#7.5b intervallo

[lu-is-not-ok]

'If asked about a specific thing' you say? Well, if possible could you tell your thoughts about 7.5-22, Witnessing? Or to be even more specific - the conversation between a (very much trying) Dante and Hong Lu?

I also must concur on the needing him dead bit. Gonna send him to be chased by an animal of some sort.

Oh boy do I have a lot of yapping to do about that particular scene.

Spoiler warning and all that.

Let me start with this. This exchange includes possibly the most blatant lies Hong Lu has ever said.

If you've read the Intervallo with any sort of understanding of what's going on, this should not shock you. Deception is a major thematic thread here, to the point that Outis, Miss Obvious Liar herself, was the other major focus Sinner outside of Hong Lu.

I'd say that about half of the things Hong Lu says during this conversation are just that, extremely blatant fucking lies, with the other half either being half truths or the final statement, which I'll leave for the end of this post.

So, let's see what shit Hong Lu is saying here. In order he says them. (Thank you to @mulberriesandtea for transcribing the scene onto cogitopedia already so I can use that for screenshots instead of going into the game itself for that.)

This, I believe, is a half-truth. And by that I mean it's a blatant fucking lie that might seem technically true only to Hong Lu himself.

I'll be blunt. I call bullshit on this. I refuse to believe Hong Lu genuinely was not promised something in return of him joining Limbus Company.

The main reason I have for that is the nature of the Golden Boughs. From what we've learned about them all the way up until current story events, Golden Boughs are entities that feed on the Desires of people to truly awaken their powers. It's clear that Limbus Company's own goals rely heavily on those awakened powers of the Boughs.

With that in mind, there is no way in hell Limbus Company would ever hire a Sinner with no powerful wish or desire, as that would be contrary to the point of the Department in the first place.

That being said, I call this part of the conversation a "half-truth" for a reason. Because while in reality Limbus Company might have very much offered to fulfill a desire of Hong Lu's, there is a very real possibility he considers the fulfillment of it truly impossible.

Hong Lu as a character is extremely fatalistic, with all signs pointing to him believing that no matter what he does, his fate will remain unchanged. As such, it's very likely that because of this fatalism, he believes there is no way for Limbus Company to actually fulfill his wish, as to be able to do that would potentially mean subverting fate itself. Thus, to him, it's as if he never wished for anything at all.

This one might just be the biggest and most blatant lie Hong Lu has ever told.

I've already talked about how extremely emotionally repressed Hong Lu is at lengths, so I'll just summarize it thusly.

Hong Lu is the only Sinner who realized the core of what Yi Sang's troubles are. He is the only Sinner to consistently reach out and check up on Yi Sang, always specifically doing so when Yi Sang is locking up his thoughts and feelings rather than verbalizing them. It is clear that, despite their differences, Hong Lu deeply relates to Yi Sang and understands him on a level nobody else appears to.

Do you see what I'm talking about?

Hong Lu is the only Sinner at all to understand that hiding one's true feelings is what Yi Sang's issue actually is.

My brother in Christ is saying he's seen Yi Sang at the devil's sacrament when we should all be asking what the fuck He himself was doing at the devil's sacrament.

This one I would say is another blatant lie, though perhaps not as blatant as the one that directly precedes it.

Again, I'll be blunt. Every time Hong Lu has used the 'new experiences' excuse was just a straight up lie, with one of the few instances of a downright Confirmed lie coming from one of such excuses.

To go a little bit deeper, Hong Lu seems to use this lie in one particular kind of situation - when discussing the reasons he left the Jia household. He mentions it in his K Corp ID, where the NPC he's talking to outwardly doubts it due to it not making sense with his current situation, and he mentions it in TKT, which is downright confirmed to be bullshit due to Xichun mentioning in Canto 7 that his Family is looking for him. A very strange thing for them to do if he were telling the truth, as if they wanted him to experience as much of the world as possible, then why would they ever want to cut that short?

The fact that he's using this excuse here means that his reason for joining Limbus Company is likely to be closely related to his reason for leaving the Jia household.

If you're like me and believe that Hong Lu actually ran away from home, then this would explain his evasion here - he likely joined Limbus Company as a way to hide, maybe even at some point hoping that they would grant him some protection, if even temporarily. After all, with how fatalistic Hong Lu is, it's likely that even at the time of him joining the Company, he already knew his time was limited and that he would inevitably be found anyway.

