Majora's Mask: The Ultimate Trauma Narrative

[Music] ah Majora's Mask there's just something about this game once seen as the black sheep of the Legend of Zelda series in recent years Majora's Mask has become a darling of Zelda fans while relatively small in scope compared to most Zelda titles this game features such compelling symbolism that fans are still trying to make sense of it all 20 years later what or who is Majora what's up with the happy Mass salesman and why does he exist outside of the flow of time is termina even real while playing Majora's Mask you can't help but feel like there's more going on under the surface and I think this is due to the emotionally mature themes of the game I first played this game at age 13 then again in my mid-20s and most recently in my mid-30s each time I play I find new and deeper meanings to the game as I mature emotionally mature's mask reveals more of its true face and I believe this is one reason why it is gained in popularity over time as its fans age we continue to peel back the layers of the Majora's Mask onion finding themes symbols and metaphors that our younger Minds may have missed in my most recent playthrough I couldn't help but notice a theme that my younger self was totally oblivious to maybe it was due to age my own life experience or just the state of the world in 2022 but as I Advanced through the game I realized Majora's Mask is the perfect commentary on trauma how it affects us how it can consume Us and how ultimately we can move on from it I want to pause here and say that this video is just an analysis of a video game I am not a psychologist and this is definitely not psychological advice if you are struggling with your own trauma or mental health issues there are links in the description to resources that may help you get the care that you need and if you suspect topics like this might upset you please be gentle with yourself and click away also be warned that there are many game spoilers ahead [Music] trauma is defined as a prolonged physiological response to a terrible fate such as a natural disaster the loss of a loved one or a violent event while emotions like anger sadness and fear are normal and healthy responses to tragedy some people stay trapped in these feelings for years or even decades this prolonged response is referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD two of the most common symptoms of PTSD include losing your sense of self and feeling disconnected from the people and world around you remember these because we will talk about them later some have suggested that Majora's Mask follows the five-stage grieving process outlined by psychiatrist Elizabeth kubleros not a bad Theory but I think this game speaks to so much more than grief it demonstrates the ways in which a traumatic experience like loss can contort our spirit and turn us into an unrecognizable version of ourselves likewise it shows us that trauma can transform us into a more compassionate and self-actualized person if we are courageous enough to face it head on since this is such a heavy topic I want to make sure I am not freestyling so I will organize my analysis around and established trauma model and for that I will be using Dr Judith Herman's three-phase model of trauma recovery Dr Herman is a world-renowned trauma expert and a professor of clinical Psychiatry at Harvard University she literally wrote the book on trauma alright with the disclaimers out of the way let's discuss Majora's Mask and how it gets trauma perfectly right in Ocarina of Time link purged Hyrule of ganon's evil and secured the safety of most of Hyrule citizens in order to do this link had to make tremendous sacrifices he put himself in horrifying and dangerous situations lost his best friend to the sacred realm witnessed the death of the Deku Tree found out he was never a Kokiri learned about the death of his mother battled evil incarnate and after all of that his work is essentially undone he is sent back in time to a world blissfully unaware of the destruction and greed of Ganon link may know that he saved the world but that is his secret and burden to bear the imminent danger is gone but the pain of the past remains link has lost his Guardian Navi and his best friend zarya he has no place no peers no one he can relate to what could ever give a Link's life more meaning than literally saving the world where does he go from here in this sense link is like a combat veteran he was raised and conditioned by War and cannot find his footing in peace time he is a warrior with no battle left to fight he is stuck in a moment in time and so link sets off on a quest to find his wartime companion Navi after all she is the only one who has seen what he has seen who experienced what he lived through but before link gets very far in his search disaster strikes yet again Skull Kid attacks Link in the woods stealing his remaining links to his former life his horse Epona and the Ocarina of Time link is left alone in a body that is not his in a land he does not know his only option is to move forward into the realm of termina as link emerges into the world of termina he soon discovers that he cannot Venture far throughout the first three-day cycle the player is locked in Clock Town confined to its