Mirror Universe: Difference between revisions

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Often a subset of [[Bizarro Universe]], it is an [[Alternate Universe]] where Good and Evil characterisations are reversed, but is otherwise the same as the "real" universe - except where logically derived from this change in morality. As an example, in [[Bizarro World]], the earth is a cube. In the mirror universe, the earth is a sphere, but the [[Mirror Self]] of [[The Captain]] has a cool eyepatch.

Occasionally, some other characteristic is reversed. The hero in the [[Mirror Universe]] functions as the [[Evil Twin]]. The [[Five Man Band]] becomes [[The Psycho Rangers]] or [[Five Bad Band]]. Expect the loyal soldier to become a blithering coward, the [[The Starscream|backstabbing bastard]] to become a peaceful negotiator, and the [[Bridge Bunnies|bridge bunny]] who normally gets no lines becomes a trash-talking, [[Sensible Heroes Skimpy Villains|lingerie-wearing]], gun-toting, [[Depraved Bisexual|bisexually hyperactive]] [[Dark Action Girl|ball of unleashed id]].

Occasionally, some other characteristic is reversed. The hero in the [[Mirror Universe]] functions as the [[Evil Twin]]. The [[Five-Man Band]] becomes [[The Psycho Rangers]] or [[Five-Bad Band]]. Expect the loyal soldier to become a blithering coward, the [[The Starscream|backstabbing bastard]] to become a peaceful negotiator, and the [[Bridge Bunnies|bridge bunny]] who normally gets no lines becomes a trash-talking, [[Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains|lingerie-wearing]], gun-toting, [[Depraved Bisexual|bisexually hyperactive]] [[Dark Action Girl|ball of unleashed id]].

These mirror worlds tend to get [[Ensemble Darkhorse|popular with the fanbase]], who'll eagerly come up with [[Evil Twin|alternate versions]] of any character not yet shown, and as a result it'll often get returned to and expanded upon to please them. The [[Status Quo Is God|status quo]] in the mirror universe is more likely to change than the original one, probably because [[Executive Meddling|the writers are allowed to do it]].

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

== Anime and Manga ==

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*** Actually, this was not an alternate universe, but the "revamped" past of the only remaining Earth after 1985's ''[[Crisis On Infinite Earths]]'' mini-series. Since the "Earth Two/Golden Age" versions of Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Green Arrow had the same names and origins in the "Silver Age," they couldn't exist as they had been, unlike characters such as Green Lantern and the Flash, who had different origins and secret identities. The Nazi versions of those characters were the direct result of the ''[[Crisis On Infinite Earths]]'' folding all worlds into one. The "energy" that created those characters had to go somewhere, and it created those characters to fight the short-lived team ''the Young All-Stars'' (whose book replaced the cancelled ''All-Star Squadron'') during World War II.

* ''[[Exiles (Comic Book)|Exiles]]'', of the [[Marvel Universe]], had an issue where Galactus restored worlds instead of eating them, and the Silver Surfer was a power-hungry despot who had destroyed his own homeworld. The first issue of ''Exiles'' was in a universe where Magneto was the benevolent teacher who wanted mutants and humans to live in harmony, and Professor X believed there could only be peace when humanity was eradicated.

** 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.

** 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.

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* The ''Star Trek'' Mirror Universe started out (in the ''[[Star Trek the Original Series]]'' that introduced it) as identical to the main universe, except that for the moral inversion between the Federation characters and their evil Empire counterparts. When the Mirror Universe was revisited in ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', the correspondences were less straightforward -- the Empire had been overthrown, humans were downtrodden slaves, and the station was run by [[Depraved Bisexual|Kira's evil counterpart]].

** And, despite being the [[Trope Codifier]], slightly subverted it - even though his mirror counterpart had a [[Beard of Evil]], Spock was, as the show put it, "A man of honor in both worlds", and not strictly evil in the mirror universe despite clearly being on the side of the angels in the primary reality. Further, the Aliens Of The Week were [[Actual Pacifist|Actual Pacifists]] in both the 'normal' universe and in the Mirror Universe.

