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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Philosophy. Post #2

With death and grief being what I would consider to be the main themes of this game, the Kubler Ross Model of Greif can be applied quite nicely to Nintendo's Majora’s Mask. Kubler Ross Model of Greif says that when someone goes through a traumatic loss they experience five unique stages of emotions. These five stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. And I believe if you break down the game using this model you can find clear examples of each of these stages. The examples I am going to be discussing raise many important questions about the game's true meaning

The first stage of the Kubler Ross Model, Denial can be seen right away in the main city of Termina. As a giant, evil moon looms over the sky, we still find the city setting up for their end of the year festival. 


In an area known as Woodfall we find out that the princess of Deku Palace has been kidnapped by an evil monster. In response the Deku king has captured an innocent monkey, who he believes to be the culprit, and his putting him up for execution. The Deku King is an example of someone in the anger stage.

In Snowhead, you find the ghost of the Goron Leader Darmani who had just died trying to save his tribe. He begs you to use your magical powers to bring him back to life just long enough to save his town. Darmani is bargaining with Link to stop his inevitable passing. 

At the Great Bay you meet Lulu a zorro who has recently lost her children, and to cope she just stands outside and stares out into the sea. This is the fourth stage of Ross’s model Depression.

It all comes together in Ikana Valley. Here, our hero must pass through the Valley of Death and then climb to the top of the Stone Tower Temple where you receive the Light Arrows. Kind of sounds like the finding the light at the end of the tunnel right? 

All of this, along with my first theory that Link is dead throughout the game has led me to believe that Link is not only dead, but it would appear that he is trapped in a Purgatory like dream forced to repeat the same three days over and over again. It’s not until you beat the game and save the town that Link is finally allowed to move on. So what happened that caused such a traumatic response? Was it is own death? Is it the lost of his partner Nami? What is Link fighting to come to terms with while you are playing Majora’s Mask? Find out in my third and final post next week!

Link To First Post: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-legend-of-zelda-majoras-mask-and.html







1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:57 PM CST

    You do know the Link is dead theory has been thoroughly debunked, right? There's a lot of evidence that contradicts it shown by videos and articles.

    ReplyDelete

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