The Secret Connected Origins of Majora and the Fierce Deity
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มี.ค. 2022
- Analysing the Japanese version of Majora's Mask reveals several secret connections between Majora and the Fierce Deity, adding an entirely new layer of depth to the already sheer volume of complexity prevalent in the game's story.
This video looks at the Japanese and English versions of Majora's Mask and unveils unique story details that didn't make it into the English version of the game.
We discover more about the tribe from the legend that used Majora's Mask for their hexing rituals exclusively in the Japanese version, as well as how the inhabitants of Termina may have directly influenced their fate more than we imagined.
We conclude by exploring how all of this ties into Majora's orchestrated fate and what it means for the events on the moon, the final battle with Majora, and the mask itself.
It's important to remember that localising content is a very difficult process. It is not always the case that words with cultural connotations and meanings can be accurately translated into another language.
The incredible thing about the Zelda series, and especially Majora's Mask, is that it's up to you, the player, how you interpret the story. For me, the Japanese version of the game simply enriches that experience. The purpose of this video is to share that extra bit of underlying mystery that exists in the Japanese text.
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I wish Nintendo of America would lean into the demon tribe concept of the Japanese games more in the future. The field and dungeon level enemies always feel somewhat disconnected from Ganondorf as threats. It would be cool to see even some cutscenes of him ordering an army of moblins/bokoblins/etc to attack parts of Hyrule. Ganondorf usually has that Thanos quality to him, you know, "It's just him... and that's enough." So to switch that up and show him as part of a larger, connected tribe of demonic entities and creatures could give a bit more depth to his character and why he does the things he does again and again, outside of the reincarnation curse, his purpose in conquering Hyrule is pretty generic at times.
The closest we ever got to thar is Wind Waker with the frozen enemies
I really wish they actually just translate it instead of making new dialogue for the English Version
I really hope that's the scope of Tears of the Kingdom!
They don't want to piss off the Christians
A year late, but I’m hoping you saw some of the cutscenes in TotK that show exactly what you’re looking for!
I have been unraveling the deeper themes and cultural significances of Majora's Mask for many years now because it captures my interest in a way no other Zelda game has. In that time, I have read and watched many lore theories. But this one right here stands above the rest. This has added so much context to my understanding of the game that I feel somehow at peace with it. Thank you so much for this wonderful and insightful work.
If I may speculate just a bit on what you have said. It could almost be that since the game of Oni tag involves a role reversal of demon to child, the subconscious mind of the Skull Kid behind the mask no longer wishes to be the outcast demon and is trying to symbolically become a child once more through this game. Just a thought.
I love this idea! I think it's very possible that this could be the case, its understandable that the Skull Kid would want to escape that isolation, especially as he brings up the idea of being friends with Link at the end of the game. He just wants to be accepted.
Also, consisting that Majora's powers form inside an individual, it would make sense that the final fight would reflect that to an extent.
As a Zelda fan and person studying Japanese, I really appreciate these videos. Thanks for making them!
Man I knew Majora's Mask's lore was great, but I never knew it was that in-depth, great job!
This was such an incredible video. Well done once again!!
It’s wild just how much context we lose in the English localization.
Hey! Thank you so much!
well as far as I am concerned English is one of the worst localisations.
I have not compared every language but Germans are extremely lucky since the localisation is far superior than english.
For MM as an example: The SkullKid is described as a "kobold" (english translation "imp" or "leprechaun") by the MaskSalesman which is a spot on definition lorewise as a small, mischievous sprite/demon.
You are a hidden gem on TH-cam and it's actually sad since your channel is practically a must-have (-watched) for Zelda-Theorists and Lore-Veterans.
The main mistake people make when talking about this series is using the English version for refference not considering that Japanese is more in-depht and (de)confirms a lot.
Keep up the good work!!!
I can't really bring too much fun trivia from the other non japanese versions this time around since it's been a while since I have played MM in anything but english. But I would like to add that Fierce Diety Link is literally called "Oni Link" in the french version and the Fierce Deity mask was translated as "Masque du Dieu Démon", which literally mean "Mask of the Demon God". If I remember correctly the spanish goes with the same Oni link name for the transformation but the mask is called the spanish equivalent of the "Fierce Deity" mask instead. Take that as you will :)
Thank you so much for these videos you really helped me appreciate Zelda even more. I can't believe such important details were lost in translation. I've actually sent your videos to someone who hated skyward swords lore once and it made him rethink everything about the series. Nintendo hire this man!
FINALLY!~ I've been waiting for another video to be uploaded!
