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elen-tari2 · 3 months

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Finally got around to rewatching episode 4 of TPs2 and I just have to vent about my next complaint about how the writers handled the Frank and Amy relationship. (My first complaint being about the scene where Frank ties her to a motel bed and tapes her mouth shut while he takes a nap, but never once tells her he has absolutely no intention of SA’ing her)

Look, I know a lot of people dislike Amy because she’s such an over the top, angsty, tough teen trope, but I give her a pass on most of her plot-forced obnoxiousness. But I just can’t let Frank off the hook.

You’re telling me Frank Castle heard a kid crying from whatever horrible experience traumatized her and he just… turned up the volume on a hockey game?

SHAME. WRITER SHAME. SHAAAAAME.

Literally. What. The. F *CK?

This scene was done all wrong. Frank is an asshole but he protects innocent people from getting hurt. In that moment, the bratty teen is alone, dropping her tough girl act, and hurting. For all that she is a little shit, he has already —willing or unwillingly—decided to protect her, even if he doesn’t care that much about her. But the moment she’s breaking down, he would care enough to at least check on her.

He doesn’t even have to say much of anything. Amy has locked herself in Madani’s bedroom, so he can’t go in. But he would go sit with his back against the door and just be like, “hey, kid. You okay?”

The result could have been a much softer scene with Frank listening from outside the room and Amy talking to him from her hiding place until she feels safe enough to go unlock the door or maybe just try sleeping IN the bed instead of under it.

Instead what we got was a weirdly broken up scene where eventually I guess Amy is sleeping so Frank locks her in and goes to visit Curtis and it’s only upon his return that Amy realizes she was locked in at all and freaks out? So she is panicking and berating him to never do that again to her because it was also traumatizing to feel trapped like that. Not okay, Frank. So instead they finally talk about what happened to Amy but she’s still on the defensive, and Frank is pretty aggressive with his questioning about Fiona’s gang.

Then we get the sharing of their truths broken up even more, as Frank goes to take a shower and Amy leaves and goes to a computer store to google Frank Castle’s name. (I guess that was a clever way to use the Internet but it feels totally random. Or like, go to a library or something??)

Then she comes back and is like oh wow they killed your whole family. We don’t even get shown Frank’s reaction to coming out of the shower and thinking the kid ran off. Did he care? Or was he just like ::shrug:: not my problem anymore I guess? Just risked my life for this kid but I was such a jerk, she didn’t want my help, oh well?

It just seemed unnecessary to make the conversation where she talks about what she survived and tells Frank her real name chopped up into different parts throughout the episode. There was a chance for her to be vulnerable and realize she was safe around Frank no matter what, and they missed it. She could still be a smart alec, just she would also know he wouldn’t be dismissive of the horrible murders she witnessed and how scary that would be for a young person.

Think about how supportive Frank was to the small town police force in episode 3? He is respectful, encouraging, and knows they’re in over their heads but it’s not their fault. It’s not Amy’s fault she got in over her head and she needed some f*cking comfort and reassurance, when she was CRYING. I’m not saying he’d have hugged her or told her everything would be ok. But he would be a good listener and know she didn’t deserve to go through it.

Honestly having a tiny moment like that and THEN getting into stuff like her pulling card tricks on Frank would have been much better. They’d be back to their banter, but be starting to build towards that found family feeling, like we see over the rest of the show.

Ug, this is making me want to write a fan fic fixit for that episode. But I’m just putting this out there for future Punisher writers— Get. It. Right. Next. Time.

Clear your female characters treatment with female viewers. I’m serious. You have the potential to be writing GREAT stories, but missteps like this where Frank is uncaring in the face of an innocent (if annoying) child’s suffering is a no. Just no.

