because impa has never had fair skin
definitely not in OoT
certainly not in the oracle games
absolutely not in every game she's appeared in that wasn't Skyward Sword
Actually no, in ocarina of time she's tan. A bit whiter than skyward sword impa but definitely darker skinned than all the hylians there. There's a reason for that- she's not hylian, she's a shiekah.
And that's actually really important because there seem to be two types of impas:
Shiekah impa: Dark skinned warriors that look 25-30 years old.
Hylian impa: Fat White grandmas that are sometimes a mystic but really don't do much.
The only thing they really share is a name and a relationship with princess zelda- one as a guard and one as a simple caretaker.
But the important thing here is that all the fighting impas are shiekahs and all the not fighting impas are hylian. And shiekahs are at least tan.
So yeah, hyrule warriors impa is either the first non-tan shiekah or the first hylian impa that isn't a useless grandma. Or she's half-shiekah maybe? That's probably never going to be explained.
Still a pretty decent design but I agree with denizen that I could do without the white wash at the very least for consistency's sake.
it's a spinoff, man
creative license
I'm still kind of clueless as to why they couldn't make her a magic shadow ninja like every other fighting impa.
I mean it's not like they had to make up a fighting style for her, unless Shiek is in the game and they didn't want impa to play the same as her the whole comically large sword and water magic thing is just a weird and stupid decision. I understand throwing off continuity if it's necessary but how is it 100% necessary for you to fuck with impa's fighting style when she already had a perfectly good one?