majora's mask artworkLast week, I dissected how the events of Ocarina of Time had such a negative effect on Link in his journey that he would most assuredly be a prime candidate for being a victim of clinical depression, as well as potentially experiencing survivor’s guilt. However, there is evidence to suggest that in Majora’s Mask, the Zelda game known for its dark undertones, Link actually has an emotional turnaround, and by the time his adventure in Termina is over, he is well on the road to recovery. Hit the jump to read why!

As the opening scenes unfold, text appears onscreen that tells that Link is searching for a “beloved and invaluable friend.” For those who have played Ocarina of Time, it may seem obvious that Link is searching for his fairy companion, Navi, who left him at the very end of his adventure in Hyrule. It is this search that causes our hero to stumble upon the land of Termina, which is doomed to be crushed by a nightmare-inducing moon after just three days. In order to stop the moon, Link must retrieve Majora’s Mask from the Skull Kid, which was stolen from the Happy Mask Salesman so that both he and Link may resume their respective journeys. Link finds that obtaining the mask from the Skull Kid is a far more daunting task than initially anticipated, and enlists the help of the Ocarina of Time to help him obtain Majora’s Mask by repeating the same three-day cycle as many times as necessary. However, it is actually an event that occurs in the second three days that illuminates the pathway to happiness for our young hero.

Before I reveal the object that allows Link to be happy in Majora’s Mask, it is of utmost importance to define and identify what happiness truly is. Merriam-Webster defines “happiness” as “the state of being happy,” where “happy” is defined as “feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation, etc.” I don’t like dictionary definitions, and although this one gives us a good start in defining happiness, I much prefer to define things in a sense of why instead of what. Therefore, analyzing the psychology and neuroscience behind happiness is the best plan of action in order to determine why what makes Link happy in Termina does indeed make him happy.

During the very first three-day cycle, there is a small red-capped boy who is attempting to pop a large balloon decorated with the image of Majora’s Mask in North Clock Town. After the Great Fairy grants Deku Link the ability to shoot bubbles, he can shoot down this balloon, and talk to that small boy, who turns out to be the leader of the Bombers Secret Society of Justice, a group dedicated to maintaining peace and happiness in clock town. He challenges Link to a game of hide-and-go-seek, where if Link wins, he will be given the five-digit code that grants him access to their secret base. While on the first cycle, the most that Link can obtain from this is a Moon’s Tear, what happens during the second cycle, when Link has returned to his original form, is what opens the floodgates to Link’s happiness.

bombers notebookDuring the second three days, Link, now in his human form, can access the Bombers’ secret base by giving the same code he learned as a Deku Scrub to the “guard.” If he enters, then exits, the gang’s leader, whose name is Jim, will approach Link, telling him that he was never taught the code and could not possibly know how to enter their base without it being taught to him. This causes Jim to admire Link, and make him an honorary member of the Bombers’ Gang. As proof of his membership, he is given the Bombers’ Notebook, which allows Link to keep track of the various schedules of people all over Termina. The purposes of this notebook, however, are to allow Link to find people in need of help, be it big or small, and help them so that they can be happy. Within the notebook are several rules, which include one that is incredibly significant: “Whenever you solve someone’s problem, it makes you happy, so a Happy Sticker will be added to your book.” Herein lies the key that will pull Link out of the depression that was brought upon him by his experiences in Ocarina of Time. But rather than just saying that helping others will make Link happy, it’s far more effective to discuss where happiness comes from, and why helping others and the specific events caused by Link’s actions will cause him to be happy.

While happiness and what makes us happy is entirely subjective, the neuroscience behind happiness is the same in almost all of us. Essentially, even though different things may make us happy, the exact same chemical process occurs in the brain that causes happiness, and therefore objectifies happiness. Although the neuroscience of happiness is still in its adolescence, there is a great deal of knowledge that exists about the parts of the brain involved in happiness, and they are known as the “pleasure centers.”

The pleasure centers of the brain are mainly located in the limbic system, which is responsible for several functions, which include emotion, behavior, and motivation. The limbic system contains several structures that regulate and perform certain chemical processes, such as the hypothalamus, which is responsible for emotion and motivation in the amygdala and hippocampus, and the nucleus accumbens, which is involved in reward, pleasure, and addiction. Whenever these certain pleasure centers are stimulated, the brain forms the appropriate response for the situation. There are four important chemicals in regard to happiness: dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin, and serotonin. Most of these play important roles in stimulating these pleasure centers, and so as not to bore you, I’ll only give very brief descriptions of each.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible for eliciting feelings of pleasure whenever a reward is obtained or a goal is reached. Endorphin is another neurotransmitter that masks physical pain in severe instances as to prevent shock until it is healthy to feel the pain. Oxytocin is released whenever you are around people whom you trust, and also whenever you are physically comforted. Finally, serotonin is the chemical that causes people to be happy whenever they feel important or useful. Now that I’ve grossly oversimplified these chemicals, Link’s happiness can now be more easily objectified in accordance to his actions, and how the people within the Bombers’ Notebook allow him to satisfy his brain’s need to be happy.

