The Planet, Jenova, & Genesis after [ ν ] – εуλ 0010

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
The Planet, Jenova, & Genesis after [ ν ] – εуλ 0010

This is speculation and theorization based on as much data as I can put together for the potential of the Final Events in the FFVII Compilation, allowing Gaia to finally become the paradise that is seen 497 years after Dirge of Cerberus.


Ilfana said:
"You see, as long as Jenova exists, the Planet will never be able to fully heal itself."

Since Jenova's arrival 2000 years ago, and her subsequent "imprisonment" by the Cetra, her and the Planet have been in a stalemate. Jenova, by nature was still dangerous even in stasis, and despite the vast amount of time, the Planet's never fully recovered even though it continued working to repair itself at North Crater. Also, it still had Omega and the Defensive WEAPONs to combat Jenova. So through all this time, the Planet watched Jenova, and the WEAPONS slept, knowing that if Jenova came out of stasis, it would have to go active again to combat it (although it was tricked).

Ilfana said:
"The Planet produced WEAPON... But it was no longer necessary to use it."
"WEAPON cannot vanish. ...It remains asleep somewhere on the Planet."
"Even though Jenova is confined, it could come back to life at some time..."
"The Planet has not fully healed itself yet. It is still watching Jenova."

After the events of Final Fantasy VII & Dirge of Cerberus, in order for the Planet to heal, it still needs to find a way be completely rid of Jenova. Without any of the WEAPONS to defend itself, or Omega WEAPON to migrate off of Gaia, it's in a bit of a bind, though luckily, Jenova is also weakened to an all time low after Cloud & Co. have blown it into pieces multiple times, and without Sephiroth's will to manage it, Jenova is also in a state of disrepair. Theories have been popping up, that this is why Genesis finally was "awoken" at the end of DoC. These will be addressed a little further down.


Jenova's Immortality


Hojo said:
"You see, even if Jenova's body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again. That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion."

Jenova can be broken down to a cellular level, but - unlike the other lifeforms on Gaia it's unclear if it is ever broken down into a Lifestream-like current, (that would eventually consolidate back into cellular matter, and then back to Jenova). If it doesn't, this would explain why it regenerates via Reunion, and not through a process like the Lifestream, and what makes it fundamentally different from Gaia's lifeforms biologically.

In one of the newer scenes in ACC, Kadaj/Yazoo/Loz are seemingly generated from the Negative Lifestream, and manage to (mostly) maintain a physical form for the duration of the movie. Their method of creation is likely partially due to Sephiroth's will controlling their creation, and his knowledge of the way the Lifestream functions. This would also explain how they manage to summon Shadow Creepers without the use of Materia. However, despite their abilities, actual cells are needed to cause Reunion. Kadaj is the catalyst, and thus the best example of the three.

kadaj-and-sephiroth.png


Kadaj actually directly absorbs Jenova's cellular biomatter when he merges with Jenova's head to allow for Sephiroth's Reunion. After Cloud defeats Sephiroth, he wraps himself in his wing, and vanishes. It's possible that at this point, Kadaj's body also sheds the cellular material, because he breaks up into pure lifestream when he reaches up and grasps (Aerith's) hand. The fact that Jenova's cells don't break down into a current is likely why Sephiroth was unable to directly re-create himself in the same way he formed the Remnants.


In looking further to Ilfana's video recordings, there's some data about Jenova, but I'm assuming that the following section is just RIDDLED with inconsistencies due to poor translation, even though it's the key part about Jenova's arrival at North Crater. I can't recall if Hito or anyone's gone through the original text for this section. (If anyone knows where one's at, please link it).

Ilfana said:
(referring to the cold barren land at North Crater)

"Yes, the energy that was needed to heal the Planet withered away the land... then the Planet..."
"The Planet tried to persuade the Cetra to leave the Knowlespole, but..."
"When the Cetra... were preparing to part with the land they loved..."
"That's when it¹ appeared!"
"It¹ looked like... our... our dead mothers... and our dead brothers. Showing us spectres of their past."
"Who is the person² that appeared at the North Cave? I haven't any idea."
"That's when the one³ who injured the Planet... or the 'crisis from the sky', as we call him³, came."
"He³ first approached as a friend, deceived them, and finally...... gave them the virus."
"The Cetra were attacked by the virus and went mad... transforming into monsters."
"Then, just as he³ had at the Knowlespole."
"He³ approached other Cetra clans...... infecting them with... the virus..."
"A small number of the surviving Cetra defeated Jenova, and confined it."

