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Heroes (TV series)/Tropes J-P: Difference between revisions
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* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|Though considering it twice(!) involved someone willingly giving Sylar someone to steal a power from, [[Your Mileage May Vary|it may count as]] [[Moral Event Horizon]] instead.}}
** Pretty much the entire point of {{spoiler|Daddy Petrelli's}} role on the show. He is either talking or being a dick. No exceptions.
** He's also occasionally being a MORON too. He learns Sylar has turned against him. Does he track down and kill him, as he has every other person who opposed him? Nope, he figures [[Eviler Than Thou|"Hey, it's just a brain stealing serial killer with delusions of grandeur. No biggie".]] [[Too Dumb to Live|Too dumb to live, people. Too dumb to live.]]
* [[Killed Off for Real]] For Real: {{spoiler|Nathan Petrelli}}
* [[Kiss of Death]]: Or rather the [[Revealing Hug|Hug of Doom]].
* [[Kitsch Collection]]: Sylar's mom and snowglobes.
* [[Knife Nut]]: New villain for Season 4/Volume 5 Edgar, a speedster and member of the sinister Carnival that [[Big Bad]] Samuel is running, apparently prefers to dispatch people with a well thrown blade when possible.
* [[Knight Templar]]: Pretty much every major [[Big Bad]], really. Mr. Linderman, who desires to heal humanity at any cost. Rivaled solely by the Primatech organization, which systematically abducts, studies, and slaughters potential heroes in order to protect all the fragile, regular humans from... we don't know yet but it involves lots of [[Stuff Blowing Up]]. Primatech's working for Linderman. So is just about everybody and everything else, for that matter. Then there's Adam Monroe, who wanted to wipe out 95% of the human race so the remaining 5% would stop fighting and get along.
** Nathan Petrelli.
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* [[Knight Templar Parent]]: Noah Bennet, most especially in Volume One. His daughter has superpowers, and could suffer if her mother found out? Wipe the mother's memory every time she gets suspicious. His daughter's only friend knows, and could blow her cover? Wipe the friend's memory of ever knowing her. The daughter seems rather upset about this? Wipe her memory as well. He was one step away from feeding her anti-growth hormones to avoid losing Daddy's little girl. By Volume 5 his actions have been softened considerably as wanting Claire to have a normal life. He was just trying a ''little'' too hard to help.
* [[Kryptonite Is Everywhere]] - Happens to Hiro in Volume Three.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]:
** When Arthur tries to recruit Mohinder's services, the latter replies that there's always some shady organization looking for his help for diabolical ulterior motives. [[What an Idiot!|This doesn't stop Mohinder from helping Pinehearst]].
** Claire asking "Why is it always me?" is a ''spectacular'' lampshade hanging.
* [[Landslide Election]]
* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]
* [[The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort]]: Sylar, Adam.
* [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid]]: Peter Petrelli and Hiro Nakamura are the worst offenders.
* [[Leitmotif]]: Sylar gets a really nice one in Volume 3. It's used as a general one for a while, but then ends up just being used for whenever he's being... Sylar.
* [[Legion of Doom]]:
** In Volume Three, the team of villains being assembled by Pinehearst Industries a.k.a. {{spoiler|Arthur Petrelli}}.
** Seems to be what the new "carnival" is in Volume 5.
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* [[Let's You and Him Fight]]: Season 2 had Matt vs. Nathan when Maury trapped them both in a nightmare and a Hiro vs. Peter misunderstanding fight thanks to Adam's manipulations.
* [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again]]: Parkman and Nathan agree never to tell anyone about the former riding piggyback on the latter to get from New York to Texas.
* [[Level Five Onix]]:
** There was [[Anti-Villain|Stephen Canfield]] who could create ''black holes'' at will.
** Then there's the Nightmare-man {{spoiler|Maury Parkman}} who was implied in Volume 1 to be even worse than Sylar, but all he ever did was give a little girl nightmares.
*** Since it was that particular little girl who described him that way, we can excuse her.
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* [[Loud of War]]: Mohinder knows his [[You Killed My Father|mortal nemesis]] Sylar has absorbed the power of super-hearing. His hearing is so keen he can hear other people's breathing and heartbeats, and in fact suffered terrible headaches from the noise. So when Mohinder goes to torture Sylar, what does he do? He strikes a ''tuning fork'' and holds it up next to Sylar's ear in all of its shrill, discordant glory and lets Sylar scream for mercy.
* [[Love Floats]]: Though it's West using his flight powers, West and Claire do the classic embracing float scene.
* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: Kensei/Adam, Angela Petrelli.
