Magic Mirror

""I wish to be with you forever, to look upon your face always, to never leave your side.""

- The Genie to Regina when making the final wish

The Magic Mirror, formerly known as the Genie of Agrabah, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the second episode of the first season. He is portrayed by guest star Giancarlo Esposito, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of Sidney Glass.

The Magic Mirror is based on a character of the same name from the fairytale, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and a Genie from the folktale, "Aladdin".

Before the Curse
As the Genie of Agrabah, a powerful magical being who is imprisoned within the confines of a magic lamp, he grants wishes to all who happen to come across it in their travels. One day, while taking a stroll through his kingdom, King Leopold comes across the lamp by the side of a river. After curiously rubbing the lamp, the Genie appears to the king, granting him three wishes; with the warning that once a wish is fulfilled it cannot be undone.
 * -|As Genie=

After realizing King Leopold desires no wishes because he has everything he wants and seeks only the happiness of those in his kingdom, the two sit by the river's edge and the Genie tells the king of his sorrowful life, and how he has never found happiness while granting wishes for others over the years. When asked by Leopold what the Genie could wish for, he longs for nothing more than to be free. Wanting to make his new-found friend truly happy, King Leopold uses his first wish to release the Genie from his chains, and uses the second wish to let the Genie have the third wish.

The Genie is both surprised and worried, as over the years he has watched a thousand and one wishes be made only to have them all turn out bad in the end, which is why he vows never to make his final wish. Seeing the Genie as a wise confidant, Leopold invites him back to his palace where he meets the king's daughter Snow White and his second wife Regina, with whom he falls in love at first sight under the queen's apple tree.

During a birthday party for the king, the Genie notices Regina is alone and unhappy, while the king, his daughter, and their subjects are all enjoying the king's speech about his daughter and how she looks like his first wife - Snow's mother--who was the "fairest of them all". When Regina is alone outside, the Genie follows, giving her a mirror to show her how beautiful she is as he sees her as the fairest in the land.

Some time later, the king finds the mirror and discovers written in her diary that she has found another love and asks the Genie to find the person who gave her the mirror. As the Genie stands under Regina's apple tree, the queen's father, Henry, delivers a box asking him to take it to his daughter as he isn't allowed inside the castle.

He takes the box to Regina and as she opens it, she tells the Genie that she is going to kill herself from the bite of a poisonous Agrabahn viper, he stops her and offers to kill the king instead, so that they can be together forever. The Genie then takes the box with the viper to the king's room, opens it and let it slither up to the king's face, telling the king as he lies dying from the viper's poisonous bite that he was the one who gave Regina the mirror and that he has fallen for her.

After he reports back to Regina with news of the king's death, she tells him that she never loved him and only used him to kill King Leopold for her. With his heart broken, the genie frantically uses the last wish so to be with her forever and to look upon her face always. Much to his dismay, he becomes trapped as the Magic Mirror, now, ironically, able to look upon Regina forever. Following his imprisonment in the mirror, Regina uses him to spy on her enemies such as Snow White, Rumplestiltskin and the Blind Witch.
 * -|As Magic Mirror=

After King Leopold dies, the Magic Mirror suggests Regina use a Huntsman to kill Snow White; knowing that the princess is too well-liked by everyone to be killed outright by the Queen. In the end, the Huntsman is unable to go through with the Queen's request, and spares Snow White's life in mercy. Discovering his deception, the Queen makes him her slave forever.

When Regina comes into power as Queen with Snow White gone from the palace, she seeks out the help of a former portal jumper, Jefferson, to take her to another land. He refuses, but to sway his decision, the Queen disguises herself as an old hag selling items at a market vendor. Jefferson's daughter, Grace, eyes a stuffed rabbit, but her father does not have enough money to pay for it. The hag does not accept anything less than the asking price, and the two leave the market empty-handed. Once they are gone, the Magic Mirror, hanging on flip side of the vendor, teases the masqueraded Queen for being cruel to the young girl.

The Evil Queen, successful in her mission to destroy Snow White, puts the princess under a Sleeping Curse and keeps Prince Charming as her prisoner. However, the Huntsman secretly aids Prince Charming in escaping. To the Queen, he lies and says the man managed to break out on his own. Livid, the Queen is ready to sentence out the Huntsman's punishment for his incompetency, but the Magic Mirror is able to show her Prince Charming's exact location. She buys time by entrapping Prince Charming into the Infinite Forest, but she remains unaware Rumplestiltskin strikes a deal to help him find Snow White.

Eventually, Prince Charming leaves the Infinite Forest to awaken Snow White with true love's kiss, which the Magic Mirror sees while spying on them. While being carried to the Queen by a knight, he warns not to be dropped or else a curse of fourteen years will be unleashed. Hastening towards the Queen's apple tree garden, the Magic Mirror shows her a curseless Snow White being proposed to by Prince Charming. Enraged, the Queen immediately makes plans to confront the two.

In the Evil Queen's attempt to learn more about how to enact the Dark Curse, she goes to speak with Rumplestiltskin. Upon returning to the palace, the Magic Mirror tries to engage her in conversation about it, but goes ignored. As it is, the Evil Queen learns from Rumplestiltskin she must sacrifice the heart of the thing most beloved to her, which is her father. Going through with it, the Dark Curse is cast, and later engulfs everyone, including the Magic Mirror, into another land.

Trivia

 * When first meeting King Leopold, he states that he has granted "One thousand and one wishes..." This is a reference to the popular Middle Eastern folk-tales One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which itself contains the story "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp".
 * By using him, the Evil Queen is able to see through uncovered mirrors.
 * The lamp that he once lived in is currently in the possession of Mr. Gold, being kept in his shop.

Appearances
Miroir magique Specchio Magico Magischer Spiegel