Whoops, I thought they were still using Sheik in every Hyrule Warriors games.
That said, why are you talking to me like that? You need to seriously cull the aggressive attitude. Oh no, I made an error. That's no reason to snap at me over nothing.
That said, Quillion, if that's the way you think is appropriate to respond to someone, and I have noticed you taking your bias in a lot of aggressive manners throughout this topic alone, I see no reason to entertain your points. There's nothing wrong with bias. There is something wrong with being aggressive about it.
Impa is highly important to the franchise. She's the most important supporting character. And no, not "anyone can play exposition". That's not correct. Those other people don't go in her spot. She's recognizable and fairly iconic because she's the actual one there. You don't get that with others. She's not the Fairy companion. Sure, she has yet to get her own game, but that's fine too. I mean, Tingle is the only one to do so other than Zelda and Link, but not even all of Tingle's games got localized, and Europe only got some instead of all too. Which is too bad.
On another note, calling Impa "just exposition" is clearly incorrect. She's actually been upgraded every since OOT into an important protector. She was only purely exposition in a tiny few games. So basically Zelda 1, 2, and the CD-i games. I forget if she's in Zelda's Adventure, but that's 4 games. That's not a lot. The Oracle games don't make her much better than that, but she is also controlled by an evil character, giving her another role in the story.
As for Pig Ganon, he's an important and distinctive form from Ganondorf. Same person, different fictional character overall with different abilities... and they barely have any of the same moves in canon. In fact, about the only thing they really can do is float around and both know how to wield weapons very well. That's literally it. They have different types of magic(as one is more based upon the abilities related to the Triforce of Power, being Ganon, while Ganondorf is a Dark Mage who gets physical quite easily. One thing that's interesting about that is that in Wind Waker, Ganondorf literally punches Link out as well as backhands him. Now, was any of this inspired by Melee making him more physical than normal? Or was he always planned to be a brawler along with a magic user? Considering he has artwork of him doing an overhead punch, and his only tech demo fight being a sword yet a physical one, it's most likely he was designed to be both physical and magic-based. This might also be why he was such an easy clone in Smash, because it wasn't remotely against his character design. He was never focused only on magic. That's Ganon, a different form. Just like you wouldn't expert Zelda to run around like a ninja either. She's at most been somewhat of an adventurer like Link, in the TV shows, non-canon CD-i games, and BOTW, while still having magical abilities. But she's no ninja. Sheik is quitttttte specific in that regard. She was taught by the OOT Impa in the ways of the Sheikah, hence the name given).
Now I'm going to speak a bit more on why Impa really makes little sense as an Echo. That was only one game she was slightly similar to Sheik. In later games, her bodyshape is not only extremely different, but she's gained tons of very different abilities. And they aren't that alike bodyshape-wise in OOT alone(but probably enough for an echo treatment). However, they'd likely use one of her later or more popular appearances, when she's literally nothing like Sheik. Sheik to put it simply is not a magic user. She's a martial artist that only had one spell "turn into Zelda", which is gone now. And technically Light Arrows if you super stretch it. Impa however is a magic user, and as she can time travel, that means she can use magic in real any form she has. Which means she already has multiple abilities that make her more than a simple ninja. That's just one small thing she can do. In some games, she's an elderly woman with a cane. In another two, she's a stout woman with muscles. In some spin-offs she's muscular, but has a much more fit figure and slightly resembles her OOT bodyshape. And then there's Skyward Sword and BOTW which even further differentiates her. Obviously I'm a fan of her Oracle design the most, as it's not just a heavily underused design, but it's a nice cross between her elderly and young forms. And she's more than capable of fighting toe to toe with tons of characters that way. Nothing prevents her from being a collaboration of her various abilities, especially since the time stuff suggests she's not a legacy character but the same Impa throughout the games. I'm not sure if this is actually the case(Hyrule Warriors would be the case too, since it's only one Impa. She's like Ganon/dorf in that regard. There is only one).