Where is Termina?

[@arcticdragon3565]

5:20 all the kokiri fade in and out when you get too far, while normal hylians dont. I always figured the Kokiri had some ability to hide themselves similar to koroks.

[@legendaryadventurespod]

That would be a good story reason for it. Yoshiaki Koizumi said for OoT it was a technical thing due to the number of trees, and particles in Kokiri Forest. And in the cutscene she fades in without the camera moving. It seems intentional to have her fade there, perhaps to imply Kokiri magic/an ability to hide, but I can't say for sure, because I know there were technical reasons for Kokiri to fade in during gameplay.

[@eqx7168]

I don't know man but it really does add to the vibe, my third grade self when I played this game back in the day was always struck by that scene

[@CWCvilleCop]

@@eqx7168 Tbh Saria fading in just after Link runs passed her fits so well thematically, I never even realized that she actually fades in. It's perfect. Link, ready to rush off to adventure, runs passed her without seeing her, without realizing who he's leaving behind at first. Even the player doesn't see her there at first, and this is almost certainly what's on the player's mind as well. But suddenly, she's there. She's been there, waiting for you to leave. Because you've been on her mind. She's had time to think about the fact that she will probably lose you and things will probably never be the same. And in one of the MOST pace-breaking moments in all of video games, she stops you, just for a minute, to remind you who you're leaving behind. Even though your whole adventure is for the sake of saving her, and all those like her that you love, it forces you to take a moment's pause and reflect and remember who you're leaving behind. But also to remember that she's your friend. And then she gives you a gift that becomes absolutely crucial to your journey. And Link, faced with this suddenly heavy moment he did not expect on the very outset of his journey, doesn't even know how to react to the juxtaposition. So he takes a few steps back and then just blindly runs off. But she knows, she's been thinking about it. And she understands. So she watches her best friend run off to his destiny, despite any tears or awkwardness from the sudden timing. And the camera slowly zooms in on her face for just a few seconds before we're thrown into the rest of our journey. It. Is. PERFECT!

[@whatno5090]

I think people are overanalyzing. Link doesn't see Saria when running across, then when she calls out, Link notices her. It just mirrors Links perception in the players view, and that's why it fits.

[@kevinfromsales9445]

​@@whatno5090 Yeah I don't know why people make such a big deal out of this. The fading in of Saria clearly just shows us Link didn't notice her while he was running, for somebody like Sheik or Impa it implies they're skilled ninja assassins. But the most overanalyzed of them all is the Mask Salesman fading out at the end of MM, I mean he didn't just disappear into thin air it implies he just moved on and kept walking out of the picture but while keeping it short to no prolongue the cutscene. I'm still baffled why people use this as an argument for Termina being a dream or imagination.

[@Jormunguandr]

I'm more impressed how the mask salesman fits one chair and a huge piano on him.

[@moemuxhagi]

I mean the guy just Pokémon-clips into different positions instead of smoothly moving like a normal living entity, so... does logic really apply

[@rmat9023]

@@moemuxhagi what is pokemon clips?

[@moemuxhagi]

@@rmat9023 just the 3D model snapping into position for the next animation Basically it's a dig at the absolute SHIT quality of modern pokémon games

[@qwirkt]

@@moemuxhagiback in my day fhe reference was Looney Tunes lol

[@Wendy_O._Koopa]

Ain'tcha never heard of hammerspace? @@qwirkt Also, why Looney Tunes? They're not particularly known for bad animation.

[@leviwarren6222]

Saria fading in in Ocarina of Time always struck me as entirely sequitur considering all of the kokiri in kokiri Forest fade in and out. You can see their fairies before you see them. My guess is that this was originally done due to graphical limitations considering all of the bugs, fairies, and dust motes in kokiri Forest, but it definitely had the added effect of making the kokiri feel otherworldly.

[@legendaryadventurespod]

That's true the Kokiri fade in while exploring Kokiri forest and it's also true that Yoshiaki Koizumj said it was done due to graphical limitations in that area. In the cutscenes the camera doesn't move when Saria's fade in happens, but I don't know enough about the backend to say there were no graphical considerations made there. I agree it adds to an otherworldly feeling.

[@youraverageyoutubeuser6608]

Yeah. In universe, I think the fading in/out is just a Kokiri thing.

[@theking8347]

It's supposed to be a parallel dimension, but that's mostly an explanation for the reused character models. If the game had enough dev time to give the NPCs unique models, Termina could easily just be another country.

[@HunterStiles651]

The problem with that line of logic is that if Majora's Mask had been given more development time, we wouldn't have Majora's Mask. A lot of very essential aspects of the game's design were solutions to the fact that they knew going in that they were only being given 18-months to make the whole game, most notably the three-day cycle.

[@IamCanadian3333]

@@HunterStiles651Yes exactly. It's not so much, "they created a game that was fantastic despite all the corners they had to cut to rush the game out," but more "they created a game that was fantastic BECAUSE of all the corners they had to cut to rush the game out."

[@TheFatestPat]

I always thought that Termina was one of many different alternative worlds out there. The Lost Woods must have portals to all kinds of different universes, dimensions, all that good stuff. The Triforce Goddesses abandoned this world, but The Goddess of Time brought Link here because she wants to try and save it.

[@Superminecraftsonic]

One thing that always Stood out to me was the alice in wonderland like opening when Link falls down the tree after chasing skull kid in the beginning of the game.

[@hiddendesire3076]

Given the Realm of the Ocean King is a canonical alternate world that was bridged by both Bellum’s magical curse on the Ghost Ship (with per some manga Linebeck was the former first mate or cabin boy on), as well as some other portal, given the presence of Zaus and others who are apparently listed as still being Hylian, but also noted as having ancestors dating far back who defended the realm, before Bellum began meddling with that realm, I believe Termina could just be like that, another branching/connected realm.

[@DarkXVenator]

I never liked that Dark Horse made it so Termina disappeared once Link departed. It makes all the efforts to save the people seem rather worthless. I like to look at it as something akin to a pocket dimension within Hyrule. A side effect of the creation of the world by the Goddesses.

[@Nick-up5wv]

Actually. Saving the people the people was both pointless AND not pointless. Basically; going by Dark Horse logic, sometimes no matter how much we try and how much we WANT to change fate, we simply can't. Sometimes; like Link, we are thrown into situations out of our control and the outcome is bleak and hopeless. However, Link pushes forward, doing his best to prevent the fate of Termina and trys VERY hard to save the denizens because he's a TRUE hero. But Termina disappeared because despite Link's best efforts it was always doomed to die. Majora's Mask is about thr 5 grieving stages of death and how we can always push through even when all hope seems lost. Link is unable to save the people, but he does put their minds at ease. All of Termina and Link learn how to deal with loss and look forward to a new beginning, a brighter future. Perhaps Termina disappeared because the people were bought comfort. Link brought them peace and acceptance. Than Termina disappeared because Link died. He died at peace, being the hero he always was. He learned to accept his death and look forward to a new life... is what I would be saying if the fallen hero from Twilight Princess didn't live his life in regret. So... who knows?🤔

[@damiengreenhood7883]

I always thought of it as a far away land on the same plain. The Goron said "Dodongo Cavern's finest" when you give him that rock-jerky thing. There were, at least in the N64 release, depictions of the Triforce everywhere. And I thought link, the salesman, and the Skull kid straight up walked there. Like it was a different kingdom. The Skull kid says: You have the same smell as the fairy kid who taught me that song in the woods..." I assumed the Swamp Lost woods were connected to Hyrule's Lost woods. Also MM has the weapon "Bombchu" and the animal "Real Bombchu" but OT only had the item, not the animal it was based on. They had to have gotten the idea for the style of bomb somewhere.

