DUUUUUUN DUUUUN DUNDUN DUUUUUUUUUUN!

… that was the Majora battle jingle… we’re talking about Majora’s Mask!


Majora’s Mask has never looked so good. I got the 3D version, cause honestly N64 emulators here kinda suck, but what would you expect from a free service that also upkeeps thousands of other emulators? My first impressions were…

“OH MY GEEERD DEKU LINK IS SOOOO SMOOOOTH HE LOOKS AMAZING LIKE A REAL LIFE FIGURINE AND DID HIS HAT JUST TURN INTO A CACTUS!?!? Wait… what the heck is the sheikah stone doing here!?”

I honestly don’t know why they have to add things like that, it’s easier to save (kinda cool with that, but I learned the hard way it doesn’t auto-save when you reset time), get advice, get some items, get a schedule, defeat Odalwa (finally got THAT name right), and fish. Why do we need to fish? Especially in a game where you need to complete tasks very quickly to save people in time to get items necessary to progress the game and confront an evil mask who wants to nuke the world with a giant menacing rock (not as disturbing as before, but surely menacing), IN 3 DAYS. Well I’ve managed to get a lot done, I recently got all of Lulu’s eggs together, not so hot on the Great Bay temple though, I’ll need some mental preparation, but I mean if they found the need to dumb down ODALWA of all things, I’m sure our old pal George shouldn't be too much of a problem.

*2 days later* I think it’s worse now

So that’s the impression I got so far, it’s still an amazing game of course, probably my favorite. So now, with the return of a doomsday at hand, it’s about time we talk about what the Mask the game is about is all about, hopefully without starting a bout.

Also the first portion of this long, I’m-sorry-it-took-until-the-release-of-a-remake-of-our-subject-to-finish-this 2 in 1 episode is a briefing to help those who don’t really get my point. Feel free to check back to it for better understanding, but if you aren’t dealing with all that and know your Majora’s Mask well, keep scrolling down until I say
TOASTY BUNS!!!
Not like it matters since the rest is still so freaking long.

So let’s begin with what I call the Majora reaction, everything we are told about Majora’s Mask. First of all, the shady mask salesman knows about the lost civilization that created the mask, a dark tribe who created this mask to assist their hexing rituals. I assume it had all the works, sacrifice, a dark lord they praised, who knows? Maybe they worshipped a being called Majora, and they made the mask to allow its power to come to this world. There isn’t any proof, but it could be a reasonable assumption, I mean something out there had to be called Majora, what else would inhabit a mask with that name? Eventually the mask became so powerful it threatened to bring forth a cataclysmic event, so some more ancient dudes had to seal it away temporarily. That’s when our buddy happy here decided to take the mask before it got in the wrong hands, as he felt the coming of a dark event surrounding the mask. Once he did get it, however, he was mugged by Skull Kid, Tatl, and Tael, who went directly for the mask. That’s when Skull Kid’s overly childish and playful mind was corrupted by the evil of the mask. Well, Skull Kid DID sorta beat the crap of a wandering merchant, but I’m sure it’s because the mask saw a suitable host and brought him to do it. At least I hope.

We all know what goes on after that, using Skull Kid as a body the mask awakens evil beings to seal away Termina’s guardian giants and
bring forth disaster to the land, and all the while trying it’s best to ruin the lives of all Skull Kid passes, including but not limited to:
Kafei and Anju’s wedding
Pamela and her dad scientist guy with a complicated name
Possibly blocking the way into Romani Ranch leaving it vulnerable
The Great Fairies… “good looks?”
All the gibdos who just wanted to chill in a well until they were forced to walk around some guys house all week.
And Darmani’s reputation, cause SOMEONE had to put a giant invisible sneezing goron in front of Snowpoint.
And going back to the whole sealed temple thing, it was the fact that Majora’s Mask poisoned swamps, oceans, awakened dead spirits, and froze a mountain that a lot more problems were allowed to start. Then of course, to finally seal the deal, Majora de-orbits the moon, scheduled to crash RIGHT AS AN ANNUAL CARNIVAL STARTS. Mayjay, if there are any antagonists who practice the art of fresh business, it’s you. But why? Why in the name of all good AND evil does a possessed piece of polished wood want to destroy everything? Well, the answer is because it’s what he was made for. Ok, backing up we’ve been over how the mask was made for hexing rituals, so what does that have to do with being programmed to kill everything ever? Well like I mentioned earlier, whether this dark tribe worshipped a specific dark lord or not, they utilized the power of evil demons.

