Time Atlas Sextet: Majora's Mask part 29

    So now that we've come to the completion of the story, I want to go over some theories.  These will cover the entirety of the story and then specifically Link's persona in this game and the previous game (known as the Hero of Time).  It wouldn't feel right to leave it at the ending screen without considering what all this means in the grander context of the Legend of Zelda. I'll admit this one is gonna be pretty long, but it is necessary for a complete understanding which I said I would do my best to present.

Hero of Time, kid and adult. (for point of reference)

    I'm going to begin by saying to anyone who doesn't know, if there is something to be understood about the characters of the Legend of Zelda, it is that most of them are reincarnations of the same spirit again and again over time.  There have been well over ten Links and almost as many Zeldas over the course of the thousands of years this series takes place.  To further complicate this, due to the existence of time travel in this series, there are alternate timelines that branch out of this one.  Finally, though less of a complication, there have been Links in the series who had to split into four identical copies on a number of occasions throughout the series.  That's not so much of a complication because when Link returns the Four Sword (the source of these duplicates) he reunites into a single Link.  If there was some way to understand all of these incarnations of Link, think of it kinda in terms of the book and movie Cloud Atlas.  It's pretty much the exact same people showing up again and again in different walks of life with many similarities to those that came before and those who will come in the future.  The thing that is guaranteed is that there will always be a hero (except in one case but we'll get to that later on), most always be a princess, and always a dark interloper of one form or another.

Legacy of the Hero (image by Nelde)

   With all that said, the Link of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is known as the Hero of Time.  It is from the Hero of Time that the timeline splits three ways.  There is the timeline in which Link vanquished Ganon when Link was an adult.  In this timeline, Zelda sent Link to before this whole adventure occurred in order to let him live a life of peace.  It is in this "life of peace" that next timeline can be found.  In the timeline we are looking at, Link brings word of Ganon's coming insurrection as well as the Triforce of Courage as a sign of his warning.  Ganon is taken to be executed in this timeline (although this doesn't work to disastrous results) while Link goes into the woods, finds Termina, stops the Mask, and returns home.  There is also the final timeline in which Link is killed by Ganon in their final battle and in Link's death a war breaks out in which almost everybody he knows dies where Ganon is finally sealed in an alternate dimension but the kingdom further falls into more and more disarray.

   I mentioned that the timeline we're dealing with is the timeline of Ganon's execution.  Link is a child once more and as such he is freed from everything he was destined to do.  Conversely, everybody he befriended and met on his journey is now gone, and he now knows he cannot return to the forest where he was raised since he is not a Kokiri child but rather he is a Hylian.  There is a Chinese legend called "The Vain Ocean of Wealth and Splendor" from the collection called the Zhen Zhong Ji.  Basically, it suggests that there is a certain impermanence of all good things in life that ebbs and flows frequently.  It's very eastern in thought, but I felt it was fitting since we are dealing with a story written mostly by the Japanese. In Western culture we call this the Wheel of Fortune, where fortune and folly turn by the hands of blind fate.  How it applies is that although Link has done a heroic and virtuous deed in saving the world, it doesn't change that fate would separate him from the fruits of his victory.

   Link set out into the Lost Woods to find the companion he had throughout his journey, Navi.  It's safe to assume he'd be pretty upset about being alone where he used to have so many people around him before.  He does have his horse Epona which means he probably visited Malon (Romani and Cremia's Hylian counterpart) and Lon Lon Ranch (Romani Ranch's counterpart) before leaving (the only friend he is guaranteed to have at this point since he met her before or during the point of time he was brought back to).  While he is riding around, he is ambushed by Tatl and Tael and robbed by the Skull Kid.  This was where this game picked up.

   Something I mentioned before was that all of Skull Kid's actions during this point of time are entirely normal for Skull Kids to do.  They are generally mischievous, and they are probably all thieves who come in contact with faries because both live in the Lost Woods.  The mask that the Skull Kid is wearing could simply be a mask with no magical powers, especially since the Skull Kid is seen lifting it off his face for a moment to look for witnesses.  Nothing strange happens until Link falls down the cave.  It is at this point that the Mask is revealed to be powerful and evil, that Link discovers Termina and the coming apocalypse, and that everything I have described over the past 28 posts occurred.  It is from this sudden shift in atmosphere that a very popular theory has emerged.  This is known as the Dream Theory.

Just ask him.  He knows everything. and everyone.  Even you.

   The Dream Theory dictates without much need to explain it that everything witnessed at this point was a dream Link had while he was unconscious from falling down a cave.  The Land of Termina was built around the stages of grief because Link was grieving, and the impending doom of the moon suggested that if Link could not overcome this grief it would be his destruction.  The quest is given by the Happy Mask Salesman because happiness would be the goal to be strived for.  The plethora of masks exist because the Happy Mask Salesman told Link in the previous game as well as in this game that the giving of masks is a sign of mutual happiness that spreads around the world.  The setting of a festival was generated because we would expect one to be happy but happiness is not present.  Link also doesn't have the Master Sword in this game, the classic blade that many of the heroes have wielded, which would represent his belief that his part in the legend has been expunged from history.  The people that are doppelgangers of the Hylians are just figments from his mind repurposed to fit in his dream.  The Tutorial Owl as I shall continue to call him has been seen as a representation of the conscious mind in a number of games prior to this one, most notably in the adventure Link's Awakening.

