Before dwelling into the analysis of the events of Majora's Mask, let's recap some basic info regarding the final boss fight against Majora. The fight takes place inside the moon which was summoned by the Skull Kid while he was possessed by Majora's Mask. In the moon Link finds himself on a gigantic plain with a single tree in the middle and children playing around it. All the children look identical save for wearing different masks. The masks they wear are from the four bosses that Link defeats through the course of the game. When speaking to a child, the child teleports Link to an unknown location to play a game with him. With these facts in mind it is time to move to the first part of the article.
First thing which needs to be taken into consideration for this part of the theory is Majora's psyche. Majora is unlike most generic villains. The entity's actions are being driven by lust for power or world domination. Upon closer inspection it becomes clear that Majora has a rather playful nature and looks upon everything as a game. The second crucial fact which now makes the Fierce Deity mask different from all the other transformation masks in the game is that all the other transformation masks originated from a living being, they all embody someone's spirit. That is not the case with the Fierce Deity mask. As a matter of fact, the mask never even existed. Furthermore, the scene on the moon, the plain, the tree and the children, nothing of that was real. It was all a product of Majora's mind, and the fact that the children were playing on the moon supports this statement because of Majora's personality.
Although there is no specific statement in the game which proves that the scene on the moon is not real, there is plenty of evidence. First of all, even though you lose your masks to the children on the moon you regain them all once you return to Termina. On top of that, the surrounding of the plain with the tree is shrouded in mist which strongly suggests a dream like atmosphere. Obviously the fact that there are four children playing around a tree inside of a moon spawned by an ancient relic also goes in favor of this theory.
Let's move on and look into the psyche of the children. When children play, especially with masks, they usually pretend to be someone or something else, most of the time that which the mask represents. The same principle applies here. The children on the moon were pretending to be the four bosses whose masks they were wearing.
When Link arrives inside the moon he plays a game with each child in which he has to change into a different form. This can be interpreted as playing along. The children want Link to play along and in order to do so he has to put on a mask and pretend to be someone else.
Children of young age usually don't have a fully developed perception of right and wrong so it is only natural to assume that the kid wearing Majora's Mask would see Link as evil and hate him because he plays with all the other children but ignores him.
When Link finally talks to the kid, he wants to play a game of tag with him. Due to the reasons mentioned, the kid makes Link the bad guy and gives him the Fierce Deity mask. In Japanese the deity of the mask is called Oni Link. Oni can translate into two things, one of which is "it" in a game of tag and the other "demon".
The conclusion that can be drawn is that the Fierce Deity mask never existed. It was all just a product of Majora's mind. It was created solely for the purpose to surface the dark parts in Link's heart and to make him appear as evil because Majora saw him as such due to the reasons mentioned above, and because Link opposed Majora throughout the game.
There is however, one issue which might blow the above theory apart. One of the gossip stones in Ikana says that "the Fierce Deity Mask is somewhere in this world". This naturally goes against the idea that the mask was merely a figment of Majora's imagination, but the thought is still interesting.
The first thing to note regarding the Majora's Mask is that the ancient tribe which is mentioned in the game did not necessarily create the mask. They were only known to have used it. The creator of the mask is completely unknown.
Going by the premise that the scene inside the moon is nothing more than a memory brought to surface by the mask it can be assumed that at the time Majora's Mask was nothing more than a harmless object. Given that that is true it can be concluded that the memory originates from the kid who was wearing the mask at the time when the event originally occurred.
When the scene originally occurred, Link didn't interfere so it's plausible to assume that the scene remained the same, with all the children playing, except the one wearing Majora's Mask. It is also highly probable that the same scene happened over and over again, each day anew. It is safe to assume that if the situation did play out like that, the kid with Majora's Mask became jealous, sad, and angry.
Throughout the Zelda series there have been numerous occurances of people leaving emotional trails or parts of their aura on objects, like the telepathic tiles in A Link to the Past through which Link could hear Sahasrahla. Another indication of personal auras is the fact that people changed into their true form when they entered the dark world, the form being dependent on their character.
