Moon

The Moon¹ the rock-like ominous object that constantly threatens to destroy Clock Town in Majora's Mask.^[1] By the evil power of Majora's Mask, it's destined to crash into Clock Town, which will obliterate the town along with the rest of Termina, including Link. It is also known for having an angry, snarling face.

Appearances

Majora's Mask

Before the events of Majora's Mask, the Skull Kid ambushed the Happy Mask Salesman and took one of his precious masks, the Majora's Mask. Even though the Skull Kid was unaware of it, Majora's Mask gradually began to fully possess him, turning his harmless pranks into acts with malicious intents behind them. Eventually, the mask completely embraced the Skull Kid's mind, and, using him as a puppet, Majora's Mask set the Moon on a collision course with Clock Town. Once Link, the Hero of Time, arrives in Termina, he discovers that he has just 72 hours (three days) to prevent the Moon from extinguishing all of Termina, including himself.

Along with his Fairy companion Tatl, Link sets out to find the Four Giants in each of the temples found throughout Termina. After they free the Giants from the Skull Kid's curse, the young hero and his Fairy climb atop the Clock Tower on the Final Day to call upon the Giants using the Oath to Order. One by one, the Four Giants appear and stop the Moon's descent, knocking the Skull Kid unconscious in the process.

At this point, Majora's Mask realizes that the Skull Kid has become useless, so it abandons the imp's body and transports itself inside the Moon through its mouth.^[2] With the Moon itself now being possessed by Majora's Mask, it becomes too strong for the Giants to hold back and it threatens to continue with its plan of obliterating Termina.^[1] While the Four Giants use all of their might to restrain the evil menace, Link and Tatl follow Majora's Mask into the Moon.^[3] Inside, Link defeats Majora in rough battle and the Moon disintegrates, returning peace to Termina.

Dungeon

Once Link successfully summon the Four Giants to halt the descent of the Moon, Majora's Mask discards the Skull Kid's unconscious body and enters the Moon's open mouth,^[2] once more driving it down toward Termina.^[1] To stop this, Link and Tatl follow the cursed Mask to the Moon.

Link is transported to a serene, hilled, paradise-like landscape known as the Grassy Playfield. Several Moon Children appear in this field, wearing the remains of the four previous bosses as masks. If Link decides to play with any of these Moon Children at the cost of giving them a few of his masks, they will transport him to a special dungeon. If Link decides to play with the Moon Child wearing Majora's Mask sitting under the tree in the center of the field, he will initiate the final battle with the actual Majora's Mask. In addition, if the young hero were to talk to the same Child after trading all 20 of the non-transforming Masks including the Giant's Mask, he will earn the Fierce Deity's Mask as a reward.

Other Appearances

Trivia

• During development of the game and in some early artwork, the Moon had no face on it.
• According to Yoshiaki Koizumi, the idea of the Moon crashing to Termina comes from when he was daydreaming of what would happen if the real-life moon were to impact Earth, after creating the three-day time cycle for the game.
• In the original Nintendo 64 version of the game, the Moon's eyes are similar to that of Majora's Mask.
• Even when inside the Moon, in the Grassy Playfield, the dungeons, or the Final Boss arena against Majora's Mask, the earthquakes during the Final Day still occur, unless glitches are used to battle Majora at a prior day.
• Under normal circumstances, when inside the Moon, if the Bombers' Notebook were to be checked, the time will display as 7:45 AM, seemingly back on the dawn of the Final Day, though it is technically New Day.
• In the promotional artwork of Majora's Mask 3D, the Moon, with its face facing to the east, has one of its eyes looking directly toward the viewer. This doesn't happen in any of its appearances, as they remain completely still and facing forward.
• When Majora's Mask enters and possesses the Moon after detaching itself from the Skull Kid, its own eyes begin to eerily glow.
• Two separate models of the Moon exist in the original N64 version of Majora's Mask. One is used for Termina Field and the Clock Tower with a slightly simplified face, while the other, a larger model with an even angrier face, is used for the rest of Termina, including Clock Town.
• According the Majora's Mask (Himekawa) manga, the inside of the Moon is the world of the Majora's soul, giving the likely reason why the Moon itself breaks apart when Majora's Mask is defeated in the game's climax.
• Due to the limitations of the Nintendo 64 hardware, the Moon's model simply changes sizes between the First and Second Day while remaining in the same position - half and full, to give the impression of it getting closer, likely because of the limited draw distance. But on the Final Day, however, it begins visibly and slowly descending toward Clock Town in real time. This remains mostly the same in the Nintendo 3DS remake.
• If one uses ROM hacking effects to make Link hover directly up the Moon, the Moon's model has no hit detection and he will simply go through it.

