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earlgraytay(Or: The Earl tries his hand at ludonarrative criticism.
Crossposted to Tumblr.)
What can I say about Majora’s Mask that hasn’t been said before? It’s the game that people analyze from a story perspective. Its dark themes and heavy use of symbolism make it interesting to pick apart, and it’s been around so long that basically everyone has said their piece.
But most of the theories and analyses focus on how Majora’s Mask makes the player feel the dread of apocalypse that the other characters feel, or how the heavy themes of death and loss impact the narrative. (Or, that favourite of lazy theorycrafters, “everyone is dead and this is purgatory”.) There’s one part of Majora’s Mask- a central part!- that no one talks about, and that’s the symbolism around the masks themselves.
I’m gonna look at this symbolism through a semi-Jungian lens. Obviously, spoilers for Majora’s Mask follow.
So before we get started, a couple of things.
First, we’re going to assume that Link is a relatively reliable narrator. What he sees and experiences is what the player is meant to experience. Termina isn’t* a dreamworld or an afterlife, it’s a real place; the characters resemble people from Link’s past, but they’re not just figments of his imagination; etc. MM is absolutely drenched in symbolism, but assuming that everything is ‘just’ a symbol leads to lazy and boring analysis.
Second, I’ve only read some Jung, because his sexism made me want to throw the book across the room. I’ve done some of the reading, but my own ideas are gonna come in here. I’m also going to try to avoid the weird sexual symbolism you normally get with Jung, because half the time that’s tied into his more sexist ideas.
Third, this is a very narrow lens I’m looking through. I’m not touching some of the most important elements of MM (like the three-day time limit!) because they’re not relevant to this particular thread of symbolism. I’m also not going to look into certain things tied to identity that could be a mini-essay in themselves- like Tingle’s whole deal, or the connections between the Majora’s Mask characters and their OoT counterparts. This isn’t a comprehensive reading by any stretch; it’s just focused on Link’s relationship with identity in the game.
Last, in this essay I’m going to use “MM” to refer to the game Majora’s Mask and the phrase “Majora’s Mask” to refer to the entity within the game world, just for the sake of clarity.
With that out of the way, let’s get started!
Childhood’s Beginning
At the start of the game, Link’s traveling through a dark wood looking for Navi- who was his guide and source of information in Ocarina of Time. He’s alone and traveling through a dark and misty wood.
In that wood, he’s mugged by the Skull Kid. Skull Kid, in this reading, is Link’s shadow-self- an incarnation of his ‘darker’ side, the negative qualities he’s repressing and keeping locked away. Like Link, Skull Kid was ostracized by the people around him. But where Link, in trying to get the people around him to accept him, became a hero, Skull Kid, in rejecting those people, became a monster. Even before stealing Majora’s Mask, Skull Kid was a bully and thief, and the more he rejected the people he saw as ‘hurting’ him, the worse he became.
All of the masks in MM symbolize different archetypes or identities. Majora’s Mask is hatred-as-identity- the desire to destroy people who’ve wronged you and make the world suffer the way you have, turned into your entire reason for being. By putting on Majora’s Mask, Skull Kid became personified destruction.
Skull Kid strips Link of all ties to his former identity- his ocarina and horse, both of which were accomplishments for the player in OoT- and knocks him down a hole into the underground, in a symbolic death. At the bottom of that hole, Skull Kid turns Link into a Deku Scrub and then leaves Link behind.
The Deku Scrub mask is an archetypical ‘little kid’. Link’s Deku Scrub form is smaller and weaker than ‘regular’ Link, and nearly defenseless. Until you help save the Great Fairy, your only means of attack are your spin and your dive-bomb. When you’re Deku!Link, the other characters treat you with a mix of contempt and pity- the way adults often treat ‘real’ children. You’re constantly told that you can’t do things, told it’s not safe for you to leave Clock Town, and other characters react with surprise when you show competence.
Link, now forced into the role of a child, climbs out from the underground in a symbolic rebirth. It’s at this point that he meets the Happy Mask Salesman- Link’s inner conflict personified.
The Face Beneath The Mask
Like Link, the Mask Salesman is a traveller- wandering from place to place, helping people by giving them new identities. But he’s an erratic and slightly sinister figure, jumping from smarmy goodwill to white-hot fury and back again in the blink of an eye.
The Salesman had Majora’s Mask- ‘desire for revenge/destruction personified’ stolen from him by the Skull Kid- Link’s symbolic shadow-self.
At the end of the game, the four Masked Children ask Link a series of questions:
“Your friends… What kind of… people are they? I wonder… Do these people… think of you… as a friend?”
“What makes you happy? I wonder…what makes you happy…does it make…others happy, too?”
“The right thing…what is it? I wonder…if you do the right thing…does it make…everybody…happy?”
“Your true face… What kind of… face is it? I wonder… The face under the mask… Is that… your true face?”
I know, I’m jumping ahead a little, but these questions are Link’s inner conflict over the course of MM. Link’s inner conflict is, essentially, “do I want to be a hero, or is that a role that was forced upon me? Who am I, and what really makes me happy?”
In this reading, Link wants to believe that the people around him are good and want to be his friends, and he wants them to be happy. He is thus repressing his desire to get back at the people who’ve ostracized and hurt him, because he wants to be a person who does the right thing. But is that his true identity? Is he really a hero?
The Mask Salesman tells Link that he’ll return him to his former self- his existing identity- if Link gives him back the mask– symbolically dealing with this repressed desire. So over the course of the next three days- the first cycle- Link sets out to do just that.
….Remember when I said this reading glosses over some very important aspects of the game? Well, sometimes an apocalypse is just an apocalypse. The Skull Kid is acting as an avatar of destruction and trying to make everyone suffer; dragging down the moon to do so. We’ll get to why it’s specifically the moon later, but for now- in this reading, the apocalypse is “just” the world-shattering consequences of Skull Kid’s hatred.
I’m not quite sure what to make of the time travel in this context. It most likely does have a symbolic meaning. The one that seems most relevant in this context is “Link trying to return to the person he was before his destructive impulses take over”- but that seems a bit facile. Let me know what you think below if you have an idea.
