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King Theoden's "So It Begins"
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About
King Theoden's "So It Begins", sometimes written And So It Begins, is a viral moment and quote from the second The Lord Of The Rings film The Two Towers in which the character King Theoden (played by actor Bernard Hill) speaks during a dark and rainy scene just before the Battle of Helm's Deep takes place. The catchphrase and picture of King Theoden saying, "So it begins," became a reaction image and meme in a similar way to Winter Is Coming, with the two iconic quotes being used in the same context about something being imminent.
Origin
In 2002, the movie The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers was released, which is where the quote comes from. The line, "So it begins," which is uttered by Theoden right before the Battle of Helm's Deep to signify that the battle is about to start, was uploaded to YouTube by YouTuber Michael Sabater[1] on January 24th, 2013, gaining 84,000 views in 11 years (shown below).
Spread
The quote, which was often referenced as a catchphrase in both online and offline Lord Of The Rings discussions and contexts, became a meme during the early 2010s partially due to another character in the franchise, Gandalf. In 2013, the quote was attributed to Gandalf, creating the Gandalf 'So It Begins' meme format.
However, the quote wasn't used in its original context until 2014, when on June 14th, 2014, Memecenter user benlogan15[2] uploaded a picture of Buddy from Elf with King Theoden shown underneath and the punchline being "what people think when they see Christmas lights" (shown below).
On August 20th, 2019, Redditor 1RYTY1 posted a caption meme referencing the Area 51 Raid to the /r/memes subreddit, receiving over 11,000 upvotes and 35 comments in five years (seen below).
On TikTok, the audio began to see usage separated from the context of King Theoden in the 2020s. For example, on June 4th, 2024, TikToker ya_boi_mr._stevenson[3] uploaded his reaction to seeing the first spotted lantern fly of the season, using the audio of Theoden saying, "So it begins," to showcase him trying to kill the fly and being wary of more to come, receiving over 550 likes and 10 comments in two years (shown below).
@ya_boi_mr.stevenson Severely outnumbered. @ya_boi_mr.stevenson #stevensontok #teacher #spottedlanternfly #summer #war blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/foryou?refer=embed">#foryou blank" title="♬ original sound – 𝙻𝙾𝚃𝚁🧝🏼♀️" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7026397798794857221?refer=embed">♬ original sound – 𝙻𝙾𝚃𝚁🧝🏼♀️
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