And even with all the comparisons made to Ocarina, its no less than obviously clear that Majoras Mask is its own experience. The reason, we might imagine, is obvious: Majora's Mask is the darkest title in the Zelda canon thus far. And the spirit analysis makes the importance of Terminas amoral metaphysics clear: the lack of any Triforce-grounded virtue or destined heroism inherent in the Link ofMajoras Maskis a very good argument, I think, that he doesnt possess the soul of the hero that is such a central feature ofOcarina of TimeLinks identity. Majora's Mask undoubtedly thrived as a result of its willingness to be dark and existential, but those are hardly the defining traits of the Zelda series as a . At the heart of the community is a small child whose crying. Majora's Mask may be the most ripe for fan theories and what-not than any of the other games in the series. People either love it or hate it, and they either love it or hate it for the same reason: it's different. Despite its proximity to the seminal Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask has gone down as a bizarre Zelda experience and fully its own tale. The mask transformation sequences are perhaps one of the creepier parts of the game, and one I used to skip past quickly when I played the game as a child. Tales of Symphonia: What Regal Bryant Taught Me, Tales of the Abyss, Kabbalah, and Gaming as a Spiritual Act. On a side note, the mask transformations are really creepy and help to add to the strange, other-worldly dark atmosphere of the game. The bread and butter of the Zelda franchise is its intricate dungeons, but as this list proves, not all Zelda dungeons are created equal. I think the seeds of this new theory, too, were already present inMajoras Mask Should Terrify You: my thesis here is thatthe surface of the moon and the moon childrenreveal the artificial nature of morality in Termina because they exist beyond the Happy Mask Salesmans domain of influence. Link is assaulted by a mischievous skull-kid in the forest, who then steals his horse and ocarina (the one of time). With a Terrible Fate is dedicated to developing the best video game analysis anywhere, without any ads or sponsored content. One of the most frequent criticisms lobbed at the Zelda series is that its always just the same game, over and over again - that people who love it were indoctrinated as children and are incapable of seeing it for what it is. Four of the children are running around the tree in play, each wearing one of the evil masks thathad been used to seal the giants away. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. So even though Majora's Mask was very different than Ocarina, its difference wasn't as felt as Breath of the Wild because Breath of the Wild broke a cycle, rather than coming out before a cycle was set in stone. At the end of Ocarina of Time, Link is surrounded by the friends he has made across Hyrule, dancing around a fire and celebrating the aversion of the end of the world. The apparent evil in the world, put differently, finds its source in the Salesman, from whom it flows first to Majora and then out to everything that Majora possesses or influences in Termina. First, the player ultimately encountersSephiroth himselfinFinal Fantasy VII,which allows the player to analyze Sephiroths influence by relating it to the actual entity Sephiroth whom she encounters; in contrast, the player ofMajoras Masknever actually encounters Majora itself, and so Majoras influence cant be related to the entity of Majora in that same, direct way. This language doesnt suggest that theres anything special about Link specifically that allows for these transformations. A common, established storytelling device isunreliable narration:stories in which a narrator or various aspects of the storys representation are dubious within the overall ecosystem of the story and its world. Obviously, this ending is both sweet and terrible simultaneously. For most of the early game, Link isnt even his regular self, but a Deku. I enjoyed exploring its world and collecting all the masks, even the ones that required surgically precise movement throughout the three-day time clock. But what remains with me about Majoras Mask is that weird, personal tone that it established early on. It would, however, require the Expansion Pak to play. In total, there are 24 such masks for Link to collect throughout the game, though only a handful of these are required to complete the storyline. Its not dark because of the presence of torture devices or pools of blood or zombies. In game-time, Link spends maybe 30 hours repeating that 72-hour period, but for Link, it would feel like years. Ive spoken a lot about why canona creators official interpretation of his or her storydoesnt get the last word in the analysis of stories. It is an accursed item from legend that is said to have been used by an ancient tribe in its hexing rituals. However, I was there for the U.S. launch later in the year, during October. Rediscovering it as an adult, ten years later, I expected to find that its brilliance had been exaggerated in my mind by naivety and nostalgia. The fifth child sits alone under the tree, wearing Majoras Mask itself. Youll see the same NPC characters proceed in the same ways throughout those days. The swamp (Anger) shows the worst of what happens when wracked with anger and rage. