Boss Battle Analysis: Majora's Mask

In my most popular post to date, I presented a sort of panentheistic, perhaps even monistic, way to explain the potential nature of a monotheistic God. The concept is simple enough: God is energy. In order to fulfill his primary role, energy condenses itself so that it might become "more than energy", allowing for creation.

I noticed something while playing LoZ: Majora's Mask the other day. The final boss, Majora, seems to be example number one of energy condensing itself into matter.

Majora's Mask: Majora's Mask starts out exactly as you'd expect it to: as a mask. So Link begins fighting the sentient mask, hammering away at it with the Fierce Deity Mask. Realizing the battle is going Link's way, Majora extends his consciousness to the masks of the the four giants(1:25). I like to think of Majora as being pure energy, and that his physical form (the mask) is using work to push that energy into the masks. Whenever Link strikes a blow, matter is destroyed, releasing the innate energy back into the universe.

Majora's Incarnation: Fierce Deity Link successfully kills off the new masks of Majora, and returns his focus to killing the mask. Again, realizing the battle is lost, Majora changes his nature. This time, he does something a little more impressive: He creates matter out of thin air (2:05). To do this, he has to spend some of the energy that he is. From the name "Majora's Incarnation", we can probably also infer that this is the form that the energy can identify most closely with.

Majora's Wrath: Majora senses his end. His true form failed to defeat Fierce Deity Link, and he has one last trick up his sleeve. He re-envisions that true form, spending the last of his available energy. What we get is Majora's wrath. (2:45) He's like Majora's Incarnation, except a tad darker, and clearly a little more brutal. Instead of running around cockily, reveling in his own superiority, Majora knows the situation is now 'kill or be killed'. However, again Link defeats him, which is bad news for Majora: He's expunged all of his available energy, causing the entire area to fade into oblivion along with the energy that caused its creation.