Memes / Genshin Impact Playable Characters

Due to how many playable characters Genshin Impact has, it's no wonder that they've spawned countless memes.

For memes about the rest of the game, see here.

Important Note: Before adding entries, the following below are not allowed under any circumstances. You Have Been Warned.

• Content Leaks of any information not officially revealed yet by HoYoverse.
• Flame Bait topics such as racism (including In-Universe racism), complaints about a character's skin color, etc.
• Fandom drama on any social media platform, as it's considered drama importation.

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Please add entries in the following format if possible:

• The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] ^ExplanationLike this.
  • Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

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Playable Characters (A - F)

• Idle voice lines ^ExplanationThe idle voice lines of characters tend to turn into memes due to the sheer amount of times players hear them when using these characters in the overworld and when selecting the character in the character menu.
  • "I wonder when I'll be as tall as my big sister." ^ExplanationBarbara sometimes says this during her Idle Animation. Given how frequently players hear it, fans characterize her as having major Height Angst.
  • "If you ever want to trade tactics, I'm always ready." ^ExplanationBeidou's line from her Idle Animation. Similar to Venti's "Wouldn't gliding be faster?", players joke about it because they've heard it so much.
  • "Bouken da Bouken!" ^ExplanationOne of Bennett's lines in the Japanese version (when he dashes), meaning "adventure, adventure!". Many fans associate this with a "thumbs up" symbol in his Elemental Burst icon and skill animation. They also associate this with Bennett's potentially suicidal Elemental Skill. In the English version it's "Adventure Time!" instead, which fans consider to be a reference to Adventure Time.
  • "Wouldn't gliding be faster?" ^ExplanationThis is one of Venti's quotes when he's dashing. As you will dash a lot in gameplay, particularly when fighting enemies, this line comes up a lot (much like Bennett's "Bouken da bouken!"). A number of fans get annoyed by it after hearing it so often, with them joking about the line in various ways.
  • "Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember, but where are those who share the memory?" ^Explanation Zhongli's line from his Idle Animation. Given Zhongli`s popularity, many players hear the line regularly. Commonly paired with Venti chiming in and Zhongli ignoring him.
    • "Yaoyao tastes the same as I remember"/"Yaoyao shares the memories"^ExplanationObvious jokes that were made due to Yaoyao's constellation being called Osmanthus.
  • "C'mon, enough procrastinating. Let's go." ^ExplanationOne of Keqing's idle lines. It fits in-game, and you can also expect it to show up whenever someone is slacking off.
  • "LAAALALALAAAAA-! WATAKUSHI WAAAA MOOOORAAA WO AISHIIIII-!" ^ExplanationOne of Dori's idle lines is her singing how much she loves Mora. It sounds cute... unless you're playing in Japanese, where her voice is very screechy. Fans immediately pick up on how annoying (if not THE most annoying) her voice is; equating to listening to her speak as blowing one's eardrums or listening to nails on a chalkboard.
  • "Relax..." *blows raspberry*^ExplanationOne of Wanderer's idle animations has him threateningly summoning an orb of wind, only to immediately dissipate it and blow a raspberry at the player before chuckling. The gesture helped to solidify Wanderer's Memetic Troll status.
    • "There is no need to exchange pleasantries. It's rather pathetic to force a conversation just to occupy silence." ^ExplanationJust like Zhongli's line above, Wanderer players also hear this line regularly due to the exact same reasons as Zhongli: Popularity. The funny thing is, ironically, Wanderer is the one forcing a conversation.
• Albedo:
  • Dawn Winery Maid Albedo ^ExplanationDuring the Windtrace event, a player has been shown to win the match by having Albedo stand with the two Dawn Winery maid NPC's throughout the whole round and winning said round via Paper-Thin Disguise. The sheer hilarity of it has caused the creation of many jokes, fanarts, and memes about Albedo being a part-time maid in Dawn Winery, like this one.
  • Among Us Albedo ^ExplanationDuring a stream in which some of the English VAs played Among Us, Khoi Dao (Albedo’s English VA) created many hilarious moments by virtue of acting the exact opposite of the calm and stoic character he voices. Of course, this prompted the fandom into making edits and animatics of Albedo using the stream's audio due to the intrinsic hilarity of it.
    • "Welcome to hell, bitch!" ^ExplanationOne of Khoi's lines from said livestream.
    • "Just 'cause you saw me do it, all of a sudden it's me?! ^{Explanation (spoilers)}A line from the stream that many have brought up with the reveal "Albedo" had attacked Eula and Joel, but claimed he did no such thing.
    • "Shadow Amidst Snowstorms" is just a game of Among Us ^{Explanation (spoilers)}The whole premise of the "Shadow Amidst Snowstorms" event is that the Adventurers' Guild is holding a training camp in Dragonspine where a duplicate of Albedo sabotages the area and tries to kill off people with any kind of connection to the real Albedo. Combined with the other Among Us memes above, players associated the event with Among Us, with Albedo as the Impostor and everyone else as Crewmates.
    • The Thing (1982) ^{Explanation (spoilers)}Due to the fact that the Fellflower can consume, takeover and replace a person, a lot of players became unnerved at the prospects that Joel's father for example, may actually not be the real thing. As such, a lot of comparisons have been made to John Carpenter's Horror Film, The Thing. Comparisons to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Mandela Catalogue have also been made, with someone even making a parody based on the latter.
  • Elsa Albedo / "The cold never bothered him anyway" ^{Explanation (Possible spoilers!)} The trailer for Version 2.3 had the shocking scene of Albedo seemingly fighting against Eula, Bennett and the Traveler, with Cryo attacks instead of his actual, golden Geo elemental powers. Cue the fanart of Albedo wearing Elsa's dress, followed by Khoi himself doing a cover of "Let It Go". Then, when the actual event came around, at one point Sucrose remarks that "the cold doesn't seem to bother [Albedo] at all," bringing the meme full circle.
  • "Protect Klee (and Sucrose)" ^{Explanation (Spoilers for Season 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist!)} Due to Albedo's profession as an alchemist, jokes have spawned where Albedo recreates the scene from Fullmetal Alchemist where Shou Tucker creates a chimera with his daughter and pet dog. For those unaware, it is quite morbid. While Klee is often portrayed in the role of Nina Tucker, Sucrose occasionally is added due to her animal ears and close connection to Albedo.
  • Albedo's phobia of seeing red and blue together ^Explanation The CN fandom noticed that 2 of the limited-time events that Albedo appeared in also features a ship consisting of characters associated with red and blue, from Diluc and Kaeya in the 1.6 Midsummer Island Adventure event and Eula and Amber in the 2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms event. Thus CN fans joke that Albedo is tired of being stuck with red-blue couples whenever he goes.
    • Third wheel Albedo ^Explanation As more characters were introduced and more ships were created, the meme evolved over time to bring up Albedo whenever the game has any Ho Yay moments.
  • Albedo is Walter White / Sucrose, we need to cook. ^ExplanationAlbedo is an alchemist who is noted to be a potential danger to Mondstadt, and his name means "white". Naturally, fans have connected him to Walter White, the Villain Protagonist of Breaking Bad, with plenty of joking fan discussion claiming Albedo makes drugs with his alchemy. This meme also carries over to his assistant Sucrose being depicted as Walter White's assistant Jesse Pinkman.
  • Albedo's Family Tree ^ExplanationAlbedo, being a creation of Rhinedottir, has (as of Fontaine) the following as "his siblings": Subject 2, Durin, the Rifthounds and Elynas. Then, Subject 2 would use parts of Durin to create Subject 3 (the Fell Flower), a "nephew". And since Melusines and Breacher Primi are the spawn of Elynas, Albedo is their "uncle".
  • Eula's successor ^ExplanationAlbedo hasn't got a rerun for over a whole year since version 3.1, since Eula also hadn't got a rerun 14 versions after 2.3, fans run around with jokes on Albedo succeeding Eula in the "no rerun" marathon.
  • Khoi Dao's OC ^ExplanationAs a result of being unobtainable from the wishes for over a year, Khoi Dao joked that Albedo might as well be his original character at this point, prompting fans and even his fellow voice actors to join in on the jokes as well.
• Alhaitham:
  • Itto is jealous of Alhaitham ^ExplanationWhen Itto was released, players were quick to notice that his arms in his 3D model were not as muscular as those in his 2D splash art. Players therefore memed on the fact that Alhaitham, an Akademiya scholar, has better modeled arms than Itto.
    • Abs ^ExplanationRelated to the meme above in which Alhaitham's abs are also more noticeable than Itto's and can be prominently seen through his skintight shirt, despite Itto wearing a No Shirt, Long Jacket that exposes his bare torso.
    • "Ooh, six-pack..."/Cautious Scholar^ExplanationAlso related to the Abs meme. Alhaitham shares the same Japanese voice actor as the Cautious Hero, Seiya Ryuuguuin. Unlike Seiya, Alhaitham's abs are displayed all the time. As such, the quote is often applied to him, and several scenes involving Seiya are also often emulated on Alhaitham. This gets even more traction with the introduction of Navia, who is voiced by Rista's Japanese voice actress, causing both of them to be paired for no apparent reason other than making the allusion.
  • Alhaitham wins Best Actor^{Explanation (Spoilers for Sumeru Archon Quests Act V)}As part of the plan to free Nahida, Alhaitham puts up a convincing performance of not only double crossing the Traveler but also faking insanity to trick the Grand Sage into thinking that he had successfully foiled their plans. Some fan content either photoshop an Oscar statue into his hands or depict him holding it.
    • Alhaitham wins last year's Furina award ^ExplanationAn extension to the above after the "Roses and Muskets" event. Due to the Sumeru Archon Quest came out in 2022 and Fontaine's released the following year, fans jokes about Alhaitham wins the Furina award last year for his performance during his Archon Quest.
  • Roommates ^ExplanationA shared meme with Kaveh that describes their vitriolic relationship. Expect the comment section of any content featuring the two of them to reference the famous Vine "And they were roommates/Oh my God, they were roommates." Especially prominent in the Alhaitham X Kaveh shipping community.
  • "I'm merely a feeble scholar."^Explanation One of Alhaitham's lines in the Archon Quest: Through the Predawn Night. Due to the fact that he says this line whilst having one of the buffest bodies in the game, fans immediately took the piss out of it and ran with this whenever Alhaitham does something physical, due to how absurd it is. Not helping his claim is that, by the time he says this line, Alhaitham has had two separate cutscenes showing his combat prowess; prevailing against an Eremite and fighting Cyno to a standstill.
  • Dendro Keqing^ExplanationWith an Elemental Skill that lets him Flash Step and infuses his sword with Dendro, and a Burst involving assailing foes with a barrage of slashes, it didn't take long for fans to compare Alhaitham to Keqing.
  • DJ Haitham: Suffering From Success^ExplanationAlhaitham's motivation during the Sumeru Archon Quest was to keep his comfortable and leisurely job as Scribe. However, after overthrowing Azar, he was promoted to Acting Grand Sage, becoming busier - something he does not want.
  • Dadhaitham/Dendro Daddy/"I WISH I COULD FUCK THAT GUY'S ASS" ^ExplanationEven before (and eventually) becoming a playable character, players have lost their minds looking at how handsome Alhaitham is, to the point that some who are straight are okay with admitting that he looks hot. People love him a little too much, so much to the point that an alternative version of the main subreddit dedicated to SFW content was made. That's right, so many people had the hots for him.
  • My name is Alhaitham. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Sumeru City, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Akademiya, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone.^ExplanationDespite his extraordinary intelligence and aloofness, Alhaitham is ultimately a normal person whose ultimate goal is to keep his normal job and lifestyle, but who is willing to go as far as overthrowing his bosses and freeing a god to do so. Comparisons were drawn to Yoshikage Kira, another person who does highly abnormal things in an effort to maintain his normal lifestyle, and thus the Yoshikage Kira copypasta was repurposed to describe Alhaitham.
  • Soap Opera Alhaitham ^ExplanationA Japanese account shared a photo showing footage of an Indonesian Soap Opera where one of the actors cosplayed as Alhaitham went viral throughout both sides of the pacific due to the hilarity of seeing it in an afternoon aired soap opera and how out of place it looked out of context.
  • Alhaitham being Alhaitham while not being Alhaitham ^ExplanationDescribing statements made by his English voice actor, Nazeeh Tarsha, as being extremely in character for Alhaitham, even though he is not actually currently acting as him.
    • "What the fuck did you say about cabbage?" ^ExplanationDuring a stream, after Dani Chambers (Nilou) states she enjoys eating raw cabbage, most of those present (Alejandro Saab (Cyno), Ben Balmaceda (Kaveh) and Shara Kirby (Candance)) react in disgust and horror, while Nazeeh Tarsha (Alhaitham), who wasn't present in the stream earlier, also chimes in much to everyone's surprise. He reveals he had absolutely no intention of coming on, only to hear that statement, leading the others to joke that the mention of treating cabbage with disrespect was so triggering it forced him to get out of bed. What makes this even funnier was he promptly left the stream afterwards and never came back, meaning he appeared for the sole purpose of commenting on Dani's taste in cabbage.
    • "SCHOOL WASN'T YOUR FUCKING STRONG SUIT, WAS IT?!" ^ExplanationDuring an Uno stream with Alejandro Saab (Cyno), Ben Balmaceda (Kaveh), Nazeeh Tarsha (Alhaitham), and Zachary Gordon (Tighnari), Nazeeh goes on a rant at Zach for purposefully giving Alejandro the win for the round. One of the things he yells is this line, which many have taken for being in character with Alhaitham if he ever lost his cool. Nazeeh himself acknowledged the meme.
    • Alhaitham's ukulele apology ^ExplanationA few days after the aforementioned Uno stream, Nazeeh released a video of himself performing a parody of Toxic Gossip Train by Colleen Ballinger where he apologized to Zach for going off at him. Some fans ended up taking it further by making memes and animatics of Alhaitham doing the same thing, such as this example.
• Amber:
  • "Amber's upset that you consider her bad!" ^ExplanationOnce most of the tier lists cemented Amber as the Memetic Loser of the initial release (despite being one of the game's Series Mascots and someone who has plenty of fans), quite a bit of art, memes and whatnot shows her being upset at the opinion and promising the Traveler that she'd do better. This has resulted in even more loyalty toward her.
    • "Useless Amber" ^ExplanationA snowclone of the "Useless Aqua" meme from KonoSuba, with fans quickly drawing Amber in the style of the "Aqua Crying" template.
  • Baron Bunny Dancing.^ExplanationAmber's doll, Baron Bunny, has a meme-worthy dance that usually caps off with an explosion.
  • Amber Mains ^ExplanationBecause Amber is considered the weakest character in the game (Barbara isn't counted due to being a pure-healer), people who use Amber as their primary damage dealer are frequently joked about having god-tier patience, skill, or even insanity.
• Arataki Itto:
  • DICK ^Explanation Diluc, Childe, and Kaeya's names have the combined initials "DCK," which is very close to... something else. Fans had been trying to interpret or hope for a character whose name started with an "I" to "complete" the team; with Itto's reveal, the team could finally be completed to form "DICK".
  • Release the Gigachad! ^ExplanationSeveral people started worrying about Genshin after new laws in China prohibited "effeminate men" (albeit on TV), of which Genshin has quite a lot. Itto is an extremely attractive Oni and the first character to have visible muscles, whose reveal conveniently coincided with said laws. Thus, people joked that miHoYo unleashed Itto upon the world to avoid the government cracking down on their game.
  • Hot Limit ^ExplanationWith the reveal of Itto's Japanese VA, many people started to notice that Itto's design and some of his idle animation have some resemblance with Takanori "TM Revolution" Nishikawa himself. It quickly spread like wildfire, with people mostly drawing Itto wearing the Stripperiffic outfit from his album and song Hot Limit, which a lot of people had a day with it. This became even more hilarious with a tweet from Takanori revealing that his concert costume for Hot Limit was intentionally made like that, because he was actually hinting that he was going to voice Itto in the game. Oh, and what his costume again? A freaking jacket and two pairs of chest belts, just like Itto.
  • Itto's Magnum Dong ^ExplanationThis is in reference to Itto's Kanobo that he uses in Raging Oni King mode after activating his Elemental Burst. Some have pointed out that it resembles a giant Magnum ice cream bar. This has reached memetic status once people learned of an actual collab between Genshin Impact and Chinese ice cream brand Suí Biàn, which just so happens to show Itto on the main cover.
  • Who? ^ExplanationThe Raiden Shogun’s voice line on Arataki Itto has her asking this single word to the Traveler. This has lead to many players saying this when Itto is mentioned. Even the Raiden Shogun’s English voice actress got in on it.
  • Yeet the Ushi/Ushi hits like a Truck ^Explanation Itto's ability to literally throw his pet cow Ushi is one thing. The fact that Ushi hits with the strength of Zhongli's ''meteor'' is another. Cue memes and challenges of Itto players trying to 'snipe' enemies with Ushi from ridiculous distances and doing ludicrous damage at the same time.
  • Gacha Art Itto vs In-Game Itto ^ExplanationPlayers bemoan that Itto's in-game model doesn't reflect how muscular he's depicted to be in his gacha splash art.
  • Moo! ^Explanation In the same vein as Guoba's memetic status, Ushi's Team Pet status in the 2.7 story quest has catapulted him into popularity. This is largely due to how absurd the presence of a seemingly intelligent cattle doing conversations with a himbo of an Oni in a relatively dark storyline is. Ushi's...Moos is used whenever he is present, with fans making fun of the idea that Ushi hides incredible wisdom in his moos.
  • Itto Jump Scare ^ExplanationThe trailer for version 3.3 starts off with a somewhat ominous narration that gives off a warning about rumors... Only to to immediately segue into Itto dangling from a tree in front of the camera while making a silly face. Many players made note of how they were genuinely startled by this.
  • "10th Harbinger" ^Explanation As of 4.6's English Special Program, Itto has appeared alongside a Harbinger's VA twice in a Special Program, being present with Patrick Pedraza (Wanderer/Scaramouche) and Erin Yvette (Arlecchino), leading to people joking that he is the 10th Harbinger as Capitano is theorized to be the 1st.
• Arlecchino