Anyway. Whether or not they have a symbolic meaning, the impending apocalypse and time travel are things that happen within the reality of the game world. Link, by taking the Ocarina of Time, regains part of his former identity- though Epona is still missing- and turns back the clock to the Dawn of the First Day.
Link returns to the Happy Mask Salesman, and by learning the Song of Healing, he is returned to his former self. But without getting Majora’s Mask back- without dealing with his repressed inner desire- Link’s inner conflict isn’t resolved.
The Happy Mask Salesman asks Link to retrieve the mask, and so the story proper begins.
Link must travel the world, helping people and gathering other masks along the way, and ultimately confront the Skull Kid in order to resolve his conflict. Symbolically, this gathering of masks represents Link trying to synthesize an identity for himself by trying on different social roles. Is he a people finder? Is he a Troupe Leader? Is he a postman? And so on and so forth.
Now, I’m not going to argue that every mask in the game has some kind of Deep Symbolic Meaning. If I tried to tell you that there was a Deep Meaning to the Mask of Scents, for example, I’d be talking straight out of my arse. And honestly- there’s so many masks in the game that do have cool symbolism that if I went over them all I’d be here all day. So I’m not going to try to analyze the meaning of every mask in the game (though if you want me to look at one I didn’t talk about, reblog or reply to this post and let me know!).
But a few of the masks- the two other Transformation Masks, the Stone Mask, and Romani’s Mask- have meanings that are really interesting in the context of this analysis, so I’m gonna go over them in detail.
Identity through Transformation
Let’s start with the transformation masks. The transformation masks are…. interesting, because they’re the faces of dead people. By wearing the masks of these dead people, Link is able to take on a portion of their power and do things he couldn’t do in his own form. Symbolically, Link is also assuming their identity- their role in society and their role in relation to other people.
Apart from the Deku Mask- which is forced on him by Skull Kid- Link only takes two of these masks over the course of the game, and both of them are identities a young boy might aspire to.
O Brother, Where Art Thou: The Goron Mask
Early in the game, Link claims the mask and identity of Darmani, a recently-deceased Goron. Darmani is a legendary hero from the Goron tribe- a people who’ve already welcomed Link with open arms back in Hyrule. Darmani is much bigger and stronger than Link, and much faster when he’s doing the Goron Roll. Like Link, he’s already saved his people- becoming a hero of great renown. He’s not the leader of his community, but he has a comfortable relationship with it– friends, admirers, and a child.
What’s particularly interesting about the Goron Mask is that Link already has strong ties to the Gorons. Through his friendship with Darunia, the “Big Brother” of the Gorons in Hyrule, Link has become an honorary Goron ‘brother’. Darunia even named his son ‘Link’, and- as seen elsewhere in MM- that’s not an uncommon name for Gorons.
Perhaps, by taking on the Goron Mask, Link is trying to experience life through the eyes of a Goron- to truly make ‘Goron brother’ a part of his identity. But alhough Link may enjoy his time racing in traditional Goron fashion and faffing about with explosives, Link is not a Goron. Link is not Darmani, and Link doesn’t really have the ties to the other Gorons that Darmani had. Trying to take on his identity requires Link to live a lie.
Ultimately, to become his truest and most authentic self, Link must leave Darmani’s identity behind.
Two Lovers Entwined: The Zora Mask
In an earlier version of this essay, I tried to assign every mask in the game a particular archetype symbolized by a card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck. While I ultimately discarded that reading- it’s too reductive- the one place it does help is in the case of Mikau, the Zora whose identity Link assumes to navigate the Great Bay. Mikau is the archetypical Lover.
Now, hold on, put your Zora Link smut fanfic down, I’m not just talking about sex. The Lovers are defined by passion- and romantic love is only one kind of passion, though it’s definitely part of the Great Bay’s storyline.
Mikau’s entire story arc- both in life and in death- is defined by passion. Mikau’s passionate love for music brought him to the Indigo-Gos, and keeps him going long enough to sing to Link about his plight. Mikau’s passionate love for Lulu drives him to seek out the Gerudo and retrieve her stolen eggs- their children- even though it ultimately leads to his death.
Link definitely has some things he’s passionate about- he definitely cares for Navi and Epona, for example, and he loves music enough to learn to play the ocarina. But because Link is so young, he hasn’t had as many chances to experience passion. In particular, according to the Anju and Kafei questline, he doesn’t really understand the “grown-up stuff” that is romantic love.
By taking on Mikau’s identity, he gets to experience Mikau’s passion for the things he cares about. Zora!Link experiences Mikau’s passion for music by jamming with Japas the bassist and helping him ‘compose’ a brand new song. He then helps Japas ‘convince’ Evan to play that song by letting Evan pass it off as his own work- passion about music for its own sake, without concern for the identity of the ‘composer’.
More importantly, Link vicariously experiences Mikau’s passionate love for Lulu. Again, I’m not saying there’s a sexual component here- Link is, after all, a child. But he finishes Mikau’s quest to retrieve the eggs- rescuing the fruits of their love- and witnesses the birth of their children. He then heals Lulu with the song that their children created at birth, helping her reclaim her identity as the lead singer of the band. Every part of the Great Bay questline is shaped by Mikau’s love for Lulu, and by taking on Mikau’s identity, Link gets to experience this love, even if it’s only secondhand.
But like Darmani’s camaraderie with his fellow Gorons, Mikau’s love for Lulu is Mikau’s love, not Link’s. Taking Mikau’s place would be a lie; it’s not Link’s true self. So Link moves on from Mikau’s identity, just as he moved on from Darunia’s.
(As a side note: the obligatory Gross Pervy Quest you get in every JRPG is in the Zora section of the game. A fan who is passionately obsessed with Lulu asks you to take pictures of her. While totally unrelated to Link’s internal conflict, it’s interesting how this quest reinforces the theme of the area.)
Now let’s look at the masks that aren’t the transformation masks, but that have interesting connections to Link’s quest for identity.
The Mask I Use To Hide: The Stone Mask
The Stone Mask is an interesting mask, because it’s both difficult to get and almost (but not quite) useless.
