About

On an Open Field, Ned refers to a line from Game of Thrones in which the character Robert Baratheon states it would be foolish to fight the Dothraki on an open field. Several years later, the line became the subject of humorous photoshops and image macros within the Game of Thrones fandom as part of Boarposting / Bobbyposting.

Origin

The line comes from Season 1, episode 5 of Game of Thrones, "The Wolf and the Lion," which aired May 15th, 2011.^[1] In the scene, Baratheon tells Cersei that only a fool would fight the Dothraki on an open field (shown below).

On August 6th, 2017, the Season 7, episode 4 episode of Game of Thrones episode "The Spoils of War" aired in which Jaime Lannister attempts to fight the Dothraki in an open field.^[2]

Spread

Jokes about the "open field" battle began spreading after the episode. On August 7th, Redditor Execute-Order-66^[3] uploaded an image macro of Baratheon's quote over the scene, gaining over 5,500 upvotes (shown below, left). Twitter user @CitadellInsider^[4] posted a Hold My Beer joke which gained over 2,000 retweets (shown below, right).

On August 9th, Facebook page Peter Dinklage – Tyrion Lannister^[6] posted an image macro of the "hold my beer" joke, gaining 1,300 likes and reactions. On August 23rd, 2017, Reddit user Wittinator^[5] posted an image to /r/freefolk of Baratheon overlooking the scene with the title "A DOTHRAKIII HORDE NED!! ON AN OPEN FIIIIEEELLDDD," gaining over 18,000 upvotes (shown below).

The post by Wittinator led to many more posts in /r/freefolk referencing the joke. The following day, a post about the spread of jokes along with various Bobbyposting jokes was posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[7] On August 30th, 2017, Redditor QyburnsDeadArm^[8] posted a First Words exploitable comic with the phrase, gaining over 1,500 likes (shown below, left). Redditor Val_Hanrahan^[8] uploaded another joke on September 9th, gaining over 1,000 upvotes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References