Stone Temple Pilots: Majora's Mask part 21

    Link goes to the stone temple and solves the puzzle of the floating cubes.  This puzzle relies heavily on using the song Elegy of Emptiness.  By performing this song, Ben (yeah we're just gonna keep calling it that and hope no one gets possessed), appears over a pressure plate.  This pressure plate moves a floating block around.  As different plates are pressed with different weight, the blocks rearrange in different positions.  In order to accomplish this, Link has to perform the Elegy of Emptiness using the goron, zora, and deku masks he has acquired thus far as well as when using Ben.  When playing the song in each of these forms, the statue that forms is not of Link but of the three souls that inhabit each mask, Darmani, Mikau, and the deku steward's son.  It suggests with all the souls Link has helped thus far, he has not been alone on this quest.  That said, I feel like the meaning behind the song Elegy of Emptiness is, well, empty.  There's all sorts of creepy things in the canyon including Ben, but something about the actual application of this song is a little disappointing.  This disappointment will continue through the rest of this section.  I am sorry for this but prepare for probably the dullest post of this series.

It's like that Roald Dahl story about the serial killer who was a taxidermist.  

   Link enters the temple, does some puzzles that involve standing on the ceiling and stuff, fights some worms, does so with a mask that makes him big enough to fight the worms, frees the giant and calls it a day.

   Yeah, there's really nothing to say here.  The whole surrounding area is death themed, but once you go in the temple, that all ends.  Link runs into the master of the Garo ninjas somewhere in there, fights him a bit, and then the guy blasts himself to pieces with a bomb so as to probably not fall under the curse of the land.  Link gets some holy arrows or something.

   Personally, I feel like this is the weakest part of the game's overall themes and story.  Sure, that whole bit with the puzzles was cool using the Elegy of Emptiness and the flipping of the temple upside down, but beyond that it is sort out of place when considering how interesting the surroundings are.  There is an entire canyon full of the undead and tormented souls, and this temple revolves around earth, wind, and fire (the elements, not the band).  Sure worms are the boss and there's that whole bit in Hamlet about dietary worms and Polonius and stuff (sorry if I left someone in the dust there with the Shakespeare, but spoilers:  Hamlet kills Polonius and then jokes about him being at dinner with worms).  This temple feels like it should've been in Ocarina of Time, and they didn't have enough done so they put it in Majora's Mask.

  The great thing is despite this temple's shortcomings, the game is less built around dungeons than more traditional Zelda titles.  Since the player is timed in completing each dungeon, these dungeons have to be short and there is a lot more additional content outside of the dungeons.  I feel like there is enough that go on outside of each of these temples that it gives me something more to talk about than the actual dungeons do.  With that said, Link saved the giant. He's got all four giants woot woot, wakka wakka.  With the giants back, the curses across the four lands have been lifted.  The sorrows of the people of Termina can now be lifted.  So now Link can prepare for the final showdown, but before that, I want to talk about a few other things before the ending.  I promise those things will be more interesting than this post.


Here, for your trouble, a picture of RDJ and Conan being awesome.

The Walking Dead: Majora's Mask part 20

   Link climbs a hill up to a well.  Like pretty much everything in Ikana Canyon, the well is dry.  Crawling down into the well reveals that it is full of mummies.  Using the wraps that came off the guy from earlier, Link passes off as a mummy capable of jogging that also wears green.  The mummies in the well each ask for stuff, and Link brings each thing so that the souls of the mummies can be laid to rest.  At the far end of the well is a chamber with an image of the sun in it.  There is also a treasure chest.  Within the treasure chest is a mirror shield.  Upon the mirror shield is the most unpleasant face of what would seem to be a gorgon.  By standing in the light shining into this chamber, Link reflects the light onto the walls with the sun on them.  The sun gives a creepy smile, opening the way to another chamber.  Then in a long bit of puzzle solving and slaying the dead, Link works his way through the castle of the Ikana royal family.

