Twilight Princess is notorious for its dark and serious style, but the game isn’t afraid to be goofy once in a while, too. Something that makes this game one of my favorites in the Zelda series is how it mixes bizarre elements into otherwise grim scenarios, creating a horrifyingly comical tone. This is especially true when it comes to its boss fights. Fighting an undead behemoth by riding a spinning-top-lookalike Beyblade and witnessing Zant spiral into insanity in real time were some particularly memorable moments for me. Another moment is fighting the Deku Toad, the Lakebed Temple’s mini boss, which has stuck itself in my brain due to its disgusting sliminess and its tastefully gross battle music.
At first, when entering the room, it seems to be empty, and the song reflects this with a few simple, ominous opening notes. Link looks up and sees the Deku Toad hanging from the ceiling, and it’s as if the whole orchestra spends the next ten seconds utterly baffled by the grotesque creature as it drops down with a squelch and spawns its baby Toados. The meat of the track is driven by a snazzy bari sax riff and pounding timpani to remind you how massive this creature is. The melody starts with whiny brass chords separated by erratic accordion licks. A violin takes over to provide some direction, and the brass and accordion come back to build up the tension. We’re led into a softer section with spooky high strings paired with a repeatedly rising cello melody. The instrumentation slowly crescendos into what is undoubtedly my favorite section (starting at 1:09). The bari sax and timpani return to their trudging beat, and the melody scrambles up chromatic scales and flops back down onto dissonant tritones. It’s hard to imagine a more pleasantly disgusting piece of music, especially one that’s this groovy.
You can tell solely by the track’s instrumentation that the composers wanted to create the most gnarly boss theme possible. The saxophone and strings blend like water and oil (in this context, that’s a compliment), and the accordion is just along for the wacky ride. Each instrument tells you something completely different about the Deku Toad, and that provides a level of musical chaos that’s hard to pull off without sacrificing catchiness. Twilight Princess has dozens of iconic songs, but strangely enough, the Deku Toad theme is the one that perfectly represents the whimsical terror that makes the game so special to me.
