I watched a video recently, The Majora’s Mask Grief Theory.
After watching this video, my critically-thinking brain started going off about it. There are so many problems I had with their theory, that I believe that all of it is completely implausible and ridiculous.
First of all, I think his claim about Clock Town does indeed represent denial, mostly because everyone seems to be conflicted as to whether or not the moon will fall. I can totally see how that represents denial. However, it’s located in the center of the map. Is denial thus the center of grief? Do you feel denial while you feel the other stages? That was rhetorical. Clock town cannot represent this stage of grief if its location is in the center of this grief-stricken land.
Woodfall is less close to this theory. The witches – Koume and Kotake – as well as the ship cruise guy, all seem to be lacking in any anger. Only the Deku scrubs have anger. One could argue that Woodfall is mainly the home of the Dekus, and for the sake of argument, let’s leave this one alone since really the only people not matching the anger emotion are the people that are strangers to the swamp.
This brings us to Snowhead, which to me he was really grasping at straws for. His point about Darmani is valid, but this in no way corresponds to all the other Gorons in the area. If anything, I’d say they’re all feeling fear from the blizzard, or at the very least they feel annoyed at the screaming Goron child. How can you just let that all pass?
Then he mentions depression, and uses both Snowhead and Great Bay to describe it. Well, if the 5 areas of the game represent the stages of grief, you can’t have some in one place and some in another. Also, we already established that Snowhead is not truly representative of a stage at all. Only one person Link interacts with represents that.
His argument about Great Bay is also invalid to me, because the only person who’s depressed is Lulu. Everyone else is either afraid, hopeful, proactive, or oblivious. Great Bay’s mood as an area, just like Snowhead, does not represent the depressive stage of grief.
His argument about Ikana Canyon – incorrectly referred to as Ikana Valley in the video – is completely invalid. He only focuses on the composer, Sharp. Flat doesn’t seem to feel any acceptance, rather he wants you to help his brother who is still being tortured. The Stalchildren, the Gibdos, and the people living in the music box… none of them represent acceptance at all. If anything, they represent denial again. The music box scientist is in denial about Gibdos being dead, and thinks he can bring them back to life again. The scientist’s daughter is in denial that her father is afflicted with the Gibdo pox that he has (she even denies it to her father when he comes back after playing the song of healing). The Gibdos surrounding the music box all seem to desire the death of the scientist inside. This isn’t acceptance, rather it’s more representative of the inevitability of death. The Stalchildren, are all still fighting the good fight, and will do whatever you tell them to do.
What about Keeta and Igos du Ikana? Captain Keeta is in denial about being dead, still believing the war is on. Then you straighten him out, after which he accepts his fate as being dead. Then he tells you to tell all the Stalchildren to rest as well, because the war is over. They may rest now. The Ikana soldiers still think they can fight even after being killed, and even the king still shoots for his ability to continue fighting. After you straighten them out, they finally take peace in the idea that they may now rest.
If anything, those latter people don’t represent acceptance, rather they represent depression, or giving in/giving up. Futility. If you’re focused on death, that’s what Ikana Canyon truly represents.
Also, it doesn’t make any sense that these would represent the five stages of grief when there are seven different locations in Termina.
We already know about the main five: Clock Town, Woodfall, Snowhead, Great Bay, and Ikana Canyon. What about Milk Road and The Moon? What would those areas represent?
Milk Road is separate from everything else… It’s got evil selfish assholes on it who will rob you, and 2 sisters trying to run a ranch of their own. The assholes have connections to the Garo in Ikana Canyon, and an odd country version of aliens appear on the night of the first day to take the cows and Romani. Romani has a fighting spirit, but she’s captured (if you do nothing) and returned on the 3rd day with her spirit taken. If you talk to the asshole Gorman brothers with the Gorman mask on, they bear guilt at their actions. Cremia, Romani’s older sister, expresses her guilt at not listening to Romani sooner… And let’s also focus on the other people in this area. Grog, the chicken guy. He’s depressed, but mostly feeling guilty that he never got the chance to see his baby chicks as full-grown roosters. Mamamu Yan (the doggie lady) is also completely oblivious to what’s going on, and only cares about her dogs. The only emotions one can really grab from this place are obliviousness and guilt. These do not fit in the 5 stages of grief… and yet it’s one of the Termina locations.
Finally, the one giant elephant nobody in this review bothered talking about: the moon. This to me is most representative of death. What of the area in the moon that you go to at the end? The moon begins consuming everything, and Link rushes in head-first to meet it. Once within, he’s in a timeless area. The clock is gone, and the area is very peaceful. Almost heavenly. Is this the land you go when you die? Notice the moon children… they’re wearing masks… all of them. In fact, they want your masks. Well, let’s look at what a mask does for someone. Minus the special attributes they give you in the game, a mask can be seen as an expression of something… an emotion. These children are unable to express themselves, having to instead use masks to do it. Your ability to express yourself… emotions… each of these masks represent an emotion. They take them away. This area, if any, is representative of acceptance. It is here that you give up your emotions/masks, but symbolically, you seem to be giving up your life. What makes you living…
And what of the quotes of these children when you give them masks…? You give them masks, and then they uncomfortably ask a question.