  • #1 Father^Explanation In contrast to her role in the Fatui and wariness displayed towards her by Childe and Wanderer, the Hotel Bouffes d'ete trio's voicelines about her, where they all display admiration and gratefulness towards her, prompted fans to depict Arlecchino as being a loving and doting father. Some even go as far as to use her contrast the games less stellar parents or adult figures, like Ei.
  • ArlecchiNO/ArlecchiYES^Explanation Some fanart depicts Arlecchino with the red X shapes in her shapes replaced with green circles, with such images being used akin to the No/Yes meme
  • Evil Eula^Explanation When Arlecchino was revealed alongside the rest of the remaining Harbingers, many couldn't help notice some physical similarities between her and Eula, both being characters with the Tall Female model with short hair.
    • Double Agent Eula^Explanation Some even go as far as to claim that Arlecchino is Eula in disguise.
  • Step on me, daddy^Explanation Predictably, Arlecchino has elicited such reactions from fans.
    • Killed someone by stepping on them/Lobotomy heels^Explanation Fans have also noted that the design of Arlecchino's heels, possessing very sharp-looking points, means that her actually stepping on anyone would likely kill, or at the very least lobotomize, them. Not that this deters most. Funnily enough, Arlecchino does indeed murder a child trafficker posing as a philanthropist by stepping on him in her Teaser.
    • IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME, NOT HIM ^ExplanationNaturally, many Arlecchino fans wish they had been in Tartuffe's position.
  • Father is mewing. ^ExplanationHer burst animation has her raise her finger to her mouth. This coincides with the mewing meme, a technique that supposedly results in a squarer jaw. Those performing the technique will raise a finger to their mouth and point to their jawline to highlight how they are currently unable to speak. This lead to jokes that Father is actually mewing.
  • A Fatui Harbinger? *Hat* PERRIE THE FATUI HARBINGER??? ^{Explanation (Spoilers)}Arlecchino is referred to as Perrie by her childhood friend Clervie. The resemblance to a certain platypus didn't go over anyone's head.
  • Arlecchino checks out.^ExplanationIt's possible for Arlecchino to die just as she uses her burst, causing her death animation to play within the burst cutscene. People joked this was just her desiring to leave mid fight.
  • Furina running away from Arlecchino on water^ExplanationAs soon as Arlecchino's ability to float by holding the normal attack button was revealed, people made jokes about Furina trying to escape from Arlecchino (who had once attacked her before) by using her Walk on Water ability, only for Arlecchino to continue the pursuit by floating across the water.
  • Boomer Arlecchino ^ExplanationArlecchino's voiceline about her troubles has her confess how she often struggles to understand some of the vernacular and slang her children use sometimes. Many players were quick to relate to the Harbinger, who also often struggle to understand some of the most recent slang that kids these days use.
• Baizhu:
  • Baizhu is stuck in miHoYo's basement ^ExplanationBaizhu is notorious for appearing as a recurring NPC in Liyue's quests and events, but not being playable for over two years since the game's release despite having a Vision and a unique design. While his exclusion from the playable roster in Genshin's early days was due to Dendro not being complete, come Version 3.0, Dendro was made into a more fleshed-out element, but it took until Version 3.6 that he became a playable character despite being in the game before the game's first playable Dendro characters (Tighnari and Collei). Thus, many fans have joked that miHoYo had him locked up in their basement.
  • The Fatui patch/Pantalone in disguise ^ExplanationVersion 4.6's lineup is set to include Arlecchino and Lyney followed by Wanderer and Baizhu. Of these, Baizhu is the only character not to be related to the Fatui. Given his similarities in appearance to Pantalone, coupled with the latter's interest in Liyue, memes cropped up that Baizhu was actually hinting his true colors as the identity of the ninth Harbinger.
    • I pulled Pantalone/Harbinger team ^ExplanationPlayers began claiming they had finally built an all Harbinger team with Tartaglia, Wanderer, Arlecchino and Baizhu, but with Baizhu's hair edited to be black and his name very conspicuously crossed out.
• Barbara:
  • Depressed Barbara ^ExplanationFor unknown reasons, version 1.3 changed Barbara's English combat voice lines. The new ones sound noticeably less upbeat and peppy, leading to jokes and fanart about her becoming unhappy, disillusioned with being an idol, or imitating Rosaria (a fellow member of the church with a chronic devil-may-care attitude).
  • "May Barbatos forgive you, but I won't" ^ExplanationA Genshin version of the "May God forgive you, but I won't" meme, often used alongside this image of Barbara holding a gun in the style of the Skyward weapons.
• Beidou:
  • Beidou hosts Fight Club ^ExplanationPlayers have taken note of the uncanny resemblance of the Crux Clash with Fight Club.
  • Hey, check you out! Looking pretty fancy. ^Explanation Beidou's line in Lantern Rite 2022 that steals many fans of Beigguang shippers. In context, Beidou catches a glimpse of Ningguang's new outfit in this event.
• Bennett:
  • The Bennett Banner/The real 5-star is Bennett ^Explanation The character banner for Albedo in version 1.2 also had Bennett, Sucrose and Fischl as featured 4-star characters. The aforementioned three, especially Bennett, are highly sought after as good supportive characters, whereas people were skeptical about Albedo as, prior to 1.2, he was only mentioned in characters' voicelines, and the Geo element as a whole tended to be looked down upon at the time, especially after the whole Zhongli fiasco. Said meme also made a comeback during Keqing's banner, given that not only is she available in the permanent banner, she's not even a 5-star that many are interested in, some even outright calling her "the worst 5-star". Bennett was, of course, one of the featured 4-star characters, alongside Ningguang and Barbara.
    • Bennett is a 6-star ^ExplanationBecause Bennett is considered to be one of the best characters in the game despite him being a 4-star character (even being considered to be better than a good amount of 5-star characters), fans sometimes joke that Bennett is secretly a 6-star character.
    • Bennett is the Pyro Archon ^ExplanationFollowing up with the above, Bennett could easily be said to be on-par with, if not more powerful than, the actual gods.
  • Bennett's bad luck ^ExplanationDue to Bennett's canonically bad luck, when Bennett is brought up in many non-gameplay related scenarios, fans often imagine his bad luck manifesting in silly ways.
• Candace:
  • Who's Candace? Candace Nuts- ^ExplanationThere is a "What's a Henway?" joke on the internet involving someone asking "who's Candace?" and replying with "Candace nuts fit in your mouth". Fans were quick to make the connection to the gag. Cyno and Nilou were also revealed with her but have been seen in previous promotions, so one would ask who she is which sets up someone to deliver the punchline. It also set a record for fastest Discredited Meme in the game, as the joke appearing on every single post featuring Candace led to fans getting sick of it and mocking it mere hours after her announcement.
  • MOOOOOM! Phineas and Ferb are overthrowing Celestia!^ExplanationDue to sharing a name, Candace has been memed as Candace from ''Phineas and Ferb''. Since Dottore is a mad scientist who is one of the main antagonists in Sumeru's story arc, he has also been depicted as Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
  • Millenium Candace^ExplanationCandace's shield has led to obvious comparisons with Yu-Gi-Oh!.
  • Kan-da-ke^ExplanationAfter the nauseatingly plentiful "Who's Candace?" jokes, fans took to intentionally mispronouncing her as "Kan-da-ke" in revolt.
• Charlotte:
  • This is going into my cringe compilation. ^ExplanationBorrowing from a wider meme, Charlotte is said to use her kamera to take pictures of other people's embarrassing moments to keep for posterity.
  • Charlotte's sniper camera ^ExplanationPlayer's quickly found a bug where Charlotte's camera effectively have infinite range, with one user even stating that he sniped someone from Sumeru all the way from Mondstadt. As such, jokes propped up on Charlotte being armed with a Lethal Joke Weapon and that her camera is actually a military-grade sniper rifle.
  • The Zoom Lens ^ExplanationCharlotte's Elemental Skill, allows her to enter photo mode while moving when the corresponding item the "Specialist Analysis Zoom Lens" is active, players who have both Charlotte and the Zoom Lens will have a fun time taking pictures especially mid-battle against bosses.
    • Charlotte in Co-op ^ExplanationSpeaking of bosses, players thought it would be funny to join other players in co-op as Charlotte just to take pictures of others fighting bosses.
• Chevreuse:
  • Sirin, is that you? ^ExplanationWithin minutes of her reveal, fans noted Chevreuse's strong resemblance to Sirin of Genshin's sister game, with similarly-styled purple hair as well as both using fire as their primary damage type. It didn't take long for Chevreuse to be labelled the "Sirinface" of the game.
    • Pom-Pom, is that you? ^ExplanationAn extension of the earlier meme due to how Chevreuse's attire looks remarkably similar to the conductor of the Astral Express.
  • The First American Genshin Character/"I Own a Musket for Home Defense" ^ExplanationDue to being the first Genshin character to wield a gun in splash art/drip marketing, players joked about Chevreuse being American. Combine that with the 4.3 livestream that reveals her love of junk food. Memes tend to caricature her as trigger-happy, with her weapon choice leading to references to the "since that's what the founding fathers intended" copypasta.
  • "BOOM! HEADSHOT!" ^ExplanationSince Chevreuse's gun has an aiming reticule that makes her weapon incredibly accurate, compilation videos emerged of players headshotting enemies with ridiculous damage.
• Chiori
  • Genderbent Zhongli ^ExplanationAs soon as Chiori was revealed in the 4.3 Special Program trailer, fans immediately started joking about how she looked like a female version of Zhongli, and that perhaps she is even a gender-bend of him due to his past history where he's sometimes posed as a woman.
    • Zhongli's daughter ^ExplanationAs an alternative to the above, some have joked that Chiori is Zhongli's illegitimate child due to her resemblance to him.
  • Chiori's shoes ^ExplanationFans took note of the unusual design of Chiori's shoes, where there is a lack of a heel touching the ground, and empty space between the base of Chiori's leg and the shoe sole, resulting in fans joking on how she is able to walk or stand in them without falling; alternatively, fans would even have the shoe used in a mundane way, like popping open a soda bottle. Contrary to what one may think however, shoes like these do exist in real life, often called "heelless shoes", and the wearer can avoid tripping or falling by keeping their gravity balanced towards their center.
  • "Has anyone ever taught you... the definition of stupidity?" ^{Explanation (spoilers for Chiori's Story Quest)}Chiori says this word-for-word when she first confronts Uther over sending goons after Kirara. Players quickly joked about how she was quoting Vaas's "Did I ever tell you... the definition of insanity?" line from Far Cry 3.
  • The role model of retail workers ^ExplanationChiori is (in)famous for her intolerance towards unruly and belligerent customers, and will not hesitate to teach them a lesson should they test her patience. For players who have experience working at retail, they happily praised Chiori for doing what they wish they could do.
• Chongyun:
  • Reptilian Chongyun ^ExplanationEver since the reveal of the vishap people theory, players have been making joke theories about characters with vertical pupils such as Chongyun being reptilians. This was further expanded to other types of eye designs, such as Hu Tao being a regisvine due to her flower shaped pupils.
  • Delicious! ^ExplanationA screenshot of Chongyun from the Waterborne Poetry event, depicting him with starry eyes and eagerly exclaiming the aforementioned word after trying one of Diona's drinks, has become a reaction image used for expressing enjoyment of a character who may or may not have a niche appeal from a gameplay standpoint, but is aesthetically pleasing, particularly in a fanservice-y way.
• Clorinde:
  • Clorinde's shirt ^ExplanationA snapshot taken from the 4.0 Special Program showed the buttons on Clorinde's shirt straining to contain her ample bosom. This quickly blew up into meme material, with various artworks that show her buttons popping off or otherwise showing a considerable gap. Additionally, during Neuvillette's character quest, Clorinde goes with a Melusine to a clothing store where she claims she has to get her own clothes custom-fit, adding fuel to the memes.
  • Please crush me too ^ExplanationDuring the battle with the Gardemeks, Clorinde destroys one of the mechanical soldiers with a flying head scissors◊. Seeing this has led to many players wanting Clorinde to do the same to them due to her luscious thighs.
  • How's Clorinde going to help?/"lAsT lInE oF dEfEnSe" ^{Explanation (Spoilers for Fontaine Archon Quest!)}Near the climax of Chapter IV Act 4, the gate sealing off the Primordial Sea bursts. After an action sequence, Wriothesley and Clorinde are able to temporarily keep the Water of the Primordial Sea frozen behind three blast doors, and Clorinde claims that they are the "last line of defense" until Neuvillette arrives. Viewers quickly questioned how Clorinde, as an Electro vision holder with a firearm, could do anything meaningful to stop the Water of the Primordial Sea and contribute to the "last line of defense", as opposed to Wriothesley, a Cryo vision holder, who can repeatedly freeze the Water of the Primordial Sea to buy time.
  • "I am Clorinde, Blade of Fontaine..." ^ExplanationClorinde's drip marketing highlights that "she has never once known defeat in a duel." Players very quickly noted how this specific phrasing bears uncanny parallels to the Badass Boast of a certain Elden Ring superboss...
• Collei:
  • Collei went to therapy ^ExplanationWith how upbeat and cheerful Collei is shown to be in game compared to her Troubling Unchildlike Behavior from the webcomic, fans have joked about how she received therapy prior to her appearance in the game.
  • Protect Collei at all costs! ^ExplanationBecause of Collei's sweet personality, innocence and PTSD from the manga, the majority of Genshin players felt overprotective of Collei; becoming pretty upset if anyone attempted to lewd her.
  • Dendro Amber ^ExplanationDue to Collei's admiration and respect of the Outrider, who while having a terrible kit in-game is admittedly very strong lore-wise and is very loving and dependable, and Collei's own tragic backstory and cheerful personality, fans took to calling her after her idol unironically.
  • Don't let Collei see this ^ExplanationCollei is the first character to use the word "cringe" in game, in response to light novels that remind her of her past. Therefore, "Don't let Collei see this" has become a common response phrase to someone posting something cringeworthy.
  • Collei invented the bra ^ExplanationOut of the many female characters who wear a Sexy Backless Outfit, Collei is so far the only one to wear what looks like a bra underneath. While justified (otherwise she'd be showing some Sideboob), fans were quick to run with the joke that Collei is responsible for the creation of the bra in the world of Teyvat.
  • Collei-<Madlibs Catchphrase> ^ExplanationCyno using Collei's name in his puns brings a good amount of similar sounding words and phrases with "Collei" being implemented in some form such as Collei-doscope, Collei-gue, Bro-Collei among others.
• Cyno:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh Memes^ExplanationWith the release of the 3.1 trailer and the confirmation of a Genshin trading card game, combine with the heavy Egyptian theme and voicelines that confirm that Cyno is a TCG-addict. A cavalcade of memes came pouring out linking Cyno with nearly every single Yu-Gi-Oh meme. Moreover, memes with Cyno and Candace playing Yu-Gi-Oh also became popular ever since the reveal.
  • r/ThanksCyno/"Found Cyno's Account" ^ExplanationDue to Cyno's tendency to make "dad jokes" and then explain them, Reddit users will use the above to respond to comments making terrible puns or providing superfluous explanation for irony in a similar fashion to r/woooosh. However, some users actually call on Cyno to help with a joke explanation if they genuinely don't get it, leading to the user positively linking the subreddit. And yes, that subreddit is real.
  • Scarabs^ExplanationCyno's ascension local specialty are Scarabs, which are probably the most annoying local specialty in the game to farm. They spawn singly, are widely scattered, do not glint, are well-camouflaged, and can get scared off by stray attacks, causing them to temporarily burrow underground. To make things worse, there are only 76 Scarab spawns, with approximately 40% gated behind the "Golden Slumber" questline, while Cyno needs 168 for full ascension. Because the Scarabs debuted at the same time with Cyno, the player cannot prefarm them days in advance to mitigate their scarcity. As such, the only way to get Scarabs faster is to also harvest them from other players' worlds. Cue Cyno users frantically sending out co-op requests to find worlds where the host will let them collect Scarabs and players with signatures expressing exasperation at Scarab collectors.
  • Razor but faster ^ExplanationThis is how fans see Cyno's playstyle.
  • Cyno's Dad Jokes^ExplanationSince he carries around a corny joke book and he is unable to tell funny jokes to others, it's common to find some lame puns told by Cyno, usually with Tighnari having to put up with him.
• Dehya:
  • "Shut it, Paimon."^ExplanationOne of Dehya's lines during the Sumeru Archon Quest. It became trending since she tells Paimon to shut up, a sentiment shared by the vast majority of the playerbase.
  • Xinyan's big sis/The cooler Xinyan ^ExplanationWhen fans saw Dehya's physical design, fans joked how she looks similar to Xinyan, what with both girls being dark-skinned Pyro Vision holders specializing in the claymore .
  • "No no no no. I am the Downgrade!" ^ExplanationA borrowed crossover meme with The Boys franchise, this one is used by people expressing dismay at Dehya's kit turning out to be... subpar, to the point some have even called her the worst 5* character, taking the throne away from Qiqi (the previous holder of this title). As such, we have this meme, where instead of Dehya traditionally calling herself as the 'upgrade' like in the original meme, she calls herself the downgrade.
    • Dehya vs Hydro Slime ^ExplanationAnother meme poking fun at Dehya's expense, but during Dehya's promotional video meant to showcase her skills, the level 90 Dehya was struggling to deal sufficient damage on a level 70 Hydro Slime. This was with Dehya already unleashing her elemental burst whilst being supported by other characters. The fact that Dehya, in her own promo, failed to kill one of the most common enemies in the game - let alone a under-leveled one - further catapulted her to clown status. It didn't take long for such memes to snowball into an avalanche.
    • Dehya was actually telling the truth ^ExplanationIn the Sumeru Archon Quest, Dehya claimed she had no actual combat skills while Staging the Eavesdrop to lure eavesdropping radicals into ambushing her. When Dehya was released and turned out to be a Low-Tier Letdown, players started joking that Dehya was actually telling the truth, but no one believed her when she warned her fanbase about her terrible damage capabilities.
    • Dehya, the second coming of uniter of the Genshin fandom.^ExplanationBecause of her performance, almost everyone, regardless of how much they regard the "meta", collectively agreed that her kit has been done a terrible injustice. Being a highly anticipated and beloved character only fueled the fire. Hilariously, this isn't the only time the Genshin Fandom has banded together over a Sumeru character- that was done earlier for Nahida, though that is for a different reason.
