You Couldn't Live with Your Own Failure, Where Did that Bring You? Back to Me

About

"You Couldn't Live with Your Own Failure, Where Did that Bring You? Back to Me" is a quote said by Thanos in the Marvel film Avengers: Endgame. It has been used as a reaction image for when people return to a previous state or circle after failing in another, and the text itself is also used online as a standalone catchphrase to reply to people in threads and conversations where they are returning back to something they previously discarded or quit.

Origin

On April 2nd, 2019, the Marvel Entertainment YouTube page uploaded the special look trailer for Avengers: Endgame which included this quote by Thanos. The trailer^[1] has 29 million views and 782,000 likes after two years. Due to the amount of Endgame trailers released, on April 3rd, 2019, the YouTuber NewTrailerTime reuploaded the trailer, this time titled "Thanos 'You could not live with your own failure,'" receiving 288,000 views and 4,000 likes in two years (shown below).^[2]

In-Movie Context

In the film, Thanos (Josh Brolin) has traveled forward in time to recover the Infinity Stones, chasing after the Avengers who collected them from various timelines. Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) confront him to prevent him from collecting the Stones. Thanos then says the line, remarking how the Avengers' stubbornness to reverse his earlier "snap" just resulted in them meeting him again. This moment was uploaded by YouTuber^[3] Daniel Gonzalez14 on August 7, 2019, and received 526,000 views and 10,000 likes in two years (shown below).

Spread

Predictably, Thanos memes were highly popular leading up to and following the movie release. Memes of Thanos's different catchphrases and big moments were made into various formats, and this catchphrase found a particular niche on Twitter. On Twitter, the phrase was often used removed from the context as a comeback for social commentary or a reply to someone. This can be seen in the tweet by Twitter^[4] user @vergilbot_en who tweeted a mashup between Vergil from Devil May Cry and Thanos, receiving 532 likes in two years (shown below)

On Reddit, Thanos memes were also a frequent format, with this catchphrase being used with a screenshot of the moment as the backdrop and context. This is evident in the post to the /r/minecraftMemes^[5] subreddit on February 6th, 2020, that received 736 upvotes in one year (shown below).

Various Examples

Search interest

References