  This brings me to the point of awakening.  Throughout the games, whenever a New Link begins his adventure (with a few exceptions) he is usually seen waking up from having overslept.  At times he wakes up in really odd places, but once he wakes up he goes from narcolepsy to insomnia.  In Majora's Mask, he doesn't go to sleep for three days straight and then he turns back those three days many times.  Link isn't usually in some "heroes only" role and is usually just any average boy.  The idea of waking up is seen as taking up the responsibility of a hero.  In this game, if Link is falling into a dream, it would be the opposite of him becoming the hero.

  In the deeds Link did to receive masks, it is his realization that he doesn't need to have a quest to be a hero.  His helping of the ranch sisters proves that people still need to be protected, his aiding of Kafei and Anju in their wedding shows Link that he has been freed to live as man like Kafei and is not chained to his heroic destiny anymore.  His gathering of all the masks shows what random acts of kindness he can do.  The transforming masks represent that a hero is still a hero even if only in memory.  Finally, in giving the masks away to the Moon Children there comes the acceptance of giving up the deeds he did to bring peace to the lives of the many he touched.  In doing this, he is given the means to defeat the desperation of Majora's Mask and the moon.  However, once he is on the ground again, he has possession of all the masks once more.  This proves that his deeds will always be with him even if only with him.

   The Happy Mask Salesman's parting remarks dictate that Link isn't bound by fate to never see the people he met last time again.  He is told that it rests within his hands to return to the people he met and that the lack of a quest cannot separate him from them.  As Link is seen riding away in in the Lost Woods again, he looks to be sad again.  Probably because he figured this whole thing was a dream and, like all good dreams, they suck when they end.

   The one thing that suggests this wasn't all a dream was the image carved on the tree stump at the end.  Link doesn't see this, but we do.  Even if the entire game was allegorical as most heroes' quests are, it does suggest that not only did Link get clarity, but he did in fact save all of those people.

Hero of Winds, Because cat eyes are cool.

   What happens to the Legend of the Hero after this?  In the timeline where Link defeated Ganon, Ganon came back many years later and since Link wasn't there to stop him, the goddesses sent a great flood to destroy Hyrule while the Hylians were sent to live atop mountains for safety.  Ganon survived and this sets up the story for the most jolly Link ever in Legend of Zelda Wind Waker.  Wind Waker is probably one of my favorite Zeldas beyond Majora's Mask because in sharp contrast to Majora's Mask it is so lighthearted.  It is also one of the more divisive due to the unorthodox art style of cel shading (giving us the famous cat/toon Link).  It has its ups and downs as any good story will have but everything ends so much better for the new Link (known as the Hero of Wind).  In terms of Doctor Who, the Hero of Wind is the incredibly jovial and energetic Matt Smith to follow the tragic demise of David Tennant's Doctor who (see what I did there) is in many ways like the Hero of Time.

Hero of Legend
(w/ Rod of Seasons)

   In the failed Hero of Time timeline, the next Hero rises out of the knights of Hyrule and shows up in Link to the Past.  He is a descendant of the knights who fought Ganon after the Hero of Time was killed.  If I were to compare this Hero to a Doctor (though I really shouldn't because the two are completely different things, but Doctor Who is really popular right now so it makes for an easy point of comparison) it would be to Tom Baker's portrayal of the Fourth Doctor.  This hero (whom I call the Hero of Legend) appears in more games to date than any other Link and has moments of being jolly but can also be really serious.  He is more distant and has a pretty hard life given that many of those around him are killed and it's usually for his sake.  At one point, he is even responsible for an entire island of people made from a magical creature's dreams getting wiped out by waking the creature.  Its hard to say if he ever settles down  to stop questing but from his lineage comes the hero of the first two games in the series known as the Hero of Courage.

  What happens to the Hero of Time though?  Not a whole lot is said in the following games.  I have a theory that I think holds some ground, but it is only a theory.  I assume that Link eventually goes to live on Lon Lon Ranch with Malon and her father Talon (who's counterpart from Termina is dead according to Cremia).  Link knew that in seven years, a farm hand (who was portrayed as the bandits in Termina that attacked Cremia's wagon) would seize the Ranch from the lazy Talon, hold Malon captive, and become a very cruel owner of the ranch.  Although the Hyrule of that time was more savage, Link's presence on the ranch would ensure nothing like that would happen.  Link would probably get with Malon and that is why somewhere down the road on the timeline the Link of the series Twilight Princess would be a rancher who would come into possession of the horse named Epona like the Hero of Time did.  Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the series, has stated that two Links do not necessarily come from the same bloodline (as shown in the Link from Wind Waker who had no hero to be in the lineage of and the Link from Link to the Past who's lineage was from a knight).  However, I find this to be a better ending than Link simply riding off to never be heard from again.

New Link (left) vs Hero of Time (right, he's seen better days)

   The only thing we do know about the Hero of Time is that he does come back as a spirit in Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.  This spirit instructs the new Link (who I call the Hero of Light) in the ways of swordsmanship.  The Hero of Time's final lament was that he had no one to carry on his legacy.  He fulfills this by teaching the new Link.  After teaching the new Link all of his sword techniques, the Hero of Time fades back into legend with the many heroes that came before.

 
This ends my telling of Majora's Mask and the life of the Hero of Time.  The series isn't completely over yet. I've got one more thing I'd like to say, but since this post is so long I'll wait until the next post to say it.