Mirror Universe: Difference between revisions

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From the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode [[Trope Codifier|"Mirror, Mirror"]]. In homage to this episode, it's common for an evil mirror equivalent to have a [[Beard of Evil|goatee beard]].

Contrast with [[Dark World]]. Not to be confused with [[Mirror World]].

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== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' performs this in Parallel Works 4, where the Beastmen are being oppressed by Kamina, and Viral is [[The Hero]], it actually makes Kamina look ''legitimately evil''.

* Happened in one episode in ''[[Doraemon]]'' when Doraemon and Nobita enter and explore a mirror universe and interact with their counterparts. IIRC, this universe is literally mirrored of having mirrored writing and east is west. Other differences include reversed gender roles showing Nobita's mom as the breadwinner, all males dressed as females, and different teachings in school. Nobita and his counterpart decide to [[Prince and Pauper|swap roles]] for a day.

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** The ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'' has elements of this trope; [[Magneto]] leads [[La Résistance]]- including a [[Good Is Not Nice]] version of [[Complete Monster|Sabretooth]] and a version of Colossus who is a psychotic [[Anti-Hero]]-, and there is a human resistance including a heroic [[Dr. Doom]] and Sentinels actually protecting mankind, versus a dystopic mutant tyranny whose ranks include [[The Hero|Cyclops]] and his brother [[The Lancer|Havok]] as well as [[The Smart Guy|Beast]], now known as Dark Beast, as well as a new character called Abyss who was later introduced into the mainstream comics as a heroic character. However, though Dark Beast is a cruel and sadistic [[Mad Scientist]] and a despicable piece of work, Cyclops is just an [[Anti-Villain]] who does a [[Heel Face Turn]], and as the title suggests this is a world where recurring [[X-Men]] villain [[Evil Overlord|Apocalypse]] has achieved world domination and if anything has actually gotten ''worse''; other villains like [[Evilutionary Biologist|Mister Sinister]] merely serve as his minions and are still evil, while most heroes and villains from other parts of the Marvel Universe didn't change sides, they were just killed when Apocalypse nuked the United States and started purging humanity.

** Played with in the ''[[Marvel Zombies]]'' universe; the heroes are all evil, but only because they succumbed to a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] and proceeded devoured most of the human race, though they are [[Our Zombies Are Different|sentient zombies]] who take sadistic pleaure in ripping their [[I'm a Humanitarian|meals]] apart. [[Magneto]] and [[Doctor Doom]] show up as their enemies and help rescue survivors, but mostly in the context of them being [[Noble Demon]] types who object to rampaging malevolent zombies taking over the planet. The cause of mutant supremacy doesn't matter much when most mutants and non-mutants have made peace with each other and decided just to eat everyone else.

** ''[[The Thanos Imperative]]'' features the Cancerverse, a universe where [[The Problem with Fighting Death|Death has been wiped out]] by four powerful demons called the Many-Angled Ones, including [[Doctor Strange]] villain Shuma-Gorath (like the other three, a unique multiversal entity -- it has no [[Evil Twin|good twin]] anywhere in the multiverse). Life has become pollution and is spiraling out of control, and every living thing in the universe is [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and are fanatically devoted to worshipping the evil entities, though non-living beings like the Vision (a robot) are immune and still heroic. Thus, in this universe hero teams like [[The Avengers]] are the servants of evil gods, though presumably so is every living villain as well.

* Archie Comics' ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comic has a Mirror Universe, called variously "The Reverse Universe", "Anti-Mobius", and "Moebius". In it Dr. Robotnik/Kintobor is a [[Kindly Vet]], while the Freedom Fighters fight against freedom, having overthrown the previous monarch. The <s> Anti-Freedom Fighters</s> Suppression Squad all dress in black leather, and acted like a bunch of juvenile delinquents until Anti-Sonic became "Scourge" and conquered Moebius.