[@elio7610]

if Termina is directly connected to Hyrule then the only way for it to connect that makes sense to me is for it to be west of Gerudo desert. the biggest problem with this is that Link seemingly reaches Termina via the Lost Woods and arrives at the center of Termina and not at any of the borders. admittedly, Lost Woods already had seemingly impossible connections to Death Mountain and Zora's Domain so maybe the Lost Woods can just do that.

[@Infindox]

I just assumed that the Lost Woods were otherworldly in every Zelda game they show up in. They already have warps to Zora's Domain and Goron City in OoT, so it wouldn't be a stretch to believe that a connection to a different land or even universe was possible.

[@Dw7freak]

OoT Lost Woods is in the east and MM Swamp is in the south. Plausible that they could be connected as one giant forest and the two lands are neighbors that don't interact much because of how the Lost Woods work.

[@RTU130]

Ye

[@jelanidacostabest8195]

My headcanon is that Hyrule is like middle earth (flat) and Termina is on the opposite side like a coin with two sides

[@CoralCopperHead]

How does Lorule fit into this?

[@lordnul1708]

Personally I always thought of Termina and Hyrule being kinda like the Feywild in D&D (basically the walls between worlds can get dangerously thin to the point where you can end up in one or the or the other if you aren't careful).

[@GenoRiolu]

the meme part of my brain read that and went "feywild = backrooms", but then thought about it and how it does kinda fit. but what if it was hyrule that was like that instead, looking at all the different worlds it can be connected to: termina, ocean kings's realm, the dark world ganondorf made, lorule, that dark area from spirit tracks, the twilit area. hyrule kinda seems way too connected

[@DeeEll1]

It's definitely a real physical place. And most likely a parallel universe. Especially with the information we get from Link Between Worlds where parallel world is definitively used to describe an alternate universe. Not to mention link brings back physical items from termina into Hyrule. In Twilight princess, the bow is explicitly stated to have belonged to the hero of time. It also has two prongs on the inside. The only other bow in the entire Zelda series with two prongs on the inside is the one the hero of time gets from the woodfall temple

[@emilyrobinson6080]

Unless he had a bow made in Hyrule based on the specifications of the one he had in Termina. But personally as weird as the mask salesman’s schtick is, I think its more likely it is in fact a real place Link went to.

[@n1nj4l1nk]

Termina is S.W. of Lorule, their marshes connect. It's the equivalent of Holodrum in the Hyrule dimension.

[@Wendy_O._Koopa]

Is that based on anything, or is that just your personal headcanon?

[@n1nj4l1nk]

@@Wendy_O._Koopa headcanon using logic. Termina is clearly a 3d version of an alternative world Holodrum. Holodrum lines up with the S.W of Hyrule and Termina lines up with the S.W. of Hyrules otherworld counterpart, Lorule.

[@FangSib32103]

Would be so dope if they made another Breath of the Wild style game, but its set in Termina. Lots of ideas to go around, I'm sure.

[@ryanbitter574]

YES I want that so much

[@frontyardfirewood]

YES, clock town would be so epic.

[@edwardperkins1225]

The idea that Termina ceases to exist right after Link saves it is a genuinely terrible idea. Yes, take away the entire victory, and goal of the game. I guess the only difference would be Link survives. By ceasing to exist Termina would be more destroyed than the Moon could ever do.

[@hiddendesire3076]

It’s like the few people who believe the realm of the Ocean King of Phantom Hourglass ceases to exist after Bellum is defeated. But no, it is still out there, and it is a separate realm. Interestingly enough, I believe it mentioned that Linebeck the 1st did still settle down with his old pirate love interest ultimately in the end, by the time Spirit Tracks comes around given some lines from his will and by his grandson Linebeck the 3rd. As we hadn’t seen her or her sister leave with Linebeck at the end of Phantom Hourglass, it’s likely those seeking to return to the Great Sea could at a later time with the Ocean King’s Blessing.

[@mavrickindigo]

Termina could just be a dream in which link processes his trauma from ptsfld

[@hiddendesire3076]

@@mavrickindigo Oh sure and Ash is in a coma, while the kids from Ed, Edd, n Eddy are in purgatory.

[@Imagools]

By that logic Links Awakening sucks too cause if it’s ending

[@jamesbarrius8122]

😂

[@mitchpalm5908]

Termina is beyond bizarre

[@Tazerboy_10]

Yup

[@hamham3010]

And I love it

[@TheScrootch]

But then where is bizarre?

[@LordMalice6d9]

​@@hamham3010It makes Termina one of the most interesting lands in Zelda.

[@Puni_Master]

The Mask Salesman fading is just him walking off into the distance.

[@ThatAnArchyDude]

Termina is directly across the kingdom of Hyrule on the planet [insert name here, please, Nintendo!]. Hence the "twisted hallway" between the two worlds.

[@Wendy_O._Koopa]

In Link's Awakening, and also mentioned by Shigeru Miyamoto in one of the many interviews, it is confirmed that the planet is named "Earth." Like Avatar, the Last Airbender, it doesn't seem to be our Earth, but it is at least _an_ Earth. He hasn't named the Marioverse planet yet, however...

[@johnpett1955]

​@@Wendy_O._Koopa Also, much like the earth from Sonic.

[@noaedlund]

@@johnpett1955mobius?

[@johnpett1955]

@@noaedlund No, some games take place on mobius, while others take place on Earth like with the Adventure games and Unleashed.

[@noaedlund]

@@johnpett1955fair

[@cecillewolters1995]

I always wondered if there was a Keaton hiding in the moving grass in the beginning if the game. It is impossible to get there with the keaton mask, since it is before you fall into Termina

[@legendaryadventurespod]

It would be interesting to be able to return to that area and find out

[@jimmyberry4451]

There isnt people have tried using hacks

[@ayanamiayachanJ]

@@legendaryadventurespodbut doesn’t the moon fade away once you beat Majora?

[@legendaryadventurespod]

@@ayanamiayachanJ Yes, it does

[@daveybowen4628]

Saaame!

[@vigilantique]

idk, for me, it just boils down to Termina being a dimension that so happens to have a handful of familiar characters. You gotta remember that this game revolves around a civilized version of Deku’s and a war between two long dead kingdoms so Termina has been around long before Skull Kid and Link. Imo, it can’t be based of Skull Kid’s memory because ain’t no way he ever left the Lost Woods (it’s heavily implied that they stay and play in the woods forever). it can’t be based off Link’s memory, because there’s a lot of characters (even species) that don’t exist in any past/future version of Hyrule.

