Any thoughts on the shadow beasts at the beginning of the game? The ones that confront Zelda with Zant? They have unique masks and I was always so intrigued by that... another totally unrelated topic, but do you have any hcs on the monkeys in the Forest Temple as well? There's some theories that they're the child timeline's evolved Kokiri :O Those are just two aspects that are so unique to TP to me but so glossed over
I’d never actually given any thought to the unique shadow beasts that appear alongside Zant, but this ask did make me inspect shadow beasts as a whole more closely, and I came upon something I hadn’t noticed before:
This is a common shadow beast, the kind we fight throughout the game, and this...
...is one of Midna’s runes - specifically, the one on her upper right thigh. Look at the “mask” of the shadow beast; there’s a significant amount of resemblance here, from the two pointed “horns” to the circular center, to the angular pieces hanging down below. From a game development perspective, this is likely just thematic design at its best; but from an in-universe perspective? Perhaps Zant is mocking Midna by turning her people into these hideous monster, then having them resemble as aspect unique to herself. Or maybe - credit to my friend Ophelia for this one - the rune is a symbol of royalty, and Zant making the shadow beasts in its image is yet another way for him to make his claim to the throne. The possibilities are endless, really, but it’s certainly something to think about!
Of course, none of this answers your question at all re: the unique shadow beasts, and though I don’t have much of an answer, their designs are unique in their own way:
The intertwining “snake" design on their masks is reminiscent of the headpiece that Midna wears while in her true form, and the two upward slabs of stone somewhat loosely resembled the “horns” of the Fused Shadow. Perhaps in life, they were Twili of great importance; or perhaps they chose to willingly follow Zant into the world of light, and found significance through those means. Unfortunately, any serious speculation would be pure headcanon rather than theory, as there is so little to go on - but this was fun to think about regardless!
As for the monkeys, I just think they’re monkeys! I have separate headcanons for what happened to the Kokiri in Twilight Princess, which I go over briefly in this post. Thanks for the ask!