Arrow in the Knee
The Skyrim guard's line 'I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee' โ the biggest gaming meme of the early 2010s.
Origin
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launched in November 2011 and immediately became a phenomenon โ a vast open-world fantasy game that sold over 60 million copies across re-releases. Bethesda's NPCs repeated a small number of canned greetings and one in particular, delivered by city guards, attached itself to the internet: 'I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.' Within weeks it was a structural meme โ countless variants ('I used to be a writer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee'). The phrase has been retroactively explained as Norse slang for getting married (probably untrue, but the explanation itself spread).
Modern usage
Universal meme template for explaining why you no longer do something: 'I used to run marathons, then I took an arrow in the knee.' Almost completely detached from its source โ most users of the phrase have never played Skyrim. Often paired with 'Fus Ro Dah' as evidence that one game produced two of the decade's biggest gaming memes.
In the wild
I used to code on weekends, then I took an arrow in the knee.โ common usage
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