Over the past week I have seen an astonishing number of people mourn A fairy named Fartbuckle. Even more curious than Fartbuckle’s sudden and brief appearance is the fact that all of these emotional breakdowns are set to a new Childish Gambino song that’s impossible less related to the world Dungeons and Dragons, a goblin, and the ultimate sacrifice for your party. Yet, here we are.
As far as I can tell, this trend started when TikTok user tumbleweed2319 posted a video celebrating Fartbuckle on July 20th. Fatback seems to be an NPC that the Dungeon Master suddenly brings in at a climactic moment when the party’s lives are in danger, so they can prove their worth. Boy, did they do it.
All in all, Tumbleweed2319’s post was epic. It consists of a bunch of illustrations, starting from R&D The team despairs as they encounter a magic crystal and are on the verge of being wiped out. Just when all seems lost, the DM brings in a fellow goblin named Fartbuckle, and just as the players realize what’s about to happen, the goblin jumps to his feet, blocking the deadly attack. The final moments of the film show Fartbuckle being blown to pieces and with his last breath he says, “I’m…happy…to save…my friend…Fartbuckle…” The camera cuts and the scene ends, cueing the water system.
As dramatic as the events in the film are, I think what really makes it take off is its triumphant score. The piece is set to a new Childish Gambino song called “Lithonia,” which feels like a heroic climax. Although the song begins with very airy synths, it eventually picks up the pace with piano accompaniment before exploding into a guitar-heavy anthemic riff.
When Fartbuckle makes a sacrifice to save his friends, Gambino roars, “I feel liberated,” and the lyrics feel intrinsically connected to the action on screen, which of course is completely accidental. Gambino dropped his nickname and rap persona in favor of his first name, Donald Glover Not writing a song about a goblin named Fartbucklebut someone made a really good video that almost feels like he did it.
Within a few hours of first noticing tumbleweed2319’s post on my For You page — an algorithmically organized feed Tik Tok It served up videos the app thought I would like—and I was suddenly inundated with similar posts. Sometimes I’ll like a cat video and go to what I affectionately call CatTok, and TikTok thinks I’m part of a community of cat-loving users who need to see every cat video ever made. Every now and then, I’ll find BookTok and quickly try to escape it. My favorite is FoodTok because the algorithm feeds me food from local New York restaurants that look incredible.
This time, though, I’ve unofficially joined FartbuckleTok, which is filled with similar animations that reinterpret the brave goblin’s final moments, all set to “Lithonia.” And just like that, a meme was born. Other videos I’ve seen show some animation of Fartbuckle, or videos of someone pretending to cry and mourn the loss of Fartbuckle, a character no one knew existed a week ago.
The Fartbuckle trend has become a celebration of the noble sacrifices of the most unexpected and insignificant characters. fart buckle used to be He wasn’t well-received by anyone before he picked a player for the team because no one expected it, so they didn’t expect it to break his heart. This beat bears an uncanny resemblance to how grief manages to come from unexpected places and make people appreciate things and people they may have taken for granted. Apparently it struck a particular chord with people, who are now porting the Fartbuckle archetype and memes to other properties and characters, such as ring of fire and Final Fantasy XIV Online.
To make things better, Glover even shared his own post about Fartbuckle, who despite his repeated ire at the internet and all things social media related, ended up online. Clearly, he’s aware that his song has now become synonymous with Leprechaun, and while he may not understand why, that doesn’t seem to stop him from endorsing it. Long live Fabak.