#tdp The Stern One

[childofaskywingandastartouch]

Pearls Are Lovely Things

(Content warning :Blood, violence)

He'd hardly paid any thought to pearls, in all his centuries.

He hadn't thought of them at all whilst imprisoned, having far more relevant things to occupy his mind.

He'd thought often of one Pearl in particular, once his useful mage had retrieved it from the depths of his Unicorn's grave.

Now that one was no more, but it had four successors.

They lay in across a large stain on the sand, made of the same deep, deep red he'd sent numerous dark mages to stain their hands with in his name.

He knew that red, its sweet stench, its slippery sticky feel, he knew it too well now.

The wine of Leola's murderers lay spilled all around, even splattered across his robes. His chest, arms, hair, face, horns, and boots, and pretty much all of him.

A beautiful wine, a very matured one. Stored within the veins of these stars,left behind once their mortal forms had been unmade by ivory draconic.

They showed no true mercy, and no semblance of it was shown to them in return. Not even to the one who'd been named after something, which they knew nothing about.

Stardust shimmered in the golden light pouring from the fiery orange ball of the setting sun, as it sank behind ink-blue waves. Violet, magenta, lilac, rosy pink.

The remnants of these cruel, evil monsters, or of their bodies at least. Their souls were still intact, and he was surprised they even had such things as souls.

He grinned down at the Pearls, large white spheres shining with a blue-white glow,and tossed down his weapon.

Unlike his own, the inside of these four prisons were entirely bare, they'd have nothing in there to make eternity in a cage more bearable. Unlike him, they would never be free.

He'd considered dropping the Pearls into some abyss beneath the ocean, but that would give these bastards at least an infinitismally small chance of escaping. A Tidebound elf might accidentally find them, and even if there were no quasar diamonds left in Xadia right now, more would form as time passed.

Instead, he raised his arms and began to speak, tilting his head back to gaze upon the stars emerging within the deepening purple of the evening sky.

If only they could hear the words that doomed them.

Casting them out just as they'd done to her...except, he'd made certain their fate would be one far, far worse than death.

"Ascendere, natare usque in tenebras."

The orbs shot into the air like arrows,rapidly soaring higher and higher, growing smaller until they were out of sight.

The Cosmic Order would drift away through the infinite vastness of the universe, far beyond this world.

No-one would ever stand trial before them again.

There would be no cosmic rules.

Callum, and other humans as gifted as him, would have no "gods" who forbid them from practicing primal magic.

He came back to himself some time later,on his knees in the moonlit water that lapped gently at the silver shore.

"Claudia's worried about you. You...alright?" Terry asked awkwardly.

He gazed down at his hands. The sea had washed much of that sickening scarlet off of him, in the hours that had gone by.

"I am fine. Tell her not to worry, and that I'll join you both by the fire soon."

As soon as the other elf had walked off, he rose to his feet.

He gazed toward her star,with a hint of a smile.

"You two would've loved each other,Leola."

His gaze was drawn away,Claudia was excitedly waving and calling for him,holding out what appeared to be a plate of pancakes.

He looked at his firstborn's light one last time, then walked towards his second daughter.

[urzeliaofnowhere]

So - admittedly, I was curious about the type of expressions we got from the Stern One during Leola's trial in "Stardust." I wanted to see if we could get a clearer look at him without the offensive glowing, so I decided to trace a couple of his scenes. Forgive the crude render:

And - it's as I suspected: A grade-A B*TCH.

[sorinethemastermind]

TDP Name Meanings

The name Claudia means "Lame" or "Enclosure". Which is... a little cruel on the writer's part 😅

But it's also fitting in a metaphorical sense, not just a physical one after what happened to her leg. Claudia has always been, and still is, trapped. 

The name Viren means "Hero" or "Brave". This is... a bit tragic. Viren was a hero, but he became the villain. However all he wanted to do was live up to his name and be the hero.

The name Soren means "Stern", "Strict", or "Severe". Sometimes these meanings are a little bit hilarious. Soren couldn't be less like stern, strict, or severe! Maybe Viren would have liked him more if he had lived up to his name. That's a sad thought.

Fun Fact: Sorine (as in Sorine the Mastermind" is the feminine version of Soren.

[toxicpineapple]

Hello! I'm a huge fan of how you write Rantaro, and I've had an idea for a fic for a while which would follow him. Do you have any tips for writing him, or writing how he interacts with other characters? No pressure to answer if you don't want to, love your work!

this is another one of those asks that has been sitting in my inbox for aaaageeeees but i haven't been able to gather the spoons to answer it properly so we're doing it now. i'm so sorry if you've already written or given up on that fic idea by now, i hope this can still be helpful to you or anyone else who reads it!

so for me the big thing about rantaro is balancing the Relaxed Cool Demeanour and the Inner Darkness. rantaro is easygoing and highly socially intelligent, he's able to go along with just about anything -- at times i would say he's even too casual (happily remarking upon instances where his life was threatened in tdp, just for example lol) and he's just generally very. hard to fluster, hard to make angry. you see rantaro upset in the context of the killing game, and stern at times, but never angry, and never on a personal level. imo, it would take a lot to get him to that point. not a lot sways him. rantaro's patient and indulgent, he'll just let people get away with whatever for the most part. probably a bit of an enabler too, even when people are doing things they shouldn't like pranks or crimes. this dude seriously could not be bothered. he grew up with twelve younger sisters and has been constantly in danger for the past however many years of his life, he's just vibing.

and then there is the Inner Darkness lol. rantaro is distrustful, he keeps personal information close to his chest and he will change the subject, subtly or unsubtly, when things go in a direction he doesn't like. he's vague about his personal life or feelings, and he'll probably be pretty difficult to pry any honest communication out of since this dude is just. sooooo withdrawn despite a carefree, friendly demeanour. outside of that rantaro also has an IMMENSE guilt complex specifically around his family, specifically specifically around his sisters -- he gets melancholic whenever talking about his family, he feels a disproportionate amount of responsibility towards his sisters and their wellbeing... this dude is full of the Angsts.

he's also very singleminded, the type to take on an impossible burden solo (be that ending the killing game or finding twelve missing people all over the world) and it takes a lot to get him to open up or accept help. doing things alone is in his nature. even in his love hotel, where he has someone he can still protect... he wants to do things by himself, so they won't get hurt. rantaro would rather carry the responsibility than let his loved ones help him. he alone has to be the person to do it, he can't let other people be dragged into his messes.

to that end i think rantaro is very very protective. the sort of person who would only really get angry if you hurt someone he cares about. i think even when he knows his loved one is in the wrong, he'll still protect them. it's in his nature. he stands up for those weaker than him, he stands up for those who are vulnerable, and he stands up for those he cares about -- he is just protective by nature, and selfless, and there's nothing he wouldn't do for someone who managed to tear down his walls and get him to open up to them.

dude... also has some pretty severe attachment issues lol. he very strongly avoids shuichi learning the truth in the ftes, even going as far as to rebuke him kind of rudely (though shuichi is also prying but we love him for it) but as soon as rantaro opens up and receives even a little bit of encouragement he jumps straight to "please travel the world with me forever" LOL this dude goes from 0 to 100 in seconds. top ten guys with no friends or family who then immediately melt the second they receive any kind of affection. he's wild for this for real.

i didn't cover it too much but i do believe rantaro is very repressed as well, the type to kind of just cover up his feelings with a smile. he canonically hides injuries in tdp (and is good enough at it that he's only noticed by mukuro, who has an uncanny intuition) so i think it's safe to say rantaro is the type of guy to keep it all locked up. but also reckless enough to get into all kinds of dangerous situations and poke his head into problems that aren't his. or reckless enough to say, go down to the library and try to confront the mastermind alone an hour before the time limit...

one last trait i like to give rantaro is being a bit unreliable or flighty, not in intense situations like you see in v3, but in relationships? mukuro reads rantaro for filth in tdp accusing him of never maintaining a romantic relationship because he won't open up to his partner, and lol. lol. top ten guys with zero communication skills. i bet when he gets asked about his problems he just walks away and pretends it didn't happen later. classic rantaro.

i have so many thoughts about this man just in my brain can you tell he is everything to me. anyway once again sorry for the late response i hope this helped anon!

