Breath of the Wild takes place in a barren version of Hyrule, a world left mostly in ruin from a war 100 years ago. This title does an amazing job of worldbuilding by leaving these remnants of a forgotten world, leaving the player to ponder as to what the old, thriving world used to be like. In this piece I want to look at one location that, while laid waste with nearly nothing left, still holds a lot of significance. That location being the small Ranch Ruins.
The Ranch Ruins can be found in Central Hyrule, just south east of Castle Town. It can be easy to miss, as there is not much left here among the ruins aside from some old buildings and worn fences. The most central piece to the Ranch Ruins, though, is a beaten track that goes around what is left of the fence. Indiscernible broken wood structures in the center act as some good makeshift hurdles for someone who may be horse riding. With so little remnants left, it’s difficult to tell exactly what all was here. As with many of the ruined sights in Breath of the Wild, we are left only to wonder what these locations, like the Ranch Ruins, might have been like before the destruction of war took them.
Being left only to ponder, one theory has been talked about quite often about what these Ranch Ruins may have been (You probably know where this is going). A common theory is that the Ranch Ruins are actually the remnants of none other than iconic Lon Lon Ranch, an important location in Ocarina of Time. A ranch famous for it’s Lon Lon Milk, but for Link, this serves as the first time he meets Epona, a recurring horse who aids the reincarnating hero throughout multiple adventures. Comparing the two locations, even with what little is left of the Ranch Ruins, there are definitely some similarities to draw between the two. The most obvious comparison we can find is the horse track, which looks nearly one-to-one to the track from Ocarina of Time. Lon Lon Ranch also had a tall, rectangular building (what I assume is some sort of medieval-esque silo) that sits diagonal from the entrance to the ramp. Sure enough, we find a broken-down brick building in a similar location in the Ranch Ruins. The last significant similarity these two share, that I think solidifies this theory, is the over-hanging signs at the entrance of the ranch with another at the entrance to the field. There are two worn signs in Ranch Ruins that line up perfectly with where the two signs were in Ocarina of Time.
Assuming the Ranch Ruins are indeed the remains of Lon Lon Ranch, this is a place that holds so much significance not only for the player, but for Link himself. This is where the reincarnating hero, and players, first met and aided Epona. Now with this place laid to waste, all that remains to us is a memory. Unfortunately for Link, he does not even have the luxury of memory. The Hero of the Wild is only left to wonder what possibly could have been here. The calamitous war took these places and left nothing. Only empty husks, with no one left to remember what it used to be. Link, with no memories and no one left to remember, it’s almost as if these places do not exist at all. The emblematic Lon Lon Ranch now means nothing, not even to the reincarnated hero.
