A Comprehensive Theory of Majora's Mask

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

The first analysis of a Zelda game that really got me excited about the possibilities of the meta-analysis of a game. This one is going to be tricky because it was written on the fly, with one post being written every week leading up to the release of Majora's Mask 3D. The challenge will be in going through and finding, not only the themes that are consistent and crafting a presentation around those, but also incorporating later analysis. It's a unique take though, so I want to make sure it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of more popular or accessible theories.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

I'm a little intimidated by the scope of this theory for two reasons. First, it's got a lot of posts. Second, it's one I feel pretty strongly about doing justice. So I think I'm going to tackle summarizing each post individually, and start looking for themes as I go. But just becoming more intimately familiar should help get me out of the intimidation rut.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 1: Dawn of the First Day: Why “Majora’s Mask” is unique

Summary: In this first post, he quickly compares Majora's Mask to Final Fantasy: Lightning Returns. Though the two games are similar in plot theme, the presentation is very different.

Lightning is told like a traditional RPG, the main difference being that each chapter is restricted to a time limit. The story follows the player.

The moon in Majora, in contrast, acts irrespective to the actions of the player. It doesn't care what the player does, with the global timer counting down, perpetually being reset by the player until they are able to talk the Skull Kid down. There is a strong sense of fate that the player has no control over. Their actions mean very little in the grand scheme of things.

This highlights two main themes throughout the remainder of the analysis:

The birth and rebirth of the world itself creates a metaphysical parallel to how players view their avatars - who commonly die and die again in games
The mechanical structure of Majora conveys a strong sense of nihilism

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 2: Majora’s Mask should terrify you, and this is why

Majora is dark and nightmarish not just because of the aesthetic choices, but also because there is an existential disconnect as well. There ultimately exists no evil in the game.

Unlike Ocarina of Time, where Ganondorf is portrayed as the great archetype of evil who must be stopped, Majora doesn't have an analog. The closest we get to a villain is the Skull Kid, a disturbed child posessed by the spirit contained within the mask of Majora.

Even Majora is not evil, but rather a lonely child with too much power who gets destroyed by Link playing as the Fierce Deity.

The takeaways here:

Majora is a lonely child, just like the Skull Kid. They both want connection and closeness, and are acting out as children do when they are not given the love and connection they require.
The actual battle between good and evil isn't literal, as portrayed in Ocarina. Rather it's a game, cooked up in the mind of a lonely, potentially abused, child. Once the battel is removed from Majora's rules of play, it's only deeply sad.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 3: Want to learn how to design sidequests? Play “Majora’s Mask.”

There are two ways to make sidequests: Collection sidequests and Discovery sidequests.

Collection sidequests are designed to pad out the length of a game, requiring the player to go to less interesting or traveled areas in a big world to find hidden collectables.

Discovery sidequests, in contrast, are meant to help the player discover more about the world they're in. They typically relate better thematically.

Majora's Mask takes discovery sidequests to a level far beyond the typical discovery sidequest. Rather than mapping out the physical world through discovery quests, the player maps and relieves the pain felt by the individual members of the world. Each character is trapped in a perpetual cycle of living the final hours of their lives.

Three main takeaways here:

Each sidequest is a microcosm of the game’s macrocosmic framework of saving the world from annihilation. Every single sidequest that rewards Link with a mask is tied to saving someone or something before it's too late: just like he must do for Termina as a whole.
Link never actually saves anyone because when he resets the time back to the beginning of the three day loop, he also erases the goodness he brought into the world, with only a mask for a permanent token. This allows Link to see his effect on the world - with or without intervention - in many different angles. This is an example of the player experimenting with the philosophical concept of possible worlds.
In the end, there exists no possible world such that everyone can be saved. While Link may save Termina from destruction, he cannot save everyone from defeat of spirit. Even collecting all the masks to obtain the Fierce Deity mask only serves to turn Link into the dark projection of an unloving and abusive adult figure that punishes a lonely child for acting out.