  

• Although this does not occur in Majora's Mask or its remake, in Hyrule Warriors, Fierce Deity Link is capable of destroying the seemingly indestructible Moon entirely into two pieces with one extremely powerful vertical slice, when using Young Link's Focus Slash, after being sent down by Skull Kid at a rather fast pace.
  • Because the Fierce Deity is stated to be canon and Majora itself was defeated by this very transformation according to Hyrule Historia, some fans had wished this aforementioned special move be the ultimate outcome for the Moon in the mainline installment's ending.
• Perhaps unsurprisingly, Termina's Moon is an incredibly small scale compared to the real-world moon, as it appears to be only as large as a medium-sized meteorite.
  • If the Earth's moon were to crash onto the planet from its perspective (if not breaking apart entirely), although indeed everything would be wiped out like its Zelda counterpart, the destruction would be far more catastrophic in comparison, as first the atmosphere is heavily disrupted, tides would cease and cause incredible flooding, and upon impact massive worldwide earthquakes and volcanic eruptions would occur alongside fiery rain of lunar fragments.
• When Majora's Mask is defeated during the final battle, the Moon disintegrates into ashes much like Majora itself during the ending cutscene in Majora's Mask 3D. However, in the original N64 version, due to limitations (though its top is indeed breaking apart) the Moon itself appears to simply disappear into the sky, seemingly returning to its proper orbit.

  

• If one performs the 4th Day glitch to enter the New Day and then Link looks up to the sky, the Moon will appear extremely far away (in reality, its model has simply become tiny). Since Majora's Mask was originally planned to have a seven-day cycle (168 hours) rather than three, it's rumored by fans that the glitch itself brings Link to the very first day of the week's leftover data, with the Moon being in the original distance of when it begins its collision course by Majora's Mask's evil powers during the game's development, and thus the First, Second, and Final Days in the final release actually being days 5, 6, and 7, respectively, based on the scale of the Moon.
  • If the aforementioned hover hack was used during this glitch, the heavily downscaled Moon is only slightly larger than Link in size.
  • The 0th Day glitch, which makes the time stuck at 5:59AM before the First Day and functions like the above counterpart, shows the Moon's model in a slightly smaller scale compared to said day, suggesting this was the Day 4 size of the original week planned in development.

• The Moon's model in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is very similar to that of Hyrule Warriors.
• Contrary to popular belief, Majora's Mask is not the first piece of Nintendo media to depict an ominous moon with a face. The original Star Fox of the Star Fox series released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993 has a hidden level known as "Out of This Dimension" where multiple moons with faces are seen in the background. Ironically, like the Zelda title when the Moon crashes, encountering this stage is the game's Bad Ending, as it is impossible to escape it.

Gallery

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  Artwork depicting a faceless Moon behind Skull Kid from Majora's Mask
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  Artwork of the Moon over Clock Town in Majora's Mask
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  The Moon in the intro sequence of Majora's Mask
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  The Moon as seen from the telescope in the Astral Observatory from Majora's Mask
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  Skull Kid pulling the Moon
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  The Moon about to crash into Clock Town in Majora's Mask
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  The Moon crashing into Termina in Majora's Mask
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  The Moon Children inside the Moon
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  The rainbow left by the Moon following Majora's Mask's defeat
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  The Moon up-close during the 4th Day glitch in Majora's Mask, showing its small size and non-hit detection
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  Pre-release screenshot of the Moon without face
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  Artwork of the Moon over Clock Town from Majora's Mask 3D
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  Artwork depicting the Moon behind the Clock Tower from Majora's Mask 3D
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  The Moon in Majora's Mask 3D
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  The Moon just above the Clock Tower in Majora's Mask 3D, at the very end of the time limit cycle
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  The Moon on the background of the Great Bay stage from Super Smash Bros. Melee
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  The Moon attacking Argorok in Hyrule Warriors
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  The Moon being dropped by the Great Sky Fairy in Hyrule Warriors
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  Skull Kid pulling down the Moon in Hyrule Warriors
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  The Moon being completely destroyed by Fierce Deity Link in Hyrule Warriors
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  Skull Kid about to throw a miniature Moon in Hyrule Warriors
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  The Moon in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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  The Moon Assist Trophy approaching a Stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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  The Moon Assist Trophy approaching a Stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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  The Moon Assist Trophy colliding with a Stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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  The Moon appearing behind Young Link in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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  The Moon in the special volume based on Majora's Mask 3D from Link's Hijinks
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  The Moon in the special volume based on Majora's Mask 3D from Link's Hijinks

References