   Link finally reaches the throne room.  The drapes over the lights descend as the dead king of the Ikana people admonishes Link for entering the throne room.  The room descends to darkness as two armed guards  approach Link.  Link fights with these guys a bit, but because of the darkness the spirits reenter the bones.  As it turns out, while drapes can block out all light in a room, they are quite old and subject to burn easily.  Using fire arrows, Link completely burns away the drapes filling the throne room with light.  In the light, the bodies of the guards cannot reform.  The king of the Ikana then challenges Link, but Link beats him as well.

   With the spirits of the king freed, he reveals that the reason the souls of Ikana Canyon have been stirred is because of, yep you guess it, Skull Kid.  Well, probably Skull Kid, the King just says "the masked one."  It would seem the dead have been roaming this place for a while.  Its hard to say when Skull Kid came and started causing trouble with the mask, but it is most likely him.  The Mask Salesman is also not outside of the realm of possibility (what? I don't trust him).  He mentions that all this trouble began with the dead raising when the Skull Kid (probably) entered the Stone Temple.  Unfortunately, all the armies of the dead were perplexed by the puzzle that guards the temple (yeah it's one of those "really?" kinda things.  but how many fairy tale kings can't figure out puzzles and stuff which calls for a hero to do it?)  It does require more than one person to enter the temple, and Link is only one person, so the king teaches Link a song.  The Elegy of Emptiness.

You shouldn't have done that...

   This is a creepy song, not because of what it sounds like, but because of what it does.  When Link plays the song a statue of himself appears in his place but it just doesn't look quite right.  This statue is now known as Ben, due to a creepy internet story (otherwise known as a creepypasta if you want to look it up) called Ben Drowned.  Basically, the story goes that somebody received a cursed copy of Majora's Mask that contained the damned soul of the child (named Ben) who previously owned the game but died by drowning in a lake and now manifests himself in the form of the statue.  Ben's spirit becomes a demon that torments the writer of the tale before the writer finally goes insane.  This story is hardly the only one of its kind, there are too many stories of cursed games for all of them to be of good quality.  The writer provides footage of how the game messes with him, and I must admit it's some eerie stuff.  I encourage you to read it.  It is probably one of the creepiest things I've ever read.  Sure it's fiction, but still I enjoyed it

Link takes this song to the temple.  Where we will pick up next time.

Monsters n' Music: Majora's Mask part 19

   Link goes to a graveyard where he is visited by a dead spirit named Flat.  Flat was a composer who wrote songs for the royal family of Ikana.  His brother, Sharp, was also a composer, but Sharp sold his soul and cursed Flat's soul to the graveyard.  While Flat was under the graveyard, he wrote a song filled with his hatred and sorrow toward his brother's actions and downfall.  This song is the Song of Storms, which is all over Youtube in a variety of dubstep remixes.  You should check them out if you're into that thing.  If not, the actual song that existed before the dubstep remixes is also quite nice.

 

   Having climbed the cliff, Link comes upon a strange building shaped like a music box.  It has a mill wheel in the river next to it, but the river doesn't have enough water in it so the music box house is doing nothing.  Surrounding the music box house are several mummies.  These mummies, known as gibdos, are nothing to mess around with, so we're just gonna let them devils do their thing for now and completely ignore them.

Somebody call Brendan Fraser.  We need him to yell at them a lot.  

     Link follows the riverbed to a cave.  Within the cave is another spirit.  This spirit is Sharp, the brother of Flat.  Sharp makes for a horrible soul.  He questions why Link would come to the land of the dead and assumes Link wishes to be dead.  Working his foul magic, Sharp makes Link gradually begin to weaken.  Under the circumstances of being faced by a spirit, it would make sense to play the Song of Healing.  While it worked fine every other time, the difference is that Sharp is not a tortured soul but rather a torturing soul.  He finds the song to be soothing (they all say that) and then proceeds to get back to killing Link.  The Song of Storms seems like the next best thing. It was written by flat so that would make it fitting to use against sharp.  When Link plays that, Sharp panics and stops torturing Link.  With Sharp's spirit gone, water begins to pour out of the cave and fill the riverbed.  As the water passes down the stream, the mill wheel turns.  As the wheel turns, music begins coming out of the house which causes all the gibdos to sort of dance around before descending into the ground.

