Weaklings Die. Big Deal

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Part of a series on Darling in the Franxx. [View Related Entries]

About

"Weaklings Die. Big Deal" is a memorable quote said by Darling in the Franxx character Zero Two in response to character 090 accusing her of being responsible for the death of his partner. Online, the image has been used as a reaction, primarily in /r/animemes and other anime communities, often used to express lack of compassion over a person or a fad dying.

Origin

On February 10th, 2018, episode five "Your Thorn, My Badge" of the anime series Darling in the Franxx premiered. In the episode, character 090 accuses deuteragon^[1]ist Zero Two of being reckless in combat situations, claiming that her behavior led to the death of his partner two years ago. Zero Two then responds that she doesn't recall the situation, says that "weaklings die" and comments that it is not a big deal.

On September 25th, 2018, Redditor 016002 posted a captioned still image from the scene to /r/DarlingInTheFranxx subreddit, where it gained over 200 upvotes in six months (shown below, left).^[2] On October 7th, 2018, Redditor AmericanMalik posted the earliest known meme based on the reaction image, gaining over 4,600 upvotes in six months (shown below, right).^[3]

Spread

In the following weeks, the reaction image gained notable popularity in anime communities online, with the meme being used in /r/animemes and Memes in the Franxx Facebook group. For example, on October 12th, 2018, Redditor farequinox15 posted a meme which received over 7,400 upvotes six months (shown below, left).^[4] On October 24th, Memes in the Franxx Facebook group posted a meme which gained over 100 reactions in one year (shown below, right).^[5]

In the following year, the reaction image maintained popularity online, with notable memes appearing both in anime communities online and in major meme subreddits such as /r/dankmemes.^[6]