Dozens of flags, strange symbols, and hidden histories—each one tells a story we never saw coming. We dug in to decode them all, and the results were shocking, hilarious, and downright weird.

You're scrolling through TikTok and suddenly hear the sound of smooth jazz. The sax starts up and, yep, you're about to find out what slightly strange behavior someone's partner or love interest ...

Beige flags have ever so slightly brightened her outlook. “Maybe there’s a little hope,” she said, “that I’ll just end up with somebody weird.” Callie Holtermann joined The Times in 2020.

Some opened energy drinks, some alcohol, others sunscreen. But one accessory hung over it all: wrinkled American flags with the faces of highly anticipated Coachella artists superimposed.

If you've only casually passed by an Elder Scrolls game you might assume they're pretty generic. Swords, elves, goblins, orcs, dragons, all stuff the fantasy world has seen a million times before.