Making good on what was teased this Summer, the animation/effects studio Ember Lab has released “Terrible Fate,” a stunningly beautiful Legend of Zelda fan film. With top-flight CG, this short delves into the backstory of Majora’s Mask; which is, of course, one of the moodiest and most complex installments of the franchise. Here, a vision of the eerie trickster Skull Kid’s origin is revealed. How exactly did a forest dweller wind up donning this powerful mask with such burning, hypnotic eyes? Did he ignore warnings of there being a curse ingrained in it, or did such talk actually entice him more?
“Terrible Fate” raises as many questions as it answers with some truly striking and evocative imagery. Watch on.
If you were struck by the musical score–what with its bucolic wind section, stirring strings, and playful wood blocks–as much as you were by the visuals, then you should know this short film is actually a companion piece to a much larger work. The composer behind the soundtrack, known as “Theophany,” has released an entire orchestral album to coincide with the video’s upload, Time’s End II: Majora’s Mask Remixed. And yes, it’s a sequel. Theophany released another album previously, also “remixing” Majora’s Mask‘s themes in what looks to be a series of concept albums charting Link’s journey through the game’s Byzantine, time-bending puzzles.
It’s a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist, or a translation of the epic opera that was rolling through Theophany’s head whilst unlocking so many treacherous dungeons. The albums defy categorization, just as “Terrible Fate” does. The short is both a self-contained prologue and something of a moving album cover for the composer’s much longer production. Theophany and Ember Lab sought to realize their shared version of a Netflix-style Zelda show with all this. While such a production has been long-rumored, and is still unlikely to happen any time soon, it’s hard to imagine it ever looking or sounding as good.
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Featured Image Credit: Ember Lab