Today We Fight Under Our New Banner

Submission 13,055

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About

Today We Fight Under Our New Banner, also known as I Hope We Lose, refers to a series of memes based on a comic by artist Dogmo in which a person expresses hope that the battle will be lost after he sees a banner the army will be fighting under. Starting in July 2019, the format has been circulated as a Things I Don't Like Meme, regaining popularity in May 2020 following a viral post.

Origin

On July 29th, 2019, comic artist Dogmo posted a comic "New Banner" to his social media. In the four-panel comic, a Japanese military leader announcing to the troops that they will be fighting under a new banner, which is then revealed to depict a dorky face. In the last panel of the comic, one soldier tells another that he hopes that they will lose.

The comic received over 11,700 likes on Instagram,^[1] 460 reactions and 110 shares on Facebook^[2] and 80 retweets and 730 likes on Twitter.^[3] On July 30th, 2019, Redditor^[4] TheToucanman posted a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure edit, the first known edit of the comic (shown below, left). The post received over 4,100 upvotes in six months. Within minutes, Twitter^[5] user @turbotisme replied to Dogmo's post with a Ricardo Milos edit of the comic (shown below, left).

Spread

Starting in late July 2019, the format saw a moderate spread on Facebook, with users replacing the image on the banner with other images. For example, a July 30th, 2019, Game of Thrones meme in the Facebook^[6] group In Stannis we trust received over 230 reactions in ten months (shown below, left). An August 3rd, 2019, post in the Facebook group Visegradball^[7] received over 430 reactions in nine months (shown below, right).

The format did not see major spread until on May 5th, 2020, an unknown user posted a The Last of Us Part II version of the meme (shown below). On the same day, the image was reposted to /r/Gamingcirclejerk,^[8] /r/TheLastOfUs2^[9] and 9GAG,^[10] gaining over 270 upvotes, 200 upvotes and 7,500 points, respectively.

The post prompted viral spread of the format on Facebook and Reddit in the following week. For example, on May 5th Redditor^[11] Pacsbait posted a Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord meme that received over 390 upvotes in /r/MB2Bannerlord in one week. On May 6th Facebook^[12] group Warhammer 40k Techno-Barbarianposting posted a meme that received over 770 reactions and 120 shares.