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bluarlequinno · 2 years ago

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ON HEATHERS THE MOVIE/MUSICAL

PART 2

Now as you've read prior to this, Heathers is a movie about power and it works as a satire, it doesn't take itself seriously because at the end of the day it's a comedy not a serious film, even though most of its statements are serious.

Now to talk about the musical i would have to divide it into multiple sections; first let's start off with:

‌

-TONE-

Now naturally musicals are dramatic, expressive, because music is a natural way of art with emotional expression and musicals are for nature dramatic which makes the adaptation of a satirically toned film complicated.

One of the first mistakes the musical makes is that it takes itself too seriously, mostly on Veronica's and JD's romance, shifting it from a toxic self distructive and obvious abusive relationship into a """romantic""" less obvious, but way more abusive relationship about a "broken boy" and his fixer because veronica's role in this musical is just more of a prop to JD's "redemption" than actually being an independent character.

It seems to not get what made the movie funny, it wasn't that it made fun of people or their problems, no it was funny because of how society treated those situations

One obvious example is the bathroom scene (i have a lot to say of it, but for now we will focus on what it has to do with tone)

So in the movie this scene not only shows us a vulnerability on Heather Dukes side, but it also shows us how Heather is treated for her eating disorder.

In the movie the line "Bullimia is so '87" wasn't funny because Heather was making fun of Heather for her eating disorder, it was funny because of how superficial and cruel she was being afronted with a serious situation, but the musical doesn't understand tone!

So the line in the musical is delivered as a joke and it's supposed to be funny because "haha look she's vomiting and it's funny because she's a mean girl and pretty mean girls have eating disorders"

Tone is important, context is important and this musical lacks of context and tone to make it land and that's one of its problems, I'm not sure if they were trying to make fun of an eating disorder on porpuose, but this musical tries so hard to force movie quotes so you remember this is Heathers, but it fails because they lack of correct use of tone and don't use the fucking context properly because it seems they don't know what their adapting, it's obvious they didn't have Daniel Waters help them with this at all.

Another scene that shows how they don't know how to use tone and they just force movie quotes in it is the party scene where Veronica is vomiting on Heather and she says "Lick it up baby, lick it up"

So in the movie this scene is strong because they have been tense for a while, Heather feels pressured and ashamed and humiliated both by the college boys and Veronica, she's trying to put up a reputation and one of her "friends" (Veronica) by rejecting one of the guys makes her look bad therefore Heather is ashamed, humiliated and mad.

Veronica who has been dealing with a guy harassing her, Heather pressuring her, a headache and nausea not to mention her already grown recentment towards Heather pushed her over the edge, she throws up on Heather, the scene is stressing, the colors are vibrant and we have blue and red lighting fighting in the background to accompany the obvious fight between Heather (red) and Veronica (blue), she's been putting up with Heather all night and after a while she breaks and says "lick it up baby, lick it up" not only delivering an iconic quote, but also establishing that Veronica is done and that Heather will be taking actions.

The musical erases all that tension, one because Veronica wanted to be a Heather in the beginning and was thrilling to go to the party and two because she is enjoying it, she doesn't hate the party and it weakens the feeling, there is no tension building up whatsoever just us seeing teens acting like fucking caricatures of what adults think teens are.

And instead of continuing with Movie Veronica who has been acting passive and being ignorant to her passiveness, she in the musical is active since the beginning defending Martha and being the savor taking out any character arc Veronica had in the original movie making Heather's and Veronica's discussion in the Musical seem flat and boring, it just lands flat because all the context and tension the movie built up to land the quote falls flat on the musical because they erased the context and the fucking tone! It was a tense and uncomfortable scene, not a stupid song to make you feel Veronica was having fun, they changed it making it just land flat. It feels forced it doesn't feel natural

Also that Martha plot line they made up in the musical was so unnecessary i don't know why it's there it literally is the dumbest thing, i can't stand Martha here like... She loses her importance as a character but I'll talk about that later.

