Jab’s Builds! (Beaker! Sam Eagle! Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by Jabroniville »

haha, awesome :).

And we're back! I was totally angsting for that, like, two hours when the site was down, lol.
BriarThrone
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by BriarThrone »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:37 am haha, awesome :).

And we're back! I was totally angsting for that, like, two hours when the site was down, lol.
Unsurprising. Pretty sure you love your thread about as much as the average parent loves her kid.
Jabroniville
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The Trolls

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

THE TROLLS:
-A curious addition to the story of Frozen are the Trolls, who are largely here for exposition, and one goofy song right before the final act. They're also one of the most-reviled parts of the movie, with even some big fans decrying how out-of-place and weird they are. It's very... glossed over, really. Some quickie exposition shows them as part of the legends of the kingdom (the King flips open a book and shows a Troll working on a guy with ice powers), and the eldest Troll (played by Ciaran Hinds, who played Julius Caesar on Rome) simply goes in and presents some info. From his words, we get that you can either be born with the powers, or cursed with them. He also shares the knowledge that a shot of ice to the HEART is more deadly than the head, which becomes important later. And then a mother Troll casually adopts young Kristoff & Sven. Like this is all two seconds of dialogue.

Trolls- Odd Exposition:
-Then we get the weird bit... "I recommend we remove ALL magic... even MEMORIES of Magic... just to be safe". But we never hear EXACTLY why. It's just kind of... there, because Anna needs to be clueless about it for the next act. And for the sisters to be kind of apart from each other. The secret helps with that. The removal of the memory apparently helps Anna be cured of the ice blast? Nobody ever explains this. And then he adds "Fear will be your enemy- you must learn to control it", with no additional information given other than an image of people attacking her. Not REALLY helpful... though technically, he's correct. This whole bit is fairly odd, and leads to the "PLOT HOLE!" argument from the movie's detractors. It's not REALLY a plot hole... but it's fairly unexplained stuff. Like they just hammer through all this exposition, alter things, and then don't explain why any of it just happened. We're just supposed to accept that Anna needed to be brainwashed into forgetting Elsa had powers, and to put some fear into the King & Elsa about her powers.

-Then the Trolls appear later on, with Kristoff having repeatedly suggested "I have friends" who are "love experts". This ludicrous statement is finally paid off when he begins talking to a field full of stones, making Anna & Olaf think he's COMPLETELY INSANE ("Anna, because I love you, I insist that you run"), until they finally reveal themselves. Then, they promptly ignore the seriousness of the plot (Anna's heart is now frozen) and simply assume that Kristoff & Anna are together, then singing a song trying to hook them up when they find out that's not so. Fixer Upper suggests that Kristoff is a bit of an oddball, but still worthwhile.

-Now... the song's not that great. Probably the weakest, most "thrown-in" song in the whole production. All in all, it really feels like those moments in Shakespeare where they throw in a jokey character right when things get their darkest- it lightens everything up, especially because IT GETS WORSE for the characters later. It's just some goofy song & dance from characters who don't show up for the rest of the movie. Though it provides SOME useful information- "love is a force both POWERFUL AND STRANGE!" gives away some of the story later on, and it gives us a lot of info about how weird a dude Kristoff is. They more or less embarrass him (his bathroom habits, his "thing with the reindeer" that's "a little outside of nature's laws", his constant odor), but suggest he still has worthwhile qualities. Anna's cute little "aw!" when they sing about his grumpiness being a cover for "his desperation for HUMAN HUGS!" is a nice bit. And when they deck out Anna in forest finery for the impromptu wedding, Kristoff actually gets the big "Woah!" moment where he realizes how beautiful Anna is (he's already started falling for her goofiness slowly). I think ultimately they needed SOMETHING here.

-However, in comes Grandpabbie Troll again, just as Anna falters and we get back to "serious". All we really get from this bit is that Anna's heart can only be thawed "by an act of TRUE LOVE!". Then the TROLLS start suggesting "True love's kiss", which sets the final act in motion, as Anna desperately heads back to Arendelle for Hans to kiss her, while Kristoff mourns this lost shot at love. In a neat bit, we never really find out whether or not that would WORK- it's just kind of what the Trolls say.

