The Only Thing I Know For Real / There Will Be Bloodshed

About

"The Only Thing I Know for Real," also known for its chorus lyric There Will Be Bloodshed, is a song from the soundtrack of the 2013 video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Starting in late 2021, following the massive resurgence of the game in pop culture, the song saw use in memes, particularly as a bait-and-switch format known as Samroll in which another video suddenly cuts off to a montage set to the song.

Origin

On February 19th, 2013, action hack-and-slash video game Metal Gear Rising Revengeance was released.^[1] During the sword fight between the protagonist Raiden and secondary villain Jetstream Sam, the song "The Only Thing I Know For Real," written by Jamie Christopherson and Logan Mader with vocals by Tyson Yen, plays.

On February 3rd, 2015, YouTuber^[2] Samuel Ramogo posted a game music video tribute to Jetstream Sam set to the song, with the chorus of the track, starting with the line "There will be bloodshed," played as Sam pulls out his sword and cuts off Raiden's arm. The video (shown below) gained over 186,000 views in seven years.

There will be bloodshed!
The man in the mirror nods his head
The only one left
Will ride upon the dragon's back
Because the mountains don't give back what they take.

On March 1st, 2022, YouTuber^[3] posted a cropped clip from Samuel Ramogo's video that gained over 830,000 views in three weeks.

Spread

Prior to October 2021, the song saw limited use online, primarily as a choice of soundtrack to sword fighting videos. For example, on March 25th, 2018, YouTuber^[4] Wimpyapple posted a video that gained over 2.6 million views in four years (shown below, left). On September 3rd, 2021, YouTuber^[5] Giowwi posted a video of a fire performance set to the song that gained over 105,000 views in six months (shown below, right).

On October 12th, 2021, YouTuber^[6] PEJELAGARTOX avb posted a Stop Saying Dumbass Things meme based on the song, with the video accumulating over 870,200 views in five months. Later on the same day, PEJELAGARTOX avb uploaded^[17] a Want to Be Dominated meme based on the same punchline that gained over 720,000 views in the same period.

On December 25th, 2021, YouTuber^[7] Captain Woolbeard posted a similar meme using Jetstream Sam art by Tumblr user lipeka, which gained over 348,200 views in three months. On March 5th, 2022, Captain Woolbeard uploaded^[8] an extended version of the meme that received over 201,000 views in two weeks (shown below, right).

Starting in early February 2022, a Let's Fucking Go Ball version of this meme gained viral spread^[10][11][12] (author unknown; repost shown below).

On December 6th, 2021, YouTuber^[13] Soda posted the earliest known bait-and-switch meme in which an unrelated animation cut off into the clip from Samuel Ramogo's 2015 montage. The video gained over 163,000 views in three months (shown below, left). On December 20th, 2021, YouTuber^[14] Holy Priest posted a similar meme that gained over 13,000 views in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

On March 1st, 2022, YouTuber^[15] Kaznor posted a bait-and-switch meme that gained over 833,000 views in three weeks (shown below).

In the following weeks, the bait-and-switch trend, known as "Samroll," gained notable virality online, primarily on YouTube. On March 14th, 2022, YouTuber^[16] Lessons in Meme Culture reported on the spread of the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References