** When the prequel series ''[[Enterprise]]'' revisited it in "In A Mirror Darkly," it also completely [[Special Edition Title|changed its opening credits']] entire mood from "Vapid Naive Hope" to "War! Conquest! ''Exploding [[Frickin Laser Beams]]!''" Moreover, since almost everyone except maybe the Vulcans is shown to be evil in one way or another, the ending in which [[The Bad Guy Wins]] doesn't really come as a surprise. What ''does'' come as something of a twist is {{spoiler|it's the bad ''gal'' who wins, and then promptly proclaims herself Empress.}}

** When the prequel series ''[[Enterprise]]'' revisited it in "In A Mirror Darkly," it also completely [[Special Edition Title|changed its opening credits']] entire mood from "Vapid Naive Hope" to "War! Conquest! ''Exploding [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]!''" Moreover, since almost everyone except maybe the Vulcans is shown to be evil in one way or another, the ending in which [[The Bad Guy Wins]] doesn't really come as a surprise. What ''does'' come as something of a twist is {{spoiler|it's the bad ''gal'' who wins, and then promptly proclaims herself Empress.}}

** Certain other aspects of characters are flipped in the mirror universe as well. Quark and Brunt get along, Jadzia is a psychotic [[Knife Nut]] who is mirror Sisko's lover, mirror Sisko has very little in the way of restrained self-control, and mirror Ezri and Leeta are both lesbians.

** One of Shatner's novels gives a quite satisfying explanation for why this is the only parallel universe open to cross-dimensional travel. When the Enterprise chased the Borg back to Cochran's time in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_First_Contact First Contact] they didn't, as they supposed, change the timeline and change it back again: they gave rise to a separate timeline. (Then returned to their own and assumed, since it looked the same, that they had succeeded.) Their clumsy attempts to cover up their fixing (hiding in the shadow of the Moon, duh!) didn't fool the Vulcans, who deduced the existence of the Borg, concluded that the logical counter to this menace was the savage militarism they discovered on Earth, and set humans on the path to becoming an Evil Galactic Empire that would be big and bad enough to defeat the Borg when they appeared. Because of the artificial way it was created, this timeline remained entangled with its parent one, leading to a leaky boundary, but also to cross-influences producing similar people with the same names in the same places despite completely different backstories.

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* One of the many, many sphere malfunctions in ''[[Seven Days]]'', rather than sending Parker into a [[Mirror Universe]], actually inverted the ''real'' universe (Since the existence of parallel universes was disallowed by the show's [[Applied Phlebotinum]]), changing Never Never Land into the seat of a tyrannical dictatorship, Ramsey into a spaced-out hippie, and reversing all writing. Parker, being morally ambiguous to begin with, was immune.

** Also, everything in this "inverted universe" is mirrored. Get it?

* ''[[The Middleman]]'': In "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome", the alternate-universe Middleman goes from all-American Boy Scout type to less-than-altruistic [[Anti Hero]], Pip goes from selfish brat to Catholic priest working to help the helpless, Lacey is a stripper, with Noser as her muscle, the entire world is a [[Dystopia]] ruled by Fatboy Industries, and '' {{spoiler|Wendy}}'' is the [[Big Bad]]. Oh, and all the male characters have beards.

* ''[[The Middleman]]'': In "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome", the alternate-universe Middleman goes from all-American Boy Scout type to less-than-altruistic [[Anti-Hero]], Pip goes from selfish brat to Catholic priest working to help the helpless, Lacey is a stripper, with Noser as her muscle, the entire world is a [[Dystopia]] ruled by Fatboy Industries, and '' {{spoiler|Wendy}}'' is the [[Big Bad]]. Oh, and all the male characters have beards.

* ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' played the concept straight in the episode "Only the Good...", where Rimmer travelled to another dimension where everything was opposite to procure the antidote for a virus infecting the ship. The alternate Rimmer and Hollister's positions and personalities were switched, with Rimmer becoming the captain and Hollister a technician on probation from a prison sentence; the Cat was the ship's chief scientist, and Kochanski was his ditzy secretary. (Also seen in deleted scenes: Lister was the [[Officer and A Gentleman]] first officer with no dreadlocks and a moustache.) Additionally, all writing was reversed and Rimmer became left-handed and [[Biggus Dickus|well-endowed]].

