"To a magician, there is very little difference between a mirror and a door."
Some forms of Teleportation come with their own limitations such as needing a visual of where you are teleporting to or not teleporting beyond a certain distance. A particularly common type of teleportation is the use of reflective surfaces as a medium to travel from one place or another. Rather than using a Magic Mirror to traverse locations, the teleportation ability is innate and any reflective surface will do (although some versions of this trope will limit what kind of reflective surfaces can be used, whereas others would allow even water). Alternatively, reflective surfaces being portals could be a natural phenomenon of the setting.
Often an ability of a Mirror Monster. Sub-Trope of Teleportation with Drawbacks.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ah! My Goddess: Belldandy can use mirrors to traverse long distances.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure possesses two examples and while similar to each other, function in very different ways:
- In Stardust Crusaders, providing the page image above, serial killer J. Geil's Stand "Hanged Man" exists solely in the reflections caused by mirrors, shiny surfaces, and even the reflection of a person's eye. It uses this metaphysical existence to attack its targets' reflections and cause the inflicted wounds to appear on their physical bodies. However, though it moves from reflection to reflection at light speed, it does so in a linear pathway and as such, the heroes are able to manipulate the Stand into traveling in a pre-determined path allowing them to wound it and its User.
- In Golden Wind, the hitman Illuso's Stand "Man in the Mirror" can manifest in reflective surfaces and can drag people and objects, partially or entirely, from the real world into a "mirror world" where only Illuso can use his Stand, and should he decide to, can trap his target in the mirror world. The heroes defeat him by tricking Illuso into bringing in an infection caused by one of their Stands that forces him to evacuate the mirror world, only to be killed by said Stand. With his death, the mirror world is destroyed and its prisoners automatically returned to the real world.
- Naruto: Haku can create mirrors made of ice that he can travel between, allowing him to attack his opponent from multiple angles.
- One Piece: Charlotte Brûlée can use mirrors to teleport to and communicate with any location that has a mirror. She is also able to bring other people with her. Her Devil Fruit ability comes in very handy when the Straw Hats need to escape from Big Mom's pirate crew and meet up with Luffy after he defeats Katakuri.
- Admiral Kizaru utilizes this with Yata no Kagami to chase down fleeing pirates.
- Rozen Maiden: Any reflective surfaces — mirrors, glass windows, water puddles — can be used as portal gates to the N-Field, a Dream Land that reflects the subconscious minds of people and their desires and sorrows. The main cast use these surfaces to travel to and from the N-Field in order to resolve conflicts related to the Alice Game.
- Touge Oni: Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto's ancient treasure, the Yata-no-Kagami, can transport anyone to the Moon and other compatible mirrors. Tsukuyomi, however, reveals that his treasure isn't the mirror given to the royal family — anything that can reflect the Moon, including the entire ocean, counts as his treasure and can work just as well.
Comic Books
- The Flash: Mirror Master uses a Ray Gun that turns any reflective surface it hits into a portal to any other reflective surface. He can also enter into a world of reflections and do a whole bunch of other weird stuff with mirrors.
- Glory: The titular heroine has an ability called "The Slip" which allows her to teleport using reflective surfaces, or as the narration of issue #0 puts it "where light casts the deepest shadow".
- The Inhumans: The 1998 series featured Dewoz, an Inhuman made of shiny material who can move through mirrors and other reflective surfaces.
Fan Works
- The Land of What Might-Have-Been: The Mistress of Mirrors can spy on her targets through mirrors and shadows. When she finally decides to remain Neutral No Longer, she uses her powers to transport her allies and herself through mirrors and other reflective surfaces, to the point that her secret hideout is only accessible through the reflection cast by an isolated lake.
- Six Pomegranate Seeds
: Hermione pretends to use the Mirror Road Charm to escape from Professor Snape's custody using a bathroom mirror. Her initial cast is only partially successful, marking the glass but not actually transporting her anywhere; still, it's enough to provide a plausible explanation and cover up the fact that Hogwarts' elves are helping her. She later learns to use the charm properly.
Films — Live-Action
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: After being trapped in the mirror dimension, the Scarlet Witch breaks out by using her magic to teleport out into the reflections of Kamar-Taj. She pops in hands first, dragging some enemy wizards into the reflection and forcing her other enemies to try to cover up every puddle and surface to keep her from getting into the room. Unfortunately for them, she's too quick.