And yet again, another video that shatters my perception of Legend of Zelda and improves it quite significantly. Your videos is making me love my favorite franchise. For this, I can never thank you enough. To make someone love something they already greatly loved even more, that's an incredible gift to give to somebody. Thank you!
Had the games been accurately translated, I feel that the many theories that are out there could actually stand a greater chance of being closer to the truth. Like with this video it is revealed to us that it wasn't the word tribe, but race. This is significant, since the demons of Legend of Zelda are in fact a tribe, not a race. Moblins are likely from a separate race from Bokoblins, definitely different from Keese and Lizalfos, but they are still members of the Demon Tribe.
So which race created Majora's Mask? This question sounds like the same question we all have asked, with only one word being different. But it's the one word that changes the context of the question and that is more important than a lot of people might realize. How many videos on TH-cam have been made on the origins of this mask? How many forums and conversations? Now, with this video coming out, this one question that is still being asked to this day will be changed. Our focus will be set in a different direction.
Absolutely blown away by yet another magnificent video! Because of you, Aaron, I will be able to go back to my favorite games and explore it with a new perspective and enjoy them even more with my childhood fascination reignited. So, I will say it again, because I cannot say it enough. THANK YOU!
Thank you so very much! Your kind words are unbelievably touching, it makes me so happy to know that these videos have influenced your love of Zelda!
I can't wait to share more videos, delve deeper into the lore and further enrich that love for our favourite games!!
@@QuestWithAaron I'm going to say it again. THANK YOU! XD
@@QuestWithAaron I got a question. Do you have the Goddess Collection in Japanese? If you do, does the English translation of the three books (Hyrule Historia, Art and Artifacts, Encyclopedia) also veer from the Japanese version? If so, will you possibly address it in future videos?
With every video you make, it makes me wish more and more for fans to go through every Zelda game and make fan translations to play the games with the original text.
This video was actually really fun to watch. I learned so much from the translations, links to Japanese culture, and analogies. Thank you for this wonderful content!
This channel is criminally under rated
This video is 10/10 SUPER amazing!!! I’m still so stunned and surprised how the Japanese translation is so much in depth and interesting compared to the English translation version we’re given. Keep it up Aaron!!
@@inejxjejdgjrormkxle9763 If you can’t be kind, than stay silent. :) and please don’t belittle the creator like this. If you think he is wrong, than have a proper conversation/discussion with him. If you don’t feel like conversing/discussing with him, than let people do their thing and leave things as it is. Thank you! and have a nice weekend.
one thing is that imp literally means "a small, mischievous devil or sprite", so its not too far from its JP meaning. i think weve just gotten so used to these english words that we dont think about their meaning, so when something needs to be described in another language, it seems like theres no equivalent when in reality some very similar words exist.
Absolutely! I think "imp" is a fantastic translation given what they were working with. As a localiser who is confined to such a small space iwithin a textbox and without the liberty to explain the word in detail, you are very restricted. There is so much more to the Japanese term, "oni", though. So many nuances that just can't be rendered into English through translation, and that's the purpose of this video!
Was thinking about your videos just yesterday! A very interesting comparison. I was familiar with the mention of Oni Gokko in Japanese, but I didn't know of the variants of the game and how they relate to the Skull Kid and Link.
Interestingly the Japanese description for the Fierce Deity mask reads: "Is this the mask that an oni wears?" I think there's plenty more that could be deduced from this too!
@@QuestWithAaron When "Oni Link" gets Majora's Incarnation, now Majora becomes the Oni. He is finally ready for purification.
Majora in japanese:
Let's play tag you're the oni
In english: you're the bad guy get this mask
All of a sudden, the theory from Hylian Dan about the stone tower being a reference to the tower of babel doesnt seems so farfetch at all. I mean, rupture between bonds between people, yeah, well, that also happens in a big in that old legend and also in this game.
Hylian Dan here, that's definitely what resonated to me about the Tower of Babel comparison, sloppy as it was.
QuestWithAaron, I'm really grateful for this discussion of jyaki. I was so captivated by Majora’s Mask as a kid because of how it handled the themes of depression and alienation, and this clarifies so much that I was trying to understand without using the appropriate tools. This video also does such a nice job of bringing Majora’s Mask’s story into alignment with Breath of the Wild’s. I love this channel and am cheering you on!
@@HylianDan Yeah, Jyaki is indeed something quite great the youtuber found out here.
