Legend of Zelda Who is the happy mask salesman?

[Dragoon Fighter]

Here is a link to the happy mask salesman.

Alternate theories not discussed in the article.

The happy mask salesman is of a species that is the predecessor to the Twili.

The happy mask salesman is the spirit of Majora (The creator of the mask.)

The happy mask salesman is an alien (I do not like this one .)

The happy mask salesman is a powerful mage of sorts.

Where is the happy mask salesman from?

Termina?

Hyrule?

Other?

Also what are some theories I missed? What do YOU think the happy mask salesman is/ who is he?

 

[Luigitoilet]

He's a man that sells masks.

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

You know what I am talking about / asking for.

 

[Masky]

He isn't an ordinary salesman because he has special knowledge (history of Majora's Mask) and special powers. I like the theory that he is Miyamoto, that honestly makes a lot of sense to me lol

 

[Ganonsburg]

I think he is probably just an eager mask salesman. He developed a love of masks as a kid, and decided to make them his profession and life. As a young boy he heard stories, some of which included masks. One day he heard a story about an all-powerful mask and it piqued his interest, although he forgot about it soon after because he was young.

Later, as an adult, he opened up his own shop dealing with the love of his life, Masks. They brought such joy to him that he created an alternate buying system for his masks, with the main goal of just allowing his masks to make others happy. He became known as the Happy Mask Salesman for this.

Then, one day, he was researching masks and he came across the legend of Majora's Mask. He decided to seek it out. His search was inspired by the fear of the mask, his love of masks and want of a full collection, and his desire for people to be made happy by masks as opposed to sad. He studied for years to discover the location of the mask. He ran through libraries, consulted fortune tellers, learned from magicians, sought help from the other races, and prayed to the gods and goddesses for their assistance.

Finally, after learning many things, among which were spells similar to what Link had learned, he knew where Majora's Mask was and found it.

That's what I think, lol. Story form for the win. I don't think he's some kind of alien or god or anything. Just a special person, like Link.

 

[rhan]

The happy mask salesman is definitely not the creator of the mask or the spirit of Majora. Majora's spirit was locked away ing the mask and all that's explained in the bonus chapter of the Manga which is right here:

http://www.seekmanga.com/manga/The_Legend_of_Zelda_-_Majoras_Mask/204665.html

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

The happy mask salesman is definitely not the creator of the mask or the spirit of Majora. Majora's spirit was locked away ing the mask and all that's explained in the bonus chapter of the Manga which is right here:

http://www.seekmanga.com/manga/The_Legend_of_Zelda_-_Majoras_Mask/204665.html

The manga is Non-canonical. Considered to be completely different form the game.

 

[rhan]

It's based off the game and it's pretty much an extension of the game. It's like how books give more information in them then the actual movie about the book. Like how the Twilight book are more detailed then what the movie give you.

It's all the same no matter how you look at it. It also fills a bunch of plot holes within the series itself.

 

[finalark]

I personally accepted that bonus chapter in the manga into my personal cannon for how the Mask was made (even though the story about the tribe says otherwise, but stories change over time).

I always thought that it would be interesting if the Mask Salesman was actually a descendant of the tribe who abused the mask's power and he sort of sees it as his duty to make sure that the mask never falls into the wrong hands. I like this idea combined with Ganonsburg's.

 

[Luigitoilet]

It's based off the game and it's pretty much an extension of the game. It's like how books give more information in them then the actual movie about the book. Like how the Twilight book are more detailed then what the movie give you.

It's all the same no matter how you look at it. It also fills a bunch of plot holes within the series itself.

That doesn't make it canon. It's basically one step up from fan fiction.

 

[Phantom7]

The Happy Mask Salesman is a mask-obsessed madman who has unnecessarily expanded his knowledge of masks deep into Hyrule's history and by some unknown manner managed to collect many of Hyrule's most mysterious and powerful masks. And he is from Hyrule, not Termina. End of story.

 

[Masky]

I think he is probably just an eager mask salesman. He developed a love of masks as a kid, and decided to make them his profession and life. As a young boy he heard stories, some of which included masks. One day he heard a story about an all-powerful mask and it piqued his interest, although he forgot about it soon after because he was young.

Later, as an adult, he opened up his own shop dealing with the love of his life, Masks. They brought such joy to him that he created an alternate buying system for his masks, with the main goal of just allowing his masks to make others happy. He became known as the Happy Mask Salesman for this.

Then, one day, he was researching masks and he came across the legend of Majora's Mask. He decided to seek it out. His search was inspired by the fear of the mask, his love of masks and want of a full collection, and his desire for people to be made happy by masks as opposed to sad. He studied for years to discover the location of the mask. He ran through libraries, consulted fortune tellers, learned from magicians, sought help from the other races, and prayed to the gods and goddesses for their assistance.

