signal, that continues to act for a short time before disintegrating into a cloud of ash. This allows him to both mask his teleportation, distract his enemies while his real self hides or repositions, and endlessly reuse explosives by only having his duplicates use their own copies before they fall apart.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- 3.5th Edition has two powerful Illusion spells to this effect. "Mislead" simultaneously makes the spellcaster invisible and creates a controllable illusion of them; "Project Image" creates a quasi-real duplicate through which the spellcaster can project their senses and cast spells.
- 5th Edition has the Echo Knight subclass of the Fighter from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, which creates a number of One-Hit-Point Wonder echoes. They're grey and translucent, but they can move independently within a 30' radius of the caster, and the Echo Knight can choose to have his attack originate from any of the echoes or switch position with them.
- The spell "Mirror Image" creates several illusory One-Hit-Point Wonder duplicates of the spellcaster that cluster around them, giving any incoming attack an equal chance to hit the spellcaster or any one of the duplicates.
Video Games
- Nearly all protagonists in BioShock have an option to deploy an immobile clone to draw enemy aggro: Jack and Subject Delta are respectively able to summon a "Target Dummy" or "Decoy" (the latter can be upgraded to reflect damage they take and restore some of Delta's health on hit), while Booker DeWitt can occasionally have Elizabeth summon a "Decoy" Booker from Tears.
- Borderlands 2: Zer0's main ability is "Decepti0n", which has him send out a holographic clone of himself for enemies to target while he himself becomes invisible, able to emerge and pounce on enemies with a deadly sneak attack. The decoy can be buffed with a few different skill tree options: "Unf0rseen" makes the clone explode with electricity once the real Zer0 becomes visible, while "Many Must Fall" rewards melee kills during "Decepti0n" by creating additional decoys while resetting the ability's cooldown.
- Can be done in Chrono Trigger as an optional quest to save Crono from being Killed Off for Real. You can obtain a life-size, posable doll of each character by winning a carnival game, which is then used in conjunction with the titular McGuffin to return to the exact temporal and spatial point frozen in time where Crono is just about to be vaporized by Lavos' power, and switch him out for his own replica.
- Dead by Daylight: The Unknown occasionally drops immobile copies of itself around the map called Hallucinations. Survivors are able to destroy these Hallucinations if they come across one, but The Unknown is able to near-instantly teleport to any one of their positions if they're still standing — the pre-teleported version of The Unknown will remain prone in place for a few seconds before fading away.
- Dishonored 2: If Emily is chosen as the playable character, the powers she is subsequently granted by the Outsider include "Doppelgänger", which summons a decoy copy of her in the targeted location that distracts or confuses her enemies. With enough upgrades, Emily can maintain two such copies at once, swap places with either of them, and even have them assassinate enemies for her.
- Dragon Age II: A rogue of the Shadow specialization can learn Decoy, which distracts attention while the rogue escapes into stealth. It can be upgraded both to last longer and to explode when destroyed.
- In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its 3DS remake, should you defeat Desaix in his first fight — which you're not actually supposed to do — the game will instead remark that the Desaix present wasn't the true Desaix — he just made a poor guy disguise as him and send him into battle before retreating.
- Henry Stickmin Series: Henry at one point can use a Duplicatorange to create a clone of himself, enabling him to avoid being shot by a sniper. Trying to use this option triggers a fail, as the real Henry is the one who gets shot.
- League of Legends:
- Fiddlesticks — instead of being able to use traditional trinkets like control wards or vision sweepers — is able to place "Scarecrow Effigies", which behave like both trinkets and look identical to a prone Fiddlesticks. If an enemy sees/comes near one, it automatically plays a random animation (such as running away from the opponent or casting an ability, including the start-up to its ultimate ability), but will deal no damage and expire shortly, all for the sake of giving the enemy a brief scare.
- Neeko's "Shapesplitter" ability has her briefly become invisible before reappearing alongside a clone of herself, which can't attack, but replicates her ability-casting animations and can be manually piloted before expiring after a few seconds. It also takes on whatever form Neeko herself is using through her Voluntary Shapeshifting, giving it additional fake-out potential as it can let her appear as anyone on her team.
- In The Legend of Tian-ding, the titular character can utilize a shadow-clone jitsu as a Doppelgänger Attack, and the shadow clone can be "killed" in Tian-ding's place. The cutscene after the weapons plant stage notably has Big Bad General Shimada announcing his presence by impaling Tian-ding In the Back via katana, only for the skewered shadow-clone to dissolve - the real Tian-ding is already well outside the plant.
