Moonscape: Majora's Mask part 26

psych

   This tree on a hill against the light blue sky? This is the inside of the moon.  What did you expect?  Probably screaming skulls, lava pits, flying demons, some psychedelic maze of death, spiders, human sacrifice, or absolute void, something at least more akin to Ikana Canyon, but no, it's just a field with a tree.  The field looks like it goes on forever, and there is a surrounding mist that gives it a sort of dream world look.  Turning around, you see no sign of being in the moon.  It's not like the inside of his mouth is behind Link, it's just a completely pristine field.  There's even a sun shining in the sky.  Don't let your guard down.  Just because the field is quite unsuspecting in appearance doesn't mean things aren't about to get messy.  I actually really like this scene. In another horror game, FEAR 2, a very similar dream world is frequently visited in which a single tree with a rope swing sits in the middle of a field.  The series' main antagonist, Alma (who looks a lot like the girl from The Ring if you are wondering) is seen sitting on this rope swing and as the game goes on the field around the tree gets more and more chaotic until the totally bizarre final battle.  We're not going to go to much into that, but I feel like its things like that which justify playing FEAR 2.

kinda blurry (which is intentional)
but it gives a sense that there's
something wrong with the
tree on a hill

   So what does Majora's field with a tree have on Alma's field with a tree.  Well, Majora's tree with a field is surrounded by five children.  Four of the kids are running around the tree playing and the fifth is sitting under the tree all alone.  All four kids are wearing masks and judging by the backs of their heads, they resemble a childish form of the happy mask salesman.  They are all dressed in almost tribal garb.  The four masks on the running children resemble the four monsters that had held the curse on the areas around Termina.  The fifth child in the center is wearing Majora's Mask.  

   These children say some really odd things.  One asks Link if he will become a mask salesman like the will, and another asks Link what real face lies beneath his face.  If Bill Cosby taught me anything, it's that kids say the darndest things.  However, I don't think he meant stuff like "what face is under your face" when the five children are perfectly identical and wearing the masks of beings that had been trying to kill you over the past few days. The four of them around the tree ask Link to play hide and seek with them.  To initiate this, Link must give a few of the masks he has acquired from everyone he's helped.  The children teleport Link to odd places that test his skills that he has gathered on the adventure.  Three of these puzzles utilize the deku, goron, and zora masks while the fourth check all of Link's skills in archery and demolitions while facing against various monsters he has already killed.  Upon completion of each of these challenges, Link is required to give more masks.  With the last of these puzzles completed, Link has no more masks to give.  

   I will go into who I think these children are later, but now I suppose it's fitting we check out the big man himself.  

By big man, I mean this shy kid.

  This kid wants to play with Link but realizes Link has no more masks.  He also decides hide and seek won't be fun, so he decides to play a new game.  He calls this new game Good Guys against Bad Guys.  For Link's role in this, he hands Link the final mask.  This mask is called the Fierce Deity Mask.  Upon seeing the mask, the comment is made that the power of this mask is far greater than that of Majora's Mask but so is the evil.  The child with Majora's Mask stands up and tells Link that he gets to be the bad guy.  He then adds to this "When you're the bad guy, all you do is run."

   He teleports Link to a room full of dark symbols and strange colors.  Link puts on the Fierce Deity Mask, causing him to transform into an armored warrior with white eyes, white hair, strange face paint and a double helix sword.  Walking toward the center of the room, the masks of the boss monsters Link killed float and attach themselves to the walls.  Looking to the far side of the room, Majora's Mask unhinges itself from the wall, sprouts tentacles, and prepares to attack.