Beyond dialogue lines, the meme gained momentum because of the physical chaos that accompanies Bethesda's navigation meshes (navmeshes). When an NPC takes sudden damage from an unseen angle, their initial reaction is to run toward the origin coordinates of the projectile. However, geometry conflicts frequently cause this behavior to derail completely.
A bandit attempting to investigate an arrow shot might encounter a displaced wooden bucket, a companion's corpse, or a slightly elevated flagstone. Instead of navigating around the obstruction, an NPC pathfinding glitch locks the character into an endless running animation against a solid surface. Viewers watch a heavily armed warrior jog furiously into a brick wall for ten seconds before calmly stopping, adjusting his shield, and concluding that the phantom assault was simply barometric pressure.
In other instances, guards step directly over the freshly slain bodies of their colleagues. The sight of an Imperial soldier looking down at three dead companions, walking directly across their torsos, and declaring that nothing is amiss captured the essence of stealth game humor. These interactions demonstrated that the game’s artificial intelligence lacked contextual memory; each state existed in an isolated bubble, oblivious to what happened milliseconds prior.