This is the last statement Hong Lu makes before we get the cartoon reveal of almost fucking everyone listening in on the conversation.

I believe that this is the only part of the exchange where Hong Lu is actually completely genuine.

Considering how fucking loud the themes of objectification and total ownership of people were in just this Intervallo alone, this first sentence is pretty clear. Because we can tell that yeah, Hong Lu had very little agency in his life. He is, by his own words, used to being led by the will of others.

However, it's the two lines that intrigue me. Because I believe there is a degree of emotional vulnerability to them that Hong Lu rarely if ever shows.

A degree of worry and concern that Hong Lu has refused to shown for the entirety of the Intervallo.

While what he says here is very vague, I think it is still very telling.

There is something that makes Hong Lu believe that his turn will be different. Not just will, but has to be. Something that only Hong Lu knows that makes him sure that no matter what, he can't go through the same thing everyone else has.

Which is. Very intriguing. Because there is a very wide range of things that have happened.

It can't be just that he knows he'll fail or something along those lines, because we know it has happened before. Gregor, Rodya, and even to a degree Sinclair all failed in one way or another.

It can't be that he doesn't remember or isn't human, because, again, that's also something we've seen be done before. In the Canto right before his no less!

No, there is something else to it. Something he alludes to in his next line.

I think this is, again, Hong Lu's fatalism rearing its ugly head. There is a cycle Hong Lu has been living in for his entire life. Something that he's done his entire life no matter what happened to him or to those around him.

We've seen Sinners succeed to subvert fate itself. We've seen Sinners fail to do so, unable to change themselves in the moment.

But... have we ever seen a Sinner simply give up completely?

I believe that's what Hong Lu believes his turn will be like. That once worst comes to worst, he won't even be able to try. That he'll simply lie down and take it, as he always has.

He believes that the cycle will continue on repeating, no matter what happens. Because it always has. Because this flow cannot be stopped. Because he can never truly escape his Family.

But here's the thing about that.

Hong Lu is wrong. Because he did break the cycle. Even if just once, even if for just a moment. He did escape, he did take action when it mattered.

...It reminds me of something that Binah said in Ruina after the end of her Floor's Realization.

What truly matters, however, is that the cycle did break at least once.

Hong Lu, whether he believes it or not, has already done the impossible.

And when it has been done once, that means it's no longer impossible.

It can happen again.

And it will happen again.

Destiny be damned.

[lu-is-not-ok]

Reading your thoughts on that particular scene about Hong Lu breaking the cycle and thus destiny, it brings my attention to Ricardo of all people, or more accurately what his presence could possibly represent. While he may have been a humorous random edition to throw in there just because, when you consider the fact that the times he is pretty much is considered a factor outside the "script" that Faust alludes to during Canto V (as she says that they SHOULD not have appeared) because NOBODY ever expects them to show up, not even Zilu, I think things start to get interesting. The fact that one single action set off a course that was never intended. Heathcliff stealing those coupons was an action that was never expected at all, and it would lead to all...this. The fact that of all times, this is yet another time he shows up, right before Hong Lu's "turn". Just like how Hong Lu was conditioned and fatalist to a degree about not being able to escape his family, the fact that he even took up Limbus Company's offer to at least attempt it would eventually lead to him breaking free. A single action that was never anticipated out of him would lead to that path.

I don't even have much to add because deadass you're actually cooking.

Like, Ricardo is a very strange entity narratively like you say, because he's a wildcard. Hohenheim in Check-up mentions that "The flow of this world is that the manager will be preserved", yet Ricardo is genuinely the closest we've ever gotten to just straight up losing Dante. Faust genuinely thought that it was all over.

One small action is enough to change things.

What matters is that the cycle did break at least once.

[lu-is-not-ok]

Nocturnal Sweeping Intervallo teaser frame-by-frame analysis

That's right, you didn't think I was going to leave this teaser without saying anything about it, did you? In fact, I have. Way too fucking much to say really.

Before anything though, I wanna give a shout out to @chorin342 for the translations of the hanzi that shows up during the trailer, which helped A Lot with figuring out what awaits us.

Now, onto the trailer itself.

After the several seconds long title screen of the Intervallo, we're given another view of the setting, this time with a sort of tv screen-esque overlay. The whole teaser seems to be somewhat structured to mimic a sort of action movie trailer, potentially hinting to this potentially being a more action-packed Intervallo.

