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{{trope}}
[[File:MagicMirror.jpg|link=Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|frame|
A common household device, sometimes employed as a [[Seven Deadly Sins|symbol of vanity]], but with much deeper roots: combining the reflective and symbolic properties of flat, still water and the portability and delicacy of glass, mirrors show a character their reflections, and often much, much more...
A common staple of fantasy literature and movies, the '''Magic Mirror''' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what you think it is]]: A mirror with magical powers. Like a [[Crystal Ball]], they can be used for seeing the future or communicating with or [[Palantir Ploy|spying on]] someone at the other end, but a mirror is ''much'' more versatile; other possibilities include the mirror being used as [[Cool Gate|a portal]] through [[Portal to the Past|time]] or [[Portal Network|space]], or even into a [[Mirror Universe]], and a [[Crystal Prison]] to trap foes. A mirror may even be used to [[The Mirror Shows Your True Self|reveal the true nature]] of one of the main characters or the villain. They are the standard tool for a [[Vain Sorceress]] who wants to know who is the [[Fairest of Them All]].
Often, the Magic Mirror itself may be sentient; if it is, [[Artifact of Doom|it's usually evil]], or at the very least [[Prophecy Twist|quite fickle]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Atsuko aka Akko's mirror in [[Himitsu no Akko-chan]], which makes her a [[Master of Disguise]]
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* The two mirrors in ''Mugen Densetsu Takamagahara [[Dream Saga]]''. They're both based on Amaterasu's mirror.
* Kanna's soul-sucking mirror in ''[[Inuyasha]]''. It's also a crystal ball for the [[Big Bad]].
* One of ''[[The Slayers]]'' movies is about a ''[[Dungeons
** We see another in Slayers NEXT. {{spoiler|Aqua the Dragon uses it to show to Lina the ''horrible'' consequences of invoking the Lord Of Nightmares through her most powerful [[Black Magic]] spell}}
* Ichika's adventure in ''[[Uta Kata]]'' starts when Manatsu appears in an old mirror and promptly exits it with a cool light show.
* ''[[Haunted Junction]]'' gives us the Mirror Girl or Kagamiko, a female ghost with the looks of a [[Moe Moe]] girl who resides inside of a floating mirror. In the manga, she also has the power of showing the other characters what's reflected in other mirrors and also can use her mirror as a teleport device.
* The Lilith Mirror in ''[[Rosario
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' has several uses of reflective surfaces for scrying or magical communication, but the most classical and recurring example is the giant mirror that the [[Big Bad]] uses like a [[Crystal Ball]].
* The character, Mirror, in the series Sisters Grimm. Doesn't just show you what you want to see, but will take you there it is within his power, and is the guardian of a never ending warehouse of magical items and artifacts.
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* One youkai in ''[[Natsume Yuujinchou]]'' was looking for a mirror that could heal her friend. It had broken into fragments and one of them was in Natsume's eye.
* Toyed with in ''Onegai Samia-don'' (the anime version of the novel ''Five children and it''). There's a ''whole'' magical world behind each mirror, but it cannot be accessed from the outside if not via magic; therefore, we only get to see it when a depressed [[Proper Lady|Anne]] asks the Psammead to send her there. {{spoiler|The episode ends [[Bittersweet Ending|in a borderline]] [[Tear Jerker]] as the last spot in the Mirror World is one that contains Anne's earliest memories, including those of [[Missing Mom|her deceased mother]]... and when she's about to unlock them, Psammead's magic wears off since it's sundown.}}
* In [[Peter Pan no Bouken]], {{spoiler|Queen Sinistra}} has one. {{spoiler|Wendy gets thrown inside of it, finds a world behind the crystal... and has to face the [[Face Heel Turn
* More than one of these is featured in [[Hell Teacher Nube]]. In a variation, there are two who aren't inherently magical, but Kyoko and Miki perform a sort-of spell to follow an urban legend that says mirrors let you see the future...
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* In ''[[New Mutants]]'', Magik's scrying glass was one of her most powerful tools and was even stronger than Cerebro. Its shattering made painfully clear that she had lost control of Limbo, and during ''Inferno'', rebuilding it signified that she was back in charge just in time for her [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
== [[Fairy Tale
* Rather common in Western myths and legends, including:
** ''[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]]'' (later made into a Disney movie, where the Mirror - exact and unflattering - epitomized the all-consuming [[Vain Sorceress|vanity]] of the queen).
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** ''[[The Snow Queen]]'' has a mirror that shows only the ugly things in the world. It gets broken and one of the shards ends up in Kai's eye.
== [[
* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]'' has one act as a [[Cool Gate|gateway]] to a [[Mirror Universe]], thanks to one of [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Brainstorm]]'s inventions.
* In ''[[Touhou]]'' PC-98 Alice looks younger than later games. In [https://safebooru.donmai.us/posts/4346819 this picture], apparently that's because later Alice is an imposter that trapped pc-98 Alice in a mirror.
