Perhaps the most iconic moment in the whole Legend of Zelda series is the moment where a kind, elderly hermit passes over a simple, wooden sword and gives Link a simple warning: “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” This single screen has been made into countless memes and a horde of merchandise ranging from shirts and socks to journals. It’s this memorable moment that artist ToasterKiwi gives a new perspective in their art piece titled “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone!”
Upon examining the two central figures of the piece, Link and the Old Man, one of the first things the audience will notice is that they both look very much like they could have stepped out of an old-fashioned anime. Link’s eyes and mouth are opened wide at the sight of the simple wooden blade. He’s still a young lad at the start of his journey, not the warrior he’ll be forged into through countless battles. His golden hair flows around and frames his face which draws our attention again toward his eyes. The thick black line on his upper lid and distinct eyelashes bring this incarnation of Link a more effeminate look. It could be that the black line at the top of his eye is merely there to separate the white part of his eye from his pale skin, but it could also be there to hint that this Link is very young and hasn’t developed the more masculine look that he might gain later in life.
The Old Man’s most interesting feature is his roundness. Almost every part of him is soft and rounded. His head, nose, sleeves, and even his toes are all sphere shaped. This is important because traditionally objects and characters that feature more rounded features are seen as cuter and more welcoming. Given that this is the first person the player meets in the original Legend of Zelda, this art immediately makes the elderly mentor appear approachable. Link’s not in danger despite the sword the Old Man is holding. He’s there to help Link, not hurt him.
There are some interesting elements to notice beyond these two iconic characters as well. In the area surrounding the Old Man, there are multiple bottles as well as mounds of what appear to be glass or crystalline spheres. At first, I wasn’t sure why these items would appear in this piece, but as I thought about it, it made perfect sense as a clever call back to the Old Man’s character in that first game.
As the player progressed through the game, various old men would appear offering everything from money to cryptic hints about the game’s puzzles. The most useful thing these hidden elders offered was the easy choice between a bottle filled with a potion or a heart container. Looking back at the art, the bottles can easily be seen as potentially being ready to hold a life giving elixir. What about the spheres though? The answer to this mystery lies not in the 8-bit era but in the modern one. In Breath of the Wild, when Link conquers a shrine or otherwise proves his heroic worth, he is awarded a Spirit Orb. Collecting four of these allows the adventurer to expand his health just like the Heart Container gifted by the old men in the original game. ToasterKiwi has cleverly combined the roles of multiple versions of the Old Man in a way that brings the oldest and newest games together.
We can’t stop analyzing this piece without mentioning the item that the old man offers Link: the Wooden Sword. Its appearance both reinvents and homages its appearance in the old game. The blade looks more like a traditional illustration, but it’s the hilt that’s the most interesting. Rather than taking artistic license to make the hilt look more fanciful. ToasterKiwi has kept the blocky style of the game. It’s very thin and more akin to something a player would see in Mincraft rather than in a piece of art. By drawing it this way, this simple sword looks like an amalgamated version of a sword we might see in the later games combined with the hilt of the original 8-bit weapon.
Through this art, ToasterKiwi has taken an image burned into the memory of millions of players and blurred the lines. It modernizes this moment, making both the Old Man and Link more like a beloved cartoon. It brings in elements from later games while merging them with details from the past. By doing so, the audience is left with an image that transcends that one 8-bit screen and expands to encompass the whole of the Zelda series.
