Wow... It all fits. How come I'd not noticed this before!? *Head A'splodes*
I know, right? I always just took the story literally (why wouldn't I, it's freaking Zelda). Granted, this sort of analysis is almost always just an ass-pull that has fuck all to do with what the creators were actually trying to do, but I have to say it all fits so well. Not to mention, there's not even an implication of Link going on to continue searching for his friend during the ending and one of Tatl's closing lines is ""Well, both of us have gotten what we were after...".
This kind of makes me curious as to what went on during the development of Majora's Mask. Pretty much every other Zelda plot is a mash-up of every generic fantasy cliche in the book. I wonder what prompted them to do something so unique with this particular game.