How do you figure tower of Babel theory was stretch. Stone tower is literally tower statues are licking certain parts and a snippet of text said they tried to reach heaven so tower got inverted. And then remember demon war text they came from some crack. I'm not saying Zelda demons came from termina, they had some lower point of origin though
I hope the TH-cam algorithm blesses you, this video was really well made and deserves more views! You got a sub from me
Just started playing Majora’s Mask on Switch Online. Then I’m doing another run through the 3DS remake
You need a lot more of attention cause damn that was amazing! Seriously I haven't seen a single guy who did a video like you and went so indepht into the true japanese meaning of Majoras Mask and what we actually miss out due to the translations. Hope to see more from you!
So this means we need to save Marin from being trapped as a seagull forever ?
Let's save her!
I'm shocked this video doesn't have a million views... it's very well done and thoroughly researched
I want a Zelda game where majora returns so badly, barely anything is known about them but they’re probably my favorite Zelda villain because of that and their sinister playful nature so it would be amazing to see more lore about them and the ancient race
Hopefully one day Nintendo decides to pay tribute to Skull kid and Majora again but I highly doubt we’ll ever get another masterpiece like Majora’s mask.. they prefer to leave it in the past. It’s implied to be the same skull kid in Twilight Princess, probably the soul occupant of the lost woods now forever guiding the future hero and defending the temple of time and master sword for his dear friend the Hero of Time. That aside.. Twilight Princess was ages ago and it be really really amazing if Nintendo ever comes back to this odd and very memorable world of Termina.
But such is the way of Termina..
A greeting and a parting are sure to happen, inevitable but however long that parting may last is up to you
And as for the tribe that was destroyed that made Majora’s Mask, safe to say they were somehow associated with or were a subsect of the Demon Tribe due to this association of the Mask with demonic energy and Oni.
Whereas with the vagueness and incorrect nature of the translation, people speculated that because the tribe had “vanished” that it was the ancestors of the Shadow Tribe of Twilight Princess, which is not possible, because that tribe was not destroyed.
It’s sad, I think Majora’s Mask suffered the most the english localization with all the concepts and underlying meaning that likely could not be properly translated.
Why this channel has just 4k subs?
Wow, excellent analysis 🧐😃👍🏽
I know I comment late , but around 3:14 the word used in Jpanese to describe the fate of the acient tribe is 滅びた/滅びる and it has multiple meanings. "To be destroyed" is just one of them. It can also mean to go to ruin, to fall, to die out or to perish. So I'd actually say the Englich translation is fine.
The final boss of majora's mask is called majora Demon in the spanish translation
Demonio majora
Fantastic 👏
I have never heard of this "Majora's Mask", do you mean Majorpo's Borpo?
The fact that this video had 666 likes before I liked it is slightly disturbing lol. Best video of yours I have seen yet! Love what you are doing, and it is completely changing how I view Zelda.
Good video. Subbed. Belled. Commented. Liked.
Could the Fierce Deity be a stockpiled power from Link himself, cast out from everyone else due to the inherent isolation of time travel and changing history?
The oni imagery probably explains why Majora's Mask has horns.
Hello, and congratulations for the content. They are great!
I would like to make a suggestion/request.
Could you analyze Hyrule's "creation" story told by the Deku Tree in OoT?
When you stop to analyze the text, you realize that the Golden Goddesses did not create Hyrule.
Hyrule already existed, but without time, spirits and life.
What there was was chaos (from their point of view), which is represented by stones and lightning.
My theory is that entities of darkness already lived in this world (Hyrule) in relative peace (in their own terms).
One day the goddesses brought the light (RGB) and took over the world the creatures of darkness were living in. And after that they didn't even stay in the world. They returned to paradise where they live (possibly) with other gods.
That's why Demise has so much hatred towards the Goddesses and their descendants.
He just wants his world back.
So the corruption/oni has left the mask.
Yeah that's what it seemed like. I believe they entity within the mask shares many characteristics specifically with "amanojaku" in Japanese culture.
Your videos are really game changing , literally. It would be great if you could do a twilight princess translation video
He already did half a year ago. Here!
th-cam.com/video/gayft7cocL0/w-d-xo.html
Good video. What do you think about The Triforce representing Power, Courage, and Temperence? I tend to think of Majora's mask as a further warning against the potential corruptions of Power as embodied through Majoras Mask, which causes the wearer to focus more on themselves than others.
Such as how Ganon comes to power in Hyrule only after Impa (temperence) dies. I found great significance between Plato's Tripartite Soul Theory of Power, Courage, and Temperance/Appetites, as it relates to the respective character archetypes of Ganon, Link, and Impa (Later on Princess Zelda becomes the torch bearer for Impa (Temperance).
