A little while ago I talked about the brilliance of The Rides to Lake Silberneherze as the middle entry of a trilogy, and now having read Retracing Our Steps, I feel like I appreciate RS even more for it being the "breather episode" between two more intense ones.
Break the Ice and Retracing Our Steps are both grim-toned, fast-paced, riveting political thrillers full of intrigue. But Rides is where the soul is. BI and OS tell us the story of the people fighting over this land and their clashing visions, but RS shows us more of why they're fighting over it. RS shows us Kjerag at relative peace through the lens of Degenbrecher, an outcast and sojourner (per her banner title) who's found her home in this frozen land.
Through Degenbrecher, who doesn't care for fame and fortune, we perceive the ordinary Kjerag people and their good hearts, how much they love her and how much she loves them, how their simple natures and their genuine ways have touched her. We see what their life is like--raising burdenbeasts, selling cheese and artisan goods, ice fishing, brewing liquor, and so on.
Through Degenbrecher, as well as Harold, who finds himself merrily at home in Kjerag and tries to forget his duties and connections to the Duke of Caster, we discover Kjerag's charm. We fully perceive Kjerag as "the pure land of faith," perceive it as "an idyllic mountain hamlet," where even their protector deity is a mischievous creature who spends half of the story pouting at her statue's face. Virtually all the major characters have at least one moment of silliness, a moment of light-heartedness to humanize them: from Gnosis getting too drunk to walk after winning his drinking contest and bickering with his friends, to Enciodes bickering childishly with Enya and being rendered speechless by Degenbrecher's teasing, to Enya and Kjarr's tussling over the statue, to Arctosz getting sloshed unknowingly with his daughter, to Kjarr pranking Bellingham by teleporting him, to Degenbrecher stone-facedly chasing him all over Kjerag with single-minded determination but tending to the commoners and tourists in the process... all of these moments show us the main cast when they're not scheming or plotting or fighting but shows us them as humans, and endears them to us. They feel not just like "leaders" and "warriors", but people, who can be silly on their off-time, intentionally or not.
It's through all of this that we learn why Degenbrecher finds Kjerag worth fighting for and laying her life on the line to protect.
And so, when OS arrives and Kjerag once again finds itself in crisis, RS is there in the background like a gentle ideal, like a vision of "what Kjerag should be like", rather than the turmoil that consumes it. By seeing Kjerag at peace, we care about it more it when it isn't.
It's here that I'd like to point out a phenomenon called "Too Bleak, Stopped Caring." In essence, moments of levity are necessary as a breather, as a respite from tragedy, lest the whole story feel a pointless, unending exercise in misery. Arknights as a game generally has a grim, bleak, grounded tone, but it still has spots of light here and there to provide hope and contrast, as well as lighter stories. Rides is Kjerag's hopeful spot. Rides feels all the brighter sandwiched between BI and OS, and OS all the more dire and sharper with the knowledge that not long ago (one in-game year, in fact), Kjerag was enjoying peace and happiness and believed themselves free from Victoria and they had overcome their greatest crisis. With RS being the charming, unforgettable Wes Anderson comedy that it is, we naturally want to return to that, and know that the characters want to, as well.
Seeing things be good for a little while makes it hit harder when things are bad. It's a fairly basic story-telling principle, but that's what Rides accomplishes, along with all the other things mentioned in my previous post like progressing the overarching plot and conflict, developing the characters, and being a good stand-alone story.
It's hard for me to choose a favorite among the three Kjerag stories, but I think Rides will always a special place in my heart just for how soulful it is.
