One Day More: Majora's Mask part 28

   Link wakes up on the ground outside of Clock Town restored to his original form.  Tatl and Tael are flying overhead and Link looks over to see the freed Skull Kid talking with the Four Giants.  It turns out the beginning of this whole mess was when Skull Kid thought the giants had abandoned him.  They had gone to each of their realms to protect and maintain order over Termina, but Skull Kid imagined they had forgotten their friendship.  As the Giants make clear Skull Kid is forgiven, they walk back to each of their lands and fade away.

   Skull Kid comes to understand the value of friendship and wishes to befriend Link since he put him through so much trouble.  Skull Kid then realizes that Link is very similar to the boy who taught him a song in the woods a while ago (that's because they're the same boy who taught the song).  Then out of nowhere, the Happy Mask Salesman appears holding Majora's Mask in his hands.  He says the evil power has now left the mask for good.  For a while I thought he was distraught about this, as though he wanted the power.  However, with further consideration, it suggests he will not have to guard the mask anymore.  It doesn't change the fact he's still creepy, but it makes it less unsettling that he gets the mask in the end.  The Mask Salesman tells Link that all the masks he has given away have been returned to his possession.  He also notes that Link's victory is in all the happiness he spread in getting those masks.  The Happy Mask Salesman ends by saying just because two friends part company doesn't mean they will never be able to meet again.  He says the power of friends to reunite rests entirely in those friends and that no distance can separate two people for long.  With these remarks, the Salesman begins to walk away before disappearing into thin air.  We may never know who he really is, some think he was one of the Ancient Ones who created the mask seeking to protect it from the weak.  With the end of the legend of Majora's Mask, he too fades into memory.

    Tatl, apparently not good with goodbyes, tells Link there partnership has ended as both have come to terms.  She then reminds Link rather callously that he has business to deal with in his world and that she, her brother, and the Skull Kid have a festival to celebrate.  As Link hops on his horse and rides off, Tatl quietly thanks Link for everything he did.  Tatl and Tael seemingly embrace (hard to say, they're both represented as balls of light with wings) and then the camera shows what happens through the rest of the day.

   The Indigo-gos and a host of others perform in Clock Town, gathering a large crowd.  The King of the Dekus makes peace with the monkey he had tried to kill.  The spirits of the dead in Ikana are laid to rest, and the man who Link helped escape the curse of the mummy goes outside with his daughter to greet the new day.  Cremia watches as Romani demonstrates her skills with a bow.  In a gathering of all the people of the town as well as the ranch owning sisters, the wedding of Anju and Kafei takes place formally at the gates of the city.  Sadly, those souls that aided Link were not brought back to life, as seen in Mikau's vacant spot on the stage with his band and the Deku Steward crying over the dead tree Link saw at the beginning of his journey.  Finally, Link is shown riding through the Lost Woods of Hyrule once again on Epona.  He rides with a downcast look, but at least he rides towards a patch of light filtering down from the trees.  As he moves away from the scene, a wood carving on a tree trunk shows Link, Skull Kid, Tatl and Tael, and the Four Giants as Saria's Song is heard one last time.

   And here ends the legend of Majora's Mask and the Hero of Time.

Goodbye

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.