The text (which in case it's hard to read on the screenshot says "We were greeted by a dark street upon disembarking from the bus, illuminated only by faints strands of light.") accompanying this CG seems to be a part of Dante's narration based on its contents. We're likely seeing a glimpse of just the intro part of the Intervallo.

After a few seconds, the following pops up on the screen with a booming sound effect:

This simply translates to "District 8", further confirming information that is about to be revealed.

Just as this text disappears, the narration continues, saying "It was immediately obvious that we had arrived in the Backstreets of H Corp."

Similarly to what I and many other speculated, we are going to H Corp's District, and the Intervallo specifically takes place within its Backstreets.

Then, we get the two following bits of text:

This translates to "Hongyuan/Hong garden Life Engineering Corporation". Or, as the second one illuminates, the full name of "H Corp".

In addition to the reveal of H Corp being a company that specializes in engineered life, the character for the "Hong" part of the name is the exact same as used in Hong Lu's own name. The connection is already clear and we're barely fifteen seconds into the teaser.

Then we're onto the Identity trailers, with the above literally just being that. "Identity".

Both the Outis and Ryoshu Identities belong to the Heishou Pack - Mao Branch. Heishou translating to Black Beast, and Mao translating to Rabbit in the context of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, as well as Wood in the context of the five Chinese elements.

I'm not going to go over the Identity trailers in too much detail, but I will mention things that I think will be important to the plot of the Intervallo.

The Mao Branch of the Heishou Pack appear to be a group hired by whoever they call "lord". Notably, both Identities express that their loyalty lays with the one that holds that title, rather than a specific individual. They're shown to be ready to betray the one who formerly carried that title at a day's notice, and are aware of their nature enough to deem themselves inherently untrustworthy.

In both trailers the Identities face off against average-looking gangsters. Those are likely to be the enemies we face off during the intro part of the Intervallo, before we run into any Sweepers.

According to the Identities' other voice lines, the Mao Branch's job takes place primarily during the night, potentially "taking care" of whatever target they're given by their lord by killing them in the middle of the night and letting the Sweepers clean them up before anyone can find any evidence.

Ryoshu's Identity here also makes a very interesting comment, about how the Mao Branch has "the same roots" as R Corp's Rabbit Pack, but "have grazed on different grass" and thus comparing them to each other is deemed stupid. Considering the implication of H Corp being a "life engineering" company and R Corp's technology in cloning, this might imply that their respective technologies are in some way similar in nature, yet different enough that it'd be stupid to actually compare them.

I also want to make a small observation about the aesthetics of the group. Specifically their color palette of black and yellow. It honestly kind of reminds me of the Udjat and Arbiters, and considering both of those are essentially military forces (hired by a private individual and a governing body respectively) it might allude to the Heishou Pack's nature as being not that unlike them.

Alright, back to the rest of the trailer.

We get another CG of the Backstreets, alongside what appears to be actual dialogue. (In case it's too hard to read, it says "A-are you sure we're going the right way? I don't like the sound of that weird song...") The most likely candidate to be saying this is Sinclair due to his tendency to stutter and appear nervous when he speaks, but it could be someone else as well.

Either way, this line implies that someone is guiding the Sinners through the Backstreets, potentially into somewhere dangerous and definitely suspicious.

Another text appears:

This literally translates to "round medicine", but it also appears to be the same word as used in two of Xichun's passives, that being bolus. Bolus in this context likely refers to a type of medicine administration, where a dose is introduced to the body to take effect over a short period of time.

Considering H Corp's "life engineering" (perhaps even downright bioengineering) tech, they might have a notable interest in pharmaceuticals as well.

Next scene.

Another view of the Backstreets, this time giving us a clear view of the Mansion taking up the entire goddamn skybox.

The text here (reading "The main streets are most likely teeming with those seeking to bring harm to the young master. We must venture an alternative path.") appears to be a piece of dialogue from an unknown party.

What we can tell about this person is that for one, they're the one guiding the Sinners through the Backstreets, meaning that the Sinners are completely at the mercy of this unknown party. The second thing we can tell about them however is that they're clearly aware of Hong Lu's identity and his ties to the Jia Family.

Considering what we've seen in the Identity trailers, I'd like to suggest that the Heishou Pack aren't going to be our enemies, or at least not at the start. They're likely to be hired by the Jia Family, and thus would have interest in keeping Hong Lu "safe". However, just because they want to protect the young master from harm, doesn't mean they feel the same way about the rest of the Sinners... if you know what I mean.

