Hey, Listen!

In Ocarina of Time, Link has a very strange character arc. As a baby, he's dropped off in the Kokiri Forest with the Great Deku tree. He lives there as a child with his Kokiri friends. Mido keeps him from visiting the Great Deku tree until he gets a fairy of his own, who eventually comes to him in the form of Navi.

From that moment on, his entire world changes. He goes through to meet the Great Deku tree, leaves the forest, and travels across Hyrule, all in a matter of days. To make things worse, after completing the quest he's set on, he suddenly ages seven years in the blink of an eye. His entire world changes again, this time to a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

Finally, he completes his journey, and ends up in a world at peace. He can return to his life and settle down. Yet, he doesn't. When next we see our hero, he is riding through the land, alone save for Epona, on a new quest, to find his lost fairy.

This raises the question: What happened to Navi?

There has been a theory running around for a while that Majora's Mask is the story of Link's death, and that his journey through Termina is representative of the stages of grief and coping with his own demise.

However, I propose an alternative to this: Link's adventures in Termina are not about his own death, but Navi's.


Consider: Link never had a chance to grow up. There is no death in the Kokiri Forest. No change. Link never matured. He never learned how to cope with loss, because he never experienced it, nor did the Kokiri. Link's only connection to this lost idyllic world? Navi.

Throughout the journey through Termina, Link gets a chance to experience that growth he never had the opportunity to experience before. He sees love, loss, hope, despair, friendship, betrayal, and so much more. In his first journey, the world flashes and changes around him in a few days. He doesn't get to experience it or see how it changes, he just blinks and the world is vastly different.

In Termina, the opposite is true. Link gets to experience everything the world has to offer, and everyone else is locked in a time loop. The moon doesn't represent the end, but rather it's a catalyst for another change to the world. Remember how Link pulled the Master Sword, only to find that Hyrule was now completely different? Link never got the opportunity to experience that change, to understand it. Yet, in Majora's Mask, he sees how quickly the world can change. He also sees how people change, and cope with these changes.


And how does the game end? With Link leaving. With Link saying farewell to his new companions and friends, the people he's come to know fairly intimately during this journey. Like the Skull Kid, Link says farewell to his new friends, understanding that just because they're not together, it doesn't mean that they're not friends. That it's ok to say goodbye.

In a game full of the theme of coming full circle, this is the ultimate conclusion. Link begins his journey at the first stage of grief. Denial. Not through Clock Town representing it, but through his own actions. He denies that Navi is gone, and he goes looking for her. He's running from the truth, from his loss. "If I can just find her, we'll be together again".

But in the end, he learns to accept the loss. Navi's gone, but that's ok. The world does change. There is loss, there is despair. But there is also hope, happiness, and friendship. So Link can continue to journey, not running from the truth, but looking on to what lies ahead.



Just another interpretation of the events of Majora's Mask that I wanted to share.

I haven't played Majora's mask but that's a pretty insightful analysis that paints the game in a surprisingly mature light. I never finished Ocarina either, I wonder if I could grab both for a decent price, it might be worth firing up the 3DS.