[kradogsrats]

raised to spouse the question of “wait, what the hell is Opeli High Cleric OF, exactly, in this setting that appears to be completely devoid of actual religion?” last night, causing us to rehash a discussion that apparently we had before and I somehow completely forgot (thanks ADHD?)

Opeli is very clearly designed to look religious, and she has this explicitly religious title in some official sources (Callum’s Spellbook, at least... I haven’t dug through the novelizations to see if it’s referenced there), but for a fantasy setting TDP is actually shockingly areligious. Where there would usually be gods of various elemental powers, instead there are the primal sources, regarded more as natural phenomena. (And also, through the arcana, instilling a bit of the divine in every Xadian, but that’s irrelevant.) The Archdragons, which could also be a focus of religious worship, are instead portrayed and regarded as essentially political beings. (Rayla acknowledges Sol Regem’s power and prestige, but also that he’s kind of a dick in a very non-reverent way.)

Opeli is also presented entirely as political--every official source description of her emphasizes her focus on law and her competence as an administrator. Not her spirituality. Not her religious morality. Those simply don’t exist. In fact, the rituals we see performed in Katolis are also pretty much devoid of any religious significance. Take Harrow’s funeral: there’s a prescribed set of rituals around the burial of a king, including a set amount of time that the body is expected to lie in state before interment. But Viren breaking those rules is a violation of propriety, not blasphemy. He has offended Opeli and the traditions of Katolis, but not god. And Harrow’s soul isn’t going to be trapped in the the mortal realm because his body was destroyed early, or anything. It’s just rude.

It’s all just legalistic ritual. Which aligns with Opeli’s character as described, sure, but the religious nature of her design still makes me itchy.

I’d like to do a deeper check for references to religion in canon through rewatch/reread, even just any errant “gods/god” light cursing, but until then the only thing I remember is in the Tales of Xadia sourcebook’s section on--get this--Startouch elves. It describes a poem held by the Royal Library of Evenere called “The Epic of the Void,” which pre-dates the fall of Elarion and is held in greatest secrecy and security:

Those hoping to study the poem must petition the High Mage of Evenere personally, but she is notoriously strict in allowing access to the work. Most hopeful readers are turned away without explanation (and often with a stern lecture on the sacred nature of Startouch scholarship), creating ever more mystery around this ambiguous poem.

(Emphasis added.)

A stanza of the poem is included:

Where do the fabled Great Ones hide? What secrets have you locked inside? From rising Sun to Moonlight’s grace I search the Sky for any trace Of Starfolk, fabled, fallen, found-- Once everywhere, now none around. Is all we are to know of thee Consumed by Dark, or cast to Sea? So bound to Earth, are we denied The touch of Stars? Have our Gods died? Where do the fabled Great Ones hide?

(Again, emphasis added.)

So a) nice tie-in with the recent Aaravos short Patience, but b) wasn’t Aaravos just casually standing around at the expulsion of humans from Xadia? Pretty sure that was after the fall of Elarion. So unless he’s like... the only Startouch elf who has ever manifested on Xadia, something’s weird. (Also, just for fun, c) note the inclusion of Dark among the references to the primals.)

So idk but what I’m getting here is that modern humans are largely areligious, but deep in the history of human culture there is the concept of a plural divinity associated with the stars that has, for some reason, not survived. This could be something shared in elven culture, but the inclusion of dark magic with the other primal sources in the poem implies a human author, and the same section in Tales of Xadia describes an elven children’s rhyme that references Startouch elves being gone(tm) but not really distinct from other elves. (Elves are more likely to have religion-adjacent rituals associated with their primals, imo. For example, the ostentatious purification ritual of the Sun elves.)

Anyway, to circle back to what started the discussion: Opeli’s role is almost definitely more of a “master of laws and rituals” one than a “spiritual guide” one, and also (the real reason I was thinking about this) the routine mild blasphemy used by humans for emphasis would likely be “gods,” or possibly some variant of “stars,” “stars above,” etc.

[fearlessinger]

So, a little less than a month year ago (this is all my fault, I take sole responsibility for this loooong delay), I got roped into reading The Trials Of Apollo by @flightfoot’s amazing meta. I loved it more than I could have ever anticipated, and I’ve been gushing about it non stop to her on discord. We had a lot of fun reviewing the series and taking it apart to overanalyze bit by bit, marveling at the way it keeps growing layers and dimensions the longer one looks at it. Finally, we took out a google doc. The following is result n.3 of our combined excited ramblings, and... well it sort of turned into a full on dissertation. Whoops.

"You must make your own choice."

Reconstructing Apollo’s Journey within Riordan’s Narrative

Much too self aware to be egotistical (read on ao3)

This is as much a story about redemption as it is a story about surviving abuse. It could not have been any other way, because for Apollo these two things are, in almost every way that matters, one and the same. Yet Apollo claims for himself only one of these two story arcs. He takes the redemption, as he rightfully should. He leaves the survival to Meg. She’s the one who should not be held responsible for what she’s done on Nero’s orders. She’s the one who didn’t – couldn’t – know better. She’s the one who could not have tried harder. She’s the one who has a chance of getting free. 

‘I don’t blame you for anything. [...] The fact that you left me alone in the Grove of Dodona, that you lied about your stepfather –’ 

‘Stop.’ 

I waited for her faithful servant Peaches the karpos to fall from the heavens and tear my scalp off. It didn’t happen. 

‘What I mean,’ I tried again, ‘is that I am sorry for everything you have been through. None of it was your fault. You should not blame yourself. That fiend Nero played with your emotions, twisted your thoughts –’ 

‘Stop.’ 

‘Perhaps I could put my feelings into a song.’ 

‘Stop.’ 

‘Or I could tell you a story about a similar thing that once happened to me.’ (TDP 163-164)

I could tell you a story about a similar thing that once happened to me, Apollo says. But he doesn’t. Not to her, and not to anyone else. Not even to us, the readers, the only people to whom he eventually finds the courage to admit what he’s known all along: that he’s been a victim for at least as long as he’s been a villain.

In the centre, behind a marble altar, rose a massive golden statue of Dad himself: Jupiter Optimus Maximus, draped in a purple silk toga big enough to be a ship’s sail. He looked stern, wise and paternal, though he was only one of those in real life. 

Seeing him tower above me, lightning bolt raised, I had to fight the urge to cower and plead. I knew it was only a statue, but if you’ve ever been traumatized by someone, you’ll understand. It doesn’t take much to trigger those old fears: a look, a sound, a familiar situation. Or a fifty-foot-tall golden statue of your abuser – that does the trick. (TTT 94-95)

It is a costly admission for him. It takes him 3 books to get there. Oh, he’s joked about it before. He’s complained. Apollo LOVES complaining. Never let it be said that he missed a chance to loudly and dramatically whine about a minor inconvenience. He’ll happily tell anyone who’ll listen how hard and cruel and unfair his life is... so long as there’s no chance of being taken seriously. 

Apollo tells his most convincing lies simply by making the truth sound laughable. 

