Must Have Been the Wind

Submission 5,204

Part of a series on The Elder Scrolls. [View Related Entries]

About

Must Have Been the Wind is a line of dialogue said by enemy NPCs in the 2006 video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion upon losing the sight of the player or not finding them after being alerted. Comical instances when obvious attacks and murderous sprees have been dismissed by NPCs as the wind, "getting jumpy," etc., have led to the catchphrase, along with similar lines from Oblivion and Skyrim, becoming popularized in memes.

Origin

On March 20th, 2006, the role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released.^[1] In the game, enemy NPCs will sometimes comment "Must have been the wind" upon losing sight of the player after being alerted, such as by noticing them or being attacked (example videos shown below).

Must have been the wind.

Similar lines are also said by characters in the 2011 video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, such as "Someone there?" and "Just getting jumpy, I guess."

Due to the phrases being said by the NPC characters upon losing sight of the player after being attacked or witnessing other NPCs being murdered, the lines, primarily "Must have been the wind," gained prevalence in memes. Prior to March 3rd, 2012, Tumblr user iraffiruse posted the earliest found meme utilizing the phrase (original post no longer available, reupload shown below). On March 3rd, 2012, user Lolancor then reposted the meme to desmotivaciones.es,^[2] which is the earliest discovered reupload.

Spread

The image saw viral spread in the following decade, being reposted on various sites. For example, on January 7th, 2020, Redditor Pikachuuxxx reposted the image to /r/gaming,^[3] where it received over 32,700 upvotes in six months.

The viral repost prompted an influx of memes exploiting the joke on Reddit. For example, on January 20th, 2020, Redditor Jenky91 posted a meme that received over 3,700 upvotes in /r/gaming^[4] in six months (shown below, left). On April 29th, Redditor GokuFanBoi posted an I Fear No Man meme that gained over 210 upvotes in the subreddit^[5] in six months (shown below, right).

X Deniers

Starting in late 2020, the catchphrase "must have been the wind" and the phrasal template "must have been X" gained initial virality in Santa Deniers memes, with the format becoming viral in late 2021. For example, on November 30th, 2020, Redditor mrsoup_20 posted a Herobrine meme that received over 10,000 upvotes on the /r/okbuddyretard^[6] subreddit in three years (shown below, left). On December 6th, 2021, Redditor Nearby-Low-864 posted a Garfield version of the meme to /r/196,^[7] where it received over 4,600 upvotes prior to deletion (shown below, right).