The Politics of Majora's Mask | RealmW

[Music] oh [Music] i think that it would be easy to say that the legend of zelda majora's mask is a story about time and by that i don't necessarily mean that it would be incorrect to make that claim time is an incredibly pervasive theme throughout the game and an integral part of the player's interaction with its world as you play the idea of it is constantly in the back of your mind you're acutely aware of its impact on your objectives and strategies for completing them as you progress through the game you begin to construct a more and more complete mental map not just of the world itself but of the movements of various actors through it the shifting of its elements in the ways that these independent motions interact with and affect each other but i think that examining the game with time as the central focus is to miss something being the player's mode of interacting with the world of termina a time conceptually is much more a framing device than itself a subject of interest for the game's narrative of course there isn't just one way people view the game there's a fair number of ideas used to frame analysis from sadness to death to yes time but majora's mask is much more thematically complex than it's often given credit for it's not just a story about one thing like the game's different elements and characters interacting and blending together to form the core of its gameplay its different themes and ideas are most interesting in the places where they overlap some of these ideas might be good some may be less so some might even be seemingly self-contradictory but instead of trying to find one single message in all of it i suggest that you instead focus on specific ideas their similarities and maybe even their differences so with that in mind it's time to ask what are the politics of medora's mask so it's kind of hard to miss the moon no matter where you find yourself in termina all you need to do is look up and it's there there's something deeply sinister about that symbol an object so familiar in such an alien position the moon is one of our oldest truly constant forces something possible to predict and count on we based our lives around it using it to know when to perform rituals plant or harvest for the land of termina it also had religious significance and its position relative to the sun was used to determine the date of the carnival of time their most important ritual holiday having it wrenched from that context so forcibly is jarring and unsettling as the astronomer puts it the moon has long been considered a mystical body which people have worshipped and feared that alone shows how the moon has a cosmic influence that affects our daily lives and he's correct we don't often think about just how much of a heavy influence these things have over us they inform our systems of time as was mentioned in historically our religion and day-to-day lives objects like the moon have power over us and it's scary to see that power fall against us to the player the moon is an ever-present reminder of the urgency of link's quest a reminder of the price of failure the anxiety of its image is burned into the memory of every player to even try the game but to the resident of termina the symbol is much more complicated from an outside perspective the fate of the land may seem obvious the moon appears quite transparently to be barreling towards the earth with no indication of stopping without any major form of intervention you would think it wouldn't take a genius to figure out what the outcome of that situation might be but as much as it may seem clear to us the fate of termina and by extension the responsibility of its government to act accordingly is a deeply polarized political issue within the world of majora's mask and nowhere is this more directly presented than the office of the mayor duter in a scene which can be experienced early in the game the mayor sits under the watchful eye of an interestingly moonlike mask as he receives arguments from both the carnival committee headed by muto and his guard captain fiskin as to whether or not the annual carnival of time should be allowed to go on with citizens remaining in clock town or whether they should be ordered out for their own safety a de facto cancellation while the captain makes an impassioned plea to the mayor to order the citizens out of the town the committee refuses to even acknowledge the possibility of the moon falling at all blaming the notion on mass hysteria and confusion as the moon hangs already unimaginably low over the earth inching visibly closer by the day these individuals have simply chosen to ignore it to label the people who will soon be killed by this disaster as hysteric to downplay the risk involved despite every sign pointing the other way but muto isn't the only one throughout clocktown there are numerous others who for one reason or another are unable to accept the fate of their home from the construction workers who either flatly deny the threat of the moon falling or just make the claim that those fleeing it are weak to the swordmaster who believes that he will cut the moon to pieces or avoid harm through his extensive training to the average townspeople who are simply incredulous at the idea of it this position is presented again and again and to begin with the game handles this concept relatively appropriately with muto and those like him being shown to be well ridiculous with viscen even telling him it seems that the giant chunk of rock above us hasn't caught your eye but the way that the story goes gets even more complicated and fast if you witness the argument between the mayor and his advisors early in the game it'll just end on that note without any resolution or compromise being found and without the mayor choosing a side but if you happen to witness it later in the game while in possession of the couple's mask a symbol of marriage you get to see a somewhat different outcome upon seeing the mask both muto and the mayor though notably not the captain will become emotional thinking about their partners and wondering about their safety at length the mayor says yes yes everyone we are all worried for our families why don't we end this meeting viscent tries to interrupt but he continues this will do whether