Literature
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Ivi just self-absorbed and afraid of being alone, or is she truly evil?
- Inferred Holocaust: Skulni gleefully tells Aza that he's caused wars or driven people to suicide so that he can get more days out of the mirror than Lucinda intended. Aza can only ponder while trapped in the mirror about how high his body count is.
- Les Yay: Aza had to carry Ivi when they were running from the choirmaster. Plus, the way Ivi acts sometimes...Ivi: Do you care about me deeply?
- Narm: The singing in place of speaking. "I am loyal to Ayortha-a-a-a-a!"
- Nightmare Fuel: How would you like to die? Being snatched from your own body and thrust into a magic mirror with a talking spider? And on top of that, you're weightless.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Lucinda is even worse here than she was in Ella Enchanted. Mandy dismissively said that Lucinda was The Ditz that simply cannot understand the consequences of big magic unless she lived it herself. Yet here, it's revealed that Lucinda's gifts have indirectly caused the recipient to die, either by suicide or inciting hatred. After reading that she created the Magic Mirror with Skulni in it, being a squirrel for three months and an obedient child for three more doesn't seem like enough of a punishment.
- Gail Carson Levine says that her intentions with Ivi were to create a Wicked Stepmother analog that wasn't fundamentally evil or doomed to a Cruel and Unusual Death, since it's a natural flaw to be obsessed with your looks while jealous of others. It doesn't change the fact that Ivi betrayed her Only Friend Aza and blackmailed her, attempted to cheat on her husband, and nearly caused a war because she took Skulni's advice. At some point, a reader has to assert that it's not the spider talking, and Ivi's punishment was only mild because her husband was the king. What's more, Aza admits that she can't forgive Ivi even if helping her achieve a Karma Houdini. When Ivi says they can do makeovers and spend time together the way that they used to, Aza doesn't bother to respond.
- The Woobie: Aza, so MUCH. Poor thing.
