Happy Mask Salesman Theory

quote Dark Silver

quote InabyamaCastle Guard

Ya, he always seemed shady to me. I'm not sure where he gets his masks, but I doubt he makes them and I'm sure he acquires them with questionable methods - after all, Link gets his best masks when he sees someone die, then seals their souls within the mask.

Also, the mask salesman seems to have mastered a fair bit of magic himself, as we saw with the disappearing. Surely thats not the only thing he can do. I'm of the mind that he had many more abilities, but didnt expose them. When he's leaving at the end, he doesnt mind letting Link see that particular trick, cause he IS leaving after all.

Looking at the suspect in that picture, his clothes seem so strange. The scheme and design of them look a lot like a mix between the Gerudos, Sheika, and Majora's Mask itself. Your theory makes me think hes some sort of Anti-Sage.

If your hypothesis is right, it'd explain how he got that Mario mask - he killed the original Mario, the one we all know and love, and created a cheap clone, which is why every Mario game after MM was such an embarrassment.

Agreed! In the Manga of it, he says something interesting:

"Heh heh... Looks like they're after the little demon. But this is when the real action begins! Once they bring me back that mask, I will no longer have a purpose in this world. I will scurry away quickly then! Heh heh heh heh..."

quote Triforce of Wisdom

3) In MM, he just "happens" to be carrying an extremely empowered mask used in ancient hex rituals.

quote InabyamaCastle Guard

Maybe he escaped his mask-ish imprisonment for a bit.

I dunno if we can assume this is the same mask salesman or not. After all, a ton of character figures get reused in this game, Anju, the pale dude with the mohawk, Romani, and the Song of Storms guy just to name a few, but none of them are the same between games.

Also, its strange that A. his masks had no effect in the other game and B. Neither he nor Link makes any reference to the sign that they are already introduced.
Of course, those could just as likely be simple issues of necessary between-game transitions.