* [[Love Martyr]]: {{spoiler|Sylar and Elle}}
* [[Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me]]: Knox seems compelled to mention in ''every single scene he's in'' that other people's fear gives him [[Super Strength]]. The Crazy Eye look he gives while saying this may count as well. It gets to the point where it must be asked, what kind of power does other people's annoyance give him? He also has the amazing ability to fail to notice a very tall woman with bright blonde hair enter a small room.
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* [[Made of Plasticine]]: Claire is a comparatively mild version of this trope, but still prone to dying or breaking bones in completely ridiculous ways. Some fans claim she has a secondary power: causing herself unlikely and violent accidents.
** In the first half of the first season, she was on a football field, a football player tackled her or maybe just ran into her by accident, and she broke her neck when she fell. Not sprained her ankle or dislocated her knee, but broke her neck. This was used mainly just to show off her [[Healing Factor]] for the benefit of her friend (the one person who happened to see it) and the viewers.
** Also in the first half of the first season, a [[Jerk Jock]] is trying to rape her, but she falls down and gets stabbed through the back of her head with a sharp stick, killing her instantly. That happened to hit her [[Achilles' Heel]], so she remained dead until the stick was [[Waking Up At the Morgue|removed in the morgue]] several hours later. This death drove her plotline for the next few episodes.
* [[Magic Feather]]: In Volume One, Hiro convinces himself that he needs to steal Takezo Kensei's katana in order to reactivate his powers, while Niki believes that she can only access her [[Super Strength]] when her [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] is in control. Both are eventually proven wrong.
* [[Magical Negro]]: Dying African American Charles and his inspiring speech to Peter. The Haitian can also sometimes be considered as fitting this role, being a mysterious, usually mute, plot device. Usutu, the African [[Trickster Mentor]] character was almost literally this -- though he had a neat little subversion where what Matt assumed to be ancient African mumbo jumbo was a quote from Carl Jung.
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** And in turn Adam Monroe was [[The Man Behind the Man]] for Linderman, Angela, and the other ten founders.
** In a rare good version, Rebel/{{spoiler|Micah Sanders}} is [[The Man Behind the Man]] to our heroes in Volume 4.
* [[Man On Fire]]: Elle sets Adam on fire as he's escaping Primatech.
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Adam Monroe in Season 2, Angela Petrelli in Season 3.
* [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]: Inverted, the Eclipse mass ''depowers'' the cast.
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** "This is how we roll."
** "The future's not written in stone."
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Many of the protagonists have first names with "hidden" meaning that fits their story background.
** Biblical names with roots in Greek or Hebrew are common, or names derived from Christian saints. ''Angel''a could come under this as well.
** Of course, the name Hiro Nakamura might simply be a pun on the English word "hero", since it's pronounced similarly. In the online comics of the series, Hiro explains that he was named after Hiroshima, since his grandfather survived the nuclear explosion there.
** And then there are the not-so-hidden meanings of Elle (who controls '''ele''ctricity), Flint (who can start fires), and Echo (with, of course, sound powers). The other obvious one is Adam Monroe, who predates all other known "evolved humans" (this would come under Biblical names too).
** In an interesting bit of irony, the character of Danko is a complete inversion of his counterpart in the Russian folk tale publicized by Maxim Gorky (the folk hero Danko ripped out his heart to bring fire to his people, whereas Emile Danko is attempting to "extinguish" the fire of evolved humans from the world).
** [[Shout-Out|And of course the main hero,]] [[Peter Pan|who can fly,]] [[Spider-Man|and who actually believes that]] [[With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility]], [[Alliterative Name|is named Peter P.]]
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** Which is then Subverted, as he makes a [[Face Heel Turn]] and Hiro saves Japan.
* [[Milky White Eyes]]: Isaac, as well as anyone else who uses similar precognition.
* [[Mind Rape]]: Frequently, using the Haitian's powers. Also <s>Freddy Krueger</s> Maury Parkman the Nightmare-man... and then {{spoiler|Matt does this to Sylar in the Volume 4 finale.}} {{spoiler|As of the beginning of Volume 5, it looks like Sylar's giving Parkman a taste of his own medicine.}}
* [[Mister Danger]]: Kensei again.
* [[Mister Muffykins]]: Mr. Muggles came so darn close to being the [[Trope Namer]]. Note that he fails utterly in being an [[Evil-Detecting Dog]].
* [[Mobstacle Course]]
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Bullying is unforgivable. Traumatising someone and getting them suspended from school is A-OK! Claire and West have clearly been taking lessons from Yu Gi Oh Abridgeds Pharoah Atem.