you're stubborn and will stay and guard your family or if you'd prefer to run away and seek shelter that is for the people to decide on their own he concludes personally to link thank you for allowing me to put an end to all that pointless bickering adults are also stubborn it is shameful well i may be an unreliable mayor but at least my family can depend on me i want to protect my wife this is all as i hope you can gather presented as a reasonable and fair solution to this problem but that seems incredibly simplistic here remember we're dealing in literal life and death this massive power is in the hands of one man and the solution is a kind of false sentimentality avoiding any real resolution to the problem whether or not you do this each of the following days will be identical there is no material difference between this decision being reached and no decision at all by doing this the mayor has effectively abandoned his duty to protect the citizens under his watch even worse many of those kept within the city have no choice as the captain says most of the townsfolk have already taken shelter without waiting for the mayor's orders the only ones left are public servants and committee members while the committee members are staying by choice those public servants are in large part not the guards of clocktown are forced to guard an empty city until its last moments denied the ability to flee as one tells link most everyone who believes the moon will fall has left town the only ones left are those who don't believe the rumors or aren't aware of them i want to tell everyone to evacuate but i cannot leave my post these people are not only denied the opportunity to escape but even the right to encourage others to save themselves even more tragic is the story of the town postman bound by his schedule to remain within clock town in the final hours of the third day he can be found cowering on the floor of his residence if spoken to he will tell link oh i want to flee but it's not written on the delivery schedule to me the delivery schedule it's the highest priority near to him a letter can be found addressed to himself reading even if it's not written on the schedule i want myself to flee please from me it is only after being given a direct order from his superior madame aroma that he is able to bring himself to leave while his is a more clear example than others the postman's reliance on structures of power is ultimately the reasoning behind almost every other individual refusing to leave whether they believe in their own strength or that things will just sort themselves out they're taking the position that the status quo is in itself so powerful that it cannot be overturned even by supernatural force they use these systems as a crutch to avoid having to confront the idea of a world either without them or which does not have any commitment to them even when forced to acknowledge these ideas these people are often so bound to the systems already that they still cannot force themselves to separate from them but whether these people are forcefully held in clock town by the mayor or more passively held by themselves out of false hope a conception of their own personal strength or more broadly blind commitment to the systems and structures of power present there they are all equally the victims of mayor duterte's refusal to act in the town's most dire hour all of this backed up by the twisted sentimentality of the mayor and muto and this sentimentality is representative of a strange pattern in majora's mask at several points most notably here but also at times in the story of the lover's andu and cafe the idea of a conflict between interpersonal relationships and a broad duty to society is present to many it might seem strange that there would even be a distinction drawn between the two after all isn't society just an expansive network of personal relationships but majora's mask draws a very strong line between those two things even going so far as to essentially suggest that they are at odds with each other personal relationships are shown to motivate a much more individualist even selfish set of priorities almost as if the preservation of people in those relationships and the relationships themselves are something done for personal gain where a desire to see society in general succeed is a largely selfless one do we really want to protect people close to us only because we have a deep desire for them to be well in a self-justifying way or do we have those feelings because of what them being unwell would mean for us emotionally or materially the mayor's decision to think of the importance of his personal relationships and take away that it should be personal choice whether or not citizens leave feels self-contradictory if he feels that way about his own relationships shouldn't his decision naturally extend that feeling to the relationships of others those who have family or friends who refuse to leave but majora's mask may be trying to say that this is a false equivalency that those sentiments are not the same that it can be perfectly ideologically consistent for the mayor to make a selfish choice while thinking of his family and most importantly that what we might see as contradictory can often be anything but [Music] every player who beats majora's mask has a favorite story it might be that of the love between andrew and cafe the tragedy of the dancer camaro or the mystery of the gero master the wide variety of stories and characters caught up in these stories is one of the game's strongest elements and the fact that so many are independently so compelling is a testament to its greatness as a work of art but there exists several threads of story that stand before the others in part because of their being required to complete the game and in part because of the resulting depth these being the stories of each of the four groups inhabiting the land beyond the walls of clock town the deku in the southern swamp the goron in the northern mountains the zora and the great bay and the long dead inhabitants of akana in the valley of the same name the story of each of these groups is upon first glance entirely unique and in many ways they are there doesn't seem to be much in common between saving a monkey from being tortured for a crime they didn't