I'm not making a judgement on Zelda. It's true, there wasn't a whole lot to work with in Melee, the same is true for Ganondorf though. And what they did give Zelda was taken from somewhere else and altered significantly. Does it make sense? Yes. Is it representative of how she actually fights in her own series? Well back then, no not really, because she never really fought (save that one beam she used to subdue Ganon which would be great as a rip off of Robin's Thoron should they implement custom specials again), and now, 20 years later, no, not at all. Aside from the rapier, she has used or has been associated with Light Arrows in virtually every appearance since handing them to Link in Ocarina of Time. She takes them from Link and uses them in the final battle in The Wind Waker, helps the Links create a psudeo light arrow by providing the light energy for them to shoot through in Four Swords Adventures, creates and uses them herself in Twilight Princess, borrows them from Link for the final battle again in Spirit Tracks and then creates and gives them to Link again during the final battles of A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild. The only significant Zelda appearance that doesn't have some association with Light Arrows, either via creating or using them, is the Minish Cap. And she did use to have them in Smash in the form of her final smash, so removing it when it's such a significant part of how she fights in her own series is curious to say the least. Though just in general as a Smash player I do find her new Final Smash to be better as it has less necessary set up and auto kills, so I'm not crying to see the Light Arrows return. I'd prefer if they did they manage to work them into her regular moveset some how, maybe in her throws or something (or alternate specials, I know I harp on about the idea, but if they went full haul on custom specials again with Palutena levels of variety then it would solve so many of these representation issues).
Dead Man's Volley I might conceed are as important to Ganondorf as Light Arrows are to Zelda, though in truth I think it is less important. It's only a large part of Ganondorf's fighting style in Ocarina of Time. It doesn't appear in any form in The Wind Waker under any of his battles and in Twilight Princess he only uses it one phase of the battle when he's possessing Zelda. When he directly fights Link in his Ganondorf form it's all swords and pressing kicks with no magic at all. If we expand Ganondorf's overall character to include his appearances as Ganon then we have a few more instances, though not as many as you might think. He shoots projectiles in the first game, though Link doesn't reflect them back Dead Man's Volley style. In A Link to the Past Agahnim is the one to use Dead Man's Volley, so yeah, definite connection and part of a fighting style there for Ganondorf, though it is the alter ego of his alter ego. Ganon as Ganon doesn't use it Ocarina of Time, it's all sword swipes. It's not a part of his boss fight in the Oracle games either. In Four Swords Adventures it's kind of there in that Link can hit back projectiles while defending Zelda in the final phase of the battle, but Ganon doesn't shoot them back at Link, so it's not really part of the classic style. Yuga-Ganon uses them in A Link Between Worlds, so again some tangential association there. And in his most recent appearance in Breath of the Wild he doesn't have anything close to it, unless you count the ability to parry projectiles which Link can do to any enemy in the game with his shield. Sp you see, Ganon never actually uses Dead Man's Volley, and Ganondorf only ever uses it once. It's definitely present, but it's in a tangential way with related characters like Agahnim, Yuga and, somewhat amusingly, Zelda. Phantom Ganon is by far the most iconic user of it having it in every one of his appearance. So again, it's present, but also again tangentially. Now of course characters have received moves they have tangential relation to before (see again Zelda and her specials), so there's absolutely no reason Ganondorf can't get Dead Man's Volley (and to be fair it being used in the msin part of his battle in one of his three appearances in the Zelda series is significant), but I also think upon analyzing the character it's clear that while the association is there, it isn't as strong as many people would assume. What's more, it is a rather generic gimmick for a Zelda boss battle, having been used with several other enemies throughout the series. Even the name we give to it, the Dead Man's Volley, comes not from Ganondorf, but from the mid game bosses the Cubus Sisters in Phantom Hourglass.
I won't bregrudge anyone for wanting to see Ganondorf get a projectile in Smash Bros, but I'd prefer it be for the reason that it fits into his moveset well, rather than thinking he absolutely needs it to be Ganondorf. Because I think on objective analysis it is not integral to his depiction. How Ganon and Ganondorf fight has always been somewhat varied in the Zelda series to keep things fresh. It's a thing, and it is there, but it's never been all that vital an aspect of the character. It is an element of his character, but not a major one, and many characters in Smash have minor or major aspects of their character missing in depiction. That's why this whole thread exists after all.
And yeah, Zelda had a rapier in Twlight Princess (and no it wasn't just a Ganon Puppet Zelda thing as she had it in a cutscene too).
= add running shoes during running animation to make them go faster and run up walls.
