Link rides upon his trusty steed Epona through an eerie and unfamiliar forest. His eyes are half-closed as he tries to remain awake, his tireless search for his beloved and invaluable friend having sapped much of his strength. It’s risky to continue riding while so exhausted, but Link is determined to reach his destination. It is a costly mistake, unfortunately, because it gives two fairies the chance to surprise Epona, who then accidentally throws Link from her back. Now unconscious and helpless, Link is easy prey for Skull Kid and his sinister curiosity.
The encounter with Link was a fruitful one for Skull Kid. He stole Link’s horse and ocarina and then turned Link into a Deku Scrub. Now Skull Kid has taken his place floating overtop the Clock Tower at Clock Town’s center, where he surveys the entire land.
As he watches the denizens scurry about in the hectic mess of their lives, Skull Kid can only lean back in his levitation with smug satisfaction. These little people, with their little, meaningless lives. Skull Kid will make fools of them all. They and his former friends had abused and abandoned him, treated him like dirt. But he is above them now, in more ways than they could fathom. And above him is the Moon, and in three short days, it will deliver Skull Kid’s revenge to a world that had treated him so poorly.
Day Three is here. It is time. Once the Festival of Time begins, so will Skull Kid’s twisted sense of poetic justice. The clock is ticking.
But, what is this? Skull Kid looks down from his vantage point to see a Deku Scrub who has climbed to the top of the tower. It’s that same boy he had met and cursed in the woods. What does he want? Skull Kid doesn’t actually care, but his attention is grabbed when the fairy Tatl calls out to her brother, Tael.
Tael leaves Skull Kid’s side, as everyone always does, and greets Tatl with a cryptic message: “Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. Hurry … The four who are there … Bring them here … .” The gall to relay such information riles Skull Kid, who swats the fairy away. The prankster is mad now, but he’s still in a playful mood, so he taunts Link by swaying through the air, certain of the fact that Link cannot harm him.
His confidence betrays him though, as Link’s careful aim with his bubble attack stuns Skull Kid, but more importantly, it causes him to drop the ocarina, which happens to be the Ocarina of Time. The playfulness now leaves Skull Kid completely. The time has come, and he brings the Moon down on the town, relishing in its assured destruction as he does so. The only problem is that Link has picked up the Ocarina of Time and uses its magic to conjure some Deku Pipes to play a song. The song he plays, a mysterious melody that carries power and authority, echo throughout Termina. Skull Kid’s anger is replaced with confusion as everything turns to white.
Despite his grand schemes, Skull Kid proved to be nothing compared to Link in terms of mischief-making abilities, as the young hero could use time itself to make a fool of anyone. Skull Kid was an immense threat to the world, but Link’s secret knowledge of the ocarina made him an equally powerful force. But the advantage had become Link’s when he saw Skull Kid’s true self as he lashed out at Tael and then summoned the Moon: Even with the mask, he was still just a reckless and fearful child. Link understood this immediately, and now that he was able to use the Ocarina of Time to return to his normal body, Link planned to use this information against Skull Kid the first chance he got.
An unknowable amount of repeat days and four freed Giants later, Skull Kid and Link find themselves in a very familiar situation, though only Link knows it. Skull Kid still brandishes his cocky attitude, sure of himself and his plan. A plan he once again enacts, but things are different this time. Link plays a song, but not a song to help delay the inevitable. Link’s performance with the ocarina summons his new, gargantuan friends to his aid. The Giants appear from the four corners of Termina, and stopped the moon’s descent with their immense strength, saving the land.
Skull Kid cannot handle his failure, so much so that he passes out. Peace is restored — Or so the heroes think as they relish in a short-lived reunion. The mask. Majora’s Mask. It is not merely a source of power. It is evil. And, as it proves by lifting Skull Kid’s unconscious body into the air, it’s also alive. It has been using the child, and now that he can serve no further purpose, the mask casts Skull Kid aside like a snake shedding its dead skin.
Skull Kid thought the mask made him strong, made him better than everyone else. What it had actually done was make him into no more than a dynamic marionette. Skull Kid never noticed. He was so preoccupied with laughing at everyone else that he failed to realize he was the joke.
Now powerless and truly alone, Skull Kid can only watch from the sidelines as Link saves the world from the destruction. All that he had planned, the payback and justice he sought, was being undone. As the Moon fades away into the sky with a brilliant flash of violet rays, a signal that Link had bested the mask, Skull Kid imagines the harsh punishment Link and the giants will have in store for him.
To Skull Kid’s surprise, Link has no desire to dole out any punishment. Link shows the pathetic imp a level of pity he had never known before. As do the Giants, who stay for a moment to see Skull Kid, their former friend. He is in disbelief at their kindness, and he slowly begins to understand that the only one who had truly done any abandoning was him. They accept his remorse, and he accepts their forgiveness.
Skull Kid was given the chance to heal and grow, but it took time to atone for his actions. He still had a lot of growing up to do, and he also had to understand the importance of humility and empathy. Only after learning these valuable lessons was Skull Kid able to move past the fact that the only one he made a fool of was himself.
Be sure to check out the rest of our articles from Majora’s Month, our month-long celebration of Majora’s Mask’s 20th anniversary!