So I've addressed briefly the first problem this musical has, it doesn't understand context and tone and just forces scenes together just so you remember this is Heathers by randomly adding quotes

Like "fuck my gently with a chainsaw" in the movie is just a fun line Heather throws into the beginning, it isn't thrown exaggeratedly actually she does it casually and that's why it's funny it's such a weird and wacky expression and that she throws it out so casually it's what makes it funny, but no, the musical didn't understand that by making Heather Chandler's ghost thingy say it the most dramatic way possible like... It just doesn't work

Conclusion in this section The musical doesn't understand satire, doesn't understand context of tone and just forces things so you say "oh that was said in the movie" and don't forget you're watching a Heathers weird ass adaptation.

Because the difference between the movie and the musical in how they use satire is that the movie understand what they are doing a satarie of, they don't just constantly try to look edgy by saying an amazing amount of bad words and mention the word suicide once because that already makes a great satire right? This musical uses satire as an occasional prop instead of actually using satire as the genre it just doesn't work it's a superficial and illusionary critique.

If you don't know how to use satire just don't use it, it looks bad.

Second point:

‌-Shifting character relationships with each other-

So how the relationships between characters were stablished in the movie was important because every character had a role whether was it minor or mayor.

Some important relationships are:

‌Veronica with the Heathers

‌Veronica and Betty

‌Heather Duke and Martha

‌Veronica and JD

And less known, but also prevalent

‌Veronica and Heather Duke

‌VERONICA AND THE HEATHERS :

The relationship between them in the movie is basically shown for us in the first scene making it clear how our protagonist feels about her situation wether it is like that literally or how she feels, but it is like that, we are shown through a daydream how their dynamic is perceived by Veronica, she feels trapped in a situation where the three of them seem to have it against her being Heather McNamara the one to throw first, she's willing to throw her down and tries, but fails and doesn't fight to keep going instead leaving it to Heather Duke the second one to throw, she seems a bit hesitant, but still willing to dig Veronica down, but missing her and actually lacking physical force with her throw showing that she's the less violent (in the beginning) when it comes to how each treat Veronica, then we have Heather Chandler who seems mad by how passive both the Heathers are and going for a harder blow actually hitting Veronica, and then we are shown how she is literally under the ground and then her daydream cuts to her narrating how Heather told her wonders and her just being tired with her bullshit making a sarcastic remark with the line "you're beautiful""

(Quick pause, but i didn't realize she was being sarcastic with that line at first either, so don't worry if you didn't, she's also sarcastic when she says that to Courtney in the lunch poll scene)

Their relationship here is obvious, Veronica has been friends with them for a while, we don't know since when or how much, but we know they have known each other for a while and that Veronica seems to feel intoxicated by them even if it's by different levels mostly showing how she feels about Heather Chandler who she seems to be in discomfort the most.

Veronica is shown to us in a relationship she doesn't wanna be in, but doing nothing to get out and nothing to stop them from doing their "innocent" mean pranks even implying that Veronica used to enjoy those same things, but now finding nothing but boredom and childishness in such stupid actions, but finding herself being a hypocrite for believing herself to be in a higher moral ground then her piers yet doing nothing to change them or put a stop to them.

How does this change in the musical?

Well first the musical erases any history the Heathers and Veronica might have had in fact they weren't even friends, weakening their relationships and therefore Veronica's discomfort. Veronica is presented to us as the weird quirky nerdy girl with a funny fat friend :|... Yeah.., She desperately wants to be a Heather because they will stop bullying her.

And magically because she did a favor for them once, the girls who are presented to us in the musical as untouchable goddesses accept Veronica into their friendgroup. Why? Idk, but it happened i guess.

No consistency on characterization it seems, and it just started!

This decision not only erases Veronica's motivation to be with JD in the movie (discomfort and anger drove her to find comfort and an escape in him), but it makes it so that her character arc disappears and instead turns into any cheesy teen movie about "popularity isn't what matters it's friends and love and family" .... Sigh... I.. wtf like i wouldn't even be that mad with that message if it wasn't for two reasons

One, we are talking about Heathers here, not Mean girls, not any other Disney channel movie, NO! Heathers a cult classic that thrived on satire and looked to make a political and social statement, not teach teens a lesson about popularity ass if it was a bad thing

And two, i wouldn't be so mad if the musical didn't shit on is own message by literally having misogynistic, sexist, racist and homophobic messages in it at the same time like how does that work?

