The Psychology of Skull Kid’s Isolation (Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask)

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

I hope you all enjoy this deep dive into the psychology of one of my favorite characters of all time. Who is you favorite Legend of Zelda character and why?

[@jonathanfaber3291]

That one npc in breath of the wild that tries to talk you down from jumping off the bridge if you stand on the ledge

[@RoseProseFroze]

Midna, because of all the Zelda companions I think her character and her relationship with Link is the most fleshed out. (well besides maybe Phantom Zelda)

[@GrimReaver]

Ganondorf from windwaker is my favorite. He isn’t just evil for funsies, he explains in the final battle that he came from a barren desert and wanted to bring prosperity to his people, which is also why he wants to make the Great Ocean recede so Hyrule can return. That and the narrative of Demise reincarnating and possessing Ganondorf always interested me. What would have Ganondorf been like without Demise’s curse?

[@iwannadie6780]

I definitely think you hit the nail on the head with Skull Kids deep rooted feeling of isolation. And how that made him seek attention, even if it was bad. Another component I think that equally plays apart too. Is his Rage, Hatred, and seek for total vengeance. This plays perfectly with his loneliness and isolation. Spending that much time alone, and in your thoughts. Where all you here are your own ideas over and over and over again. With no one to bounce ideas, or emotions off of. One's view can easily become distorted. To the point that Skull Kid completely lost touch with reality. This making him not just seek attention and doing trouble. But also hating the world, and wanting to end it. Maybe this was why in the film. It shows Majora manipulating Skull Kid to put the mask on. I think they had common interests, and could understand each other emotionally. Majora was cast away in isolation just like Skull Kid was. They were the perfect match. Just my thought on it all. Great video!

[@sciguy98]

I kinda wonder what issues the Hero of Time himself would have. He was 10, pulled a sword to fast forward to 17, saved the world, then had to return to being a 10 year old. He left Hyrule, so we know he wasn't able to return to being a normal kid. I guess he couldn't return to Kokiri even if he wanted to, because he's not really one of them.

[@andychua2766]

He left to look for Navi the only one who has been with him throughout his entire adventure

[@StelarVA]

Twilight Princess and the Hyrule Historia provide a few answers for that. While it’s hinted at in TP, the HH confirms that the Hero’s Shade from TP is the spirit of the Hero of Time, unable to move on because he was unable to be remembered for his adventures in Ocarina and Majora (I also believe it may be that he wasn’t able to pass on the sword fighting techniques to a successor of any sort as well, hence why he trains the Hero of Twilight). So we know that he likely struggled with being known as a hero, but not for the huge adventures we the player saw. It’s known he’s remembered as a hero in that timeline, likely for outing Ganondorf’s coup before it could happen or for some as-of-yet unseen adventure. I also know that the MM manga mentions his struggle with the events of OoT. He’s mentioned early on by a Hylian soldier to have the fighting skills of an adult, but the body and mind of a child. It’s only really mentioned that he feels cheated out of his childhood before never being touched on again in the manga (though the “cycle of death” Majora’s Mask seems to focus on could in turn be interpreted as Link accepting his role as the hero and accepting the life of a hero). On a fun side note, it’s also been stated (iirc, in the HH) that the Hero of Twilight is a direct descendant of the Hero of Time, making the two one of the few Links which are actually related to each other.

[@Mysticgamer]

It's questions like these that make me want a third HoT game. But my guess is that he eventually he decides to talk to the Giant fairy or the owl and discovers that Navi either died or can't stay with him since he isn't Kokiri, also he can't return because the other Kokiri (minus Saria) think he killed the great deku tree. So, he returns he Epona to Lon Lon Ranch and is offered room and board to work there.

[@michaelbisagno932]

I'd say link has abandonedment issues and doesn't talk to anyone because of it.

[@ausgamecollector]

@@michaelbisagno932 That’s deep..

[@matthewtheobald1231]

Majora's Mask is such a poetic masterpiece

[@scolioreset]