Next hanzi show up here.

This one translates to "complex" in the context of a building. This could potentially refer to the Mansion in the background, calling it a complex and thus potentially a sort of conglomerate of multiple Mansions. Alternatively, it could be referring to the dwellings Sweepers use, calling those dens a complex of their own.

After this we get a quick glimpse of a black screen getting covered with red Sweeper eyes and a rising noise. Likely foreshadowing as to what awaits the Sinners if they are to follow their new guide.

The scene changes again.

Multiple things. While I didn't capture it in this screenshot, combat takes place in the background here. While it's hard to make out because of the big fuckass hanzi in the way, it appears as if the Heishou Pack is fighting alongside the Sinners rather than against them, further implying that they're the ones guiding them through the Backstreets.

The hanzi here translates to "life insurance". This honestly could refer to a lot of things. It could refer to the Heishou Pack's role as being there to insure Hong Lu preserves his life. It could refer to H Corp's interest in immortality and thus insuring their own life. It could even potentially imply that H Corp deals with more literal life insurance, perhaps being in the business of insuring people with "spare lives" not unlike the situation of Pamela and Pameli in Ruina.

Notably, the "life" in life insurance here uses different characters to the ones commonly used in the term. However, this could just be an instance of PM being a Korean speaking company and thus not knowing the "proper" spelling of the phrase. A mistake in similar nature to them flipping Linton's first and last name, or calling "Don" a surname rather than a title in the original Korean script.

The dialogue here (reading "Looks like everyone in the Backstreets has been getting pretty plucky while I was away. Back then, I could even catch a glimpse of their faces-") is pretty clearly coming from Hong Lu, and continues on (reading "-Because they'd all be on their hands and knees whenever we walked past... Ah, what a wonderful change!").

This bit of dialogue establishes multiple things. For one, the Jia Family is important enough to garner extreme amounts of veneration from District 8 citizens, even out in the Backstreets. However, and more interestingly, for whatever reason Hong Lu alone isn't eliciting the same reaction. Whether it's because as Hong Lu says and there his been a shift in the status quo in the Backstreets, or whether it's something else that is causing people to not recognize Hong Lu as part of the Family is currently unclear.

Then, Ricardo Announcer. You get nothing from me about that, I just find it really fucking funny.

Then, back to the mayhem.

Here the text translates to "east" as in the context of a region. Which, makes sense. We are in the East region of the City now, this is likely a reference to that.

The dialogue here (reading "Oi, up yours with that wonderful change! How much longer 'til we get there?!") very likely comes from Heathcliff judging by the wording. It further foreshadows the suspicious nature of the Sinners' guides and that they might not be leading them where they think they are.

And, in case that wasn't already being made clear, in the background a wave of Sweepers just fucking descends upon the Sinners before static takes over the screen and we're back to the core event illustration.

So.

Let's summarize what we can gather from this trailer.

Our current destination, H Corp's District, is run by Hongyuan Life Engineering Corporation, a Wing with an interest in life insurance and pharmaceuticals. The Jia Family appears to be highly regarded in this District, to the point of likely being the ones who hired the Mao Branch of the Heishou Pack, a group specializing in operations under the cover of the night who are loyal to those holding certain ranks rather than to specific individuals.

Upon their arrival, the Sinners would come in contact with this group, who would recognize Hong Lu as a young master of the Family that hired them, and would thus wish to ensure his safety and likely return him to his home. As such, they serve as guides and allies for the first part of the Intervallo's plot.

However, the path this Pack leads the Sinners down is suspicious and long, and eventually leads them towards the Sweepers. There is a high chance that this was the Pack's trap all along, whether their motives are to take Hong Lu out because of an order from one of his siblings or to retrieve him and take him back to the Mansion while leaving the rest of the Sinners to die is yet to be seen. Either way however one thing is clear - the Black Beasts are indeed not to be trusted.

[lu-is-not-ok]

I initially didn't feel like making it into a post but I thought I might as well share it since I haven't seen anyone else talk about it yet.

While the Nocturnal Sweeping teaser gave us very little outside of revealing the setting, it did also give us a better quality version of the core illustration for the core illustration for the event. And. Well.