commit and trying to carry out the wishes of deceased guitarist who also happens to be a fish man but on a base level all of these stories are linked by a fundamental theme of failures of reliance on power upon entering one of the game's first major areas the southern swamp we encounter a people in a state of crisis the deku the region's main residents have lost their princess to a mysterious captor while at the same time their swamp home had become poisoned for unknown reasons while the princess herself was not the direct ruler of the deku a position held by her father the deku king her disappearance had still resulted in a righteous fury from her people and the necessity of finding a target for this anger had reached a breaking point this target as it happened was none other than a monkey one of the few other native residents of the southern swamp as can be learned from the guards of the deku palace as well as other monkeys outside the king believing that the monkey had kidnapped his daughter captured and held him with the intent to torture him a process whose beginning could be seen when preparations were made to suspend him over an open flame in the palace throne room it's never explained exactly what the deku king's plan is whether he intends to extract information on the princess's whereabouts through this what the monkey's motivations for his alleged crime might have been or what will be done if that information is found or worse if it is not but upon a closer look at this situation it's pretty immediately clear that there is no plan and it doesn't matter whether there is or not the point of this performance of justice isn't to motivate any change and it seems that to most there isn't even any illusion that it could it's done because it's the easy way out when link speaks to the captive monkey he's told they keep saying i kidnapped her no matter how many times they say it it won't bring the princess back and this line pretty effectively sums up the game being played here something perhaps familiar to us an individual in a position of great political and social power is presented with a moment of crisis and chooses to solve that crisis by the means of least resistance doing the first thing that will quell the temper of his subjects however it might initially seem that the deku king's decision here is a mistake yes but an understandable one considering his circumstances and the pressures on him and the game reflects this view by presenting him as well-meaning but ultimately little more than foolish and certainly not malicious but i would ask that we take a step back and think about the implications of his plan were linked to have not stepped in and aided the princess and preventing it from being realized if the monkey had actually been tortured or even killed what's next as we know the monkey had nothing to do with the princess's disappearance and any information he did have to her whereabouts would be disregarded anyway with the removal of that first enemy having yielded no information the public would have not been satiated for long what's the next step well once you're on the path of selecting outsiders to target and it's worked once i doubt you'd easily stray from that path and it doesn't lead anywhere good individuals in positions of power have a vested interest in creating easy solutions to very complicated problems in the interest of maintaining their power it benefits them greatly to not only present issues that they are responsible for as simple but also to present themselves as the one who takes it into their own hands and solves it but on the other side of this is the concept that this process of simplification of adversity and heroification of those who conquer it can come from the people and be projected onto leaders just as much as those leaders can construct it themselves in the mountains to the north of clocktown the goron people can be found living in a period of extended winter their homes and friends surrounded by and often buried in ice and snow this winter was brought about by the influence of the evil spirit inhabiting the snow head temple at the mountain's northernmost point this source of their hardship being actually known to the goron something that can't be said for every group in termina but just having this information obviously isn't enough to actually address the problems at hand and for that they seem to have little in the way of options save one the goron hero darmani iii a veteran himself and descendant of other notable warriors darmani was one of the most respected and trusted of the goron people even considered by the elders to be next in line for the position of tribal patriarch as the prior holder of that position will say if he mistakes link in goron form for darmani himself the goron who makes calm decisions yet boasts courageous determination and can take care of all shall be the patriarch the chosen one dharmani is you there could be no other pretty high praise right and this sentiment is echoed by the citizens of goron village all of whom are incredibly relieved at darmani's apparent return hoping he can help them solve their problems even simple things like keeping a child from crying but as the player knows darmani is dead still as his spirit still lingering in his own home tells link i was fine until i marched off to snow head myself hoping that i could drive off a demon he tried to rid the mountain of its evil spirit and failed losing his life in the process and the gorons have no idea what to do without him they saw darmani as their savior and without that there is no backup plan he is shown to have been a very proud individual not shying away from invoking his proud ancestry or personal achievements even after being humbled by defeat and so when such a great responsibility was thrust on him by his heritage by his elders and by his people darmani was not the type of person to deny it or his own ability to handle it it's likely that his entire life had been devoid of any moment not weighed down by this massive set of expectations and duty he was destined to become a hero in one way or another independent of his own intentions a failure of power and leadership created by everyone but the leader certainly it was his action of trying to single-handedly cure the ills afflicting