Majora’s Mask Side-Characters (Volume I – Author’s Choice: Part I)

Before you start asking what’s up with the title, I originally planned to have this split into two parts: Author’s Choice and Reader’s Choice. However, after writing up the first part, I realised it was too long and split it into two parts, as well. In this first instalment of my series of analyses on the side-characters of Majora’s Mask, I will be looking at Tael, Anju, and Kafei. Unfortunately, if you were looking forward to my analyses of ??? and Tingle, you’re going to have to wait another week, sorry. But, there’s still plenty to enjoy about this editorial, so hit the jump to read more!

Tael

Tael is the uniquely-colored brother of Tatl. He is uniquely colored in that, fairies usually have a white-light centre, and as that light spreads outward and disperses amongst the spectrum, you can see that they actually have different colours; instead, Tael has a black-light centre, giving him a very dark, purple colour. Tael is also unique in that he is one of the two known male fairies in the entire Zelda series (the other being Leaf, the red spirit fairy from Phantom Hourglass).

But I’m fairly certain you’re not reading this editorial to find out why Tael is unique. The reason I’m analysing Tael is because, while he appears to be quite young and inexperienced, he is revealed to be reasonably intelligent, perceptive, and is unquestionably loyal to Skull Kid.

At the end of the first three-day cycle, Link and Tatl confront Skull Kid and Tael. After Tatl tries to coax Skull Kid into handing over Majora’s Mask, Tael, knowing her attempts to be futile, rushes forward and shouts his almost-iconic phrase:

“Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. Hurry… the four who are there… bring them here….”

This goes unnoticed by the majority of gamers, but how did Tael know about the Four Giants? In present-day Termina, the Four Giants are all but forgotten, so my theory is that when Skull Kid was telling the two fairies about how his old friends had left him, he had made several minor hints that Tatl ignored, but Tael acknowledged, and held onto, hoping that he might one day figure out who Skull Kid’s old friends were. Either having heard the story of the Four Giants before he met Skull Kid, or after, Tael soon pieced it all together and realized that the Four Giants were once Skull Kid’s friends.

When Skull Kid came into possession of Majora’s Mask, and was slowly corrupted by it, Tatl simply thought it was part of Skull Kid’s mischievous nature, but Tael knew that something else was going on, as is revealed at the end of the game, when he explains to Tatl why he is defending Skull Kid:

“Wait… Sis…. Don’t… don’t be so hard on the Skull Kid. He was lonely… the Skull Kid. The power of the mask made him do it. It was too much for the Skull Kid to handle.”

I believe that this is why Tael stuck with Skull Kid, and put up with his abuse, because he knew that wasn’t really his friend that was doing all these terrible things; and that Tael was always looking for a way to save him. Tael soon realised that only the Skull Kid’s old friends could save him, and, not knowing how to find them, he asked Link to do so instead.

Tael is also quite timid, and this is another reason that he put up with Skull Kid’s abuse: because he couldn’t stand up for himself. His sister was always there to protect him, and without her, he was helpless. However, after Majora’s Mask leaves Skull Kid and possesses the Moon, Tael offers to go with Link to finish off the fiend that possessed his friend. But Tatl, having come this far with Link, decides to accompany Link in Tael’s stead, leaving Tael to stay with the unconscious Skull Kid.

After Link leaves, Tael attends the Carnival of Time with Tatl and Skull Kid, and I’m fairly certain that in the future, given Tael’s recent development, Tatl would treat Tael as an equal, having realised his maturity, and, together with Skull Kid, the three of them would have a better, stronger friendship as a result. What do you guys think of Tael? Happy coincidence that he knew of the Four Giants, or is it a sign of his intelligence? Do you think he is mature and perceptive, or young and makes lucky guesses? Let me know in the comments.

Anju

In Majora’s Mask, Anju is the owner of the Stock Pot Inn, and is three days away from marrying her childhood-friend-now-fiancé, Kafei. Unfortunately, Kafei disappeared over a month ago; and with the Moon about to destroy the land and the continued absence of her fiancé, Anju is going through emotional hell: unsure if Kafei left because of her, or if he has run off with her best friend, Cremia (as Anju’s mother believes); she hopes that Kafei might surprise her and return on the day of the Carnival of Time, and is therefore unsure if she should stay and wait for him, or go with her mother and grandmother to the ‘safety’ of Romani Ranch (a place that she is even more unwilling to go to, because of her current doubt in her friendship with Cremia, which is, in turn, because of the possibility that Kafei has run off with Cremia).

