Basic Trope: Someone builds/finds a duplicate of a deceased loved one.
- Straight: Dr. Sauerkraut's daughter dies in a plane crash, so he builds a Robot Girl in her likeness to replace her.
- Exaggerated:
- After the success of his daughter's replacement, Dr. Sauerkraut turns it into a business.
- After the success of his daughter's replacement, Dr. Sauerkraut builds several dozens of the Robot Girl, each one reflecting an aspect of the late daughter he loved.
- Downplayed: Dr. Sauerkraut's daughter dies in a plane crash, so he adopts a little girl who survived in that plane crash, believing that it's the humane thing to do.
- Justified:
- Dr. Sauerkraut sold his daughter to Space Aliens/The Devil/The Fair Folk in exchange for the secrets of his advanced robotic technology, and builds a replacement to stop people from learning what he did.
- The poor doctor can't let go of his late daughter.
- Inverted:
- Dr. Sauerkraut builds the replica to prevent the death of the loved one in the first place, like a clone intended as an organ donor to save his diseased and dying daughter.
- Dr. Sauerkraut builds a replica of himself in case he dies.
- Dr. Sauerkraut builds an idealized version of his daughter, and then kills the real one.
- Subverted:
- The replacement is imperfect, and frequently has violent mood swings.
- The original is still alive, albeit kidnapped/insane/in a coma.
- Dr. Sauerkraut turns out to be the Replacement Goldfish, having been built by his daughter, who was the only one who survived the plane crash.
- Dr. Sauerkraut tries for this at first, then realizes half-way through that this would be unfair to both his daughter's memory and her replica's psyche, so instead he raises the replica to be her own self, more like a sister to the original than a clone of her.
- Dr. Sauerkraut never did and never could have children. The robot girl isn't based on anyone in particular, but is meant to be what his daughter would have been.
- Dr. Sauerkraut managed to save his daughter's brain and transplants it in a robotic body as an Emergency Transformation. However, brain damage from the accident means that the robot acts differently.
- Dr. Sauerkraut made an animatronic of Alice as portrayed by his daughter for The Ride, it was just bad timing that she passed away shortly before it was completed.
- Double Subverted:
- The replacement frequently has violent mood swings... which is exactly how the original acted.
- Dr. Sauerkraut created a robot to resolve the problem (whatever it was) and made it in his daughter's image to inspire himself. Then it starts acting like his daughter before the problem started.
- Who herself was a robot and created Doctor 2.0 by modifying her specs.
- Despite Dr. Sauerkraut's initial objections, the replica says she's fine with being exactly like Sauerkraut's daughter, since that is what she was designed for; she can't be her own self instead because "her own self" is Sauerkraut's daughter.
- The hypothetical daughter is inspired by a girl he knew prior to her tragic death.
- Dr. Sauerkraut joins a support for other parents of children who have been changed by the trauma of tragic accidents. The plot is as much about him coming to the terms with the tragedy as it is the robot's own "recovery".
- Parodied:
- The replacement is obviously a robot, sporting "robot ears" and a built-in plasma cannon.
- His replacement goldfish is literally a replacement goldfish.
- Zig Zagged: Dr. Sauerkraut builds a robotic duplicate of his dead daughter which is composed of machine parts and the remains of his dead daughter's body. That body is trashed beyond repair, but the good doctor has a Heart Drive with the sum total of her memory and personality, which he places into a second robot body. Then background noise in the uploading process caused variations in her personality and she behaves differently. These differences, however, are ironed out as the robot enters the daily routine of the daughter's life.
- Averted: Someone dies. No attempt is made to replace them.
- Enforced: "Now, how are we going to shoehorn a robot into this Harem Series?"
- Lampshaded: "Dr. Sauerkraut... Did you honestly think you could recreate someone in your state of mind? You did fairly well, I'll give you that - but I beg you, go find a therapist and let go of her!"