* Thanks to the [[Divine Intervention|intervention]] of the Japanese deities [[w:Benzaiten|Benzaiten]] and [[w:Ōkuninushi|O-Kuni-Nushi]], an ordinary full-length mirror trashpicked by Ranma first provides a way for him to speak to the spirit of his female form, and then acts as a gateway for her (and other Jusenkyo-born spirits) to step through into her own full physical existence in the ''[[Ranma ½]]'' fic series ''[[Tales of Ranma and Ranko]]'' by Jack Staik and Lady Tesser.
== [[Film]] ==
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* In ''[[Van Helsing]]'', a giant mirror serves as a magical doorway to Castle Dracula.
* ''[[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus]]'' features a stage mirror as an entrance to the dream world.
* In the French supernatural thriller ''Vidocq'' the villain makes his immortality-granting
* The titular mirror mask from ''[[Mirror Mask]]'', in part.
* In ''[[Snow White: A Tale of Terror|Snow White a Tale of Terror]]'' of course. It's also implied that the mirror is either the experience of Claudia's psychotic break or a spirit.
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* The Mirror of Llunet is the [[MacGuffin|object of Taran's quest]] in ''[[Prydain Chronicles|Taran Wanderer]]'', by Lloyd Alexander. Taran wishes to know of his parentage and so seeks this mirror (actually a flat, still, shallow pool) which will show the truth.
* There's a mirror in the afterlife in the Detective Inspector Chen series that tells the souls of the dead what they are likely to be in the next life when they reincarnate.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** The [[Big Bad]] in the
** The Omniscope used by the wizards in several books is described as looking like a mirror surrounded by junk. It's basically a flatscreen crystal ball.
** And the Demon King in ''[[
* Tom Holt's entertaining but nonsensical novel ''[[Snow White and the Seven Samurai]]'' subverts this (as he does practically everything else) by introducing the "Mirrors 3.1" operating system which Snow White's Evil Queen Nemesis uses to pretty much control the whole fairytale world. Sort of. Since it's a parody of a rather well-known OS, you can imagine it doesn't work quite as well as the box claims.
* Galadriel in ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Lord of the Rings]]'' has a mirror that shows "''things that are, things that were, and some things that have not yet come to pass.''" When the Fellowship visit Lórien she uses the mirror to show Frodo and Sam what will happen if the Ring is not destroyed.
** That's just what happened in the movie (though Sam wasn't present). In the book the Mirror shows what's going on in the Shire right at that moment, as well as glimpses to the history of the Ring. The Mirror itself is incidentally just water in a silver bowl. It's implied that all the power comes from Galadriel herself, or her ring.
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* Parodied in book three of the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', ''Calling On Dragons'', where magic mirrors are used as magical telephones. (You call someone by reciting the couplet "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, I would like to make a call".) A sign of the quality of the mirror is how polite it is to you; one mirror has quite the personality.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''The Hour of the Dragon'', [[Conan the Barbarian]] is shown to Xaltotun with a magic mirror.
** In the [[Kull]] story "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune"
* [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s Averoigne stories.
** "The Enchantress of Sylaire". The title character has a mirror that reflects reality as it really is, ignoring all illusions and enchantments.
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* Many of the godmothers in the [[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms|Five Hundred Kingdoms]] have magic mirrors to help them.
** In ''The Sleeping Beauty'' Fairy Godmother Lily {{spoiler|falls in love with hers}}
* There are several forms of
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': Harry makes a point of not having a mirror in his home, as there are apparently a bunch of nasty things out there which can attack through them. For some reason he keeps the rear view mirror in his car, though. And McAnally's Pub has 13 mirrors, with no complaints. [[Unreliable Narrator|Maybe there's some other reason he doesn't own one?]]
** Harry himself uses a mirror as a key part of a spell in ''Blood Rites''.
== [[Live
* ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' has lots of these. Besides the main set of mirrors that the Evil Queen has ("mirrors to travel, mirrors to spy, mirrors to remember, mirrors to forget, mirrors to rule the world!"), people can use them like videophones. The Huntsman even has a small pocket mirror that acts as a video cellphone!
** At one point, the heroes are shown to a mirror which answers questions, and finds that it's so old that not only is it half-deaf, but it won't understand a question unless it's spoken in rhyme.
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* One of ''[[Gaia Online]]'''s more interesting Random Item Generators was a handheld Mirror called The Dark Reflection, that transported the user into a [[Mirror Universe]]. (Complete with Mirror NPCs and Mirror Items). The Mirror was released as an equippable item as one of the grand prizes.
== Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths
* Found in Japanese mythology, with Amaterasu's [[wikipedia:Yata no kagami|Yata no Kagami]], supposedly part of the Japanese Imperial regalia. Quite possibly the [[Ur Example]], unless we can find an older one.
** Subverted in the Japanese tale ''[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/japan.html#mirror Mirror of Matsuyama]''. A dying mother who lives in the mountains of Matsuyama gives her little daughter a mirror and tells her it's a magical one that will let her see her mom's ghost when she's out of this world. It's just a normal mirror, though, with no powers; the mother had said so to give the child some emotional support for when she dies. It kinda works, as the ''very'' sheltered girl believes for years that the image in said mirror is her mom's ghost, not her own reflection (sorta an echo of what her mom did when she got the mirror as a gift from her husband, too).