¹ "It" has the ability to shapeshift into something based on the memories of its target.
² "the person" - unclear if this is still the same "it" from before.
³ "He" seems to be Jenova, since he's referred to as "crisis/calamity from the sky/skies" despite the gender misidentification, although it's odd that the final line speaks directly about Jenova, and refers to her as "it". It makes it seem as though Jenova and this other entity are seperate, much like Sephiroth and Jenova.

This bring about something that DrakeClawfang brought up:



What is Jenova?

Sephiroth said:
The last thoughts of the Geostigma's dead. Those remnants will join the Lifestream and devour the planet. Choking it... corroding it. What I want, Cloud, is to sail the darkness of the cosmos with this planet as my vessel, just as my mother did long ago. Then one day we'll find a new planet. And on its soil, we'll create a shining future."

This information about Jenova is from a very from a reliable source (Sephiroth in Advent Chidren Complete), and with the information about the lifecycle of The Cosmos, and the Planet itself from Crisis Core, the more it's seemed to me that Jenova is an entity that's like Minerva. If you think of the living "Planets" as being creatures, Jenova is a different species, (aside from just being alien as a being coming from another world). Rather than having a WEAPON to migrate to a new world and populate it with life, it's more like a Parasite that moves to a living Planet to live off of it. When the Planet dies or the life migrates, Jenova eventually takes the dead husk of the world, and propels it to damage and seed itself into a new Planet, and it seems to match her original (though rather poorly worded) motivations as dictated by Ilfana.


Now this leads to:

J-Cells, S-Cells, and G-Cells, and how they affect the lifeforms they're in.



J-Cells: Jenova's cellular matter.
S-Cells: Sephiroth's mutated cells
- Not subject to degredation, but don't appear to be able to create true Copies.
G-Cells: Gillian's mutated cells
- Subject to degredation, but are able to create true Copies.

The Jenova Cells are inserted into the host, and the ones who have a successful reaction to them actually undergo a form of cellular mutation, and their cells change to accept the reaction, thus aplifying their abilities. Mako enhances this, likely because it's a processed form of the Lifestream's current that creates life, and this allows the cells to undergo adaptation more easily, similiar to what they do when they're forming. (Though intense/constant Mako exposure also causes monstrous mutations by turning humans into Makonoids, it's likely that the process is measured by the state at which the subject's eyes begin to glow). Since Sephiroth received this treatment while in the womb, he had a true development in adapting to the cells, rather than the mimiced development through Mako exposure on adult subjects, like Gillian.

When S & G cells combine, even in an inferior host (in this case, a G-Copy), they produce a subject that bears many incredibly obvious features that are similiar to Jenova, even more strongly than those of Sephiroth or Genesis. With the G-Copies, their smaller wing size and inferior mental stability is due to the capabilities of the human host. It's interesting that because of the rivalry in ShinRa's Science Department, and Hojo/Hollander/Gast's unwillingness to share experimentation data or work together this was never discovered (both believing thier own projects to be superior, and not pieces of a whole).


Genesis as the final WEAPON

With the Planet demonstrating it's ability to cure Genesis of his degredation, and his displayed capability to endure a massive transformation with the "Gift of the Goddess" at the end of Crisis Core, it's likely that Genesis' body's capabilities to merge both of the S and G cells into something that may (almost) be a true copy of a J-Cell generated from his own cellular material's continued mutation. With the protection of the Planet, it's also likely that his body would be able to completely avoid any degredation. The interesting point here is that Genesis is waiting to be used by the Planet, and has been sleeping under Midgar, and waiting to be awakened. He is likely the Planet's final defense against Jenova. If there can be a truely generated Jenova Copy, the main question is whether or not Genesis as a Jenova Copy to contain/surpass/defeat the original, (like Cloud does with Sephiroth), or if he would then fall under Jenova/Sephiroth's control. It's also rather appropriate that "Genesis" is the name of the final defense of the Planet that could restore life to normal on Gaia.