- Invoked:
- Dr. Sauerkraut always had a phobia of being the last member of his family still alive. He became a robotics expert just so he could do this in case his child(ren) died before him.
- A robotics expert seeks out venture capitalists who recently lost loved ones for funding.
- Exploited: Brainwashing a person takes time. Making small adjustments to an android replica less so. Dr. Sauerkraut's enemies now have another way to get at him within days.
- Defied: Dr. Sauerkraut refuses to replace his daughter.
- Discussed:Dr. Ishkabibble: Nice t'see ya, Sauerkraut- ... What? Y'want me to help create an AI to simulate your late daughter? How 'bout you clone'er instead. Unsafe, but easier.
- Conversed:Fan A: I can't believe the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter died three episodes ago on this show, only for the writers to backtrack and make daddy resurrect her like that!
Fan B: Yeah, what a cop-out. It's completely in-character for Sauerkraut to do that, though. - Implied: Alice Sauerkraut's father is mentioned to be a robotics expert who's not good at coping with things breaking. It is eventually revealed that Alice is a robot, though no Word of God mentions whether she always was this way or whether she was a replacement. Once Dr. Sauerkraut himself is met, the characters ask him the question — and the question is such a great Berserk Button that he must be restrained before he beats the asker within an inch of their life.
- Deconstructed:
- The replacement Goes Mad from the Revelation when she learns that her entire life is a lie.
- The real one was in a coma beyond all hope for recovering. By some miracle she woke up, and called her dad out. A Sibling Rivalry developed between the real daughter and the replacement, because their identity is threatened by the other's existence and their father has to split his time and attention between them.
- Someone points out that replacing a deceased loved one and pretending like they never passed is spitting on their memory, as it's natural and healthy to accept their death and move on.
- The replacement develops crippling self-esteem issues as she always knew that Dr. Sauerkraut only loves her for who she replaced, not who she actually is, and ends up lashing out at him often.
- When people learn of Dr. Sauerkraut's success, they want him to build replacements for their dead loved ones. The doctor complies and the people get what they want — every single one of them, thus creating a race of robots that can never live up to the originals and further depressing the people they were made for.
- Dr. Sauerkraut is disappointed that the replacement won't grow up like a normal daughter. His mental imbalance grows, and he sells the daughter off.
- Reconstructed:
- The replacement Wangsts for a bit, but eventually gets over it and becomes her own person.
- The real one was in a coma beyond all hope for recovering. By some miracle she woke up, and was promptly touched by her dad's (desperate) love for her. She accepts the replacement as her little sister, who resolves to become her own person.
- The replacement develops crippling self-esteem issues, and Dr. Sauerkraut is torn between assuring her that he loves her as she is and trying to make her more like the original. He expected his original to grow up and change eventually. They work out who she should be and who she wants to be together.
- The race of robots Become The Mask and no one can tell the difference.
- Dr. Sauerkraut uses Organic Technology to build the replacement so it would grow up like a human would. Due to his mental imbalance, he eventually forgets that the girl is not his real daughter.
- Also, he doesn't really care that his daughter won't grow up like a normal daughter, since it means she'll always be his little snowflake.
- Played For Laughs:
- Dr. Sauerkraut's daughter dies in a plane crash, so he builds a Robot Girl in her likeness to replace her. The problem is, he modeled the robot after himself, so it's really a boy who must crossdress to please his eccentric daddy.
- Sauerkraut's daughter wasn't on the plane, deciding at the last minute to take the train instead. When she gets back home safely, she's greeted at the door by... herself. "Dad, did you make another creepy robot of me?!"
- Played For Drama: Despite his best efforts, Dr. Sauerkraut finds himself unable to love his daughter's replacement like he would the real thing, and even looking at her only reminds him of what he lost. Instead of helping him past his daughter's loss, replacing her only makes it hurt more.
- Played For Horror: The clone and/or robot decides that they are better than the original, and tries to erase any evidence of her existence. When/if the original shows up, they try to (or successfully) murder her.
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