In true counterfactual analysis form, we are told by the game to save everyone. But we learn that saving Terminians is only a fleeting effort.

"It is this picture of Link saving no one but making everyone happy that emanates from the universe of the sidequests of “Majora”; if any other game can effect such meaning through the framework of auxiliary stories, I have yet to find it."

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 4: “My sorrows are melting away into the song”: how to build a universe out of music.

This one was a doozie to summarize. Some review here would be appreciated.

Many Zelda games have strong musical ties. For example, the game Ocarina of Time is named after the titular instrument. However, Majora takes musical ties to a new level - the entire metaphysical fabric of the universe is a symbolic representation of the game's background music, and that our true face is musical - at once formulating music as the nature of existence and as the ultimate technology of the self.

Leaning heavily on a quote from Nietzsche, Suduiko builds the case that the metaphysical structure of Termina is musical. He begins by describing the variation of Clock Town's background music across each day, connecting the ominous and manic de-evolution of the song to be parallel to the events of the moon. The Song of Time accesses Termina's "source code" by not only resetting time to the beginning of the first day, but also slows time down, speeds it up and saves the game's progress. Therefore, the Song of Time is acting in direct contrast to the perpetual cycle of destruction and pain the Terminians experience.

Additionally, the game can be seen as a journey to play one song - the Oath to Order.

The question is posed: "Can the citizens of Termina hear the background music?" With this previous framework set up, what even does this question mean when the fabric of the universe is inherently musical? Suduiko relates this to composer John Cage's famous 4'33", which was four minutes and thirty-three seconds of nothing being played on a piano - highlighting how very un-silent the world truly is; that "everything we do is music." At a minimum, the "music" of your own heart beat and blood flow would always be present.

Because the citizens of Termina are a microcosm of the macrocosm of the death/rebirth cycle of Termina itself, we can infer that even if they don't literally hear the music, they must "symbolically hear it because Clock Town itself, like Termina, is a performance of the Clock Town Theme."

The transformation masks - Deku Scrub, Mikau, and Darmani - are superficial characters in themselves. However, the common trait between those three characters and the player avatar are their use of instruments. "The result of this is that each of Link’s forms bares an ontologically unique relationship to the universe: because existence is constituted by music, their knowledge of different songs justifies their individual identities in a world which would otherwise render them superficial."
When speaking with the children on the moon, "[o]ne child asks Link: “Your true face… What kind of face is it? I wonder... The face under the mask... Is that your true face?” These questions drive to the heart of “Majora,” ... as long as we have a face, we are false because we are differentiated from the universe. Our true face is that of music."

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 5: “Legend of Whom?” What to do with a “Zelda” game without Zelda.

Temporal afterimage theory

Zelda is non-existent in Majora's Mask except for in one flashback/memory where she teaches Link the Song of Time just before he is about to be destroyed by the moon (ironically, he cannot save Termina, as discussed earlier). In the memory, she tells Link that the song "reminds me of us...", a strange comment that suggests she remembers the events from another timeline. This is the basis of the temporal afterimage theory, that characters have some sort of cross-timeline afterimage when messing with time manipulation - a heavy theme across many Zelda titles (Skyward Sword, Ocarina, Majora, Oracle of Ages and potentially Breath of the Wild 2).

An accessible theory is that the Ocarina of Time transcends time itself. Those that interact with it directly are the ones that would experience those afterimages. This has implications of the effects that Link will have by resetting time in Majora so many times before finally stopping the moon. That's a lot of afterimage potential, and could be used as a way to help explain an in-game reason for keeping the masks even though the timeline has been reset.

Another, darker takeaway is that the entropy of Termina is stronger than the order (Oath to Order?) that Link is attempting to bring to it. We know that Termina is not savable in its entirety, as explored in an earlier post. But here is Link remembering a song that supposedly will help him save it. At his most dire time - just before dying - he is given the ultimate time-travel tool. But it's not to be. How very nihilistic.