- The Matrix:
- The Matrix: When Neo chooses the red pill, a mirror is brought before him. Touching the mirror causes it to warp and distort like mercury. Some of this material affixes to Neo's finger and begins to spread over his body. Meanwhile, the hackers are using a machine that will do... something (as of this point of the movie, for an unknown purpose). When the machine is activated, the mirror-like substance completely spreads over his body, and reality breaks down into a green wireframe and digital noise. Neo then is ejected from the Matrix and awakens in true reality, naked and inside of a pod with a pink mucus-like substance, but still attached to a large complex machine by a port on the back of his head.
- The Matrix Resurrections: Mirrors seem to be the main way to exit the Matrix now, given that time has passed, and landline phones are no longer the norm (in our world, at least).
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice: One of the spells a wizard in this setting can use is turning reflective surfaces into a portal to an empty world that mirrors our own. This spell, called "the Hungarian Mirror Trap", is first used by the main hero to trap an enemy wizard mid-fight and is later used by that same villain to trap the heroes mid car chase, forcing them to find another reflective surface.
Literature
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Magicians can step through mirrors into a distorted otherworld that serves as an Extradimensional Shortcut. As magic is restored, it becomes clear that these "King's Roads" have more entrances than mirrors and more exits than the physical world, like the Land of Faerie.
- Keys to the Kingdom: The Fifth Key takes the form of a small hand mirror that allows the user to teleport to any reflective surface, provided they've previously visited that location via conventional methods.
- Pact:
- The demon Barbatorem can move between reflective surfaces such as glass, metal, and even one's eyes. It's advised that one should not look at it directly lest it enter their eyes and never leave.
- Rose Thorburn can move between mirrors at will.
- The Revolutions by Felix Gilman: The occultists who recruit Arthur and Josephine warn them to stay away from mirrors, as "every mirror is an eye", "every eye is a door" and "evil influences" can pass through them. It's unclear what they mean until Arthur inspects a business card left at his house by a rival magician, discovers that it has a shiny and reflective surface, and sees not only his own face in it but also said rival magician and three of his goons, who have suddenly manifested behind him. An unusual variant in that they didn't physically come out of the mirror, it?s just a component of the spell that let them teleport to him.
- The Scholomance: One Summoning Ritual uses a reflective surface as a focus — optimally a large, ornate Magic Mirror, but in an emergency in The Golden Enclaves, El brute-forces it with a ton of Mana and a puddle of water to breach the Scholomance Pocket Dimension and reach her boyfriend Orion Lake.
- Spinning Silver: When Irina wears the three pieces of Staryk silver, they amplify her latent magic enough for her to use any reflective surface as a portal between the human and Staryk worlds.
- Storm Front: While Harry's apartment is being described, it is noted that it has no mirrors because a number of unpleasant creatures could use it to teleport straight into his apartment and kill him in his sleep.
- The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag: The evil Sons of the Bird have the ability to travel to other locations using mirrors to other places, both in reality and in dreams. Painting over a mirror prevents them from passing through it.
- Wearing the Cape: Recursion: When her "normal" travel methods are blocked, Ozma uses mirror magic to link one of her mirrors to The Cloud Gate to bring reinforcements near the blocked area.
- Broken Sky: The Jachyra are able to see and travel through any reflective surface, making them highly effective spies and assassins for the Big Bad King Macaan. Parakka take pains to make sure their hidden bases have as few of such surfaces as possible.
- In 'Mirror'' by Graham Masterton, a mirror can move persons and items between the normal and the demoniac world.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who:
- The Girl In The Fireplace: It is possible to teleport from a 51st century alien spaceship in another galaxy to 18th century France using reflective surfaces aboard the ship, and in the house.
- The Curse Of The Black Spot: The "Siren" that haunts and kidnaps the pirates seemingly appears wherever there is still water, but is later realized to be able to materialize wherever there is a sufficiently large reflective surface. The pirates' collection of treasure also qualifies.
- The Flash:
- This show's version of Mirror Master is a metahuman with the ability to teleport through reflective surfaces and trap people inside such objects.
- Season 5 features a metahuman named Eva McCulloch who is a Gender Fliped version of Evan McCulloch, the second Mirror Master from the comics. Like Scudder, Eva was trapped in a mirror and gained reflective teleportation powers from the S.T.A.R. labs particle accelerator explosion.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki: Riders can only exit the Mirror World via the same reflective surface they entered by. Destroying that spot traps them in a toxic environment that will kill them soon after. On the flipside, Mirror monsters can't stay on Earth for long either.
