The Worst Filing System Known To Humans

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Reload the Canons!

This series of articles is an attempt to play through The Canon of videogames: your Metroids, your Marios, your Zeldas, your Pokemons, that kind of thing.

Except I'm not playing the original games. Instead, I'm playing only remakes, remixes, and weird fan projects. This is the canon of games as seen through the eyes of fans, and I'm going to treat fan games as what they are: legitimate works of art in their own right that deserve our analysis and respect.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A Company of Heroes: Pacific Rim, Iron Man, Cloud Atlas, and the Power of Ensemble Casts

This is it. The end of the line. The strange entity with a book for a head (and what a load of crap that is! You've read all three Monster Manuals and there's no book headed dude in there, and you're going to give the DM an earful next time there's a pizza break) approaches you slowly and raises its hands in preparation for a spell. You have one chance--one saving throw. You gather your die in sweating hands and cast it across the table. It bounces off the DM's soda, and careens to a halt. 
A one. Oh for the love of Bahamut.
The creature begins to chant an eldrich summoning spell. A spell that sounds suspiciously like... media analysis? This is the worst quest ever, you conclude grimly, as the spell begins to take hold...
I'm bored of heroes but really into heroism right now.

That's kind of the quick, pithy summary of this article, I suppose. I'm bored of, to be more precise, the notion of the Exceptional Hero (nearly always straight, white, male) that a story's arc is built completely around and whose gaze we largely inhabit throughout the text.

I am not, on the other hand, bored of the idea of heroism. As I maybe have hinted obliquely and very subtly before, I'm not too into cynicism and grimdarkness these days, in part because I think it's sometimes used as a lazy way to achieve an illusion of philosophical depth. Protagonists that are genuinely good appeal to me quite a bit, actually, despite the prevailing attitude that such characters are without nuance, boring, or impossible to relate to (see: recent conversations about non-grimdark Superman).

There seems to be a contradiction there, though. Isn't the traditional square-jawed manly, monomythic hero tied intrinsically to the idea of genuine heroism in stories?

Well, no, I don't think so. And I think if you asked most people directly, they would also say that it isn't so. But I'm not sure most people could articulate an alternative--or at least, not quite the kind of alternative I'm looking for. It's not that people think heroism must come in the form of the square-jawed action hero, it's that they have trouble finding another kind of heroism.

One answer we have seen people put forth recently is the diversification of who can be in a lead heroic role. I'm all for that, of course--it's about time we got more women, people of color, and GSD folks as lead heroes!

But my issue isn't just with representation alone (although that's part of it). I think there's a deeper toxicity to the Monomyth--the idea of the Campbellian Hero's Journey that seems to so fully pervade our modern thinking--that's worth addressing. See, the Monomyth, which follows a familiar form involving a Chosen One rising to greatness through a series of trials and becoming a hero, ultimately suggests that heroism is:
  • Extremely rare and frequently a product of destiny or a birthright
  • Ultimately a symbol of not just righteousness but rightness--i.e. the authority to make decisions unilaterally
  • A force of overwhelming gravity upon the plot--i.e. a hero warps the narrative around himself (infrequently herself), and the arcs of other characters are either nonexistent or risk truncation to further the hero's own arc. The pull of the hero's arc hauls everything within its event horizon.
This may not seem overly eggregious on its face. After all, why SHOULDN'T a narrative warp around the gravity of the central character?

Well, to see where this starts to go wrong, consider what virtues and themes are excluded by the very nature of the hero's journey, at least without a strong conscious effort on the part of a creator to pull the narrative in a different direction:
  • Democratic consensus.
  • Companionship.
  • Teamwork.
  • The ability to defer to others.
  • The need for multiple intelligences and viewpoints.
  • The betterment of society through mass action.
  • The ability of anyone to behave heroically.
Now, consider the culture that might emerge from such a media narrative. I don't think it would be difficult to link the Monomyth with such ideas as Manifest Destiny, American Exceptionalism, unprecedented executive power, unilateral decisions made on both a global and local scale... I'm not saying, of course, that Batman makes people into militant cowboys ready to exact vigilante justice against undesirables, but I am saying that in such a media environment, it should not come as a surprise when cooperation is highly difficult or even impossible to achieve, and it becomes harder to criticize and oppose those who DO become militant cowboys.

