# She Was Close to Giving Up She Was Close to Giving Up is an exploitable three-panel comic in which a young man about to abandon digging through a brick wall for his love interest suddenly smashes it apart in the final panel. The remix format first appeared on Pikabu in February 2018[1] and went viral in December 2023 with a Dragon Ball flying-kick edit that racked up tens of thousands of likes on X[4]. ## Origin The source comic was posted by an unknown artist before February 2018 and shows a young man abandoning his effort to break through a brick wall to reach his love interest, with the last panel revealing other men already approaching her[3]. The first known edit of the format appeared on February 9th, 2018, when Pikabu user Loonyloon posted a version in which the boy turns around and charges the wall so hard that the final panel sends the girl flying[1]. The author of that edit is not confirmed, and Loonyloon's post itself picked up only around 20 upvotes on Pikabu over seven years[1]. - **Platform:** Unknown webcomic / Pikabu (edit origin) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2018 ## Overview Edits of the format keep the first two panels intact: a young man chipping at a brick wall with a pickaxe, then dropping it and walking away as other suitors approach the woman on the other side. Creators then swap the third panel for a violent reversal in which the man charges back and demolishes the wall, usually sending the woman flying with the force of the hit[1]. The joke lands because the original webcomic was a moody metaphor about futile effort in love, and the edited punchline shreds that tone with slapstick overkill[3]. Most popular versions redraw or replace the final panel with a character from anime, games, or film doing the smashing. Dragon Ball's Goku performing a flying kick became the breakout template in late 2023[4], and Mario and Luigi versions followed within days[5]. The humor shifts from romance to crossover power fantasy, with the woman reduced to collateral damage of whichever franchise lands the finishing blow. ## How It Spread The edit stayed in slow circulation through the early 2020s before hitting a wider audience. On June 23rd, 2021, Redditor waifusenpaix posted a Naruto version to /r/memes that gathered more than 25,000 upvotes[2]. Viral traction arrived in late 2023 after a Facebook page replaced the final panel with Goku delivering a flying kick, drawing over 74,000 reactions and 1,600 shares[3]. On December 2nd, 2023, X user @Extralongdokkan reposted the Dragon Ball edit and collected over 1,800 reposts and 16,000 likes[4]. Days later, on December 7th, @MarioRPGCentral posted a Mario and Luigi version that reached about 2,100 reposts and 13,000 likes[5]. The flurry of franchise-swapped edits in December 2023 is what pushed the format out of niche repost pages and into mainstream meme feeds[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is She Was Close to Giving Up? It is an exploitable three-panel comic in which a boy stops digging through a wall to reach a girl, with the third panel edited to show him charging back and smashing the wall apart[3]. ### Where did She Was Close to Giving Up come from? The source comic is by an unknown artist, and the first known edited version was posted by Pikabu user Loonyloon on February 9th, 2018[1]. ### What does She Was Close to Giving Up mean? The original comic was a metaphor about giving up on a love interest, and the remix flips that message by having the boy destroy the wall with absurd force, often inserting a pop culture character to deliver the hit[2]. ### How do you use She Was Close to Giving Up? Creators typically keep the first two panels and replace the final panel with a character from anime, games, or film breaking through the wall, as seen in the Goku edit on X[4] and the Mario and Luigi edit a week later[5]. ### Is She Was Close to Giving Up still popular? The format broke out widely in December 2023 with franchise-swap edits across Facebook and X[3], and it shares a lineage with the Digging for Diamonds meme[3]. ## References 1. [https://pikabu.ru/story/ne_zassal_i_podkatil_perestaralsya_5698122]() 2. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/o6jmsz/never_give_up/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/she-was-close-to-giving-up]() 4. [https://x.com/Extralongdokkan/status/1731109767496827192]() 5. [https://x.com/MarioRPGCentral/status/1732770578954662077]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/she-was-close-to-giving-up Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library