#the punisher s2 missteps #frank castle #the punisher #amy bendix #jon bernthal #giorgia whigham #the punisher s2 #marvel #marvel writers #do better #Frank Castle respects women #feminist Frank Castle

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bunisher · 4 months

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frank castle, grief, corruption, choice, and the mess that is the punisher season 2

been having some thoughts, and in my opinion, the worst part about the punisher season 2 is that season 1 ends with this:

“You know as long as I was at war, I didn’t really think about what when it was over. I think that might the hardest part. The silence. The silence when the gunfire ends. How do you live in that? I guess that’s what you try to figure out, huh? That’s what you guys are doin’. You’re working on it. I respect that. I just… um… But when you’re gonna look at yourself, truly look in the mirror, you gotta—yeah, you gotta admit who you are, but not just to yourself, you gotta admit to everybody else. First time in long as I can remember, I don’t have a war to fight. I guess, if I’m gonna be honest, I just… I’m scared.”

….. and then they do absolutely nothing with it in season 2.

no, seriously, they do absolutely nothing with frank castle and his fear of sitting with the fact that he is alone, a widow, a childless father, with a new name and an entire life ahead of him. and i’m going to rant about it.

we leave S1 in group therapy. we pick up across the country, in michigan, in S2. he hooks up with a woman named beth while wearing his wedding ring on a chain next to his heart and getting ridden, playing house with her kid the next morning, and we as an audience are led to believe that frank castle, a man who daredevil rightly clocked a year ago as being unable to grieve, is able to do this with having no little to no difficult feelings. how much time has passed? not even two years. and then, while he is sitting at the bar, he finds another war to fight. as the season progresses he just decides after saying the above that this is who he is and who he has always been. he kills his ex best friend who could’ve helped him prevent everything and ships off the teenage girl he spent an entire season bonding with. he loses his one remaining friend and in the end, we see him tell madani that he’s already busy with his own stuff, and during none of that besides his talk with maria’s headstone does he reflect, despite them being his motivation for everything in S1.

except… he was thinking about after, and how he didn’t know how to have after. he was looking at himself in the mirror and fully admitting his fear to everyone. so what happened? frank was doing everything except trying to sitting in the grief, sit in the shit, and the silence. even him traveling is him doing something to distract himself, an act of avoidance, but it only serves as a plot device so that something else happens to him and he has to react. he’s just in the wrong place at the right time. the role of the punisher is again thrust upon him.

let me explain why i really feel this is due to the inability to write grief and why TPS2’s bad story and writing is a side effect of it. in every “superhero” movie in the mcu, death is simply a motivator for something, and they do it again in punisher season 2 after leaving us with the uncomfortableness that is the reality that vengeance will not solve grief. but instead of sitting with it, we have another death that desensitizes us as the audience once again and is used as a plot device. that’s literally how his and amy’s dynamic is introduced. he just reacts to everything around him, and yeah he could choose to not help, but he doesn’t. and as much as i love some gratuitous violence with punisher, damn would it have been to good to not just having something happening in his vicinity that causes him to react. to instead see the conscious choice of frank actively choosing to use his grief as something to continue his war until that’s all that he is, until it’s not even about his grief anymore.

his family’s death in the comics is framed as a tragedy even that just happens, and frank’s decision is to ignore the process of grieving, not go to the cops, and take matters into his own hands. by the time we meet frank in his first appearance, he isn’t even named. he is only known as punisher. the nmcu changes his origin into something that he has direct ties to, and similar but completely different to the comics, he ultimately, probably, could not have prevented their deaths because he didn’t have power or knowledge. it was him vs not only his former second family of the marines, but also the cia and elected officials such as reyes. yet, frank is the one who feels guilty and responsible, as if he could’ve prevented it, and we see this though his nightmares that people hate. to him, by just existing and his family choosing to love him, he feels he killed them. this is his own issue. he feels guilty for surviving when they did not, and chooses to stay alive in order to seek his revenge. this is the choice that leads him to cross paths with daredevil.