    • Fix Dehya^Explanation a common hashtag to see in the comments of Mihoyo posts by disgruntled Dehya fans over her kit remaining in its suboptimal state since her release.
  • Dehya is UNKILLABLE/AFK Dehya ^ExplanationA joke build pairs Dehya with the Ocean-Hued Clam artifact set (which can use Dehya's auto-healing ability to deal damage). The result is that she can kill bosses without using any attacks, sometimes even without player input.
  • "Your mommy teach you that?"^ExplanationHer "Light hit taken" voiceline is her mocking her opponents, by sarcastically asking if their mother taught them how to fight. Cue jokes of her insulting their opponents' mothers, with Scaramouche being a frequent target of said insult.
  • "We don't deserve Nahida." (Spoilers for the Sumeru Archon Quest)^Explanation A voiceline by Dehya, specifically "About Lesser Lord Kusanali", additionally referring to the sages has her point out that she was "too good to them". Considering exactly what they put Nahida through, alongside being overly excessive with the previous Dendro Archon, bitches, douchebags, assholes, and being hypocritical? Nahida could've easily done worse, but due to her kind nature, she simply decided to exile them. Many players have pointed out that for what has been done to her, Nahida was far too kind towards Sumeru & The Akedemiya as a whole.
  • Genshin subreddit Rule #11 ^ExplanationAnytime someone tries to bring up a discussion topic about Dehya on the Genshin Impact subreddit, regardless of how well thought-out it is or what it's about, the moderators are quick to delete it, citing "Post Quality" or "Repetitive Topics". This has turned into something of a joke on Reddit.
  • Dehya is in the wrong game... ^ExplanationFu Xuan of Honkai: Star Rail has a skillset that's fairly similar to Dehya's own skillset, namely, damage redirection, mitigation, and a self-heal when dropping below a certain HP threshold. However, the turn-based nature of Star Rail makes Fu Xuan's defensive skillset significantly more crucial and powerful, while the open world nature of Genshin makes Dehya's defensive skillset not nearly as powerful or even needed to begin with. Fans of Dehya lament that she was made for the wrong game, noting how she would be much more powerful and viable if she were in Star Rail instead.
• Diluc
  • "Time for... retribution!"^ExplanationOne of Diluc's Pre Mortem One Liners when he uses his Elemental Burst. Expect this line to pop up whenever there's another situation where it would be appropriate for him to say this.
  • Jean's Beach Attire ^ExplanationMany fans accuse Diluc of visiting the Golden Apple Archipelago, not because of the Abyss Order, but because he wanted to see Jean wear her summer clothes.
  • Diluc is Batman^ExplanationBoth characters are dark vigilantes who wear black clothes, lost their parents, and are rich.
  • "El Señor de la Noche~"^ExplanationThe song by Reggaeton artist Don Omar, which describes a man who goes out at night. Related to the "Diluc is Batman" meme above, it's common occurrence between the Hispanic community to edit Diluc being a badass to the lyrics of the song. A translation of the chorus:
    The lord of the night
    I’m half man, half animal
    The lord of the night
    Better escape or he’ll kill you
    The lord of the night
    You shouldn’t play with your heart
  • Diluc's eyes/model ^ExplanationBeing among the earliest playable characters released in the game, a common criticism of his design is that his eyes take up too much of his face. As time went by and more male characters were released, people made fun of his model/profile art for being outdated.
• Diona:
  • "KONO DIONA!" ^ExplanationFans of JoJo had a field day with the first three letters of Diona's name, resulting in superimposed edits of Diona's body but with Dio Brando's memetic face and line, such as this fanart. Usually used in the context of Childe's banner, which she also appears in; "You thought you'd get Childe, but IT WAS ME, DIONA!"
• Dori:
  • Doricoins ^ExplanationAfter Dori was shown and description of her being a scammer and cheapskate was revealed on her character bio, memes and jokes exploded on Dori using 'Doricoins' (in reference to the real-world cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin) as a way to potentially scam the Traveler and other characters off their profits.
  • Smug Dori ^ExplanationWhen the animated teaser trailer for Update 3.0/Sumeru Update was released, a scene of Dori looking unfathomably smug blew up as a giant meme template, as players liken her to Yae Miko, another super smug character in Genshin.
  • DESU WAAAAAAA! ^ExplanationDori's JP character tic often has her heavily emphasizing this phrase in the end of nearly every single sentence. Fans of Dori immediately begin mimicking her talking style because they find it unique and funny.
  • Beast VIII Dori^ExplanationDori's hilarious gremlin Japanese voice is thanks to Tomoko Kaneda, who also happens to voice Riyo Gudako of Learning with Manga! FGO infamy. If you're aware of who Riyo Gudako is, be afraid, for the true evil of Fate/Grand Order has invaded Teyvat, and she wants your Mora. And your primogems too.
• Eula:
  • Sneezing ^ExplanationTowards the end of Eula's promo video, she sneezes because Jean is talking about her behind her back (she's praising her, but Eula assumes Jean is talking bad about her). Many people found this cute and half-jokingly announced they would wish for her because of it.
  • End-User License Agreement^Explanation As soon as Eula's existence was revealed by leaks, people noticed the similarity between her name and the EULA acronym. People would occasionally call her "End-User License Agreement" to censor her name from people avoiding spoilers.
  • Eula's milk ^Explanation During Eula's Story Quest, she gives Paimon a glass of "Warm Milk" while the player is on Dragonspine, aka the coldest location in the game. The fans practically ran with it.
  • Vengeance will be mine. ^ExplanationEula's Character Catchphrase, expect this quote to inevitably come up whenever discussion about Eula starts.
  • Eula's thighs ^Explanation A little bit NSFW, but part of Eula's popularity is due to her outfit really highlighting her thighs; with massive indentations on her legs due to her thigh straps and leggings. Jokes amongst Eula fans on how badly they want to have their heads crushed by Eula's thighs due to how thick and long they are.
  • Eula is both Waifu and Husbando ^ExplanationDue to her asymmetrical hairstyle, fans joked how Eula can simultaneously be a fan's Waifu and Husbando, and you can choose one when looking at her directly from the side, with her Waifu side having long hair and her breasts and hair accessories being visible, while her Husbando side having short hair and her breasts obstructed by her cape, and can even pass off as a pretty boy when viewed from that side.
  • Eula locked in HoYoverse jail ^ExplanationWhen version 3.6 rolled around, Eula had dethroned Hu Tao as the limited 5★ character with the longest period of time without a rerun to date; to compare, Hu Tao's absence from version 2.2 to 3.4 was about 1 year and 2 months long; by the time her own rerun was finally announced for 3.8, Eula had approximately a 1 year and 7 months absence (or 13 versions, almost twice as long as Klee's absence of 8 versions). The joke became much more apparent when 3.5 banners were announced; Eula was not chosen as a rerun candidate despite Mika (a Cryo character who is a physical damage support and has close ties to Eula lore-wise) making his playable debut; to rub salt on the wound, all three rerun characters (Cyno, Ayaka, Shenhe) will have gotten rate-ups twice after Eula's big absence since November 2021, with the most blatant one being Cyno's rerun (Ayaka and Shenhe's are justified, due to their long absence, especially the latter), as he only just joined the roster since version 3.1, taking up a rerun spot when Eula is the one 5★ character who is significantly far overdue for a rerun. This resulted in jokes at Eula's expense where she gets shafted continually by HoYoverse and remains locked up by them, and the joke continued to become further pronounced after 3.5, where every rerunning 5★ character were those who already had rate ups during Eula's absence.
    • Eula will rerun when [x] releases ^ExplanationSome fans took the pleasure of exaggerating Eula's long hiatus from the Wishes by joking that she'll get her next rerun when future regions get released, like Fontaine and Natlan. Some took it even further and say she'll get her rerun when Celestia (a location that has not been confirmed as a accessible area by Hoyoverse despite its plot significance) is released.
    • "Sharing my Genshin OC" ^ExplanationEula's absence has led to jokes about Eula simply not existing, involving a user posting Eula's Splash Art, with a caption explaining that they are sharing an original character.
    • We have Eula at 3.5; Eula in 3.5: ^ExplanationIn a twisted irony towards Eula not rerunning in version 3.5, Eula's TCG card makes a debut in the game as opposed to her banner returning.
    • Unreleased character/NPC Eula ^ExplanationSome fans decide to take the joke of Eula not getting reruns by pretending she's not even a playable character to begin with, quipping that they hope she gets "released as a playable character soon".
    • The Useless Cryo Hypostasis ^ExplanationThe Cryo Hypostasis is a boss used for the ascension of only two characters, Eula and Aloy. Aloy is no longer obtainable, while Eula was not rerun for more than 1 year and a half and returned into a meta where her niche (Physical damage) was badly outclassed. To add insult to injury, Mika, a Mondstadt Cryo character, doesn't use the Cryo Hypostasis' drops. Thus, the boss has reached Memetic Loser status due to it being effectively pointless.
    • 500 days ^ExplanationOn April 27, 2023, Eula hit a milestone of going 500 days (and counting) without getting a rerun, the longest hiatus of any non-standard 5★ character in the game, which some fans believing such milestone deserves a celebration.
    • HoYoverse hates Eula because of her bloodline ^ExplanationStory-wise Eula was ostracized by the people of Mondstadt due to her being a descendant of the despised Lawrence clan. While this comes across as a Tear Jerker, some fans jokes that the real reason she didn't get a rerun in over a year is that even HoYoverse hated Eula simply because of her bloodline.
• Faruzan:
  • Hatsune Miku in Genshin Impact?!^ExplanationFaruzan's hairstyle is mint green twintails. As soon as her design was revealed, many fans compared her to the titular Vocaloid.
  • Faruzan, Xiao's Lord and Saviour^ExplanationFor almost two years, Anemo DPS characters, Xiao in particular, lacked a dedicated Anemo support. Suffice to say, Faruzan's appearance was a godsend to Xiao mains.
• Fischl:
  • Blocks of text ^Explanation Fischl is known for speaking in long lines of dialogue, containing verbose and unnecessary literary stylistic devices. The Oceanid is also known to be the only overworld boss to have lines of dialogue throughout the boss fight. Players have often expressed annoyance at the Oceanid's dialogue. This caused the players to post images that have large blocks of text next to Fischl and the Oceanid. The weapon Elegy for the End also became infamous for its ludicrously long effect description, and pops up in memes alongside them.
    • 2.3 Artifacts ^Explanation Jokes about the blocks of text have resurfaced with the newly announced artifact sets for Version 2.3. Players have taken note of how the descriptions for artifacts have increasingly gotten longer throughout versions.
    • Wordy NPCs ^ExplanationPlayers frequently joke about NPCs being very wordy and having their dialogue skipped by the Traveler who just wants to do their quest as fast as possible and collect the rewards.
  • Fischl is a Stand User.^ExplanationHer raven familiar Oz appeared out of nowhere when Fischl got her Vision, and is implied to be a physical manifestation of her power. Fischl also likes to pose ostentatiously, just like all Stand Users.
  • Me and mein Fraulein at 2am looking for beans ^ExplanationOne of Fischl's stories has Oz sharing a meal with her family and enjoying the beans served. The fanbase wouldn't have found it funny if not for beans being a highly meme-able food.
  • Fallen Rosemary ^Explanation When Fischl's new alternate Skin was revealed, people have noted how similar it looked to Rita Rossweisse's "Fallen Rosemary" Battlesuit, leading to people joking that Rita helped Fischl with the outfits design.
    • *Insert Spider-Man pointing meme or Persona 4 music here* ^ExplanationOne of the spoilers that occurred in Fischl's mirage without context.
• Freminet:
  • The Bell redemption arc ^ExplanationThe Bell is normally considered a barely useful claymore, but Freminet's official splash art◊ shows him using it. Players are hopeful for a character that will finally make good use of the weapon... then it turns out he doesn't scale with HP at all, putting The Bell in shambles once more.
• Furina/Focalors:
  • 💢💢💢"Bratty Child!"💢💢💢 ^ExplanationAn application of "Needs Correction" meme from r/japanesepeopletwitter based on the various descriptions of Furina as a bratty Drama Queen with massive mood swings. Memes exploded on turning her into a Womanchild or The Napoleon. However, with the last act of Chapter IV's reveal that Furina's pompous personality was her agonizingly lengthy facade as the Hydro Archon in a plan to save her population, the meme mostly died down.
    • Furina corrected the fanbase ^ExplanationFurina's backstory caused many of her would-be-correctors to instead become her most ardent protectors, "becoming corrected" in a sense.
  • Furina is the entire circus/Furina Aqua memes ^ExplanationFurina's constant string of fails, chuuni personality, and smug ego have turned her into the series' primary clown character, which is one hell of a feat given the existence of Paimon. It comes to the point that comparing her to Aqua is more than apt, with some lamenting that she's not voiced by Aqua's voice actresses, even if the current actresses did a great job as her..
  • Useless Goddess^ExplanationOnce Acts 1 and 2 of the Fontaine's Archon Quest came out, it didn't take long for certain fans to compare Furina to Konosuba's Aqua for both her association with water, being the Hydro Archon, and the obvious signs that she's not as confident and powerful as she likes to act.
  • Kicking someone out from the Archons-only Team ^ExplanationWith Furina's playable debut, the playable Archons roster is bumped up to five. For players who like to field "Archons-only" teams consisting of Venti, Zhongli, Raiden Ei, and Nahida, they jokingly dread that someone is getting the boot for Furina to participate.
  • Flat is justice! / Justice is flat! ^ExplanationFurina's young, boyish appearance, coupled with her being the God of Justice, made jokes about her being flat-chested an inevitability. Some fanart also portrays her as having A-Cup Angst.
  • It's Cryover! / It's Kokover! ^ExplanationAs soon as Furina was revealed to be able to infinitely walk on water using her Elemental Skill during the 4.2 livestream, players commented that she just powercrept all Cryo ice-bridgers and Kokomi, who could walk on water using her burst (that has a hefty 70 energy cost).
  • Furina REALLY needs a hug.^{Explanation (massive story spoilers!)}Chapter IV, Act V reveals the truth behind Furina, namely that she's the human half of the actual Focalors and was instructed by her divine half to impersonate her as part of her plan to avert the prophecy that would doom Fontaine. Furina had to put up a facade of being a haughty Miles Gloriosus to deflect any suspicion of her not being the real Archon for 500 years straight with no breaks whatsoever lest she end up causing the prophecy to happen, causing her immense mental and emotional strain in the process. The sheer pain and agony that Furina had to suffer through alone all this time had singlehandedly changed the community's perspective of her, from a bratty useless Archon, to a horribly depressed and broken girl who really, REALLY needs a friend to lean on.
  • Mademoiselle Crabaletta has no chill ^ExplanationFurina's summons attack enemies while draining the party's health. Though in the open world, they will attack literally anything, from cooking pots to pneumousia orbs... and continue draining health while doing so. Furina's summons thus got Blood Knight or Memetic Psychopath representations. Mademoiselle Crabaletta, being the only melee summon and the hardest-hitting of the three, tends to be depicted as the most Memetic Badass.
  • Focalors Requiem ^{Explanation (massive story spoilers!)} The Batman Gambit from Chapter IV, Act V has propelled Furina/Focalors to Lelouche-levels of Just as Planned, with many calling this chapter to be one of the best in the game.
  • "Anyway - so then I cursed her." ^{Explanation (massive story spoilers!)}How casually Focalors drops this line has caught many players off guard. Expect this line to be quoted in various situations for Black Comedy.
  • Furina SUS! ^{Explanation (massive story spoilers!)}The reveal that Furina was an impostor of Focalors inevitably gave way to various Among Us memes.
  • Macaroni ^ExplanationIn her Story Quest, Furina tells the Traveler that she's only been eating macaroni with different sauces for weeks and one of her voicelines has her choosing a sauce for dinner. The fandom quickly latched on to this as jokes about her being a One-Note Cook for macaroni spread like wildfire.
  • Focalors dancing ^{Explanation (massive story spoilers!)}The scene of Focalors dancing before her execution is a huge tearjerker, but it also instantly gave birth to many fan animations of her dancing silly dances in front of Neuvillette while a literal Sword of Damocles floats over her head for Black Comedy.
  • Best Actress/Best Director^{Explanation (spoilers for Fontaine Quest Act V)}The real Focalors devised a cunning plan to save Fontaine by separating her divinity (Focalors) from her humanity (Furina) and was successful in deceiving the heavenly principles for 500 years. Since she fooled everyone, even the players, and the Archon Quest is agreed to be one of the best in the game, photoshops of them holding the best actress/best director awards in their hands or pasting their faces on the award podiums (sometimes alongside fellow best actor Alhaitham) spread around.
  • Furina winning the Furina award ^Explanation During the 4.3 Roses and Muskets event, the first prize for the Fontinalia Film Festival is a Furina trophy and Paimon points out it would be funny if Furina, who is helping Xavier's team as the director, wins the trophy that's named after her. Cue the event ending with Xavier's film winning and Furina awkwardly holding the Furina award in the group photo, with everyone comparing this to the Obama medal meme.
  • Hydro Miorine ^ExplanationOnce Furina's design was revealed, a lot of people couldn't help noticing her white hair and ahoge made her a dead ringer for Miorine Rembran, the deuteragonist of the newest Gundam series that had concluded its run the same year Fontaine was released. This caused a surge of art of the two meetings, dressing up as each other, or Suletta (the series' protagonist) ending up confusing the two
  • Nilou's rival ^ExplanationFurina and Nilou are both medium height, hydro sword users who dance and entertain people on stage, thus comparison between them ensues.
  • Furina doesn't want a pipe ^ExplanationThe "Fleuve Cendre Ferryman" is a F2P 4-star sword with the ability to increase elemental skill CRIT rate while also boosting energy recharge, which is ironically made for Furina. Fans ran with it by giving her a rusty old pipe over her much preferred and more fancier signature 5-star weapon.
    • Furina catalyst ^ExplanationDuring Furina's first banner which is run alongside Baizhu's rerun banner, some players who are pulling for Furina's signature weapon, the "Splendor Of Tranquil Waters." Ended up getting Baizhu's signature weapon, the "Jadefall's Splendor," especially for players who got Furina during the banner period.