The Troll Situation:
-Ultimately, the Trolls come off strangely, and somewhat important to the story since they provide useful exposition and set the rest of the story in motion. But... they're kind of in this odd place. Like exposition is ALL they really do. It feels kind of like they were a much bigger part of a very different movie, where myth and legend were a bigger part of it (likely the early version of the story, where a big deal was made out of Elsa being "The Prophecy"). The big where one just casually adopts Kristoff & Sven is bizarre and so throwaway that you wonder what you're missing (Kristoff just suggests that they were all alone- you only see bits of this in Frozen Heart, where the two of them are struggling to keep up with the burly mountain men).

Post-Frozen Trolls: The trolls do not appear in Frozen Fever, nor Olaf's Frozen Adventure- it's really clear the writers just don't have much for them to do. MANY of the supporting comics & novels use them, however, frequently with a regular Troll child coming along for an adventure. For reasons of simplifying the production (ie. hiring adult-sized actors), the Broadway version replaces the Trolls with "Hidden Folk", also from Nordic folklore.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Elena! FROZEN!!! Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Shock wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:11 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:43 pm Hm, I feel I didn't use enough FanArt for Elsa's build. Here's some more:
And only one or two creepy ones. I'm proud of you :mrgreen:
Hey, I included shirtless, "treasure-trail-baring" Kristoff to counteract any lusty pics of the Princesses :P

Also, oh my god so pretty:

Image
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by Jabroniville »

BriarThrone wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:40 am
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:37 am haha, awesome :).

And we're back! I was totally angsting for that, like, two hours when the site was down, lol.
Unsurprising. Pretty sure you love your thread about as much as the average parent loves her kid.
NUH-UHHHH!!! I can live without posting in my thread for a day! TWO DAYS, even! It's not like... I have an anal-retentive plan of exactly which builds I'm going to post every day for the next month, and would be aggravated to hold back by even a day. And the thought of the entire site dying and me needing to find a FOURTH forum to post on doesn't fill me with dread, angst and fear! NO WAY!!
BriarThrone
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by BriarThrone »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:01 am
BriarThrone wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:40 am
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:37 am haha, awesome :).

And we're back! I was totally angsting for that, like, two hours when the site was down, lol.
Unsurprising. Pretty sure you love your thread about as much as the average parent loves her kid.
NUH-UHHHH!!! I can live without posting in my thread for a day! TWO DAYS, even! It's not like... I have an anal-retentive plan of exactly which builds I'm going to post every day for the next month, and would be aggravated to hold back by even a day. And the thought of the entire site dying and me needing to find a FOURTH forum to post on doesn't fill me with dread, angst and fear! NO WAY!!
You don't have to have a panic attack every time your baby skins her knee, bro.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by Jabroniville »

It occurs to me that, five years on, Frozen has a borderline Casablanca-level of quotability in pop culture. Many great films have a catchphrase or two that enters the popular lexicon... but how many of them have THIS many?


"The cold never bothered me anyway."
"Let it go"- pretty much every quoting of this common phrase now brings to mind the song, actually.
"Some people are worth melting for."
"You can't marry a man you just met."
"Do you wanna build a snowman?"
Jabroniville
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Oaken

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

OAKEN
Played by:
Chris Williams
Role: Quirky Shop Owner, Possibly-Gay Backgrounder
PL 6 (48)
STRENGTH
4 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Expertise (Business) 4 (+5)
Insight 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Improved Hold

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +1 (DC 11), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +5, Fortitude +5, Will +2

Complications:
Relationship (Family)- Just how he's related to some of these people is unclear. Is one his lover? We don't know.
Motivation (Profits)- Oaken has a rather blunt, heartless concept of supply and demand. Some would call him a crook. This isn't a good idea, however.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 10--5 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 1 (48)

-It says something about the incredible power of Frozen that a goofy side-character like OAKEN can himself become a recurring running gag in the series. I mean, this guy has like TWO MINUTES of screen-time and is just used for a gag! And he's EVERYWHERE! Both frickin' follow-up shorts use him!

