ursulaklegun:

ursulaklegun:

ursulaklegun:

If you think about Majora’s Mask as the story of the Hero of Time’s emotional maturation, which I do, the deku transformation in the beginning can be read as an allegory for how Link’s physical maturation in Ocarina of Time felt for him

Actually allegory probably isn’t the term I’m looking for I’m sorry I’m high

Ok so to explain. Imagine you are Hero of Time Link:

You have always been marked as Different from the other Kokiri, as you lack a fairy. Then you finally get one, only to discover that your tree-father is not your father, you are an orphan and the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Next thing you know, you’re face-to-face with the very evil you are supposed to defeat, and that evil dwarfs you. It strikes you down. You are sealed away for seven years without your knowledge, and you wake up in a new body, being told by a stranger that you weren’t strong enough so he took the liberty of putting you to sleep in an alternate dimension just long enough for you to go through puberty. You save the world as asked, and Zelda, the only one who seems at all cognizant of the fact that you were robbed of your childhood, sends you back in time to live out being a twelve(?) year-old kid with no family. Your last friend, that fairy, leaves for no reason. You are alone.

That sucks a lot!!! Link’s grieving the disappearance of his friend as he searches for her in vain, and he’s grieving the friends he’d made in a future he left behind, all as he tries to figure himself out as an individual. Cue looking totally depressed in the beginning of Majora’s Mask, riding Epona with his head down, so deep in thought he doesn’t notice he’s being followed until he’s already been tackled.

So when mask-possessed Skull Kid turns Link into a deku scrub and he sees his reflection in a puddle and he screams—there must’ve been a sense of deja vu there. Once again, he’s awakened to a full-body transformation. In Ocarina of Time, Link had the body of an adult, but hadn’t been awake to mature mentally; in the beginning of Majora’s Mask, he’s already has the experience of his OoT journey, and has seen more than a child should. Now he’s changed and powerless again and it’s an actual curse this time. He has to save the world again and this time, he’s a fucking plant (for the time being).

Deku Link is very small and mostly powerless; he can’t even hold a sword. This is just conjecture, but I think that when Majora’s Mask chose to curse Link in that specific manner, it was drawing upon something in Link’s psyche: the history of social alienation (translated into making him another species entirely), as well as the sense of being simply too small and too weak to save hyrule in his child form (translated into making him smaller and weaker via the deku form). It’s suggested in-game that deku form is that of a deku child even younger than child Link. It’s the physical opposite of his initial adult transformation in OoT, but psychologically is analogous to how he must’ve felt getting knocked onto his ass by Ganondorf during their very first direct encounter. Reading it that way, it’s very satisfying when link learns the song of healing and literally waves goodbye to the curse that afflicted him as if it was an old friend. He gets a level of agency that he did not have when he was transformed into an adult the first time.

It’s really profound, in my opinion, that the memory of Zelda—the one person who was like, “hey, Link’s had it kinda rough”—playing the Song of Time for Link is what saved him during the encounter with Skull Kid at midnight of the first three-day cycle. Just the memory of someone who cared gave him the means to turn back time and learn the Song of Healing.

Termina is a land without its own hero, and Link has been swept up in its fate only by unfortunate (for him) circumstances, but his journey causes him to bond with and help an entire town full of people. He carries out the unfinished business of the dead, and in that, must confront his own existential issues. He fulfills the wish of the deku butler’s son, implied to be the spirit in the deku mask, which is simply to race his father once more. He fulfills Darmani’s dying wish, which was to protect his people. He fulfills Mikau’s dying wish, which was to save Lulu’s eggs, heavily implied to be his children. Link helps other people and, in that, helps himself.

It’s the sidequests, I think, that really flesh out the narrative of the Hero of Time’s emotional maturation. The race against the deku butler is, in fact, a sidequest. To get all the masks you have to complete the sidequests, and in doing so, get acquainted with everyone else’s problems. You have to fix them and then watch them get un-fixed when you play the Song of Time. The sense of futility forces you to consider: was it worth it? Yes, because you got something out of the experience. A memento—a mask. You can’t save every timeline, but you can grow from each attempt. Other people’s love and loss becomes a part of you.

Among my favorite moments is when one of the four giants, I believe the one from the canyon but I could be wrong, tells Link, “forgive your friend”. It’s so cryptic, but I think it has to be about Navi, even if she isn’t mentioned by name. Forgive Navi for leaving. This god knows what’s going on in Link’s head and acknowledges it. There’s a silent narrative going on with the Hero of Time, who despite being a character made for players to project onto, has a life of his own. It’s hidden, but it’s there.

Ok I don’t know what I’m writing or why anymore but. I love Majora’s Mask a lot

Wow this is full of typos and I don’t remember writing it but it rules. Shoutout to whoever made this appear in my notifications lol