Some parts of the symbolism can also be observed on the moon and the way Skull Kid acts when we observe him from the Astral Observatory. While you can choose only once in order to obtai the Moon's Tears (more on that later), Skull Kid can act very differently depending on which time of the three-day cycle you choose to interact with the telescope. The first two days, you see the mischievous kid. The third day until the beginning of the Carnival, he becomes slightly unhinged, pretty much a puppet at this point. When the Carnival starts, it's Majora taking over. Regarding the Moon, the tears may represent a sign of pain, the literal weight of Skull Kid's grief. However, the Mask Salesman does have a mask with the Moon on his bag and it's kinda dead... and the Moon can be spotted at the entrance of the Mayor's Home Office (in the 3DS version and his chair (both versions). This time, the Moon is smiling... What this signifies to me is Termina wanting to be happy and safe. Maybe a way by the game to showcase hope. If most people say that Moon is in pain during the game, I agree. For those who believe anger is the eternal emotion on the Moon, I also get that point of view. Even more so since the all-consuming rage eventually takes over the Moon when Majora drops his puppet in order to accelerate the process of the destruction of Termina and, by extension, break Skull Kid along with his friends and the one who eventually went through all stages of grief to help someone is desperate need of love. It makes the symbolism of the Moon a little more screwed up when we realize that, when Majora takes over, this so-called paradise is hell. Hell... from the perspective of a child, some sort of comfort in solitude. And I find it very symbolic that the "Cult of Evil Children" run around Majora and the tree... much like Skull Kid hiding alone under a trunk while his four friends are away in the corners of the world. You know what's amazing? It's what the people accomplished with this game's development in just over a year. Sure we learn about development process, how some may struggle or poor management lead to issues. With this game, I do believe they had a vision and a goal yet they went beyond and this game seems to get its dues, especially today with the pandemic making this game more relevant than ever.

[@chaoguardian8971]

This was an interesting discussion, I've personally never understood why so many people liked Skull Kid so much but after seeing this I think I can see why that is.

[@ramontavaresdacruz2256]

Well he is powerful enough to throw the moon at the Earth, so there's also that

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

He's such a fascinating character!

[@elgatochurro]

Play Majora's mask? N64 would be best version

[@willothewisp5315]

Skull Kid is definitely my favorite character in LOZ. (I actually once dressed up as him for Halloween.) Glad to see such an in depth analysis into his character!

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

I hope I did him justice!

[@ramontavaresdacruz2256]

Everyone have their own 4 giants

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Truth.

[@B_A-tr]

Can confirm, my friends too have threatened to tear me apart. Jokes asude though, i can relate to the feeling of loneliness. I have better friends since changing schools but there was a time where i spend my breaks via watching other kids play yu-gi-oh.

[@oatstealer5075]

Nad most of the time they all leave

[@morgancolaizzi6824]

Real Skull Kid appreciation hours.

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Every hour is Skull Kid appreciation hour.

[@littlezork]

I used to think that when the Happy Mask Salesman says that the masks were happy that he literally meant the masks. Then I remembered: we gave all the masks to the children besides the ones that possessed the spirit of the Goron, Zora and Deku. So we put their spirits to rest in helping others. But also there's the whole thing that maybe the HMS was talking about the actual faces of the residents. Their 'masks.' How happy they were, and how happy Skullkid became. As someone who was in somewhat similar shoes to Skullkid, it gets lonely and all you have are negative thoughts that take over. No one to drown those thoughts out or pull you aside and say "hey, that's not true." I think we've all been there. We've all had our own personal Majora whispering things in our ears to us that wasn't true.

[@dgc1570]

Holy frick, we we're changing Skull Kid's heart that's amazing! That gives me even more reason to love Majora's Mask

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

When I realized it, I kid you not my jaw hit the floor.

[@speensro413]

Wow! The fact that you’re good at psychology makes it so much easier to solve all this and gives a better result. About the “power” and “rewarding items” situation, I feel that the Fierce Deity Mask was made to make players feel satisfied and powerful against strong enemies....

[@Jotstin]

Thank you for sharing this. I understand someone much better now. 🙏

[@ausgamecollector]

Skull Kid and Link aren’t so different. They’re both parentless/ orphaned children, outcasted from their peers… If Link never had the spirit of the hero, his destiny may have not been so different to Skull Kid.

[@Enderlinkpawnu]

Its confirmed, Link is the og Phantom Theif.

[@rexaliv8798]

and the fierce deity mask is his Satanel

[@thehairylarry]

I hate to see that you have only a few thousand views. It at least deserves 700k tbh. I'll share as much as I can.

[@Deadforge]

Great video. I really enjoyed it.

[@raxelleon8189]

This reminds me of an article I found on a website called Zelda universe that also talked about the meaning of Majora's Mask. It said that another central theme of the story is believing in yourself and in others.

[@Naedox]

Hey Chief, you should've seen the smile I had on my face when I saw this video. While I'm not by any means a Legend of Zelda fan, this is my absolute favorite title for its dark and depressing themes and setting alone.

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Well I hope you ended up enjoying it! I love this game so much and so I HAD to make the video when I thought of it.

