About

Destiny Guns refers to a series of image macros that use the guns from the video game series Destiny as reaction images, serving as the punchline to a caption.

Origin

On September 9th, 2014, the video game Destiny was released in the United States.^[1] Three years later, on September 6th, 2017, a sequel to the game was released in the United States. Both games feature dozens of weapons, many featuring evocative names that contain phrases, colloquialisms and descriptive language, such as "Single Clap," "Unspoken Promise," "Origin Story," "Nameless Midnight" and more (examples below).^[2][3]

While memes about the guns have been circulating since the release of the gam, one of the earliest examples of the gun as an image macro was posted by Redditor ^[8] ItsDanken posted an image of the gun "Whisper of the Worm" with the caption "When you're 16 days into NNN and your penis has evolved to speak." The post received more than 12,000 points (97% upvoted) and 200 comments in four days (shown below).

Spread

On November 19th, 2018, Redditor^[4] TheBatInBlack posted the Destiny Gun "Alone as a God" with the caption "When everyone fails NNN but you survive." The post received more than 4,000 points (94% upvoted) and 30 comments (shown below).

That day, more people on the /r/dankmemes subreddit posted variations on the form. Redditor^[5] PingedHat posted an image of the gun "Riskrunner" with the caption "When you fap with the door open while your parents are home." The post received more than 10,000 points (94% upvoted) and 80 comments (shown below, left).

Redditor^[6] Lord_Vitiate posted a news story featuring the headline "Man Tries to Trade Kidnapped Baby for 15 Big Macs at Arkansas McDonald's" and the gun "Sweet Business." The post received more than 11,000 points (95% upvoted) and 100 comments in 24 hours (shown below, center).

That day, Redditor^[7] SuspiciousShape posted a version in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. The post received more than 150 points (93% upvoted) and 60 comments (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References