Mirrors Reflect Everything



So you've got a villain shooting at you with his Ray Gun. You really don't want to get hit by it, and you know his A-Team Firing won't last forever... so what do you do? You take out your mirror and use it as a shield, and surprise, it reflects the ray right back at him.

Why does it work? Because in fiction, Mirrors Reflect Everything.

This trope is when something that even remotely resembles a beam of light can be deflected using a mirror (and not a Magic Mirror, either, just an ordinary mirror), even though it realistically shouldn't have even stopped it. Or if you don't have a mirror handy, you can substitute anything reflective. Whatever was fired at you will always be deflected, perfectly, without any distortion or loss of potency.

Note: only non-justified examples belong here. If it's something that would make perfect sense for a mirror to reflect, like simple laser-light, or if the mirror is explicitly enchanted in a way that allows it to reflect such attacks, it doesn't count. This restriction is necessary to keep the trope out of chair territory.

Often overlaps with Attack Reflector, and less commonly Light and Mirrors Puzzle. Cousin trope to Reflecting Laser.

Anime and Manga

 * An early episode of Sailor Moon pits her against a photography-themed Monster of the Week who traps people in the pictures it takes. She defeats it by standing in front of a mirror, then dodging the photo beam, causing it to reflect right back at the youma.
 * In Yu Yu Hakusho, Yusuke defeats Hiei by bouncing his Spirit Gun off a mirror. Played with in that the mirror in question was actually the Forlorn Hope, one of Demon World's three sacred treasures, and it broke when struck.

Comic Books

 * In Dirty Pair: Dangerous Acquaintances, the bad guys have programmed a spaceship's security system to seal off areas of the interior by lowering raisable walls and to use laser turrets to shoot anything that moves within those areas. The main characters retreat into a bathroom where there are no turrets, then break the mirror and use pieces of it to redirect the turrets' laser beams, first to cut through the nearest raisable wall, and then to destroy the turrets. In issue 3 of the next miniseries (A Plague of Angels), the letter column ran one letter from someone who pointed out that a high-powered laser actually would have quickly made a hole in the mirror.
 * Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire had a moment when somewhat drunk PSmith played Whack a Mole with Buck and his zap-gun and accidentally shot a mirror.

Film

 *  Spaceballs: Lone Starr uses a shaving mirror to deflect the Agony Beam which Dark Helmet shoots at him.
 * In Watchmen, uses a pot lid to reflect a shot from an energy weapon fired by Nite Owl II.
 * In Superman II, General Zod has heat vision powerful enough to melt steel and scorch concrete. Nevertheless, Superman is able to use a semi-truck's side mirror to reflect the heat vision back at the villain.
 * Superman exploits this effect in the comic books as well. In one series, he uses it to shave. After all, steel razor blades aren't gonna do the trick, are they? Then his powers get swapped for electrically based ones that he has poor control over. The next morning, he tries it again. Lois has just enough time to catch on to what's about to happen before Clark lets it rip. This is also reflected, blasting Clark through the whole apartment, trailing lightning bolts all the way.

Live Action TV

 * Done in an early episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Giles uses a lab mirror to reflect a witch's magic attack aimed at Buffy.
 * In The Green Hornet episode "Invasion from Outer Space'' part 2, the title character reflects a blast of electricity with a mirror.
 * One episode of Star Trek: Voyager had a Viidian ship hide in an asteroid full of natural mirrors which reflected phaser fire (which are not lasers, but some kind of particle weapon). The crew got around this by setting the phasers to a low setting and firing a continuous burst, hitting but not damaging the other ship to reveal its location.
 * Doctor Who: In "Spyfall, Part 1", the satnav of the MI6 car fires a Death Ray that disintegrates the drivers and then starts firing at the Doctor and her companions. The Doctor rips off the rear view mirror and uses it to reflect the Death Ray back at the stanav, which blows up.

Mythology

 * Classical Mythology: Depending on which version you read, either the hideous visage of Medusa had no effect on Perseus because he only looked at her reflection in a mirror, or the mirror turned Medusa herself into stone by reflecting her image back at her. Some tellings of the story attribute the stone effect to her sheer hideousness, so theoretically seeing herself would have the same effect.

Tabletop Games

 * In Dungeons & Dragons, magic usually doesn't work this way, with a few exceptions. But there are mirrors made specifically for this purpose:
 * "Spell mirror" reflects one specific spell (lightning bolt, etc) in a random direction within 45° from back to the attacker. It works even in a pocket, however.
 * "Sphere mirror", a beholder-made item (from I, Tyrant) specially prepared to reflect eyebeams, which allows creatures with such powers to both see and attack from behind a corner, without being exposed to projectiles.

Video Games

 * This trope is an instrumental player in the finale of the adventure game Flight of the Amazon Queen:.
 * In the first The Legend of Kyrandia game, you defeat the Big Bad by having a mirror reflect magic back at him.
 * Used in Day of the Tentacle when.
 * In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you find the Mirror Shield in the Spirit Temple. In addition to the typical applications, you use it against the boss by reflecting beams of fire and ice, then later by absorbing three like beams in a row before spewing the whole mass back at once.
 * In the climactic scene of Space Ace, Borf fires his Infanto Ray at Ace, who moves a mirror into place and reflects it back at him. The Infanto Ray isn't a laser, it's a beam that turns its target into a baby.
 * Introduced in Devil Survivor 2, Purple Mirror reflects everything but Physical and Force. Fortunately, she has no preset Passive skills, making it trivial to add Repel Phys and Repel Force and create a mirror that does indeed reflect everything... except Almighty. However, she has a third slot for Passive, and in NG+ you can give her Anti-Almighty.

Web Original

 * In the French webfiction Les Aventures de Morgoth, the protagonist with an Unfortunate Name uses a mirror with an invisibility spell on it to reflect an unsuspecting monster's petrifying gaze. It is lampshaded beforehand with a line the likes of "I know it shouldn't work, but it has been proven it works anyway."

Western Animation

 * Jonny Quest episode "Mystery of the Lizard Men". The Big Bad has a laser powerful enough to instantly blow up entire ships. Dr. Quest uses an ordinary mirror to reflect the beam and blow up the Big Bad's ship.
 * Kim Possible has done this many times with her compact mirror.
 * In the Sushi Pack episode "Pants On Fire," The Pack use a mirror to reflect a bolt of lightning shot by Unagi.