#ur right that he does absolutely backtrack in those tho too!!

[cogito-dreams]

SO TRUE you've all made fantastic points!!! I realize I totally should've clarified in the original post, Hong Lu absolutely does a lot of backpedaling and misdirection which is part of what makes him so fun and interesting (and thank you to yall and to those in the notes who've pointed out that he has less lines than anyone else bc that's a good thing to note too!)

the thing that I meant to put emphasis on is the fact that he Hesitated this time, which caught my attention super quickly since iirc he's been pretty quick on his feet in coming up with misdirection or backpedaling!

one of his speech patterns is that he starts a lot of his lines with "oh?" "hm?" (and its variants), little sounds like "aha!" or other quick vocalizations, ellipses, or reaction expressions (like "wow!" or "whoa!"), all of which can be used to buy time to think of what he'll say (if going with a more "master manipulator hong lu whose every word is calculated" kind of theory) Or just things that people normally say in reaction to things. so it was the specific use of the noise "uh" followed by the rest of the line that caught my eye!! generally speaking that's a sound (along with "um") that's more used when someone starts to speak *before* their mind can catch up to their mouth, which doesn't seem to happen with all the other times he's backpedaled.

i originally made this post in kind of a flurry of excitement after seeing this but i went back and did more research this time and the other times we see hong lu say something like "uh" or "um" it's in response to thinks happening around the sinners (like when asking about their new enemies after finding out pilot was kidnapped

(or when getting the sinners back on track with info they're supposed to receive)

it's important to note, he does change the subject back to something related to the mission here, too! the important distinction to me though is that, in the previous examples, he says 'um' and then leads to his point, which gives it a feeling more like he's saying 'um' to call attention to himself before saying what he wants to say, making it a less harsh interruption. but with what he says in 5.5, he has an entire line dedicated just to that hesitation- and even in the next line, he's still got ellipses in the middle of it, like he's still thinking. another distinction is that in the previous two examples, the topic isn't anything that could relate to him. and in previous times (like the examples yall gave previously) it did relate to him even more directly, and he did backpedal, but much more smoothly than he did here!

one more thing that i thought was interesting while going through his lines- most other times, when things could relate to his family, he'll volunteer that information outright even when no one was asking (like talking about how his family uses the same kind of paper that heathcliff's invitation was made from in 5.5, or talking about training his family used to make him do and the family rules stuck on the wall in canto 5). but here, when clearly given a chance to elaborate on rich folks- a topic CLEARLY in his field of expertise, given all the info he's previously given us- he interjects and then changes the subject, in a way that feels much different from the more cheeky vibe he gives off when he changes the subject away from himself like in the hells chicken intervallo.

all in all, i wonder just what this conversation reminded him of that he wanted to change the subject so quickly... and i already know his canto is gonna end me :,,)

so like.

so like. hey. are we gonna talk about the fact that this discussion of 'rich folks with screwed-up perversions' involving human sacrifice is the first time we've ever seen hong lu, known rich boy from fucked up rich family, say "uh" or otherwise show this kind of hesitation and then immediately change the subject. or like are we gonna let this one slip by-