Zelda: Ocarina of Time has hidden its "true face" behind Majora's Mask for 26 years

At the start of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Link is searching for something. It’s never directly stated in the game, but it's implied that Link was looking for his friend Navi, who left him behind at the end of Ocarina of Time. But it's not just Navi that Link is searching for.

There's something else that Link lost, something which Navi represents and which the masks of Majora’s Mask symbolize: his identity.

After Link stumbles down that mysterious rabbit hole in Majora's Mask's introductory scene, he emerges with the face of a Deku Scrub. Link has “met with a terrible fate,” as the Happy Mask Salesman infamously suggests, but what's so terrible about it isn't just that he has become a Deku Scrub; it's that Link has once again lost his personal identity, just as he lost the facade of who he thought he was as a Kokiri child at the start of Ocarina of Time.

The loss of Link's own face in the intro of Majora's Mask is the physical manifestation of the "terrible fate" that had already befallen him in OOT. It's the imposition of a new identity that conflicts with how he sees himself, like a mask you can't remove no matter how much you try.

Majora's Mask Is Really About Link's Struggle With Losing His Identity in Ocarina of Time

At the start of Ocarina of Time, when Link is stirred to action by the Deku Tree and confronted with the harsh reality that he was never a Kokiri child, his identity is stripped from him, and everything he knows about himself is taken away. Sadly, Link never has a chance to process the feelings of that sudden realization. He is immediately tossed into his destiny of becoming a hero, and he literally physically grows up without ever emotionally maturing.

When Navi leaves him at the end of OOT, the reality that he was never who he thought he was finally sets in, and that's the true loss that Link suffers. The Kokiri 'mask' of his childhood is torn from his face, to reveal a Hylian boy who he barely recognizes.

In a sense, Majora’s Mask is Zelda's first psychological exploration of the aftermath of the hero’s journey that every version of Link goes through to some extent. Previous Zelda games had just taken for granted that a young, barely teenaged boy with enough courage could save the world, but they never considered what impact suddenly leaving everything he knew behind to become a hero might have on the boy when all was said and done. That is, until Majora's Mask came around.

Ocarina of Time presents itself as a straightforward coming of age story at first, but Majora's Mask reframes it as the sad tragedy of a boy who was forced to grow up too fast, with no guidance on how to handle the emotions that came with it.

The darkest thing about Majora’s Mask isn’t that it represents Link’s physical death (as many fan theories have presumed). Instead, it's that Link is dealing with the death of his ego as he confronts the harsh reality of who he really is now that the dust has settled and there are no more enemies to fight.

The 'mask' that Link had been given since he was a child was pulled from his face in OOT, and Majora’s Mask is the story of Link actually looking at himself in the mirror to see his true face for the first time.

The masks in Majora’s Mask represent Link's search for a new identity after losing hold of who he thought he was in a sudden and abrupt way. After defeatin Ganon and being sent to the past by Princess Zelda, Link also loses his identity as the Hero of Time, because he is once again a child who can no longer wield the Master Sword in a kingdom that doesn't need a savior anymore.

For a child of only around 10 years old, learning that everything he thought he knew about himself was a lie can feel like the end of the world. It can feel like the sky is falling, like the moon itself is collapsing on him. And no matter how many masks Link tries to cover his face with, none of them can help him come to terms with what's underneath.

Majora's Mask Is the Most Personal Storyline for Link in Any Zelda Game

The point of Majora’s Mask as a story is to peel back the 'mask' Link wore in Ocarina of Time (and frankly, every prior Zelda game before it), to show players the real person behind the hero. Even as a destined hero with divine courage granted by the Triforce, Link was always still a young boy at heart. Majora's Mask is about the existential horror Link faces as he comes to terms with who he really is.

Even 26 years after Majora's Mask came out on October 26, 2000, many players still miss its true message, because it’s easy to get wrapped up in the mythology surrounding Majora’s Mask’s weird development history and the myriad of popular fan theories that have spread about the game. It’s also just easy to overlook the inherent darkness of Ocarina of Time that Majora’s Mask tries to parse through, because the game has a lighter atmosphere than games like Twilight Princess and Majora’s Mask itself.

Now that Ocarina of Time is being remade for the Switch 2 this year, the new game has a chance to make young Link’s inner turmoil more apparent from the outset, thereby helping to clarify the meaning of the mask motif in the inevitable Majora’s Mask remake, whenever that does arrive.

Once players truly see what’s beneath the proverbial mask of Majora's Mask, it’s impossible to unsee it. At the same time, Majora’s Mask is still a game ripe for fan theorizing and analysis, and that’ll never change. Those popular “Link died” or “5 stages of grief” theories can still fit, and might even make more sense in hindsight.

For example, many fans just assume that Link is experiencing the 5 stages of grief after the loss of Navi, but a person can experience the 5 stages of grief due to more personal, internal losses, too. For Link, that could mean the loss of his own innocence and identity as a Kokiri child. And instead of a literal death, the loss of his identity is an ego death that would feel just as horrific for a young boy like Link.

In Majora's Mask, Majora is such a powerful villain because he can possess anyone who wears his mask, turning them into his puppet. Similarly, in real life, a person can become "possessed" by the identities they put on for other people, convincing themselves that's who they really are. In reality, that 'identity' is just like a mask that can be switched or removed at any moment, just as easily as Link switches between the Zora and Goron masks.

After losing his sense of self in Ocarina of Time, Link has no choice but to go searching for answers in Majora's Mask. That search ultimately leads him to a discovery that's terrifying at first, but empowering in the end: there was never anyone behind the mask. His true face and the mask were one and the same.