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Looking-glasses

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This page is move protected The subject of this article is involved with the Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is involved with Once Upon a Time in Wonderland The subject of this article is an item The subject of this article is involved with the Enchanted Forest The subject of this article is involved with Wonderland The subject of this article is involved with the New Wonderland The subject of this article is involved with Seattle The subject of this article is magical or capable of using magic The subject of this article is featured in Season One of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Two of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Five of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Seven of Once Upon a Time
This article focuses on the items also known as "magic mirrors".
For the character, see Magic Mirror.
For the mirror magic, see mirror enchantments.


A portal. A passage between lands. This is a portal to a specific annoying little world. Useless to me, but for your purposes, a-perfect.

—Rumplestiltskin to Regina src


Looking-glasses, also known as Magic Mirrors, are portals featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They first appear in the seventeenth episode of the first season of Once Upon a Time.

Looking-glasses[1] are based on the item of the same name from the novel, Through the Looking-Glass.

History

Before First Curse

In a desperate attempt to get rid of her mother Cora and escape an unwanted marriage to King Leopold, Regina steals her mother's spell book and accidentally summons a dark wizard named Rumplestiltskin. He offers her a Looking-glass as a gift, instructing her to push Cora into it to ensure she will never have to see her mother again. On the day of her wedding, Cora visits Regina and praises her for the future she will have once she marries Leopold, and then takes notice of the Looking-glass. As Regina lunges forward to push her through it, Cora magically restrains her, scolding her daughter for attempting to get rid of her. With encouragement from Rumplestiltskin, who appears in the Looking-glass, Regina breaks free of the spell and uses magic to shove Cora into the portal. For a brief moment, Cora manages to hang onto the frame before completely vanishing into the Looking-glass, which shatters almost immediately after. ("We Are Both")

In the castle of a fearsome witch named Maleficent, she possesses a compact Looking-glass. While she is away, Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men enter in to steal her collection of gold to give it away to the poor. The newest recruit in the group, Will Scarlet, steals Maleficent's Looking-glass, intending to use it so he and his beloved, Anastasia, can travel to another world. When Maleficent discovers the theft, she warns the Merry Men to return the stolen item or face her wrath. Robin calls out the thief in the group, but no one steps forward. While trying to sneak off during the night, Will is reprimanded by Robin, who realizes he is the thief but allows him to leave, believing his punishment will come in the near future. Will returns to his sweetheart and as they prepare to jump into the Looking-glass, Anastasia's mother walks in to express disappointment at her daughter's choice in running away with Will. Nonetheless, the lovers leap into the Looking-glass to Wonderland, but their new life together is harder than either of them expected. They steal clothes and forge invitations to an upcoming royal ball, which ends disastrously after both are kicked out. Anastasia figures it'd be best if they returned to the Enchanted Forest, but before that, she wants to steal the crown jewels from the castle. The plan falls through when Anastasia betrays Will by accepting a marriage proposal from the Red King and ascends the throne as the Red Queen. ("Forget Me Not," "Heart of Stone," "Heart of the Matter")

The Looking-glass takes Cora to Wonderland where she rises to power as the Queen of Hearts. ("Hat Trick")

At some point later, on the anniversary of Daniel's death, Regina is visiting the gravesite of her first love, Daniel, when her mother Cora shows up. She asks how Cora found a way around the Looking-glass she previously sent her through, and the latter states that she borrowed a rabbit. ("Mother")