however, the context of the series in punisher season 1 also tries to go against the fact that it is not his fault and say that it actually is his fault, because frank is an unreliable narrator, and despite him being under the impression that what he was doing was completely legal and approved, he was somehow in the wrong and deserved to be punished for what an entire squad of people participated in. he even asked if it was and was lied to. and since he couldn’t have been behind the video because he was who pulled the trigger, the entire season drives into him taking accountability for what he perceives as his fault for his family’s deaths, and then because it wasn’t actually his fault, the government rewards him out of both fear and apology. and then what? we have no clue other than madani quitting and joining the cia with a chip on her shoulder because the report was changed so they could be protected. however, she still chooses to work for this system and uses her power in order to try and recruit frank, which he rejects because he does not want to do the pointing and shooting for someone else under orders like he did in operation cerberus and in war.

this is part of the problem. they don’t go into that and then proceed to refuse to go into grief or talk about who frank is besides that. the fatal flaw i believe mcu makes is that when they go with the idea of corruption, they also then proceed to place the issue onto individual characters. with DD S2&S3, we see that the ones who need to be put in prison are the ones enforcing it and getting away with crimes. schoonover is the blacksmith, reyes tried to kill frank in order to cover up her mistake, fisk uses the law to his advantage by manipulating people and holding leverage, by using his money as power. in TP S1 it is agent orange, who is revealed to be a part of the cia and comes from old money dating back to the first colonies in the usa, and he was funding cerberus with drugs, slipping right under homesec’s nose and when threatened with exposure, attempting to kill everyone to maintain his power. and while this theme of money and corruption is a good one, they fail to acknowledge that other characters like fisk or rawlins exist, and we as an audience have no idea about them simply because they’re not tied to our protagonists. just like reyes or the fbi agents or rawlins are tied to them, they are also characters that existed prior, and there are characters similar to them that exist after with no ties to them, or very loose ones that are still corrupt.

going back further, we see this with roxxon corp in daredevil S1. the old man with cancer who is fighting against the NDA who was being sued by the company because he shared information with his oncologist, and foggy is the one who suggests, “well he broke the contractual agreement.” matt on the other hand states that it isn’t okay, that maybe what the law says isn’t always right, that maybe they’re not fighting for the right side. but again there is this idea that it’s an individual problem instead of a systemic issue, and while they hold up a glaring light to it, ultimately the writers don’t really go into it. matt and foggy leave their old firm and then later matt and elektra fight the hand, killing the leaders, more individual characters.

and they do the same thing in TP, but worse because of how S2 is written as a follow-up. they ignore the corruption and ignore the grief. it would’ve been interesting to see a punisher who chooses to eliminate corruption like what was done to him in his fashion, aka, with a lot of murder. it would’ve been an interesting story for the first episode to show a frank castle who acknowledges his grief, acknowledges the silence, and basically says without saying that he can’t do that, that he’s making the choice to actively seek things out because he can’t handle the silence, because he is terrified of it. this would allow us as an audience get to see the lack of justification to others, that it’s wrong, that he is unleashing a war, but he justifies it because he nothing else to live for, and believes what he is doing is right since nobody else will and he has nothing else to lose. and it is, above all else, his choice to fight a war for innocent people that the law does not help.

we see in daredevil s2 that there are people who he effects (the boy who cries about his dad in the courtroom) and that not only does frank care about the impact he leaves to innocents, he does care about the lives of them as well. we see this TPS2 when he thinks he’s killed children, when he prioritizes saving the teen couple over killing billy at the carousel. these are morals that define what he does and serve as motivation for who his targets are, and they should be important. frank is a character in the comics that only maintains rapport with heroes because he cares about innocent people. he does not kill without reason. that’s how he maintains his status as an antihero. otherwise he wouldn’t be allowed to do what he does, he would be locked away by shield or the avengers or killed.

we see in certain issues that he goes after corrupt cops, politicians, high up enemies that think they’re safe because of money and power. nmcu tries to do this and then ends the series by killing gang members at the end of s2 after a whole story about corruption that couldn’t be solved any other way besides murder that was hidden by the govt. he started off killing the irish gang members and then ended with killing…? yeah. it only to put him back to where he started in s2 of daredevil. that’s right.