In order to get the mask, you have to use the Lens of Truth in a place where there’s no immediate indication that you need it- in the original N64 version of MM, it’s a random part of Termina Field, and in the 3DS remake, it’s in the Gerudo Pirates’ fortress. Either way, it’s worn by Shiro, a man who’s as ‘plain as stone’, so unremarkable that he always goes unnoticed, even in situations where other people would stick out like a bent nail. After Link helps him, he gives Link the Stone Mask- an item that lets Link go as unnoticed as Shiro is.
There’s only a few parts of the game where this mask is useful at all- the faux-stealth section in the Pirates’ Fortress, the part where you have to get past the little girl in Ikana Valley, and (in the 3DS version) part of the fishing minigame. And the only time you absolutely need it is to catch that one particular fish- you can do the stealth sections in the game without it, and they’re honestly more fun without the mask.
Symbolically, the Stone Mask is … well, it’s exactly what it says on the tin, really. It’s the archetype of the wallflower; the person who always goes unnoticed and blends into the scenery. It’s difficult for Link to try to see himself as this kind of person, and he doesn’t even want to try outside of situations where any sane person would want to be unnoticed.
Adulthood Through Deeds: Romani’s Mask
To be honest, Romani’s Mask is half of the reason this essay exists. It’s one of the points in the game where masks are explicitly called out as symbolic roles, and it got me thinking about the implications.
You get the mask by helping Cremia fight off the Gorman Brothers’ (pathetic attempts at) banditry on her milk run back to town. When she successfully reaches town, she gives you the mask, and tells you this:
“By doing one good deed, a child becomes an adult. That mask is only given to a limited number of adult customers. It’s proof of membership. I now acknowledge you as being an adult!“
When Link puts on Romani’s Mask, the other characters in the world recognize him as an adult. This allows him to do a couple different things- most notably, it lets Link get into the Milk Bar, where only adults can go. Link has to go to the Milk Bar to get a couple different important items and to finish a few sidequests, so Romani’s Mask becomes incredibly important.
If you talk to Cremia in a new cycle while wearing Romani’s mask, she has this to say:
”That’s Romani’s Mask. Only adult customers can get that mask. But “adults” isn’t really the right term. It’s not based on age, but on a person’s way of thinking and acting… Hee, hee. Somewhere, there’s a person who thinks of you as an adult.“
“Adulthood” is itself a social role in the world of MM- something that you take on by thinking and acting a certain way. Link earns the right to be treated as an adult by thinking and acting like one- by putting on the role, like he’d put on any other mask.
Healing and Emptiness
Before we get to the end of this essay, I briefly want to touch on Link’s songs. Most of Link’s songs, like everything else in the Zelda games, are primarily tools - you use them to interact with the world around you. But two of the songs in Link’s arsenal play into the themes of identity and social roles, and since they’re both essential - you can’t progress the game without them- let’s give them a quick look.
Somebody Please Heal My Soul- the Song of Healing
The Song of Healing is one of the first songs Link learns in MM- it’s the song that turns Link back into his human self, and Link uses it many times thereafter to progress the story. Link must play the Song of Healing for both Darmani and Mikau before he can claim the transformation masks; he also needs to play it to claim Kamaro’s Mask and the Gibdo Mask.
What’s interesting about the Song of Healing in MM is that it’s never used to heal physical wounds. It’s only used to heal emotional and spiritual wounds- to put sad spirits’ lingering regrets to rest, to rescue a scientist who’s become a monster, to heal souls and ease pain.
Much of the time, the spirits Link heals with the Song of Healing are regretful that they didn’t properly fulfill their role. Darunia regrets that he couldn’t save his people- he wasn’t the hero that everyone thought he was. Mikael regrets that he couldn’t rescue his beloved’s eggs - that he couldn’t fulfill his role as a partner and parent. Kamaro the Dancer regrets that he couldn’t teach the entire world his dance, and Pamela’s Father regrets that he got so wrapped up in his research that he neglected his beloved daughter.
By playing the Song of Healing, Link gives these spirits peace. In the case of the dead, Link agrees to take on their role and finish what they started- save the Gorons, rescue the Zora eggs, teach Kamaro’s dance to the world. Knowing that someone else can finish what they started- that their role will not go unfilled- they can move on to the afterlife. In the case of Pamela’s Father- the only other living person who needs the Song of Healing- Link frees him from his dangerous obsession so he can properly fill his role as a father.
In every case, Link receives a mask he can use to take on the role of the person he healed- Goron, Zora, Dancer, or Gibdo. By helping these people come to terms with their failure to fill their role - to live up to their self-identity- Link receives a role he can use to begin to put together his own identity.
Molt and Rebirth- the Elegy of Emptiness
When Link learns the Elegy of Emptiness, he gains the ability to create ‘shells’ of his different transformations- statues with empty eyes that stay in place once Link’s left them behind. He can use these shells to solve puzzles in the game world. Notably, these shells don’t look like Link’s transformed selves- the Goron effigy looks like Darunia, scar and all, and the Zora effigy looks like Mikau.
In Japanese, the Elegy of Emptiness is called the Elegy of Exuvia. Exuvia is the scientific name for the cast-off outer skin of a bug after it moults. They’re important to entomologists because they can be used to identify the species and even sex of a bug.
The Elegy of Emptiness represents Link’s final acceptance of the truth- the identities he’s used over the course of the game are not his real self. An identity someone else constructed can never truly be your own, whether it’s one that’s forced upon you or one that you borrow from someone else. At the same time, though, these roles aren’t useless or bad**. Link can still use what he’s learnt from taking on these roles; it’s just that they’re not who he truly is, and he must leave them behind to move on.
Armed with this self-knowledge- and having tested the many roles and archetypes the world of Termina has to offer- Link is finally ready to confront his shadow self and his repressed desires.
A Trip To The Moon: The Endgame of Majora’s Mask
To properly analyse the ending of MM, we have to assume that the player has gathered all the masks- in video games, 100% completion is the fullest expression of authorial intent. By gathering all the masks, and completing the questlines that go along with them, Link has experienced every social role that Termina has to offer. He has been a child and an adult, a warrior, a lover, a dancer, a postman, a detective, a Bomber, a commander, a giant, a frog conductor, and so much more- he has been all things to all people.