The change on this relationship is big and it shifts completely any motivation Veronica had to go to JD, it shifts the tone of the start, it's no longer us seeing a Veronica who seems unwilling to change her surroundings instead acting as a viewer to injustice and even had been part of it once, no now she starts of being a good person since the beginning, defending Martha and acting like a savor, she is erased of her inner conflicts and her complex relationship between the heathers and her role in the high school politics, now she is just any other protagonist with no personal conflict except the same conflict any other teenage protagonist has ever had the one of "i wanna be popular, but oh no i will have to abandon my friend!" Like.... How do you go from having a complex character with a deep inner conflict referencing power dynamics to.... Any other teen protagonist ever that wants to be popular.

See it's interesting because even though the movie is literally called Heathers and it talks about popularity, it never tells you that popularity or power is wrong, it never punishes anyone for having power (yes not even Heather duke) rather it tells us that power isn't the problem, is our actions with that power like when Veronica says that it doesn't matter how many Heathers she kills this isn't about killing the queen is killing the system, the queen is just peon, it's replaceable and it could even be herself which she ends up being, but instead of repeating that same system she goes over her way to change it that's why her arc is so important, she starts indifferent and passive towards the problem, but no the musical shitted on this and just went along with the same teenage narrative ever used in history.

Popularity BAD!

Friends and love and family, GOOD!

...

‌VERONICA AND BETTY :

Now another mistake this musical makes is making Betty and Martha the same character, they are not and they didn't need to be because their roles were different, their character was representing different things and we're both parallel to Veronica's and Heather Duke's parallel arcs, they worked as a resource to show a situation and making them the same character erases all of that, i mean it was already erased by making Veronica unpopular and not be related with the heathers since the beginning, but this shits on it more.

Their relationship at first is simple.

For those who don't know who Betty is, Betty used to be originally Veronica's best friend in the movie and now that Veronica is a Heather they don't seem to hang out much.

Now surprisingly Veronica doesn't ditch Betty like Heather Duke did with Martha instead she still continues to hang with her, at least she talks to her once in a while even in public, but their relationship isn't the same anymore, Betty feels inferior to Veronica to the point where she herself justifies Veronica missing her birthday party for going out on a stupid date with most probably Kurt and Ram or a jock for that matter.

Does this mean Veronica porpously wanted to miss Betty's birthday? Probably not, Veronica seems quite guilty and by how we have been shown Veronica's and Heather's relationship is, the most probable thing is that Heather Chandler forced her to skip the birthday because she found it stupid and not on her standard.

But this relationship shows us that Veronica may be quite nihilistic and unfazed by the problems around her, but there is still a part of her that genuinely cares even if it's small.

But it also shows us how their positions on the food chain have a shift on the tone of their relationship. While before (we can only suppose) they were equals and we're friends, now Veronica is in a more privileged and high ground place having (even if involuntary) a power over Betty, as we are shown how she feels intimidated by Veronica, as a mentioned prior minimizing her own situation instead of letting herself feel bad because a friend didn't show up to her birthday.

This establishes the first thing, Veronica is in a privileged and powerful (to a certain point) position wether it is voluntary or not and her actions towards it are being reluctant and passive, she's in discomfort and does nothing about it and this drives me to the next relationship

VERONICA AND JD :

Oh Lord were to start.

To contrary belief, Veronica and JD never engage on a genuine loving relationship, the movie shows us how after JD shows Veronica a possible escape, she takes it, she believes he is a better option, he says the things she wishes she did, he has no fear of rebelling, making her feel like he is the perfect escape to her self imposed powerlessness over her situation.

They both have a power and control dynamic, none seem to love each other rather they always seem to want to have control over each other, constantly debating over how things should go.

On the beggining and for most part, JD has control over Veronica because Veronica didn't have control over herself she went to him because he made her feel like she was in control and that directly or indirectly gave JD a certain control over her and as we see he does have it.

She's driven towards him and the actions because of anger, because of powerlessness, she needs to feel in control and this way makes her feel in control.

She has finally gained control on herself, even if is by JD crazy and over the edge solutions.

And he is driven by Veronica for the same reasons, but in a different way, he is craving action, he is a person who isn't mentally estable, he seeks to have control over himself as well, control his situation and the things that make him feel powerless, by Veronica he feels he is doing something, that his actions are making him gain control, but he doesn't gain control over himself rather control on Veronica.