[@RoseProseFroze]

This was a very interesting path to explore basic child psychology! I'd like to purpose an alteration to your theory. If Termina is a land created by Skull kid's delusions and Majora Mask's power then why do the giants have to be a literal thing? They could easily represent the skull kid's family that abandoned or lost him in the lost woods to begin with. He was probably the black sheep of his family and didn't listen to their warnings to stay out of the woods and when he turned into a skull kid he blamed them for "abandoning" him.

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

I can totally see where you’re coming from but in the past, at least how the game explains it, he was quite literally friends with four giants that banished him and so that’s why these four giants are present within his cognition.

[@RoseProseFroze]

@@ThoughtBubbleYT Of course! The giant's being literal is still valid and what is stated by the text. I just like theorizing.

[@ausgamecollector]

I don’t believe the whole “Termina is a dream land” nonsense covered in Zelda Encyclopedia. Presumably, it’s at least implied SK was initially from Termina and after being outcast, went to Hyrule for an undisclosed period of time(whereby the events of OOT cross over into, where Link plays the Ocarina of time alongside SK at one instance). The other thing is if Termina is a ‘fabricated reality’, then why would Link be able to enter it?? Makes no sense. The giants are real beings, Termina exists somewhere beyond the realm of Hyrule, perhaps by the tree trunk being a type of fissure, indicating the torn fabric of reality(similar to SS’ prologue or ALBW’s cracked walls).

[@Tera_GX]

I love this deeper thinking on Skull Kid's behavior and choices. But it seems to me like treating Termina as a temporary created world from memories/feelings kinda nullifies the significance of the resolution. Skull Kid finally gets a chance to communicate with their old friends, and learns they're still friends. If it's not real, then that's not real. If all of it is an imaginary internal world, then the real friends of the past are nowhere to be found. Only the abstract space within the moon is an inner world. Also would Majora's Mask even come to life to rampage a fake world? It has goals of some sort. I think the theory on the history of Ikana explained by Monster Maze gets closer to what Termina is.

[@johnpett1955]

It felt like termina was a construct of mind but to me it felt like link's mind created termina. This child was forced to grow up in ocarina of time and although he went back in time as a child, he still had a hard time processing the events. This explains the kinds of themes found in majora's mask. Not only that but link himself probably went through the stages of grief when all his friends became sages so they couldn't be interacting with him.

[@brittw4267]

Omg that ending made me cry 😭😭😭 I love Skull Kid so much, what an amazing video and I loved this analysis of who is, In my opinion, of the deepest NPCs in The Legend of Zelda franchise

[@brittw4267]

*one

[@TigeriPlaysGames]

you've quickly become a favorite content creator of mine, and now you're talking about one of my favorite games of all time, majora's mask? instaclick

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Thank you so much. That's honestly so nice. I hope you enjoyed it!

[@entropy-cat]

Alternative title: ThoughtBubble, better than The Game Theorists?

[@ponspectorstillwedie4579]

"Your friends, what kind of people are they? I wonder... Do these people think of you as a friend too?" "What makes you happy? I wonder... What makes you happy, does it make others happy too?" "The right thing... what is it? I wonder...If you do the right thing, does it make... everybody... happy?" "Your true face, what kind of face is it? I wonder... The face under the mask... is that your true face?" The questions that the moon children ask, what are they? I wonder... Do they represent Skull Kids own introspection, or are they some sort of test given to those who touch the mask? Either way, Link uses the masks he has gathered to answer these questions. He gets a lot of his masks from people who considered him a friend after he helps them. The masks, by the masks salesman's own description, are filled with the happiness of those who he has helped. He gains the masks because he makes everyone happy by doing the right thing. By gathering all the masks, Link shows the sort of person he really is, a selfless individual with a desire to help people. The masks, therefore, serve as answers to all four of the questions the moon children ask, and by overcoming this test he gains the power to easily overcome Majora, who would otherwise prove to be a powerful adversary. Anyway, great video. Majora's Mask is probably my favourite ever Zelda game (Subject to change,) and this was the best analysis of Skull Kid I believe I've ever seen.

[@B_A-tr]

Bonds that give you masks, things that are representativ of a persons mind? Hmmm...

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Thank you so much! And I feel like your thoughts on the moon children are super interesting and plausible. I love just how deep this game can go, it's crazy.

[@zalxder]

12:17 so cool to think of Link similar to Raz

[@RobertF-zj2rm]

i love, love, love this video. after a personal journey of understanding majora’s mask, this video brought it all home in such a meaningful way.

[@FCFoulCaptains]

Interesting video! I had a question about a related theory I was thinking about, and that is another connection between Skull Kid and Link. Link himself struggled with similar loss of friends as Skull Kid. He lost Navi, Zelda and everyone in Hyrule and is also in isolation. However he responds to that differently. Not by negative attention seeking, but rather positive attention seeking. He is helping everyone. Any thoughts on this from your perspective?