When Link finally confronts the Skull Kid, Majora’s Mask removes itself from the Skull Kid and attaches itself to the moon, attempting to consume all of Termina.
Remember how I said we’d get to why the apocalypse is a falling moon, not a falling sun or a meteor or a magic nuke? Well, here ya go.
I honestly couldn’t find much about Japanese moon symbolism from a quick google- most of what I did find was about Tsukuyomi, the Japanese moon god, who was kind of a piece of work. There are probably nuances and concepts I’m just gonna miss, because I’m not Japanese and don’t know my stuff. But since The Legend of Zelda is heavily influenced by Western mythology and symbolism, we can at least look at the moon symbolism through that lens.
The moon, in modern Western thought, is often a symbol of uncertainty and change. Shakespeare called the moon “that inconstant orb”, and the Rider-Waite tarot deck’s Moon card symbolizes fear, illusion, bewilderment, and imagination. The Moon, in this reading of MM, represents Link’s fear and confusion about his changing and uncertain identity. If left unchecked, this fear and confusion could destroy him- and if left unchecked in the hands of his shadow self, it could destroy everyone around him, too.
Majora’s Mask moving from the face of the Skull Kid to the face of the Moon represents Link becoming conscious of his repressed hatred and pain. The feelings he held back move from his unconsciousness to his consciousness. To fully complete the game, Link must travel into the moon and confront Majora- the symbol of this repressed hatred.
Link warps into an idyllic dreamworld- a grassy hill surrounded by a blue sky with a single tree in the center. On that hill there are five children, all of them wearing masks. Four of those children wear masks in the shape of the bosses Link’s killed to get here- Link’s greatest accomplishments in the game, but also the creatures he’s hurt in his quest for identity. The fifth child wears Majora’s Mask.
Since we’re assuming a 100% run, Link talks to each of the Masked Children in turn. Each child asks Link if he wants to play, and sends Link into a challenging gauntlet that will test the player’s mastery of each of Link’s forms. To play these 'games’, however, Link must give the Masked Children some of the masks he’s collected along the way- symbolically discarding the roles and identities he’s picked up that are not his true self.
As Link passes through the gauntlets set by the moon children, they ask him a series of questions. I showed them before, but for context I’ll repeat them here.
”Your friends… What kind of… people are they? I wonder… Do these people… think of you… as a friend?“
”What makes you happy? I wonder…what makes you happy…does it make…others happy, too?“
”The right thing…what is it? I wonder…if you do the right thing…does it make…everybody…happy?“
”Your true face… What kind of… face is it? I wonder… The face under the mask… Is that… your true face?“
These questions are the questions that Link has grappled with the entire game. By winning each of the Masked Children’s challenges– and by divesting himself of the roles that aren’t his nature– Link symbolically answers these questions for himself. He confronts his fear, his doubt, his insecurities, and- ultimately- his identity crisis.
Finally, Link confronts the child wearing Majora’s Mask. The Majora Child says one of two things to Link. If Link hasn’t given up all his masks, the Majora Child says:
Will you play…with me? You have only weak masks… So…you’ll play?”
If Link confronts Majora while he still has some of his ‘old’ identities- the roles other people constructed- his identity is weak. He can still defeat Majora- can still deal with his issues- but he won’t become his true, fully realized self.
If Link has given up all his other masks, the Majora Child says this instead:
“You don’t have any masks left, do you? Well, let’s do something else. Let’s play good guys against bad guys… Yes. Let’s play that… You’re the bad guy. And when you’re bad, you just run. That’s fine, right? Well… Shall we play?
The child then gives Link the Fierce Deity’s Mask.
A Self Made Whole: The Fierce Deity’s Mask and Epilogue
The Fierce Deity’s Mask looks like an adult Link. Symbolically, the Fierce Deity’s Mask is the True Self that Link has worked to construct- the fullest expression of who Link is and what he believes himself to be. It’s the most powerful mask in the game, and the developers said that it contains “the memories of all the people in Termina”- all the people Link has met and worked to save.
The description of the Fierce Deity’s Mask says:
”You got the Fierce Deity’s Mask! Could this mask’s dark powers be as bad as Majora?”
Someone who is fully in touch with their truest self- who doesn’t need a role in society to know who they are, who doesn’t need other people to be complete- can indeed be dangerous, if they don’t care about other people.
But Link does care. He is not the bad guy. Link now knows that his friends consider him to be a friend, that doing the right thing makes him happy, and that doing the right thing makes the people around him happy too. In OoT, Link was forced to become a hero by circumstance; in MM, Link builds his identity, and being a hero is now simply part of who he is.
By dealing with his inner demons, Link is easily able to destroy Majora - including its final form, Majora’s Wrath. He gives Majora’s Mask back to the Happy Mask Salesman. The Salesman tells Link that the evil has left Majora’s Mask, and then tells Link:
…my, you sure have managed to make quite a number of people happy.The masks you have are filled with happiness. This is truly a good happiness.
The Happy Mask Salesman then leaves Termina behind. Link’s internal conflict has gone away- it may someday return, but for now, he’s at peace.
Link, now in possession of his complete self and reunited with Epona, also leaves Termina. It’s implied that he’s going home to Hyrule. Freed from his insecurity about who and what he is, he can return home and build a life for himself, doing what he loves best– helping other people and being a hero.
*I know that Nintendo has expressed Opinions about this, though not within the game itself. It is interesting that the world of Termina, in Nintendo’s interpretation, was created by Skull Kid and not Link- it explains, for example, why the Kokiri aren’t in Termina, when you’d think they would be as part of Link’s inner conflict. But I think the story of Majora’s Mask is more interesting and meaningful if Termina literally exists, and there’s nothing in the text itself that says it doesn’t.
** except the Deku Scrub role, because the Deku Effigy is nearly useless. :I Then again, a traumatic childhood isn’t really all that useful for anything but memoir.
…Wow, that was an adventure. This is probably the longest piece of meta I’ve ever written, but I needed to get this out of my head.
If there’s anything you want me to expand on, please reblog or reply to this post and I’ll do the best I can to elucidate.
