Zelda Moments: The Death of Epona?

Alarming buzzwords! Okay, before you panic, I’ll start off by saying that this one is mostly theoretical. But I wanted to talk about it because I think, while unprovable, it shows a lot of the nuances of certain scenes in Majora’s Mask, and that’s the whole point of Zelda Moments: To break down moments and discuss them. Last week I talked about Epona, and for possibly the first time, gave her some props on how she fulfills certain player fantasies alongside just being a lovable character. This week I want to talk about how Majora’s Mask might have been trying to break us.

Majora’s Mask takes place after Link returns to the past at the end of Ocarina of Time. Through altered events, he acquires the Ocarina of Time from Zelda again, and, through unseen events, Epona. He’s riding our girl in the intro itself, and his first encounter with the game’s antagonist, Skull Kid, happens when his fairies scare Epona so that she throws Link off, and the Skull Kid steals both the Ocarina and Epona.

Link’s pursuit leads him through the forest and an acid trip before he catches up to the Skull Kid… but Epona is missing. Link is then taunted by the imp:

Of course, Epona is just fine, as Link catches up to her in her new home in Romani Ranch. Link and Epona are reunited and everything’s just fine. Or is it?

The Skull Kid saying he “got rid of it” and Link’s shock at those words feels like it was supposed to be something a lot darker. The Skull Kid wasn’t one for innocent pranks. Seemingly under the influence of Majora’s Mask, most of his “pranks” were deeply cruel or even deadly, and certainly resulted in deaths. He never murdered anyone directly, but would he be so restrained against an animal? Of course I interpreted it the innocent way when I first played the game… after I found Epona again. But honestly, without knowing you catch up with her later in the game, the Skull Kid’s vague statement about Epona’s fate really only sounds like one thing… death.

It’s the same as euphemisms for death that we’ve all heard before. “They’re gone”, “get rid of him”, etc. It’s not uncommon in family friendly video games that otherwise still feature death, either. I recall playing Mega Man Zero and not once did anyone say the robot characters were going to be killed or destroyed. No, they were getting “retired”. Yes, the Skull Kid “got rid” of Epona, indeed!

Epona’s reappearance later in the game is easily attributed to the fact that Link bumps into a ton of characters he met in Hyrule; they’re all alternate versions from the dimension of Termina. If Epona indeed died in the caverns beneath the Clock Tower, then the Epona he finds in Romani Ranch is no different from those other characters.

Of course, none of this is technically true as other dialogue in the game explains that the Epona that Link finds in the Ranch is in fact a “lost horse”:

Stated, I believe, by one of the Gossip Stones, this quote definitely indicates that it’s the same Epona that Link lost and that she’s just fine. But Romani herself never says anything of the sort when she gives you the horse, and I don’t know what it might say in the Japanese version (perhaps someone in the comments could enlighten me?) Either way, I do still suspect that they originally intended to kill Epona but somewhere along the line decided “okay, this is going to piss people off”. I might very well be wrong about that. Either way the canon definitely seems to be that Epona did not die, but I still like this interpretation and can’t ever really shake it off. Like I said, it’s just theory, but like a lot of things in Majora’s Mask these moments are nuanced and there is definitely some room for interpretation. Even the quote about Epona being lost never really confirms it’s the same one — even though I believe that was the intent — and I just like the darker notion of Link losing his companion but finding her again in a bittersweet way; reuniting with her mirror in Termina. It might not be canon but I still think it’s a cool possibility and, if true, would be a good moment of storytelling.

Did you take the Skull Kid’s quote like I did? Do you hate the notion of Epona dying? Is there any insight from the original language version of the game any of you Japanese readers might be able to enlighten me to? Tell me your thoughts in the comments!