Worlds apart: How Link was not Termina’s destined hero

“In the land of Hyrule, there echoes a legend. A legend held dearly by the Royal Family that tells of a boy. A boy who, after battling evil and saving Hyrule, crept away from the land that had made him a legend. Done with the battles he once waged across time, he embarked on a journey. A secret and personal journey. A journey in search of a beloved and invaluable friend. A friend with whom he parted ways when he finally fulfilled his heroic destiny and took his place among legends…”

As these words fade in and out of view on the screen after players begin Majora’s Mask, the gravity of Link’s accomplishments are certainly not understated. Link, the same young boy who wielded the fabled Master Sword and took up the mantle as the Hero of Time, is seen traversing the Lost Woods in search of his fairy friend, Navi. Link’s personal journey is a turning point in both his life and his status as a figure sent by destiny. Before, the young boy was rising to the challenge that divine intervention had set before him. His fate, along with the fate of the entire land of Hyrule and her peoples, rested on his ability to stop the Evil King Ganondorf from ruling a ruined and dilapidated future. To fulfill this destiny, he used the mystical powers of the Sages, in addition to his own power, to seal away the Evil King. Once this was completed, Link reversed the flow of time to return to the past in order to prevent Ganondorf’s evil actions from ever taking place. With the future secure, Link decided to venture out in search of Navi, who had disappeared following the completion of Ocarina of Time.

A fork stuck in the road

What is interesting to note is that while Link is forced to chase after the Skull Kid and enter into the realm of Termina, he is simply a victim of circumstance. He happens to be in the Lost Woods at the wrong time and meets the mischievous wrath of the Skull Kid, who didn’t expect to encounter resistance when pickpocketing the Hylian boy. The Skull Kid isn’t inherently evil nor is he trying to destroy the world in this moment, he just wants to keep the pretty and shiny ocarina that Link was carrying. A simple and honest desire for a physical thing.

Link, on the other hand, has grown and matured through his battles, even though he still retains the childhood body he started out with during Ocarina of Time. While we as the player are able to see Link perform fantastic acrobatics as he flips across the treetops in pursuit of both Epona and the ocarina, the feat is meant to reflect how much this courageous boy has developed from the start of his journey to where he is now. He is much more confident, physically capable, determined, and eager to put his skills to the test as the Hero of Time. The only problem is that for all intents and purposes, Termina doesn’t adhere to the same rules as Hyrule. Link finds this out the hard way when he tumbles down the endless hollow section of a tree before landing in front of the Skull Kid, who floats in defiance of our hero before casting a curse on Link and twisting his body into a Deku Scrub.

Link’s screams from seeing his own reflection mimicked the feelings of the player. How can this be possible? Link is the Hero of Time, he should be resistant to curses and magic like this, right? He survived the entirety of the first game and made it back safe and sound without ever being turned into another form, other than just aging. It is at this point the young boy, just like the player, realizes that Termina does not care that Link was a hero. The land of Termina doesn’t care that the Hero of Time, whose destiny was to stop an impending evil, has become a temporary resident on her soil. Termina has no legends about heroes or cultures that are united under a central government created by some holy authority like the Hyrule Royal Family. Termina is a land that mirrors Hyrule with many familiar faces to our hero, but these are not the same people who supported him in his quest to stop Ganondorf.

The Moon is bearing down upon the land, casting a foreboding shadow of death, and the people of the realm continue their lives because they have no idea how to stop it. It isn’t some prophesied evil that is meant to destroy their home or even kill them — it is literally their moon pulled closer to the planet by the evil mask’s magic, which was cast on the whim of a child filled with loathing.

The land of Termina does not care that Link was a legendary, destined hero in Hyrule.

The Skull Kid’s negative emotions were amplified into a fantastical rage that left the people with a mere three days to live before the Moon destroyed everything. Upon working out how to handle this dramatically different body, Link formulates a plan and finds himself fighting a losing battle with the Skull Kid atop the Clock Tower, but he somehow manages to snag his ocarina back from the masked thief. Without any sort of mystical power or destined way to stop the evil, Link is left hopeless as he cannot stop the Moon. When it is mentioned that there are other beings who can hold back the enormous astral body, it comes across as too little, too late. Luckily for the player and our hero, Link isn’t completely without the blessing of the Goddesses, as he can still use the mystical power within the Ocarina of Time to go back and forth through time to try to find these beings that may be able to stop the Moon itself.

A giant-sized problem

The bit of hope that Link possesses, in the form of the ocarina, is also the same tool that aids him in the quest he must now take in order to stop Termina’s destruction and to find a way back home. Link doesn’t have mystical guides who know where to point him in the right direction, nor does he have weaponry like the Master Sword to vanquish the evil threats that want to stop him. He simply has to rely on his own fighting tactics, wits, and courage to get him through.

This puts our hero out of his element. Before, many of the inhabitants of Hyrule were expecting a hero to appear during the dark time and undo the problems presented by evil brewing across the land. In Termina, however, Link is not welcomed in the same heroic fashion by the citizens of the realm. Instead, he becomes embroiled with their problems and their plights in order to draw closer into the culture of the four realms and free the Giant that resides within each temple. This means that, despite being an aid to the people during their time of need, Link is just the hero of the day, not any sort of destined calling meant to stop anything major. Each corner of Termina is concerned about the Moon, but they have plenty of problems within their own habitats that are more demanding to be solved before they can even begin to care about the Moon. These people are so busy with their own problems caused by the Skull Kid that none have put any sort of effort or concern into stopping the Moon themselves, because, simply put, they have no way of actually doing so.

