Unfair Mirror Match - TV Tropes

Red Tornado: [disengages equal Blow You Away attacks] We are evenly matched, Twister.
Mister Twister: No, Tornado, we are not. [begins using Shock and Awe]

• In Afro Samurai, the Afro Droid can copy all of Afro's sword techniques, on top of having mechanically enhanced strength. And that's before it breaks out its hidden rockets and lasers.
• Cyborg 009: 004 had to face off against a robotic duplicate of himself, which was built with far more advanced versions of his cybernetic parts, and programmed to predict his moves in combat. The only reason 004 survived was he saved a bird's nest — which completely threw off the duplicate's programming.
• In Final Fantasy: Unlimited, both Kaze and Makenshi can summon monsters with their signature weapons. However, Kaze's Magun has been corrupted and sometimes refuses the wielder's commands, while Makenshi's Maken can be used at any time. The Maken can also be used like a normal sword, while the Magun can only be used for Summon Magic.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: In the Ruins of the King's Tomb, duplicates of all the test participants are spawned that must be defeated. While the duplicates are perfect copies, they are unable to communicate or coordinate with other duplicates, which rewards the test takers strategizing with their peers to be victorious.
  • Wirbel's team come out on top against their double by being able to focus on each of them by working in unison to coordinate their attacks.
  • Ubel defeats her duplicate with the assistance of Land distracting the double.
  • Frieren and Fern defeat Frieren's double by forcing the double to give its full attention to fighting with Frieren so that Fern could hit a debilitating strike once it was distracted.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), Dark Link is just as fast, strong, and skilled as the real Link. However, Dark Link also has an advantage in that Link can't actually land a blow on him without suffering the wrong end of synchronization, while he himself is completely unaffected by the pain.
• One Piece: Luffy vs Katakuri. Katakuri has a superior version of Luffy's stretchy ability (as noted by both him and Carrot), as well as more skill with Haki. He uses this to mimic several of Luffy's moves and make them more powerful when he uses them offensively. However, after a lengthy fight, Luffy still manages to emerge victorious, due to having the superior will and conviction.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: The dark copy of the duelist the Duel Dragon card conjures up for their Mirror Match against the opposing duelist has all the cards and tactics said duelist copied down pat while having access to the very Duel Dragon said opposing duelist lacks.

• Doctor Strange: In Doctor Strange 2015 #384, during a fight between Strange and Loki, his assistant Zelma tries to make them talk it out like adults by taking away both their magic powers. Strange tries to point out that without magic, Loki is still an Asgardian, before being sent flying with a casual punch,
• Green Lantern: The Green and Yellow Lanterns have equal Hard Light powers, but the latter's color has an inherent type advantage against the former, leading to this trope whenever they come into conflict.
• Justice League of America: In Justice League of America (1960) #13, the JLA face robot doubles of themselves who seem stronger than they are in every way. When Aquaman helps them overcome their doubles, Superman learns that the robots got extra energy from the cheering crowd, so it was never a fair fight.

• Nuclear Man of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is an Evil Knockoff with all Superman's powers and none of the regard for human life, plus sharp, metallic claws (well, fingernails) that are capable of piercing Superman's skin and sickening him with a form of radiation poisoning on par with Kryptonite. Luckily, the unfairness tilts in Superman's direction, too: Nuclear Man also has a pretty big Achilles' Heel in that he's completely inert outside of direct sunlight, which Supes exploits to beat him... despite never being shown learning of the weakness ahead of time.

• Dungeon Robotics: One of Regan's boss floors creates robot doubles of the party members, the intent was for team battles. However, something went wrong and they got locked into one-on-one battles. Louella's evil double could use her lightning magic to fly, something she hadn't learned yet. Izora's double had a copy of her artifact but used functions she didn't even know it had. She was able to figure out the command for the laser sword during the battle but not the wings. The doubles also played mind games with them. When Regan realized what happened he shut it down and gave them a pass to the next floor.
• Rise of Kers: Cloud Gate's second floor has a mirror that creates a Doppleganger Squad and duplicates items. Trent tried feeding it an item it couldn't duplicate, costing him his reward but pitted him against an unarmed opponent. He finishes first and helps his teammates. Vee and her double were both immune to all their own spells but Vee got creative and trapped her double in a block of ice. Roland notes this could have gone the other way if his double had gone after the others instead of dueling him, thanks to the level gap. Kers then adds a command to make the doubles duel their originals unless someone else attacks them first.
• Wear Your Soul Round Your Neck: Thyssa fights her evil reflection...but the reflection is of her malform self, which has armour and a deadly Acid Attack.