Due to Jenova's nature, it's likely that even with Genesis as a Jenova Copy, he wouldn't be able to destroy her. This also seems to coincide with Genesis taking the role of the Prisoner from LOVELESS. By following the linked interpritations, Act II states that he is saved by the woman from the Foreign nation, and he begins a life of seclusion, but regrets not fulfulling his Oath (to protect the Planet). The dying Wanderer in Act IV possibly being Weiss. The final act (Act V) seems to perfectly describe Genesis, both in character, his possibly role, and in the meaning of the word if he banished himself and Jenova to save Gaia/Minerva and leaving them Loveless, and ending his death poetically.

"Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return
To become the dew that quenches the land
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies
I offer thee this silent sacrifice"


red-xiii-and-midgar.png



X :neo:
 

S and G

FFVII books and stuff
AKA
MJ Gallagher
Exceptionally interesting read. Some very good ideas in there. I don't personally believe the writers have thought it through that much and that they just have a set of stories which they hope to tie together in the future, rather than leaving hints throughout the compilation as to what the conclusion of the story will be.
 
This was very interesting, informed and informative, and got me thinking about a lot of things. However, it's sadly true that the FFVII is not very consistent in its biology. If cells all break down into lifestream, where do the skeletons in the basement of the Shinra mansion come from? And what purpose do the gravemounds in Gongaga serve? There are clearly bodies buried under them; they're body shape, not just memorials. I don't quite remember, but I don't think Angeal evaporates when he dies; only his monstrous body does; and I don't think Zack evaporates either. Unless, of course, the breakdown is less rapid for 'normal' lifeforms than for monsters, and more consistent with our own process of decay.

But I always thought it was their souls, their energy, that formed the lifestream, not their broken down dead cells. Those cells would release energy, I guess (I don't even have GCSE biology), but there'd still be matter left over as well.
 

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Yeah, we don't see Angeal or Aerith evaporate, nor do all the Geostigma victims in Denzels OVA.
 

S and G

FFVII books and stuff
AKA
MJ Gallagher
LA, you missed the very obvious example of Aerith as well.

Anyway, if I recall, the reason some individuals turn into Lifestream as soon as they die while others do is based on their exposure to Mako. The bodies of those who have been infused with Mako (eg SOLDIERs, monsters, etc) return to the Planet much faster. You never see Angeal disappear as the scene changes moments after he dies and as far as I know, Zack does evapourate. The Buster sword only marks where he died, not a physical grave.
 
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S and G

FFVII books and stuff
AKA
MJ Gallagher
I think it's more Mako infused rather than Materia since Materia is in widespread use and not everyone evapourates
 

Dashell

SMILE!
AKA
Sonique, Quexinos, Pinkie Pie, Derpy Hooves
I don't know much about G-cells and what not as I haven't played Crisis Core yet (I do have a PSP now though so maybe :P) but I enjoyed reading that. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.

As for people turning into lifestream right as they die, do we know anyone besides the SHM who have done this?
 

minimosey

Pro Adventurer
There's no actual living witness to what happened to Zack's body after death, since Cloud left before the thing with Angeal, so I kind of wonder if what we see is entirely symbolic / happening to just his soul. (It always bugged me a little that it's a "heavenly ascension" thing when the lifestream is under the ground.) We saw corpses in Shinra building, too: the guard's corpse outside the cell.
 

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
I don't know much about G-cells and what not as I haven't played Crisis Core yet (I do have a PSP now though so maybe :P) but I enjoyed reading that. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.

As for people turning into lifestream right as they die, do we know anyone besides the SHM who have done this?