[@ruki4929]

Loving the work! It must've been real rough, your old friends threatening to break you after trying to reach them again. As someone who wanted to get into psychology at one point, your channel sparked my curiosity in it again. Cheers!

[@nave712]

I have this theory. What if the way Terminator looks is dictated by three things: Skull Kids loneliness, the Happy Mask Salesmen’s love of masks and Links repressed traumas. Skull is presumed to be the first person who found Termina and his version started out with just him and the four giants who were the first friends he made after becoming a skull kid. The Happy Mask Salesmen may have been the second Hylian to discover Termina and his love of masks lead to the Terminians having masks as part of their culture and since he is nowhere to be found during the adult timeline prior to Link beating Ganondorf, it’s possible he fled to Termina to escape Hyrule during Ganondorfs rise to power. Finally there Link who’s memories of Hyrule, its it’s races and their cultures and combined with the traumas of his journey as well as Navi abandoning him is what lead to the final look of Termina.

[@dgc1570]

Holy Flagnards! I had no idea about that, does that confirm that Termina isn't real then. Wow! Just wow!

[@nibirbaishnabchannel2125]

i want to see him in breath of the wild 2

[@shinigamimiroku3723]

Hey, sorry I haven't been able to watch anything in awhile! I've been really busy with finishing the semester. I was first exposed to the themes of this game via Game Theory's "Is Link Dead?" video (*holds up a flame shield*), but I never considered how much difficulty the Skull Kid had been going through (which is probably why I'm not a counselor... XD). This was a really good video, and I'm definitely going to share it with everyone I know. ^_^

[@gracep2910]

thought that was Groot in the beginning

[@もちの花]

Thanks for the video!

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Of course! My pleasure!

[@Chef-Juice]

For your next video suggestion. I suggest you do a psychologically of Guts from Berserk. Also, beautiful video, skull kid is one of my favorite characters. Majora's mask was just a very well written story.

[@al3412]

Perfect analisi

[@elgatochurro]

The Hyrule historia goes against the Canon on the other games

[@Silent_Fool]

Spoilers for P5R. What does Skull Kid and Maruki have in common. They both have lost their happy lives, (Skull kid’s friends and giants moved on while Maruki’s fiancé is gone) they both discover that is mysterious and gained power, (Majora’s Mask and Maruki’s persona when the real world merges with the Metaverse) they also created a mysterious places (Termina and Maruki’s palace) until they both give up toward young silent kids (Hero of Time and Joker).

[@piccolo9365]

He’s just like me fr

[@Gabriel-ij2tx]

U must have 0 friends. Cuz loneliness is what makes a 💀 kid. Hope you found a way to escape. I have BPD. I'm always sad... I'm a pure skull kid. You don't want to be a skull kid

[@mynedracobirn9245]

tfw not addressing that in his newfound happiness he's found a purpose that is not unlike the giants when we see him in Twilight Princess, guarding a sacred area for the sake of his friends

[@azurzelle]

Whaaat? I don't remember that in TP! Can you share a link, please? :o

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Was it ever confirmed that it's the same Skull Kid? I'd never seen that!

[@mynedracobirn9245]

@@ThoughtBubbleYT it's somewhat difficult to read in game but during the fight with Skull Kid in Twilight Princess he mentions that he was protecting the grove for a vaguely stated friend of his from a decent time ago, which is presumed to be OoT/MM Link (who also shows up in that game as a spirit), and iirc the Hyrule Historia does confirm that it is the same one, it's rather neat!

[@Greasyhobbit]

I think the skull kid was also trying to kill themselves

[@kirb81]

E

[@AlvinEarthWormFan]

Cool video, but I’m definitely judging you if your favorite LoZ character is really Skull Kid :o

[@ThoughtBubbleYT]

Judge away! Different strokes for different folks, I just love the character’s underrated complexity, I think his design is incredible, and he’s the focal point of one of my favorite games in the franchise! I can totally see why other people prefer different characters but Skull Kid has always been one who caught my imagination! :)

[@AlvinEarthWormFan]

@@ThoughtBubbleYT that’s fair! There’s not a lot of background really given for a lot of the more interesting personalities in Legend of Zelda games, but Skull Kid does have quite a bit of backstory. I myself have always though Zant and Linebeck to be some of the more interesting characters, Zant because “how did he get to be like this” in Twilight Princess and Linebeck for his bit of character development in Phantom Hourglass. I wonder if you could do videos on those guys :o Anyway, I’ve been loving your content, keep it up!