Gnomes vs. Knights

Submission 290

Part of a series on Tiny Green Mall Wizard / @crawly_possessed. [View Related Entries]

About

Gnomes vs. Knights, also known as Gnome vs. Knight, refers to an imaginary battle between gnomes and knights that became a TikTok meme and trend in mid-2024. The feud spawned from the Tiny Green Mall Wizard videos posted by TikToker @crawly_possessed. His "wizard gnome," seen with a white cone-shaped hat, green robe and pink butterfly net, inspired knight cosplayers trying to hunt him. The trend inspired viral discourse and memes across the web as internet users chose sides in the imagined Gnomes vs. Knights fight. The videos predominantly used the song "Misanthrop" by Blod Besvimelse.

Origin

In late June 2024, TikToker @crawly_possessed went viral multiple times for videos showing him as a "Wizard gnome" character. His first TikTok^[1] as the character was posted on June 27th, 2024, and it had a caption reading in Russian, "Нашел укромное место от ГЛУПЫХ РЫЦАРЕЙ 😈," which translates in English to, "Found a hiding place from the STUPID KNIGHTS 😈." The video received over 16.1 million plays and 2.8 million likes in four days (shown below), effectively starting the Gnomes vs. Knights trend.

Spread

@crawly_possessed posted increasingly viral TikToks^[2]^[3] as the wizard gnome going into late June 2024, continuing to reference knights in his video captions. In turn, other TikTokers started making gnome and knight content, adding to the imaginary battle's lore.

For instance, on June 30th, TikToker^[4] @mrfunn123 posted a video from a gnome's small POV, writing, "dw gnomes, the knights make bad traps," gaining over 551,000 plays and 45,300 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Also on June 30th, TikToker^[5] and knight cosplayer @gwgbo posted a video in which he said that he would find @crawly_possessed, gaining over 353,500 plays and 41,200 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Other knight cosplayers added to the trend, like TikToker^[6] @benem0th on June 30th, 2024, who received roughly 334,300 plays and 44,100 likes in a day (shown below).