Playable Characters (G - L)

• Gaming:
  • Gamer jokes ^ExplanationThe moment his name is revealed to be "Gaming", a slew of "Gamer" jokes started popping up, even though his name is pronounced "Ga-ming" and not "Gae-ming". Some even put a video game controller emoji 🎮 alongside his name.
    • Cloud Gaming ^ExplanationAn apt descriptor for version 4.4, its new characters being Cloud Retainer and Gaming.
    • Ga Ming ^ExplanationSimilar to the "Kan-da-ke" trend in response to "Candace Nuts" jokes, players fed up of "Gamer" puns will insist on spelling Gaming's name as two words, even though such spelling is normally reserved for surname+monosyllabic first name in Chinese.
  • Dr. Ratio's rival ^ExplanationSince Gaming's drip marketing came out soon after the announcement of Dr. Ratio being a free character, players joked that a character named Gaming was the Genshin dev team's response to getting L+Dr. Ratioed by the Honkai: Star Rail character named after the L+Ratio meme.
  • Dad, why is my sister named Rose? ^ExplanationA throwback to an internet joke where a hypothetical son asks his father that question, receiving the answer that their mother likes roses, before revealing he also is named after something the father likes, in this case the activity of gaming.
  • gamingletsplay ^ExplanationA series of images found on the unofficial Genshin Impact Interactive Map in Chenyu Vale, where images presented as YouTube thumbnails alongside clickbaity titles that have little to do with the items they are attached to are presented us having been uploaded by a headset wearing Gaming for his channel.
• Ganyu:
  • "Luxurious Chest" ^ExplanationOne of Ganyu's voice lines has her ask whether you would rate her as a Luxurious Chest or Common Chest. While she's clearly using the types of Inexplicable Treasure Chests as an analogy for the quality of her work performance, many players found it more amusing to treat this as a reference to her breasts. In particular as a veiled case of A-Cup Angst compared to other Liyue characters like Ningguang and especially Beidou who have larger chests than she does.
  • Eating Qingxin flowers ^ExplanationQingxin flowers are one of the items required to "ascend" her to higher level caps. It's mentioned in one of her voice lines that she eats them, even though most people in Teyvat don't consider them edible since they're very bitter. She can frequently be seen eating the flowers in fanart.
  • Thicc ^ExplanationA common joke about Ganyu is about her having a large rear. This was because of her story that talks about how her waistline is what caused a monster to choke to death while swallowing her and Cloud Retainer telling stories about how she was a fat baby.
  • Ganyu's Rear/Milk ^ExplanationTrue to her nickname, NSFW memes exploded due to Ganyu's similarities with Qiqi's hunt for the legendary Cocogoat adeptibeast. Expect memes insinuating or highlighting Ganyu's breastmilk. If fans aren't talking about Ganyu's chest, they will most likely talk about Ganyu's other assets. Often being linked to the abovementioned Thicc meme which exaggerates or jokes about Ganyu's butt; usually with Ganyu stripped to nothing but her leotard and tights to further highlight the point.
  • Ganyu plush ^Explanation This bizarre plushie of Ganyu has become very memetic, with people either finding it terrifying or Ugly Cute.
    • Quaso ^Explanation A Fan Nickname of the Ganyu plush on Reddit due to a "quaso" meme of Keqing and the Ganyu plush.
  • Ganyu's Horns ^ExplanationGanyu was shown to have sensitive horns during the 4.4 Lantern Rite event. In particular, the sound she made in the Japanese dub when Shenhe poured some minty liquid on them was considered so adorable that it was bound to be memed.
• Gorou:
  • Favourite [X]?/Gorou got kidnapped by Yae ^ExplanationA post on the Genshin Impact subreddit asking which was everyone's favorite Geo character left out Gorou, leading to a slew of posts asking what everyone's favorite character is from a category Gorou is a part of, always leaving him out. Some even included his character background, but edited Gorou himself out, leaving nothing but a blank slide. Rather humorously, this coincided with his appearance in the Version 4.5 Alchemical Ascension Event, leading to many asking who this previously unseen dog was.
• Hu Tao:
  • WHO TAO? ^ExplanationOriginating from the official English Twitter account as a response to someone who comments about Hu Tao on the announcement of Version 1.3's trailer. Hu Tao, The Unseen character who is Zhongli's boss in the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, is very popular with the fans despite her lack of screentime due to the Content Leak about her design, voice lines, and gameplay info. In particular, leaked info said that she would be coming in 1.3 along with Xiao. Then the trailer came out, which shows only Xiao as a new playable character as well as Keqing getting her own story quest and her own rate-up banner after Xiao. Hu Tao was nowhere to be seen or mentioned in the trailer. Her fans, naturally, reacted with different levels of disappointment; many jokes then popped up about her absence, such as parodying the "Why's Gamora" meme from Avengers: Infinity War, how Qiqi is happy that Hu Tao isn't released (yet), how she is actually pranking her own fans, or changing the "Lumine going away from Aether" scene with her in place of Lumine, etc. She was eventually released later on in 1.3, however.
  • Hu Tao says Explosion^ExplanationDue to Hu Tao sharing a Japanese voice actress with Megumin, there have been numerous fanarts and edits of Hu Tao casting Explosion.
  • You've been pranked! ^ExplanationDuring Hu Tao's story quest, she performs an exorcism to lift a person's curse. Once the exorcism is done, however, she reveals that the person was pranked, that the exorcism was just an act, and the curse was most likely just a general illness. Expect the line to show up when, well, someone gets pranked.
  • Healing Hu Tao ^ExplanationHu Tao's kit relies on keeping her health low which in turn boosts her damage. A common way to troll Hu Tao players in co-op is to heal her back to full health before she does it herself with her burst. Plenty of memes and fan art like to depict Qiqi being the one to heal her as payback for her mistreatment.
  • Who? Tao, yeah. ^...what?A commonly referenced video from around the character's initial release featured various mobs and bosses from the game talking about "the newly released 5-star" in such a manner. It crops up quite often in threads as a chain of replies where Hu Tao is the subject.
  • Business is booming! ^ExplanationWhenever there is a shitpost or a meme based or jokingly implied on an in-character death. Expect memes on Hu Tao budging in and saying this infamous quote.
  • Hu Tao is busy raising money in collabs to cover Zhongli's expenses^ExplanationAs of version 3.2, Hu Tao is the character who has had the longest gap between reruns; she and Eula are also the only pre-2022 limited 5-star characters who didn't rerun in 2022. Additionally, excluding her story quest, she also didn't appear in any quests or events other than a short cameo during the 2022 Lantern Rite until version 3.4, where she's set to be rerun after over a year of absence. In contrast, she has been featured in numerous merch collabs, the most notable one being a Hu Tao-themed One Plus phone. Players started joking that Hu Tao, fed up with footing Zhongli's bills with funeral parlor funds, is raising money for him by participating in real life collabs.
    • Pretending Hu Tao doesn't exist^ExplanationAn extension to the Who Tao memes above in reaction to Hu Tao's lack of reruns and in game appearances. Involves a user commenting "Who?" under a Hu Tao-related post, with other commenters answering with characters related to "Who?" memes (like Rukkhadevata and Xinyan).
  • Hu Tao is Ai ^ExplanationA meme that exploded since the anime adaptation of Oshi no Ko, in which frequent fans made comparisons and similarities between Hu Tao and Ai. Such as their unique eyes, being technically idols (Played straight for Ai) and the fact that they both share the same JP VAs. It becomes mega curse whenever fans joke on how Ai - a person who was murdered - reincarnated into Hu Tao - a funeral undertaker.
• Jean:
  • "Dandelion Tights" ^ExplanationIn a question-and-answer session, Swan of the Knights of Favonius asks you Jean's official title, and one of the answers that you can give him is "Dandelion Tights" (a pun on her title of "Dandelion Knight"). The fandom then uses this phrase a lot when Jean's fanarts or fanservice are brought up.
  • "Gale Blade = Yeet" ^Explanation Jean's Elemental Skill, Gale Blade, can pick up enemies and launch them. Cue "yeet" jokes.
• Kaedehara Kazuha:
  • "Is this your twin?" ^ExplanationAs soon as images of Kazuha were leaked fans were quick to notice the resemblance between him and the male Traveler, leading to many jokes of other characters (most commonly Beidou) presenting him to the Traveler thinking he's their missing sibling.
  • Cramped namecards ^ExplanationKazuha was the first of many characters to have his full name "Kaedehara Kazuha" used by the game rather than just Kazuha, which looks funny for many players due to the text being cramped in the party selection icon. Because Kazuha's complete name is displayed, many players have been visualizing other character's namecards in the party selection with their complete names or silly titles given such as Tone-Deaf Bard Venti, Jean Gunnhildr, or the popular The Prinzessin der Verurteilung, Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort.
  • Kazuha the dog ^ExplanationDue to Kazuha's very acute sense of smell that he sometimes likes to describe in flowery prose, fans joke that Kazuha is a glorified human dog or a creepy sniffer.
  • Kazuha is high/smokes Naku Weed^ExplanationDue to Kazuha's laidback pesonality and attunement with nature that he expresses poetically, jokes have been made about him being The Stoner, especially since he has red eyes and his skill literally enables him to jump high.
  • Shonen protagonist Kazuha^ExplanationDue to Kazuha's tragic backstory, his underdog status, his extreme importance to the plot in Inazuma, and capabilities in both parrying the Raiden Shogun's attack and fighting off a demonically-possessed sword, many fans immediately likened him to a shonen protagonist. Some people even see him as more of a main character than the Traveler themselves.
  • Archon of Hats^ExplanationA series of images (starting with this one) drawn by Xinzoruo kickstarted a trend where Kazuha steals the headwear of many playable characters in the game, getting to the point where the hats just keep stacking up on the Inazuman swordsman's head. Other fans would catch on to the joke as well and made parodies of it.
    • Kazuha wants Alhaitham's ahoge^ExplanationIn an evolution of the above meme, Xinzoruo drew a comic about Alhaitham's Idiot Hair being plucked from his head and given to Kazuha to replace the leaf that he blows on in one of his idles, which then became its own meme as the artist went on to draw Kazuha becoming obsessed with plucking Alhaitham's hair and Alhaitham avoiding Kazuha any way he can. The meme became slightly more hilarious when Kazuha and Alhaitham ended up rerunning together in the second half of version 3.7
    • Kazuha loving Fontaine^ExplanationWhen the Fontaine characters were revealed in the Overture trailer many of which wearing all sorts of fancy hats, jokes were made about Kazuha going to Fontaine to continue his hat collecting expedition.
  • A man of culture^ExplanationDuring the events of Duel! The Summoners' Summit, Hu Tao calls Kazuha "a man of culture" twice. This could easily be mixed with the meme that originated from the anime of Arakawa Under the Bridge.
• Kaeya:
  • Kaeya's journey to Inazuma ^ExplanationA popular use of Kaeya's Elemental skill is to cross large bodies of water due to its low cooldown and generous range. Upon learning about needing Beidou's ship to travel to Inazuma and seeing leaks of the region's placement on Teyvat's map, many fans joked about using Kaeya to cross the ocean on foot using his ice bridge. (As it turns out, actually trying to do this will get you struck by lightning from the perpetual storm the Raiden Shogun has put up around Inazuma.)
  • Acting Acting Grand Master ^ExplanationIn the 1.6 event, Midsummer Island Adventure, Jean puts Kaeya in charge of Mondstadt when she goes to the Golden Apple Archipelago. Since Jean, the Acting Grand Master, was put in charge by Grand Master Varka during his expedition, players have started calling Kaeya the Acting Acting Grand Master.
    • Acting Acting Acting Grand Master ^ExplanationIn Act 3 of Midsummer Island Adventure, Kaeya arrives at the Golden Apple Archipelago. He tells Jean that he put Lisa in charge.
  • Kaeya edit ^ExplanationYoutube user Blueakrasia posted a twenty-eight seconds long animation edit of Manga!Kaeya to the song ''Supermassive Black Hole''. For whatever reason, the edit became very popular to fans, to the point where they started to spam about the edit, Kaeya and/or Genshin in general on unrelated Youtube videos containing the song.
  • Kaeya and Albedo taking advantage of Jean's holiday^ExplanationAfter the announcement of the 1.6 event Midsummer Island Adventure in which Jean, Barbara and Klee go on holiday, there have been jokes about Kaeya and Albedo putting Khaenri'ah's plans into action during their absence. Made somewhat Hilarious in Hindsight when both of them appeared in the event.
  • This birthday is brought to you by Genius Invocation TCG.^ExplanationKaeya's 2022 birthday message focused on his experiences with the game more than on himself. People compared this to Youtube channels and their tendency to interrupt their videos to announce their sponsors.
  • Kaeya swimming, climbing and gliding^ExplanationTrailers for Genshin characters are known for featuring fancy editing, cinematic shots and epic, unique soundtracks. Whenever a new Genshin trailer is released, comments praising the editing will refer back to the game's very first character trailer featuring Kaeya and remark on how far Genshin has gone. In fact, said Kaeya trailer has very minimal editing, no unique soundtrack, and simply showcases Kaeya swimming, climbing and gliding (the basic exploration gameplay).
  • Balls^Explanation This◊ AI-generated realistic image of Kaeya has become a popular Twitch emote called Balls.
• Kamisato Ayaka:
  • "Where's Ayaka!?"/"Ayaka Soon?" ^ExplanationAyaka made an official (yet brief) appearance as early as the Announcement Trailer on June 2019, while the Teyvat Chapter Storyline Preview Trailer revealed her full name. The first trailer brought expectations that she was already fully-developed in terms of gameplay, but to the fandom's surprise (or disappointment), she didn't actually appear alongside the initial roster when the game launched. In a similar vein to the "Klee Doko" fan catchphrase, this led to some fans constantly asking where she is at launch, or what Version would she be added later on. Ayaka's banner eventually premiered with the 2.0 update.
  • "I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING!" ^ExplanationThe fandom usually associates Ayaka with Vergil-related Devil May Cry memes, nicknames and quotes. A common trend involves DMC fans mentioning the lyrics of his Image Song on Ayaka-related content.
  • "AYAYA" ^ExplanationA famous meme from Kiniro Mosaic ("Ayaya" became Aya's nickname after Karen misheard her when she introduced herself) that Genshin fans borrowed for Ayaka as a simple play of her name. Fans like to spam "AYAYA" comments in any media that features Ayaka.
  • Big forehead ^ExplanationDue to photo edits removing her bangs or measuring its size, many fans have been making fun of Ayaka for having a massive forehead.
  • Sea turtle ^Explanation A Redditor points out that the shadow created by Ayaka's skirt looks like a sea turtle when swimming. The joke becomes funnier to many players using her because Ayaka's sprint is used to cross large bodies of water quickly.
  • Ayaka's wet socks ^Explanation Ayaka dances for the Traveler in a body of water at the end of her personal quest. While touching, many players noticed that she kept her socks and sandals on and quickly made jokes about how uncomfortable it must be or that it's the reason Ayaka has no friends.
  • "Yandere Ayaka"/"Just Ayaka"^Explanation Due to Ayaka's desperation for a friend in her story questline, fans humorously ran with Ayaka actually being romantically desperate. This was further exaggerated with a captcha image of Ayaka's face wide eyed whilst smiling psychotically; immediately catapulting Ayaka to yandere status who is violently obsessive with the Traveler.
  • The Eternal Ayaka Banner^ExplanationWhen the launch of version 2.7 was delayed, Ayaka's 1st re-run banner ended up being extended to 240 days at the time of the announcement. While the "240 days" period is just a placeholder, a lot of people joke about Ayaka's 1st re-run banner lasting forever, which also ties in to the Yandere Ayaka/Just Ayaka meme above.
    • Ayaka is the actual God of Eternity.^ExplanationRelating to this, a bunch of people joke about Ayaka being the actual God of Eternity (and not the Raiden Shogun).
  • Kamisato Estate: Highly Dangerous ^ExplanationAnother extension to the Yandere Ayaka memes. When players first visits the Kamisato Estate, it would be highlighted as 'Highly Dangerous' (all high-level regions, including settlements with no enemies, are labelled as such, and Inazuma has a difficulty spike). This statement has now reached new levels of ridiculous due to being always paired with the aforementioned Ayaka memes; often being viewed as Ayaka's personal sex dungeon.
  • The Femboy Skin ^ExplanationAfter the reveal of Ayaka's skin, many "Medium Male" characters were◊ edited◊ into◊ the◊ skin. While this is standard behaviour for r/AlbedosCreations, these edits in particular blew up due to users commenting that all boy characters look better in the skin than Ayaka herself.
  • Free Ayaka at AR42 ^ExplanationA "leak" that was trending during Version 1.0 of the game, as many players at the time were questioning why Ayaka, a fan favourite from the game's beta test, was absent in the official release. It has now become the community's most notorious example of a fake leak, even extending to the communities of other Hoyoverse games, as a 5* being given for free is definitely too good to be true... until it was announced that in Honkai: Star Rail, the 5* Dr. Ratio would be given for free in version 1.6. A common joke is that the free Ayaka was given in another game.
  • Ayaka with a gun ^ExplanationThe main splash screen for version 4.3 depicts Ayaka holding a gun, which many fans find amusingly hilarious, especially when paired with the aforementioned "Yandere Ayaka" meme.
  • "She does exactly what I do!" "But better." ^ExplanationAyaka's alternate sprint is very similar to Mona's, but since Ayaka is a Cryo character, she can freeze bodies of water after sprinting (albeit melts a lot faster without using her skill). Comparison between the two was inevitable as fans even quoted the line from The Suicide Squad, sometimes replacing Bloodsport and Peacemaker with Mona and Ayaka respectively.
• Kamisato Ayato:
  • Ayato sus ^Explanation When Ayato was revealed to share his Japanese and Chinese voice actors with the infamous Otto Apocalypse, Honkai Impact 3rd players started joking about being immediately wary of Ayato. Helped also by the fact that Ayato himself has proven to be a crafty and even ruthless schemer himself.
  • "Ayato is part horse" ^Explanation Discord user, abc69, while replying to a fan who wanted Ayato leaks, jokingly said that he was part horse. The "leak" spread like wildfire.
  • Tabibito! Continue the Kamisato bloodline! ^ExplanationA popular joke involves Ayato trying to arrange a marriage in varying degrees of hilarity and insanity between the traveler and his sister Ayaka so that they could continue the Kamisato bloodline in a way similar to Chris Redfield and SilverAsh memes.
  • Boba Tea ^ExplanationEver since one of Ayato's idle animations was revealed, specifically the one of him pulling what appears to be a cup of boba tea out of his coat sleeve and drinking it, artists had a field day making fanart of Ayato drinking or otherwise obsessing over the stuff.
  • Childe's rival ^Explanation Likely due to Childe's status as the only full-on Hydro DPS Unit at the time and his popular pairing with the Traveler (who fan comics will use to represent players when it comes to rolling for new characters), jokes quickly abounded upon Ayato's reveal about Childe being murderously jealous of him due to the possibility of getting replaced as top Hydro DPS, which is often represented by Ayato seducing the Traveler.
  • Faceless Ayato ^Explanation A creepypasta trend originating from the Russian Genshin community on TikTok, this one features Diona encountering Ayato's rather creepy, blacked-out face with just his souless blue eyes due to a bug. Fanarts and dialogue memes may depict faceless Ayato haunting Diona from behind.
  • Inazuma Team Rocket ^Explanation Similarly to Mondstadt Team Rocket, players associated Inazuma's two resident schemers Yae and Ayato with Jessie and James of Team Rocket due to their colour schemes. Sayu, a ninja often employed in their schemes, plays the role of Meowth. After her introduction, Kirara replaces Sayu in the Meowth role due to being a feline like the Pokemon
• Kaveh:
  • "Hah, well that's a bold-faced lie..." ^ExplanationDuring the Alhaitham's Character Demo "Alhaitham: Think Before You Act", this was one of Kaveh's lines acknowledging the Feeble Scholar meme. That line was immediately turned into a popular reaction image captcha meme.
  • Kaveh being evicted or locked out of Alhaitham's house. ^ExpanationIt's become a popular meme to draw Kaveh being kicked or locked out of Alhaitham's house due to the pair's vitriolic relationship, as well as the two references Alhaitham makes to having Kaveh's housekey, which many have taken to mean that Kaveh is locked out of the house. Even after Alhaitham's Story Quest, which takes place after the stolen housekeys mention, showed Kaveh at home with no mention of the missing keys, the memes have persisted. Some even flipped it on its head and depicted Kaveh kicking Alhaitham out.
  • Kaveh's Briefcase ^ExplanationWhen Kaveh's character art was finally revealed for 3.6, fans immediately poked fun at the fact that he carries around a briefcase. Memes about the briefcase immediately shot up, from Kaveh using his briefcase as his weapon and beating enemies up with it, to comparisons to Unusual Hilichurl, who carries around a briefcase and fights with it, to him carrying unusual things like art supplies, cabbages, a spare change of clothes, and other things with it, to jokes about Kaveh posing for his character art right after being evicted from Alhaitham's house. This meme died when it was revealed that rather than being a normal suitcase, it's Kaveh's Robot Buddy called Mehrak that he uses as an additional weapon in battle alongside his claymore.
  • Kaveh’s Ass/"Feast your eyes!"^ExplanationKaveh’s character demo briefly featured an... interesting camera angle that was meant to be a close-up of his Vision (which is on his hip), but gave viewers a very close-up shot of his backside along with it. Not helping is the fact that "Feast your eyes!", one of Kaveh's combat lines, is heard shortly after. It didn’t take long for butt-related jokes and memes to pop up online afterwards.
  • Disney Princess Kaveh ^ExplanationDuring the second round of the 3.6 Interdarshan Championship event, Kaveh went out of his way to feed some desert foxes that were following him and lead them outside of the competition grounds at the risk of his safety as well as his chances of winning. Combined with his sensitive disposition, Kaveh has been dubbed as the 2nd Disney Princess after Wanderer by the fandom, and numerous art of him hanging out with the desert foxes has popped up since.
  • Fungus Kaveh ^ExplanationThis meme was inspired by an interaction between Kaveh and Alhaitham in Act I of Alhaitham's Story Quest, in which Kaveh made fun of Alhaitham's seeming lack of humanity by asking if he would evolve into a non-human, to which Alhaitham responded by asking if Kaveh would devolve into a fungus. Kaveh smugly replied, "at least I'd be a fungus with empathy." In the Genshin Impact universe, fungi are sentient and (usually) antagonistic enemies with varying degrees of cuteness, similar to the previously introduced slime enemies. This made it easy for artists to take a design of one of the smaller floating fungi types and give it a Kaveh-like design to varying degrees, usually with his color scheme, hair, and eye color, though occasionally it will lack hair but have his earrings and feather to keep it identifiable as Kaveh. Although it's far less common, some artists occasionally draw Alhaitham as a fungus alongside him, following the same design trend used for Kaveh.
  • Kaveh, Destroyer of Worlds ^ExplanationIn late August 2023, a game-breaking bug was discovered in the Chinese server that allows Kaveh to permanently delete entities (e.g. waypoints, statues, puzzles, chests) from your world in co-op. According to rumours, it was a result of a third-party hack that turned these objects into Dendro cores, which Kaveh's abillities could allow it to explode, permanantly deleting them. Not even reinstalling the game or fixing the game files could bring them back. Due to the news, memes exploded on Kaveh finally getting sick of being clowned on and enacting his revenge to the point that players are now terrified of a Kaveh main appearing in their co-op playthrough.
• Keqing:
  • "Keqing got buffed in the wrong game."^ExplanationAfter miHoYo announced the upcoming Honkai Impact 3rd x Genshin Impact collaboration by showing clips of Fischl and Keqing in Honkai Impact 3rd, players quickly pointed out that Keqing's attacks in that game were much flashier than her Genshin counterpart.
  • Eating Cor Lapis ^ExplanationSimilar to Ganyu above, many fan artists jokingly depict Keqing eating one of her ascension materials, Cor Lapis. While the joke also applies for Zhongli and Chongyun as they too need it to ascend, Keqing is the most common target because of the ridiculous mental image of a refined young woman such as her munching on a rock.
  • Golden Shrimp Balls ^Explanation Keqing's Trademark Favorite Food, which becomes much more apparent during the events of the Moonchase Festival as many of her antics revolve around the dish. As such, fans and artists like to exaggerate her obsession for Golden Shrimp Balls beyond what was shown so far.
  • [Insert element]-Keqing ^Explanation Though Keqing's kit is geared towards Electro damage, a highly popular build for her early on was to spec her into Physical Damage due to being an Electro character whose infusion is optional. In addition, Keqing is one of the only characters whose elemental infusion ability can be overriden by charcters such as Chongyun, Candace, and C6 Bennett that provide team-wide infusions on their attacks. This makes her a frequent pick for element-changing shenanigans.
• Kirara:
  • Real life Kirara machine ^ExplanationPeople have made moving machines with Kirara's box design. They're generally agreed upon to be very cute and at times hilarious.
• Klee:
  • "KLEE DOKO?!"/"Klee is in solitary" ^ExplanationNotably, Klee wasn't actually in the initial gacha lineup for the game's launch, despite having been in the beta tests and despite characters announced much later than her (including those announced a mere month before the game's launch) being in. Given that Klee is, in-universe, often put in a kind of mock solitary confinement for her experiments almost blowing up Favonius headquarters, the jokes write themselves. Became Hilarious in Hindsight when the trailer for her banner dropped, revealing that's exactly the case.
  • "And that's how Klee was born." ^ExplanationThe Jean x Diluc (Jealuc) shipping is also paired with the fan theory that Klee is their biological child, so every time Jealuc content is posted online, this phrase is commonly used.
  • Klee hates Diluc. ^ExplanationIn Klee's voice lines about other characters, she calls everyone "the best" or otherwise gives positive remarks about her relationships with them... but when asked about Diluc, she calls him "one of those weird grown-ups". Fans then joked about how she hates Diluc.
  • Klee's drawing ^ExplanationKlee's PV has her hold up a drawing of how mean old Jean keeps her locked up in solitary confinement to the Traveler with the sweetest smile, and usually for good reason. People love taking that clip and photoshopping what she's holding, turning it into a reaction image of sorts.
  • Oomfie ^ExplanationA pre-existing term for followers on social media, which for some reason became associated with GIFs of Klee labeled "Oomfie" in mid 2021.
  • Klee blowing up / soloing the Geovishaps ^ExplanationOn July 27th, Klee's birthday for many players, she gives the player a Juvenile Jade, the exclusive boss drop from the Primo Geovishap, as a gift. And since Klee is mostly inferred to be alone during this event, the fans started to go wild with the revelation that Klee somehow blew up a Primo Geovishap.
  • The Klee cannon ^Explanation In Inazuma, in order to access one of the explorable areas, you have to use a giant cannon that creates giant explosions of Electro damage. Adding to this, it's one of the few objects in game that can damage Co-Op players in your world. Fans quickly started associating the cannon with Klee for obvious reasons.
  • Putting Klee's theme song in the background of character trailers^Explanation Since Klee's theme is very vibrant and energetic, many fans put it in the background of more solemn and melancholic character trailers to create Soundtrack Dissonance.
  • Klee and Yoimiya destroying Inazuma together^ExplanationAfter Yoimiya was revealed to be the owner of a fireworks shop, many people joke about Klee coming to Inazuma, and teaming up with Yoimiya there to destroy Inazuma. The jokes got picked-up even more so after the 2.6 trailer showed Klee coming to Inazuma for the Magnificent Irodori Festival with a pre-release screenshot showing that Klee will interact with Yoimiya there. Unfortunately for the two the Irodori Festival had a strict ban on fireworks and Klee was forbidden from playing with bombs by Albedo, but the two cheered each other up from their respective funks.
  • Klee is Alice's artificial/adopted daughter^ExplanationIt is believed by some that playable gacha game characters are not allowed to be in relationships to make them more marketable to lonely people who want parasocial relationships with them, like a fictional variant of Contractual Purity. As Alice is believed to become a playable character in the future, people have joked (or sometimes, seriously suggested) that Alice is single and that she created or adopted Klee, even though Klee is explicitly stated to have a dad.
• Kuki Shinobu:
  • Genshin took Volk from Dragalia Lost's fall^ExplanationWhen Shinobu was first revealed, many players noted her resemblance was to Volk from Dragalia Lost. Around the same time, Dragalia Lost announced its end of service, resulting in many of those fans claiming that Genshin designed a character after Dragalia Lost's and announced it when Dragalia announced closure.
• Kujou Sara:
  • How it feels to chew 5 Gum ^ExplanationIn one of Sara's lines, she stated that her lucky number is five, so much so that she does nearly everything in fives, such as waking at 5:05, taking exactly five breaths before walking five laps around, eating exactly five mouthfuls of breakfast, and even stating that she likes the fact that Gorou, her Worthy Opponent, is the 5th born son (his name also has the Japanese word for five, Go). Fans remembered the brand name gum and its tagline ("Stimulate your senses") and ran with the joke.
  • Statue of Her Excellency, the Almighty Narukami Ogosho, God of Thunder ^ExplanationDuring the Irodori Festival Sara very pointedly corrects the Traveler and Paimon when they refer to the Raiden statue being sold as a figurine by calling it this instead. Fans took this and ran with it by referring the figurine by its full descriptor every time it shows up or have Sara appear as a very defensive fan who corrects anyone who doesn't call it by its proper name. Even funnier since later on Ei herself casually calls it a tiny figurine when she sees it.
• Layla:
  • "Die wunderschöne Layla" ^Explanation "Layla" is a German Song about a brothelworker named Layla, because of its sexist nature the song has been banned in several German cities.
  • Layla, the Grad Student ^Explanation Layla is characterized as a perpetually-tired student who nevertheless manages to pass her classes (she even utters the line "Why do I have to write so many papers, whyyy?" in her Character Demo). Because this is true for a lot of grad students in real life, Layla quickly became one of the most relatable (and loved) characters by current or former grad students.
• Lisa:
  • "Moan-Lisa/Moaning Lisa" ^Explanation Lisa moans a lot, either when she gets hit or when she climbs around (which you will do numerous times). This became a frequent meme, with many fans recommending you to either turn the volume off or use headphones if you're playing as her in public. It's gotten to the point where even her Japanese voice actress calls her own character out for making lewd noises.
  • "Mona Lisa!" / "Painted by DaVenti"^ExplanationNaturally, for anyone who manages to get Mona, the joke basically writes itself. Another popular joke references the painter, da Vinci, by making a pun out of Venti's name.
  • "69"^ExplanationLisa's birthday is on June 9th. Players quickly associated her with the number 69 in relation to the "moan" memes.
• Lyney:
  • What are we, Lyney?! ^Explanation Lyney’s voicelines manage to outdo every other character in terms of flirtations towards the Traveler— with just enough ambiguity to make his relationship with them unclear, much to the dismay of fans. It doesn’t help that his Lvl 80 Ascension line has him claim that the Traveler has succeeded in winning his heart and calling them his "companion", which is about as vague as you can get.
  • Don’t worry, he’s just Fontainian. ^ExplanationAlternatively, fans joke that Lyney’s flirty behavior is just how everybody interacts with each other in Fontaine. This joke is based on the real-world stereotype of French people being incredibly affectionate.