     With the mummies gone, the camera zooms up to the door of the house and a click can be heard from the door unlocking.  Link comes out of the cave to see a little girl come out of the house and watch the river flow by.  This girl is very timid and will run in the house and lock the door if she sees Link approaching.  Using the mask that allowed Link to slip by the guards in the pirate base, Link enters the house.

    As it turns out, it is not the monsters outside that led the girl to lock the door, but the monster within.  Link opens a closet, and in a scene that I swear did not make me jump out of my chair, a half mummy guy jumps out and starts approaching Link.

I'm not shaking.  It just so happens
there's a small earthquake under
my feet.  

    After recovering and finding wherever I threw the controller, it is noted that the man isn't attacking.  Link plays the Song of Healing (because why not) and the mummy wraps fall off the guy, freeing him from the curse.  The wraps form into a mask, because it can be assumed the song fixed his soul without completely removing it and instead cut out the bad part and put it in the mask in a weakened state.  The daughter and father embrace in a rather happy moment and Link takes the mask to do something that we will discuss in the next post.  

Abandon Hope, Ye Who Enter Here: Majora's Mask part 18

    Link approaches Ikana Canyon to the east.  Before I say any more, I'd like to point out the literary significance of going east.  To the Japanese living on an island, to go west was to go to China, but to go east was just ocean.  In the Chinese Odyssey "Journey to the West," the monk Xuanzang goes west to India to acquire the sacred texts of Buddhism in order to return east to reform the morally loose frivolity of his home.  In Jewish tradition, Cain, after killing his brother Abel, fled from God's presence east of Eden.  East of Eden became the title of a John Steinbeck work and the character Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby goes east to Long Island, NY where he witnesses the immorality of the Roaring Twenties.

Shi means death

   It sort of makes sense that going east has such a negative connotation in these cultures.  The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so if a people were to spread out, it would make sense to go west with the sun so that they would not be travelling in the dark.  Ikana Canyon is a place full of darkness.  It is also the fourth geographical location Link has gone to this journey.  The significance of the number for is that in older Japanese, the word for four was shi.  Shi sounds remarkably similar to the Japanese word for death.  As such, the number four is unlucky (I'm having the wildest sense of deja vu. Did I write that before?) Ikana Canyon is also really the only place thus far in the journey that Link gets the option of turning back upon reaching it.  He rides to the canyon to find a large cliff with an odd hermit sitting on top.  The hermit's entire face is hidden save for one glowing red eye and his decaying bony legs swaying over the cliff's edge.  This fellow is the doppelganger of someone Link met on his previous adventure.  The original person's trade was the buying and selling of tormented souls known as Poes (named after the American poet and short story writer, it's no secret the creators of these games love literature just as the makers of the Mega Man series love music, and this is why Legend of Zelda has excellent stories while Mega Man has excellent music).  He will not let Link through unless Link comes back with a certain mask due to the dangers of the land.

(From OoT) What does one do with purchased tortured souls?

   Link acquires the necessary mask by challenging the bandits who tried to plunder the ranch's wagon in a race.  This mask is the Garo Ninja mask.  It is sort of a double edged sword.  The history of Ikana Canyon was that the kingdom of Ikana went to war with the Garo Ninjas.  It ended poorly for the Kingdom and now only the Garo Ninjas wander the ruins.  While wearing the mask, Link is safe from the tortured spirits of the land, but Link also attracts the attention of the Garo Ninjas.  They frequently mistake him for their leader, but upon realizing their fault challenge Link to a duel in a ring of mystical fire.  They aren't too difficult to beat, but they do come out of nowhere frequently and must be fought to go any farther.  Upon recognizing Link's strength, they give him some information before performing self-cremation.  They always say it is the way of their order to die without leaving a body.  It suggests that perhaps there is a curse on the dead of this land and to burn is the only way to be sure one's spirit will not linger.