-Oaken appears in Frozen as the owner of "Wandering Oaken's" trading post, as a clueless Princess Anna stumbles in after wearing a SLEEVELESS DRESS through a vicious winter storm. This gives her the iconic "Outdoor Outfit" she wears during most of the picture. With a friendly "Yoo-hooooo!" and a thick Swedish accent, he largely exists as a gag ("Big summer blowout!") and provides a good sight gag when Kristoff refers to him as a "crook" for his businesslike application of supply and demand (raising the prices of ice-harvesting stuff because of the season). Being a bit shocked and saddened at being called such, Oaken stands up... and up... and up... revealing a MONSTER of a man, who hefts the hapless Kristoff out of his outpost. Anna, out of duty and need, buys the stuff for Kristoff in order to move on with her mission.

-Oaken is also notable for the "mayyyyyyyyyyyyybe" shout-out to gay people, with many assuming that the "family" he points out during his conversation with Anna is actually his gay lover and other relatives, as one of the people there is a somewhat adult male. Disney hasn't mentioned anything official about it, but the same man is seen in Olaf's Frozen Adventure, sitting near Oaken in the sauna. I've read some gay folks being annoyed by how non-committal this is, of course!

Post-Frozen Oaken:
-Like I said, Oaken has shown up in other stuff. In Frozen Fever, he just pops up for a gag, jumping out of a mobile trailer boasting of "A cold remedy of MY OWN INVENNNNNNN-TIONNNNNNNNNN!", which Anna buys for Elsa's readily-apparent cold. In Olaf's Frozen Adventure, he (clad only in a towel, along with the family he pointed out in Frozen) offers Olaf some advice, and a portable sauna (which ends up setting Olaf's entire "sled of Christmas traditions" aflame). He also gets a one-off song Hygge in Frozen: The Broadway Musical, which stunned some critics and families with sauna-goers jumping about in "nude suits" (bodysuits with leaves on the crotches) in a big song & dance number about a Nordic term for comfort & security. Not a bad bunch of appearances for a guy who really exists for only one scene.

About the Performer: Like Marshmallow, Oaken is played by a Disney Animator, not an actor. He worked on the story for Mulan, Brother Bear and The Emperor's New Groove, then helped direct Bolt. He also co-directed Big Hero 6 and Moana, and is the executive producer for Wreck-It Ralph 2.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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squirrelly-sama
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by squirrelly-sama »

Why is Oaken given the benefit of King of Arendelle?

On a side note I just realized the King on the previous page has the incorrect initiative, listed as +2 for some reason despite having no advantages for that and no agility. Oaken seems to have the same issue.
Shock
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by Shock »

squirrelly-sama wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:29 pm Why is Oaken given the benefit of King of Arendelle?
Same reason he was voiced by Maurice LaMarche: Cut & paste :mrgreen:
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Shock wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:41 pm
squirrelly-sama wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:29 pm Why is Oaken given the benefit of King of Arendelle?
Same reason he was voiced by Maurice LaMarche: Cut & paste :mrgreen:
Jesus- I apparently stopped partway through building him, because I had to manually change most of his stat line on my phone.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Anna! Kristoff! Olaf! Marshmallow! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!)

Post by M4C8 »

About the not committal gay thing, I just don't understand that mindset, I think it's one of the most ridiculous things about modern woke crusaders, they jump to a conclusion about a characters based on nothing tangible and then get angry and abusive to others when their view isn't explicitly and overtly stated as truth in subsequent appearances. People have done this with Elsa, since she doesn't have a love interest people stated she should be gay and because filmmakers haven't acknowledged this they've accused the film makers of gay erasure (which I'm sure is a pop band from the 80's)
'A shared universe, like any fictional construct, hinges on suspension of disbelief. When continuity is tossed away, it tatters the construct. Undermines it'
Jabroniville
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Hans

