What is It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This?

It's a catchphrase from the 1986 Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda that turned into an image macro and photoshop template offering objects or animals to the viewer[3].

Where did It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This come from?

The line is spoken by an old man in a cave who hands Link his first wooden sword at the start of The Legend of Zelda[1]. The earliest meme use is a YTMND page from May 2004[10].

What does It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This mean?

In meme use it frames whatever object or animal is being shown as a gift for survival, usually to comic effect when the item is useless or absurd[2].

How do you use It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This?

Edit the original cave screenshot to swap the sword for another object, or add the caption to a real photo of someone offering something to the camera[6].

Is It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This still popular?

It's a classic image macro that's been in steady circulation since the mid-2000s, with variants documented across YTMND, Cheezburger, FunnyJunk, Imgur and Reddit[9].

It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This

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Published September 1, 2026

It's Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This is a catchphrase pulled from the 1986 Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda, where an old man in a cave hands Link his first wooden sword. Starting in the mid-2000s, the line jumped from gaming nostalgia into image macros and photoshops, becoming a template for offering anything from kittens to knives to unsuspecting viewers.

zelda memes catchphrase memes exploitable templates nintendo memes ytmnd memes

Overview

The format works two ways. In one, the original cave scene is edited so the old man hands Link something absurd instead of a wooden sword, whether that's a red ring, a Mudkip, or a knife strapped to a hamster2. In the other, the caption is slapped onto a real photo where someone offers an animal or object to the camera, framing the gift as a piece of survival gear1.

The humor leans on the sincere, slightly ominous tone of the original line. Whatever gets handed over becomes a joke by contrast, either too cute, too useless, or too dangerous to actually help anyone survive anything3. Kevin Bolk's 2008 DeviantArt comic about the old man offering a red ring is a good example of how fans played with the earnestness of the source scene4.

Origin & Background

Platform

The Legend of Zelda (source), YTMND / image boards (viral spread)

Creator

Nintendo; Unknown

Date

1986

The line comes from the opening minutes of The Legend of Zelda, released by Nintendo in 1986. Link enters a cave and an elderly man gives him a wooden sword with the words "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this"3. Footage of the scene has been preserved and reposted widely on YouTube1.

The earliest documented meme use is a YTMND page from May 17th, 2004 titled "It's Dangerous to go Alone!" which tiled the cave screenshot alongside a looping sound clip from the game10. This predates the more familiar image macros by several years.

How It Spread

The catchphrase broke out of gaming circles in December 2006 with "Dangerous Kitten," an image macro pairing the line with a photo of a meowing kitten cupped in a hand, notoriously distributed with an embedded virus2. The image was reposted to I Can Has Cheezburger on February 9th, 2007, which pushed it in front of a mainstream lolcat audience2.

The template kept picking up new formats through the late 2000s and early 2010s. On December 15th, 2009, Project After Forums user Viashino_wizard collected several variants including a hamster with a knife taped to its back and a photoshop of a man offering a woman a Mudkip5. FunnyJunk user AdmiralDolphin posted a scuba diver holding an inverted shark with the caption on August 6th, 20107, and Dueling Analogs highlighted an IRL troll poster of the old man with removable wooden swords on June 25th, 20118.

By the mid-2010s the format was a fixture on Imgur and Reddit. Imgur user BendysnatchCabbagestrudel uploaded a batch of variants on December 21st, 20126, and Redditor 7venDividesZero's animated GIF version on r/gifs from April 20th, 2013 pulled over 11,900 upvotes9.

How to Use This Meme

There are two common conventions. Photoshop the cave screenshot so the old man offers something other than a sword, keeping the original dialogue box intact. Or take any photo of a person or hand extending an object toward the camera and slap the caption over it. The joke usually works best when the offered item is comically unhelpful, aggressively cute, or genuinely alarming.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (10)