PODCAST · leisure
This Week In Fandom History
by V. Arrow & Emily Jaye | Fanfiction Aficionados & Fandom Historians
A podcast about why fandom matters. Co-hosted by V. Arrow and Emily Jaye, This Week In Fandom History celebrates fandom culture's highest highs and weirdest lows. With which short-lived vampire cop drama was the very first X-Files fanfiction crossed over? Who is Tara Gilesbie? How recently did the Starsky & Hutch Lending Library rent out its last zine? What were Strikethrough, Racefail, LGBTFansDeserveBetter, and Conchobar, anyway? V and Emily trade off some deep-internet research each week to learn and laugh (and sometimes rage) their way through the annals of fandom history. Come join us!
Episodes
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Batman Wouldn't, Spider-Man Would || Episode #013: A Sparkling Halloween Special with @kingstoken (Vampironica, Morbius)
This episode will be available to all listeners for 7 days before access is locked to our $5+ Patreon donors. This week, our C-List Superhero is Vampironica AKA Veronica Lodge but a vampire (Archie Comics), and our A-List Superhero is Michael Morbius AKA The Living Vampire (Marvel). **I am aware...
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October 15, 2015: The Zamii070 Incident (TW Suicide, Cyberbullying)
This week, Emily and V look into another bummer event. In late October 2015, a 19‑year‑old fan artist from Arizona named Paige Paz, known online as Zamii070, posted a video from a hospital room after surviving a suicide attempt. For months, she had been the target of escalating harassment from...
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BONUS! TWIFH Plays Their First Fannish TTRPG (Dis/Continuity with GM Jeff from Party Of One)
Roll for initiative! A few months ago, V and Emily got to play their first-ever TTRPGs on the fabulous show, Party Of One, hosted by GM Jeff. We had such a good time that he gathered us together to play our first-ever group TTRPG... all about fandom! Listen in as we learn how to play the game and...
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October 14-16, 1988: The Blake's 7 Slash Wars Build Fandom's Fourth Wall
Down and... safe? This week, V and Emily are joined by fandom scholar Lena Barkin (The Fanthropologist) to discuss an event that should, really, be as notorious in fanfiction culture as the Anne Rice debacle or Cassandra Clare kerfuffle: the Blake's 7 Slash Wars. This seismic, terrible fanwank is...
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Batman Wouldn't, Spider-Man Would || Episode #012: Emily's Safeword Is 'Pedro Pascal' with @elismor (Mr. Immortal, Marvel; Andromache the Scythian, The Old Guard)
This episode will be available to all listeners for 7 days before access is locked to our $5+ Patreon donors. This week, our C-List Superhero is Craig Hollis AKA Mr. Immortal (Marvel), and our A-List Superhero is Andromache the Scythian (The Old Guard, Image Comics). Our Uninformed Expert Panel...
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BONUS! FEED DROP - Mind the Tags - Ready or Knot: Our Deep Dive into the Omegaverse
What's the story?! Well, this week, Emily and V suffered a tech tragedy and lost their entire episode at the eleventh hour. Fortunately, our friends, Other Emily and Vee from Mind the Tags, came to our rescue with an episode that we loved and think you will, too! Listen to the episode opener to...
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CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention || Episode #007: Five Months Out
Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If...
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October 3: Mean Girls Day with Allegra from STAN Podcast
She doesn't even go here! This week, V and Emily are joined by a friend who, indeed, does not normally go here, but we're glad she did for this episode: Allegra Ponti from STAN Podcast. She is here to join our cafeteria clique as we discuss the 2004 movie phenomenon Mean Girls, and how the...
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September 24, 2014: In Which We Got Jossed By Dan & Phil
PHIL LESTER, YOU’RE A GENIUS! This week’s episode is a little different. This week, Emily and V finally release an episode that has been sitting in our vault for over a year — not because it wasn’t good, but because the universe pulled off one of the most chaotic, timeline‑breaking acts of...
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September 13, 2005: Supernatural Premieres, Lightning Bottled, with Heidi Tandy
Hunters, get your salt! This week, V and Emily are joined by friend-of-the-pod Heidi Tandy, who calls in from San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to discuss the fandom that spells SDCC for her, and thousands of others in the fannish community: Supernatural. The premiere of the show on the WB (progenitor of...