• Black Lightning (2018): In one episode, the titular superhero ends up in a one-on-one battle against Power Copier Carson Williams, who smugly points out that he not only has BL's powers, he's also a highly-trained soldier. BL points out, however, that what he doesn't have is a protective suit to guard against the effects of having all that electricity flowing through him. Williams has just enough time to register this point before he falls unconscious.
• Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger/Power Rangers Wild Force: Onikage/DoroDoro creates clones of the Rangers from their own shadows. Not only can these doppelgangers predict the Rangers' moves but any damage inflicted on them is reflected back onto the Rangers. However, this connection appears to only be one-way as the Rangers can't predict the Shadow Rangers' attacks and the Shadow Rangers can damage them without being hurt themselves. When Onikage tries to use his shadow clone ability on Jindrax/Yabaiba, the latter reflects the attack back on him using a Magic Mirror. Onikage finds himself fighting his own shadow clone and is killed when the Rangers destroy the shadow clone.
• Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: Every duel between Gira and Rcules after the first one is this. Gira transforms into Kuwagata Ohger while Rcules transforms into Oh-Kuwagata Ogher, who is identical in all but color. During their second duel, Rcules also brings with him the Ohger Crown which gives him access to a Super Mode, but Gira manages to steal it from him. Boshimar also tries to further tip the duel in Rcules's favor by giving him the Ohger Lance in the middle of the duel, but Kaguragi had replaced it with a booby trapped fake one and gives Gira the real one. The reverse happens in their third duel, where Gira starts with the crown but Rcules steal it back and Gira is also seemingly betrayed by Kaguragi giving the lance to Rcules.

• In Ancient Domains of Mystery, one enemy type is the doppelganger, who copies your character's immunities and the like and has a confusing attack but is generally manageable... at first. Later in the game, you may meet doppelganger kings/ultimate doppelgangers, who have the same immunities as your character, and the same stats, and armor-piercing attacks, and damage scaling with your character's HP.
• Reversed in Candy box! where you have to defeat yourself — literally. Your mirror image has the same abilities as you but will win simply due to the player running out of health on the final trade of attacks. To defeat the opponent, the player needs to purchase an upgrade that lets him surpass yourself. There is also a small window of opportunity of using a fire scroll when the opponent is nearly out of health, as that directly slays the target.
• Pokémon: Ditto perfectly copies all the stats, typing, and moves of whoever it's fighting first, but it keeps its original (very low) HP and only has 5 PP on all of its moves.
• Puyo Puyo~n's Final Boss is against Doppelganger Arle, who plots to Kill and Replace Arle out of desperation and Clone Angst in a winner-takes-all Puyo match. The problem is Arle has no special abilities to defend or disrupt with while Doppelganger Arle can store up to three charges of Void Hole, which protects her from all Nuisance Puyo for 30 solid seconds. While the game does provide special Puyo blocks towards the bottom that you can pop to overpower her Void Hole, that doesn't remove the fact that Doppelganger Arle still has an unfair advantage on top of her aggressive AI, meaning she can easily win Victory by Endurance thanks to how fast Void Hole recharges and how long it gives her indestructability for.
• Quest for Glory III has a mirror battle in the Lost City, where the five characters fight their counterparts. The Evil Counterparts are invincible, either being able to block attacks perfectly or being protected from attacks. The hero survives only by having Harami the thief backstabbing the opponent, letting you escape the battle and proceed to the demon wizard.
• In the Rocket Knight Adventures series, Sparkster's arch-rival and Evil Counterpart, Axel Gear, is a rocket knight gone rogue. Although he has a jet pack and a magical sword like Sparkster, Axel's fighting techniques are more advanced than Sparkster's, and whenever the two battle each other in giant robots, Axel's robots are more advanced as well. A few specific examples include;
  • In the original game, the boss battle of Stage 5 involves Sparkster and Axel fighting each other in giant robots. Axel's robot can take twice as much damage as Sparksters, making for a very tough fight.
  • Downplayed in Stages 0 and 4 of Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (GEN); Axel's giant robot can fire a projectile from its chest, something Sparkster's robot can't do. However, this attack is easy to block by pressing the block button, and Axel's robot is temporarily immobile after using it, pretty much guaranteeing Sparkster a free hit.
  • Also from RKA 2, when Sparkster and Axel get in a head-to-head fight just before the final battle with King Gedol, Axel creates a pincer barrier that starts closing in on him and Sparkster. Axel's attacks tend to last longer than Sparkster's, and he can hover as much as he likes.
  • In Sparkster (SNES), the boss of Stage 7 involves Sparkster and Axel battling each other in giant robots. Aside from the fact that it's an Unexpected Gameplay Change within an unexpected gameplay change (as Sparkster jumps into a giant robot solely for the purpose of defeating this boss), Axel is unbelievably aggressive, especially on the higher difficulties, and his giant robot can take a lot more damage than Sparkster's. Trying to hit Axel without getting hit yourself can be nearly impossible at times. What's worse is that unlike in RKA 2, Sparkster can't sit back and block all day, since Axel's punches will destroy his robot's arms over time if he allows him to, and while Sparkster can actually do this to Axel, it's very hard to do so.
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: The Great Shinobi is a Mirror Boss who can use many of the unlockable skills and combat arts due to being Wolf's mentor. However, he's also packing a few extra abilities, as well as upgrades to the player-accessible ones. These include Anti-Regeneration bombs, the ability to leave pools of poison that cause area denial, while Wolf's Sabimaru can only inflict poisoning on hits, and, in the Hirata Estate memory, the ability to summon a flaming Owl Familiar that can even pierce through the, normally unbreakable, Loaded Umbrella.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic’s robot doppelgänger Metal Sonic not only can match Sonic speed for speed, but also not only has extra attacks in its arsenal, it can also copy lifeforce data to use other people's abilities. The latter part is rarely used, most notably in Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Heroes.
  • Each of the rival boss fights at the end of the Hero and Dark stories of Sonic Adventure 2; in addition to having the same moveset as the playable character in each fight, each of the opposing characters get extra attacks normally exclusive to multiplayer mode: the opposing Speed character can use Chaos Control and throw energy projectiles (Chaos Spears for Shadow, Sonic Wind for Sonic), the opposing Mech character can launch missiles or a massive laser beam, and the opposing Treasure Hunter character can summon elemental attacks (Black Wave for Rouge, Thunder Arrow for Knuckles).