The strange thing is, none of this is inevitable. In fact, in fantasy, the genre most would associate with the Monomyth, we've long had alternatives. The great progenitor of the genre in its modern form, The Lord of the Rings, is a story with a vast cast of characters whose actions compound across time and space to result in victory. And, of course, there is one other classic arrangement that, while still requiring some amount of gravitational warping around the heroes, is far more profoundly influenced by ideas of cooperation. I'm speaking, of course, of the classic four-player D&D group: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric. Four classes that complement and reinforce one another as a team, all with their own character motivations and arcs, all with their own themes to explore, all forced to work together to achieve a common goal. It's necessary, in fact, for this structure to be present for the gameplay to work. You can't have a single hero and three vague side characters in a game of D&D; it just doesn't work.

"But Sam," you object loudly, throwing your glass at my head (I roll an 18 and dodge, artfully, and the glass shatters against Lord Humongous's giant abs. "You disobey me, little puppy..." he growls), "Tolkien had three books to work with! And you can't just translate a D&D game to a movie screen! They tried! Have you seen that movie? It sucked!"

Oh ho ho ho not so fast my pretty! You see, I am not just a lonely wizard, bearing my trials alone! I have the power to summon a whole team to support my claims, and together we shall complete our quest to bring good storytelling back to these benighted lands!

For my Fighter, I call upon Pacific Rim!
For my Rogue, I call to my side Iron Man III!
And for my Cleric, I summon Cloud Atlas!

AND I'LL BE THE HEAD OH SHIT I FUCKED UP THE METAPHOR DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT QUICK, PACIFIC RIM, ROLL FOR ATTACK!

Pacific Rim: Fighting As One


Pacific Rim is a movie that vibrates with the electric intensity of its convictions. It is a film bound and determined to express the idea that humanity can achieve greatness if and only if it can come together and find ways to cooperate. In fact, I would argue that the vast majority of the plot beats are constructed in order to convey this message. The narrative is simple, but that doesn't make it simplistic.

Consider Newton and Hermann, the two scientists who unlock the secrets of the Kaiju. A number of viewers (and I apologize for continually opening up the conversation on Pacific Rim with these refutations) questioned the point of these characters. I would argue that regardless of your individual enjoyment of them as characters or their segments as parts of the film is secondary to their purpose for the film's themes (and for the sake of wider worldbuilding, but that's another conversation entirely).

To put it another way, you may have gone in expecting nonstop kaiju-crushing action and were annoyed by the scientist segments. And that's ok, I guess, although I'd suggest that it's also reasonable to adapt your expectations as a film proceeds rather than just comparing it to the film that is in your head, but fine, alright, you didn't like them.

That doesn't mean they were unnecessary to the film on a deeper functional level or could be cut out.

See, one of the things their arc does very well, in some ways better than any of the other arcs, is show how victory depends upon a willingness to collaborate despite interpersonal strife or differences of opinion. Newt and Hermann have radically different ways of parsing information and getting results, both quite maniacal in their own ways, but when the chips are down and Newt asks Hermann for help, by god, Hermann steps up to the plate.

It may be worth recalling at this point that "the plate" in this metaphor is a kaiju brain that Newt intends to Drift with via a piece of equipment that literally incorporates a medieval fucking bellows to... I don't know, keep the parts cool maybe? Not a fan. A bellows.

And Hermann agrees to do it anyway.

What interests me about this arc from bitter disagreement to collaboration is that it echoes throughout the wider narrative. Chuck must defend the pilots of Gipsy Danger despite getting into a fist fight with one of them a short time before--and he willingly gives his life in the process. Raleigh learns to be less of a hot shot and trust his commanding officer's decisions (and not to touch Stacker Pentecost again). And, of course, all the characters must open themselves to their drift partners in order to pilot their Jaegers. One of Mako's major developmental arcs is her movement from suspicion for Raleigh to trust--not trust in him in the "I defer to you, Heroic White Dude Hero Man" sense, but trust in their bond, trust in her ability to stay stable in the Drift, trust in his ability to help her to be stable in the Drift, and trust in their collaborative potential.