All the human and non human G copies dissolved, including supporting characters Lazard and Hollander. Which complie with the exposure to Mako theory. As we see in Banora, they are turned in mako chambers.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
I'd like to point out that at the end of FFVII, Sephiroth explodes into (red) Lifestream, though what exactly that Red Lifestream is, and why it comes into and remains in Cloud is still a mystery that's completely unexplained. When I first played FFVII way back when, before the Compilation, I thought it might've been Jenova's lifestream current being sealed in Cloud to Keep Sephiroth from coming back.

If there's any way to tie it into the Compilation, this MAY be the point when Cloud receives Sephiroth's initial attempt at Geostigma to keep himself alive, but that's a pretty baseless speculation.

Sephiroth_Dead_1.jpg



I think that Bugenhagen has the most in depth description of the lifecycle of things on the Planet, and there's the one I mentioned before from DoC. I'll embed both of them below to stimulate some thoughts on the process.






I guess this begs the question as to how heavily the Lifestream is involved in the physical creation of things in Final Fantasy VII, since we know it's Spiritual Energy that can affect things in a physical sense. Sephiroth has somehow used it to generate the SHM/Remnants physically, to the point that they appear to function biologically: they can use materia, cry, Kadaj appears to drink. How he directly absorbs Jenova's head is up to speculation, though the creators stated that he was initially going to eat it.

I had assumed that the Lifestream also formed slowly, over time from cellular degredation and decomposition. That explained why there were still bodies left behind, but why, in the demonstrations when "the Planet" leaves, it also seems to erase all traces of living matter from the world it was on. The Mako exposure is a good theory as those bodies are bleeding off excess Lifestream/Mako, though it may also be a result of increased cellular degredation (not sure if you see anyone without it die in a Lifestream burst in CC off the top of my head).


Also - Hito provided some infomation on the original text from the Cetra's first encounter with Jenova.

Murasako Masao said:
I looked at that particular part. Does this help clean it up? (some of the first bits are a bit picky and not that important, maybe.)


"Yes, the energy that was needed to heal the Planet withered away the land... then the Planet..."
「ええ、傷の回復に費やすエネルギーは急速に土地を枯れさせ…そして星は…」

Originally said the energy 'rapidly' withered the land.

"When the Cetra... were preparing to part with the land they loved..."
「だいじょうぶです… セトラたちが…長年親しんだ土地から旅立ちの準備をしていたとき……」

'Part with' kind of sounds to me like they're giving it up to someone/thing else, whereas in Japanese it just said that they were preparing to travel away from it.

"That's when it¹ appeared!"
"It¹ looked like... our... our dead mothers... and our dead brothers. Showing us spectres of their past."
「その時、そのものは現れたのです!その姿は、亡き母の…亡き兄のものでした。それぞれに過去の幻影を見せるのです」

'Showing *us* spectres of *their* past' kind of sounds like the Cetra ('us') being shown the past of Jenova ('their'). I'm not sure about that being the case, and not just showing each Cetra something from their own pasts.

"Who is the person² that appeared at the North Cave? I haven't any idea."
「北の大空洞に現れた、その者とはいったい何者ですか?まるで見当がつかないのですが」

I would think this 'person' is the same as the 'it' mentioned before.

"That's when the one³ who injured the Planet... or the 'crisis from the sky', as we call him³, came."
「それが星を傷つけた者です…… 空から来た厄災!わたしたちは、そう呼んでいます」

The English translation kind of mixed this line up for some reason, along with the pronoun confusion, which makes it vague. It should be "That [it/the person] is the one who injured the planet... the calamity from the skies! That is what we call it."



X :neo:
 
X-SOLDIER wrote:
"I had assumed that the Lifestream also formed slowly, over time from cellular degredation and decomposition."

Which would stand to reason in the sense that it is used like a fossil fuel. But it isn't a fossil fuel. Fossil fuels are static; they lie around in the ground and aren't really useful or necessary to our planet. They're just leftover sludge, whereas the lifestream is more like water: it's continually recycled into new living things, and without it, no life can exist. The lifestream had to be present on the planet before the creation/evolution of life forms.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
Nicely stated.

Here's another point - Where did the Black Materia come from?