Now imagine it coming out of nowhere and attacking.  

   We will continue upon Link's journey through the land of the dead in the next post.

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.

Termina and the Five Stages of Grief: Majora's Mask part 16

    A while ago, somebody suggested that the regions of the land of Termina were each indicative of the Kubler-Ross Model of grief.  This is also known as the Five Stages of Grief.  While the original author who discussed this matter is lost to me, it is still of considerable importance to understanding this game.  I said I would give a detailed study of this game and though I don't always embody formality (especially when I do this eheheehehehe), it would feel inappropriate to leave out this theme coming to a complete understanding of the game.  So now I shall begin, and from this I hope clarify what happens next in this story.


   The Five Stages of Grief are traditionally listed as Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.   The original application of this model was put to cases of loss or terminal illness.  Since the land is named Termina, and we know that the end of the world is fast approaching this land, this model seems appropriate.  Aside from the obvious fact this is a fantasy land, there is something considerably different about this one from Hyrule or Narnia or Middle Earth.  This world is very small and yet there is a beach and a humid swamp right next to snowy mountains and an arid canyon.  You would think somebody would notice such drastic changes in environment, but in truth the change of the lands appearance can be very easy to miss.  It's as though the lands flow into each other.  Of course variety is the spice of life, and in a a video game variety needs to be present to maintain the interest of those playing it.  Also, the reason for the small world is that after all, Link needs to get around quickly since he is being timed.  Nintendo tried the whole huge world thing with Wind Waker and people complained that sailing was tedious.  Those same people are complaining right now that there isn't enough to see in Skyward Sword, so suffice it to say that I feel about those opinions similar to how I feel about Mozart compared to musical fish children (probably the last we'll hear about musical fish children, probably)

   Returning to Majora's Mask, we'll begin with Clock Town.  This is where Link began his adventure and starts of every time he resets time.  With the people of Clock Town is the sense of denial.  As I mentioned in my First Three Days posts, people are making plans and celebrating the coming festival.  Nobody notices that the moon is looming over them or that they are at the epicenter of the crash site.  Perhaps the best example of this is the mayor.  The mayor assures Link and the people in his office that nothing bad will happen.  He is convinced that the Festival of Time will be a success.  Remember from my ending of the Ranch posts that he is staying in the farmhouse?  Clearly he done goofed up.  Denying that the world would end didn't stop the world from ending.

  Upon leaving Clock Town, Link went to the Swamp to the south.  There was the really angry king of the tree people who was torturing the monkey.  Swamps are quite humid places; they get quite heated.  Also there is a volcanic looking mountain in the Swamp, but instead of lava it is flowing over with poison that eats away at life.  When Link restores this place, the poison clears out and the king is returned to his senses by his daughter.  Wrath was set aside for clarity of thought.

Also note that the darkness around his eyes make him look like he's on fire.  

  Next, Link went to the mountains.  The mountains are snowing in the summer.  The stone people known as Gorons are freezing.  In their enclave their is a crying baby Goron.  Here the Gorons are weighing the options of freezing in the cold or staying inside with the screaming baby.  Since being outside isn't a good option, they'd rather stay inside with the long winded crying baby.  Link frees the land of the freezing weather and the Gorons can go out into the summer or stay inside where the baby has stopped crying.  At first I thought this was the weakest point of the metaphor, but when I put this in terms of "would you rather freeze in the cold or look after the screaming baby" it fit a little better.

  Following the mountain portion, Link went to the Great Bay.  The band was depressed and hid away in their enclave as they questioned the future of the band.  Lulu was depressed because she didn't think she would see her (unbelievably musically rock-most-ultimate) children ever again.  There is also this sense of seclusion in that everybody is tucked away and separated from one another.  The band is in their concert hall, the pirates are in their hideout, the sea snakes are hiding in caves in an abysmal hole in the ground, the turtle was in an island, and something I didn't mention before, there is a hut on the beach full of people turning freakishly into very large tarantulas.  Link restores Lulu's voice by returning her children and saving the ocean from the monster.  This allows the band to reassemble and perform.