Those bonds are what ultimately turns out to win the day. The willingness to look beyond difference allows them to destroy the Rift. And here, again, I think there's a great parallel between the overall construction and the story of Newt and Hermann: in the end, their information is not in opposition. Both of the scientists are right, and it is only through the synchronization of their knowledge, rather than their petty squabbling for attention from their benefactors, that the key to the Rift becomes apparent.

Hm, you know, now that I'm typing this up, I can't help but think some academical sorts would be well served by taking note of this part of the film...

This film could have been about Raleigh's heroic journey from the depths of despair back into the height of heroic victory, but it wasn't. It was about all these characters--characters that in another work would be side characters--worked together to achieve victory.

The lesson is quite straightforward, and for that reason, Pacific Rim is my Fighter--straight to the point, a blunt instrument that communicates simply and effectively that there is another way of doing things.

Iron Man III: The Rogue In The Gallery
My inclusion of Iron Man III as a Rogue player may seem contrived--an idea forced into place once Pacific Rim took up the Fighter slot. However, I think the class fits quite well if you think of a rogue as more than a narrowly defined thief. A rogue can also be someone the unpredictably breaks ranks with the main party, a troublemaker, a character capable of getting away with what others wish they could get away with, a rule-breaker.

For a giant blockbuster movie about a playboy billionaire superhero, to put forth a narrative based around coping with severe psychological trauma, the excesses of a military-industrial complex that benefits from the perpetuation of fear and conflict, moral compromise within research, and, ultimately, the simple human act of asking someone else for help and admitting that you can't do everything alone... well, that seems like a roguish act to me, for sure.

And that's what Iron Man III does. It's a film about all these ideas and more. It'd be worth talking about some of the political aspects of the film at some point, but I want to talk about that last idea in particular--Tony Stark's need to ask for help. In a way, this might be one of the most subversive parts of the film, although it's certainly less overtly politically subversive than the Mandarin's ultimate identity.

See, the thing about this movie is that it could easily have involved Tony Stark rising on his own from ruin and clawing his way singlehandedly to victory. It could have involved the removal of all his allies so that he alone would have to face the Mandarin and defeat his diabolical opponent.

That's not what happens, though. Instead, Tony Stark is constantly accompanied, after his fall, by people who he must ask for help and work with to achieve victory. It's only, you'll note, after the fall that this seems to happen--previously, he sets himself up as a target, and a solitary target at that, brashly declaring himself to be the Mandarin's opponent, even though the government (or, hey, I dunno, THE AVENGERS?) would probably be better equipped to deal with a massive terrorist organization.

After his fall, though, not only is he required to ask for help, he's required to beg assistance from a child. A loooot of people assumed this bit was going to suck, due to previous bad experiences with child sidekicks, but the writers of this film knew exactly what they were doing in including Harley. In needing Harley's help, Stark is forced to recognize that there is potential in the people around him for heroism, even where he would not expect to find it. It forces him to reassess his ability to rely on other people, and marks the first step towards recognizing that the obsessive building of alternate suits is, in fact, a way of fleeing further and further into himself. (Note that Harley is the first person who asks him if he should be getting psychological treatment for his PTSD, and Stark finally responds affirmatively, admitting that he has a problem.) He is able to achieve victory only through sacrificing countless suits, and only through relying on Harley, Rhodes, that awkward news team fanboy, and ultimately Pepper Potts.

Hell, look at one of the pivotal scenes in the movie, the plane rescue sequence. That whole scene revolves around the idea that Tony can't save all these people on his own, so he needs to literally bind them together via electrical impulses in order to effect a full rescue. What a perfect metaphor for the film's overarching message.

So, part of the message of the film, like Pacific Rim, is that anyone can be heroic, and the heroism of teamwork is more profound than the heroism of a solitary ubermensch--or the villainy of a man who uses and discards his associates, even literally using his team as human bombs.