It seems to me, like it's a Materia that actually originated with Jenova, since the only way to activate it is by utilizing a vast amount of energy, that could only really be obtained from injuring a Planet, or by reaching the Promised Land. Also, it doesn't make sense that the Planet would have any reason to have a Materia who's only purpose is to destroy itself.

If this is the case, once Jenova was put into stasis, the Ancients set about trapping it away, and the White Materia was created (by the Planet) in response to defend itself, just like it created the WEAPONs.

Cloud "That's the Black Materia..."

Tifa "I'll wait here."

(Cloud makes his way to the bottom of the pit, followed by Aerith. He goes over to the Black Materia.)

Cloud "As long as we have this, Sephiroth won't be able to use Meteor."

(You get the Black Materia.)

Cloud "Mmm?"
"Can you guys use it?"

Aerith "Nope, we can't use it right now. You need great spiritual power to use it."

Cloud "You mean lots of Spiritual energy?"

Aerith "That's right."
"One person's power alone won't do it."
"Somewhere special. Where there's plenty of the Planet's energy..."
"Oh yeah!"
"The Promised Land!"

Cloud "The Promised Land?"
"No, but..."

Aerith "Sephiroth is different. He's not an Ancient."

Cloud "He shouldn't be able to find the Promised Land."

(The screen flashes white. When it fades, we see Sephiroth standing at the edge of the pit.)

Sephiroth "...Ah, but I have."

(He floats up, over the pit.)

Sephiroth "I'm far superior to the Ancients."
"I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients."
"I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the extinction of the Ancients."
"And soon, I will create the future."

Aerith "I won't let you do it! The future is not only yours!"



X :neo:
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
as far as I know, Zack does evapourate. The Buster sword only marks where he died, not a physical grave.

I'm not too sure he does. The first time we see his grave is 2 years later, and a lot can happen to an exposed corpse in two years. Animals could have taken/eaten it, it could have decomposed and scattered, who knows. I always took the scene at the end of Crisis Core as Zack's soul, and found the immediately dissolving thing as lazy and dumb on Square's part.

As for Sephiroth's dissolution at the end of FF7, I always assumed this was due to his physical proximity to the Lifestream. (And of course if that whole fight is in Cloud's mind its irrelevent anyway)

You encounter dead SOLDIERs throughout Crisis Core that are still there (when Junon and the Shinra Building are attacked). I also can't think of any reason WHY exposure to Mako would cause you to dissolve immediately upon your death.
But that could also be my own preferences and thinking its dumb, you could all well be right.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Great theory about Genesis purifying the planet, X. That seems like a smart direction to take things, though that probably means it won't be the one SE goes in.

I'd like to point out that at the end of FFVII, Sephiroth explodes into (red) Lifestream, though what exactly that Red Lifestream is, and why it comes into and remains in Cloud is still a mystery that's completely unexplained.

It doesn't. It's green Lifestream colliding with red in the air above Cloud, with the green apparently neutralizing the red:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUpU7iw5v2k

And like Force said, since Cloud wasn't physically there, it's largely irrelevant anyway.
 

Tennyo

Higher Further Faster
A very interesting and well-thought out thread! *tweeted*

Could it be possible that when Bugenhagen talks about bodies returning to the planet that they don't go to the actual Lifestream itself? Maybe they just decompose into the ground like in real life, and that's what he meant?

It doesn't sound likely, but just something to throw into the discussion on bodies dissolving.
 

Ryushikaze

Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
AKA
Tim, Ryu
Bodies do go back to the lifestream- by decomposing- but there's something else that goes there first, and that's the 'soul' of a person.
What I figure happens with folks who fade away, like G copies, is that their body has already degraded so much they're essentially living Shinentai. Hence when they die, they just pyrefly away in a moment.
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
Could it be possible that when Bugenhagen talks about bodies returning to the planet that they don't go to the actual Lifestream itself? Maybe they just decompose into the ground like in real life, and that's what he meant?

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he meant. If I remember right he words it like "We all know the body returns to the planet but what about soul?" That wording implied that everyone knows about decomposition, but not what happens to the soul.