Zeus seemed to consider egotism a trait the boy had inherited from me. Which is ridiculous. I am much too self-aware to be egotistical. (THO 31)

But he is, indeed, much too self aware not to know what he’s doing. Which is why his rather unconventional redemption arc involves so little actual soul searching. He never has to look very far. Once he finally resolves to stop lying for good, he doesn’t have to look at all.

It’s precisely the act of finally recognizing his wrongdoings for what they are, and resolving to take responsibility for them, that at long last allows him to acknowledge the evil that has been done to him.

He only ever voices the first of those two confessions in front of his companions. He knows he has no right to make excuses for himself, no right to ask for sympathy. He sees the similarities between himself and Meg, but he knows he is not like her. Despite the child-like body he’s been forced into by his father, he is an adult. He does not get to claim ignorance, or impotence, even though he’s tempted to, even though, by some standards at least, he could. It doesn’t matter. His shortcomings may not be entirely his fault, but his surrender is.

Because that’s what he had done. He had surrendered. 

The Apollo we meet at the very beginning of this story, before he is cast out of Olympus and trapped in the dreadfully normal mortal flesh prison that is the body of Lester Papadopoulos, is a fully grown man, father and grandfather and great grandfather hundreds of times over, still living at home with his abusive dad and his wicked stepmom. He is fine with it. More than fine, in fact! As he tells us repeatedly, he can’t wait to get back to that life. So what if that life kinda sucks? What if he has to live it according to his father’s dictates rather than his own? What then? There are no better options. None that he’s been able to find, and he has been looking. He has been looking for a really, really long time. So maybe, as pathetic as the notion is, this is the best he can do. 

The Apollo we meet at the beginning of this story is fully determined to believe it. After so many attempts, after so many failures, he has found an incredibly shitty but incredibly solid way to cope. And he has settled. He has decided to settle. Even though, deep down, he still feels that this is far from what he should be able and willing to aspire to. He has surrendered. He's found comfort in surrendering. An incredibly shitty kind of comfort! But comfort all the same.

The Apollo we meet at the beginning of this story is the empty husk of a person who's given up on everything that ever mattered to him. He’s a pretender. A showman. An aged comedian with a stale act and an astounding inability to read his audience. He shamelessly tells us of his humiliation and his blunders, brags about how little he thinks of us without a trace of embarrassment, painfully confident that even at his worst he deserves our attention. How could he not? He’s the lead actor on the world’s stage, the main character of Life. 

And yet, he’s very clearly not the character he’s supposed to be: “the handsomest, most talented, most popular god in the pantheon,” he helpfully reminds us, and as ridiculous as that sounds, especially coming out of his own mouth, he may as well be quoting the introductory section of his own Wikipedia page. 

The Brilliant Apollo, the crown prince of Olympus who far outshone all his siblings, who amassed talents and domains beyond those of any of his brethren, to whom so many heroes owed their success or demise, whom so many emperors and kings wanted to emulate, and who, yes, may have been kind of an asshole at times, but a competent asshole who got things done.

This guy? He is, at best, a parody of his fabled namesake. He’s a small, petty, ineffectual loser desperate to be liked but unwilling to do any of the work that would make that possible. He can’t wait to get someone, anyone, to fight his battles for him. He’s all too happy to take credit for others’ accomplishments to make up for the fact that he has none of his own. 

It’s very easy to laugh at him. He seems like he had it coming. The more he keeps lamenting the injustice of his punishment, the more he convinces us that he deserved it. Sometimes he almost seems like he himself might be conscious of this:

I stared at my battered face in the bathroom mirror. Perhaps teenage angst had permeated the clothes, because I felt more like a sulky high-schooler than ever. I thought how unfair it was that I was being punished, how lame my father was, how no one else in the history of time had ever experienced problems like mine. (THO 30)

But immediately he rushes to disabuse us of that notion:

Of course, all that was empirically true. No exaggeration was required. (THO 30)

I’m not joking, he insists while delivering his lines like he expects there to be canned laughter at the end of them:

If I didn’t know how much Percy Jackson adored me, I would have sworn he was about to punch me in my already-broken nose. (THO 26)

And he shows us enough of his real vulnerability that it’s easy to believe him.

I took a deep breath. Then I did my usual motivational speech in the mirror: ‘You are gorgeous and people love you!’ I went out to face the world. (THO 31)

After all, what kind of depth can a person who unironically does that have? 

‘I’m fat!’ 

‘You’re average. Average people don’t have eight-pack abs. C’mon.’ 

I wanted to protest that I was not average nor a person, but with growing despair I realized the term now fitted me perfectly. (THO 20)

He’s convinced he’s so much better than us, he takes our sympathy for granted. He trusts we will believe his obvious lies because he’s too taken with himself not to realize how transparent they are. And even if we don’t, even if he isn’t, does it really matter? Are we not entertained? 

If there’s one thing Apollo is confident he can do – the only thing Apollo’s still confident he can do – is put on a show. 

And he does. He makes us wince and cringe at his awfulness, marvel at his obliviousness and ineptitude, see through his obviously fake brags so clearly and so often in the span of the first handful of chapters, that by the time he finally, actually, has to do something we are fully ready to believe it’s an accident he happens to do the decent thing. He’s so quick to declare any good deed of his was not his intended result, and simultaneously pat himself on the back for doing the bare minimum, that for a ridiculously long while the idea that he can actually be relied upon to do what’s right, that this is in fact a pattern of behavior and intent for him, keeps seeming just implausible enough to be disbelieved.

“You saved me,” Meg interrupted. “I was going to die. Maybe that’s why you got your voice back.”

I was reluctant to admit it, but she might have been right. The last time I’d experienced a burst of godly power, in the woods of Camp Half-Blood, my children Kayla and Austin had been in imminent danger of burning alive. Concern for others was a logical trigger for my powers. I was, after all, selfless, caring, and an all-around nice guy. Nevertheless, I found it irritating that my own well-being wasn’t sufficient to give me godly strength. My life was important too! (TDP 204)

I’m a good person, he says in the tone of someone who knows that statement to be false and is trying to delude himself into thinking it isn’t. And yet he prefaces it with ���I’m reluctant to admit it.” If Meg hadn’t voiced the idea in the first place, Apollo would not even have considered it, even though it is, in fact, the obvious explanation. But that can’t be, because Apollo is not selfless, caring, or nice. To really drive that point home, with his very next breath he rushes to recenter the conversation on himself. “Why can’t I also be powerful for MY sake?” he whines. 

Apollo wants to believe he’s a good person. But he is not a person. He’s a god. And gods don’t want, can’t want to be good. Gods are perfect. They don’t doubt. They don’t feel guilt or remorse. They don’t change. 

Sally Jackson crossed her arms. In spite of the grim matters we were discussing, she smiled. ‘You’ve grown up.’ 

I assumed she was talking about Meg. Over the last few months, my young friend had indeed got taller and – Wait. Was Sally referring to me? 

My first thought: preposterous! I was four thousand years old. I didn’t grow up. 

She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. ‘The last time you were here, you were so lost. So … well, if you don’t mind me saying –’ 

‘Pathetic,’ I blurted out. ‘Whiny, entitled, selfish. I felt terribly sorry for myself.’ 

Meg nodded along with my words as if listening to her favourite song. ‘You still feel sorry for yourself.’ 

‘But now,’ Sally said, sitting back again, ‘you’re more … human, I suppose.’ 

There was that word again: human, which not long ago I would have considered a terrible insult. Now, every time I heard it, I thought of Jason Grace’s admonition: Remember what it’s like to be human. 

