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alt title(s): ptitlenhv310a8odku
Minsc and Boo, series mascot(s)
"Ok, I've just about had my FILL of riddle asking, quest assigning, insult throwing, pun hurling, hostage taking, iron mongering, smart arsed fools, freaks, and felons that continually test my will, mettle, strength, intelligence, and most of all, patience! If you've got a straight answer ANYWHERE in that bent little head of yours, I want to hear it pretty damn quick or I'm going to take a large blunt object roughly the size of Elminster AND his hat, and stuff it lengthwise into a crevice of your being so seldom seen that even the denizens of the nine hells themselves wouldn't touch it with a twenty-foot rusty halberd! Have I MADE myself perfectly CLEAR?!"
This is silly! Buttons are not how one escapes dungeons! I would smash the button and rain beatings liberally down on the wizard for playing such a trick!
—Minsc
Baldur's Gate is a Role Playing Game series in a High Fantasy setting, using the second-edition ruleset of Advanced Dungeons And Dragons. It was developed by Bio Ware with Black Isle Studios, published by Interplay Entertainment, and includes:
- Baldur's Gate (1998)
- Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)
- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)
- Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001)
The original game and its Expansion Pack, TotSC, are set along the Sword Coast of Faerűn between the titular city and the borderlands of the nation of Amn. The sequel, Shadows of Amn takes place largely in Amn itself, in and around the capital of Athkatla, and its Expansion Pack Throne of Bhaal moved the plot further south to the northern border of Tethyr.
The plot centers around the hero (named and designed by the player), who is regularly pursued due to power granted by a Mysterious Parent: Some want those abilities for themselves, others are simply fearful of what the hero may become because they know With Great Power Comes Great Insanity. The first game centers around the hero learning about the powers and their source; the second deals with the consequences and choices that come with that power and knowledge.
The series is best known for its memorable selection of sidekicks, which your hero can have up to five of at any time. All have distinct, if sometimes simple, personalities and backstories, and most will drag you into at least one sidequest unique to them if they stay on your team long enough. Especially in the sequel, they also have a tendency to make comments or suggestions about the current situation, or interact with each other positively or negatively.
Its engine and successors were also used for the Icewind Dale series and Planescape: Torment. Since Interplay's license from WotC for AD&D ran out except for the Baldur's Gate franchise, Interplay made two unrelated AD&D-based games with the “Baldur's Gate” moniker: The console exclusive Gauntlet-alike Dark Alliance series, and The Black Hound (codenamed “Project Jefferson,”) a cancelled game that was actually going to be sold as Baldur's Gate III (one of the original creators apparently intends to complete it in the form of a module for NWN2, which he also worked on.)
The character sheet is under construction
Tropes:
- Adventure Couple (Khalid and Jaheira, Dynaheir and Minsc)
- The Player Character can have this relationship with several of his/her party members. Including the love interests.
- A God Am I (Amelissan) is quite arguably the living definition of this trope. Also the Player Character can engage in this behavior. Oh, and Sarevok...and Irenicus.
- All There In The Manual (As far as game mechanics go, that is; most of the Baldur's Gate II manual is essentially a reprint of the AD&D 2nd. Ed. Player's Handbook.)
- Angry Black Man (Valygar Corthala doesn't take your shit.)
- Anything That Moves (Bhaal takes this trope to its logical extreme and for all the implications that follow. Let it be known that the Lord of Murder does not discriminate in this regard. See Shapeshifting Squick.)
- Well, at least they were all alive and capable of sexual reproduction, but that's about all the discretion he showed. He must have slept with every living creature this side of mustard jellies.
- Apologetic Attacker (Aerie)
- Artifact Title (Baldur's Gate isn't visited at all in the second game.)
- Awesome But Impractical (High-level backstabbing, especially the Assassin's x7 backstab. Dealing the damage cap (1048 damage) with a single hit? Awesome. Knowing that everything in the game at the point you get it is either immune to backstab or can be killed twice as fast by your mage or fighter without placing your rogue in the middle of a Charlie Foxtrot? Makes it considerably less so.)