  Often I've considered that the last two were interchangeable.  The Gorons are hiding in their cave while the pirates in the ocean area made a deal with Skull Kid to take the eggs.  These do alter the order of the five stages and while I doubt psychology always fits into a clean cut progression of one always to the next, it fits more appropriately if the Snowy place is bargaining and the Great Bay is depression.

  Why does the world of Termina revolve around the model of the stages of grief?  Well, aside from the moon crashing into it, there's a theory that's become quite popular lately.  I'll discuss this theory in either the last or next to last post of this series because of major spoilers, and it's also sort of a downer (yeah, moreso than the moon destroying the world).  What's important to note is that in rescuing each of these individual locations, Link doesn't push the people into the next phase of grief, he almost completely fixes each problem.  There are three of four giants that have been rescued from the Skull Kid's power and one more may be enough to stop the moon from falling.

  Given that Link has helped three of the four sets of people, what's the worst that could happen?  Remember that the final stage of the Kubler-Ross Model is Acceptance.  The thing you should know is that in the final area, everybody is already dead.

  We'll get to that after this next post.

Sea Turtles, Mate: Majora's Mask part 15

   Playing the song for Lulu makes her sing it for an island.  The island turns into a turtle with palm trees on its back and takes Link to the Great Bay Temple.  The temple is surrounded by what looks like a hurricane (in all its N64 glory).  The pirates also try to sail a boat to the temple, but the winds lift their boat and throw them into the sea.  Turtles that perform island identity theft are far more structurally sound means of transportation beyond pirate ships.  The turtle goes to the temple and Link hops off and enters to find turbines and pipes and stuff.  Turns out temples are the perfect places for large industrial centers of indoor plumbing and waste treatment.

  I often have found this to be a matter worth discussing.  What is the purpose of a temple?  I would assume it would be to worship something.  However, in so many of the Legend of Zelda games, these temples are full of puzzles and monsters.  That would be like going to church, and in order to get the church bulletin, you would have to slide boxes around over certain pressure plates to make the treasure chest holding the church bulletins appear.  Next, in order to get the communion crackers and wine, you would have to go down into the boiler room and measure water pressure and divert flow while being timed for the box to open up with the Eucharist in it.  Then, in order to put money in the offering plate, you would have to beat large stone-spitting squids to death with your church bulletin.  Finally, to hear the sermon, a giant fish comes out of nowhere and tries to eat you while being nearly impossible to hit in the murky water.  If that's how people worship in the Legend of Zelda, no wonder these temples are virtually empty.  Link must be a saint for enduring all of this.  I know a church and a temple aren't exactly the same thing, but I feel like the illustration makes the point.  I feel like I might be missing something about the nature of these temples, but if Nintendo ever thinks to write a second edition of Hyrule Historia, I'll let them discuss that to greater length.

So much hate.

  So giant fish, am I right?  His name is Gyorg, and he is wearing a mask like Goht and Odolwa were.  You ever see the movie Jaws?  Well, one fellow wearing green falls into the water, zero fellows wearing green come out.  The fish just throws itself against the platform and vomits piranhas.  He is also very hard to hit.  He is really hard to hit.  I don't know how else to put this.  Just try throwing a feather at a chandelier and then divide that by two, it's unpleasant and tedious.


   Link kills the fish, frees the third giant, and restores peace to the ocean.  The band of Zoras, the Indigo-gos, gets together (except the dead guy, because, you know) and performs the song the little Zora children wrote.  Lulu reveals the song they wrote was actually a song her mother used to sing...


ummm...


Those little fish children are still better at music than Mozart.  Song of Time right outta there.  Next time we will be looking at more symbols and themes and then we will be diving right into the canyon from hell.  This is gonna be good.