As all of us who have played Majora’s Mask know, the game heavily relies on side-quests in order to beef up the story and length of the game in general. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, seeing as the game has only four incredibly difficult dungeons, and the side quests allows for a level of character development in minor characters that was unheard of in the five titles preceding it, as well as many of those following it. Due to this character development, the player, and Link, is able to connect with these other characters on a far deeper emotional level, and have a vested interest in their problems and wanting to help them. While there are a vast amount of side-quests offered by the Bombers’ Notebook, I’ll only cover a few of the more important ones that truly give Link a feeling of happiness and accomplishment.

Although 14 of the 20 Notebook quests result in a mask, and the remaining six result in either a piece of heart, empty bottle, or the Bombers’ Notebook itself, there’s no question that dopamine is released within Link’s brain whenever he completes any of these quests, I am analyzing Link’s happiness on a far deeper level than simply reward-motivated behavior. Of all of the quests that the Bombers’ Notebook offers, I find that three of them are absolutely significant in making Link as happy as possible: Grog’s quest, Cremia’s quest, and the combined quests of Anju and Kafei.

grog• Grog, if you don’t remember, is the young adult who cares for the cuccos at Romani Ranch. Whenever Link first enters the Cucco shack, he finds Grog slumped over in front of a tree, telling Link that, even though he knows the moon will fall and they will die, his only regret is that he will not live to be able to see the cucco chicks grow into adulthood. If Link has the Bremen Mask, acquired by listening to Guru-Guru confess his remorseful past, he can march around the shack, collecting the chicks, which causes them to suddenly mature into fully-grown hens. Talking to Grog afterward, he shows his appreciation by giving Link the Bunny Hood, but also by saying that “just seein’ these guys with a crest and all… I don’t have regrets about anythin’ anymore. I’m perfectly satisfied.”

cremia_hug• Cremia is Romani’s older sister who, after Link’s having stopped “Them” from abducting the cows and Romani, invites Link to ride with her to Clock Town to deliver some Chateau Romani to the Milk Bar. During their ride through Milk Road, they are redirected to the Gorman Brothers’ Track, and are ambushed by the masked twins who attempt to shatter the bottles in the back of Cremia’s carriage. If the two make it out with the bottles intact, Cremia will give Link the gift of the Romani’s Mask, however, the mask is not what is important. If Link completes this quest while already having Romani’s Mask, Cremia will give him a warm, appreciative hug.

kafei anju• The Kafei-Anju quest is the largest and most complex side-quest of the entire game, which revolves around reuniting a couple that has been forcibly separated by the Skull Kid’s evil doings. Before Link arrived in Clock Town, Kafei and Anju were to be married, but the Skull Kid’s dark magic turned Kafei into a child, and the thief Sakon stole his wedding mask, causing him to go into hiding. Through a series of specifically timed events, Link can successfully reunite the two lovers at 4:30 in the morning on the final day as the clock is ticking down to their imminent doom. Although Kafei and Anju know they will soon die, Link can take solace in the fact that he made sure that these two would die happily in each other’s arms. It’s truly touching.

Why are these three side-quests the most important, you might ask? Well, from my experience playing Majora’s Mask, I found that these three quests offered the most psychologically satisfying experiences for both Link and me, and not only did they potentially pull our hero out of his depressed rut, but they also made him legitimately happy, both in an objective and subjective sense. Objectively, it can said that these three side-quests in particular offered Link the mental stimulation in the limbic system of the brain that he was definitely lacking in Ocarina of Time. Of the four neurochemicals that create objective happiness, Link’s brain was fed three of them during the course of these quests. Dopamine was easily surging throughout Link’s head during each of these quests, as he knew there would be a reward at the end of each of them, since dopamine is based on reward motivation, and appears to be the most easily triggered chemical (dopamine is also released when you take addictive drugs, suggesting that one’s brain can literally become addicted to dopamine). However, two of the more “meaningful” neurotransmitters, oxytocin and serotonin, were released due to the relationships forged by these specific quests as well as the importance Link was able to feel due to his time traveling abilities.