There are five unknown individuals gathered around the gate/potential Sweeper Den. While they're hard to make out due to being only small silhouettes, as far as I can tell their features don't appear to match any faction we've seen thus far, meaning they're likely a new faction we'll be meeting. It also makes me think this will be the faction we'll get IDs of this Intervallo.

Now, for some speculation!

The way this faction is positioned and framed gives them a sort of... almost territorial vibe to them. It makes me think they're more likely to be a Syndicate rather than a Fixer Office, as it's more common for Syndicates to care about the areas they have control over. Likewise, what little information we have on Sweepers from Ruina implies that Syndicates are the ones more likely to mess with them compared to Fixers, likely since there's very few people who would contract an Office for matters involving Sweepers.

Another thing is their appearances, or what little we can discern from their silhouettes. All of the members of this faction appear to have: glowing yellow eyes, weapons that have a glowing rectangular shape at their ends, and are all wearing cloaks and hats of some kind.

In addition, two of these silhouettes appear to be unique in some way. The bottom left one appears to be wearing a witch's hat, while the top right one might have tall animal ears?

My current completely off the wall theory is that we could be dealing with some sort of witch/yokai Syndicate, partially based on those two silhouettes, but also based on the fact that the Night of the Backstreets partially takes place during the Witching Hour.

[lu-is-not-ok]

Thoughts on the new Jia candidate? They seem to be at the very least related to Iori, considering their execution of that one guy and the red snake skin wrapped around himself and his companion(?). Makes me wonder if Iori or her disciples are going to make a physical appearance in the Canto.

Alright, let me put things under the cut for the spoiler warning for literally the last two cutscenes in this Intervallo.

When it comes to Jia Qiu, I don't have many thoughts on his place in the world or wider story as of yet.

It's clear that he's a figure that's meant to have quite a lot of renown, one that can be easily believed as being the one people sing about in the Backstreets. One that is so sure of his position in the world that he doesn't even bother finishing off Xichun or Hong Lu due to knowing they don't pose even the tiniest bit of a threat to him.

It's also interesting how he's described. There's a lot of similarities between him and Hong Lu in that way. He's shown to be always serene, almost intimidatingly so. The way he looks at the Sinners, "as though he was gazing upon the clouds or blades of grass", is a direct reflection of how Hong Lu is described earlier in the same Intervallo. In fact, that confident calmness of his is shown to be what makes him so intimidating.

As for the Iori connection... Well, first of all it's made kind of unclear who Actually kills Shi Yihua. Before the execution happens, Zigong comments on the presence of "a serpent", while Jia Qiu tells her to "leave it". After Yihua is killed, Qiu once again repeats to leave this serpent alone, this time directing the order to Zilu.

This, I think, implies that whoever killed Yihua is not actually affiliated with Jia Qiu at all. That 'serpent' who killed him was an outsider, a spy of some kind that Jia Qiu deemed unimportant enough to let live despite the sudden seemingly hostile action.

It's also important to note that the furry trio from the Prologue all have specifically Purple accessories. While Iori's connection with snakes and serpents is an important part of her identity, what's often more important and identifying is the color Purple due to it being a direct part of her Fixer title.

Thus, personally, I believe the serpent could have some connection to Iori, as it has both the purple and the snake imagery to tie it to her.

Jia Qiu and his posse on the other hand not only are implied to not be affiliated with that serpent, but also only have the snakeskin motive, not the color. It's kind of like the Rabbits of R corp and Hares of the Heishou Pack - they're based on similar animals, but are at their core extremely different and unaffiliated.

But. That's not really what I want to talk about.

No, what I want to talk about is what I think Jia Qiu's narrative role might be.

See, here's the thing about Jia Qiu and his posse. Neither him nor anyone following him are directly named after any DOTRC characters.

However, another source for specifically Zilu and Zigong has already been found - they're named after Confucius's disciples. The reason why that's important is that Confucianism plays a major role in DOTRC, with one of the ways it comes up being a notable part of the reason why Baoyu is abused by his father - as Jia Zheng is a Confucian scholar that tries to live by those values, while Baoyu is anything but.

Thus, there are now two camps I see when it comes to theories on who Jia Qiu is meant to be based on.

There is the camp that believes Jia Qiu might be PM's reinterpretation of Jia Zhu, Baoyu's older brother who dies before the events of DOTRC.

There is also the other camp that looks at the references to Confucius's disciples and believes that Jia Qiu is just straight up Confucius himself.