Furthermore, it shares a diverse cast with Pacific Rim. It's significant to me that this film passes the Bechdel Test--remember the scene between Potts and Maya Hansen where they discuss the ethics of accepting moral compromise for the sake of research funding? I sure as hell didn't expect to see that kind of question being broached in a blockbuster like this, and I certainly would never have predicted that the conversation would play out not between the two leading men but between the two leading women. The severing of narrative focus from Stark's monomythical quest--the reduction of his narrative's gravity--allows that conversation to take place, and the film is stronger for it. It provides context for Hansen's actions later on that in a lesser film would be explained implicitly through the gravity of Stark's narrative, i.e. she would go good because of his presence rather than because she has been brought to a moment of moral crisis that is finally coming to a head.

This could easily have been a very different film. It could have been a film about the singular brilliance of Tony Stark and his ability to triumph even against a supremely powerful hidden opponent. It could have been, like the second film, another exercise in the claiming of a rich white boy birthright passed on from father to son. It could have been about Stark climbing, alone, from the pit to defeat his opponents and save his whatever. It could have been a film that, as the title suggested, was about Iron Man and Iron Man alone.

It was not those films.

It was, instead, a film about finding strength in others rather than burrowing into a monomaniacal savior complex. It was a film about the heroic potential that humans have within them, if that potential is not rebuffed or eroded (Killian and Hansen are a product of Stark's hubris, remember, and the Mandarin is the product of encouraged addiction).

It is the rogue of this team, a film that appeared to be something other than what it was, and, I think, became an unlikely hero in the battlefield that is media.

Cloud Atlas: The Healing Of Small Cuts In Time
I get the impression that viewers constantly understand this movie as being about religion--specifically, the notion of reincarnation and the transmigration of souls across multiple humans through time. This makes it an easy selection for Cleric of the party.

But like the Cleric, the role of this movie, at least in the scheme I'm presenting here, is not to introduce religiosity per se into the discussion. The role of the cleric is to banish evil and, ultimately, to act as a healer.

I don't think you need to believe in reincarnation to feel moved by this film. Rather, you simply need to be open to its core message that the actions we make affect the world far beyond our individual lifespans. This is a view quite compatible with a secular mindset--in fact, quite conducive to a scientific understanding of the world as cause and effect obscured by the complexity of time and space and human action--and it depends upon the kind of ensemble casts that we've been talking about.

The intriguing thing about Cloud Atlas the film is that the stories all channel towards a conclusion at the same time (in contrast to the book, which has a stepped pyramid structure). This means that the tragic ending of one story is counterbalanced and, arguably, undercut by the triumph of another. These moves are wholly intentional, and the film is stronger for this undercutting, because it reinforces the central message of the film: through countless actions, great and small, humanity as a whole moves forward out of ignorance into light. It is the compounding actions of the various characters that ultimately allows the Precients in the future to find a way off of a dying Earth to a new home in the stars. From an abolitionist's conversion, to a tragic love affair, to a battle for the truth, to... alright, The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish is pretty silly but it still inspires, a synthetic human's attempt to spark a revolution, all the stories lead via coincidence and influence toward an ending in triumph.

And what is the opponent in this movie?

Well, in the previous two films, the enemies were certainly symbolic--the Kaiju of the vast challenges that humanity must unite to conquer, and the Mandarin of a covert military-industrial complex threatening to usurp power from the countless regular people that make up Tony Stark's team (as well as a dark product of Stark's own megalomania)--but they were still very much a material set of enemies.

By the end of Cloud Atlas, however, the recurring enemy gradually loses materiality and acquires a purely symbolic, conceptual nature. Hugo Weaving's various characters transform from quite threatening individuals capable of murder and hideous inhumanity gradually transform first into a sadistic nurse--quite deranged, of course, but ultimately somewhat comical in form--then, into a dignitary among countless dignitaries in an authoritarian regime (he is reduced from the role of central evil to functionary of evil), and finally, into a mythological representation of the central character's inner turmoil: Old Georgie. You can see this role as internal doubt here, in the film's climax:



Pretty sure that's the right clip.

Whatever.

The point is, evil over time degrades while good strengthens (and, interestingly in the case of Sonmi, also becomes an abstraction--a goddess figure). An article from Vulture that I consulted while writing this essay puts it quite well, I think:
He's a figure of evil, control, and enslavement who never displays any loyalty or learns anything over time, and eventually devolves until he's just an idea.
Because Weaving's characters are unable to see beyond themselves, they degrade through time until they lose substance entirely and become a formless boogieman. This is a fascinating and powerful transformation, as it suggests that the monomythic hero is actually potentially quite weak. If our ability to form attachments to others--loyalties, as the Vulture article puts it--we fail to develop and ultimately devolve.