Finally, after learning many things, among which were spells similar to what Link had learned, he knew where Majora's Mask was and found it.

That's what I think, lol. Story form for the win. I don't think he's some kind of alien or god or anything. Just a special person, like Link.

The Happy Mask Salesman is a mask-obsessed madman who has unnecessarily expanded his knowledge of masks deep into Hyrule's history and by some unknown manner managed to collect many of Hyrule's most mysterious and powerful masks. And he is from Hyrule, not Termina. End of story.

He is not just an ordinary, mask-obsessed salesman. He has special powers. For example, he can travel between Hyrule and Termina seemingly freely, he makes a giant organ appear out of nowhere when he teaches you the Song of Healing, and most of all... he freaking disappears into thin air at the end of MM.

 

[Ganonsburg]

He is not just an ordinary, mask-obsessed salesman. He has special powers. For example, he can travel between Hyrule and Termina seemingly freely, he makes a giant organ appear out of nowhere when he teaches you the Song of Healing, and most of all... he freaking disappears into thin air at the end of MM.

Which is why I mentioned that in his search for knowledge, he consulted magicians. I mean, there are no facts in game to back this up (other than that he has supernatural powers, but the origin is unexplained....and this is my explanation), but this is a somewhat common idea among many stories. ie, The Magician's Nephew. In it, Jadis studies under magicians to learn The Deplorable Word (which kills everyone in her world...). In LotR, Gandalf studies in libraries to determine that Bilbo's ring is the One Ring and studies its magical properties. There are other stories that have such properties or similar properties, these two are very basic ones.

Zelda is in the same general genre of these two (with a few other genres mixed in here and there), and it would make sense for it to have such similar methods of seeking out a desired item or technique.

 

[Creo]

Who exactly is he, I do not know in the sense you want. I like to think he's more or less like a Link character, and got involved into something that brought him his vast awarenesses and whatnot(Ganonsburg gave the example of a Magician). Going in depth is almost useless though, because we can only be so informative on what we have, and it really isn't even strong speculation. I like the subject though.

What I can say is he's not Terminian for a fact, because in the beginning of Majora's Mask, he says he comes from afar, when he meets Link in the Clocktower. I like to think he's the direct character from Ocarina of Time, who was also different in personality, meaning i also believe he's Hylian.

Quite honestly though, he is actually one of my top Zelda characters in the series, and I'd like to see him around again.

EDIT:
The theory of him being based off of Miyamoto is something I never thought of, but to add to that, he does have a Mario Mask on his backpack(although in Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto had a lot of "Easter Eggs" like that as well).

 

[Masky]

Seriously... let's be real

 

[Ct.O.B.]

The similarity is uncanny...

You'd think that they WOULD reference the creator of the series, those folks at Nintendo...

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

Seriously... let's be real

Wow...The similarities are creepy. The theory its self makes perfect scene, but I do not like it...it just seems very left field to me . Wow, did I mention the similarities are creepy .

 

[Ganonsburg]

Haha, other than the smile, I don't really see it. As far as the eyes go....*stares at Asia*

Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention (specifically, I alluded to it with the shop) that I think he's Hylian (the same guy we saw in OoT).

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

We know he is the same guy from OoT but who or what is he is what I am asking.

Edit: does it add any credit to point out that the creator of Zelda was into puppets when he was younger?

 

[Spire]

Well, Masky beat me to it. The Happy Mask Salesman is Shigeru Miyamoto, just as Tingle is Koji Kondo.

I wonder if there's an Aonuma-like character in the series that we've overlooked.

 

[Masky]

Wow, Koji Kondo does look like Tingle lol. (btw Spire, the image can't be seen normally, it comes up with a spanish "no hotlinking" image)

As a side note, I think it's even funnier (and actually reasonable) to think that the Happy Mask Salesman was put into the game at least partially to make fun of Miyamoto through caricature or to give a glimpse as to what he's like as a director. If you accept that the Happy Mask Salesman is based on Miyamoto and then you re-read some of his lines...

"Just have faith... Keep trying a little longer."
"What?! You don't have my money?! How dare you! You'd better bring me my money...or else!" (lol)

Plus the HMS's tendency to have sudden intense fits of anger also has to make you think, maybe Miyamoto has a tendency to have outbursts or something?

Spire made a post a while back about how the story of Majora's Mask could be seen as a metaphor for the development of MM itself... that also fits in pretty well, since the HMS represents Miyamoto in that too.

 

[Spire]

I forgot about that post! Looking back, it certainly seems that way. In that case, Aonuma would be Link

 

[Creo]

Well, Masky beat me to it. The Happy Mask Salesman is Shigeru Miyamoto, just as Tingle is Koji Kondo (confirmed)...

Tingle being Koji Kondo brightened my day. No one hates Kondo, or his musical scores(unless you don't know music), and the fact he's the basis of Tingle is something great to use in his hatred arguments. Lmao.

