Heyyyy I love ur art! Your design of Mask is beautiful! I tried to make one but I just couldn’t find something to ring the bell and u did! Can u make like a breakdown of his design and personality? And can I use ur design on future art pieces and I’ll give u credit?
Absolutely!!! All art is happily welcome (with credit)!! Also would love to see and support so a @ or something would be great! Here’s my breakdown, I did end up yapping a lot but it’s because I love him.
I actually had different designs in mind at first, some with a cape and Lon Lon ranch references that ive seen in other designs, and of course the classic ponytail, but I was trying to think exactly the stage of life Mask is in right now. Too much Lon Lon would imply he was settled there at the time, but in my mind, he doesn't come back to stay in Hyrule until he's the same physical age as he was as an "adult" in OoT as just a symbolic idea. (Which is 16 assuming his childhood age is 9). I think he travels more first, learns more, and the only place he returns to is Clock Town, which he can "lose" his way back to when he wants. So my original sketch I recycled for his young adult design, because I believe it makes him look a little older, and I was inspired by MajorLink’s Hero’s purpose go check it out!
I think he keeps his old tunic also but it's kind of in tatters at this point, he just keeps mending it because he's resourceful (and honestly can't really leave it behind). He gets the undershirt from Warriors, which I have a mini comic about here, i just think its a right of brotherhood to have to wear your kinda musty older siblings hand-me-downs, plus it draws similarities to his adult self in OoT.
By my design his hair is greyer after Majoras Mask than his in game model, either from FD use or general stress, or just my way of having the game leaving a visible effect, but color comes back over the years when he's more healed from the events.
His facial markings being semi-permanent is honestly just convenient because they look really awesome and he's more recognizable with them. I had an issue with this at first where I almost gave him the eye scar too, but I assume the scar is from an event of a breaking point with the mask where Time couldnt get the mask off and rather had to carve it off? (Unconfirmed but implied in Jojo’s interview) At this point as a character, he still spams that shit like in Hyrule Warriors so it wouldnt make sense to have such a close call of losing your autonomy but still abuse it. This also led me to thinking it's steadily becoming more dangerous to use the older he gets, little things like struggling to take it off for a second or losing time when he wears it snowballing into larger, concerning issues.
In addition to this, I love to think about Mask interacting with the rest of the heroes too, and considering theres no reason for them to think a little rude boy is a younger version of their leader, they wouldnt realize he and Time were the same for a while (and ofc neither of them would be the ones to say so). If he had the marks AND the scar, it would be just be a dead giveaway straight up, but I dont think he would even use FD around them until some especially difficult enemy chances on them, considering there are 9 other heroes. And then if he uses it, Legend or Four might connect the clues while the others blame coincidence, but theres still potential for anonymity. The secret keeping in the chain holds so much potential and is so interesting to me, especially when it comes to Time Ok tangent over
I like drawing faces a lot so i dont draw the mask every time, but its my take that he has some kind of mask on most of the time at least when hes out doing something, be it the keaton or the sheikah or bunny mask.
The brown fabric hanging off his side loosely has similar designs of Malons future dress, which is the reference to Lon Lon I gave him. Its thick thermal material and could be a small childs blanket, so sometimes its an extra warm layer.
I didnt show the blue one well but it has a triforce pattern, and i made it blue in reference to the hero of Twilight's blue, but with some of my colorings it looks more teal.
Its also tied around him in like a pre-Ordonian sort of way. I imagine the belt he wore as a 9 year old doesnt fit him anymore so he makes do with rope, under the defense its functional in a sinch. (He just takes forever to replace his clothes)
He also ditched the long green underwear for real shorts that are kind of similar to skull kid. I think they are still good friends.
I draw his weapon of choice as the kokiri sword when hes in hyrule warriors (because thats the weapon he has in HW) but I love the gilded sword, so he gets that when I draw him with LU characters. Other accessories include a mask and the ocarina which are at easy access by his side. His gloves change a lot for me, sometimes I try to work in the gauntlets, sometimes I give him fingerless tattered ones, and sometimes I give him ones that resemble his adult gloves. Recently I just have not drawn his gloves at all
As for his personality inspiration, I feel theres kind of an agreed upon personality and fanon among fans that I also agree with for the most part aside from a few discrepancies.
For one, I don't think he is directly mentally older in the same way most people think, and I don't think he knows his exact age aside from a general guesstimate. Spending time as an adult granted him maturity because he was literally in a developed sixteen year old's brain for the bulk of his first adventure that he lived with for however long, was treated as an adult etc, and he carried some of that maturity back with him. So experience-wise, he is older, but he still has a nine year olds brain when he comes back if that makes sense. As for Majoras, living the same three days doesn't grant you much life experience, or develop your brain, but it does force him to mature and have him believe he is a lot older than he really is. Imagine being nine years old, just for a very, very long time, all while fighting actual demons, completing tasks and puzzles grown adults playing this game need a guide for, and barely sleeping.
I feel like for this he would get irritated when people treat him like a child, and that in itself is proof he is still incredibly childlike. As Time, they all call him old man and he makes no effort to correct them, (in a likely scenario, he is not nearly as mentally old as they think he is) but he simply does not care. Where for Mask, a factual observation might be insulting, an invalidation of his experience as a hero, something he is very insecure about since being forgotten as the hero of time.
In the same vein, he lost most of his relationships when he was sent back to before they happened, so making friends probably seems hopeless after that. He's prickly because he knows every relationship he makes is impermanent and a chance for him to get hurt again, and unconsciously he needs people to really make an effort with him so he knows its real. That doesn't mean nobody gets through his walls, especially another hero who can understand where he's coming from.
Otherwise, he’s genuinely very intelligent and a fast thinker in battle, but he’s reactively impulsive and scrappy which gets him into situations, and it’s something he learns not to do when he gets older. I can see Twilight doing dumb dangerous stuff in battle cough cough chasing the evil lizard and Time thinking “well we don’t need dna test ig…”
This is all 100% headcanon, if your opinion is different thats valid! Anyways that was my yapfest also I think this ask was from a month ago I apologize for taking my time, let me know your guys thoughts on any of this and thank you for reading!