four neighborhoods and the astral Observatory the time and Geographic constraints placed on this first cycle are a brilliant way to force the player to learn the mechanics of the game definitely check out Liam triforce's video if you want to know more about that the time and location constraints also allowed the player to become emotionally invested in the world with nothing to do and nowhere to go the player is encouraged to explore Clock Town chat with its residents and start to understand the Dynamics of these NPC's daily lives and this is where the magic of Majora's Mask begins until link explores Clock Town his goal is to regain his own sense of safety and stability get Ocarina get Epona get highly informed back and get on with the quest to find Navi grabbing Majora's Mask for the happy mask salesman is a sort of afterthought a task pushed upon you that will soon become a checked box on your way to the larger objective but as you start to speak with the citizens of Clock Town as you witness day by day their growing fear and sorrow over their impending doom your objectives start to change you start to care you want to see these people live on you want to see them realize dreams reunite with estranged loved ones and experience a sense of peace and stability as you get closer to the residents of Clock Town the moon gets closer to you it's grotesque and pain to Visage bearing down on you always inching ever closer to the end of termina and the lives of all who live there these two forces your growing affection for the citizens of clock town and the terror of the apocalyptic Moon merged together to infuse link and the player with a sense of purpose and so it is that even as link secures his own sense of safety and stability he becomes determined to secure the same sense of peace for the peoples of termina after getting the Ocarina back from Skull Kid link agrees to Aid the happy math salesman in reclaiming Majora's Mask to assist Link in his Quest the happy Mass salesman teaches him the song of healing a song that heals evil magic and troubled Spirits we will talk about the song more in depth in a later section suffice it to say link is given a therapeutic tool to help heal the Sorrows of the peoples of termina as he embarks on his quest too once again save the world when you first go back in time after obtaining the Ocarina you experience a sense of relief after all you dodged the Apocalypse but this feeling wears off quickly Majora's Mask is depressing especially in the early game as you explore new areas and speak to more characters you learn that bad news and unfortunate events are Rife across termina a monkey awaits his wrongful execution in the swamp a witch goes missing in the woods the waters have turned to toxic sludge the princess is missing the Deku Butler has lost his son there's not much good news to be had in termina of course link can use his skills to help right the wrongs that plague termina but that sense of relief you experienced after you first traveled back through time it is soon replaced with a sense of sorrow and frustration when you realize that after saving a swamp returning the Deku Princess and exonerating the monkey all of your work is undone with one rendition of the song of time no matter what you manage to achieve in any three-day cycle of matura all of your progress will be unmade as the player this can feel so discouraging in the beginning an Ocarina of Time subtle changes to the world following the completion of certain tasks was so satisfying think of how fulfilling it was when you realize that the fire ring around Death Mountain had been permanently quenched following volvakia's defeat or how relieved you felt when like hylio is restored after completing the oh so arduous water temple these changes endured for the remainder of the game serving as satisfying little pats on the back as you battle your way to the final confrontation with Ganon in Majora's Mask you are not granted the sense of satisfaction if anything you are left with a sense of feeling robbed you may experience a temporary sense of satisfaction but it is inevitably snatched away after returning to the dawn of the first day you may find yourself going back to the places you saved remembering the heroic Deeds that liberated these lands and people from Darkness only to find that they've reverted back to their original disastrous State what was the point what was it all for I think this process of having your hard-earned accomplishments rendered useless is the primary reason why people do not like or do not finish Majora's Mask many people get derailed by this morning process the unfairness of it all the wasted effort the feeling of meaninglessness but Majora's Mask is not Ocarina of Time this game seeks to instill much more than a sense of satisfaction there are things that this game wants you to feel and it will evoke these feelings with its Unique Mechanics and constraints you are meant to feel frustrated you are meant to feel unfilled you are meant to feel sorrow and fear Majora's Mask encourages you to go deeper in the most benign sense of the word the game seeks to traumatize you to leave you feeling disconnected from your accomplishments that are repeatedly undone and from the people who no matter what you