Why would Pit shoot an arrow at Zelda at a range that he would be in harms way of a detonating Din's Fire? He would have to fairly close to Zelda for that happen regardless, considering the speed of both projectiles, and honestly if he's that close he shouldn't be shooting arrows at all.
He probably will not get hit by Din's, but what I do against people who lack extremely powerful projectiles is jump and throw Din's at the ground. This forces a shield/dodge and it gives me the time I need to close in from long distance. I didn't mean up close.
The majority of the time the reflector isn't going to be very practical as arrows can be curved or shot from a SH which means they will be no threat to Pit if reflected, and either way Zelda's reflector isn't fast enough to completely stop arrows if they are being shot continuously.
Reflecting doesn't always have to result in hitting Pit. Nayru's reflective properties last, I believe, 39 frames frames, I believe. I wouldn't shield for this long because it would wear down and get me stabbed. I wouldn't spotdodge because Pit can take advantage of that. Nayru's is mainly a longer spotdodge for projectiles. She could be hit by another arrow, but the reflector comes out on Frame 4, so it's a good thing for me to use if I'm airborne.
Noone is saying Pit has more killing potential or anything because of Zelda's weight, obviously that wouldn't be true, but Zelda is however still relatively light and Pit has decent ko potential considering how fast he racks up damage so koing her directly shouldn't be some incredibly difficult task.
That was me being preemptive; many people think that their characters have a greater killing power than Zelda does because she's light.
Zelda has more range over Pit yes, but from the way you're posting, you're making it sound like if Pit is going to be running in blindingly approachig you everytime but the simple truth is that he won't be. Zelda is extremely good as a defensive character but Pit takes her out of that comfort zone by making her approach him.
Zelda can't play against Pit the way she would play against most other characters and to deviate from her normal defensive playstyle to a more aggressive one to fight against a character that aims to capatalize on other characters approaching him is not going to be a favourable position for her to be in.
This is where my qualm with Pit lies. There's a certain distance where Zelda is forced to approach... and then there's the distance where neither character can hit each other with anything but their projectiles. I do not believe Pit is forcing an approach here. He can't effectively wall her out because his multi-hit moves aren't really walling her, nor are his more powerful moves (Fsmash, bair). Playing defensively helps him, but I don't believe that Pit's defensive game at that distance is significantly threatening to Zelda unless she's in KO range.
There are, in my opinion, three parts of approaching - long-distance approaching, close quarters approaching, and offensicely approaching. Excuse my jargon, but I don't know anything else to call those.
Long-distance - Pit has arrows and will probably force Zelda to close in here.
Close quarters - This is where a lot of people underestimate Zelda, in my opinion. Her poorest area of approach is when she's trying to use an attack/grab when you're playing defensively. However, when both characters can't hit each other, I do not see why Pit is forcing Zelda to do anything.
He's too close to use his arrows safely. They can be reflected right back to him, Din's can trade here, and if it's really poorly spaced, Zelda can punish with an A attack. His Side B might catch her off guard, but if I'm not mistaken, attacking the spinning part will still harm him. If this is false, then I guess this is a bit safer than I thought (since dair is not lethal on Pit when he's grounded). His attacks aren't reaching and he doesn't move that quickly in the air. I don't see why Zelda should be making an approach significantly more than Pit here.
Offensive approaching - Here's Zelda's poor area. Approaching with fair/bair isn't safe. Extremely high risk, high reward. She won't be seeing that reward too often, though. Shielded, she's ridiculously vulnerable to counterattacks. Nair is her best approaching aerial here. Decent, but not really dangerous. She can also try empty shorthops or buffering to use her ground moves, but she's not in her best position when she's on the offense like this.
However, she can also approach on the ground. Jab has very low cooldown and has a pretty much guranteed dash attack follow-up if you get hit by it. Ftilt has AMAZING range and only trades with Pit's dair - everything else gets beaten out. Fsmash, if shielded, is safe. Dtilt is pretty safe as well, but fast reaction can punish it... but I don't know how fast Pit's moves are. Anything else isn't really used for approaching.
Pit has to predict what Zelda is going to do for the most part. Fsmash is the only ground move that can be reliably reacted to by normal people. Ftilt and her grab can also be reacted to, but you have to be quick. Everything else is prediction based. He's really not all that safe from her if she can reach him because she can outrange or beat out his aerials, even if she's playing smart with them. If she must be in the air against him, she's still outranging him. Lightning kicks will trade with or beat Pit's aerials, sadly.
All in all, her approach game isn't better against Pit, naturally, but I can't see what Pit does to her that makes approaching even harder for her. Pit's Fmshas is very good against her. In fact, the best way to deal with Zelda is to use moves that last a while or are multi-hit, but Zelda can deal with his aerials.
Forcing predicted responses is something thats applicable with every character and as you said it based more so on the players than the characters but if you want to go that route, what tools does Zelda have that make her better at this in this matchup than Pit simply firing arrows at her to force some responses.
There is nothing. This was me being preemptive again, for people who think they'll never get hit by her aerials. Not applicable to this.
I still disagree. I believe CPs like LM will help sway the matchup more so in Zelda's favor because of the amount of stuff she gaings there but thats what CPs are supposed to do right? And aside from LM I don't think she really has much other really advantageous counterpicks
I do not know Pit's good stages.
Halberd
Green Greens
Yoshi's Island (Pipes)
Corneria
Castle Siege