- Awesome But Practical (...Fortunately, high-level rogues get their revenge with the traps. The blatantly imbalanced spike trap deals 20d10 damage and its damage cannot be dodged, saved against or blocked in any way. Six of them will kill the game's toughest Bonus Boss in one shot, and a high-level rogue can get another use per day for every level he or she gains.)
- Bag Of Spilling (Baldur's Gate 2; justified by getting captured between games. You get to keep all your skills, though.)
- Averted between Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. If you start from Throne of Bhaal instead of importing, you start with a lot of good stuff (though not all of the best stuff).
- Battle Couple (Khalid and Jaheira; potentially you and your chosen partner.)
- The Berserker (Minsc and Korgan, although neither of them brood much over it.)
- Minsc embraces it, since it is the most honorable profession for men from Rasheman.
- Boisterous Bruiser (Minsc and Korgan.)
- Bonus Boss (Aec'Letec in Tales of the Sword Coast, Kangaxx in Baldur's Gate II, and Demogorgon in Throne of Bhaal. To a lesser extent, all the Dragons in Baldur's Gate II—but not Throne of Bhaal.)
- Bonus Dungeon (Durlag's Tower in Tales of the Sword Coast and Watcher's Keep in Throne of Bhaal.)
- Bonus Level Of Hell
- Break The Cutie (Imoen gets more serious between games due to this trope. Also, that wraith who impersonates Gorion will break down your lover.)
- Broken Bird (Viconia)
- Broken Bridge (the city of Baldur's Gate is closed off until you solve the ore problem—it's even an actual bridge, the Serpent's Causeway.)
- Cain And Abel (played straight in BG1, then played with for all it's worth in Throne of Bhaal, which is more like 'Cain and Cain and Cain and Cain and Cain and Abel.)
- ...Only with Abel murdering all the Cains. And going on to become God. ... Maybe.
- Burn The Witch
- The Call Knows Where You Live
- Cant Argue With Elves (Subverted; you can. And if you don't, Valygar will. And if he doesn't...well, let's just say the elves deserve to be argued with this time around.)
- Character Alignment (It's a Dungeons And Dragons-based game. Derp?)
- Character Development
- Clown Car Grave (Due to game mechanics, zombies, mummies, and others can endlessly spawn at times. Of course, sometimes it actually makes sense—a city old enough to have catacombs might well build a graveyard over the old graveyard.)
- Cloudcuckoolander (Minsc relies very heavily on Boo, his "Miniature Giant Space Hamster", for advice. The hamster's advice, as related to the PC by Minsc, actually works at least once. Of course, using his insanity to get committed to an asylum is handy too.)
- It's worth pointing out that Giant Space Hamsters do actually exist in the game's cosmology. Spelljammer is part of the same multiverse as Baldur's Gate and contains such hamsters, and shrinking spells do exist. In fact, Miniature Giant Space Hamsters are a genuinely known to exist variant (one of dozens) of your basic Giant Space Hamster. Of course there's no way to tell the difference between a Miniature Giant Space Hamster and a plain old hamster.
- It's also worth noting that using Minsc to get into the asylum shows that Minsc is GenreSavvy...or WrongGenreSavvy, as the case might be.
- Complete Monster (Neb, the child killer, who even sends the ghosts of his victims to attack you while he tries to run away.)
- Cool Old Guy (Keldorn, sorta)
- Crazy Awesome (Minsc, all the way!)
- Cute Bruiser (Mazzy)
- Cut His Heart Out With A Spoon (Just see the quote at the top of the page.)
- Dangerously Genre Savvy (Irenicus. "No, you'll warrant no villain's exposition from me.")
- Dead Man Writing (Gorion writes such a letter)
- Deadpan Snarker (Most evil party members; the protagonist can be pretty sarcastic in the first game as well)
- Demonic Spider (Beholders and Mind Flayers.)
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu (The Bonus Boss battle against Demogorgon, the D&D multiverse's most powerful Demon Lord in a straight fight. Amellissan also counts, seeing as how she was almost 99.99% the Goddess of Murder by the time you fought her.
- Considering that the remaining .01% of Murder God is the Player Character, any 'normal' monster that manages to kill you might also qualify.
- Does Not Like Men (Shar-Teel. Given the nature of her father, it's not a big surprise.)
- Doom Magnet (The protagonist, and it's a major and recurring plot point. Xan seems to think everyone and everything is a Doom Magnet.)