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Batman Wouldn't, Spider-Man Would || Episode #010: Let's Leave Mommy Out Of It with Ella Dawson (White Fox, Superman)
This episode will be available to all listeners for 7 days before access is locked to our $5+ Patreon donors. This week, our C-List Superhero is Ami Han AKA White Fox (Marvel), and our A-List Superhero is Kal-El AKA Clark Kent AKA Superman (DC Comics). Our Uninformed Expert Panel this week is…
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September 4, 1995: Xena Reinvents Fandom
Aiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiiii! This week, Emily and V head back to the mid‑90s — the era of dial‑up internet and aggressively pointy shoulderpads — to revisit the rise of Xena: Warrior Princess. It’s hard to overstate how much this show reshaped the fandom landscape: a morally complicated heroine, a...
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BONUS! Feed Drop - Femme & Furious - Fast 5 - August 18, 2026
Absolute potato! This week, TWIFH is delighted to bring you a special preview of Femme & Furious, a new pod-friend and great listen for fans of fandom, and especially for listeners who liked our old behind-the-scenes pop culture rundown episodes for Patreon. In this episode, our friend Julia...
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September 1, 1850: Lindmania Shapes the American Middle Class
Never enough! This week, V and Emily travel back to TWIFH’s oldest historical event thus far: opera singer Jenny Lind’s landmark 1850 tour in the United States and its accompanying “Lindmania.” Did you know that the fangirls of 1850 were Just Like Us? They sobbed, they squeed, they schemed to…
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August 27, 2014: #Gamergate Coined
No pithy exclamation this week, because we are too angry. While #Gamergate easily warrants an entire long-form investigative podcast all on its own, Emily did a fantastic job condensing it down to one infuriating hour for V. We look at both the surface and underlying reasons behind the…
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CONstruction || Episode #006: Six Months Out
Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If...
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August 16, 2021: Shang-Chi Rises to the Top of the MCU
What happened to your shirt?! This week, V and Emily indulge in talking about one of their favorite MCU films -- and the most handsome star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and its star, Simu Liu. Did you know that this film/character does not even…
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BONUS! Feed Drop: Lez Hang Out - 816 - Lez-ssentials Pretty Little Liars with John Arrow
Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead! This week, TWIFH is delighted to bring you a special preview episode of Lez Hang Out, the #1 lesbian hangout podcast and a super-fun listen for fans of fandom. Our good friend -- and CONstruction co-host, @jarrow from TGIF/F! -- is their expert guest…
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August 2 - August 18, 2020: BTS ARMY Wages War on AO3
#StreamBTSDynamiteNewSong! This week, V and Emily head back to the days of quarantine to look at an event that is... sigh. It showcases the culture differences between pre-2020 fandom and post-2020 fandom, Twitter fandom and the lineage of Livejournal-originated fandom, and corporate internet...
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July 1998: The STIFfie Awards Have "Nothing to Hide"
Slash fans, rise up! (Sorry.) This week, V and Emily look at a triple-shot of '90s slash goodness: the multifandom zine "Nothing to Hide," the STIFfie Awards of 1998, and STIFfie founder Mary Urhausen. We're wading deeper into a pool that we thought we knew the depths of but boy, were we wrong,...
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July 21, 2012: The Ballad of Derpy Hooves
Muffins! This week, Emily and V are... surprisingly heartwarmed? Pleasantly shocked? Tentatively on board with a fandom they were very nervous to cover? We're talking about Bronies this week, which is to say, adult (mostly male) fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. This week in fandom...
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CONstruction || Episode #005: Seven Months Out
Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If...
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July 1982: "July" Delights Harry/Johnny Fans (And Us)
Do ya feel lucky? Punk! This week, V and Emily are so, so, sososo delighted by a new-to-them fandom: Harry/Johnny, which is technically -- technically -- the Dirty Harry fandom, but is REALLY just an offshoot of Starsky & Hutch. Created wholecloth by two fannish friends based on a single look in...
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July 9, 2009: Ianto Jones Breaks Fandom's Heart For Eternity
He tries his best! This week, Emily and V look at a fandom event that was listed on our research spreadsheet as, simply, "A HUGE FUCKING DEAL." Fandom has loved few characters the way it loved, and still loves, Ianto Jones of Torchwood. Unfortunately, he was created by a showrunner who hates…
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BONUS! The Multiverse of Emily-and-V Madness with Mind the Tags!
You have two nickels! This week, Emily and V joined forces with... Emily and Vee! You requested it in our May listener survey: it's a wild conversation with fellow fandom podcast, Mind the Tags. We stumble over direct addresses and begin to wonder which universe we're really in (is it 616??) as…
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June 25: Yuri Day (百合の日) with Erica Friedman
::Magical girl transition!:: This week, V and Emily were asked to finally, after three and a half years of hosting a fandom podcast, tackle an anime episode. So, because we are not anime girlies, we asked THEE anime expert, Erica Friedman, to join us and explain all things yuri! From school…
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CONstruction #004 || Eight Months Out
Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If...
