Clonecest (trope)

See Cloneshipping (Star Wars) for information on clonecest in the Star Wars fandom.
Clonecest, also called selfcest, refers to sexual pairings involving doubled versions of the same character. Many science fiction or fantasy canons have featured clones, doppelgangers, and alternate universe characters meeting. Clonecest is sometimes rationalized as a form of masturbation, and sometimes treated as a subset of incest.
A recognized trope in fanworks, this is fairly rare in canon. 
==Canon Examples==
Some examples in television/streaming series: 
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Mirrorverse Kira Nerys flirted with normal Kira.
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Vampire Willow Rosenberg flirted with normal Willow.
* Sliders: In one alternate universe Quinn Mallory made out with a woman he later discovered was a female version of himself.
* Red Dwarf: In an alternate universe, Lister is impregnated by a female version of himself.
* Counterpart (TV): The character Claude Lambert is shown to have an unusually intimate relationship with his double. 
* Loki (TV series): Loki gets together with his (female) counterpart from another universe, Sylvie Laufeydottir
* The character Henry DeTamble from The Time Traveler's Wife reports at a given moment that he had a homoerotic experience with himself at the age of 16 while traveling in time
Some examples in books & literature:
* One science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein includes a reference to Lazarus Long having sex with a set of female twins cloned from himself. In his short story All You Zombies the main character uses a time machine and advanced surgery to become his own father and mother. (This short story was adapted for the cinema in the movie "Predestination" in 2014)
* David Gerrold's novel The Man Who Folded Himself describes a time traveler who repeatedly travels back into his own timeline, repeatedly changing history and making love to male and female versions of himself created by the changes.
Some examples from video games:
* Elden Ring: Queen Marika married her male counterpart/alter ego Radagon and bore the cursed twins Malenia and Miquella as a result. The game doesn't explain how this worked, though it is implied Marika and Radagon were physically separate at one point (Marika is quoted as having once told Radagon "thou'rt yet to become me"), but are shown as occupying a single body when the player encounters them.
Some examples from music:
* Eminem's song "My Darling" is about his alter-ego, Slim Shady, taking control of a since reformed Marshall, a fictionalized version of Eminem's real self. Slim's coaxing uses homoerotic words once used by Stan (an erotomanic fanboy portrayed as being in love with Eminem) -- "you and I were meant to be together, my darling".
==Notable Fandoms==
* Oncest: A massively popular ship on tumblr of the Onceler from The Lorax with alternate versions of himself. It became a fandom of its own.
* Farscape: The clone of John Crichton, referred to as TalynJohn in fandom, often appears in fanworks. He is is sometimes paired with his clone MoyaJohn, and there are threesome fics pairing both clones with Aeryn Sun
* Orphan Black: On a series about clones, clonecest was inevitable. The most popular clonecest pairing in this fandom, was Allison Hendrix/Beth Childs.
* Sanders Sides: The different aspects of Thomas's personality are mixed and matched by the fandom into a wide variety of pairings. Some of the most popular pairings are Logan/Patton (Logicality), Roman/Virgil (Prinxiety), and Patton/Virgil (Moxiety).
* Star Wars: Works pairing the clone soldiers with each other are considered clonecest. See Cloneshipping (Star Wars).
* MCU: Loki's ability to create illusions sometimes leads to clonecest in fanworks. These works deviate from canon, where Loki's clones are not able to interact with objects. In 2021, the Loki TV series resulted in a considerable amount of fanfiction pairing Loki with other Lokis (from different timelines). The most popular Loki/Loki ship from this series is Loki/Sylvie, which was immediately targeted by anti-shippers on the basis that it is a selfcest ship.
* Gegege no Kitaro: Perhaps the most popular ships in the Gegege no Kitaro fandom are Kitakita- a ship of two series' versions of Kitaro together. The most popular Kitakita ships are 1985!Kitaro/1996!Kitaro and 2007!Kitaro/2018!Kitaro.
* Undertale: Sans is popularly shipped with Alternate Universe versions of himself, a ship known as Sanscest or Sans/Sans.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanart===
File:Tumblr inline payh6ldh4m1ugxl9r 540.jpg|Flesh Curtains Rick and Zero Rick, by DuckDean. Note: Marked as sexually explicit; minimized.
==Resources==
* Screw Yourself article on TV Tropes
* Self-cest works on Archive of Our Own
* Clone Sex works on Archive of Our Own
==References==
Category:Glossary
Category:Romance Tropes
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