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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2014 6:46:56 GMT -5
Jumping the Shark is used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality, signaled by a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in an attempt to keep viewers' interest, and which taken as a sign of desperation.
So when did Charmed Jump the Shark? Vote above!
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Esmeralda
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Post by Esmeralda on Nov 21, 2014 8:17:48 GMT -5
The birth of a child is a typical "jump the shark" moment. And when the show was supposed to be about female power and men in the Warren line weren't supposed to have powers and here's Wyatt, the Twice-Blessed Child, with his very own prophecy that was never mentioned up to that point and who was more powerful than the most powerful witches in the world...well, that fits "a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in an attempt to keep viewers' interest" more than anything else.
Second on the list would be Shannen's leaving - a *very* typical "Jump the Shark" moment - the loss of a popular character - and Paige, who made having a whitelighter for a father more important that being a Charmed One, setting up Wyatt.
Third on my list would be Piper and Leo's wedding - another *very* typical "Jump the Shark" moment - even if most fans think that the show got better in quality after that, not worse.
I didn't find Cole's leaving as one, because he should've never come back in Season Five - if anything, introducing a demon who could love just because he had a mortal for a father was the first time the show jumped the shark - and fantasy creatures and stories had been used before, and I thought that after the horrible so-unCharmed darkness of S4, the lightness of S5 was needed to let the show have a chance to go back to being Charmed rather than "Buffy Lite". I think that had Cole not been a part of Season Five and had Wyatt been Prudence Melinda with only her mother's power of freezing and her father's power of orbing (with Paige's powers similar - it's that part of her that I find the "jumping the shark" part of Shannen leaving - turning the show from "Charmed" to "Witchlighter" as being part whitelighter became more important than being part Charmed), the show would not have gone down in quality, even with the "Disney" characters.
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Chris
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Post by Chris on Nov 21, 2014 12:02:37 GMT -5
I feel like they really jumped it right near the beginning of Season 5. The premiere I thought was awesome, and then they started going into the whole fairy tale stuff with the actual Fairy Tale episode, leprechauns, the wood nymphs,(which I know, they used this to create the Magical Community) and it didn't feel like Charmed anymore. I keep going back to compare it to Season 1-4 where they had one specific demon to vanquish and even though they did that in Season 5, it just didn't feel right to me. I don't know. There were good aspects of the fifth season like Jason Dean even though I'm sure some people would disagree with me. I think Jason was a big step for Phoebe, especially after Cole, but then they had to make him so freaked out about witchcraft(even after he witnessed so much like the Wood Nymphs), so the freak out as much as it was comical, I felt like it wasn't really necessary.
I just began to wonder what Charmed would have been like if it was just Elders - Whitelighters - Witches - Demons - Warlocks, because they really did have a great beginning, and I love Seasons 1-4, but I just keep looking at Season 5, and I always wonder: Why?
Although, I do think they did a little better in Season 6, especially when Chris came back from the future and they had that awesome episode Chris-Crossed.
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ljones
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Post by ljones on Nov 22, 2014 0:34:27 GMT -5
The ending of the Source storyline. It sucked due to its lack of continuity.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2014 20:10:08 GMT -5
Although I still enjoyed S5-8, it really jumped the shark when Season 5 started as they was no real focus for the show anymore. They'd vanquished the Source/Cole/the Seer, so there was nowhere else to go really, except babysitting King Wyatt.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2014 2:58:20 GMT -5
My feel is that Charmed unofficially jumped the shark when Prue died.
BUT
The writers actually did a really good job writing Paige into the show and ending the storyline with the Source (their destiny) in a fanatical way.
And we got a really high quality Season 4 overall!
However, the Season 5 Premier really says it all as far as Jumping the Shark 'officially' goes.
That was the point of no return.
Did we really only stick around for the one off high-quality episode like 'A Witch in Time' and mentions of the beloved Prue - in the hopes that somehow, someday we would see her again?
I guess Jumping the Shark for Charmed really is the point where its like....ok a character can die but...you can't bring this character back from the dead...not even with the Power of Three. I mean these guys were the 'Most Powerful Witches of All Time?' yet a witch practitioner like Aunt Gail can summon the likes of the demon Cryto?
Kern lost the plot...literally!
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Nimue
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Post by Nimue on Nov 23, 2014 5:52:38 GMT -5
I voted for the Season 5 premiere; Charmed did have fairies on the show, but they were always treated seriously, whereas in Season 5 it became something of a joke. The serious and slightly dark tone of the show was gone.