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June 14, 2011: #shirtgate, Or: The Gaylor Episode
Shake it off? This week, V and Emily delve way too deeply into a corner of the internet that makes them feel insane: #gaylor, which in some accountings kicked off this week in fandom history with Glee's #shirtgate. How? Why? Whomst? Where? It's all been way-too-meticulously recorded for the ages,...
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June 13-14, 2008: What We Can Learn from FedConUSA
Defraud fans and prosper? This week, Emily and V take yet another jaunt to a fan convention gone horribly awry, and once again, it's Star Trek and it's in Dallas. This time, the key ideas are leaking spinal fluid, nuclear-angry celebrity guests, the relative gullibility of us scifi nerds, and...
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June 1990: Our Girl Beverly Zuk Teaches Us Many Things
Send a SASE! This week, V and Emily take a look at the illustrious -- pun intended -- life and career of Big Name Fanartist and writer Beverly Zuk, whose Fanlore page is a riot of full-frontal Vulcans. We look at the fascinating fic she wrote, particularly "The Third Verdict," and read through…
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May 25, 1977, 1983, 2018: The Real Star Wars Day
Help us, Obi-Wan, you're our only hope! This week, Emily and V look at three separate events that, as we say in Star Wars fandom, "rhyme": the releases of Star Wars (1977), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). While audience reactions to the three movies…
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May 20, 1998: Yet Another Godzilla Fandom Battle
Roar! This week, V and Emily look at a 70-year-old fandom that we'd never considered before: Godzilla. Thanks to a request, we look at the schism in the fandom, and the Godzilla canon, caused by Hollywood's GODZILLA (1998) -- also known as Zilla or GINO -- as well as the special effects fanzines…
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CONstruction || Episode #003: Nine Months Out
Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If...
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May 12, 2008: The Bench: Fan Feud Is Our First Sign JK Rowling Has Done A Heel-Turn
Accio legal system? This week, Emily and V look into the super-bummer that was a harbinger of even worse super-bummers to come: the time JK Rowling sued her biggest fan for basically knowing more about Harry Potter than she did. And everyone in the whole world sided with her, because it was 2008...
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May 4, 2012: Check the Vents, The Avengers Are In The Tower
To the Common Room! This week, V and Emily look with such fondness at the best era of fic since the internet began: the 2012 Avengers Tower era. This requested episode features Clint in the vents, Thor eating Pop-Tarts, a surprising number of penguins, Darcy Lewis, and genuine softness towards…
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April 1988: Late For Breakfast Letterzine Begins Cooking
And print! This week, Emily and V learn what a letterzine was as they look at one of the biggest of its kind from the 1980s and well into the '90s: multifandom slash zine, Late For Breakfast. They also discuss the now-mysterious biggest slash fandoms covered in the zine, from Bodie/Doyle to…
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April 21, 2008: The Open-Source Boob Project Grosses Us Out
Gross! This week, V and Emily are balls of white-hot rage as they discuss the very 2008 debacle that was the Open-Source Boob Project at Penguicon '08. The originator of the project -- the same dude who created the Purity Test that everyone in the late aughts took in college, because of course he...
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CONstruction || Episode #002: Ten Months Out
Welcome to another episode of the TWIFH special miniseries podcast, CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention. Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan convention. If...
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April 13, 2013: A BNF of Ice & Fire, Or: Lindaaaa, GRRM, and Racism (TW Misogyny, Racism, Terrible Language)
Yikes, Scoob! This week, Emily and V hold their noses and sink into the cesspit that is the Tumblr blog of ASOIAF BNF and certified GOT Hater, Lindaaaa (Linda Antonsson). We literally can't use any of the words that Lindaaaa uses to refer to fellow A Song of Ice & Fire/Game of Thrones fans and...
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March 30, 1981: An Obsessed Jodie Foster Fan Gives Fans A Bad Name
Yikes. This week, V and Emily try their best to be Carefully Neutral (well, V does) as they delve into the sordid, obsession-fueled assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr, who wanted very badly to impress child actress Jodie Foster. After the event, though, came the fallout:...
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April 4, 2024: BiBuck on The Weewoo Show (Evan "Buck" Buckley Comes Out On 9-1-1)
Weewoo! This week, Emily and V talk about not Steve and Bucky, nor Steve and Eddie, nor Edward and Stede, but the FOURTH slash pairing with the same names: Buck and Eddie from 9-1-1. Specifically, the glorious handling of Buck's realization of his bisexuality and the awesome way his actor, Oliver...