[@danielgordon2907]

Always loved that terminal can also mean the end of something, with the reaction to death being the entire theme of the game. Any justification for why it uses the same assets as OOT will be shoehorned on anyway, and we haven't seen Termina since, so it feels irrelevant to me. It has always struck me how the entire tone of the land seems like it's already dying, the land seemed fertile for conflict. and Majora just tipped the scales a little. like he was just lighting a powder keg, Doom and misfortune really do seem to be baked into the very bedrock of the foundation of Termina, like it was about to die even without the skull kids presence. Allowing him to confront the loss of his friends and healing from the pain he caused may have even saved them from these tragedies manifesting in some other way, death is about new beginnings just as much as it's about endings. I do appreciate the abstraction the guide provides on some level, the land was always doomed to die the way everything dies and Link simply allowed that to happen in a way that wasn't beguiled with sadness, but instead hope for what else might be.

[@cecillewolters1995]

Hey, can you elaborate on why you think Termina was already dying? It sounds very interesting

[@ggletsplay5041]

This is what I always thought.

[@Popcultureguy3000]

@@cecillewolters1995Well there’s the one land in Termina that’s basically one giant mass graveyard. A giant ruin with unavenged, unmourned assassins buried everywhere, and a literal mass graveyard and royal tomb for the opposing side on the other edge of that small kingdom. Some gamers learned that lesson that “war really has no victors” from the Metal Gear Solid games, Fallout, or from that one CoD that took place in WWI, but I learned it from the weirdest and darkest entry in the mainline Zelda games.

[@cecillewolters1995]

@@Popcultureguy3000 Every land has a bloody history I guess, interesting stuff in hindsight tho, how weird or harsh that it sounds

[@Popcultureguy3000]

@@cecillewolters1995 Yes, but that bloody history left Ikana Canyon a bloody wasteland. It was a *DEAD KINGDOM* whose only living residents were a thief, a grave keeper and a single father researching a mummy’s curse.

[@TheChrome2YourDome]

2024 and this song popped in my head and I realized this is almost a decade old. lol wow time flys. This is still awesome though!

[@green0451]

Zelda Majora's mask was my first Zelda game. I bought it when it was released for Nintendo 64. I was 14 years old in that time. I longed for to find the Zora mask and explore the ocean beyond Termina. Of course I realised that this thing was impossible when I finally got the desired mask. But I still wonder, what lies beyond the Termina ocean?

[@stuffz1757]

I think Termina is a real physical place in the same world as Hyrule but the power of Majora's Mask warped that specific area into a temporary unique pocket dimension with a lot of oddities. When Link left it returned to it's original self. Essentially all three ideas. Similar characters to OOT physically exist in the world of Hyrule, but they're warped to look like people Link recognizes.

[@munohlow]

Termina is probably another dimension but i feel like it could be a combination of a bunch of different theories: not a dream world or limbo, but a new place as seen from this Link’s perspective. Ocarina is coming of age story and we’re seeing an unfamiliar world through the view of a child who had to grow up too fast but hasn’t actually matured. He’s in his angsty phase while also relearning to see goodness in the world, helping others with adult real life problems and Skull Kid, a lonely immature child lashing out at the world. Citizens of Termina look like those of Hyrule either because this is how Link is learning to understand the wider world, heavily relying on past experiences and specific people, or he is already looking at the events of Ocarina through rose-tinted lenses and wishing for “the good ol’ days”

[@ricardovelazquez6480]

Termina is a paralel world to hyrule where the “fierce deity” is analogous to link, only that he died in majoras mask

[@thegargoylecumeth7932]

The Ballad Of The Wind Fish is actually a really cool nod to Termina being a dream world In Links Awakening, Link HAS to encounter this song in order to canonically finish his quest on Koholint Island In Majora's Mask, Link HAS to encounter the song in order to get all the masks, which leads to the Fierce Deity Mask, which is considered by many to be the canon way to end the game. Again, the song leads to the games canon conclusion It's also interesting, because just as Majora's Mask reused this bit of Links Awakening in itself, many other elements of Majora's Mask would go on to be used in further Zelda titles, such as Toilet Hand, the Postman, and who could forget the man, myth, and legend himself- Tingle

[@oriongurtner7293]

If you really want a rabbit hole to dive into then compare Termina’s overworld to the Hyrulean overworld from Skyward Sword

[@elio7610]

i am not sure what you mean. i have not played skyward sword so there are a lot of details i am unaware of but it just does not seem to have much of an overworld as it seems to be divided into separate areas and none of these areas seem to match up with termina any more than any of the other hyrule maps.

[@PMMillard]

Finally, someone who noticed that. I have a theory that explains who the Fierce Deity is, and why he's connected toe Majora's Mask. Majora's Incarnation IS the Fierce Deity. Like how Ganondorf's Divine form is demise, and Zelda's Divine form is Hylia... Link's Divine Form is Majora/Fierce Deity. So how can Link and his God form exist in 2 places at the same time? TIME TRAVEL. Link was plucked from the distant future to purify his divine form in the distant past.

[@PMMillard]

@@elio7610 Lanayru's Desert is an ocean in the distant past. to the east there is a canyon, to the south is a river which when flooded would be a swamp, to the north a volcano. Great bay ocean is to the west, Ikana valley is in the east. Swamp to the south, and snowpeak to the north, which the bottom floor of Snowpeak has lava. meaning Snowpeak is a *dormant* volcano.

[@elio7610]

@@PMMillard what makes you think that Majora is the Fierce Deity? i can follow the logic of Fierce Deity being a "divine form" of Link but i don't see how Majora fits in. i think Majora is more likely related to Vaati. what we see in the events of the game is that the masks seem to be remnants of the dead which implies that Majora and Fierce Deity have already died long ago so the coexisting of Link alongside the Fierce Deity's mask does not disprove Link being a potential reincarnation of the Fierce Deity.

[@elio7610]

@@PMMillard i can see some geographical similarities but i can see geographical similarities in all the maps, i don't see anything special about Skyward Sword's map of Hyrule specifically. they are worth bringing up, i just think that a better suggestion is to compare Termina with Hyrule in general, not just with one specific version of Hyrule.

[@enomiellanidrac9137]

"Where is Termina?" Kirby took care of it.

[@trickydicky5751]

Maybe link just took some percs and was just tripping the whole time

[@maiconmartins3789]

Nowadays, based on the Termina map from this video, it would make sense to have the next Zelda game on the same based map from BotW and TotK, but towards the southwest, after the Gerudo Desert. Like, far after the Gerudo Desert, you would find the "Termina Kingdom" or else... And kind of reboot/reshape it into a new story that move away from Hyrule. The map would fit into that land and could also explain different characters to appear, such as Yona and Penn. Also, since there's no DLC for TotK, the new land could bring Kass back on his journey to discover more music. By creating a new story a few years after TotK (and in a new map with limited access to the old map - Like RDR2 or Pkmon Gold/Silver did) and instead of Ganondorf/Ganon, we could have Vaati as the main villain, who - through dark magic - imprisioned the sacred powers from Zelda and kidnapped her to obtain the Triforce (which would finally appears on this series). Then, the new Link should travel to this new land and take her back to Hyrule... This would give us some sort of "trilogy" for BotW/TotK era which would bring resolution to the story with a nice prologue.

[@Zx7o.]