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Post by Darkhorse Christian on Nov 23, 2014 10:43:53 GMT -5
I'm gonna go with when Cole left the show, and not even because it was Cole leaving, but rather the way that whole saga was carried out. The first half of Season 5 tried so hard to ham-fistedly shove Cole into the role of stock villain as if to try to absolve Phoebe of all responsibility for how that ended, that it backfired and ultimately tarred Phoebe's heart as much as if not more than Cole's depth in the process. Then the second half after he was killed off seemed to float around with little purpose. I think that was when it became clear Charmed had lost much of its heart.
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Post by Melinda Halliwell on Nov 23, 2014 12:34:40 GMT -5
Season 5 definately. It was when the charmed ones cared more about themselves and their jobs than helping innocents and saving them, Paige quit her social worker job. Piper's baby was a boy not a girl and had way too many powers. Cole's charactered was butchered then. He should've stayed dead season 4 end or left season 5 premier. Phoebe became a celebrity overnight and stopped being loveable Phoebe and didn't learn anything from the previous year, We had ridiculous episodes like 'Lucky Charmed' and 'Nymphs Just Wanna Have Fun' plus ridiculous characters like fairy tales, Trolls and Leprechauns and then finally Leo been more of a lapdog than ever letting Piper tell him what to do instead of standing up for himself etc.
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Post by Chrisaholic on Nov 28, 2014 13:08:15 GMT -5
I can't choose with the moments above since I was mainly disappointed with S8!!
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Post by Melinda Halliwell on Nov 28, 2014 14:25:50 GMT -5
I can't choose with the moments above since I was mainly disappointed with S8!! Season 8 was my other least favourite season to.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 17:43:28 GMT -5
I just cast my vote. Season Five is when it Jumped the Shark for me.
Seems that most who voted here agree on that.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 17:57:02 GMT -5
Season 5 is where it's like a completely different show for me. Even with Prue gone and Paige introduced, season 4 still felt like Charmed to me (the first half especially). Season 5 was more like a glorified costume party, idiot fairy tale creatures all over the place...then Wyatt came along, super powerful before he even came out of the womb and protecting him was the new aim. The characters' egos inflated exponentially.
A lot happened in that one season to turn Charmed into something I hardly recognized anymore.
Someone I knew got into Charmed being repeated on TV, but they were showing really random episodes at different times. He saw a few season 1 episodes and some season 4 and really liked it. Then a season 5 episode was on... or was it season 6? Yeah I think might have been Prince Charmed...Anyway, he was like "what's this". I said "It's Charmed" to which he squinted at the screen, "Really?" If not for the Manor being shown a moment later, he might still have needed convincing. Piper was the only sister he instantly recognised.
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Esmeralda
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Post by Esmeralda on Jul 7, 2015 20:56:26 GMT -5
Season 5 is where it's like a completely different show for me. Even with Prue gone and Paige introduced, season 4 still felt like Charmed to me (the first half especially). Season 5 was more like a glorified costume party, idiot fairy tale creatures all over the place...then Wyatt came along, super powerful before he even came out of the womb and protecting him was the new aim. The characters' egos inflated exponentially. A lot happened in that one season to turn Charmed into something I hardly recognized anymore. Someone I knew got into Charmed being repeated on TV, but they were showing really random episodes at different times. He saw a few season 1 episodes and some season 4 and really liked it. Then a season 5 episode was on... or was it season 6? Yeah I think might have been Prince Charmed...Anyway, he was like "what's this". I said "It's Charmed" to which he squinted at the screen, "Really?" If not for the Manor being shown a moment later, he might still have needed convincing. Piper was the only sister he instantly recognised. That tells you plenty!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 23:33:09 GMT -5
Interesting to note that Season Five was:
