DAY 834!!! GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 834!!!!

this was gonna be a sideblog for selfship shit but it ended up turning into a general hong lu insanity sideblog so umm haii

[canto8waitlist]

thinking about that one post that said hong lu fans are the most opinionated people ever and I'm thinking it's true and why redology is a field of study to begin with

on that note my main prediction is that I do not fucking trust granny jia

[canto8waitlist]

ME WHEN I WAS FUCKING RIGHT BTW

[aroace-polyshow]

truly nothing funnier than having an archive of when you first started getting into a media that has since consumed your entire life

[aroace-polyshow]

you see an old post of yours thats dated like a month after you got introduced to Media and it says like “huh im kinda liking Blorbo Bingus? but he’s not really my favorite. he seems sillyyy though he’s neat i’m sure he’s nice :)” and you just

[irrevocablecondition]

i loveeee writing "he should". he should reach out. he should take his hand. he should say something. he should reassure him. he should walk away. he should let it go.

never does btw. none of it, but he really should.

[azoosepted]

they pourd water o.n him

[thetempestechoes]

There's something to be said about the fact that Hong Lu almost always goes along with whatever is asked of him, and yet the one time he explicitly expresses his want to not partake in the Heirarch Evaluation, the company he works for overrules him.

[jailgarden]

That really got to me. Really, the ONE time he expresses on multiple occasions on what he actually wants (or doesn’t want in this case) and this happens.

I have to wonder if he thought this would happen though. Like I initially thought he might’ve assumed this would happen, but I feel like if he knew he wouldn’t have bother to express that he doesn’t want it.

[nekoekko-art]

The idiots and the consequences of their own actions (only 2 got it tho)

[vantabone]

this needs to happen i dont care

[uruwashi-no-nightingale]

time is so fake i was thinking about how canto 7 literally just came out but it turns out that canto 7 was in october and its now march???? wtf

anyway. 8 hong lu memes for canto 8. hong lu i love you and i'm emotionally invested in every single theory i've read and i hope you get one million times worse and explode

[telepoli]

Running away from home in a tracksuit what an icon

[texasthoughtsaboutnothing]

I want Hong Lu to come out of Canto 8 a better person (someone who has recognized his own agency and asserts it).

I want Hong Lu to come out of Canto 8 a worse person (someone who asserts their agency in cruel and selfish ways as overcompensation).

Do you see the vision?

[lu-is-not-ok]

Hong Lu is beginning to Crack

The most recent Intervallo, LCB Regular Check-up, gave a lot to chew on for a lot of us. From lore drops for the Sin Analysts of us, to an important moment for Don Quixote, to subtle hints of something brewing under the surface for Gregor.

There was, also, a lot of Hong Lu foreshadowing, even though he barely had over ten lines in the entire Intervallo. As much as I'd love to go off and overanalyze every single line he's had, I'd rather focus on one main point that this Intervallo cemented.

That being Hong Lu's repressed anger.

Of course, this means we have to talk about this moment here. Upon Hohenheim explaining how Peccatula Irae connect to the concept of Wrath, the following exchange takes place:

Now, before this explanation takes place, we have an extended moment where Hohenheim focuses on the Sinners' lack of agency in their situation. They're effectively prisoners, without any control over their situations, unable to say no or even act as individuals.

I'm pointing this out, because when Hong Lu interprets Wrath as rage and compares it to Sinclair's behavior, he specifically calls out a similar lack of control. Sinclair's Wrath presents itself through an extreme sort of anger that makes him completely lose any control over himself, a stark contrast to how controlled and downright repressed Hong Lu is in most of his behavior, as pointed out by Sinclair.

I want to linger a bit on the answer Hong Lu gives Sinclair here, because I feel there are layers to this line. What Hong Lu is saying here is that he very much has things to burn. There's enough fuel to sustain a fire were he to indulge in it. But he never actually sees a reason to start that fire, to let any spark start it. Because he believes it to be meaningless.