If the child did indeed leave an emotional trail on the mask, it is highly unlikely that those emotions could have spawned an entity as powerful as Majora so it is most likely that the mask was simply discovered by the ancient tribe some time later and they, for whatever reason, amplified that power and gave birth to Majora. Whether they amplified the aura of the mask out of curiosity or for some goal, and whether they gave birth to Majora by accident or not, cannot be proven due to the lack of evidence or any mention whatsoever.
Another possibility is that Majora existed within the mask even before the child got the mask and it was merely feeding itself off the emotions of the child. In that case the creator and origin of Majora's playful nature remain a mystery.
It is also worth mentioning that the reason why Majora did all the devastation to Termina, and perhaps even to other worlds unknown, is simply a cry for attention. This would be only natural considering that the child didn't get any attention from the other children.
Although many of the things suggested here seem farfetched, when looking at it from a psychological aspect it becomes plausible. Majora's Mask is nothing more than a toy which embodied the emotions of a child hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. The story mentions that the tribe who used the mask was ancient, suggesting that the mask is even more ancient than the tribe which used it.
Majora's Mask is the only Zelda game in the series in which you can repeat boss fights in dungeons. This fact, together with the premise that the scene on the moon is only a product of Majora's mind, suggests that the bosses and the rooms in which you fight them aren't real either. It is most likely that Majora itself shaped the bosses after the four masks the other children wore. This would mean that the children on the moon didn't wear the boss masks because they look like the four bosses, but the four bosses look like that because the children were wearing those masks. Another possibility is that the boss masks are also transformation masks and the giant whom you freed in the temple simply puts on the mask again and plays with Link again.
Taking a closer look at the five children on the moon it is evident that they resemble the Happy Mask Salesman, who is known for his weird nature. Even though the Happy Mask Salesman, Link, and the Skullkid are all from Hyrule, they don't have a mirror image in Termina. The Happy Mask Salesman is known to move around rather fast and he knows quite a few things one would not expect from a simple mask salesman. He showed Link the song that helped him regain his old form back and he is also the only person who knows anything about the Majora's Mask, and he seems to know quite a lot.
Furthermore he mentioned that the mask is very important to him and that he has to leave in three days time. The first assumption one would make as to why the mask is important to him is simply because it is a rare artifact but it is likely to be more than just that. Also, the fact that he has to leave exactly on the day when the moon crashes is not likely to be a coincidence. Last but not least, the Happy Mask Salesman appears in front of Link moments before a game over with the words "You have met an ill fate".
The most probably conclusion is simply that the Happy Mask Salesman isn't human. Not being human in this case doesn't refer to the races human and hylian, but rather as being supernatural.
All of that opens up the possibility that the kid under the tree in Majora's memory is the Happy Mask Salesman. That means that there is a good chance that it was he who created Majora's Mask. That would explain why the kid under the tree looks like him but it opens another question - why do the other kids look like him? There are several possibilities for this. One being that they might have been brothers or it could be that after all these years Majora forgot the faces of those kids, or it simply doesn't want to remember so it's portraying them like that.
None of the two possibilities have any in game proof but they are both possible. If the first case was true then it would contradict the statement that the Happy Mask Salesman is a supernatural being. If he is just a normal human then it is quite possible that the kids on the moon are his ancestors which would also explain why he knows so much about the mask and how he could find it.
But again it is possible that his ancestor is only the kid under the tree and that the other children are portrayed like it for the other reason mentioned above.
It should be noted that most of this theory is based on psychological analysis and has little canonical proof. Whether or not the designers thought of it in such details will probably remain a mystery.
Categories: Bombers Articles, Races & People, Theory Articles
The problem is that there is also a gossip stone that says that the Fierce Deity's Mask is an accumulation of virtue. This, in contrast with its seemingly dark nature. Another fact I want to point out is that the child wearing Majora's Mask mysteriously resembles the Skull Kid's past. If you remember what Anju's grandmother had said in her second story, the Skull Kid was banned from Termina. At the end he even confesses that he mistakenly thought the four giants had abandoned him. Majora's Mask was clearly feeding itself off this weakness and adopted Skull Kid's mindset. The four children playing are the four giants, and the lone child is the Skull Kid.
To smallville boy:
If Majora's Mask was created by the Song of Healing, then why isn't it a transformation mask? It is just worn by the Skull Kid, it doesn't turn him into anything as the other masks do.
