The Great Calamity left the Kingdom of Hyrule in ruins. Settlements were few and far between and the residents of the land found themselves struggling to eke out a life from the broken bricks and scorched soil that was left. Despite the hardship, the citizens of Hyrule kept going. They kept growing their pumpkins, dying people’s clothes, guarding their village, and protecting their families.
While none of us have watched our towns and villages be decimated by a Guardian’s laser, all of us have had things happen that have an equally disastrous impact on our lives. Losing a loved one, being fired from a job, combating mental health issues, and struggling with physical illness are just a few of the things that can leave us feeling like our lives are in ruins. Through the use of a steady beat and a looping melody, Jonas Munk Lindbo’s lo-fi remix, titled “Life in Ruins,” reminds us that just like the people of Hyrule, we can keep going even when life gets tough.
The song begins with a sound similar to a record player or tape recorder starting as some familiar piano notes that open a new day in Breath of the Wild play, but the familiar is soon turned into something new by the introduction of a looping rhythm of drum beats. The steadiness of the drums reminds me of the consistent march of time. While the feeling that time goes on can sometimes cause people to feel overwhelmed, it can also ease our pain when we realize that even the darkest struggle we face, whether in Hyrule or on Earth, is still subject to time’s flow and will eventually end.
The looping of the melody also provides a great sense of peace. The notes become familiar to us as they repeat. That familiarity calms our nerves and acts as audio comfort food for our soul. Just as the humble farmers of Hyrule resist Calamity Ganon and his minions’ razing of their lives through the simple, repetitive task of waking up, working the land, and doing it again the next day, every day we wake up, get dressed, and go out and do our best, combating the forces that threaten to devastate our lives.
“Life in Ruins” ends as it began, with the sound of a record player or tape recorder stopping and taking us back to where the song began. Just as with the steady drumming and the looping melody, the fact that the song brings us full circle, reminds us that there’s courage in the repetition of insisting on living your life even when you feel like you just took a laser blast to the heart.