Which hearkens back to a thread I made a LONG time ago inquiring as to the general knowledge of the Lifestream on the Planet. There are churches, after all. And Bugenhagen explains the "basics of the Study of Planet life" to the team as though they don't know it already. I alwasy got the impression that the general public didn't necessarily know, and if people were dissolving into the stuff all over the place, how wouldn't they? (Though Rufus seems to have pretty intimate knowledge of it in AC)
 
Which hearkens back to a thread I made a LONG time ago inquiring as to the general knowledge of the Lifestream on the Planet. There are churches, after all. And Bugenhagen explains the "basics of the Study of Planet life" to the team as though they don't know it already. I alwasy got the impression that the general public didn't necessarily know, and if people were dissolving into the stuff all over the place, how wouldn't they? (Though Rufus seems to have pretty intimate knowledge of it in AC)

One of the things I love about the game is the indifference of so many of the NPCs to the big picture of what is going on around them. Each of them at the centre of their own little world and they have their own preoccupations, Many of them come out with some version of "someone will sort it out" or "Shinra will take care of us". And a lot of them have just given up.
I loved the crazy shopper, the surfer dudes, the guy with the bulldozer, the bored guy in Rocket Town, the girl sunbathing on the wing of the plane, the jaded soldiers... anyway, I expect they were all texting each other at the back of the class the day Lifestream theory was taught at school, because they just don't give a shit.
 

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Great read, I was completely with you up until that last part. I'm confused, are you saying that Genesis is both the Planet's Final WEAPON and the bait for Sephiroth and Jenova?
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
Great read, I was completely with you up until that last part. I'm confused, are you saying that Genesis is both the Planet's Final WEAPON and the bait for Sephiroth and Jenova?

Essentially yes.

In order to be able to create a Jenova Copy, Genesis would need to combine with S Cells. This means that he probably be doin' the fusion dance with Sephiroth. The J-Copy enacting Reunion would ressurect Jenova there. As a WEAPON, since he can't exterminate Jenova, he'd function to contain her, and then remove her from the Planet, like Omega/Chaos.


X :neo:
 

Mitch Connor

Its All Good Enough
AKA
Blazing782
Exceptionally interesting read. Some very good ideas in there. I don't personally believe the writers have thought it through that much and that they just have a set of stories which they hope to tie together in the future, rather than leaving hints throughout the compilation as to what the conclusion of the story will be.

Hahaha, for some reason I have a strong feeling that you're exactly right about this. Specifically, the parts about the S-cells, G-cells, and J-cells just doesn't seem to fit seamlessly into a coherent system that makes any sense. And by no fault of X-Soldier and whoever else contributed to putting this together. I think you did a great job and probably made this as understandable as possible with what small amount of information they gave us :D. It just seems like a bunch of random ideas that SE just came up with that just so happen to not directly contradict each other, if you know what I mean. I think its kinda sad if its true, that they haven't even put as much thought into making sense of their own story as much as the fans have. I guess they wanted to leave that part for us, lol.

Essentially yes.
In order to be able to create a Jenova Copy, Genesis would need to combine with S Cells. This means that he probably be doin' the fusion dance with Sephiroth. The J-Copy enacting Reunion would ressurect Jenova there. As a WEAPON, since he can't exterminate Jenova, he'd function to contain her, and then remove her from the Planet, like Omega/Chaos.

Hmmm, I guess the only way for Genesis to come into contact with S-cells would be for Sephiroth to actually return again since Cloud has been cleansed, but how would he do that this time? SE would have to pull another bad idea out their ass...Also, since Jenova cant physically be destroyed, why cant they just collect whatever remains are left and just shoot it out into space. let it be some other planets problem now :D
 
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Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Hmmm, I guess the only way for Genesis to come into contact with S-cells would be for Sephiroth to actually return again since Cloud has been cleansed, but how would he do that this time? SE would have to pull another bad idea out their ass...Also, since Jenova cant physically be destroyed, why cant they just collect whatever remains are left and just shoot it out into space. let it be some other planets problem now :D

Well the way it is worded it seems like Genesis is the one who will bring Sephiroth back after finding him in the Lifestream. Then let him gather up all the Jenova cells and then take back his body and fly off into space.
 
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