- Draco In Leather Pants (Edwin is the poster child for this in the modding community.)
- The Dragon (Bodhi for Irenicus in Shadows of Amn. Draconis for Abazigal in Throne of Bhaal. Unmodded, Draconis can often be more difficult than Abazigal.)
- Dropped A Bridge On Him (Several party members from the first game turn up dead in rather anti-climactic fashion. Inverted when, due to the open nature of the games, several characters who should (If you got them killed) be dead after the first game can still show up for a cameo in the second. Lampshaded when the PC can actually ask them 'Didn't you die?' This is in fact perfectly reasonable in a D&D world.)
- The Eeyore (Xan)
- Empty Room Psych (Averted.)
- Enemy Chatter (Several scripted encounters which may or may not end in a fight.)
- Evil Is Petty (Ye gods, has this series got a lot of this.)
- Evil Pays Better (Not by a long shot. Good characters get more XP, more rare artifacts, lower shop prices, no bounty hunter chases, and a larger selection of party members. About the only advantage evil gets is that the evil NP Cs you can add to your party are better specialists—Korgan (later Sarevok is the best fighter), Viconia is the best cleric, and Edwin isthe best mage.)
- Evil Sorcerer (Jon Irenicus.)
- Expansion Pack (along with the two official packs, this series has a large community of amateur modders)
- Fantastic Racism (Having the dark elf Viconia on your team will lower your reputation. Keldorn, who's usually quite fair and level-headed, hates her just because of her race, and will eventually try to kill her if they both remain in the team for too long.)
- Feed Me (Those Big Bads loves their scenery-chewing evil speeches, indeed they do.)
- Fetch Quest (Most of them optional, thankfully.)
- Final Boss Preview
- Five Man Band (It's not immediately obvious, but the persons you end up with escaping from Irenicus' dungeon count. Your player character is The Hero, Jaheira The Lancer, Minsc is The Big Guy, Yoshimo The Smart Guy, Imoen is The Chick, and don't forget Boo as the Team Pet.)
- Game Breaker (Quite a lot, if you know what you're doing.)
- Game Mod (Many, many mods, ranging from adding characters with banters to whole quests to making certain bosses harder and smarter. A notable one is the Ascension mod, which adds many things to Throne of Bhaal.)
- Gender Bender (Anybody - there's a certain enchanted girdle to be found in the game - but Edwin in particular, as he actually has a subplot that uses a method unique to his story.)
- Genre Savvy (Cyric, the God of Madness, bizarrely enough. He has a private chat with the main character in a relatively human form for an avatar. In a But Thou Must moment, you call him out on this, where he responds with something along the lines of "what, I have to have some grisly form like the Slayer (Bhaal's avatar which the protagonist can turn into), some booming voice from the clouds or a puff of smoke?")
- Give Me Your Inventory Item (Branwen in Baldur's Gate)
- Gladiator Revolt
- Goddamned Bats (Bow-toting Bandits the first game if you embark on that quest early enough. Vampires in the second one. We hates the level drainers, yes we does.)
- Good Bad Bug (The 'talk-fight' bug. Keep trying to initiate dialogue with a non-hostile character without ever actually talking to them and they won't go hostile... Even as the remaining five members of the party are tearing them a new one. Only works on some very specific characters, however.)
- This bug can also be used on certain quest characters, allowing for multiple quest reward returns (mainly EXP).
- Another bug can have you have an absurd amount of gems. You can use this bug to sell the gems as early as Chapter 2, making you filthy rich.
- Gondor Calls For Aid (Attacking Bodhi's guild in Baldur's Gate II.)
- Grand Finale (Throne of Bhaal.)
- Grid Inventory (Inverted; the sizes of the objects do not matter, but their weights do.)
- Hand In The Hole
- Hannibal Lecture (You get LOTS of these. Mostly from your Enemy Within.)
- Heel Face Turn (Sarevok in Throne Of Bhaal and potentially Viconia if she's the main character's love interest.)
- Hello Insert Name Here
- Heroic Sociopath (Korgan.)
- I Can Rule Alone (Amelyssan)
- I Have A Family
- I Want To Be A Real Man (Anomen.)
