Unexpected node duplication when using load()

[95camarones]

Godot Version

v3.6.stable.official [de2f0f147]

Question

I am using load() as part of a save-game system. I have a PackedScene with the following node tree that I have have saved as an .scn file.

I am using the following code to load a new instance of the scene.

func _on_file_dialog_file_selected(path):
	var new = load(path).instance()
	var container = duplicate_carrier_scene.instance()
	
	for body in new.get_children():
		new.remove_child(body)
		container.get_node("duplicates").add_child(body)
	
	get_tree().get_root().get_node("main").add_child(container)

The new instance seems to have had all the child nodes duplicated, so the loaded tree looks like this.

What on earth is going on here?

[paintsimmon]

Does duplicate_carrier_scene already have a version of the nodes you’re adding when you instance it?

[95camarones]

No. This is what duplicate_carrier looks like beforehand.

[95camarones]

I also notice that all the variables in the duplicated nodes have been reset to default. For example, the duplicated polygon has no polygon data.