The Brace Yourself meme features a screenshot of Lord Eddard 'Ned' Stark from the HBO series Game of Thrones, portrayed by Sean Bean. Although Stark famously warns that 'Winter is coming' throughout the first season, the specific phrase 'Brace yourselves' never actually appears in the show or the books. The internet combined the iconic image of Stark holding his sword, Ice, with the cautionary phrase to create a format used for warning others about imminent events, seasonal changes, or pop culture trends. It first gained massive popularity on Reddit and Quickmeme in 2011, quickly becoming one of the most enduring image macros from the Golden Age of memes.