Grog and Cremia were able to able to create relationships with Link that he had never experienced before, especially in his native land of Hyrule. Grog’s loss of regret after seeing his precious cuccoo chicks develop into mature hens was able to illustrate to Link the power that friendship and passion has on the mind. Link was able to vicariously feel relief through Grog, as even though he knew death was near, he was not afraid because of the happiness his friends, the cuccoos, brought to him. Link hadn’t personally felt this kind of connection with anyone until Cremia gave him that warm embrace at the end of their ride together. I’d like to imagine that the scene was cut short, and that Link had actually released all of his depression then and their, using Cremia as his crying shoulder. Last week when I discussed social isolation and Dr. Harry Harlow’s experiments on baby monkeys, I mentioned how the maternal bond is essential in cognitive development. If you remember the “surrogate mothers” experiment, the baby monkeys yearned for physical contact and comfort whenever they felt scared or just wanted contact. Link never had that chance, as he never knew his mother, and anyone who he had ever grown close to him emotionally had left him in some way. The hug that Cremia gave to Link was instrumental in relieving Link of all of his struggles, his worries, and his fears. Right then, Link had a mother to hold onto. Because of these two humble farmhands, Link was able to receive more than a healthy dose of oxytocin, and feel happy and loved for the first time in a long, long time.

Kafei and Anju’s side quest was quite different, in the sense that Link was an integral part of the reunion of the two. What I find to be particularly interesting is that Link’s ability to travel back in time and relive the same three days gives him the opportunity to see what the lives of these people would be like without him. He knows where and why Kafei is hiding, and he knows that Anju is an emotional wreck underneath the façade she creates as the cheery, though forgetful, desk woman at the inn. Link is able to live through the experience of George Bailey of “It’s a Wonderful Life” while still being able to exist and help others at the same time. Due to the immediate validation of his worth, serotonin is constantly stimulating his brain’s limbic system, creating yet another avenue for Link’s happiness. Surely, Link has climbed himself out of the crater that is depression, but why does he do any of this for anyone? Generally, those who are depressed do not have much motivation, and doing the things that help are typically the hardest to do. No need to worry, I’ve got it covered.

cell_surface_storiesRemember last week when I said I would delve more into how sufferers of Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome, particularly survivor’s guilt, use the struggles of others to help cope with their own issues? Well, here I am, simply explaining that once Link performed his first good deed, which can come as early as the night of the first day by helping the old woman at the bomb shop retrieve her bombs from Sakon, Link found that a simple good deed helped to make another’s life better. As I said earlier, Link’s self-worth increased exponentially as he discovered that helping others on a personal level could actually make him happy. In essence, this could possibly open a gateway within his brain that could eventually trigger a dependence on the neurotransmitters, causing Link to become addicted to helping people, as it would give him a healthy and happy mental rush. It’s not as farfetched as it may seem. I’ll keep it short, but in 1953, James Olds and Peter Milner performed an experiment where they observed rats whose brains had been given a “test apparatus,” which would supply direct electrical stimulation to the pleasure centers of the brain whenever the rats pressed a switch. This stimulation caused for a release in dopamine, which the rats soon became addicted to, as they would press the lever over and over to satisfy their newfound addiction. The addiction became so severe that the rats neglected to eat or drink water and ultimately died of exhaustion. While Link is definitely not a rat being fed artificial stimuli, he is given the rare opportunity of infinitely stimulating his brain by being able to abuse this remedy to his survivor’s guilt, and helping people potentially to the point of mental dependency.

While that example may be a bit extreme, I trust our hero enough not to abuse the powers granted to him by the goddesses, and that his heart is genuinely in the right place when he is performing these acts of kindness to those who need it. By the time that Link has defeated the evil within Majora’s Mask, he has been able to see what kind of impact he left on Termina. As the moon returns to its original place in the sky, the citizens of this world cheer as they are able to live another day, and it is that day that their “breakfast will taste better than any meal [they] have ever tasted” (Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club”). Link has restored life to this once dead country, and even the Happy Mask Salesman notes that Link has managed to make a lot of people very happy. If that’s not quite enough for Link, the Skull Kid, no longer under the influence of Majora’s Mask, recognizes him as the boy who taught him Saria’s Song in the Lost Woods quite some time ago. This small gesture from the Skull Kid makes Link reassess how he viewed his time in Hyrule, and that maybe he did leave an impression in his native land after all. As the closing cinematics come to end, a lonely stump sits in the Lost Woods, carved within it the images of the Hero of Time, the Skull Kid, and the four giants of Termina. Link is truly happy.

Majoras_Mask___The_End_by_ZelosWilder_Marvin

While all of this analysis occurs solely within the fictional realm of a video game, I enjoy and tend to use real-world applications, as they can be relevant and fun to discuss. However, if you take anything out of this piece, let it be this: do something nice for someone today, and every day. Be it a smile, a wave, a hug, or a simple “hello,” we never know the impact we have on the lives of others. We don’t have the luxury of seeing what life would be like without us, so make the days count while you can. You never know when you’re going to see someone for the last time, so make your impression memorable. Live the life that you would be proud of living.

This concludes my two-part analysis on the mental state of the Hero of Time, and you can read part one here. Let me know if you have any theories of your own, and leave your voice in the comments below!

Sorted Under: Editorials, Majora's Mask