A viral video of a man falling from a wall during the Capitol riots has come to represent the shambolic nature of the pro-Trump insurrection, with the dramatic, ludicrous moment now being compared to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘s Link running out of stamina.
The clip depicts a man climbing a wall outside the Capitol, before losing his grip and plummeting to the floor. It wasn’t long before comparisons were drawn to Breath of the Wild‘s stamina mechanic, in which Link will fall if he’s clinging on to a surface for too long:
https://twitter.com/SANJlST4N/status/1347684292693020672
Twitter user @averycutedog edited the footage to further outline this point, adding BotW‘s circular stamina meter along with music from the game and its familiar ‘Game Over’ screen. The video has been liked over 120,000 times at the time of this writing:
— barroo (@averycutedog) January 8, 2021
The footage of the falling rioter was shared across Twitter following Wednesday’s riots, in which a mob of Trump supporters, Qanon conspiracy theorists, and even a GOP lawmaker descended upon the US Capitol building to protest Joe Biden’s election victory. The rioter has not been named, and it’s currently unclear if he suffered injuries from the fall.
For many, the video represented the chaotic and thoughtless nature of the riots. With the rioters clearly unsure of what they should do after breaking into the US Capitol, the building’s unprepared security staff and police eventually ushered them out, before Congress certified Biden’s electoral college victory the following morning. Five deaths have been reported as a result of the riots, while over 82 arrests have been made so far.
Far from appearing as the patriots they believed themselves to be, those who were involved in and supported the riots have been widely mocked online. Following the events at the Capitol, videos of Call of Duty‘s White House and Capitol levels experienced a surge in popularity, while Dishonored fans correct conspiracy theorists who had mistaken the Mark of the Outsider with an Antifa tattoo.
