Majora's Mask (mask)

Majora's Mask (ムジュラの仮面,) is the mask that is the major plot point of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. This ancient and powerful mask was once used in an ancient tribe's hexing rituals and was later sealed away because of its evil magic, which was so great that it might cause the destruction of the entire world. The mask was later recovered by the Happy Mask Salesman, a mysterious collector and seller of masks, who was eventually robbed of it by the mischievous Skull Kid. He then sought to use the mask's powers to draw the Moon out of orbit and destroy the entire land of Termina by causing an impact between the moon and the planet.

The mask has the ability to bestow an evil and wicked power upon its wearer. It also seems to have a certain extent of autonomy: the game implies that it influenced the Skull Kid to steal it. The Salesman was worried it would do something terrible, even though he owned it. The mask is eventually able to cast off the Skull Kid and move on its own accord. With the evil power of the mask, the Skull Kid was granted various undefined abilities while wearing it. In the game, these include the ability to metamorphose the physical appearances of people, contaminate Termina's weather and vegetation, fly, and control the Moon.

Biography
The Happy Mask Salesman, in fear that a great disaster could befall Termina, tells the story of Majora's Mask to Link, just after lifting the Deku Scrub curse placed on him by the Skull Kid. The mask is introduced as an accursed item from legend. It is said to have been used by a mysterious ancient tribe in its hexing rituals. The legend goes on to say that an evil and wicked power comes upon the one who wears the mask. But the troubles caused by Majora's Mask were so great that their folks sealed the mask in shadow forever, preventing a catastrophe and future misuse. The tribe eventually vanished too, and the true nature of the mask was no longer known.

Many years later, the Happy Mask Salesman, a strange collector of masks, went to 'great lengths' in a quest to find the legendary mask. When he uncovered it, he seemed to immediately regret it: he later claims that he could sense a 'dark omen brewing'. Because the Happy Mask Salesman never tries to implicate anyone else in the mask's release, it is assumed that the great lengths he went to to obtain it involved unsealing it from the shadow. Later, while traveling through the Lost Woods, the Happy Mask Salesman was knocked out and robbed of the mask by an imp known as the Skull Kid and his two fairy companions, Tatl and Tael. Although Tatl later acknowledges that the Skull Kid felt rejected because his friends had left him and nobody wanted to play with him, she claims this didn't explain his attack. This indication that the Skull Kid was acting abnormally suggests the mask had some influence over the Skull Kid even while carried by the Mask Salesman. The Mask's use of its influence to escape the Happy Mask Salesman would indicate it was in some way restrained or unfulfilled under the Mask Salesman's ownership. Its success at escaping shows the lack of control the Mask Salesman had over the mask's activity after its retrieval.

The power residing within the mask took control of the Skull Kid and changed him from a mischievous child to a complete psychopath. The Skull Kid used the power of the mask to transform Link into a Deku Scrub. Majora, using its host to enforce its will, tore the Moon of Termina out of orbit and sent it on a collision course with Termina. Also, the Skull Kid starts using his powers all over Termina for mischief, including transforming Kafei into a child, injuring Koume, threatening to steal the Moon's Tear from Shikashi's Astral Observatory, contaminating the water of the regions of Woodfall and Great Bay, creating a perpetual winter in Snowhead, fooling the Gerudo Pirates, and haunting Ikana with undead creatures by opening Stone Tower's doors. Other acts of vandalism have been attributed to the Skull Kid as well, but others are implied to have been involved in these.

However, Link stumbled upon the alternate reality and eventually manages to save the Moon from crashing into the world by calling the Four Giants, whom he had rescued earlier. Its plan thwarted, Majora cast away the Skull Kid and fled to the interior of the Moon using a strand of energy. Link and Tatl pursue Majora using the same energy. Inside the Moon, Link finds five Lunar Children running around a big tree, all of which are wearing masks; four are wearing the Boss Remains, and the fifth one wears Majora's Mask. When Link speaks to the child, he will take Link to the final battle. If Link has collected all of the game's masks and traded them to the children, the one wearing Majora's Mask will offer to play a game of "good guys against bad guys," and present him with the Fierce Deity's Mask, the most powerful transformation mask. After the defeat of Majora's three forms, Majora's Mask, Majora's Incarnation and Majora's Wrath, the mask seemingly loses its power and sentience, and the Happy Mask Salesman takes it with him on his travels to places unknown.

Theory
Due to similarities between the eyes of Majora's Mask and the Fused Shadow, an evil item from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, it has been proposed that the tribe that created the Fused Shadow, known as the Interlopers, could have created Majora's Mask. This is possible because the Interlopers were an ancient tribe that excelled in dark magic, that was later banished from Hyrule by the Gods. Also, the Twili appear to use masks often. When Link first gets the Ordon Shield, Midna attempts to wear it on her face, and during the cutscene in Twilight Princess in which Princess Zelda surrenders, Zant's bodyguards are wearing special metal masks over their faces.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask manga
The manga by Akira Himekawa, although not by official Nintendo authors, provides an original side story that attempts to explain the origin of the mask. In this story, Majora's Mask is revealed to have been made from the armor of a legendary beast named Majora, that lived around ten million years before the events of Majora's Mask. The land in which Majora lived was not moving, but not dead either, nor had it stopped. According to a myth devised "by the humans themselves," the armor worn by Majora was supposed to grant wishes and hold a great and terrible power. Warriors, adventurers, soldiers, men, and women sought after Majora for his armor, though they were all killed by Majora.

After centuries of a solitary existence, a human, disguised as a musician bearing a slight resemblance to the Fierce Deity, approached Majora, and offered it eternal rest, not by fighting, but by playing music. As the human beat a drum he carried with him, "making time move", Majora began to dance for three days, and on the fourth day, died. All that remained of the beast was his armor. From the armor, the human carved Majora's Mask; by doing so, all of Majora's power was sealed in the mask. The human believed that by creating the mask, Majora's power would no longer be a threat. He threw the mask in an abyss and it was lost for centuries. The three days of dancing followed by death parallels the three days before the Moon collides with Termina and destroys it.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
The stage on which the 47th event, "Trophy Tussle 3," is fought is Majora's Mask itself. After all opponents are defeated within three minutes, the player is rewarded with the Majora's Mask trophy.

Animal Crossing: City Folk
Majora's Mask can be purchased from Tom Nook's shop for 6,000 points (Points obtained via buying items from Nook's shop). It is notable that, when the player's character wears the mask around town at night, the mask's eyes consistently stay the same bright yellow-orange, and are never obscured by the shadows as the character turns. This may or may not imply that the mask is affected by moonlight.

Gallery
Máscara de Majora