I honestly doubt that the moon field was an insight into the mask's mind. It's far more likely that it was an insight into Skull Kid's mind, especially since the children all talk about friendship and Skull Kid has a troubled relationship with the Four Giants.
We really know nothing about the mask, so we shouldn't say that it was possessed by some sort of entity. It just seems like a hexing mask that one day came to life. As far as we know, it just figured that it should continue hexing things because that was its purpose.
Also, to be honest, it's rather silly to think that the tribe that used the mask didn't make it. We have no reason to believe that they didn't. I also doubt that one kid would create something like that simply because he was not able to run around aimlessly in a field for one day. Another thing you brought up was that Majora's Mask wasn't an imitation of anything and thus couldn't be used with the other kids. One problem; how the heck would anyone know what Goht was supposed to be?
I somewhat agree with your idea of the Fierce Deity Mask not really existing, but that's because I personally think that the Fierce Deity Mask wasn't canon.
the fact that you took the time to analyze all of this makes me believe you
You've got a very strong point, regardless of some details along Termina against you, your stance is solid
I like your take on that subject!
"Majora's Mask is the only Zelda game in the series in which you can repeat boss fights in dungeons. This fact, together with the premise that the scene on the moon is only a product of Majora's mind, suggests that the bosses and the rooms in which you fight them aren't real either."
I'd say it's much more likely that bosses can be repeated because you travel back in time in the game and everything resets...
I must disagree with you Hmm. In the game, certain people may give you heart containers if you complete a task for them. If you play the song of time and go back to the person once again to do the persons bidding, that person will not give you a heart piece in the end because you already obtained it to begin with. The time lines must find something of an alternative to replace that of which does not longer exist in the owners hands. When a boss is defeated, you obtain its power; its mask. When you go back in time to fight the boss again, the boss is wearing the mask that you have at the same time. This therefore means that the mask that repeated boss is wearing is not the original and therefore not the real thing. So Damir could have point. Although i somewhat disagree, but it is well written.
I really like this stance on it. The whole plot of Majora's Mask isn't all that confusing really, apart from that weird bit with the kids on the moon. I just can't get my head around it. They say some pretty creepy stuff too.
Still, I found your theory really interesting. I wouldn't read into the fact that you can fight the bosses again, as that's just a gameplay device, but the bit on the moon did seem like something out of a dream.
This was a rather interesting read.
Though... it doesn't really go into the identity
of the FD... more like talks about the lack of an identity...
I have always thought the FD was simply a fallen hero... someone that was meant to be a hero, but was ultimately overcome by his own inner darkness.
I believe, Majora's Mask gave Link the mask because he wanted to corrupt Link with the FD in the same manner that the Majora was able to corrupt and control the Skullkid. But ultimately, Link is unaffected by the FD mask because of his generally good nature. In order to collect all the masks in the game, Link overcame his own inner darkness by bringing happiness to other people and the masks represent that happiness.
To clear all this up a bit, Nintendo should:
a) release a spinoff game telling the backstory of Majora's Mask
b) simply create a remake of Majora's mask, with more details about Majora's Mask and the Fierce Deity (perhaps telling us what happens to link after the events of the original MM game).
I, personally, would prefer option b.
You overlooked one quite significant detail: once you get the Fierce Deity Mask and defeat Majora's Mask, restarting the game will not just give you all your regular masks back, but ALSO the Fierce Deity Mask. So the mask itself is not a mere illusion Majora's Mask presents to you, it's a real mask.
