Another MM Thread...

[bspurka]

So this is not what you think it is. Yes I dont have a theory on it but im sure plenty of us can come together and think of one, I was looking at some of the original artwork of Majora's Mask and I found this.
I understand that Majora's mask is a pretty dark game but why is someone hanging from a tree in the background? It is pretty obvious that there is no life in the things body. It mush be a human because it has 5 fingers on each hand. I saw this and I couldn't think of why Nintendo added it to the original art. So lets all work together and think of a conclusion.

 

[Lord_Cathaseigh]

It's like the Wizard of Oz. Random dead body hangin in the eyecatch...The artist probably just added it in to creep people out. But who knows?

 

[Cel-Shaded Deku]

My best guess is that it's supposed to be some kind of symbolism involving Skullkid hanging himself naked. To me it looks like Skullkid but without his clothes on. The glowing red eyes make me think that he's still alive, a failed suicide perhaps?

It mush be a human because it has 5 fingers on each hand.

Other species have five fingers too.

 

[Wolf Sage]

Well, it could very well be a doll of sorts...

...a voodoo[-esque] doll, perhaps? Hmmm... The position of the "doll" in the image might allude to suicide, which might have to do with the state of unrest among the inhabitants of Termina in light of the impending doom that is the large, menacing Moon drawing ever closer. Frankly, the image itself suggests that the original plot was a lot darker (imo). Whatever the case may be, there is obviously symbolism at work here. What it foretells (or rather, what it foretold), however, is another story altogether.

 

[Cfrock]

The thing's eyes on the close-up remind me of a Deku Scrub's. They look rather sad.

The suicide angle is interesting because I feel the Skull Kid's actions are suicidal. The way I always saw it was that Majora's Mask gave the Skull Kid a ton of power and let him use that power as he pleased, as long as it caused chaos. The mask only discarded the Skullkid when it was clear he was useless and Majora had to defend itself but was otherwise happy for Skull Kid to take the reins.
The Skull Kid is immensely upset at the Four Giants for supposedly abandoning him and I felt that his actions (which range from petty things like making Kafei a child to grand things like poisoning Woodfall) were, in a way, getting back at them. He's using his power to attack the very thing the Giants had sworn to protect; Termina. Dragging the Moon down was the ultimate step he could take to that end.

But the Skull Kid has to be filled with a deep sadness. When we see him in Ocarina of Time he seems much lonelier than the other Skull Kids and I always felt sympathy for him. He reconciles with the Giants almost immediately which says to me that he simply missed having his friends and was using Majora's Mask to lash out. But that lashing out would have destroyed Termina, killing everyone including himself.

The Skull Kid is seen at the top of the Clock Tower a lot of the time, directly beneath the Moon he is making fall. This is an apocalypse event in which everyone is going to die, one way or the other. You could say it was just misguided mischeif and chaos but the fact he goes to the top of the Clock Tower suggests to me that he is acutely aware of what he's doing. It's almost like he wants to be the very first one to die because of the Moon.

Of course, all of that is just some speculative thoughts in my head. The hanging figure does make one think of suicide but I may just be agreeing with that because it fits with a theory I have. It could be Marvin the Martian for all I know.

Eitherway, nice find

 

[SpartanGibbles]

Like a lot of other background art, this could simply be something that is supposed to contribute to the dark tone of the game. Since this is just concept art, it could also have been an artist playing around with characters or trying to slip something in unnoticed like many people who work on games do (ie: a programmer added mew to Pokemon Red/Blue 2 weeks before development was finished and was mostly unknown to everyone including most game developers). Since we don't see anything of the sort in later official artwork I would wager that is just something that they had talked about during development and decided to axe or just simply drop from the game.

 

[Heroine of Time]

Hmm. That is interesting. I've seen that picture, but I never really thought about that figure...

Maybe it is the Deku Butler's Son, the scrub inside of the Deku Mask? The way the eyes are glowing and the round head makes me think of that. All of the spirits in the mask are obviously dead, so perhaps instead of Skull Kid killing him as most fans assume, he killed himself.

Wow. That just made the whole story a lot more depressing.

 

[CheeseXCrackers]

Sorry my theory isn't as dark as everyone else, but I think it's Tingle. I noticed that guy in the background a while ago and I thought "that looks like Tingle". My theory is that his balloon popped in the air and while he was falling his flat deflated balloon wrapped around a tree branch.
Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Tingle?

 

[Wolf Sage]

Sorry my theory isn't as dark as everyone else, but I think it's Tingle. I noticed that guy in the background a while ago and I thought "that looks like Tingle". My theory is that his balloon popped in the air and while he was falling his flat deflated balloon wrapped around a tree branch.
Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Tingle?

Hmm... Heh... Maybe, the person in charge of the artwork threw something in to show their hatred of Tingle. (KIDDING)

Kind of depressing if it were Tingle. Frankly, I find it odd that Nintendo would do "that" to such a beloved character. But then again, Majora's Mask is the title in which Tingle made his debut; and as such, he hadn't the time to become "beloved" just yet [back then].

At any rate, I don't think the "doll" is Tingle, nor do I think it resembles him. The proportions are WAY off, even for a crude, early-stage artwork. For all we know, it could be a simple, generic design/placeholder used to convey a [dark] symbolic message - nothing more; it doesn't necessarily have to be a [main, NP] character from the plot, a planned character, or even a [legit] scrapped character design, really...

 

[bspurka]

If we are taking the dark route of things it could also be link as a possibility, and maybe his empty selves in stone temple tower shows his inner self and that he feels alone and physically empty without navi, because everyone he had loved in oot has become a sage and he can never see again, so now he has nobody.

 

[Cel-Shaded Deku]

If we are taking the dark route of things it could also be link as a possibility, and maybe his empty selves in stone temple tower shows his inner self and that he feels alone and physically empty without navi, because everyone he had loved in oot has become a sage and he can never see again, so now he has nobody.

Link doesn't seem like the kind of person to kill himself. Also, the sages are still around in the child timeline. Even if I'm wrong about that Zelda is definitely there for him. Skullkid makes more sense if lack of friends is the cause. Before he met Tatl and Tale the Four Giants abandoned and no one else liked him.

 

[The Jade Fist]

Maybe its just to convey the hopelessness feeling of the game, what better what to convey hopelessness then suicide?

 

[Satsy]

What I find curious is that any other version of the image in the OP, he's not hanging from his neck, but from the spike on his head.

 

[Skunk]

I think that there's a lot of symbolism in that part of the background.First of all, our mystery character is hanging in a dead tree. Since the tree is dead, it could mean that that person felt dead as well. Or something deeper. Perhaps the dead tree symbolizes the roots of and branches of evil, the person hung there a puppet to them. Skull Kid would definitely fit that description, but I'll sill continue. The person hanging in the tree is wearing green, so unless Skull Kid changed clothes, that doesn't really work. As for Tingle, no I refuse to believe it. That would leave Link. I don't think it's Link exactly, moreover a message from Majora or Skull Kid that Link should die. A doll representing Link, was tied to an evil looking tree. So that would mean that evil wants victory.
If however, it is a puppetof evil, then perhaps we need to go deeper. The tree could represent Termina, a land that is forsaken and dead. Link would be a puppet to the Terminean people, fated to die. Helping them, running errands for them, putting the souls to rest, all like a puppet in a show.

 

[ironknuckle1]

Maybe it was something that was accidentally left in the artwork but not kept for the final cut of the game. Either way it is interesting.