Stealth Archer
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Part of a series on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. [View Related Entries]
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| About • Origin • Spread • Various Examples • Search Interest • External References • Recent Images • Recent Videos |
About
Stealth Archer or Sneak Archer refers to a series of memes that parody The Elder Scrolls players to degrade into a stealth archer build no matter what build they were initially planning for their playthrough of the video game series. The cliché has been a running joke in the The Elder Scrolls community since as early as 2015.
Origin
In the 2011 video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Sneak is one of the available skills. Archer builds in the game benefit from the skill particularly well as upon reaching level 40 in Sneak, Deadly Aim ability is unlocked, tripling damage from stealth attacks with bows.[1]
On June 2nd, 2015, Imgur[2] user JohnnyTheBlade posted a meme that described each playable race in Skyrim, with a tidbit for each race mentioning that they make great stealth archers. The post (shown below) received over 220 upvotes and 317,000 views on the site in nine years.
Spread
The image saw viral spread in the gaming community after being shared in mid-2015 and being reposted on Facebook, Twitter and multiple subreddits in the following years.
In the second half of the 2010s, each Skyrim playthrough degrading into the sneak archer build became a running joke in the The Elder Scrolls community.
For instance, on September 24th, 2016, Redditor Toxicitor posted a humorous graph that received over 930 upvotes in /r/skyrim[3] in eight years (shown below, left). On March 27th, 2017, Redditor RelentlessNick10 made a post inquiring about the popularity of the meme, which received 17 upvotes in a similar timeframe on the same subreddit[4] (shown below, right).
In the late 2010s, the joke saw further spread outside of Reddit and Facebook. For example, on February 20th, 2019, X[5] / Twitter account @TheElderMemes posted a Bad Acronym meme that received over 130 reposts and 690 likes in five years (shown below, left). On April 3rd, 2020, Redditor A_Stylish_Man posted a Money Printer Go Brrr meme originally posted by Instagram user @clavicus_mora. The post (shown below, right) received over 24,000 upvotes in the /r/gaming[6] subreddit in four years.
The meme maintained popularity through the early 2020s, with multiple examples posted across all major social media platforms.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] The Elder Scrolls Wiki – Sneak
[2] Imgur – Races of Skyrim
[3] Reddit – My experience with stealth archers
[4] Reddit – The Stealth Archer Meme
[5] X – @TheElderMemes
[6] Reddit – Stealth Archer OP
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