Disclaimer: I Have Yet To Play The Original Zelda On NES. That Might Inform This Take Somewhat.

Disclaimer: I have yet to play the original Zelda on NES. That might inform this take somewhat.

IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS.

I was always confused by this because I knew that the old man gave Link a sword, not a companion. At the end of this interaction, Link is still alone. I always thought it was kind of stupid for that reason. Some help you are, old man! I’m still alone!

Maybe I just have Breath of the Wild on the brain. But the old man was never trying to stop Link from going alone. He was saying: “You’re going to be alone, and that will be scary. But you can use this to fight.”

TL;DR - the old man doesn’t solve the problem. But he does suggest that the problem can be solved.

Jessica “They just seem a little weird… Surrender! Surrender!” Day and Nick “I made up a dance so everyone will be happy!” Miller you will always be famous

I HAVE A BOY! He is there when I need him!

So I put the pieces of this puzzle together, but I’m still thinking about Dean Smith. When Smith took over as head coach, the Chancellor of the university told him that running a “clean program” was more important than wins or losses. Even so, Dean’s only losing season was his first.

Of course, Dean Smith was an alumnus of the University of Kansas. One of his UNC players, who would go on to coach the UNC program from 2003 to 2021, was head coach at Kansas for many years before that. These are the ties that bind, I guess.

Listen I know I’ve been on my “Kansas Fan Jason Sudeikis” soapbox but I NEED everyone to know that “play smart, play hard, play together” was coined by the late Dean Smith, who coached basketball at UNC-Chapel Hill for 36 years. He was an absolute legend who cemented the legacy of the Carolina Basketball program as more than a winning team (Smith won 879 games in his career) but a “Carolina Family.” And I just wanted y’all to know.

“Get there when you get there. There’s plenty of worms.”

— Travis McElroy