The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Fridge Brilliance

  • Why are Koume and Kotake good guys in this game when they were evil in Ocarina of Time? Maybe they became more evil and power hungry when they raised Ganondorf, realizing how much power they had over raising the only male of the Gerudo generation. Since Ganondorf doesn't exist in Majora's Mask, it's possible that they never gave in to their power lusts?
    • When they died, they went to Heaven, or "UP", which might suggest that they weren't truly evil to begin with. Their Terminian selves might reflect on that.
  • When I first played the game, I wasn't too impressed with the Skull Kid and the Mask. Over the years, I realized something. He was the best villain I'd ever seen in a video game. Both of them are part of a whole - not that Skull Kid is even conscious of this fact. He's mad with power, but of course that power isn't his. Majora may be the wielder of the power, but he's unable to direct it in any way that the Skull Kid wouldn't like. The end result, the Skull Kid wants to cause some mischief, Majora wants to destroy as much as he can. The combination leads to the multitude of problems you see around the world, and the clear impending destruction of the entire planet. Add to all of this the miniature Fridge Logic scenes you find at multiple points throughout the game, and you realise just how truly twisted and dangerous that duo is. - Ein Dose
    • I always liked Majora's Mask as a kid but I never understood why the Skull Kid turned Kafei into a child until I read the manga version of the game and then it all made sense. Kafei has someone who loves him but the Skull Kid thinks that he is unloved since the Four Giants left. He's acting like a jealous, hurt kid; bullying someone who has what he wants but can't take. It's even more evident in the manga during the fight between Link and the Skull Kid by having Kafei there as well and having his and Anju's reunion there. When they hug, the Skull Kid yells at them not to do that in front of him which is what triggers his breakdown instead of the arrival of the Giants. These little things and the overall story is what makes this my favorite Zelda game. - Malconvoker
  • I always thought Nintendo was lazy for reusing all of the same characters from Ocarina and just renaming them, but then I realized that they are all actors and that they are simply taking on a different role for this game. Termina is a world in an alternate dimention to that of Hyrule. For this reason, everything in Termina is a alternate version of that in Hyrule. For example, Clock Town is the Termina equivalent of Castle Town, Romani Ranch is the same as Lon Lon Ranch etc. On that note the woman, Romani, is the Termina equivalent of Malon from Hyrule who is also a ranch worker.
  • I recently realized that the game's name refers to not one, but two beings. First, there is the one who is named Majora's Mask, for obvious reasons. However, in a way, the real Majora's Mask is the Skull Kid. After all, a mask is basically something that hides who you really are. Majora was pretending that the Skull Kid was the villain, hiding its true nature. Skull Kid was, literally, Majora's mask. In fact, this reasoning just now made me realize something even deeper: the game is largely about removing the masks to show the truth. The bosses are the guardians of Termina, but they have been forced to wear monstrous masks, which you must remove to restore the guardians. At the end of the game, in order to unlock the Fierce Deity's Mask, you must give up all of your masks except 3: the ones that contain the souls of real beings. Even the Happy Mask Salesman plays into this: he's creepy because his job is selling fake faces. - Gorank
  • We all know that Majora's Mask was set on a sort of parallel world to the Hyrule we knew of in Ocarina of Time, which is why there are tons of characters in Termina who look exactly like the people in Hyrule (never mind the ones with slight changes like Ruto/Lulu or the Gerudo bandits/pirates because they're still generally the same thing). Some characters, however, are either portrayed as the polar opposite of what they were in Ocarina (such as Twinrova) or had whatever habit they're known for bumped up several notches when compared to their role in Hyrule (such as Sakon, who was a petty thief NPC in Hyrule, but now a badass thief that not only is partially responsible for screwing over people like bomb granny and Kafei but also serves as one of the extremely rare examples Link can kill a person whom was not intended to be a mook). Of all the characters seen in the game, the only ones that remain the same in Termina as they did in Hyrule is the Skull Kid (that is more evident in the manga than the game, to be honest) and The Happy Mask Salesman. As the point above said, the Happy Mask Salesman lives on the fact he sells masks (fake faces), and nearly everything and everyone you encounter otherwise either act completely different from what they were before or look different than they were (even if it's something as simple as new clothes, new haircuts or a new style/color. Suppose Termina had served even more as a look into the mind of the Happy Mask Salesman (where everyone either showed their true faces or took on a much different look/persona under a "mask") than simply a neighboring kingdom that had secretly and mysteriously held people who look like resident Hylians?
    • Of course, a much simpler reasoning that the Happy Mask Salesman and the Skull Kid act the same is that they are the same characters from Hyrule. The Skull Kid is heavily implied by the ending to be the same one as in the Lost Woods, to the left of the entrance. - crocswsocks
  • It recently occurred to me that the Skull Kid's plan to destroy Termina is just a child's tantrum gone horribly wrong. The Skull Kid wants to see his friends again, and the only thing he can think of is to create a crisis so that the giants will have to emerge as protectors again. However, as Majora's Mask slowly consumes him it sabotages his plans by imprisoning the four giants so that the world will actually be destroyed instead. The comment taunting Link to summon the giants is a sign of the mask's cocky assurance that he's completely in control and nothing can go wrong. When Link actually calls the giants, however, their cries suddenly remind the Skull Kid why he brought the moon down in the first place, and he screams as he finally realizes what he's done. - Technicolor Pachyderm