- Kamen Rider Dragon Knight: Riders have a few restrictions on moving between the worlds and no consequences largely because Ventara is an alternate reality unlike the Mirror World's Eldritch Location. This can be used for teleportation or Sinister Surveillance among other things due to the Invisible to Normals nature of the connection between the worlds.
- Power Rangers S.P.D.: In "Reflection", Sky goes to interrogate Mirloc, a dangerous criminal who can travel through any reflective surface. The high-security prison cell he is held in takes extra precautions to keep anything reflective away, including covering SPD badges and giving visitors opaque sunglasses (since human eyes are themselves reflective). However, when Mirloc asks for Sky to tell him his worst memory in exchange for his help with the Villain of the Week, Sky's Single Tear gives Mirloc the opportunity to escape. Even worse? The memory was of Sky's dad's death, which Mirloc himself was responsible for.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: The nerra, a race of intelligent Mirror Monsters, can magically teleport between any two mirrors — or other highly reflective surfaces, like polished metal or pools of still water — up to a mile apart.
- Changeling: The Lost:
- As humans transformed by the Land of Faerie, all Changelings can open a portal to the Hedge in any reflective surface or doorway that they can fit through.
- The Contracts of Reflections grant Mirror Monster powers to Changelings who study them. As their skill grows, they learn to reach a limb into one mirror and out another, and eventually to step through entirely. In both cases, they need to have recently handled the destination mirror in person.
- Vampire: The Requiem: Red Jack offers exclusive access to the non-standard, mirror-themed Discipline of Ars Speculorum. Its capstone power lets the vampire step into one mirror and exit out another one in a matter of seconds — unless they roll a Critical Failure, in which case exiting isn't guaranteed.
Video Games
- Ducktales: In the Transylvania level, pairs of mirrors are used to reach different parts of the mansion that makes up the level.
- Fallen London: All reflective surfaces can be used as portals to Parabola by those who know to use this ability. There is an entire science (Glasswork) dedicated to the study of this power, and one of the tricks experts can do (including the player character in the second half of the game) is travel from one mirror to the other; long-distance crossings, espionage and even assassination are easily carried out using mirrors in the right places. This is one big reason Londoners are careful with mirrors; another reason is that humans aren't the only ones that can do this.
- Lego DC Supervillains: Turning mirrors into portals is one of the rarest abilities. Once Raven or Mirror Master with this ability hit two of these mirrors with a projectile, any character can jump through one and teleport to the corresponding mirror. Puzzles using this ability generally rely on transporting the mirrors to somewhere Mirror Master can hit them or to an unreachable location you need to teleport to get to.
- Luigi's Mansion: Scanning any mirror (except for the room-length one in the Mirror Room) teleports you to the lobby. Even the mirror in the lobby itself.
- A technology-based version is used to commit a heist in Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan. As NetNavis are transmitted to computers wirelessly, mirrors are used to reflect the signal containing the thief's NetNavi in order to access a guarded computer from across an entire ship and steal an important program from it. Lan then has to trace the mirrors back to the source to stop the Navi and retrieve the program.
- In Silent Hill: Origins, Travis is able to travel between the Fog World and the Otherworld by laying his hand on any mirror, reflecting (no pun intended) his past trauma.
Web Comics
- In Cheshire Crossing, Alice Liddell has the innate ability to teleport between the "normal" world and Wonderland through mirrors.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: SCP-093 is an engraved red disk that will stick itself to any reflective surface at breakneck speed and is capable of transporting people to another dimension through the mirror itself.
Western Animation
- Infinity Train: In Book 2, it's shown that Agents Sieve and Mace, "mirror cops" from the Chrome Car, can emerge from any reflective surface, including water, while chasing and apprehending rogue reflections. As a precaution, M.T. carries around black spray-paint to use on shiny surfaces to ensure the two won't come for her.
- The Owl House: In "Yesterday's Lie", Luz enters a Void Between the Worlds where she can summon cubes that allow her to look into the Human Realm through reflective surfaces there, with anyone present able to see her inside said surface. Near the end, she appears as a life-sized hologram of sorts when a car's headlights shine through a rainy night.
- In an early episode of Rugrats, Tommy and Chuckie tumble into a (supposedly) antique cheval mirror and, through a number of contrived coincidences, are convinced they entered a "mirror world."
- In one episode of Super Friends, the Mirror Master uses a mirror as Weaponized Teleportation against Superman.
