The phrase and so it begins has circulated online for years as a shorthand for the moment a situation stops being calm and starts escalating. Short voice clips of the line became popular in meme edits and gaming videos because the wording is instantly understood even without any wider context, and users also search for the close variant and so it starts. It works for rivalries, arguments, races and messy challenges, and its mock serious tone has kept it in regular rotation for intros and reaction edits long after many similar clips faded.