in my opinion, it falls flat because the whole thing ignores not only the source material (did y’all know amy is mentally disabled and her dad is a cop in the comics?) but also ignores what they did prior. all in order to lead to an underwhelming ending that could’ve left him in the same place as he was in season 1 if he had chose to keep going with his war. all of this is only part of the reason why the entirety of s2 doesn’t feel the same as s1. and it might be part of the reason frank sometimes hardly even feels like who we meet in that pawn shop in s2 of daredevil at times (ie: many people have pointed out him leaving That Guy in S2 was ooc and them going there was fairly pointless filler). we don’t have any character development or growth, and instead of him choosing to continue his cycle, he is more of a passive character besides his choice to go after people following the inciting incident. things happen and he reacts. he does not have an impact on the city at large or really outside of the people who are tied directly to him, situationally or by others. he does not become the lone wolf that he is foreshadowed to be after leaving micro and his family, he takes in amy for the entirety of the season, accepts curtis’ help despite it being reluctantly, and the only way his downward spiral is viewed is as someone who he has always been. he’s justified in his hunt for billy because it’s personal and frank’s mistake is seen as him leaving him alive, so again there’s this angle of guilt and the inability to grieve, but nothing is done. he unceremoniously kills billy and then everything is wrapped up. amy leaves, curtis leaves, frank is alone, and then he becomes all of the things we are supposed to think of him as off screen just so he can be brought back in DDBA.

so why even end that way in S1? why even have S2? idk. all i know is, i started S2 and stopped. i read up on it and know pretty much everything that happens, but it didn’t interest me then and doesn’t now. i worry a bit for how these topics are going to be written moving forward, and honestly i won’t even get into daredevil’s writing issues with grief, but i expect to see some form of loss in DDBA that’s brushed off either at the very end (like with elektra and father lantom) or at the beginning of the show so that there can be some action. because to prove my point, mcu was originally going to lead the show with foggy being killed off, pretending that karen doesn’t exist, and—what?

so, yeah. frank’s choice? that’s only a title of a song. corruption using money? it only matters in these instances and is not a problem in any other context. the law? the definition of good and moral and works for everyone. justice? will always prevail because everyone is equal under the law despite the amount of times we have seen otherwise. death? oh, it has to mean something and/or be a plot device for the protagonist. grief? doesn’t exist and can’t be shown on screen because it’s too real. i think mcu’s problem with this stuff is glaringly obvious in the storyline of punisher S2 despite the good set up of S1. i think it’s hinted towards in daredevil, not super bad in the defenders, but is pretty obvious if you look at mcu collectively. if you don’t believe me, here’s a video essay on catharsis and grief in regards to nwh that inspired this post. go give it some love if u can. it only has 3k views plus a couple hundred likes, but it is wonderfully made and helped put into words some things i wasn’t able to before.

#honestly i probably could write more but i definitely should not #/rant #frank castle #the punisher s2 #nmcu inspired #comics inspired #mcu inspired #nmcu daredevil #daredevil tv #the punisher #daredevil born again #ddba #ddba spoilers #grief writing #anti mcu #analysis #bun.txt

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garglyswoof · 5 months

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20 questions for fic writers

thanks @ninzied for the tag, this was fun!

How many works do you have on ao3? 18

What's your total ao3 word count? 115,767. i really need to port over a fic from ffn.

What fandoms do you write for? klaroline, kastle, kovacs x ortega (idk ship name)

Top five fics by kudos: oh this is surprising! Cold-brew (klaroline fae au), here's to the afterlife (klaroline mixed with some mayan crossing the veilness), We're the moth, we're the flame (klaroline smut), To cast a shadow (klaroline with native american mythos), You've got your stories all twisted up in mine (klaroline heist au)

Do you respond to comments? yes, unless i am having A Day

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? this kastle fic. i was so fucking pissed about tps2. i never posted it to ao3, probably because of the bitterness lol.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? any of my other fics have a good ending

Do you get hate on fics? not to my face

Do you write smut? i have, it's not the easiest for me that's for sure

Craziest crossover: uhhh nothing, though i would wager You've got your stories all twisted up in mine is ostensibly a 'Lies of Locke Lamora' fanfic in klaroline trappings

Have you ever had a fic stolen? no

Have you ever had a fic translated? no, these questions are for actual writers lmao

Have you ever co-written a fic before? you don't understand how badly i want to do a collaborative fic. i just think it would be fun.