Thanks for reading!
Crossposted to Tumblr.)
What can I say about Majora’s Mask that hasn’t been said before? It’s the game that people analyze from a story perspective. Its dark themes and heavy use of symbolism make it interesting to pick apart, and it’s been around so long that basically everyone has said their piece.
But most of the theories and analyses focus on how Majora’s Mask makes the player feel the dread of apocalypse that the other characters feel, or how the heavy themes of death and loss impact the narrative. (Or, that favourite of lazy theorycrafters, “everyone is dead and this is purgatory”.) There’s one part of Majora’s Mask- a central part!- that no one talks about, and that’s the symbolism around the masks themselves.
I’m gonna look at this symbolism through a semi-Jungian lens. Obviously, spoilers for Majora’s Mask follow.
So before we get started, a couple of things.
First, we’re going to assume that Link is a relatively reliable narrator. What he sees and experiences is what the player is meant to experience. Termina isn’t* a dreamworld or an afterlife, it’s a real place; the characters resemble people from Link’s past, but they’re not just figments of his imagination; etc. MM is absolutely drenched in symbolism, but assuming that everything is ‘just’ a symbol leads to lazy and boring analysis.
Second, I’ve only read some Jung, because his sexism made me want to throw the book across the room. I’ve done some of the reading, but my own ideas are gonna come in here. I’m also going to try to avoid the weird sexual symbolism you normally get with Jung, because half the time that’s tied into his more sexist ideas.
Third, this is a very narrow lens I’m looking through. I’m not touching some of the most important elements of MM (like the three-day time limit!) because they’re not relevant to this particular thread of symbolism. I’m also not going to look into certain things tied to identity that could be a mini-essay in themselves- like Tingle’s whole deal, or the connections between the Majora’s Mask characters and their OoT counterparts. This isn’t a comprehensive reading by any stretch; it’s just focused on Link’s relationship with identity in the game.
Last, in this essay I’m going to use “MM” to refer to the game Majora’s Mask and the phrase “Majora’s Mask” to refer to the entity within the game world, just for the sake of clarity.
With that out of the way, let’s get started!
Childhood’s Beginning
At the start of the game, Link’s traveling through a dark wood looking for Navi- who was his guide and source of information in Ocarina of Time. He’s alone and traveling through a dark and misty wood.
In that wood, he’s mugged by the Skull Kid. Skull Kid, in this reading, is Link’s shadow-self- an incarnation of his ‘darker’ side, the negative qualities he’s repressing and keeping locked away. Like Link, Skull Kid was ostracized by the people around him. But where Link, in trying to get the people around him to accept him, became a hero, Skull Kid, in rejecting those people, became a monster. Even before stealing Majora’s Mask, Skull Kid was a bully and thief, and the more he rejected the people he saw as ‘hurting’ him, the worse he became.
All of the masks in MM symbolize different archetypes or identities. Majora’s Mask is hatred-as-identity- the desire to destroy people who’ve wronged you and make the world suffer the way you have, turned into your entire reason for being. By putting on Majora’s Mask, Skull Kid became personified destruction.
Skull Kid strips Link of all ties to his former identity- his ocarina and horse, both of which were accomplishments for the player in OoT- and knocks him down a hole into the underground, in a symbolic death. At the bottom of that hole, Skull Kid turns Link into a Deku Scrub and then leaves Link behind.
The Deku Scrub mask is an archetypical ‘little kid’. Link’s Deku Scrub form is smaller and weaker than ‘regular’ Link, and nearly defenseless. Until you help save the Great Fairy, your only means of attack are your spin and your dive-bomb. When you’re Deku!Link, the other characters treat you with a mix of contempt and pity- the way adults often treat ‘real’ children. You’re constantly told that you can’t do things, told it’s not safe for you to leave Clock Town, and other characters react with surprise when you show competence.
Link, now forced into the role of a child, climbs out from the underground in a symbolic rebirth. It’s at this point that he meets the Happy Mask Salesman- Link’s inner conflict personified.
The Face Beneath The Mask
Like Link, the Mask Salesman is a traveller- wandering from place to place, helping people by giving them new identities. But he’s an erratic and slightly sinister figure, jumping from smarmy goodwill to white-hot fury and back again in the blink of an eye.
The Salesman had Majora’s Mask- ‘desire for revenge/destruction personified’ stolen from him by the Skull Kid- Link’s symbolic shadow-self.
At the end of the game, the four Masked Children ask Link a series of questions:
“Your friends… What kind of… people are they? I wonder… Do these people… think of you… as a friend?”
“What makes you happy? I wonder…what makes you happy…does it make…others happy, too?”
“The right thing…what is it? I wonder…if you do the right thing…does it make…everybody…happy?”
“Your true face… What kind of… face is it? I wonder… The face under the mask… Is that… your true face?”
I know, I’m jumping ahead a little, but these questions are Link’s inner conflict over the course of MM. Link’s inner conflict is, essentially, “do I want to be a hero, or is that a role that was forced upon me? Who am I, and what really makes me happy?”
In this reading, Link wants to believe that the people around him are good and want to be his friends, and he wants them to be happy. He is thus repressing his desire to get back at the people who’ve ostracized and hurt him, because he wants to be a person who does the right thing. But is that his true identity? Is he really a hero?
The Mask Salesman tells Link that he’ll return him to his former self- his existing identity- if Link gives him back the mask– symbolically dealing with this repressed desire. So over the course of the next three days- the first cycle- Link sets out to do just that.
….Remember when I said this reading glosses over some very important aspects of the game? Well, sometimes an apocalypse is just an apocalypse. The Skull Kid is acting as an avatar of destruction and trying to make everyone suffer; dragging down the moon to do so. We’ll get to why it’s specifically the moon later, but for now- in this reading, the apocalypse is “just” the world-shattering consequences of Skull Kid’s hatred.
I’m not quite sure what to make of the time travel in this context. It most likely does have a symbolic meaning. The one that seems most relevant in this context is “Link trying to return to the person he was before his destructive impulses take over”- but that seems a bit facile. Let me know what you think below if you have an idea.