** Peter believes in [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|Love and Compassion for everyone]]. Unless your name is Isaac Mendez, in which case he believes in [[Mind Over Matter|throwing paint cans at you]] and [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|telling you what a loser you are]]. The inconsistency between Peter's [[Informed Attribute|personality]] and [[Out-of-Character Moment|actions in this scene]] leads to a jarring moment in the season finale, where Charles Deveaux extolls Peter's kind-heartedness, and doesn't seem the least bit fussed about the role he played in {{spoiler|his daughter's death}}.
* [[Morality Chain]]: Future!Sylar and his son. {{spoiler|Does he ''ever'' get pissed when his son is accidentally killed!}}
* [[Morality Pet]]: Claire for HRG, Peter for Nathan, Luke Campbell for Sylar, Noah Grey for Future!Sylar. Aileena is a subversion of the trope. Around her Danko is a far kinder, gentler individual than the cold blooded killer we know. But then when Matt holds him and Aileena hostage Danko reveals that at the end of the day, unlike with HRG, he will choose the mission over his loved ones.
* [[More Expendable Than You]]: {{spoiler|Depowered}} Peter argues this when he's trying to save Nathan in Haiti.
* [[The Mountains of Illinois]]: "Odessa, Texas" has mountains in the background. The real Odessa is completely flat and dry, as actor Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder) amusingly pointed out in the DVD commentary.
* [[Mugging the Monster]]: In Volume Five, a [[Rabid Cop]] makes the poor choice of threatening to beat a confession out of an amnesiac Sylar, who reflexively tosses him through the interrogation room's one-way mirror with his telekinesis.
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* [[My Grandson, Myself]]: Adam Monroe in a tie-in graphic novel.
* [[My Sister Is Off-Limits]]: Inverted with Hiro. When his accidental time traveling causes him to undo a mistake, causing his sister to fall in love with his best friend Ando, Hiro is ecstatic.
* [[A Nazi by Any Other Name]]: The Building 26 operation, [[Fan Nickname|Nathan's Nazis.]]
** Of course, despite the fan nickname and Nathan creating it, he actually had little control on what they actually did: For an example, in a rather notable aversion to the trope early on in the season where not only was Danko the one who let Tracy go to kill a random member of the group, but he did it without Nathan's knowledge until Nathan was accused by Tracy of setting her up to be released, and as soon as Nathan found out, he told Danko off for it.
* [[Neck Lift]]: Niki/Jessica and her father. And in Volume Three, {{spoiler|Sylar with Claire}}.
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** Volume Three Peter{{spoiler|s}}. Just Peter. Angela gets one of these too.
** ''Everything'' bad that happens in the series is the fault of one or more of "the good guys." ''Everything.''
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Rivals]]: In the Season 1 episode "Unexpected": Nice job {{spoiler|killing your girlfriend}}, Peter and Isaac.
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: Arthur Petrelli, though the keyword here is definitely 'wannabe.' Wannabe defines everything about Arthur Petrelli.
** Interestingly, from what we've seen of him so far Volume 5 [[Big Bad]] Samuel Sullivan seems to be defining as a genuine [[Ubermensch]]; he doesn't seem to regard the lives of [[Muggles]] as holding any moral worth and happily offs them as needed, but at the same time he isn't going around killing folks just for shit and giggles, and seems to genuinely be trying to build a world of his own for evolved humans after he brings them around to his point of view.
* [[90% of Your Brain]]: "Imagine what we could acomplish if we used one hundred percent of the brain." Massive seizures?
* [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine]]: "...breakfast?"
* [[No Sell]]: Peter and Sylar are/were/are immune to just about everyone else's powers.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: Whatever it is that Luke's ability does to pacemakers.
** It's commonly believed that microwaves can disrupt/stop pacemakers, but there's not a whole lot of science behind this.
** "I figured out that speedsters don't like the cold. Or qualuudes, but mostly the cold."
** Exactly how Danko was involved in the "Angola Incident", or even what the Angola Incident was about. Considering [[Franchise Killer|what happened to the series overall]], it is likely that no one will ever know any time soon.
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* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: In "Dual" {{spoiler|Primatech's lockdown system turns off when Claire [[Death Is Cheap|"kills"]] Sylar.}}
* [[No Name Given]]: The Haitian, even in a story arc that took place ''in Haiti''.
** Except that in ''Shadowboxing'', Claire calls him René. Presumably, everyone on the show learned this offscreen.
* [[The Not Love Interest|The Not-Love Interest]]: Most of the characters have one, and the relationships tend to drive a large part of the plot. In contrast to love interests, who [[Cartwright Curse|tend not to stick around very long]].
