Suduiko, A. (2014, November 24). “Legend of Whom?” What to do with a “Zelda” game without Zelda. With A Terrible Fate. https://withaterriblefate.com/2014/11/24/legend-of-whom-what-to-do-with-a-zelda-game-without-zelda/
The fifth entry in Suduiko's "A Comprehensive Theory of Majora's Mask" ([[Comprehensive Theory Majora's Mask]]).
Zelda is non-existent in Majora's Mask ([[Majora's Mask]]) except for in one flashback/memory where she teaches Link the Song of Time just before he is about to be destroyed by the moon (ironically, he cannot save Termina, as discussed earlier ([[Want to learn how to design sidequests]])). In the memory, Zelda tells Link that the song "reminds me of us...", a strange comment that suggests she remembers the events from another timeline. This is the basis of the temporal afterimage theory, that characters have a sort of cross-timeline afterimage when messing with time manipulation - a heavy theme across many Zelda titles (Skyward Sword ([[Skyward Sword]]), Ocarina, Majora, Oracle of Ages ([[Oracle of Ages]]) and potentially Breath of the Wild 2 (Tears of the Kingdom)).
An accessible theory is that the Ocarina of Time transcends time itself. Those that interact with it directly are the ones that would experience those afterimages the strongest. This has implications of the effects that Link has to deal with by resetting time in Majora so many times before finally stopping the moon. That's a lot of afterimage potential, and could be used as a way to help explain an metaphysical reason for the masks staying in his inventory even though the timeline has been reset.
Another, darker, takeaway is that the entropy of Termina is stronger than the order (Oath to Order?) that Link is attempting to bring to it. We know that Termina is not savable ([[Want to learn how to design sidequests]]) in its entirety, as explored in an earlier post. But here is Link remembering a song that supposedly will help him save it. At his most dire time - just before dying - he is given the ultimate time-travel tool. Not only is it somewhat of a deus ex machina, but it's also not to be. How very nihilistic (Why Majora's Mask is Unique).
Princess Zelda, as the holder of the triforce of wisdom, is typically the moral compass for Link. In Ocarina ([[Ocarina of Time]]), she directs him to defeat Ganondorf, for example. However, because she is not present in Majora ([[Majora's Mask]]), Link does not have a similar moral direction.
All other princess figures present in Majora - the Deku Princess, the son of the Goron Tribe’s Elder, Lulu, Pamela and Anju - each embody a form of princess trope: respectively, the comically absurd, the childishly immature, the silenced plot device, the self-defeating victim, and the doomed lover. None of which have any moral valence. And because they can't actually be saved, it becomes less about how Link "must" save them, and more about how Link "could" save them.
"The courageous hero is left without direction, yet it is by virtue of lacking direction that he is able to see the plights of those around him as human conditions, rather than as canonically good, evil, or neutral."