I’m thinking about design ideas for Wizzrobes, so I looked at some official and concept art for Wizzrobes across the series.
There is an ongoing ‘mask’ or ‘beak’ motif in a lot of the designs. the following are two different versions of a Wizzrobe from zelda1. One with a nose and the other with a beak.
The nose version seems to be the one adopted for Breath of the Wild. On the other hand, the beak reminds me of Wind Waker’s Wizzrobes
Zelda 2 has an artwork of a wizzrobe with a mask
(The lines under the mask might just be shadow hatching, but if they were teeth that would be pretty epic)
Breath of the wild’s concept art shows that they did explore these different design choices for wizzrobes. ‘beak-like’, mask, classic all shadowed face (looks like a poe?), and the final design with the amazing spooky grin.
I’ve got to say the purple guy looks cool. but a bit too humanoid to be a monster? It looks like it could be a character that thinks and speaks. imagine killing that. A Link to the Past also has human-looking wizzrobes. They look more like evil wizards than monsters. (In that case... are wizzrobes EVEN monsters? What if they are really just people?)
In that case, maybe we can make wizzrobes actual characters in the comic... hmmm.
Since Ganon is being revived through a sacrifice, someone intelligent and proficient in magic will probably be taking care of that, so it is no other than Ganon’s trusty wizzrobes who will undertake the mission. (We know not ALL monsters in classic loz are animalistic creatures. Moblins speak in zelda1 (and exchange money with Link lol)
And then are are Zoras, who act like monsters, but we know they are intelligent creatures with a whole society of their own. (who knows how badly their situation has gotten by zelda1/2, but at least during the time of LTTP there was still a functioning Zora society. There is the Zora King, and later Queen Oren in ALBW). Zoras have become extremely hostile to Hylians (Well, they always were. But at this point they are willing to kill). there might still be a Zora Kingdom existing without the knowledge of Hylians at this point in the timeline.
Any and all enemies in the palaces are 100% not living creatures, because they were all set up by the past King as a test for the triforce of courage. They may as well all be phantom enemies summoned by magic. They’ve been waiting in those palaces for hundreds of years. But overworld enemies are very real and very alive, so it’s interesting to explore how many of them can be treated as ‘wild animals’ of Hyrule, or as creatures that think, speak, and communicate.
Wizzrobes might be able to pass that test and be considered intelligent creatures, and that alone can influence the final design.