In less poetic words, I believe what Hong Lu is saying here is that he has plenty of reasons to be angry, and perhaps even straight up has a lot of anger that he's actively repressing. However, because he realized that acting out won't actually change anything, he no longer sees any reason to indulge in that anger. Whether the fire burns everything down or not, it won't change anything, so why even bother? Why lose control when it won't even do anything meaningful?

However.

If that's all I would have wanted to talk about, I wouldn't have made a wholeass post about it.

The actual reason I'm talking about this is because I believe we have already seen Hong Lu begin to snap at others. And not only that, but I believe we're already seeing a pattern as to what exactly causes Hong Lu to start to slip in his emotional repression.

What do I mean by Hong Lu snapping at others?

Well, generally Hong Lu is shown to be very good at directing conversations without being too disruptive. He waits his turn before shifting subjects to what he wants everyone to focus on, or at least doesn't directly interrupt anyone, waiting for a lull or an opportunity to jump in rather than asserting himself by directly stomping over someone else's words. Even when he redirects Meursault in Hell's Chicken, he doesn't directly interrupt him, instead waiting for a pause before making his move.

Or at least, that was how he always did it until recently.

See, starting with Canto 7, Hong Lu has begun to have moments where he goes against his usual pattern of behavior. He directly interrupted others.

Remember how the focus of what Hong Lu understands as Sinclair's rage is that he screamed so fiercely he lost control of his body? I believe Hong Lu's interruptions are of a similar nature. A similar loss of control due to his anger escaping through the cracks, causing him to be unable to wait his turn and to say his piece before the other person can finish.

I believe there are, as of now, two notable occurances of him snapping like that.

First is in Canto 7, when Gregor begins to muse over what would happen if Hong Lu were to witness the death of a dear family member.

Then there's the second one, that we only just recieved in the most recent Intervallo - Sinclair showing hesitation to kill Peccatula for the test, due to the fact these ones aren't actually posing danger to anyone, which causes Hong Lu to snap and interrupt him with a Very Loaded Question (one that I am extremely curious as to how it would be voiced btw).

We're already starting to see a pattern forming around what exactly makes Hong Lu actually begin to crack.

Both of these scenes notably include Hong Lu getting in some way emotional over death and its meaning.

With Gregor, it's the implied death of someone close to him, causing Hong Lu to snap back with a very straightforward answer as to what his reaction to such an event would be, denying that such a death would have any further effect on him.

With Sinclair, it's the implication that killing for the sake of survival is different to killing just because, causing Hong Lu to snap with a loaded question that carries the idea that he himself considers both kinds of death equally as devoid of meaning.

For a reason we don't know yet, the suggestion that death could be anything other than completely meaningless is enough for Hong Lu's repressed anger to start leaking through.

And, that made me think. Because of one voiceline.

There is, in fact, a single voiceline in Limbus Company, where Hong Lu's voice contains clear and unrestrained anger.

Cavernous Wailing corroded voiceline.

The visual design of which shows Hong Lu with mismatched limbs, only half of which are corroded; an empty eye socket on his shoulder, the eye from which being transplanted somewhere else; and a moving sprite that shows him covering his face with his hands.

And it made me think.

The death of a loved one, one which happened to save another life. One which Hong Lu considers to be so utterly meaningless that being reminded of it is the only thing able to cause him to lose control over his emotions and let his anger leak through.

There's certainly someone that Hong Lu continues to never mention, isn't there?

Anger that's as meaningless as their death, is it now?

Hong Lu. Just how much do you blame yourself for Daiyu's 'death'? And just how much anger do you hold over your family for allowing this to happen?

[lollipot2]

One month left! Enjoy it while you can chinese boy.

[silthorns]

hong lu plushie doodle 🔮

[teavich]

the new plushies are so cute...

[nekoekko-art]

the child

the bunny child with pinchable cheeks

[biolumilous]

hong lu skill frame posting because on close inspection some are actually either so cute or the coolest thing ever. how did they do this

[calitsnow]

[A journey to seek the meaning to live...]

(Click for better quality)