1. The first season that Constance Burge no longer had any involvement with the show.
2. Alyssa and Holly became producers.
And many feel that this is the season where it all went wrong. Draw your own conclusions.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 7:44:48 GMT -5
Interesting to note that Season Five was: 1. The first season that Constance Burge no longer had any involvement with the show. 2. Alyssa and Holly became producers. And many feel that this is the season where it all went wrong. Draw your own conclusions. I totally agree with you. I reflect back on Charmed and feel sad sometimes. There was some sort of complacency or cockiness whereby the cast/crew/exec were living off the goodwill of the fans and the credibility that Constance M Burge and others created in the first 3 seasons. And I mean, this was well received when Season 4/Paige came along. I think Charmed bypassed 'Jumping the Shark' after Prue's death namely because of the consistency and attention to detail it worked very hard on - in finding a loophole for the the 'Power of Three' crisis that needed to save the show - while (maybe prematurely but still entertainingly) executing the Charmed One's destiny in vanquishing the Source of All Evil over an amazing story-arc that lasted the entire season. (IM TAKING A BREATH as I TYPE) So the writers, the film crew and solid acting performances from Holly Marie Combs and Julian McMahon throughout all of Season 4 and Alyssa Milano toward the end of Season 4, really did, in my mind save the show. The one thing I was disappointed about in Season 4 was Phoebes reaction to Prue's death. In a way, here is where we started to see Phoebe's character change for the worst. Apart from the 'You think it's my fault Prue died, you should just admit it' line in 4x02 Hell Hath No Fury - this is the last time we really hear about Phoebe's guilt or sense of loss over Prue's death. However, like a lot of people do with grief, they move their mind away from the doom and gloom and try on focus on the good things in their life - which were at the time - helping Paige fit in (which I think worked well in the Beginning of Season 4) and progressing things for Cole - which ultimately screwed her up and scarred her for the following 4+ years. Changing the Sister Order was interesting but never as good as the original line up. Piper became the oldest and the show didn't have the same kind of Star Power it did when Shannen Doherty rolled out first in the opening credits. Shannen gave the show some sort of credibility and totally channelled the Girl Power of the 90's to represent Strong, Independent, Successful, Adaptable and the 'I don't need a man to succeed on my own' which I feel Charmed was, to a degree, all about - at least in the beginning. Of course, I think everyone could relate to the way Piper felt throughout the entire series - she seemed to be the most relatable and the 'shy and awkward' 'girl next door' we loved and probably tuned in until the end for. I think Rose McGowan did the best she could given the circumstances and her less then perfect TV acting ability (she's a film girl!). Paige's character addition was welcomed and her unique entry bought a new dynamic to the sisterhood theme. The show went from 3 sisters who grew up together in their ancestral home to 2 sisters who got on 'ok' and grew up together and another half sister who was adopted out wanting her own identity. All recipes for coolness - but the idea didn't execute very well thereafter. The introduction of Fairytales like Mermaids, Leprechauns, Cinderella, Nymphs, Dwarfs - I mean the F****ing 7 Dwarfs for heavens sake - was really the tipping points. That and the focus away from a quality show production to a production centred on costumes, cleavage and character ego-enlargement and/or destruction - as in the case of Cole was when Charmed, well...no longer was Charmed. Cole was the character the audience LOVED to HATE and his constant struggle between good and evil was so relatable to a mortal viewership who deal with morality issues on a day to day basis. BUT HE WAS INFECTED WITH THE SOURCES POWERS LADIES...AND HE SAVED YOUR ASS'S IN THE PROCESS - you accepted his evil half when you married him but you couldn't find anyway to save him and be happily every after - even after all the evil beings you've all turned into? - WHAT Hypocrites ! All these reasons along with Rose McGowans strange hair colour changes and faulty acting sequences from Season 5 onwards added to my disappointment. I continued watching in the hope that Prue's name would be mentioned, to see if she would actually come back and to see where it all would (horribly) end up. At the end of the series, the lessons learnt from the show were that success and happiness in life means double standards on your values for yourself, to disrespect the craft and the Wiccan way of life - of which many people practice in the world and that in order reach maximum fulfilment - you need a man to fill a void that can't ever be filled by just being a loving mother, hard worker or good samaritan. There are a handful of episodes I actually like from Season 5. None from Season 6 really. Season 7 seemed as if they had some good ideas but they were cruddyly execution. Oh the Avatars and Utopia! And Season 8 - Well it was a completely different show by then. It was Desperate Housewives/Sex and the City/Sabrina/Whatever the Network wanted them to be to attract what they thought would bring in amazing ratings including adding a comedic actress (not dramatic) into the fold at a last attempt to revive what was too far from bringing back to life and completely passed the time it was born into - you could even say Pre 2001/Post 2001 Ahhh - that felt better. Hope you don't mind my rant. What are your thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 13:41:42 GMT -5