• DEATH BATTLE!: Downplayed in "Gogeta VS Vegito". Both combatants are effectively the same person due to both of them being fusions of Goku and Vegeta. However, Gogeta comes to be through the fusion dance which requires both subjects to be at equal power, making him a bit weaker than Vegito, whose Potara fusion does not have that requirement. Not only that, but Vegito's time limit for being active is much higher than Gogeta's. That being said, it is still established to be a very close match with Vegito having slight advantages.

• The Batman (2004): In "Clayfaces", a new Clayface (Basil Karlo) is created with a more refined version of the mutagen that created the first one (Ethan Bennett). The two of them duke it out with Basil having an obvious advantage, but Ethan manages to hold him off long enough for Batman to administer a cure to them both.
• Ben 10:
  • In the original series episode "Framed", Ben has to fight Kevin 11, who has all the same aliens as him but doesn't have to deal with Hour of Power limitations and can switch at will. Later on, it's subverted as after going through a Shapeshifter Mashup Kevin claims to have all of Ben's powers plus his own (hence the moniker Kevin 11) — but Ben immediately points out that Kevin's version of his abilities are strictly inferior.
  • In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben tries to turn into an electric alien to fight Aggregor's electric spear — only to realize Aggregor's spear was specifically designed to give him an advantage against other electric powers.
  • Albedo is a Galvan who built his own Omnitrix, getting trapped as an Evil Twin of Ben in the process. When he builds the Ultimatrix in the finale of Ben 10: Alien Force, he outmatches Ben by using Ultimate Aliens. Ben would use the Ultimatrix himself during Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, but loses the Ultimate Aliens when he receives the true Omnitrix for Ben 10: Omniverse. By then, Albedo upgrades his own stabilizer to regain access to the Ultimates.

    Albedo: That's right, Tennyson, an Ultimate Vaxasaurian. I can change into Ultimate Aliens, but you can't!