My take? I think he's both. I think he's a composite character of both Jia Zhu and Confucius. And I even have a sound reason for why PM would do that.

Remember how I mentioned that Confucian values are part of the reason why Baoyu is targeted and abused by his father so much? Well, Jia Zhu is the other part of the reason. Jia Zhu, when he was alive, was exactly the kind of son and heir that Jia Zheng wanted. So, when he died, all of those expectations fell onto Baoyu. There's even a point where Baoyu's mother has a moment where she laments that she wishes Baoyu was the one to die instead of Zhu, as Zhu wouldn't have angered his father nearly as much.

I believe that Jia Qiu is meant to represent everything that Hong Lu's family wishes he could be. Everything that Hong Lu can't truly be no matter how much he tries. A combination of the creator behind the values forced upon everyone in the family, and of the family son who was perfect for the role in his family. The ideal heir, the template Hong Lu was meant to fit but never could.

Something tells me he's not going to survive for long.

[lu-is-not-ok]

sweeper intervallo finally arrived! curious on what you think about. All Of That

I have a lot of thoughts that I need to. Categorize in some way. I might have more to say if I'm asked about a specific thing but until then I might not yap a lot immediately.

But, still, here's some general overview thoughts on all of the Intervallo:

We're really in the Fraud circle now ya'll, everyone's a fucking liar here.

Of course we'd be getting so many characters be brought back to relevance in the Intervallo that introduced resurrection as a motif for the approaching Canto. Narrative Resurrection for so many characters.

On a similar topic, that was A Lot of plot threads and even random one-off lines getting payoffs. It really shows that PM is still paying attention and keeping in mind All of the shit they started and Are working towards conclusions for All Of Them.

I NEED HONG LU DEAD RIGHT FUCKING NOW

[lu-is-not-ok]

H Corp from what little we can gather will presumably be a Corp most similar to both K Corp - pharmaceuticals and the like, preservation of the body - and M Corp - moonstones seem to allow a user to withstand some sorts of psychological damage, a preservation of the mind - and unless we find out that they are indeed on thin ice with those other corps then they probably have a notable enough difference that all three are different niches.

I propose a mind-body-soul (M-K-H) split.

And I think this might explain the Hares and how they're similar enough to the Rabbits to be notable, but in such a way that means any proper comparison balderdash, though this is a bit of a stretch: the Hares are one soul able to inhabit multiple bodies, whilst the Rabbits are complete copies of everything that makes a person a person.

I think you're definitely onto something here. I agree that H Corp is very much another Wing in the business of preserving something - whether it's specifically "Soul" or more vaguely "Life" is yet to be seen.

I also agree that the "life insurance" deal is likely a similar if more sophisticated kind to what we see happen to Pamela and Pameli, that being a life insurance in the form of a spare body.

That being said my own theory as to how the Hares and the Rabbits differ is a bit. Well. Different.

Ryoshu's ID specifically mentions that the two groups have "the same roots", implying that their origins are actually extremely similar, but it's what happens after that makes them divergent enough that they can't be compared.

I believe this means that both groups have their source of "power" be some form of artificial body. In R Corp's case it's direct literal cloning, while for H Corp's it could be something like... let's say, bioengineered empty bodies ready to become vessels. Similarly to the kinds of bodies certain life insurances provide.

The main point of divergence here would be how those "spares" are used. R Corp cares more about quantity than quality - they make endless clones to replace those who fall, effectively just replacing lost units as if they were never lost in the first place.

H Corp on the other hand could be the opposite, caring more about quality than quantity, and thus preserving their hired militia through ensuring the lives of their soldiers are directly transferred into their spare vessels rather than outright replacing them.

It would also explain the low opinion that Identity expresses of R Corp. To the Hares, the Rabbits wouldn't seem very impressive now would they? In fact, they might even seem inferior to them, thus making it seem stupid to compare the two.

[lu-is-not-ok]

As much as i would find it fun to see the Middle in person again, chances are that Ricardo's announcer is more to do with the Middle using familial roles as titles - notably just siblings tho iirc.

Yeah I really doubt we're actually seeing Ricardo or even the Middle again wheeze. The cast of enemies shown in the trailer is already somewhat widespread for an Intervallo, and the thing with Intervallos is that they tend to keep their enemy variety fairly slim.

You tend to not see more than like 2 or 3 enemy factions/archetypes (not counting the boss) in an Intervallo.