went through together will never know who you are on the dawn of the first day most video games want you to rise to the challenge technically they want you to master the gameplay and complete increasingly complex puzzles and battles in addition to this Majora's Mask wants you to rise to the task philosophically it challenges you to derive your own meaning and satisfaction from the game beyond the key items in your inventory there are no Milestones to look back on no monster scrubbed Kokiri Forest or replenish like hylia to buoy your spirit as you continue on your journey up until the final boss battle everything you do in Majora's Mask is meaningless unless you find your own reason for doing it and this is what sets Majora's Mask apart from all other video games I've played in a game that regularly and does your work Majora's Mask is much more focused on the why than on the what this is a shared narrative thread in many pieces of media that play with recycled time when you have to relive the same series of events over and over and over again the what becomes utterly meaningless it is the why that must rise to the foreground these stories assure us that no matter how repetitive or Relentless our realities are a change of heart or behavior or even just a change of luck can alter the currents of time they force us to confront the fact that our sphere of influence is very small there are only a handful of things in life that we can control but life is better when we seize that control and better yet when we use that power to help others these stories remind us that with enough time enough pressure and enough Courage the why can always be found none of these stories depict their protagonists as having very much fun they are tortured exhausted ran to the brink of sanity but through the needles eye of their pain and discomfort they find the threat of meaning that ties their existence together according to Dr Hermann the second phase of trauma recovery the mourning and Remembrance phase is where this needle gets threaded it is in this stage that the Survivor begins to make meaning of the trauma they begin to move from the what the event or events that happened to the why the greater meaning this event has in their life story and the Lessons Learned From The Experience Dr Herman says that survivors will know they have completed this phase of healing when it occurs to the Survivor that perhaps the trauma is not the most important or even the most interesting part of her life story when the patient reclaims her own history and feels renewed hope and energy for engagement with life time starts to move again luckily Majora's Mask gives you plenty of opportunities to find your why that whole thing about links saving the world again I kind of lied in Majora's Mask you aren't actually saving the world you're saving the people in it it is the people the connections you make that determine how rich of an experience you have in Majora's Mask most people who have played and enjoyed this game have a specific Majora's Mask moment this is a sort of Tipping Point an event or a piece of dialogue that strikes such an emotional chord with the player that it becomes emblematic of their why a symbol of their reason for continuing the cycle for some it is seeing Romani spaced out after being abducted by aliens for others it is The Swordsman cowering in his bedroom hours before the moon Falls the postman's excruciating indecision of wanting to flee but feeling obligated to stay maybe it's the bartender so loyal to his customers that he works to the very last sharing some touching words with you before the world ends and for many of us myself included it is the anju and Cafe wedding Mass side quest [Music] it is difficult to overstate the impact this Quest has had on players for many of us memories of playing Majora's Mask are completely Inseparable from the side quest as it involves several characters leads the player to multiple key items and is just so heart-wrenching I will never forget the first time I completed the side quest as a young teen I waited anxiously next to Andrew in the upper level of the stockpot in worrying that Cafe might not make it it is perhaps the emotional high point of the entire game when the couple are reunited at the last as they resolved to greet the dawn together with only seconds to spare I played the song of time I remember returning to the dawn of the first day running back to the stockpot inn and staring at Andrew feeling so many emotions at once at this point in the game I knew that everything would be undone but it had never felt so consequential after all that they had been through they were still just as separate as they had been three days ago I felt a tinge of sadness sure but what I felt even more was resolve staring at Andrew behind the reception desk knowing that she was confused scared and missing Cafe I knew that I had to see this thing through to the end these people deserve to be together and it was my purpose to make sure that they prevailed in other Zelda games you are the heroic individual the singular protagonist around which the game's narrative revolves but immature's mask the game really revolves around the other people in the world the small folks whose comings and goings constitute all