Rage Against the Reflection/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character looks in a mirror and realizes what kind of monstrosity he or she has become (at least by his or her own standard). The character punches the mirror in a combination of disgust and self-loathing.

  • Straight: Adnan Jackson had a crippling accident while on duty, and the doctors had (what was left of) him refitted with augmentations to save his life, i.e. making him a cyborg. The first time he had a chance to look at the mirror, he shattered the mirror to pieces with his cyborg-arms.
  • Exaggerated: Adnan's residence is a House of Broken Mirrors.
  • Downplayed: Adnan quietly looked away from the mirror, and then never look at mirrors again for the rest of his life.
  • Justified: He hates what he has become. Perhaps he hates augmentations and people who have it in their body.
  • Inverted: Adnan looked at the mirror, and promptly overjoyed. "Damn, I'm awesome."
  • Subverted: Adnan raised his cyborg-arm to shatter the offending reflection... and stopped. He told himself, "Always look at the bright side of life. At least I'm not six-feet under right now."
  • Double Subverted: And then he punched the mirror to bits with his other cyborg-arm. "DAMN IT ALL TO HELL! I'd rather be dead than becoming a cog-man!"
  • Parodied: The mirror punched Adnan back. "Man up, buddy. Do you think it's easy being a mirror for people like you?", said the mirror.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: No one punches a mirror in the story, even those who have become things they hate.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

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