Wait, I forgot, did we ever do Daisy?
Come to think of it, I don't think we ever did Dank Samus either.
Eh, save them for Ultimate.
Daisy and Dark don't really have prior renders to compare. As I mentioned in the OP, characters introduced in Ultimate won't really be compared as they have no previous renders to compare to.
But it's time to move on to the next comparison!
She's the wielder of Wisdom, descendant of the incarnate Goddess Hylia, and the princess of destiny:
#17 Zelda
Melee:
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It's kind of funny how, even though Sheik was added before Zelda, you must use Zelda to access Sheik. Here we have the solemn Zelda, her arm grabbing her other arm as she gives us a profile shot. Fun fact, she actually briefly performed this pose in Ocarina while speaking to Link. The interesting about her silhouette is that it's still visually distinct from Peach's silhouette with the both of them being the only characters with dresses. Visually, it's a neat callback, and describes a lot about Zelda's personality. Other than that it isn't super interesting.
7/10
Brawl:
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I like this pose much more than her Melee one. It's just more interesting from a visual standpoint. It doesn't say much on a characteristic standpoint, but it's nicer to look at. It's like they took the opposite approach to this render than her Melee render. Looking at the camera also doesn't hurt the pose. We wanna see them big, pretty eyes.
8/10
Wii U/3DS:
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HOLY CRAP SHE'S GORGEOUS—I mean, uhh, wow, she's so beautiful. Quality of the model aside, I actually really like the simplicity of the pose itself with Zelda holding only a single arm out. It has that "I'm magical" sort of touch to it, all the while she wears a rather serious expression. She's not here to mess around. This is actually among my favorites of the Wii U/3DS renders. Very regal, very elegant.
9.7/10
Ultimate:
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All of us were looking forward to a Breath of the Wild-styled Zelda; how glad I am that we were wrong and got this cutie-pie instead. Regardless, we are to judge the pose and not the design or quality of the model. There's so much happening in this render: capes, tassels, sleeves, hair, dress, that weird pink thing that drapes over her dress, there's a lot of wind flowing in this image. Gotta say, with all the additional fluff added by way of flowing garments, it's actually just a tad difficult judging where her body is. In fact, the flowing garments and hair are actually doing almost all of the work in this render. She's not doing any complicated posing at all. It is visually interesting, though it's because of the flair from the clothes and hair, not that it subtracts from the overall render.
9.7/10
From Greatest to least:
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And that was Hyrule's Wise Princess!
Which render was your favorite? Going to be honest, I find Zelda in Ultimate to have a better in-game model than her actual render. Her face in game is MUCH CUTER than her render depicts:
Ermahgerd...