I suspect that Plato did not come up with this theory out of thin air, however. As he studied in Egypt for 10 years. And we know that Egypt was a respository for many teachings from the east which are far older than Western civilization.
So an idea attributed to Plato in the west really seems more akin to some eastern teachings such as the Hindu Trimurti for example. After all, both Sanskrit and Buddhism spread far and wide outside of India. There is no doubt these teachings found their way to Egypt and were preserved in the library of Alexandria where Plato studied.
Perhaps the longer one 'wears the mask', (which is symbolic for ones desire to become unique from others, hence more powerful), the more they become isolated from the ones they love and their community.
To me this game seems to be wholly derived from Japanese folk tales or perhaps Shinto which holds some very profound wisdom in terms of human nature.
At least, in my own work looking at the significance of The Triforce itself and how each of the three main characters embody this Tripartite seems rather clear. I could be wrong, but the overlap between Plato's Soul Theory and The Triforce in The Legend of Zelda and what they represent seem to be too much of an incredible match rather than mere coincidence.
All of this talk about Oni Gokko, and no mention that Fierce Deity Link is LITERALLY CALLED ONI LINK in Japanese???
InTERMINAbly... I heard that ;)
So that's why the mask's name is also oni link woah
And here i thought i escaped the mistranslations and translation changes
After watching somr of your videos i wish i knew japamese at all or more likely to know it extensively enough to not miss out on lore situations...
But learninh takes the time i could be spending on playing and i just cant stop thinking its a waste of time...
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like a lot of this depth still is in the English localization. It's written slightly differently, but the core meaning is still there. Like, an Imp *is* a little demon. That's not some meaning missing from the English version, it's just using a different word
For sure! In regards to imp vs little demon, I'm not trying to provide an argument that says English is "wrong", but instead, highlight the nuances attached to the Japanese word for "demon" that would otherwise be impossible to transfer and communicate in a single English word, "imp". Exploring what these notions and nuances could imply for the lore is what is exciting to me, and that's the main focus of what I want to share in this video!
you didn't talk about the real name of the fierce deity mask wich is literally called the demon god mask (kishin no kamen)
12:44 Wait, does that make Magolor Soul and etc. Oni?
I remember light/darkness have no mortality, so corruption or piousion will infect them
I've been getting replies to my comments here, but every time I check, they're not there. Are they being deleted?
Hi! I think they are being flagged by TH-cam as spam. From what I see it seems to be two accounts who have replied to huge amount of comments with the same response on many of my videos, sorry about that.
We all want another sequel to Majora's mask how about Majora's mask The end of time it would tie into the legend of Zelda Ocarina of time and give u more details of where and why they used the mask and it would tell the tale of The Fierce Diety an why Majora's mask ask Link let's play a game vs good and evil is the mask evil or is it good or is the Fierce Deity the most evil mask we only know that the mask only was on fueled by saddness and hatred but what about the Fierce Diety mask we know nothing but he's a giant an weilds a magic sword and also can defeat Majora's mask with a few fellow swoops from his sword
It's not a part of Demise's curse?
So japan see's zeus as the ultimate oni?
Hey Aaron can I ask you a question please. 🙏
Of course you can! Fire away!
@@QuestWithAaron have you heard of Zelda Beyond and wanted to ask if you are interested in learning more of Japanese culture, then I recommend you to check out a Channel called TheGamingMuse who makes some of the most interesting Analysis/Symbolism videos I've ever seen done for video games made by Japanese companies!
@@willisrose9756 I haven't heard of those channels, actually! I'm always up for learning more about the Japanese culture, thanks so much for sharing, I'll take a look at them!
@@QuestWithAaron you're welcome and I promise that you won't be disappointed.
Edit: I also try to spread the word on your Channel because honestly there are other zelda youtubers who do not know that the true narrative of the zelda games is under our noses!
@@willisrose9756 I'm so grateful to you for always sharing other creators' content with me. You really bring the community together. It's super fun to enjoy the Zelda series with others and because of that I've learned so much more about my favourite games! Thank you!
I gotta say, if anything, the Japanese translations don't do anything to convince me that the evil inside the mask is named "Majora". All your evidence is pointing away from it.
The mask is named Majora's Mask. The entity inside of it is named Majora's Magic-wielder-guy-genie-demon-thing. So why would that be the name of the evil in it? That's not how possessives work.
It'd be like saying "Mark's driver is waiting inside Mark's car". You wouldn't logically be saying that if Mark was driving his own car.