- “Your friends… What kind of… people are they? I wonder… Do these people… think of you… as a friend?”
- “Your true face… What kind of… face is it? I wonder… The face under the mask… Is that… your true face?”
- “The right thing…what is it? I wonder…if you do the right thing…does it make…everybody…happy?”
- “What makes you happy? I wonder…what makes you happy…does it make…others happy, too?”
The moon children are representative of the monsters that poisoned the land. They ask about companionship, honesty, morality, and pleasure. These are very closely-related to sins. If you don’t have enough masks to give, you won’t get these questions. Perhaps this is all representative of being judged. The more masks you have, the better person you were. You are judged as a morally-sound, positive, trustworthy comrade. How closely you match this description is represented by how much life you had in you.
Either way, they’re taking it from you. and interesting that you must enter into a test before you can do this. You must give up some of your life first before taking the test, and after taking the test, they take more of your life. This is more judgment.
Then comes the fight with Majora, where he gives you a new mask… that of the fierce deity. How could they have totally overlooked the fierce deity mask?
It would seem that if you passed their judgment 100%, they enable you to be a god. You’re able to use this power against them from that point on if you keep playing. A direct parallel to both Judaism and to Buddhism (giving up your possessions and not being tied down by anything to achieve Nirvana).
When you fight Majora’s Mask, it fights in 3 forms… each one more grotesque than the last. This could be the final test given. How strong is your will to survive? How strong is your will to stay alive?
And then at the end of the game, Link walks off into the same forest that brought him to this weird place in the first place. How could he be dead if he’s going right back into the same place he was when he started?
Honestly, if I could relate this game to anything, I’d say overcoming a terminal illness is the closest theory. Even the word “terminal” matches with what they said about “Termina”.
If denial is the center, then denial makes the most sense in the case of an illness. You deny that you have the illness, then you deny how serious it is…
Woodfall’s poisonous swamp is representative of the pain it causes, and the anger you feel at being given such an affliction. The Deku people also represent the feeling of blame you feel. You want to blame someone or something for this affliction, due to feeling injustice at receiving it.
Snowhead’s never-ending blizzard represents how trapped you feel as a result of this illness, and how hard it can be to hold on. The crying Goron missing his father is perhaps a bit representative at how weak and frightened you might feel… needing the support and assistance of a loved one to help you through it all.
Great Bay’s murky waters are really the focal point of the problems there. They’re creating problems in the tides, and during the confusion a mother loses her children. The pain of loss and the direction to go being clouded… you’re lost and unsure of what to do.
Ikana Canyon represents the fight against the inevitable… or the fight against fate. All the creatures there keep holding on, and they all give in eventually. The Garo, as explained in the video, even give in to suicide because they won’t die unless it’s on their terms. This is representative of how you feel when you’re terminally ill… hopeless… powerless. You keep holding on and fighting against it, even when it continues to take over you. It’s symbolic with that struggle, and questioning whether that struggle is worth it when giving in would be so much easier. The Stalchildren’s response is also representative of how you’ll do or try anything people tell you to do if you’re given the belief that it’ll help or cure you. The Garo’s response is the same that many take with their DNR orders… They’d rather die than struggle.
Milk Road is representative of guilt, and how obliviousness helped cause the problem. The guilt is there because you wish you had done more, or had done better. You feel sad about the things you never got to experience. You’re reminded of all the bad things you did. The obliviousness is there because, had you been paying attention to the signs, you might not be in this situation.
And finally, the moon. This to me is the deified power. A spiritual part of being terminally ill. You’re ranked on what kind of person you are, and if fate likes you, can even give you a special power against the illness. Majora’s increasingly grotesque transformations represent how bad your body gets as it nears the end of its illness cycle. The final test against Majora is thus a test of faith, and of your will to live. The tests with the moon children are tests of your character, in which you must now answer for your crimes. Giving up all the masks can be a sign of humbling yourself… realizing you were never in control to begin with. Give up all that you know, because you’re about to be faced with a new reality. Or, it could mean your life is slowly bleeding out.
If all favor you, you live, and are then able to leave the institution that had been keeping you.
Not only that, but the fierce deity mask represents the level of immunity your body has to fighting these poisons again… Ever notice those boss battles are a hell of a lot simpler with that mask on?
That’s my theory of the game, and I think it’s a hell of a lot more plausible than the Grief Theory.
What do you all think?