the gorons that ultimately led to his demise but it was hardly his choice had darmani been more power-hungry being freely accepted as the strong man to lead the gorons to glory could have had disastrous consequences a cautionary tale and those at fault deserve some responsibility for that possibility but considering who he was and who he was forced to be the story comes across as much more of a tragedy on the other side of this concept of a single individual being responsible for finding the solutions for a group's collective problems we find ourselves to the west of clock town in the great bay home of the zora people as even those unfamiliar with madura's mask could probably infer this tranquil sea has its own set of very troubling occurrences which have set the region into turmoil perhaps most notably lulu the lead singer of the popular zora musical act the indigo goes lost her voice just days before the commencement of the carnival of time on account of her having laid a set of mysterious eggs however before she could carry through with her plan to have them examined by the region's resident marine scientist they were stolen by the gyarado pirates the formidable and well-armed outlaws who also called the seas of the great bay home all of this at the same time that the seas beyond the shallow regions at the shore had become increasingly murky depriving the zoras of free travel despite the broadness of this set of oppressive factors however one person believed that they could prevail mikao the zora guitarist after learning of the theft of lulu's eggs he went alone to face the pirates and reclaim them but much like darmani in his respective region mikao was unsuccessful in his quest and is found barely clinging to life by link before he ultimately passes as a result of the wounds inflicted on him by the pirates while his counterpart to the north however was motivated to the action that ultimately killed him by the expectations and needs of others mikao was pushed to it by his own self-imposed expectations and responsibilities he was unable to use the resources of others believing that only he could write the wrong committed against lulu and his people more broadly the failure of leadership demonstrated here is one created by the voluntary assumption of responsibility and the action that is seen under those circumstances as a personal necessity and what was the outcome of this sacrifice outside of link's arrival which mikao could not have planned for his death provided neither any new information to the other zora nor progress to their collective goal and it is a collective goal while macau's motivations seem to be focused on lulu the problem of the eggs the sudden change in the sea and the gyarado pirates have implications for all of the zora and as could be expected a collective issue could not be solved by individual action one of the stranger stories in majora's mask is that of the akana valley and the kingdom that once ruled over it the valley has an extremely limited number of living residents being called home primarily by the undead in more ways than one it is a departure from the ideas we've been talking about up to this point presenting new concepts and an equally alien environment importantly to us though akana is a place where unlike my previous subjects i don't get to speculate about the conclusions and implications of leadership philosophies because the region itself is a monument to the fact that in akana these conclusions have already been reached it's a ruined country already brought down long before link arrives in the throne room of the ancient castle of akana much like the rest of the kingdom its old residents can still be found though perhaps in a slightly altered form the king ego stuakana and his two loyal servants despite being long dead still remain to protect what is left of their kingdom even fighting link upon his arrival an impressive dedication to something of such little substance but when they are defeated we get to hear a very interesting conversation between the three of them initially the two servants take to blaming each other for the defeat hurling insults back and forth you're blocking me get out of the way i can still get him the reason he beat us is because you were so feeble don't blame this on me what just try saying that again to my bony face don't look at me i was once called the best swordsman in all of akana the greatest swordsman in all of akana you feeble it's quite clear that it's meant to be inferred that this attitude both of being unable to acknowledge one's mistakes and failure and of shifting the potential blame onto others was in part the cause for the state we find the kingdom of akana in today econo is the future of termina the natural conclusion of the failure seen in its leaders of its various peoples and regions it is the suggestion that the only end that such failures a refusal to act in the interest of the common good can come to is collapse but ikana being already at that end is also in the unique position to look back critically on its own failures seen through egos in response to the bickering of his subordinates he says will you stop what fools haven't you begun to understand the kingdom being ruined and left in this state isn't it petty little battles like this that have caused it believing in your friends and embracing that belief by forgiving failure these feelings have vanished from our hearts it all happened after someone threw open the doors of that stone tower the king is suggesting here that the failure of their kingdom stemmed from this individual refusal to act collectively in order to address collective problems however i would argue that it goes even further than that to offer the idea that even personal challenges are to some degree a broad societal responsibility that forgiveness of personal failure in others and in oneself is necessary in maintaining a state of good we see this idea of unwillingness to accept personal failure throughout the game from the captain skull kita entering an extended slumber upon his military defeat to cafe going into hiding for the shame of having his wedding mask stolen from him in all of these cases though this attitude is shown to be deeply destructive not only to oneself but also to those around you and the