All time favorite ship? eh? i kinda like them all equally

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? original!klaroline. needs an actual plot and a history degree i do not have.

What are your writing strengths? atmosphere

What are your writing weaknesses? actually writing lmfao

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? feels pretentious if i write it, fine if others do. ahhh gotta love self double-standards.

First fandom you wrote in? klaroline was my first.

Favorite fic you've written? i am not sure? there's something simple and as close to what i dreamed it to be in my kovacs x ortega fic. maybe that?

tagging some klaroline peeps to spread around @stars-and-darkness @kirythestitchwitch @morningstargirl666 @austennerdita2533 you guys will have a lot more to go off of!

#tag games #long post

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heidiamalia · 5 months

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20 questions for fic writers

thanks @ninzied <3!!

How many works do you have on ao3? 12

What's your total ao3 word count? 77,624

What fandoms do you write for? Kastle

Top five fics by kudos: Hidden Treasure - amy sets kastle on a road trip to florida Canvassed - frank gets some news /pre-tps2 theory Like The Wind - karen runs [right into frank]/daredevil s3 au The Blood In The Blue - the mermaid au Split Sutures - karen in hospital /pre-tps2 theory

Do you respond to comments? I do! always!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? ooh i dont think ive done one myself. closest i can think is the merm fic.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? pffff... all of them? maybe Hidden Treasure or Like The Wind.

Do you get hate on fics? immmmm not popular enough, i dont think. i've not encountered any, so i take that as luck.

Do you write smut? lolno. i am not that skilled sorryyy

Craziest crossover: ive not done a crossover, technically! its all within the nmcu between daredevil and punisher characters.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? i'm not aware if i ever did, no.

Have you ever had a fic translated? no, but i would never be opposed!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? i would not be brave enough haha.

All time favorite ship? on ao3 to write? bit limited there lolol kastle

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? - frank takes a holiday and dismantles a dogfighting ring. - parker as a cyborg!au with hardison&eliot as college roommates [leverage ot3] - caroline's life into the future before klaus is inevitably returned [tvd/to klaroline]

What are your writing strengths? ooph. character studies. building a moment.

What are your writing weaknesses? dialogue, probably? someone else tell me.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? if i were to involve another language its gotta be clear the reader understands i only speak one and i have done everything in my power to not JUST utilize google translate. but also to read other fics with another language involved, it helps if theres a footnote for clarity.

First fandom you wrote in? on ao3!!!! kastle. daredevil/the punisher NMCU sky high was the first fandom i wrote for.

Favorite fic you've written? Hidden Treasure! i'm still not sure how i managed some of those lines or where they came from.

#ao3 #kastle #tag game #writer asks #fanfic ask game

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goddamnitkastle · 2 years

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#kastle #kastlenetwork #kastle poll #mod post #polls #IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME TUMBLR #jfc that took like 84 years #Anyway #Time for some discourse #meganerinpoll #jon bernthal #deborah ann woll #Why everything is trademarked you asked look idk just go with it

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hermitw · 1 day

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Realized that I subconsciously believe

-sukuna taught Uraume sorcery, including RCT

-B.O.B from twin peaks inspired kenjaku. (Sukuna is Laura). The end of jjk might be like the end of tps2 - the mirror scene - idk man it feels right, I was CONVINCED there's foreshadowing that Gojo would become Sukuna's vessel too.

-kenjaku and Tengen are Sukuna's parents, or grandparents. I have a post about their relationships in the drafts, bc I should include receipts I guess.