that is worth saving in termina realizing that we are part of a larger whole that our worlds are transactional that we can positively affect others and that they can positively affect us our essential components to the Final Phase of drama recovery it is imperative that we fold ourselves back into the world that we remember the joy that others bring us and the joy that we can bring others we are valuable and we are reminded of that value when we help people without us and you and Cafe die alone without us Romani is taken by the ghosts without us the swordsman cowers and dies and without us the little girl in Akana Canyon never gets her father back when we are scared or anxious we become focused on our own protection our own safety we close ranks Gathering our emotional resources inwards to protect ourselves from further harm this is a necessary part of healing but when we stay stuck in these patterns for years after the threat has passed we robbed the world of a valuable resource ourselves it is fitting that by the end of Majora or questified Navi has all but left our minds instead of hiding from the world trying to return to a moment that is forever gone we make ourselves available to the people of termina people begin to depend on us and we begin to depend on them the more you participate in the side quests of Majora the more impactful and meaningful the game becomes and this is no accident the developers threw down the gauntlet we can tell you what you're doing but you have to decide why you're doing it and the devs were wise enough to understand that if they hooked us into caring about the people in this world we would find our why they knew maybe instinctively that connection and engagement with the world are the only bulwarks against meaninglessness and despair I mentioned earlier that feeling disconnected from the world is one of the most common symptoms of PTSD and another is a loss of one's sense of self trauma can shatter the way we view ourselves and undermine our beliefs about reality the world and the people living in it in Ocarina of Time Link's identity was the hero of time but in the Child Link storyline in which Hyrule is saved that identity seems to have lost all meaning as I mentioned previously link is like a combat veteran in this way off of the battlefield now that the threat has been neutralized his identity as a hero doesn't mean very much if anything it is a buffer between him and the rest of Hyrule I believe this is why he leaves to find Navi he wants to find the one individual who actually knew him as a hero but throughout the course of Majora's Mask link is able to build a new identity not as a hero and as a Healer very early in the game the happy Mass salesman teaches link the song of healing this is a Melody that heals evil magic and troubled Spirits he says let's reflect on this for a moment what an odd thing to be given at the start of a video game I can't remember any other game in which I was granted powers to heal the troubled spirits of NPCs I mean sure I've undergone fetch quests to give some fool a potion or a mushroom and I've had to heal my playable characters but I have never played any other game in which healing was a central narrative component it is in my mind a much more compelling charge to heal the world than to save it to save someone is to Simply distance them from a threat to heal someone is a much more complex process with his Ocarina and his inventory of masks this is exactly what link must do as he moves through the lands of termina he eases and releases the troubled spirits of the people but of course Link's power heals more than just the people as link defeats each Temple boss he is temporarily healing the land itself link cleanses the swamp of its toxicity restoring its clear water symbolically this is a beautiful representation of trauma and Recovery trauma is a sort of poison seeping through the entire system hurting everything that it touches it is rarely one distinct easily located boo-boo but rather a sort of ether that permeates our entire psyche trauma recovery therefore is less about the bandaging of a particular wound and more about healing our emotional ecosystem where our internal landscape is one of confusion pain and fear healing restores us to the clear waters of safety stability and Hope I find the swamp to be one of the more evocative regions of the game for this reason the other region that has always stood out to me is Akana Canyon and yes once again we are waiting into the overly raw Waters of water healing metaphors but hear me out cliche or not water is associated with healing and emotion pretty much universally like Akana Canyon drama can leave many of us feeling dried up and emotionally withered I think it is fitting that Pamela and her accursed father live at the center of the canyon their House's music only made possible by the churning of the water Pamela has taken to hiding her father away and carrying on as if everything were normal her defense is to lock it up and put on a brave face she's allowed her emotions to dry up so that she can survive but when link reads her father from The gibdos Curse the emotions come flooding back her and her father are reunited as the little girl returns to feeling and the waters returned to the