Cruel Angel Thesis: Majora's Mask part 27

      As the mask floats towards Link, he swings his new sword.  It turns out the sword can throw bolts of energy.  These ki blasts if you will prove the fight is going to be very one sided when they drop the mask to the floor and allow Link to just wreck it.  Majora's Mask summons other masks from off the walls to attack Link, and Link quickly takes them down with a single swipe each.  It would almost be anticlimactic if you didn't take into consideration this mask is more evil than Majora's Mask.  This fight can be done without the Fierce Deity Mask, but I feel like it is more fitting this way.

    There have been a lot of theories as to what is the Fierce Deity and how it could be contained in a mask.  Some would say the fierce deity is the empty space between the three triangles of the triforce.  This tetraforce theory suggests that before the three goddesses of Hyrule brought order and life to the world, there was a malevolence in the chaos.  The three goddesses proved infinitely more powerful than this darkness and controlled its power, possibly by capturing it in a mask.  Whereas the goddesses have power in the prime universe (a.k.a. Hyrule), the Fierce Deity holds the power over the satellite universes where the triforce doesn't exist.  Another theory that I think holds more validity was that the Fierce Deity was the god worshiped by the creators of Majora's Mask.  This would render the Fierce Deity as a much greater power than Majora's Mask as Majora's Mask would only be the fullest extent of the worshipers' power as opposed to the limitless power of the worshiped.  The theory ends by saying that when this tribe of ancient ones was stopped by the goddesses, they again put the Fierce Deity's power in the mask.  How Majora's Mask came upon this one is sort of a mystery.

    After batting Majora's Mask around a bit, it floats upright, sprouts arms, legs, and a single eye out of the top and takes on its next form.  "Majora's Incarnation" as it is called is the closest thing to what the original Majora looked like if ever such a person existed.  The Incarnation simply runs around and dances.  He does stuff like the moonwalk and might even break out some Travolta in the middle of this fight.  It has a remarkably high pitched voice.  This has led many people to assume the spirit that is in the mask is a woman.  A female antagonist isn't out of the question in the Zelda series. The villain in Oracle of Ages was a woman.  It could happen.  However, I think these claims are made to give some humanity to that which isn't understood.  If anything, I think Majora is just drawing on the fact it was reawakened by a child, hence the playful demeanor and the high voice.  The music in this fight could easily be something Danny Elfman would right for an Eddie Murphy kids movie.  It is very off putting when compared to the usual music of danger used in other fights.  It takes even less time to defeat this form.  Despite the fact Majora's Incarnation is very fast, it is very difficult to dodge energy blasts coming out of a massive sword.  

3 forms of Majora. (art by Onimadness)

   After a few hits, the mask takes on its final form.  Its muscles pump up, the eye transforms into a demonic head, and two long whips grow out of its arms.  This is Majora's Wrath.  If there is a form that can stop Fierce Deity Link, it is this one.  Majora's Wrath is still pretty fast but can also his Link from afar with his whips.  When people talk about the fight with Majora, they usually think of this form.   Majora's Wrath is hardly pleasant to look at even if you ignore the demon face, it doesn't have skin so all of its muscles and veins can be seen openly.  It can jump around the room, bringing its whips with it.  If I remember anything about this fight from my childhood, it was that other kids had a horrible tendency to overexaggerate this phase of the battle.  They said stuff like Link had to climb up Majora's Wrath a la Shadow of the Colossus and things like that.  This would be true in Oracle of Season in which Link has to climb up the Dragon Onox's arms, and this was even planned to be used in the final battle with Ganon in Ocarina of Time, but for as horrifying and dangerous as Majora's Wrath seems, Link never has to climb up him.  This part of the fight takes longer than the first two, and despite the Wrath's efforts to defeat Link.  It still proves to be no match.  Rather than turning into a writhing mess of tentacles or burning up or exploding, Majora's Mask just looks up, screams, and fades to dust just like (SPOILERS, I guess?) Voldemort.  It's almost like a nightmare fading from someone's mind.

Ganon's got nothing on this.