Think of Skyward Sword, the beginning of Hyrule. We know about an event in which the goddess who created the land with the help of Din, Nayru, and Farore, Hylia went into a battle against a large horde of demons led by Demise, creator of all evil. With all the intelligent species of the land, excluding humans, which at the time were weak and timid, Hylia had to seal away Demise by reverting him to a primitive form and locking him under the birthplace of the triforce, which she lifted into the sky along with all the humans. So that’s how Hyrule went on to go all legendy and stuff, but we aren’t talking about Hyrule here. Termina is a parallel version of Hyrule, with altered settings, lives, and of course origins.

First of all, rather than Hylia or whatever, we have the goddess of time as the main protector. In Hyrule Zelda actually does mention her, but what I’d like to think is that she is a much more powerful presence in Termina. Think about it, we never hear about the goddess of time again, only in this game, so if she is a goddess in Hyrule she is much less important than the likes of Hylia, the 3 creator goddesses, and the reincarnating 7 sages. Take Greek mythology for example, here we have the 12 gods of Olympus, but there are many more gods than this. It just happens the 12 main gods rule from this godly temple, and beyond them we have a lesser god for pretty much everything.  Ever heard of Hypnos and Morpheus, the gods of sleep and dreams? Nix was the ancient goddess of night, older than the earth itself, and she’s barely mentioned. Then we got Selene, moon god, Eos, dawn, there’s 4 wind gods owned by another lesser god, Aeolus, god of storms, they don’t get all that much attention do they? Well if in another world Greek mythology was the basis of Legend of Zelda, any of these gods could be the really important ones in Termina since everything follows a different path. Perhaps the spirit inside Majora is like this.
Oh, and by the way,
TOASTED BUNS!!!

Back when the 4 giants and whoever else is involved in controlling Termina stopped a league of demons from destroying mankind, all these demons were trapped in some dark world or whatever Termina’s interpretation of hell is. Think of this dark tribe as a kind of Satanist group, praising all the demons who tried to destroy everything and probably would've killed their kind too… yeah I don’t get Satanists. :l When they made a couple hexing masks to reach out to them, 7 demons managed to escape and possess these masks. 5 of them were simply dark and powerful forces, a swordsman with control over plague, a monstrous powerful beast, a fish , and two huge worms which had to share a room in college. However, one of these was a god-like being, a representation of the desire of death. This “god” wished to spread its influence across the living to destroy humanity, and at the same time act as a hero.

1. Yes, this is what I think of the spirit of Majora, not exactly a god of suicide, but a god who wants everyone dead.

2. Yes, in describing Majora, I used the word hero.

Ok, Demise was basically Zelda Satan and wanted to allow demons to rule the world, he’s a bad guy.
Ganondorf, just wants to rule the world and have the power to change it as he sees fit, bad guy.
Vaati, I actually forgot what Vaati had in mind, guess he just wanted to be a godly figure as well, bad guy.
Majora’s Mask, tries nuking everything with a giant destructive rock, HERO!?

Well if you want to make sure nothing ever lives again, guess Majora would look like a hero, and that’s exactly how Majora sees himself. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry for the long delay, but here are the true intentions of the vengeful spirit we call Majora. (and yes, that’s only
6/7 demons so far, I’ll finish up on him later, and you probably already know what we’re talking about here)


Gods, they take a role to upkeep and they stick to it for eternity. With our divine beings of Termina, such as the goddess of time and four giants, they support the stability of life throughout the land. Unfortunately a protector or two had to be scrapped in keeping up with our
ideal vision. Like the guy who suggested the dominating life-forms needed to be nothing but owls, he was clearly an idiot, so he won’t be influencing anything anytime soon.

Then there was the one who went against the idea of life itself, one who held the strong belief life holds nothing but pain and agony,
and a land with life is a land of labor. All living creatures need to follow a strict food chain to survive, which involves killing those lesser than you. Civilization is even worse, intelligent life forms who bicker over little insignificant details, work to attempt build up their life, yet to add you must also remove, and it results in an unbalanced ecosystem. The more differences between species, the more they will grow to hate one another. Death will make those who still live fill up with even more anguish, their minds clouded with anger, sadness, and ignorance, driving them to commit unjust acts. Soon, the land is filled with conflict, prejudice, a constant struggle to survive, all which could be put to a permanent stop.
… hey I never said I think this, I’m just speaking for Majora here.

