Majora's Mask

Majora's Mask
Species	Unknown
Eye color	Green
Debut	The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Majora's Mask is a demonic mask that acts as the titular main villain of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The dark and mysterious mask grants evil powers to whomever wears it.

Background

Little is known about the mask and its origins, and whether it originated in Hyrule or Termina. All that is known is that an ancient tribe one used it for hexing rituals. The tribe came to fear the catastrophes that the mask could bring about, so they sealed it in shadow forever to prevent its misuse.

The Happy Mask Salesman went through many hardships to find Majora's Mask claimed it for himself. However, shortly afterwards the Happy Mask Salesman was jumped by the Skull Kid. The Skull Kid was drawn to Majora's Mask and began wearing it. Majora's Mask twisted Skull Kid's psyche, and he began using the mask's powers to wreak havoc throughout Termina. The Skull Kid's antics involved getting revenge on his enemies, such as imprisoning the Four Giants that rejected his friendship, or for random acts of cruelty, such as changing Kafei into a child and shattering the Great Fairies.

Eventually, Majora's Mask drove Skull Kid to bring about a great catastrophe by causing the Moon to start falling to Termina. The moon would land on Termina and completely destroy it at the end of three days' time. However, they also wandered into the Lost Woods of Hyrule, where the Skull Kid attacked Link, mugged him and placed a curse to turn him into a Deku Scrub. Link followed the Skull Kid into Hyrule and recovered his ocarina from him, at which point the Happy Mask Salesman was able to undo the curse by teaching him the Song of Healing. Link embarked on a quest to try and prevent the moon's fall.

Link's journey ended in him freeing the Four Giants, and they held up the moon from falling on the third night. The Skull Kid seemed to see the error of his ways at that point, at which point Majora's Mask started speaking and moving. It tossed the Skull Kid away, calling him a worthless puppet. The mask then retreated into the moon. When Link arrived in the moon, he found a small meadow inhabited by five small green children (with a strange resemblance to the Happy Mask Salesman). The first four children wore the masks of the defeated bosses and were playing around together, while the fifth child wore Majora's Mask and sat alone in the shade of a tree, as he felt unwanted. The boy wearing Majora's Mask would ask Link to play if he talked to him. If Link had given away all his masks to the other boys, the Majora's Mask boy would grant him the Fierce Deity's Mask. By agreeing to play with the Majora's Mask boy, Link was teleported into the final boss fight with Majora's Mask.

Majora's Mask attacked in three phases. In its first stage, it was simply a floating mask and attacked by spinning around, and it also summoned the masks of the four defeated bosses to aid it. Afterwards, it grew arms and legs as well as a small one-eyed head, with the "mask" becoming its chest, to become Majora's Incarnation. This form mostly danced and ran around in a bizarre manner. Its third and final form was Majora's Wrath. In this form, Majora became larger and more humanoid with a demonic head, bearing the singular eyeball on its forehead and long, whip-like extensions from its arms.

After being defeated, Majora's Wrath disintegrated. This process apparently eliminated all the evil from Majora's Mask, leaving it as a normal mask that was soon recollected by the Happy Mask Salesman.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• Majora's Mask has appeared as its own trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. In Melee, the trophy is won by completing the "Trophy Tussle 3" event match, which is battled atop a giant version of the Majora's Mask trophy. It is also worn by Skull Kid during his appearance as an Assist Trophy in the 3DS/Wii U Smash and its accompanying normal trophy, and the mask is also available as headgear for Mii Fighters through DLC.
• It appears as a wearable item in Animal Crossing: City Folk and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. In the former game, it could be purchased from Tom Nook's shop for 6,000 points, while in the latter game it can be gained from the Nook brothers by redeeming fortune 9 from a fortune cookie.
• In Hyrule Warriors, it is worn by the Skull Kid and is also part of unlockable costumes for Lana and Cia.

Other Media

• Majora's Mask is also featured in the Majora's Mask manga, with a role nearly identical to its role in the game. Additionally, author Akira Himekawa wrote an original side story prior to the game's release which depicts his own version of the mask's origin. It is shown that a maneating creature lived ten million years ago, with wish-granting armor. A visiting human tricks the monster by exploiting its loneliness and plays music on bongo drums to make the creature dance for three days until it dies on the fourth day. The human than carves the armor into Majora's Mask and seals the monster's power within it, hoping that it slumbers forever.

Trivia

• The mask was designed and named by the game's art director, Takaya Imamura. He came up with the name by combining his last name with 'Jumanji', which is the name of a children's book and film about a cursed board game of the same name.
• In A Link Between Worlds, Majora's Mask is seen hanging on a wall in Link's house. It is never acknowledged in dialogue or the storyline, so its appearance is most likely just an easter egg and intended to hint at the then-forthcoming 3DS remake of Majora's Mask, which would be officially announced a year after the game's release.