Playable Characters (M - R)

• Mika:
  • Len and Miku are in Genshin Impact?!^ExplanationLike Faruzan before him, Mika's short blonde hairstyle with a tuft of hair sticking out is a dead ringer for Len himself.
  • Wait, he's not a Catalyst user?^ExplanationPrior to the reveal of his kit in the version 3.5 livestream, Mika was widely speculated to be a Catalyst user, due to having a floating book in his Character Introduction artwork. When he's instead revealed to be a polearm user, it came off as a surprise to many.
  • "Um, actually..."^Explanation A quote for, whatever reason... has been associated with the Nerd Emoji, and later Mika. Given how nerdish and awkward he sounds, people have both jokingly and seriously stated that he IS the embodiment of the Nerd Emoji. His stammery and shy attitude also helps too.
• Mona:
  • Mona is the Hydro Archon ^ExplanationThe Archons have a trend of being broke of Mora, so players have been joking on how Mona being poor could mean that she's an Archon.
  • Begging Mona ^ExplanationDue to Mona's poor financial management, she is always out of enough mora to pay for the bare essentials despite having a well-paying job. Fans took this on the opposite direction; often depicting Mona as a desperate beggar surviving on scraps. Due to her Ms. Fanservice reputation, some has taken a much darker connotation.
  • "HoYoverse lied to us!" ^{Explanation (Spoilers for The Ancient Azure Stars)}Since the game's release, fan-made content that didn't focus on her being Ms. Fanservice mostly revolved around Mona being broke. It was a big shock to many when the Summertime Odyssey event revealed Mona actually lives a luxurious and comfortable lifestyle, but is just extremely bad at managing her money because she spends it all on astrological instruments.
• Nahida:
  • "Dook Dook/Dookie" ^{Explanation (spoilers!)}During the end of Act 2 for the Sumeru Archon Quest, one of the things Nahida/Kusanali does to help the Traveler's mental predicament is offering to "flush away the dook dook". Players took this as Nahida asking the Traveler to flush away his/her's own shit down the toilet and were immediately bemused at both the idea of literally shitting away your problems and the fact that Teyvat actually does have toilets.
  • Nahida Best Archon / "real archons be like" ^{Explanation (spoilers!)}Also in the Sumeru Archon Quest, Nahida states that she doesn't feel like she is a real Archon. Cue the players memeing on the fact that the other Archons are: a lazy drunk (Venti), a penniless scatterbrain in spite of creating money itself (Zhongli), and a traumatized NEET that was outright an Arc Villain (Raiden Shogun), an Attention Whore who isn't even a real Archon (Furina), and a Big Bad (the Tsaritsa). Nahida in the meantime is breaking her back trying to undo the Fatui's scheme despite being sealed away and weakened - despite her humbleness, she's actually the most responsible of the Archons so far just by virtue of actually doing her job. She's also the only Archon so far to actually find information about the Traveler's sibling, which is the primary reason the Traveler is seeking the Archons in the first place.
  • Plants vs. Zombies^ExplainationSince Nahida is the Dendro Archon and Qiqi is a zombie, this joke writes itself. Bonus points for both characters being voiced in Japanese by Yukari Tamura.
  • Make the Radish cry, YOU DIE.^{Explanation (Spoilers)}The trailer for Version 3.2 has a particularly heartbreaking moment where Nahida breaks down in tears, leading to an enraged fanbase demanding to know who made her cry in order to exact bloody retribution, with the common targets being the Sages of the Akademiya, Scaramouche, and Dottore. In the end, it actually came true: Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was the one to make Nahida cry because she offered to sacrifice herself for Sumeru, then memories of her existence were erased.
  • Nahida, uniter of the Genshin fandom.^{Explanation (spoilers)}With everything Nahida has endured and suffered through, especially in her character trailer for 3.2, the normally rather divided Genshin fandom proceeded to agree on one thing: The Sages of the Akademiya must pay for what they did to her.
  • Caught in 4K^ExplanationThe held version of Nahida's Elemental Skill has put her fingers up in a way that's like taking a picture. When Nahida is brought up, expect to see this at least one, especially if someone is deemed to be acting cringy.
    • "Nahida sees everything"^ExplanationA sister meme. But some parts of the fandom finds Nahida's skill in reading people's minds kind of creepy. So expect memes referencing Nahida to Big Brother to Nahida looking into your browser history.
  • Nahida Aizen/"Since when were you under the impression I wasn't using my powers?" ^{Explanation (Spoilers for Sumeru Archon Quest Act V)}Near the end of Scaramouche's bossfight, Nahida reveals to Scaramouche that she had essentially trapped him in a mental loop for 168 times so that the Traveller could learn his tricks and defeat him. The fact that Nahida basically did a reverse Sabzeruz Festival at the beginning of the fight to Mind Rape Scaramouche has caused some fans to compare her and overlap with Bleach's villain, Sosuke Aizen, who was infamous for his asspulls.
  • Nahida's True Form ^ExplanationThe name of the Dendro Archon is Buer, which is also the name of a demon from Ars Goetia. Genshin!Buer is Nahida, the adorable little elf girl while Demon!Buer is, fittingly, a demonic lion with goat legs surrounding its head. The sheer contrast between two characters of the same name has been memed by the fandom, with body parts of Nahida's model edited to look like the demon. It should be noted that Venti, Zhongli and the Raiden Shogun have not been compared to their namesakes as often as Nahida.
  • Akasha Twitch chat ^{Explanation (spoilers for Sumeru Archon Quest Act V)}During the fight against Scaramouche, Nahida has the Akasha compile the people's experience to help the Traveler. This has been likened by the playerbase to Nahida livestreaming the boss fight on the Akasha, with the people acting as backseat gamers arguing over what the Traveler should do.
  • Aggravate Nahida ^ExplanationIn exploration, applying Electro to Dendro objects creates the Aggravate reaction and causes them to grow and expand. Cue the numerous jokes that applying Electro to Nahida, the Dendro Archon, will trigger Aggravate and cause her to grow and "expand" into a mature adult form.
• Navia:
  • Navia Swift. ^ExplanationNavia's style and blonde Regal Ringlets quickly earned comparisons to Taylor Swift.
    • Back to December ^ExplanationNavia was released as a playable character in Version 4.3, which dropped in December 2023. People began mentioning the aforementioned song in their hype for her release.
  • Geo's lord and savior ^ExplanationOf the inital Fontaine lineup, Navia is the one who possesses a Geo Vision, with many players expressing joy that the element is finally getting a new member in the near future after having been the one element that has gotten shafted and memed on for not getting any new playable characters in over a year since Yun Jin's debut in 2.4.
  • Zelda, no!/Gwen Stacy death catch ^{Explanation (spoilers!)}During the events of Chapter IV Act V, Navia falls into a pool of Primordial Seawater. When she falls, the Traveler jumps off a ledge and tries to grab her hand in mid-air, but misses her by mere inches. This drew an immediate parallel to the opening sequence to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where Link fails to catch Zelda when she falls into a pit. Or the famous I Let Gwen Stacy Die scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
  • miHoYo, stop trying to murder Navia! ^ExplanationNavia has had no less than five different narrow escapes from death across the Fontaine Archon Quest and her own Story Quest, leading to players joking that the devs seem to want her dead and demanding that they let her catch a break.
  • Smug Navia ^ExplanationSimilar to the Smug Dori meme above, Navia's Character Demo has several scenes where she's wearing a pair of Cool Shades that have the effect of making her appear incredibly smug. Fans immediately ran wild with it, with some even claiming that she dethroned Dori as the smuggest character in the game.
• Neuvillette:
  • Furina's legal guardian/caretaker ^ExplanationSome fans tend to portray Neuvillette as Furina's Parental Substitute, with him expressing exasperation at Furina's antics and behavior. Ironically, this became true after the events of Chapter IV Act V, where he offered to pay for all of her expenses for life.
  • Neuvillette is an otter^ExplanationBefore his playable release in version 4.1, it was popularly theorised that based on his colour scheme, his ability to use Hydro without a vision, inhuman characteristics as well as hints provided by Chapter IV Act II, Neuvillette is the Hydro dragon. At the same time, players noticed the colour of his hair matches the colours of the Leisurely Otter's fur on its head and back, which led to jokes and fan art depicting Neuvillette as said otter instead.
  • Neuvillette crying and making it rain^ExplanationRain is heavily emphasized in the Fontaine Archon Quest due to its mythical connection to the Hydro Dragon, as legend has it that it rains when the Hydro Dragon is crying. Fans quickly noticed, however, that the rain is mentioned to come and clear up after scenes involving Neuvillette, despite his stoic expression, causing fans to instantly associate the rain with him and his mood changes, no matter how minor.
  • Hydro Welt ^ExplanationWhen fans saw Neuvillette using his cane to command the power of Hydro, they immediately started making comparisons to Welt Yang of Honkai fame, another cane-toting badass with supernatural powers.
  • The real Hydro Archon ^{Explanation (major spoilers!)}With Neuvillette being the one actively overlooking trials, the people of Fontaine having higher regard towards him than Furina, and having a very regal "Archon-like" appearance, some like to joke that Neuvillette is the real Hydro Archon instead of Furina herself. By the end of Chapter IV Act IV, he's revealed to be the Hydro Sovereign, and by the end of Chapter IV Act V, he's restored to his full power, making him a whole tier higher than the Archons themselves.
  • Neuvillette the Pokémon/Neuvillette used Hydro Pump!^ExplanationSome fans like to depict Furina commanding Neuvillette as if he were a Pokemon, with his charged attack resembling Hydro Pump after all.
  • "HAHHH!" / "SHAAA!" / "HMMMM!" ^ExplanationSome fans take amusement with the English voice grunts Neuvillette does at the end of his normal attack combo, due to the loud shouts he makes being a huge contrast to his stoic and calm personality.
  • Neuvillette's Last Name ^ExplanationSince Neuvillette is only known by his last name, players have been asking what his last name is similar to "Obama's Last Name". Alternatively, the fanbase tries to guess Neuvillette's first name, with "Monsieur" (Sir in French) being a frequent suggestion.
  • Neuvillette's Powerwash Service^ExplanationAlongside resembling Hydro Pump, Neuvillette's charged attack also looks like a high pressure wash, almost like he's cleaning up the enemy with absolute gusto. Players joke that Neuvillette should be featured in a DLC for Powerwash Simulator thanks to his power.
  • Spin to Win / Neuvillette Fidget Spinner^ExplanationBy analysing the damage tick intervals, CN players discovered that spinning at least 2.5 times a second effectively turned the hitbox of Neuvillette's empowered Charged Attacks into a circle, allowing him to hit everything around him with every tick of damage. This becomes incredibly powerful with Neuvillette's (already extremely broken) C6, which allows him to absorb Sourcewater Droplets to extend his empowered Charged Attack to a whopping 12 seconds. On a phone, this is accomplished by attaching a fidget spinner, setting gyroscopic controls, activating Neuvilette's empowered charge attack, and then spinning the phone at high speeds. This literal "spin-to-win" tactic has become incredibly memetic due to how ridiculously overpowered it is and hence, comparing Neuvillette into a literal spin-monster is now the norm.
  • 🎵Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale🎵^ExplanationA trend that spawned on TikTok where people would film themselves dancing to the almost rhythmic way that Neuvillette says the name of the Oratrice to the tune of "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen (Band). The trend got so big that people outside of the fanbase were doing it, and not only did Ray Chase himself make his own version, but so did the official Queen account.
  • Physical Neuvillette^ExplanationThe end of Furina's Character Demo has everyone suddenly brawling in the background ending with him kneeing a random guard's crotch. This led to fans jokingly declaring of finally getting a physical catalyst user and fanarts of him kicking enemies on the crouches began popping up fast.
    • Bloodstained Neuvillette^ExplanationmiHoYo issued a bug fix for his charge attack interacting with the Bloodstained Chivalry set out of the blue, flabbergasting many players on how random the fix is. It only took a while before jokes that someone took the meme seriously enough to discover this kind of bug began spreading around.
  • Furina's Biggest Fan/Simp^ExplanationAfter the events of 4.2 changed Neuvillette's perspective on Furina and the man himself admits that he is a fan of her acting, it became universally accepted by the fandom that Neuvillette is her biggest fan. The fandom would exaggerate this as he's popularly depicted cheering for her on her shows, becoming an overprotective guardian/stalker, or joking that he's down bad for her whenever the two are shown or mentioned together in official or fan works.
  • Neuvillette has PTSD^ExplanationJokes of Neuvillette being deeply traumatized after Focalor's death became popular thanks to the heartwrenching cutscene between Focalors and him inside the Oratrice. Fans take this joke to the next level with gags of Furina unwittingly reminding him of this moment, like this viral edit of Furina standing under Chongyun's burst.
  • Zhongli's Arch-Enemy ^ExplanationBoth Zhongli and Neuvillette share many similarities, like their true natures being dragons of their respective element. Couple that with Neuvillette's grudge against the archons, his voice line about Zhongli sounding like he's ready to throw hands against him compared to the other archons which are more neutral, and both are related to now-deceased blue goddesses, memes of him and Zhongli brawling it out were born. Made even funnier during Lantern Rite 4.4, where Zhongli is implied to have taken great pains to just barely avoid running into Neuvillette during the latter's impromptu trip to Qiaoying Village.
  • Hydro Daddy^ExplanationLearning that he assumed the role of a father figure to the Melusines (sometimes with Furina) in 4.0, coupled with his handsome appearance, fans began to call him this. After the events of Act V some fans jokingly took this one step further by pointing out that, by granting Fontainians fully human bodies and making them "truly born", Neuvillette is now everyone's daddy.
• Nilou:
  • Ayaka's Arch-Enemy ^ExplanationNilou's got some similarities to Ayaka which has caused some fans to make jokes that she (and occasionally Keqing) has declared Nilou as her archnemesis for Aether's love. The fact that both are 5* Dance Battlers who use swords in combat doesn't help.
  • Nilou's wet everything^ExplanationA follow up to the "Ayaka's wet socks" meme, and more hilarious fuel for the Ayaka VS Nilou rivalry. In her "Dance of the Delicate Lotus" trailer, Nilou is shown laying down in a pool. Fans immediately joked that she did this to outdo Ayaka's wet socks by wetting all of her clothes.
  • MuriMuriMuri!^ExplanationWhen Nilou tells the Traveler that she's bad at debating, she says this in the Japanese dub in adorable fashion.
  • Masochistic Nilou ^ExplanationDue to Nilou's 1st Ascension Passive granting her more power (specifically Elemental Mastery) after being inflicted with Dendro damage (including her own bountiful core explosions), fans immediately characterize her as a dirty masochist akin to Darkness from Konosuba.
  • Nilou the Team Killer^ExplanationA fully built Nilou in her ideal team composition is among the most devastating DPS characters in the game, thanks to the sheer damage potential her Bountiful Cores can put out. Given that these are still Dendro Cores that explode for recoil damage, however... you'd absolutely require a healer to stay alive through all that surprisingly nasty recoil damage, leading to unexpected casualties if you're not careful. Players might compare her to Caboose, who is infamously known for this.
  • Buff Nilou^ExplanationContrary to her cute appearance, Nilou is the tankiest character in the game, having well over 80,000 hit points when fully built. Thus, Nilou is frequently depicted as buff with jacked muscles, which is combined with the above masochism and team killing memes.
  • God, I wish I was Swoof^ExplanationIn Nilou's character teaser, a dog named Swoof approaches Nilou and is pet by her before going in close to lick her. Many Nilou simps expressed their envy for Swoof.
  • Blonde Nilou / Nilou and the Traveler's child ^ExplanationWhen Susannah was revealed to be a playable character in Honkai Impact 3rd, she was quickly compared to Nilou due to both girls' attack animations being inspired by Middle Eastern dance moves. Susannah was also called Nilou and the Traveler's child due to her hair and eye colour, resulting in more memes about Ayaka and Nilou's rivalry.
  • Nilou's regular attire ^ExplanationNilou's outfit is supposed to be a costume made to make her look like the Goddess of Flowers, but even after the Sabzeruz Festival ends, she never switches to any other attire in-game. Fans were quick to joke about wanting to see her wearing something else.
    • The Horns Stay On^ExplanationPart of Nilou's outfit includes a headdress with horns. The horns are retained even in her collaboration art for the game's collaborations with Samsung & GiGO - notable as most of the game's collaboration art tends towards more "realistic" outfits for the featured characters. Fans joke that she doesn't ever take her horns off.
  • No Thoughts, Head Empty ^ExplanationNilou has gained a reputation as The Ditz due to all her voicelines managing to relate back to dancing. It is often said that her brain is as smooth as her dances and that nothing goes on in there.
• Ningguang:
  • Choosing Ningguang.^ExplanationWhen meeting with Ningguang in the Jade Chamber, she offers to let the Traveler take one item from the room they are in as a gift. Since Ningguang is a popular character and she's in the room, many players have expressed a desire to pick her as their gift.
    • Choosing Keqing/Ganyu. ^ExplanationRelatedly, after beating Osial, Keqing offers to reward the Traveler with anything they can afford, saying "Name your price. You deserve that much." Many people joke about choosing Keqing or Ganyu as their reward.
  • 5* Ningguang ^ExplanationFans have felt since the beginning that Ningguang, given her position and power, alongside the lack of a Geo 5* on Wanderlust Invocation, should have been a 5* character rather than a 4*. In fact, during development, Ningguang was a 5* character for quite some time. This meme became popular once again following the battle with Beisht, where she alone was able to unleash the same amount of firepower as a regiment of the Guizhong Ballistae or the Alcor.
    • Gate of Liyue ^ExplanationIn the same cutscene, fans were quick to note how Ningguang unleashing her full power on Beisht is highly similar to how Gilgamesh fights using his iconic Noble Phantasm, Gate of Babylon.
  • "Playing chess" with Beidou ^ExplanationDuring the Lantern Rite in Version 2.4, Ningguang explains how she pays Beidou for running errands and additionally compensates her in other complicated ways. Fans were quick to interpret this as "playing chess". The phrase spread rapidly and whenever the two of them have a Ship Tease moment, fans would cite that as evidence they're "playing chess" with each other.
  • If Ningguang was a five-star ^{Explanation (spoilers)}At the end of the Liyue Archon Quest, Ningguang drops the entire Jade Chamber onto Osial to defeat it, which inspired memes of her summoning it just like Zhongli's meteor ultimate.
• Noelle:
  • C20 Noelle ^ExplanationWith the first re-release of the Gentry of Hermitage event wish, Noelle holds the record for the shortest time between banners (just one), as well as being the first character to have their fourth rate-up on a limited character banner. Combined with her being guaranteed on the Starter Wish banner, many players joke about how they've pulled her so many times that they have her Constellation maxed out to ridiculous levels.
  • One Punch Maid ^ExplanationNot only does Noelle canonically have Super-Strength without in-universe explanation other than training, she also in her hangout event says that her training includes "100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and running two laps around Mondstadt as a morning routine." Since this is almost exactly the same training regime by which Saitama from One-Punch Man became the poster child for the Comically Invincible Hero (we don't know whether 2 laps around Mondstadt is 10km, it's probably close enough), the meme basically writes itself.
  • Beyblade ^ExplanationAs the first Claymore user of many players, Noelle's charged attack is compared to a Beyblade especially when used against spinning enemies such as Blazing Axe Mitachurls, Andrius, and Geovishap Hatchlings. Even a popular strategy of Noelle requires charged attacks due to upgrades from her constellations.
  • 2B Noelle ^ExplanationAs shown here, Noelle shares some animations with 2B from NieR: Automata.
  • C6 Noelle/The Real Geo Archon ^ExplanationNoelle is a well known Magikarp Power who, upon reaching her final Constellation, is a true force to be reckoned with between her durability, healing, and damage output. As such, a fully realized Noelle is considered a Memetic Badass surpassing the actual Geo Archon in power.
  • Noelle's Noble Phantasm ^ExplanationThe trailer for Genius Invokation showed Noelle taking a pose◊ that highly resembles Saber during a pivotal scene during Fate/Zero.
  • Noelle stole Itto's sword ^ExplanationDue to both being Claymore users who scale off DEF, Itto's Redhorn Stonethresher 5-star weapon also works wonders for Noelle, making an already strong fully built Noelle absolutely beastly. Thus many Noelle mains often pull for the weapon for her without pulling for Itto; or if they do also have Itto, assign him Noelle's "leftover" sword instead.
  • When will she become a true Knight of Favonius? ^ExplanationEver since Noelle's second Hangout event, players have joked about Noelle being overqualified to be a full-fledged Knight of Favonius, yet she still has not achieved such a goal. As such, players will often demand that she be knighted whenever she is brought up in events.
  • Noelle Is Meta Now ^ExplanationNoelle's ability to heal the entire team while dealing damage synergizes very well with Furina's abilities and the Marechaussee Hunter artifact set whose buffs are tied to the drain and restoration of team and individual HP. The resulting damage and crit boost has had people declare she is "meta" now where before she was usually a niche pick, often for Mono Geo teams.
    • We Were Into Noelle Before She Went Mainstream ^ExplanationThe response of long-time Noelle mains to the above, especially to people only now building Noelle because of Furina.
• Qiqi:
  • "Wakaranai."/"Don't know." ^ExplanationQiqi's wild goose chase for the Cocogoat in Ch.1 Act 2 isn't helped by her not giving any remotely useful information for the Traveler's party to start on. What it looks like: don't know. Where to find it: don't know either. Where it came from: also don't know. Why your gacha luck is terrible: don't know. Why you are still reading this: don't know.
  • Cocogoat ^ExplanationQiqi's wild-goose-chase quest for a "cocogoat," which turned out to be a nonexistent creature that produces coconut milk, became a fan-favorite scene. "Cocogoat" is also a common fan-nickname for Ganyu, a character introduced shortly afterward who has goat-like horns.
    • "Cocomilk"/"Ganyu's Milk" ^ExplanationAs Qiqi associated the Cocogoat with coconut milk, some players then made innuendos and milk jokes out of Ganyu's "Cocogoat" Fan Nickname, often having Qiqi follow Ganyu around to procure some of the latter's milk.
  • Getting Qiqi'd ^Explanation When a player gets a 5-star from a limited character banner, there's a 50% chance to get the featured character, with the other 50% being one of the 6 non-limited 5-star characters. Qiqi is generally considered to be the worst non-limited 5-star and thus the most infamous for appearing instead of the desired character. Thus, players semi-jokingly complain about how a character advertised in their trailer isn't as good as advertised, such as being much shorter, having a far lower DPS, healing despite not having such ability, or not using the same weapon/element.
  • Qiqi's revenge ^ExplanationAs retaliation for the paltry rewards for Genshin's first anniversary in addition to miHoYo's general mistreatment of the fanbase, people started bombarding the game's Discord server with a sticker of Qiqi lying on her back, to the point where the mods had to implement a thirty minute cooldown for messages. People saw this as both the fans getting back at miHoYo for treating them like garbage, and Qiqi getting back at the fans for treating her like garbage by clogging up the server. Qiqi's rampage lasted for almost a week before the mods just outright removed the ability to use stickers.
    • Horned angel Qiqi ^ExplanationAn offshoot of the above, where fans added the Wings of Symphony and Fragile Resins given out as damage control to the above picture, making her look like an angel with horns made out of Resin.
  • Gigachad Qiqi/Qiqi carrying Xiao ^Explanation Xiao's Endless Suffering short trailer revealed that when he passed out, Qiqi was the one who carried him all the way back to the Bubu Pharmacy single-handedly. Given Xiao's already memetic short status and the sheer absurdity of Qiqi carrying anyone, jokes and memes were made at Xiao's expense whilst Qiqi went from a Low-Tier Letdown to a buffed gigachad.
• Raiden Shogun/Ei:
  • Booba sword ^ExplanationThe 2.0 Trailer features a scene where the Raiden Shogun unsheathes her katana from her chest. Given how it was also the official first look at her, it naturally wound up catching the fans' attention.
  • Kazuha's friend was secretly a Baal Simp ^Explanation After the 2.0 trailer, many jokes were made about Kazuha's friend just wanting to see the Musou no Hitotachi because the Raiden Shogun summons her katana from her chest.
  • Anti-Ice Bridge ^ExplanationSeveral players had tried to use the "Ice-Bridge" method with the Cryo characters to reach Inazuma once the update came live... only to be met with a sudden thunderstorm and getting their characters shot by lightning and then forcefully teleported back where you came from, proving that the Gameplay and Story Integration of the Raiden Shogun surrounding Inazuma with storms is real. Many players joke about her having an Anti-Ice Bridge measure because of this.
  • Raiden can't cook. ^ExplanationThe Raiden Shogun can't be selected to cook meals, a trait that no other character has ever had. When people discovered this trait of hers in beta versions of the game, the idea of an imperious deity figure like her having such a human flaw struck a chord with the fanbase, especially since her Honkai Impact 3rd counterpart Mei is a great cook.
    • Raiden's friends died because she can't cook. ^ExplanationAfter Raiden's teaser showed that she lost her three closest friends, fans took a darkly humorous twist on the above meme by saying that Raiden either killed them with food poisoning or was unable to make any food to revive them.
    • IT'S FUCKING RAW ^ExplanationObviously, her being unable to cook resulted in fanarts and edits of Gordon Ramsay yelling at her. Sometimes, Gordon Ramsay is replaced with Xiangling, who is a cook and was one of the 4-star characters on her first banner.
    • Raiden's Signature Dish ^ExplanationSince Raiden doesn't have a signature dish in-game, players use a picture of a pile of ashes for her signature dish - the remains of Signora, which the Raiden Shogun absolutely cooked.
  • Ei is Mei minus the M ^ExplanationThe Raiden Shogun's real name, while meaningful and thematically appropriate for many reasons, is also one letter off from Raiden Mei. People began to joke that the other Honkai Impact 3rd expies would have names that were one letter off from their Honkai counterparts, such as Iana Aslana for the Unknown God or Murata Imeko for the Pyro Archon. Then it's revealed that she once had a twin named Makoto, i.e the true Baal; fans then joke that the missing "M" stands for Makoto.
  • Crying Raiden ^Explanation After a number of fan-comics were made depicting the Raiden Shogun as a child that cries at almost every opportunity (such as getting stuck on the roof after her Character Reveal Trailer, or not knowing her own name) fan-artists quickly started to draw her in the chibi style and making her much more "cutesy" than she is in canon. Funnily enough, Ei's actual personality turned out to be something not unlike this interpretation, as the stoic Raiden Shogun is actually a robot built to house Ei's essence.
  • F2P Raiden Mains are anglers ^Explanation2.1 came with the release of Raiden as well as an F2P weapon for her, "The Catch". In order to obtain "The Catch" and its refinements, you must fish a lot of different types of fish. Due to the slow respawn rate of fish, F2P Raiden Mains attempting to obtain "The Catch" have gained a reputation of spamming co-op invites to fish from other people's world. Even more mayhem ensued as sometimes both parties are interested in the fish which lead to races between players stealing fish and hosts kicking the thieves. It gain resurgence once again, this time with Furina and the F2P weapon made for her the "Fleuve Cendre Ferryman".
  • Ligma Baals ^Explanation A spin on the "ligma balls" wordplay meme, but with the Raiden Shogun saying it.
  • Leaker Hunt Decree ^ExplanationIn 2.1, after the release of Raiden Shogun, miHoYo started seriously cracking down on leakers, and most major leakers' accounts were deleted. Players joked about the Leaker Hunt Decree and depicted miHoYo as the Raiden Shogun.
  • iPad Air Commercial ^Explanation The new iPad Air commercial features Genshin Impact being played on it to demonstrate its capacity to handle a high CPU-demanding game. The memetic clip in question shows the Raiden Shogun using her Burst on the Thunder Manifestation, who is immune to Electro. Eagle-eyed viewers will also notice the other party members consist of (presumably) Electro Traveler, Keqing, and Yae Miko.
  • Valley Girl Raiden Shogun ^ExplanationAnne Yatco and Zach Aguilar joked on stream about Raiden Shogun talking like a valley girl, complete with Anne saying "You will be inlaid upon this statue" with a valley girl accent. The audio quickly found use on TikTok.
  • Chibi Hugs ^Explanation Another memorable part in Ver. 2.5 Livestream. [1] Cue any Meme Animatics that features Raiden Ei & Yae Miko.
  • Raiden Ei, Neglectful Electro Mommy^ExplanationRaiden Ei is responsible for creating her robotic puppets. One of her creations is Kunikuzushi, who became Scaramouche, the 6th Fatui Harbinger. Even Scaramouche explicitly refers her as his mother in a cutscene. The other is the robotic copy who exactly looks like herself, Y'know, the Raiden Shogun who becomes the tyrannical figure in Inazuma. While Raiden Ei still locks herself up in Plane of Euthymia. She may be responsible for creating problems, including these baddies.
  • Raiden Family's Birb^ExplanationEi's idle animation has her curiously look at a bird who lands on her hand. Then, Yae Miko's idle features the same bird, except she toys with it and eventually kills it by making her electro fox spirit eat it. Cue fan content involving Ei yelling at Yae for eating her bird. That bird reappears in Scaramouche/Wanderer's demo, leading to more mother/son parallels and jokes.
  • The Raiden-verse is real! ^ExplanationFans tend to pick which Raidens are better, The Elder God Raiden from Mortal Kombat, Jack from Metal Gear, or Raiden Shogun, the electro archon from Genshin Impact and makes memes about them (and that's still not counting other less-than-known Raidens like the Heel wrestler in a fighting game). In the English dub of Bleach's Thousand-Year Blood War arc, all three of their English voice actors were cast: One of them returned as Kon, the talking stuffed lion-doll, while the other two Raidens voice Yhwach & Bambietta Basterbine.
  • Raiden Shotgun ^ExplanationA lame pun in which Raiden is depicted pulling a shotgun out of her chest.
• Razor:
  • "Where is the Unseen Razor?" ^ExplanationThis is the name of a daily commission that can be given in Liyue, even though Razor himself has nothing to do with it. However, between Kazuha's debut banner in 1.6 and Ayaka's rerun banner in 2.6, Razor wasn't a featured character on any Character Event Wish, leading fans to ask this question whenever a new banner was revealed. It should be noted that Razor's rate-up absence lasted 13 banners, one of the longest of any 4★ character so far (not counting Amber, Kaeya, and Lisa) until he got outdone by Chongyun's own absence of 16 banners between 2.7 to 3.7.
  • Razor's Harem ^ExplanationWith the sole exception of Aether, the male Traveler, Razor was the only male Electro user in the game. Memes started to prop up that Razor unintentionally created his own harem, but due to his Wild Child nature, he has no idea what to do with the situation. That is until Cyno, another male Electro character was released two years after Genshin's launch.
  • Razor language pls ^ExplanationDue to how long and wordy certain artifacts and character skills are in Genshin, certain players may utter this word as a form of tl;dr (Too long; didn't read) under the pretext that - like Razor - they are too uneducated/lazy to understand.
• Rosaria:
  • "Horny Benevolence" ^ExplanationThe 1.4 preview stream revealed Rosaria and her tagline, "Thorny Benevolence," i.e. Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Some people immediately noticed that if you cover up the T, you get... a phrase with a very different meaning. Related to her being an obvious Ms. Fanservice and an earlier meme about her, uh, assets being "nerfed" in beta testing.
  • Rosaria can't spell "Barbatos." ^ExplanationIn Rosaria's comment regarding the wind blowing, she's unable to spell Barbatos, the Anemo deity. It's so hilarious that many fans compare her with Inosuke, who frequently misspells Tanjiro's name, etc. Thus, whenever the name Barbatos is brought up, expect it to be intentionally misspelled in response.
  • Mondstadt Team Rocket / Team Cryorocket ^ExplanationAfter Rosaria came out, fanartists noticed that pairing her with the other two 4-star Cryo users from Mondstadt makes for a group oddly similar to the infamous Goldfish Poop Gang from Pokémon—Rosaria as Jessie, Kaeya as James, and Diona as Meowth.