Just found your channel and this scratches my itch for Zelda lore and lore think-tanks.. I've been replaying OoT, MM, TP, WW and SW but with the 4k texture pack for citra and have been jaw on the floor at how good everything looks.. I'm definitely binging your past videos tonight while at work ✌️✌️ If you get the chance to check out the 4k texture packs but watch a YT of it, AMAZING!!

[@bigangenbygang]

Termina already deals in alternate realities and portals, that's how the whole final boss in Stone Tower Temple happens. I don't know why Nintendo decided to do the dream explanation for this. It clearly wasn't intended. I wish they cared about the lore as much as fans do.

[@toxic_revenant3]

They cared about the lore at least a little in OoT, but after that they don’t seem to give it a second thought

[@bigangenbygang]

@@toxic_revenant3 I disagree. They seemed to care a lot up until Breath of the Wild, they just were purposefully playing fast and loose with it. They're legends after all, not literal perfect representations of what actually happened. It is implied that they're all exaggerated from the "real" events.

[@Drudicta]

I've been slowly going through your gameplay videos, but this popped up on my feed. I enjoyed it, thank you.

[@linkinworm1]

I always thought it was like how in Godzilla Vs Kong , kongs land is inside the earth but has it's own sky sun etc

[@GavinMasters]

Another thing supporting the alternate dimension theory is that Link first arrives trapped in another form. This has happened to Link before, in A Link to the Past, where he's first stuck in rabbit form. Seems like one of the first struggles of being stuck in another dimension is to find Link's way back to his "true" self.

[@Ravenbeak2564]

The zelda encyclopedia has been proven wrong many times and nintendo has quite literally confirmed that majora's mask isn't a dream in a interview, like you say in the video. So I agree I really hate that explanation and it ruins majora's masks entire story honestly, the game is parallel world and skull kids backstory directly supports this, if it truly was a dream world or link being dead why would a backstory be shown or necessary.

[@johnpett1955]

I like the idea that Majora's mask takes place in Link's dream and that the events of Majora's mask and overarching themes are parallel to Link's experiences of being forced to grow up prematurely and the loss of his friends, but the magic of Majora's mask made it so that the world of Termina became a real place due to how Skull Kid and Link have similar experiences.

[@Xibyth]

I think that kids that get lost in the lost woods don't become stalfos, they get transported. We already know that it leads to places that don't really make sense.

[@catwaffles9960]

The whole dark horse explanation is really dumb lol, I lost all interest in buying the book after I heard that, it isn't foreshadowed in the game at all and tbh it just seems cheap and cruel

[@TannerThePuppyGamer]

i like to think that termina is a real place but the one you visit in majora's mask is either a dream or a connected area use to destory hyrule or the world

[@TheDecatonkeil]

I would like to add, more regarding Link's Awakening, as I don't consider Maaajoraaa's Mask to necessarily take place in a dreamworld, is that we're deaqqling with fantasy, not even sci-fi. A dream world does not nrecwssarily mean something as short-sighted as "it didn't happen". In fact, it might as well be compatible wwith parallel dimensions. Fantasy shouldn't be so preoccupied with physicality and pretences of realism. Why couldn't someone access a parallel reality through a dream? Why would the layer of the dreaming not be as valid as a parallel dimension in a medieval fantasy with elements of the fae?

[@Chemical_Argentum]

"Alice in Wonderland" vibes is the right definition to how Link gets to Termina. And given the fact that Shigeru Miyamoto is a huge Disney fan (Link and Navi is directly inspired by Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, for instance), it's probably not a coincidence

[@illustrious-jaco]

i've thought a lot about this game as well, and the ways these characters and this world makes me feel is like when you return to your hometown or reconnect with a friend from school. they might have changed completely in a material sense, they might have a child or a new job or whatever, but things really haven't changed at the same time - or your hometown might have new stores or less trees, but the streets you walk down have that same familiarity from when you were a child. in a similar way these characters and this place feels familiar and different compared to OoT. this is apparent by nature of reusing assets, comments like what Tezuka-san said at 7:00 and so on. but i think the game speaks a lot about things changing, and things staying the same. it speaks on a lot of things. you get to watch this world grow and die and be born again over and over and over, and 20+ years later we still find things to marvel at, stuck in our own time loop lmao. Where and What Termina is isn't as important to me as much as how it makes me feel, and it feels like the passage of time. it feels like memories that play tricks on you. it feels familiar and foreign and beautiful. something very evergreen in how it was executed as a game, because i feel a deep need to keep revisiting it as time goes on and learn more from it. thanks again for this series, i appreciate the thought and effort you put into organizing all these ideas. and for anybody reading this, I really recommend playing it again (on the n64 rather than the remaster) and trying to get all the masks. i think it's a game about breaking curses and beating it really does bring a peace of mind, especially if you played it as a kid. "to save the cursed human, his soul must be healed"

[@distantsails]

Funny, I was having almost these exact thoughts the other day after walking around in my hometown recently and reflecting that for the past two decades, nothing had really changed there. I completely agree with you and I've made note that in my life, too, there seems to be a very cyclical nature to the things that I meet on my path through life. I live abroad and away from the rest of my family, and when returning to my hometown year after year on family visit it always feels like somebody has hit the reset button, and I can suddenly see in memory all my past incarnations at different stages in life all walking those same familiar streets. I can't help but take moments like those to reflect on how my life is going and where I seem to be headed, like a save checkpoint, to borrow the video game analogy again. What also seems to be a looping element in life is the kind of problems and situations one always seems to be running into, as though you're naturally attracted to these things. Of course, if I look at my life, every problem I bump into or cause is uniquely different from the last, but at the same time, there are definite patterns. I'm not religious, but when people say there is a reason behind everything that happens, that there is a lesson or message hidden in the things that happen to you, I've recently begun to think they're more right about that than I thought. Not in the sense that a higher power has consciously sent personalized challenges, but in the sense that if similar ails and sufferings always seem to occur with you, it can be taken as an invitation to look inside and find that the cause might partly be rooted inside of you, and that you should change yourself internally if you wish to avoid these patterns of behaviour and attraction from expressing themselves in the future. And really, isn't there something quite similar to our internal selves and our hometowns, both occupied by the same familiar faces after all these years, some falling away and some new ones appearing, building exteriors changing but all of it at its core staying relatively constant and unchanging? Yeah man, this game. It's the only Zelda that has not left me in the process of growing up. It seems to have grown up with me.

[@NarcissisticApe]

What?

[@pakasack]

Love your content!! You have a great voice for podcasting.

[@simplyskrypt3914]

My favorite Majoras Mask theory, although not canonical, is the Limbo theory. Link technically dies when he falls into the hollow tree, but Tatl and Tael give him a chance to be brought back if he completes his journey through Termina, a world composed of his memories and dreams. The entire game is themed around both the idea of death, and the 5 stages of grief : denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. For example, the townspeople represent Denial, by forcefully hosting their festival on the night of the final day, while Anju and Kafei represent Acceptance, and while i dont remember all the details off the top of my head, the other 3 stages are represented by a lot of other characters as well. All of this is meant to remind Link of what he's gone through and who he is. Once he completes his journey, he is sent back to Hyrule to live his life as the Hero of Time, and it is theorized this is also how he acquired the ability to remain as the Hero's Shade after his death.

