Disney Lorcana Magic Mirror Card: A Philosophical Reflection
The Disney Lorcana Magic Mirror card raises terrifying but important philosophical questions. At first glance, the Mirror’s mere presence in Lorcana is unsettling. It’s not a character, which is weird – but put some thought into it and it gets even weirder. What does it mean for a being to be classified as an item, and what does that say about the Mirror’s status as a living, breathing being?
We’ve all played games with cards that were clearly people – how could they not be? The Wardrobe from Beauty and the Beast, the animated brooms from Fantasia, and countless others. But what about cards that seem to be inanimate objects? The Mirror from Lorcana is one such card and, in a fun and colourful Card Game, it challenges us to delve into the nature of life and the animate versus the inanimate.
Lorcana is a game with three card types: characters, items, and actions. Characters are, as you’d expect, the main protagonist and the cards that your deck is built around. Items are things like weapons and spellbooks. Actions are actions like attacking or drawing more cards.
The Magic Mirror card is an item and, in most respects, functions as such. You can play it from your hand, pay its ink cost, and attack with it. However, it’s also unique in that it allows you to draw a card by paying ink. This would make sense if the Mirror were, for example, a portal to another realm that allowed you to draw a card, but its depiction in the artwork for Snow White suggests something else.
The Mirror is a summoned entity that has a personality and desires. The way it reflects the truth suggests it has a mind of its own, one that is more than just a pane of glass. The fact that it allows you to draw a card instead of, say, increasing your attack or defence, suggests that the Mirror is not merely a tool, but an entity that desires to be summoned and used.
It’s impossible to confirm whether Ravensburger or Disney see the Mirror as a being or an object. The fact that many Disney characters exist in the same space as the Mirror suggests that its classification has been made for them, not by them. After all, the animated brooms were clearly people in Fantasia, and The Wardrobe was the star of her own film. But the distinction seems to be based on locomotion – brooms can’t move on their own and therefore cannot be people, but the animated wardrobe could be, despite also being inanimate.
Magic: The Gathering, a very similar trading card game to Lorcana, allows cards to have multiple types. If a card can attack and block, it can be both a creature and a sorcery. The introduction of Item Characters in Lorcana could be a step towards bridging the gap between the inorganic and the living. For now, though, the Mirror remains a victim of an unjust classification.
Check out the official rulebook for more on Lorcana’s card types. You can also take a look at our Lorcana tier list if you’re preparing for battle, or browse through some of our favorite Lorcana characters – we’re sure you’ll find a few familiar faces.
