I Am No Man / No Man Can Defeat Me
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About
I Am No Man, also known as No Man Can Defeat Me, is an exploitable image macro meme depicting Eowyn (portrayed by Miranda Otto) and the Witch-king of Angmar from The Lord of the Rings Return of the King. The format, which uses Eowyn's line in response to the Witch-king just before his death in the film, originated on Reddit in 2011 and spread over the following years.
Origin
On December 17th, 2003, The Third installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released in the United States. In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields scene, Eowyn, daughter of Theoden (the king of Rohan) fights the Witch-king of Angmar and kills him. Just before this scene, the Witch-king says no man can kill him, which is when Eowyn responds with, "I am no man" before stabbing him in the mouth, killing him (shown below).
On April 7th, 2011, Redditor Tallain posted a Come At Me Bro edit of the scene to /r/pics.[1] The post gained 941 points (85% upvoted) in eight years (shown below).
Spread
On December 6th, 2016, Redditor derpexpress posted an edit with Eowyn asking "Did you just assume my gender?" to /r/funny[3]. The post gained 12,700 points in three years (shown below, left). The format was used in many controversial posts involving Kaitlyn Jenner.
In later years, the scene progressed to fit alternative formats. On October 8th, 2018, Redditor Scaldera93 posted an I Fear No Man edit to /r/lotrmemes[4] (shown below, right). The post accumulated 45 points (95% upvoted) in a year.
On November 16, 2018, Redditor Fluttrick posted a line edit to /r/lotrmemes[2] (shown below, left). The image gained 53 points (95% upvoted) in three months. "I am no man" formats are used in popular "Shireposting"[5] Facebook group. On March 6th, 2019, Dominik Krayzel posted an image that replaced Eowyn with Pippin (shown below, right).
On July 22nd, 2024, during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, the format was notably used by supporters of Kamala Harris on both Reddit[6] and Twitter / X[7] (example shown below).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[2] Reddit – r/lotrmemes
[4] Reddit – r/lotrmemes
[5] Facebook – Shireposting
[6] Reddit – r/lgbtmemes