Princess analogs have no moral valence

Princess Zelda, as the holder of the triforce of wisdom, is typically the moral compass for Link. In Ocarina, she directs him to defeat Ganondorf, for example. However, because she is not present in Majora, Link does not have a similar moral direction.

All other princess figures present in Majora - the Deku Princess, the son of the Goron Tribe’s Elder, Lulu, Pamela and Anju - each embody a form of princess trope: respectively, the comically absurd, the childishly immature, the silenced plot device, the self-defeating victim, and the doomed lover. None of which have any moral valence. And because they can't actually be saved, it becomes less about "must" save them to "could" save them.

"The courageous hero is left without direction, yet it is by virtue of lacking direction that he is able to see the plights of those around him as human conditions, rather than as canonically good, evil, or neutral."

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 6: “Even if I die… It won’t be in peace.” The dynamics of death in “Majora’s Mask.”

An in depth analysis of the mechanics of Mikau's death in Majora helps us understand that Link, as the link between us the player and Termina, creates Termina and its suffering through perceiving it. He is also the only one that can heal it, simultaneously ending it.

The first and only encounter Link has with Mikau is as he dies. Even after resetting time to the beginning of the three day cycle, Mikau is not seen again. This has implications that something about how Link interacted with Mikau both brought about his suffering and ended it permanently.

Using truth-functional logic to frame Mikau as neither dead or alive - instead in an other/undetermined state - we can see him as in a transitional state. We as the player have no idea that Mikau exists before meeting him the first time, and so we (again, as the player) assign state of aliveness to characters when we first encounter them. So in the case of Mikau, we encounter him in a transitional state of dying. Because Mikau functionally does not exist prior to being perceived by Link, and he is in a state of dying when that arbirary meeting does occur, we can conclude that Link created Mikau by becoming aware of his existence. And Mikau disappears permanently the moment Link heals him with the Song of Healing.

This can be generalized to Link creating Termina by perceiving it. Or, to put another way, Termina does not exist prior to Link encountering it. And similarly, it cannot be fully terminated until Link fully heals all suffering. As previously discussed, Termina is in a perpetual state of suffering and cannot be saved fully.

Interestingly, when Mikau - and the other transformation masks - are worn, Link undergoes intense suffering. While Mikau dies fully through the Song of Healing, we can see that the mask is a form of condensed suffering. Mikau is literally separated from his suffering and is able to die in peace. And when he is fully removed from his suffering, he fully dies.

My favorite thought here is that Mikau, by hearing the Song of Healing, steps beyond the realm where Link can perceive him. Potentially, it's as if he steps into another dimension entirely - away from the nihilism that Termina is constructed from.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 7: Interlude: why games matter, and what Jane Austen has to do with it.

Every form of media was once new, and we have a glimpse into what the cultureal landscape was like around the creation of novels by reading a quote from Jane Austen. Austen was a pioneer of the medium through the early 1800s, and she captures the feeling well.

Suduiko rephrases Austen's quote to make a similar point about video games, to great effect. Rather than try to summarize it, I'll copy it here:

"Although our productions [ie. games] have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other aesthetic corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our foes are almost as many as our gamers… there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the game designer, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. “I am no gamer–I seldom look into video games–Do not imagine that I often play video games–It is really very well for a video game.” Such is the common cant.–“And what are you playing, Miss–?” “Oh! It is only a video game!” replies the young lady; while she lays down her controller with affected indifference, or momentary shame.–“It is only ‘Final Fantasy VII,’ or ‘Kingdom Hearts II,’ or ‘Majora’s Mask’;” or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen form."

While this quote focuses on the outward cultural norms, it's not just externa, forces that are at fault here. We, as gamers, refer to ourselves as gamers - something other or separated from the cultural norm. While this self identification makes sense as a sort of protection mechanism, it feels weird if we apply similar rationale to this as we did with the novel readin quote.

What if we were to refer to ourselves as "readers" whenever ssomeone asked us about us holding a book in our hands. That makes it feel as if reading were a chosen or optional hobby as opposed to a pillar of serious discourse that it is.