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image

PRINCE HANS WESTERGARD
Played by:
Santino Fontana
Role: The Nice Guy/Prince Charming, Idealized Suitor, Secret Keeper
PL 7 (78)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6)
Deception 6 (+10, +12 Attractive)
Expertise (Royalty) 4 (+6)
Expertise (Singing) 4 (+8)
Perception 2 (+5)
Persuasion 2 (+6, +8 Attractive)

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit 2 (Rank- Prince), Equipment 2 (Broadsword- Strength-Damage +3, Penetrating 4)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Broadsword +8 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (A Place to Call His Own)- Poor Hans has TWELVE older brothers, and most of them treated him horribly during his childhood. Therefore, he doesn't have a lot to look forward to back home in the Southern Isles, and looks forward to what awaits him should he marry Anna.
Relationship (Princess Anna)- When the two clumsily bump into each other at Elsa's Coronation, it's love at first sight, and they're perfect for each other. "We finish each other's--" "Sandwiches!" "That's what I was gonna say!"

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 8 (78)

Hans- The Nice Guy:
-Dashing and heroic, but also shy and endearingly-clumsy, Prince Hans (Jennifer Lee figured that the surname "Westergard", named in a Deleted Scene as an earlier version of Hans, was as good a one as any other) is the other part of our Love Triangle. He & Anna meet at Elsa's coronation in the typical "Meet Cute" way (his horse bumps into her, then he gets dumped onto her in a boat, then she falls back onto him). They spend hours together, singing a lovely song, and when Anna runs off to bring back her sister, she leaves Hans in charge. Hans even mounts a daring rescue when he fears Anna is lost, and helps a group of soldiers (including two secretly ordered by the nasty Duke of Weselton to MURDER Elsa) fight off a massive Snow Golem. The only snag seems to be that poor grumpy Kristoff is ALSO developing feelings for the young lass...

BUT WAIT!:
-And of course, Hans represents something that's become a bit of a Disney Cliche by this point: The SECRET VILLAIN! I carefully hid this in my previous two postings of the character (nobody noticed that I have this dashing, heroic Prince twelve ranks of Deception :)), but now it's pretty much know to everybody. Hans, in the final act, pulls the infamous line "Oh, Anna... if only someone out there loved you.", then coolly explains that the aforementioned fact that he has TWELVE older brothers means he'll never have a throne of his own... and so he enacted a plan. Since Anna was, in his words, "SO EAGER!" to fall in love with someone, he put himself out there for her, and manipulated her into falling in love with him. His ultimate plan was to arrange an accident for Elsa, then rule Arendelle without her.

-Now this, of course, has led to a handful of questions: His casual "NOBODY was getting anywhere with Elsa"? Well, he obviously saw her at the party, standing stiff and relatively emotionless. Having already met Anna, he had his plan ready. That bit where he smiles sweetly at Anna as she's walking away? Well that's a total cheat. Practically unfair to include that, as it doesn't really fit. Why did he move in to save Elsa from the falling chandelier? Well, that becomes a bit more clear later, when he visits her in the prison cell- he begs her (nicely, mind you, still faking being a "nice guy") to stop the eternal winter- it's only when he finds out that SHE CAN'T that he brings in the rest of his plan: He'll have to get her executed regardless. And, in a neat bit, you can actually SEE HIM look up at the chandelier when he averts the crossbowman's aim- he knew where it was gonna hit.

-The nature of Hans as our villain has led to a lot of conversations- the ultimate subversion of the "Engagement After One Meeting" cliche (though Enchanted spends basically a whole movie on that, too). A lot of people argue that it's out of nowhere and doesn't even fit his early character (which is a bit true at points- the "sweet smile" was a cheat). The whole rambling "Anna and I said our wedding vows in her last moments" bit is REALLY weird, as he's basically explaining this to a room of visiting dignitaries, at which point he's basically awarded leadership of Arendelle- like, did nobody even ask to see the body? They just sorta... assumed everything went according to plan? It's very... "We had like a week left to figure out the whole story, okay?"- a sign of the movie's quickened development phase. It's like wondering how long Belle was missing or the Beast was transformed in Beauty and the Beast. Or why Ariel didn't just write down stuff to Prince Eric (she signed her name- we KNOW she can write!) when her voice was gone. It's... a Fairy Tale, and you kinda gloss over things. The reason stuff happened is because then it allows other stuff to happen.