[@Aristocratic13]

No

[@simplyskrypt3914]

@@Aristocratic13 read the first sentence again "My favorite theory, although not canonical" I litterally couldnt have been more clear So yes

[@goranisacson2502]

I hadn't even HEARD of this "It was all a dream" explanation before, and I cannot say that I like it. Can't say that at all. Mostly, I guess, because dream endings always feel so centered on the dreamer, but the dreamer is so very rarely interesting enough that it's "worth" sacrificing all the characters in the dream for the sake of waking up the dreamer. Especially here in Termina, which feels like a land with so much interesting stuff happening in it that it feels like a waste if it was all just a dream. It doesn't even feel like a story on how we must all "one day face reality", like, it'd be one thing if everything in Termina was weirdly stagnant and obsessed with just keeping everything the way it was. When it's stories like that, almost like a metaphor for how you can't keep a dysfunctional living situation going at all costs, you HAVE to sometimes just "wake up" and change the world around you, even if those changes are so drastic that they will mean the metaphorical "end of the world"; if the world being ended is so toxic and draining that maintaining it is the REAL danger. Of course, sometimes it's not so easy. Sometimes there really ARE good things going on in a toxic situation, and that's what makes it SO hard to end it. But you deep down know that all that good stuff can't last. You know that deep down, the destruction from that situation will be worse than the destruction that results from just "waking up". In THOSE situations, I can accept and like a "wake up and end the world" ending. But for Termina? Everyone here's just vibing. When Link comes to save the day, even if people will have to accept some hard losses, they can still move on and make a better life for themselves. To have a world like that and then say "nah this world where a bunch of people live, learn lessons and strive for a better tomorrow doesn't matter, it's just gonna pop like a bubble once you, the incidental dude who doesn't even have any character development, leaves"... that's just poor form. That's my version, and I'm sticking to it: Termina is a weird parrallel reality and is still out there... man. Now I'm imagining a Cyberpunk-esque Zelda game that takes place in Termina, as that's how far THAT place has developed whereas Hyrule remains a fantasy-realm. THAT would be a neat new take... a "Hyrule" but free from the Triforce-mandated cycles of fate, changing in whole new ways with the giants versus Majora as the real conflict.

[@thegreatmightyd]

I always thought of Termina as a "hollow Earth" version of Hyrule since you fall down that huge chasm while chasing the Skull Kid and then everything flips upside down when you run down that hallway.

[@Infindox]

I *despise* the Encyclopedia. Becides the shit with Majora's Mask, there's some other lore inconsistenties with other games. Anouma stated several times that Termina was a parallel universe. It just feels like they let some people write what they wanted for the book and take it as canon.

[@matthewvandyk7773]

Ive always assumed that Termina was another land or Kingdom that could have trade with Hyrule. I like to inmange that theirs lands and kingdoms outside of Hyrule. And honestly feeling like a new world could be like a different culture between two countries.

[@whatno5090]

Just so you know, "Daru Baru" meaning Dull Blue is because its a direct sounding out of the English phrase "Dull Blue" in Japanese syllables. This is pretty common among names of Japanese bands

[@Zirkusman]

Thanks for the video! As always very relaxing :)

[@DanandRickinthebasement]

Termina definetly has a Alice in wonderland/ Narina feel to it. With a sprinkle of the wizard of oz how Dorothy sees people from Oklahoma in the new world.

[@SicilianSwissvalian]

twilight ... the stone tower circle you jump in to take you to the boss in the DESERT imitates the palace of twilight from the coluseum the mask of twilight and majora is also similar and grow out arms

[@ThrillingDuck]

When I was a kid, I stumbled upon a Zelda fan-site that I was too young to distinguish as being non-official, but to this day I remember it offering an explanation for Termina that I really liked and has since become my permanent headcanon. Basically, it IS a parallel dimension like the prevailing theory, but with an added detail: The reason its inhabitants resemble the denizens of Hyrule, is because it was formed inadvertently as a result of extra, leftover energy when the 3 goddesses created Hyrule. So it manifests as a sort of distortion of Hyrule because it was actually made, unintentionally, from the refuse of the magic that went into it.

[@sonicgun77]

The idea that Ballad of the Wind Fish might be a hint to Termina being a dream world never made sense to me because the dream world of Link's Awakening was the Wind Fish's dream. So a song named after it can exist elsewhere and not be a dream.

[@BomberDante]

It can't be a world created by the mask because when you go to the swamp for the first time you find a carving in the tree that Tatl tells you they carved when they first met the skull kid and the skull kid was hanging out in terminal without the mask.

[@johnmoren3078]

Something else I thought that Termina could be is that it could be limbo. When Link is chasing skull kid, he comes to a cliff that is so high up that it looks like it has no end. He stumbles and falls, and then you see the scene that gives the Alice in Wonderland vibe. So it could be possible that the fall was so high up that when Link hit the bottom he died and is now in Limbo and that is why almost everyone he meets looks so familiar to him. Just a thought I had.

[@HermanLoud]

The Keatons dude, that's an enigmatic topic such as the one you just talked about.

[@agentmaryland1239]

When I was first introduced to Majora's Mask, I often wondered how Termina came to be. It features pretty much every character I'd seen in Ocarina of Time, with maybe a few new faces. And after thinking for a bit, I theorized that Termina might have just been an 'Ace' situation for any of you Batman fans out there. For those who don't know what that means, Ace in the Batman animated series was a child who was able to twist reality to her will through psychic powers she was born with. She could do everything from giving others powers and altering their forms to straight up making an entire castle with just her mind. Since the Majora's Mask was said to be evil and powerful, I thought maybe it was able to do the same thing, since really all it had done in the beginning is take over the Skull Kid and threatened to crush everyone with a moon. The Mask gave Skull Kid the ability to rewrite the world as it saw fit, leeching onto its wounded heart to make all of its creations harmful and hindering in some way. This would make the most sense since everyone that exists is correct more or less, but altered in some way. The best example being the ranch owners no longer being Malon and Talon but instead Cremia and Romani, while the farmhand in OoT was Ingo, Ingo in MM is actually the Gorman brothers running a competing ranch. This is what Skull Kid saw when Ingo was given the ranch; he was a horrible person who wanted to take over the business because he thought himself better than his employer. And while certainly Skull Kid wouldn't understand such things in detail, the finer points of it is only for us to understand, not Skull Kid. But this was all just a theory.

[@thcustoms5293]

When I played this game in my teens it always felt like it was a dream link was having. That will never change. A parallel dimension doesn’t make sense to me with the way the game felt to me

[@hiddendesire3076]

I mean, we got the Realm of the Ocean King as a confirmed connected world.

[@christianhughes7040]

Great channel. I had forgotten how strange the keatons were.