Anyway. Whether or not they have a symbolic meaning, the impending apocalypse and time travel are things that happen within the reality of the game world. Link, by taking the Ocarina of Time, regains part of his former identity- though Epona is still missing- and turns back the clock to the Dawn of the First Day.
Link returns to the Happy Mask Salesman, and by learning the Song of Healing, he is returned to his former self. But without getting Majora’s Mask back- without dealing with his repressed inner desire- Link’s inner conflict isn’t resolved.
The Happy Mask Salesman asks Link to retrieve the mask, and so the story proper begins.
Link must travel the world, helping people and gathering other masks along the way, and ultimately confront the Skull Kid in order to resolve his conflict. Symbolically, this gathering of masks represents Link trying to synthesize an identity for himself by trying on different social roles. Is he a people finder? Is he a Troupe Leader? Is he a postman? And so on and so forth.
Now, I’m not going to argue that every mask in the game has some kind of Deep Symbolic Meaning. If I tried to tell you that there was a Deep Meaning to the Mask of Scents, for example, I’d be talking straight out of my arse. And honestly- there’s so many masks in the game that do have cool symbolism that if I went over them all I’d be here all day. So I’m not going to try to analyze the meaning of every mask in the game (though if you want me to look at one I didn’t talk about, reblog or reply to this post and let me know!).
But a few of the masks- the two other Transformation Masks, the Stone Mask, and Romani’s Mask- have meanings that are really interesting in the context of this analysis, so I’m gonna go over them in detail.
Identity through Transformation
Let’s start with the transformation masks. The transformation masks are…. interesting, because they’re the faces of dead people. By wearing the masks of these dead people, Link is able to take on a portion of their power and do things he couldn’t do in his own form. Symbolically, Link is also assuming their identity- their role in society and their role in relation to other people.
Apart from the Deku Mask- which is forced on him by Skull Kid- Link only takes two of these masks over the course of the game, and both of them are identities a young boy might aspire to.
O Brother, Where Art Thou: The Goron Mask
Early in the game, Link claims the mask and identity of Darmani, a recently-deceased Goron. Darmani is a legendary hero from the Goron tribe- a people who’ve already welcomed Link with open arms back in Hyrule. Darmani is much bigger and stronger than Link, and much faster when he’s doing the Goron Roll. Like Link, he’s already saved his people- becoming a hero of great renown. He’s not the leader of his community, but he has a comfortable relationship with it– friends, admirers, and a child.
What’s particularly interesting about the Goron Mask is that Link already has strong ties to the Gorons. Through his friendship with Darunia, the “Big Brother” of the Gorons in Hyrule, Link has become an honorary Goron ‘brother’. Darunia even named his son ‘Link’, and- as seen elsewhere in MM- that’s not an uncommon name for Gorons.
Perhaps, by taking on the Goron Mask, Link is trying to experience life through the eyes of a Goron- to truly make ‘Goron brother’ a part of his identity. But alhough Link may enjoy his time racing in traditional Goron fashion and faffing about with explosives, Link is not a Goron. Link is not Darmani, and Link doesn’t really have the ties to the other Gorons that Darmani had. Trying to take on his identity requires Link to live a lie.
Ultimately, to become his truest and most authentic self, Link must leave Darmani’s identity behind.
Two Lovers Entwined: The Zora Mask
In an earlier version of this essay, I tried to assign every mask in the game a particular archetype symbolized by a card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck. While I ultimately discarded that reading- it’s too reductive- the one place it does help is in the case of Mikau, the Zora whose identity Link assumes to navigate the Great Bay. Mikau is the archetypical Lover.
Now, hold on, put your Zora Link smut fanfic down, I’m not just talking about sex. The Lovers are defined by passion- and romantic love is only one kind of passion, though it’s definitely part of the Great Bay’s storyline.
Mikau’s entire story arc- both in life and in death- is defined by passion. Mikau’s passionate love for music brought him to the Indigo-Gos, and keeps him going long enough to sing to Link about his plight. Mikau’s passionate love for Lulu drives him to seek out the Gerudo and retrieve her stolen eggs- their children- even though it ultimately leads to his death.
Link definitely has some things he’s passionate about- he definitely cares for Navi and Epona, for example, and he loves music enough to learn to play the ocarina. But because Link is so young, he hasn’t had as many chances to experience passion. In particular, according to the Anju and Kafei questline, he doesn’t really understand the “grown-up stuff” that is romantic love.
By taking on Mikau’s identity, he gets to experience Mikau’s passion for the things he cares about. Zora!Link experiences Mikau’s passion for music by jamming with Japas the bassist and helping him ‘compose’ a brand new song. He then helps Japas ‘convince’ Evan to play that song by letting Evan pass it off as his own work- passion about music for its own sake, without concern for the identity of the ‘composer’.
More importantly, Link vicariously experiences Mikau’s passionate love for Lulu. Again, I’m not saying there’s a sexual component here- Link is, after all, a child. But he finishes Mikau’s quest to retrieve the eggs- rescuing the fruits of their love- and witnesses the birth of their children. He then heals Lulu with the song that their children created at birth, helping her reclaim her identity as the lead singer of the band. Every part of the Great Bay questline is shaped by Mikau’s love for Lulu, and by taking on Mikau’s identity, Link gets to experience this love, even if it’s only secondhand.
But like Darmani’s camaraderie with his fellow Gorons, Mikau’s love for Lulu is Mikau’s love, not Link’s. Taking Mikau’s place would be a lie; it’s not Link’s true self. So Link moves on from Mikau’s identity, just as he moved on from Darunia’s.
(As a side note: the obligatory Gross Pervy Quest you get in every JRPG is in the Zora section of the game. A fan who is passionately obsessed with Lulu asks you to take pictures of her. While totally unrelated to Link’s internal conflict, it’s interesting how this quest reinforces the theme of the area.)
Now let’s look at the masks that aren’t the transformation masks, but that have interesting connections to Link’s quest for identity.
The Mask I Use To Hide: The Stone Mask
The Stone Mask is an interesting mask, because it’s both difficult to get and almost (but not quite) useless.
