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?
It was intended to be reassuring, when the other Sinners consoled her - telling her that it wasn’t her fault, she couldn’t have known.
If it wasn't for the fearful look in their eyes, she might have even been able to pretend that their words were reaching her.
While Meursault toiled away unloading boxes in the doorway to her room, she recounted her numerous failures once again.
———
Time for a little unpacking.
How about that Intervallo, huh?
Since the content is so new, here's an extra warning that this contains spoilers for Intervallo 7.5a - LCB Regular Checkup!
I've got so many thoughts on it - This will be my first two part series! (The second part is partially written, so the wait shouldn't be long.)