[@CFM7]

Reminds me of Collective Subconscious realms like we'd find in IRL dream/astral realities

[@MBulteau]

Termina having been a real space and Termina having vanished are not mutually exclusive. Both things can be true, just like with Koholint, the premise of which being that the dream of a god creates a real place until said god awakens. Granted, the text of the game does not concern itself with these matters because they are mostly irrelevant to the adventure, and also probably because at the time the devs had to cobble up a different world to reuse models from OoT and save time. But there is one recurrent event in the game that can be applied to the entirety of Termina as a concept: Healing. I see a lot of people complain that Termina vanishing is a bad explanation because it wastes the effort of the player, and makes it all "for nothing," but I disagree. It wasn't for nothing that the Deku Butler's son, Kamaro, Darmani, or Mikau were healed. They all vanished, didn't they? It's the manner in which they moved on that matters. When the owl says the fate of Termina can be changed, that can very well be the way it fades, not the fact that it will inevitably do so: Either in pain and suffering as the moon falls on its terrified people, or in peace and bliss as they celebrate Carnival, just like Darmani vanished seeing his people adore him, or Mikau vanished seeing his band welcome him back, all because their sorrows were lifted. Tatl tells Link he must leave because they have a Carnival to attend. He is not meant to fade away with them. He literally cannot stay. For Majora's Mask to be ludonarratively consistent, I would argue that Termina being a real world manifested by Skull Kid's sorrows that fades away in bliss when those sorrows are lifted is the only ending that makes sense. A lot of those who dislike this idea seem to rely on the physical persistence of Termina so that their deeds "mean something." I find this superficial, and it runs counter to the game's story, which is in essence about loss, grieving, and letting go. Whatever inhabits Majora's Mask cannot let go, it's filled with immense sorrow (if it isn't just pure sorrow manifest), and latched on to Skull Kid's wounds, magnifying them. If you cannot let go of Termina yourself, I would argue you're just like Skull Kid: a prime candidate for Majora's Mask's curse!

[@Redblaze27]

I would agree with this take if the game implied Termina was the limbo of a dead world or some such thing.

[@MBulteau]

@@Redblaze27 My point is precisely that it doesn't have to imply anything, because the nature of Termina is not the focus of the story. What it does do very well is discreetly place Skull Kid at the centre of everyone's narrative by having sorrows be what hold it all together. From there, there's no need for anything else to give meaning to the act of healing: If the world is made of sorrows, then ending those sorrows will unmake the world. See, the difference is that Link's Awakening is about Koholint being a dream of the Wind Fish. That process of discovery is essential for it to be ludonarratively consistent. Majora's Mask doesn't need to tell you directly that a similar situation is taking place, because Majora's Mask is not about discovering that. It's about letting go of sorrows. Link's Awakening makes the nature of Koholint the centre of its story, and doesn't bother explaining who the Wind Fish is. Majora's Mask makes Skull Kid the centre of the story, and doesn't bother explaining what Termina is. Moreover, it explicitly goes out of its way to tell you about Skull Kid's past by saddling you with one of his friends! The subtext is all there: Skull Kid is physically at the centre of the world carrying on what is essentially a painful suicide, and making sure everyone feels it. Thanks to Majora's Mask, it's his world. If the moon falls, his world ends in pain; if it doesn't, in bliss. You may ask "who is everybody else?" Does it matter? Who are the inhabitants of Koholint? Who is Marin? Was she ever real? Why wouldn't she be? Regardless, the Wind Fish woke up and everything and everybody vanished, because they had been dreams made real. The mask that manifested its formless, festering sorrows into the world of Termina through Skull Kid's own was destroyed, and everything and everybody vanished, because they had been sorrows made real. I think Termina needs no explicit connection to anything besides Skull Kid and Majora's Mask to make sense. Any extraneous detail is irrelevant to what the game elegantly conveys through the concepts of sorrow and healing, and the transition from one to the other. Excluding Termina itself from that transition seems to me inelegant, and inconsistent.

[@ewenk7]

I could have sworn that the manual explained in detail exactly what Termina was. Did I hallucinate that? I thought the concept was that when the goddesses created Hyrule, some of the magic leaked through the cracks in spacetime and created Termina as a twisted mirror to Hyrule accidentally.

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

If you do believe the hero's shade is the hero of time, like I do, I think it's makes sense to think termina is a dimension of regrets.

[@ivanheffner2587]

You’re about to get into the era of “I never played that” games. (Basically the GBA and GC era; never bought the consoles, never played the games.) I’m looking forward to the walkthroughs.

[@Scott_Silver]

I played them and they were great at the time, not sure if they hold up though!

[@Crow_Rising]

I take particular notice of the wording with it being "like" another dimension, but not necessarily literally being one. I do think it's likely Link travels through some form of portal to get there, but rather than being a parallel world it seems likely to be just a far away place located somewhere else on the same planet. A completely different kingdom outside of Hyrule. The reuse of character models was likely a cost cutting measure they also did to save time on development to get the game finished faster, but from a lore perspective it could also be said that these are different people who simply remind Link of the many faces he's seen before, and so look the way they do to give the player the same sense of familiarity. I'm personally not a huge fan of the various "It was all a dream" theories because aside from being a rather boring trope at this point it also just completely removes all the stakes, which is especially a big deal considering it's a game that specifically places heavy emphasis on the stakes. There's already a game before this that has the premise of being all about a dream, so it's not like the series is in dire need of that slot getting filled.

[@jamesaaronslayton2463]

I agree, I do not think it is a dream world. I do believe it to be a parallel dimension and that you did gain access to it via the mask, but it definitely is not a dream and I do find it possible with the correct item in the correct place that maybe you could pierce the veil and travel there again. I mean canonical we know skull kid traveled between there and Hyrule quite a few times. Of course I find a lot if people misunderstand Links Awakening and talk about it as if it's events are not real because it is a dream or that the place he goes is not a physical world. I disagree. I believe it is a physical world, an alternate detention that existed while the Wind Fish was asleep. Saying it isn't real is sort of like pretending the dreams in Night Mare on Elm Street are not real. The demon in Freddy makes the dreams a dimension brought to life and that is why some characters with shamanic powers can pull others into their dreams and why Freddy can be pulled out of the dream. Termina is real. The difference between it and where Link goes in A Link to the Past is that the dream world fades when the Wind Fish wakes up. But prior to it fading it was every bit as real and physical as Termina, Hyrule or even the world you and I live in. This belief in a dream world being inhabited by a tricker or people being able to dream walk etc is a long standing belief and we see many examples in mythology and within shamanism of this kind of thing. Link was not dreaming and the events of that game were not fake. He traveled into another dimension because the Wind Fish is essentially a God and Link is Hyrules chosen hero. So he was in the right place and the right time and got pulled in, in order to awaken and save the Wind Fish. Termina is not a place I feel the average Hylian can enter. I think Link only entered due to special circumstances that allowed him to cross dimensions. You cannot walk there from Hyule as if it is another country. It requires crossing dimensions into another dimension. In this case he was likely pulled in because the mask was stolen and he is the chosen hero and in a sense is a divine being himself. So the hero was pulled in because Termina was in danger due to the mask making its way there. I do not even feel it was in danger before Link arrived. When he arrives we see the moon is already crashing down and the temples have been affected, but we also see evidence of the skull kid messing with time. I am pretty sure he used the magic of Majora to somehow affect the temples and cause all of that trouble just in the amount of time that he arrived and Link awake from his crossing the dimensions. It is also even possible that the Happy Mask salesman is the one that did something to make Link travel there in order to get his mask back. He knew it was dangerous and I am not convinced he did not know things about termina. I feel he knows a lot more than he let on and if that is true he could have a magic item that allows him to travel to Termina and he might have known where the skull kid took th3 mask because if both had traveled to Termina before then it is likely he has seen the skull kid before. Idk what allowed him to cross dimensions but the Alice in Wonderland trippy fall thru a tree was definitively a story telling way of showing Link cross dimensions. Then when he woke up he was put to work by the Hapoy mask salesman and essentially guided to help the people there as well as recover the mask. If would not b3 shocked if the mask salesman was not originally from termina. For all we know, Link being sent back in time at the end of OoT might have messed with the timeline and changed events to where skull kid was in the Lost woods at the same time as him and the mask salesman and might have taken the mask due to the masks powers. I am pretty sire it felt drawn to the mask because the mask would be able to sense that he is upset and has hurt feelings over his friends leaving and the mask manipulated the skull kid I'm an effort to want to lash out because it needs a host to act out and do things. Prior to being taken it was just a mask. We see too many tunes a cursed, evil, or powerful object tempting the weak to take possession, and then it corrupts them. Think Lord of the Riings or a horcrux. For all we know the mask salesman followed Link and then used an item to allow him to enter Termina. Link felt himself crossing dimensions and tripped and passed out and the mask salesman could have hid and then revealed himself after Link came to. I say this because if I recall, Link goes into town before coming back and finding the mask salesman. I just feel the mask salesman has more to do with Link being there than he let on and he likely knew Link could stop the mask. I mean if he had a powerful item like Majora and if my theory of him being from Termina is true then he is aware of mask of power. The mask in Ternina all have supernatural powers. In Hyrule they do not. Mask like the bunny hood do nothing in Hyrule but have powers in Termina. I bet the magic in the mask only works in Termina. The exception is Majora, but for all we know Majora could only attract and manipulate skull kid in Hyrule. It might not have taken over fully or unleashed it's powers until the skull kid ran off to Termina. Which could be what the mask wanted all along. I mean otherwise why do we only ever really see mask have power within Termina? Idk I am not a theroist but the way I see it, the mask wanted to make it to Termina with a host so it can cause chaos. The mask salesman could have other magic items and might have known or sense Link was a child of destiny and could have used an item to transport him to Termina and trapping him there just to get him to recover the mask. Also since he is a child of destiny it could have been fated for Zelda to mess up and send him back in time to create a timeliness split simply so a version of Link would be available to save Termina. Otherwise he would have never had a valid reason to be that deep in the lost woods at any given time, especially at that point on the tineline.