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** Mirror of Opposition: when a creature looks into it, a duplicate creature appears and attacks the original. In one version, the duplicate's [[Mirror Morality Machine|personality is the opposite of the original]].
** Barlithian's Mystical Mirror: (1) when something is in front of it, [[True Sight|the reflection shows the thing's true nature]]. (2) It can be used as a [[Crystal Ball]]. (3) It can repair any damage to itself.
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** Mirror of Mind Switch: [[Freaky Friday Flip|Swaps the mind of whoever looks into it with the person holding it.]] Actually a hand-mirror.
** Classic one is, of course, scrying mirror, which is also the second function of the Mirror of Mental Prowess.
*** There was even a [[Shout-Out]] -- "Isolde's Answer" spell that allowed to see a scene in 5+ mile radius as an answer to one question using any scrying device. And yes, asking a mirror "Who's The [[Fairest of Them All]]?" <ref>-- them all in 1 mile per level, anyway --</ref> was one of examples
* Fetches from ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'', as part of [[Evil Twin|their very nature]], have powers over mirrors and associated elements. They can produce a shard of glass that serves as a knife from any mirror, or force a changeling to perceive everyone as wearing their own face, or trap a changeling in a mirror world, or touch a mirror and produce a clone.
** Another [[New World of Darkness]] book, ''Proverbial Monsters'', features a creature called a Miraree that gains access to this world when a mirror is broken, and can manifest through other nearby mirrors to drain people of their [[Life Energy]].
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** In ''[[King's Quest VI]]'', this mirror revealed to Alexander the peril of Cassima in the intro, again launching the events of the game; and yet another magic mirror is given to Alexander by the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and later used to {{spoiler|win a duel with Death by making him cry.}} The mirror has a second use in the [[Multiple Endings|bare-bones ending]], where it {{spoiler|reveals the princess to be a fake at the royal wedding.}}
** In ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity|King's Quest Mask of Eternity]]'', the mirror shows king Graham what transpires in the Realm of the Sun and later allows Connor his first glimpse of his enemy Lucreto.
** In the [[Extended Universe]] novel ''[[King's Quest:
* ''[[Okami]]'' uses magic mirrors both as [[Save Point
** As well as blunt instruments used to [[Improbable Weapon User|violently beat demons to death]].
* The classical image of monsters and [[Evil Twin|evil twins]] breaking out from inside a mirror is quite well-known. Case in point: ''Castlevania'' has a variety of [[Dem Bones|animated skeletons]] and demons that emerge from mirrors.
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* In ''[[Quest for Glory I]]'' there is a magic mirror that can be used to reflect spells back upon the caster. It's of course an important object in beating the game.
* In ''[[Ultima IX]]'' the destruction of Skara Brae could be seen by activating a red, smoky mirror in Lord British's chambers, after which the mirror shattered.
* The mirror from ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'' appears in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]''. For gameplay reasons, it is given the previously unseen ability to suck people into a pocket dimension within itself where the mirror's spirit can physically harm the protagonists.
* The opening scene from the 1936 [[Mickey Mouse]] short "Thru the Mirror", in which Mickey has fallen asleep reading ''[[Alice in Wonderland|Through the Looking-Glass]]'' and his dream self decides to go check out the mirror above his fireplace mantle, is used in the intro of ''[[Epic Mickey]]'' as an explanation for how Mickey ended up in Yen Sid's tower and {{spoiler|accidentally created [[Eldritch Abomination|the Shadow Blot]] and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|caused the Thinner Disaster]]}}. The short itself is also featured as a 2D "travel zone" level in-game.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The magic mirror in ''[[Shrek]]'' shows Lord Farquaad prospective princesses with which to marry and become a king, done in the style of a [[The Seventies|70s dating game show]]. In the first sequel, it's used as a television set.
** Its appearance is the same as in Disney's ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'', or a parody thereof.
* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' has the Reversing Mirror, which had the power to reverse the powers of any Shen Gong Wu it was used against. This was a rather loose definition, as its real powers could range from reversing effects (like heavy armor becoming light as a feather) to reversing the direction of offensive attacks (like a projectile or strike being turned the way it came) to whatever the plot required (rather than some magic glasses that showed the future showing the past, it showed a bizarro "opposite" future where the hero was evil).
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' had Titania's mirror in an episode named, interestingly, ''The Mirror''. Unclear exactly what it did, it mostly seemed to be a focus for Puck's power. It was also used for by Demona to summon and capture Puck, and it exhibited teleportation capabilities.
* In Disney's ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'', the Beast gives Belle a magic mirror that will show her anything she wishes.
* ''[[
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fate and Prophecy Tropes]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
▲[[Category:Magic Mirror]]
[[Category:Magic Items Index]]
[[Category:Reflective Tropes]]
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