** Ando for Hiro
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* [[Not Using the Z Word]]: The heroes' powers are supposed to be derived from an abnormal genetic factor, but nobody ''ever'' mentions the word "mutant" or the X-men, not even the comic-book geeks.
** Well, Ando mentions the X-men, but only when he's trying to figure out what Hiro is trying to say through the scrambled brain damage that Samuel caused.
* [[Not Worth Killing]]: [[You Will Be Spared|Sylar spares Luke]] and [[Worthy Opponent|Peter didn't have anything he wanted anymore.]]
* [[Noughties Drama Series]]
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Although Mohinder is almost always carrying the [[Idiot Ball]], there are a few instances in which he's only ''pretending'' to carry it.
* [[The Obi-Wan]]: Claude
* [[Odd Couple]]: [[Ancient Conspiracy|Company policy]], [[Badass Normal|one of us]], [[Magic and Powers|one of them]]. [[They Fight Crime]].
* [[Official Kiss]]: Peter and Simone at the end of "One Giant Leap", under Simone's red [[Umbrella of Togetherness]].
* [[Offing the Offspring]]: Arthur Petrelli, Maury Parkman and {{spoiler|Samson Grey}} attempt this.
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* [[Oireland]]: Peter's subplot at the beginning of Volume Two. You know... maybe we [[Dork Age|shouldn't have brought it up again]]...
* [[Oh Crap]]: Mohinder {{spoiler|disables Sylar's superpowers in order to torture, [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|taunt]], and eventually [[You Killed My Father|kill]] him. After torturing him for an hour, Mohinder shoots him in the head, only for Sylar to telekinetically freeze the bullet in mid-air, undo his restraints, and rise up revealing his powers have been restored. Mohinder's deer-in-the-headlights expression is quite appropriate.}}
** Sylar on Kirby Plaza {{spoiler|after getting several super-powered punches to the face looks up just in time to see Hiro teleport in ready to stab him.}}
** In Volume 3, the look on Bennet's face {{spoiler|after he realizes that Peter is no longer possessing Jesse.}}
** Likewise, in Volume 4, {{spoiler|after Sylar decides he's had enough of Danko's crap and isn't willing to play along anymore, Danko casually stabs Sylar in his weak spot when he's not paying attention, seemingly killing him. Just as Danko turns to walk away, Sylar rises up from the ground and looms over Danko, clear very much annoyed at just having been backstabbed. The look on Danko's face is simply ''priceless''.}}
{{quote|"That ''hurt.'' "}}
** And ''again'' in the Volume 4 finale, {{spoiler|when it looks like Sylar's plan to get close to the President so that he can shapeshift into him is about to succeed, we find out that he can't because it's actually Peter, who stole his ability earlier and in turn stabs Sylar with a tranquilizer. The look on Sylar's face shows that he's finally been owned after 3 seasons of fighting him with no clear winner, followed by a [[Badass]] quote from Peter:}}
{{quote|"You didn't think I took that one from you, did you?"}}
** In the Volume 5 preview, {{spoiler|[[Replacement Goldfish|Sythan]] looks at a clock and remarks on how it's going a few minutes fast, with Angela Petrelli waiting for him at the door so they can go to lunch. The "''FUCK''." expression on Ma Petrelli's face is a classic.}}
* [[One Degree of Separation]]
* [[One Person, One Power]] - strictly observed except for the power-borrowing/power-stealing characters.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: John Glover as {{spoiler|Samson Gray, Sylar's biological father}}
* [[Only I Can Kill Him]]: subverted on Kirby Plaza {{spoiler|when all the characters (without access to prophetic materials) believe that Peter will be the one to take down Sylar but its Hiro that delivers the coup de grace.}}
* [[Organization with Unlimited Funding]]: The Company has fit this trope to varying degrees throughout the seasons, most closely when it was run by Bob Bishop (who had the power to turn anything into gold) during Volume Two, who identifies himself as The Company's "financial source."
* [[Our Presidents Are Different]]: Of the President Minority type, but subverted due to real world events.
** Later becomes President Target in the Volume Four finale.
* [[Papa Wolf]]: ''Noah. Bennet''. The end. Do ''NOT'' mess with his Claire-bear, '''EVER''', if you don't want him to go Terminator on your ass. Which made a LOT of people wonder whether he'd had a lobotomy sometime during ''An Invisible Thread''. Then Sylar in ''I Am Become Death'' after his son is accidentally killed in a shootout. Leads directly in this case to a [[Superpower Meltdown]]. And Matt Parkman, normally a mild-mannered [[The Everyman|everyman]], will mess you up if you go near his surrogate daughter Molly Walker, or his wife and bio-child. But we also have Nathan Petrelli, who * tries* to be a [[Papa Wolf]] for Claire as well, but... kind of ''fails'' miserably and manages to fuck everything up. [[Running Gag|As he does.]]