The musical ... Well..

Veronica feels attracted to him because he can protect her? I... What is the need? She even mentions in dead girl walking reprise that she just wanted a man who could protect her and that is HER fault he is a monster, so we start of great ✨ misogyny ✨.

She has no motive anymore to genuinely want to be with him, but that, the motivation falls flat and is not credible, why does she want to if all the situations established in the movie are basically erased here? Well it's just because he was flirty with her once and now she likes him...

The way Veronica acts in the movie is interesting, like usual she isn't exactly against killing her classmates in itself after all when they first kill Heather, she is more worried about herself and how that will affect her than actually worrying about the fact she kill the girl who was supposed to be her best friend. She tries to convince herself that what they did is good and it can have a good repercussion, by justifying herself when she prays on Heather's funeral she mentions she only wanted her school to be a nice place. Does she believes getting rid of Heather makes it a better place? Most probably and even though this wasn't exactly how she though she would get rid of Heather it somehow does the job and she tries to justify herself by saying this should make the school a better place (spoiler alert, it doesn't) at least for most of the students, but for one of them it actually does, Heather Duke seems to have found rather peace and relief on this unfortunate situation.

Also Movie Veronica was going into Heathers house with the intention of hurting her, she wanted to hurt her, she wanted to make her pay up, and with JD on her side she starts to take action even if it is for the wrong.

While musical Veronica is a savor actively taking decisions and being a perfect character since the beggining after the most flat fight in the musical she goes to JD and makes him fuck.... There is literally a whole song about how they should fuck that does absolutely nothing to advance the plot, but them fucking..

The movie doesn't shows us them fucking because is unnecessary, we don't need to sexualize minors, we needed to hear them talk afterwards and how they realize they both hate Heather Chandler and them establishing how they will proceed, but the musical uses that to sell more and literally shows us an explicit scene of how they fuck, of how teenagers who are minors are fucking with one of them drunk and the other half asleep, this smells fishy, it is disgusting, it's weird and suspicious.

Let's also talk about how Veronica going to JD's shifts their relationship again. Why does Veronica go with JD in the musical, she doesn't need him, she seems to be completely ok with herself and her situation and how she handles it, then why is she even driven towards him? Well it's because she's horny literally that's the big thing that drives the plot here, She even mentions she feels less powerful than him, if she feels like that than why? Because there is no motive except it's convenient for the script and how we already changed most of everything than we have to make it up as we go.

Movie Veronica would have never done that, because she wasn't actively planning on killing Heather, she established she desired to kill her and get rid of her, but she was too unfazed and passive to do anything, let alone go with JD to ask him to fuck her...

It feels uncomfortable in the musical, it just seems disgusting, there was no need.

Also let's talk about musical JD and why contrary to popular belief, he is way worse on the musical.

Musical JD constantly manipulates Veronica by making himself seem as he is just a hurt boy, literally their first conversation involves him trauma dumping on her by literally telling her his mom died and he is coping with slushies to not kill himself.

He makes her gain this idea in her head that he is a poor hurt boy as in the end of the song Dead girl walking reprise she mentions she wishes the world didn't convinced him life is war, believing he is truly broken from his surroundings which in original JD isn't the case.

Movie JD doesn't go over Veronica telling her anything in fact he doesn't even talk about himself in anyway, he doesn't have to, because his intension is never wanting Veronica to feel bad for him, he's cynical and doesn't have motives aside from chaos and action and feeling in control, he doesn't need a stupid backstory, he doesn't need pity, he wants to do this for himself not others, and he establishes that since the beggining.

Musical JD tries constantly to make her feel pity for him, he wants to justify his actions by him wanting to change the world and wanting to do the right thing because he's been broken and only her and her love can fix him and she's the key to keeping him sane.

Movie JD is not broken and doesn't feel the need to manipulate a woman for that.

Don't get me wrong, Movie JD also manipulates Women, but I'm saying he doesn't manipulate them to justify himself and his actions.

Their relationship is deep and complex in the movie because it's two people relying on each other to feel in control and ending up fighting over that said control.

Not to mention that the reason JD in the movie is the way he is, it's because at the end of the day he's supposed to be a parody to the typical bad boy trope, he's literally parodying the type of characters that he ends up becoming in the musical.

