About

Rest Here Weary Traveler, also known as Rest Here Weary Traveler, For Great Adventures Lie Ahead, is a catchphrase and looping GIF of a knight in armor sitting by a fire, a reference to dialogue and elements within the Dark Souls video game series, particularly the bonfire mechanic that allows players to rest and recover. The image or GIF is used to provide a break in scrolling for people online, often following the phrasal template "You've seen too many X memes" whenever something dominates the web. The GIF was first posted to Newgrounds in 2017, but the video with the accompanying harp melody was created on Facebook in 2019.

Origin

The GIF of the knight sitting by a bonfire was first posted to Tumblr by user Cannonbreed^[2] on June 11th, 2017, receiving roughly 4,800 notes in five years (seen below). Additionally, in the caption of the post, Cannonbreed stated that they created it for Oroboro the Ninja's Twitch stream, a notable Dark Souls / SoulsBourne player.

On July 17th, 2017, the GIF was then reposted to Imgur^[3] by user UserSubHunterOfIndeterminateGender, who captioned it, "This is a neutral post. Feel free to stop here and rest before journeying to the posts below." This Imgur post received roughly 6,000 upvotes in five years and effectively labeled the GIF with the first form of the "Weary Traveler" catchphrase.

The original was also posted to Newgrounds^[1] on March 20th, 2019, by Cannonbreed. Over the course of five years, the GIF received roughly 3,800 views and 83 faves.

Spread

On March 29th, 2019, Twitter^[5] user EeveeNicoleD posted a still version of the GIF, captioning it, "Feel free to stop here and rest before journeying to the posts below," earning over 110 likes in three years. A screenshot of her tweet was shared to /r/Memes^[6] on March 30th, earning roughly 62,000 upvotes in the same amount of time (shown below).

On April 5th, 2019, the YouTube channel Arkeagood reposted a video they'd found on Facebook that used Cannonbreed's GIF paired with the song "Rich House" ^[4] from the Neverwinter Nights soundtrack. Although the original Facebook post is unknown, the video (shown below) is the first known repost, receiving roughly 3,100 views over the course of three years.

Also on April 5th, 2019, the YouTube channel Markooz – Games & Nostalgia posted a version of the video that instead used the Main Theme Ost from the video game, earning roughly 78,500 views in three years (shown below, left). On April 11th, 2019, the YouTube channel Meme Dragon posted a video version of the tweet screenshot shown above, earning roughly 7,100 views over the course of three years (shown below, right).

On June 20th, 2020, a version of the video was posted to 9GAG,^[7] using an updated caption that congratulated the viewer on making it halfway through 2020. The post received roughly 7,700 upvotes in two years (shown below).

On November 10th, 2020, Redditor ImacactusBOI posted a meme to /r/FuckYouKaren^[8] that earned over 390 posts in two years (shown below, left). It was made based on the oversaturation of Karen memes within the subreddit. This idea of taking a break from oversaturated content became the meme's main force going forward. For instance, on January 11th, 2021, Redditor ExtrondraFortex posted a meme to r/dankmemes^[9] that referenced the oversaturation of Yee Yee Ass Haircut memes on Reddit, earning roughly 64,000 upvotes in one year (shown below, right).

The template saw usage seemingly every time a meme became overused on Reddit going into the remainder of 2021 and into 2022. Notable memes that were outed using the format include Busty Aunt Cass, Bernie Sanders' Mittens and Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock, among others.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References