The Results:
-Ultimately, the plan of Hans goes awry in the end. He's able to successfully con everyone into putting him in charge, and with Anna "dead" (like an idiot, he just goes with the cliched "I already have" when Anna suggests he "won't get away with it!" and leaves without checking to see if she really dies), he runs off to execute Elsa. He actually manages to shatter her emotionally with his words ("Your sister is DEAD because of YOU!") while STILL playing the Nice Guy (his tone is more lecturing than cruel), but the evil look when he's about to wipe her out with his sword is pretty telling. Anna's saving of Elsa causes the blade to shatter over her icy body, stunning him long enough for the plot to run through. When he's finally beaten, he's so stunned he can only utter some wimpy disbelief ("But... she froze your HEART!"), leading to Anna punching him square in the face (in the original draft and Junior Novelization, Kristoff does the deed- this way is much funnier, especially with all the foreign dignitaries cheering her on).

Post-Frozen Hans: Hans only shows up one single time in the sequel stuff- simply a gag to show a gigantic snowball smash him into a literal pile of feces. It's made clear that he has been forced to work

About the Performer: Hans, like a lot of modern Disney characters who aren't the main character, is played by a relatively-unknown Broadway performer. Santino Fontana is largely known for stuff like originating Tony Elliot in Billy Elliot- The Musical and stuff like that. He's respected enough to have been on Broadway almost every year since 2008, which is pretty crazy. None of his roles are particularly famous, save Hans.
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Ares
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Kristoff! Olaf! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Hans!)

Post by Ares »

Part of me feels like they over-did it on the "you can't marry someone you just met" bit, while another part of me feels like it was kind of sensible. Kristoff grilling Anna about all the things she doesn't know about Hans is good basic dating advice for anyone who has a "whirlwind romance" and feels ready to marry someone after Date 5.

But at the same time, it almost felt like they were trying to make a commentary about the older Disney films, when those older films just went along with the "love at first sight" bit from fairytales and older films to move the plot along. And it had actually been a while since they'd done the "instantly meet then hook up" bit. At least as far back as "The Little Mermaid" (almost 25 years before Frozen), the character might have felt some attraction to each other, but there was other things going on and they at least went on some date/adventure together to establish the relationship.

Ariel had been admiring Eric for a while, she saved his life, and the two went on a couple of dates to establish Eric liking her even without knowing she had saved his life. Bernard and Bianca had been working together for a while before Bernard got the nerve to propose. Aladdin and Jasmine met each other and did the typical teenager attraction thing, but also went on a "get to know you" date and save each other's lives. Simba and Nala had been childhood friends. Belle and the Beast took time to get past actively disliking each other to the romance stage. Hercules and Meg took some time to really connect. Mulan and Shang spent the entire movie getting to know each other and earning each other's respect, with the romance only really happening once Mulan's secret was out and they were honest with each other. Tarzan and Jane spent a lot of time getting to know each other before they ever kissed. Tiana and Naveen had to go on an entire adventure together.

So yeah, on the one hand it's kind of funny and a good message, on the other hand it felt kind of unnecessary and almost a judgement on movies like Sleeping Beauty, though not as bad a judgement as Malificent (a film which can burn forever IMO).
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Kristoff! Olaf! ELSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Hans!)

Post by Jabroniville »

The Nostalgia Chick notices that, too, noting that it’s part of the “Enchanted Effect, where every Disney film has to include little jabs at past ones and deconstruct things (ie. True Love’s Kiss here, Maui calling Moana a Princess in her movie). But I found it appropriate for a few reasons:

* It was really only on two scenes. Kristoff just harps on it a LOT.
* it establishes Anna as impulsive, reckless, and a poor judge of character.
* It was still kind of a thing in The Princess and the Frog.
* It made the audience laugh.
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