I have my own theory, and it's very simple, though it involves the Manga and therefore isn't exactly canon, but it definately fits. Theres an extra story included with the Majora's mask manga that tells the origin of Majora's mask and possibly the fierce deity. It tells of a demon that seemingly lives in it's own demention and eats anyone who happens to come along. Apparently the armor of it's body has a magical quality to it and so many have tried to slay the beast in order to take the armor for themselves, but none have prevailed. Then a man who looks strikingly similar to the fierce deity mask appears and starts to talk to the beast, though I can't remember the exact words said. The man then takes out a small bongo drum and starts to play, and the demon starts to dance. It ends up dancing itself to death, and the man removes the beast's armor and carves Majora's mask out of it. I believe this man sealed the beast's spirit within the mask, and that he is the fierce deity, as his name is never mentioned. I think that he was praised as a hero for defeating the beast and given the title, possibly by the ancient tribe, of which he might've been a member, and when he died they sealed his powerful spirit into a mask with his image and title. The demon more than likely held a grudge against the fierce deity for sealing him away, and thus, when the Majora child gives Link the mask, refers to Link being "The bad guy" in their "Game'. I'd give more details that support the theory, but I've written way too much already. ^_^
There is actually an official creator of majoras mask. In the manga of majoras mask! There was a great dragon that ate men and had great powers. On one day an unknowed traveller comes by. He found the nice personality of the dragon. He ate human out of loneleyness. Then he usses his magic and let the dragon dance for three days. All that was left was his armor. Out of that armor made the traveller majoras mask and sealed it away. But then it was found again
i agree with it that evrything is in majoras mind and how he sees evrything s a game but maby he dosent give link the fierce deity mask because thats how he sees link, but other he just made the mask so he could have someone strong enough to play a game with
I think the Manga explanation can be considered somewhat cannonical (sp? or even a word for that matter). If the traveler made the mask by carving it out of the armour or body of Majora, it would make sense as to why the Mask becomes the chest of "Majora's Incarnation" and "Majora's Wraith" during the last boss battle. With some "way out there" thinking, you can also connect the names of the Fierce Deity and the Japanese version, "Oni Link". Oni = Demon, Deity = God. This could mean, and I'm going way out there with this theory, "Demon God", refering to the traveler who killed the "Demon", therefor being immortalized as a "God".
I have read all these posts, and would like to point out that it may not just be coincidence that the fierce deity sounds like the adult form of link from the Ocarina of Time. The two things may be linked in some unexplainable way. Also I would l like to point out that there is no sufficient evidence to speculate that the fierce deity mask was nonexistent. I just wouldn't fit.
i read the manga- and Majora's Mask gives link the Fierce Diety mask to him because he thinks it'll be a more fun "game" when they fight. read the manga! it also explains how Majora's Mask came to be- from the armor of Majora!
and YES, it is in the mask's mind. all it thinks of is mischief and playing games. so it makes games.
@Fay Of Hyrule,
Just so as you know, the MM Manga was not written by Nintendo and as such is not considered to be canon.
As for the actual article, it is a very interesting and well-thought take on events, and for the most part I agree. Majora does seem to be fuelled by a cildish desire to play. It would be interesting to include in the works the Moon's desire to "consume everything" in the theory, though.
I'm not sure the entire affair in the Moon was entirely Majora's imagination, however. I'm thinking perhaps the mask's power could have created it for the same reasons, but for Link to be within Majora's childish mind doesn't quite cut the cheese with me. Just my opinion, mind.
ok first of all this article presents some interesting theroies, but i disagree with the whole thing. and the manga theroy presents no reason why the mask is called majoras mask.
what if thousands of years before the events in ocarina of time/majoras mask a girl(yes i say girl because majora sounds like a girls name)who is pycologicly unstable and for that reason is concidered weird and outcasted by the other children and one day feirce deity(under a diferent name at the time, and also a child) becomes freinds with freinds majora one day while she is stiting loenly under the tree. majora, being borderline insane is uncomfterble with herself and there for wheres a mask all the time. majoa grows up to become a powerful sorceress whos power is rivled only by feirce deity's warrior skill. i have an entire story for this but ill skip to the end, majora is sealed within her own mask, but scince she wasent turned into a mask it does not transform the wearer, only poseses them, and then somtime after this and after feirce deity's asention to a god he is to sealed within a mask. majoras mask is found by the anchent tripe and during the hexing rituals majoras spirit is realesed and free to search all dimentions for her best freid and posibly love, feirce deity, and each day she relives the memory of the day she met feirce deity, but theres a problem, in order for the memory to be relived all the spirits must be free to return to the scene, and feirce deiety was not free so after 2000 years of feirce deity not apearing majora begins to depise him and tinks of him as a bad guy for leaving her alone. she finds feirce deitys mask(along with her own) in termina and when link arives in her memory he reminds majora of feirce deity, due to there resembalence, so she ofers link the mask to "play a game".
i know there are some plot holes or conflicts but this is my general idea of the origin of both majoras mask and feirce deitys, i can work out the conflicts some other time.
