The Longer The Icon of Sin Is on Earth, The Stronger It Will Become

Submission 34,190

Part of a series on Doom Eternal. [View Related Entries]

This entry contains major spoilers for the 2020 video game Doom Eternal. View at your own risk.

About

"The Longer The Icon of Sin Is on Earth, The Stronger It Will Become" is a line of dialogue said by character Samuel Hayden in the final levels of the 2020 video game Doom Eternal. Due to being stressed and repeated by Hayden, the phrase became a popular copypasta in the Doom community following the game's release.

Origin

On March 20th, 2020, the first-person shooter game Doom Eternal was released.^[1] During the penultimate level of the game, the main antagonist, the Khan Maykr, releases the final boss, the Icon of Sin, to finish the demonic consumption of Earth. The character Dr. Samuel Hayden then repeatedly stresses the urgency kill the Icon of Sin before it destroys the planet.

- The Icon of Sin is no Longer in the Khan Maykr's control. The longer he is on Earth, the stronger he will grow.
- We must move quickly, for the Icon of Sin grows more powerful the longer it is on Earth.
- The longer the Icon of Sin is on Earth, the stronger it will become.
- Earth does not have much time left!
- We must leave. Now.

Spread

In the week following the release of the game, the phrase started gaining recognition online, primarily in the /r/doom subreddit. On March 25th, 2020, Redditor^[2] ArchieBoop posted the earliest known viral meme, based on Hey Girls, Did You Know Format. which utilized the copypasta, gaining over 2,200 upvotes in three weeks (shown below).

In the following days, the format received a notable spread in the subreddit,^[3]^[4] with joking posts also appearing on 4chan^[5] and Twitter.^[6] On March 30th, 2020, YouTube^[7] user ManVoiceBabyFace posted a Why Do Women Only Like Stupid Jerks Who Treat Them Like Shit? meme that gained over 334,000 views in three weeks (shown below, right). On May 31st, 2020, YouTube^[8] user VitalNonsense posted a Bart, I Don't Want to Alarm You meme that received over 14,300 views (shown below, right).