solution to these circumstances is shown to be personal and community forgiveness but back to that quotation from egos you might have noticed an interesting bit at the end of it it all happened after someone thrust open the doors of that stone tower now this is a little bit strange and it connects to a very broad theme throughout majora's mask on the nature of evil and its consequences see evil as it's presented in the game's world is something which is always divisible into more and more basic elements and these elements and their effects have a relationship that goes both ways what i mean by that is that with any crisis in the world of termina you can find an underlying cause which itself likely has a cause which in turn has one and these causes can be traced until you have found the base evil and that not only does that base evil create its consequences it also actively sustains them and the destruction of that base evil will also result in the destruction of the outcomes caused by it evil for individual people can be traced to the evils of a region which can be traced to the evils of a temple which can be traced to the evils of a demon of that temple which can be traced to the spirit inhabiting that demon which can be destroyed to solve all of those subsequent evils in one blow issues whose scope is as broad as ecological disaster or as narrow as the discomfort of a single individual can be addressed in fundamentally the same way it's a very romantic idea that the products of evil cannot outlive their source and majora's mask isn't necessarily wrong in its presentation of all of this evil as being fundamentally interconnected on the surface level it's actually a relatively succinct metaphor for the ways that many institutions of injustice work together to create broader systems but the evil here isn't so much a network of independent elements as it is a body if an element of a network even a major one is eliminated that network can still usually survive at least for a while but if you knock out the center of a nervous system well as the undead composer sharp says i want you to sever the root of the evil curse that torments us this idea is so fundamental to the game's story that it can apply on the broadest level possible while it might seem that majora the game's final boss at least requires that other evils be destroyed before it can be addressed namely each of termina's 4 temple bosses as long as you have the means to destroy majora the complete oath to order you can do so on a three-day cycle where none of the regions have been cleansed of their individual evils these lesser evils are more a potential obstacle towards isolating the ultimate base evil than they are a prerequisite we've talked a lot about evil so far but the game also has a number of thoughts about good good in majora's mask is not so much something which is present as much as it is the absence of evil from the song of healing to the light arrows to the skulltula houses to the song of storms the cleansing of evil is a constant theme the presence of good is something seldom addressed in most cases the base neutral state of things being desirable on its own forward progress is barely even a thought the main concern always being the prevention of regression from the status quo but rarely do we see that regression stopped entirely when your only goal is preservation of what you have and the major force acting upon you is trying to pull you back you can't hold out forever you'll start to slip and if you haven't worked forward when you have the opportunity then the only way to go is back majora's mask is deeply conflicted about these ideas of evil and the actions necessary to address it on the one hand it presents themes of failures of individual leadership and responsibility in responding to problems this process being underway in the southern swamp northern mountains and great bay with its conclusion being visible in the akana valley the power of a solution being vested in a single person is shown repeatedly to be a mistake but the way that these evils are actually addressed in the end is through link's individual action similarly while presenting the evils of oversimplifications of problems majora's mask built a concept of evil which itself is deeply simple in the game's assessment of how to defeat it this creates a strange almost do as i say not as i do relationship between majora's mask and its themes that is from the perspective that the game can only be communicating one thing from a certain point of view the presentation of these contrasting concepts is actually very important to our understanding of them while i suggested that the ways that the story contradict itself undercut its themes this uncertainty in itself is almost an important part of those themes in a way we've already seen the game take a single concept and approach it from several angles some of which i found problematic some not but those angles were necessary for me to fully explain the point i was trying to make being able to describe the alternative to what i saw as good and interesting was very important for supporting my point and i think that's the same thing happening here maybe to truly see what you find to be good you first have to understand that what you consider to be [Music] evil throughout this video we've alluded a lot to majora's mask's constant interest in relationships and their place in crises we spent an extended part of an earlier section discussing the thoughts on personal relationships and the ways that they can be deeply selfish and individualist in their motivations despite their appearing to be collectivist but there's actually a counter example to this idea in the relationship between link and his fairy companion tattle at the beginning of the game very soon after link was transformed into the form of a deku by skull kid the fairy who was at the time the imps companion took a moment to rub salt in the wound by briefly tormenting link knocking him to the ground however while she was doing this skull kid under the influence of maduro's mask retreated further into the forest leaving his friend behind immediately struck by what had happened tattle hastily apologized and requested that her and link form an alliance of sorts to help them both out of the situation they