Playable Characters (S - Z)

• Sangonomiya Kokomi:
  • The Fatui Harbinger in disguise ^Explanation In the 2.0 trailer, Kokomi says “The wait is over, my comrades!” Her use of the word “comrade” has sparked numerous jokes about her being a Fatui since the other character who uses that word is Childe. This became moreso as her English VA voices Istina who speaks in a Russian accent (and occasionally peppers her speech in Russian language).
  • "Kokomi Can't CRIT" ^ExplanationKokomi's base CRIT Rate is negative one-hundred, which means she is unable to deal critical hits. This revelation caused plenty of skepticism (and jokes) towards Kokomi due to the DPS-favored meta which involves CRIT Rate and Damage as substats for artifact builds.
  • "Kokomi's Fishy iPhone" ^ExplanationOne of Gorou's idle animations involves him grabbing a box, opening it up and having a fish pop out behind a blue watery portal. Many have alluded the fish to be Kokomi's way of communicating, but the sheer absurdity of it has led to jokes and image captchas on what the fish is actually saying.
  • The Art of War ^Explanation Kokomi's skills are supposedly in the art of war, but a lot of her "smart" quotes boil down to common sense. Notably, her quote "Our aim is to hit the enemy hard while minimizing casualties", is common sense for any sane leader.
  • "Cockomi/Kok" ^ExplanationAn intentional mispelling of her name that is frequently used on r/okbuddygenshin and occasionally other subreddits, due to people sometimes mispronouncing her name as kok-omi instead of ko-ko-mi.
    • For the last FUCKING time, I'll have you know that I, Sangonomiya Kokomi, do NOT have a KOK. I'm SICK and TIRED of this rumor going around that I have a KOK, because my name is Kokomi. That is untrue and and it is a completely DISGUSTING thing to say to someone. Enough of this lie. ^ExplanationKokomi's understandable response to the above meme.
    • I NEED Kok. ^ExplanationKokomi is very useful in a wide variety of teams thank to her off-field hydro application, thus the teams "need Kok."
  • Kokomi of Greed/Pot of Kokomi^ExplanationThe card Strategize from the Genius Invokation TCG features Kokomi on the card. But what does it do?! Why, it lets you draw two extra Action Cards when played, exactly like Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Pot of Greed!
  • "It's Kokover" ^ExplanationA spin on the "It's Joever" meme but with the name Kokomi. The meme spawned due to Furina's team-wide support skills being better received than Kokomi's, but also her ability to walk on water (an ability previously exclusive to Kokomi) with her 100% uptime skill compared to Kokomi's Burst which needs to be charged. Both aspects overall poking fun at how unless the player wants a dedicated Hydro healer, Kokomi becomes obsolete with the release of Furina.
  • Kaishte! ^ExplanationKokomi says this in adorable fashion in the Japanese dub when the Traveler discovers her diary. Due to how ridiculously cute it was, it was bound to be memed.
  • Sushi ^ExplanationKokomi was featured in a promotional art for Genshin's collaboration with Sushiro sushi restaurant. Given that she is mostly associated with fish, its easy for fans to joke about Kokomi being forced to eat those poor fish just for the promotional stunt, especially given she canonically does not like fish dishes.
• Sayu:
  • "Casually Approach X" ^ExplanationSayu's passive talent prevents creatures from being alerted to your presence when you approach them. Cue players (especially who play on mobile) rejoicing after realizing they can easily gather Crystalflies, Crabs, and Timmie's pigeons.
  • Sayu swearing ^ExplanationUpon learning Sayu's English voice would be provided by LilyPichu, fans presented a mockup of Sayu using pre-existing lines of Lily swearing and shouting.
  • ''Tryna catch me riding dirty" ^ExplanationSayu's Elemental Skill allows her to continuously roll around. While intended as an attack, it can be used as transportation due to its long duration, reasonable cooldown, and lack of stamina consumption. Only a day after Yoimiya's banner release, Sayu has spawned plenty of "They see me rollin'" jokes and memes.
  • The Sayu banner. ^ExplanationMuch like the Bennett example above, players were skeptical of Yoimiya due to being yet another Pyro DPS, of which the game already had an abundance of, which thus made her feel redundant. Sayu, meanwhile, was praised for her fun, high-speed gameplay as well as being a 4-star Anemo user (and the first one since launch to boot; prior to her release, Sucrose was the only one), which led many fans to declare that Sayu was the real star of the banner.
• Sethos:
  • Sethos Kaiba ^ExplanationAlmost as soon as Sethos was revealed in the 4.6 Special Program, people started making Yu-Gi-Oh! jokes about him and Seto Kaiba due to having a connection to Cyno, who himself is a huge shoutout to Yami Yugi.
  • Genshin Claude/Sethos von Riegan^ExplanationWith his brown hair with a long strand on the right side, green eyes, Ambiguously Brown skin and the prominent yellow scarf he wears, it didn't take long for players to note the visual similarities between Sethos and Claude von Riegen, one of the playable Lord characters in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Come his drip marketing, and these similarities become more pronounced by the reveal that he's a bow user, which Claude himself was in his home game.
• Shenhe:
  • Ganyu's shirt ^ExplanationWhen Shenhe was revealed to be an upcoming playable character, fans noticed she wears a bodysuit similar to Ganyu's and that the top looks oddly similar to her dress which many concluded and joked that the two of them are wearing two halves of one outfit.
  • Casual Homicide ^ExplanationDuring Shenhe's introductory video, she casually explained how her soul was bound by Cloud Retainer to dampen her homicidal tendencies. Just the sheer way Shenhe just casually blurts out her literal psychotic side as if it was nothing immediately made her popular with memes. With fans depicting her as a sociopath or a yandere.
  • Shenhe is Chongyun's big sister ^ExplanationDue to the fact that they both come from a family of exorcists, are both cryo users and are both from Liyue, a lot of fans speculated that Shenhe was Chongyun's older sister. Come Shenhe's character trailer and it confirms it to be quite close, with Shenhe being Chongyun's auntie instead.
    • Auntie Shenhe ^ExplanationFollowing the reveal that she actually is Chongyun's blood-related auntie, fans were quick to jump on the idea of Shenhe being both very close with and very protective of her nephew.
  • Shenhe being forgotten^ExplanationAs of version 3.4, Shenhe stands out as one of the unlucky few characters who weren't given their first rerun within a year of their release (in her case, she debuted in 2.4, at January 5th, 2022). While there are other characters who had to wait longer for their first rerun, such as Kazuha, the joke took off when the banners for version 3.4 (with an annual Lantern Rite festival starring Liyue characters) were announced: while Hu Tao got a rerun after her long absence, Shenhe was surprisingly not chosen as a rerun candidate despite being long overdue for one, with the remaining two rerun slots being taken by Yelan and Xiao, two characters who had rate-ups after Shenhe's banner had long since ended. As a result, Shenhe became the subject of jokes at her expense that Hoyoverse forgot about her, or depicting her shocked or envious of being shafted during her best possible opportunity of returning. This finally came to a close come version 3.5, where she is announced to have her first rerun during the second phase of said version.
  • Shenhe, how big was the gyatt? ^ExplanationPart of a comic by Xinzoruo depicting Shenhe with her arms outstretched became a popular reaction image on Reddit for any artwork that depicts the Genshin ladies with exaggerated proportions, especially in the breast department. The panel is also a common sight in the Honkai: Star Rail subreddit, for much the same reasons.
  • EXCALIBUR!!^ExplanationA popular way to make a crossover meme with the Fate Series is to have Shenhe's Elemental Burst quote switched with the Noble Phantasm of Artoria/Altria Pendragon (the original Saber). This is because they share the same Japanese voice actress and Shenhe's Elemental Burst looks close enough with her firing a beam (similar to Excalibur) that freezes the enemy. An alternate version of this can be found with "RHONGOMYNIAD!!" since Shenhe is a polearm user, which would make her more of a Lancer class than a Saber class, and whenever Artoria/Altria takes on the Lancer class, she switches Excalibur into Rhongomyniad, and their effects are generally considered similar.
• Shikanoin Heizou:
  • Inazuma Football/Inazuma Eleven ^ExplanationBecause of his artwork pose, many joked that Heizou looks like he is participating in FIFA. Que jokes and image cropping of him playing football/soccer with other Genshin characters. This joke reached memetic status once leaks showed that his ultimate literally involves him kicking a ball made of anemo.
  • "I cast fist!"/"Anemomachines son! They harden in response to physical trauma!" ^ExplanationHeizou is not only the first male catalyst user but the first CQC catalyst user in which he uses anemo to enhance his martial arts. This spawned a metric ton of memes on Heizou being a physical catalyst user to frequent comparisons to Senator Armstrong of Metal Gear fame.
  • ONE PUNCH!!! ^Explanation On the same vein as the "I cast fist!" meme: Heizou is a DPS character who's Elemental Skill, Heartstopper Strike, has him punch the enemy. The One Punch Man jokes basically wrote themselves.
  • Get Heizou'd ^ExplanationDuring 2.8 livestream the players finally got their first look at Sumeru... only for the technical hiccup to rewind the video back to the redemption code screen, which depicted Heizou.
  • Heizou's birthday art ^ExplanationIn the 2022 Official Illustration for the character's birthday, Heizou was shown yawning after accidentally falling asleep while waiting for the Traveler. The fandom was quick to notice that Heizou's expression, when taken out of context, looked like... ahem, something else. Cue NSFW artists having a field day with it. The meme got more traction after the original post was mistakenly flagged as NSFW and was taken down for a short while on the main Genshin Impact subreddit.
• Sigewinne:
  • Sigewinne's Father^ExplanationSigewinne looks very much like a Half-Human Hybrid despite being a Melusine. While the nature of her appearance has yet to be explained, most fans assumed it happened the natural way, leading to many jokes about what type of madman would get it on with an anthropomorphic sea slug.
  • "...Ah, you're awake." ^ExplanationSigewinne says this line during part of the 4.1 Archon Quest. Players immediately started linking it to the opening sequence of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
• Sucrose
  • "Where are Glucose, Fructose and Lactose?" ^ExplanationSucrose being named after the most common disaccharide (table sugar) leads to jokes asking if she has sisters or relatives named after most of the other common monosaccharide or disaccharide sugars as a form of Theme Naming. To date, no, she does not.
  • "What if she doesn't wanna Hangout with you?" ^ExplanationPlayers have been asking for Sucrose to have a Hangout quest chain, but due to her not being good at socializing, it's all too likely that she'd be too nervous to want to spend some free time with the Traveler. The developers have more-or-less stated the quote on TikTok as why she hasn't gotten a Hangout event yet.
• Tartaglia/Childe:
  • "Childe's weakness: Chopsticks"^ExplanationChilde not being able to use chopsticks has become this, due to it pretty much being a Running Gag in canon that’s stuck with the players.
  • Jokingly questioning what happened to Childe. ^Explanation As explained on his character page, Childe’s eyes look incredibly empty◊, and lack a shine to them compared to every other major character introduced so far, leaving fans to wonder what he could have possibly went through for his design to be deliberately taken in that direction. It’s been ramped up now that Scaramouche, another member of the Fatui, has been revealed and appears to be eviler than him from the fandoms perspective, but in contrast has three very blatant points of shine in his eye design.
    • Childe's dead eyes ^Explanation This close-up shot of Childe's Dull Eyes of Unhappiness along with his startled expression from his Story Quest has been used as a reaction image as well as in merchandise. His English voice actor Griffin Burns has particularly been seen owning at least several such pieces of merchandise.
  • Childe yeets an arrow^ExplanationChilde states that the reason he uses a bow in combat is because it's the weapon he's the worst at using and he wants to practice with it. Looking at his Normal Attack animations makes it clear he isn't kidding, as the attack string ends with him literally chucking the arrow instead of shooting it with the bow. It deals the most damage out of any other attack in the attack sequence (being the last attack), leading to the fandom joking that this shows that Childe is so bad with a bow that he deals more damage by throwing arrows.
  • Tartaglia's Elemental Skill cooldown ^ExplanationCompared to the rest of the roster, Tartaglia's Elemental Skill, Foul Legacy: Raging Tide, has a very long cooldown, especially when he uses it for a long time at C0. As such, many jokes are made at his expense, such as how it lasts forever, or how Childe's boss fight can only give rewards once a week because the cooldown for his Elemental Skill lasts that long.
  • Misspelling "Tartaglia" ^ExplanationSimilar to the "Barbatos" meme below, many fans tend to misspell the name Tartaglia on purpose. Common examples are Tortilla, Tarantula, or Tortellini.
  • For those who found out Childe's real name, comparing him to Ajax cleaning products has become a meme, mainly due to a number of people not knowing the name's origins.
  • The boss when you unlock him as a playable character ^ExplanationChilde is the boss of the Liyue chapter, and he is so notoriously difficult that the creators had to nerf him because of complaints. Notably, his battle has three phases, involving him using Hydro and Electro at the same time, traveling at insane speeds, and easily one-shotting the playable characters. Once you unlock him as a playable character, however, he only uses Hydro, is arguably not significantly stronger than other playable characters, and does not have Electro abilities or the ability to teleport. This has led to people making many memes and videos joking about how he got a Redemption Demotion (though, as of the end of the Liyue chapter, he has not gotten 'redeemed' exactly and is still canonically an enemy of the protagonist.)
  • "This opportunity is quite hard to come by."^ExplanationThe Childe boss fight's first voiceline. It is memed by the community because players hear it every week, meaning the opportunity is not hard to come by. The Japanese version of this line, "sekkaku no chansu da," is also a popular line.
    • "Well then, amuse me."
    • "Surrender is a valid option."
    • "I promise I'll be gentle."^ExplanationThe rest of Childe's opening lines in his boss fight are also popular to meme.
    • "Not bad, not bad." ^ExplanationA line which Childe often says when fighting you. He says it so often that it has become a meme.
    • "All you do is run!" ^ExplanationA line that Childe will sometimes say when fighting you, even if you are actually hitting him and not, in fact, running away.
  • Childe's magical girl transformation. ^ExplanationChilde's third and final phase of his boss fight is to turn into a One-Winged Angel against the Traveler, complete with an animation which is suspiciously reminiscent of magical girl shows. It becomes even more of a meme since he is a weekly boss as well, and the animation shows every time you fight him. People have milked this joke by putting his Transformation Sequence to the tune of the Winx Club transformation songs.
  • I can use a Childe to defeat the Childe. ^ExplanationFor a long time, Tartaglia/Childe was the only playable character that you could also fight. It is possible to use Childe in the battle against Childe, creating a confusing yet hilarious boss battle. This meme has fallen out of popularity as the Raiden Shogun was later introduced as both a playable character and a boss, and while this was initially a one time fight she became a weekly boss after Act 2 of Raiden Shogun's Story Quest was released, with the context being a canon Mirror Match.
  • "AoE Hydro Damage." ^ExplanationThis phrase is repeated so often in Tartaglia's Collective Miscellany video that it stuck with many viewers.
  • Tar-Tar-Tartaglia, lover of Snezhnayan queen ^Explanation Stemming from the Rasputin parody posted by Childe's voice actor on TikTok, it is a common joke in the Genshin Impact community to post the full song with snowcloned lyrics and other variations.
  • Childe abuse. ^Explanation Another phrase to refer to the players' weekly beating up of Childe.
  • Fatui Housewife/Pregnant Childe ^Explanation There was an ad for an emperor harem game where a concubine said she had your baby, then someone pointed out that the concubine looked like Tartaglia. It was soon seen and edited by his English voice actor, Griffin Burns.
  • Ed Sheeran ^Explanation Plenty of memes have compared Childe to Ed Sheeran due to their similar appearances.
  • Tartaglia is Mr. Worldwide ^ExplanationTartaglia hails from Snezhnaya, uses talent books from Mondstadt, and is not only fought in Liyue but uses Starconches (a Liyue regional specialty) to ascend, so it didn't take long for players to give him the nickname of rapper Pitbull. This was made more apparent when it was revealed that he'd get his second rerun in 2.2 alongside an event in Inazuma that stars him (and Xinyan), bringing this joke back to the forefront. The joke returned once again when Fontaine's trailer was released, revealing that Childe would play a role in Fontaine's Archon Quest.
    • Wait, it's all Childe? Always has been/Archon of Rerun ^ExplanationA joke that sparked after Childe's third banner in 2.2. No one expected him to have a second rerun so soon after his first, especially when there were plenty of characters who hadn't gotten their first rerun when his third banner was released. This meme died down when, after 2.2, Childe hasn't had a rerun for a year and numerous other characters were rerun more than once during that interval.
  • Locked Out of the Loop in Inazuma ^ExplanationIn 3.2, Childe appears as an NPC in Chinju Forest playing with Yoimiya and Inazuman children, chasing after imaginary monsters. Since his last appearance in 2.2 was also in Inazuma, but then, he was tasked to hunt down Scaramouche after the latter defected with the Electro Gnosis. The players theorised that the other Harbingers, most notably Dottore, tricked Childe into staying in Inazuma while the events of the Sumeru Archon Quest unfolded.
  • "Hey girlie- hold still."^ExplanationChilde says this in a cutscene, if the player chose the female Traveler, and the line’s apparently flirtatious nature, especially if taken out of context, led to various memes including the phrase, and the shortened form, just "Hey girlie”.
  • Childe the Jobber ^ExplanationEver since Neuvillette effortlessly goomba stomped Childe during mid-transformation in the Opera Epiclese, Childe has been unable to escape being seen as a jobber.
  • Childe gets yeeted^ExplanationOne of Skirk's first acts upon her long-awaited debut is to take an unconscious Childe and literally throw him through a portal. Needless to say, this wasn't exactly expected and many fans took amusement in the image of Childe getting chucked like a baseball.
• Thoma:
  • Inazuman Childe ^ExplanationFans have noticed his similarities to Childe (being a friendly guide to the Traveller after they arrive in a new region; the main difference between the two being that Thoma is genuine in wanting to help the Traveller while Childe eventually betrays them). Both of their runs (Childe having his third rerun and Thoma being made available as part of Hu Tao's second rerun) being announced in the same livestream, as well as receiving official art where the two casually hang out with each other has only served to fuel the nickname.
  • House husband/Malewife ^ExplanationThoma is noted by several characters to be a fantastic housekeeper that any household would love to poach from the Kamisatos. Because of that, fans like to joke about his homemaking prowess, like photoshopping his spear to be a broom or inserting him into scenes from The Way of the Househusband. The meme further grew in popularity after the release of Thoma's Hangout event, which focused on his housekeeping skills.
  • Conyo Thoma ^Explanation An outdated meme largely limited to the Philippine Genshin community, many of the early leaks regarding Thoma made him look like a conyo, which Filipino fans quickly seized on. Childe also received characterization as a conyo, though Thoma was the face of the meme when it was still in fashion.
• Tighnari:
  • I'm done pretending that I don't love Tighnari just because you don't like him. I love him. I love his ears. I want to pet them and maybe nibble on them sometimes. His little outfit is so cute. I want to tug on his little cape and then get him to turn around and maybe kiss his forehead or little nose or maybe his lips if he’s okay with that. He’s my little tree boy and there's nothing you can do to stop me from loving him. Nothing.^ExplanationA copypasta that became popular in the Genshin subreddits when Tighnari was revealed, renowned for its extremely gushy and affectionate nature.
  • Tripping Tighnari/High-nari ^ExplanationIn his Character Demo, Tighnari is seen consuming psychedelic fungi apparently for research purposes. Tighnari also has a voiceline in which he says that he purchases materials for research from Dori and refuses to reveal the subject of the research. This naturally led to Tighnari being called a drug addict.
    • Tighnari sniffs crack. ^ExplanationA sister-meme of the above. Tighnari's fan depiction of being a drug addict is not helped by the fact that one of his ascension materials are Fungal Spores... which is often nicknamed as cocaine by the fandom due to looking like a certain powdered drug. Put Tighnari getting high on shrooms and the fact that he needs fungal spores that look like green crack to ascend, and the memes just write themselves.