- Magic and Mayhem: The illusion spell allows a wizard to create illusory copies either of summoned creatures or of themself to use as decoys. They can do damage in combat, though units with a high intelligence stat are more likely to see through the illusion and cause it to dissipate.
- Mass Effect 3: The Holographic Decoy ability causes the user to throw out a holographic decoy of themselves to a point they target. The Decoy will mimic their movements but never moves from the location it's spawned. Upgrades to it allow it to do things such as shock nearby enemies or explode once it's destroyed by either running out of HP or its timer running out.
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain feature a "Decoy" item, an inflatable of a gun-wielding soldier that can be placed to distract enemies. In The Phantom Pain, this is a tactic that can be appropriated by enemies, who may also use balloon statues to trick you, the player, into thinking a fortification is more armed than it actually is. Decoys on both sides of the war can be upgraded to have slightly more animation, speak in canned voice lines, or even electrocute people trying to pop it with a knife.
- Pokémon has the move "Substitute", in which a Pokémon sacrifices 25% of its maximum HP to replace itself with a decoy. The decoy takes damage until it's destroyed.
- Ratchet & Clank (2002): The Decoy Glove throws out an inflatable decoy with Ratchet's face on it that will briefly draw enemy attacks until they destroy it.
- StarCraft: The High Templar's Hallucination ability creates a psionic decoy of a unit with no attack.
- Toe Jam And Earl: In the original game, one of the presents is a Decoy, which is a balloon of Toejam or Earl tied to a sandbag. When used, enemy Earthlings will attack it until it is destroyed. While the Earthlings are distracted, Toejam or Earl can easily sneak past them.
- Valorant: Post-rework Yoru has a "Fakeout" ability in which he sends forward a harmless copy of himself, walking in a straight line until it hits something. If an opponent shoots at the clone, it will shortly detonate like a flashbang and blind them.note
- Warcraft:
- The Blademaster's Mirror Image ability creates up to three copies of himself (with the same stats, but 0 damage) that can be used to scout, distract, tank, etc. Using the move also dispels all buffs and debuffs on the Blademaster.
- The Wand of Illusion item lets the caster make an illusion of the target unit that deals no damage.
Web Animation
- RWBY:
- Blake's Semblance, "Shadow", creates illusory copies of Blake that allow her to escape attacks or tank hits that she would otherwise be unable to handle, like decapitation strikes from vengeful exes.
- Though Neo's Master of Illusion powers may seem less fit for combat than other Semblances, she proves to be quite dangerous with her ability to create illusory copies of herself to distract her opponents while she attacks from another angle. She's so proficient at this trick her opponents often struggle against it even while fighting in close quarters. However, she ditches this move in favor of making armies once her powers reach Reality Warper levels.
Webcomics
- Dive Quest: When attacked in his dreams by a demon trying to possess him, Muschio fakes falling for the demon's ruse by sending a dream construct of himself into the trap.
- Oglaf: "Jar, Lamp, Ham" sees Navaana use a fake death pill to create a naked, non-living clone of herself to escape a pursuer, although she ruins the effect by whooping as she runs away. It's then revealed she has a room full of clones.
Western Animation
- The Batman: In the episode "The Everywhere Man", the titular villain can create and destroy temporary copies of himself, and hence be "everywhere". Problems arise if a copy is active for too long, as they gradually become more intelligent, self-aware, and megalomaniacal, with them eventually starting to revolt against the original for killing them off.
- In Men in Black: The Series, the agency has the technology to create clones that are instantly aged to adulthood, but the downside is that the clones only last a short period of time. These "quick clones" are usually employed as decoys, although one episode reveals that Elle has been abusing her access to the cloning labs to create temporary duplicates to cover her shift so that she can have a day off every now and then.
- In Miraculous Ladybug, Rena Rouge's most common use for her illusion powers is to create duplicates of other heroes to distract the Akumas. These illusions always dissolve the instant someone touches them.
Real Life
- Dummies of military equipment have been used by armies throughout history to deceive their enemies, most prominently during the World Wars. Among the tactics used by both the Allied Forces and Axis Powers of World War II were the construction of inflatable tanks and wooden airplanes to mislead the enemy on where their forces were located, with the Allied Forces involving the assistance of magicians and filmmakers to create the illusion and spread the word. These "spoofs" played a part during D-Day as many of the fake invasions meant to distract the Nazis were simulated by dropping off hundreds of fake landing craft and even dummy paratroopers, all except for the actual invasion at Normandy.