** The interference from the heroes' world has caused the parallels to break down a bit; Scourge has been turned green, and hooked up with [[Face Heel Turn|Fiona ~~Fox~~]] for a while, Anti-Bunnie has pulled a [[Heel Face Turn]] and wears [[Powered Armour|Omega Armor]] instead of being a [[Cyborg]] (anti-Rotor is the cyborg) and anti-Antoine briefly posed as his good counterpart. Basically the [[Status Quo Is God|status quo]] for the mirror world gets altered more often than the main one. Oh, and [[The Starscream|Miles Prower]] even has [[Beard of Evil|the goatee]].

** The interference from the heroes' world has caused the parallels to break down a bit; Scourge has been turned green, and hooked up with [[Face Heel Turn|Fiona FOX]] for a while, Anti-Bunnie has pulled a [[Heel Face Turn]] and wears [[Powered Armour|Omega Armor]] instead of being a [[Cyborg]] (anti-Rotor is the cyborg) and anti-Antoine briefly posed as his good counterpart. Basically the [[Status Quo Is God|status quo]] for the mirror world gets altered more often than the main one. Oh, and [[The Starscream|Miles Prower]] even has [[Beard of Evil|the goatee]].

* Subversion: In [[Phil Foglio]]'s short story "[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/stories/HBstory/HBstory.php Work Ethic]" found in ''[[Grimjack]]'' #40, heroes from a world in which there is only pure good and pure evil (and the heroes always win), get transported to Grimjack's world, which has a more realistically varied moral spectrum. Thus, since they see that everything is not purely good, they begin to destroy the entire town of Cynosure until Cynosure's protector sends them back to their own dimension. (Incidentally, these heroes, the Heterodyne Boys, later became the inspiration for ''[[Girl Genius]]''.)

** Similarly, in ''[[JLA-Avengers]]'', the League, seeing the many imperfections of the [[Marvel Universe]], conclude that it's the Evil Universe. [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]], seeing statues and museums to the heroes everywhere in the [[DC Universe]], conclude the exact same thing (they think the DC heroes have set themselves as gods).

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* [[Star Trek: Mirror Universe]], naturally.

* Spider Robinson's story "Mirror/rorriM Off the Wall" has an invasion by Trebor, the evil mirrortwin of Robert, a patron of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. {{spoiler|One of the tipoff's is that Callahan's bar doesn't ''have'' a mirror normally, just quotes written behind the bar, and suddenly, there is a mirror.}}

* ''Serpent's Silver'' by Piers Anthony and Robert Margroff, second book in a series, has some characters from the first book flung into a more-or-less mirror universe -- not only personalities, but also to some extent names and appearances may change, and a few people seem not to '''have''' counterparts. It's quite jarring to the young heroes to find themselves working with decent and noble mirror images of their home world's vicious villains. Or when a psychic sees her husband's life saved by (the heroic counterpart of) the now-dead brutal [[Mook]] who '''raped''' her.

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* In season two of the [[Game Show]] ''[[Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?]]?'', this was common type of skit. In the [[Mirror Universe]], AMCE was a force of evil and VILE was a force of good. Kevin [[Lampshaded]] this when one of the skits came up.

* ''[[Pixelface]]'': In one episode, Riley exits the game from the wrong port and finds himself in a different console where Alexia is an [[Extreme Doormat]], Aethelwynee is a [[Jerk Jock]], Rex is an [[Insufferable Genius]], Claireparker is [[The Pig Pen]] and Kiki is... a large, hairy man.

* Parodied in [[Community]]. When the tossing of a die to choose who picks up some pizza creates [[For Want of a Nail|seven alternate universes]], one horrible one is created where {{spoiler|Pierce dies, Jeff looses an arm, Shirley becomes an alcoholic, Annie suffers a mental breakdown and Troy's larynx is destroyed}}. [[Genre Savvy]] Abed deduces that they're in the "evil" universe, makes them all [[Star Trek|fake beards]] and makes it their job to break into the true universe and wreak havoc.