He hadn’t meant all the terrible things about being human, of which there were plenty. He’d meant the best things: standing up for a just cause, putting others first, having stubborn faith that you could make a difference, even if it meant you had to die to protect your friends and what you believed in. These were not the kind of feelings that gods had … well, ever. (TON 45-46)

“These were not the kind of feelings that gods had” he thinks, still, at the beginning of the very last book. And yet, here he is, having them. He’s had them his entire life. He’s had them since he set out to slay Python the first time, a newborn god brimming with power and a good dose of cockiness too, eager to prove himself, to be of use, to make a difference. 

“I was the worst of the gods,” he says, dropping all pretenses as he sings of his failures to the myrmekes. Because I loved too much. Because I felt guilty. Because I kept trying to do more. Because I kept changing my mind.

These are unforgivable sins for a god. That’s what Apollo and all of his divine siblings have been taught. That’s what they’ve all, in time, learned to believe. Good people don’t survive on Olympus. 

And Apollo is, above all, a survivor. 

So Apollo doesn’t want to believe he’s a good person. 

This is incredibly uncharacteristic of me, he makes sure to specify every time he does something kind, every time he finds himself unable to hide his shame or guilt or doubt, to hide how much he cares, well past the point where we start realizing that it is, in fact, perfectly characteristic of him.

I’m totally gonna throw my companions to the wolves any second now, he says while moving to stand between them and the danger. I’m tired of listening to mortals talking about themselves, he says, having just finished needling them with questions about their circumstances and their feelings and the wellbeing of both them and their loved ones. I did the right thing so I could call myself right, which makes it a selfish thing, actually. I did the right thing but I was thinking about not doing it for a moment there, so really, it doesn’t count. I did the right thing but look, I had no choice, I was coerced, they offered me a musical instrument, that’s practically blackmail!

For someone who appears so eager to boast about his legendary past, he doesn’t seem to be able to recall any of the actual good things he’s done. He won’t even admit to having killed Python the first time until he’s very nearly forced to. Even then, what looms big in his mind is not his success but the fact that he struggled to achieve it. And what is even the most impressive achievement worth, if it’s not effortless? Gods shouldn’t struggle. Only the weak do. 

‘Apollo,’ she said, ‘those shots were fantastic. A little more practice and –’ 

‘I’m the god of archery!’ I wailed. ‘I don’t practice!’ (THO 141)

So Apollo lies. He lies about being better than he is. Stronger. Immovable. In control. He lies about being worse than he is. Ignorant. Unfeeling. Cruel. 

He’s as determined to misread Percy’s annoyance toward him as adoration as he is to misread Chiron’s faith in him as an insult.

It occurred to me that I’d seen that keen look in Chiron’s eyes before – when he’d assessed Achilles’s sword technique and Ajax’s skill with a spear. It was the look of a seasoned coach scouting new talent. I’d never dreamed the centaur would look at me that way, as if I had something to prove to him, as if my mettle were untested. I felt so … so objectified. (THO 104)

Chiron’s not the one who thinks Apollo has anything to prove. In fact, Chiron has the highest possible expectations of him. Chiron, who owes Apollo everything he knows, everything he has, still believes Apollo capable of great deeds like the ones recounted in his Wikipedia page, the ones we all know from the storybooks. 

“Wikipedia,” says Apollo, “is always getting stuff wrong about me.” And as for the storybooks? They’ll make “good tinder for a fire.”

Apollo knows the truth. He isn’t a hero. He isn’t great. He isn’t even good. A good person would not have to worry about forgetting his children’s names. A good person would not stand by as little kids get enlisted to fight their parents’ wars. A good person would not let them die. A good person would not take out his anger on people he knows to be without fault, no matter how rightful that anger is, or how unreachable the real target of it is.

And if he’s a bad person, then he has no reason to try and push back against a status quo where kids are seen as fodder for the gods to use and discard as they see fit. No reason to risk his neck by challenging his father’s rules. No reason to risk anything by trying to do better. If he’s a bad person, then he can claim all the actions and, even more, the millennia of inaction he so regrets were his choice rather than his failure, or worse, something that he had no real say in at all. 

I turned my face to the sky. ‘If you want to punish me, Father, be my guest, but have the courage to hurt me directly, not my mortal companion. BE A MAN!’ 

To my surprise, the skies remained silent. Lightning did not vaporize me. (THO 252)

There’s a long stretch of book 1, immediately after Kayla and Austin get kidnapped, in which all of the bullshit abruptly disappears and we get Apollo’s almost completely unfiltered, genuine pov. It is a noticeable enough shift that it’s impossible to miss even on first reading, but at the time it happens, we don’t know enough about who Apollo really is as a person to know how to interpret it. “It’s all my fault,” Apollo states, even though it clearly isn’t. He takes the blame for his enemies targeting his children. He takes the blame for Meg being captured by the ants. 

And it was easy, in light of what we knew about him at the time, to view this as more proof of Apollo’s egotism. Of course he’d think that. He thinks everything is about him. But look: Zeus did not in fact vaporize him. Apollo’s just being his usual overly dramatic narcissistic self. He’s cracked enough jokes about being fried by his father’s lightning that we know not to take that seriously. He’s just being a comedian. 

Granted, not a very original or funny one. He keeps recycling the same tired punchlines. For example, he keeps making a production of anticipating cartoonishly violent responses from people whenever he says something he knows they’ll dislike. That routine got old fast, but he seems to be really fixated on it for some reason. 

It takes us a long while to realize what the reason is. 

But it’s not actually for his own sake that Apollo fears the most. 

“How could I have been so foolish?” he berates himself. “Whenever I angered the other gods, those closest to me were struck down.” 

It’s only in this moment that he finally allows himself to call Kayla and Austin “my children” out loud. He’d explained his reluctance to do so before:

My eyes watered. Not so long ago – like this morning, for instance – the idea of these young demigods being able to help me would have struck me as ridiculous. Now their kindness moved me more than a hundred sacrificial bulls. I couldn’t recall the last time someone had cared about me enough to curse my enemies with rhyming couplets. 

‘Thank you,’ I managed. I could not add my children. It didn’t seem right. These demigods were my protectors and my family, but for the present I could not think of myself as their father. A father should do more – a father should give more to his children than he takes. (THO 115)

And then, of course, he’d instantly rushed to cover up the shame of having shown some decency. “This was a novel idea for me,” he’d said, lying through his teeth and at the same time wholeheartedly believing his own lie, as all the best liars do. 

Sometimes a decent, moral notion just springs up in your brain fully formed and perfectly articulated like that. You never know when it might happen! It’s not weird. It must be the mortality, actually. That pesky mortal conscience side effect that people get together with their ability to die. It’s totally a thing. 

But the second Kayla and Austin are in danger, his hesitation suddenly evaporates. They are his children. They are his responsibility. “I should’ve done more to protect them,” he says.“I should have anticipated that my enemies would target them to hurt me.”

Nero wanted Meg to depend entirely on him. She wasn’t allowed to have her own possessions, her own friends. Everything in her life had to be tainted with Nero’s poison.

If he got his hands on me, no doubt he would use me the same way. Whatever horrible tortures he had planned for Lester Papadopoulos, they wouldn’t be as bad as the way he tortured Meg. He would make her feel responsible for my pain and death. (TDP 194-195)

Apollo immediately understands Nero’s game. He knows how this works, because he’s living within a scaled up version of it. It doesn’t matter that he isn’t a child. That he’s a god. Zeus is a god too, and he’s more powerful than him. There is no questioning his edicts. There is no escaping them either. No matter how much distance Apollo can put between himself and his father, he’ll still have the same amount of privacy and freedom as a kid whose parents won't let close the door to his own bedroom. Zeus just has to take one step forward to be instantly breathing down his subjects’ neck. It doesn't matter that he doesn't always do it. What matters is that he can, if he wants to.

