We should therefore be reticent to take any claim about “evil magic” at face value, for it is not readily apparent what ‘evil’ could mean. (When we turn to consider the Happy Mask Salesman directly at a later point in this blog, I will assess precisely why there might be this apparent dissonance in his description of the Song of Healing.)įirstly, the game’s metaethical thesis, I have argued, is that morality does not fundamentally obtain in Termina. It is easy to accept the Happy Mask Salesman’s claim that this transformation is a form of evil magic, which Link dispels using the power of the song yet there are several reasons why we should doubt that what he says is actually the case. He remains this way until he regains his Ocarina from Skull Kid, at which point the Happy Mask Salesman teaches him the Song of Healing: in a complementary surrealist sequence (0:45 in the video), the giant Deku Scrub recedes from Link, as Link waves goodbye to it when the sequence ends, Link is Hylian again, and the Deku Mask rests at his feet. When Link arrives in Termina, the Skull Kid invokes the mystic energy of Majora to effectively curse Link: in one of the most surrealist sequences in the game (4:55 in the video), Link is embraced by a ephemeral colony of Deku Scrubs, then flees in vain from an enormous Deku Scrub that fills the entire screen when the sequence ends, Link has become a Deku Scrub. In light of the song’s scope, I offer readers a survey of it over a series of three posts, each considering different, specific aspects of its functionality within the game.Īlthough one song heals all five of the characters mentioned above, the instances of healing can be broken into two groups based on how the song functions: in the cases of Darmani, Mikau, and Kamaro, the song puts to rest a deceased or dying entity who is not at peace with their lives - what the Happy Mask Salesman refers to as healing “troubled spirits” - whereas in the case of Deku Link and Pamela’s Father, the song excises from them a parasitic entity that does not belong - what the Happy Mask Salesman refers to as “evil magic.” It is the latter category that I set out to examine in this post in particular, I wish to offer a way of viewing this dynamic of healing that is universalizable to a general meta-thesis about the nature of video games. In many ways, the Song of Healing is a cornerstone of what makes “Majora’s Mask” a unique entry in the “Zelda” series: it is what facilitates the creation of Transformation Masks, and the scenes of characters being healed are some of the most poignant that Termina has to offer. Besides healing Link, the Song of Healing can heal four other characters in Termina: the ghost of the Goron hero, Darmani the dying Zora guitarist, Mikau the transformed scientist, Pamela’s Father and the regretful ghost of the dancer, Kamaro. The Happy Mask Salesman describes the Song of Healing, which I have already mentioned as a central element of Termina’s musical metaphysics, as “a melody that heals evil magic and troubled spirits, turning them into masks.” He teaches it to Link at the beginning of the game, when Skull Kid uses the power of Majora’s Mask to transform Link into a Deku Scrub. The following is an entry in “A Comprehensive Theory of Majora’s Mask,” a series that analyzed the storytelling of Majora’s Mask from the time its 3D remake was announced to the time the remake was released. A Comprehensive Theory of Majora’s Mask.
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