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March 23, 2025: JonasCon Is Burnin' Up
SOS! This week, V and Emily talk about the fandom for one of V's favorite bands, although sadly she was not in attendance at this legendary event: JonasCon. We discuss nostalgia, cringe culture, TWO new kinds of fanfiction that we'd never heard of before in our lives, pairing preferences...
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CONstruction || Episode #001: Eleven Months Out
Welcome to a brand-new TWIFH special miniseries podcast! We're calling it "CONstruction: How to Throw A Fan Convention." Each month, V will catch up with John @jarrow, the logistics guy with all the spreadsheets and contracts for TGI Femslash, about, well, how to throw a successful fan…
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March 18, 1975: M*A*S*H Says "Abyssinia Henry" with @dearmash1975project
Attention! This week, a very special guest joins V and Emily to help tackle one of the biggest shows ever on American TV and, further, one of the biggest shock character deaths of all time. We're so excited to have Lily, AKA @dearmash1975project, join us to talk about the M*A*S*H season 3 closer,...
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March 12, 2006: The Yunjae Yaoi Inferno
Dangerous love! This week, V and Emily return to the world of kpop for a tale that is truly too wild to be believed. There's badfic. There's a fanfiction contest that should NOT have happened. There's fanservice. Emily learns the word "skinshipping" and hates it. There's a ghost kidnapping boy...
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March 2, 2017: "All the Young Dudes" Debuts on AO3
Wotcher! This week, Emily and V look at a massively, massively popular and influential fanfiction that blew up during the long winter of COVID lockdowns thanks to... long sigh... #FicTok. Unfortunately, it is a Harry Potter fic. We once again condemn every single goddamn thing JKR says, does, and...
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February 11, 2017: The Soulmate Goose of Enforcement Trope Is Introduced
It is a soulmate AU, and you are a horrible goose! This week, Emily and V explore Emily's deep-seated Goose Trauma and look at the only Soulmate AU they like: the Soulmate Goose of Enforcement, a trope that originated in OMG Check Please fandom. What is it? It's what it sounds like. Why is it?...
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February 13, 2026: TWIFH Live @ TGIF/F! With Fan Girl Film Club!
Did I say something gay at the femslash convention?! This week, a very special LIVE episode of This Week In Fandom History, recorded at the 10th anniversary TGIF/F (TGI Femslash) con in San Pedro, CA! Emily was not able to attend, so V is joined for the recording by wonderful cohost-in-law Mia…
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February 10, 2003: "Flesh Mechanic" Changes The Fic Game And We're Obsessed
God must have spent a little more time on Flesh Mechanic! (Actually, Kel and Lise did.) This week, V and Emily FREAK THE FUCK OUT over the single best fanfiction they've ever read, probably, and it is NOT what you would expect. No spoiling. Click the first source link, read the story, and then…
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January 21, 2002: The First Time Someone Posted A Five Times Fic
+1! This week, Emily and V look at everyone's favorite fic format, the 5+1 fic. This humble story structure seems like it's always been a part of fandom, or just a part of human storytelling, but no! It all started with a little Clark/Lex story in Smallville fandom back in 2002, and boy, are we...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A podcast about why fandom matters. Co-hosted by V. Arrow and Emily Jaye, This Week In Fandom History celebrates fandom culture's highest highs and weirdest lows. With which short-lived vampire cop drama was the very first X-Files fanfiction crossed over? Who is Tara Gilesbie? How recently did the Starsky & Hutch Lending Library rent out its last zine? What were Strikethrough, Racefail, LGBTFansDeserveBetter, and Conchobar, anyway? V and Emily trade off some deep-internet research each week to learn and laugh (and sometimes rage) their way through the annals of fandom history. Come join us!
HOSTED BY
V. Arrow & Emily Jaye | Fanfiction Aficionados & Fandom Historians
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does This Week In Fandom History have?
This Week In Fandom History currently has 195 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is This Week In Fandom History about?
A podcast about why fandom matters. Co-hosted by V. Arrow and Emily Jaye, This Week In Fandom History celebrates fandom culture's highest highs and weirdest lows. With which short-lived vampire cop drama was the very first X-Files fanfiction crossed over? Who is Tara Gilesbie? How recently did the...
How often does This Week In Fandom History release new episodes?
This Week In Fandom History publishes regularly with 195 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to This Week In Fandom History?
You can listen to This Week In Fandom History on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts This Week In Fandom History?
This Week In Fandom History is created and hosted by V. Arrow & Emily Jaye | Fanfiction Aficionados & Fandom Historians.
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