  

    Why was this fight so easy (with all respect to those who didn't use the mask because it was very difficult to them)?  Well, personally, I have to believe Majora's Mask gave Link the Fierce Deity mask under the assumption that he would fall under its dark power like the Skull Kid did.  Link does appear to be a child although after the events of Ocarina of Time he is pretty much a child in name only.  Perhaps Majora's Mask was trying to summon a greater evil into the world.  He knew that he still couldn't bring the moon down on Termina alone but two evils could.  Since Majora's Mask was originally used for hexing rituals, it is possible this was a final service to its creators in order to try and summon their god into the world.  Regardless, I mentioned from the beginning that Link's greatest strength was the power to let power go.  This is something no villain in the series could ever boast.  Link started this adventure without most of his equipment and without the power of magic.  He proved his strength to the children of the moon by giving them all the masks he acquired.  To them (wearing the masks of the evil monsters Link fought) the masks were a sign of power. Some of the masks were quite powerful.  However, the Happy Mask Salesman told Link long ago that to give masks is to share happiness.  Link didn't get any of the masks without doing a service to the giver.  The reception of the masks was the reciprocation of Link's good deeds, culminating in the ultimate good done through the union of the Couple's Mask.  To give away the masks was to give away the power in them.  This is how Link managed to remove the Fierce Deity Mask in the end and save the world from himself.  

   With the destruction of the spirit of Majora's Mask comes the destruction of the moon.  A rainbow remains in the sky from where it was as Link returns to Termina below.  The sun is high over a new day in Termina.  Majora's Mask has been reclaimed.  The quest is over.  

Three Days to Deliver, Three Days to Die (Day 3): Majora's Mask part 5

Day three is a little uneventful up until the end, so I'm gonna go ahead and talk about a few other things in this post.

Throughout day three, the festival music in the background has become more ominous, but beyond that everything seems pretty normal.  A little past noon, it becomes apparent that there are tremors running through the land of Termina.  The moon is closer than ever and by nightfall, everybody has gone indoors. It's safe to say Termina has gone terminal and has hours left until the inevitable. In the town square near the clock tower, there is a single man still standing.  He is the foreman who was building the bridge to the clock tower.  Upset that all of his apprentices had run away with the job unfinished, he stands alone shouting straight up at the moon.  He shouts again and again hoping that it will scare the moon back into the sky.  I don't think there's been a better time to use the word lunatic beyond this scenario.


At the stroke of midnight, the clock tower door opens as the structure converts into a platform.  Being forward thinking, the flower Link bought from the deku tree person merchant guy allows him to jump up towards the stairs of the clock tower.  Upon ascending, he finds the Skull Kid hovering around with Tatl's captive fairy brother present as well.  Having waited so that Link may have front row seats to the end of the world, he takes the last few hours to taunt Link without end.  Tael blurts out to Link and Tatl to go to the forest, mountain, ocean, and canyon and to "bring them here."  Skull Kid smacks his captive and then lets out a keening death wail to bring the moon down faster.  As the moon draws closer, the bell of the clock tower begins to shake uncontrollably, becoming the death knell of the world.  Skull Kid then reveals the Ocarina of Time and holds it over Link to taunt him some more.  To challenge the Skull Kid's limitless and apocalyptic powers, Link musters his magic and spits at him.  This gives just enough of a distraction to make Skull Kid drop the magic flute, thus reuniting the Hero of Time with the righteous power to do some serious wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

Hey kids! Now you can play along on you nearest instrument.
Piano, guitar,  fiddle, banjo, or even kazoo if you feel so inclined.

As he holds the instrument, the first memory that comes to mind is Princess Zelda.  I suppose if you're gonna remember something at the end of the world, it might as well be a good memory.  In the memory, he hears the notes of the Song of Time.  The Song of Time, when played on the Ocarina of Time by the Hero of Time in the nick of time at the end of time, allows Link to jump back in time to the first day when he arrived at the base of the clock tower, a structure built to measure time.  Tatl at this point begins to wonder who Link is, but before she continues this thought, she remembers that the creepy mask man (technically the happy mask man, but we will see why creepy is more befitting in a moment) would help Link had he reacquired the ocarina.