Oh by the way Spire, that image is not allowing us to see anything. No hot linking I guess.

 

[Mic_128]

Just wondering, but other than The Mask guy saying he 'came from far away' where do we know he's from Hyrule? There's more to the Termina universe than just that one small town. Not to mention the fact that there were versions of a lot of people that were very similar to their Hyrule counterparts, why can't this Happy Mask guy originated from Termina?

 

[Creo]

Just wondering, but other than The Mask guy saying he 'came from far away' where do we know he's from Hyrule? There's more to the Termina universe than just that one small town. Not to mention the fact that there were versions of a lot of people that were very similar to their Hyrule counterparts, why can't this Happy Mask guy originated from Termina?

Well, also recall he explains to Link that he has been following him since he got his horse stolen and turned into a Deku Scrub, and that part is Hyrule. I mean, entering the Clock Tower is pretty much the port from Hyrule to there, which is why the door sealed. Unless there is another region we don't know about(Hyrule being the basis, and Termina sort of a "Dark World" to it), I'd like to believe he's from Hyrule.

That is really the direct reason that I believe he possibly is the same Happy Mask Salesman of Ocarina of Time as well. Nothing is set in stone though, as these are just speculation from trying to put pieces together.

 

[firelord767]

Just wondering, but other than The Mask guy saying he 'came from far away' where do we know he's from Hyrule? There's more to the Termina universe than just that one small town. Not to mention the fact that there were versions of a lot of people that were very similar to their Hyrule counterparts, why can't this Happy Mask guy originated from Termina?

There's also a whole world around Hyrule, too. Now it suddenly sounds like there's no chance that he'd consider Hyrule or Termina to be "far away".

Here's my Theory of Death:
OK, so the Happy Mask Dude lived in this village where everyone loved masks. Masks were very important, kinda like in Termina (so this village may have been near Termina then). However, unlike Termina, people were born and raised for the soul purpose of spreading masks around to make people happy. Everyone was all "Oh, cool" when it came to their destinies as mask salesman. They accepted it and rolled with it. Not the Happy Mask Salesman. He took it way too far. He became so obsessed that all his friends left him. He left his village earlier than most to find masks and get away from his cruel (as he saw them) former friends, and searched for rare and exotic masks. Each time he found a magical mask, like the Mask of Truth or eventually Majora's Mask, he became more powerful in magic, his powers eventually surpassing the average mage. When he found Majora's Mask, something happened. Perhaps he released it from some seal or something, but whatever happened, he became part of Majora's Mask, and Majora's Mask became part of him.

This story is the fruit of more imagination than facts, but it explains this:
1) The Happy Mask Salesman's powers that allow him to, say, survive the moon impacting and save Link from dieing.
2) Where this "Far Away" was.
3) Why he has Majora's Mask
4) Why he sells masks in the first place
5) Why on earth all those kids were playing inside the moon. I'm guessing the moon wasn't alive in Termina until M'sM animated it. Of course, M'sM would need some source of life. It had a connection to the Happy Mask Salesman, so it took a large chunk of it's consciousness and used it to animate the moon. This explains why the Mask Salesman couldn't use his powers to get the mask back in the first place- because he didn't have the mind to do it (of course, you're all thinking, "but he talked normally, right?" It doesn't take much brain to stand around and talk about masks. It take brainpower to stop a falling moon, however.) The strongest memory in the mind of the salesman was being with his friends under the tree, not playing because they wouldn't play with him. At first Link was in the Happy Mask Salesman's mind's manifestation in the Moon, but then Majora's Mask took over and, ya know, tried to kill Link.

Reason 5 was looooooooooooooong.

 

[Masky]

You kinda just made that all up... there's nothing in the game that even hints at that backstory.

 

[firelord767]

You kinda just made that all up... there's nothing in the game that even hints at that backstory.

This story is the fruit of more imagination than facts,

Yeah, but in the end, like the Tower of Babel thing, the puzzle pieces fit. I actually read part of that, however, somewhere a while back.

EDIT: Wow, i actually imagined that Bomberes article. Yeah, that makes my theory a good 90% fiction. :D

 

[Tacel]

My theory:
The Happy Mask Salesman is a Sheikah.
Sheikah have long, pointed ears and red eyes. He has both.
Not only that, but he wears purple, which is a common Sheikah clothing color.
Also, he teaches Link the Song of Healing. The Hero of Time learns the Song of Healing in another game, too. In Twilight Princess. How? A Howling Stone. As you may know, Howling Stones resemble Gossip Stones/have the Sheikah symbol on them. We can infer that Sheikah created them. If the Song of Healing is infact a Sheikah song, then how does the Happy Mask Salesman know it? He must be a Sheikah.

