Genshin Impact’s Weakest Character May Be Its New Strongest

HoYoverse just put out a new story trailer for Genshin Impact, and one burning question is consuming the entirety of the fandom: How did a small child carry one of Genshin’s strongest DPS characters on her back? As of the time of writing, “SHE WHAT???” is currently the most upvoted topic on the Genshin Reddit. Fanartists have proposed their own theories, and they are terrifying.

Yesterday, the developers released an animated trailer in which the guardian character Xiao passes out after fighting off scores of monsters. When he wakes up, the pharmacy assistant Qiqi explains that she carried him on her back. Absolutely nobody present disputes this, despite the fact that Qiqi is a child.

Qiqi is perhaps one of the most famous characters in Genshin Impact. Not because she’s powerful, but because the gacha system gives her out as a consolation prize to anyone who failed to win the character that they actually wanted. Hence why the community reacted so strongly: They spent over two years thinking that she was simply an underwhelming healer. Could she have been hiding a secret strength all along?

Fortunately, Genshin fans will always find a way to justify shocking lore. Part of this is because HoYoverse has always encouraged fanworks and speculation. The other reason is because Genshin is so internally consistent with its storytelling that everything in its official materials is taken as absolute, meaningful gospel. So even if HoYoverse makes an off-joke that is patently absurd, fans will dedicate time and effort to explain to their peers how Qiqi is the most jacked character in the game. Here are my favorite examples:

Qiqi has exceptional upper body strength and simply carried an adult man (Teenage boy?) the normal way.

Qiqi can transform into an absolutely jacked woman with the figure of a bodybuilder. I’m 90 percent sure that this is a reference to Biscuit Krueger from the popular manga Hunter x Hunter.

This image makes fun of Qiqi’s status as a gacha spoiler. She would often show up when players were trying to pull for someone else, and so it’s become a common joke to photoshop popular Genshin characters in Qiqi’s color palette. This joke specifically uses Alhaitham, who is physically powerful despite his protests that he is merely a “feeble scholar.” So the image doesn’t just imply that Qiqi is strong—it suggests that she’s been deceiving us all along.

This artist is kind to Qiqi and assumes that she’s still very much a child. Despite her limitations, she was kind enough to drag Xiao back by his legs.

This artist is unkind to Xiao, and assumes that he was dragged while flopping around like a kite in the wind.

While it’s true that we don’t see the back of Xiao’s outfit, this interpretation of the night’s events feels a little bit mean-spirited.

Xiao’s lore implies that he has an avian form, and there’s official merchandise of him as a chonky finch. I doubt that “The Bane of All Evil” turns into such a cute and fluffy bird, but this is definitely an artistic interpretation that is kind to both him and Qiqi.

Regardless of how Qiqi managed to carry someone larger than her, fans can agree on one thing: The pharmacy assistant is the true gigachad of Genshin Impact.