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** The same game featured the "Amerika Korps", who were from an [[Alternate History]] where, you guessed it, Hitler conquered and occupied the US.

*** Clumsily [[Retcon|Ret Conned]] into the Council Empire later on, though Issue 15 brings back the most memorable character of the Amerika Korps...

*** The "Amerika Korps" could be seen as a slight subversion to the idea that they were identical mirror counterparts. While the game's background clearly stated that [[The Cape|the Statesman]] and [[Evil Counterpart|the Reichsman]] could spend all day slamming each other into the concrete, the Reichsman did not like competitors approaching his power level and deliberately made sure his "teammates'" training were less than adequate. That came back to bite him in the ass.

*** The "Amerika Korps" could be seen as a slight subversion to the idea that they were identical mirror counterparts. While the game's background clearly stated that [[The Cape (trope)|the Statesman]] and [[Evil Counterpart|the Reichsman]] could spend all day slamming each other into the concrete, the Reichsman did not like competitors approaching his power level and deliberately made sure his "teammates'" training were less than adequate. That came back to bite him in the ass.

* ''[[Kirby|Kirby and the Amazing Mirror]]''. However, it's similar to most of its predecessors, aside from the sidekick Kirbies that wander around.

* The "Shadow Mirror" world that features prominently in ''[[Super Robot Wars Advance]]'' and ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]''. May or may not be the world that ''[[Super Robot Wars 64|SRW 64]]'' took place in.

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== Web Originals ==

* In the ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'', the LICC Universe is mirrored by the KILL universe.

* ''[[AH Dot Com the Series]]'' has the Mirror Crew, though we never see their home universe. They're stereotypical pure evil much like the [[Star Trek]] original, but the dynamic is quite different because the ''primary'' AH.com crew are scarcely angels themselves, it's more a case of [[The Same but More]].

* ''[[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]]'', has a Mirror Universe that is an obvious Shout Out to Star Trek, including Beards of Evil.

* The RPG Net message boards once [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=413172 featured] a wonderful idea for a ''[[Discworld]]'' mirror universe. The Disc is torn by war between the scarily charismatic Last King, ruler of Ankh-Morpork and the Plains, and the all-powerful Crone, who controls the Ramtops. Between them are the Crone's former apprentice Magrat, Havelock the assassin and Samuel King-killer. And their leader, the last survivor of the Silver Horde, Rincewind Spellholder.

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* The heroes of the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' have encountered two of these. The first is the standard version where the various characters are morally aligned opposite to their normal nature. In this one, the heroic Global Guardians have their counterparts in the villainous Global Gladiators , a criminal syndicate that has taken over the world. The second was a world in which the Global Guardians had taken control of the world "for the betterment of mankind" after a much more severe [[Alien Invasion|Xorn invasion]] had left humanity on the brink of extinction.

* [[Bob and George]]: In the first AU Bob lands in [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/010204c an intelligence flipped world].

** While Megaman and Bass swapped intelligence with Protoman (They're geniuses and Protoman's the dumbass), Bob and George swapped temperaments: George became a blind psychopathic murderer, Bob became a flaming homosexual. The regular Bob was...a bit freaked out.

* The Dimension of Hackneyed Stereotyped Opposites in ''[[Casey and Andy]]''. Since Casey and Andy are [[Chaotic Neutral]] at best, conventional moral flips don't apply to them (instead Andi is a girl who dates God instead of Satan), but Quantum Cop's counterpart is Quantum Crook.

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', obviously. There's the Main Universe's Tedd (the one the story follows), Beta Tedd, Lord Tedd (also known as Alpha Tedd and the evil one pictured in the mirror in the trope image <ref>the image is not from EGS itself but from a [[The Wotch|Wotch]] [http://specials.thewotch.com/?date=2007-05-06 special].</ref>), the Tedd from Ellen's "Second life" dreams and those are just the canon ones. There's probably more we haven't been introduced to.