In order to get the mask, you have to use the Lens of Truth in a place where there’s no immediate indication that you need it- in the original N64 version of MM, it’s a random part of Termina Field, and in the 3DS remake, it’s in the Gerudo Pirates’ fortress. Either way, it’s worn by Shiro, a man who’s as ‘plain as stone’, so unremarkable that he always goes unnoticed, even in situations where other people would stick out like a bent nail. After Link helps him, he gives Link the Stone Mask- an item that lets Link go as unnoticed as Shiro is.
There’s only a few parts of the game where this mask is useful at all- the faux-stealth section in the Pirates’ Fortress, the part where you have to get past the little girl in Ikana Valley, and (in the 3DS version) part of the fishing minigame. And the only time you absolutely need it is to catch that one particular fish- you can do the stealth sections in the game without it, and they’re honestly more fun without the mask.
Symbolically, the Stone Mask is … well, it’s exactly what it says on the tin, really. It’s the archetype of the wallflower; the person who always goes unnoticed and blends into the scenery. It’s difficult for Link to try to see himself as this kind of person, and he doesn’t even want to try outside of situations where any sane person would want to be unnoticed.
Adulthood Through Deeds: Romani’s Mask
To be honest, Romani’s Mask is half of the reason this essay exists. It’s one of the points in the game where masks are explicitly called out as symbolic roles, and it got me thinking about the implications.
You get the mask by helping Cremia fight off the Gorman Brothers’ (pathetic attempts at) banditry on her milk run back to town. When she successfully reaches town, she gives you the mask, and tells you this:
“By doing one good deed, a child becomes an adult. That mask is only given to a limited number of adult customers. It’s proof of membership. I now acknowledge you as being an adult!“
When Link puts on Romani’s Mask, the other characters in the world recognize him as an adult. This allows him to do a couple different things- most notably, it lets Link get into the Milk Bar, where only adults can go. Link has to go to the Milk Bar to get a couple different important items and to finish a few sidequests, so Romani’s Mask becomes incredibly important.
If you talk to Cremia in a new cycle while wearing Romani’s mask, she has this to say:
”That’s Romani’s Mask. Only adult customers can get that mask. But “adults” isn’t really the right term. It’s not based on age, but on a person’s way of thinking and acting… Hee, hee. Somewhere, there’s a person who thinks of you as an adult.“
“Adulthood” is itself a social role in the world of MM- something that you take on by thinking and acting a certain way. Link earns the right to be treated as an adult by thinking and acting like one- by putting on the role, like he’d put on any other mask.
Healing and Emptiness
Before we get to the end of this essay, I briefly want to touch on Link’s songs. Most of Link’s songs, like everything else in the Zelda games, are primarily tools - you use them to interact with the world around you. But two of the songs in Link’s arsenal play into the themes of identity and social roles, and since they’re both essential - you can’t progress the game without them- let’s give them a quick look.
Somebody Please Heal My Soul- the Song of Healing
The Song of Healing is one of the first songs Link learns in MM- it’s the song that turns Link back into his human self, and Link uses it many times thereafter to progress the story. Link must play the Song of Healing for both Darmani and Mikau before he can claim the transformation masks; he also needs to play it to claim Kamaro’s Mask and the Gibdo Mask.
What’s interesting about the Song of Healing in MM is that it’s never used to heal physical wounds. It’s only used to heal emotional and spiritual wounds- to put sad spirits’ lingering regrets to rest, to rescue a scientist who’s become a monster, to heal souls and ease pain.
Much of the time, the spirits Link heals with the Song of Healing are regretful that they didn’t properly fulfill their role. Darunia regrets that he couldn’t save his people- he wasn’t the hero that everyone thought he was. Mikael regrets that he couldn’t rescue his beloved’s eggs - that he couldn’t fulfill his role as a partner and parent. Kamaro the Dancer regrets that he couldn’t teach the entire world his dance, and Pamela’s Father regrets that he got so wrapped up in his research that he neglected his beloved daughter.
By playing the Song of Healing, Link gives these spirits peace. In the case of the dead, Link agrees to take on their role and finish what they started- save the Gorons, rescue the Zora eggs, teach Kamaro’s dance to the world. Knowing that someone else can finish what they started- that their role will not go unfilled- they can move on to the afterlife. In the case of Pamela’s Father- the only other living person who needs the Song of Healing- Link frees him from his dangerous obsession so he can properly fill his role as a father.
In every case, Link receives a mask he can use to take on the role of the person he healed- Goron, Zora, Dancer, or Gibdo. By helping these people come to terms with their failure to fill their role - to live up to their self-identity- Link receives a role he can use to begin to put together his own identity.
Molt and Rebirth- the Elegy of Emptiness
When Link learns the Elegy of Emptiness, he gains the ability to create ‘shells’ of his different transformations- statues with empty eyes that stay in place once Link’s left them behind. He can use these shells to solve puzzles in the game world. Notably, these shells don’t look like Link’s transformed selves- the Goron effigy looks like Darunia, scar and all, and the Zora effigy looks like Mikau.
In Japanese, the Elegy of Emptiness is called the Elegy of Exuvia. Exuvia is the scientific name for the cast-off outer skin of a bug after it moults. They’re important to entomologists because they can be used to identify the species and even sex of a bug.
The Elegy of Emptiness represents Link’s final acceptance of the truth- the identities he’s used over the course of the game are not his real self. An identity someone else constructed can never truly be your own, whether it’s one that’s forced upon you or one that you borrow from someone else. At the same time, though, these roles aren’t useless or bad**. Link can still use what he’s learnt from taking on these roles; it’s just that they’re not who he truly is, and he must leave them behind to move on.
Armed with this self-knowledge- and having tested the many roles and archetypes the world of Termina has to offer- Link is finally ready to confront his shadow self and his repressed desires.
A Trip To The Moon: The Endgame of Majora’s Mask
To properly analyse the ending of MM, we have to assume that the player has gathered all the masks- in video games, 100% completion is the fullest expression of authorial intent. By gathering all the masks, and completing the questlines that go along with them, Link has experienced every social role that Termina has to offer. He has been a child and an adult, a warrior, a lover, a dancer, a postman, a detective, a Bomber, a commander, a giant, a frog conductor, and so much more- he has been all things to all people.