So yeah, can’t have a negative emo like that messing with the new world, clearly the other deities reject this one, and as it fights against them to try and bring forth it’s reality the others are forced to seal it (can I just start calling Majora a he regardless?) away. Stripped of a large
portion of his powers, the fallen god remained sealed with many other evils for ages, until the day the dark tribe allows him to inhabit a dark mask.
And a few weeks later after learning about the plan to save everyone by killing everyone they sealed the mask. What a waste of time and
resources.

This is when it seems hope is lost for Majora’s twisted sense of justice, as no one can truly share such a horrifying mindset. That’s when Skull Kid came along. As we find out in the form of old stories and, well, the ending of the game, Skull Kid is much, much older than you think. In celebration of the alignment of the sun, moon, and planets, the people of Termina started the carnival of time to celebrate the balance of the universe. At this time the 4 giants were a common sight, they appeared frequently to assist early Termina, and we can assume they were fairly social as the 4 of them were also Skull Kids best friends. However, the peace of the 4 parts of the giant’s domain became stable, so they decided to go into a state of hibernation to preserve their power, allowing their people to call them in times of need. This meant Skull Kid would possibly never play with them again, but unfortunately he took this notion as them abandoning their friend and it
caused him to go into a big stage of loneliness. Soon he began taking his anger out on everyone around him, performing cruel pranks for his own amusement (the cruelest pranks a scarecrow duck could perform, like rearranging the shower pipes to cover people in mud instead and replacing everyone’s utility bombchu’s with REAL bombchu’s). At some points the people got fed up with this and went as far to call the giants. Natural disasters? The balance between living and dead being torn asunder? Nope. But banana peels on the mailman’s route!? DEAR GOD! That’s when Skull Kid was banished from Termina under the threat of being killed by the giants themselves, but he came back, giants don’t do anything about it, and well here we are today talking about it.

It’s likely that the Skull Kid you befriend in Ocarina of Time by playing Saria’s song is the same Skull Kid, who would’ve guessed he’d
move on to such a huge roll? However, as much as it is supported, it conflicts with the story about Skull Kid’s exile. But that’s what I can use to strengthen this, the fact it’s a story. According to Terminian lore, Skull Kid fled to the heavens. That seems understandable to them, but what they aren't told about is how there’s a parallel world next to theirs and the giants probably made them believe he went to the heavens. Kinda a sucky punishment though, getting to go to heaven for being a jerk? So why exactly did he come back? What I can piece together is that the banishment was only temporary (like only a few millennia, whatever) and Skull Kid met the other Skull Kids who happened to be exactly like him and they all became friends. Even after he can go back home he stays here because it’s where he feels welcome. Remember, this is Ocarina of Time, so consider the whole time travel rules here. In this timeline after Link defeats Ganon he returns back to his intended time 7 years ago, right before he even meets Zelda. If we consider that Link could’ve sidetracked a bit in Lost woods after obtaining the ocarina, and we assume Link already knew Saria’s song, he could’ve met Skull Kid and performed the song along with him BEFORE initially meeting Zelda. It’s a bit of a stretch, but how else do we support Majora’s canon? Maybe… JUST MAYBE, it happened after undoing the events in the future when Link returned home, but we need a bit of time from when Link meets Skull Kid to being mugged by him.

To go even further, let’s say the other Skull Kid’s didn’t approve of him bonding with Link to this extent and they made him leave, he
runs away into the deep woods to get back to Termina. That’s where he meets Tatl and Tael, explaining why Skull Kid was sad about fighting with his friends. C’mon, A: the exile from the giants was a long time ago, and B: he seems pretty cheery in OoT doesn’t he? He can’t suddenly be that sad again about something occurring so long ago when just one game prior he was dancing on a stump playing on his flute. And do you really think Tatl and Tael could be just as old as him? Then he decides to show his two new friends his home in Hyrule, and here he gets a sudden urge to beat the crap out of a random person passing by and steal a thorny heart shaped mask. Majora’s Mask sensed all the trapped feelings of pain inside of him and saw him as a perfect candidate to execute his plan. It’s like Spiderman’s black suit in a lot of ways. Skull Kid has so many cool new powers, Majora’s Mask is simply using him as a host and feeding on his pain, and while it is technically the same Skull Kid we know, he’s a jerk now.