Link also cannot fix the results that have already happened because of the Skull Kid’s actions like how he could mostly nullify Ganondorf’s actions in Ocarina of Time. For example, no matter how many times Link goes back in time to attempt the three-day cycle over again, he will never be able to prevent the death of the Deku Butler’s son, Darmani, or even Mikau. They will always fall to the tragedies that took place before he arrived. It isn’t similar to how Link prevented the destruction of Castle Town and all of the inhabitants by simply going back in time to thwart the King of Evil from ever taking power. Link is helpless to prevent their fates, but he does use the “Song of Healing” to soothe their passing and gain their power in an attempt to lift the curses that befell their respective areas. In this way, the plot does take a cue similar to how the Great Deku Tree died after bestowing the Kokiri Emerald to Link in order to help him move forward against an ever-growing threat. Darmani and Mikau have the chance to acknowledge their own deaths and request Link’s assistance in finishing their respective missions.

This burden of being their proxy manifests itself in the form of a mask that transforms Link into a fusion of himself and the being he has healed. Even in this form of mercy, of becoming a hero to the particular tribe of people he is attempting to help, Link will never be truly known as the hero who saved their people. They will always remember a Goron who stopped the never-ending winter terrorizing their home. They will remember a proud Zora warrior who bested the dangerous creature at Great Bay Temple and recovered Lulu’s eggs. They will never remember Link, a young Hylian boy who was once the Hero of Time. The only kingdom that acknowledges Link and his abilities are the undead soldiers of Ikana. By the time Link can feel any appreciation for the feats and accomplishments he has completed so far, he has to rush back to Clock Town in order to stop the Skull Kid once and for all.

Villain apparent

The repeated fight on top of the Clock Tower is one of the biggest contrasting points between Link’s journey in Majora’s Mask and his journey Ocarina of Time. Throughout all of his battles in Hyrule, Link knew who the true enemy is. He knew that Ganondorf was an evil entity and is sure of that fact. The sides of good and evil were clearly drawn. Once it is revealed that Majora’s Mask was simply using the Skull Kid as a pawn, it creates a confusion that only Link and the player can understand. Everyone in Termina has understood that the troubling events were caused by the hands of the impish Skull Kid. In a similar motif to the entire plot of Majora’s Mask, Link has to learn to deal with things not being as they first seem and to take action accordingly. The big, bad foe who always seemed one step ahead of Link is now revealed to be nothing more than a pawn in a bigger game that will determine the fate of Termina. In an ironic turn of events, Link learns that his true enemy in this epic tale has shed a mask of its own, but only to reveal itself and allow the warrior one final chance to set things right.

By harnessing the power of the Fierce Deity, Link is able to strike down the Majora’s Mask with ease.

The final battle of the game is where the contrast between Link’s time in Hyrule and his time in Termina shows the strongest. If the player obtains all of the masks and trades them to the children residing in the Moon, then they will acquire one last mask: the Fierce Deity Mask. Upon wearing this mask, Link transforms into the avatar of the presumed Fierce Deity, a god capable of shooting sword beams from its helix sword. This borrowed power, that isn’t Link’s own, makes the battle with the Majora’s Mask laughably easy. If the player opts to use Link and his own strength and cunning, then the battle must be fought completely different and Link will have a tougher time.

Even during all of the trials and tribulations set before him in Ocarina of Time, Link never had to resort to using the power of another being in order to square off with the King of Evil. In Termina, if he relies on this borrowed power, his struggles are all but gone and his fight is considerably less difficult. He assumes the ferocity and tenacity of a deity who wants to strike down the Majora’s Mask and is more than capable of doing so. How much of a hero does this make Link? Does using the power of a fierce and dark deity who wants to do battle seem very heroic? He isn’t healing anyone by using the mask, as he can accomplish his goal without using it. This leaves the choice up to the player, as how they handle this battle is strictly between them and the evil spirit itself.

I need a hero

The stark contrast between being chosen to do fate’s work and being the victim of circumstance fills the plot in Majora’s Mask. Link is certainly no stranger to being a hero and continues to do heroic feats, but he sadly learns that he cannot save everyone. He can’t use his divine gift of time travel to stop the killing of Termina’s innocent lives like he mostly could in Ocarina of Time. His offerings to heal those affected by the curses leaves him nothing more than a proxy at best, doing the heroic works that these poor souls were attempting to do before Link managed to find his way into the land. His name will not be etched in stone or even told in a story, as no one knew the Hero of Time was the one person responsible for defeating the evil within the Majora’s Mask and the cursed Moon.

The important thing to take away from these contrasts is that, despite not having the luxury of being destined to vanquish evil and set things right, Link still does fill the role of being the hero that Termina needed, even if the land didn’t deserve him. His only praise is a soft whisper from Tatl after she tells Link that he should be on his way so that the rest of the citizens can attend the Clock Town carnival. Even though the only reason he ended up in Termina in the first place was because of a simple robbery gone wrong, Link does what he needs to do in order to set things right before making his way back into the land of Hyrule, where he can continue to be the Hero of Time.