YMMV / The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016)

• Awesome Art: As is usually the case with Akira Himekawa's Zelda adaptations, the manga is filled with incredibly detailed artwork that matches the story's dark tone perfectly.
• Complete Monster:
  • Ganondorf is a "Demon King" and former thief who was banished to the Twilight Realm after his attempted bloody conquest of Hyrule was prematurely halted by Zelda's time-travelling. Not to be deterred from his goals, Ganondorf seduced the ambitious Zant to become his emissary, and used Zant to stage a murderous coup against the Twilight Realm royalty, murdering the elders and unleashing hordes of beasts onto the land. Ganondorf schemes to merge Hyrule and the Twilight Realm into one world that he can plunge into an eternal nightmare of death and decay, and when Link tries to stop him, Ganondorf sadistically uses Zelda as a puppet and tries to kill Link in a torturous way. Even when beaten and offered peace by Link, Ganondorf chooses to kill himself out of spite, knowing he will reincarnate and continue to plague Hyrule for ages to come.
  • Zant is presented in the manga as a power-hungry, lecherous creep who is driven by a lust for Midna. Despite having served as the seemingly-loyal advisor to the Twilight Realm's king, during which time he raised Midna from youth, Zant developed a perverse desire to marry Midna and become ruler of the land. When he was rejected by Midna, Zant turned to Ganondorf, using the Demon King's powers to begin transforming swathes of people into hideous monsters in agonizing enslavement. Zant would use these beasts to massacre entire towns across the Twilight Realm while staging an invasion of Hyrule, trying to turn all life into his obedient, mutated slaves. When Midna teams with Link to stop him, Zant tries to kill them both while mocking them over the fates of their loved ones. Though revealing a deep self-hatred and proclaiming a desire to just protect the Realm, Zant puts his own desire for power above all else, and is revealed as nothing but a selfish, petty monster.
• Growing the Beard: While Akira Himekawa's previous Zelda manga were well loved by fans, this is regarded by fans to be their best work for the series and one of, if not the best Zelda-based manga due to its many additions to the plot, the gorgeous artwork, and the extensive amounts of Character Development for several characters who were underdeveloped in the game. It's not uncommon for fans to regard the manga as being superior to the original game's plot.
• Improved Second Attempt: Thanks to the Adaptation Expansion and having the advantage of hindsight (since it was released a near-decade after the game), the manga improves upon the game's story in several ways.
  • The Resistance — which was criticized by fans of the game for being underutilized — receives noticeably more screentime and prominence in the manga. Examples include Ashei helping Link in the Snowpeak Ruins and Shad accompanying Link to the City in the Sky (instead of the two staying behind like in the original game).
  • Ilia's infamous Never Live It Down moment from the beginning of the game, where she gets mad at Link due to thinking he pushed Epona too hard, is absent from the manga.
  • While Zant is still Hijacked by Ganon, Himekawa establishes Ganondorf early on by showing his banishment in the second volume rather than at the story's midpoint, and he generally receives more screentime.

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