Dude ur so off lol. The Fierce Diety and Majora were actual people. They were once demigods which is why they both hold tremendous powers. The Four Giants created both Majora and Fierce Diety with their own powers once they created Termina. Majora and Fierce Diety were supposed to keep rule in Termina but were not to reveal themselves to the people. Both of which they did. Majora playing tricks and causing havoc on them. Fierce Diety asking for things and showed anger which is how he got his name. The Four Giants were angered with them and turned them into masks. Which their dark powers were sealed along with them. Yea Majora does not take his form of the Skull Kid when he wears it, but there is a reason. After which the Four Giants turned them into masks, they banished them from Termina until some tribes found both of them. One from each opposite direction. The tribes performed a ritual which made them regain there form and not become masks. After that, they both wanted to rid each other of exitnse. Majora and Fierce Diety fought and Fierce Diety won and burned Majora's Mask. He sent it to Great Bay and threw the ashes into the Bay. A tribe found the ashes and brought it back to life and once again the 2 fought. This time Fierce Diety lost but was able to escape from Majora. Fierce Diety's father found him and healed him. After Fierce Diety was fully healed, both him and his father went to face Majora and this time for good banish him. Fierce Diety's father fought a dark king in Termina which resulted in both of them dieing. Fierce Diety and Majora fought and Fierce Diety won this time. Majora's Mask was banished for now. The Happy Mask Salesman met with Fierce Diety and tought him the Song of Healing. Which turned him into a mask and sealed his dark powers inside the mask. The salesman gave the Four Giants the mask and the Giants were grateful of him. Though the salesman heard of Majora's Mask from the Giants and the people of Termina and went to look for it. After obtaining it and traveling that is when the Skull Kid met with the salesman. After Majora took over the Skull Kids body he turned the Four Giants into the four bosses you fight in Majora's Mask. That is when Majora got the Fierce Diety mask and kept it with him. When you give all your masks to the four kids on the moon, the kid tells Link that everyone has left him. That is how you obtain the Fierce Diety's mask. Majora wanted a showdown with Fierce Diety one last time since he saw Fierce Diety as a bad guy. But notice that if you keep all your masks and talk to the kid wearing Majora's Mask, he tells Link that all his masks are weak. Majora likes to fight and battle against masks and destroy every single one. Majora and Fierce Diety are demigods, they were created by the Four Giants, which is why when you save the last Giant, he tells Tael to forgive the Skull Kid because it is not the Skull Kid's actions but Majora's actions takiing over the Skull Kid.
As Leia Organa once said, "I don't know where you get your delusions Laser Brain!" You seriously think that Majora's Mask created the F.D. Mask, and that the Creator of Majora's Mask is unknown?! Let me fill you in on the interesting story I found at the end of the Majora's Mask manga. According to that story, long ago there was a terrible dragon that existed in another world with magical armor that was said to grant wishes. The dragon devoured any who entered his land. One day, a lone warrior appeared. He told the dragon that he was not here to slay him and claim his armor. He asked the dragon why he had never left his world. Pondering this fact that he had never thought of before, the wishes and desires of the thousands of people he devoured had begun to form a whirlpool inside the dragon. He didn't want to be alone anymore. He wanted time in his world to flow. Then, the warrior took out a drum and started to play a beat. He told the dragon to dance, and the dragon did so. The air began to shake, and time had been born. The dragon danced for three days and three nights. On the morning of the fourth day, the dragon's breathing had stopped and he collapsed. The warrior took the dead dragon's armor and, knowing well the true nature of the armor's terrible power, he carved it into a mask and sealed all of the darkness inside. Later, the warrior realized that some of the armor's dark power had made its way into his body. Knowing the danger, he sealed himself within another mask using the same drum beats used on the dragon. So, clearly the warrior was the Fierce Deity and the mask he carved from the dragon's armor was Majora's Mask.