I'm reminded, actually, of another entity that goes on a similar journey away from knowledge and contact with other beings. I am speaking of Milton's Satan, who manipulates his followers, strikes off alone to Earth to spoil God's creation, and ultimately devolves from heroic titan to crawling serpent.

Cloud Atlas does not exactly promise a hopeful future, but it does assert that the countless small cuts in our history caused by humanity's inhumanity can be bandaged, can be healed, can be restored in time. A single messianic figure cannot, however, heal these cuts on her own. She is accompanied by other agents of change, some coming far before or after her own life, and humanity's ultimate salvation is due not to messiahs but to a collaboration between two lowly humans just trying to get by on a decaying world. It is through the action of all of us, not one of us, that these small cuts are healed.

And for that message of healing, Cloud Atlas will be my cleric.

The Wizard: Possibilities Given Form

The Wizard is often described as an obnoxiously overpowered class, growing in ability by leaps and bounds while the other classes lag behind. It's only fitting then that I take the Wizard role for myself, the REAL hero of this story!

...Except, there's more to the wizard than that. The wizard's role in battle is often a support role, warping the battlefield and allowing the different party members to better make use of their talents. It is a role with more to do with coordination than dramatic stardom, although a lot of players might, unfortunately, play them that way.

So, let me try to coordinate this a little bit and explain why I put this article together the way I did.

On their own, these films would be compelling arguments for particular kinds of ensemble casts. Pacific Rim shows that you can create a compelling story from a group of champions fighting side by side against a vast enemy. Iron Man III shows that a film hero can be assisted in countless ways by companions without seeming powerless or extraneous--and that those characters can deeply enrich the film's world. Cloud Atlas shows that you can construct an exceptionally complex film with a staggering number of characters and still have your message come through loud and clear so long as you construct the interweaving of narratives carefully enough.

Each film, on its own, would be an argument that you can make that specific kind of film.

Together, they show that there is a stunning range of storytelling possibility open to writers willing to construct an ensemble-driven story rather than a monomythic story. In fact, while you can certainly get quite a bit of variance within the monomyth, I would argue that these sorts of complex and distributed heroics have much more potential, especially since this structure is somewhat underexplored in recent blockbusters. It certainly seems to force writers out of the narrow and cliche beats of the more slavish adaptations of the monomyth, which is certainly a good thing in my estimation.

So, the films (plus my own attempts to set the battlefield in our favor through the magic of analysis and close reading) are stronger together than on their own. They make a more compelling argument united than they would separate.

Each one is a hero in its own right, a triumphant warrior of the silver screen. Their heroism is in no way diminished by the presence of other heroes. On the contrary, it is compounded, made stronger, and allowed to diversify, just as within the films the ensemble casts allow for far more room for the underrepresented to find a voice, and just as the heroism of individuals is made stronger by unity. As above, so below. The message is clear: heroism can be distributed far more widely, and the benefits to opening our narratives to such distribution are enormous.

I mean, at the very least, my team of epic level monsters pretty much wiped the floor with you just now, Mr Monomythic Strawman.

Serves you right for demanding to play a Chaotic Evil solo game. Maybe if you had invited some other players to our game instead of insisting that there was only room for you and me in the group, this would've gone differently.

Yeah, yeah I'm gonna be that way. Fine. Pick up your dice and go then, you big crybaby! You're just a figment of my imagination, anyway! AND NO ONE LIKES TIEFLINGS ANYWAY!

Ugh.

I'm never playing D&D with Hugo Weaving again.

Freakangels Of Arcadia

The webcomic Freakangels is all about superpowered millennials struggling to build a utopian society in the aftermath of environmental devastation. Topical. But if they want to build Arcadia, they'll have to face down the toughest opponent imaginable: their own emotional hangups.

I Want To Connect (But It's Hard To Understand)

For an anime all about connections, Sarazanmai, the new anime from the director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, can be pretty obscure. But its obscurity gives it power, and a space for us to form connections with the show... and with each other.