Majora’s Mask only grants the power necessary to Skull Kid, and then uses him in order to become more powerful. Majora feeds off of the misery of others, so by causing misdeeds the process of gaining power is sped up. Everything Skull Kid does with his mask is now performed within the next month. The time it took to meet Tatl and Tael and then get the mask and do dark deeds dating at least a month prior to Link’s arrival, as we know Kafei was missing for a month, gives us a good amount of time for Link to start his journey, as it’s enough for him to rad out Ganondorf, spend a bit of time in the woods and with Zelda, and then time to get all he needs for the journey ahead, yet it’s still just enough that Zelda remarks how little time she and Link spent together. Majora also took the liberty of releasing the 4 masks containing Odalwa, Goht, Gyorg, and Twinmold, so they could imprison the giants and alter the surrounding land, therefore causing more problems and misery up until Majora is surrounded by enough grief to gain the power to pull the moon, and even give it a face since why not.

The troubles of his land may bring pain, and it seems the intent of Majora is to prevent pain, but considering how people react to the thought of extinction, Majora had to get them on his side by making them think a quick and sudden way out would end their pain. It also explains a specific line when you obtain the fierce deities’ mask inside the moon.
“Remember, you’re the bad guy, and when you’re the bad guy you just run.”
C’mon, considering everything else we’ve talked about of course I’ll talk about Link seeming like a bad guy.

If Majora’s cause is too commit one final act of torture so there will be no more torture, let’s actually take a look at Links counter to this… prolonging pain. ._. I’m serious, several things that Link accomplishes actually serve to JUSTIFY Majora’s goal. First of all, he masquerades as dead people. I mentioned extremely thoroughly up until this point that people don’t like it when their friends die, so that sucks, but when they seem to be NOT dead, it actually makes everything much, much worse. Link is going out there pretending to be various dead characters and then waltzing in front of the people who were attached to them. The deku butler was the only one related to one of the three dead spirits who knew about Link’s ability to shape-shift, so he didn't think his son was alive and well. Unfortunately for him during the
credits we see that he returns to the spot where we first saw the dead deku tree who used to be his son. Link reminded him that he has no family, isn’t that just GREAT!?

The other 2 transformations were even worse. The goron tribe was told by the elder that Darmani died at Snowpoint, and that actually was
true. The even set up a grave on top of a hot spring that could’ve helped them a ton due to sentimentality (or idiocy, either works). Then guess who comes rolling out of a tomb? Link who adopted Darmani’s spirit to save his people. Now I’m sure when Darmani let Link use him for a goron body he didn’t intend that people would recognize Link as him and think he resurrected. Once Link saves the mountains as Darmani everyone praises him... AS DARMANI. They say he’s an invincible lord and savior, the little brat is relying on Darmani as a
role model and a kind of uncle, and then the elder goes as far to elect him as their new leader. So how long until Link has to stop the moon again? And don’t get me STARTED with Mikau! This time, no one even KNOWS he died! Link was the only witness, and first thing he does is turn him into a mask. He even sets a grave, complete with his guitar and lying right on the beach in front of the entrance to Great Bay where everyone can see. Mikau is a famous guitarist, important member of the indigo-go’s, boyfriend to Lulu, and now he’s the one
who saved Lulu’s babies… also he’s a descendant of a tribal warrior or whatever.

Link reminded a person of his son’s death, not really all that bad. Link got people to believe their warrior returned to them when he
didn’t, that’s not such a good investment. Disposing of the body of a rock star and pretending you’re him!? In the end, when Link saves the day, he leaves Termina to continue looking for some fairy even though she made it fairly clear she ditched him (I gave up a long time ago, I can personally approve now, NAVI SUCKS). The gorons and indigo-go’s will soon realize the truth, and upon so it will devastate them even more. He could have simply prevented all of that by coming out and admitting he was using their power to help. Even then the LEAST he could do is tell them the truth AFTER the carnival, we got plenty enough time to do it. But no, carnival is over, goodbye, the next day, where
the heck are Darmani and Mikau? We’re definitely gonna be seeing symptoms of anger, bargaining a head-hunt reward, and chronic depression after this. Hey, tons of people mention Link being crazy, breaking countless pots, remember in Link Between Worlds where you can steal the money from a cyclops begging you to leave him alone!?

