People online joke that saving the world always used to mean heroes—whether medieval, super, or modern-day regulars—doing extraordinary things to save humanity from whatever impending doom was coming their way. But now, in light of the coronavirus, everyone is asked to be a hero by just being at home.
Despite the pleas to self-isolate actually being a logical and effective means for saving humanity from the current pandemic, the wording and idea of this seems to have inspired memesters to do what they do best given the situation—doing their part in saving the world by keeping up people’s morale with memes.
Memesters are keeping up essential workers' morale the best way they can—thanking them in memes
Image credits: friendlybutcher
Imgur user Friendlybutcher recently came out with a post that included a string of ten stock pictures of various workers—doctors, teachers, and garbage collectors—who are considered essential in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Each image came with a snippet of text that, to the unaware, sounds like a piece of a medieval mantra spoken by one of the knights at King Arthur’s court.
However, those who are more familiar with the Game of Thrones series will immediately recognize it as the Oath of the Night’s Watch.
An Imgurian paired up the Night's Watch Oath from Game of Thrones with stock photos to thank essential workers
Image credits: friendlybutcher
It effectively parallels workers to the Night's Watch, guarding Westeros (i.e. us) from the wildlings (COVID-19)
Image credits: friendlybutcher
A little bit of context for those unaware: in Game of Thrones, the Night’s Watch is a military order that guards a colossal structure called the Wall. The Wall is a giant piece of fortification that divides the Kingdom of the North (and the rest of the island of Westeros) from the domain of the wildlings.
The term wildlings refers to the clans living beyond the wall who call themselves the Free Folk and live without a dominant political authority (except the ones they choose to follow). It’s a derogatory term that is also sometimes used to refer to other clans on the island that are savage.
Image credits: friendlybutcher
It thanks everyone from doctors and nurses to post office workers, garbage collectors, and repairmen
Image credits: friendlybutcher
Essentially, the Wall is there to keep all that is considered wild out of the civilized kingdoms south of the wall and the Night’s Watch are the guys who keep the wildlings at bay.
Friendlybutcher’s post serves as a tribute to those working during the pandemic in the form of a parallel—a parallel in which the essential workers are considered the Night’s Watch, doing what they can to keep the wildlings, or the coronavirus, away from the rest of Westeros, or our general public.
Image credits: friendlybutcher
The post soon went viral and managed to garner over 150,000 views in less than a day
Image credits: friendlybutcher
The post received a bit of a mixed reaction, mainly because many professions were left forgotten, but also because some found it cringy. However, many others thought that being effectively called the Night’s Watch is a great compliment to essential workers, and, above all, that the message of the post was to show gratitude for their work during these tough times and that was all that actually mattered in the post.
Image credits: friendlybutcher
While the post did not cover all essential professions, but the commenters filled in the blanks
Image credits: friendlybutcher
Despite the different reactions, the post went viral, garnering over 150,000 views in less than a day. Below are some reactions and comments reminding us which professions were forgotten in this tribute.
Don’t forget to thank all of these people for doing an essential job. In the meantime, why not leave us a comment on who else is missing in this list?
Image credits: friendlybutcher
For reference, watch the original Night's Watch Oath as performed in the actual series
This is how the internet reacted to this
And then there were others that also need to be thanked for their work