My Superpower is Manpain!

Featuring revised versions of my articles on The Dark Knight Rises, Arrow, and Grant Ward from Agents of SHIELD, My Superpower is Manpain! explores the idea of the male superhero and his power to warp the narrative and the ethics of a story around himself.

24 comments:

  1. I don't read all of your articles if I am not versed in the media you are discussing, but I do look forward to pieces like this. Once again, fantastic and uplifting analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have much to say besides "I enjoyed this article" and "I quite like your style of humor," so I'll leave it at that. Keep doing what you're doing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great article, and I find it interesting and cool that Rinko Kikuchi starred in two of your three movies listed here. I saw her in Cloud Atlas and was happy to see her in Pacific Rim. It speaks to the kinds of roles she takes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Sooner or later you will have to face the fact that literally all adventures are about learning the value of teamwork. Teamwork and friendship. The two razor sharp edges of the mighty excalibur which EVERY hero should keep in his scabbard. Even shitty heroes like you."

    —Andrew Hussie, speaking to someone who demanded to play a Chaotic Evil solo game

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is exactly what I was thinking when I read this article. Hussie knows whats up :)

      Delete
  5. This particular weblog is seriously interesting, keep blogging good info On Hold Messages.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I haven't seen Cloud Atlas, but I enjoyed the metaphorical structure of your essay, and I agree with your point: Let's de-emphasize the (chosen) Hero's Journey and get more stories about how everybody can be heroic when working together.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Out of anything I've read here, this is my favorite. Kudos.
    The sprite art has me wondering if you've ever done anything on video games as art. Well, it's back to The Worst Filing System Known To Man for me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Indeed, the cambell journey of hero it say that thor,perseus and other heroes are product or his time, when the hero was also the plot and his ultimate change means that the plot end, instead in this teamwork era the heroes need help in the same way they help others, today is the era of d&d teams

    ReplyDelete
  9. ["It could have been, like the second film, another exercise in the claiming of a rich white boy birthright passed on from father to son."]


    I find this comment interesting considering that it took Nick Fury to get Tony's head out of his ass and utilize Howard's plan to help him deal with the problems of his mini-reactor. And with the Black Widow's help, Rhodey broke free of Venko's control and was finally able to team with Tony to defeat the villain. Tony didn't defeat Venko on his own.

    Frankly, I find your views about teamwork a little extreme. I think team work is required for some situations. And in other situations, you have no choice but to rely upon yourself. It depends upon the moment. I don't believe there is one solution or the other.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I truly enjoyed Pacific Rim 2 at yidio movies. The story was far from perfect, but I liked the fact that they were trying to do more with the plot than just monsters appearing to fight robots. There was a plot twist that I didn't really see coming and I liked the idea and realisation of a batch of new, young Jaeger pilots better than I thought I would.
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  21. Cách chống muỗi hiệu quả cho văn phòng công ty hiệu quả ? Đây hẳn là thông tin những ai đang có dự định chống muỗi tại văn phòng của mình quan tâm. Bởi việc chống muỗi tại văn phòng như thế nào hiệu quả thì không phải ai cũng có kinh nghiệm. Thông tin bài viết này cửa lưới Hoàng Minh sẽ chia sẻ tới bạn một số cách chống muỗi hiệu quả cho văn phòng hiệu quả.
    https://www.diigo.com/annotated/c441df3e31f94046dfed21469a07211f

    ReplyDelete
  22. https://www.reddit.com/user/tranbinh123/comments/iiqaqy/chia_s%E1%BA%BB_kinh_nghi%E1%BB%87m_ch%E1%BB%8Dn_c%E1%BB%ADa_l%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bi_ch%E1%BB%91ng_mu%E1%BB%97i_ph%C3%B9/
    https://captaitranbinh.tumblr.com/post/627779720920055808/99-chia-s%E1%BA%BB-kinh-nghi%E1%BB%87m-ch%E1%BB%8Dn-c%E1%BB%ADa-l%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bi-ch%E1%BB%91ng-mu%E1%BB%97i
    https://www.instapaper.com/read/1337749288

    ReplyDelete

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