All the gods live in fear of the day Zeus will decide that he wants to. They’d do anything to redirect his wrath from themselves. They have no one save their own family, high on top of the Empire State Building, walled off from the rest of the world, forbidden from having any kind of meaningful interaction, from building any kind of lasting connection with the mortals down below, and they are ready to throw one another into the jaws of the Beast at a moment’s notice. 

“If I gave up on everyone who has tried to kill me,” Apollo tells Meg, trying to make her understand why he’s willing to put his faith in Lytierses, “I would have no allies left on the Olympian Council.” 

Apollo doesn’t hold it against them. It’s just how it is. 

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.’ 

‘What could you have done?’ 

‘I mean at the Parthenon. I tried to talk sense into Zeus. I told him he was wrong to punish you. He wouldn’t listen.’ 

[...]

My first thought was to scream, ARE YOU INSANE? 

Then more appropriate words came to me. ‘Thank you.’ (TBM 216)

The tragedy of Jason Grace isn’t that his death is unfair, though it is. It’s not even that his death was preventable, because it wasn’t. It’s that his death, ultimately, was not necessary. 

This right here is the turning point for Apollo. Not Jason’s death, but Jason’s willingness to stand up to Zeus for him, even though Jason barely knew him, even though it provided Jason nothing, when nobody else, not even Artemis, would. It’s Jason’s willingness to do for Apollo what Apollo had long lost the courage to do for anyone, including himself.

But Jason has no way of knowing that, and all Apollo can give him is his word. That’s when Jason’s fate is sealed. The moment he decides that Apollo’s promise is worth more than his life. The moment he chooses to sacrifice his last few precious seconds to remind Apollo of it once more, one final time, to stake everything he has on this crazy gamble, believing – or at least hoping, even against all hope – that Apollo will follow through.

“It’s all my fault,” Apollo says. But Meg disagrees.

‘Jason made a choice,’ she said. ‘Same as you. Heroes have to be ready to sacrifice themselves.’

I felt unsettled … and not just because Meg had used such a long sentence. I didn’t like her definition of heroism. I’d always thought of a hero as someone who stood on a parade float, waved at the crowd, tossed candy and basked in the adulation of the commoners. But sacrificing yourself? No. That would not be one of my bullet points for a hero-recruitment brochure.

Also, Meg seemed to be calling me a hero, putting me in the same category as Jason Grace. That didn’t feel right. I made a much better god than a hero. (TBM 316-317)

I’ve always hated thinking of heroes as expendable, Apollo admits, finally, after almost 3 books spent lying to both us and himself about it, and by the time he does, it doesn’t even feel like a revelation anymore. He’d told us, didn’t he? He’d shown us. He is the worst of the gods. But still, a much better god than a hero. Because heroes are willing to risk it all for what they believe is right. And Apollo? He just really, really doesn’t want to die. “I was,” he says, “a coward that way.”

And yet, by the time he says this, we’ve witnessed Apollo’s willingness to risk and sacrifice himself for his children, for the people he keeps insisting he finds so annoying and yet he’s always so eager to start calling friends, multiple times already. 

But he’s never actually wanted to die. He just can’t bring himself to. He is a survivor. And survivors can’t be heroes. Good people don’t survive. Only the bad ones do. That’s what his experience has taught him, again and again and again, even though the notion goes against everything he feels, deep down, is right. 

When he meets his children in person for the first time and they are far more concerned about the prospect of losing their talents than of losing their father, he is relieved. He wants them to be selfish, just like he is. He wants them to survive. 

But as it turns out, his children aren’t selfish. They care so much, so deeply and fiercely, about so much more than just themselves. They grow attached so quickly. They are eager to help. They are just like him, in all the ways he never would have wanted them to be. 

Looking at them, he can’t help but feel ashamed.

Apollo has done many, many bad things in his long life, and not all of them to survive. If there was any justice in this world, he would not be the one still here, still standing, still alive, instead of all the far more deserving people he’s buried. 

But still, he does not want to die. Not even now, at his absolute lowest, not even now that he’s lost everything he’s ever had, up to and including his own name. 

So he can’t think of himself as a hero. He does not want to. 

“I had stabbed myself in the chest fully expecting that Medea would heal me,” he says, to explain why that does not count as a proper self sacrifice. 

In his mind, intent seems to matter as much as actions do. The truth is, for a god? It probably does. For a god, wanting to do something might as well be the same as having already done it. Apollo is not a god anymore, and yet, still, he desperately wants to survive. He keeps surviving despite all odds. He keeps surviving stuff that by all rights should have killed an average mortal human a hundred times over. 

But what good is it to survive, if it benefits no one? What good is the power of a god, the power to do anything you think of the moment it crosses your mind, if it can’t be used to do what’s right?

She fixed her eyes on me. Her lips quivered. I could tell she wanted a way out – some eloquent argument that would mollify her stepfather and allow her to follow her conscience. But I was no longer a silver-tongued god. I could not out-talk an orator like Nero. And I would not play the Beast’s blame game. 

Instead, I took a page from Meg’s book, which was always short and to the point. 

‘He’s evil,’ I said. ‘You’re good. You must make your own choice.’ (THO 290)

Apollo immediately understands what Meg is silently asking of him. He recognizes that she is looking for an excuse, a stratagem, a ruse that will let her do the right thing without setting off her abuser, because it’s what HE always does too. 

He does it even now, even within the confines of his own head, arguably the only place that’s out of the reach of his father’s all seeing gaze. 

His whole life and sense of self have been consumed by the hopeless search for the exact combination of words and behaviors that will let him act according to his own morals without putting into question Zeus’ judgement, without challenging Zeus’ rules, and by his increasingly despicable attempts to fool himself into thinking that that isn’t true. 

But it is true. Deep down Apollo knows it is. Even when he manages to score a point, to win a round... he is still always playing his father’s game. 

This is the awful reality he has resigned himself to. It’s the best he can do. He is convinced of it. He has accepted it. 

But he can’t accept that the same is true for Meg. So he gives her the advice he refuses to take for himself. 

“He’s evil. You’re good. You must make your own choice.” 

He’s able to state it in such simple, clear terms for her. He’s light years away from being willing and able to believe that it applies to him too. 

He doesn’t want that kind of responsibility. He can’t trust himself with it. He can’t even bring himself to admit to the choice that he’s making in this very moment, has to make up a half hearted excuse about suddenly lacking the ability to spin a yarn, for reasons, despite the fact that he’s been bullshitting us for almost an entire novel. 

But he can believe in Meg, because she is not like him. She is strong. She is good. She deserves a chance to do better. 

“You, Meg, are powerful,” he tells her on their first morning together at camp. “You will do well,” he tells Lityerses as they part ways. “We can trust him,” he says, introducing Crest to the residents of the Cistern. Despite all of his protestations to the contrary, against his own better judgement, he can’t help seizing every chance he gets to lift up the people around him, to put his faith in them, to give them his trust, even and especially when nobody else will.

“I believe in second chances”, he says, “and thirds, and fourths.” But not for himself. Never for himself. He knows himself too well. He is not strong, nor good, nor deserving. 

[sunstone-nerding]

“TDP Book One: Moon” Book Adaption Review

My feelings on the "Book One: Moon" novelization can be summed up in one word: disappointed. In a few more words: disappointed, often ticked off, and a few times, outright angry. I know that sounds dramatic. But I care about The Dragon Prince universe, possibly more than I should. I was looking forward to this book for more details about the world and insight into characters' thoughts.

Nerd rage to follow. You have been warned.