* [[Parental Abandonment]]: For lots and lots of characters.
* [[Parental Substitute]] - {{spoiler|Angela keeps trying to adopt Sylar, with mixed results.}}
* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: Bob Bishop, whose power is that he can turn things to gold with a touch, uses "Midas" as his password.
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* [[People Puppets]]: Level 5 inmate Doyle
* [[Persona Non Grata]]: Hiro and Ando are banned from Mr. Linderman's casinos after they abuse Hiro's powers to cheat at poker.
* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: Walking nukes Ted, Peter, and Sylar, and Maya our lady of bioweaponry.
* [[Personality Powers]]
* [[Pet the Dog]]: The Volume Three flashback episode "Villains" was one big [[Pet the Dog]] moment for most of the series' major baddies: Sylar, Linderman, Angela Petrelli, Elle, and even Thompson all got to have sympathetic and humanizing moments. The only exception is [[Big Bad]] Arthur Petrelli, who was revealed to have been a grade A [[Jerkass]] even back then.
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{{quote|'''Meredith''': "I see you've still got a weakness for blondes."}}
* [[Plot Induced Stupidity]]: Pretty much everybody, but Hiro Nakamura takes the cake - with his powers to travel through time / freeze time, there isn't in theory any villain he couldn't defeat or any situation he couldn't save. Hell, if you raise a whole army against him he can go back in time to the day before you started to raise an army, freeze time and kill you while you're taking a piss. So far there hasn't been a season finale climax / final confrontation which couldn't have been avoided had Hiro simply <s> used his powers well</s> had a brain.
** My personal favourite is in volume 5, when Hiro goes back in time to save Charlie, does, by showboating his powers in front of Sylar. Then, Samuel kidnaps Charlie. Oh no, I better obey his wishes rather than go back in time to save Charlie, which I just did 5 minutes ago. To be fair, Hiro’s powers were malfunctioning but he still managed to travel back in time for Samuel in hopes it would help him rescue Charlie.
*** Even better, why not just have a future Hiro visit his present self, telling him where Charlie is. Then, after rescuing Charlie, present Hiro does the same thing. It's a stable time loop.
* [[Poke in the Third Eye]]: Maury Parkman to Molly.
* [[Power Hair]]: Ma Petrelli
* [[Power Loss Makes You Strong]]: Peter Petrelli during the Villians Arc, and later after the [[Discard and Draw]].
* [[Power Perversion Potential]]: Explicit in the Series. In Volume 2, [[Master of Illusion]] Candice offers to let Sylar sleep with anyone he wants. Including twins. Or [[Screw Yourself|himself]]. Parkman uses his power in a more romantic way in season 1, by reading his wife's mind in order to give her a perfect date. Sylar {{spoiler|(inside Matt's head)}} in season 4 uses it in a darker manner, by {{spoiler|having sex with Janice and making her enjoy it much more than she ever did with Matt.}}
* [[Posthumous Character]]: Linderman in Volume Three, though he's {{spoiler|quickly outed as a hallucination created by Maury Parkman.}}
* [[Power Incontinence]]: Peter, Maya, Ted.
* [[Preemptive Apology]]: Hiro (to Tracy): * bows* "Sorry" * whack!*
* [[Preemptive Declaration]]: From early in the third volume, when Hiro meets [[Super Speed|Daphne]] after she compromises his time-stop:
{{quote|'''Daphne:''' This whole time-stopping thing, how does it work, exactly? I mean, if you chase me to Bangkok, will time stay frozen in Tokyo?
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* [[Puppy Dog Eyes]]: Yes, we KNOW Nathan Petrelli is a [[Jerkass]]... but [[Mr. Fanservice|Adrian Pasdar flutters the eyelashes and pouts]] and panties ''everywhere'' commence to drop. [http://i49.tinypic.com/11i2tkz.png Don't you just wanna] [http://i50.tinypic.com/120sft2.png hug him?!](... Although this was mostly cancelled out by the fugly [[Beard of Sorrow]] in the beginning of Season 2.)
** [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|And Sylar]]. [http://i47.tinypic.com/2ecpz6h.png Serial killers should not look this cute].
** Also Peter, when he's <s> trying to convince</s> convincing Nathan to go along with one of [[Idiot Hero|his ideas.]]
*** See The Eclipse Part 1 where he persuades Nathan to fly him along to Haiti.
{{quote|'''Peter''': "take me?"
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