I totally agree with you. I reflect back on Charmed and feel sad sometimes. There was some sort of complacency or cockiness whereby the cast/crew/exec were living off the goodwill of the fans and the credibility that Constance M Burge and others created in the first 3 seasons. And I mean, this was well received when Season 4/Paige came along. I think Charmed bypassed 'Jumping the Shark' after Prue's death namely because of the consistency and attention to detail it worked very hard on - in finding a loophole for the the 'Power of Three' crisis that needed to save the show - while (maybe prematurely but still entertainingly) executing the Charmed One's destiny in vanquishing the Source of All Evil over an amazing story-arc that lasted the entire season. (IM TAKING A BREATH as I TYPE) So the writers, the film crew and solid acting performances from Holly Marie Combs and Julian McMahon throughout all of Season 4 and Alyssa Milano toward the end of Season 4, really did, in my mind save the show. The one thing I was disappointed about in Season 4 was Phoebes reaction to Prue's death. In a way, here is where we started to see Phoebe's character change for the worst. Apart from the 'You think it's my fault Prue died, you should just admit it' line in 4x02 Hell Hath No Fury - this is the last time we really hear about Phoebe's guilt or sense of loss over Prue's death. However, like a lot of people do with grief, they move their mind away from the doom and gloom and try on focus on the good things in their life - which were at the time - helping Paige fit in (which I think worked well in the Beginning of Season 4) and progressing things for Cole - which ultimately screwed her up and scarred her for the following 4+ years. Changing the Sister Order was interesting but never as good as the original line up. Piper became the oldest and the show didn't have the same kind of Star Power it did when Shannen Doherty rolled out first in the opening credits. Shannen gave the show some sort of credibility and totally channelled the Girl Power of the 90's to represent Strong, Independent, Successful, Adaptable and the 'I don't need a man to succeed on my own' which I feel Charmed was, to a degree, all about - at least in the beginning. Of course, I think everyone could relate to the way Piper felt throughout the entire series - she seemed to be the most relatable and the 'shy and awkward' 'girl next door' we loved and probably tuned in until the end for. I think Rose McGowan did the best she could given the circumstances and her less then perfect TV acting ability (she's a film girl!). Paige's character addition was welcomed and her unique entry bought a new dynamic to the sisterhood theme. The show went from 3 sisters who grew up together in their ancestral home to 2 sisters who got on 'ok' and grew up together and another half sister who was adopted out wanting her own identity. All recipes for coolness - but the idea didn't execute very well thereafter. The introduction of Fairytales like Mermaids, Leprechauns, Cinderella, Nymphs, Dwarfs - I mean the F****ing 7 Dwarfs for heavens sake - was really the tipping points. That and the focus away from a quality show production to a production centred on costumes, cleavage and character ego-enlargement and/or destruction - as in the case of Cole was when Charmed, well...no longer was Charmed. Cole was the character the audience LOVED to HATE and his constant struggle between good and evil was so relatable to a mortal viewership who deal with morality issues on a day to day basis. BUT HE WAS INFECTED WITH THE SOURCES POWERS LADIES...AND HE SAVED YOUR behind'S IN THE PROCESS - you accepted his evil half when you married him but you couldn't find anyway to save him and be happily every after - even after all the evil beings you've all turned into? - WHAT Hypocrites ! All these reasons along with Rose McGowans strange hair colour changes and faulty acting sequences from Season 5 onwards added to my disappointment. I continued watching in the hope that Prue's name would be mentioned, to see if she would actually come back and to see where it all would (horribly) end up. At the end of the series, the lessons learnt from the show were that success and happiness in life means double standards on your values for yourself, to disrespect the craft and the Wiccan way of life - of which many people practice in the world and that in order reach maximum fulfilment - you need a man to fill a void that can't ever be filled by just being a loving mother, hard worker or good samaritan. There are a handful of episodes I actually like from Season 5. None from Season 6 really. Season 7 seemed as if they had some good ideas but they were cruddyly execution. Oh the Avatars and Utopia! And Season 8 - Well it was a completely different show by then. It was Desperate Housewives/Sex and the City/Sabrina/Whatever the Network wanted them to be to attract what they thought would bring in amazing ratings including adding a comedic actress (not dramatic) into the fold at a last attempt to revive what was too far from bringing back to life and completely passed the time it was born into - you could even say Pre 2001/Post 2001 Ahhh - that felt better. Hope you don't mind my rant. What are your thoughts? Stated pretty well, Mr. Milano. I think the biggest problem with Season 5 and onwards was that Kern & Co. struggled to find a new direction for the show after the vanquishing of the Source. The Season 5 renewal wasn't something he entirely expected to happen. The show's ratings collapsed in Season 4, putting the show at risk for cancellation, so he rushed through the Source story and tried to tie up any loose ends just in case. This meant that Kern was forced to enter Season 5 without a plan, and it showed. Badly. In Season 6, Charmed found a potential savior in Chris and his storyline. Many fans found his character intriguing and in the first half of the season, the ratings shot up to the highest they had ever been since Prue died. However, the popularity of Chris clearly came out of left field for Kern and he didn't really have a solid, long-term plan on what to do with the character, so the storyline suffered from being horribly rushed and inconsistent. Even worse, the same fairytale/Freebie filler that killed Season 5 was still there in Season 6, and it did nothing but steal screentime that could've otherwise gone to developing Chris and his story. Season 7 was a mixed bag. The Avatar nonsense from the first half of the season was boring and terribly-written, dragging out forever and having one of the worst, most anticlimactic endings ever. However, the second half of the season was pretty solid, and Zankou was the best villain the show had in a LONG time. "Something Wicca This Way Goes" would've made an excellent finale for the show. Season 8, on the other hand, should've never happened. While there was some good to be found in the Billie & Christy storyline (they were ultimately innocents in need of saving), the entire thing was handled VERY badly, and the finale was just a gigantic piece of dogshit. What a way to go out!
