I was pulling into my garage today when I heard the news. Ted and Ari exclaimed, “NO! NO!” I quickly read up, past their more recent comments and saw two words:

Robin Williams.

My heart sank. “Maybe it was a different Robin Williams? Or maybe it’s not as bad as I thought it was. He couldn’t possibly have died, right?” I thought. I ran up to my apartment, quickly opened the door, and connected my phone to our WiFi and looked it up.

It’s not a nightmare folks. It’s real.

I don’t normally get teary eyed when I think about celebrity deaths, but considering that my roommate and I had just watched him perform as Peter Pan in the movie Hook, I couldn’t help but shed a few tears. And pardon me if I refrain from revealing details of his death – I feel that it’s not in my position to reveal.

For the past several years, we in the video game industry were reminded of how Robin Williams loved video games. He loved them so much that he named his daughter Zelda, after the namesake of one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises. Nintendo, realizing this, made commercials with Robin and his daughter, having them play the game that she was named after in multiple occasions, just like the video posted above. It showed a man and his daughter who loved doing things together and who really valued each other’s presence. It breaks my heart to think that a part of Zelda has passed today.

There are no more words that I can add that will make this pain be at ease, only that for Zelda herself that I empathize with situation completely. We all grew up with her father’s films and stories. And every time we saw her play the Legend of Zelda with her father that we couldn’t all help but be a little bit jealous of how wonderful their relationship could be. After all, not anyone can say that their father not only brought smiles to many people in the world, but was also a gamer.

Rest in peace, Robin. May the fairies in the afterlife give you all the heart containers you’ll ever need.