We should be careful in how we view or understand our relationship with games. Certainly games are entertaining, just as novels or film are also entertaining. But they are much more than that, and to slide into "affected indifference, or momentary shame" limits not just the world, but also ourselves, from unlocking the true potential they have as a unique media.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 8: “Majora’s Mask” addresses marginalized groups in a way you might miss—and that’s the point.

In a time where cultural marginalization of groups is an extremely prevalent topic, it's interesting to look into the hidden prejudices that help support that marginalization.

The Garo are referred to as “merely shells that are empty on the inside. They’re the shells of spies from an enemy nation sent to investigate Ikana. They have been unable to forget their living days. Even now their spirits–emptiness cloaked in darkness–continue to spy… [They] are still ninja and they will not show themselves in front of people.”

But what evidence do we have to support that they are this aside from potentially biased vocal accounts? It turns out, not much.

What we know:

The Garo are invisible until you actively enter their world wearing a mask to pose as one of their own
You trick them and they attack you
As you slaughter them, they compliment you on your fighting skills

If you hadn't already been prepped to view them as enemy spies, would you have viewed them the same way? In fact, they are a people that you cannot save - you must kill them to progress through the game. Why aren't they offered the same affordances of peace as other races in Termina? Should we see them as "monsters?"

"it seems that the Garo only have agency because Link goes out of his way to see them — and Link only goes out of his way to see them in order to assault them."

Suduiko posits that biases skew our thinking so fully that we don't even imagine them not being monsters as a possibility. For example, as talked about in a previous post, nearly all other Zelda games have a moral compass that would make it clear where the fate of the Garo stand. But in the case of Majora, there

The implications raised are poignant:

Though Link is innocent like a child, he's also ignorant like a child. With Mikau's death, his innocence was useful in that his preconceived notions of death did not manipulate the situation. But in tha case of the Garo, his skewed perception turns into ignorance.
Majora purposefully creates a tension between the mechanics and the narrative similar to how books can use an unreliable narrator to tell stories that couldn't be told otherwise. A sort of unreliable mechanics, if you will. Majora is using a similar narrative device as Catcher in the Rye: the player in Majora - as with the reader of Catcher - trusts that what they are being told is true. It's only on deeper reflection that the meta unreliable narration/mechanics additional meaning. This is also done with the Fierce Deity mask as discussed in an earleir post.
Because we, as the player, expect Zelda games to be "Rated E for Everyone" and that themes such as racial marginalization are not expected, we come into the game with a bias. That bias means we don't see what we would otherwise see if we were paying attention.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

I'm working on Post 9 right now, and it occurs to me that one of the points Suduiko brings up about Link's agency intra-timeline is similar to a point made in the theory about Link in Breath of the Wild as an automaton found here: #4 . Didn't want to lose this insight.

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

This post is pretty meaty too - a second opinion to see that I summarized it well would be appreciated.

Post 9: Mister Owl, how many timelines does it take to get to the center of free will and determinism?

Kaepora Gaebora, the owl first introduced in Ocarina of Time serves a different purpose in Majora's Mask. While both game's characters help orient the player toward a discussion of free will and determinism, the orientation is different in each game.

Ocarina is very fate driven. Link is fated to be the one that defeats Ganondorf, and Kaepora Gaebora's language reflects this theme. Link is a “child of fate,” “chosen by fate” to possess the Triforce of Courage, traverse time, and defeat Ganondorf.

The way he speaks in Majora, however, is such that he includes conditionals in his speech. “If you have the courage and determination to proceed in the face of destiny,” he says to Link, “then I shall teach you something useful... I have placed [Owl Statues] throughout the land to aid one with the power to change the destiny of this land... Wherever he may appear.”

Link is not necessarily the one to save Termina. He could be the one, but it's not guaranteed.

Additionally, we see that Kaepora Gaebora is external to Termina. The way he can save the game temporarily through owl statues is different than any other mechanic present in Majora - and as discussed in an earlier post, is not musically based. This implies that the owl's commentary on fate can be trusted.

