# Hold The Door
Hold The Door is the catchphrase and gut-punch backstory revealed for Hodor, the gentle Stark family servant on HBO's Game of Thrones, when Season 6 Episode 5 aired on May 22, 2016. The moment finally explained why he could only say one word and set social media on fire within minutes, giving 2016 one of its most-shared TV death memes.
## Origin
The line was written for Season 6 Episode 5 of HBO's Game of Thrones, titled 'The Door,' which first aired on May 22, 2016[1]. The episode paid off a mystery that book and TV fans had chewed on for years: how the character actually got his name[3]. Screenwriters revealed that Hodor, born Wylis, was a cheerful young stable boy at Winterfell whose mind fractured when Bran, warging back in time, connected him to the moment of his own death decades in the future[1].
The scene ends with Meera and Bran fleeing the collapsing hideout while Hodor holds the door shut against a White Walker horde led by the Night King. Actor Kristian Nairn, who played Hodor for six seasons, told Entertainment Weekly he was 'thrilled' with the send-off and pointed out that his death is implied rather than shown on camera[2].
- **Platform:** HBO Game of Thrones (source) / Twitter (viral spread)
- **Creator:** David Benioff and D. B. Weiss (screenwriters), from a twist supplied by George R. R. Martin
- **Date:** 2016
## Overview
Hold The Door works on two layers at once. The first is the literal instruction Meera Reed shouts at Hodor inside the Three-Eyed Raven's cave, telling him to block the doorway so she can drag an unconscious Bran Stark to safety[1]. The second is a time-travel loop in which Bran wargs into a young Hodor, then known as Wylis, in the past, and the phrase collapses in the boy's head into the single word he would repeat for the rest of his life[2].
As a meme, it lives as an in-joke plus a sad-face image. Fans pair the phrase with drawings of a crying stick figure, screencaps of Hodor bracing the cave door, or the Game of Thrones title-card typeface, and drop 'hold the door' as a wince-worthy line whenever someone asks them to actually hold a real door[4]. The whole point is that a plain, mundane request now reads as a death sentence to anyone who watched the episode.
## How It Spread
Within minutes of the East Coast broadcast, #HoldTheDoor was trending worldwide on Twitter as viewers reacted to the reveal[2]. At 10:02 p.m. ET on May 22, 2016, Colombian pop-culture account @9000x posted a two-pane image pairing the phrase in the show's signature typeface with a cartoon of a stick figure lying in a pool of tears, and the tweet pulled close to 2,000 retweets and 1,600 likes inside 24 hours[3].
Three minutes later, at 10:05 p.m. ET, Reddit user Jedbanguer submitted an unattributed webcomic riffing that it would be hard to be polite about holding doors from now on, and the post climbed to 6,550 points at 95% upvoted in its first day[3]. Mainstream press caught up by the next morning, with CNN, Variety and other outlets running recaps that spotlighted the hashtag right next to Hodor's death[1][2]. Meme roundups on sites like Romper then collected older Hodor image macros with the new tragic context, arguing that every earlier 'Hodor!' joke suddenly read differently in hindsight[4].
## How to Use
Common convention is to post the phrase over an image of Hodor bracing the cave door, a crying reaction face, or the show's title-card font. Off-screen, people typically drop 'hold the door' as a wince pun whenever someone asks them to hold a real door, with the payoff being any Game of Thrones viewer feeling bad on the spot[4]. Urban Dictionary submissions later stretched the phrase into unrelated Sheldon Cooper and 'keep unwanted people out' bits, showing how quickly the line detached from the show and floated into everyday speech[5].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Hold The Door?
It's the catchphrase and origin story revealed for the character Hodor in the May 22, 2016 Game of Thrones episode 'The Door'[1].
### Where did Hold The Door come from?
HBO's Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 5, written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and aired on May 22, 2016[1].
### What does Hold The Door mean?
In-show, it's Meera Reed's plea to Hodor to block a cave door against White Walkers, which time-loops into the origin of his single-word name[1].
### How do you use Hold The Door?
Fans typically drop it as a sad pun any time someone asks them to hold a real door, often paired with a Hodor screencap[4].
### Is Hold The Door still popular?
The line is still shorthand for Game of Thrones grief, though usage peaked in mid-2016 around the episode's airing and its viral #HoldTheDoor Twitter moment[2].
### Who plays Hodor?
Northern Irish actor and DJ Kristian Nairn played Hodor across six seasons of Game of Thrones[2].
### Did George R. R. Martin write the Hold The Door reveal?
Martin gave the showrunners the twist, but the origin of Hodor's name had not appeared in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels when the episode aired[1].
### Why does Hodor only say 'Hodor'?
His mind broke as a boy when Bran, warging from the future, connected him to hearing 'hold the door' at the moment of his own eventual death[1].
### How fast did #HoldTheDoor trend?
It was trending worldwide on Twitter within minutes of the East Coast broadcast on May 22, 2016[2].
### What was the first big Hold The Door meme post?
@9000x's two-pane tweet at 10:02 p.m. ET on May 22, 2016, which pulled close to 2,000 retweets and 1,600 likes inside a day[3].
### Does Hodor actually die on screen?
No. Kristian Nairn told Entertainment Weekly the death is implied rather than shown, which he said leaves the ending 'kinda left open'[2].
## References
1. [https://variety.com/2016/tv/news/game-of-thrones-recap-season-6-episode-5-the-door-hodor-dead-1201780831/]()
2. [https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/23/entertainment/game-of-thrones-hodor/index.html]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hold-the-door]()
4. [https://www.romper.com/p/hodor-memes-from-game-of-thrones-that-will-keep-his-memory-alive-11065]()
5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hold%20The%20Door]()
6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DoBY8M_bCg]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/hold-the-door
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