Link goes under the clock tower where the man is waiting.  He seems to be somewhat aware that Link has gone to great lengths to retrieve the instrument.  As such, he summons a pipe organ out of nowhere and teaches Link a new song, the Song of Healing (Listen to it on Youtube. It's creepy but strangely relaxing.)  This song lays tortured souls to rest.  How exactly does this help Link?  Well, the dead tree person that he saw in the cave had it's soul taken by the Skull Kid, and then impressed on to Link causing him to transform.  By laying the deku spirit to rest, Link is returned to human form.  He has a similar hallucination to the one he had before (the David Lynchy one) but this one is a lot less unsettling as Link playfully waves goodbye to the giant tree person that was chasing him.  The spirit is then placed into a mask, that Link might take it on his quest.

Of course, the mask salesman asked that his stolen mask be returned.  When he sees that Link doesn't have his mask, he loses his cool.  He did this in the previous game (yeah, it's possible he's been stalking Link for a while now) at his shop when Link didn't return with the money he made in selling masks.  This time, there's no counter between the salesman and Link and also no witnesses.  He proceeds to strangle Link, but is overcome with the horror of losing the mask forever and decides to give Link a better reason to complete the quest (as if the end of the world wasn't enough).

He tells that the the mask in question, Majora's Mask, was one used by an ancient tribe in hexing rituals.  When the demon within the mask became too dangerous to control, the mask was sealed away.  The mask collector, whether to add another mask to his collection or perform nefarious acts, sought out and captured the mask.  He tasks Link once again to retrieve the mask.  This leaves me with the sense that this is probably one of the most morally ambiguous quests given in the Legend of Zelda franchise.  Leaving the mask with the Skull Kid leads to certain destruction, but returning it to the mask salesman who has no qualms with strangling children doesn't seem like the best alternative either.  Link is left with the only thing that seems right:   saving the world.

Continued in the next post.

Three Days to Deliver, Three Days to Die (Day 1): Majora's Mask Part 3

      Link and Tatl walk through the door to find themselves at the foot of a large clock tower in the middle of a town.  Following the adventures in Ocarina of Time, one will notice that a great number of the people walking around this town look perfectly identical to the people seen in Hyrule.  It should be said that the land of Termina, where this game is set, is something of a parallel universe to Hyrule.  The people here are all doppelgangers if you will of their Hyrule counterparts and generally go about their lives in a similar manner.  Seeing the bustle of Clock Town is in many ways similar to that seen in the market surrounding Hyrule castle.  Everything seems normal except for two things.  All the veterans of this game are waving their arms around at this point, but we're gonna wait for the big one until later.

        The first apparent oddity is this. If you look around the town, in sharp contrast to the Hyrule presented in just about the entire series, there is not a single Triforce.  The Triforce is both the royal and religious symbol of Hyrule that symbolizes the three goddesses that created the world: Din, Nayru, and Farore.  After creating Hyrule, they imbued a fraction of their limitless powers into a golden artifact that consists of three triangles, one on the top and two on the bottom.  This symbol is revered by the people of Hyrule as it exemplifies the three virtues of the Hylians:  Power, Wisdom, and Courage.  The lack of this symbol may also say something about how unimportant or ignored the related virtues are among the people of Termina.  Remember I said fear will play an important role in this story, and fear would be the opposite of courage, the quality which Link represents traditionally in the games.  

It's also kinda like a fractal, so it's very easy
to draw on geometry notebooks.

 









    Tatl suggests that Link visit the Great Fairy of North Clock Town.  Even a fairy as unruly as Tatl respects the Great Fairy and believes her to have far greater powers than the Skull Kid.  When Link arrives at the Fountain where the Great Fairy resides, you find the Fairy has been broken into hundreds of these pitiful floating pink things.  The host of pink things claim that its shattering was the work of the Skull Kid and if the one missing piece is returned to the fountain, the Great Fairy will be restored.  It's in this moment that it becomes clear that this land is in great danger of ruin and that no power within it can save it from the evil of the mask.  

    You find the fairy fragment in the laundry pool during the daylight hours (which is a sort of cruel joke given that fairies generally live in pristine fountains). Upon restoring Clock Town's Great Fairy, Link is given the power of magic.  Link of course had magic in the previous game but seems to have relinquished this power at the end of his previous adventure.  While this isn't explicitly stated, it can be interpreted that Link has the distinct power that neither Ganon in the previous game nor Skull Kid in this game has which is the power to let power go.  The drawback is that in his deku form, magic can only be utilized in spitting bubbles.  Again it shows that the creatures of Termina are horribly outmatched.

Day 2 will be explored in the next post.