Where is Termina? 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Termina is beyond bizarre

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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…

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!

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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.

Thanks for the video! As always very relaxing :)

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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”

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

One theory is another dimension, but with the consolidation of the timelines, I have to wonder if it is West of the Gerudo Desert the "Moon" and "Giants/Guardians" being Zonai air structures.

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

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"

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.

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

Thanks for the video !

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.

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.

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.

I'm expectating that oracle video. 2 zelda's at once.

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.

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 ^_^

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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*

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

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.

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.

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.

I like the dream explanation.

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

I guess saying it's a dream world would make some sense given the Mask's imagery throughout the game on surfaces and buttons. It's an interesting way to explain the events of said game. Like maybe the mask salesman was never actually in termina and was still in Hyrule looking for that mask which is why he disappears at the end of the game because he was never real.

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.

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

I do like alternate dimension theory. Also if you've not read the Manga Book of Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, even though not considered canon there was extra bits in there on how Majora's Mask came to be with powerful magic. I thought that story was interesting which should of been made canon.

I think it would be cool if Termina is sort of a transition dimension. An in-between world where people go one of two ways, judged by their actions. Kind of like the Subway Terminal in the Matrix. And it connects Hyrule to the Shadow Realm from Twilight Princess. When Majora took over the Skull Kid, he finally had a living vessel to enter the shadow realm and get to the Twilight Realm. Link as well as the mask-salesman follow him, thous, Termina becomes an amalgamation of all their subconciousnesses. It explains why masks have such a great power (mask salesmans worldview) why there are holy protectors who have been corrupted (Link literally just went trouh a similar situation with the sages in OoT so he sees that as a logical solution to a world ending threat) And finally, why there is empending doom comming as well as unbelievabe bad luck all around (Majora is influencing Termina to destroy ITSELF so it can break into the Twilight Realm and become whole again by projecting the negative lifeview of the skullkid into it) Majora was allegedly sealed inside the mask by the Shieka and as far as I know, it is stated in Twilight Princess that the Shiekas magical capabilitys came from dabbeling in dark dimensions and derived from the Twighlight realm, so what if the sealing of Majora is linked to it as well and thats why it wants to get there... to break his seal and be free from the mask again? Just my Fan Theory..

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?

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

I seem to remember an explanation was already given when the game released. That when the 3 Goddesses created Hyrule (that you learn out about in OoT), some of that power seeped into cracks in the world and created parallel worlds. The 3 Goddesses saw this happy accident and were fine with it. The Lost Woods has a hidden doorway between the two worlds that you see Link fall down. On a sidenote - they never finished the story of the Hero of Time. He never finds Navi. Nintendo need to finish the story! They should call the game TLOZ - Shades of Time. You play as Shade, the Stalfos, but you are still the Hero of Time, you still have the Triforce of Courage, set hundreds/thousands of Years after MM. You basically play as Undead Link.

It's right under the Moon

I think the guardian deity thing refers to the Giant of the swamp. I'm not sure I trust Hyrule historia, A lot of people have said that It's inaccurate. I think the happy mask salesman fading away like that is more of a graphical limitation thing than him actually fading away

Termina is limbo or maybe even purgatory.

What an amazing game this is

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

Well its state that skull kid left for the heavens so the four giants would not tear him apart. So i think hyrule is seen as the heavens at least it come across that way as we know skull kids are found in the lost woods which is in hyrule as link fell down to enter termina. Also hyrule itself is known as the sacred realm at least when you look at japanese translations concerning the sacred realm or sacred land. So skull kid may have been in hyrule due to being exiled from termina under threat of death if he returned.

If I may be allowed take a guess... Ya mother.

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

It’s in Prehevil, obviously

I have two theories: Termina is either a parallel world; like the Dark World from Link to the Past OR in the timeline where Link dies perhaps it's what he sees before subcoming to death. Termina is similar to Hyrule because it's Link's memories or his interpretation of Hyrule that he sees before dying. It IS called Termina after all, so it has a disturbing concept where it's what manifests in the heroes head before he dies. In Ocarina of Time Link is successful and returns back to childhood via time travel. However if he FAILS; which is the 3rd timeline than after Ganondorf lands the death blow Link is seeing his life flash before his eyes and his memories of the world he just saved, or failed to do so, have now manifested themselves to become Termina. Termina is NOT real. It's all in the fallen hero's head.

Possibly somewhere very purple...

It's speculative, but we can pretty easily glean from Nintendo's tendencies that if there is a dream interpretation of MM they don't particularly care about it themselves: 1. In Link's Awakening the fact that it's a dream is worked overtly into the plot, not just pieced together with extremely vague "clues" 2. Nintendo doesn't really commit to long game canonicity and subtle hints like that. Aonuma and Miyamoto have both expressed dismissal at the idea of developing a true canon for Zelda, preferring a focus on gameplay innovation first 3. Nintendo regularly contradicts and outright retcons lore sources that exist outside their games. The published timeline, the Metroid comic, even previous games. I think we can conclude that Nintendo would only ever allow the publication of supplemental lore materials for the pure sake of more things to buy (cynically) or at least more things for us to enjoy (optimistically), and they themselves have not ever shown a history of giving two flips what these materials contain when it comes to the actual games they put out.

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?

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

I genuinely believe the land of Termina is an alternate world that’s a manifestation of both link’s and skull kid’s depression and trauma. Idk how this world came to be exactly as Zelda can be very vague or random. I don’t think it’s all a dream as that theory was debunked long ago and doesn’t really make sense.

To get to Termina, one must travel through dimensions in the direction of DENNIS. If you travel JEFFREY, you're going the wrong way. TIFFANY is right out. What are you even doing, trying to go TIFFANY? Beware, however - if you've traveled DENNIS and your direction indicator has changed to STEVEN, you've gone _way_ too far, and will have to back up as you've missed the stop entirely.

I think Termina is a real place in a different dimension, perhaps created by the children in the meadow, which represent each of the four giants. Skull Kid was friends with them for a time before they left to guard the world they created. Skull Kid wanted to destroy the world so his friends would return, and Majora's Mask augmented that desire.

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.