They aren't rly hills that I would die on. Just things that... I found myself believing in on accident.

#This post is so stupid but I fear that if I go to sleep my dreams will just be momotetsu gameplay and I'd rather go into sleep debt #And I keep thinking about Sukuna and Megumi and Yorozu and how Sukuna wore a mask (Megumi) to face her (which is so real) but he also did th #That in the first place to maintain control over Megumi's body and in that way was perpetuating the cycle of abuse and. He had to face his #Past in order to do that and in the flashback all 4 of his eyes were dissociating in different directions #Day 44941 of crying over sukuna I fear #Ughhhhh #Jujutsu kaisen #Twin peaks #Laura Palmer #Sukuna #Kenjaku #Tengen #Uraume

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fortysevenswrites · 1 year

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

Tagged by @astarkey! Thanks!

Hopefully writing about this will give me the kick in the pants I’ve been looking for the last week to finish one of my current SK WIPs….😬😬😬

1 we don’t make the future, we just know it (pre-canon SethKate)

Look y’all, this came to me while I was in the shower and is cracky and absurd and one of the best things I’ve ever written. Two and a half years later and I’m still obsessed with this ridiculous little fic. It’s insane. It’s hilarious. It’s ALSO TECHNICALLY CANON. And I love it so much. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.

2 Good People, Bad Beer (post S3 SethKate)

Seth and Kate bonding over shitty beer and making out against the back of a car after surviving Matanzas, what more can you ask for? I re-read this one A Lot. It’s so good. I love it so much. Seth being dumb about them while Kate is sitting there super certain about them both is one of my favorite dynamics to write for them.

3 not the same (post TPS2/DDS3 Kastle)

Maria gets a pass out of the afterlife and uses it to browbeat her erstwhile husband into committing to get a better apartment and matchmaking him and Karen. Because of course she would. Maria Castle totally ships it, and it works because I said so and it’s not like anyone in the comics actually stays dead anyway.

4 watching over someone from afar (post TPS2 Kastle)

This was a BEHEMOTH inspired by a Sailor Moon quote and it’s such a delight. There’s nothing I love more than putting Karen together with the Lieberman family, and especially with Sarah. The dramatic scenes between Karen and Frank, especially the one right after Frank called David freaking out because he thought she was missing when she was really just snowed in at their house was just so much fun to write and it’s a beast of a fic but so much fun to go back to. Also fun to throw in those bits of Karen traumatizing Foggy on purpose.

5 There Is No Easy Way To Explain (post TPS1 Kastle)

“Karen, I know you kind of got thrown in to the whole paralegal thing, but did Matt and Foggy not teach you a thing about ethics? Specifically, the ethics of not sleeping with your client? Especially the clients on trial for almost forty fucking homicides.” - okay but like, this fic has some of the best one-liners I’ve ever written, and Marci’s POV is SUCH a fun sandbox to play around in. She’s just like..how do you LIVE and Karen’s like…hot marine with an eight-pack ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Honorable mentions, because I could not resist: what died didn’t stay dead (you’re alive, you’re alive in my head) SethKate, post S3 and Seth just does not understand how Kate is alive because he’s in awe of her, which, duh. Chapter 4 of The Strongest Stars one-shot RebelCaptain, Jyn and Cassian aren’t easy to write and this was just a fun bit of banter, It Often Rhymes Damerey takes a jaunt to Naboo and I choose not to care that Force Ghosts don’t work like that, Going Through The Unimaginable Damerey, post TLJ and they're all stuck on the Falcon and was just really fun to write, Three People, Two Reunions, One Room In Medical (RebelCaptain, post ANH - it’s a crime that Jyn and Leia never got to interact outside of some of the comic canon)

Tagging: @myletternevercame, @tuntematonkorppi, @the-restless-brook, @heidiamalia, @ninzied, @152glasslippers, @theputterer and basically anyone who wants to partake. Congratulations, consider yourselves tagged!

#tag game #fic recs

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