To put in plainly, the book does not read like a finished product. It needed editing…very badly. The word choice is often overdramatic, and sometimes outright wrong. The first instance that jumped out at me was in the preview of Chapter One that the staff posted on the official website:

“The rain stung [Rayla’s] cheeks [as she chased after the guard]. The putrid smell of the storm overwhelmed her senses.  She’d never felt more alive.”

Here are my earlier comments on the preview. As a reader, this was not a good start, but it turned out to be indicative of the rest of my experience. Since this book is supposed to be for kids, I expected shorter sentences and simpler words; however, I also expected accurate word choice. I actually took a pencil to the page and trimmed or altered the writing as I went. Here’s another example of incorrect language, from when the assassins extinguish the lights before charging up the staircase:

“Just then, a howling wind blew through the staircase, deep and strange and oddly warm. One by one, the sconces and torches fizzled out, leaving the entire tower in sudden darkness.”

Ignoring the redundant phrasing: a sconce is the bracket on a wall that holds a torch. It is never on fire and therefore cannot be snuffed out. These are simple mistakes an editor should have corrected. Though, considering Aaron Ehasz' history with one editor at Riot Games, the Scholastic editor(s) probably did point out these mistakes. I assume he ignored them. That’s tragic, considering the people they brought in from the publishing house were either TDP fans, or had loved ones who were.

Because of these mistakes, I cannot recommend the book to anyone who is learning English, unless you keep a dictionary close by.

Another huge problem was how the book relayed information to the audience. Often the perspective just doesn't make sense. One glaring example: While in Rayla's POV, the book describes the shadowhawk arrow as though she has never seen one before, even though we know she lives with the guy who makes them. Also, she is somehow skeptical that the bindings will tighten on their own, even though she has trained with assassins for years?? What happened to “magic is all around, like sayin’ you’re in nature” (paraphrased)?! I get that Aaron and/or Melanie were trying to explain things to an audience who perhaps hadn’t watched the show, but...it would not have been difficult to phrase it differently. (It took me ten minutes tops to revise the part about the arrow.)

My final gripe is about some of the characterization. First, Viren’s perspective reads as 100% Evil Advisor Trope. I was ridiculous and it pained me. I could pull examples, but honestly I’m embarrassed just thinking about the scenes. If this is how part of writing team views Viren, the other writers and Jason Simpson made invaluable contributions to his character.

Regarding Rayla: her viewpoint seems childish. She admires Runaan, but is also intimidated by him to a degree that is unhealthy for someone of her age. She is 15. Any normal teenager is gonna start resenting their parental figures well before then – and we know how sassy Rayla can be. This may have happened in the book adaption because the target audience is younger than two out of three of the protagonists, but that can’t be all. You can pare down vocabulary and still convey nuance. 

And the Moonshadow assassins…Let’s just say there were some unnecessary changes. Changes that removed Runaan’s attempt to maneuver Rayla out of trouble (thus showing how he cared about her, under the stern front), cut out some of Rayla’s agency, and made the other assassins act like bloodthirsty hecklers instead of, you know, professionals.

To be clear: I don't mind some scene and dialogue rearrangement. Prose is a different medium, and a writer needs to adjust accordingly. But this book reads less like that, overall, and more like someone decided to write their own version of The Dragon Prince’s story without anyone else’s input. Were any of the other Wonderstorm writers allowed to read the manuscript? Did anyone perform a lore check? The inconsistencies are irritating.

Visually, the book is beautiful. It has very nice illustrations and an elegant layout. We got a more detailed map, too. But all the graphic design work couldn’t make up for the disappointing and often frustrating content. The writing seemed to improve after the kids left the Banther Lodge, but not enough to overcome my accumulated grumpiness. I stopped reading weeks ago, and couldn’t bring myself to continue.

An animated TV show is a collaborative effort. The writers, director(s), visual designers, actors, and animators all contribute to the final product. Writing a book should be a collaborative effort, too, on a smaller scale. It’s not only the author(s), though they do a lot of the work. With this prose version of The Dragon Prince Book 1, it is obvious to me that Aaron Ehasz and/or Melanie McGanney Ehasz either did not seek or did not heed constructive criticism. They’ll need to start listening to their editors before I, at least, consider buying the second book adaption.

[bigyack-com]

Ahead of citizenship bill’s Rajya Sabha test, a stern warning to BJP from ex-ally - india news

The Shiv Sena has issued a stern warning to its former ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ahead of the introduction of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said they are not going to support it in the Upper House unless their suggestions are accepted.“We will not give support to the Bill (Citizenship Amendment Bill) unless things are clear,” Thackeray told reporters on Tuesday.“If any citizen is afraid of this bill, then one must clear their doubts. They are our citizens so one must answer their questions too. Anyone who disagrees is a ‘deshdrohi’ (traitor) is their illusion. We have suggested changes in Citizenship Amendment Bill we want in Rajya Sabha. It is an illusion that only BJP cares for the country,” he added.The Sena had supported the bill when Home Minister Amit Shah tabled it in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of Parliament on Monday. Though the Sena had suggested certain amendments - like not granting voting rights for 25 years and including the refugees from Sri Lanka in the scope of the bill - those were defeated when the bill was put to vote.The bill will now be tabled in Rajya Sabha or Upper House on Wednesday. In the Rajya Sabha, the Modi government requires the support of at least 123 MPs in the 245-member House to pass the bill.As per the calculations of the BJP’s floor managers, the effective strength of the Rajya Sabha is 238. The NDA’s current strength is 105 in the House, including 83 members of the BJP, six of Janata Dal(U) , three of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), one each from LJP and RPI(A) and 11 nominated MPs.The BJP is in talks with AIADMK which has 11 members, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) with seven members, YSR Congress with two members and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with two members. The saffron party is confident of their support as all these parties had backed the bill in Lok Sabha.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had earlier slammed the parties that supported the bill in the Lok Sabha. “The #CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation,” Gandhi said on Twitter on Tuesday.Shiv Sena, along with JD(U), LJP, BJD and YSR Congress Party, extended support to the bill. The party had recently ditched its long-time ally BJP in Maharashtra and sided with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form the government in Maharashtra.The party, however, clarified that its support to CAB does not mean any compromise on the common minimum programme on the basis of which it has formed the government in Maharashtra. “Shiv Sena has a different ideology. The Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra has formed an alliance on the basis of a common minimum programme (CMP), which will not get affected due to the difference in our ideologies,” NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.The bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Lok Sabha passed it with a majority of 311 votes against 80 votes in the Lower House where 391 members were present and voted.Through this bill, Indian citizenship will be provided to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from the three countries to India till December 31, 2014, to put an end to them being treated as illegal immigrants in the country. Source link Read the full article

[entergamingxp]

hot to trot • Eurogamer.net

After two long years, Intel’s 10th-generation Comet Lake processors have arrived. These are the first desktop CPUs that Team Blue has released since AMD’s immensely popular third-gen Ryzen chips launched in 2019 – and it’s clear to see that Intel isn’t taking this unprecedented threat lightly. There are spec bumps and new features across the entire Core lineup, plus a new Z490 motherboard platform, making this one of the most interesting Intel launches in recent memory.

The top chip, the Core i9 10900K, has moved from eight to ten cores, while every model from the Core i3 up now supports hyper-threading, something that was previously only afforded to the highest tier CPUs in the past three Core generations. Base and turbo frequencies have also risen substantially, with the flagship Core i9 10900K topping out at a massive two-core turbo boost speed of 5.3GHz – assuming certain power and temperature targets are met. There are other fascinating changes here as well that aren’t so visible on a spec sheet, such as silicon thinning to boost heat dissipation on unlocked ‘K’ processors and a more feature-rich overclocking suite that includes per-core hyper-threading controls.