Unable to persuade his daughter to give up on her revenge against Snow White, Henry contacts his former wife Cora through the Magic Mirror, hoping she can talk some sense into Regina instead. However, Cora is only interested in further aiding Regina to fulfill her mission, to which Henry ends the conversation with her as she is of no help to him. After Henry walks off, Cora steps through the Looking-glass and into the room. Cora steals Snow White's heart, intending to present it to Regina as a birthday present, but Henry manages to switch out the heart with a guard's, so that when Regina crushes it, Snow does not die. Infuriated at Henry's interference, Regina shrinks him and locks him in a box before realizing her father was right about Cora being a terrible influence on her. She casts a non-reversible spell to seal the Looking-glass portal to prevent Cora from ever using it to come back, but when she has the Magic Mirror take her mother away, Cora grabs the box containing Henry as assurance Regina will be all alone with no one after she is gone. Regina runs to the Looking-glass, but it is too late and both Cora and the box disappear through the Looking-glass to Wonderland. ("Souls of the Departed")

Getting assistance from a portal-jumper named Jefferson, Regina hopes to reach Wonderland and rescue her father from Cora. However, she lies and says the Queen of Hearts stole an item from her, rather than a person. They jump into Jefferson's magical hat together and arrive in a room of doors with each one leading to a separate magical world. Through a Looking-glass, they enter Wonderland and travel through a great maze to the vault belonging to the Queen of Hearts in the center. After Regina plucks out a box containing her shrunken father, they are chased by the Queen's soldiers but manage to lose them in the maze. Back at the Looking-glass exit, Regina tears a piece of growth mushroom, which her father ingests and returns to his normal size. Jefferson only realizes then that he has been tricked since the hat only allows the same amount of people to go in and come out. Regina magically freezes him in place, leaving him trapped in Wonderland, before going through the Looking-glass with her father to return to the Enchanted Forest. ("Hat Trick")

Before she casts the Dark Curse, Regina tricks Hook into helping her kill her mother Cora in exchange for his chance of revenge on Rumplestiltskin in the new land she intends to send everyone to after the curse is cast. After enchanting the pirate's hook with the ability to rip out Cora's heart, she briefly alludes to how she once banished her mother to Wonderland with a Looking-glass. ("Queen of Hearts")

After First Curse

Upon tricking her daughter Regina into letting her into her vault while disguised as her son Henry, Cora soon takes off the disguise. She apologizes to Regina for having been a horrible mother and tells her that she doesn't blame her sending her through the Looking-glass and trying to have her killed later on. ("In the Name of the Brother")

Having just found out Emma and Henry are trapped in Neverland, Neal soon realizes the danger Henry is in because Peter Pan is after him. He asks Robin Hood to help him look around Rumplestiltskin's castle in search of something that can open a portal, such as a magic mirror, which is another term for the Looking-glass. ("Quite a Common Fairy")

After Fourth Curse

During an adventure in New Wonderland, Ella finds Henry in time to prevent Drizella from poisoning his heart. After Ella disarms Drizella with a punch, Alice drops a Looking-glass on her and sends her back to the New Enchanted Forest. ("Pretty in Blue")

After being locked up by Clayton, Robin pulls out her phone to show Alice a picture of the sheriff's bug she once stole. Alice is amazed that the phone, which she calls a box, can store a person's life in it. Robin finds her way of looking at life endearing, and Alice tells her advice that her father Hook told her; that in life, the best people to meet are the ones who will challenge her and help her see the world through a whole new Looking-glass. ("The Girl in the Tower")

During Fifth Curse
When Gothel reveals the truth of Tilly's parentage, she remarks upon her combined heritage as "being born between both sides of the Looking-glass". ("Flower Child")

After Fifth Curse
Borrowing Tilly's cracked Looking-glass from her boxcar, Henry, Roni, Weaver, and Rogers hope to use it to access the Wish Realm, where Wish Rumplestiltskin has trapped Jacinda and Lucy. Henry places the mirror on the ground before it opens a portal for them to walk through, however, they are unaware that Rumplestiltskin was the one who cracked the Looking-glass, as to manipulate exactly where they end up in the Wish Realm. ("Homecoming")

Trivia

On-Screen Notes

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

References

  1. ↑ The word is spelled "Looking-glass" with a large capital L and no capital G in the novel Through the Looking-Glass
  2. ↑ File:202IKnowBest.png
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