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK, bringing you original reporting, game culture and humour with a U from the British isles. In essence, the need to repeat the three days over and over again leaves the player unable to truly experience a happy ending to the story. During most of my analysis of Majoras Mask, I was emphatic that Termina was metaethically nihilistic, which is to say that morality is not a metaphysically real feature of the world (in contrast to a world like Hyrule, the morality of which is metaphysically based in the Triforce). All other Zelda games give you a happy ending, but even at the end of Majora's Mask - when Link has finally defeated the evil Majora's Mask - there is still pain and suffering and fear in the world he traversed through. When Ididmention them, it was typically in the same vein as the above quote: I claimed that they were symbolic of Majora and his loneliness. But secondly and crucially, the serious analysis of video-game storytelling is still such a young discipline: we can only hope to develop this methodology in a productive way if we are constantly seeking and responding to whatever criticism our work invites. He gets attacked by the Skull Kid, another once-familiar face from Ocarina, whose wearing a strange mask. For more information, please see our The full text of the original article follows; read on after that for my brand-new criticism of it. Unsubscribe at any time. What we see manifested symbolically in the climax of Majoras Mask under the tree is that Majora the Spirit subdued the four giants of Termina because he was lonely and desperately wanted friends. While some of the areas are far more clear, such as the anger in the Deku shrubs, some of the areas are a bit more washy in their appearance. In short, this game is bizarreand far off the beaten path for Zelda. In light of this, it stands to reason that the Happy Mask Salesman would not be able to impose moral artifice on the surface of the moon in the way that he can impose it on the world of Termina. Before we dive in, its worth mentioning that I also wrote a much more recent piece on horror inMajoras Maskbased on my talk at PAX Australia 2016; if youre interested in exploring the games special brand of horror even further, you may want to check that out. Privacy Policy. Before the game has anything to do with saving the world of Termina, its initially framed as a fetchquest for the Salesman: he tells Link that he lost a mask of his (Majoras Mask), and that hed like Link to return it in three days time because hes leaving Termina in three days. It's through Darmani's spirit that Link first inhabits the body and spirit of a dead character. In the most successful timeframe of the game, the two are not brought back together. Through Link's service, the children are recovered, and she is once again able to move on. He does this in order to motivate Linkand a player who, primed byOcarina of Time, wants to defeat evilto complete the fetch quest and return his mask to him. This is howThe Sound and the Furyworks; this is howFight Clubworks; this, Ive argued, ishowMajoras Maskworks. Put aside the fact Terminas Link can use a bow when Young Link fromOcarina of Time could not; put aside the fact that the Song of Time, the tool for resetting Terminas 3-day cycle, had a completely different metaphysical mode of operation in Ocarina of Time; consider, instead, the conjunction of these three facts: first, we have seen there is no reason to believe that Link possesses the Triforce of Courage; second, we have seen that morality does not inhere to Link, and that the ultimate form offered to him by the game is actually that of an evil god; third, the narrative of the game is completely dependent upon Link donning masks to assume alternate forms, so that Link for most of the game is physically not even Link. With so many entries in the series, the continuity is muddled and hard to understand at best. Majoras Mask didnt try to re-enact its predecessor'sheroics. Ultimately, its a testament to the intricacy of the games universe that months of intensive analysis can end up illuminating its story in ways wed never before imagined. With a proper understanding of the Salesman in hand, the analysis of Majora that I offered inMajoras Mask Should Terrify Youbecomes much less plausible. Critical Reviewis a series in which With a Terrible Fates video game analysts critically evaluate the work of themselves and other analysts, with the goal of advancing our collective understanding of video-game storytelling. And if last years Links Awakening remakewhet your appetite for an off-center Zelda experience, then look no further than Majoras Mask. The intricate puzzles and infuriating bosses make the hardest Zelda dungeons masterpieces of rage, so we decided to take a look at the 10 most difficult Zelda . We're still assessing our next steps, but please join us on Discord for any comments, tips, or communication with our team!! It doesnt take much effort to findhorror stories inspired byMajoras Maskonline. Its now over five years old itself, but provides by-and-large the same bizarre experience as the original. There is no mention of the Triforce throughout the entire course of the game, and although Link traditionallyholds the Triforce of Courage, we do not have reason to think that the Triforce, a gift of three goddesses to the world of Hyrule, holds any sway in the parallel world of Termina. As we noted, the final boss fight actually plays like a trivial game when Link is in the form of the Fierce Deity, almost as though he is victimizing Majora. Its a side tale, a small adventure. We would expect to see the struggle of good and evil for what it is: a game with no fundamental moral valence, and no real heroes or villains. While OoT has had more critical praise, Majora's Mask has ALWAYS had a very deep cult following. Based on whether or not Link collects all 23 masks available to him prior to the final confrontation on the moon, the game can end through two different means. If that theory is true, it could be that the play is being performed in Hyrule. HomeBlogReligion and Popular Culture PodcastCoursesCosplay Research. I found that out within the first hour. After giving birth to seven small Zora, all her children have been stolen. Twenty years ago, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask released in Japan. Instead I discovered that it was much cleverer than Id thought. You dont have any masks left, do you? Link, Ganondorf, and Princess Zelda are each endowed with one piece of the Triforce Courage, Power, and Wisdom, respectively. I wanted to take some time today to explore Majora's Mask, and really understand its darker tone. This design feature of the game actually enhances its ultimate message: for the designers have made it possible for the gamer to progress from start to finish believing that their quest was one objectively motivated by reality, while the underlying substance of Termina simultaneously refutes that belief. Of the four areas outside Clock Town, this is also the only location where Link is not given a spirit to transform into. Being in North America, I unfortunately could not join in for the excitement of the Majoras Mask Japanese release. