After 24 Years Majora’s Mask’s Community Is Still Debating What The Game Is Even About.

Majora’s Mask has been out for over two decades, yet there are still debates about the most basic things regarding Majora’s Mask. Up to the point that people are still discussing what the game is even thematically about? Is Link dead during the game? Is the game about healing? About friendship? About grief? Is Majora’s Mask about Link dealing with his lost childhood or about him coping with his own death. Is the game about changing identities or about Buddhist themes? Is Majora’s Mask a dream or is it literally about Link searching for Navi.
What is Majora’s Mask’s story even about?

In this video we are going to take a deep dive into all those questions. We will explain Majora’s Mask’s story. The meaning of the stone tower, the questions of the moon children, the words the happy mask salesman says at the end, whether Link is dead, if the five stages of grief are represented in the game, the symbolic meaning of the sidequests, what the four main areas represent, the subtext - everything.

It’s my attempt to shed some light into Majora’s Mask’s darkness.

====== Patreon
====== Timestamps-----------
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:58 - The Looming Moon (Majora’s Mask’s Premise)
00:15:11 - Gameplay
00:23:27 - A Quick Interlude (Economical Surrounding)
00:28:03 - Gameplay Part 2
00:37:31 - The Stone Tower (Literal Story Analysis)
00:43:14 - The Time Thieves (Allegorical Story Analysis)
00:58:10 - Into The Moon

====== Links
Majora's Mask is One Big Buddhist Metaphor and Here's Why (NEW DISCOVERIES) MaxDerrat:

The original stone tower theory:
u/the_goldilock’s great analysis:
The entire letter from the end of the video:

====== Credits for the Music
Duck Tales NES OST - “Title Theme”
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST - “Gerudo Valley”
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask OST - “Gerudo Valley”, “Title Theme”, “Clock Tower”, “Mayor’s Meeting”, “Guru Guru’s Song”, “Last Day”, “Astral Observatory”,”Song of Healing”, “Magic Hag’s Potion Shop”, “Wood’s of Mystery”, “Giant’s Theme”, “Snowhead Mountain”, “Stone Tower Temple”
Outer Wilds OST - “End Times”, Final Voyage

------Holfix
HolFix - Beyond The Kingdom

[GreyAcumen]

Man, you're going to be so frustrated when you realize you never had to grab the ledge, but instead use Zora Link's ability to dolphin hop out of the water directly onto the island. 21:00

[slothrop]

One interesting angle to Majora's Mask is it being potentially influenced by Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland is actually really famous in Japan and its themes are pretty similar. Link falls into a big hole to get to Termina, the Skull Kid's first appearance has him appear mask-first, then his body afterwards like he's the grinning Cheshire Cat, the way Link is transformed into a Deku Scrub is much like how Alice is shrunk and throughout the story changes in size often, sometimes to get past certain obstacles, much like Link with the transformation masks. Alice in Wonderland is all about growing up, learning to accept change, and especially to deal with the inevitability and suddenness of death and trauma. Alice has an identity crisis when she starts to shrink then grow again. Link most likely has his own existential crisis after being returned to a child after suddenly being thrust into adulthood, having lost his innocence, then returned to being a child after all of that. Is it even the same Link anymore?

[ericpeterson]

This really recontextualizes Skull Kid's line at the end that Link "smells like the boy in the forest who taught me that song". Not realizing that Link *is* that boy, but saying that he *smells like* him. It feels kinda like saying "you seem like yourself again". Link is starting to feel like the same happy boy in the forest again, after everything he's been through. It's like a version of Undertale's "Despite everything, it's still you"

[ericpeterson]

The Hero of Time being banished after Ocarina explains why Twilight Princess is so insistent on reminding the player that Ordon is outside of and independent from the Kingdom of Hyrule. Link's descendants never returned from their exile, until the Hero of Twilight. Which also ties into the "parting need not last forever" line - Link *does* return to Hyrule, in another life

[Mertanian]

Ah yes, Majora's Mask, the game about traumatic experiences like being stuck in a bathroom without toilet paper

[WhereIsMySock]

"The face under the mask... Is that your true face?"