- Improbable Power Discrepancy (The Amnish guards in Baldur's Gate 2 are incredibly more powerful than the Baldur's Gate guards in Baldur's Gate, so much so that if the power discrepancy were "real" instead of merely game mechanics (to compensate for higher-level player characters), the Amnish could simply march their supermen up to Baldur's Gate and conquer the country within days. And then there's the Tethyrian and Calishite legions and mercenaries in Throne of Bhaal, whose rank-and-file footmen carry +3 magical weapons.)
- Item Crafting
- It Was His Sled The Player Character is a child of Bhaal. The series is even informally referred to by many, including some of its creators, as "The Bhaalspawn Saga", for crying out loud.
- Jerkass (Anomen, and many evil party members.)
- There's also the Player Character if you play evil. In fact, most non-evil characters will leave you if you become too much of a jerk... At least in ways the Karma Meter can detect.
- Karma Meter (The reputation level. Unfortunately, you recieve a significant bonus for a high reputation and serious penalties for a very low one, so it ends up being in the best interests of even the most psychotically evil of player characters to end up being a Villain With Good Publicity.)
- Kleptomaniac Hero
- Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid (Anomen and Keldorn in Baldur's Gate 2. Anomen plays the trope straight, being so smug and inflexible that his knightly status is at risk. In contrast, Keldorn subverts the trope awesomely, managing to be righteous in almost every sense of the word. But even he has his flaws; just ask Viconia.
- Lady Of War (Jaheira)
- Large Ham (Minsc, and probably also
Korgan almost everyone else.)
Mincs: Make way, villainy! HERO coming through!
- Like Brother And Sister (The main character (if male) and Imoen). It's revealedThey are actually half-siblings
- Literal Genie (in Baldur's Gate 2; limited wish spell, and indeed the wish spell)
- Loads And Loads Of Characters (... and plenty of them can join your party. Each one has a different, interesting personality - the number of possible banters which can take place between your various buddies in Baldur's Gate 2 is astounding)
- Lord British Postulate
- Lost Forever (The heads of the Flail of Ages from BG 2 could be fairly easily missed, and some of the romance plots could also be lost pretty easily.)
- The same goes for every unique item in every other area which you can't reenter past a certain point, as well as some other items. This is especially annoying in case of the pieces of certain artifacts. Didn't pay quite full attention in the very first dungeon, and missed a specific jewel? No Equalizer for you. Missed an item in a hidden area in the spellhold dungeon? Forget about ever completing the Gesen Bow. Made the mistake of actually giving a snobby artist the alloy he asked for, instead of taking it to the smith to upgrade that Mace of Disruption? You'll never get the upgrade. Avoiding all of these is well inside Guide Dang It territory.
- Lovable Traitor (Saemon Havarian)
- Arguably (Yoshimo) might also fit into that trope.
- Love Redeems (The player character can convince Viconia to go from Neutral Evil to True Neutral if she's being romanced.)
- Luke I Am Your Father
- The Mole (Yoshimo in Baldur's Gate II)
- Malevolent Architecture
- Memetic Mutation: "Go for the eyes, Boo!"
- Miles Gloriosus (Semi-subverted with Anomen Delryn—he's really quite capable in a fight—he just brags that he's even better than he is.
- Most Annoying Sound ("You must gather your party before venturing forth. You must gather your party before venturing forth. You must...")
- Mugging The Monster (Random bandits will gleefully attack you in the wilderness or sometimes even in the middle of a city. At the beginning of the first game, when you're a staff-wielding weakling in leather, this is understandable. By the second game, when you're carrying a sword that glows like the sun, wearing the skin of a dragon that you killed yourself, and are surrounded by five other, similarly outfitted people...)
- Multiple Endings
- The Munchausen (Jan Jansen)
- Murder The Hypotenuse (Haer'Dalis will do try and do this to you if you romance Aerie with him in your party and your relationship with Aerie isn't yet solid when you get him. If you have solidified your romance with Aerie, he gracefully backs down.
- Mysterious Parent
- The Napoleon (played straight with Korgan, subverted with Mazzy.)
