Majora, the Moon, the Moon Children, and the Fierce Deity Mask

By: OniGanon
Majora was the son of the shaman in an ancient tribe. He was incredibly powerful from a young age, too powerful for his own good. He had 4 friends, rather tall odd looking fellows known as the four giants, and they often played games together. One day though, the giants had to go to the four compass directions and guard the world, leaving Majora without friends. He became lonely, scared, frustrated and angry. He became angry with the guardians, and with his incredible power, he created four new friends, friends that would always play with him, would never abandon him. Four friends, the opposite of the four giants. These new friends were Odalwa, Goht, Gyorg and Twinmold, created from the negative emotions of Majora, in essence they are Majora. The games these 5 played were rather different from the happy games played with the giants. Together, they wreaked havoc upon the land of Termina, making all of its inhabitants feel the same fear and anguish that Majora felt, the pain that the four beasts personified. The guardians and the tribes had to stop them. The guardians fought and kept the four beasts at bay, and the shamans of all the tribes combined their powers to banish Majora into a mask, and with that, the four beasts, which were all aspects of Majora, were also banished into masks. These masks were then used in rituals to tell the story of Majora and the beasts, but people began to act strangely after having worn the masks and they became violent. The masks were deemed far too dangerous to stay in Termina, and were magically sealed within the moon.

But Majora still lived on in that mask, and his negative emotions grew and grew, along with a new emotion: hatred for the giants and the people of Termina. The growing hatred fuelled his power. Eventually he was powerful enough to create another mask on Termina, a mask he could use to make puppets of those that wore it. The Happy Mask Salesman found this mask and, knowing of the legend behind it, headed to Termina to return it, so that it may again be sealed (for he didn't know that this was only a shell, not the true Mask of Majora). Of course, Majora could not let this happen, and luckily along came the Skull Kid who stole the mask. In the mask, the Skull Kid saw something familiar, the same loneliness and pain that he himself had felt when he lost his giant guardian friends. Drawn to the familiarity, he put it on and was corrputed by the hatred of Majora. With his new puppet, Majora/Skull Kid sought out and fought the four giants, exacting revenge on their (both Majora's and Skull Kid's) former friends. And with each giant's defeat, Majora created a beast mask for them, transforming the giants into the four beasts: Odalwa, Goht, Gyorg and Twinmold. These beasts warped their surroundings to suit their feelings, and created the dungeons. With the giants out of the way, and his beastly friends revived, Majora set about his revenge on the people of Termina. He possessed that which imprisoned him: the moon itself, and sent it on a crash course with Termina. Soon everyone would feel the pain he had suffered all these long years.

But then came Link, the courageous young child, hero of Hyrule. With all the preparations in place, Majora had little to do but wait, and so he began to torment the people and cause mischief to pass the time. This included stealing the Ocarina of Time and Epona. Link chased after him of course, and was lead to the land of Termina where he learned of their plight. He destroyed the beasts and took their masks, freeing the four giants. The giants stopped the fall of the moon and ruined Majora's plans. Seeing no further use of his puppet, Majora discarded Skull Kid and lured Link to the Moon to play his games, perhaps hoping to make a puppet of Link, or maybe even a friend.

The moon children are all Majora, in different aspects (the aspects that the beasts represent). What you see of the moon is an illusion, and represents the mind of Majora, the tree represents the growing negative emotions. Majora (well, the other 4 aspects of him), though he has become corrupted over time, still wonders what it's like to have true friends and to be happy, and asks Link about it. Link is invited to play games with the children, and when Link shows he plays the games well, the lonely Majora moon child under the tree offers to play a game with him. Majora builds a kind of respect for Link, and creates a mask for him. It is a powerful mask, and embodies the negative emotions within Link, particularly his anger, fears and his loneliness (having lost Navi). It is the dark side of Link, the side we have caught brief glimpses of several times. It is the side Link has battled to keep at bay. But this time Link decides to let it out, to acknowledge it. He decides to no longer deny its existence and instead lets it consume him, and this time no one is there to stop him. He puts on the Fierce Deity mask and is transformed. (Of course if you didn't get to play all those games with the moon children, Majora will consider you weak and will not have that respect for you, so will not create the mask.)

The illusion of the moon is lifted to reveal their true location: Majora's mind. Here, Link comes face to face with powerful physical manifestations of Majora's negative emotions. Link battles the mask Majora hides behind, and Link defeats it. He gets past the mask and plunges deeper into Majora's mind, to come face to face with Majora's confusion and childish instability (Majora's Incarnation). When he gets past that, he gets to the most powerful negative emotion, the one that has caused the land of Termina so much grief: Majora's wrath. With the defeat of Majora's Wrath, Majora's soul is finally calmed and is allowed to rest. Majora's mask loses its evil because Link defeats the evil and allows Majora to finally pass on. This is what he truly wanted, deep inside. Majora gave Link the FD mask not only out of respect, but because he wanted Link to defeat the darkness in his soul. Link allowed himself to feel his own negative emotions instead of bottling them up inside him, and because of that, his negative emotions left him for now. The Fierce Deity Mask loses its power (that's what I think happens to it on the fourth day) and Link returns to his child form. With Majora's passing on, his magic was undone. The possessed moon disappeared, the people of Termina were restored to their former state, the masks of the four beasts vanished and the Fierce Deity Mask was never seen again. Unfortunately, the Deku transformation mask also disappeared, since it too was the work of Majora. This meant the soul it contained, the Deku Butler's son, could not return to its body and it instead passed on. All that remained of Majora was the original mask, now an empty shell, a soulless husk devoid of any power or evil. It was now safe for the Happy Mask Salesman to keep.

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