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Post by adzpower on Jul 8, 2015 15:23:29 GMT -5
The magical creatures were it for me, Prue's death and Paige's addition never bothered me because at that point the show was still fantastic, Season 4 is excellent. And season 5 still has some entertaining moments, but the creatures were too much.
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Esmeralda
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Post by Esmeralda on Jul 10, 2015 9:21:29 GMT -5
Decided to copy this post of mine from earlier because it still shows why Wyatt's birth was so much when Charmed permanently jumped the shark: It isn't about sexual equality. Sexism has nothing to do with Charmed, it was never about women being the stronger sex. Charmed was about "girl power" which is a completely different matter, the series represented a new age of women, one doesn't see them all as powerless damsals. The fact that Wyatt was born was more of a rude two finger towards Burges' era and the rootes she had set down for the series. The first three seasons stated numerous times that only females in the Warren line could be witches, it didn't say only females can be witches. There was Max, Kevin, Paige's speedy charge that I can't remember the name of etc... It was simply something that made the Warren's special and unique. I don't think it actually said that only female Warrens could be witches...just that they were the only ones with *powers*. Grams' brother was a witch, but he didn't have powers. The Warren powers were only for females, with emphasis on WARREN powers. That's what Melinda Warren had foreseen. I agree that Wyatt being a male who was more powerful than the Charmed Ones--the whole Twice-Blessed Child crap which totally took away the idea of the Charmed Ones--was definitely the middle-finger to Burge's mythology. And, yes, it was definitely mythology. But like Superman or Batman or any other superhero, it was fun mythology as long as it was consistent so the viewer could be convinced that it was real. For Kern to continue the show but go totally against said mythology is why there were so many inconsistencies in the show, and each time one of those inconsistencies came up, it would jerk the viewer right out of said fantasy world. That's why supernatural/fantasy shows have to be even more consistent than "real" shows. It's why I loved Burge's seasons when the good people were good and the bad were bad and never the twain shall meet unless you were under a spell. Real-life-like? Of course not. But fantasy - and escapist fantasy at that - oh, yes, and that's when I personally loved Charmed best, the same way as I love Superman or Batman or Spiderman or any other supernatural fantasy show you can think of. The emphasis is on the word "FANTASY". I know it's not real, but it lets me forget the real world for an hour. That's what fantasy does at its best. This is why despite all of its problems - and in some cases, thanks to them, since it's those problems that have inspired my favorite Charmed fanfics - after all of these years, when Charmed is at its best (those episodes I count as "A's" along with Season 9 and those fanfics), it's still my guilty pleasure.
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Post by West on Jul 10, 2015 20:40:05 GMT -5
Season 5, when the charmed mythology completely changed to become a tv show that is like a completely different show, which just uses the names of the original series from season 1 to 4.
I hated how the show changed its mythology, and started introducing magical creatures and beings, having the charmed ones turn into something every other week, or use greek mythology. I'm not a fan when a tv show goes so against its own canon.
Magical beings like they were used in Once Upon a Time was the best, that they were mysterious and you cant see them. When the Elders were an unseen force known as them or they. When The Source was mysterious, and he was only seen in the underworld as a hooded red figure with wings, not the demon of the week half faced source in season 4.
The biggest issue for me was how much they changed the rules and mythology, and when the sisters started to care less about innocents and more about family life. Poping out children didn't help, and I hate the twice blessed child.
But when it jumped the shark, it started in season 3, when the first signs of changes occurred with Phoebe putting Cole above her sisters, Kern rewriting the founders/them into elders and having Piper and Leo marry so quickly, but it was so out in your face by the time season 5 occurs.
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