When Link finally confronts the Skull Kid, Majora’s Mask removes itself from the Skull Kid and attaches itself to the moon, attempting to consume all of Termina.
Remember how I said we’d get to why the apocalypse is a falling moon, not a falling sun or a meteor or a magic nuke? Well, here ya go.
I honestly couldn’t find much about Japanese moon symbolism from a quick google- most of what I did find was about Tsukuyomi, the Japanese moon god, who was kind of a piece of work. There are probably nuances and concepts I’m just gonna miss, because I’m not Japanese and don’t know my stuff. But since The Legend of Zelda is heavily influenced by Western mythology and symbolism, we can at least look at the moon symbolism through that lens.
The moon, in modern Western thought, is often a symbol of uncertainty and change. Shakespeare called the moon “that inconstant orb”, and the Rider-Waite tarot deck’s Moon card symbolizes fear, illusion, bewilderment, and imagination. The Moon, in this reading of MM, represents Link’s fear and confusion about his changing and uncertain identity. If left unchecked, this fear and confusion could destroy him- and if left unchecked in the hands of his shadow self, it could destroy everyone around him, too.
Majora’s Mask moving from the face of the Skull Kid to the face of the Moon represents Link becoming conscious of his repressed hatred and pain. The feelings he held back move from his unconsciousness to his consciousness. To fully complete the game, Link must travel into the moon and confront Majora- the symbol of this repressed hatred.
Link warps into an idyllic dreamworld- a grassy hill surrounded by a blue sky with a single tree in the center. On that hill there are five children, all of them wearing masks. Four of those children wear masks in the shape of the bosses Link’s killed to get here- Link’s greatest accomplishments in the game, but also the creatures he’s hurt in his quest for identity. The fifth child wears Majora’s Mask.
Since we’re assuming a 100% run, Link talks to each of the Masked Children in turn. Each child asks Link if he wants to play, and sends Link into a challenging gauntlet that will test the player’s mastery of each of Link’s forms. To play these 'games’, however, Link must give the Masked Children some of the masks he’s collected along the way- symbolically discarding the roles and identities he’s picked up that are not his true self.
As Link passes through the gauntlets set by the moon children, they ask him a series of questions. I showed them before, but for context I’ll repeat them here.
”Your friends… What kind of… people are they? I wonder… Do these people… think of you… as a friend?“
”What makes you happy? I wonder…what makes you happy…does it make…others happy, too?“
”The right thing…what is it? I wonder…if you do the right thing…does it make…everybody…happy?“
”Your true face… What kind of… face is it? I wonder… The face under the mask… Is that… your true face?“
These questions are the questions that Link has grappled with the entire game. By winning each of the Masked Children’s challenges– and by divesting himself of the roles that aren’t his nature– Link symbolically answers these questions for himself. He confronts his fear, his doubt, his insecurities, and- ultimately- his identity crisis.
Finally, Link confronts the child wearing Majora’s Mask. The Majora Child says one of two things to Link. If Link hasn’t given up all his masks, the Majora Child says:
Will you play…with me? You have only weak masks… So…you’ll play?”
If Link confronts Majora while he still has some of his ‘old’ identities- the roles other people constructed- his identity is weak. He can still defeat Majora- can still deal with his issues- but he won’t become his true, fully realized self.
If Link has given up all his other masks, the Majora Child says this instead:
“You don’t have any masks left, do you? Well, let’s do something else. Let’s play good guys against bad guys… Yes. Let’s play that… You’re the bad guy. And when you’re bad, you just run. That’s fine, right? Well… Shall we play?
The child then gives Link the Fierce Deity’s Mask.
A Self Made Whole: The Fierce Deity’s Mask and Epilogue
The Fierce Deity’s Mask looks like an adult Link. Symbolically, the Fierce Deity’s Mask is the True Self that Link has worked to construct- the fullest expression of who Link is and what he believes himself to be. It’s the most powerful mask in the game, and the developers said that it contains “the memories of all the people in Termina”- all the people Link has met and worked to save.
The description of the Fierce Deity’s Mask says:
”You got the Fierce Deity’s Mask! Could this mask’s dark powers be as bad as Majora?”
Someone who is fully in touch with their truest self- who doesn’t need a role in society to know who they are, who doesn’t need other people to be complete- can indeed be dangerous, if they don’t care about other people.
But Link does care. He is not the bad guy. Link now knows that his friends consider him to be a friend, that doing the right thing makes him happy, and that doing the right thing makes the people around him happy too. In OoT, Link was forced to become a hero by circumstance; in MM, Link builds his identity, and being a hero is now simply part of who he is.
By dealing with his inner demons, Link is easily able to destroy Majora - including its final form, Majora’s Wrath. He gives Majora’s Mask back to the Happy Mask Salesman. The Salesman tells Link that the evil has left Majora’s Mask, and then tells Link:
…my, you sure have managed to make quite a number of people happy.The masks you have are filled with happiness. This is truly a good happiness.
The Happy Mask Salesman then leaves Termina behind. Link’s internal conflict has gone away- it may someday return, but for now, he’s at peace.
Link, now in possession of his complete self and reunited with Epona, also leaves Termina. It’s implied that he’s going home to Hyrule. Freed from his insecurity about who and what he is, he can return home and build a life for himself, doing what he loves best– helping other people and being a hero.
*I know that Nintendo has expressed Opinions about this, though not within the game itself. It is interesting that the world of Termina, in Nintendo’s interpretation, was created by Skull Kid and not Link- it explains, for example, why the Kokiri aren’t in Termina, when you’d think they would be as part of Link’s inner conflict. But I think the story of Majora’s Mask is more interesting and meaningful if Termina literally exists, and there’s nothing in the text itself that says it doesn’t.
** except the Deku Scrub role, because the Deku Effigy is nearly useless. :I Then again, a traumatic childhood isn’t really all that useful for anything but memoir.
…Wow, that was an adventure. This is probably the longest piece of meta I’ve ever written, but I needed to get this out of my head.
If there’s anything you want me to expand on, please reblog or reply to this post and I’ll do the best I can to elucidate.
Thanks for reading!