canyon and of course let us not forget how link manages to heal himself by becoming invested in the lives dreams and struggles of the people of termina Link finds meaning through his efforts to heal these people and their lands he has restored his sense of connection with others and has molded a new identity for himself as a Healer he has successfully moved through all three phases of trauma recovery but even after healing the people the land and himself there is one more who link must heal and healing this individual is I would argue the objective of the game that's right it's time to talk about Skull Kid early in this video I claimed that Majora's Mask is a perfect commentary on trauma and while Link's healing journey through termina is one reason for making this claim what really makes Majora's Mask Stand Out is the contrast between how link and the Skull Kid respond to their traumas whereas Link's actions throughout Majora's Mask demonstrate the healthy and necessary aspects of trauma recovery Skull Kids actions illustrate how not to cope with trauma if we want to live a life worth living for this reason Dr hermann's three-phase model of recovery is no longer relevant so when speaking about the skull kid I will reference another psychological model this one from the realm of conflict resolution the circle of aggression and Reconciliation created by Olga bacharova this diagram illustrates not only how one can move from aggression to reconciliation but also how one can get trapped in aggression for a potentially ever notes that the inner cycle of the diagram demonstrates how natural human responses to harm may move people from being victims to becoming aggressors and skull kid perfectly personifies this movement from victim to villain you see skull kid's friends the Giants have left him behind and skull kid feels abandoned this abandonment leads to intense pain and eventually anger to use bacharova's words anger has a legitimate yet irrational nature to use my own words even Justified anger has a will of its own no matter how righteous our rage may be if we allow anger to control our lives forever it will inevitably cause more pain and suffering but let's be honest anger is useful if we are sad we generally lay down cry or collapse but if we are angry we tend to take action anger gives us energy to move to make change and if we are fresh off the heels of a traumatizing event anger can feel like the only emotion that might keep us going when we would otherwise want to break down and so it is easy to imagine that Skull Kid would indulge his anger to give himself some relief some sense of power and agency against his backdrop of loss whereas link regains his sense of self by healing the pain of others Skull Kid regains his sense of self by partaking in Petty acts of anger and revenge unfortunately anger is seductive and addictive because of its energy and its usefulness anger can be easily Justified and easily abused and this is the Trap that Skull Kid finds himself in throughout Majora's Mask with every crime or transgression he commits he assures himself that it's okay because he is a victim the more he reassures himself of his righteousness the more bold and destructive his behavior becomes and skull kid isn't just angry with the Giants he's angry with the entire world and this is pretty common as batarova notes sometimes anger is directed toward Outsiders who are unable to prevent the loss or even towards others who did not experience a similar loss I.E the whole world is seen as hostile all of the characters in Majora's masks suffer but for some reason Skull Kid seems to believe that his suffering is unique somehow more important than the pain of everyone else anger has a way of doing that this tendency understandably causes him to feel isolated and it also allows him to justify his destructive behaviors these behaviors repel others including his only friends tattle and tail which further isolates him in other words skull kid's actions become a self-fulfilling prophecy what he really wants is the sense of connection he lost when the Giants Departed but his anger at their abandonment and his subsequent bad behavior pushes everyone away I have to be honest I feel bad for the Skull Kid batarova says that subconsciously victims want to restore the sense of deep human connectedness destroyed by conflict in order to make the wrongdoer understand the pain of the victim he needs to experience a similar suffering so as Twisted as it may sound Skull Kids acts of Terror are actually just unhealthy attempts to restore his sense of connection with others he is lonely and Afraid and he wants others to feel pain because he is in pain and if everyone is in pain maybe he won't feel so lonely whereas link connects with others by helping Skull Kid connects with others by hurting but of course by trying to connect with others by hurting them Skull Kid experiences more rejection and more abandonment which causes him more pain and invokes more anger and aggression so he just keeps cycling this is why batarova's diagram shows a potential for the circle of aggression to cycle endlessly it is very difficult although not impossible to escape the cycle of aggression once it has started it is perfectly self-containing and perfectly