Masquerade, Paper Faces on Parade: Majora's Mask part 17

    As you've probably guessed by now, masks are of considerable importance to this story.  The villain wears a mask, the monsters wear masks, and the hero is collecting masks from people he helps.  Being such an important symbol, I figure we should take a moment to look more deeply into these masks.

I always liked this picture.  Captures the dark whimsy of Skull Kid.

   I'm gonna start with the three masks that cause Link to transform (there's a fourth one later, but like just about everything in this blog, time and place).  The three forms that Link takes on in this game are the deku (tree person), the goron (rock person), and the zora (fish person).  Aside from the clever stream lining of many items that existed but were limited in use from the previous game (Link can shoot his fins out like boomerangs in Zora form and Goron Link can slam into the ground in the place of the hammer), it is important to note that each of these three masks embodies a spirit.  The Zora was the spirit of Mikau, the guitarist for the Indigo-gos.  When Link wears this mask, the other Zoras believe him to be Mikau.  The Goron mask contains the spirit of Darmani, the Beowulf-esque Goron.  Other Gorons also recognize him.  The Deku mask is the mystery.  Whose spirit does it contain?  Though never specifically stated, it is heavily implied that it was the dead tree Link met in the dark cave when he first came to Termina.  So who is that if both of the other two forms were of great significance and not just run of the mill Gorons and Zoras.  Link, within the Deku Palace, meets the butler and steward of the King who lets Link follow him through a sacred portion of the castle.  When Link wears the Deku mask and follows the Steward, the Steward mentions that Link reminds him of his son who went missing a while ago.  It is confirmed in the credits that the dead tree is his son as he is seen crying on his branches and roots before it.

   I think it is interesting to note that the Happy Mask Salesman (who is hardly trustworthy, stalking and strangling kids and stuff) carries around a lot of masks on his backpack.  We would like to think they are just simple masks with no magical properties, but seeing how Majora's Mask was part of his collection, I doubt these masks are harmless.

  Why masks?  Why not souls in some soul jar?  Well, something that I haven't really noted too much is that the greater portion of this world has a very Meso-American atmosphere to it.  There was the Mayan chanting in the swamp, the ocean huts at the Great Bay, and large dwelling mounds in the mountains, there are also stone temples in the canyon.  According to popular traditions about Native American magic, it was believed that wearing masks made the wearer into the individual depicted.  Many times this is literal, as in the above cases,  other times this is semi literal, and other times still this is metaphorical.

   In the semi literal cases are such masks as the Bremen Mask (a falcon-shaped mask) and Kamaro's Mask (the mask of a dancer).  When Link wears these masks, he still maintains his form as a Hylian (human), but gains the skills of the original owners.  The Bremen mask allows Link to charm animals into following him and  Kamaro's Mask allows Link to dance as the owner's lost spirit once did.


   Other times still, masks just exist as symbols.  Cremia gave Link the Romani Mask, which symbolizes that she recognizes him as an adult, and when two lovers exchange the sun and moon masks (which serve the function of wedding rings) the masks fuse into the Couple's Mask (given to a witness as a testament of the couple's love).

   While there is the matter of bringing something into reality, there is also the idea that masks are a facade.  The three bosses fought thus far died and in their death left nothing but their masks.  Through this, it is suggested that perhaps the monsters never were real, but that they were puppets on strings.  These puppets could be something like anchors that hold the curses down to lands since the Skull Kid cannot be in all these places at once to maintain his own mischief.  By killing the monsters and seizing the masks, the captive giants go free and set right what was wrong.


   I think this will be the first part of the mask discussion.  I will return to this again at the final showdown and complete the thought.  It will make more sense then.

Now let's get to that canyon.