One Does Not Simply

One does not simply walk into Mordor.

In December 2001, Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring introduced audiences to Boromir, son of Denethor, played by Sean Bean with all the gravitas of a man who knows he's destined to die dramatically. At the Council of Elrond, Boromir explains why destroying the One Ring won't be easy:

"One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep."

Sean Bean delivered the line with such weighty seriousness that the internet couldn't resist. By December 2005, the format had begun spreading across YTMND and Something Awful. By the early 2010s, it had become one of the most enduring meme templates of the era.

"One does not simply... finish a Netflix series in one sitting." "One does not simply... eat just one chip." "One does not simply... explain Bitcoin to their parents."

The format worked because Boromir's earnestness was so perfectly undermined by trivial applications. The gates of Mordor guarded by orcs became any minor inconvenience approached with excessive solemnity.

Sean Bean, known for dying in approximately 73% of his roles, embraced his meme legacy. The image of him, finger raised, explaining the impossibility of the task at hand, became iconic.

One does not simply kill a meme. But eventually, this one faded—not into the fires of Mount Doom, but into the quieter death of irrelevance.

The black gates are closed now. The format rests.

But the memory endures.