The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

'''Engywook:''' Oh, that's what everyone thinks! But kind people find out that they are cruel. Brave men discover that they are really cowards! Confronted by their true selves, most men run away screaming! |''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story]]''}}

 

 

In the first case, the mirror is acting the same way for the viewer as for the characters. We're being shown the monster's true form. In Mind Control cases (specifically the [[Freaky Friday]], [[Sharing a Body]], [[Demonic Possession]] and [[Split Personality]]) we're being shown what the characters are seeing that we aren't. The mirror shows the physical body of the character, while the camera shows the character controlling the body. The characters in the show will see the mirror image, i.e. the controlled person all the time. Directors can use this to create a sense of tension by showing only the viewer a monster's reflection, and keeping the other characters in the dark.

Another common variation is for the mirror to show an aspect of a person's personality. The nasty, spiteful, cruel, but beautiful girl becomes a hag in the magic mirror. Conversely, it can reveal the [[Reluctant Monster]] or [[Baleful Polymorph|balefully polymorphed]] character to be noble and good.

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'', having an independent reflection who can talk is the first revealing stage of possession {{spoiler|by a goddess.}}

* Daisuke Niiwa from ''[[D.N.Angel]]'' can see [[Phantom Thief|Dark Mousy]] in the mirror, standing beside him or in the corner. They regularly have conversations this way. {{spoiler|In one of the late chapters of the manga, a magical mirror enables Dark's reflection to be seen by other people.}}

 

== Art ==

 

 

* The way [[The Hood]] found out the source of his powers is [[Dimension Lord|Dred Dormammu]] was when the demon suddenly replaced his reflection in the mirror. Later Dormammu's preferred way of communication with Parker was to replace half of his reflection in the mirror, as a metaphor of their connection.

* When he first showed up, [[Big Bad|Dodge]] from ''[[Locke and Key]]'' showed up as a corpse in mirrors. This doesn't seem to be a problem once he's out of the well, though.

* In a ''[[Disney Adventures]]'' comic of ''[[Tale Spin]]'', the heroes discover a mirror that apparently reveals their souls. Readers do not get to see this, which may be just as well when [[Big Bad|Don Karnage]] [[Nothing Is Scarier|peeks at it and freaks out]].

 

** Not quite. When reflected by one mirror, its played straight. However, once Eames was in front of multiple mirrors and once he was in a mirrored elevator. In both cases, some reflections showed his true face, others reflected his disguise. Which mirrors reflected his true face and which reflected his disguise changed (almost certainly deliberately) between cuts.

** Supposedly, when Ariadne did the double-mirror thing in her test dreams, only Cobb's reflection appeared.

== Literature ==

* In the children's fantasy book ''The Castle in the Attic'', one of the primary weapons of the [[Evil Sorcerer|evil wizard]] [[Big Bad|Alastor]] is a [[Magic Mirror]] with this power. It eventually [[Hoist by His Own Petard|gets turned around on the villain himself]], with fairly satisfying results.

* This is [[Played With]] in ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Brothers in Arms]]'': Miles is on a subway transport, and sees his reflection in the glass. He's currently wearing his mercenary uniform, but the Miles in the mirror has on his ImpSec uniform, reflecting his inner turmoil about his split personalities diverging. {{spoiler|Turns out it ''wasn't'' Miles--it was his clone, and they were going to attempt a switch; they just had the wrong uniform.}} Miles passes it off as being a hallucination while on heavy medication.

** Instead, on Discworld it is your ''eyes'' that reveal your true self, and no amount of magic or power can disguise eyes as part of a broader transformation.

* In [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', the title queen can only make herself look beautiful to others because of this trope.

* ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]''. Played with; Bastian and Atreyu aren't the same person, but they do see each other in the magic mirror and Atreyu is in many ways Bastian's Avatar inside Fantastica.

* In the ''[[Spellsinger]]'' novel "Time of the Transference," the group finds this kind of mirror. The results are ambiguous for everyone but Cautious, whose reflection is unchanged.

 

 

** Which startles him in the series finale, when he sees himself in the mirror. With gray hair.

** There is also an episode where he leaps into a man who lives in a castle and thinks he's a vampire. As such, there are no mirrors in sight. At the end, he removes fake fangs off another vampire wannabe and, satisfied, is prepared to leap. Right before leaping, he looks at a metal tray which doesn't reflect him. This was hinted in the previous episode, where the new person in the waiting room revealed vampire fangs.

** Originated in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', with Daniel and Vala looking into a mirror and discovering that they've been transported into other people's bodies.

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' vampires didn't show up in mirrors, although they could be captured in photos and video.

** This was toyed with when Wesley was impersonating Angel, where he screamed at the sight of a mirror and insisted it be covered while the people around him stood bemused and pointed out that they already knew he was a vampire.

** Also when Angel suffered from phlebotinum-induced amnesia and didn't know he was a vampire. Then he looks in a mirror...

'''Angel:''' Oh. [[Tomato in the Mirror|I'm a vampire]]. [[Oh Crap|They're gonna kill me.]] }}

* The true face of several monsters in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' that can pass for humans (like wraiths, changelings and sirens) are revealed by mirrors.

 

 

 

 

* In an episode of ''[[The Pirates of Dark Water]]'' Bloth used a magical artifact to [[Freaky Friday Flip|swap bodies with Ren]], as well as having Konk swap bodies with Niddler. However, while in the other person's body, their reflection still shows who they really are.

* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' Season 2: whenever Shendu possesses someone, his host can see his face in the mirror.

 

 

* The Mirror of Ra appears in several ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' games; whenever it appears, it's always used to reveal something's true form.

** In ''[[Dragon Quest II]]'', it's used to break a [[Baleful Polymorph]] by revealing that {{spoiler|the dog who follows you around in one village is actually the cursed Princess of Moonbrooke}}.

* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'', you have to find Mot before you can engage in his battle. He disguises himself as a statue and hides among the other statues. The trick to finding him is that the floor that the statues are on is a reflective surface. Mot is the statue that isn't reflected in the floor.

* ...and in ''[[Strange Journey]]'', you have to use a magical mirror to unmask Amaterasu, break her out of the illusion she's trapped in, and allow her to return home.

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', this is implied (and in the seventh arc stated) to be the reason why Beatrice is repelled by mirrors. {{spoiler|Yasu says that she hates mirrors because they do not acknowledge her make-believe appearance. Thus, in the story, the camera will always show which personality is in control. Yasu's actual image is never seen.}}

* In ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'', any character possessed by Dhaos has a [[Grim Reaper]] figure floating above their mirror reflection. Early on, Cress exploits this when Rhea and Demitel confront each other to find out who is responsible for destroying Harmel village.

* In ''[[Quest for Glory]] II'', the Enchantress Aziza uses water magic to reflect the true image of the Hero of Spielburg's pack animal, to reveal that it is actually the missing Emir of Raseir.

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' had The Mirror Of True Reflection, which actually [http://yafgc.net/?id=1550 showed] different aspects of the viewer's personality (resulting in several "true" reflections). This turned out to be merely the warning sign against [[Down the Rabbit Hole|entering the mirror]] to try and find the [[MacGuffin]] hidden within, as you'd have to fight off your inner demons given form to claim it. Fortunately, your inner virtues are there as well.

 

 

[[Category:Vampire Tropes]]

[[Category:Paranormal Tropes]]