found themselves in tattle being separated from her family and her friends and link being trapped in a body that was not his the relationship between these two is at the time purely conditional and motivated by circumstance it's clear that tattle is desperate to reunite with her brother and skull kid and will take any actions necessary to do so even forming a partnership with the person who she was just abusing moments before link on the other hand is just as trapped as tattle is though with a gold more of escape than the more specific motivations of the fairy over time though while tattle understandably never loses her more personal reasons for remaining with link she clearly becomes more increasingly invested in the well-being of the people and world of termina this change makes sense though tattle and tail aren't malicious actors they were the only ones to befriend skull kid when he was all alone but they also fell under the influence of maduro's mask though more indirectly than skull kid through his corrupted influence rather than that of the mask itself back to tattle though this change prompted another one not only in her motivations but also in her relationship with link a selfish alliance becomes an actual companionship built on basically common goals including the preservation of life and livelihood for others and a willingness to make sacrifices to meet those goals i said at the beginning of this video that majora's mask is not fundamentally a story about time and that's true but that doesn't mean that it's not a theme and while i was resistant towards talking about it as a main one because it's so well covered i do want to talk about it here majora's mask has three main methods of conveying urgency to the player the first is the moon the second is music and the third of course is the clock the moon and the game's soundtrack work in similar ways both most notably in clock town through escalation the moon obviously achieves this by increasing in size each day inching closer and closer to the clock tower the music similarly becomes more unsettling and urgent as the days progress but the clock is a bit different unlike the other two elements it's always present ticking away at the bottom of your screen it doesn't change as the daze goes on it never becomes more or less intrusive it's just there a constant reminder of urgency but at the same time a reassuring presence something reminding you of the unwavering consistency of time or it would seem that way at least but as anyone who has played majora's mask knows time is not as consistent a thing as we might like it to be it can be sped up slowed down reversed skipped forward or under certain circumstances stopped altogether as one of the game's most mysterious and disgust figures the happy mask salesman repeats to link several times time is not eternal so with not even that to be an anchor in life what does majora's mask present as the alternative well relationships time and time again even with the moon bearing down on termina people's response is to commit themselves to each other a problem so broad that the only way to deal with it is to fall into life parallel to it you could say that this is a kind of denialism to be honest i wouldn't entirely disagree with you but there's also something very innately human about it upon teaching him the song of soaring kapoor gabora tells link from the first time you play this song we shall become eternal friends transcending time and place if you're able to stay awake long enough to understand it all you can hear a very interesting story from andrew's grandmother in the stockpot inn the four giants it describes the initial departure of the ancient giants from termina and of their friends the imp who was so saddened and angered by it to such a degree that he began to torment the people of the land eventually the giants were made to return to stop him warning of his destruction should he continue to cause such strife it's pretty immediately clear that this story is about skull kid and that it is as much as it can be a presentation of basically historical fact we see that at the end of the game skull kid actually references the story saying to the giants you guys you hadn't forgotten about me you still thought of me as a friend it might seem weird to bring this up at the end of a bit about majora's masks ideas about the positive side of relationships since it seems to fit more with the thoughts on selfishness caused by them but i think that actually it's much more of an example of the impermanence of those more selfish motivations and that it's possible to move beyond them and return to the fundamentally good nature of personal connections while we don't necessarily see skull kid truly come to terms with his actions i think that just the recognition that the friendship of the giants had never ended is something important the problem of skull kid's relationships was not so much a product of selfishness on its own as it was a product of deep insecurity and i do think that we're seeing a moving beyond that even when everything else has fallen apart connections between people endure though we're nearly at the end of our journey today and have examined to detail things from nearly every corner of the game's story and world we've actually failed so far to discuss the way that majora's mask begins and that's with the story in the land of hyrule there echoes a legend a legend held dearly by the royal family that tells of a boy a boy who after battling evil and saving hyrule crept away from the land that made him a legend done with the battles he once waged across time he embarked on a journey a secret and personal journey a journey in search of a beloved and invaluable friend a friend with whom he parted ways when he finally fulfilled his heroic destiny and took his place among legends this passage though relatively short even by majora's mask standards actually sets us up with one of the most constant and wide-reaching themes in the game regret regret is unlike some of the game's other concepts a fairly surface level one it's something that most people could probably pick up on after just a cursory playthrough but even though this theme is easily identifiable it takes just as much work as anything else to fully trace throughout termina while