Fierce Diety Mask exists, how else would the gossip stone in Ikana Canyon speak of its existence? Whether or not it holds an entity is a mystery though since the game doesn't give any clues about a Fierce Diety related to Majora. Majora is the one who created the Mask. Why else would it be called Majora's Mask with an apostrophe, ahem? The moon is just a figment of the skull kid's imagination since the majora's mask fed the kid's imagination and probably made it his own. The four kids are the giants and the lone kid resembles skull kid. The boys have the mask salesman's look since probably the mask somehow memorized the mask salesman's look. The question is, how did the majora's mask got a hold of the Fierce Diety Mask? clearly the mask exist,it's real, because of the gossip stone saying but how did Majora's Mask get it? Could it be a copy of the real mask? The thing that makes me REALLY curious is in the first part of the game, when link just went into the clock tower from hyrule.. after meeting the mask salesman Tatl said that the salesman creeps her out..and then she says that "the mask salesman was the.."..then she says sorry that she was just thinking out loud.. Does Tatl know something very mysterious about the salesman? If so, then Termina must too :)) since Tatl is just some commoner in Termina.. So the mask salesman is some significant figure in Termina, perhaps?
@Schooly G
Majora's Mask Manga is not to be considered canon,a s it wasn't made by Nintendo.
Maybe...just maybe...Termina didn't exist? Maybe it was just a dream Link had? Kind of like Link's awakening for GBC?
I'm not trying to offend you in anyway by writing this, but this is my theroy: Fierce deity was from another tribe a kid, but kicked out afterwards. Majora and the other kids of the tribe (Odwala, Goht, Gyorg, Twinmold) started picking on him. Fierce deity got so annoyed with this, he soon grew up to never love and became a raging man. He travled to Termina, only too meet Majora again. Both were so powerful they ended up almost destroying Termina. Then all the people did what the giants told them to do and the four giants sealed them in the masks. Then the giants tossed them in diffent deirtions and Majora's mask laned in the twlight realm, while Fierce deitys mask ended up in a unknown place. Then 1000 or something years later the events of MM Happend. And that is my theroy!
@ Jeremy
Dude, did you pull that entire story outta your ass, or what? Where in the game, or even in the non-canon manga, do you even remotely hear this? Its questionable to think that the masks were once gods, let alone demigods! How about bringing some fact into here, and not spread any false rumors!
My theory? Well, this seems far-fetched, but I think the ancient tribe mentioned in the game may have a connection with another tribe from another game: The Twili from Twilight Princess. The eye on the Fused Shadow that Midna wears as her crown has a striking resemblance to the eyes of Majoras Mask. What does this mean? One of two things:
1. The two tribes are actually one and the same. The Twili used their ancient and dark powers to create Majora's Mask.
2. The Twili, some time before their banishment, find the mask and craft the Fused Shadow in its image.
I want to get back to the first one. Look at the title of the mask. Its Majora's Mask. Meaning, the mask belongs to someone or something named Majora. Majora could be one of two things.
1. A God/Goddess that the tribe worshiped.
2. An individual with authority within the tribe, such as a King, for whom the mask was made.
If we look at it at this point and accept the Twili's involvement, we have four possible scenarios. If you want my personal opinion, I think the Twili were the ones who made the mask before their banishment, which would also explain why there's no trace of them left, for a Goddess that they worshiped. When it comes to ancient tribes, its not unusual to hear how they perform rituals wearing masks to show thanks. Children are known for being pure, so five children were made to carry out the ritual, wearing the five masks in the game. The way the ritual is performed, is to have the child wearing Majora's Mask remain still and do nothing, as the other four children run around randomly. This can be seen as such that the Gods do nothing as the mortals carry out their daily lives.
Sounds simple enough, right? Average Gamer said something about how a kid can't possibly make all this happen just for not running around a field for one day. Not necessarily true. Don't forget that children have a hard time grasping complex situations. My theory is that it would have been too difficult for the children to understand that this is an important ritual, so they were simply told to wear the masks and run around and play, and to ignore the one wearing Majora's Mask. This one little act is enough to traumatize a child with a weak enough mind. If that is to be accepted, then what Damir says above about the children would fit with my theory.







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I disagree, all this article is only a fanfic.
The fierce deity mask contais the spirit of the fierce deity, and this spirit was sealed using the song of healing, like the goron,zora and deku masks.