Zelda Races: Deku Scrubs

Deku Scrubs are one of the more interesting races in Zelda canon. Often, they’re portrayed as enemies, and they’re effective ones. They’re a good modification of the Octorock for a 3D world, and it’s unfortunate that they’ve only been prominently featured in a few of the games. But even from their first appearance, there were pockets of Deku civilization that seemed to break from the norm.

The enterprising Business Scrubs are memorable for offering Link items in the wild. Like regular Deku, you had to fight them. It wasn’t a particularly hard task, and once you did, you would have access to either useful or irrelevant items. Since items were abundant in Ocarina of Time, I rarely found them very helpful, but the idea of the business scrub was fantastic.

The Deku became far more fleshed-out in Majora’s Mask. Not only did they have their own civilization, but it seemed more politically advanced than most other locations in Termina. It had its own unique culture, providing a fantastic introduction to the game.

The Deku are an anomaly in Majora’s Mask. They’re a race with a centralized political structure, but if the Business Scrubs count as Deku Scrubs of a sort, it’s also clear that some of them are willing to break away from that. Not many races have standout characters outside their centralized civilization, if such a civilization exists; the Majora’s Mask business scrubs provided a fun sidequest, though, and it’s always a joy to help them out.

Not to mention, playing as Deku Link was just plain fun, and brought them to an even more prominent position! Here’s hoping we can see more of them in the future, as Skyward Sword’s Octorocks, though close, just weren’t quite the same.

How do you feel about Deku Scrubs? Do you think they’re a particularly interesting race? Should they be brought back?