“I remember just seeing a couple memes on social media,” says Emil Pagliarulo, Design Director at Bethesda Games Studios, recounting a moment not long after release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

“At the time I didn’t think much of it,” he adds. “There are zillions of memes out there. People make them all the time and it’s rare that one actually catches on.”

“But this one did.”

The meme in question references a line given by an NPC guard, a simple bit of incidental dialogue written by Pagliarulo that, unbeknownst to him, would become one of the most recognizable quotes in the entire game: “I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee.”

Inspiring countless image macros and videos shared on social media, fan artworks, an entry on KnowYourMeme, parody songs, and more, “Arrow in the Knee” quickly caught on amongst not just Skyrim fans, but the gaming and internet-savvy community at large.

“It just started showing up more and more, and I found it hilarious that this of all things resonated with people. And it was weird, because I just started seeing it everywhere, especially in other games.” Pagliarulo says. “But it was when I was watching the LMFAO music video for ‘Sorry For Party Rocking,’ and a guy walks in with an arrow in his knee, I was just like…‘what the f***?’”

Pagliarulo, who at the time was Senior Designer on Skyrim, describes the serendipity behind the line – something he came up with alongside several other seemingly innocuous lines to pepper in with Skyrim’s NPCs. “I remember it was late at night, more like early in the morning, pretty deep into Skyrim’s development, and I was just jamming through a ton of guard lines. It was the same process I would use years later with the guard dialogue in Fallout 4. I was just trying to come up with some funny, quick little lines, things to make the guards a bit more interesting. That’s really the honest truth of it.”

In his interview with Mashable in their 2017 article detailing the meme’s history and pop culture influence, Pagliarulo adds that lines like “arrow in the knee” don’t just give NPCs a way to fill dead air, but also offer a chance to give them flavor and personality.

“In this case, it just seemed like a funny opportunity, and maybe believable. Like, he could have gotten shot in the knee with an arrow at some point and now he’s semi-retired and just walks around town like a worn-out fantasy beat cop.”

Despite how naturally a line may fit into the world of Skyrim, it requires a very involved process getting any dialogue and voice acting into a game, let alone considerations like localization for foreign languages or character limits for subtitles.

“It’s the other dialogue, the really intensive story stuff, that is the real challenge,” Pagliarulo explains. “Designers have to write a ton of it, and it gets pretty heavily reviewed and changes a lot.”

“Then, you have to audition actors, find just the right voice for your character and get all of the lines recorded. If you change the dialogue after that, then you also have to get the actor back in to re-record the lines. And as this stuff gets more advanced, there are even more steps, like sending the lines out to another party for realistic lip syncing. I think a lot of gamers probably don’t realize how enormous an undertaking it actually is.”

While a typical practice in making video games, it does show the many hands and talents necessary to fill Skyrim’s air with speech – and makes it all the more fascinating how a seemingly innocuous phrase from a guard found its way into meme culture so quickly after the game’s release.

“You know, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think the ones that catch on are those that fans can apply to different situations,” Pagliarulo ponders. “It just makes it fun to do variations on the theme. Like, ‘woman yelling at a cat,’ or ‘boyfriend looking at another woman'.” The original intention isn’t even important – it’s how funny someone can make it by applying it to a different situation. The ‘arrow in the knee’ memes are funny because they end up having nothing to do with Skyrim or guards at all.”

Perhaps that’s the key. Pagliarulo confirms that the line is literal – “an arrow in the knee” isn’t Skyrim slang for going down on one knee to propose and start a family, for example. Yet the way the line – which feels so ordinary in the game but sounds extraordinary to us in the real world – lives in the game and opens up a world of possibility in the minds of players wandering the streets of Whiterun. Maybe that guard really did settle down after a career of adventuring, or maybe they are just a worn-out fantasy beat cop. Either way, it’s further proof that there’s no single element that defines Skyrim – and it’s just one of the many reasons adventurers like you keep coming back even a decade after its release.