[@KesorodaBlk]

Because of the events of the ending of Ocarina of Time, where Link returns to Zelda after defeating Ganon in the adult timeline, entering Hyrule Castle in the present, and informing Zelda of everything, it could’ve change the timeline significantly to the point where he’s never met the magic owl. (And the likelihood that Ganondor was incarcerated early!) Really has me thinking about how Lord Beerus killed a specific high-profile individual to “prevent” a timeline from changing in Dragon Ball Super…

[@tonysladky8925]

I distinctly remember the strategy guides I owned for the two N64 Zelda games calling the owl by a slightly different name in each game: Kaepora Gaebora in OOT and Kaepola Gaebola in Majora's Mask, implying they're two different owls. I have no idea if they had a source for this or if it was even an intentional change rather than a typo, but the gorgeous hand-painted dungeon maps and the blurbs defining all the fancy types of songs used in Ocarina of Time made enough of an impression on me as a kid playing hos first console, I'm going to give Versus Books the benefit of the doubt.

[@legendaryadventurespod]

That is interesting. I wonder if that's intentional or just a translation error due to the lack of a distinction between r and l in Japanese. Like how Zora are called Zola in the first game's manual.

[@ayanamiayachanJ]

@@legendaryadventurespodI like to think Majora’s Mask is like the movie Groundhog Day

[@legendaryadventurespod]

@@ayanamiayachanJ It's an apt comparison

[@TheJoninMonkey]

A nice examination of that controversial explanation (which yeah, like you, I never liked because nothing in the game matches that take). I always think the problem with lore heavy questions like this (including the much debated Zelda timeline) is that, as we have seen throughout this series, The Legend of Zelda is not one-person's creation. There have been multiple directors and producers helming it over the years, each with their own priorities and preferences, and none of them can quite agree on every single fact. Even if the creators did have something in mind when they wrote the game, I can easily see another producer just saying "oh it's dream" when someone asked them about them about to write the encyclopaedia. Once again, great stuff, keep up the good work ^_^

[@robertmoog3]

Still convinced Termina is purgatory for the hero of time that died with no purpose

[@tristonkent]

You forgot the lands that were in Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. They are also not Hyrule

[@Coroxy2000]

It has to be a real place because of the flashback of her with skull kid and tael before the events of majoras mask. How could skull kid created a world with a mask if he was already in termina before?

[@setokaiba3458]

This game exists to force Link to face his trauma from Ocarina (100% headcanon I believe fully)

[@terribleligadelmal4541]

I always thought that Termina was because of the spanish word, I can't quite translate it, but it means something like "it's ends /it's finish/ done for". Like it was a reference to the end of that land because of the moon. For me this added more of ... a sense of urgency, since that thought make it more imminent the doom of the land. The first time I clear the game, I didn't know of the song of doble time and inverted time, and I did the aliens at normal speed while on Epona... man what a noob... Tip for one of the challenge of the skull kid: The one with the track for the Goron, center your position, and when the Goron got the spikes, just press forward (or was it without moving it?) that way you just relax while the Goron Link just finish the track and get the challenge done.

[@Cfreezy12]

Zelda lore is genuinely creepy, termina is basically a hell dimension that could only be saved by link

[@LyricalMurderer1]

They say Link might be going through the 5 stages of grief in Majora’s mask…

[@LordMalice6d9]

There's also the idea that Majora's Mask is a Buddhist metaphor.

[@jaybarbour7766]

My unsupported theory is that demise came from Termina with his "demon clan" and monster constructs. Termina is terminal because it doesnt have the triforce to halt entropy. I think Majoras mask was an attempt at an artificial triforce that was flawed and pretty much took souls to maintain its power. I also think that majora is the evil statue in BoTW and ToTK. Also, again, i think that magic cap that Vatti obtains was made using Girahim and the fused shadow were the scaled demise had on or were made from them. I also think lost woods was where the portal from termina to Hyrule opened up.

[@nickfernandez829]

Very odd both MM and Toy Story 2 had a very short window to be developed and yet delivered

[@jommyheyman1180]

Personally, I think the easiest & most logical answer to where Termina is is that it exists in the same Parallel dimension that Lorule exists in: they both are odd mirrors to Hyrule that feature similar people to it & are traversed to through rifts in the ground or walls.

[@TheZeroNeonix]

Majora's Mask is, to this day, my favorite Zelda game. I'm holding out hope that one day we will be able revisit Termina in a future game. I feel like there's more that could be done with the concept of magical masks, especially ones that change Link's form, of which there are only four in the original game. Or five, if you count the Giant's Mask. Additionally, I really love the idea of characters having schedules, and the time and place in which you interact with them affecting what happens. I can't think of any other games that do that. Maybe a new game could be a little more forgiving with time travel and lost progression. Instead of starting over at day one, maybe the player could choose how far back in time they go. Heck, maybe in the middle of the game, Link unlocks the ability to travel further back in time than when he started, giving him a full week to work with instead of three days or something. That would unlock additional options for interactions, allowing Link to fix problems he couldn't before. There's lots of room for the concepts introduced in Majora's Mask to be expanded.