self-replicating in my opinion skull kid or a Majora if you like is the most terrifying villain in the Zelda franchise because his desires are so unquenchable whereas Ocarina of Time Ganondorf is motivated by power Majora is motivated by his own pain if a villain is motivated by a power we can negotiate with them by giving them power or taking it away for example in Ocarina of Time there are people who can stay on ganondorf's good side by playing into his vanity and treating him as their leader in Majora's Mask there are no such characters while there are some shady people who take advantage of the chaos left in the skull kid's wake there are no characters who Ally themselves with the skull kid to have friends or Allies would take away his feelings of Abandonment and therefore his feelings of victimhood and therefore his anger and therefore his power in this way skull kid can be seen as having no weaknesses because the more pain we inflict upon him the more anger he feels and the more anger he feels the more powerful he becomes so how can we possibly stop him [Music] at the end of Majora's Mask the Giants link tattle and tail forgive the Skull Kid they just forgive him [Music] as a teenager it always sort of floored me how quick they were to forgive I mean come on he caused so much suffering and inconvenience think of all the people we had to save all of the crises we had to avert all because of this little brat he doesn't deserve our forgiveness right and yet my adult self is more mindful of the fact that the wisest beings in the game the deities of the game instruct us to forgive according to bacharova forgiveness alone makes it possible for the victim to heal the trauma and proceed with life this is another gentle reminder that this video is not intended as a roadmap for trauma recovery and I am definitely not implying that you are required to forgive anyone for anything and bacharova herself notes how rarely this happens and yet in the context of Majora's Mask we do have to ask if not forgiveness then what we can't forget even if we want to so what are our options revenge or resentment resentment definitely does not feel good for the victim but Revenge certainly can the only problem is like anger Revenge has a will and agenda of its own too often Quests for Revenge turn into new campaigns of war or victimization bacharova describes the act of forgiveness as giving up a desperate desire to change the past whether Justice is accomplished or not forgiveness builds a foundation for the victim to live out of modes determined by anger and reconnect with the world we tend to think of forgiveness as being a gift to the aggressor the Skull Kid in this case but bacharova insists that it is ultimately a gift to ourselves she even argues that the aggressor may not deserve forgiveness but that the victim deserves to give it anyway we as link as the players deserve the opportunity to move on to end the cycle of grief and revenge and allow time to move forward again trauma is after all a disorder of time you're here now but your psyche is somewhere else trapped in a memory of the past forced to relive the visceral feelings of the event over and over again after beating the Stone Temple the Giants say forgive your friends and I have never totally decided who they are talking to or about are they talking to us telling the player link tattle and tail to forget the Skull Kid or are they telling the skull kid to forgive them for leaving him behind there is ambiguity here who is the victim is it termina link Skull Kid who is the aggressor is it the Giants the moon Majora Skull Kid once you have entered the circle of aggression the lines between victim and villain begin to disintegrate until all parties become some combination of the two according to bacharova the only way to self-eject from this potentially endless cycle is to summon the courage to forgive imagine a termina in which Skull Kid forgave the Giants for leaving him there would be no three-day apocalyptic cycle no monster moon no Majora's Mask to contend with all of that would have been completely avoided that is the power of forgiveness and so I end this video with what may be a controversial claim the great Triumph in Majora's Mask is not saving termina it's not even saving link it is healing the Skull Kid whereas Vengeance may seem apt for someone who has caused so much pain and suffering the happy math salesman the Giants tattle tale and Link and the cycle of suffering by offering Skull Kid the pathway out of trauma connection and forgiveness and the skull kid takes it butcherova describes how forgiveness can lead to Healing For All parties in a conflict although the act of aggression continues to be perceived as evil the perpetrator is now seen more as a person who'd become disconnected from his own goodness by the power of His fear is perceived as a sinner a lost soul overwhelmed by his fears who perhaps needs love and help in order to understand his sinfulness and restore the connection with his own inner goodness and strength the only guarantee that the evil will not be committed again in other words [Music]

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Id: lX_eSg6NWu4

Length: 40min 18sec (2418 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023