In ocarina of time, Link is a child in an adults body. He has not grown. So no, that isn't his true face.
But in Majora's mask, the fierce deity is also an adult, but this time- it's *because* Link has grown up. So yes. This time, it really is his true face.

[THEdarkkman]

For me, the butler scene at the end isn't about that he is still mourning his son, it's that he finally witnessed that his son is no more. Putting a potential end to his suffering.

[MaraudingManiac]

Trees are incredibly important to Link's tale. Link lives in a treehouse at the start of the game. The closest thing that Link has to a parental guardian is also a tree, the Deku Tree, whose death Link was a direct witness to, and was blamed for. Interesting, he also bears witness to the sprouting of the second Deku Tree. The Bodhi tree in the Water Temple is shrivelled up. But by the time the end of Majora's mask rolls around, the tree in the moon is healthy and vibrant.

[legogonkdroid]

Honesty, when you said "Screw people who tell you your trauma is good for you" that made me feel much more whole inside. Thanks!

[mariya_tortilla]

Something i thought was interesting was that majoras mask isnt just shaped like a heart, but a heart with walls (or spikes) around it, in order to protect it. Like, the skull kid was so hurt that he put up these walls/spikes around his heart to protect himself, but at the same time is creating destruction from his cold hardened heart

[kylekiske_]

35:50
Ikana representing the last stage of grief and having you go through all the other stages *again* before really getting to acceptance is really thematic. Like a test of the stages of grief you'd been through up until this point to ensure you can really accept that grief.

[mooseylife]

The symbolism of the Elegy of Emptiness, where you leave a smiling shell of your former self to complete a task that leads to your enlightenment upon completion or your demise if you fail is top tier. So many times people put on the smile during their moments of grief, they wonder if it will all be worth it in the end?

[LoudWaffle]

Why's this Mario Maker youtuber suddenly putting out the best video essay analysis videos?

[Henrink]

Imagine having an adventure where you meet a person, have a long story to save them, even living in adult body for it. And in the end she sends you back and time, you lose everything, even the person you risked your life for. That would also traumatize me too.

[samb]

This is honestly one of the best Zelda videos on the platform. The editing and pacing are great, and by acknowledging the subjective/unknowable aspects of the various theories, you showed off a bunch of different aspects of the game's story. Taking a bunch of the popular theories (5 stages of grief, Buddhist themes, Skullkid as Link, etc.) and giving them all equal weight is great, since some of those theories have seen a lot more mainstream attention than others.

[Iinneus]

I love that one day, Ocarina of Time was made and was almost entirely just an innocently-made tale of "A kid becomes a hero because he has the chosen power!"

And the Zelda series has basically spent its ENTIRE LIFETIME SINCE examining that the way it happened was absolutely horrible. Wind Waker tells us "the hero was sent away and he did not come back, and that was our demise". Twilight Princess tells us "that hero died harboring regrets, and is STILL looking to solve those" (though fortunately, the regrets he has as the Hero's Shade do not seem to overlap with the regrets addressed in MM).

Even by Breath of the Wild, there's just no romanticization of the idea of being the Goddess's chosen hero. It's such a satisfying aspect of the series in my eyes that they really seem to analyze that which they make.

[dutchielander]

I love how nobody ever mentions how Majora's mask is litteraly shaped like a heart with weird clashing colors and pointy bits to show you that its about people with a broken/twisted/sad experience. Everybody in this game has something sad going on so it's a good representation of what depression/ anxiety would look like if it had shape.

[shadeblackwolf]

Majora's mask is a poster child for games as art. It's deeply layered with meaning on various levels so that your reading is valid. So is matpat's, ceave's and everyone else's. It's subjective what the various symbolisms come together to mean

[mu-suwi]

finally seeing a loving thoughtful majora's mask retrospective by an adult with media literacy is like the Song of Healing for my soul. what a beautiful well-done video

[Showsni]

The Water Temple in OoT representing Link's growth can also be seen in Sheik's words when you learn the Serenade of Water. "Time passes, people move.... Like a river's flow, it never ends... A childish mind will turn to noble ambition... Young love will become deep affection... The clear water's surface reflects growth... Now listen to the Serenade of Water to reflect upon yourself...."