[@carlekman]

Link just hit his head when falling off of Epona in the Lost Woods, it’s all a coma dream

[@mitchpalm5908]

That's exactly what I think happen

[@chewtag]

thats so gay tho

[@paynesyler6428]

I can't stand the "he was in coma/dead the whole time" theories, they always seem so lazy and unoriginal. I swear you can find a theory like this for almost any game or show that originated in our childhoods lol

[@Stonerbear7754]

That's what I thought when I fell off a horse, but then I am unsure why my trousers were down and ass was sore

[@honeydukes4181]

Then how is the same hero’s bow in twilight princess? Or how are there multiple in universe references to Termina and Majora’s Mask itself in other Zelda games. An alternate reality maybe, but Termina is real.

[@Sharkspartan6548]

I think Termina has to be a weird parallel world, given the ending scene after Link returns to the Woods from the beginning. If Termina wasn't real then how did the drawing of him, Skull Kid, and the 4 Giants get on that stump?

[@One-ct3xe]

I think that the planet that Hyrule Termina are on has a fixed overlapping binary moon system. Hyrule never sees Termina's moon and vice versa, the moons criss cross in orbit but never pass over the other continents. The crashing moon may have upset the orbital path of Hyrule's moon as well, causing the flood of Wind Waker. One side of the planet is ravaged by water, the other either survives none the wiser or it perishes in fire.

[@2pigsTV]

Pretty sure Kapura Gabura, the owl is actually Rauru the light sage from OoT

[@tonyg5132]

You forgot that the skull kid was the actual one from ocarina of time too

[@legendaryadventurespod]

It's true it's the same Skull Kid. I figured that didn't need mentioning but perhaps I should have.

[@PTp1ranha]

The Encyclopedia is a useful collection of a ton of pre-BotW Zelda info (thus is pairs well with Creating a Champion for an exhaustive pre-TotK look at the series). Though that contentious detail about Termina is a blemish on an otherwise solid book.

[@JCardo2502]

I want to believe that Termina is a country beyond Hyrule´s frontiers, I would honestly love a game where you could go beyond Hyrule´s frontiers as an option. There wouldn´t be a big villain outside Hyrule, but it would be nice for exploration purposes, maybe you would be able to get new swords or shields

[@djmavster1]

The next Zelda Game should be a prequel to MM where the origins of Majora are clarified. A final boss like the Dragon from the Manga would be awesome!

[@GarredHATES]

I like to think it’s a Purgatory you end up in when you enter the lost woods without a fairy

[@DeeEll1]

People have been able to pass through the Lost Woods without a fairy and survive. Ganondorf, zelda, links mom, the running man, happy mask salesman. If I can guess, I'd say that the thing that determines whether or not you die in The Lost Woods is determined by how strong your sense of self is. Determination

[@AarturoSc]

@@DeeEll1Plus Link has the Triforce of Courage. That purgatory crap is just so full of holes.

[@Nick-up5wv]

​@@AarturoScNot if Link died and Majora's Mask is his way of coping with the fact he's going to die.

[@AarturoSc]

@@Nick-up5wv LOL! The average edgy theory of people that don't know how they do games.

[@Nick-up5wv]

@@AarturoSc The Triforce of Courage obviously didn't help because he lost to Beast Ganon. This is backed up by the 3rd(unessacary IMHO) timeline. We know the Hero of Time died in a 3rd Timeline. This is where this story unfolds. Have you ever seen the movie Jacob's Ladder? Majora's Mask is kinda like that; or so I theorise, but very well may be wrong.

[@LinkiePup]

Personally I like to think that Termina isn’t something like an Alternate Dimension, but rather it’s something like- the lost woods acts like a magic railroad, transporting Link to another continent on whatever planet Hyrule exists on. And this continent was also made by the giants. Edit: Also on the point of “Why does (X) character looks the same as their OOT”, because of hardware and time constraints. :p

[@ArceusDX]

I'm really surprised you didn't once reference Hyrule Historia, which also supports the Parallel World/Other Dimension interpretation.

[@legendaryadventurespod]

That's true it does, slipped my mind

[@Gogopowerandy]

I just think that the mask is almost too powerful if it’s able to create an entirely new dimension. And do the giants exist before the game but in Hyrule?

[@Necroknix]

Eiji Aonuma saying "It's almost like another dimension" instead of it IS another dimension to me suggests that it isn't another dimension, but its very similar. It would be like saying imitation crab meat is almost like crab, but it still is fish meat. He also says "we described it as being a nearby land." "It's almost like another dimension." He doesn't say it IS another dimension, but that it feels like it is. It would seem like the devs originally wanted to create the game as a alternative universe but were limited by time constraints, so what we have in MM is a parallel universe. In this case both terms describe other realities distinct from OoT's. "Parallel universe" implying coexistence with OoT's universe, possibly in a different dimensional space, while "alternate universe" typically refers to a separate reality that diverges from OoT due to different events or decisions. Semantics though. Some things to note that others have said: The skull kid saying "you have the same smell as the fairy kid..." There have also been others mentioning the triforces throughout Termina. The people in Termina acknowledge The Goddess of Time. Tatl as well as a man in the Oceanside Spider House reference her. Coincidentally the man in the Oceanside spider house resemble one of the children from the Skulltula Family in OoT. I think it gets more complicated when thinking about the Mario references made in OoT with the paintings in the castle, and the characters Talon and Ingo. In Majoras mask there is a mask resembling Mario's face. Still I personally lean toward Termina existing in a different geographical location to Hyrule, in the same universe. *shrugs*

[@night-x6793]

There is alternate worlds and dimensions in the Zelda games. Because you in Link To The Past you have both the Light and Dark worlds as well Link Between Two Worlds, then you have Oracle Of Seasons and Time which are two different worlds connected to Hyrule somehow. So Majora's mask is a real place which that somehow got connected to Hyrule.

[@khveteran013]

I have a headcanon and a theory when it comes to Termina: My headcanon is that it exists to the far west of Hyrule. Link was chasing Skull Kid through the Lost Forest, which was used as a fast travel area in OoT and has shifted geographical locations radically between games in relation to Hyrule Castle (As opposed to Lake Hylia, which has always been to the south, etc.). Some sort of spatial distortion on that level isn't out of bounds for the Lost Woods. But this is just my desperate attempt at trying to keep Termina in Hyrule's local spacetime. My theory is that Termina is indeed an alternate dimension, but not a dream world. Rather, I think that Termina is a look into Lorule's future. The animation used when Link fell down the tree and traveling through the cracks in ALBW is pretty similar, and everyone in Lorule has an analogue in Hyrule. Termina represents the people of Lorule fully rejecting the golden goddesses in favor of the four giants, and the only evidence left of the goddesses' influence on Termina is in Ikana Canyon, where a royal family tried to build a tower into the Sacred Realm to challenge the goddesses themselves.

[@theking8347]

So then, would Kafei and his father Mayor Dotour be descendants of Lorule's royal family? They both have purple hair and Kafei has red eyes, just like Hilda

[@Ptitmalle]

Thanks for the video !

[@tsemiu]

The developers said the encyclopedia took creative liberties. I would never consider it canon or supersedes anything.