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Majora doesnt rely on scary typical imagery of death. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK. The opening screens tell . Morality ultimately reveals itself as something that we postulate in order to comfort ourselves in just this way, although we believe it is something that inheres to the fabric of the world. Ultimately, I think that the central points of the original article stand as sound jumping-off points for the rest of my analysis of the game; however, the rest of my work on the game reveals (as you might have expected) that key parts of this article require further exploration and revision. In Majoras Mask he regains that time, albeit as an endless succession of the same three days. Zelda games werent without their darkness before Majoras Mask, but they had never been this bleak. This still barely scratches the surface of a game that evades comprehension at every turn (and there is more to examine about everything that I have discussed within this post), but I hope it has provided at least the beginning of a framework for understanding the visceral reaction so many gamers have to this game. A small change in the metaphysical analysis, then, really can radically change the message of a video games story. According to legend, the troubles caused by Majora's Mask were so great, the ancient ones, fearing such catastrophe, sealed the mask in . In retaliation, they are going to put a monkey to death. Theres of course value in theorizing about theZeldacanonfor example, hypothesizing about howBreath of the Wildfits into theZeldatimelinesbut its dangerous to focus on canon to the exclusion of all other analytical methods. Simply put, there arent that many major ones, but quite a few minor ones. The mask, possessed by the spirit of Majora, possessed him and compelled him to attempt to destroy Termina by crashing the moon into it. In revising my analysis, I first want to comment on why its so hard to produce a satisfying analysis of the moon children; after that, I offer a new argument for how the moon children fit into the overall economy ofMajoras Masks metaphysics and storytelling. After I publishedMajoras Mask Should Terrify You, readers made the good point that the discrepancy between Links abilities inMajoras Maskand Young Links physical abilities inOcarina of Timeneednt count against the thesis that Link is the same person in both games. We have just transformed into an adult, jumping ahead in time by seven years. While the story itself is full of pain and anguish and suffering, which helps to bring darkness to the player, it's the player's experience of the story - the way the story is actively played out - that really solidifies Majora's Mask as one of the darkest games in the Zelda franchise. I remember it most for starting out on such a different foot for a Zelda title. More important than this objection in my mind, though, is that much of what I cited as evidence that Link wasnt the same person in the two games is better construed as evidence that Termina is a fundamentally different world than Hyrule. This would explain the presence of a Super Mario mask in Majora's . And even in the runs where all this is solved - at the end of it all, the player is forced to erase all the good they have done. Rather, Link is tasked with moving through the land of the dead rather than attempting to be like the living. Before Breath of the Wild came out, the Zelda franchise had been wracked by the problem of the same. In order to beat the game, Link quickly jumps to end goals of dungeons and beats bosses, which means that Lulu is left without her children or any knowledge of what happened to Mikau. Link looks in deep pain, and even cries out in anguish during the creepily long transformation scene. It is deeply sad - shockingly so. Even though theres only been one piece of Critical Review so far (discussing my work onXenobladeand Leibnizs metaphysics), I think that this series is some of the most important work we can do onWith a Terrible Fate. Each of its releases essentially held the same off-beat Zelda experience. Skull Kids end-of-game etching, featuring him, Link, Tatl, Tael, and the four Giants. It's obvious why when replaying Majora's Mask, as its uniquely dark and disconcerting tone is so absorbing that it's easy to see why people weren't ready for a lighter Zelda game after. This is corroborated in the story when Link liberates the final giant, who tells him to forgive [his] friend. Though the giants were sealed away by Majora, they sympathize with him because he and Skull Kid are ultimately characters with pathos: whereas Ganondorf represents the desire to subjugate the universe, both Skull Kid and Majora represent the primal desire for unity and liberation from individuation. The copying of the overly familiar in a sudden unfamiliar landscape is what helped to increase feelings of uncanniness. Even though the Salesman is the first to ascribe evil to Majoras Mask and introduce the concept of evil into Termina (as I discussed above), he isnt theonlyone to talk about evil throughout the course of the story. Then, he is returned to a time before he met most of them. This is the day when the first of those releases landed and the world got its taste of Links strangest tale. The loss of her children, as well as Mikau, her partner, she becomes swallowed up in her depression. And most explicitly in support of this analysis (as I discussed inMajoras Mask Should Terrify You), the moon child wearing Majoras Mask gives Link a mask with dark powers (the