• "Disenchantment'': Any time Bean battles Bad Bean, the latter points out the fact that she, as a manifestation of her subconscious, knows everything about her, down to her fighting style and proves to be a formidable foe to Bean and her friends. What gives her even more of an advantage is her use of Queen Dagmar’s sorcery to fool Bean, going so far as to trick her into stabbing Mona the Mermaid to death. Bean however gains the upper hand by using her own sorcery and anger to kill Bad Bean, something that she taught her.
• Justice League: Galatea is an Evil Doppelgänger of Supergirl. Despite possessing the same powers as the heroine, she quickly overpowers her younger-looking counterpart whenever they fight. In her own words, her physical superiority can be attributed to her being "accelerated a few extra years, plus better trained".
• The Legend of Korra:
  • Vaatu and Raava's Sealed Evil in a Duel gets broken by Wan coming to give Vaatu an advantage.
  • Perspective-flipped with Unalaq, who should be significantly weaker than Korra (due to only having access to waterbending) as an Avatar, but who manages to overcome the odds due to a combination of environmental factors and underhanded tactics.
  • In season 4, Korra fights against a hallucination of herself, which (in addition to access to all the elements) is in the avatar state as well as controls a metal chain.
• Played with in Miraculous Ladybug with the various evil knockoffs of Ladybug that Hawk Moth has deployed, like Antibug, Shadybug, and Miraculer. Each of them has an advantage — Antibug can summon exactly what she wants with her Anti-Charm, Shadybug can re-use her Lucky Charm power repeatedly, and Miraculer can not only repeatedly use her Lucky Charm, she can also combine it with other powers she's stolen and can prevent Ladybug from using her own Lucky Charm. On the other hand, each of them also has a weakness — Antibug can only create exactly what she wants, regardless of whether or not it works for the present situation, Shadybug's use of Lucky Charm is slowly killing her, and Miraculer is shorter and has a shorter reach than Ladybug, and her Lucky Charms are just as random as Ladybug's, even if she can re-use the power multiple times.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In "Mr. Mojo's Rising", Mojo Jojo gains all the powers of the Powerpuff Girls. Blossom thinks that since they have the same powers, he can't surprise them, only for him to also use his superior brainpower against them, which manifests as a colorful beam that defeats them.
• Discussed and subverted in Recess. The kids form a kickball team to face off against a rival school (run by their principal's equally jerkass older brother). The opposing team is full of similar versions of the cast. In the end, TJ gives an impassioned speech about the other team lacking the same heart... cue the camera panning to his own counterpart giving the same speech to her team. At this point, they realise they're so evenly matched there's no point in continuing, call it a draw, and leave their respective principals to bicker.
• Steven Universe:
  • In "Ocean Gem", the Crystal Gems fight clones of themselves made of water. They mirror the originals' abilities, only with a number of advantages that come from being made of water such as reforming after taking damage. The Crystal Gems fare poorly until Steven blocks an attack with his shield, creating a shockwave that causes all the clones to fall apart.

    Pearl: I hate fighting me!

  • Steven Universe: Future: Lapis fights against 2 other Lapis Lazuli who refuse to stop terraforming a planet. While they are less skilled than her, they rapidly begin to match her techniques. She still wins easily, once she starts letting her anger out in the fight.
• Teen Titans (2003): Starfire versus Blackfire. Blackfire is older and better trained than Starfire in the same abilities, as well as more brutal when they fight. Starfire eventually catches up to her in later seasons due to a case of Villain Forgot to Level Grind and manages to defeat her even while Blackfire had an Artifact of Power strengthening her.
• W.I.T.C.H. (2004): In "T is for Trauma", Nerissa challenges the protagonists to a final battle against herself and her corrupted Guardians, with Will's Heart of Kandrakar as the prize. When the fight starts, each girl targets an opponent who shares the same Elemental Powers as themselves, but since Nerissa's team is empowered by two Hearts instead of one, the heroines are quickly overwhelmed. They only manage to turn the tide of battle by swapping opponents and exploiting the brainwashed Guardians' inability to adopt a strategy that isn't Attack! Attack! Attack!.
• X-Men: Evolution: During "Self Possessed", Rogue copies Storm's Shock and Awe abilities, and easily defeats Storm by using them in a far more aggressive fashion than her. In "Dark Horizon – Part 1", she also defeats Magneto in a Magnetism Manipulation fight by abusing the fact that she can knock people out via touch.
• Young Justice (2010): When Mister Twister is introduced, it at first seems like he has equal Blow You Away powers to Red Tornado. It's then revealed he also has lightning powers that put the odds entirely in his favor.