In the end, Majora’s cruel point is justified, death prevents further pain. It’s crazy how Majora is able to bring a point around. However, considering he’s only limited to death by pain, he overlooked one of the biggest exploits he could’ve used, and we mentioned this before, the good old, “I could die right now and it wouldn’t matter since I have everything I’d ever need.” What, you got a better name for it?

Looking back to Ikana canyon, the dead were forced to come back to haunt the living. They ARE technically still dead, so guess its fair
game for Majora, but Link is able to send them back to the grave through one amazing method, give them their ultimate wish. Just take the Kafei quest ending for example, because of Link our famous couple here will take their death head-on. Not because they have such great and insurmountable pain, but because together they have everything they could ever ask for. Then there’s the gibdo well… apparently the mummies just wanted bugs and hot spring water? Mmkay. As Majora came into existence bearing representation of pain and suffering, the other beings of the universe believe life as a chance to do great things.

Finally we reach the end of our story, where all 4 giants hold up the moon putting it to a stop, and Majora’s mask rejects the body of the Skull
Kid, rising into the moon to control it manually. That’s when Link (and fairy) jump in after him. Also the moon is freakin beautiful. A bright and vibrant meadow that looks a whole lot like it belongs in heaven, in the center is a big tree, and playing around it are 4 children who resemble a certain mask toting merchant (who probably has a huge significance but I honestly can’t choose just one theory as there's just no really credible proof on his past). These kids have the 4 mask remains of the bosses you faced, and there’s also a child in the center with Majora’s Mask itself. It’s pretty well accepted and clear these 4 kids represent the giants, and the one in the center is the abandoned Skull Kid, and you can talk to him to start the final battle against Majora himself… or herself, but I’ve been going with he so far anyways. If you talk to him first, he claims you have only weak masks (R00D!) but will decide to play with you anyways. But remember, you can also talk to the other kids running around, and when you talk to them they comment on the fact you have lots of masks and ask if you’re trying to be a mask
salesman. Lemme tell ya, it hurts to not know much about the happy mask guy. They then ask you to spare a mask or few. Now none of the regular masks are necessary in the moon, and the kids won’t accept the transformation masks anyways, so give them the masks you see yourself using the least at first, saving more “utility” masks until the very end, like the bunny hood, the stone mask, and mask of truth, in case you want info from the gossip stones about the remaining masks.

If you had every mask obtainable to this point and satisfied all the other kids, then the one wearing Majora’s Mask is all that’s left. He will say how the others left him, and sees how you already gave all your masks to them. Then he decides to give you the final mask of the game… the Fierce Deity’s mask. This mask is the most powerful in the game, as wearing it transforms you into some sort of god or demon similar to Majora. This is also where we hear the kid call Link a bad guy. Now at the final boss, Majora’s Mask has 3 forms. Form one, a giant mask with gross tentacles. If the mask has tentacles like those… and it was possessing Skull Kid… eugh. o_e Stage 2, the mask grows skinny limbs and pops out an eyeball, turning into Majora’s Incarnation. Here we go, Majora is getting out to finally deal with you persona- why are you running and dancing around like a maniac? o___e After getting enough hits we finally face Majora’s Wrath, probably the best image we could get on Majora’s true form! Also it has only one eye on its forehead… the eyes of the mask are just his nipples. o_______________e Speaking of which in the original game you had to shoot it in the eye, so I’m pretty sure they didn’t butcher that part up for the 3ds port.

And that’s how you defeat Majora… as Link. If you use the Fierce Deity the match is very different. Here’s how to play.
Step 1. Lock on to the mask.
Step 2. Mash the B button.
Step 3. What step 3? You just won.

Normally you can only use this mask in the final fight, but since you keep it with you upon selecting the save file again there’s actually a glitch involving the mask and an empty bottle that, from what I’ve seen, they thankfully left in for the 3ds version. Aren’t empty bottles a wonderful thing?

So that’s all we’ve got for here, 4599 words says the document. However, we did leave one thing unaddressed… wasn’t there a 7th
demon along with Majora’s Mask? Well there’s just one final episode to make for the series, and it will finish off anything left out up to this point. Quite frankly, I just want this done, I mean LOOK AT ALL OF THIS!!! NO WONDER I HESITATED FOR SO LONG!!!



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I didn't read it all, but I did notice the bitf comic. So many great comics, especially the Kirby ones. My favorite is probably "Turnabout Kirby".

The one you posted is a classic.