It’s a solid package that should translate into solid gen-on-gen performance improvements, but how much faster are these new 14nm processors – and how do they compare with AMD’s sterling collection of 7nm Zen 2 CPUs? And for system builders mooting an upgrade, do the performance gains here justify the adoption of a 400-series motherboard with a brand new LGA1200 socket – but no PCIe 4.0 support?

To answer this question, we’ve been testing Comet Lake on the new Z490 platform for the past week. Intel has chosen to offer samples of just two 10th-gen processors initially: the mid-range Core i5 10600K (£275/$275) and the enthusiast-grade Core i9 10900K (£530/$530). These two chips should offer a good look at where the tenth generation is right now, compared to both AMD’s latest and Intel’s own earlier offerings, although we hope to test the Core i7 10700K (a dead ringer for the last-gen Core i9 9900K flagship, but at £410/$410) and Core i3 10100 (a £120/$120 competitor to the Ryzen 3300X) in due course.

For now though, let’s make hay while the sun shines. We’ll start with a look at content creation workloads, where we expect the higher core and thread counts (for the Core i9 and Core i5, respectively) to provide a noticeable boost in multi-threaded applications like video rendering, but AMD’s Ryzen processors to offer a stern challenge. Then, we’ll get to indulge our real passion – testing gaming performance – with a comprehensive review of some of the most punishing areas we’ve found in modern and classic PC games. AMD was able to demonstrate big frame-rate improvements with their third-gen Ryzen chips, so we’re expecting a big counter-attack from Intel if they want to hang onto their reputation as the best choice for pure gaming.

Processor Cores/Threads Base Clock Single/All Core Turbo TDP Cost Core i9-10900K* 10/20 3.7GHz 5.3GHz/4.9GHz 125W $488 Core i9-10900*† 10/20 2.8GHz 5.2GHz/4.6GHz 65W $439 Core i7-10700K* 8/16 3.8GHz 5.1GHz/4.7GHz 125W $374 Core i7-10700*† 8/16 2.9GHz 4.8GHz/4.6GHz 65W $323 Core i5-10600K* 6/12 4.1GHz 4.8GHz/4.5GHz 125W $262 Core i5-10600† 6/12 3.3GHz 4.8GHz/4.4GHz 65W $213 Core i5-10500† 6/12 3.1GHz 4.5GHz/4.2GHz 65W $192 Core i5-10400*† 6/12 2.9GHz 4.3GHz/4.0GHz 65W $182 Core i3-10320 4/8 3.8GHz 4.6GHz/4.4GHz 65W $154 Core i3-10300† 4/8 3.7GHz 4.4GHz/4.2GHz 65W $143 Core i3-10100† 4/8 3.6GHz 4.3GHz/4.1GHz 65W $122

Note: Asterisks(*) denote processors which have a corresponding ‘F’ version, which comes without integrated graphics but costs slightly less – eg the 10900KF. Daggers (†) indicate processors with corresponding ‘T’ versions, which operate at a highly reduced 35W TDP and lower clockspeeds, for use in all-in-one desktops – e.g. the 10900T. As usual, the ‘K’ suffix denotes an unlocked and overclockable CPU.

Before we get into the results, let’s briefly set the scene. We tested each processor on our standard Windows 10 installation, with the most recent security patches and chipset drivers installed to fast NVMe storage (specifically the XPG Spectrix S40G, our pick for best NVMe SSD with RGB).

On the Intel side of things, we tested the 10th-gen chips on two Z490 motherboards: the high-end MSI MPG Gaming Carbon Wifi and the ultra-premium Asus ROG Maximus 12 Extreme. Our ninth-gen CPUs were also well treated, on an Asus ROG Maximus 11 Extreme. Meanwhile, our AMD benchmarking was performed on the high-end Asus ROG Crosshair 7 X470 motherboard, with additional tests on the mainstream MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus and the enthusiast-class Asus ROG Crosshair 8.

The Intel chips were cooled by a Gamer Storm Castle 240mm AiO, with the excellent (and bundled!) AMD Wraith Prism used for our Ryzen testing. Our test rig was completed with 3600MHz C16 RAM, specifically an effervescent set of G.Skill Trident Z Royal, backed with an 850W Gamer Storm power supply and an open-air test bench in a cool ambient environment.

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OK, enough scene-setting. Let’s talk about content creation performance. After all, the new 400-series chipsets include a few creator-friendly features such as higher-bandwidth LAN ports and super-quick WiFi 6, but ultimately it’s raw processing power that can make the difference between leaving work early and another late night in the office exporting your latest creation to YouTube.

To test how suitable these chips are for creators, we ran each through two simple but illuminating tests: rendering a 3D scene in Cinema 4D, ably simulated with Cinebench R20, and encoding one of our Patreon video files in both h.264 and h.265 (HEVC) with Handbrake.

In the Cinebench test, the Core i9 10900K’s 5.3GHz clock speed – via Thermal Velocity Boost – allows it to achieve the highest single-threaded result we’ve ever recorded: 545. That’s a five per cent lead over even the overclocked Core i9 9900KS, which managed 521; on the AMD side of things the closest competitor is the 3900X and 3950X at 514, which the Core i9 10900K defeats by six per cent. Of course, very few content creation workloads are single-threaded, so let’s look at the multi-threaded results – and here AMD show their strength, with just 6337 for the new 10-core Intel flagship compared to the 12-core 3900X at 7032 (11 per cent faster) and the 16-core 3950X at 9249 (46 per cent faster).

The Core i5 10600K is perhaps more interesting, with double the number of threads and faster clock speeds than its last-gen predecessor. That translates into a sizeable uptick in Cinebench, with a 10 per cent boost to single-threaded results and a 38 per cent advantage in the multi-threaded workload. That makes this year’s Core i5 a much better bet for content creation tasks that can really soak that many threads – and suggests we could see big improvements to frame-rates in modern game engines too.

CB R20 1T CB R20 MT HB h.264 HB HEVC HEVC Power Use Ryzen 9 3950X 514 9249 64.73fps 25.59fps 296W Ryzen 9 3900X 514 7032 51.80fps 20.29fps 228W Ryzen 7 3700X 494 4730 35.05fps 14.67fps 152W Ryzen 5 3600X 490 3705 27.54fps 11.81fps 149W Ryzen 3 3300X 503 2577 18.89fps 8.25fps 120W Ryzen 3 3100 449 2328 17.32fps 7.44fps 118W Ryzen 7 2700X 408 3865 27.31fps 10.04fps 224W Ryzen 5 2600 399 2810 20.39fps 7.09fps 130W Core i9 10900K 545 6337 45.55fps 19.43fps 268W Core i5 10600K 493 3587 26.40fps 11.84fps 177W Core i9 9900K 520 5090 37.87fps 16.22fps 266W Core i7 9700K 486 3759 28.77fps 13.12fps 171W Core i5 9600K 450 2603 20.70fps 9.46fps 132W

The Handbrake test produces more interesting results, as we transcode an MP4 video to h.264 and h.265 (HEVC) using the Production Standard preset and CRF 18 quality setting.

The 10900K impresses here, managing a 45.55fps result in the h.264 test – just a few frames per second shy of the 51.8fps achieved by the 3900X. Things look even rosier when we look at the HEVC encode results, which rely on AVX instructions – still an area of relative weakness for AMD, even given the new adoption of AVX-256 instructions in third-gen Ryzen designs. Here, the 10900K nearly equalises with the similarly-priced 3900X, despite having two fewer cores and four fewer threads, speaking to the superior power of a single Intel core. That near-win is of course quickly dampened by the existence of the 3950X, which justifies its existence at the top of AMD’s product stack with a thrashing of the Core i9 10900K to the tune of 42 per cent in g.264 and 32 per cent in h.265.