- Necromantic (Bassilus)
- Never Got To Say Goodbye (the protagonist)
- Now Where Was I Going Again (check your journal and find out, duh)
- The Obi Wan (Gorion)
- Old Save Bonus (A Tales of the Sword Coast player can import a higher-level hero than normal into Baldur's Gate II. Also, pantaloons.)
- Overly Long Gag: "Are you gonna throw rocks at me?" "What about now?" "What about now?" "What about now?" Repeat about 20 times. Appropriately enough, the person saying this is named Noober....
- Slightly shorter example with Neeber in the sequel.
- Pausable Realtime (probably the Trope Codifier for many games)
- Perky Goth (Haer'Dalis is a doomguard — basically a Nietzsche Wannabe who is happy about knowing that the universe is pointless and everything will inevitably rot and die.)
- Pixel Hunt (Baldur's Gate I plays this straight: some of the best equipment or a ton of money could be had early on if you knew what pixel to click on. Totally averted in Baldur's Gate II: tap the "tab" key, and every item and hiding place on the screen will be highlighted. Then came the mod that allowed the first game to use the second game's engine...)
- Plotline Death (Gorion in Baldur's Gate, Yoshimo in Baldur's Gate II)
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner (loads of them)
- Purely Aesthetic Gender (save for the romances, dialogue and certain people hitting on you harmlessly)
- Rant Inducing Slight (see quote on top of the page)
- Rebellious Princess (Nalia. Nobility instead of royalty, but the principle is the same.)
- Relationship Values (the romances in Baldur's Gate II)
- Rescued From The Scrappy Heap (Some people view one of the resolutions of Anomen's quest as doing this for him. Most feel Aerie is rescued when Throne of Bhaal rolls around.)
- The Reveal (several)
- Road Cone (Done to a depressing extreme in the sequel. The game dialogue and set-up tells you exactly who you travelled with - Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir and Imoen - and tells you exactly how you behaved - heroically. Needless to say, rationalizing what you are shown and told in the intro level was very difficult if you were playing a Chaotic Evil Priest of Talos. Unless, of course, you're Dangerously Genre Savvy, and your character wants to be a Villain With Good Publicity.)
- Scary Black Man (Sarevok, though his race isn't made clear until Throne Of Bhaal gives him a badass new portrait)
- The Scrappy (Anomen and Aerie are two very "popular" candidates for this position, but most of the characters will have at least a few people who hate their guts. It all comes down to individual preference.)
- Sdrawkcab Name (Koveras? Never heard of him.)
- You also encounter Nanoc the Barbarian in To B.
- Sheathe Your Sword (Needed in order to defeat The Beast under Athkathla )
- Sidekicks (lots to choose from, most of them very memorable)
- Sidequests (you can spend more time on these than the actual plot, easily)
- Shapeshifting Squick (The sheer range of creatures which show up claiming to be Bhaalspawn in ToB is... is... well, it raises some interesting questions about what the God of murder was doing while "walking the earth". Everything from humans to dragons to werechinchillas.)
- Considering that he foresaw his death while walking the earth and decided the best thing to do is sire as many kids as possible, to use their essence as a springboard back to life, it makes perfect sense.
- Werechinchillas, dude. It makes sense—the Chinchilla has some very strong points. The one near Yaga-Shura's Base may not have a particularly powerful offense, but it has a positively insane movement speed and is also (almost?) impossible to kill—but "perfect" sense is giving Bhaal too much credit.
- Smug Snake (Edwin)
- Somebody Elses Problem (Christ almighty the civilians of this world are lazy gits.)
- The Soulless ( Irenicus and Bodhi, and later the Player Character and Imoen.)
- Staff Chick (Aerie and Jaheira)
- Stop Poking Me
- Superpowered Evil Side (The "Slayer" form. Although it's a little lacking on the 'superpowered' thing, especially if you're not a melee class.)
- The Sword That Speaks (Lilarcor)
- Take Your Time
- Talking About Important Plot Points Is A Free Action (Sometimes Time Stands Still when dialogues happen. Sometimes it doesn't)
- Tear Jerker (The fates of Khalid, Yoshimo and Dynaheir. And Viconia, if the player is involved with her and chooses the "happy" ending.)