Fierce Deitys Mask) and asks to play good guys against bad guys with him, with Link playing the bad guy. Its dark because of the confusing nature of the story the familiar feel of a game that is twisted to something slightly different than were used to. Most games put something in front of us for 30 minutes and then take it away. Termina is similar to Hyrule in many ways and filled with expies of people Link got to know well in Ocarina of Time . Second, focusing just on Majoras influence within Termina ignores the crucial factor of the entity that defines Majora fromoutsideof Termina: the Happy Mask Salesman. A case study of Regal Bryant casts Kratos Aurion in a new light and shows how Tales of Symphonia's relationship system informs its story. The second reason Majora's Mask is rarely considered on the same level of Breath of the Wild is because it has a much darker tone than the other Zelda games. This strategy of analyzing an entity by looking at its influencecall this analysis-by-proxyisnt categorically mistaken: oftentimes, stories are explicitly structured to facilitate this kind of analysis. Majora's Mask Should Terrify You, and This is Why. []What we see manifested symbolically in the climax of Majoras Mask under the tree is that Majora the Spirit subdued the four giants of Termina because he was lonely and desperately wanted friends.. Learn more here. Besides better accommodating and explaining the various data about the Termina and its people (e.g., peoples awareness of evil), this revision to the analysis crucially changes the tenor of the games story because it means that the playercan actually determine what is good and evilin Termina. If Link has not collected all the masks, he approaches the child wearing Majoras Mask under the tree; the child notes that Link only has weak masks, and asks if Link wants to play. His chance meeting with Skull Kid quickly escalates this gloomy opening into a full-on tragedy. These two interpretations of Majora are mutually incompatible and both plausibleand I suspect it wouldnt be too hard to add more competing interpretations to the list. Link is essentially powerless to the forces of suffering and pain that surrounds him. Despite being an Ocarina followup, Majoras Mask was its own weird experience. The wisdom of the games' developers created a unique Zelda title and a strange . And the once bustling Market Square of Castle Town is now desolate, in ruins, and filled with shambling zombies. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a standout game, and slightly divisive in the community. That would explain why the Link ofMajoras Maskcan do things that the Young Link ofOcarina of Timecouldnt, like use a bow and execute acrobatic flips through the air. Reddit, Inc. 2023. Link is part of the resulting picture of moral nihilism within Termina: hes not presented as any kind of destined hero; in fact, Kaepora Gaebora, the owl that repeatedly reinforces Links heroic destiny inOcarina of Time,emphasizes inMajoras Maskthat Link is in no way destined to save Termina from its fated destruction. From the original article: The resulting metaphysical image thatMajoras Mask paints is one where humanity fundamentally suffers from separateness, and seeks, like Skull Kid, to find existential comfort through grasping for something meaningful. We dont want to ascribe evil to a disturbed child whose only problem seems to be deep-seated loneliness; in point of fact, various entities throughout the game, including the giants who serve as the arbiters of Termina itself, directly advise us to forgive Skull Kid. In the first place, its always a good practice to revisit your old views and see whether or not you still hold them. Everything is freaky, but death-kinda-freaky. The monkeys enlist Links help to show them that the Princess ran away of her volition. Maskaphobia is extremely individualized. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. After all four have been liberated, Link is able to confront Skull Kid atop a clock tower on the night of the Final Day, and the four giants catch the moon as it falls, preventing catastrophe. There are two parts of my original argument about Links identity that I think hold up and are worth emphasizing: inMajoras Mask,there is no reason to believe that Link possesses the Triforce of Courage [and] morality does not inhere to Link.I discussed at length inMajoras Mask Should Terrify Youthat the Triforce is not a part of Termina (whence its lack of intrinsic moral grounding). You always knew what you were going to get with a Zelda game, and it meant that familiarity bred joy and comfort. The upshot of this is that its very hard to integrate the events on the moon into the overall story and world ofMajoras Mask. So the terror the player feels mounting throughout playing Majoras Mask is the result of a nagging doubt, slowly growing in the back of their mind, that the moral quest on which Link initially embarked is not fundamentally moral at all good and evil, rather, are a single artificial concept, like a Mbius strip trying to convince us that its one side is in fact two different sides.. Why not MM as well? The battle between good and evil is ultimately characterized as a game. When youre considering the question of whetherOcarina of TimeLink is the same asMajoras MaskLink or not, its easy to hear the question as one of physical correspondencethat is, the question of whether its the same physical body called Link that the player has as an avatar in both games. When Link awakens after a seven-year stasis to find that the Ganondorf has transformed the castle of Hyruleinto a proverbial citadel of darkness, it is unequivocal that we are meant to view Ganondorf as the archetype of evil, who essentiallyexists only that Link must stop him at all costs. The moon and its moon children arent like the final confrontation against Ganon: after Link chases Majoras Mask up into the moon, he inexplicably appears on a green field, with the lone tree and the moon children in the distance.
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