Persistance, Joy, Love

The piece Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely reminds me of my many attempts at magic.  Most of my tricks were successful and still are today.  Others got tomatoes thrown at me.  Needless to say, I never used those tricks again.

My favorite type of magic is by far close-up magic.  I love this form of magic because I can see their look of amazement on their faces, their shock at me doing the impossible, their laughing faces after a good joke, and most of all their joyful expression when I am finally done which to me is more rewarding than a million dollars. 

The other type of magic is isolation levitation.  Also known as the art of Fushigi.  This type of magic revolves around the audience literally.  With my mesmerizing glass ball floating around by its own free will, it's impossible to miss the crowds gasp of astonishment and looks of awe which are truly a wonderful sight.

But there are also the failed tricks.  When I drop a card,  or stumble over my own words.  When a stranger finds a stray tomato, or the audience sees something they weren't supposed to.  Those are the times magic loses its meaning.  Because a jeering face is just as hurtful as a joyful one is rewarding.

That's when I just have to hang tough.  If I come off the stage in tears, no one will be there to help me.  So I stay on the stage because in the end, that's what magic is all about.  Persistence, Joy, Love.

Horace

Horace is a very interesting and humble character in the Rangers Apprentice series that over goes through a major character change throughout the story.

In the beginning of the series Horace was a bully to the main character Will and was also selfish.  As the story progresses along Horace begins to change and becomes friends with Will while at the same time becoming a humble person.  This progression is a good change for Horace because it allows me to pick him as my favorite character.  It also means that Horace can play a lot more roles in the story than he would have otherwise not been able to play if he was a selfish and mean person.

Additionally Horace gets a lot more skill with the blade and even learns to strategize with the best.  Both of those changes make Horace one of the best rescuers ever.  That's good because it  means that whenever Will gets in trouble Horace will be there to get him out.

Horace is also big influence to other people in the story. From helping people escape a war to demolishing legions of other armies to save a village Horace really does it all to save others.  He is also a example for other knights in the battle school and Horace takes care to visit there often.

 Furthermore Horace has been an influence to me as the reader.  Horace's humble personality(after the first book) has made me rethink some decisions I made in my life and also impacts some of my present decisions.  After reading this book the one character that left the most impact on me was Horace.  It even influenced my decision to write this piece. 

I think that Horace is a lot like Saphira from The Inheritance Series.  Both of them are strong, humble and willing to risk their lives for others.  They also have smaller more subtle similarities.  One of those being their lack of parents and another similarity being that they both fight for the right reasons.  Both of these characters play huge roles in their respective stories and without them both stories would fail.

With all due respect to the main character Will: I think that Horace is the single most influential character in the book.