However, that’s all very straight-forward… well, as straight-forward as it can be when emotions and self-doubt are involved. What I wonder about Anju is why she so often apologizes. She is also quite often nervous, but that is undoubtedly due to recent events. Anju’s frequent apologies are most obvious after Link takes the reservation that was made by a Goron with the same name, and when the poor Goron turns up asking for his reservation, Anju can’t stop apologizing, partly because this poor Goron (who is tired from a long trek) must now sleep outside in the rain, on bricks, but mostly because she has yet again forgotten a customer’s face and given away the wrong reservation.

If you haven’t played the game, or if you have, and missed a certain piece of text, you may be asking yourselves, “Yet again?”. That’s right, despite it’s necessity to her business, Anju can’t help but forget customer’s faces. Her mother has told her off for it since Anju first took part in the business, but no matter what, Anju simply can’t remember customer’s faces after they make their reservation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Anju frequently apologizes because of this reason: she has had to apologize to so many customers, and to her mother every time she made the same mistake, that she now does it without thinking.

Usually, this sort of thing is a habit that a person will pick up at childhood, and it’s likely that Anju’s mother started training her in running the Inn at a young age, however, there is a lot of room for interpretation. Could there be another reason that Anju apologizes so often? If you’ve noticed this, why do you think she does it? Let me know in the comments.

Kafei

Kafei, as aforementioned, is Anju’s fiancé. A month before their wedding, Kafei was on his way to meet Anju, with his completed Sun’s Mask, when he encountered Skull Kid. Skull Kid then used the power of Majora’s Mask to transform Kafei into a child. Kafei then made his way to the Great Fairy in North Clock Town to get her to transform him back, and, unfortunately, next encountered Sakon.

Being the thief that he is, Sakon stole Kafei’s mask and ran off with it. And this is where I don’t understand Kafei: he made a promise to Anju to meet her with his completed mask, yes, but he didn’t expect to be transformed into a child and have his mask stolen from him.

At that point, Anju’s faith in him was unbreakable: she would’ve understood if he had gone to her to explain the situation. It would’ve been a better option than, say, abandoning her for a month (especially given that Anju’s faith in Kafei has waned significantly by the night before the Carnival of Time, and she would’ve left for Romani Ranch if it weren’t for Link’s intervention). But promises mean that much to Kafei, so he donned the Keaten Mask that his childhood friend (the man from the Curiosity Shop) gave him when they were kids, so that people would not recognize him, and watched all the business dealings that happened in the Curiosity Shop, hoping to find the man that stole his mask, and follow him back to his hideout to get his mask back.

Unfortunately for Kafei, this process takes far longer than he expected, and could have gone on even longer if it weren’t for Link’s intervention. Yes, he would still get into Sakon’s hideout on the night before the Carnival of Time, but he would have been unable to retrieve the mask without Link’s help.

I also wondered why Kafei did not go to the Great Fairy and get turned back into a man, and then confront Sakon. It is entirely possible that the Great Fairy had already been shattered at that point, but then Kafei could’ve captured the Stray Fairy and reformed her shattered body himself. Either way, I still feel that it would’ve been better for Kafei to explain to Anju what has happened, and then get the Sun’s Mask back; after all, he promised to meet her with his completed mask, he didn’t say when, so if she was upset, he could easily use that as an excuse (not a good one, I know, but if he said it was a humorous tone, it might have cheered her up a bit).

That brings us to the end of Volume I of the analyses of side-characters in Majora’s Mask. Next week, I’ll bring you the analyses on ??? and Tingle, as well as confirm the line-up of side-characters to be analysed in Volume III, as suggested by you: the readers. Now, as a recap, what are your theories on Tael, and why Anju constantly apologizes? Do you think Kafei should’ve told Anju what happened rather than abandoning her? Do you think Kafei should’ve visited the Great Fairy, or at least tried to, and reassembled her body instead of Link? Do you have your own idea about why he chose the option that he did? Let me know in the comments.