>>56573337It's a stretch, but I don't think they ever addressed how Roy's grandfather and Friede knew each other. I remember wondering about this in episode 4 – basically Friede says something about how Roy's grandfather looked after him in the past, and later Roy's grandfather said something like "I thought you came back here to do some more investigating". Now we have confirmation the setting here is the Orange Islands, I guess Friede might have searched for his brother there? Or that might be where he lost him? In any case it's context that was never explored and it'd be a way to loop Roy's grandfather and home back into the story.
Aside from that I think the whole missing brother story is still possible simply because of the shot we're given of Friede in the new opening. Might be schizo rambling but I got a weird vibe from it straight away.