Their relationship in the musical is a toxic glorified romance where Veronica is the typical nice girl that is gonna save the broken bad boy (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻.

HEATHER DUKE AND MARTHA :

Now alike Veronica's and Betty's situation, Martha's and Heather's is similar even parallel to this one.

Heather after gaining protection and power not only gains an advantage over Martha, but unlike Veronica she dumps all connection with Martha making it clear that their social differences are way too high to keep their friendship.

This is in opossite, but parallel situation with Veronica's, it's made like this on porpuse because Heather Duke and Veronica are written parallel to each other.

It's quite simple and obvious how their dynamic works, but to be clear the role this relationship plays is to show us the other side of the coin.

While Veronica seems to somehow still maintain a friendship (if you could still call it that) with Betty, Heather completely cuts off Martha.

It's the way people behave with the power they gain.

But I'm not blaming Heather completely after all most of her decisions were controlled by Heather Chandler and just like Veronica she felt imprisoned and uncomfortable in her situation, but did nothing to get out of it. The difference is while Veronica was only being controlled by Heather occasionally, Heather Duke was constantly suffering abuse from her supposed friend.

VERONICA AND HEATHER DUKE :

I have been waiting to talk about this one.

See Heather Duke is in my opinion the character who suffered the most from movie to musical adaptation, a character that has not only been done dirty by the writers, but by the musical fans as well.

She's in my point of view the third protagonist of this movie, she has a parallel, but opposite character arc with Veronica, she has a deeper relationship with Veronica that separates her from the other Heathers and unlike Heather McNamara and Chandler she genuinely doesn't wanna be a Heather, she has not only inner conflicts, but also plays an important role on how power affects vulnerable people.

It pains me to see how this character who was important and had such a significant character arc be erased.

Heather Duke and Veronica are parallels to each other in this story, talking about the movie obviously.

Both start the movie in the same position, they both have resentment and hatred towards Heather Chandler, both feel suffecated and controlled by her, now obviously as they are different people with different experiences and it's obvious Heather Duke has been under Heather Chandler's abusive friendship way longer than Veronica, they act different faced with that same relationship even if they both take a role as the spectator although Heather Duke is more participant with Chandler's activities than Veronica, but that of course is due to the fact Heather has been here longer and she has more low self esteem then Veronica being way more submissive on comparison.

Now let's talk about how even though they are parallels they also differ on things almost as in contrast.

After Heather Chandler's death, Veronica is filled with guilt and angst, she's scared this will have a negative concequence while Heather Duke feels all the contrary, she's relived and free, not exactly because she's a bad person in itself, it's more because finally the one person who made her life miserable, someone who was abusive with her, someone who made her feel useless and shitty is finally gone wether she's dead or she just disappeared, she's gone and Heather from now and on contrary, but at the same time parallel with Veronica will start to take more action towards her situation.

It is also shown that Heather Duke is the Heather that trusts and likes Veronica the most, if you look carefully Heather Duke is the one who doesn't insult on Veronica or makes reproaches on her actions.

She's also the one who laughs at her jokes and seems to be more confident with her around.

Also the bathroom scene, oh yes this scene.

This scene in the movie stablishes multiple things, Heather doesn't trust none of the Heathers with something as private and important as her eating disorder, she only trusts Veronica, she even feels scared and quite timid to ask for help, but the only one she trusts with something like that is Veronica and we know this has been going on for a while because Veronica mentions it, she's done it before.

And Veronica also shows worry towards Heather, they seem to get along at least more than with the other Heathers and Veronica seems to genuinely want to see her get better, while the other Heathers only make fun of her for it and even call her insults to make her mad.

(Not to mention there was a cut scene in the original script were they kept making fun of her and Veronica stood up for her (even if it was barely a reproach, but it was something) while it was Heather McNamara who kept insulting her, we also see how Heather Duke intusiasticly tells Veronica about the book she's reading which was in the original script catcher in the rye, something that she would never discuss with the other Heathers, she seems happy like genuinely happy, she's using something she likes to talk to Veronica so she can ignore the other heathers literally insulting her, especially McNamara who kept commenting on it. It's funny how Heather duke seems to reflect her insecurity into the main character of catcher in the rye mentioning he wouldn't put up with them).