many other ideas are confined somewhat to a certain area of plot or physical region regret is something as pervasive as it is varied within the game's world from the ghostly dancer camaro seeking to have his knowledge spread to others to the farmer grog who wishes to see his chicks grow into chickens to the undead gibdos of the akana valley still seeking worldly possessions after their death countless characters are motivated by this emotion for personal gain the spreading of happiness to others or something more ambiguous in the middle of the two and as we discussed it largely becomes link's personal duty to ease the pain of these people and soothe their regrets most often through the miraculous song of healing but the song of healing is kind of a strange element in the world of maduro's mask for one it seems to have different kinds of effects at different points in time in some cases visibly curing a subject of some actual curse or ailment but far more often not seeming to have any tangible effect other than to calm the person to whom it's played and it's the second circumstance that really gets to be interesting for all intents and purposes the song of healing is often a device that in no material way improves the circumstances of those it is used on while in some cases it may be accompanied by a promise for link to carry out some tasks for the individual in question it is rarely if ever that the promise itself seems to motivate change of sentiments to anywhere near the same degree as the song and so the question could reasonably be raised is the song of healing a good thing is it a desirable outcome that someone feels assured of the future and comfortable in it when the reality of their situation is that those feelings would be unfounded is an individual being made to artificially feel secure a responsible thing in a time of crisis in part this question may be answered by the fact that most of those the song is used on are already deceased in fact often the purpose of the song is to soothe the regrets of those who have no power to address them really there is no negative outcome link isn't making those with an ability to act complacent simply giving peace to those without any but in a way isn't that what regrets are to all of us living or dead there's something out of our reach that we still hold on to despite our inability to influence them and if that regret is strong enough it can consume us link finds himself in termina to begin with because he abandoned hyrule completely there being nothing left for him there after his fairy companion departed at the end of his first quest he was unable to let this parting be permanent to such a degree that he left behind everything he knew perhaps he wished he had said something at their final meeting or had done more to prevent her departure we're given little enough information of course that it's difficult to say with any certainty what link's thought process is but considering everything we've said about the game up to this point it would make sense wouldn't it we see others in the game whose regrets and sadness are deeply linked to their relationships with others cafe and andrew both undergo a great amount of emotional turmoil largely because of cafe's shame over having been cursed by the skull kid and having his wedding mask stolen and this turmoil is only resolved through their being reunited it's a very lovely and equally tragic scene when it finally happens the two of them are finally brought together in the very last moments before the moon crashes into the earth but they have peace andrew tells link please take refuge we are fine here we shall greet the morning together but i do think that one of the most sad parts of this game is that link himself never finds any such peace after wandering the world healing the sorrows of others he is still left with nothing to tether him to one place he still has that lingering regret and that never gets resolved majora's mask in the 20 years since its release has never had a direct sequel the story has never had another chapter but i think that's what makes it a lot more powerful through the game we see a variety of themes of leadership power regret relationships responsibility and others but a big part of those is that almost every one of them is paired with a counter-example the conclusions drawn can be ambiguous and open to a lot of investigation as we did today ending on this note of not knowing where link might be headed next if he would find his friend how the story would conclude is the final piece of that unlike many other zelda titles we can't just be happy that link has completed his quest because he hasn't really sure he saved termina but really that was just an obstacle between him and his real goals a character brought up in my opinion all too often when discussing majora's mask is the happy mask salesman most commonly he's presented as some kind of a sinister force in the game's world on account of his possession of powerful magical artifacts speaking in cryptic dialogue and unclear motivations but i think that's what's often missed is just how similar he and link actually are they are two of the only characters in the game who have a concept of time beyond a linear progression both of them need something from the other and both of them are in termina by chance by the actions of skull kid early in the game the two of them form a deal actually much like that between lincoln tattle the salesman will free link of his deku form and link will retrieve majora's mask and this deal well forgotten by many players is present throughout the whole game until link's side of it is finally fulfilled at the very end and when the deal is complete both of them depart from termina their business complete and so it ends the salesmen in one direction link in another i think tattle says it best well it's almost time for the carnival to begin so why don't you just leave and go about your business the rest of us have a carnival to go to [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music]

Channel: RealmW

Views: 111,225

Keywords: majora's mask, zelda, politics of zelda

Id: nW2K3of-wCk

Length: 50min 31sec (3031 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/santanapeso]

MM is my favorite game of all time can’t wait to watch.