- There Can Be Only One (Sarevok's plan, and, essentially, the climactic scene of Throne of Bhaal)
- The Three Faces Of Eve
- Time Keeps On Slipping (not that it matters much)
- This Is Sparta
Minsc: "Evil, meet my sword! Sword! MEET! EVIL!!"
- Those Two Bad Guys (Xzar and Montaron)
- Tsundere (Viconia. In the words of the player character: "I am sick of you running hot and cold all the time, Viconia. Just leave me alone and I'll be happy!")
- Useless Useful Spell (A good chunk of those kill-everything-instantly spells at higher levels usually aren't going to kill much of anything worth wasting the spell slot for by the time you get them.)
- Vendor Trash
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon
- The War Sequence
- Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him (Inverted in the second game — when Irenicus captures you in Spellhold, he wants the party disposed of instantly, but Bodhi overrules him (without his knowledge and consent) and tries to have you executed in a way that will amuse her. Needless to say, it backfires and Irenicus is none too pleased.)
- Wide Eyed Idealist (Aerie and Nalia in Baldur's Gate II)
- With Friends Like These (Xzar and Montaron—to you and each other)
- The Woobie (Aerie is an attempt at this; most of the fanbase would argue it's a failed one.)
- World Of Ham (Minsc and Korgan mentioned earlier are just the very tip of the iceberg.)
- You Cant Go Home Again (Candlekeep)
- You Remind Me Of X (Sarevok: You remind me of myself...before I was slaughtered and cast into the Abyss.)
The Baldurs Gate novels include the following trope examples:
- Adaptation Decay
- Cassandra Truth (Xzar tells the others All There Is To Know About The Crying Game pretty much at the start. No-one believes him because he's insane. Of course, he also doesn't care, because he's insane.)
- Character Derailment (To the point where you wonder if the author of these novels has ever been in the same room as a copy of the game, much less played it.)
- One potential example would be making the Biggest Ham Of Them All turn into a dishwasher.
- Looking at the author's writing as a whole, he probably did look at the originals. He has simply failed in just about everything he tried in his writing (there are other examples mentioned below), including adapting the characters.
- Designated Hero (Abdel, the 'hero' (and I use the term loosely) of the novels, is not exactly a shining beacon of goodness. More specifically, he murders at least one person I can think of for no reason, steals another man's wife and then cheats on her with a vampire, and completely and utterly fails to actually save or help anyone, largely due to his own stupidity and lack of self-control. ...Actually, since the game allows you to create and play as a bastard of this magnitude, this is probably the closest the novelization ever got to being like the game. Or should I say 'the closest it would have gotten'?)
- Said character has a save file with a similar character included in Tales of the Sword Coast: While supposedly neutral good, he has a party of entirely evil characters.
- Die For Our Ship (Khalid. The hero first almost stabs him to death accidentally (Put that thing away before you put someone's eye out!), but the author chickens out from making it his fault, so he has Khalid infected with The Virus so he has to be put down. And, of course, he's made a complete and pointless jerk while he's alive.)
- Dis Continuity (What many fans consider the novels to be.)
- Everybodys Dead Dave (No one except for Gorion's ward makes it to the end of the trilogy alive.)
- Causing readers to wail, "No! Why did he not die?!"
- Fan Nickname ("Abduh", for the protagonist Abdel Adrian. Emphasis on the "duh".)
- Faux Action Girl (Jaheira. A particularly egregious case in that she doesn't even try to fight anyone almost ever.)
- Gorn
- Informed Ability (Jaheira is a tough warrior. And a druid. And Abdel Adrian is smart. *snrk*)
- Internet Backdraft (Try to defend, or in some case even mention, these novels on an Infinity Engine fansite and see how far that gets you. This can reach levels of The Scottish Trope for some of the most reactive communities.)
- Jerk Sue (Guess.)
- Narm
"Abdel became a paralyzed mass of white hot indignation, and he screamed loud enough to scare birds from trees miles away. A child in Candlekeep began to cry, and his parents didn't know why. A whale swimming past the rocky edges of the Sword Coast took note of the sound and formed a rumbling that gave the Sahuagin communities pause. A god, then another glanced down, but it was by sheer force of will Abdel made himself stand."
- Novelization (Well, obviously)
- So Bad Its Horrible
- Suddenly Sexuality (It turns out Imoen is actually into chicks.)
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