  • As a kid, I always wondered aloud why the Majora's Incarnation decided to do the moonwalk. At first I dismissed it as the boss's general insanity. Years later, I realize something: Majora's Incarnation is doing the moonwalk inside the moon. - Crazer
  • Navi was given to link as a guide, but he`s destined to be a hero. He doesn't need any more than one guide. Skull Kid has two fairies, cause he needs more guidance. Navi resembles "navigate", what a guide does. Tatl and Tael (Skull Kid's fairies)sound like "tattletale", which is one way a child can spread mischief. Tatl (or "tattle") is short form for giving information to an adult while trying to get someone in trouble, like how Tatl tells you monster's weaknesses.
  • At first, the curiosity shop owner seems like a nice, normal merchant, but after a while you realize he's a buyer and seller of stolen goods. He sells the bomb bag that Sako stole and says, "Just between you and me, it belongs to the bomb shop". Also, he describes some items by saying, "It's a real steal!
  • It used to bug me how much emphasis was put on sidequests. Then I realised; at the start of the game, Link's initial mission was to find Navi. Defeating Majora and saving Termina was, in itself, a sidequest to Link's original goal of finding his friend!
  • Many a fan used to get extremely annoyed by Kafei's Idiot Ball of stepping onto the switch that activates Sakon's security system. Except he has no reason to believe it was a switch, and naturally think it was a pedestal to view it. Or alternatively, think it would remove the glass covering it.
  • The BGM for Clock Town during the final day is Stepford Smiler in musical form: the nervously forced cheerfulness of the usual Clock Town theme is foiled by the dramatic tone of despair playing alongside it, like someone hiding a dark secret and, after two days, not being able to keep it anymore.
  • The Skull Kid goes from an annoying but mostly harmless Troll/prankster to a dangerous monster who calls down the Moon to destroy Termina just by wearing a mask. OK, so it's really the mask calling down the Moon, just using the Skull Kid as a host. But why the Moon? Then I remembered the Moon's Tear cutscene, and what he did after the Tear dropped: he turned around, and slapped his rear end in your direction. Skull Kid's just a prankster and an overall jackass at worst, he wouldn't want to destroy the world himself, but he let himself be used by a force of evil just for his chance to moon the world that rejected him. And the force of evil in question did what every force of evil does when you sell it your soul for a favor: made truth from your Exact Words in a way you didn't intend. --User:Lord Pentium
  • I've always considered Majoras Mask to be the darkest game in the series, but for a long time, I couldn't say why. Then, one day, it hit me: when Link sets out to save Termina, he's basically setting out to save a doomed world. Remember when the Owl says that the land "was destined to fade"? This essay theorizes that the ancient people of Termina blasphemed the goddesses of Hyrule, which led to evil running rampant and bad things happening to everyone. When Link defeats Majora's Mask, a rainbow appears in the sky, possibly to show that the goddesses have forgiven Termina. -Elven Queen
    • It was once pointed out to me that Majora's Mask is not merely a parallel of Ocarina of Time but an inversion - in Ocarina of Time, the problem is human (Ganondorf steals the Triforce) and the solution is divine (the hero rises to the call). In Majora's Mask, the problem is divine (the gods have either abandoned or cannot save the world) and the solution is human (Link intervenes).
  • Majora's Mask posits that everything, including people, exists in a state of duality - the superficial image and the true underlying aspect. A green and thriving swamp filled with poison water. Holy temples void of divine presence. A carnival of lights and a dark, falling moon. People going about their day, smiling and courteous, only to be found later curled up in laundry pools or bar seats, crying out their unhappiness. But this duality is a natural, if not necessary, aspect of life - because if the Skull Kid had even the barest inkling of what Link really was, would he have dared challenge him? Who else could save a world of masks and illusions than a Hero who hides behind the face of a boy?
  • In Twilight Princess, Gorons explicitly don't need to breathe underwater. Then why does Goron Link die instantly in deep water in Majoras Mask? Because Gorons are made of rock. They're heavy. Goron Link isn't dying; the game is just resetting that action because he can't get back up once he's at the bottom, so he'd be stuck there. (IIRC, you can't change/put on/take off masks underwater.) Which doesn't explain why it happens in the pools of water he can just walk out of...although with the game mechanics of the time, that kind of differentiation may have been impossible to program.
    • It's explained in-game (on Darmani's tombstone) that Gorons are immobilized in deep water. It happens in pools he could just walk out of because he can't walk out of them.
  • When you head Darmani and Mikau's souls you see a Dying Dream. Darmani's is a bunch of Gorons praising him as a hero. Mikau's is the Indigo-gos playing and he and Lulu walk toward them. When you beat the temple in their respective area you can talk to certain people to get a bonus scene. The one for the mountain involves... the Gorons praising Link (in the form of Darmani) as a hero. The one for the ocean is... the Indigo-gos playing with Link (as Mikau). Not only did Link heal their souls, he also managed to fulfill their Dying Dream for them.
  • This troper, as an adult, began to see Termina as Link navigating Purgatory. Link is pursuing the Skull Kid, and dies in the process. Tatl's need to reunite with Tael parallels his own need to reunite with Navi, which he can never do now that he's dead. Doing so allows him to leave Termina/Purgatory. It also explains why everyone in Termina looks exactly like someone in Hyrule: they're based on Link's memories of the people of Hyrule. As for the Alternate Character Intepretation, however, I got nothing.

