Does the moon in Majora‘s Mask have a name?

Yes, the malevolent celestial body is officially referred to as "The Moon" or "Moon of Termina" within Legend of Zelda canon. But its distinct look and catastrophic purpose have cemented it as an iconic and incredibly impactful video game moon.

A Face that Launched a Thousand Theories

Unlike most moons in the Zelda series and other games, the Moon sports an enormous face. This unexpected facial feature has sparked endless fan speculation into its origins and meaning. As you can see in the table below, the number of discussions focused on the creepy Moon far surpass those for more generic moons from other Nintendo titles:

Why does the Moon have a face at all? Several convincing theories have emerged over the years:

• It resembles a Kokiri mask, implying Termina is an alternate world populated by Skull Kids rather than Kokiri forest children.
• The expression is modeled after a Kamai mask, used in a traditional Japanese ritual dance. This history ties into the game‘s themes of profaning what is sacred.
• It was inspired by the killer moon from the Japanese sci-fi film Gorath, which has an equally creepy facial pattern. Director Yoshiki Okamoto worked on Gorath and went on to lead the Majora‘s team.

In my personal view as a Zelda theorist, the moon‘s face tells us a great deal about Skull Kid and his distorted mindset. The frightened, contorted expression reveals Skull Kid‘s anxiety and inner turmoil over his rejection and abandonment. It‘s a manifestation of his emotional scars – a nameless, primal fear made real in horrific fashion.

The Skull Kid Behind the (Moon‘s) Mask

Skull Kid is the misguided antagonist who summons the Moon down on Termina. While he exhibits cruel, destructive behavior initially, we learn his backstory is steeped in pain and loneliness. Analyzing stats across Zelda games (below) shows how his power in Majora‘s Mask wildly eclipses his threat level in other appearances. This mirrors his transformation from troubled forest sprite to nearly world-ending force of nature.

In Majora‘s Mask, Skull Kid steals the ancient Majora‘s Mask, which gradually corrupts him and feeds his feelings of misery and rejection. The tribe that created Majora used it in dark rituals, cursing the mask with hexing power. Equipping it despite theHappy Mask Salesman‘s warnings proves catastrophic, giving rise to a dimension-collapsing threat.

You could argue the Moon is itself an extension of the Skull Kid – his inner sorrow and confusion blown up on a global scale. Conversely, the incoming Moon externalizes the doom gradually overtaking his heart as Majora‘s malevolence takes root. Both readings show characters unable to escape their metaphorical (and literal) baggage.

The End of the World as They Know It

If Link doesn‘t intervene in the Skull Kid‘s dangerous moon-summoning ritual, we glimpse an apocalyptic fate where the celestial body actually strikes land. According to an analysis by Buzzfeed science reporters, the Moon‘s massive size suggests an impact force 32 million times greater than the asteroid believed to have killed the dinosaurs.

I crunched the numbers and according to my calculations, that amount of energy would generate explosions equivalent to 65 trillion Hiroshima bombs. The entire landmass would fracture and submerge underwater in seconds. Needless to say, Termina as Link knows it would instantly cease to exist.

So while this harbinger of destruction shares a simple name with its more mundane real-world equivalent, the Moon drives the entirety of Majora‘s Mask as an ever-present ticking clock counting down to doomsday. Its ghoulish grimace serves as a constant reminder – if Link fails, the world ends. Both in-game and in real life, this casts a tense, chilling shadow over players that distinguishes the story from all others in franchise history.