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Mewtwo is a man-made Pokémon, created from the DNA of Mew. All the other
cloned Pokémon in the movie _Mewtwo Strikes Back_ look like the one they
cloned from, but not Mewtwo. Mewtwo looks totally different from Mew. Why is
this?


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2020-02-07T12:17:19.210
56748
2023-04-10T19:48:08.917
2020-02-07T13:42:45.063
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question
pokemon
Why does Mewtwo look so different from Mew?


I believe this is a plothole, stemming from the discrepancies between Mewtwo's
origins in the games, and its origin in the anime.

In the games, Mewtwo is not a clone of Mew, but actually its child: the
journals in Cinnabar Mansion refer to Mew giving birth to it. Mewtwo was then
subjected to "years of horrific gene splicing and DNA engineering
experiments", which explains why it only vaguely resembles Mew - its DNA is no
longer solely that of Mew.

In the anime, however, Mewtwo was cloned using Mew's DNA, and there is no
mention anywhere of it being subjected to any further experiments, only of it
"maturing" into its present form. Prior to maturing, it resembled Mew more
closely:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/vMgps.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/vMgps.jpg)

It's still possible that Mewtwo was experimented upon in a similar manner to
the games, but in the absence of any evidence, I have to chalk this up to a
simple plothole: there is no clear explanation for why Mewtwo should differ so
drastically from the Pokémon it was cloned from, when the other clones exhibit
no differences besides dark splotches.


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2020-02-07T13:37:16.410
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Mewtwo was cloned from Mew. It is possible that Team Rocket made some
modifications for the clone, whereas Mewtwo did not do any modifications to
the DNA of the pokemon it cloned. Anyways, it is just an assumption.


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2020-08-06T09:01:32.573
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2022-01-19T01:53:34.327
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In the _Pokémon Adventures_ manga, Mewtwo was given human DNA as well as Mew
DNA so Mewtwo should look different then Mew. More human. I don't see why this
couldn't also have been the case in the anime and games. However, the Pokemon
that Mewtwo cloned were given hardly any changes but the change of that they
would obey Mewtwo. _They were not injected with human DNA but with Pokemon
DNA_.


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2020-09-05T13:53:07.020
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2020-09-10T21:04:50.607
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In the first movie, Dr. Fuji, the head scientist who worked on Mewtwo's
creation in the anime, has this conversation with Mewtwo:

> Dr. Fuji: "For years we struggled to successfully clone a Pokémon to prove
> our theories, but you're the first specimen to survive. That is Mew, the
> rarest of all Pokémon. From its DNA we created you, Mewtwo."

> Mewtwo: "Mewtwo? Am I only a copy? Nothing but Mew's shadow?"

> Dr. Fuji: "You are greater than Mew, improved through the power of human
> ingenuity. We used the most advanced techniques to develop your awesome
> psychic powers."

Then later in the movie, when Jessie, James, and Meowth are sneaking around in
Mewtwo's cloning lab, they find a recording which Dr. Fuji made about Mewtwo's
creation in which he says this:

> There was sufficient genetic material [in the fossil his team had found] to
> replicate Mew. **But** [emphasis mine] Giovanni, who financed our
> experiments, insisted we try to create super-clones, more powerful than any
> living Pokémon.

All that, to me, implies strongly that Mewtwo was not just cloned directly
from Mew, but also subjected to heavy genetic modification to enhance his
psychic powers. The other clones did not go through this process, and so they
resemble the Pokémon they were cloned from.

This would also seem to fit in with Mewtwo's general backstory in other
versions of the Pokémon world. In the _Pokémon Adventures_ manga, it's
explicitly stated that Mewtwo was created by blending human DNA with the DNA
from Mew, and in the games, Mewtwo's original Pokédex entry states that

> It was created by a scientist after years of horrific gene splicing and DNA
> engineering experiments.

I don't see why anime-verse Mewtwo would be any different, and there's nothing
in the movie that suggests he is.


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2020-10-23T09:15:25.657
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2020-10-23T09:15:25.657
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I think it's because Mewtwo is not connected with the Tree of Life. Being
connected to the Tree gives Mew shapeshifting ability, but it may also affect
his appearance altogether.


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2022-01-19T00:28:53.993
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Mewtwo is an altered version of mew, so that means it looks different. The
scientists that created the Pokémon altered its structure and powers to be
stronger than mew itself. And that's why Mewtwo is looks different.


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