    • Let's sniff them in the butt! / One with the farts! ^ExplanationTwo misheard version of Tighnari's voicelines "Let's nip it in the bud" & "One with the forest" that obviously became memetic thanks to it accentuating the above drug-themed memes (& some Toilet Humor).
  • Tighnari is tired of Cyno's shit^ExplanationTighnari is often portrayed as the annoyed and exasperated Tsukkomi to Cyno's Boke whenever he makes bad jokes.
  • What are they gonna do, lock me up?^ExplanationOne of Tighnari's voicelines about him offering unauthorized lessons to forest rangers gained a darkly humorous double meaning after serious sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Elliot Gindi, the original VA, resulting in widespread calls to, well, lock him up.
  • Tighnari is Greg Heffley^ExplanationWhen it was revealed Tighnari's new VA will be Zachary Gordon, there were numerous jokes made about him being Greg Heffley due to Gordon being his first actor in the live-action films, such as edits of the Sumeru cast in the books' artstyle. Cyno tends to be associated with Rowley due to both making unfunny jokes.
• The Traveler:
  • Buffed Traveler ^ExplanationDuring the Crux Clash, players are forced to use their Traveler without an element during the matches. Those who benched them early panicked about losing only to find out that their stats have been increased by THOUSANDS.
  • Smug Traveler ^ExplanationAs a (mostly) silent protagonist, Traveler rarely shows any emotion outside cutscenes. Many players were delighted to see them give the most shit-eating grin when the Crux Clash spectators and competitors realize they outmatch everyone.
  • Sweet Madame Addiction ^ExplanationMany players use the Anemo Traveler's Elemental Burst to kill flocks of Pigeons and other birds, most popularly at the gates of Monstadt, which are then used to make Sweet Madames. Plenty of fan-made media depicts the Traveler recruiting some of the most powerful 5-star characters for the sole purpose of farming fowl. Paimon has taken note of this strange tendency especially when birds integral to a quest have been killed.
  • The Twelvth Fatui Harbinger ^ExplanationThe Traveler has infiltrated the Fatui with a Paper-Thin Disguise that consists only of a standard Fatui Mask, and it WORKED. The mask has been brought up whenever players discuss undercover quests, future Fatui interactions, and infiltrating Inazuma.
  • “I'm leaving” ^ExplanationThe Traveler is exasperated when given another delivery job at Inazuma and reacts with a very expressive and meme-worthy face. Fans were quick to use it to express cringe or "I'm out of here".
  • Dull Blade ^Explanation Because the Traveler is always seen wielding a Dull Blade in cutscenes regardless of the weapon the Traveler has equipped at the time, fans tend to joke that either the Dull Blade is the strongest weapon in the game or that the Traveler can become the strongest unit in the game if they swapped out for another better weapon.
  • Aether's Harem^Explanation Due to Aether being the stand-in Traveler in the trailers and the many beautiful girls in the game who are attracted to the Traveler, fans have joke that Aether is a Harem Seeker protagonist who manages to get a harem either by little to no effort or the girls are very thirsty for him. This even led to jokes that Aether is more focused on getting a harem than rescuing his sister.
  • "AAAAAEEEEUUUUGH!" ^ExplanationSpawned from Korean Genshin Youtuber Gimnaeng who turned Aether into a horndog. Whenever Aether is present with women, this would be the sound he would make. This immediately took off as the Genshin fanbase view it as a sister-meme to Aether's Harem.
  • The Traveler gets arrested in Fontaine and thrown in jail ^ExplanationFans joked that when the story makes its way to Fontaine, a nation that practices the ideals of Justice and is known to have a court system, the Traveler would end up (un)intentionally doing something during the Fontaine Archon quests that causes them to get apprehended by the ruling body and locked up in the slammer. The fact that Yanfei's 2023 birthday letter has her wanting to inform them of Fontaine's laws beforehand so that they don't do anything careless in the nation of Justice doesn't help the case against the joke. Became an Ascended Meme with the release of Patch 4.1, as the Archon Quest has the Traveler and Paimon enter and investigate the Fortress of Meropide, which serves as a prison in Fontaine, by way of bogus charges on Neuvillette's behalf.
  • "Aether No Sis" ^Explanation A joke within the community in which the word "Gnosis," gets twisted which ends up getting heard like "No Sister," especially if the player chooses to play as Aether.
  • WINDBLADE! ^ExplanationOne of Anemo Traveler's voicelines when they use their elemental skill, expect hearing this phrase more often.
  • "No Tabibito costumes!" ^ExplanationOn several occasions, the Traveler has been offered a change in their attire, such as during Ayaka's and Chiori's Story Quests, but in every case, something comes up that prevents the Traveler from trying on some new clothes (or they refuse the offer). Players have frequently asked Hoyoverse to give the Traveler some customizable aspects of their appearance, such as being able to wear the Aranara Garland outside of its associated quest chain. However, one of the lines of dialogue in Ayaka's Story Quest is essentially a stealthy developer comment that roughly says "We will not make Traveler skins", which is bound to be brought up whenever the matter is discussed.
• Venti:
  • "Starbucks Venti" ^ExplanationAssociating Venti with the Starbucks drink because of their similar names. Venti is also depicted as a mascot of Starbucks because of his green and white color theme.
  • "Ehe"/"Hehe" ^ExplanationPaimon asks Venti if he planned to use the Holy Lyre to play music at a Tavern, this is all he answers. Commonly used as an ambiguous answer to screw with someone's head.
  • "Sacrifice Venti to save Mondstadt/Sacrifice Mondstadt to save Venti" ^ExplanationA fanartist made a fake screenshot of a distressed-looking Traveler and the two given choices and posted it to their Twitter account, parodying similar Sadistic Choices present in other games (ex. Life Is Strange). Cue some fans spreading it around social media with no context, "spoiling" new players with the screenshoot to make them believe it can actually happen in-game.
  • “Vengeance will be mine!” ^ExplanationOnce La Signora became a weekly boss in the 2.1 update, many Venti players make a point to use him in the duel to exact his revenge on the Fatui Harbinger for attacking Venti for his Gnosis, even using Eula’s Character Catchphrase in the process.
  • Drunk Venti ^ExplanationVenti's rampant alcoholism mixed in with his borderline trollish behaviour has made him infamous in the fandom. Memes on Venti's destructive alcoholism and images of him being facedown on the floor drunk have spread throughout the Genshin fandom.
  • Venti's the drunk uncle ^ExplanationWith Ei, Zhongli and Nahida forming the 'Archon Family' by the fandom, the status of Venti immediately became that of the negligent and irresponsible drunk uncle of the team. This does not rely solely on the Archon Family dynamic mind you. It can also work just as well in the 'Anemo Family' too.
• Wanderer/Scaramouche:
  • "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?" ^Explanation Ever since the 6th Fatui Harbinger had his name revealed as "Scaramouche", players easily thought of the lyrics in "Bohemian Rhapsody" whenever he is discussed, often creating comment chains of the song starting from this line. Not helping is that he has an Electro motif, and the next line in "Bohemian Rhapsody" is "Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me!" His theme is even called "Ominous Fandango". Additionally, Bohemian Rhapsody was released on October 31st, the same day as his announcement as a playable character, and his Collected Miscellany, titled "Any Way the Wind Blows", is a line directly taken from the song.
    • Not a fan of dango.^ExplanationThe Wanderer says word for word that he is "not a fan of dango". This elicited a lot of amusement from the fanbase, due to how close the two words are to each other. Fan and dango = Fandango = Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
  • No stars in the sky^ExplanationDuring the "Unreconciled Stars" event when Scaramouche sees something that makes him think there are "no stars in the sky," people have made him look like Charlie in the episode "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack" having an Insane Troll Logic bout explaining it with accompanying String Theory.
  • The other Harbingers making fun of Scaramouche^ExplanationThere are many comics and fanarts depicting Childe, sometimes accompanied by Signora, making fun of Scaramouche in various ways: singing Bohemian Rhapsody, throwing his hat like a frisbee or making fun of his height.
  • Gigachad Scaramouche ^Explanation The three times Scaramouche has appeared in game, his appearance was short but his impact was massive. Therefore, Scaramouche became a gigachad who barges into the game, drops lore bombs, refuses to elaborate further, and leaves.
  • Scaramouche is trans^{Explanation (spoilers!)}Some people have questioned why Ei would choose to create a male puppet body, considering that she and her current body are female. Thus, a theory was created: Scaramouche was originally created with a female body, but still identifies as male.
  • Shinji Scaramouche ^Explanation When the 3.1 Version trailer revealed Scaramouche plugged into a giant mecha that looks similar to Shinji's Unit-01, fans have adapted Shinji's memes to apply to him, such as drawing Dottore asking him to "Get in the robot".
    • Overcompensating ^ExplanationDue to Scaramouche being The Napoleon, players have made many jokes about him asking Dottore to build a giant mecha so he can compensate for his short height, or flaunting it to the tall male Harbingers.
  • Most Sane Scaramouche Fan ^ExplanationScaramouche is known for having a very dedicated and unhinged fanbase, resulting in jokes involving the Traveler asking to be stepped on by Scaramouche's mech during the Sumeru Archon Quest or Scaramouche being disgusted by his fanbase/worshippers and having second thoughts on becoming a god. Haypasia has also being dubbed the representative of Scaramouche's fanbase.
  • Scaramouche steps on you ^ExplanationWhen players first saw the Elemental Burst animation of Scaramouche (as Wanderer), it shows him sporting a smug grin while he performs a Shockwave Stomp... with the POV placed below his shoe sole just before stomping said POV. Players joked how they just got stepped on and dominated by Scaramouche. Many also pointed out how Scaramouche has stepping on enemies as a part of his moveset both as a playable character and as a boss.
  • Ominous Hovering ^ExplanationAfter finding out that Wanderer's skill lets him float, a famous meme involving an ominous floating figure chasing someone was recreated with Wanderer.
    • "I see no god up here... other than me!"^ExplanationAnother meme that was recreated with Wanderer, due to the antics of his mains in co-op. In fact, Wanderer mains are known for their trollish behaviour as they use the character's mobility to flex on top of cliffs/on the other side of stretches of water while their co-op teammates slowly climb/swim. It was also pointed out that Venti, the actual god of Anemo, cannot outright fly, while Wanderer can.
  • Delightful and tasty Lotus Flower Crisp!^ExplanationTypically, during betas for Genshin Impact patches, all quest dialogue is removed so that beta testers won't be spoiled on the story. It was largely the same for all of the lines of the Sumeru Interlude Chapter during the beta for patch 3.3... except, for some reason, this line of dialogue that was assigned to Scaramouche on a popular leak site. Fans latched on to it because the apparent cheerfulness of the line looked hilariously out-of-character for someone as sarcastic and pessimistic as Scaramouche. (In truth, the line was a placeholder, as it is taken verbatim from one of Paimon's lines in the daily commission The Taste of Home; no such line appears in the actual quest.)
  • Fourth Betrayal ^{Explanation (spoilers for Sumeru Archon Quest Interlude!)}At the end of the quest, players have the ability to rename Wanderer. Obviously, numerous joke/humiliating names were picked, such as Scarymoose, Scaradouche, Bongohead, Kunikuzussy, or Boi.
    • "Why does the Traveler call you babygirl?" ^ExplanationWith the tendency of referring to male characters as "babygirl" already widespread on the internet, it didn't take the players long to find out that the game allows to pick "babygirl" as a new name for Wanderer.
  • Roasting Signora wanters ^{Explanation (spoilers!)}Wanderer has a voice line about the Fair Lady, who was slain by the Electro Archon to Jab the Audience. In addition, Wanderer's banner is called "From Ashes Reborn" and his teaser features ash and rebirth imagery... which is also associated with Signora. Therefore, Signora wanters were clearly jealous.
    Wanderer: "Nothing remained in her ashes. I have no interest in those who have lost their future".
  • "It's wanderin' time!" ^ExplanationA reference to "It's morbin' time".
  • Scarameowche ^{Explanation (spoilers!)}In the Sumeru Archon Quest Interlude, Nahida created a fable on Scaramouche as a backup that bypasses Irminsul deletion. In that fable, Scaramouche is depicted as an adorable cat that has quickly been featured in large amounts of fan content. Scaramouche himself has also been assigned feline character traits by the playerbase. Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when Scaramouche as the Wanderer was one of four characters chosen by Genshin's official Twitter to become a cat as part of April Fools in 2023.
  • Scaramouche does commercials ^ExplanationLong before he was cast as Scaramouche, Patrick Pedraza has done voiceworks for varying commercials such as Domino's Pizza Honda, Taco Bell, to name a few. Humorously, in a drastic contrast to Scaramouche's no nonsense attitude, Patrick uses a very flamboyant and enthusiastic personality, helped by his natural voice tone sounding similar to Scaramouche. It doesn't take long for fans to imagine Scaramouche doing commercials with a happy and excited personality. Since Wanderer was shown doing odd jobs for merchants prior to reacquiring his memories, it is actually not unrealistic for Wanderer to do this kind of advertising.
  • Wanderer the Disney Princess ^ExplanationIn several pieces of official art◊ as well as in his demo trailer, Wanderer was shown with birds sitting on his hat or his shoulder. The fandom jokes that as much as he tried to deny it or shoo the birds away, he is a Disney Princess.
  • Wanderer wears it better than Ayaka. ^Explanation Ayaka's new alternate outfit, based on a popular style from Fontaine, spawned a horde of edits and fanart of Wanderer wearing it instead.
  • Hat Guy ^ExplanationIn Parade of Providence, the Wanderer goes by this alias when participating in the Akademiya Extravaganza, as a nominal member of the Akademiya's Vahumana branch. The mere mundane simplicity of this name to describe the young man who was the dreaded no nonsense sixth ranked Fatui Harbinger back then, along with it being Nahida's idea for the name and the implication that the Wanderer is seemingly okay with rolling with it, led to amusement towards many players.
    • Don Sombrero ^ExplanationThe Spanish localization of "Hat Guy" has gained surprising popularity in English circles due to its catchiness.
  • "Cum!"/"Unsightly in sex!" ^ExplanationTwo of Wanderer's voicelines, "Come!" and "Unsightly insects!" which were misheard in a certain way.
  • Wandererface ^ExplanationSimilar to Thornsface, players love to edit Wanderer's face onto just about anything due to the fact that this gremlin has an iconic Dreamworks Face. Expect remarks to be made about other characters looking cursed with a smirk, or that Wanderer looks good in literally anything, especially female attire.
  • Donut curse ^ExplanationWanderer's reruns were alongside Kokomi (version 3.8) and Baizhu (version 4.6). Unfortunately, this compromises the corresponding weapon banners, since Wanderer's signature weapon was alongside Kokomi's and Baizhu's signature weapons, and both of the latter have the common trait of being catalysts that are (i) only useful on their respective characters and (ii) not much of an improvement over the completely free Prototype Amber. Those who desire Wanderer's signature weapon have lamented how he's cursed and given these weapon banners, how ill-advised it would be to pull on the weapon banner and risk getting the other option up to twice before getting Wanderer's signature weapon, at the potential cost of up to 240 pulls.
  • Stupid coat ^ExplanationScaramouche is among those present for Peruere's ascension to the rank of Fatui Harbingers, wearing a coat similar to those seen in "A Winter Night's Lazzo." Many found that, to put it bluntly, he looked ridiculous◊. On one hand, he may not feel that cold and thus there's no reason for such a massive hood. On the other hand, he describes knowing the sensation of heat and thus can feel the cold, but is still choosing to wear shorts and not button up his coat despite having put on special footwear.
  • Who is that ^Explanation As Scaramouche attempted to Ret-Gone himself and failed, with everyone still forgetting him, a common joke about him being present for Peruere's ascension in "The Song Burning in the Embers" is for people to wonder who the mysterious twink to the left of Pierro is
• Wriothesley:
  • It's Kaeyover!!!^ExplanationWith Wriothesley's debut as the first Cryo Catalyst wielder in the game, many players joked that Kaeya's job as the ice bridger has now been completely usurped, thanks to Wriothesley's attacks innately applying Cryo. Funnily enough, 2 weeks later, Furina was shown to be able to infinitely walk on water using her Elemental Skill, immediately downgrading even the most efficient ice-bridger.
  • Wriothesley loves tea^ExplanationTea is Wriothesley's Trademark Favourite Food, and hence there are many fan arts of him drinking the beverage from a comically large cup.
  • Wriothesley's ass^ExplanationWriothesley's beefier body model coupled with his back design that leads the eye to gaze upon his well-defined butt (especially when his coat flaps up when running) has led to yet another of spring of fan art featuring just that.
  • Choke me instead^{Explanation (Spoilers for Wriothesley Story Quest!)} At the climatic cutscene of Wriothesley's Story Quest, Wriothesley, on noticing Dougier turning his gun on the Traveler, immediately rushes in to disarm Dougier, placing him in a chokehold. Thirsty fans wished they could be in Dougier's position.
  • ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA! ^ExplanationA crossover meme from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure due to...similarities in fighting techniques. Goes doubly so when folks realise that the JP VA of Wriothesley is the same VA as Jotaro Kujo
• Xiangling (and Guoba):
  • “Help, my dinner is attacking me!” ^ExplanationXiangling will say this line on occasion whenever she is hit by enemies, including humanoid ones like the Treasure Hoarders, Fatui etc. As such, and given her reputation for cooking practically anything, fans often joke that Xiangling is a cannibal.
  • Xiangling, the Spear/Polearm Archon ^ExplanationWhenever a new polearm is announced, fans immediately post memes of the weapon being another gift for Xiangling, sitting on an iron throne made of polearms. The meme originated from the fact that Xiangling was the first and only polearm user for a time, as well as one of the most meta polearm characters in the game. So comparing Xiangling to the archon of polearms became a tradition.
  • "Guoba's aim." ^ExplanationCompared to Fischl's Oz, Xiangling's Guoba is prone to Artificial Stupidity, often not breathing fire at what the player would want him to. As a result, if Guoba is ever brought up, expect jokes at his expense.
  • "Standing Guoba" ^ExplanationDuring the 2.1 Preview stream, players caught sight of Xiangling as an NPC with Guoba... who is standing with a completely deadpan expression. Players found this rather unsettling due to Guoba normally sitting down and being very jittery, while here he's just standing perfectly still.
  • "Guoba Event" ^ExplanationThe Moonchase Event quickly became overshadowed by Guoba's random antics of running around and inspecting things randomly, making funny noises and just being a big enough distraction that many players agreed that they paid more attention to Guoba than the actual plot. Combine with Guoba's status as a God and his general cute persona, Guoba was catapulted into "Memetic Badass" territory.
  • "~🎶~" ^ExplanationDuring the Moonchase Event, this was Guoba's only way of communicating in the subtitles. Due to Guoba's "Memetic Mutation" status in the event, it became a very popular way for players to exclaim joy without saying anything.
  • I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of Xiangling.^ExplanationA copypasta depicting a player who wants to try out new and exciting characters and strategies only to fall back into Complacent Gaming Syndrome as Xiangling inevitably ends up being a better option or the most useful support. Said copypasta also inspired several other variants.
  • Xiangling in the Fatui banner^{Explanation (Chapter IV Act I spoilers)} When Xiangling was announced to be one of the featured 4 star characters alongside Lynette and Freminet on Arlecchino and Lyney's banner, jokes were made about her presence being wildly out of place with the House of Hearth members, such as being accused of being secretly a Fatuus herself.
• Xianyun/Cloud Retainer:
  • Cloud Retainer could only afford one dress ^ExplanationSoon after miHoYo released Shenhe's official artwork, players noticed that her and Ganyu's clothes worn above their bodysuits would fit perfectly together and since both have a connection with Cloud Retainer, jokes have been made that Cloud Retainer only gave them one dress and the two were forced to split the dress between each other. This popped up again with her reveal as a playable character Xianyun, where her human form has a flowing collar/shoulder piece that fits the same style as her charges (albeit with Anemo green accents instead of Cryo blue), with the joke being that all three of them are sharing parts of the same outfit and/or that she wanted matching family outfits.