I think you're chosing to interpret some terms as evilly as possible as well, citing Demise as an example of an Oni whereas a Japanese person would call that a Daimaou and would instantly call the Bokoblins the real Oni, right down to the bright red color, jutting canines, and very prominent and frequently mentioned leopard print loin cloth.
A lot of the rest is pretty much spot on, though I wish you would go into the real meaning of the Fierce Deity (kisshin) a bit more.
Isn't Fierce Deity a translation of the Japanese word Kishin (Oni God).
ahhhhh it's based on a kids game😭 oh well
Based on a kids game that's based on something much darker!
what will happen if that race brought back to life?
Yes I think there was deeper thing with moon children majora and fierce diety. So there are holes in Zelda where we could get lots more lore. Let's talk about how demons are a thing but you don't see much of em depending on game. This is not just Japanese influence as every culture has their demons. However Majora's mask pulls from diff cultures I want to say maybe mostly Japanese so yea the oni tag thing is a big deal and yes what do demons do after demise is gone? We see majora as a villain but fierce diety is in no way just pure good. Then you got the moon children possible inter loper thing. Maybe I've played too much FF too many other vid games, too much mythology and while I should not inject all that into Zelda what if, what if Zelda was going for some of it this time. What if it's possible certain beings in Zelda are so much an archetype they really can't understand certain stuff. I mean this in regards to moon children. The thing I'm getting at is like you all say so much is gone in diff translations well I'm not so sure it is. Cuz when I first played I was like there is more to tag thing, you do got full psychology thing and fact was Majora's mask not first game since a certain lore order to have a demon main boss that was independent of Gannon. Plus lots of symbolism in masks. Anyway short version is I think fierce diety was only good because of link
I'm The 100th Like!!!
Yo
It’s wild how much context and meaning gets lost in localization. There’s plenty of intended references that are erased and rob the international audience of that deeper meaning, which is sad, because it basically make the game’s narrative a more straight forward, more linear way of interpreting its story than something with layers and layers of parallels and folklore.
A real shame.
It makes me both infuriated and disappointed that for years people like zeltik and masked Nintendo bandit have been talking about completely false Lore due to the localization being so dramatically different and disrespectful to the original Japanese source material...
That's a rather harsh way of looking at things.
There's really not much that is actually different about the English version of Zelda lore. It's all presented a bit softer due to cultural differences on what should or shouldn't be in a children's story, and some details have certainly been lost in translation over the years, but the overall plot and thematic elements of each game have always been around 95 - 97% intact.
At the very least, there's nothing inherently disrespectful about the English lore, and it's just silly to be disappointed in fans who don't know about the discrepancies.
@@ShelbyAQD I completely disagree. If you watched his videos you'd see the discrepancies are pretty significant.
Minor words have huge lower implications that change the narrative almost completely.
Also how is it silly? It's silly to care about a video game or a story? Sure? But I think I'm valid is my dissappointment because it means we're further away from understanding the narrative and we have a skewed perception as to how the story is told and the thematic elements that were presented are warped for English audiences.
They really did butcher and dumb down the storytelling in the English versions. Link had a diary for crying out loud.
That's extremely significant in my opinion and the things that the English localization omits or changes for the sake of appealing to kids or western audiences are very frustrating for me.
If you think I shouldn't care about the lower like this that's fine but you're barking up the wrong tree and it's kind of.. idk.. pointless? To tell someone to not care about a video game series? I'm not losing my sleep. But you can't tell people what they should and shouldn't care about. People go crazy over sports.
I go nuts over lore, games and the industry.
I think the issues raised by this channel are extremely important.
If we leave this localization issue alone then it's likely the writers might change their mind about the story they wanted to write and end up ruining the Lore for the sake of fan theories.
@@Zinkolo I think we've misunderstood each other just a bit. Your original comment said you were disappointed in a couple lore channels. I meant that it's silly to be disappointed in them for not knowing facets of the original story that were lost in translation.
And the omission of Link's journal in BotW is indeed rather heinous. However, Zelda has never been dumbed-down as far as I can see.
Referring to Skull Kid as an "Imp" instead of a "Little Demon", for instance, doesn't actually change anything. The words are equivalent, it's just that one is less directly religious, and thus less potentially offensive.
As far as I can recall from this guy's earlier videos, the only significant alteration to the series overall lore is the Sacred Realm being a separate dimension, when it was really just referring to Hyrule itself as a sacred place. Beyond that, everything's been close enough that any lost context is more like trivia than divergent lore.