The musical scene however changes this completely because Veronica isn't even their friend it just erases any vulnerability we could have had between the two and instead of being a scene where we could see Heather Duke being vulnerable, seeing how she trusts Veronica more than anyone else and how they both have a different more genuine friendship than the other Heathers we get a scene that makes fun of an eating disorder and explicitly has her imitate a vomit motion.

This makes her seem as if it's funny that she has an eating disorder, it puts her on a vulnerable (in the negative sense as more susceptible to be made fun by the public which was all the contrary to the original intention) position.

Also the scene in the musical were Veronica is presenting the Heathers in the opening song Beautiful. They mention Heather duke having no personality at all, like literally they make Veronica insult her for no reason, they already want you to hate her since the begging.

In the musical:

‌They present her as no personality wise

‌They make fun of her eating disorder

‌They purposely make her be hated and hate Veronica unlike the movie were they are the more intimate between the four of them

‌They make her be an asshole since the begging while giving her no character arc or motive

‌and they use her character to justify Kurt, Ram and JD

While in the movie, she's shown to us as a bit shy, a bookworm, she has insecurities and is a bit too dependent on Veronica, not to mention we are shown she can't clearly show her personality as she's under Heather Chandler's control and when she's finally freed it isn't that her personality originally was like that, no it was more that her personality was affected by so much repression and abuse that it became a trauma response more than an act of freedom.

Let's also talk about how both Veronica and Heather Duke end up relying on JD's help to try to take action, but contrary as how Veronica starts to free herself from JD, Heather is just falling in his spiderweb.

Both of them seeked the same thing and that's why they bond, they both are different from the other heathers because none genuinely want to be in the clique, both look to get out, but while Veronica actively wanted to get rid of Heather, Duke only wanted things to change magically and although Veronica at the begging also wanted things to change magically, when she had the opportunity to rely on someone who would carry the consequences for her, she started to take actions and Heather took benefit for that.

Heather Duke's change in the movie isn't that she wanted to replace in itself Heather, i mean she did, but it wasn't something she was going to actually do, she was actually happier just existing without Heather, it wasn't until the movie made JD blackmail her and gaslight her to think she could use her power to be Heather Chandler 2.0 that she actually did.

And even when she did become Heather Chandler 2.0 in the movie Heather Duke never does anything to directly damage Veronica, she goes mostly against Heather McNamara and with all her right, McNamara was part of the reason she was being abused, she not only did nothing to stop Chandler, but she contributed to that bullying and Heather was finally confident enough to do something about it, but even that she never damages Veronica, in fact she seems to hope for her to be proud? Like when she goes to Veronica to show her how she looks with Heather's scrunchie or how Heather goes towards Veronica constantly to tell her what she's done or how Heather wants so badly for Veronica to sign when she already has all the school, it's almost as if she hoped for Veronica's approval in all of this and genuinely didn't understand why Veronica was mad about it because in Heather Duke's eyes she was progressing, she was finally taking charge like she always wanted to, like Veronica probably told her to, to stop being under Heather Chandler's control even if the way Heather Duke did wasn't exactly the way because it wasn't 'till JD took advantage of her powerlessness that she started to instead of freeing herself she started to free the anger she had against Heather Chandler, McNamara and well the school.

But instead in the musical she's played as a bitch (not exactly that she is) that has no personality and has no other purpose, but to be hated because it's incredible how she's way more hated than a literal serial killer and two rapist.

In the movie Heather Duke is smart, she's logical, she's a bookworm, she's witty, she has an inner conflict similar to Veronica's, she has motivations and vulnerabilities.

In the musical she's just used to be the redemption for the men in this show so they can be shown in a more inocent light than they should.

(yeah i know it's been a month and I'm barely finishing this, but i did and i know i barley have readers for it, but for who ever wanted the second part here it is and it's not all, i already wrote what comes next part, but i haven't finished it and i though this was way more than last time so furthering it more would definitely take me too much time so anyway here i finished this part and next I'm gonna touch a bit of heavier parts and topics)

@thisismisogynoir

#heathers the musical #heathers1989 #heathers #veronica sawyer #jd heathers #jason dean #jd #JD #heather duke #heather mcnamara #heather chandler #heathers essay #1989 #writting #essays #movie analysis #this thing took me so much time to write

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