    • Cloud Retainer vs Madame Ping ^ExplanationA remark on the fact that Madame Ping's apprentices (Xiangling and Yanfei) are both Pyro 4* characters wearing short shorts that fully expose their legs, while Cloud Retainer's apprentices (Ganyu and Shenhe) are Cryo 5* characters wearing black tights. Bonus points for Cloud Retainer wearing black tights in her human form, and Madame Ping exposing her legs in the outfit of her youth.
  • "One is so fucking mad" ^ExplanationA certain Arthur meme was recreated with Genshin Impact characters, with Cloud Retainer taking the role of Arthur's dad, and the quote "I am so fucking mad" modified to fit Cloud Retainer's speech pattern. The quote has since become popular with Cloud Retainer fans, likely due to how Sophisticated as Hell it makes her sound.
  • That lady bird/那个女人^ExplanationIn the 2.1 Moonchase event, Paimon addressed Cloud Retainer as such, offending the proud adeptus, which the CN fandom found humorous. The devs even used the term during the 4.4 livestream.
    • "Excuse me! One shall not be addressed in such a manner!"/放肆, 哪个女人!^ExplanationCloud Retainer's indignant response.
  • Bayonetta Retainer ^ExplanationWhen Cloud Retainer's human form was revealed during The Exquisite Night Chimes, players remarked that she looked a lot like Bayonetta.
  • About: Ganyu/Shenhe VIII ^ExplanationBecause Xianyun loves to ramble on about Ganyu's and (presumably) Shenhe's childhoods, fans joked pre-release that she would have several "About" voice-overs where she tells more embarrassing stories from when they were children, with many players even joking that they would roll for her solely for this reason. Unfortunately, her playable incarnation only has one voice-over for each of Ganyu and Shenhe, and both are related to their "present" positions (as of Xianyun's Story Quest).
  • Xianyun sneezing ^ExplanationNear the end of her Character Teaser, Xianyun sneezed while working with metal components, which instantly reminded fans of Eula, another tall female whose sneeze is found adorable by many.
  • Diluc buff ^ExplanationXianyun's burst enables any character to jump high enough to perform a plunging attack without needing higher ground. To the joy of Diluc players, they now have easy access to his hard-hitting plunge attacks without needing to perform the input-intensive "Dragonstrike" technique.
  • Xiao got nerfed ^ExplanationWith the release of Xianyun, players poke fun at how Xiao somehow got usurped by Cloud Retainer, because of her elemental burst allows every character (including Xiao himself) to jump higher and deal plunging attacks.
  • Sweet Madame traumatizes Xianyun ^ExplanationSweet Madame is considered the most cost-effective food to be eaten. It's made by cooking a fowl. Xianyun has used the bird form for so long that she's effectively a 'bird/fowl lady'. While she can eat Sweet Madame just fine, fans like to make it that merely eating the Sweet Madame just gives Xianyun a severe trauma like being made as a cannibal.
• Xiao:
  • Budget Xiao ^Explanation Players often take any character, in combination with Venti's air current, Zhongli's Stone Stele, or Albedo's elevator to deal repeated plunging damage to enemies, albeit at a much slower rate than Xiao. Becomes much funnier when Xianyun is released and her burst allows characters to instantly jump high and plunge down as quickly as Xiao.
  • Ephemeral circumstance, perpetual agony!^ExplanationLine from the Xiao Doombane Gameplay Trailer used to make fun of the fact getting a desired 5-star character from a banner is only a 50-50 shot (unless you've already "lost" your last 50-50 roll), and if you're not a "whale" who spends hundreds or thousands of dollars on the game, you'll have to wait 6 months or more to get a second shot at getting your desired character.
  • XUE HUA PIAO PIAO PAY FOR XIAO XIAO^ExplanationIn a rare case of a meme coming full circle, the meme that arose from the classic Chinese song "Yi Jian Mei" gained additional traction during the Chinese New Year event of 2021, thanks to its focus on Xiao combined with the melancholy tune matching the atmosphere of the event.
  • Small Xiao ^ExplanationPlayers joke about Xiao's height due to him currently being the shortest playable male character in the game, in addition to his name being homophonous to 小 xiǎo, the Chinese word for "small."
  • "Weak." ^ExplanationOne of Xiao's voicelines when one of his allies is at low HP just has him saying this word. Due to how it is a stark contrast to other voicelines where the characters mostly saying words of encouragement, it quickly became a meme.
  • Xiao's C4 ^ExplanationThe constellations of early 5* characters are known for being mediocre when compared to newer 5* characters. Xiao's C4 is the most famous example, it gives him a 100% defense boost when his HP is under 50%, so no damage boost whatsoever, and even as a survivability buff, it is pretty bad. It is frequently quoted in the comments of C6 damage showcases on Youtube in which Xiao is outperformed by almost every other 5*.
    • Xiao and Albedo should switch C4s ^ExplanationAlbedo's C4 boosts plunging attack damage - as if Mihoyo intended for the players to use his elevator to perform plunge attacks (which is actually very impractical). Players joke about swapping around Xiao and Albedo's C4s, since the plunging attack bonus would benefit Xiao, while Xiao's defense boost would buff Albedo, whose damage scales off defense.
  • Venti's and Zhongli's lovechild ^ExplanationXiao's appearance looks like a mix of Zhongli and Venti (gold eyes from Zhongli and hair colors similar to Venti). Xiao uses polearms and similar mannerisms like Zhongli, is an Ameno user like Venti, and both Archons saved his life at one point. These lead to many jokes about Xiao being the two original Archons' secret lovechild.
• Xingqiu:
  • Budget Furina/Furina at home ^ExplanationXingqiu's 4.4 Lantern Rite skin is a dark blue suit with a jabot and white shorts, similar to Furina's outfit. On top of also being an off-field Hydro support.
• Xinyan:
  • Forgetting Xinyan exists. ^ExplanationFrom her release in version 1.1 to the latter half of 2.1, Xinyan was unique among the playable cast for how little presence she had; she had zero appearances in any in-game quest or web event, and was only mentioned by a very small handful of NPC's, whereas other minor characters like Chongyun or Fischl have hangout quests or have appeared in time-limited events. It came to a head when miHoYo announced a concert featuring Genshin music, with promotional cover art showing various characters as part of an orchestra, Xinyan was not even on the cover despite her being one of three actual playable musicians. Thankfully for her fans, she was not only featured in the anniversary web event, but she also got to appear in the Moonchase storyline, starred alongside Tartaglia in an event in 2.2, putting this meme to rest.
  • Xinyan, y'all! ^ExplanationXinyan's English VA speaks in a heavy, and we mean heavy southern accent that puts most viewers off-guard due to how out of place it is, given Xinyan's from Genshin's China analogue - Liyue.
  • Xinyan Hot Potato / Xinyan Bomb ^ExplanationXinyan was not featured as a rate-up 4-star character on any limited 5-star character banner for 19 banner cycles (3.4 second half to 4.4 second half), the longest absence of any 4-star character who is not tied to a specific limited 5-star character banner (e.g. Gorou is tied to Itto's banner). As Xinyan is generally considered to have a poor kit, her presence on a banner would dissuade pulling due to the risk of obtaining multiple copies of her instead of a more desirable (or worse, newly released) 4-star character. During her absence, players thus wondered which banner would be saddled with the "Xinyan Bomb" or "Xinyan Hot Potato".
• Yae Miko:
  • Smol fox ^Explanation After a small tidbit of dialogue from Yae hinting at her form as a fox, many players wanted Yae to transform into said form to see what it looked like. After it was revealed in the Raiden Shogun's cutscene what a younger Yae's fox form looked like, EVERYONE started taking that as what she looks like, and fanarts popped up everywhere drawing her in said small fox form.
  • "In your dreams..." ^Explanation Related to the above meme, Yae tells the Traveler this when they ask to see Yae's fox form during the Archon Quest. Fans tease one another with this line quite often.
  • Gucci Yae ^Explanation A misspelling/mispronounciation of Yae's alternate job title, Guuji, as "Gucci." Art and edits of Yae wearing Gucci clothes and accessories are most often found on Reddit.
  • Yae Chancla ^ExplanationA somewhat popular image captcha showing an angry Yae hitting someone with her slipper in first-person view became a go-to reaction meme image whenever something is heavily disapproved off. Given Yae's mommy status in the fandom, Asian or Mexican mom tropes such as the La Chancla meme became applicable to either her or Ei. Especially applicable in memes involving Scaramouche who gets spanked by a chancla
  • "Right here! Right now! Emerge!" ^ExplanationMiko's Elemental Skill voicelines, which became memetic due to the sheer number of times it's heard - first, her skill has three charges that the player must use in quick succession to summon three totems, and her Elemental Burst consumes the on-field totems which forces players to summon all three totems again.
• Yanfei:
  • OBJECTION! ^ExplanationBecause Yanfei is a legal advisor, players often include Ace Attorney references in fanart of her. She even shouts this as one of her low health lines, presumably to reference Ace Attorney.
  • "Better Call Yanfei" ^ExplanationAs a sister meme of the above, due to Yanfei being a lawyer, it's not uncommon to see Breaking Bad's resident Amoral Attorney referenced alongside Yanfei.
  • Leeks ^ExplanationYanfei's illuminated beast horns are compared to leeks by the playerbase.
  • Smug Yanfei ^ExplanationYanfei sometimes walks around with a cat's smile. Combine with her large, Tareme Eyes and it gives Yanfei a smug look. Fans found Yanfei's smug look to be cute, so it blew up.
  • Yanfei the professional ^ExplanationDespite a few playful moments, Yanfei is a Consummate Professional in the field of law and never engages in any erotic banter, whilst dressed in one of the most provocative clothing amongst the playable cast.
  • Single Female Lawyer ^ExplanationYanfei's profession and attire fit perfectly with part of the episode When Aliens Attack from Futurama.
• Yaoyao:
  • The Yaoyao is real! ^ExplanationPeople had been awaiting Yaoyao to appear ever since her rough model was leaked back in November 2020, when the only indications of her existence were a few voicelines, a few pieces of official art and a message she had written in the Wangshu Inn Bulletin Board. Her surprise appearance in the Game Awards Entry Video followed by her announcement immediately after satisfied many players who had devotedly waited for her.
  • Skill issue ^ExplanationAt the end of her Character Demo, Yaoyao exclaims "Why do so many people make such a big deal out of seeking the Adepti? There's Adepti anywhere, isn't there?", leading people to joke that Yaoyao is telling people off for not finding the Adepti easily, essentially being a "skill issue" on their part. Though knowing Yaoyao, this would come off as Innocently Insensitive instead in-lore.
  • Smiley Yaoyao^ExplanationA play on an NPC Yanxiao's name, used by fans to joke that Yaoyao is legitimately glad to finally be in the game after so long.
• Yelan:
  • Yelan is Xingqiu's aunt/mom. ^Explanation As soon as Yelan's design was leaked, many players noticed how similar her hairstyle is to Xingqiu. Additionally, as Shenhe, who was noted to be similar to Chongyun, turned out to be his aunt, many immediately begin jokingly (or not) that Xingqiu was Yelan's nephew, paralleling the relationship between Chongyun and Shenhe.
  • Dominatrix Yelan ^ExplanationWhen Yelan's character demo was released, an onslaught of memes relating to Yelan being a dominatrix and fans wanting her to 'step on them' exploded. This is due to Yelan's penchant in putting her victims in hydro bondage and literally stepping on the head of a Treasure Hoarder.
• Yoimiya:
  • Aether's twin ^ExplanationFans are quick to point out the similarities between her and Lumine, leading to jokes about Yoimiya being Aether's missing sibling.
  • Good Amber ^Explanation Upon being revealed to be a Pyro Bow user, people joke about how Amber is going to be completely useless due to Yoimiya having potentially better stats and kit.
  • "Pew Pew Pew!" ^ExplanationDuring Yoimiya's character trailer, one of the quotes she says is literally "Pew Pew Pew!". Fans instantly found it cute and were sorely disappointed that Yoimiya in-game does not say that quote. However, that did not stop Yoimiya Mains from saying it.
  • Stoned Yoimiya ^ExplanationIt's common to portray Yoimiya as The Stoner due to the fact that she requires Naku Weed to ascend and several shots from her character story quest have her look higher than pterodactyl tits. Consequentially, people joke that she smokes the Naku Weed to ascend. This was later expanded to Kazuha and Kuki Shinobu, as the former says weird poetic lines of dialogue (and Paimon once asked him in game whether he was high) while the latter also uses Naku Weed to ascend on top of canonically wielding Naku Weed for combat and cutting herself with said plant in her elemental skill.
  • Yoimiya banner placement ^ExplanationEver since the reveal of the second phase of Version 2.8, fans have been joking about how unfortunate Yoimiya's banner is, since the first time Yoimiya was introduced, she was sandwiched between the long-awaited Ayaka banner and the much-hyped Raiden Shogun banner, which led to Yoimiya having one of the lowest character banner sales in history. Her subsequent banners are not much better either: for her second rerun, Yoimiya's banner was sandwiched between the highly-anticipated first rerun of Kazuha's banner and the much-hyped Version 3.0 that is Sumeru and the introduction of playable Dendro characters. Her rerun in 3.2 is between the banners of Nilou & Albedo and Yae Miko & Tartaglia, all of which are fan-favorites while her banner is alongside Nahida (the awaited Dendro Archon). Her 3.7 rerun was with Yae Miko, who got immensely buffed by Dendro, and just before Kazuha's long-awaited second rerun. Topping things off is her 4.3 rerun: in a filler patch with poor Primogem earnings, right after the patch with Furina's banner, one banner phase after Navia's playable debut and an Ayaka rerun, running alongside a Raiden Shogun rerun, and right before 4.4, featuring excellent Primogem rewards with Chenyu Vale and Lantern Rite, with a first banner phase debuting Xianyun (Cloud Retainer) alongside a Nahida rerun.
  • YOIMIYA SWEEP!^ExplanationNahida's debut banner alongside Yoimiya's rerun banner became the top selling banner of all time, beating out even the Raiden Shogun's debut banner. Unsurprisingly, an overwhelmingly huge portion of those sales came from players rolling for Nahida, not Yoimiya. Players began joking that Yoimiya was the true carry of the banner, in the same vein as Morbius.
  • Yoimiya wins! ^{Explanation (Spoilers for Yoimiya Story Quest Act II!)}Yoimiya is the first non-Archon to get a a second Story Quest act. In its final cutscene, she takes the Traveler’s hand and even gets princess carried by the Traveler. Jokes of how the rest of the Traveler’s harem (that is, females with Ship Tease towards them) lost to Yoimiya didn't make themselves wait.
  • The Second Rerun Archon ^ExplanationStarting from 3.2, Yoimiya gains the distinction of having the shortest time gap between rate-ups to date (for reference, the time gap between her reruns in 2.8 and 3.2 is 10 weeks, shorter than Xiao's 2.4-2.7 gap of 15 weeks). Her next two subsequent reruns also came fairly quickly as well, often getting a rate-up twice or thrice while other characters are still waiting for their rerun far longer than her. This caused fans to dub Yoimiya as the new Rerun Archon, usurping the title from Childe.
  • Shooting Yoimiya Captchas ^ExplanationThe 4.3 trailer showed Chevreuse shooting Yoimiya dead for a film scene. Due to her Memetic Loser status, the scene immediately became an image captcha meme whenever something bad happens.
• Yun Jin:
  • Dango hat ^ExplanationDue to Yun Jin's pompoms on her hat having a similar colour to that of dango and dango being Ei's favourite food, a lot of memes came out of Ei eating Yun Jin's hat.
  • Ei's and Zhongli's lovechild ^ExplanationYun Jin's appearance looks like a mix of Zhongli and the Raiden Shogun, and all three characters use polearms. This lead to many jokes about Yun Jin being the secret love child of the two Archons.
  • 4-star character with 6-star animations ^ExplanationImmediately after Yun Jin's animations were leaked, fans begin to adore her passive and attack animations, praising it as the best thing they have ever seen. This is due to her relations with Chinese opera; with her dance being incredibly pleasing and elegant to look at. Some has even proclaimed that Yun Jin has better animations than Shenhe, an actual 5 star character.
• Zhongli:
  • "In terms of Mora, we have no Mora." ^ExplanationSnowcloned from the "In terms of money, we have no money" meme that rose on 2020, this is used to joke at how Zhongli (as well as Mona) usually end up poor because of their odd budgeting habits. Fittingly, Morax himself delivers the line while the Traveler and Paimon are discussing the various tasks he keeps requesting of them.
    • "In terms of Primogems, we have Primogems." ^ExplanationA quote from Keith Silverstein, Zhongli's English voice actor, said during the version 1.5 preview stream, which rapidly spread through the fanbase.
  • Childe is Zhongli's wallet.^ExplanationIn a Liyue chapter quest, the protagonists had to request Childe for funds after Zhongli turned out to have a lack of insight about budgeting. Cue jokes at the expense of Childe having to pay up for anything Zhongli buys. Becomes an Ascended Meme in the Japanese translation of the game, as one of the dialogue options for the Traveler to explain who Childe is literally calling him "Shouri-sensei’s wallet". This doesn’t appear in any other language version of the protagonist's dialogue for that scene, but a similar joke option is provided (e.g. "Mr. More-Mora-than-Sense" in English; "the poor sap who's been paying our bills this whole time" in Chinese).
  • Geo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon ^ExplanationUpon the release of Zhongli, many players quickly make a joke about creating a construct made by 2 of Geo Traveler's elemental skill and one of Zhongli's own. The resulting construct looks like the infamous "Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon", a popular joke from Gintama. (For context, it also looks like, well, something else.)
  • Zhongli's Butt ^Explanation As soon as Zhongli became playable, memes and fanart centered on his oddly well-defined assets exploded in the fandom due to how much detail had been put into his model compared to every other previously introduced character. Even Childe, who was released around the same time, doesn't stack up to him, which left fans to crack jokes about his flatness compared to Zhongli at his expense. miHoYo quietly buffed Childe's butt later on.
  • "I WILL HAVE ORDER!" ^ExplanationThis is one of Zhongli's lines when he uses his Elemental Burst. This line is joked a lot by fans, who use it in context regarding him ordering something from the shops and restaurants he might visit. Had a resurgence when the game did a cross-promotion with KFC.
  • Zhongli is the greatest support ^ExplanationAfter widespread outcry about Zhongli's poor performance, version 1.3 included a series of buffs both to his abilities and Geo characters in general, leading to a popular joke that Zhongli is so good at supporting other characters that he gave his entire element permanent buffs.
  • Wheelchair Zhongli ^ExplanationZhongli was said to be "handicapped" prior to the 1.3 buffs, so he was often depicted in a wheelchair or using a 4-legged crutch.
  • Meta is temporary, style is eternal ^ExplanationA meme originating from the Zhongli.EXE video by Rawfler in reference to Zhongli's (former) Low-Tier Letdown status.
  • "Suffer the wrath of the rock!" ^ExplanationZhongli's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner that he says directly to people who break his contracts. Because of the context involved, many Genshin fans used his line in a meta sense to describe instances of public beta testers who break Creator/miHoYo's user agreements just to leak new content to the public, which results in the leakers inevitably getting punished for it.
  • Geo Daddy ^ExplanationZhongli's appearance at the end of the "Perilous Trail" event has him rescuing Xiao from falling to his demise after saving the others, with Xiao being aware of his true identity. This led to fans likening the former archon as a dad for Xiao and the other playable Adepti (plus Hu Tao).
  • Geriatric Zhongli/Boomer Zhongli ^ExplanationBecause Zhongli is the oldest character in Genshin (he's over 6000+ years old!), a lot of jokes often depict Zhongli as an ageing geriatric in a wheelchair that needs to be taken care of, or a boomer trying to connect with the younger characters. Furthermore, during Lantern Rite 4.4, Hu Tao will suggest he is having a mid-life crisis.
  • Rewatching Zhongli's character demo ^ExplanationZhongli's character demo is widely considered to be one of, if not the best by miHoYo. Thus the joke goes that, after watching a new character's teaser or demo, players are required by "contract" to re-watch Zhongli's trailer. Eventually, it extended to teasers and demos of Star Rail characters.
  • I can hear Zhongli's bones cracking from here 💀^ExplanationAnytime Zhongli is used in a dancing animation, expect to see at least one comment at how the very old Zhongli's bones must be breaking from performing all those dance motions.

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