Majora's Mask (mask)

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Majora's Mask
Majora's Mask
Appearances	Majora's Mask (2000)
Power(s)	Bestows an evil and wicked power over the one who wears it

"The mask that was stolen from me... It is called Majora's Mask. It is an accursed item from legend that is said to have been used by an ancient tribe in its hexing rituals. It is said that an evil and wicked power is bestowed upon the one who wears that mask. According to legend... the troubles caused by Majora's Mask were so great... the ancient ones, fearing such catastrophe, sealed the mask in shadow forever, preventing its misuse..."

— Happy Mask Salesman

Majora's Mask (ムジュラの仮面,, Mujura no Kamen^?) is the major plot point and principal image for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. This ancient and powerful mask was once used in an ancient tribe's hexing rituals and was later sealed away because of its evil magic. It was later recovered and found its way into the hands of the Skull Kid.

The mask has the ability to bestow an evil and wicked power to his wearer. Inclusively, the Happy Mask Salesman said that just by obtaining the mask he could "sense the doom of a dark omen brewing", an "unwelcome feeling that makes your hair stand on end". With this evil power, the Skull Kid when wearing it, was granted with various undefined abilities. In the game, some include the ability to metamorphose physical appearance of the people, contaminate Termina's weather and vegetation, flight and control over the Moon.

[edit] Biography

The Skull Kid wearing Majora's Mask

The Happy Mask Salesman, in fear that a great disaster could befall on Termina, he tells the story of the Majora's Mask to Link, just after lifting the Deku Scrub curse placed on him by the Skull Kid.

The mask is introduced as an accursed item from legend. It is said to have been used by a mysterious ancient tribe in its hexing rituals. The legend goes on to say that an evil and wicked power comes upon the one who wears the mask. But the troubles caused by Majora's Mask were so great that their folks sealed the mask in shadow forever, preventing a catastrophe and future misuse. The tribe eventually vanished too, and the true nature of the mask was no longer known.

Eventually, many years later, the Happy Mask Salesman, a strange collector of masks, set out on a quest to find the mask. He went to "great lengths" to find the legendary mask and eventually obtained it. As he continued his travels across the world, the Skull Kid, who enjoyed playing pranks, knocked the Happy Mask Salesman out (or simply robbed him in his sleep) and ransacked his bag of masks. He eventually found Majora's Mask and put it on his face. The power residing within the mask took control of him and his personality changed gradually from a child's to a madman's.

As first heavier prank, the Skull Kid uses the power of the mask to transform Link into a Deku Scrub. Majora, the creature inside the mask/the mask brought to life, forces the Skull Kid to manipulate the Moon of Termina. The moon is taken out of its orbit and is set to crash into Termina. Also the Skull Kid starts using of his powers all over Termina, for mischief, including transforming Kafei into a child, injuring Koume, stealing Moon's Tear from Shikashi's Astral Observatory, blocking the road to Romani Ranch with a large rock, contaminating the water of Southern Swamp and Great Bay regions, creating a perpetual winter in Snowhead,fooling the Gerudo Pirates, and haunting Ikana with undead creatures.

However Link stumbles upon the alternate reality and eventually manages to save the Moon from crashing into the world by calling the Four Giants. At this, the mask abandons Skull Kid and retreats into the inner sanctum of the Moon. Link and Tatl follow into the Moon for a battle with Majora. Inside the Moon, Link find five kids running around a big tree, all of them wearing masks, four wearing the Boss Remains. The fifth one has Majora's Mask, when talked to him, he will take Link to another room where the final battle will be held. Additionally, if Link has all the masks from the game and gives them to the kids, the Majora's Mask kid will give to the hero the Fierce Deity's Mask, saying that is to play a game of "good guys against bad guys", implying Link as the bad one. After the defeat of Majora's three forms, Majora's Mask, Majora's Incarnation and Majora's Wrath, the mask seemingly loses its power and sentience, and the Happy Mask Salesman takes it with him on his travels to unknown places.

[edit] Theory

Due to similarities between the eyes of Majora's Mask and the Fused Shadow, an evil item from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, it has been proposed that the tribe that created the Fused Shadows, known as the Dark Interlopers, could be the same that created the mask of Majora.

This is likely because the Interlopers were an ancient tribe that excelled in dark magic, that later was banished from Hyrule by the Gods. Also is important to point out, that Majora's Mask probably came from the Kingdom of Hyrule, based on the Skull Kid and the Happy Mask Salesman, who were in Hyrule, before getting into Termina.

Additionally, it has been theorized that the Sheikah were connected to the Dark Interlopers. One of the many clues that support this, is the eye symbol similar to the Sheikah emblem on the back Fused of Shadows. If the Sheikah tribe were in fact also the creators of the Majora's Mask, then a clue to this would be that the Happy Mask Salesman already owns another Sheikah mask, the Mask of Truth, a mask passed down by this shadow tribe.

[edit] Non-canonical appearances

[edit] The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask manga

Its origins on the manga, in the left the beast, Majora, and in the right the musician who carved the mask.

The manga by Akira Himekawa, although not by official Nintendo authors, provides a original side story that attempts to explain the origin of the mask.

This extra chapter of the Majora's Mask manga, reveals Majora's Mask as an ancient and dangerous artifact made from the body armor of a legendary beast named Majora, that lived around ten million years before Majora's Mask events. Majora lived in a land that was not moving, but not dead either, nor had it stopped. According to a myth devised "by the humans themselves," the armor worn by Majora was supposed to grant wishes and hold a great and terrible power. Warriors, adventurers, soldiers, men, and women sought after Majora for his armor, though he killed them all.

After centuries of a solitary existence, a human, disguised as a musician and resembling Fierce Deity, approached Majora, and offered it eternal rest, not by fighting, but by playing music. As the human beat a drum he carried with him, "making time move", Majora began to dance for three days, and on the fourth day, died. All that remained of the beast was his armor.

The human carved Majora's Mask from the armor. By doing so, all of Majora's power was sealed in the mask. The human believed that by creating the mask, his power was no longer a menace. He threw the mask in an abyss and was lost for centuries.

[edit] Super Smash Bros. Melee

"A lonely Skull Kid put on Majora's Mask and unknowingly allowed a great evil to invade the land of Termina. The mask manifested its evil power into the fearsome looking moon, and the Skull Kid became merely a puppet under its malevolent power."

— Majora's Mask Trophy

This fighting game include a mode of challenges, called Events. In "Event 47: Trophy Tussle 3" the stage is the Majora's Mask itself. On it the player must defeat other three CPU enemies in 3 minutes. After clearing the event, the Majora's Mask trophy will be rewarded.

[edit] Animal Crossing: City Folk

Majora's Mask can be purchased from Tom Nook's shop for 6,000 points. (Points obtained via buying items from Nook's shop.)

[edit] Gallery

The mask as it appears in-game.	Majora's Mask in the game logo.	Promotional artwork.	Beast form appearance in the manga.
Lunar Child wearing the mask.	Skull Kid with Majora's Mask playing Link's ocarina.	Skull Kid wearing the Majora's Mask in the forest.