powuh_of_PIE
Smash Journeyman
I always thought of it like this: Zelda doesn't have an air game.
I know, it sounds crazy, but hear me out.
Her specials are not useful in the air in and of themselves: FW is never an aerial attack, only for recovery and landing change-ups. Din's is a projectile, but a) it's too slow to use repeatedly at what I'd call standard "aerial game range", and b) the freefall animation afterwards sucks. You can annoy recovering characters with it, and I actually think this is what Zelda should be doing while waiting for the opponent to come back from that barely DI'd Bair, but you can't just jump into the air and start combating onstage aerial opponents with it. NL is a GTFO move that applies to both characters and projectiles. Not really a good aerial option except for trying to get back on the ground. Transform doesn't count, because while it does give her an excellent aerial game it changes her into a different character to do it. As for aerials...
Her Dair is for situational gimps and NinjaLink, and her Uair, Fair and Bair should only hit once (perhaps twice) per stock. Zelda will be trying to set up into Uair/Fair/Bair from the ground, therefore they are more useful and better utilized when included in her ground game. Nair is the only thing she has somewhat resembling a useful "aerial attack": that is, something that can be used repeatedly and can consistently beat other aerials ala most characters' Bair. (Think about it: how many characters with any aerial game at all don't use their Bair? Answer: Fox) And even in this it falls short; Nair does have nice priority, but Zelda's aerial speed isn't enough to make up for its rather lackluster range. On stages with platforms it can be used well, otherwise her spacing game is so much better Zelda has no reason to close to that distance just to use Nair.
Zelda survives this lack of aerial ability (note: Uair/Fair/Bair all count as ground moves now) because she has the tools to defend against other characters in the air: Usmash beats almost every downward aerial in the game with proper timing and Fsmash beats almost every SH aerial in the game period. The exceptions to these rules (Marth, Ike, Lucario) do well against Zelda because they are these exceptions.
So while it's all well and good to talk about attacking characters while they are recovering, no one can really call it "edgeguarding". Dair kills everything when it hits and almost nothing when it doesn't, and so is less of a way of preventing recovery and more of a direct threat that requires either immense luck or some type of effort towards setting it up. (Yes, ok, sourspot Dair can ruin some characters at high percents in the right position when Zelda has time and I win the lottery and the planets are aligned with NinjaLink's left buttock.) Nair has gimped exactly once in recent recorded memory and perhaps another five times off record.
If we really want to talk about Zelda's options on a recovering character, we need to be thinking of what to do when they get back. Not if. When.
Kat, I know I basically attacked the whole purpose of this thread, but I'm not trying to troll, I honestly think Zelda's onstage options are much more worth discussing than her offstage ones.
I know, it sounds crazy, but hear me out.
Her specials are not useful in the air in and of themselves: FW is never an aerial attack, only for recovery and landing change-ups. Din's is a projectile, but a) it's too slow to use repeatedly at what I'd call standard "aerial game range", and b) the freefall animation afterwards sucks. You can annoy recovering characters with it, and I actually think this is what Zelda should be doing while waiting for the opponent to come back from that barely DI'd Bair, but you can't just jump into the air and start combating onstage aerial opponents with it. NL is a GTFO move that applies to both characters and projectiles. Not really a good aerial option except for trying to get back on the ground. Transform doesn't count, because while it does give her an excellent aerial game it changes her into a different character to do it. As for aerials...
Her Dair is for situational gimps and NinjaLink, and her Uair, Fair and Bair should only hit once (perhaps twice) per stock. Zelda will be trying to set up into Uair/Fair/Bair from the ground, therefore they are more useful and better utilized when included in her ground game. Nair is the only thing she has somewhat resembling a useful "aerial attack": that is, something that can be used repeatedly and can consistently beat other aerials ala most characters' Bair. (Think about it: how many characters with any aerial game at all don't use their Bair? Answer: Fox) And even in this it falls short; Nair does have nice priority, but Zelda's aerial speed isn't enough to make up for its rather lackluster range. On stages with platforms it can be used well, otherwise her spacing game is so much better Zelda has no reason to close to that distance just to use Nair.
Zelda survives this lack of aerial ability (note: Uair/Fair/Bair all count as ground moves now) because she has the tools to defend against other characters in the air: Usmash beats almost every downward aerial in the game with proper timing and Fsmash beats almost every SH aerial in the game period. The exceptions to these rules (Marth, Ike, Lucario) do well against Zelda because they are these exceptions.
So while it's all well and good to talk about attacking characters while they are recovering, no one can really call it "edgeguarding". Dair kills everything when it hits and almost nothing when it doesn't, and so is less of a way of preventing recovery and more of a direct threat that requires either immense luck or some type of effort towards setting it up. (Yes, ok, sourspot Dair can ruin some characters at high percents in the right position when Zelda has time and I win the lottery and the planets are aligned with NinjaLink's left buttock.) Nair has gimped exactly once in recent recorded memory and perhaps another five times off record.
If we really want to talk about Zelda's options on a recovering character, we need to be thinking of what to do when they get back. Not if. When.
Kat, I know I basically attacked the whole purpose of this thread, but I'm not trying to troll, I honestly think Zelda's onstage options are much more worth discussing than her offstage ones.