** The concept was also played with earlier in the series, though not quite played straight. The earliest example is the episode "Parallel Universe", which had a universe where everyone's [[Gender Bender|gender was swapped]]. {{spoiler|Except for the Cat, whose counterpart was a male humanoid Dog.}}

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'''Owlman:''' [pointing at alternate Earths] And here we're poor. We're slaves. And here, our parents never met, so we were never born. Here, the world ended in nuclear war. Here, no fish was brave enough to crawl up on land and humans never evolved. And so on, ad infinitum. }}

** And summed it up even more succinctly to Batman later on:

{{quote| '''Batman:''' [[You're Insane]]. <br />

{{quote| '''Batman:''' [[You're Insane!]]. <br />

'''Owlman:''' Does it really matter? There are alternate versions of me that you would find quite charming. }}

* An episode of ''[[Arthur (Animation)|Arthur]]'' [[Playing With a Trope|plays]] with this trope when Arthur's third grade class from Lakewood Elementary, taught by Mr. Ratburn, goes to a Renaissance Faire and meets the third grade class from Glenbrook Academy, taught by Mr. Pryce-Jones, Mr. Ratburn's favorite teacher from his school days. Mr. Pryce-Jones is basically is a really snooty, much meaner version of Mr. Ratburn, who is just a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|goofy, nerdy, but well-meaning guy who has an affinity for giving a lot of homework to challenge his students' minds]]; Mr. Pryce-Jones seems intent on producing a bunch of snobby learning-machines, and his students behave as such, with an evil [[Big Eater]] opposed to Buster, an evil [[Smart Guy]] for the Brain (his counterpart is called "I. Q."), an evil [[Rich Bitch]] for Muffy, and an evil [[Unlucky Everydude]] for Arthur (named "Chester"). Arthur and Buster even [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshade]] the trope's use:

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* The ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]'' episode "The Dark Side of the SWAT Kats" featured the titular team being warped to a dimension where their equivalents are evil (as is that of their ally, Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs). The universe wasn't entirely swapped however - some major characters retained their 'correct' moral alignments. (There were other more subtle changes as well, such as the Enforcers using fixed-wing aircraft rather than helicopters.)

* ''[[Megas XLR]]'' has [[Bad Future|a version of this]] in its two-part "Rear View, Mirror Mirror" storyline. In this timeline, main character Coop abandoned the titular Megas shortly defeating the series' [[Big Bad]] - losing his mind as boredom and battlelust sank in, culminating in the conquest of earth and several solar systems. Coop seems more offended at his alternate self being athletic and muscular (as opposed to...large) rather than evil, though.

* ''The World's Greatest [[Super Friends]]'' had such an episode, "Universe of Evil". Each of the Superfriends received an [[Evil Makeover]] (Aquaman with an eyepatch! Robin with a [[Good Hair Evil Hair|pencil mustache!]] Wonder Woman letting herself go!) See them [[http://superfriends.wikia.com/wiki/Robin_

* ''The World's Greatest [[Super Friends]]'' had such an episode, "Universe of Evil". Each of the Superfriends received an [[Evil Makeover]] (Aquaman with an eyepatch! Robin with a [[Good Hair, Evil Hair|pencil mustache!]] Wonder Woman letting herself go!) See them [[http://superfriends.wikia.com/wiki/Robin_

* ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (Animation)|Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' had as a minor villain the [[Sarcasm Mode|imaginatively dubbed]] and yes, goateed, Evil Buzz Lightyear who came from a parallel universe that he had conquered. He's ''exactly'' as evil as Buzz is good. Also, there are parallel versions of the other main characters, except none of them are evil.

* ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename Kids Next Door]]'' had one in which even the acronyms were reversed - the counterparts to the Delightful Children From Down The Lane were the Little Traitorous Dudes From Children's Defence, who opposed the iron grip of the Destructively Nefarious Kids, who were led by Numbuh -4, who had attained a goatee to make himself look even eviller. Fortunately, since the regular Numbuh 4 is brave to the point of recklessness and a strong physical fighter, Numbuh -4 was a coward and weakling. Also, Numbuh -86 was a sweet girly-girl.

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[[Category:Alternate History Tropes]]

[[Category:Mirror Universe]]

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