Brace Yourself Meme Template

This is the “Brace Yourselves, Winter Is Coming” / Imminent Ned image macro, featuring Ned Stark (Sean Bean) from HBO’s Game of Thrones. “Winter is Coming” is House Stark’s motto and the title of the show’s pilot; “Brace yourselves” is a meme caption pattern, not a line Ned says in the show. Know Your Meme traces an early “Winter is Coming” macro to an owl on Quickmeme in July 2011 and the first known use with the Ned promotional portrait to August 2011, after a Virginia earthquake. The format broadened into the phrasal template “Brace yourselves, X is coming,” used to warn about an imminent event, challenge, seasonal change, or anticipated release. It can be played straight for a serious warning or used ironically for a minor event.

A vertical promotional portrait shows Eddard “Ned” Stark in a dark fur cloak, holding a sword upright, with a pale open background. No caption is printed on the source image. The app’s two broad full-width boxes are ordered top then bottom: the upper box spans y=0–141 and overlaps some of Ned’s head/upper portrait; the lower spans y=441–640 over the cloak and lower sword area.

Slot 1 (top) is the short warning/setup, often “BRACE YOURSELVES” or a situation that signals preparation. Slot 2 (bottom) names the approaching event, consequence, or workload—often in the pattern “X IS COMING.” The two captions must make a single warning, with slot-2 supplying what is imminent; the humor may come from treating an everyday nuisance as epic. Do not reverse the order or write slot-2 as unrelated commentary.

1. Top caption: give the warning or preparation cue, commonly “Brace yourselves.”
2. Bottom caption: name the approaching event, challenge, consequence, or release.

• Warning that a busy work period, deadline, or launch is approaching
• Playfully announcing an expected seasonal event or routine challenge
• Building anticipation for a product, show, game, or community event release
• Exaggerating a small, familiar inconvenience as an epic impending threat

• Do not treat “Brace yourselves” as a line spoken by Ned in the show; it is meme wording layered over the portrait.
• Do not put the approaching event in slot-1 and the warning in slot-2; preserve top setup followed by bottom “X is coming” reveal.
• Do not make the captions unrelated; the bottom must identify what the top tells the audience to prepare for.
• Do not claim every use must be about literal winter or a serious catastrophe; humorous everyday warnings are a common adaptation.
• Keep slot-2 concise enough to read across the lower portrait and avoid relying on visual details hidden beneath the text.