Meanwhile in the mid-range, the Core i5 10600K again performs respectably with a 25 to 28 per cent gen-on-gen leap in encoding performance in our testing. That puts the 10th-gen Core i5 in the same league as the $249 Ryzen 5 3600X, a decent result given that the Intel chip costs only a bit more.

We also measured power usage at the wall during the HEVC encode for each of the systems we tested. Here Intel performs respectably but AMD still leads, with the Core i9 10900K drawing 268W – 18 per cent more than the 3900X (228W) but about 10 per cent less than the 3950X (296W). It’s a similar story for the 10600K, which at 177W is slightly less efficient than the 149W 3600X.

So Intel’s tenth-gen chips are significantly more competitive in content creation tasks than the company’s ninth-gen offerings, but AMD still holds onto the performance-per-dollar crown – and that’s not mentioning other aspects that could sway creatives to the red team, like cheaper access to high-speed RAM and support for high-speed PCIe 4.0 drives.

So what about gaming? Even with AMD’s innovations, third-gen Ryzen was unable to prise the mantle of ‘fastest gaming CPU’ from the 9900K – and now the 10900K is here. To see how Intel’s new flagship performs – and how the 10600K holds up the mid-range fight – we tested each chip in the most challenging game scenes we could find at 1080p, 1440p and 2160p.

To ensure we’re CPU bottle-necked as much as possible, we paired each test rig with the fastest consumer GPU, the RTX 2080 Ti. While this combination ensures that even subtle differences in processor performance are teased into visibility, we’d expect similar gulfs in performance even from more modest GPUs at 1080p. To give you some context, an RTX 2080 Ti at 4K (as tested here) is broadly similar in performance terms to a GTX 1660 running at 1080p. Higher resolutions, like 1440p and 4K, should be more dependent on GPU horsepower – especially in the challenging games we’ve chosen – but differences from processor to processor can still manifest so it’s important to include a full spread of results so you get a clear picture. Likewise, we encourage you to read other 10900K and 10600K reviews, as we can only test a tiny fraction of the gameplay scenarios you could encounter – so see what other outlets have come up with to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how these processors perform.

With all that said and done, let’s get into some game testing – beginning with some modern marvels of (game) engineering that can bring even a flagship to its knees.

Intel Core i9 10900K and Core i5 10600K analysis

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/hot-to-trot-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hot-to-trot-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[entergamingxp]

reference and OC models compared • Eurogamer.net

AMD continues its focus on the entry-level space with the release of the Radeon RX 5600 XT, a graphics card intended to sit between the RX 5500 XT and RX 5700 with strong 1080p performance at $279. Like so many recent graphics card launches though, the run-up to launch has been far from quiet, with both AMD and Nvidia repositioning their graphics cards to try and take a decisive advantage in the important sub-$300 price category.

AMD originally announced the 5600 XT as a competitor to the GTX 1660 Ti, offering higher frame-rates at the same price. In response, Nvidia has dropped prices on the next graphics card up, the RTX 2060, bringing their entry-level ray tracing GPU to $299. Now we’re seeing the counterplay from AMD – and rather than dropping prices themselves to retain their value leadership, Team Red has chosen to boost performance instead.

This takes the form of a new BIOS update available for some overclocked RX 5600 XT models, which features significantly higher core clock and memory clocks at the expense of a nominally higher TDP. As you can see in the table below, these upgrades go far beyond what we’d normally expect to see from an overclocked card, with the projected performance gain placing the RX 5600 XT OC in nearly the same ballpark as the $349 RX 5700.

Old BIOS New BIOS Game Clock 1560MHz 1615MHz Boost Clock 1620MHz 1750MHz Memory Clock 1500MHz (12Gbps) 1750MHz (14Gbps) TDP 150W 160W

The new BIOS will be available on “select” overclocked models from a range of manufacturers, including the Sapphire Pulse unit we were sent for review. However, it’s not yet clear precisely which other RX 5600 XT models will get the new BIOS, nor how this will actually be communicated to customers. At the moment, the best bet seems to be checking each card’s official specifications on its manufacturer’s website, where a 1750MHz boost clock, 14Gbps memory speed and 160W TDP indicate an upgraded card. If a new BIOS is available, you’ll need to download and flash it using the AMDVbFlash tool – thankfully, a pretty straightforward process that involves selecting the BIOS file you’ve downloaded, clicking the program button, waiting for the flash to complete and then restarting your computer. Be sure to save your card’s current BIOS file to your computer before you start, and double-check that the BIOS file you’re flashing is intended for your particular model before you begin.

Neither Nvidia nor AMD makes their graphics card lineup easy to understand. Nvidia has generally awarded new names to even slight variations – hence the simultaneous retail availability of the GTX 1660, GTX 1660 Super and GTX 1660 Ti – while AMD generally prefers to lump multiple versions under a single model name – think of the RX 560, a card that you could buy with 14 or 16 compute units, 2 or 4GB of RAM plus varying clock speeds and power requirements. Unfortunately, both approaches are pretty confusing.

The BIOS changes make testing the RX 5600 XT a little difficult – should we be reviewing the reference specification that will actually be available for the quoted $279 price point, or the upgraded ‘performance’ spec that shows what this card can do when pushed to the limit? Given the scope and scale of the changes between these two extremes, it makes more sense to consider them as two separate graphics cards – so that’s exactly what we’ll do in this review. The results marked ‘RX 5600 XT’ are based on the reference ‘silent’ BIOS, while those marked ‘RX 5600 XT OC’ used the overclocked ‘performance’ BIOS.

Before we get into the benchmark results, which incorporate a range of recent and legacy titles from 1080p to 1440p and 4K, let’s show off exactly what we’re testing.

This is the £255 Sapphire Pulse card, which opts for a fairly standard 2.3-slot design with two large axial fans in a black, white and red colour scheme. I/O is the usual modern loadout: three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.0, so users of older and/or entry-level DVI-D monitors will need to source an adapter. On the rear side, a metal back-plate is included. You can switch between the silent and performance BIOSes using a switch on the top of the card, near the I/O. However, as mentioned above, buyers of this card may need to installed the updated BIOS versions manually. Finally, an eight-pin power input is needed to satisfy that 160W TDP, as only 75W can be provided from the PCIe slot alone.

RX 5500 XT RX 5600 XT RX 5700 RX 5700 XT Compute Units 22 36 36 40 Stream Processors 1408 2304 2304 2560 TFLOPs 5.2 7.2 7.95 9.75 Game Clock 1717MHz 1375MHz 1625MHz 1755MHz Boost Clock 1845MHz 1560MHz 1725MHz 1905MHz Memory 4GB/8GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 Memory interface 128-bit 192-bit 256-bit 256-bit TDP 130W 150W 180W 225W RRP $169/$199 $279 $349 $399

As with its predecessors, the RX 5600 XT faces a stern challenge from Nvidia. While AMD claim its card has enough grunt to see off the similarly-priced GTX 1660 Super and GTX 1660 Ti, the newly discounted RTX 2060 should offer slightly better performance at just $20 more. The RTX 2060 also sports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which is expected to appear in a greater proportion of games over the next few years due to the arrival of ray tracing-capable consoles from both Microsoft and Sony at the tail end of 2020.

However, far be it from us to call this race over before it’s started. The new BIOS upgrade should give the RX 5600 XT a much better chance, so let’s see how both variants of the card perform against their nearest competitors from both teams.

AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Analysis

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/reference-and-oc-models-compared-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reference-and-oc-models-compared-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net