Using the temporal afterimage theory in conjunction with the previous post showing that Link is not the Hero of Time from Ocarina, we can deduce that every singe time Link resets time, he creates a new timeline pre-populated with a brand new Link that is only connected to the previous chronological Link via a temporal afterimage.

If that's the case, then we can finally ask our question about fate. Is Link in Majora's Mask driven by fate? The answer is no, and yes, simultaneously. There are two layers of determinism present in Majora - inter-timeline and intra-timeline.

Inter-timeline: This is the perspective that we the players see - all timelines strung together one after another to make a complete set. This set of timelines composes the entirety of the game starting from the first timeline (Link is a Deku Scrub and must obtain his Hylian body) to the final timeline (Link obtains the Fierce Deity mask). In between the bookend timelines, Link must obtain the four giant masks in a specific order. So, as a whole, inter-timeline Link is driven by fate with very little wiggle room for agency.
Intra-timeline: As we established previously, with each new timeline, we are in control of a new Link who is just as removed from the previous Terminian Link as the original Link is from the Hero of Time. Each timeline can be whiled away in any way the player sees fit. Echoing the sentiments of Kaepora Gaebora, if Link proceeds to face destiny then progress will be made in the arc. But this is not necessarily the case. Kaepora Gaebora - whom we have previously established as a metaphysically external, and therefore metaphysically trusted, actor - is aware of Link's disconnected nature. Thus intra-timeline Link is not bound by determinism.

"Video games are uniquely poised to not only acknowledge the agency of the person who engages with them, but to make the meaning of the story intrinsically related to that agency, and “Majora’s Mask” serves as the template for how to achieve this on a deeply metaphysical level."

wScottSh commented 4 years ago

Post 10: You don’t have to know anything about Buddhism to appreciate “Majora’s Mask,” but it helps.

All previous posts have been limited to understanding Majora within the context of the artifact itself. Meaning, little to no comparisons are made outside of the metaphysics that the game itself presents. This is done, in part, to not assume any authorial intent.

However, using Buddhism as a lens to view Majora is also an instructive activity. If Termina is considered to be samsara, then the path Link follows through the game has many parallels to Bodhisattva.

"The wheel of samsara" has a prallel in the many cycles present in Majora. The circle of the clock tower, the repeating three day cycle, dying and being born again at each renewed cycle, etc. Additionally, the Buddhist concpetion of time is cyclical - continually declining and renewing. Link's journey literally parallels the idea that the world is in constant decline and the poeple are working to renew it through multiple incarnations of themselves.

There are six walks of samsara, and each of them are represented in the six main areas of Majora:

The Realm of Humans is a model for Clock Town
The Realm of Animals is a model for Woodfall
The Realm of Hungry Ghosts is a model for Snowhead
The Realm of Jealous Gods is a model for the Great Bay—specifically, for the Zoras
The Realm of Hell is a model for Ikana Canyon
The Realm of Gods is a model for the Moon

One cool nugget to pull out here is that, while we have previously made the case that Link is a different Link in each new timeline, so too are all the other citizens of Termina different incarnations in each renewed timeline.

People are reincarnated into different walks of samsara, based on the actions taken in past lives (karma) and the general influence of suffering, it follows that the entity manifested as the mailman (as an example) in one timeline is not necessarily the same entity perceived as the mailman in another timeline.

What this means is that Link can save people permanently. He may save them in one timeline, and then it's another entity that inhabits the body of that person in a new timeline. So the one that was saved was actually saved, but another person in their path through samsara in need of saving enters the body of the Terminian in the next cycle.

Link can save people, but not everyone in the universe - a fundamental principle of Buddhism.

Masks are compared to "skillful means," a Buddhist concept which means that people need to be taught in the context they will most bestly learn. Even if that means lying to a person, if it saves them it's worth the deception. (eg. Posing as Darunia to a hurting tribe of Gorons.)

open-source-worlds / zelda-archaeology

A Comprehensive Theory of Majora's Mask #3

Temporal afterimage theory

Princess analogs have no moral valence