After doing small research on my theory, I was reminded that he also sells you the Mask of Truth, which is a Sheikah Mask.

 

[Luigitoilet]

My theory:
The Happy Mask Salesman is a Sheikah.
Sheikah have long, pointed ears and red eyes. He has both.
Not only that, but he wears purple, which is a common Sheikah clothing color.
Also, he teaches Link the Song of Healing. The Hero of Time learns the Song of Healing in another game, too. In Twilight Princess. How? A Howling Stone. As you may know, Howling Stones resemble Gossip Stones/have the Sheikah symbol on them. We can infer that Sheikah created them. If the Song of Healing is infact a Sheikah song, then how does the Happy Mask Salesman know it? He must be a Sheikah.

After doing small research on my theory, I was reminded that he also sells you the Mask of Truth, which is a Sheikah Mask.

This is an interesting and actually sort of plausible. Though, that last point about the Mask of Truth is weak. Is he also a part of the Deku/Zora/Goron/Gerudo/Bunny/Redead/etc. tribe because he sells their masks in OoT?

 

[Masky]

This is an interesting and actually sort of plausible. Though, that last point about the Mask of Truth is weak. Is he also a part of the Deku/Zora/Goron/Gerudo/Bunny/Redead/etc. tribe because he sells their masks in OoT?

Except that the Mask of Truth seems to be some kind of sacred Sheikah item that has the power to read people's minds, while the Goron/Zora/Gerudo/etc masks are pretty much just regular masks with no special effect.

However, just because the Happy Mask Salesman has the Mask of Truth doesn't mean he must be a Sheikah. The Happy Mask Salesman also had Majora's Mask at one point... does that make him a demon? No, he just has the masks because he is a serious collector of rare masks

My theory:
The Happy Mask Salesman is a Sheikah.
Sheikah have long, pointed ears and red eyes. He has both.
Not only that, but he wears purple, which is a common Sheikah clothing color.
Also, he teaches Link the Song of Healing. The Hero of Time learns the Song of Healing in another game, too. In Twilight Princess. How? A Howling Stone. As you may know, Howling Stones resemble Gossip Stones/have the Sheikah symbol on them. We can infer that Sheikah created them. If the Song of Healing is infact a Sheikah song, then how does the Happy Mask Salesman know it? He must be a Sheikah.

After doing small research on my theory, I was reminded that he also sells you the Mask of Truth, which is a Sheikah Mask.

Red eyes - The only time we see his eyes are when he's angry. Honestly, you might be looking into it too much, it seems like they would just give him red eyes to freak you out and show his extreme anger.

Pointed ears - Don't mean anything by themselves, Hylians have these too.

Song of Healing - Here's what the HMS says about the Song of Healing:

"This is a melody that heals evil magic and troubled spirits, turning them into masks."

This explains why the HMS knows the Song of Healing. It's useful in creating masks as part of his profession. It's a simpler explanation to say that he just sought out the Song of Healing as part of his job.


Other things - If the HMS is a Sheikah, how does he have the power to disappear into thin air and instantly summon giant organ pianos? Sheikah have never been shown to have this kind of magic power.

 

[Luigitoilet]

Other things - If the HMS is a Sheikah, how does he have the power to disappear into thin air and instantly summon giant organ pianos? Sheikah have never been shown to have this kind of magic power.

Impa disappears into thin air after she teaches you Zelda's Lullaby. Well, more or less. She throws a Deku Nut I believe but it's practically instantaneous anyways.

 

[Masky]

At the end of MM the Happy Mask Salesman slowly vanishes right in front of you while walking away. That's different than using a Deku Nut

 

[Ct.O.B.]

It's pretty funny, they most likely put his outbursts and manifestation of organs from thin air in MM for comedic purposes, now they're being used as evidence as to whether he's Sheikah or an alien, or something.

I think he may be a reincarnation of some evil (or just plain crazy) spirit, and the stuff I mentioned up there is just Nintendo Logic at work.

 

[TimeTemporal]

I had a crazy thought; what if HMS is Link? As in, parallel world Link wearing a transformation mask.
Link, the hero of masks?

 

[Masky]

The Happy Mask Salesman is an undercover FBI agent... and Link's father.

 

[Luigitoilet]

No, he's actually Link's childhood sled.

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

Please can you stop trolling I am trying to have a serious theory thread.

 

[Ct.O.B.]

No, he's actually Link's childhood sled.

Considering the theories I've read while searching the internet, this one is almost plausible!

JK, spam post is spam. ANYWAY... The only things we've got straight thus far be:
1. He's a creep and a goofball
2. He possesses or was victimized by magic that brought him to Termina.

 

[GwJ]

HMS cannot be Link for one reason:

The HMS talks. Link does not.

edit: and I'm pretty sure if the HMS was all like "HRAAAH! HYAAHH! UGH!", it'd make for a weak character.