Fridge Horror

  • There is a rather disturbing piece of fridge horror when you consider the Deku Butler's Son. Since it is implied that the "tree" near the beginning of the game used to be the Butler's Son, it's not a tremendous stretch of the imagination to say that the son may have still been alive moments before. That is, until the Skull Kid came along and ripped the soul out of his body in order to turn you into a Deku.
    • Hyrule Historia Jossed the part about Skull Kid killing the Scrub to curse Link, but confirmed that the tree WAS the Butler's son.
  • The Gerudo Pirates stealing the Zora eggs. Sure they're the key to the temple, but they're stealing eggs. In other words, they're kidnapping children, and unborn children at that. No wonder Mikau went nuts.
    • It's rather obvious that's why Mikau went after them despite apparently having no combat training (thus getting himself killed in the process) - there's some big hints that those are HIS unborn children the pirates stole.
    • Not to mention that every time you rescue an egg from the fortress, you're told that it doesn't look very healthy. Between that and what you're told about how delicate the eggs are, we get that the Gerudo Pirates kidnap children and keep them in unsafe conditions that endanger their health.
    • Worse of all, if you have already done the water temple, gone back in time and finished the game without doing this quest, you have basically left this eggs to die.
  • Think about what happens if you fail in keeping the aliens away from the barn. Not only do they succeed in taking the cows, they take Romani along with them. Yes, she comes back, but she isn't quite herself. It makes you wonder... just what did they do to her in that time?!
  • In Ikana Canyon, Pamela is trapped in a house with a lot of undead monsters outside and being forced to watch as her dad slowly turns into one. That's bad enough, but consider that her dad is halfway turned when Link shows up. If Link hadn't interfered, there's a good chance the dad would have turned into a Gibdo and killed his daughter.
  • It's pretty obvious that had it not been for Link, all of Termina would've been doomed. But we all know that he saved them. In his timeline. Once you look at the fact that there are two other timelines that OOT spawned, it makes you wonder what happened to all the Terminans? Without any other Link going to Termina, there's no hope for them. In the adult timeline that OOT Link left, it's seven years in the future, which means that Termina is long gone. And in the Decline timeline, where Ganon won, the A Ltt P/Oracle/LA Link and Ao L Link only go in the Lost Woods for a very short time.
    • And it gets even worse when you realize that all those Reset Button uses from your ocarina may have created even MORE than three alternate timelines...
    • Even worse, in the game over for Majora's Mask, it is shown that in the walls of fire, the mask is still squeaky clean and just as evil. Could invade the Decline and Adult timeline's world anytime.
      • FORTUNATELY, official word says that the time travel in Majora's Mask didn't create multiple timelines, since rather than traveling backwards in time, time was actually rewound.
  • Some may ask, why are the Gorons so bothered by the winter? They're made of rock, right? Let's look at this scientifically, water likes to seep into ground cracks. It also expands when it freezes, making the cracks in the rocks bigger, this can split giant rocks in half over time. Now remember that Gorons roll everywhere at high speed, likely creating a lot of friction, and probably absorbing water into any cracks they may have gained from smacking into walls or whatever.

Fridge Logic

  • When using the Blast Mask, you can raise your shield to prevent the damage. That's right, raising your shield somehow prevents damage from your face exploding.
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